Author Note:

'Hello there ladies and laddies! Time for our first story!'

You're peppy today

'Well, duh. It's the first part of a long road ahead. We should do a cheer or something'

You can't drink alcohol

'Who said anything about alcohol? Come on, you got to be excited'

Okay, I admit it, this is pretty cool

'Now then, before we bore the audience, let's get on with it. Ahem'

The StoneMasked Taliesin doesn't own Persona 4 or Persona 4 Golden. The rights to chose belong to their creators at...at...

'Atlus'

Right. He only owns the original characters and ideas

'A good thing too. The boss would never make something as good as that. Now, enough lollygagging! This is the story of Dirt Girl and Suit and Tie's misadventures in Inaba'

Join Crystal de Tuthua and Florence de Tuthua as their fates become intertwined with one Souji Seta

'And if you haven't read Intermediary Introduction on the Other Side, then you won't understand anything. And you won't know who we are. Shame on you!'


Crystal

She opened her eyes slowly. Her mind was still in the midst's of sleep . As she woke up, she shook her head vigorously to dispel any remnants of sleep. She looked around the room, and got a clear look of where she was.

Blue. The entire room was blue. It looked like a limousine . To her left was an assortment of beverage bottles. She shook her head again, and rubbed her eyes. It was then that she noticed the person in front of her.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room", the old man in front of her said.

Or, perhaps creepy old man, she thought to herself, because the man was indeed majorly creepy. The top of his head was bald, but he had a fringe of wild white hair on the sides. He had bulging, bloodshot eyes, pointed ears, and a sinister smile. He wore a black suit. But the first thing she noticed about him, was his rather comically large nose. A nose so large that it would put Pinocchio to shame. At any other time, she would have had a fit of laughter at such a ridiculous sight, but the man himself less comical, and far more sinister, and she was still confused as to how she ended up here. So she merely blinked stupidly. Then she became alert.

She tried to call upon her powers, only for them not to respond. She briefly panicked. Something was blocking her! She force herself to calm down. Nothing good would come of panic. She glared at the man.

"Who are you?", she asked, distrustfully.

The man chuckled. "My name", he gestured extravagantly," is Igor. And this place", he gestured to the room around him," exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a place that only those bound by a contract may enter. It may be that such a fate awaits you in the future. Now then, why don't you introduce yourself?"

She continued to glare at him. This only made the man smile wider. " Well, if you won't introduce yourself, then let me go ahead and introduce my assistant".

Hearing this, she realized that there were two other people in the room. She shook her head again. What was wrong with her, how had she not noticed them before?

The first sat next to Igor. She was a beautiful woman with platinum blond hair, and glowing yellow eyes. She was wearing all blue, the same blue as the room, and her face was like a statue, cold and serious.

But she could care less about her , though, because the second person...the second person was her little brother. Except changed. He looked... younger, but she could still tell it was her brother. He was wearing his trademark black suit and blue tie, and he, as always, he had his black hat. He was unconscious, blissfully unaware of what was happening around him.

On seeing her brother, she immediately snapped back to Igor and the woman, and called on her powers, anger blazing in her eyes. They still weren't responding.

"What did you do to him!?", she screamed. She considered reaching over and pummeling Igor with her fists. Igor made a placating gesture.

"Calm down. We merely found you two in this state". She sat back down, but still looked at Igor angrily. He continued. "We have decided to help you", Igor stated. He waved his hand, and two butterflies fluttered on to his hand. They were pure gold in color, glowing with a warm light. The butterflies sat on his hand, until they took off again.

She watched them. She was still wary, but she didn't attempt to stop them. After all, they couldn't do that much, right? The butterfly landed on her, and she clutched her head as pain erupted in her mind. It felt like her brain was being overloaded! On the edges of her consciousness, she heard Igor chuckling. "Now then, it is time for you to depart. We mustn't let our guest wait. Enjoy your year". Before she could say anything, she blacked out.

She woke up on a couch. For a second, she wondered why she was sleeping on a couch, instead of on her bed. Then she remembered that Blue Room, Igor and the woman, and...her brother!

She got up, all semblances of drowsiness gone. She looked around for her brother. Where was he!? She looked around, before finding him sleeping on a sofa. She relaxed slightly, before realizing that her brother still looked younger. She leaned down next to him. " Hey, Florence. Come on, wake up.", she said softly, and shook him.

He opened his eyes sleepily. "Sis..", he said groggily.

She winced internally. Even his voice was younger. He got up. She noticed with half annoyance, half relief, that while he was shorter than usual, he was still taller then her. Other then that, he still looked the same. His skin was still pale, and the black suite that hung loosely on his frame made it look even paler. His bright blue eyes looked at her drowsily.

"Where are we?" he asked he realized what had happened to him.

He yelped and started looking at his now younger body frantically. She put her hands on his shoulders." Calm down!", She ordered.

He did and looked at her. "What happened to me?", he asked her. She had already come up with a conclusion. " Florence, listen to me", she said, looking into his blue eyes," you've been de-aged, like what happened to me in the Other." For a second, her brother looked at her, puzzled. Then, he remembered and let out a soft "Oh".

She pressed on and explained to him about the weird Blue Room and its inhabitants. He remained silent during the explanation, patiently listening. "

Do you remember anything that happened before?", she asked him carefully.

He shook his head. "No. The last thing that I remember was being back on Talis". Darn. That was the last thing she remembered too. She sighed.

" Well, there's nothing to be done about that. Now..", she looked around the house they were in," we find out where we are".

Her brother nodded, and they explored the house. It was small, with only one floor, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. The kitchen and dining room were merged. She found clothes in the cabinets( some of them her own clothes, which was kinda weird, and some that looked like a uniform), and the whole house was stocked full of everything,food, toiletries, accessories, machines. She heard her brother's voice calling her from the kitchen. She walked into the kitchen, and saw that her brother was holding a note. He gave it to her. It was written in some sort of flowing characters. She was about to ask why he was holding it, when she realized she could read the note. Her hand immediately went to her ears. The Babel Tech was still there.

The Babel Tech was a device that her older brother, Isaac, had created. It enabled the user to understand and speak any language. But it didn't allow you to read a language that you didn't know. So how was she able to read the note?

She put her hand to her forehead. How? Then she remembered. "The butterflies!", she exclaimed. "The what?" " The golden butterflies! Whatever they did must have enabled us to read whatever this is!". Saying it, it sounded ridiculous, but weirder had happened to them. She started to read the note.

'We shall have to keep this brief. You have a role in the upcoming year in the town of Inaba, Japan. What remains to be seen. Failure to perform your role will result in a great calamity for your brother( at this she glanced at her, who had become a bit paler, but otherwise okay. She gripped the note harder) This dwelling is yours. All within is yours to use. You have been enrolled in the local high school which starts tomorrow.

I wish you the best of luck on your quest.

Margaret'

So that was the woman's name.

"Sister...", her brother said. "Don't worry. Your going to be okay", she said. Her brother looked at her, puzzled, before he smiled.

" No. Look at the calendar", he said, pointing behind her.

She looked and saw a calendar. The month read April...and it was blank except for a square circled in, what else, blue marker with neat cursive writing that said 'school starts'. She blinked.

April...Japan...? They sounded familiar...she couldn't place her finger on it...

" We're on Earth".

She blinked and looked at her brother.

"Earth...?"

"Remember? April's a month and Japan's a country on Earth".

Oh. Now she remembered. She cupped her chin and looked at the calendar again. School huh? Wait...school?

"They expect us to go to school!?", she yelled.

She tried to imagine her going to school. She'd never been to one before. Heck, she'd never been to a normal town on Earth during a calm situation. She tried to visualize a school. All she came up with was a single room with a bunch of people reading books. She glanced at Florence, who also looked nervous. She swallowed her own worry and put on a brave face.

"Ah, well I guess we'll just have to go to school tomorrow", she said.

She quickly shooed Florence to bed, saying he needed to sleep, before getting into the bed next to him. Normally, she'd sleep in a different bed, but as for now, she'd rather make sure they were safe. She tried to go to sleep, worry knotting in her gut for tomorrow.


Souji

He had been having a normal day so far. He had boarded the train that was destined for the small rural town of Inaba, where he would live with his uncle and cousin for a year, because of business his parents had to attend to overseas. This was usual in his life. Move somewhere, settle in, and then move again. He didn't particularly care anymore.

As the train got closer to his destination, he thought about the town he would be stuck in for a year. He sighed to himself. It was probably going to be a boring year, he thought to himself.

And how wrong he was.

Before long, he woke up to find himself in a room called the Velvet Room, and was introduced to its two inhabitants, Igor and Margaret. On reaching the Yasoinaba station, he was still mulling it over. It had to be a dream, right?

He was broken out of his musings by a voice calling out his looked around, and saw a middle-aged man waving to him. He walked towards him.

The man was fairly tan, and wore a grey suit. He had a grizzled appearance. Next to him was a small girl, wearing pink clothes , her brown hair in pigtails. The man shook his hand.

"Hello. I'm Ryotaro Dojima. I'll be looking after you. I'm your mother's younger brother, and that's about it. It's nice to meet you".

He then looked at the girl. "And this is my daughter, Nanako. Well Nanako? Go ahead and say hello to your cousin". Nanako didn't look at him, and instead stared at the ground shyly.

" 'lo...", she finally murmured shyly, before hiding behind her father's back.

"What are you so shy about?", Dojima asked Nanako, laughing . In response, Nanako hit him in the back. He smiled.

"Come on, we should get going", Dojima said. He and Nanako left towards the car, and he followed, only to bump into someone.

"Oh. Sorry".

It was a girl about his age, with chin length black hair and grey eyes. She was wearing a sleeveless white shirt and a checkered skirt. She also wore black and white striped stockings and black heeled boots. The girl knelt down to grab something from the ground, before giving it to him.

"Is this yours?", she asked. It was the paper he wrote Uncle Dojima's address on. He nodded.

"Thanks".

"Whatever", she said, before walking away.

"Hey! What's wrong?", Dojima asked from the car. "Nothing", he said, before walking to the car.

They all climbed in, before driving to town. They stopped at the gas station. Nanako went to the bathroom and Dojima went somewhere else. As he went outside, the gas station attendant who was filling the car struck up a conversation with him.

"Hey, you must be new here. You're from the city?", he asked.

He nodded. He supposed that in a small town like Inaba, everyone knew each other.

"Heh. There's not much to do out here for someone like you. You'll get pretty bored soon. Have you considered taking a part-time job? We're hiring".

"I'll consider the offer", he said simply. "Good. We'll be glad to have you", the attendant said, and they shook hands.

The attendant left just as Nanako came back to the car. He suddenly clutched his head in pain. Nanako looked at him worriedly.

"Are you alright? You look kinda dizzy".

As soon as she said that, he realized that he did indeed feel slightly ill. Dizzy and bone tired. He shook his head. He was probably just tired from the long trip. Dojima came back soon after that, and they went to the house.

The Dojima household was a regular two story house. It was late by the time they got home, so they simply had take out for dinner. The news was still talking about the affair involving Governor Nametame, his wife, and the reporter Mayumi Yamano. After dinner, he decided to go to bed early in preparation for school tomorrow. Most of his stuff was already unpacked. He unpacked the rest of it, and lied down on his futon. He slept, hoping for a nice peaceful slumber after the tiring events today.

He was in a foggy corridor.

He shook his head before climbing to his feet. There was nowhere else to go but forward. He eventually came across a door. He walked through it, one hand on the wall. This fog was so thick he could barley see anything.

"Do you seek the truth?".

He froze. The voice continued.

"If it is the truth you desire, come and find me", the voice said.

All the sudden, he felt a weight in his hand, and looked down to see a sword.

"Come on then", the voice said tauntingly.

He glanced at the sword one more time before continuing forward. Eventually he reached a large room.

He squinted.

There was a figure in front of him...It was the source of the voice!

"So you are the one pursuing me. Try all you like, but you will not catch me so easily".

All the sudden a shadowy hand rocketed towards him. He ducked and cut it with his sword, silently thanking himself for taking kendo training.

Another hand rocketed towards him, and he ducked before running at the figure and slashing at it. The figure just floated out of reach, still wrapped in fog.

"If what you seek is the truth, then your search will be even harder".

A flurry of arms came out of nowhere, knocking the sword out of his hand and knocking him to the ground. There was a rumble of thunder, and a large boom. He closed his eyes as his teeth rattled.

He opened his eyes, only to see a large figure standing in front of him protectively. The fog started to deepen. The figure started to laugh.

"Everyone sees what they want to see, and the fog only deepens...Will we meet again in a place other then here? I look forward to it". Before he could do anything, his body became heavy and his vision was engulfed in white.

He woke up and shook his head. What kind of dream was that? It made no sense. He thought over it while getting ready for school. He couldn't remember much of the dream. Something about fog and something else? He shrugged. Oh well. It was just a dream.

He went downstairs, only to find Nanako making breakfast. He was surprised at that. A little girl like her making breakfast and doing the laundry? Talk about impressive, not to mention responsible.

" Oh, hello", Nanako said on seeing him as he sat at the table," Dad's gone to work early".

"You can cook?", he asked. Nanako nodded.

"I can toast bread and cook sunny-side up eggs in the morning. Dad can't cook so I buy dinner".

He didn't know how to respond to this, so they ate in silence for some time, before Nanako looked at him.

" I'll show you the way to your school"

"There's no need for you to trouble yourself like that", he told her. She just smiled.

"My school is on the way to your school, it's fine". No matter how much he insisted, she insisted more, and he couldn't say no. They finished breakfast, and Nanako lead him to his school.