From He Who Sought The Truth:

Things were not going well

"Hang in there guys!" the mysterious cat like being called out to us before summoning his persona. A tall and muscular man wearing dark clothes appears before swinging his comically smaller sword in a Z shaped motion and casting a rejuvenating spell on us, giving us some of the strength we've lost in this fight.

"Thanks for that!" a rough looking blonde teen wearing dark clothes that could be attributed to punks calls out before summoning his own persona. "Give it all you've got Captain Kidd!" He calls out as a pirate with a skull head riding atop a pirate ship appears behind him. The being, upon being called forth, started charging towards our enemy, ramming into it with the boat that it was floating in. He then grabs the enemy with his non-cannon before proceeding to hit it using his head.

Our enemy just laughs at the attempt before shoving the pirate off of him, causing the pirate to slam painfully against a pillar. The persona didn't last long after that, slowly disappearing from our plane of existence. The shock of the attack affected the one who called forth the pirate and he let out an anguished cry before dropping on the floor. Our enemy the floats over towards him menacingly raising the sword in his arm, preparing to finish the downed man.

"Ryuji!" our last companion calls out who was a blonde haired girl in a skin tight red cat suit. "Get away from him you creep!" she says as she pulls off her mask to summon her own persona. A tall being appears behind the girl, a lady wearing a red and black dress and a few smaller guys wearing suits and weird heart shaped headpieces appear. The mythical lady pulls on one of the small guys via thorny vines connected to his headpiece, pulling him off of the ground and waving him around with little care. Fire bursts forth around the lady before heading towards our enemy, distracting him enough for the other small guy to run towards our downed ally and pull him away from danger.

"Thanks Ann, I owe ya one." The man says and gives the girl an appreciative nod and smile for having helped him out.

"Remember guys, codenames." I say as I move to stand next to them while keeping my focus on our enemy.

"Right! Right. Sorry, still kinda getting used to that, Ren- ah I mean. Joker." He says as he straightens himself back up and focusing back on the enemy behind us. "Kinda called out her name in the heat of the moment there."

"Yeah, my bad." Our female companion responds as well.

I just nod in acceptance at their apology. To be honest, I wasn't really sure about the need for codenames but since Morgana insisted that it was important and he is the apparent expert on this place, it was best to just go along with it and err on the side of caution rather than find out what bad thing would happen to us with calling out our names inside these palaces. I shake the errant thought out of my head and focus back on the problem at hand. The guy who has been knocking us around for quite a while now.

The shadow looked like a knight, decked out in a full body armor and sporting huge red wings on his back. He supported a "holier than though" look and constantly talked down to us. We found him guarding an apparent chapel in the middle of Kamoshida's castle and we've been blocked by any further investigation of Kamoshida's castle until we found a way to get through to him. He was twirling his sword idly I his hands as he floats closer towards us, not at all threatened by us.

"You thieves think you can just walk around and do whatever you damn well pleased in our king's castle?! Let me show you exactly what happens to those who foolishly think they can be a match for us." He says before letting out a haughty laugh. He then shifts his stance preparing to engage us.

"Damn it, nothing we do seems to make a dent on the guy and he is crazy strong to boot." Ryuji complains as he tightens his hold on the lead pipe that he uses as a weapon.

"We just gotta hang in there and hit him even harder!" Ann says as she unfurls her leather whip and prepares to hit the armored guy with it.

"What about weaknesses? Mona, what have we not used on this guy yet?" I say asking the catlike companion of ours.

"We've hit him with almost everything we have except lightning and dark attacks… I think." Morgana answers us while putting the sword he uses over his shoulder.

"Sorry guys, I don't think Captain Kidd has any more juice in him to the guy with lightning." Ryuji answers with a frown, probably regretting how freely he used his abilities early into our forays.

"It's fine." I answered as I ready the knife in my hand. "I'll hit him with an eiha and go from there." I say before focusing on the persona inside me. I switch in the persona who first appeared before me, letting the familiar sensation of Arsène fill my mind. His ominous laugh rings inside my head as he prepares to be brought forth and I move my hand towards the white mask on my face.

"Joker! Look out!" Mona suddenly calls out as the knight quickly pulls back it's sword, making it glow with an ominous bright light.

"Feel the might of King Kamoshida!" he yells out as he swings his light infused blade out towards us.

The screams of my companions fill the air as the attack connects with us, suffusing us all with purifying light. To my companions, the attack hit them hard and quick, making them stumble a bit on their footing as the attack passes over them. To me it was a different matter altogether.

Everything the light touched feels like a thousand needles being jammed passed the dark overcoat and clothes that I was wearing, digging deep into my skin and seeming to burn my very soul. Arsène lets out a painful wail inside my head and I wasn't sure if I mimicked the action or was to numb to do it myself. After what felt like an eternity, the attack finally passed through me and before I knew it I was facedown on the ground.

I hear my companions call out to me, turning my head towards them and seeing the look on their faces at me having been downed by the attack. I wanted to warn them as I see the enemy taking advantage of our shocked state and quickly move towards us. They finally realized the danger we were in when the enemy was before me with his sword raised high, prepared to end my life right there and then.

Everything seemed to slow down right at that moment and I seemed to be hyperaware of what I was looking at. My eyes go over the knight as he swings his sword down right at me. Practically noticing every single individual chain link that made up his armor as my eyes go over them. My eyes stop right as I was looking directly towards his and I would have let out a pained groan at the look he was giving me. So much disdain as well as the judgmental look not dissimilar to the ones people in the real world give me when they think I didn't notice.

I was preparing to close my eyes and block out the horrible look on the shadow's face when something immediately does it for me. I seemed to snap out of my hyperaware state as the pained cry of my teammate, Ryuji, fills my ears. Everything seemed to come back to me right there and then and I remember that we were in the middle of a battle. I do my best to push myself off of the ground but stop when I see the prone form of my friend lying unmoving right next to me. His lead pipe lay broken and sliced clean in half from an attack that he probably used his weapon to block with but was ineffective in doing so.

"Foolish punk. Couldn't wait for his turn to die. No matter, you all will die by my blade eventually." The shadow says as he raises his sword for another attack.

I let out a breath that I was holding when I saw his chest heave and a pained groan slips out of his mouth. He was still alive but probably just barely. I turn to glare up at the shadow, trying to think of a way out of this predicament. Suddenly a couple of black balls roll towards the feet of the shadow and before he could follow through on his attack, black smoke bursts out from the balls. The shadow let out a confused yell and before I knew it, I felt someone grabbing me and pulling me away.

As soon as the black smoke dissipates, I find myself tucked behind a pillar with Ann clutching tightly to my body. Before I could point out that she was still holding in to me, she lets go of me and starts looking around her frantically.

"Ryuji? Where is he?" she whispers out as she continues her search. Before she can get up and search for him, Morgana appears next to us with his persona clutching the guy in question.

"Don't worry panther. Skull is alright, I already used a healing spell on him as well." Morgana says as his persona carefully puts Ryuji back down on the ground. "He's not in danger of dying… but I don't think he's in any condition to fight anymore." He says as he watches Ryuji clutch his chest tightly and let out a pained groan.

Ann lets out a small sigh of relief before carefully peeking out from behind the pillar to see what our enemy is doing. I carefully slip in beside her, making sure not to make noise as to not draw the enemy's attention.

"Stop hiding like the rats that you are and face punishment!" The shadow yells out as he swings his sword around indiscriminately, destroying a couple of the chapel's pews in the process. I frown at the sight but am glad that he currently has no idea where we are.

"What do we do now Joker?" Ann asks after we pull back into hiding, not wanting to tip the guy off with where we are.

I look at the faces of my companions and frown at the only option we have available to us. "We have to pull back. This guy is too much for us to handle right now. We've been at this for a while now and we're all tired." I explain as I pull out one of the medicines that I got from Takemi's Clinic and down it. The butter taste is soon forgotten as the comfortable feeling of having my strength return to me as well as some of the pains my body was feeling turn into just annoying aches which could be ignored at the moment. "Best we come back after we've all recovered."

"But… that bastard Kamoshida… he has to pay…" Ryuji says with clenched teeth, clearly not wanting to stop our forays into the castle.

"And he will," I say sternly "but if we die here then who will be the one to get Kamoshida." I say looking at my hurt friend.

It takes a while but he soon relents, nodding his assent but it was clear that he didn't like this decision. That was perfectly okay for me at the moment as I understood where he was coming from and wanting to get revenge on Kamoshida myself. It was enough for me that he understood the importance of pacing ourselves. I move to take a peek from behind the pillar to try and see where the entrance to the chapel was but stop when I see the shadow looking directly at where I was.

"Move!" I yell out my command before moving to grab Ryuji. Panther moved to help me and wee managed to get him away from the pillar as the large shadow crashed into it.

"Found you, you damn vermin." He says after crashing straight through the pillar and swinging his sword right at us. It is stopped by the rapier of Morgana's persona and, with a little difficulty, he was able to stop the shadow.

"Get Skull out of here!" Morgana calls out and it was enough to snap us out of the stupor we found ourselves in. We start moving Ryuji over to where I spotted the entrance of the castle as Morgana starts fighting the shadow. "Your fight is with me you weird heavenly punisher guy!" He calls out try to and keep its attention on him and not the retreating band of thieves.

"if you want to die so badly then so be it." The shadow says as he turns to focus on the catlike monster and his persona.

I continue to keep dragging Ryuji with Ann towards where we entered the chapel. I look back and frown when I see the trouble Morgana is having with keeping the shadow at bay.

"I need to help Mona, can you take Ryuji back to the nearest saferoom?" I say remembering the one we discovered before finding this chapel.

"I can't just leave you guys to fight that thing! We could barely fight it with all four of us together. You and Morgana stand no chance with only you two." She says looking at me worriedly through her mask.

"Don't worry. We'll only fight it until you and Ryuji get to safety. We'll run the first opportunity we get." I say, trying to reason with her. I see her mull over the decision on her head but hearing a pained cry coming from Morgana settled it for her.

She moves to take Ryuji's whole weight with her before nodding once she has it. She starts slowly lulling the injured man with her towards the exit.

"Don't die." I hear her whisper out to me as I turn back to face the shadow.

"Never planning to." I say in response as I start walking over towards the battle.

I take in deep breaths as I ready myself to join the fray. I stop when I remember the blinding pain I felt when being hit with one of it's attack and decide to switch my persona to one who wouldn't be affected so badly by an attack like that.

"It's Showtime…" I mutter under my breath as I finish preparing myself and charge straight into the fight. Unbeknownst to me, a small blue card starts shining faintly on one of the pockets inside of my overcoat.


4/9 Saturday Evening.

Ren Amamiya was lying down on his new bed located on the attic of a café. He looked around his new room and frowned at the big mess that was still cluttering it after spending most of his day cleaning it up. He promises to clean up the rest of the place as soon as he could as he always liked to have a clean room. He moves his head to stare up at the ceiling and he couldn't help but remember the circumstances which led to him staying in this place.

'Damn brat! I'll sue!'

The voice the man haunted him as his eyes slowly close.

-Scene-

I open my eyes and see a familiar looking street is laid out before me. I swallow the lump that formed in my throat as I start to move my feet forward.

"Someone! Help me!" a female voice calls out and I stop moving, wondering what I should do.

"Let go of me! Please!" the voice cries out and I decide to move towards it. I believe that what I did was right. Regardless of the consequences of his actions, helping someone in need is always the right thing to do… right?

"Just get in the damn car already" An new voice calls out making my feet move even faster. Slowly fog start filling the edges of my vision, growing more and more dense the further I walked.

"what… what is this?" I find myself asking as I stop and look around me. The familiar street is now completely covered in thick fog, and it is hard to even see a few feet in front of my own face. Weird shadowy silhouettes start appearing in the fog around me. "h-hello?" I call out to one of the shapes but stop when the silhouette suddenly had ominous glowing yellow eyes staring at me.

"did you hear… he got arrested for assault." A voice of someone vaguely familiar comes from the shadow.

"what… what is this…" I say taking a step back away from the thing still looking at me. Another silhouette stops moving through the fog and another pair of yellow eyes is staring judgingly at me.

"he's got a criminal record… ould stay away from…" Another voice comes out from the fog.

"Stop." I say moving away from the two eyes. Another pair of eyes look at me followed by anither.

"Can't believe I hung out with a psychopath like that. They did always say to watch out for the quiet ones."

"Look. It's the guy with the criminal record."

Unable to stop myself, I turn away from the eyes and start running. No matter how hard I ran though, more and more eyes start appearing and looking at me and more and more words start accompanying them.

"Watch what you say around that guy, he attacked someone."

"… found guilty. Can you believe that someone so young can turn out like that."

"I hear he attacks stray animals when he…"

"murderer."

"Stop it… I didn't… I'm not." I say while covering my ears and closing my eyes as I ran, hoping to block out what was happening.

I suddenly let out a pained grunt as I bump into something and fall down on the ground.

"Whoa there… sorry about that. You kinda came out if nowhere." A gentle voice says out loud to me and it was so different from the nightmarish whispers that were attacking me that I had to look up at what I bumped into.

When I was expecting a shadowy monster looking at me with either disdain or fear, I was surprised to see a guy looking at me with none of those emotions on his face.

"You alright there buddy? Here, let me help you up." He says in a friendly tone and then holds his hand out for me to take.

Unable to say anything I just grab his hand and let out a small yelp as he easily pulls me up to my feet. I wasn't expecting him to be that strong.

'Wait, this is just a dream right? Then how come I definitely felt it when he pulled me.' I thought to myself as I rub the hand that he touched me with. That line of thought was cut off when the guy with grey hair asks me a question.

"So… is everything alright?" he asks with the same concerned look on his face.

I find my mouth opening and closing a few times, trying to think of what's the best thing to say to this stranger but unable to find the right words to say. He then looks around us for a moment before gesturing over to one side.

"There's a bench over there. We can sit down while you gather your thoughts." He says with a gentle smile before walking over to the side. I move to follow after him when he gets a bit foggy due to the fog and not wanting to loose him and is a bit surprised to find a bench appear right out of the fog. The guy plops himself down and after mulling it for a bit, I eventually do the same.

I take the time to gather my thoughts, glad to have something to focus on other than the dark silhouettes with the creepy eyes on the fog. I take a look out at the still dense fog and flinch a bit when I saw one silhouette looking right at me before fading back in the fog.

"How did you do it?" I suddenly said out loud, wanting to find some form of distraction from the situation that I am in. At his questioning look, I gesture over towards the fog that was still all around us. "See through the fog, I mean." I say in clarification.

"Fog? Oh… I see." He says first in surprise as if he finally just found out that fog was surrounding the two of us right at this moment. He starts patting his own clothes down as if he was looking for something. "That's kind of a long story… but you could say I got used to it." He says as he fishes out a pair of sunglasses with a thick grey frame from his pocket.

"That's… that's not how fog works." I say flatly in response causing the guy to let out a loud laugh.

"Sorry about that, but yeah… you're right about that." He says after his brief laughing stint before holding out the pair of sunglasses out to me. "Here. This'll help."

I look at the sunglasses then over at the guy wondering just how sane he is but he just gives me a knowing look. I sigh and eventually grab the pair and open it up, inspecting them to see if there was anything out of the ordinary with then. Not seeing anything weird and deciding to might as well try them on, I let out a surprised gasp when I finally see through the lens of the sunglasses and see that there was no fog obscuring my view with them. I pull them up from my eyes to see that, yes we are still surrounded by fog with the judgy silhouettes still stalking it but it disappears as soon as I put the sunglasses back down. I turn to look at the guy but jump a bit when I saw what appeared to be a huge silhouette of a person standing right beside him but it was there one moment and gone the next that I had serious doubts if I saw anything in the first place.

"I know right. Shocked me too when I first used them." He says as he watches me flip the sunglasses back up and down on the bridge of my nose a couple of times. "Anyway, you can keep that one. As you can see, I don't need them anymore.

I just nod before settling the sunglasses back down over my eyes, admiring how clear the street was now that I have them on.

"Yu Narukami." He suddenly calls out. I turn to look at him questioningly and he just gives me a small smile. "I just realized that I haven't introduced myself yet. My name's Yu Narukami."

"… Akira Kurusu." I say after a while, giving him one of the names I thought about giving myself should I ever decide to just change my whole identity. The small hum of agreement that he gives me lets me know that he knows it isn't my real name but he doesn't press me for more after that. Just how understanding can a guy be?

We soon settled on some light conversation between us, seemingly going from one topic to another. It felt great being able to interact with someone again without the shadow of my criminal record hanging above our heads like a constant rain cloud and it certainly helped that Narukami seemed to be a great guy altogether.

"Want to talk about it.?" He asks after another long lull in the conversation. I look at him in surprise, nit expecting him to bring it up. He holds his hands out placating at the look I gave him. "Just… wanted to let you know. If you need someone to talk to… like a stranger who wouldn't judge you until he's heard the whole story… I'm here for you. But if you want to just talk about something else and not bring it up, then that's fine as well." He explains with that comforting smile on his face.

I let out a breath that I didn't even realize I was holding in and try to think about my options. What harm could there be in talking about thus with someone else but the thought of this guy turning into one of those people who look at me with either fear or disdain stopped any words from forming in my mouth. I jump a bit when I feel a hand land comfortingly on my shoulder and turn to see that Narukami was still giving me that same smile and right there and then, I somehow just knew that he wouldn't be like the others.

Just as I was about to tell him everything, I stop when a version of me suddenly appears right in front of us and start walking down towards the familiar street.

"Rather than tell you, how about I show you instead." I say to him while giving him a small smile. I soon stand up from the bench and follow after the past version of me and I felt a but of relief when I heard Narukami stand up and follow me as well.


"Someone! Anyone! Help!"

"Get lost kid, this ain't a show!"

"Damn brat, I'll sue!"

"We heard that there was a disturbance in the area… oh, it's you sir."

"Well, go ahead and tell the good cops here what happened."

"The guy he… he attacked this innocent man out of nowhere."

I watch as the past version of me was taken inside the police car and driven away from the street. Narukami was just standing there, with one hand inside his pant's pocket after watching the whole events transpire.

"There you have it. Police take me in, I go to court, woman testifies that I assaulted someone, courts ruled me guilty and slap me with a criminal record, and here I am… moving to Tokyo in the hopes that no one will find out about my past." I say looking away from the guy unable to take it if he turns out like the others.

I hear him slowly let out a breath from his mouth before finally letting me know about his thoughts. "That's… kinda rough buddy."

I didn't know why but the way he just said it had me laughing. "That's kind of an understatement." I say turning to him with a smile.

"Yeah… I guess you're right." He says before looking up towards the night sky. I thought that that would be the end of our conversation and I prepare to leave when his voice stops me before I could go.

"What you did… I think that it was the right thing to do."

I suddenly turn to look at him and my face would probably be looking at him with disbelief.

"I wont say that I can understand how you feel… who knows what kind of crap you are going through because of this. What I can say is… I think that you are a good kid… and what you did wasn't wrong." He continues and he turns to me with that same smile, not looking at me like I was some kind of monster.

I don't know why but I soon felt tears falling down the side of my face and I move to quickly wipe them away from my eyes.

"It's okay to cry, you know." He says probably still giving me that same damn smile of his.

"… Am not crying." I say after finally finishing wiping away the tears. He just laughs good-naturedly at me before clapping me painfully on the back. "Thanks… I… I guess it kind of made me happy to hear that…" I finally answer after getting my thoughts back together.

"No matter what life throws at you… just remember that there is at least one guy who thinks you aren't a bad guy." He says before seeming to look at his side like someone was talking to him.

I suddenly felt sleepy out of nowhere and let out a yawn in front of Narukami. "Thanks… now if only I could get… someone from… the real world… to… think that…" I say feeling more and more sleepy as I talked. The sensation of feeling sleepy while already asleep was a strange one, let me tell you that.

"With your personality, something tells me that you'll find some likeminded people who would support you. Cherish those bonds you make with them Kurusu…" He says and his voice seems more and more hazy the more he talked. He again looked to his side before nodding to himself and I would have asked who he was talking to if I wasn't so sleepy.

"Look… I don't know how much help I can be. But I promise to look into this… see what I can do to help you out…" he says and it's getting harder and harder to keep my eyes open let alone focus on his words. "Here… something tells me you'll need this… call it a… good luck charm…" he says and a blue card seemingly appears out of thin air. I try to tell him something but I just couldn't find the strength to do so. Seeing the state I was in, Narukami just walked over to me and tucked the card inside my jacket pocket. "Good luck Kurusu… I'll be… rooting…. For yo-"

Hus words are cut out as I soon fall asleep and my eyes finally close. The next moment I open it I see blue. That was the dominant color covering the whole ceiling and padded walls. There also seemed to be chains hanging from the ceiling. I sit up from what appears to be an uncomfortable cot and look down to see that I am now wearing black and white striped prison garbs as well as cuffs attached to both of my wrists with a long chain in between them. Hearing a small laugh I turn to my side and see jail bars barring me from exit and from beyond the bars, two identical girls walk to view in front of them wearing what appears to be aa blue police outfit. I stand up and is shocked when I feel a chain attached to my leg and follow the chain to see a huge steel ball affixed to it. I see that the chain is long enough for me to reach the bars and move to reach out for the bars. Upon getting to them, they turn to the side and I see what appears to be a long nosed man sitting behind the desk with bulging eyes and a creepy grin. He moves to hold his hand out invitingly over towards me and in a deep voice calls out to me.

"Trickster… welcome to my velvet room."


Kamoshida's Palace

If the battle with the shadow from earlier was tough, fighting it without Ann and Ryuji was just downright hell. With the four of them, they could divvy up the shadow's attention between themselves so that no one would receive the full brunt of it's assault. With only him and Morgana, forget about trying to find a way to escape, it took all they had just to be able to survive.

"Blow them away Zorro!" Morgana calls out as his persona manifests, using his magic skills to stop the continuous assault that the shadow was sending to me and letting me have enough room to maneuver myself out of the corner he managed to get me in. Morgana followed up with an attack with his own blade but the shadow managed to parry it and push the cat away from him.

Not wanting to the shadow to capitalize on Morgana's state, I pull out my pistol and unload the last of my bullets at the shadow. It turned towards me, looking at me with a look that told me that the attack didn't do anything to him. My reply was a smirk as I used his distraction to have Arsène come flying at him from his blindside with his leg outstretched, ready to slice the shadow up with one of his blade like heels. With angelic grace the shadow moved away from the attack making Arsène soar past him and he suddenly grabbed my persona and proceeded to slam him towards the ground.

I let out a pained grunt at the counter but his assault was not finished yet, he charged his sword up again with holy energy up above him before quickly bringing it down towards my Persona. I quickly dismissed him before he can get run through but he still managed to clip Arsène before he completely dematerializes making the same painful sensation blossom out of the area where he was hit. Being prepared for that attack and bracing for it did wonders to keep him on his feet, but it was still painful enough that he had to take a minute to collect himself.

"Joker! Look out!" Morgana called out and that was all the warning I got before the Shadow's plated fist met with my face causing me to go flying towards a wall and hitting it hard. I fell down to the floor on a heap and at that point, it was hard to keep conscious as my mind practically begged my body to keep awake. A part of me wondered how I was still alive at this point and I idly remembers a small explanation given by Morgana about how our personas give us unimaginable feats of strength to be able to fight the distortions on the palace.

"Joker! Ge-… Y-u hav- to hang in the-…" Morgana's voice calls out to my drifting consciousness and it was getting harder and harder to stay awake.

"Joker! I'm on my wa-…" Morgana's pained cry was another motivation to stay awake but it was getting harder and harder to stay awake.

"Joker… Ren!… Reee-…" his voice was getting quieter and soon there was only darkness. Out of that darkness came a voice.

"Will this be it. Is thou content for this to be thy end."

Of course not, people still needed him. Ryuji, Ann, Morgana, Shiho, Mishima, and anyone else that was being abused by Kamoshida still needed him.

"Then so be it. I have heeded thy resolve. Now then, open thine eyes trickster!"

The voice boomed out and again I tried to crawl myself back into consciousness. This time, like a bolt of lightning running through his system, I found it much easier to return to the state of consciousness and I finally manage to open my eyes. I let out a pained groan from my position on the ground before starting to get up. From inside my coat pocket, a blue card falls free to the floor and I idly see that a small blue fire seemed to emanate from the card itself.

"Thou shalt arise! From thy resolve shall I draw forth the power to overcome this adversity!"

With his words another jolt of lightning courses through me and he finds the strength to finally stand back up on his own two feet. I notice that the card starts floating, the blue fire now burning that much brighter than before, it starts swirling in the air and when it came face up, I can faintly see the shape of a persona etched upon the card seeming to come alive.

"I am thou, and thou art I. I shall grant thee the power to ascertain the truth, with thine own eyes!"

The card now floats up just right at my face, tantalizing me with its power. I wonder just what I should do with it when it comes to me, my grip on my dagger tightens as I raise it high on the air.

"Call out my power and reach out for the truth trickster!" The voice calls out and a wicked smirk comes to my face.

"Come forth… Izanagi!" I yell out before slicing the card into two.

A large persona materializes from within me and the sensation was similar to when Arsène first came forth. The persona was wearing a black cloak with a metallic mask covering his head topped with a white headband with two long trails connected to it. He was hovering above the ground where his blade like feet were almost touching and had his arms crossed over in front of him. Lightning suddenly struck the ground right next to where he was standing and from where it struck an odd looking weapon jutted out. The metal was the same color as the cloak the persona was wearing and part of the long handle of the weapon was covered up I white cloth. Its blade was buried deep on the ground and looked sharp as all hell.

The persona uncrossed his arm and picked up the blade, twirling it around in his hand before charging towards the enemy shadow who was busy in another sword fight with Morgana's shadow and the catlike monster himself. Faster then even his eyes could track, Izanagi reaches the Shadow and swing his sword towards it. Taken by surprise the shadow was knocked away from his companion and into a couple of pews before stopping completely as he hit one of the room's pillar.

"Joker! You're okay!" Morgana says a bit out of breath before he realized just what he said and corrected himself. "I mean… of course I knew you were alright. I totally wasn't worried about you at all." He says dismissively as I walk over towards him.

I let out a chuckle at his words feeling the need to poke fun at him. "Oh really, I distinctly recall a certain cat calling out my name when I was lapsing in and out of consciousness. It sounded quite distraught."

"You… You must've been quite delusional… and for the last time, I am not a cat!" he quips back at me as Zorro casts a healing spell to revitalize the two of us.

Any reply I had was cut short as the shadow emerged from the rubble, seeming mostly annoyed from my attack. "Looks like this guy wants some more. Come on Mona, let's show him what we can do!" I say before readying myself for battle.

The shadow charges straight towards us but my persona was quick to react, blocking his path with his blade and dueling with the shadow. With the help of Izanagi, we seemed to be turning the tides. The shadow was unable to keep up thanks to Izanagi's superior speed and strength. While he kept the main focus of the shadow in him, this allowed me, Morgana, as well as his persona to chip in against the distracted shadow. But no matter how much swings of our blades, or cast of Zorro's magic, we didn't seem to be able to do much against him at all.

'Something doesn't seem right about this.' I think to myself as I watch Izanagi land another blow on the shadow and the shadow just brushes it off like it was nothing.

" That is because thou have not made this power of mine thine own, Trickster. A borrowed power can only take thou so far." Izanagi answers me in my head. He was still busy with keeping the shadow's attention to himself and it will only be a matter of time before I lose the strength to keep him summoned.

'How… how do I do that?!' I call out as I swipe at the shadow's back with my knife, cursing when the blade practically breaks against the shadow's near impervious armor.

"Thou must remember thy bond with the original owner of my power!" He answers as he parries the blade of the shadow and uses the brief moment of having its guard down to grab the shadow and throw him away to crash straight through a pillar. Not wanting to waste my energy, I call back Izanagi inside of me making him dematerialize. His card appears floating in front of me and I stare at the picture of the card.

"Original… owner?" I ask myself and wonder what he meant. Then, like remembering a long lost memory, the weird dream of the foggy city and the grey haired man came to my mind. Just like most dreams, I have dismissed and forgotten the strange dream as soon as I was swept up by hubbub of everyday life. His words and encouragement seemed to come back to me at that instant.

"Want to talk about it?"

I was in a downward spiral, everyone had already decided that I was guilty because of my criminal record. Everyone looked at me like I was nothing past that.

" What you did… I think that it was the right thing to do."

I had settled to not trusting anyone anymore. How could I when those closest to me seemed to turn their backs on me before hearing about the truth.

"No matter what life throws at you… just remember that there is at least one guy who thinks you aren't a bad guy.

His words, while forgotten, may have helped me open up a bit. I might not have decided to investigate Kamoshida with Ryuji had he insisted on doing so, letting him find a way to deal with the teacher by himself. I might not have sought out Ann when he found her crying near the station and would have just let her run away from him. All because I did not want to get into further trouble by following my need to help out others with how well that turned out last time.

"Something tells me that you'll find some likeminded people who would support you. Cherish those bonds you make with them."

And what he said was true. I would have just settled with Ryuji just being some punk instead of a passionate person whose dreams were cut short because of Kamoshida. I would have just settled on Ann being someone who sleeps around a lot instead of learning that she was a kind person whise kindness was being manipulated by Kamoshida. In return the two of them looked past my criminal record as well as the rumors and decided to see me for who I am. All because deep inside, I knew that people were capable of doing so.

"Good luck Kurusu. I'll be rooting for you."

I say as I remember Narukami's parting words and the smile he always seemed to have on hus face. And with those memories, power surged within me.

I am thou, thou art I…

Thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall become the wings of rebellion

That breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Truth Seeker Persona,

I have obtained the winds of blessing that

Shall lead to freedom and new power...

The new power inside of me screamed to be released and I didn't want to hold it back. I move my hand towards my mask, still holding Izanagi's card. A strange sensation came over me as the card and my mask seemed to merge with one another forming a different mask.

"J-Joker… what is…" Morgana's question was cut off as a blinding light seemed to emanate from where my mask was usually set. The air around me seemed to be electrically charged as the power between the two mediums formed into a new mask.

The light died down and on my face a pair of red and black glasses with outlines of the frame were styled with lightning and the part of the frame resting in my wear was shaped into the handle of Izanagi's sword. Hanging from one end of it, attached to a small chain, was a copy of the card Narukami gave me.

"Let's do this." I say as I reach towards the frame of the glasses feeling the power coalesce into my fingers at my touch. "Come forth. Izanagi… Picaro!" I call out the persona's new form as I pull the glasses off of my face.

" Awaken, Trickster." Izanagi reappears with a slight difference. His black robe is now accented with red and white lines forming squares with the style not dissimilar to the Shujin Academy's pants uniform. The white headband on his head has turned a bright red and the color of his weapon has turned into red with the wrappings being black. Outlining his eyes were sharp black shadows giving him an even more ominous look "I am Izanagi Picaro. Though hast obtained the eyes to see the truth."

With a wave of his arms towards my direction as soon as my eyes reopen from blinking subconsciously, everything around me seemed darker. Outlining the enemy shadow we have been facing though is a black energy, seeming to swirl and protect the shadow from harm as it protected him from the falling debris that was caused by him going through the pillar he was smashed through.

"He… he has a shield! It's protecting him from any damage we deal with him" I say as the shadow lets out an angry roar at us.

"Really? You can see that? That's amazing Joker. Can you see some way to get rid of it?" Mona asks as he summons Zorro and, together with my persona, charges at the enemy.

I look intently at the shadow as attacks land on him. The strange shadow shield didn't seem to come from within the shadow. When some of it was destroyed, a new one seemed to seep into the destroyed part from outside the shadow's form.

"Keep attacking it, and I think I can track down where the shield is coming from!" I instruct Morgana and he immediately follows through by upping Zorro and his own attacks at the shadow. I follow the faint trail of power that was forming a line whenever the shadow got attacked and soon the source if it became clear to me.

"Over there! The ball that the statue of Kamoshida is holding. That's where his shield is coming from!" I call out and point towards the huge statue at the end of the chapel.

"I got it, Zorro go and destroy that thing!" Morgana orders and his persona immediately directs pulls back from his assault on the shadow to make his way towards the end of the chapel.

"No! I will not let you desecrate this power that King Kamoshida has given me." The shadow calls out desperately before trying to intercept Zorro. He was stopped by Izanagi Picaro who barred his way and stopping the shadow right in his tracks.

"Break it Zorro!" Morgana calls out as his persona reaches the end of the chapel, in one mighty leap he reached up to where the ball was and sliced his sword in a Z shape motion. The volleyball immediately shatters and the dark shield protecting the shadow seemed to implode on itself as the source of it's power was no more. It caused massive damage to the shadow itself and for the first time, we actually see the thing get affected by something. "Finish it Joker!" Morgana says as he desummons Zorro.

"I got it. This is your end." I say walking over to the downed shadow with the handle of the broken knife in my hand and Izanagi Picaro floating beside me. I raise the handle up and Izanagi does the same with his own weapon. Power coalesces into them and a blade of lightning sprouted forth from the handle of my blade while Izanagi Picaro's weapon was coated in a potent concentration of lightning

"Cross!" I yell out as I charge towards the downed shadow swinging my blade horizontally towards the shadow and leaving a huge line of lightning in my blades wake. "Slash!" I finish with Izanagi appearing above the shadow with his electrically charged weapon down on him, leaving his own line of electricity with the attack.

"How… can I… lose with the… power King Kamoshida… gave me…" He yells out in pain as he slowly starts disintegrating. He lets out a final pained groan before fully disappearing, leaving no traces of what he was behind.

I turn towards my newest persona and give it a smile. "Thanks… and I'm sorry I forgot.".

The persona just nods his head before slowly turning back into the mask on my face.

"Joker… that was… just… wow…" Morgana says at a bit of a loss for words after having just witnessed such overwhelming power. "You truly are something special. With you by my side, we can definitely accomplish our goals, mwehehe." He says ending it with his usual laugh.

I just shake my head at his antics before giving him a smile, putting my hands inside of my pant's pockets. "Come on. I'm sure Panther and Skull are worried sick about us by now." I say as I walk over towards where the exit of the chapel is, followed by a happily bouncing catlike creature.


Author's notes:

And there you have it. It's been a while since I posted anything here but I kinda got busy with life and stuff and I may have also lost a huge part of my original's fic draft when my computer broke so I lost a lot of motivation to write after that. I got this itch to write this story for a while after getting p5r and getting the loads of other people's personas as free dlc. Not to mention the OP Paid ones. Just wanted to add a little story on how the hero was able to somehow use other's persona and this is what I came up with. Fun fact if you didn't know, each persona has a unique line when you fuse the persona's and not just summon them from the compendium. Izanagi is "Open thine eyes, Thou shall rise." And Izanagi Picaro's is "Open thine eyes, Awaken, Trickster." Additional fun fact, if you didn't know, they also added unique joker lines whenever he levels up dlc persona. Izanagi's is "let's keep this up!" and Izanagi Picaro's is "What a stylish power." It's basically some lines the original persona owners had so if you want to hear a full psycho Joker, just level up your Asterious and hear joker laugh like a madman. I never actually knew these things until researching more about this stuff and wanted to add a few sprinkles of it in this fic. I also added the fighting game's version of cross slash instead of the p5 version, as while it's cool that they added it as a unique ability for both izanagi's the fighting game's version is more stylish and I'm sure Joker would use that if he could. I watch a few combo videos on Blazblue cross tag and lemme tell you something, watching a tagteaming Yu and Adachi hit someone with 2 cross slashes is a sight to behold.

And yeah I made a new Truth Seeker Arcana but it's gonna be really hard to rank that up for Joker, haha. I also made it so that the third eye ability that Joker gets from the fool arcana came from this one. I've also based this scene a bit from my own first playthrough of the game. Basically trudged into Kamoshida's palace unorepared. tried to get as far as I could but kinda had to stop on the chapel miniboss as my party was dead tired with no more sp restoratives. fight was tough and Ryuji and Ann got killed while Morgana and Joker barely survived.

Anyway it's been a while since I've written anything like this and I would gladly accept any kind of criticism you have.

This will probably be a oneshot as, while I do have some ideas for other dlc personas and hiw he can picaro them, they are not as fleshed out as this one may be. I'll write a few drafts on them and see where it goes but just a heads up if you guys are expecting more of things like this. I also have no clue on how to go about with some persona's like Sho's Tsukuyomi.

Since I also started replaying p5r. Imma just post the skills I got for my Izanagi here for fun.

Cross Slash

Wild Thunder

Concentrate

Elec boost

Elec amp

Magic Ability

Drain Wind

Victory Cry

I know not the most optimized, especially with me keeping coss slash after putting all those wild thunder boosts on him. Not to mention the deminishing returns on the wild thunder boosts that make it so that it doesn't actually double its damage (made me real sad after learning that one) and you only ever really need 1 concentrate persona on your team but I seem to stack all my magic users with it. So if you are not comfy with those skills you could always change them to repel/drain bless to cover the insta kill spells, or even add stuff like Angelic Grace, Ali dance, or Enduring soul, for dodge and survivalbility. The beauty of the game is playing it how you want.

Don't know why I put that there… but there it is. Anyway hope you all enjoy your holidays.


Small Omake of fake Igor's encounter with Yu Narukami.

He lets off one final chuckle as he watches the Trickster be called back into the realm of the living.

"What do you think of the inmate, Caroline?" One of his assistant warden's asked the other.

"As he is right now… he'd probably guarantee ruin for him and everyone around him." Caroline answers her twin sister, Justine. They start heading off to do their own tasks bidding him goodbye as they do so.

"That is why we must help guide the inmate. To ensure that ruin does not come to pass." Justine says as she fingers the edge of the paper in her clipboard.

"Oh don't worry, I promise to be really hard on the inmate so that he doesn't stray from the path of rehabilitation." Caroline proudly proclaims as she waves her Baton around.

The two continue their usual bickering as they head off to do their own work. He waits a couple of minutes to ensure that neither of them come back and he checks with his power to ensure that he is truly alone before he let out a pained breathe that he was holding in.

'To think the Trickster would come into contact with the Truth Seeker.' The being thinks to himself as his eyes go over to the side of his desk where a pair of sunglasses with gray colored frames lay on the side. His hand goes over and picks the offending item up, giving it a once over as he remembers the brief encounter with the guy.


Thou art I… and I am thou…

Thou has established a new bond…

It shall help thee reinforce thy truth…

Though shalt be blessed when creating

Personas of the Trickster Arcana…

Yu stood there alone in the empty street as he watches his new friend fade from his view. He lets the power od his new bond suffuse with him and he doesn't move until the familiar tingle of a bond forming goes completely away. Once done he turns to look around his surrounds with a frown before getting ready for what comes next. A card wreathed in blue flames appeared above him and it slowly descends into his awaiting open hand.

"Come forth. Izanagi-no-Okami!" he calls out for the ultimate facet of his power. The being appears floating behind him, basking the area he was around with sheer power. The appearance of his persona caused some buildings to crack and most windows of the vicinity to shatter.

"Cast away this false image before me!" he calls out with a wave of his arm. His persona follows his orders by moving his weapon and making a slashing motion in front of him. From his weapon came forth a light that disintegrated everything that it passed through, casting away the false city that he found himself in.

When his persona was finished, he opened his eyes to see just exactly where he is. He was a bit surprised to see that he is in the middle of what appeared to be rows upon rows of jail cells and with him on the bottom platform was what looked like a giant cup. It seemed that his initial action did some damage to the cup as cracks were clearly visible on the surface of it.

"Are you the one responsible for this place?" He asks the cup seriously as he felt an immense surge of power coming directly from it. His eyes widen a bit when the wires attached to the top of the cup started glowing and the cracks that were around the surface started to heal itself.

"Not going to answer me. How about I get a little serious then." He says before holding out his hand. Izanagi-no-Okami responds by placing his weapon in front of him and moving both of his hands towards the handle. His persona starts moving his weapon in a circle as he calls forth his attack.

"Myriad… Tr-…" before he can finish calling out his attack and his letting his persona use it, he suddenly feels a wave of drowsiness overcome him. "What? What is… happening…" he says as he stumbles with his footing and his persona disappears from the lack of concentration. Before he can do anything else the effects strengthens itself and soon he finds himself tumbling down on the ground. His eyes soon close and when they open again, he'll only have a faint memory of this event happening.


'Was that all just a coincidence… or was the two meeting orchestrated by someone else…' he thinks to himself before letting out a sigh and shaking his head. He puts the pair of glasses down on the table and remembers plucking it out of the Trickster's face just as he woke up in the velvet room. Had he looked upon him with these shades on, it would surely reveal to him that he was not who he was supposed to be.

'No matter… everything is all in order… all I have to do now… is watch and wait to see how this… game… will turn out.' He waves his hand over to the glasses and the glass quickly shatters and the frames slowly dissolve into dust. Soon nothing remained of the object and he let out a pleased chuckle.

Just outside the Velvet Room, tucked outside where the interloper has placed it in Mementos, a single blue butterfly flies out from having perched itself atop of it and into one of the shadowy depths of Mementos.