Chapter 1: Arrival in Iwatodai

"Now arriving at Iwatodai Station. Repeat: now arriving at Iwatodai Station. This will be our last stop, so any and all passengers remaining please exit the train car."

Minato Arisato had been lucky his MP3 player had finished the last song. He wouldn't have heard the announcement if it hadn't.
17 years old, he had been transfered over to Port Island after his latest home, his aunt and uncle, had complained that he was "too quiet" and "seriously creepy", and most especially had "too much agression".

Well you try living with the image of your parent's demise for 10 years and see how it makes you feel. Minato considered himself one of the lucky ones: plenty of kids would've snapped or killed themselves after something as horrific as that. Minato, however, only suffered from a case of PTSD, and while it wasn't debilitating, it did hamper on his mood heavily.

This, is one of those times.

For Port Island holds a... shall we say "special" place in Minato's heart, and most importantly, his memories.

For Port Island was the site of his parent's grusome murder.

Young Minato was only 7 years old, on the day of December 31st, 1999. His family: father Junichiro, mother Hikawa, and younger sister Hamuko had all gone to a New Year's Eve party with Mr. and Mrs. Takeba, who Minato could never remember their names. He had looked forward to finally meeting their daughter that day, but she unfortunately fell ill and couldn't make it. Everyone had a great time, but the Arisato's had wished to countdown to the new millennium at home (it doesn't help that Hikawa had gotten very drunk.) They were crossing the Moonlight Bridge, when suddenly the radio clock read 00:00. Everything turned into a sickening green color, and the car was no longer moving.

That was not what young Minato had been traumatized by, however. It was the fact that after waking up from his head colliding with the back of the passenger's seat, Minato noticed something strange. Mainly, his father was no longer in the car, the windshield was shattered, and his mother and Minako were now coffins, surronded by a dark red glow.
Minato soon became panicked, wrestling with his seatbelt in an effort to escape and look for help. As he was able to get free, he noticed a police car nearby, and decided to run to the policeman for help.

Minato never made it to the police car.

Minato noticed out of the corner of his eye something big, and turned his head to the left to look. And he stopped dead in his tracks.

A giant monster, impossible to describe, fighting a teenage girl. Except this girl was flying. And had guns.

Minato, desperate at this point, decided to do something he knew was a bad idea: he called out for help.

Both the monster and the girl stopped and turned towards him. Minato remembers nothing after that because, unbeknownest to him, the monster launched a very powerful wind, which knocked him back with much force and velocity into a nearby car. His car.

Minato woke up in the hospital 3 days later, with the doctors telling him that he had suffered some severe head trauma. But more importantly, that none of his family survived the car crash.

Car crash Minato thinks to himself to this day. Such bullshit. Minato knew the truth, but he was also smart enough to know that nobody in their right mind would believe a story like that.

So Minato has dealt with this for the better part of 10 years. Yeah, you'd probably be an agressive social recluse as well were that to happen to you.

But, Minato sighed and stood up to get his bags. Nothing he could do about it now: he was always told you have to deal with the hand life gives you. He never was much for poker.

As Minato stepped off the train, he grabbed both his MP3 player and a map of the Iwatodai district, where he would be staying in a dormitory. Minato thanked his lucky stars he'd be living with other kids, who he could actually try to get to know. As Minato listened to his favorite song, "Burn My Dread", he read the map and soon came to the conclusion that if he were to walk at an average pace, he would reach the dorms within an hour. He liked walking, so he again thanked his lucky stars. Minato figured he could get used to the area despite being so late at night.

That's when it hit.

The music shut off, the area became covered in that sickening green, and Minato's eyes looked up from the map.

Now, Minato has always been told he's calm, cool, and collected. Doesn't let much of anything faze him. A natural leader. So what does a natural leader do in this situation?

He ran.

If anyone were to see him, if this were a normal midnight, they'd probably be wondering why this blue haired kid was running through the streets at midnight

Minato was absolutely not thinking about that whatsoever. Minato was thinking about getting the hell out of the situation. Minato was normally calm during this paradox: growing up in it for 10 years will do that to you, but the memories of that day flooded him, and he felt pure fear the entire way to Iwatodai Dormitories, as his lungs burned from the energy and the smell of blood everywhere.

Minato really has some lucky stars, because he made it to the dormitories in half an hour. He burst through the door and just collapsed onto the floor, scared, in pain, and just exhausted. It took Minato about 15 minutes to collect himself. Thankfully nobody is active in this paradox, or else Minato would be in some serious shit. He stood himself up and looked around. A TV sat in the corner, some chairs and couches with a coffee table in the middle of them to his right.

"I've been waiting for you."

If Minato had not been exhausted from his ordeal, he surely would've jumped in fright. However, he just looked over to his left, and took in the sight of a young boy holding a contract of sorts.

"You must sign this." the boy calmly stated. "Don't worry: all it says is you'll take responsibility for your actions. You know, the usual stuff."

Minato was both so exhausted, but also so happy to see somebody not inside a coffin that he simply smiled softly and grabbed the contract, signing it.

The boy chuckled. "Excellent." The boy took the contract from Minato's hands. "Time waits for no one. It delivers us all to the same end." The boy was slowly disappering into the shadows. "You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes forvever."

Minato processed what the boy had said as he finally disappered, trying to think the whole situation over as he regained his cool, when suddenly he heard a shrill female shout.

"WHO ARE YOU!?"

Minato looked up to see a brown haired girl, maybe around his age, wearing a pink sweater and a skirt. What caught Minato's eyes most however, was what she was holding:

A gun.

Now Minato had plenty of experience with a gun being aimed at his head, despite this girl not having drawn hers yet, so he simply raised his hands and spoke softly. "I'm not here to hurt you."

"Who are you!? What do you want!?" The girl had not been convinced, anger and fear rising in her voice. Yet she seemed very hesitant to draw that gun, despite possibly being in a life threatining situation. Minato then came to two conclusions:

That gun was a prop ment to intimidate potential threats, or she had never used a gun once in her life.

Before Minato could explain further, a new voice came from upstairs: a stern, slightly older sounding, yet still calm female voice.

"Takeba!"

Minato's eyes quickly grew wide, while this Takeba girl had turned to the stairs. Could it be?

Minato had no time to think about it, because suddenly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen came walking down the stairs. A young woman with gorgeous, flowing red hair, a white ruffled blouse, and a black skirt. She made eye contact with Minato and spoke once again.

"I didn't think you'd arrive so late."

Before Minato could respond, Takeba quickly spoke up. "Who's he?" she asked, still very cautious.

"He's a transfer student. He'll be transferring into another dorm later on, but the Chairman decided to stick him here for the time being."

Minato finally spoke up to introduce himself. "Minato Arisato, very nice to meet you both."

The redhead seemed to enjoy Minato's politeness, giving off a small but warm chuckle and then introducing herself. "Likewise, my name is Mitsuru Kirijo, a third year, and this is Yukari Takeba. She'll be a second year, just like you."

Yukari finally seemed to have let her guard down and smiled warmly. "Hello, it's nice to meet you." She turned back to Mitsuru and quietly whispered something, just barely audible enough for Minato to catch it, but he wasn't paying attention to that. Rather, he was still stunned by the last name of Yukari. Could it be mere coincidence?

Minato must've had the dumbest look on his face, because Yukari had suddenly grown concerned and asked "Are you alright, Minato?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Just... some bad memories from this area. Plus, your last name: I once knew a family by the name of Takeba, and they had a daughter, but I never met her and learned her name. Crazy, huh?"

Yukari was stunned into silence, while Mitsuru simply chuckled again. "Quite a coincidence, wouldn't you say Arisato?"

"Yeah, that's probably it. Just a little weird, you know?"

With that, suddenly the green hue had disappered, the lights turned back on, and Minato's MP3 player came to life. These two girls seemed completely unfazed by the situation, suggesting this was a normal occurence around this area. Minato hardly even noticed: he was exhausted from his ordeal.

"Well, now that introductions are out of the way" Mitsuru spoke up, breaking the awkward silence "I suggest we all get some sleep. It is past midnight after all. Takeba will show you to your room, Arisato. Good night."

With that, Mitsuru walked back up the stairs, and Yukari motioned for Minato to follow her. They walked to the second floor and walked all the way down the hall, stopping in front of the final door.

"Here it is. Oh, and don't lose your room key, or you'll NEVER hear the end of it." Yukari rolled her eyes at that last statement. Minato was pretty sure she knew from experience. "So, do you have any questions?"

Minato knew exactly what he wanted to ask. "Does that kid live here too?"

Yukari looked at him like he was crazy. "Kid? What kid?" She honestly had no idea. "C'mon, stop pulling my leg." Minato decided to drop the subject.

Yukari turned to leave, before stopping and turning back to Minato. "Hey... about tonight..."

"I won't say a word."

Yukari was a bit surprised that Minato knew exactly what she was going to ask, but was thankful nonetheless. "Ok, thanks. Well, see you tomorrow Minato!" With that, she finally turned away and entered her room a few doors down. Minato decided to do the same.

As Minato entered his room, he decided to see if his aunt and uncle had shipped everything he asked for. His PS2 was under the TV, his guitar had been placed delicately in the corner of the closet, and his laptop was placed neatly on the desk. Whoever placed his items in the room was very careful, and Minato respected that. With that, he decided it was finally time to go to sleep. And sleep he did.

Author's Note: I updated this chapter, replaced some aspects of Minato that I didn't like (him having a therapist, his leg injury from soccer), and just changed a little dialouge to make it flow better with the rest of the story.

Also I set up something reaaaaaally important with one of my changes, see if you can guess what. See ya next time peoples!