1 To the Shadow Realm

A young man could be seen walking down a street. He had messy black hair and held a bag in his left hand. He was returning home from a nearby convenience store.

Suddenly, as he was walking, pain assaulted his chest, and he tripped on the pavement. His hand clutched tightly on the left side of his chest, his face was scrunched up in agony.

He writhed on the ground for what seemed like an eternity, until the pain started to go away. The teen was left gasping for air, as he could barely breathe while he was suffering.

Unfortunately, when he finished regulating his breathing, the pain assaulted his poor soul once more. For minutes, the pain wrecked his body. Just as he thought he reached his limits, a dark portal appeared beneath him, dulling all his pain.

Eventually, the teen noticed the sinking feeling in his body wasn't just a feeling. He was slowly going into the dark portal.

'What!?'

The boy tried to struggle out of the gateway, to no avail. His body was exhausted beyond belief. The portal was dampening his senses the more time passed.

Helplessly, he waited to go through the opening.

'Mother, father, I'll be going to the Shadow Realm now...' he thought.

-INTERMISSION-

A black and golden tower was floating in an empty expanse of space. At the base of the tower, the floor had a checkered pattern, and a green butterfly symbol was in the center. The floor was surrounded with golden railings, and 6 golden pillars were going up from the floor to the top of the tower.

With a flash of light, the young man appeared next to the butterfly sign, looking around in confusion. The numbness that spread around his body didn't help with his disorientation.

"Huh? Where am I?" he unintentionally spoke out loud.

Without any warning, light flashed before the unprepared soul's eyes, almost blinding him if his senses weren't stifled.

In the place where the light flashed earlier stood a masked man wearing a black turtleneck shirt and black pants. His mask covered 3 quarters of his face, his bottom right side being exposed. He had orange eyes and dark brown hair shaped into a ponytail.

The man looked at the teen, who was shocked seeing him appear, and opened his mouth to talk.

"You must be confused at how you got here. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Philemon, and this is the gulf between the consciousness and unconsciousness of all souls. You are here because I, no, humanity needs your assistance."

The teen was standing there in stunned silence, not because of the words of the masked man but because he could recognize him.

'Philemon... from Persona?'

"To be precise, it's not 'your' humanity that is in danger, but another one. Unfortunately, I can't directly interfere, as such I'll request your assistance." continued Philemon.

"Huh? But, why me?" the young man asked.

Philemon smiled.

"Because you, my friend, are special, even among all the other Fools out there."

If the teen didn't know what the Fool meant in the Persona series, he would've felt offended. Instead, he was elated, as having the Fool Arcana is akin to being a protagonist.

"How am I special?" he inquired.

"You possess a rare ability known as a Wild Card. Although there have been others with this ability, they have been gifted with it by others. You, on the other hand, have it naturally. And Nyarlathotep thought that humans have no potential." he spoke, somewhat murmuring near the end.

"Sadly, you passed away before being able to use your abilities to their full potential. But I thought it would be a waste to let you go."

"Wait, what? I died? How?" asked the young man, dismayed.

"Well, it seems you had 2 consecutive heart attacks. You would've passed out eventually since your body couldn't handle the pain."

'Heart attacks, huh... Who'd have guessed...' he thought wistfully.

"So, what will happen now?" asked the teen.

"I'll send you to help the other humanity."

"But why is that humanity in danger in the first place?"

Philemon grimaced at the thought.

"Nyarlathotep is trying to bring humanity to ruin once again. But this time he's being more subtle about it. He managed to influence one of the Fools there to betray their friends and subsequently get themselves killed. A being going by the name of Yaldabaoth took control of humanity, and Nyarlathotep used him to destroy humanity."

"If this already happened, what could I do there?"

Philemon smiled at his question.

"The other me reversed the time there. Although Nyarlathotep's influence remains, that's where you come in. You'll take over the one that was influenced by him."

Although the young man was thrilled at possibly being able to meet Joker and the others, his excitement died down when he realized how the reason that humanity was screwed was very similar to one of the bad ends in the game, and how he'd take over Joker himself.

"What will happen to the guy I take over?"

Philemon sighed.

"His soul had Nyarlathotep's influence rooted in deep. The only way to save it is to send it back to the sea of all mankind's soul."

The masked being stood there dazed for a few moments, before returning to his senses and looking towards the teen.

"Well, I'll have you go on your way now."

'Just like that?'

Philemon formed a ball of light with his right hand, and he threw it towards the young man.

"Consider that my and Joker's gift. It will aid you in many different ways, such as Max Level Social Stats." he said, shocking the boy.

"Social Stats?"

Philemon ignored the teen's crisis and continued with his goodbye.

"I am you. You are me... I shall always watch over you from within. Farewell..."

And the young man disappeared in a flash of light.

-INTERMISSION-

In one of the cars of a moving subway, a black-haired teen had dozed off while leaning on the window. Stirring awake, the boy slowly opens his eyes, confusion could be clearly seen on them, before he remembered what just happened.

'Philemon mentioned Social Stats. Could I be in the game?'

Trying to summon the main menu without success, the teen pondered how would the stats affect him outside of the game.

'Hmm... I look pretty handsome, even with the glasses on. This is probably the effect of the Debonair Charm. I don't feel particularly knowledgeable or kind, so those stats might come into effect later.'

The teen gripped his hand into a fist and released it several times.

'Controlling this body is quite easy, as if it was mine in the first place. Not to say about the lack of fear I can feel. Even Yaldabaoth doesn't seem more than a minor inconvenience.'

The young man smiled.

'This is gonna be interesting!'

When the subway stopped, the teen stood up and exited the car with the rest of the crowd. He then proceeded to search for the Ginza line in the station. He swiped his student pass on the automatic ticket checking machine and went in the subway.

In the subway he was thinking about the weird occurrences from earlier. After he arrived at the Shibuya Crosswalk, a mysterious application started up, though he was already expecting it. The world around him slowed to a halt, and a fiery blue figure manifested before his eyes, followed by a vision of the flames developing a red grin, and himself with yellow eyes. Afterwards, the teen just deleted the application and went on his way.

What he didn't expect, however, was when he looked around to find the Ginza line, he thought he wished he knew Japanese and suddenly, he was hit with a lot of knowledge about the language.

'So if I want to know something, I just have to wish for it? That's easy. Now, my name...'

On the student pass his name was written along with a photo of his face.

'Shin Yuuta, huh? It could've been worse. But it's meaning...'

According to his newfound knowledge, Shin meant real or true, and Yuuta meant superiority and... thick.

The sound of the subway stopping snapped him from his pondering. Grabbing his bag and slumping it on his shoulder he went out.

'No use thinking about it now. I better find my way to Cafe LeBlanc.' he thought.

On his way to the cafe, he familiarized himself with the places around.

Eventually, Shin found his way to the cafe. Inside the cafe stood a middle-aged man with slicked-back dark hair with a receding hairline, gray eyes and a chinstrap beard with a goatee that flares out. He also had a pair of glasses and was busy reading a newspaper.

"We're closed right now. Huh? So you're the punk kid I'm supposed to take in?" the man asked, receiving a nod in response.

"Next time try to get here earlier. Turning up late isn't the best way to make a good first impression. Good grief. Name's Sojiro Sakura, and you'll be living here for the duration of your probation."

Leaving his newspaper on the counter, he turned back to the teen and signalled with his hand.

"Follow me."

Going up the stairs, the two reached into a dust-filled attic.

"This is your room." said Sojiro.

"It's pretty dusty."

"Well, it is an attic, after all. Anyway, you'll be alone at night, but don't do anything stupid. I'll throw you out if you cause any trouble."

"Alright."

"I got the gist of your situation. You protected some woman from a man forcing himself on her, he got injured, then sued you. Right?"

"Mmhm."

"Now, you're on probation till next spring. Cause any problems, and you'll be sent straight to juvie. Tomorrow we'll be going to Shujin Academy, to introduce ourselves properly there."

He stopped to turn around and point at a big cardboard box on the floor.

"That's your stuff. Anyway, you're free to do whatever now." he said, leaving the attic.

'Now, I suppose I should begin cleaning this place.' thought Shin.

But just when he was about to start moping the floor, Sojiro returned with a small notebook in his hand.

"You were about to clean your room? Well, it's good that you're responsible for your living space."

He put the notebook in his hand on the table.

"That's gonna be your diary. I'm obligated to report your actions regularly, so I'll need you to write in it daily. Understood?"

"Okay."

"Don't stay up too late. We'll be going to Shujin in the morning." said Sojiro.

Shin nodded and returned to the task at hand.

It took several hours before he cleaned the room to an adequate level.

It was already late so Shin just went to sleep.

'I'll be meeting that fake Igor anyway. No reason to stay up anymore.'

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This chapter's additional info is on... Philemon!

Philemon comes from the writings of Carl Gustav Jung, specifically that of a "wise spirit guide." He likely has origins in the play Faust by Johann Goethe, a work that would impact Jung for a majority of his psychological career and that he would find a driving force to his work.

Philemon lives within the realm of the consciousness and unconsciousness of all souls and he awakens within people the ability to use Personas. He cannot directly interfere, however, the party is aided by the Velvet Room, which is filled with his servants.

Considering he is essentially Nyarlathotep's antithesis, it is quite plausible to assume he is a representation of humanity's good parts, although he does not have exactly the same world view and values as humans, as shown by his willingness to wager their existence on their strength of heart.

He appears both as blue and yellow butterflies throughout the series.

In Persona 5, it's most likely that he is the butterfly that appears at the end to say goodbye to the protagonist when the true ending is achieved.