Persona 04

Rein couldn’t concentrate on the lesson when he was at school. He had decided to sit beside Konomi so that they could discuss about things if necessary. He tried and tried to focus on the lesson, but last night’s incident was still bothering him.

“Are we going there tonight?” whispered a girl in his classroom.

“Yeah, of course we are,” whispered another girl.

Rein looked around to see who were talking. He saw a long-haired girl with glasses talking to her friend. Where were they going? It couldn’t be to ‘that’ place, right? He tried to convince himself that it was only his feeling that was bothering him. He was looking at his textbook when he heard the girls talking again.

“The train station is pretty creepy at night. I think we can do that ‘courage test’ there. What about eleven p.m.?” the long-haired girl asked. “Sure. We’ll see who the coward is by then,” replied the other girl. Rein heard what they were talking about very clearly. He looked at Konomi. “Did you hear them?” he asked. Konomi nodded. She smiled sheepishly. “So? You’re thinking that the ‘other station’ will appear again tonight?” asked Konomi. Rein shrugged his shoulder. “I guess it’s worth checking,” he said.

***

Rein was sitting in Konomi’s flat as they were waiting for the night to come. There didn’t seem to be anything interesting to do beside watching TV, but since Konomi’s TV had been stolen, they had no choice but to stay still and wait.

“So, where are you from?” asked Konomi.

“New York. My dad’s American, but my mom’s Japanese. They decided to send me here to continue with my study,” said Rein. “I see,” said Konomi. “Will they come here sometimes?” asked Konomi. “I don’t know. They’re pretty busy with their job, so I doubt they’ll have the time to visit me,” replied Rein. Konomi nodded. “My mom used to be a journalist in Japan, but she had never been to Japan since she was married with my dad. You know, traveling from America to Japan is pretty expensive,” said Rein. Konomi smiled. “Don’t you feel lonely sometimes?” she asked. “Maybe…but I don’t know, either,” he said. “Well, if you feel lonely or bored, just give me a call,” she said. “What for? I can just walk outside and call your name in front of your flat,” said Rein. “Oh, yeah, right. I forgot…,” she said.

“Anyway, I’ve bought weapons for us. Here,” she said, giving him a short one-handed sword with steel blade. “I’ll use this,” she said, showing a small sized dagger to Rein. “Thanks,” Rein said. “It’s time to go,” he continued.

They tiptoed toward the train station. It wouldn’t be nice to be seen by their friends when they were walking together at night because someone might get a wrong idea. They saw the two girls entering the station. Those girls seemed curious to see the staircase leading to the subway station. They’re as confused as us, Rein thought.

“Let’s go,” said Rein after the two girls had gone into the subway station. As usual, the subway station looked old and creepy. They couldn’t see the two girls anymore. Maybe they had used the train to go into the ‘other world’. “Let’s go,” said Rein, running into the train which they had used the night before. They arrived in the same exact shopping district. However, there were no open shops. Even the shop where they fought the strange creature was closed.

“Where are they?” asked Konomi. “I don’t know. Let’s go look around,” said Rein, holding his short sword tightly. They walked along the silent street. There was no sign of life anywhere. All they could see were several weak creatures wandering the streets. Rein was able to kill all of them only by using his short sword. “There’s no need to summon my Persona,” said Rein. He ran toward a creature and slashed its head. They arrived in front of an old opera house. “Was this building here before?” asked Konomi. “I don’t think so. We should’ve seen it if it were,” replied Rein. They could hear several footsteps inside the opera house, so they decided to enter the building.

The opera house consisted of many chairs. In front of the room was a huge stage. It was so elegant. It was a pity that it looked old, just like everything else in that world. Rein looked around, but he didn’t see the two girls. “They aren’t here,” said Konomi. Out of the blue, they heard someone screaming from the stage’s backroom. “Let’s go!” said Rein. He ran into the stage and jumped to the backroom. It was as he expected, the two girls were there, unconscious. In front of them, there was a huge creature that looked like a woman with burned skin. Her face had also been burned and she only had one eye. Her sharp claws were pointed at the girls when Rein and Konomi came in.

“What is that thing?” asked Konomi.

“It’s a monster…just like before. We’ll just have to kill it, right?” asked Rein. Konomi nodded. He ran toward the creature and slashed it’s body, but his attack didn’t do much damage. “As expected from a higher level monster,” said Rein. He put two of his fingers on his forehead and concentrated. “Persona!” he said. Oregon, the knight of imprisonment, appeared and struck the woman twice by using his swords. “Oregon, use Agi!” he said. Oregon, who seemed to understand, pointed his sword at the woman and launched a fireball just like last time. The woman seemed to hate fire so much that she fell down and gave an advantage for Rein to do a fatal blow. He ran toward the woman and slashed her throat twice. She was still alive, but Rein knew that she didn’t have much power anymore. Without being told, Oregon ran toward the woman and slashed her head.