Story 1: Meeting the Crew and Saving the Girl
This fan fiction follows the general setup from the game, but events may be mixed up, meddled, or turned serious. I am using Microsoft word, so spelling and grammar errors should be intentional if present. If you have a question about an error in the story, please check the notes at the bottom of the chapter. If the error is not marked or explained, please pm about it and I'll fix the issue. Any copyright violation to the people who developed the wonderful and amazing game is not meant, and if it occurs I AM SO VERY SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN IT! DON'T HATE ME!
What would you do, if you have to pick a place, but not just a place, but a world? What if, no matter what you pick, you still have to fight for your life? Well, meet Nintai. She not only has to pick, but she has to earn the right to, and the bad guys aren't going to make it easy.
Chapter One: Joining the History Club and Finding a Clue
Little Nintai, a child of only nine years old, was sent running from her home when her drunken father started on another raging rant of his own invention. It's not so much that he needs to drink, but it makes the man feel better when he has something to take away the pain of being fired, dumped, and laughed at all at once.
To start with, he lost his job for something he believed to be stupid; another, more qualified guy showed up and, although he didn't have as much experience in the field, replaced him. Then, his girlfriend, who he'd hoped would replace his late wife and become his daughter's new mother, left him because of his lost job. Apparently, she was merely hoping to find a quick and easy payday.
And after all of this, he found himself at a bar, drinking himself into a deeper chasm of misery while listening to his former coworkers empathize with his misfortune. The one thing he despised the absolute most was when people tried to understand a feeling without having ever felt it before themselves. In short, he absolutely despised empathy.
All of this led to Nintai's running away from her home and off into the city nightscape at just before midnight.
Now then, I'm not going to go over how her father managed to recover, or even why she's still not living with her recovered father. That stuff is always revealed later on anyways, and doing so now would be too easy and make the current story kind of pointless. So let's skip to the fun part, shall we?
Little Nintai has grown up; age 17, not 'well-developed' but by no means under-developed either. Her skin isn't the healthiest looking, but it heals quickly, easily, and almost always without a scar, no matter how much she messes with an injury. Her eyes, a deep sapphire, seem to pierce into the heart. Her hair is cut short, boy short in fact, and takes the color of lotus blossoms naturally. Kind of strange, I know, but let's be honest, that's what keeps people reading.
Not only that, but she's in high school, too. Her dad, the recovered alcoholic, pays for it with ease now, using the money made from his high-paying job, which I'm ignoring for now. With uniform in hand, and the transfer papers from her last school, which kicked her out when she was framed by a not too happy clique, filled out and turned in last week, she now looks toward her future at the gates to her new school.
With a grim expression and a book bag filled with air, Nintai steps into the school grounds, late on her first day by about half an hour. She really didn't want to get up today.
And lacking the happiness of seeing her friends' faces at the school doors, gladly skipping first period just to see their amazingly independent pal walking into the grounds with confidence, only made the morning worse.
'Oh, it's okay, Nintai. You'll make plenty of new friends with your smile and maybe you could dye your hair before you go off! It'll cause less of an uproar and you'll slip into a group with ease,' said Lee as Nintai returned her books to the library last week.
She'd followed Nintai after the teacher had dragged her out of class to see the school principal. Standing next to the library desk, the girl had asked what happened in the teacher's offices and Nintai had been more than happy to vent about the situation. Anger issues usually aren't hereditary, but Nintai is almost certain she had to get hers from somewhere. And she doesn't remember her mother ever shouting, kicking, screaming, or drinking herself into an abyss.
Lee had allowed her friend to release her stress, but when she'd finished venting, Lee had brought up the usual pep talk given to any underage person when they have to move. New friends, new places, new anything, really, and none of it is scary or foreboding. But is Nintai to honestly trust her friend's words?
In the girl's experience, her friends tend to be wise beyond their years. Currently, as she stands in front of a door, looking up to stare at the plate reading 'Teacher's Office,' she hopes that at least a little of that wisdom has rubbed off onto her and her reckless personality.
Refocusing herself, Nintai reaches for the door handle and pulls it open. Another half-hour later, she's standing in a science room, staring back at 23 nameless faces. It's obvious that half the class is assessing her, another quarter has already dismissed her from their attention and is staring through her into space, and that final quarter are like the brown-haired girl in the back.
Attentive, and with a smile on her face, she watches Nintai as she introduces herself and says, before the teacher can allow anyone to ask any question, that 'yes, her hair is naturally that color and yes her eyes are always that shade of blue.' With no real questions to answer before break, the teacher sits her next to a black-haired boy in the back of the room and finishes out the lesson.
The last thing the teacher says is that science club members needs to stay behind for a quick update on their midterm trip and its effect on their tests.
As such, Nintai finishes her first day, and pretty much her first week, with several introductions, no friends, and a tendency to ignore even the teachers as the time passes. Her depression was overwhelming, and the only thing she looks forward to is the weekends as time slowly goes by. After another two weeks, midterm tests are given and she passes with flying colors. The only thing left before holiday break is to send the scores to her dad, which she'd promised to do every time she took a test.
The school doesn't send mail out past the district, so she has to re-send them in a new envelope, complete with scores, comments, and the usual 'congratulations' note sent with everything she does well on. This is done promptly and without a second thought; she may not have forgiven her father for his action eight years ago, but that doesn't mean she stopped loving him. He's her father after all, and he always will be, no matter what.
The next semester, she finally makes a friend. After several attempts to engage the depressed girl, Sayori, a rather shy girl with a high moral compass, manages to slip past Nintai's defenses. With a single friend made, others immediately show themselves in the form of the history club. Sayori, already a member, has asked Nintai along for one meeting, and she instantly took a liking to the attention the president paid to ancient lore of the local area.
What she took and instant distaste to is the president's bossy nature. It seemed to be the only flaw that Nintai found with her personality, and started her own anger therapy in order to keep herself from talking back. The idea of doing so is certainly appealing to her, but getting on the club president's bad side is never a good idea. Her last school is proof of that.
So, holding onto her anger, Nintai's personality improves, and her circle increases to include several boys and girls of all types. Of course, her development and unusual hair color makes her all the more interesting. In fact, having her as a friend soon becomes the in thing, kind of like how bright green would become the new black.
But, regardless, Nintai doesn't mind. If anything, she enjoys it. Being in control of so much around her was never really her idea of fun, but the way the students act is rather refreshing. And with them acting that way, Nintai easily distinguishes real friends from fakers.
Sayori, for one. She never thinks about how Nintai's hair color got so bright, or how it shaded to such a light purple. But she did give Nintai a lotus blossom she'd found in a pond. The flower had been floating in a fish bowl, and it is currently blooming brightly in Nintai's room on her bedside table.
Sei, the boy she had first sat next to in science class on day one, notices her hair color, but thinks of it as more of an omen of something. He's left it at that for now, but Nintai noticed shortly after befriending the boy that he is rather interested in supernatural phenomena. He even believes in magic, but can only perform it using the simple tricks found in magic starter kits. And everyone on the planet should know those tricks aren't real.
The president, or course, is sort of her friend, but Nintai can only handle her bossiness for so long before she needs to make an excuse to escape. And the girls never hang out together outside of school.
The there's Jinnai and Rin. The fraternal twins are practically joined at the hip, but their love for pranks and tricks is well known all over the school, and the majority of the school can't avoid the traps set up every so often. Nintai is their primary target, naturally, since they have yet to catch her even once.
Jinnai, the boy, is the planner and can come up with some of the best traps to ever be seen. Forget buckets above the door, glue on the door handle, or simply locking the door; this kid came up with the plastic door and shoe swap.
Rin, the girl, is the bait master. She can lure even the most cautious of students into a prank or trap, assuming she's got the right timing and plan. Whether it's getting help carrying a 'heavy' box or reaching for a suspicious book, people can't help but go to her aide, regardless of the consequences.
In the end, the second semester passes with a new circle of friends and activities to make her forget any idea of depression.
Middle of the summer: Excavation Site
"Nintai! You're late!"
"Yeah, yeah. Nag me later."
Although Nintai definitely didn't want to talk back to the president, today just isn't a good day to be out in 90 degree heat, wearing her school uniform, which currently feels like it was made more for winter, and digging in sloshy mud. Honestly, what was the president thinking?
"Nintai!"
She recognizes the voice, and immediately turns a smile to a rushing Sayori. Before Nintai could truly enjoy the sight of her friend. The rushing girl slips up, landing hard on her rear. Holding in a laugh, Nintai rises from the wall she was working on digging out and walks over to Sayori, currently pulling something out of the mud.
"You alright, imōto?" Nintai holds out her hand to the mud covered girl, and quickly pulls her to her feet. "You're later than I am. What happened?"
Sayori, with a look of embarrassment, explains how her parents had forced her to eat a larger breakfast than usual, not to mention how they made her put on so much sunscreen that her skin currently felt like it was covered by some sort of gel. Holding back a laugh, the two moved over to where Nintai had been working and kneel down again.
However, Nintai's friend is more preoccupied with what's in her hand. Her curiosity piqued, Nintai pulled it from her grasp and held it away from her. While Sayori struggles to reach for the pendant, a green shines bounces onto the ruined castle wall. After taking a good long look at it, the two agree to hide it until after the day's trip.
Finally, after several hours of pointless labor, as no one found anything, Sayori and Nintai head out to meet with the rest of the gang at a nearby café. Although no one found anything, excluding the pendant hidden in Sayori's bag, Nintai had to admit that being near the old castle gave an oddly romantic feeling. The president had mentioned a story concerning a princess and a tragic death, but Nintai had only been here for just over a semester; she didn't know the story, and Sayori was useless since she couldn't remember it.
And asking the president to tell it was absolutely out of the question; the girl would have gone postal and raged at the entire club, officers included.
Holding onto the hope that one of the group could tell them something, the two girls enter the café and head to the table in the far corner, where Jinnai, Rin, and Sei are chatting about some random topic that Rin no doubt picked.
The five teenagers greeted each other as usual; insults with smiles and honest sarcastic compliments. After the two newcomers had ordered something to snack on and drinks to go with it, the main topic was breached.
"The tragic story of a princess," Sei says, more or less to himself.
"I remember that story," Rin speaks up while staring off dreamily. "A princess, in love with an unknown man, was killed because of feuding factions in her family." A sad expression crosses her face. The story obviously is not her favorite.
"It's alright, Rin. You don't have to tell it," Jinnai responds blandly. "The story goes that a tomboy princess got tricked into going to a castle. Once there, she was fooled by the castle's lord into thinking she was safe. Her bodyguard, who had also been fooled attempted to save her, but ended up dying as he defended the escape route. The girl then reached the end of that route and found herself in a trap where the castle lord killed her.
"The story says that the castle lord believed the girl to be unfit to lead her people and tried to place some other guy in her spot once she was gone. It don't remember what happened past that point. I think that was always when I fell asleep."
"A bit of a crude telling, but completely correct," chimes Sei. "I'd love to be able to go back in time and see if that's story's real or fake, but alas, we still lack the ability to time travel."
Nintai rolls her eyes at that and turns to Sayori. "Next topic, then. Sayori, the pendant, please."
With a smile on her face, Sayori reaches into her bag and pulls it out for the table of friends to see. Sei is completely captivated by it, Jinnai is staring blankly, and Rin is still staring off dreamily, probably fantasizing about another ending to the story, with her as the princess. Nintai and Sayori tell how it was in the mud when Sayori slipped and fell and about the green shine it had given off, regardless of the dirt and mud that covered it.
The pendant gleams brightly, cleaned off, for the most part, but still holding onto some mud in the crevices of the etchings. The green stone set into the sliver seems so deep, it could swallow all of them if they weren't careful. After passing the necklace around the group several times, everyone shares their theories.
Sei's idea was that the pendant had some sort of ability or was connected to a castle event. A pretty good theory, but Nintai dismissed it completely.
"Why on earth would someone just leave this lying in the grass at a festival or competition, huh? It's was too beautiful, not to mention that it was probably really expensive. And why would a castle servant have something like this? If they'd stolen it, another servant would've noticed it missing, at least, and they wouldn't be able to sell it without rousing some form of suspicion."
Sei concedes the argument, but still believes that it had to do with an event of some sort. He completely ignores the story of the princess.
Jinnai's theory was that some rich guy nowadays had bought the pendant for a girlfriend and tossed it into the lake when she dumped him.
"Oddly specific, Jinnai. Is that a generalized theory, or is that what you would have done?"
Nintai's stare made him look away uncomfortably, and he started muttering something about mindreading under his breath. He ignored the princess as well. Rin, still daydreaming, skipped her turn. Sayori's theory was similar to Sei's, but replacing the servant with a runaway bride or girlfriend in today's modern times. The princess was ignored again, and Nintai began to feel something of frustration from something.
It can't be from my friends. Something else is bugging me. What is it? Nintai looks around the café, hoping to find some strange guy watching her or an enemy from her last school waiting for her to let her guard down. She found nothing of the sort.
"Something wrong," asks Jinnai.
"No. Just this frustration. I don't know why, though."
Sei smirks and tries to hold back a laugh. "Is someone upset because the last theory was such a joke?" Jinnai take the jab in good stride, commenting about Sei's swiss cheese of a theory.
That left Nintai, whose theory banks on what they'd found at the archeological site in the lake. "A battle occurred there, that's for sure. I found sword marks on the wall, made obvious as the water currents in the lake pulled off more stone in those spots than they did in others. There's also been a few bodies discovered, preserved by the cold depths and already dated to around one and a half centuries ago, just before the fall of clan lords here in japan.
"That pendant happened to be rather close to those sword marks, a bit too close for my tastes to merely say coincidence. I'm not one hundred percent sure what happened, but that pendant has something to do with that battle. Whether the wearer could fight back or not cannot be confirmed, since it's impossible to tell who was wearing it, attacker or defender.
"And it could be that it was the defender running along the wall; there's a tunnel not too far from where the pendant was, and the sword marks are all along that stretch of stone. The attacker could've been wearing it and the chain broke, although it'd be nice if we had that missing chain link."
Nintai pulled the chain separate and looked at the two links. The link between them had either been severed or broken, but which is unknown to her, since they hadn't had time to search for it.
"But, ane," Sayori says, "that pendant is based in silver. Do you know how hard that is to take care of? It couldn't have been in the lake for so long without taking some damage somewhere."
"True," Nintai concedes. "But for some reason, this pendant just doesn't seem like something from modern styles, does it?"
They all agreed on that.
With the café closing soon, and curfew about to pass them all by, everyone makes calls to stay with Nintai at her nearby apartment. They were going to make the most of their meeting and they all decided a sleepover would be a great idea. They stopped by a convenience store, grabbing bags of chips, sodas, and candy packs, then made a beeline for the apartment building two blocks away.
That night, they indulge in scary movies and junk food until they fall asleep on the living room floor. Only Nintai was still up at witching hour, holding the pendant in her hand and staring into the green depths of the gem. She's not even quite sure what happens to her when she falls asleep, but she remembers hearing a voice calling out for help.
There should be no errors in this chapter. All spelling and grammar should be correct. Please, if you found something wrong, give me a heads up so I can fix it for everyone.