My eyes opened the moment I began hearing a creepy yet relaxing song.
"Where am I?' were the first words I spoke upon seeing my surroundings.
I was supposed to be sitting down in the uncomfortable passenger seat of my guardian's van but instead of seeing the dirty insides of that van, I saw an amazing amount of blue velvet. Every table, curtains, chair, and even the carpet were all different shades of blue velvet. I was sitting at one of the dining tables in the middle of the vast room. The room was only illuminated by the candles set up on each table and the eerie lights coming in through the porthole windows.
It was the swaying motions of the room that told me I was on a ship of some kind.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room…"
I jumped at the sound of a man's voice, only then noticing the two figures sitting at the table with me.
The first figure is what I focused on. The figure was an impish old man wearing a black suit staring at me with an intense look in his wide eyes. There were several thing about the old man that forced my attention to him instead of the other person in the room. For one, his nose was so long that my eyes couldn't help but stare at it. Another was that intense look in his eyes, as if my presence in the room was a marvel to see.
Prying my attention away from the creepy man, I focused on the person sitting at his side. It was little girl that looked a few years younger than me. The girl wore a dress with a lighter shade of blue than the rest of the room but her incredibly long silver hair hid most of her body. She had an incredibly cute face and beautiful yellow eyes that was staring at me with almost the same intensity as the old man. She smiled at me while resting her chin upon her hands.
"Yet again, an individual with a most interesting destiny has appeared in the Velvet Room," the old man chuckled. His voice had a mysterious gentleman-like quality to it. He chuckled again and continued. "My name is Igor… it is a delight to meet you, young lady."
"A delight," the little girl repeated.
I nodded, not knowing what else to do in the situation.
"This room is a place that exists in between dream and reality, mind and matter," Igor told me. "Only those who are bound to a 'Contract' may be allowed inside the Velvet Room. Your presence in this room may be because you are in need of my services…"
"What's your name?" the little girl interrupted. "My name's Irene!"
Igor sighed. "Irene, there is a process-"
"It's alright," I managed to say. "You gave me your names first; it's only natural that I give you mine."
I took a deep breath before telling them my name.
"My name's Kimi Amaya," I told them.
Igor and Irene chuckled upon hearing my name.
"Are you sure that's your name?" Irene chuckled.
"Huh?" I did not expect that kind of question, especially not from such a little girl.
"What Irene is saying is that even if you say that is your name…" Igor chuckled yet again. "Are you sure that there isn't another 'Kimi Amaya' inside you?" Or are you the only 'Kimi Amaya'? Could there not be another 'Kimi Amaya' inside of you? A you capable of incredible acts of kindness or a you capable of incredible cruelty?"
Please stop asking those philosophical questions. Philosophy is not one of my strong suits. "I'm sorry but what you're saying is a bit too philosophical for me," I told him.
"Igor is trying to tell you that the 'current' you is only a mask!" Irene shouted sounding sort of annoyed. "People go through life wearing all kinds of Masks in order to deal with Reality! The 'current' you is the Mask that you wear that others see and nobody who wears masks has only one mask, they have a whole collection of them!"
Oh, I get what the creepy old man was trying to say now.
"A person wears 'Masks' in order to fit into society," Igor continued. "But I ask you, what are these Masks created from?"
Again with the philosophical questions? What is with this guy and philosophy?
"It's pointless to ask her now, Igor," Irene sighed. "She still hasn't 'awakened' to her abilities yet."
"This is how we treat our visitors, Irene," Igor told the little girl. "Your sisters and brother understood what being my assistant meant, I only hope you grow into the position."
I opened my mouth to speak but stopped the moment I heard a loud bell ring from outside the walls. Irene pouted as if she was disappointed by something. Igor continued to chuckle as a bright light enveloped the room.
"Our time is growing short, my dear. It seems that you are nearing your destination in the Real World," Igor told me. "You will be summoned back to this room soon but until then, my dear, I wish that you think about my question. What are the masks that humanity wear created from?"
My last sight before the light enveloped everything was that of Igor's grin and a glowing blue butterfly fluttering above him.
"I hope you have the answer the next time you appear in the Velvet Room, Kimi Amaya…"
My eyes open once again, this time to the sight of the glistening ocean and the passing pavement of the road outside. It took a moment for my eyes to focus to the sun's light.
"Finally awake, Kimi-chan? Good since we're close to the place where we'll be living for the next year," my guardian Fuyu Sasaki said from the driver seat.
Fuyu Sasaki, a sort-of famous artist and my guardian since a month ago. She was a woman who didn't care how other people saw her and therefore wore clothes she considered comfortable, a simple paint-stained t-shirt and baggy jeans, and didn't wear make-up of any kind. Even her fading blue van reflected that part of her personality. Fast-food bags and empty bento boxes littered the floor of the vehicle and the seats smelled oily, kind of like the paint she uses. If it weren't for that part of her personality and the fact she has horrible eyes in need of the strongest glasses, I might've envied Sasaki because of her killer body. She had such a skinny yet curvy body that most models could only get with years of diets and exercise. If she just grew her hair out instead of keeping it short and wore a little make-up, she would be drop-dead gorgeous.
I ignored the desire to stare at my guardian's figure with envy and proceeded to stretch my whole body. It felt so good to feel my muscles stretch after what seemed to be an eight-hour sleep since Sasaki and I left Kyoto.
Sasaki poked her thick glasses a tiny bit upwards as the road turned.
"There's our lovely new home, Kimi-chan," Sasaki told me with a smile.
I didn't know what the house would look like since Sasaki wanted it to be a surprise.
And when I saw the house, I understood why she wanted it to be a surprise.
It was absolutely beautiful! The two-story house had a modern style with one side being made entirely out of glass to let sunlight in. The house was built into the side of the mountain, amongst the many trees, making it stand out but that gave it a kind of shine to it. My mouth wouldn't close as I kept staring at the house that stood out in the middle of the many trees. Sasaki chuckled as she drove the van to the paved path up to the house.
"This place cost quite a lot but worth every yen to see that look on your face," Sasaki chuckled. "And I guess the scenery is an added plus too…"
The scenery going up that paved path was certainly beautiful too. There were only trees and various types of plants outside that went on for what seemed to be forever. I watched as the trees past through the window and out of sight…
Until I saw the figure of a human lying against one of the trees.
"Stop the car!" I yelled out of reflex.
I shouldn't have yelled because Sasaki stomped on the brakes in an instant, causing my body to launch forward. My cute little forehead banged against the dashboard as the van came to a complete stop.
Ignoring the throbbing pain from my forehead, I flung the van's door open and ran out to the human figure in the distance.
"What's wrong, Kimi?" Sasaki yelled getting out of her van and running after me.
My body was moving out of reflex towards the person. It ignored the yells of my guardian and didn't bother to stop when I ran through bushes and the thorns had cut through my leg's skin.
I reached the person in less than thirty seconds. The person was a man in his early thirties, wearing a dirtied black suit that looked like it used to be clean. The man had cuts all over his body and his left arm hung limp against the ground while his other hand was holding a bleeding wound on his chest. The man turned his head towards me, leaves falling out of his messy head of brown hair. Our eyes met but something felt wrong about his eyes. They didn't look like the eyes of an injured man.
They looked like the eyes of a man trying to remember something important.
"Santou-san!" Sasaki screamed seeing the injured man.
I turned to my guardian. "You know him?" I asked.
Sasaki took out her cell phone. "He's the one who sold me this house," she answered while pressing the number to call an ambulance. "But he already gave me the keys to the house. He should be in Kyoto right now!"
"My head… hurts," Santou whispered.
"Hang on, Santou-san, I'm calling an ambulance," Sasaki told the man.
"Why are you calling me Santou? Is that my name?" he asked.
What? He doesn't know his own name?
"Who are you people?" Santo continued. "What am I doing here? Why can't I remember anything? And why does my head hurt so much?"
Santou continued to ask questions while looking like he was trying to remember who he was.
The man must've hit his head somehow but there were still some questions I was curious about. Sasaki thought the man that sold her the house should have been in Kyoto and yet here he was, on the property of the person he sold the house to. He was injured and yet upon looking up at the house in the distance above us, I saw that the railing was still intact. In order to get these kinds of injuries, Santou must've fell from the house and rolled down the hill, banging into anything in the way, but I couldn't see any sign that the railing broke from where I stood. I might need to take a closer look but I could safely say that this man did not fall by accident.
The only explanation would be that someone pushed him off.
But the man couldn't remember who he was.
So what were the chances he'll remember that he was pushed?
"I'm so sorry that this had to happen before you even got to the house, Kimi," Sasaki said while we were carrying our luggage into the rooms. "At least we know Santou-san is going to be okay. None of his injuries were life-threatening."
It wasn't that lifting to know that the man was going to live. I was much more occupied with the question 'why did someone push Santou?' Was the culprit trying to kill him? What was happening that the culprit felt the need to kill him? And why was the man who was supposed to be in Kyoto at the house? Some of my questions could have been answered by the man Santou himself, had he not lost his memories.
If I had not found Santou, I would have been amazed by the spacious and modern look of the house's insides but since I did find him, my attention was more focused on the questions floating around in my throbbing head.
"I had such a great day planned for our first day," Sasaki told me sounding disappointed. She sighed while she threw her luggage on the polished wooden floor. "Maybe I can still salvage it? She asked herself.
"We can still do what you planned," I told my guardian while watching her sit on one of the unpacked boxes that the movers brought into the house days ago.
What I said surprised her. "But after seeing such a scene, especially since it was only a month since…"
Sasaki didn't say it but I knew she meant the incident that first got me placed into the care of my parent's best friend. It was a subject that she still didn't feel comfortable talking about and knew that I also wouldn't like to talk about.
I put a smile on, trying to cheer up both her and myself. "I'm not that bothered, Aunt Sasaki," I told her. "Let's do what you planned today and forget what happened for now."
We just witnessed a man being carried away by the ambulance but I didn't want that to ruin the first day in the new home. Whatever Sasaki had planned was special to her and I wanted her to be happy today.
Sasaki chuckled. "You know, ever since you moved in with me, I wondered which one of us was the adult and the child," she said. Sasaki jumped to her feet and pulled out the keys to her van. "Okay, Kimi-chan, let's go into town! We'll go to the movies and get ice cream and do all kinds of things together!"
"What about the boxes?" I asked looking at the still unpacked boxes all over the house.
"They'll still be here when we get back!" Sasaki answered. "We can unpack them later!"
Sasaki continued to laugh as she hurried out of the house and back into her dirty van.
"The town is only a ten minute drive from here so we can have all kinds of fun until night…" Sasaki continued to speak while she walked out the door and down the stairs to her van.
I hurried to follow but something caught my eye when I stepped outside the door. Turning my head in the direction of what caught my eye, I saw the most puzzling sight I have ever seen.
A blue butterfly was fluttering just above me. Upon seeing the glowing butterfly, the whole world felt like it had just stopped. That blue butterfly was the only moving being in my sight. Time itself stopped but the butterfly continued to flutter above me. While the butterfly flew through the stopped world, a regal voice spoke to me as if someone were standing right in front of me.
"Forgive me for I cannot bring you into my realm while you are in this place," the voice said.
I don't know why but hearing the voice calmed my heart and mind. I could think clearly while hearing this invisible man's regal voice.
"I am Philemon, dear Kimi Amaya," the voice said. His voice rose in intensity as he continued. "I am here to tell you of the dangerous fate that will befall you and anyone close to you. A powerful being has his eyes set on the town and the surrounding areas. If left alone, this town will certainly fall and begin a chain of chaos. Everyone will perish if this being is not stopped…"
The voice calling itself Philemon paused and in front of me, I saw the silhouette of the man speaking. It was only a shadow but I could tell he looked like a man of higher class. A white and gold butterfly mask covered the face of the shadow and was the only thing about him that was solid. I saw the faint image of a smile underneath the butterfly mask.
"But remember that you are my servant," Philemon said his voice full of kindness. "Not once has one of my servants disappointed me over these years. Though the trials might be difficult and you might be in the depths of despair, just remember that you have the power of the Wild Card."
"You have the power to overcome the trials placed upon you!" Philemon yelled with pride. "Humans have the power to defy fate and carve their own paths! You have not yet awakened to the power given to you but you will soon awaken! This is my gift to you, Kimi Amaya, the gift to call upon the infinite power of Humanity!"
The shadow of Philemon disappeared with a flash of light and the world began to move again.
"I shall restore your memories of the Velvet Room, Kimi Amaya," Philemon's fading voice told me. "But remember that all I can do for you is to make sure you do not forget who you are. The rest all falls on you, my dear servant…"
I no longer felt Philemon's presence and soon after he left, I began remembering the Velvet Room and the ones occupying it. I remembered the creepy old man with the incredibly long nose Igor and his immature new assistant Irene. I remembered the philosophy questions Igor told me and Irene trying to explain them to me. I remembered the dining room I was in and that it was located inside a large ship currently at sea. The last thing I remembered was the question Igor asked me when I left the Velvet Room.
"What are the masks that humanity wears created from?"
He expected me to find the answer the next time I visit him.
"What are you doing, Kimi-chan? Hurry up and get into the van!" Sasaki yelled from within her van.
Such an eventful day...
I just hope it doesn't get any more confusing.
Author's Note: Okay, this here is the introductory chapter of Persona: Ocean of Memories. This chapter is meant to introduce the protagonist of this story, Kimi Amaya and her encounters with Philemon and his servant Igor while also finding the beginning of the mystery.
Action will start next chapter and so will the first appearance of a Persona series character.
Please tell me your thoughts and if you have any criticism. Hope you'll like this story.