Strega

Strega is a trio of artificial Persona users who form the secondary antagonistic group in Persona 3. They are Takaya Sakaki, Chidori Yoshino and Jin Shirato.
==Appearances==
*Persona 3 / FES / Portable / Reload: Major Antagonists
**Persona 3 (Manga): Major Antagonists
**Persona 3: Shadow Cry
**Persona 3 The Movie: Major Antagonists
==Profile==
===Persona 3===
The members of Strega are artificial Persona users created by the Kirijo Group. They were picked up off the street and used as fodder for the company's experiments. Because their Personas were not awakened naturally, they must take suppressants supplied by Shuji Ikutsuki. The drugs keep their Personas from killing them, but have lethal side-effects. Out of the original hundred kids Kirijo used, only the three children that would later form Strega survived.
As a means to escape the pain of their inevitable death, the three would adopt a worldview where they would give up on their futures and live purely for the current moment. The philosophy was inspired and spread among its members by Takaya Sakaki, who served as the group’s leader.
Strega would become a group of three rogue Persona users who use the Dark Hour for their own personal benefits. They set up an internet website run by Jin Shirato called "Revenge Request" where users can contract Strega to commit assassinations and other illegal activities, which the three carry out during the Dark Hour as they remove the protection of the coffins which allows them to do whatever they want with their victim.
When they first discover SEES during the Dark Hour, they attempt to learn of their goals by spying on them. Finding out that SEES aims to rid the Dark Hour which Strega relies on, under the premise that they will lose their persona powers, Strega attempted to disrupt SEES' Full Moon Operations multiple times (in actuality, it's heavily implied that the real reason why they want the Dark Hour around is so Nyx will put them out of their misery alongside every other human being in the world).
In one particular encounter, SEES managed to capture and hospitalize Chidori Yoshino, Strega's data gatherer (counterpart to SEES' Fuuka), thereby weakening the group in the process.
Takaya, in effort to identify and dispose of SEES’s data gatherer who locates the Shadows that appear on Full Moon Operations and hence threatens the existence of the Dark Hour, would meddle during Ken's attempt to kill Shinjiro. After being told by Takaya himself that Shinjiro's going to die either way due to taking the same suppressants as them, Ken tries to use him to commit suicide by lying that he's the group's rear support. The fooled Takaya attempted to shoot Ken, only for Shinjiro to take the blow by jumping in the way of the bullet. In actuality, the rear support is Fuuka Yamagishi, someone that Takaya does not seem to recognize who arrived with the rest of the group in time to witness Shinjiro's death.
Prior to fighting the Arcana Hanged Man, Takaya and Jin made a final stand to prevent SEES from destroying what they thought was the last Arcana Shadow and therefore the Dark Hour only to be defeated. Rather than accept life without the Dark Hour, the two jumped off the bridge they battled on, seemingly committing suicide.
A month later, the two would appear alive again, sneaking in to visit a hospitalized Chidori. They convince her to rejoin them, turning her against SEES. When Junpei manages to convince Chidori not to walk down the wrong path, Takaya shoots him, killing him in the process. Chidori would then use her Persona to sacrifice her life in exchange for his, resulting in Junpei evolving his Persona and attacking Strega. Disappointed by this act, Takaya and Jin fled.
Near the end of the game, Takaya would start a cult for those who wish for Nyx's coming, and leverage their influence to manipulate the public into hating SEES by making them appear to be responsible for the Dark Hour’s existence. The two would later make one last stand before the end of SEES's final mission, although both are defeated, with Jin dying in the process. Takaya is last seen lying on the ground next to the SEES members during Nyx's final assault. His final status is unknown, but he is presumed to be dead.
===Persona 3 Reload===
In Reload, their hideout is fully shown and Takaya will directly interact with the protagonist in side scenes. He however, still does not directly interact with him in hostile encounters, and neither Jin nor Chidori have such scenes at all.
==Members==
The three main members of Strega all dress similarly to specific sub-cultures: Takaya dresses like a biker hippie or cult leader with a particular resemblance to Jesus Christ, Jin wears a bomb expert's jacket, and Chidori wears a ruffled gothic lolita dress.
*Takaya Sakaki: having found no meaning in facing death, Takaya would turn to bloodlust and delusions of grandeur to sate himself, believing that salvation can only be found in either living in the present and the end of the world. Takaya's grotesque nature is comtrasted by his poetic thought and speech.
*Jin Shirato: although confident and serious, Jin is attached and dependent on Takaya, who has saved him from his fear of death.
*Chidori Yoshino: feeling nothing towards the idea of death, she still fears being attached to others and the loss that comes with it.
==Strega's Hideout==
Their hideout is never shown in the games. In the film however, it was briefly shown where they appear to live in an abandoned building. 
==Gallery==
File:P3RE Official Illustration of SEES and Strega.jpg|Official Illustration by Azusa Shimada
File:Shadowcry.jpg|Strega on the cover of Persona 3: Shadow Cry
Strega as children seen in P3 manga.jpg|Strega when they were children in the manga.
File:Strega in Movie.png|Strega as they appear in Persona 3 The Movie
File:Strega observe SEES.jpeg|Strega observing SEES during July Full Moon Operation 
==Trivia==
*"Strega" is the literal translation of "witch" in Italian.
*In the Japanese versions of Persona media, the names of Strega's members are written in Katakana.
*Unlike most other human antagonists, members of Strega appear to ignore the protagonist most of the time even before a battle, and their actions are always targeted against his teammates. This is changed in Persona 3 Reload, where the protagonist might engage in non-hostile encounters with Takaya, but he still does not speak to the protagonist out of added scenes or do anything that specifically targets him, and neither Jin or Chidori speak to him at all.
* Despite being worshipers of Nyx, none of them interact with Ryoji Mochizuki in any form or way, even after his memories as the Nyx Avatar return.
*In Persona 4, one of Teddie's accessible weapons is called the Strega Claw. The description, which says made for agents of revenge is most likely a reference to Strega and their “Revenge Request” business.
Category:Persona 3
Category:Persona 3 FES
Category:Persona 3 Portable
Category:Organization