So I've been wanting to try something different than my two stories for a while and this came along as a result. My brother got me interested in Persona after seeing him play Persona 5 and I will admit, the game was great. I just figured why not try?
Anyway, here we are, I hope you like it.
A girl with burgundy colored hair tied in a loose ponytail and bright blue eyes made her way through the busy streets of Tokyo. She made sure to avoid bumping into anyone but really, her mind kept drifting to the events that led to her coming here...
''Damn brat, I'll sue!''
''She did what?''
''Keep away from her, she's a criminal!''
The girl heaved an inaudible sigh as the memories came to her, quickly trying to shake them off. She knew it wouldn't be that easy though.
She had been forced to come to the city as a part of her probation after being falsely accused of attacking a man. It was all so wrong...all she had done was push him off the woman he had been hurting, when she'd asked for help. The man had been so drunk, he stumbled and hit himself on the ground...
But people wouldn't listen to a thing she said. The man had somehow wound up forcing the woman to testify against her. He'd even managed to keep himself anonymous and pin all the blame on her to boot. The girl had been judged guilty and was told to come and stay here with a stranger for a year. People treated her as a criminal, her school kicked her out...long story short, her life was ruined.
While the indignity of it all brought back all the frustration she'd been holding back, the girl consoled herself with the knowledge that at least she wasn't sent to prison. Small mercies, she supposed...
Shaking the thought off, she kept making her way to where she was told her new guardian would be...
Cafe Leblanc was located in the backstreets of Yongen-jaya. The area around it seemed relatively quiet. The barista, a middle aged man with black hair and dark eyes was reading the newspaper while the elderly couple seated before him were chatting about recent events.
They made to leave after a few minutes, only pausing when the door opened and the girl was about to step in. She stopped when she noticed them and gave a small bow, before opening the door wider and side stepping to let them pass. The old woman mused about her manners for a moment before her voice trailed off, too far for them to hear. The man put the newspaper down and spoke
''So you're Hyakuya Namine?''
The girl looked at him and bowed again ''Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sakura-san.''
''...Well, you're as polite as they said.'' He mused, not acknowledging the girl's curious look at this. ''I'm pretty sure you know the deal. I'll be your guardian for the year and fill your probation officer in. But if you cause any trouble, you'll be kicked out.''
Namine nodded, not bothering to point out that she knew this too. Sojiro went on ''We'll be heading to Shujin Academy tomorrow to register you. For now, I'll show you to your room.''
The room was in the attic, it was cluttered. Namine didn't miss that her luggage had arrived earlier.
''What's with that look, kid?'' Sojiro prompted.
''If you take away those boxes and maybe fix it up a bit, this place could have made a decent bedroom before.'' Namine remarked idly.
He'd never thought of it like that but...''You might be on to something there...I just left it like this when I bought the place. Anyway, this is everything, right?''
''Yeah, do you have any cleaning supplies I could use? I'd like to sort things out in a bit.''
He seemed a bit surprised by the question but replied readily ''Sure, use what you want, they're all downstairs.''
When Sojiro came back, he was surprised to find that she was already done cleaning up, and the attic was looking different already. Namine seemed diligent, like he'd been told before this whole deal was started. The case had left him with doubts for sure, what threw him off was that she seemed more or less apathetic to his remarks on her situation.
On the other hand, she appeared tired so it was best to leave her be for now.
He was partially right, Namine was just too wornout to argue in her defense at the moment. But it was more than that...
Simply put, what was the point of talking to someone who wouldn't listen?
The girl took her phone out, having hardly touched it all day. That was when she noticed something odd...
It was an app, one she didn't remember downloading before. Heck, she'd never even seen anything like it. Where'd it come from?
Namine tapped its icon, but nothing happened. At least, that was what she assumed, until something in the air seemed to shift.
A second later, the space in front of the girl seemed to erupt in a burst of blue flames, leaving her to recoil in shock. A figure then became visible through it and it took Namine a few seconds to realize that it looked just like her.
The only differences was that her apparent doppelganger appeared to have golden eyes and that its expression was unreadable. Just as it cracked a smirk, the figure vanished as the flames billowed only to be replaced by a silhouette of a larger figure with orange eyes and grin and wings, but it disappeared and the flames faded away.
Namine remembered to breathe then, placing a hand over her rapidly beating heart.
''What...was that?''
Strange incidents aside, the next day went as planned as Sojiro took her to Shujin Academy. Namine knew this was the only place that accepted her with her probation so she was content to wait and see what would happen. Not that she had much expectations...
She soon found that it was a good thing because the teachers would have certainly ruined any. The principal, Kobayakawa, a fat, bald man wearing a suit, was quick to remind her of the situation, pointing out that she would be expelled for any infractions. He was quick to state that while she might have had leeway in the past, there was no she could expect any here.
Her homeroom teacher was one Kawakami Sadayo, a woman with dark hair clad in a yellow blouse and blue skirt. Namine couldn't shake the feeling that the woman was wornout for some reason. After giving her the student ID, the woman proceeded to complain about having the girl in her class, worried about housing a criminal. Kobayakawa reminded her that her class was the only one with an opening, promising that everything would be fine. They would just make sure Namine would behave or there would be consequences.
Namine bit down her irritation at it all, reminding herself that they wouldn't listen anyway.
Had she tried looking around, she would have noticed Sojiro's unimpressed expression. Sure, the kid may have messed up but for crying out loud, they were teachers. Weren't schools supposed to give children a chance and let them learn? She was still young after all. Could they at least have the decency not to talk like that now? They may have acted like they were open to Namine having a second chance but somehow he wasn't convinced. He glanced at his charge, only to find that her expression was apathetic again like it was yesteday.
Sighing, the man spoke ''Don't worry, I'll make sure to talk to her.''
''Please do, Sakura-san.'' Kobayakawa acknowledged.
They soon left after that, something both were thankful for.
''Good grief...I figured they'd come on you but not like this.'' He admitted once they were back in the car as he turned on the radio.
''Well, I'd have been surprised if they were more open-minded.'' Namine said after a moment.
''You're handling this better than one would think.''
''Reminding myself that it was either adapting to the way things are now or jail helps, Sakura-san.''
Good point, he'd give her that one. ''True enough...''
Sojiro was distracted by the radio ''...and investigations into the mental shutdowns have yet to yield any results...''
Namine tilted her head a little ''I heard people talking about this yesterday. Is it true?''
''It seems so.'' All he'd heard were rumors too. But then, he'd never really paid attention to the situation...
Namine frowned a bit as she looked at something on her phone ''Again?'' At his raised eye, she admitted ''I found some weird app last night. I don't even know how I got it though...''
''You're better off getting rid of shifty stuff like that. It could wind up getting a virus in your phone or something.''
''Yeah...'' She proceeded to delete it. ''...I could have sworn I did yesterday though...''
Not much else happened, they were stuck in traffic for a while. Sojiro had to close up a couple of hours later and Namine prepared herself for the coming day.
She had a strange dream of what appeared to be a blue prison, with two girls dressed up as wardens at the gate with a man sitting and watching it all. He'd mentioned something about how her rehabilitation was about to begin, just what did that mean?
No matter Namine looked at it, things seemed to get weirder ever since she arrived here. The thought left her sighing as she went downstairs, finding Sojiro behind the counter.
He nodded to her greeting ''You're up early, that's good, Here...'' he set a plate of curry and a spoon on the counter. ''...I've got breakfast.''
''Thank you...'' The surprised Namine took a seat and began to eat.
''...it's delicious. Thanks.'' She said again after finishing up.
She missed his lips twitching a little as she bent to pick up her stuff. ''You know the way now?''
''Yeah, it's fine.'' The girl made her way out of the cafe and headed to school.
Well, I think I'll stop here.
So, how was it? I didn't want to lump too much right in the first chapter. I intended to have Ren as the main character but I started thinking things over. The reason I changed my mind was that this way gives me more freedom. I will admit, I didn't play the game. I read up on it and watched videos on the stuff I didn't know about. So I don't know how this would turn but I thought it couldn't hurt to try. Watching and reading up on it gave me some ideas that I wanted to get out there.
I did try watching the anime but I've been told that people think it's trash. I admit it's kind of rushed but it didn't seem that way. According to my brother, one would have to play the game to notice the differences. Is that true?
Just to clear up, Namine's not usually so reserved or even apathetic as it may seem, she's just trying to keep in line and avoid any trouble. Also, Sojiro actually heard of Namine before all this went down from her grandparents. They're among the customers he gets along with well and she's close to them.
Anyway, I hope I got the characters right. I'd appreciate hearing any opinions. The differences in my plot will become clear as we go along. Thanks for reading!