A/N: There is a video on top if you don't realise. Just let it load for a bit. I hope it's working.

"Well, here we are! Welcome or Welcome back to the 'Lost Eden'!" Enki welcomed us, excitedly.

"Right...." Kaidou said. It's only been a day or two since we left came here, this apocalyptic place. Green vines came from the buildings, down from the windows and the cement. There was also blood on the walls, most probably from other people. I took a closer inspection of the blood. It was still fresh.

"Someone... Had been here." I said, making both of them to turn their attention to me. Kaidou hurriedly ran towards me, wielding his weapon, a Tanto, preparing for an attack. Enki stayed from afar and unlocked the safety for his repeating crossbow, taking scans on the roof with bloodshot accuracy from afar.

"How long has it been here?" Kaidou asked me.

"I don't know, maybe a couple of hours." I wasn't sure how long it would have been here. I'm not a detective, I'm a high school! That's not the point though... Enki then stopped and headed towards us.

"Anyone nearby?" I asked.

"No, unfortunately. It seems like they could have gone somewhere else." Enki reported casually. As I search around for clues, I see a trail of blood. It was leading to an alleyway.

"Hey, there's a trail here!" I said and ran off towards where the blood-stained trail had stopped.

"Wait!" Enki said as he tried to catch up. Kaidou followed suit, though losing most of his stamina at some point. When I got there, it was dark but I could see a faint purple in the distance. It was a body. There was blood on the walls and a puddle of it near the body, there were three Shadows. Feasting on it. My entire body couldn't move, I was trembling. My eyes went dead. What the hell...? What are they doing... As the body turned around, I could see the face. It was a women's body that was being eaten. Enki had caught up and so did Kaidou. When they say the scene, Kaidou went to a near trash bin and vomited. Enki just stared at it, like it was nothing.

"Hey, you okay?" Enki asked, and looked at my expression.

"O...Kay?..... Haaaa," I exhaled and inhaled my breath, trying to keep me calm. I still couldn't move, but there was a feeling inside of me. It was anger. Pure anger. What the hell did she do to deserve this? What is it!? She's young and she looked like she could have a chance in life, so why-

"Because the world is cruel," Enki said. I looked at him.

"Its because no matter what, the world can't change its cruelness."

"Then we'll do it ourselves!" Kaidou shouted, recovered from vomiting inside the trash bin.

"Persona!" He screamed, aiming his syringe at his wrist. He then summoned a big piece of what seems to be a crystal that would form into a Persona.

"Thou art I, and I am thou."

"I cometh from the sea of thy souls."

"Thou name is Eugenideus, the god of thieves."

"Destroy them!" Kaidou was impatient and lost control. He fired out an electric attack.

"Kaidou, don't! You're going to hurt her!" Enki advised but he ignored. The attack missed and the Shadows were alerted of our position.

"Crap, they've spotted us! Prepare for a counter!" Enki had grasped the situation and ordered us into battle formations. I took the front position and Kaidou was behind me as a backup. Enki was the furthest behind, good for him to support us with his repeating crossbow, making the formation into a line. There were three shadows and all of them came straight for me, as the formation would work.

"Enki, support!" I shouted as I took a swing with my axe at the first shadow.

"Got it!" He fired at the first shadow which I was attacking, repeatedly. He had shot 6 arrows with only 4 hitting the target.

"Crap I missed," Enki said. The shadows movement was slowing down and Kaidou went in with a slash with his Tanto.

"Hah! I got one!" He exclaimed.

"There is still more! Pasithea!" I summoned my persona, unleashing a wind attack toward one of them. It killed it but I didn't manage to prepare for another attack.

"Hephaestus! Sonic punch!" Enki then summoned his persona. It had done physical damage against the shadow. Almost killing it.

"Here comes, another strike from the thief! Eugenideus!" He summoned his persona once more and unleashed an electric attack. We finally managed to eradicate the threat.

"Hah... Hah... Hah, man. That's hard." Kaidou fell down, breathing heavily and dropping his weapon.

"Well, its no surprise. It's your first time summoning a persona... And also, you better not drop any of my weapons anymore, you brat. There will be punishment." Enki eyes were glaring with bloodshot. It seems he was serious and Kaidou took back his dagger from the ground. Me on the hand was worried about the victim, I immediately stood up and ran towards her. I've run out of breath but I needed to see how she is doing. I took out my flashlight and shined it on her. Her intestines were gone. I wanted to vomit. I wanted to vomit so badly that I just stood there, in shock. Not doing anything. I regain a little of my composure and searched her. The foul smell of blood mixed in with some of this dark ghoul from the shadows, I checked her pulse. No signs of life. Of course, what was I thinking? Kaidou noticed that I was gone and headed towards the body, which Enki followed suit, worried.

"Hey ma- Ah, dude... What the...?" Kaidou was shocked. He was terrified. Anyone would be terrified to see a body without their intestines inside. It's horrendous. Kaidou tried to look away from the body, but he ended up helping me.

"So... What are you doing?" Kaidou asked. I was rummaging through her pockets and there was a bag near her. A white handbag. I checked inside it.

"Checking her ID. Ah, I found her wallet." I took out the women's wallet and opened it. I then looked for her identification card. Once I found it, I gave it to Kaidou to read it out loud to me, while I continued searching for anything else that is useful in her bag.

"Let's see, Mako Saruwatari. That's her name. The rest is all numbers." Kaidou said.

"I found something else," I said and took out a cardholder. It was holding a picture. It showed what seemed to be an elderly couple and the young Mako near the entrance of a shrine. They were smiling so brightly. Smiling... A tear dropped. It's so sad. A normal girl who was living her life, now killed. Or murdered by things like these.

"... What a happy couple," Enki said.

"Yeah."

"... We should go," Kaidou said. We stood up and headed out of the alleyway. I held my axe tightly. I looked at it from afar.

"That, what happens huh?" Kaidou was trembling.

"Didn't that girl said something about the news? Your friend that told you about the drugs on the news, if I remember correctly." Enki said. Right, that's right. If so then, she would have taken a drug... But why? Do they not know about it? I can't wrap my head around it. We're here for one reason, to explore how far this goes and what happens to the people. We were walking, it seemed like we were lost.

"We've already got our first answer," Kaidou said.

"We got half of our questions answered," Enki said as he sprints ahead of us.

"Hey- Wait!" Kaidou pursuits him and I followed.

"Ahh, what is that snake doing!? We're out of breath from our first fight but if we run like this..."

"... We might alert more shadows. Enki knows that," I said.

"Then... why?" Kaidou was barely hanging on to his breath.

"I don't know, but it seems like he is guiding us somewhere," I said. When we were almost on to the brink of exhaustion, Enki had stopped.

"Hey! What the hell was that for?" Kaidou asked. I didn't mind.

"There." Enki pointed towards a humongous tree. It was piercing the sky, it was almost the same height as Tokyo Tower. The roots of it were huge it scarped the ground. On its leaf, we saw what seems to be transparent apples on the branches. It was holding some sort of aura. I didn't know what but it seemed scared. Like that aura was alive.

"That's The 'Tree Of Souls'. I remember she said it was there to store souls of those who have been reaped." Enki said.

"Tree... Of Souls?" Again Kaidou was terrified and trembled in fear. I calmly surveyed the area and saw a huge gate on the bottom of the tree, near the gigantic roots.

"It seems like you can enter it," I said.

"You can, but I almost died trying to get past the entrance," Enki told us.

"Then, we have three. Is it not enough?" Kaidou smirked.

"Of course not." A random voice came out of nowhere. It was behind us. The silhouetted was thin, most likely a girl.

"See! There was going to be enemies." Kaidou complained which I had ignored.

"Don't fear, we're not here to kill you or anything." Another silhouette was seen, this time it was a young man's.

"Yeah, we're here to negotiate." A brown-haired girl said.

"About what?"

"Join S.S.E.C."