[url=https://youtu.be/FLvdI84muSU]Who... am I?[/url] [b]Can you state your name?[/b] I am-! I am... I... [i]I don't know.[/i] What I do know is that I'm fighting. My knuckles hurt and I think I've split open my lip. I don't know how long I've been fighting. It's like my sense of time was gone with the light. How long have I been in the dark? How long have I been fighting? ...was there ever a time that I haven't been fighting? Who... am I? I'm a fighter! That's who I am! My name is... is... Damn! I was close that time, I know it! The answer slipped through my bloodied hands... No one is born fighting, right? There had to be a time before, that I was not a fighter. So that's not right. What's my name? [u]Who am I?[/u] In the dark, flashes of light illuminate a face. Wait, no. Not light. [b]Fire.[/b] Burning away that inky darkness, a commanding voice is calling flames. Over and over. It – no, it is a she, and she is[i] beautiful[/i] – she's calling. For who, I don't know. I see her mouth move, but the shadows swallow the words before they reach my ears. She looks right at me, and I know she knows me. The real me. ...Whoever that is. She's calling me. ...Why? Something tugs at me, a rope of shadow around my throat, and I scream hoarse defiance and claw at it. Another burst of fire illuminates a monster I'd rather not see... and blood like red ink on my fingertips. Suddenly, I remember. [url=https://youtu.be/rkj4xNx5GPU]Blood.[/url] “Okaa-san? Daddy? P-please wake up!!” There's red on my hands, but a lot more of it, and my hands are so much smaller. The stranger is gone and he took my parents with them. I know this, in the back of my child-mind, that they'll never wake up. I'm crying, begging, shaking them and getting my hands wet. It smells like metal and smoke, and it feels like nothing will ever be right ever again. A noise captures my attention. The stranger must be coming back! He's coming back to take me too... A tiny, tiny voice asks if that wouldn't be best. Apparently my body has other ideas. Before I understand it, I'm scrambling and shoving a window open, squeezing my small self through. It's snowing outside, but I'm running, running... It's cold, and I smell blood. It's warm, and I smell blood. My face is wet with tears, which burns like hell, because I'm pretty sure one of the upper-class bitches clawed my cheek open. There are buttons torn off my shirt. My binder has something nasty written on it, in what smells like permanent ink. One of my knuckles is split open, and I'm pretty sure the skin under my nails isn't mine. I gave, but not as good as I got. Unfortunately, five on one isn't a fair fight. They want to call me a "gaijin freak-girl" but they can't even fight me up front. Pathetic. Pathetic and wrong. I'm not a gaijin, I'm not a freak, I'm not a girl... I [i]am[/i] crying, though, and now that the adrenaline is wearing off I realized that they must have left me outside where they attacked me. I realize I'm not alone in one swift moment, and I jerk my head up to see... her. [b]Can you state your name?[/b] I stand up straight against the dark. “I am the valid product of two separate equations. I'm not a girl, I'm not a boy. My father may be American, but my mother is Japanese. I'm not from here- but I belong here! My [b]names[/b] are Jinayah Ifriti [b]and[/b] Jin Takahashi.” I'm smiling. “And don't you forget 'em.” Something bursts free within me. Something real and completely right, and my lips are forming a word I didn't know I knew until now. “Persona.” I reach out for the card that waits for me, and I call for her. “CLOTHO!” [url=https://youtu.be/pLnxD38kgKE]Persona![/url] The white-garbed smallest sister of Fate came to Jin's beckoning. It stood before them and the shadows, awaiting command. Jin was bloodied, but smiling with a dogged ferociousness born out of years of survival. The first thing they did was turn, and look at the girl – beautiful girl – who had called them out of the dark. “Sakura. Thank you. I can take it from here.” Jin turned their eyes to the enemy, and found their mouth forming the words. “Pulinpa!” Their existence seemed to be an exercise in contradiction to so many. Two names, two homes, two selves... but all Jin. Why not confuse the shadows too? It seemed to work. For several moments they seemed to stop; trying to find the kids that were there, just a second ago. “SINGLE SHOT!” A hole the size of a dime pierced the dark, and a Shadow dropped. Jin was pleased, and started to charge the enemy. “And you have my aim, too? Me and you are gonna get along just fine. Listen here, demons or darkness, or whatever you are! I'm the master of my own Fate, you hear me? You're gonna remember me!” Jin realized two things as they started to fight back. For one, both of their selves, past and present, made up all of who they were now. Everything mattered, everything was valid, and that was perfect. For another, they might be in love with Sakura Maeda. That notion was far scarier than the shadows...