Disclaimer: Rights to the persona series lay with ATLUS, not me!

Notes:

Descriptive Writing;

Slow-Burn;

Graphic Gore, but not the worst;

Graphic Sexual Content;

Game-Like Elements;

Ren Amamiya

Level 4

HP:311/311

SP:176/176

Knowledge-Scholarly 40/50 -- Rank 4

Guts-Valiant 7/50 -- Rank 4

Proficiency-Skilled 12/50 -- Rank 4

Kindness-Empathetic 7/50 -- Rank 4

Charm- Allure 37/50-- Rank 5

32865 ¥

20XX/04/11~2:39 PM

Monday-Evening-Storms.

Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Sitting on top of a fancy leather chair, a woman of unbelievable beauty, with dark hair, black as the night, falling down to her knees, with aquatic eyes that enchanted every person she met, the woman was illuminated by the light of the room, the ceiling was tall, the building had a modern design, that meant a lot of wood grain design everywhere, which amused her.

Jorge:”The steak? Good?” The old man in front of her asked, his brow sweated, his hands trembled.

A halberd swung down on the plate coming from behind the woman, it cut the steak in half, it raised itself and struck the piece of meat again, the halberd continued cutting the beef, until it was down to bite sizes, the woman then reached for the silverware, the fork, held by her pierced a slice of steak, and with a flick of her wrists the meat jumped from the silverware, forward hitting Jorge right in his face, the piece of meat fell down to his lap, he felt the juices of the top grade beef in his cheek, rage surged deep within, yet he locked behind the best mental iron door he could, his poker face couldn't falter here, yet he was extremely humiliated by this, he couldn't believe the shame, he never had been all his life.

Jorge:"Have... I... insulted... you… perhaps? Kazumi-dono?" The man tried his best, yet his Japanese was extremely choppy, the tangible fear could be felt from where she was standing.

She crossed her legs, she put her hand under her bosom, emphasizing the cleavage that she revealed with her red dress, the old man across from her drooled, yet didn’t make a move, because behind her was a pool of blood and gore, his family, his guards, even the chef who served her the steak was dead.

Kazumi:”Jorge… I thought we had a perfectly straight deal? However you went back on it, I just had the time to come here and remind you in the place of Otou-sama, the deal was simple, it was to give your shares of Burger King to us, How hard is that?”

Jorge:"B-But, you wanted me to trade it for a measly 250 grand? I-I couldn't accept that, the Amamiya group is mad!" He said, panicking, true, he was a very big shareholder on a lot of enterprises, and the deal he made back then when he passed through difficulty was to give the Amamiya financial group the shares to the food chain at a reduced price, even so, Jorge didn't know the specified price, so he kept delaying the decision for over a year now, it was sad, but Kazumi's group worked with very shady business practices.

Kazumi:"Hmm… Well, you had your chance… so what are you and this country going to do about Venezuela, your little neighbors? The Maduro regime seems to be going strong."

Jorge:”We-”

Kazumi:”I see, nothing, you just going to accept Refugees and do nothing about the oppression next door… I had enough, a Trip to Alaska next, I am tired of the hotness of Brazil’s beaches.”

She was tired of indecisiveness in politics, the fact that Japan had done nothing to quell North Korea's regime even after extensive threat to her home country didn't make sense, so what if they have nuclear potential, nothing can stop if Japan makes an underground nuclear program as well just in case, well she could easily resolve the issue, but she liked conflict, a lot of conflicts.

Kazumi:"Don't worry about the shares Jorge, it will be passed to us either way." When having lawyers and politicians on your pocket, as well as the other shareholders cooperating with the Amamiya group for the past few years, there was no way they would leave empty-handed from this venture, true, they didn't know about this little mission she took here, however they didn't need to know, they were blinded by the influence of her group that was all they needed to think about, Jorge's death would be a terrible accident, and there would be no connections to her, or her father-in-law, because she was supposed to be in Finland right now. Traveling undetected in the sky faster than any hypersonic jet was such a joy.

The halberd behind her had a transparent quality, yet suddenly it materialized fully, revealing an Empress, it had an overpowering presence that made him pray for the gods.

Kazumi:”Wu Zetian, Kill him please" The empress obeyed the woman's orders, the halbert moved, with relativistic speeds comparable to light, the Empress Wu Zetian slashed all around the building, in less than picoseconds the tower was split in half, diagonally right in the middle, yet after that picosecond, an explosion of fire surged from the unbelievable kinetic energy being transformed into heat, and blew up entire city blocks, right in the middle of the flames Kazumi stood, being held by her Persona, as she laughed at her power now available someway in real life.

She looked at people being flash burned, running around in flames until they fell down, Elderly being locked down by burning rubble, a police precinct catching fire, damaging smoke and embers spreading fast to the city, her Persona truly was a treat to see in action.

Wu Zetian flew, hidden by the smoke towards the upper part of the Americas, as the slow response to the large fire caused arrived.

Kazumi:’That reminds me, today was Ren-chan’s first day at school, did he make a friend?‘ The worries of a mother wouldn’t relent.

Kazumi:‘I hope so.’

>>Take your Time

20XX/04/11~11:27 PM

Monday-Evening-Crescent Moon.

Velvet Room.

He opened his eyes as he took in the now familiar place, the Velvet room, the hard surface of the bed and the different clothing were made apparent.

Caroline:"...About time, Inmate." She said with bite, however, there was an undeniable warmth that accompanied her words.

Ren:"I'll get up Caroline." He said with a charming smile and a very deep voice for a teen, she blushed and muttered lowly to herself.

Caroline:”...He goes and becomes even more handsome, it has only been a day, what the hell.” she said in a whisper to herself.

Justine:”Our master wishes to speak with you, it's best if you take heed to them.”

As usual, both of them had such a cute voice that made him have warm feelings.

Igor:"First off, let us celebrate our reunion.' He said with his usual smirk, it hid something that Ren didn't like, in fact, he was pretty pissed off at this guy for no other reason than that he suspected Igor since the beginning, a lot of things didn't add up and his Scholarly mind agreed with him.

Igor:”Hoh? You’ve awakened to your powers. And very special ones at that. Your rehabilitation can finally begin.”

Ren:”Persona? What do you mean by very special?”

Igor chuckled.

Igor:"You possess the power of the wild card, but that conversation is for a later occasion. Personas are, in other words, a "mask" -- an armor of the heart when confronting the world, you will be training and developing this power in the future. For that, I have high expectations for you."

Ren:”I don’t particularly care about your expectations Igor.” He said in a harsh voice.

+10 Guts

Valiant 17/50 -- Rank 4

Both Caroline and Justine gasped, Caroline, while reluctant, grabbed her baton and bashed it on the door, almost hitting his thighs, but Ren saw that she wasn’t really going to hurt him, just scare him off.

Caroline:“Y-You don’t have a say in this.” she said a bit surprised by Ren’s harsh words against her master.

Justine:"The rehabilitation is a necessary process so you will have to comply, it's for your own good." she responded in monotone, yet if you knew how to detect then you'd see a bit of surprise in her face as well

Caroline:”And, p-please give a bit of respect towards our master.” Ren faced her and both had a silent discussion, then Caroline turned back to face Igor.

Ren:”....What about the strange app in my phone, it connects to that other world, right?”

Igor:”I see you connected the dots… Have you come to appreciate the metaverse navigator? Perhaps you’ve come to like the infinite battery it gives your phone.”

Ren:"So that's why...I presumed it, however, to think such a thing… there is no way an app can give such a benefit normally, is it magic or something else, because there's no way science can explain an infinite lithium battery…." Ren mumbled to himself, making sure the others couldn't hear.

+2 Knowledge

Scholarly 42/50 -- Rank 4

Igor:”Using the navigator will allow you to travel between Reality and the Metaverse.”

Ren:”What’s the reason…?”

Igor:”...I bestowed it to you as a means to train you as a thief.”

Caroline:”It’s the master’s gift to you! You better take heart in using it, Inmate!”

Justine:”Devote yourself to your training so that you may become the perfect thief.”

Ren:’They want to rehabilitate me by making me commit more crimes, perfect logic!’ the sarcasm didn’t escape him one bit.

Igor:“It must be disheartening to make use of the Navigator alone.”

Ren:’So he’s going to give it to any allies that come with me to that world, like Ryuji...’ Ren’s scholarly intelligence, already deduced what Igor’s words were going to be. He felt too smart, but it was a pleasurable feeling, having his brain constantly being worked by the little things in life. Everything was being analyzed, every little perception of the world, it was incredible.

+5 Knowledge.

Scholarly 47/50 -- Rank 4

Igor:”Should there be others who prove beneficial to your cause, I will grant it to them as well. This is all for you to become a most excellent thief...”

Ren:’As I thought.’

Igor:”I must depart, you have free time now.” Igor said, as a cloud of darkness flashed everything and both he and the table disappeared.

Justine sensing a bit of free time, weaved her hand like a ballerina, the cells disappeared instantly, and the room expanded infinitely, in fact, it felt like there was a purple ceiling, and an infinite expanse of ground for all sides, there were no walls, nothing.

He was released from his chains, only his clothes remained.

Ren:“What?”

Justine:“I just made a better place for what’s going to happen.”

Caroline:"It's time to explain everything that is happening to you. So ask away and we will answer"

Ren:”Aside from the weird powers I have noted my strength and speed increase a lot, that’s gotta do with my persona right?”

Caroline:"You're right, you may not know this but every Persona has values set in stone, like a video game, however unlike a video game you can't access them via a menu or something, you have to come here to the velvet room."

Justine:”All of your personas shall be recorded in this compendium…” She grabbed a thick book.

Justine:"It self-updates with your actions." She said scrolling through the pages faster and faster. Until she stopped in the middle of it.

Justine:"Here." She passed the book to him, where he found this written.

REN’s PERSONAS

Arsene -- Fool -- Level 2 -- Next Level -- 50 exp

ARSENE -- FOOL -- LEVEL 2 -- NEXT LEVEL -- 50 EXP

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Weak to -- Ice, Bless

Strong to -- Curse

SKILLS (2/20)

Eiha -- 4 SP

Light curse damage to one foe, it burns their life away, leaving a bloodied corpse.

Cleave -- 2% HP

Light physical damage to one foe, Arsene cleaves one enemy with one claw.

STATS

Strength -- 15

Magic -- 20

Endurance 15

Agility -- 19

Luck -- 13

There was written stats, skills, weaknesses, and strengths, it was very comprehensive, so the stats…

Ren:“The stats, do they influence my body?”

Justine:“Yes, it will influence your constitution, if your persona can destroy stone, then you will also be able to do the same, if your persona can destroy a building in a single hit, then you will also be capable, if your persona can cast a spell, you will also be able, if your persona can survive a bullet, if your persona can destroy a country, world, galaxy, you’ll be able to do the same, very simple right? Personas are reflections of yourself, an extension of yourself, a doppelganger without the same form or even the personality. It is an amazing power.”

Caroline:"However, since its strength is yours then its weaknesses are as well. You'll do well not to visit any churches, well I'm just joking, there are no priests in the real world who have a blessing attack, Hehehe”

Justine:”just be careful of freezing temperatures, you are more likely to get a frostbite than people with the same endurance as you.”

Ren:”I see, are these...” however he was cut off by Caroline.

Caroline:”His endurance, you are joking, there are set few humans alive that actually possess more than 15 endurance, Justine,, and even if he does have the weakness to ice he needs to be pretty cold to be affected because the endurance counters the weakness, I think a little over -70°C will do the trick."

Ren:”So not many humans surpass 15 endurance huh? What are the normal values for a human then? Based on these stats.”

Justine and Caroline looked at each other, then faced him with a nihilistic gaze.

Justine:"...1, just 1 in every status, except magic which is 0, that's the average human. In fact, peak human condition can't even reach 2 in a category, like strength or agility, even those record breakers can't…"

Ren:”Huh? So low.”

Caroline:”The scale grows far above what humans are capable of, so it uses the human as a starting point to measure more incredible beings such as you.”

Ren:”Such as myself? Am I not human?”

Caroline:”No, persona users cannot be classified as humans anymore.”

Justine:”It stems for their potential to grow into powerful godlike beings.”

Caroline:"However you are more special than the average persona user because you can use that power in real life, normally the stats, skills, and personas could only be used in the other world, however, your body is very strong, very very strong. Because you can use everything in the real world as well."

Justine:”You are also the possessor of the wild card having it will give you special advantages, they are many, and are very powerful” Justine grabbed the book, and flipped the pages until she stopped, she then gave it back to Ren, with a stoic look.

Justine:”We can’t read these pages, even our master can’t read them, there contains all the information about the wild card, please read silently at your discretion.”

Ren took the book and read all the information, it contained, his name, level... Health...Stamina.

Ren:‘This seems just like an RPG' However he stopped at a title, called social stats, it contained:

Knowledge-Scholarly 47/50 -- Rank 4

Guts-Valiant 17/50 -- Rank 4

Proficiency-Skilled 12/50 -- Rank 4

Kindness-Empathetic 7/50 -- Rank 4

Charm- Allure 37/50-- Rank 5

Ren:‘I see, so this has been affecting me, Knowledge, means the power of the mind, wisdom, intelligence...everything. Guts mean how courageous I am, Proficiency means how adept I am at crafting and dexterity? Perhaps I can make some DIYs for social media, that's an idea for the future, Kindness, how willing I am to help, and empathize with people? And Charm, physical attractiveness, charisma, everything that makes me desirable is bundled up here.'

Ren:’So this is what causing me trouble in the real world, Charm…’

Ren:”I see that here there's something called social stats, care to elaborate?”

Caroline:"We don't know much about them inmate, but they affect your state of being strong, they are divided into ranks, starting from 1 to 10, every human can be comfortably put into these categories with different numbers, depending on their genetics and lifestyle"

Justine:"However, wildcards are the only ones that can perceive these numbers with the help of the compendium"

Caroline:"What's more only wildcards can fundamentally change these values easily, the other normal people can only go so far, and have to put extreme effort into changing the ranks."

Justine:”And, unfortunately, humans can only go until rank 4 in each category, that’s the hard limit, the smartest people that have lived, or will ever live can only achieve rank 4 in knowledge for example. The best crafter, the best model, the most courageous hero, the most compassionate person, they can’t pass rank 4, no matter what they do, rank 5 and up are for more... complex beings.”

Ren was already rank 4 in all categories except charm which was level 5, so this is why, he wasn’t human anymore, they were right, a physician might work their entire life, be a genius since birth and only reach rank 3... rank 4 was only for legendary historical figures, those could be counted in one hand, and in some categories, examples may have never been documented.

Ren:"Is there a way to lower these stats? For example, if I try to disfigure my face, the charm stat surely will drop?"

Caroline:”No, it's impossible, the universe itself will assure nothing decreases your social stats, the chance of you disfiguring your face, in a manner that will not heal is completely nil and void, the outcome will never happen in a million different parallel universes.”

So it was impossible, picking up a knife and trying to slash his face wouldn’t happen for example, because the universe would never will it, the knife had a better chance of breaking before it could reach his face, and even if it did, it would make superficial wounds that could be healed fast.

Caroline:”The wild card is always progressive, you will never be able to regress a stat”

Ren:”I see…” ‘so it's impossible to do anything about this Charm, I just have to live with it’

Ren:”My stats are…”

Justine:”If you are going to list your stats forget it, we can’t read them, the pages itself blur, the words you speak from your mouth turn to static in our ears, the wild card likes privacy, only you can have this information.”

Ren:”Thank you, sorry.”

Caroline:”No need to apologize, even our master can’t read it”

Ren;'She said it earlier, so even Igor himself can't, this might get some leverage over him, he is hiding something from me, yet I can't really pinpoint what, however, I am getting closer and closer'

Ren:”I’ve noticed that I earned a lot of money through the Metaverse, what’s up with that? It’s like money just appeared in my wallet all of the sudden.”

Justine:”You are able to earn money by defeating shadows in the metaverse, the money will automatically be added to your wallet in cash or be added to any bank account you open, although I wouldn’t count a credit card as a better option than cash in Japan.”

Ren:"True, we do have a dislike for cards, however, there is still tracing money trail, how can I evade human systems of detecting that my money is not really from any bank or government?"

Justine:”The Multiverse wills mass hypnosis, of both humans, machines, and systems, to them you had that money all along, and just like that there’s nothing wrong with the world.”

Ren:”Why would the universe do that for me?”

Justine:”It’s not much, changing perceptions for humans and machines is… very… very easy, even for us...And the universe just sees a great possibility for you, you are a wild card, you are worth investing in”

Ren:”Worth investing in?”

Caroline:"Yes you are, the Multiverse considers you more valuable than the whole of the human race, so it will bend over backward for you, for a teeny tiny bit...However, Inmate, you are not the most valuable thing worth investing, the Multiverse knows this, in fact, you are not even close, not even us are close, keep that in mind..."

Justine:”Also keep in mind there are things and beings that far surpass the multiverse… you are important, true, but you will never reach such a stage in your lifetime…”

Ren:”Is that a challenge?!” He said motivated.

Caroline:”Hmph! Perhaps Inmate.”

Continuing to look his file he stopped at confidants, and skills born for confiding, the usage of the tarot cards was intriguing, yet his mind quickly got bored of making hypothesis and analyzing it, they had similar ranks to the social aspect, and every rank had a different skill, it seemed to be a trophy for advancing personal relationships, he felt that this really was important, as both skills seemed to be very powerful.

He closed the book, his thoughts ran for miles, yet each and every one of them were organized orderly, reaching conclusions out of nothing was easy, so easy it was scary.

He gave the book to Justine, and it disappeared in a blue, neon dust.

Caroline:”There’s still some time, want to exercise your power in this space?” She pointed to the infinite expanse of stone.

Ren:”Yeah.”

They got up from the wooden chairs Justine had summoned, he stretched his body, and summons his persona with a surge of blue flames, Caroline summoned a lot of dummies for him to fight against, he used all of his Persona skills to get a grip, did varied attacks and saw how everything worked, one thing he was surprised by was that he could summon a knife -- that he used when he first visited that teacher's Palace -- on his hand with a whiff of blue flames at any time he wanted, he could also dismiss it very easily, he thought how broken this was, if this was in the hands of a killer he could summon and unsummon the weapon at any time he needed, this Persona was also something else.

He fought Caroline in a mock battle, needless to say, he lost all matches with her, she didn't use any persona, just her own body, yet she gave room for him to understand what was happening in every battle, and each match she gave more than enough time for him to come up with new tactics and moves. She complimented him on his battle sense, she said he was a quick learner -- probably because of his Knowledge combined with Proficiency, that were both rank 4-- and would trump most people, even her, however the difference was that she was superior in anything else but tactics, it doesn't matter if you have the better intelligence when fighting Superman if what you have is only a wooden stick, would be the better analogy, to beat her, he needed to match her firepower, and he wasn't even close.

However the matches gave him a lot of insight, the damage taken by the Persona wouldn't transfer to him, so the astral spirit was useful as a shield, the range that the persona could be away from the user was significant, it was more than 1 km before he got bored and called Arsene back. Normal people could not see, feel, touch, smell or hear a persona, only outliers like persona users and other fantastical beings could interact with it, so if Arsene were to punch someone -- they would probably die -- but they would only feel the pain and damage in the area, they wouldn’t feel the fist, so Arsene could interact with the real world, yet normal people couldn’t interact with it.

He could use the persona discreetly, like summoning Arsene's hand, on top of his one so he could have three working arms, Arsene had controllable chains so using them was easily enough for him. Arsene had wings, so he could summon Arsene's wings on his back so he could achieve flight, he used it creatively in the fight against Caroline, propulsing himself on the air, doing flips with the aid of the wings, cartwheeling, pirouetting, every maneuver to help him evade and confuse, as well as to get close to the enemy was appreciated by his intelligence.

Another thing was that his senses were linked with the Persona, what it could see, Ren could also see, what Ren could feel, Arsene too would feel. So even if the damage wasn't transmitted to him, pain caused to the Persona would still make him grit his teeth.

Arsene was truly fit for being a tool in the perfect crime, he could be sent kilometers away, claw a nobody for example and the crime would never be traced back to him, Arsene could rob a bank no problem, and it would be blamed on a ghost, since security cameras can’t see the persona.

It was truly an amazing tool, and it was all possible thanks to the skill gained by the confidant system:

--

World Ruled over by Power

Ren and his teammates now have limitless bodies, not restricted by normal limits, Personas now influence the real world and their real bodies.

--

This was why to think a reward like that would modify reality itself. Ren thought that even the twins didn't know about this skill, and he would be right since he remembered what Justine said to him earlier.

Caroline:”It’s time, return back and get some rest” she said with a disappointed look, after a very hearty conversation between the three -- well the heart was mostly Caroline, Justine was pretty muted, however Ren included her too -- The twins didn’t want him to leave so soon since he made great company, but it was time to go.