~COAL DUST~
Chapter One: I'm Gonna Be a What?!
Melita's POV
I was only half listening as my pre-calculus teacher droned on about quadratic functions and equations. The other half of my attention was spent on day dreaming about what I was going to do once school was done.
Recently I'd heard lots about that 'Midnight Channel' again. Back when I was a middle school, second former student, it had been the talk of a lot of students, but I had never bothered to try it, after a bit though, it just seemed to fade away like most gossip.
But now I was a second year high school student in Yasogami high, with only one year of schooling to go before I would graduate. And once more, talk of the Midnight Channel was spreading like wildfire.
The rumor was that if one were to watch TV at midnight on a rainy night, alone, then the Midnight Channel would come on, and different stuff would happen. One kid claimed it told him who his soul mate was. Personally, I thought that this whole Midnight Channel business was crap.
Not to say that I wasn't curious about it, in fact I was quite intrigued about what would make so many people so hyped about it. So, in that sense I'd already decided to just try it, even though I didn't really expect much. Lucky for me, it was finally raining; I'd been waiting for some days now, only to be given beautiful sunny weather.
But today it was pouring, and I felt a tingle of excitement run through my spine as I thought about tonight.
"Miss Tate, please rewrite the quadratic equation 3x² + 30 = -19x, to the form of ax² + bx + c = 0." I stood and headed towards the front of the classroom to write out the answer on the board, wishing for the day to end.
When it finally did I was totally worn out from school, it was as if every teacher knew that I wanted to do stuff today, and had deliberately made classes harder, or called upon me to do questions and such.
Regardless I still planned to put this 'Midnight Channel' to the test. Living on my own had its perks, such as being able to stay up all night without being told to go to bed. My Japanese mother had died several years ago, and my American father was always away on business, so I had our apartment to myself ninety-eight percent of the time.
My mixed blood explained my English first, and last name, while I looked almost completely Japanese, except for my green eyes, most Japanese people had brown eyes, but I had green. I also spoke Japanese as my mother tongue, but my English wasn't too bad. My friends also mostly called me by my middle, Japanese, name, Yoko.
However, when I got home, to my surprise my dad was home. I was pretty shocked, usually he called first, and he'd been on a pretty important trip.
"Hey dad, when did you get home?" I said as I walked through the living room door, leaving my bag in the corner and giving him a hug and a peck on the cheek.
"Just got home ten minutes ago, but I can't stay long baby, I'm sorry, but I have to leave again tomorrow, I just thought we could spend some time together before I have to go again." He said with an apologetic smile.
"Naw, it's okay, I know your work is busy. So, what do you want to do?" I said smiling brightly back. Still, my plans for investigating the midnight channel were being put off again. Hm, but I could probably just head over to Junes later. The store was open damn near twenty-four hours and I figured the electronics aisle would be somewhat empty, hopefully enough for what I planned.
"How about we go out to eat?" He suggested.
"Sure." I replied, grabbing my purse off the side table, quickly transferring my wallet and phone from my backpack to it instead.
We'd eaten at the Amagi Inn, one of the better places in Inaba, and had gotten home late, about eleven twenty.
"Hey, dad, I have to pick up some milk and eggs for the morning. Don't wait up." I told him, heading out the door again before he could protest.
By the time I reached Junes I was soaked to the bone, with five minutes to midnight. I headed to the electronics section as quickly as I could. There was one other person there, a boy with short deep blue hair and blue eyes, he wore a black coat and pants, as well as a blue detective hat. He looked about nineteen or twenty. I didn't pay much attention to him. But was happy when he left; save for the mysterious words he said to me.
"Once you go, you can never come back. Not in the way you are now." I had no idea what he meant. But I realized as he spoke to me, that he wasn't in fact a 'he' but a 'she'. It was a girl. I shook my head, both to clear it from her words, and to wonder why a girl would cross dress as a detective like that.
I kept her words to my heart to ponder later, and then headed towards the blank screened televisions. It was about one minute to midnight. And I could have sworn the TVs had been showing some sort of animal planet show just a minute ago. However they were all blank now.
Suddenly, one TV flickered to life while the others remained oddly black. I stared at the one working TV. It didn't seem too interesting. Actually, the image seemed to be frozen. I went to tap the screen to try and make it play better, perhaps to stop it from freezing up.
But to my surprise my hand went straight through the screen, and into where, I did not know. Entranced I pulled my hand out and wiggled my fingers, then slowly plunged them back into the screen. Then acting on sudden impulse I simply walked into this other enigmatic place.
I saw a dusty place, with a building which I knew for some reason to be empty, haunted only by shadows. However I only got a glimpse of this place for almost as soon as I arrived there, I was swept up into another place. There was an old man there.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room." He said; gesturing to the place I now found myself in. "I am Igor. And you are Yoko?"
I found myself on edge for some reason as I replied, "Yes, but how-"
"Do I know your name?" He laughed, "I know a lot of things; your name being the least important thing in the grand scheme of things."
"Gee, thanks." I grumbled with a harsh sarcastic tone.
"Snarky, aren't ya?" He replied with a grin.
"What do you want from me?" I demanded.
"Simple," He said, "but it's all up to you. What you want. What I want you to do though, is help Isamu Chijo. Course it's up to you in the end."
"Wait…? That third year kid? From my school? Wasn't he like, a criminal? Went and tried to kill some kid." I asked.
Igor waved his hand, "Pssht, all just one big misunderstanding! He didn't kill anyone. Nor would he have killed anyone had he managed to kill that 'kid', which by the way was no kid. The person he was fighting was a shadow, a darker side of someone, but still part of that person. Even you have a Shadow my dear. Anyway, he was just trying to prevent trouble, got blamed and so on and so such."
"So, I have to help clear his name?" I questioned, totally puzzled.
"Nope! You're going to be his Persona!"
"Wait? His what?!" I exclaimed.
"His Persona, you know, if you choose to help." He said.
"But what is a 'Persona'?"
He laughed at me for several long moments, "Haaa… what is a Persona… Well, I wish you luck Yoko." He said looking at me with a smiling face, then he became serious and mumbled a few unintelligible words, then streams of multi-coloured light began to wrap around me.
"But, wait, I never said yes!" I cried.
"Whoops! Too late now!" He replied. And with that I reached total black out.
Huzzah! Chapter one is done! ^-^ I hope it turned out okay, sorry if people are a little OC, and by that I mean the persona 4 cameos, cuz the OCs are gonna be OC-y… this story is written for Zanegar, cause I couldn't think of anything else as a present, so I decided to try my hand at Persona for you…
Oh and one more thing, name meanings!
Melita- "Honey"
Yoko- "Good, Positive"
Tate- "Happy, Cheerful"
Isamu- "Brave"
Chijo- "Forever" (?)