Persona: Shibuya Stories

The temporary noise faded, and the underground prison returned to silence.

Jin looked at Kasumi, and she looked back at him. They both saw the same helplessness in each other's eyes.

"They're gone."

"Yeah. They left."

Confirming the obvious was pointless, yet they did it anyway.

"Fuck! Isn't this too cold-blooded?!" Jin swore, his frustration boiling over.

Kasumi chuckled dryly. "What, did you think she'd save you just because you said you wanted to marry her?"

"What the hell? Maybe they left us here because you refused to throw yourself at someone else!"

"Oh? So in your twisted logic, sacrificing an innocent girl is fair as long as it gets you out of here?"

"If it's not the girl, then what—me? I'm alive, for God's sake! You're already dead!"

"Rude! That's discrimination, young man! I'll sue you and make you bankrupt."

Even in a cell, facing an uncertain fate, they couldn't stop bickering. It was their way of coping.

Jin exhaled sharply and slumped against the cold wall. "Where the hell even is this place? What's going on... I just want to go home."

The frustration clawed at him. No escape plan, no explanation—just a void of uncertainty. He felt like collapsing under the weight of it all.

(If I had a signal, I could call for help. Hell, I'd settle for ordering takeout right now... No signal—wait. Signal?)

A jolt of realization shot through him.

There was no signal here. He had checked before. So what was that sudden buzzing sound in the hall earlier?

His mind raced back to his recurring dreams of a man in a red wheelchair. The strange, cryptic text messages about the end of the world...

Like a drowning man grasping at a straw, he yanked out his phone and opened his messages.

Jin rarely paid attention to spam texts. He usually deleted them without a second glance. That's why he hadn't noticed that his inbox had more messages than usual.

Two messages stood out, both from the early hours of yesterday morning. Something about a forced app download. But for some reason, the text was littered with blacked-out symbols—▇▇—making it barely legible.

The second message? Sent just thirty minutes ago. Right when he was captured in the hall.

"The world has fallen into chaos. Can we lend the seeds of freedom to those in prison?"

Jin frowned at the screen. "What kind of riddle bullshit is this?" he muttered, wanting to throw his phone at a wall.

Before he could think too much, a window popped up on his screen.

"Excuse me, do you want to escape from this prison?"

Below were two options: Yes and No.

Jin stared, bewildered. (Is this a joke? Did someone hack my phone? Did they install spyware on me?)

Still, he pressed Yes. Because at this point, what did he have to lose?

"We have received your [▇▇] request. Data is being transferred to the Demon Summoning Program. 3...2...1...completed. The wings of freedom have been loaded. Please use them freely."

The text flashed and vanished. His inbox? Empty. No trace of the messages. It was as if none of it had happened.

"The hell? Am I supposed to summon a devil now?"

Jin sighed. He didn't understand what was happening, but there wasn't much else he could do.

And then—

Something changed.

Before, his demon list had only one name: Kasumi. But now, another appeared—a girl with wine-red hair, dressed in blue, with transparent, dragonfly-like wings.

Pixie?

Jin read the name out loud.

A burst of blue-green flame ignited before him, vanishing in an instant like a magician's trick. And then, right where the fire had been, a tiny girl hovered, barely the size of two fists. Her wine-red hair shimmered under the dim light, her transparent wings fluttering rapidly.

"Eh? I was summoned?"

She blinked, staring at Jin as if trying to make sense of reality. Then she sighed, shook her head, and spread her tiny arms.

"Man, it'd be nice if the summoner was handsome."

Kasumi burst out laughing. "Haha! I thought the same thing!"

Jin groaned. "Not the time."

Kasumi reached out to touch Pixie, but the little creature flitted higher, out of reach. "Don't touch me! My scales will fall off!"

Then she wrinkled her nose and gagged. "Ugh, this place stinks! Why are you living in a dump?"

"I don't live here! I'm trapped here!" Jin snapped. "Can you get us out or what?"

Pixie eyed him, then glanced at the cell. "You sure you don't live here? Your house won't be this gross when you get out, right?"

"Of course not!"

"Hmm... fine."

With a blur of motion too fast for Jin to track, Pixie zipped through the bars and outside the cell.

She examined the heavy padlock, then threw a series of tiny punches and kicks at it. The clanging sounds echoed in the cellblock. After a moment, she blew on her fists and pouted.

"Yeah, no. This thing isn't breaking."

Jin's eye twitched. "Right. Uh... can you at least check if there's a key somewhere?"

He wasn't surprised she couldn't brute-force the lock. Strength correlated with size, and Pixie was tiny. He, a full-grown man, couldn't open it, so expecting a fairy to was just wishful thinking.

But if there was a padlock, logic dictated there had to be a key.

Pixie rolled her eyes. "Ugh, fine. But only because I hate this place."

She flitted away, wings buzzing.

Jin exhaled, watching her go. Summoned creatures like Pixie weren't exactly obedient. They did whatever they wanted. If he had tried ordering her, she might've just laughed and left.

But right now, their goals aligned. She wanted out as much as he did.

That was good enough.

Jin clenched his fists, watching as Pixie disappeared into the darkness beyond the cell.

Maybe...they had a chance.

The silence persisted as Jin and Kasumi merely waited for what like so very long for something to happen...to change...

Just when the silence became unbearable, a loud clanking noise broke the tension. Pixie was struggling to drag an enormous key ring toward them, inch by inch. The keys were nearly as big as she was, and she had to move them little by little. As soon as they reached Jin's arm's length, he grabbed them instantly.

The keys! With these, they could escape!

Pixie, however, looked utterly drained.

"Next time...I hope...you'll call me for something easier!"

The little fairy was panting. If not for her pride, she would have started cursing. Then, with a frustrated huff, she vanished into a ball of blue-gray flame, disappearing before Jin's eyes.

Just as he was wondering why she had vanished so suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit him. His strength drained away, and his vision darkened as if he were suffering from heatstroke. He reached out blindly—and his hands grasped the cold metal of the prison bars.

(Don't guys usually end up grabbing a girl's chest in these kinds of moments?!)

Jin groaned inwardly at how unreliable anime had made him. He took a deep breath, trying to pull himself together. He had seen similar scenarios in games before. Summoning Pixie must have drained his energy.

Looks like I'll need to test this later.

But first—

"Okay, we have the key. Let's get out of here!"

Jin braced himself against the bars and stood up, though his mind still felt sluggish. His body was fine, but his brain was exhausted, struggling to keep up. Kasumi noticed his condition and stepped closer, worry in her eyes.

"Are you okay? Here, lean on me."

She slipped under his arm and helped support his weight.

For a moment, all Jin could notice was a soft, elegant fragrance—a welcome contrast to the prison's stench. His nose twitched instinctively.

Kasumi caught the movement and immediately turned red. "Stop sniffing! Let's go!"

Fortunately, the trio who had escaped earlier had drawn all the guards away. The path was clear. Kasumi half-dragged Jin forward, and together, they made their way toward freedom.

They climbed the winding stairs and finally reached the hall. As soon as they arrived, Kasumi recognized where they were.

"Hey! Have you found the intruder?!"

"We can't let Lord Kamoshida get angry! Send more troops!"

"Damn thief actually escaped from prison..."

Knights were barking orders at each other, their voices sharp with frustration. They weren't even trying to be discreet, probably because they believed this was a completely secure area. No one would be eavesdropping.

Kasumi felt a silent gratitude toward the trio who had escaped before them. Thanks to them drawing the guards' attention, she and Jin had been able to slip away unnoticed.

They reached what should have been the school gate. Suddenly, their surroundings shimmered. A soft pink glow clouded their vision. The next moment, Jin felt the weight on his shoulders vanish—

Thud!

Jin collapsed to the ground, hard. The shock of pain jolted him back to reality. He clutched his forehead, groaning.

"Are you okay?!" Kasumi rushed toward him.

But the moment she tried to touch him—her hands passed straight through.

She gasped. "I'm... back to normal?!"

Jin gritted his teeth through the pain and mumbled, "Looks like... we made it out."

Then, after a pause, he added, "Would've been better if I hadn't face-planted."

Everything had returned to normal.

If someone walked through Shujin Academy now, they'd see nothing out of the ordinary—just a modern school building, student club banners, a lazy security guard at the entrance, and well-maintained brick pathways lined with green plants.

The castle, the knights, everything... it had all vanished like a dream.

In Chinese, there's an idiom for this—a dream of yellow millet.

(Was it all an illusion?)

Jin pulled out his phone. Hours had passed. It was already noon.

And yet... the demon summoning app was still there.

He clicked on the list. Kasumi Yoshizawa and Pixie's names were both still present.

This wasn't a dream.

Jin shook his head. He was exhausted. He just wanted to sleep. He could deal with everything else later.

Too drained to even take the bus home, he found a small restaurant, ordered a meal, inhaled it, and immediately passed out on the table.

In his dream, he was surrounded by blue light.

The setting resembled... an elevator?

No, more like a luxurious car's interior.

The sensation was strange, almost like being trapped—

Wait. Trapped?!

Panic shot through him as he realized this might be another prison. He jolted awake, heart pounding.

Someone was shaking his shoulder. At first, he thought it was Kasumi—but then he remembered. She had reverted to ghost form. That meant—

His mind, sluggish moments ago, sharpened instantly. That nap had done him some good.

The person shaking him was a restaurant clerk.

"Sir, if you've finished eating, you might want to go home to sleep," she said with an awkward smile.

Jin's face turned red. He quickly apologized, rubbing his eyes.

Glancing at his phone, he realized he had been out for two hours.

And there was a new message.

It was from the doctor conducting the drug trial he had inquired about earlier. He had asked if she had any trials happening today.

Her response: You are welcome anytime.