Persona!

As I exited my dorm, I nearly ran into someone who was walking toward the door, it was a Japanese boy who was about a foot shorter than me. He jumped upon seeing me swing the door open so quickly, gasping before saying. "Holy shit!" in English with a Japanese accent, which I found to be pretty funny.

"Oh, my bad." I apologized to him in Japanese, but I'll just translate all that for you. "I didn't think anyone would be here. My name is Miles Quinn." I bowed to him out of instinct, which caused him to laugh at me.

"You Americans are funny. We don't bow to roommates here." he told me as he squeezed passed me and into the room before reaching into a bag to grab something out of it. "Name's Hayato Kobayashi."

Meeting Hayato made me feel sort of... racist. In my head, Japanese people were extremely respectful to one another, but this guy was talking to me as if we were already best friends like an American.

"You forget something?" I asked him, which led to him pulling out a crumpled-up paper from inside his bag. It was a map of the school. "There you are. I was looking for this." he held the map up to his face, showing it to me. However, it was completely drenched in water and the image was ruined.

"What... what is this?" I asked him, prompting him to turn the paper to face himself before looking at it with wide eyes. "Oh..." he muttered before dropping his head and the paper. "You don't happen to know where we're supposed to go, do you?" he asked without looking up at me.

"Nope. I was hoping you did, to be honest." I admitted. I really did think I got lucky that my roommate was Japanese and likely knew where he was going. Once again, I felt sort of racist for assuming he'd know everything about this place just because he was from this country.

"I saw some cute girls by the girl's dorm." he looked at me with a sort of sly smile as he spoke. I thought he was genuine at first, but the smile told me he didn't want to just ask for directions.

"This isn't about directions is it?" I asked as he approached me and placed his hand on my shoulder. "My friend, let me tell you something about Japanese women. They LOVE American guys."

"I feel like that's not true..." In fact, I knew that shit wasn't true. Sure, I bet some girls probably thought it was cute, but the vast majority probably didn't have an American fetish of all things. Right? "Right?" I asked, it was tempting the more I thought about it.

"It's true. And if they like you, then their friend might like me. Just speak to them with a bit of broken Japanese and boom, we're in!" After he explained it to me like this, I wasn't really buying it, but the thought of it having even the smallest chance of working was enough for me.

"Alright, fuck it. Let's go." I told him, causing his wicked smile to grow even larger. Just as I said this, time around me spoke and my vision darkened. I wanted to panic, but the voice of those two twins I met earlier in the Velvet Room calmed me down.

[Thou art I...

And I am thou...

Thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall lead the path to volition;

away from conformity.

The Magician Arcana shall guide thee as a new bond hast been forged.

Confidant: Hayato Kobayashi

Arcana: Magician

Rank: 1/10]

[You have unlocked the Magician confidant!]

Time resumed and I guess I looked at Hayato weirdly because he looked back at me with a confused glare. "Are you okay?" he asked me, his hand still on my shoulder. "Oh, are you nervous? Don't be, I've got your back."

I came back to my senses and nodded. "Right. Let's go."

And so, the two of us headed out of the dorm, and just as he said, there were two cute girls sitting next to each other. One of them was a bubbly-looking girl with dyed blonde hair, wearing a sundress and light-colored makeup. The one next to her appeared more reserved, having a short bob and glasses. She wore black pants and a yellow shirt that was tucked in.

"Alright, just go over there and ask them if they can show us where we're supposed to go for orientation. And remember to speak broken Japanese!" Haya pushed me forward, causing me to take a few steps before walking on my own. As I approached, both girls looked at me before whispering to each other.

"Excuse. Do you know where... Uhm... Orientation? I'm barely good at Japanese." I told them, speaking as if my only knowledge of the language was through Duolingo or something. Both girls giggled at me. I couldn't tell if this was good or bad, however, Haya came to save the day.

"Oh, there you are! Sorry, my American friend here barely speaks any Japanese." Haya smiled down at them, well, at the blonde one. I guess she was his type. "Would you ladies possibly be kind enough to maybe show us the way to where the orientation for freshmen is? We're lost and I forgot my map."

"Oooh, American?" the blonde one chimed.

'Holy shit it's working.' I thought to myself.

"That explains a lot." she added. I wasn't sure if it was another one of those hallucinations, but I could hear glass shattering around me. I think it was my pride...

"Just keep heading that way." the blonde said, pointing to our left, though Haya didn't get the memo that she wanted us to sort of fuck off.

"Thanks. Say, in case my friend and I are lost, could we possibly get you two ladies' numbers?" Haya had a massive grin on his face. I could tell he thought he was a genius for this maneuver, but I already knew the answer before it came out.

"Uh... No thanks." The blonde said. Again, I heard glass shattering around me. Perhaps it was Haya's pride.

"Oh." Haya muttered. "Well, thanks for the directions."

Haya walked away rather swiftly. I looked at the dark-haired one and nodded, she smiled, and I followed him. "I don't think being American works. I think it made it worse." I told him. "But the dark-haired one smiled at me."

Haya waved his hand dismissively before saying, "Yeah, she was probably just being nice. Anyway, there's plenty more ladies where that came from, heh." after he said this, it was as if a few of my memories came flooding back into my brain, or rather as if I had deja vu. 'Right, the Magician arcana are horny bastards...' I thought, remembering Morgana, Junpei, and Yosuke.

Nothing notable happened throughout the rest of our orientation. We toured the school, talked to some more girls who didn't really like us, and before long, we were back in our dorm room just before midnight. Classes would be starting the next day, but I was a night owl so I was still awake while he slept.

As I lay in bed, I thought about my past, or at least, the fragments of it. For some reason, I could remember the names of Morgana and the others I mentioned earlier and not much else. Who were these people? How did I know about the Magician arcana? These thoughts were keeping me awake.

I looked over at the clock, which said that the date was Sunday, April 9th. However, when the clock switched from 11:59 to 12:00, the date did not change to Monday, April 10th. Instead, it changed to Heimday, April 31st, which was impossible considering April only had thirty days. "What the..." I whispered to myself, noticing that the moonlight seemed to be turning blue.

I got up out of bed and looked out of my window, only to see that the sky had completely changed. There were no stars, no moon, only blue binary text scrolling through the sky. "What the hell is this?" I whispered again, taking a look back at my roommate, who was still asleep.

I then looked back outside and toward the ground, only to see a few people walking around like zombies wearing what looked like VR headsets on their heads. "Haya! Haya wake up!' I shouted though he remained unmoved. I then ran over to the bed and began shaking it, waking him up in a panic. "Earthquake! Miles, get under something!" he screamed, though he looked down with a blank face to see me next to the bed looking rather unimpressed.

"No dude... something way creepier." I told him as I pointed toward the window.

"Oh, are you afraid of the dark? Go ahead and turn on the lights man." he told me before rolling back over in bed.

I then grabbed his phone and threw it at him, bonking his chest and causing him to lean up once again. "Hey! What did you-" Upon seeing the date, Haya stopped in his tracks. "Heimday? April 31st? Huh?"

"Yeah, exactly. Look at the sky!" I told him, compelling him to quickly hop down from the top bunk and look at the binary sky above us. "Holy shit." he whispered in English. "Are we in the Matrix?"

"I don't know man..." I told him. "Look at the people. They're like zombies." I told him, pointing down at the VR walkers.

"Woah... Why are we still normal? Are we the main characters!? Wait, who's the side character? I hope it's you. Damn, you're gonna die." he told me this as if this wasn't something to panic about.

"Huh? What!?" I was flabbergasted, I couldn't even comprehend how he thought jokes were appropriate at a moment like this. I then looked away from him, only to then look at the VR-wearing people beneath us, however, what I saw next was truly terrifying.

They were all looking at us...

Sure, their eyes were covered, but they were looking right into our eyes from so far away. Instantly, I could feel a chill go down my spine as I stood frozen and so did Haya. As if they shared a hive mind, all of the people took off and started sprinting for the building, causing both Haya and me to panic. "Shit! What do we do!?" Haya shouted, though I myself was oddly calm in the moment as I could hear a voice speak to me.

"Come to me." the voice called to me from above, as if it were coming from the rooftop. I didn't know what else to do, so I followed it, sprinting out of the room. Haya followed, though he couldn't stop shouting my name as I ran to the roof.

As we sprinted up the stairs, we could hear footsteps chasing us from the bottom. "We're gonna die!" Haya screamed as we kept running, but I was keeping my cool for some odd reason. It was as if suddenly, I had the will of a fighter, but with no weapon.

Eventually, we ended up on the rooftop and barricaded the door behind us. Just a few seconds later, we could hear the mindless people slamming on the door, wanting to break it down and do who knows what to us.

We assumed we were safe, however, the building trembling was a pretty bad sign. Eventually, we could see an old-fashioned computer monitor creeping up over the edge of the roof, followed by eight spider legs that were hairy and sharp to the point. "Yup. Dead. We're dead." Haya muttered. "Died a virgin..." he added, which was honestly too much information.

I then extended my hand outwards as the voice in my head started to speak once more.

"I am thou. Thou art I.

Fight against conformity and cast a path for oneself.

Call upon my name, for thou shall receive power unbound by any system.

This power shall make the heavens tremble above thee and the underworld quake!"

As the voice spoke, a katana appeared in my hands. I looked down at it with wide eyes before my arm seemingly moved to hold the blade in front of me, pointing toward myself. My other hand then joined in, and my hands started to tremble as the blade then lightly tapped my chest.

With each breath, I could feel the blade pinch me until I eventually calmed down. I then reeled the sword back before driving it towards myself, shouting, "PERSONA!"