Disclaimer to avoid Lawsuit: I do not own Persona 3. Roy Fortune, however, I do own.

I should've expected weird shit to happen on this trip. I mean, I'm in god damn Japan and this country is weird as hell. For cripes sake, the dude put a freaking afro wig on his dog! Oh well, that was just outside the airport anyways, not at the place I'm heading to. Iwatodai. Honestly, the only reason I know of the place is because that's where I used to live before the accident happened and I had to go to the states to live with Uncle Shane. Still kinda surprising he was cool with me coming here alone, but then again he did teach me the basics of how to defend myself and such so I should be fine.

Besides that, the school I'm going to doesn't really sound like the kind of place that you'd see a lot of thuggish guys hanging around to mug your ass. Not that I'm gonna be all relaxed about it, I'm a goddamn six foot tall foreigner with bright red hair. Even if I do kinda look at least a little Japanese, I still stand out like a sore thumb. But hey, it can't cause me any grief if I don't actively cause trouble, so I should be fine... in theory, anyways.

Eh? Oh, hey, this is my stop. Stupid train being late, now it's almost midnight. Getting to the dorm I'm supposed to be staying at is going to be a bit obnoxious now, and if the place is locked I might not be able to get in, and that's bullshit! At least it's about the only thing that-

...Me and my big mouth. Shoulda figured this stupid time paradox thing wouldn't go away just by crossing the Pacific. Now I get to explain why I suddenly ninja appeared in the middle of the night to anyone who's still awake! Whoop de god damn do. Then again, I get to see this all at night for once... though it's not really that different. Just a green skyline and yellow moon to compliment the green walls and random puddles of blood instead of a dark red skyline and black sun, clouds optional. Oh yeah, and everybody who's not me turns into coffins. Fun stuff to see at around eight in the morning for close to ten years.

Bleh, whatever. Where the hell did I put that map I got anyways...

Well at least I know I can read Japanese in the middle of the night now. Though I'm curious, why are the lights on here at this dorm? Far as I know, electricity doesn't work during the paradox. So why is this place exempt? May as well try the door anyways. Beats standing outside all damn night.

Wow, unlocked. Let's go in- Gah, man... bright lights hurting my eyes... Hmm. Nice lounge they got here. Still no sign of-

"You're late."

"GAH!" I whirled around and damn near dropped my bag. Sitting behind the counter to my left was a black haired kid with bright blue eyes wearing black and white striped pajamas.

"I've been waiting a long time for you." He continued.

Oh... kay...? "Sorry, my train was delayed a little..." How is this kid active in the paradox...?

The kid chuckled. "That's quite alright. Now, if you want to proceed..." the kid snapped his fingers and a red folder appeared infront of him on the counter. "Please sign your name here."

I gave the kid a skeptic look. "The hell is this?"

"It's a contract." he explained. "Don't worry, all it says is that you'll accept full responsibility for your actions. You know, the usual stuff."

Well, okay then. Gotta wonder why a Japanese kid like him is speaking perfect English, though. I flipped the contract open and signed it with a pen that was sitting on the counter. Once I set the pen back down and stepped back, the kid snatched it off the counter and moved away, flipping the cover of the contract closed.

"No one can escape time. It delivers us all to the same end" began the kid, holding the contract over the right half of his face. "You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes."

He turned his hand and the contract straight-up disappeared.

Oh god please tell me this kid's name isn't Louis Cypher...

The kid smiled and started stepping further away, the lights all starting to go out.

"And so it begins..." He chuckled, and he vanished completely into a shadow without a trace.

Fucking hell, what have I just gotten myself-

"Who's there!"

"Oh god damn it, what now-" I began, turning towards the direction of the Japanese voice I just heard and stopping when I saw it was a brunette wearing pink staring at me from about ten feet away. "Oh! Sorry to barge in like this so late, my train got delayed..." I trailed off when I finally realized two important things.

First, the paradox is still going and she's not a coffin.

Second, there's a god damn pistol strapped to her thigh.

"Whoa, wait, I can explain!" I shouted, jamming my hand into my pocket to grab the map I'd been given. "I was told to come to this place!" I pulled the map out and held it up. "I'm not a thief or nothing!"

The girl just kept staring at me, though now with more bog standard confusion instead of possible wide-eyed fear.

"What's going on?"

I looked past the girl in pink and in the direction of the stairs. There was another girl standing there, and to put it bluntly she was a smoking hot chick with hair redder then mine with a sort of regal vibe to her. Much like the girl in pink, she wasn't a coffin in the paradox and had a gun, just in a holster at her waist instead of attached to her leg.

The lights suddenly came on, causing me to flinch slightly before I quickly looked at my watch. Paradox is over now.

"I didn't think you'd arrive so late." said the redhead as she sauntered on over to me and the brunette. "My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. I'm one of the students who live in this dorm."

"Yeah, sorry about that." I apologized. "Like I said, my train got delayed for some reason. Name's Roy Fortune." I tipped my fedora. "Nice to meet you both."

"Uh, y-yeah... Nice to meet you... I'm Yukari Takeba." stammered the brunette, who turned to look at Mitsuru. "Is it okay for him to be here?"

"He's a transfer student, and it was a last minute decision to assign him here." she replied. "He'll eventually be moved to a room in the boys' dorm."

"Wait, what?" I griped. "I was told that I'd be staying at a co-ed dorm..."

Mitsuru paused, clearly not expecting me to decide to complain. "As I said, it was a last minute decision. The regular dorm was full, but it's not uncommon for some students to leave at the beginning of the school year."

I frowned and glanced at Yukari. She looked like she was gonna have a panic attack.

"That aside, it's getting late and you must be tired." continued Mitsuru. "You should get some rest. Your room is-"

"Yeah, are you seriously going to expect me to believe you didn't notice what was going on when I showed up?" I asked, my patience for pretty much anything at an all-time low at the moment. "Everything was green, the walls were bleeding, and you both weren't coffins!"

Yukari swallowed hard, while Mitsuru was silently sizing me up.

"...I don't know what you're talking about." she began. "Perhaps you're just imagining things because of how tired you are?"

I opened my mouth to counter, then shook my head and sighed. I really am tired, so to hell with arguing about all this crap. "Yeah... yeah, that's probably it. Uh, where's my room at?"

"It's on the second floor at the end of the hallway." Mitsuru replied simply, clearly glad I wasn't pressing the issue. Poker face needs work, madam. "Your things should already be there."

"Oh, um... I'll show you the way!" offered Yukari, offering a slightly nervous smile. "Follow me."

I just shrugged and casually marched in step behind her, passing Mitsuru(who was giving me a somewhat suspicious look) on our way over to the stairs. Passed a mini-lounge looking thing once we topped the stairs, then she started leading me down the hallway. At the end, she motioned towards the door to her left.

"This is it... Pretty easy to remember cuz it's at the end of the hall, huh?" Said Yukari with a small laugh. "Oh, and don't lose your key or you'll never head the end of it..."

I chuckled. "Speaking from experience?"

She shook her head. "No, Akihiko-senpai said the same thing when I moved in."

"Who's he?"

"He's another student living here." Yukari pointed past me at the door on the other side of the hall. "Right in that room, actually."

I bobbed my head a little and covered my mouth as I yawned. "Erright, cool. I'll see ya in the morning then. I'm gonna hit the sack..."

"Alright." She replied, then she started away as I made for the door.

I had my hand on the handle when I heard her stop.

"Hey... can I ask you something?"

I looked over at her. "Shoot."

"Was everything okay on your way here?" she asked. "Like, anything unusual?"

"Nah, nothing I'm not used to." I replied. "Why?"

She just shook her head a little and smiled. "No reason, I was just a little concerned because you looked really tired..."

"Ah, okay. G'night, Yukari-san." I said, then I slipped into my room. Okay, toss my bag down, pull out my sleepwear, get changed, set my hat down on my desk, and go to freaking SLEEP!

"It's been~ ONE WEEK since you looked at me~! Cocked your head to the side and-" WHAM

Why the hell did I set that song as my alarm... blargh, whatever... morning now... school... Japan... getting up...

Twenty minutes later and I was all dressed and ready. Not liking the stupid string tie I'd been given, I ditched it and instead threw on a nice, comfortable maroon t-shirt instead of the white dress shirt left with the rest of the school's uniform. Other then that? Only things that stood out about my look as my fedora- black with a red band on it- and my necklace. Odd little thing, I've had it for years and it's got a bit of a story to it.

I put the strap of my red messenger bag that I'd be using for my school stuff over my shoulder as I stared at myself in the mirror. You'd think having orange eyes would've gotten me grief as a little kid, but nope. Apparently everyone thought they were light brown until I they weren't. But eh. That was Seattle. This is Iwatodai, who knows what the fuck the people here will be up too...

A sudden knocking at my door drew my attention

"It's Yukari. Are you awake?"

"Yeah, I'm up." I said, walking over and opening the door. "Here to show me the way to school?"

She gave a short nod. "Mitsuru-senpai asked me to, and it's starting to get a little late."

"Then let's be off." I replied. "No reason to skip the first day."

So I got to making semi small talk with my temporary dorm mate as she showed me the way to school. It was gonna be a bit of a trek, but the train guys gave students a big discount or something like that. Yukari, by her own admission as we stood in the slightly packed train car with a bunch of other students, enjoyed the part of the ride where the train was going over the water.

"Have you ever heard of Tatsumi Port Island?" she asked. "It's a man-made island, and they built our school right in the middle of it." She pointed at the window. "Take a look, you can see it from here!"

I glanced out the window and- "Holy crap, I knew this place was swanky, but god DAMN that's on a level all its own!"

"I know, right?" Yukari laughed. "I though the same thing the firs time I saw it."

"Well, this is it." began Yukari, stopping infront of me once we reached the school building. "We're here! Welcome to Gekkoukan High School! Hope you like it!"

I shook my head a little with a slight chuckle, then followed her into the school. I still don't get the whole thing with shoes.

"So where do we go first?" I asked once we'd stepped away from the shoe lockers. I glanced in the direction of a large crowd a short distance away. "I don't think we'll be seeing what's got people's attention very quickly..."

"Probably not." agreed Yukari. "But you should go see your homeroom teacher first." She pointed past me towards a hallway to the left. "The Faculty Office is right down that hallway."

I gave her a skeptical look. "That's kinda hard when I don't know my homeroom..."

"Oh, right..." Yukari actually facepalmed at that. "Well, I guess you could just ask while you're there. Most the teachers here are pretty nice, if a bit... unique."

The fact she paused to say that last part makes me nervous. "Alright... Anything else I should know?"

"Nothing really comes to mind, so I'll just see you later." She replied, then she started to leave but paused and looked back at me. "And, uh... can you not talk about what happened at the dorm last night?"

"I... don't see a reason for that, but okay." I said uneasily. "If it comes up, I'll just make something up."

Yukari smiled. "Thanks. See ya!"

I simply waved before I turned towards the hallway she'd pointed out, noting a few curious sets of eyes watching me. The Faculty Office was the first door in the hall, and I made a passing glance at what looked like a teacher wearing a samurai helmet talking with some blonde guy. Must be another foreign student, but I can't tell where he might be from.

Once in the Faculty Office, I looked around for someone to talk to. Lucky for me there was one teacher still in the room who spotted me. She had short brown hair and a beige outfit, and I kinda towered over her a little. Cripes, I'm gonna hafta get used to being taller then goddamn everybody...

"Are you the new student?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm Roy Fortune."

"Roy Fortune..." she murmured, then turned around to check some files on the desk behind her. "Ah, here we are..." She plucked a folder off the desk and opened it. "Eleventh grade, correct?" I nodded as she faced me again. "Wow, you came here all the way from America..."

"Hate to interrupt, but I was kinda wondering if you could tell me who my homeroom teacher is." I said, holding up a hand. "There was a huge crowd back in the main lobby around what I'm guessing might've been the classroom assignments..."

"You're in 2-F; that's my class." She replied with a slight grin. "I'm Ms. Toriumi, and I teach Composition."

I quickly straightened right the hell up. "Nice to meet you, Sensei."

Ms. Toriumi giggled. "I like your enthusiasm." She glanced back down at my file. "Hrm... Let's see... in Nineteen ninety-nine... about ten years ago, right? Your parents..."

I sighed as my teacher gasped in surprise.

"I'm sorry." she apologized quickly. "I've been rather busy, so I wasn't able to read your file beforehand..."

"It's alright, I'm not offended or anything." I said, waving my hand dismissively.

"I'm glad, but for now we need to go to the auditorium." stated Ms. Toriumi. "The Welcoming Ceremony will be starting soon, so please follow me."

Oh boy, I've got an excuse to turn on my MP3 player now!

Huzzah for the power of rock and its ability to make ignoring long-winded speeches incredibly easy. The girl sitting next to me seems to share that sentiment, while the guy to my left looks like he's opted to take a nap. Must be boring as hell.

I felt a tapping on my shoulder and I looked back over my shoulder as I paused my music.

"Hey, you came to school with Yukari-san, right?" He asked. "I'm pretty sure I saw you two walking together-"

"I don't know anything about her besides her name." I sighed, then I faced forward and turned my music back on. Welp, rumor mill is in full force. This is gonna suck.

School proceeded about how I expected it to following my slightly awkward introduction to the rest of the class. A whole lot of whispering went on when I took my seat. Surprisingly, Yukari's in my class and has the spot infront of me. Once school was over, I started packin' up my stuff when a shadow was suddenly cast over my desk. I looked to my right and that guy I saw sleeping at the assembly was standin' there with a grin on his face

"Sup, dude?" he asked. "How's it going?"

"Good enough." I replied with a shrug. "Who're you?"

"I'm Junpei Iori. Nice to meet ya!"

I smirked. "Likewise. I'm Roy Fortune, but you probably already knew that."

"Heh, yeah." He said, nodding a little. "I figure'd I'd say 'hey' since I kinda know how tough it is bein' the new kid."

"You transferred here a while back, I take it?"

"Yeah, in Eighth grade." replied Junpei, then he turned his head and smirked. "Hey, it's Yuka-tan!" PFFT

"Heya Junpei." She greeted as she approached the two of us. "Guess we're in the same class again this year."

He just grinned wider. "I gotta say, I wasn't expectin' that, but hey, I'm not complaining."

"Yeah, you're too busy bothering the new guy."

"What?" whined Junpei. "I was just bein' friendly..."

Yukari laughed. "I know, I'm just messing with you." She looked at me. "Actually, I'm surprised we're in the same homeroom. Who'd have guessed?"

I merely shrugged. "Suppose that's just the way the cards were dealt."

"Heh, yeah..." agreed Junpei, then he glanced between me and Yukari. "By the way, I heard you two came to school together this morning. What's up with that?"

"I moved into the same dorm as her." I replied. "She just showed me the way to school this morning. I only met her when I arrived in the middle of the night because the train was delayed."

Yukari grimaced. "Can you not talk about that please?"

"What? It's not my fault you apparently scare easy!" I protested. "And you're the one who threw the book at my head anyways."

Junpei stifled a laugh. "Pfft, what? You threw a book at him?"

"If she'd aimed about an inch lower she'd have hit my face instead of my hat."

He started snickering while Yukari huffed and crossed her arms, then she got a look at the clock.

"Oh man, I gotta get going..." She announced. "I have things to take care of for the archery team." She waved at me as she started towards the door. "I'll see you back at the dorm, Roy-kun!"

I waved absently. "See ya." Once Yukari was out the door, I looked at Junpei. "Seems nice enough. You known her a while, I take it?"

"Yeah, for a few years at least." He affirmed. "She can get a little paranoid sometimes, though. Especially about rumors. But hey! It's your first day here, and people are already talkin' about you, dude! Believe it or not, Yuka-tan's pretty popular."

"I'm already looking forward to glaring at the idiots." I deadpanned with a sigh.

Junpei laughed. "Ah, take it easy man. Besides, I got this feelin' like it's gonna be a fun year!"

I smirked. "Heh, you might be right. Never really know when fate might deal you a wild card."

And thus I ended up heading to the train station with Junpei in tow, the two of us chattin' aimlessly back and forth.

"So how'd you end up in the same dorm as Yuka-tan?" he asked suddenly. "Some kinda mix-up?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, according to Mitsuru-senpai it was a last minute decision to have me staying there."

"Mitsuru-senpai...?" Junpei parroted, frowning as he thought about the name, then his eyes snapped open. "Dude, do you mean Mitsuru Kirijo?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she's at the dorm as well. Hell, she showed up like three seconds after Yukari chucked that book at me."

"Dude!" He practically shouted. "You're living in the same building as Kirijo-senpai AND Yuka-tan? Do you have any idea how many guys would practically kill to be in your shoes right now?"

"I can imagine, and I don't blame them." I shrugged. "I mean, god DAMN Mitsuru-senpai is easy on the eyes." I sighed. "But sadly it seems it's only temporary. I'm gonna get booted out to the regular guy's dorm at some point."

Junpei laughed. "Hah, guess you're lucky, but not lucky enough, huh?"

"Guess so. But if you ask me, I don't see why I have to move out. I mean, I was up pretty early and the place was pretty much abandoned. I think there's only one other person besides me, Yukari-san, and Mitsuru-senpai living their, and there's like, five damn rooms on the second floor."

He gave me a weird look. "Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Yukari-san said some upper classmen named Akihiko is in the room across from mine."

"Seriously?"

Eyebrow. "You heard of him?"

"Dude, he's captain of the boxing team!"

"Okay, it's official, I'm some kind of bizarre hybrid of the luckiest and unluckiest son of a bitch ever." I groaned. "I get tossed into a huge dorm with three famous students and they tell me I gotta move out sooner or later..." I hung my head. "This sucks, dude..."

Junpei just laughed. "Ah, cheer up, Roy-san..." He paused. "Actually, can I just call you Roy? No offence, but your name sounds weird with honorifics..."

"It's cool with me. Can I get away with just callin' you Junpei?"

He grinned. "Sure."

"Awesome."

We kept on shootin' the shit till we got off the train, then split up to head to our respective residences. I was actually still kinda tired, so once I got to the dorm I went up to my room, browsed the internet for a couple hours, then went to bed.

The next day of school was nothing special, aside from the discovery on my way to class in the morning that there's apparently a rumor about a bathroom. Junpei'd already headed off with another friend of his after school, but I wasn't exactly up for just looking around the city so I just made my way back to the dorm. I actually bumped into Yukari on the way, so the two of us just headed back together.

"Does Toriumi-sensei really expect people to bring her cake as a punishment?" I asked. She threatened some guy with that in class today. "Sounds like something a crazy teacher from an anime would do..."

Yukari laughed. "Yeah, Toriumi-sensei really does expect you to bring her cake. Pretty much everyone knows about her sweet tooth, and I've actually seen a few of the other teachers bringing in slices of cake when they have bad news for her. Except Ekoda-sensei; he always brings an entire cake."

"Why? He have a history with her or something?"

Yukari shrugged. "I dunno, but I've heard a rumor she once slapped him for something."

"Wow, sucks to be him." I snickered as I opened the door to the dorm. "Gotta wonder why that-"

"Hrm? Oh, hello Yukari."

The two of us stopped in the doorway and turned our heads towards the source of the voice, which was some sketchy lookin' dude in a brown suit who was wearing glasses and sitting on a chair in the lounge.

"Oh! I didn't know you were going to be here today..."

I looked at Yukari. "You know this guy?"

"Ah, I take it this is our new guest?" asked the sketchy guy as he stood up, making me look at him before Yukari answered my question. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Shuji Ikutsuki. I'm Chairman of the Board for your school."

"Nice to meet 'cha." I replied. "I'm Roy Fortune."

"I apologize if my name is hard to pronounce." he said. "Even I've gotten tongue-tied when introducing myself sometimes."

I raised an eyebrow. "Ee-koots-key. Not difficult, really..."

"Well, that's certainly faster then most people have managed to get it right." laughed Ikutsuki, then he motioned to the sofa. "Please, have a seat."

The fact this guy is both sketchy as hell and apparently dumb enough to mispronounce his own name makes me worried since he's also the dude who runs my damn school. Of course I didn't mention that as I plopped down on the sofa with Yukari while the chairman parked himself in the same chair he was in just a moment ago.

"I would like to take the time to apologize about the confusion surrounding your accommodations." began the chairman. "It may take a while longer before you receive a proper room assignment."

"Yeah, I don't really get that." I interrupted with a frown. "I've only seen two other people here, Yukari-san said there's a third I have yet to meet in person living in this place, and outside of the one I'm in and that other guy's, there's still three rooms on the second floor that are unoccupied. Why is it such a big deal for me to not be here?"

"Well, this is a special dorm." replied Ikutsuki. "It's for a specific school club, and is meant only for members only. Having a non-member in the building could present a problem for the club's activities."

Eyebrow. I do believe something is afoot, Watson. "Okay, that answers that question. But if you don't mind me asking, why exactly are you here?"

"To welcome you, of course." He replied. "But, I do have other business here. I'm just waiting for Mitsuru to return so I can discuss the matters with her, but it doesn't hurt to say hello. Do you have any other questions?"

"Nah, nothing really springs to mind." I said with a slightly bored look. "Unless you all wanted to ask me something..."

"Actually, there is one thing..." Ikutsuki began. "On the night you arrived, was there anything... unusual happening?"

I gave him a wary look. "No, nothing that hasn't happened to me before... why?"

"Well, with everything going on of late I wanted to be sure nothing serious occurred." He replied. "That's not a problem, is it?"

I shook my head. "Nah, it's cool."

He smiled. "Alright then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take care of a few things while I wait for Mitsuru."

Ikutsuki stood up and started way, only to stop and look back at me and Yukari as the two of us got to our feet.

"I do hope you have a successful school year." He said. "And please, do get some rest if you feel tired. As they say, 'the early bird catches the bookworm'!"

That's the first time I've ever heard a pun so bad it literally hurt.

"...Please forgive the bad pun." Ikutsuki chuckled before he walked away.

I looked at Yukari.

"...You'll get use to his lame jokes." she replied with a sigh. "Doesn't make them any better, though..."

"God help us all if he ever buys a book of jokes." I said. The fact Yukari shivered with fear when I said that does not inspire confidence of any sort.

The rest of my afternoon was spent either web surfin' or doing schoolwork before I went to bed. Once that happened, things got a bit... I dunno, weirder then normal for me.

I think this is a dream, unless the dorm has a dark hallway with a checkerboard path and a glowing blue door in it I'm not aware of. With nothing else to do, I approached the door and opened it, finding myself in a chair all of a sudden and sitting at a table across from- HOLY FUCK, that is a big nose! And the face it's attached to seems to be that of an old, balding guy with bloodshot eyes, pointy ears, and a grin that'd make the Cheshire Cat jealous. Next to Nose Man was a slender, pale skinned woman with yellow eyes and platinum blonde hair dressed in a blue bellhop looking outfit and holding a really thick book. The room here is equally bizarre, as it looks like some kind of perpetually ascending blue elevator.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, my dear young man..." began the nose guy with a whimsical sort of tone. "My name is Igor, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance." He motioned to the woman standing to his left. "This is Elizabeth. Like myself, she is a resident of this place."

Elizabeth bowed slightly. "Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise... I guess." I replied hesitantly. "Um, where the hell IS this place?"

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter..." his grin somehow managed to get wider. "It's been years since we've had a guest."

I didn't have much time to think about that statement before Igor waved his hand over the table and holy fucking shit that's the contract that kid got me to sign!

"Only those who have signed the contract can enter this place..." stated Igor. "Henceforth, you shall be welcome here in the Velvet Room. You are destined to hone your unique ability, and you will require my help to do so."

I gave Igor a wary look. "Igor IS you real name, right? It's not really somethin' like Louis Cypher, is it?"

He laughed openly. "Ah, you needn't worry. Mr. Cypher has long since stopped meddling in human affairs, nor is he in any way connected to this place."

"Wait, HE'S REAL?"

"Of course, but as I said, you needn't worry. After the incident with the Demi-Fiend, he hasn't done anything to humans of any sort, malicious or otherwise." Igor said dismissively. "But that's not something for you to trouble yourself over, and we'd best stay on topic. My aid in honing your ability has but one condition; You abide by the contract and assume responsibility for the choices that you make and the consequences that come with them."

"That's... actually pretty reasonable. Sure, but can I ask you a question? Is this a dream or somethin'?"

Igor nodded. "Precisely. You are fast asleep in the real world as we speak, and this visit of yours is merely a dream. However, you will come of here of your own accord sooner or later. To that end, I ask that you hold onto this..."

A blue key appeared and floated over to me. I grabbed it and looked at it curiously.

"'Till we meet again..."

"It's been, One Week~-" WHAM Shut up.

Okay, that dream was weird. No weirder then the normal dreams I have, but still weird... Wait, what about that key...?

I hopped out of bed and checked the pockets of my pajama pants. Sure enough, the key was there.

Welp. This is different.

I shoved the key into the pocket of my maroon jacket before I got ready for school. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this right now. It could be damn near anything.

Once I headed out, I tried to put it all out of my mind, but something kept nagging me about it. Thankfully the timely arrival of Junpei once I got within a couple blocks of school managed to derail that train of thought enough for me to push it to the back of my head. School wasn't anything special, and I chatted with Junpei for a bit on the way back to the dorm before he split to head home.

I stopped at a convenience store to grab something to eat since I didn't feel like raiding the dorm's kitchen, then at the dorm proper I stuffed it in the mini-fridge in my room while I did my schoolwork. The hours passed quicker then I expected, but it was pretty late when I finished. I dug into the food I got while I web surfed on my laptop, checking up on webcomics and such for a few more hours. It was around eleven that I finally glanced out the window and saw the moon.

Normally the moon doesn't mean jack to people but in my case I have a bitch of a time trying to sleep whenever the moon's full, which unfortunately for me it is. I have no idea why, either, but without fail it takes me forever and a half to get any rest on full moons. I just get impossibly wound up and restless. It sucks, but I guess I can just sleep through Ekoda's class tomorrow. The dude's gotta be boring enough to knock insomniacs out.

In a vain, somewhat stupid attempt to get some sleep, I just flopped down in bed and stared at the ceiling for around an hour. Five minutes after the paradox reared its time-rending ludicrousy, I was fed up. I got up, changed into some comfortable and warm clothes, put my hat and jacket on, then stepped out out my room. Can't stop me from going for a walk if they don't even know I'm gone-

My plan to get some air to clear my head was put on hold when I saw three people hurry down the stairs without stopping. Naturally curious about the big rush, I made my way down to the lounge myself. From the base of the stairs, I saw Mitsuru and Yukari standing near the slightly open front door... and who's the guy sitting on the ground?

"This is no time to joke around!" I heard Mitsuru snap as I slowly approached.

"It's one of them, Akihiko?" Wait, the Chairman's active now as well? And that Akihiko guy? What the hell!

"Yes, but it's not an ordinary one-"

The dorm shuddered violently, cutting off who is presumably Akihiko.

Yukari let out a shriek of surprise. "What the...? You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Okay, just WHAT the hell is going on here?" I demanded once I stopped near the back of the group. "What was that?"

Cue a bunch of curious, and surprised, faces spinning around and looking right at me.

"Who's he?" asked the- Holy shit, is that guy BLEEDING?

"There's no time for this!" snapped Mitsuru, pulling a gun out of the holster belted to her waist... Wait holy crap, is that a sword on her belt as well? "Mr. Chairman, please head for the command room! Takeba, take Fortune and escape out the back!"

"I'm sorry, what?" I growled.

Yukari looked back at Mitsuru. "But, what about you two?"

"We'll stop it here." she replied. "You led it to us, Akihiko, so I'm afraid you'll have to fight."

"He's bleeding you dunce!" I shouted. "Unless you've got magical healing bullshit powers, somebody needs to go grab a first aid kit and patch him up!"

Mitsuru glared at me. "He'll be fine. You just focus on escaping with Takeba!"

"He's wounded." I snarled. "He won't be much help in a fight of any sort like that, and, with no offense intended, I doubt you could fight whatever the hell's got you all worked up by yourself. So hows about the Chairman gets a first aid kit to help him while me 'n Yukari-san come out to help you?"

"WHAT?" screeched Yukari. "Are you crazy? Do you even know what we'd be going up against?"

At that last word, the dorm shuddered again.

"That... sounded big..." I noted nervously. "Uh..."

"It's almost here!" shouted Akihiko, who was looking out the slightly open door. "And I think it brought company!"

The Chairman took that as his cue to bolt for the stairs like a bat out of hell while Mitsuru looked outside at whatever the hell's about to show up with a buddy.

"It looks like we have no choice..." she noted angrily as she turned back towards me and Yukari. "You'll both have to fight."

I glanced at Yukari and she looked freaked out as all hell. I looked back at Mitsuru and she had a dead serious expression.

What have I gotten myself into and why do I not care?

"Let's go!" snapped Mitsuru, brandishing her sword before charging out the front door.

I looked at Yukari- "Where the hell did you get a bow?"

She gave me a confused look. "Um... I had it with me...?"

...How did I fail to notice the quiver she's got? Am I really that retarded? "...Right. So what the hell am I supposed to fight with?"

"Just take these..."

I looked down at Akihiko, who took off a pair of metal gloves and handed them to me. "Better then nothing, right?"

"I guess..." I admitted, putting them on as Yukari darted outside. "You gonna be okay while we deal with whatever the hell is out there?"

He just smirked. "I've had worse."

...And I thought I was crazy. "If you say so..." I glanced at the gun on the ground, then went out the door. Gotta leave the guy somethin' to work with, after all.

"Where'd they go?" asked Yukari, an arrow ready as she looked one way down the street, while Mitsuru watched the opposite direction. "They were just here, right?"

"I don't know..." replied Mitsuru. "Just keep your-" She stopped when she looked at me. "FORTUNE, ABOVE YOU!"

I charged straight towards Yukari before I heard something land with a sort of thud behind me. I spun around and "WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS THAT THING?"

A... monster... it's some kind of freaky Eldritch monster make of ARMS. Some of which are holding giant fucking knives, one of which is holding a blue mask.

"Fortune!" I heard Mitsuru shout, while I just took a staggering step backwards.

Fucking hell what have I gotten myself into?

"Look out!"

I felt an impact, then I was sprawled out on the ground and I could hear Yukari shrieking and the sound of something metal hitting the ground.

"Takeba!"

I pushed myself up and Oh god there's another monster and it's between the first one and Mitsuru!

I scrambled to my feet and saw Yukari struggling to get up while the knife monster repositioned itself. I almost took another step back when I realized I stepped on something. I looked down and it was one of those guns Mitsuru and Yukari had. Yukari must've dropped hers when she... I guess shoved me out of the way of an attack...

I grabbed the gun off the ground and pointed it at the monster. Fuck these gauntlets, they're not gonna do me any good right now! …Wait, this thing's too light... it's not even god damn loaded! What the hell is it even any good for?

Before I could chuck the useless piece of crap, the scene unfolding before me was replaced by a white void where the kid who got me to sign that contract was standing infront of me.

"Go on..." He said, pointing at his head with his fingers in a gun shape. "You can do it."

Just as quickly, I was back outside the dorm staring down a knife murdering monster from hell with people shouting at me.

I looked at the gun in my hand.

So the kid says I should shoot myself in the head with an unloaded gun while a monster stalks towards me, poised for the kill.

I swallowed hard and put the gun against the side of my head.

Why not. About the only thing even remotely close to being grounded in god damn reality at this point.

My breathing slowed and so did the world around me, or so it seemed. I could hear a word echoing in my mind.

I smirked to myself. I guess fate just dealt me a wild card.

"Per... so... na..."

BANG

The next thing I heard was the sound of breaking glass as blue shards spiraled around my field of vision.

'I am thou... and thou art I...'

Something was speaking from behind me.

'From the sea of thy soul, I cometh...'

The monster infront of me seemed to move backwards, as if it wasn't entirely sure what the fuck.

'I am Shade, the Specter of Arcana...'

Arcana, huh...? Heh, maybe this isn't so bad after all- "GAAAAAAH!"

Fuck, what the hell is going on? My head feels like it's gonna split open...!

I heard a roar from behind me and slowly turned around.

There was a body laying on the ground and something emerging from its back like it was a cocoon of sorts. It was some kind of... person, I guess wearing a black coat with a bizarre skull mask of some sort on its face and an impossible arrangement of floating coffins chained to its shoulders. It emerged completely, revealing white gloved arms and legs with no feet, they just came to a stop.

The black thing leapt right over my head with another roar, and by the time I turned to look it was tearing into the knife monster like a rabid animal. It pulled out a katana and just went to town on the bastard, slicing off arms and even cutting its mask in half. By the time it was finished, all that was left of Knifey was the single arm held in Black's left hand. It stared at the hand for a second, then crushed it into goop and roared again before it flickered like a staticy TV screen several times. On the last flicker, there was something else in black's place.

It looked more like a person then Black did, standing roughly twice my height from the looks of things. It had the appearance of a semi cartoonish silhouette of a person, except completely black in color save for a pair of dimly glowing dark blue circles for eyes. The vest and pants it wore were a normal gray in color, while the jacket and fedora it had were a much more silvery sort of gray, though the band on the fedora was the same color its vest. Under the vest was a white shirt, and it wore shoes that matched the color of its gunmetal gray hair. Standing out from the rest of its appearance was the crimson red tie and belt it had on.

The figure nodded at me once, then vanished in a burst of blue shards and all of a sudden my head stopped hurting as much.

"No way..." I vaguely registered Yukari stammer in disbelief before my attention was drawn by a different sound. The other monster had apparently seen all that and decided Mitsuru wasn't as interesting as me, and as such started towards me. This one was much smaller then the knife monster. Actually, it looks kind of like a harpy or some other creature with bird wings for arms and a humanoid face.

I didn't stop to worry much more about it at that point, because I jammed that gun against my head again and fired, summoning the silver jacket guy,who promptly flew right at the bird-thing and punched it in the chest. Guess that means he's Shade... though I gotta wonder why he's wearing mostly white-ish stuff. 'Shade' would imply shadows and all that... Gah, worry about that later, birdy still wants to play apparently!

I dodged a flying charge from Birdy, and shot myself with the gun again to get Shade to punch it again. Except apparently he hit it harder then before, because there was a sickening 'crack' when his fist connected with Birdy's face. Taking advantage of the fact the bird was now laid out on the pavement, I ran right up to the damn thing and stomped on the back of its head a few times, then kicked it in the stomach before one final self-inflicted headshot got Shade to disintegrate the center of Birdy's torso as well as the rest of it mere moments later. I took a few steps back to steady myself as Shade poofed away again... I feel both amazing and like hell right now...

"Fortune!"

I turned around, the handgun slipping from my grip as I wobbled in place and threw a thumbs up to Mitsuru. "No problem..." I fell onto one knee. "Okay, nevermind..." I braced myself with one hand. "I... urgh..."

The last thing I remember was feeling the impact of me hitting the ground.

Author Notes - First things first, I'm sorry I've dropped off the map for so long. I started getting overly critical of what I've been writing due to some recent stuff that's happened, and I'd actually been kicking around the idea of remaking AFNF since around the time I finished it and started focusing more on Answer of Aeon. Now, to put this in perspective, this is basically what amounts to what Double Lusnati Style was to the Original Lusnati Style in relation to A Fool Named Fortune. Reshuffle here is intended to be a vastly different take on AFNF, hence why it's not just AFNF with better formatting and spelling. No, this is a complete rework of the entire thing, almost from the ground up. I say 'Almost' because I WILL salvage things I liked(mainly jokes) from AFNF to use here. And, to put some fears to rest, NO, Reshuffle!Roy will not bash on Yukari every five minutes. That'll only happen when she does something scorn-worthy in the story. His Social Links are also going to be different(or at least a few of them will), and like you must've noticed before even getting this far, so will his abilities. Specifically, no voices in his head or mini-personae. I was looking over Norimoto Style and I realized 'Shit I could remove these guys and only have to do a lot of work changing maybe three scenes.

Speaking of Norimoto Style, if you like what I have with it at the moment, enjoy it while you can. Before I make more headway on the Reshuffle here, I'm going to make changes to all existing chapters of NS and finally post chapter 8. Why? Because Reshuffled here is going to be the new P3 canon for the AFNF Universe/Timeline. I won't be pulling the original AFNF down, but that one has gone the way of 'When Worlds Collide' and is no longer part of the main timeline. The same could be said of Answer of Aeon, too. Reshuffled here will cover the Answer as well, meaning yes, the perspective will shift from Roy to someone else for those parts. It will also be different from the original Answer of Aeon.

One last thing... Droplet of Sour and I are discontinuing Fortune Lusnati Style. We'd conceived it as a sort of 4koma gag sort of series focusing on wacky hijinks that we'd make in Skype chats, but we got carried away and cerebus syndromed the hell out of it right off the bat. Sooner or later, one of us(probably me) will write up a 'final' chapter of sorts likely narrated by Philemon that'll outline how Roy, Saito, and Lisa's plan worked out. And on that note, there's a few ideas I'd planned to use for FLS that will instead take root here in Reshuffled. I'll mention what those are when they happen, and I may end up using some stuff we'd already done in FLS as well(namely the intended characterization of Yukari and her interactions with Junpei).

Welp, that's all I wrote. Later Days, everypeoples!