DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Persona series or anything related to it.
Chapter 0: And so it begins
Time never waits. It is ever flowing...ever changing.
Much like a river, but even they can change their course.
Events that have passed, and those yet to pass...
many have merged, others strayed, the rest cease to be.
You, who wish to see off the outcome, whatever it may be
shall be given a year, now go forth without falter...
with your heart as your guide...
A massive gate floated among a field of light brownish haze. In front of the gate was a crucified statue, it's features long since worn away. A massive black hand reached for the statue and grasped it, attempting to remove it from the gate. The creature it was attached to, Erebus, rose from the haze and screeched in irritance. Relenting, it tried again, and as before to no avial. Finally, Erebus grasped the statue with both hands and tried once again to remove it. After many, many failures, Erebus had succeeded in violently casting the statue off of the gate and forced them open.
There was a translucent shell beyond the gates and inside it was a figure that emerged from the shell. Erebus and the figure nearly touched, until a violent pulse flung the figure away and blew out Erebus like a candle. Events that had transpired up to that point had be come distorted and started merging or otherwise never happening to begin with, an image went gray and started to dissolve...
Chris' eyes shot open and his breathing was slightly heavy. He looked out the window and saw the approaching runway of the international airport. The captian on the intercom announced their arrival and the passengers disembarked. The terminal was abuzz with activity, relatives returning to their loved ones from a long trip, business or for leisure, or tourists visiting Japan for the first time. Chris was none of those, he was on an overseas transfer program to a place called Gekkoukan High School. He took another look at his pamphlet, containing instructions on how to get to his destination, the Iwotodai dormitory. A giant TV screen caught his eye, it was an ad featuring a girl with a brown, pigtail-like hairdo wearing a bikini standing under a waterfall. She picked up a soda can and took a quick drink from it and held it next to her face with one eye open.
"I'm tired of diets, and enough with going to the gym. Good thing there's something even I can handle," she giggled at the end.
"Slim down this summer with the refreshing taste of Qualorie Magic," the announcer said. The screen cut to a news desk. "And now onto more relevant news," the anchor said. and straightend out the papers in his hands. "Reports of increasingly bizzare personal time dialation have been on the rise across the world for the past ten years. The public has been pressing their officials for answers, but to date, all investigations have yeilded little to no results. Across the globe-" Chris looked away from the screen and started towards the baggage claim, hearing people's concerns over the news report.
"Excuse me? You there!" a voice in the crowd said. Chris looked in the source's direction to see a man in a suit coming his way. "I apologize for startling you, I represent a gaming company and would you mind answering a survey question? It will only take a moment, I assure you," he said.
"Um, sure," Chris said, giving his Japanese lessons a field run.
"Okay, excellent. Here's the question, do you prefer console or portable gaming systems?" the man in the suit asked.
Chris felt a bit akward answering such a question, but he shrugged and answered, "I've always been a console player, I guess," he said.
"Alright, thank you for your time, young man," the man said with a bow and walked away. "I'm suprised, never expected these results..." the man was murmuring as he walked away.
Chris sighed and walked to the baggage claim, waiting for several minuets until his backpack came up. His pamplet had explained that his luggage would be handled and taken to the dorm seperately. He turned to head for the terminal exit when someone bumped into him.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there!" a girl's voice said apologetically.
Chris shrugged it off and replied "No big deal," and realized his pamphlet was gone. "Wait! Where's my-?" Chris started looking around.
"Huh? Did you drop this?" the same girl's voice said. Chris faced her direction to find her holding his admittance pamphlet. The girl herself was pretty cute, she had dark blue eyes, medium-length black hair, and was wearing a navy blue high school uniform. "Oh, you're going to Gekkoukan, too?" she asked, looking up from the pamphlet, her face slightly lighting up.
"Um, yeah. I'm on a year-long exchange program," he said. The girl looked intrigued.
"Exchange? Where're you from?" she asked, handing Chris his pamphlet.
"United States," Chris simply said, taking the pamphlet back.
"Well, who knows? Maybe we'll see each other at school tomorrow," she said. "I couldn't help but read the directions. If you don't mind, I know an easier way to get there" she admitted.
"Not at all, any help would be appreciated," Chris said and the girl's face lit up.
"Okay. Well, to be honest, I was on my way there anyway, maybe we could go together?" she said.
"Yeah, I guess that'd be alright," Chris said with a slight smile. "I didn't catch you're name, though," he added.
"Huh? Oh, right sorry 'bout that. I'm Setsuna Mochizuki," she said with a bow. "What's your name?" she asked.
"It's Chris. Chris Vash," Chris introduced himself.
Chris and Setsuna spent the whole way to the station making small talk and trading life stories. "And this is it," Setsuna said and went ahead to the departure board. "Hmmm, your train just arrived and it'll be leaving in ten minuets, better hurry," she said turning around and informing Chris.
"Uh, thanks, aren't you coming?" he asked.
"No, I have a different destination, but since we're going to the same school, maybe we'll see each other there," Setsuna said with a smile.
Chris boarded his train and turned around. "School starts tomorrow and it would be good to see a familiar face," he said as the doors hissed closed. He put two fingers to his right brow in a psuedo-salute and flicked his hand forward. "See 'ya around," he said and the train departed.
Chris took a seat near the doors and took an MP3 player out of his backpack. He put the headphones into his ears and pressed play, leaving the volume low enough to hear any announcements on the intercom an closed his eyes and listened to his player.
There's no man's land
No man ever survived
Invisible hands are Behind you just now
If you ever win that Race against rage then
You'll be king coz It's no man's land...