—~—

As I left the centre of Kuoh the air grew colder and the crowds thinned out noticeably. By the time I reached the city limits it had become quiet, and the sounds of the impromptu festival had faded. The only real noises were the sound of cars passing by and the occasional rustle of tree leaves.

But, despite the chill, I was smiling.

I'd officially gone on my first date!

I mean, sure it was a date with my 'fake girlfriend', but for all intents and purposes it counted! We'd had dinner, we'd hugged, I'd even given her a kiss!

Not to mention the hug Kiryuu's mother gave me!

I gave a sigh of contentment and reached up to my cheek, brushing my fingertips against it.

I could still feel the soft warmth of her chest against my face.

All in all, I'd say it had been a success.

As a date, at least.

Kiryuu's father had been… intense. I couldn't tell if he genuinely believed we were going out, or if he had seen through the entire thing.

I rubbed my hands together and breathed on them as I walked.

I suppose in the end it didn't matter.

I'd received his 'blessing' whatever that meant.

It felt weird to say it, but I was actually looking forward to seeing Kiryuu at school tomorrow!

Or… at least I should have been.

I frowned and dropped my hands to my sides, sliding them into the pockets of my pants as I walked..

This was it, wasn't it? Come tomorrow there would be no need to pretend anymore.

We'd gone on a 'date' and at least one of her parents were all but convinced we were actually going out.

I mean, it wasn't like we actually liked each other or anything after all. We could barely stand each other on the best of days. This entire thing had been her using me to avoid dealing with something her parents were trying to get her to do, hadn't it?

So why was I feeling sad?

"You should smile more."

I looked up as I was pulled from my thoughts and my eyes widened in recognition. "It's you…" I said, surprised.

A pair of amused violet eyes looked down at me from a top a nearby concrete fence. They belonged to a girl with long dark hair. The same girl that I had met a day prior on my way home from school. Her legs swung idly back and forth as she smiled down at me from behind a cloud of cotton candy. "Hi," she said, lifting a hand up to wave at me.

I'd completely forgotten about her, which considering how pretty she was, was a crime in and of itself.

I smiled up at her, before mentally checking to make sure that I hadn't already said hello.

"Hi."

The mystery girl hopped off the fence and landed with a noticeable bounce of certain body parts, before she straightened up. "How was your date?" she asked.

I blinked. "How did you know I was on a date?"

She tilted her head to the side, and her eyes dipped below my neck.

I glanced down and flushed as I remembered what I was wearing. "R-right, yeah." I gave an awkward laugh and reached up, scratching my cheek. "It was good, thanks," I said, before hesitating a moment. "…Were you waiting for me?"

"Maybe," she said, before tearing off a small piece of cotton candy and popping it into her mouth. She made a sound that put the moans that put the moans by the girls in the pornos I'd watched to shame and required that I subtly adjust how I was standing.

The smile she gave me told me she knew exactly what she'd been doing.

"S-so," I said, swallowing. "W-what are you doing out here?"

"Waiting for you," she said, giving me a teasing smile. She moved beside me and slipped one of her arms through mine, holding it against her and causing the side of her breast to press into my arm. "Let's walk," she suggested, and began to do just that.

My feet began to move by themselves, and I found myself walking arm in arm with the pretty girl beside me with a large chunk of my attention devoted to the wonderful thing pressed up against the side of my arm.

I also found myself with a question that I couldn't help but ask.

"Why?"

The dark-haired girl beside me considered my question. "I wanted to ask you a question," she said after a while.

"Wha—" I began to ask, only to suddenly have a piece of cotton candy shoved into my mouth.

It melted on contact with my mouth and a delicious sugary syrup formed, followed by an explosion of pure sweetness on my tongue.

"Good, isn't it?" the girl beside me asked with an amused smile. "One of humanity's greatest inventions."

I licked my lips. "It's good," I agreed, before hesitating to ask, "What did you want to know?"

"Let's talk about something else first," she suggested. "Like, your clothes. They're pretty cool you know? I'd love to know where you found them," she said with an interested expression.

"They are pretty cool, aren't they?" I said, unable to help myself. I brought a hand up and brushed my fingertips down over the front of the linen jacket. "I got them from a fashion designer named Toro-chan," I more or less boasted.

The violet eyed girl nodded with a smile. "You'll have to introduce me to her one day," she said as we walked.

"You know," I said suddenly, glancing down at the girl beside me. "You still haven't told me your name."

"I haven't decided on it yet," she said, giving me an impish smile.

"I don't think that's how names work," I said after a moment.

My mystery girl smiled at me. "It is when you're going to give a fake one."

Oh…

I felt a knot form in my stomach and I found myself suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.

She stopped walking suddenly, and with our arms intertwined, I was forced to do the same. "You're upset," the girl observed. "You shouldn't be," she said, her tone self-amused.

"Why shouldn't I be?" I asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of my voice.

"What is more meaningful, a name we are given when we are born, or one we choose for ourselves?"

I frowned. "But you said you were going to give a fake one," I pointed out. "If it's a fake name you make up on the spot, how can it be meaningful?"

She regarded me for a long moment, before throwing her head back and laughing.

Her laughter was beautiful and infectious—and more importantly, with every laugh she gave, her chest jiggled against my arm.

It was… awesome.

I did my best to resist, but no matter how hard I tried, the corners of my lips began to turn up and soon enough I was smiling, despite my misgivings.

I couldn't help it!

I was only human after all.

"S-sorry," she managed to say through her laughter and after several seconds managed to sober up.

She looked at me in a strange way.

I couldn't put words to describe it.

She wasn't quite looking at me as much as she was looking through me.

"You're different."

"From yesterday?"

She blinked once and then smiled. "Yes," she said, before tilting her head and directing her gaze above my eyeline. "Did you get a haircut?" She asked and tightened her hold on my arm. I felt the side of her breast press even firmer against my arm—I could feel her softness contouring to the shape of my forearm! I could feel the warmth of her body even through my jacket!

It took everything I had to keep from losing my composure.

"Y-you noticed?" I gave a forced laugh and glanced away, not trusting myself to be able to speak and look at her at the same time—not with the heavenly sensation I was currently experiencing! To my relief, she began to walk once more and I had an excuse to get my blood flowing through my body once again.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" She asked as we walked.

Did I think she was pretty? Surely that was a rhetorical question.

She had soft, fair skin, a pristine complexion, beautiful long dark hair, exotic violet eyes and a body to die for!

Her voice was gentle and sweet and her smile was adorable.

She had an effortless attractiveness that most girls never reached, and the ones that did usually spent hours on! As close as I was to her, I couldn't see or smell a hint of makeup!

She was an eleven no matter how you cut it.

Which begged the question; why she was asking?

My first instinct was to scream out how hot she was—to reassure her that she was drop dead gorgeous and that if given the chance, the things I'd do to her would make veteran porno stars blush—blame my friends.

That was my first instinct.

I resisted it.

"I think you're beautiful," I said finally. "One of the prettiest girls I've ever met."

A pleased look overtook the dark-haired girl's features and to my disappointment, the pressure of her breast against my arm seemed to lessen and become more relaxed.

We walked in silence for several blocks, the only sounds coming from the cars that passed by and the faint rustling of the occasional tree. The breeze carried with it a chill that caused my mystery girl to shiver and cling to me tighter to my delight.

For not the first time I found myself wondering why a beautiful girl like this was so interested in… well, me. At first, I had thought it was a cruel prank, and that other girls were going to spring out and laugh at me after I made a fool of myself, but… I didn't think was the case anymore.

The way she smiled.

The warmth of her body as she clung to my arm…

Her mere presence was intoxicating.

"Would you break up with your girlfriend for me?"

I blinked, certain I had misheard her.

"What?"

She smiled at me. "I want you to break up with your girlfriend."

I almost stumbled.

I found myself staring at her in a mixture of disbelief and shock. "Why?" I couldn't help but ask.

She gave me a look that made me feel like I was the one who had said something strange and outlandish instead of her. "I don't want you to be conflicted when I seduce you," she said, before offering me the cotton candy she held in her other hand.

I… what?

My brain ceased to function as It struggled to process the meaning of her words.

I don't want you to be conflicted when I seduce you.

That would imply that she planned to seduce me.

A girl—a hot one—intended on seducing me.

It was as if someone had told me that water wasn't wet.

I couldn't comprehend it, such a wonderful set of words strung together!

Such a thing existed outside of the laws of my reality.

I should be jumping for joy and crying manly tears of excitement! Praising the heavens for such a wonderful string of words coming out of such a perfect pair of lips.

She wanted to seduce me.

She wanted me.

She didn't want to use me for an ulterior motive like tricking her parents by pretending to be her boyfriend!

But… What was this strange sensation that I was feeling?

There was excitement—elation even—mixed with a bit of trepidation and unease.

"We've arrived."

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at the girl beside me, before looking at where we had walked to.

We stood on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to a large apartment complex.

This was… Motohama's place?

I looked back at the girl attached to my arm in surprise. "How?"

"How what?"

"How did we get here?" I asked.

Had I walked us here? I hadn't even been thinking about where my feet were taking me.

The violet eyed girl giggled and slowly—regrettably—detached herself from my arm. "We walked of course," she said, smiling at me as she stepped away. I noticed that the cotton candy that she'd had was gone. All that remained of it was the stick that had been attached to it. "I've decided," she said.

"On what?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Rei," she said simply.

"Rei?" I echoed, my brow furrowing, before my eyes widened a fraction. "Wait, is that your—?"

"My name? Yes," she said and drew a hand up to her chest, clasping it over one of her breasts firmly, causing the material of her dress to go flush with it, emphasising just how… how shapely it was. "Nara Rei," she introduced herself.

"Nara… Rei," I said, rolling the name off my tongue slowly. "That's a… Japanese name," I said after a moment.

She wasn't Japanese.

She nodded happily. "It is! Do you like it?"

I looked at her for a long moment.

She looked back, her violet eyes wide and glimmering with a hope that surprised me.

"It's… a good name."

A tension that I hadn't noticed seemed to release from her posture, and the relief showed on her face.

"I'm glad," Rei said softly, before she drew her hands behind her back, emphasising her chest as she slowly stepped toward me. "I need to go now," she said as she got closer and began to lean forward.

My mouth went dry and my eyes widened as I realized what she was doing—what she wanted to do.

"Issei! Is that you?"

I looked up in surprise and saw my two best friends leaning on the edge of a balcony two storeys up and waving at me.

I looked back at Rei, only to find that she'd left. I quickly looked around for a sign of her, only to find none.

Where had she gone? Why did she leave without saying good bye or… or finishing what we were doing?

"Come on up! I'll unlock the door!" Motohama called down, before he vanished from the balcony.

A few seconds later I heard the door to the apartment complex buzz as it was remotely unlocked.

I reluctantly stopped looking for Rei and made my way to the door, only to find that my delay had resulted in it relocking.

I backed up and called up to my friends. "It's locked again!"

Matsuda turned to relay the message to Motohama, and I quickly moved back to the door, waiting until it buzzed, before letting myself in and closing the door behind me. I made my way up the stairs to Motohama's apartment and knocked on the door. His father opened the door and I was let inside without any fuss.

I found my friends in Motohama's bedroom. Motohama was sitting on his computer chair while Matsuda was relaxing on the edge of the formers bed.

"Hey guys," I said, smiling as I entered.

They both looked at me as though they were seeing something deeply unsettling.

"I…Issei is that… you?" Matsuda asked in surprise.

I frowned. "What kind of question is that?" I asked, unable to keep my annoyance out of my tone as I dropped down on the edge of Motohama's bed, sitting next to Matsuda.

"…Is this the power of having a girlfriend?" Motohama asked, his voice quiet as he looked at me, his gaze intense and unnerving, before he rounded on Matsuda. "I thought you said he was all messed up!"

Oh. Right. Matsuda had seen the state I was in, in the aftermath of Kiryuu's demesne.

"He was!" Matsuda said defensively, before looking toward me for support. "Right Issei?"

"It wasn't as bad as it looked," I said, offering him a smile. "I appreciated your concern though, Matsuda. You're a good friend."

"Who cares about his health!" Motohama exclaimed and jumped out of his chair. He rounded on me and I found myself suddenly being violated by a pair of very determined hands. "What's with these cool hip clothes?! Where the hell did you get this haircut?!" he demanded to know.

"Kyaaah!"

Motohama froze and stared down at me, before he jerked backwards as if he had been stung. "I… I don't know what came over me," he said shakily, before returning to his chair. "…I mean, I do. When the hell did you level up your charisma, Issei?" he asked, an annoyed look on his face. "Did Kiryuu do this to you… or did you do this for Kiryuu? I don't know which is the worse answer."

"…I don't think I can get married after that."

Motohama blanched. "D-don't phrase it like that!"

"Then don't molest me!"

"I wasn't molesting you!" Motohama denied instantly. "I was… inspecting you for tampering!"

"Inspecting," I repeated, giving him an incredulous look before turning my gaze to Matsuda.

Matsuda shrugged a shoulder. "He's right though. You look, well, looked good," he amended himself. "Before Motohama ruined you."

"Phrasing…"

"Ruined your outfit?"

"Thank you," I said tiredly.

"You look beat," Motohama admitted. "Was the date really that bad?"

"It… was actually kind of nice," I said after a moment, giving him a tired smile. "The food was great. Kiryuu was too. Her dad was a bit of a…" I struggled to find a word for what he was.

Matsuda and Motohama glanced at each other briefly.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," Motohama said immediately, before smiling. "Say, we were about to watch that porno I told you about. You still interested in watching it?" he asked even as he popped open a DVD case.

If I was being honest, all I really wanted to do was lay down and not wake up for a week. "You know what? That sounds great," I said, smiling at my friend before I laid back on the bed and closed my eyes. "Just going to close my eyes for a bit, that cool?"

"Huh, yeah, sure," Motohama said after a moment as he hopped off his chair and made his way over to his television with a disc in hand.

Several seconds later the back of my eyelids turned dark as one of my friends turned off the lights in the room and the adult oriented DVD began to play.

There were several seconds of silence before a remarkably catchy punk pop theme song began to play. "…Is that Kaben Rider Pinky?" I asked, forcing myself to crack open an eyelid to check.

Motohama's television shone brightly in the dark, but I managed to make out several quick scenes involving explosions, lewd dancing and clothing destruction.

Yep, Kaben Rider Pinky.

"Your ears do not deceive you!" Motohama exclaimed from somewhere to my right. I heard his chair squeak as he sat back down on it. "This is the latest masterwork staring Momo Momozono! In this one Pinky gets assaulted by her arch nemesis Cephalord!"

Ah, yes.

Cephalord.

A deranged former marine biologist who gained super powers after a freak accident involving a dozen different types of squid and a vat of supercharged pheromones that was struck by a gamma ray from the collapse of the supermassive star designated KR-4K-3N in the Nautilus Galaxy resulting in a half man, half squid abomination with tentacles for arms and an insatiable lust for used panties!

Truly his was a tragic backstory if ever there was.

I shifted around a bit so I could watch even as I laid there with my eyes half open. I couldn't stop a yawn escaping my lips a few seconds later—though I attempted to at least stifle it with my hand as the opening credits ended and the actual adult movie began.

And just as soon as it began, it was paused.

"I can't do it!" Motohama exclaimed, tossing the remote aside and swivelling his chair toward me. "I need to know everything! Tell me everything Issei! What was it like?!" he demanded to know. "Let me live vicariously through you!"

Matsuda coughed into his hand. "What he said," he said, giving Motohama a look.

I cracked a smile, unable to help it. "What do you want to know?" I asked, pushing myself up into a sitting position.

Motohama folded his arms across his chest and fell into deep thought as he considered just that.

Matsuda wasn't anywhere near as thoughtful with his question. "Have you kissed already?"

"Yep," I said with a grin.

Matusda's eyebrows rose to meet his non-existent hairline, and he leaned forwards. "On the lips?"

My grin faltered and I glanced away. "Well, no… just on the cheek, but that still counts, right?" I asked, glancing back toward my friends.

"It counts," Motohama conceded begrudgingly, before giving me a speculative look. "Does that mean you haven't actually… done anything with her?"

I briefly considered pretending that Kiryuu and I had—or at the very least using some innuendo to make it unclear. But, truth be told? Lying to my friends made me uncomfortable.

Kiryuu's parents believed that Kiryuu and I were actually dating, so there wasn't really any reason to keep up lying, was there? Plus, I trusted my friends. It wasn't like they were going to snitch on us the first chance they got.

"Actually… Kiryuu and I aren't really dating."

Matsuda flung himself onto his feet. "Aha!" He shouted, thrusting a finger toward Motohama. "I told you! I told you!" he exclaimed, before pausing, and then turning back toward me, his brow furrowed. "Wait, you aren't going out then… did you actually kiss her?"

I felt my cheeks flush and I looked away from my friends.

"You did!" He paused for a moment. "Wait… do you actually like her, Issei?"

"No!" I said instantly, before frowning. "I mean, maybe? I don't know. It's complicated," I said, distinctly uncomfortable. "I mean, It's Kiryuu, you know? She's kind of cute, I'll admit that."

"Kiryuu… cute," Motohama repeated slowly, frowning. He closed his eyes and seemed to mull over those two words. "I guess I can see that," he said after a moment. "But you know, Issei, and it pains me to say this but… there are more to girls than just their looks you know?"

Matsuda and I both gave him a look.

Motohama held his hands up. "No, no. Before you say anything, hear me out, alright?"

"Alright," I said slowly.

Motohama smiled and nodded. "Now, sure Kiryuu might be cute, but there are other girls with even greater cuteness factors at the school—and they have better personalities as well." His nose scrunched up. "Kiryuu is… Kiryuu She's like a… a…"

"…female you?" Matsuda suggested.

Motohama snapped his fingers. "Exactly! Wait! No!" He shook his head viciously, before pausing, considering and then finally grimacing and shaking his head one last time to clear the mental image. "Look, what do you guys have in common? Nothing!"

"We're both perverts," I pointed out before sighing. "Look. It doesn't even matter, alright? Her parents think we're dating, so whatever reason she needed a fake boyfriend for is over," I said unhappily.

"Why don't we get back to watching the porno?" Matsuda suggested, glancing back to Motohama.

"…Good idea," Motohama said, before grabbing the remote and hitting play.

The porno began to play once more and all three of us returned to watching it.

Or at least… I tried to.

I tried, I really did.

But… in the end I just wasn't feeling it.

Not even the appearance of my favorite adult film star Momo Momozono did anything to help.

I was tired.

I'd gone into the World of Desire twice in the past day. Once into Kiryuu's demesne—the Ballroom—to get information on what was going on, and the second time into Toro-chan's demesne, which could only be described as a perpetual fashion show.

My body still ached from the former and while I'd managed to heal the superficial damage using one of my Persona, the underlying damage wouldn't go away until I'd visited the Velvet Room to lick my wounds.

I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open, despite the fact that a shower scene had just begun. My eyelids began to get heavier and heavier, and despite my best efforts I soon found it impossible to keep them open.

It happened without a whisper of motion or magic.

Between one blink and the next, I found myself sitting in front of the Velvet Room's bar.

I let out a soft moan of relief as the aches and pains that had lingered throughout my body melted away.

"Good evening, Master Issei."

I looked up, startled and found a familiar looking silver haired maid standing behind the counter.

"H-hey," I said, my cheeks flushed. "G-good to see you again."

The maid's expression remained neutral as she observed me, her eyes briefly flicking from my hair to my clothes. "And you as well, Master Issei. May I offer you something to drink?"

"That would be great," I said as I felt my cheeks begin to cool.

I watched the maid begin to move behind the counter, moving methodically as she busied herself with preparing a drink. As I watched her move, I realized that I still didn't know her name—or rather, she still wouldn't tell me.

I wasn't 'strong' enough after all.

Which… considering what I'd gone through at Kiryuu's demesne, probably wasn't far from the truth.

I let out a long drawn out breath.

"Is something on your mind, Master Issei?"

I opened my mouth to respond, before hesitating and closing it.

I frowned and looked down at the bar top. "Do you know what happened today?" I asked, glancing up at her, before turning my gaze back down.

The maid stilled for a brief moment. "I do not."

I nodded slowly, accepting her answer.

I mulled over how to explain what happened.

"A girl at my school asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend to get her parents off her back," I said after a moment. "I agreed to help out, but I wanted to know what it was about so… I went into her demesne to talk with her Shadow."

The yellow eyed maid blinked once. "Did you succeed?"

"Yes and no," I said. "I learned that she considered me the 'lesser of two evils', but not much more than that. I… got my ass kicked by a really strong Shadow that she had under her control," I said, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

"Do you know the Shadow's name?"

"…Mara."

The maid's slim silver eyebrows rose up a fraction. "And yet you live," she observed. "Are you aware of Mara's origin?"

I grimaced and nodded. "It was a demon that attacked Buddha, right?"

"While that is technically true, it does the threat that it poses a great disservice. Mara is one of several demonic anthropomorphic personifications of evil. Mara is known as the Evil One and it is the ultimate obstacle of any who pursue enlightenment. It ensnares souls with promises of happiness and sexual fulfillment," she paused in her movements. "For you to oppose such a thing and survive is quite impressive, even if it is a shallow facsimile."

I didn't bother to tell her that the only reason I survived was because Kiryuu's Shadow had been more interested in returning me to her bed, rather than actually killing me. Well, that and Faunus taking one for the team.

"Impressive enough for you to tell me your name?" I asked with a sly smile.

"No," she said politely as she set a steaming cup of tea in front of me.

I couldn't help but feel a bit of disappointment at that. "I can't keep calling you 'the maid'," I pointed out as he accepted the cup and blew on it.

"Of course, you can, Master Issei," she said without an ounce of… of… I didn't even have the word for it! "I am but your humble maid."

A humble maid would totally have given me her name though.

"Alright," I said after a moment. I took a sip of my tea, before smiling up at her. "If you won't give me your name, how about I give you one?"

"That would be highly unorthodox, Master Issei." The silver haired attendant gave me a measured look. "Is this an issue you will not relent on?"

I grimaced. "I mean… it would make me feel a lot better if I had something to know you by, you know?"

"May I ask what brought on this renewed interest in my name?"

"I… met a girl yesterday," I admitted. "She wouldn't tell me her name, and when I pressed her on it she gave me an obviously fake one."

The maid regarded me in silence, her expression impossible to read.

I began to feel self-conscious and brought my cup up to my lips, taking another sip. "…Good tea as always," I said, offering her a weak smile before turning my gaze back down to the cup.

"You may refer to me as Lucifia."

I looked up at the maid in surprise. "Really?"

Lucifia nodded with a polite smile.

"Lucifia," I said, rolling the name off my tongue. "Is that… Italian?"

"Perhaps," Lucifia said.

"But it isn't your proper name, is it?"

"No, Master Issei. It is not. My initial terms still stand. If you wish to know my name, you must prove yourself."

I didn't pout. It may have looked like I did, but I didn't. "If I defeat Mara, would that count as being strong enough?" I asked with a hopeful smile.

Lucifia's yellow eyes twinkled in amusement. "Perhaps. Do you have a plan of action for dealing with it?"

I opened my mouth to respond, before stopping and frowning. "…No," I admitted. "I don't. It took out my strongest Persona with a single attack."

To be fair to Faunus, he'd put himself between me and Mara. If he had been fighting it on equal terms, maybe he would have been able to win?

Then again… he'd admitted that Mara would have straight up murdered him in a fight…

'I saved you,' Faunus grumbled in my mind. 'If it had been a fair fight I would have won!' He went silent. 'That was just bravado. Don't make me fight it again, please."

A sudden thought occurred to me.

"I fell asleep at my friend's place," I said suddenly, looking up at Lucifia in alarm. "They're going to notice—"

"—that your body has vanished?" Lucifia finished my sentence. "Your concerns are understandable, but unjustified. Your mind has separated from your body, as we speak it rests in the real world."

I felt a flood of relief run through me. "That's good. I have no idea how I'd explain magically disappearing in front of them."

"You have kept your special nature a secret from your friends," Lucifia stated. "Why?"

That… was a good question.

Why hadn't I told Matsuda or Motohama?

They'd think this was the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Actual magical powers? It'd blow their minds!

Except, I couldn't use my cool magical powers in the real world. I'd tried and the only thing that I'd managed to do was look like an idiot. Faunus hadn't let me live it down for days.

Outside of taking my friends to the World of Desire—which was out of the question with how dangerous it could be—introducing them to Yuri was the only real way to prove that I wasn't a chuuni, and to be frank, that was out of the question.

I wasn't going to try and pretend to myself that it was something as noble as protecting her from being corrupted by my degenerate friends. Yuri was doing a good enough job of corrupting herself while I was at school. No, the real reason I didn't want to introduce them to Yuri was because I wanted to keep her to myself. She thought the world of me, and I wanted to keep it that way.

I felt my eyelids begin to get heavy. "Looks like it's time to get going," I said after a moment as I felt a sense of fatigue set in.

Lucifia bowed politely. "I look forward to your next visit, Master Issei."

I voluntarily closed my eyes, and after several seconds, I opened them again, and found myself in the familiar confines of Motohama's dark room. Matsuda and Motohama were both eagerly watching the television still—the porno had reached its climax—pun intended—with Pinky locked in a battle with Cephalord, the former having been driven to her knees by the sheer might of the latter's many tentacle attacks.

Like all good things, Kaben Rider Pinky's battle came to a climax, as did she, resulting in the defeat of Cephalord as she absorbed his tentacle-related powers and gained the ability to transform into Kaben Rider Octopinky.

"That. Was. Amazing!" Motohama shouted as he jumped up from his chair, thrusting his fist into the air. "Did you see the way she turned the tables on Cephalord while he was using his tentacle powered full nelson to pound her into submission?! It was breathtaking!" As if to add to my growing list of mental trauma, Motohama chose that moment to re-enact the scene in question.

"First of all, never do that again," Matsuda said to Motohama with a look that promised swift retribution if he did. "Second, that was easily the second best scene in the entire porno—"

"Oh yeah? What was the first then?" Motohama challenged Matsuda, folding his arms across his chest.

Matsuda considered the question. "I guess, the one where she was at the beach and Cephalord pulled her underwater."

Motohama's eyes widened in excitement. "Oooh! You mean when—"

"—when the suckers on his tentacles made it look like she had love bites all over her body? Yeah! That was so hot!" Matsuda said with a grin before he turned toward me. "Which one was your favourite Issei?"

"Those were both good scenes," I said with a smile to my two friends, despite the fact that I had missed the majority of the action.

"Boo. Don't sit on the fence! Come on which was your favourite scene?"

"That's a good question," I said.

It was, there was also a good reason as to why I couldn't answer it; I'd slept through the majority of the movie. "Hmm." I made a big show of thinking back and considering my answer. "I think you both know what my answer is," I said, giving them both a meaningful look.

Realization flared in both their eyes, before they independently rolled their eyes and scoffed. "That would be your favourite scene, wouldn't it?" Motohama grumbled. "Still, I can't really blame you. Pinky has really good…" he struggled briefly, before smirking and lifting his hands up to his chest. "Personality, if you know what I mean?" He said, waggling his eyebrows.

"Unfortunately, we always know what you mean," Matsuda quipped, earning himself a glower from Motohama.

Before Motohama could respond there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Motohama called out from his chair.

The door swung open and Motohama's mother poked her head into the room. "It's getting late, Moto-kun."

"But Issei just got here," Motohama began to protest, only to receive a look that quelled him instantly. "I guess it is a bit late," he reluctantly admitted, glancing toward Matsuda and myself.

Ten minutes later Matsuda and I found ourselves shuffled out of Motohama's home. We walked together in relative silence as we made our way. There really wasn't much to say, at least, until Matsuda found something to say—or rather, ask.

"Do you think Yura-senpai is hot?"

I looked at Matsuda in surprise. "What kind of question is that?"

"The uncomplicated kind," Matsuda replied with a scowl. He folded his arms across his chest as we walked. "Do you think she's hot or not?"

"I mean, yeah. That's a given, isn't it?" I said with a confused smile. "She's super fit as well, I bet. Why?"

"She is," Matsuda said with a grin. He hesitated a moment. "So, you don't think it's…" He struggled with how to phrase his next question.

"Weird that you think a girl who sort of looks like a really cute guy is hot?" I suggested.

Matsuda went crimson and looked away from me. "Y-yeah I guess," he said meekly.

"Matsuda, my friend," I said softly as I reached over and clasped his shoulder. I gave him a warm smile. "It's not gay if it's a girl," I told him wisely.

My friend looked at me as though I had casually revealed to him the meaning of life. He took a deep breath and then nodded. "You're right," he said before a wide grin broke out on his face. "Yeah! You're right! It's not gay because she has boobs!"

I didn't burst his bubble with the knowledge that it was entirely possible for a guy to have tits. I wasn't that cruel.

We fell back into a pleasant silence that lasted several blocks, before an odd sort of tension began to develop.

Matsuda began to fiddle awkwardly with his hands.

I found myself absently scratching at my neck.

The tension soon became unbearable.

"I'm not into guys!" Matsuda blurted out.

I looked at him in surprise. "I know that! I'm not either," I paused for a moment, before adding on, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"Nothing at all," Matsuda agreed quickly, before grimacing. "I just… I didn't want you to think that…" he trailed off uncomfortably.

I looked at him in confusion, before I realized what he was so uncomfortable about. "Oh! No, no!" I shook my head. "I never thought that. You're not even the one who organizes our 'viewing' sessions, you know?"

Matsuda smiled at me in relief and nodded, before his brow furrowed. "You don't think...?"

We both glanced back the way we'd come, toward Motohama's house.

There were several long seconds of silence.

"No," I said with a shake of my head and a laugh, before adding on. "But even if he was, that'd fine too."

"Exactly!" Matsuda said with a grin.

Another silence began to develop, and as it did, I recalled the question that Lucifia had asked of me; why had I hidden my nature from my friends? I'd come up with several reasons on the spot—not that I had told her any of them—but here, and now, walking beside my friend, I found myself suddenly curious as to what Matsuda's reaction would be.

"Say, Matsuda," I began to say, glancing over at him. "Do you believe in magic?"

Matsuda stiffened for a brief moment, before he relaxed. "That's a weird question," he said, before going silent for several seconds. He glanced over at me. "I guess I do? Why?"

I shrugged a shoulder. "Just curious," I told him, before quickly continuing. "If someone told you that they could do magic, but couldn't easily prove it to you, would you believe them?"

Matsuda stopped walking and turned toward me, doing his best to project an air of disinterest. "That's a very specific question," he said. "Does it have something to do with what happened earlier today?"

I frowned, but nodded.

"…So, when you said that you got molested by Kiryuu's giant fire breathing dick, you were being serious?"

I winced at the mental imagery that was forced upon me. "I never said molested!" I protested. "Attacked! I said attacked!"

Matsuda regarded me for a long moment. "Okay," he said with a nod. "I believe you."

I looked at my friend in surprise. He looked back at me, his expression open and trusting. "You do?" I asked, unable to keep my disbelief out of my voice.

Matsuda shrugged a shoulder. "Sure. Why would you lie about something that ridiculous?" He reached up and ran a hand over his shaved head. "What magical powers do you have then?"

I couldn't help but notice how easily Matsuda was accepting my claim to magical powers. If the shoes were reversed I definitely wouldn't have been so quick to accept my friend at his word. So, either he was a better friend than I was or…

"You've seen something," I stated.

Matsuda gave a nervous laugh and glanced away. "I don't know what you mean, weren't we talking about your cool new magical powers?"

"Come on man!" I protested. "I told you my secret!"

Matsuda grimaced. "I… I want to tell you, but I can't, you know?"

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't," Matsuda said bluntly. "I would if I could, but it's out of my hands, you know?"

I frowned but nodded. "Alright," I said unhappily, letting it go for the time being. "But when you can tell me you will right?"

"Right!" Matsuda said quickly. "I'll even put in a good word for you!"

I wanted to ask 'with who' but I had no doubt in my mind that Matsuda wouldn't tell me. He could be pretty stubborn when the situation called for it. Getting him to answer outright would be as painful as pulling a tooth out.

Of course, that didn't mean I couldn't try and make him slip up.

"It's called Persona," I told Matsuda, "My power, that is."

If Matsuda recognized the term he didn't show it. "Persona," he said, his brow furrowing. "What's that?"

I opened my mouth to explain, only to stop and frown. "It's hard to explain," I told him honestly. "It lets me… contract with spirits and use their powers. Or, at least that's the simplest way I can put it."

"You mean like youkai?"

My nose crinkled. "Sort of, but not really. Personas are like… like…" I struggled to find a way to put it into words. "Someone explained it to me once. I didn't really… understand everything that she was saying but, I remember something my own Persona told me."

"Your own persona?" Matsuda echoed, his eyebrow raising.

I grinned and nodded. "Its name is Faunus. It told me that a Persona is the manifestation of your inner self, the strength of your heart given form."

"That's…"

"Really pretentious?" I finished with a smile. "I know." I ignored the spike of irritation I felt from Faunus. "But it's as close as I can get to the truth without boring you to death."

Matsuda flashed me an amused look, before a thought occurred to him. "Does that mean I have a Persona?" He asked me.

I hesitated in answering.

Matsuda did have a Persona, or at least a Shadow.

Since it had willingly given up its excess desire, did that mean it was still a Shadow? I hadn't been back to Matsuda's demesne to check to see if his Shadow had changed—or if his demesne was still there.

"You might," I settled on. "Everyone has a Persona, whether you'll be able to summon it is something altogether different."

"How did you summon yours?"

"Uh, exceptional circumstances," I said with a sheepish smile.

Somehow, I felt that explaining that I'd somehow found my way into Matsuda's demesne and almost been murdered by his worse half was the way to go. I had no doubt that if Matsuda really could manifest a Persona, that it'd come to light. But for the moment, I wanted to keep that to myself—plus I knew Matsuda, he'd feel guilty about it, even if it wasn't something he could have controlled at the time.

Matsuda came to a stop. "Issei. It's time we went our separate ways," Matsuda said as he turned toward me.

I looked to Matsuda in surprise. "What, why?" I asked, confused.

Matsuda gave me a funny look and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "I gotta go that way."

A quick glance around told me that we'd reached an intersection—the one where we'd usually part ways and head our separate ways. "Oh." I blinked. "Right. See you at school tomorrow?"

"Yeah, you have a good night man," he said with a laugh and gave a half-hearted wave as he left.

I watched as Matsuda walked away for several seconds, before I turned and began to make my way home.

I arrived home without incident, only to find the lights off and the front door locked.

I frowned.

This was… bad.

There was no sign of Yuri at all—which wasn't odd in and of itself. Sometimes she vanished into the other world to do scouting and find new demesnes. In this instance howerver, her absence was going to be a pain. I'd lost my keys along with my phone and everything else in Kiryuu's demesne, and my parents didn't believe in leaving a spare key under a rock.

The doors were all locked, I made sure of that.

Which meant… the only way in was to either wait for Yuri to show up, or… to get in the way she did.

I glanced up at the second storey of the house with a small amount of worry. I could vaguely remember climbing out of my window when I was a young boy to sneak over to play with my friend Iri-kun. But I was a lot smaller back then and a lot less aware of my own mortality.

I could just imagine it now.

Hyoudou Issei the Destroyer of Shadows, done in by a loose shingle and a broken neck.

A stray gust of wind ruffled my jacket and sent a shiver of cold running up my spine and put any thought of staying out and waiting for Yuri to turn up out of my mind.

I stepped back toward the front gate and surveyed the front of my house.

There was a balcony that ran across the front of my house. There were two doors up there, one lead into my parents' room, the other lead into a guest bedroom. My room was on the other side of the house and didn't have balcony access, something I had complained about to my parents at one point or another.

Apparently, my want of a balcony was trumped by my parents' desire to not hear… things.

I shook my head.

There was a drainage pipe hooked up to the side of the balcony. A section of it was diagonal and if I could get a foot up there it'd be a cinch. All in all, it was probably the easiest way to get onto the balcony without getting bitten by a radioactive spider.

I pulled my jacket off and folded it, before setting it down on the steps. I turned toward the balcony and began to stretch.

Several minutes later I finally managed to pull myself up onto the balcony after a dozen attempts. I dropped onto the balcony with a sigh of relief and only pulled myself up onto my feet after several deep gulps of air.

I turned toward the guest room door and pulled it open.

Or at least I tried to. No matter how hard I yanked on the door handle the thing wouldn't budge!

I huffed and glanced over at my parent's side of the balcony. I made my way over to the small wall separating the two halves of the balcony and hopped over it.

As I reached out to the handle, I internally prayed to every god who would be willing to listen, for my parents to have forgotten to lock the balcony door.

A flood of relief ran through me as the door slid open and I quickly slipped inside, shutting the glass sliding door behind me.

The light from outside illuminated the interior of my parents' room. I quickly made my way over to the door and slipped out into the hallway, ignoring the pervasive wrong that I felt from being in it. I made my way downstairs, turning on lights as I went and unlocked the front door. I grabbed my jacket from the steps and dusted it off, before heading back inside and shutting the door behind me.

I stared down at my jacket as I walked into the lounge room.

I dropped into a seat and slumped backward, resting my head and closing my eyes.

Tonight, had been… good.

I had a date with Kiryuu, and I'd spent time with my friends. I mean, sure I'd lost my bag, my school books, my phone and my keys but…

I frowned and opened my eyes.

"…Shit," I said, unable to help myself. "I need to go back, don't I?"

'Or—and I'm just making a suggestion here—you could choose to get a new bag, phone and change the locks?' Faunus suggested.

"I don't have the money for even half of that," I pointed out in irritation.

I sighed.

"Maybe we won't even have to fight Mara," I said, trying to put a positive spin on things. "I mean, look how far we got with Kiryuu's Shadow before she freaked?" I pointed out. "Maybe we can sneak in through the back, find my stuff and then get out without ever crossing paths with her."

'Why are you even trying to lie to me?' Faunus asked. 'I'm you. I know what you're thinking. You don't believe that's even remotely possible.'

I sighed.

He wasn't wrong.

I grimaced and reached up, massaging the side of my neck. "Okay, then…"

I fell silent.

I needed stronger Personas.

That was the simple truth.

My Persona were all beautiful, and I wanted to keep each and every one of them with me. But… that didn't look like it was going to be possible for the foreseeable future.

I reluctantly thought about Mara.

Maybe… maybe if I had a Persona who was strong against fire? That would eliminate the danger from one of its attacks.

That just left… the money shot.

Faunus whined pathetically inside my soul.

"…I know man, I know," I said softly, reaching up and gently patting my hand against my heart.

Poor Faunus.

It couldn't get married anymore.

—~—