Mitsuru Kirijo sat at her desk looking over the quarterly financial reports with increased vexation. After she took over as the head of the Kirijo Group, Japanese politics and social moors about women business leaders had put the company into a decline. She had the company go international and moved the company headquarters to America to try and curb some of the hostility of a woman CEO, as she had heard it was not as severe there. Despite having halted the companies decline, certain American prejudices, such as her youth being an issue, had kept the company from growing back to its former glory. Of course, the current stock reports indicate some of that may be due to a floundering world economy.

As Mitsuru shuffled some papers around, the sound of keys hitting the carpet next to her feet pulled her attention away from the mountains of paperwork she had in front of her. She looked at the ground and noticed his key had fell to the ground. She could have swore it was in a drawer, but seeing it brought back a swell of bittersweet memories. The time he had showed up at the dorm during the Dark Hour. When she first noticed him as an intellectual equal. The time he defended her from her former fiance. The night they spent together when she had given him that key. Even the most heartbreaking one of them all: the time she held his head in his lap as he just drifted away that one last time.

Mitsuru did her best to wipe the tears from her eyes, but it was too late. Her make up was already in ruins and the tears would not stop flowing. Today was the third anniversary of his death, and while she had planned to observe the day in her own way later, she realized that her plans would not be allowed to wait. She picked up the keys, and had her secretary clear her schedule. She pulled her riding gear from the coat rack behind the door, locked the door and got changed. Fifteen minutes later she was heading out of the parking garage on her special bike and riding through the Cincinnati Streets.

There was nothing here in the entire country that meant anything special to him, but it was where she was now and not much she could do to change it. Still the very act of riding the motorcycle brought back some of the fonder memories and helped her honor his memory. She knew about the other women he had relations with back in high school, and she knew that they all happened in a very compressed period of time. Hell, she knew that he was dating Takeba the same time they were dating, but it really didn't bother her it like she knew it should. As a member of SEES and student council president she had occasion to talk to the other girls, and only Takeba and Aigis, in her own weird way, were really the only competition Mitsuru had. More importantly she knew he could never say no to a girl, so many of those relationships probably progressed the way they did because the girls wanted them to more than him being a womanizer.

As she ducked and weaved pas an elderly couple in a dark blue van, she smiled. She was certain that he would have chosen her in the end. It wasn't just the fact that he had told her about his need to form Social Links to develop his power, the dread he felt about having to face Nyx, or even the fact that they had talked about marriage after she called off her arranged marriage, or any of the other things she had figured out that she was the only one he told. No, it was the simple fact that at the end, he looked into her eyes, and as the light faded from his calm, blue eyes, and said, "I love you," as his final words.

Mitsuru pulled up to a Japanese Restaurant she had found on 7th street. It didn't serve the high-end meals her personal cook made for her every night, but it was a taste of home and it had a similar atmosphere as the place where they had had their first date. Mitsuru walked into the restaurant and was seated next to a tall blonde woman at the bar. Mitsuru ordered the Shrimp Tempura and quietly mused in her own thoughts while sipping on a soda and waiting for her food. It was after she pulled a picture of him up on her phone and looked at it for a moment that the blonde spoke.

"He looks a little young for you. Was he your brother?"

Mitsuru had been caught off guard by the sudden question, but regain composure almost immediately, "No, he was my first love. He died three years ago."

The blonde looked a bit confused by the comment, "I do not believe that died is the word I would have used. But where are my manners? I am Louisa Ferre."

Mitsuru gave a quick bow, though it looked more like a nod, to Louisa before looking at her more quizzically. "I am Mitsuru Kirijo. And if you don't mind my asking, why wouldn't you have used the word die?"

Louisa gave a gentle smile, "Not everyone has forgotten about how SEES, and most specifically that young man, averted the Fall. His very soul is the seal that keeps Nyx from hearing Erebus's call."

Mitsuru glared at Louisa, "That's not possible, there shouldn't be a human alive who wasn't in SEES that remembers that. How do you know all of this?"

Louisa continued to look amused, "Says the woman who could call the ghost of an ancient queen to battle, and fought many of her battles in the 25th hour of the day. However, you have answered your own question as to how I would know."

Mitsuru immediately regretted not bringing the Lucifer Blade, or at least an evoker, not that she genuinely thought either would actually work right now, "You're a shadow?"

Louisa giggled, "No, there are a great many other beings of supernatural inclinations besides shadows. In fact, the first couple groups of persona users fought demons, not shadows. Or are you surprised to find you are not the first, even in your own family, to wield a persona?"

Mitsuru barely noticed her order being placed in front of her as she continued to glare at Louisa, "If you are not human or a shadow, then what is it you want? I sincerely hope for your sake it is not simply to cause me pain, for I will pay it back upon you a hundred fold."

Louisa had to suppress a laugh, "I would not try to use your evoker now. To call upon your persona after all this time to battle me would only lead to your own death. No, I am here because things in this world are not as they should be, and you possess the strongest bond to the key to the problem's solution.

"I have come to offer you a chance to be with the one you love again. But I warn you the path to do so is long, perilous, and will inflict more pain upon you than the deaths of the most important men in your life has ever caused you. It is you who must adjust reality."

Mitsuru stabbed at her food, when she realized people were watching her not eat. "And how am I to accomplish this without my persona?"

"You're persona will return to you on its own, and you will know it when that time comes. But in the meantime I have a program I wish to install on that prototype smart phone you carry. It will be the means by which you gain the power you need to overcome this time." Louisa reached out and touched Mitsuru's phone and it displayed some unusual computer text for a time. "There it is done. Now if you'll excuse me, I have other business I must attend to. One last thing before I go, beware of the Hanged Man."

Mitsuru finished her meal after Louisa left, but it left a knot in her stomach as she tried to swallow. She went back to her home and pondered what Louisa had meant by a chance to be with her loved one again. It kept pulling at her mind even as she looked about the spacious penthouse looking over the chalice that was once the hilt of the Lucifer Blade, his Lucifer Blade, sitting in front of stand carrying several of the swords Mitsuru herself wielded in her shadow fighting days. She pulled up the phone and looked at the program Louisa had put on it with but a touch. A blood red button labeled "Demon Summoning Program" in Kanji was now on the phone. Still not quite believing that earlier persona users had fought demons instead of shadows, Mitsuru touched the program to determine what it did and suddenly a bright flash blinded her.

When her vision restored itself, a Pixie, on of his lower-powered personas, was floating before her. The pixie looked at Mitsuru and huffed, "Well, looks like your the one trying to form a contract. Well, it won't happen. I'm gonna kill you and earn my freedom."

Mitsuru wasn't quite sure what happened after that but she could have swore she had been hit by a Garu spell. Mitsuru scrambled to find cover, and a weapon. The Pixie would flit about and slap or kick Mitsuru and occasionally toss out a Zio or Garu spell. Mitsuru was grateful this little demon didn't know Agi spells because if she still possessed her persona's weakness to fire, she would have been dead if it ever used them. Not that it mattered much, this pixie was still tearing Mitsuru apart. Mitsuru dived behind a couch near her weapon stand as another Garu blast just missed her head. The blast had knocked the chalice of the Lucifer Blade right in easy reach.

Not knowing for certain that the blade would even appear, as it had not down countless times before, Mitsuru grabbed the chalice and charged the pixie. As Mitsuru swung, the light of the blade unsheathed itself and struck the pixie with all the might it had when it slew countless shadows. The pixie fell to the ground and began to fade. The pixie looked up and smiled, "Well, master if you have such a weapon already, then our contract promises to be very fun indeed. Call me next time you get into trouble, 'kay?"

Mitsuru brushed her red, tangled, blood-matted hair out of her face. She would have words for Louisa next time she saw her. But right now she needed medical attention.

To be continued.