Below is a rather long opening rant, but I hope you will read it…
-I am not a native English language user so do not expect any impeccable grammar and vocabulary here. I do believe, however, that my English is at the very least in a respectable enough level for me to be able to successfully deliver what I want to say to the readers of my story.
-This is an original story inspired by Shin Megami Tensei series. Meaning, it will feature new characters, new plot, and new settings that are largely unrelated to any Shin Megami Tensei games available out there. However, it will feature many themes that will be easily recognizable by the fans of the games.
-I am accepting input for new original characters from the readers of this story, since I think it will be interesting to see how I can handle other people's characters in my story. Please include information such as their names, age, gender, physical description, personality, possibly their alignment—good or evil, plus the name of the Contract Demon (not Persona), and their preferred weapon. You can also add any additional information you can think of. You can give me the information either through your reviews or through PM (preferable) to me. You can propose more than one character, but please do note that I have no obligation to accept any of your characters. Still, you never know, your character may become one of the main characters for this story (not that it is a great achievement of life or anything, but yeah…)
-Reviews and feedbacks would be greatly appreciated.
Best Regards,
Pizza Blade
PS: Many of the location names here will be fictional, though you may be inclined to believe that it is in Japan (and I will try my best to make them Japan-like.) I apologize, but I'm not going to bother myself doing research about the names of actual towns and cities and locations of Japan—I'm doing this just for fun anyways. So, I would like your understanding to at the very least suspend your disbelief about this particular aspect of the story.
An original Fanfiction based on the popular Shin Megami Tensei game series
Valde Ordo
Chapter One: The Contract
Written and Directed by Pizza Blade
Special thanks to all of my readers and reviewers
Ryuhei Kamazaki stood alone inside the seemingly empty tunnel.
He looked around, trying to get a bearing on his surroundings.
It was very dark all around him—the darkness forbade his eyes to capture any vision for more than perhaps two or three meters away. From where he stood he could see the walls of the tunnel though, and what he saw there was quite surprising.
It was as if…
…
It was as if the tunnel itself was pulsating.
Breathing.
And through them he could see innumerable amount of thin transparent lines filled with reddish substances flowing inside them. He couldn't see the end or the beginning of those lines, and the way they looked appeared like they were some sort of blood veins of a living creature.
Perhaps the reddish substances inside those thin lines were indeed blood.
…
"…Huh," Ryuhei mumbled—he looked somewhat intrigued.
…
…But what is this place?
And how did he get here in the first place?
...The last thing he remembered was that he's inside the school bus along with his friends of his class on the way to some place as part as their School Study Tour (that he wasn't really interested in joining, actually.) He remembered how loud the people inside the bus was, which was the normalcy anyone would expect when all sorts of active teenagers were stuffed in together inside one vehicle.
There were people singing, joking, laughing… even flirting.
He didn't remember it too well, but it felt like the last thing he heard was some loud joke made by one of his guy friends which caused the entire bus erupt with laughter (though some of them merely sneered.) Then… it seemed like all of a sudden he felt incredibly tired and sleepy, which was of course, strange, since he didn't do anything particularly strenuous before the trip and he always slept early in the nights.
…Yes.
The last thing he remembered was that he closed his eyes—he must have fallen asleep back on the bus.
…
…Then…
……Is this place a dream?
…Because no matter how, it seemed impossible that he was somehow moved from inside the bus to a place like this…, inside a very dark tunnel with walls eerily moving ever so slowly as if they were alive…
"Hm…" he thought, "Perhaps this is a dream."
He hesitated for a bit, before finally deciding to do one of those clichéd scenes on TV when a person was unsure whether he or she was inside a dream or not.
He pinched his own arm, hard.
He could feel the pain alright, and if what those scenes on TV said was true, he should be awake as soon as the pain registered in his brain.
But though his eyes were wide open, the place was still there, and he was still inside it. Nothing has changed except for a slight bit of stung on the spot where he pinched himself.
"Guess this isn't a dream then," he said to himself.
And…
Now that his eyes were a bit accustomed to the dimness of his surrounding, he could see more details about the area that he previously didn't notice—some were clearly more distracting and disturbing than the others.
The floor were not made from the usual asphalt people usually used when building tunnels nor tiles that one would usually see on normal people's houses or buildings. No, they were made entirely by…
Actually, he didn't know what they were made of. The floor were a bit squishy, and the bottom of his legs actually sank a little down inside the floor, like a heavy object being put on top of rubbery materials.
And just like the walls, Ryuhei could feel that the floor was moving up and down gently as well—like it was breathing softly. He could also see numerous long lines bulging slightly on the floor—he didn't know why, but the scene reminded him of a person's muscle.
…
But something was even more shocking. It was the fact that he just noticed that the floor was littered with what would appear to be remains and corpses of various creatures. He thought 'various' creatures because although it was clear that some of them were once humans (how did they ever get to a place like this?), the other remains were clearly… questionable. Maybe it was just because he had never been interested in Biology, but he couldn't imagine just what were those creatures before they turned up dead.
The remains evoked a rather pungent air in the atmosphere. Ryuhei wondered how it managed to escape his smell up until now, but perhaps he was too caught up in the weirdness of the situation before that he just did not notice it.
…He picked up his cell-phone from inside one of the pockets of the jacket he wore. He stared at the screen, and he wasn't entirely surprised to see the information stated clearly there: "No Service." He put the cell back to his pocket and turned his attention to the digital sport-watch he's wearing on his right wrist.
The date was January 9th, 2013—so at the very least he's still on the same day as when he journeyed with his friends on the bus. The time showed nine thirty A.M., and the seconds did not change—the watch has stopped working…, which means that the date could be wrong as well.
…
……
"…Well," he thought inside his mind as he ruffled with his hair a bit, "…Guess I wouldn't find anything just standing here all day. Better move forward."
But then he hesitated for a second, because which way would actually constitute 'forward'? He turned around, and just the same as the north side, the southern side was hardly visible as well, with the end of the tunnel obviously not in sight. There's no clear indication about which way he should go (not that he expected that there would be any in a weird place like this.)
He closed his eyes for a bit, thinking.
…
But then he thought thinking about it would be pretty useless anyways, so he decided to just go with what his gut told him and moved to the north.
To the north he began walking.
Ryuhei couldn't tell just for how long he had walked—one thing's for sure, his legs started to get rather sore.
It's not that he had walked very far, but it was pretty difficult to stay on balance when the floor was somewhat bouncy and with each step it was pushed downward by his weight. Plus for some reason it appeared like the farther he walked towards this direction the remains of various creatures scattered all around the floor were increasing significantly in number.
Maybe it was a sign that he chose the wrong direction, that something terribly dangerous might have been there at the end of this side of the tunnel… but he gritted his teeth and kept moving forward anyway. He didn't know whether the other direction was correct or not—in fact, he literally didn't know anything so he figured one way or the other it wouldn't matter anyway. Who knows? Maybe he could get some answers about what kind of place is this and why, and how, he was here in the first place.
…As he penetrated deeper inside the dark tunnel, his body felt increasingly heavy—like someone affixed some heavy chains attached with iron balls to both his shoulders and ankles. Perhaps it was the increasingly pungent air evoked by the seemingly endless remains on the floor, but the atmosphere for some reason was increasingly pressuring as he kept walking.
The air around him just got heavier and heavier, and an increasingly greater an greater sense of foreboding pervaded both his head and mind with each step he took.
…
Ryuhei just kept walking…
…and walking……
…
!!!
He stopped.
He suddenly stopped. And for the first time since he's in this place, his face became tense and his mind was focusing intently. He stood guard, and his eyes gazed unblinkingly towards the darkness in front of him.
…
…Something… was there.
He could feel something was there. He didn't know what it was, but he could feel his skin went numb just because of the sheer sensation in the air—for some reason, he felt that he was standing right in front something both incredibly powerful and extraordinarily dangerous… Something that could make even the bravest of men turning around and run out of sheer terror. The pressure was extremely tense, and just the seemingly simple act of standing straight on his two feet required Ryuhei to summon his greatest will and determination.
If he could so choose, he would turn his body around and ran as fast and as far as his legs could carry him. Anywhere would do, as long as he was as far as possible from this incredibly overwhelming sensation.
…
But Ryuhei couldn't run.
No matter what his mind wanted him to do, his body refused to do it. Or to be more precise, his body wanted to comply, but just simply couldn't do it. It felt like his entire body went numb, paralyzed by fear. His heart was beating rapidly, and he could feel his entire clothing stuck to his skin because his entire body was sweating like crazy.
He kept staring at the darkness in front of him.
He kept staring at it, as if he was expecting something to come out of it any time. As if he was expecting that the darkness itself would somehow say something to him, to answer some questions he has hanging inside his head.
…
……
"…So......"
Ryuhei almost jumped out of sheer surprise. Suddenly he could feel a voice spoke out quite audibly. What shocked him the most was the sensation of how close the voice was—it was literally like someone was standing right behind him and said something directly into his ear.
He reflexively whirled his body around, but nobody was around.
He's still alone.
…
"…I never would have expected that a creature such as yourself…" the voice suddenly spoke out again, "…A mere mortal… was actually able to enter this Realm without My permission…"
…
Ryuhei whirled his body around once more, but again—he was still all alone inside the dark tunnel. The voice felt so eerily close and although it spoke with a human voice, there's certain… unexplainable quality about it that immediately notified Ryuhei that the owner of the voice was anything but human. Something inside the voice was a sign of a… of a Being commanding unimaginable power and presence.
He had always been a person never terrified by anything in his life, and many of his friends even often commented about his seemingly unearthly ability to be able to be unfazed even in front of the most shocking and terrifying of things. But right now he felt scared.
He was terrified.
It was like he was in the presence of something so immensely big, so immensely powerful, that in front of… it… he was nothing more than an incredibly insignificant bug standing in front of…
…of God…
…
……
Then, suddenly, out from the darkness in front of him,
Something appeared.
Ryuhei froze.
Not that he's already paralyzed from the overwhelming sensation already, but this time what he saw in front of him was definitely something that incredibly shocking, he couldn't even feel his entire body anymore. His heart was beating so fast it was like a pumping machine just waiting to explode.
Something suddenly walked in from the darkness in front of him.
…
"…w…what…" he said shakily in his mind, "…is that…? A… a young girl…?"
He thought that it was a young girl because it has the shape of a young girl. But it just couldn't possibly a normal young girl. It couldn't even possibly be a human.
Because it was clearly not a human. There were no eyes, no nose, no mouth, no ears: what stood in front of him perhaps could best be described as a very bright silhouette in the form of a young human girl. A silhouette that appeared completely like a full blown human being.
Ryuhei must forced himself to squint because the light emanating from the… from the creature in front of him was very blinding—all the more so because his eyes were already accustomed to the darkness of the tunnel.
…Ryuhei couldn't move.
He couldn't blink. He couldn't even feel his own breathing.
…
The bright silhouette moved forward, taking a step closer towards him.
Suddenly, a voice spoke out,
"…Very impressive," the voice said—Ryuhei's first instinct was the voice came from the silhouette, although it was clearly not a voice of a young girl. In fact, he didn't know what voice was it and how in hell did he manage to understand it, "The presence of an Everlasting is usually more than enough to break even the toughest of the Mortal Kin, and yet you somehow still manage to stand on your own two feet."
The silhouette moved forward again, now only around three to four steps away from Ryuhei.
"…Although your fear is displayed with such clarity I can sense it without even opening My Eye…" the voice said again, "…In any case, you are one very interesting Human, no doubt," it was then apparently giving out a small chilling chuckle, "The way you entered My Realm and how you managed to keep your consciousness even in this place where no Mortal is intended to pass......"
Again, the silhouette took a step forward. But something inexplicable happened. The silhouette suddenly wriggled like crazy, like it was a doll and someone was pulling its strings from all different directions at the same time.
It was shaking for about three more seconds, before all of a sudden it grew. It grew, and took a form of something else—this time, it was transforming into a silhouette of apparently a grown woman that was about as tall as Ryuhei.
Ryuhei watched the transformation unblinkingly, his mind couldn't comprehend what the hell's going on. If there's one thing he knew instinctively, was that he's currently in incredible danger and his fate was completely in the hands of the creature in front of him.
…
"Perhaps you were sent here by Him…" the voice spoke out once more, "For a Great Being that is Most Divine and Powerful, He certainly has a preference to play games……"
The woman now stood face by face with Ryuhei, and sight of her from up close was so bright and dizzying it took Ryuhei's his entire will and more to keep himself from collapsing.
"Regardless, it seems that The Grand Ordeal has begun," the voice said, "And since you are here, Ryuhei Kamazaki, I will bestow my Will upon you…"
Ryuhei didn't even think about how the voice knew his name and about everything else it said because he was completely distracted by the sight of the woman in front of him raising her right hand until it was level with his temple.
…
"And as such..." the voice said in almost amused tone, "The Contract between an Everlasting and a Mortal for the Grand Ordeal will be made."
The woman touched her bright index finger on Ryuhei's temple.
Suddenly Ryuhei could sense an extremely powerful force streaming inside his body—a sensation so unbelievably strong he felt like his entire organs were destroyed instantly. The pain was extraordinarily exquisite, and for the first time since he's here Ryuhei let out a scream that would tore out his entire vocal chord. It was a pain even worse than death.
…
Ryuhei couldn't stand it anymore.
The last thing his eyes caught was the sight of a wide grin appearing on the woman's silhouette face as his body fell onto the floor and his consciousness left him entirely.
…
"…san……"
…
"Ryu…… san…"
……
"Ryuhei-san…"
………
"…Ryuhei-san!"
Ryuhei was jerking as he abruptly opened his eyes.
He didn't immediately realize the place he's in right now—in fact, he didn't immediately realize anything at all. His heart was thumping, his face was sweating, and his eyes were fuzzy.
He could feel a very sharp pain in his head, a sensation so powerful he had to grit his teeth together in order to reduce its effects.
…
It took some time, but he finally managed to regain his composure. His heartbeat was normalizing, and he could begin to focus again.
And then, he suddenly realized that he was being watched by someone. No—correction, not just someone, but a lot of people were watching him.
He glided his eyes towards his left side, and there he could see around five to six people were staring at him with a mix of worried and confused look on their faces. They were his classmates, and when he cast his eyes around he found—to his immense relief—that he's inside the school bus, on a journey of a School Study Tour.
He was drown with such a relief that he didn't really pay any attention to the fact that practically all people inside the bus except the driver was staring at him. Even the driver seemed very tempted to just look around at him since the street was empty anyways.
…
"Hey man," said one of the students watching Ryuhei from the seat in front of him, "…Are you okay?"
"…" Ryuhei didn't answer—he's still in the middle of gathering his thoughts, and his head was a little fuzzy.
"Ryuhei-san," said the girl sitting right besides him right now—apparently, she was the person that awoke him earlier, "…You suddenly screamed like something happened. A… are you okay? Are you alright…?"
Ryuhei turned his attention towards her.
…Perhaps it was a very silly thought to had, but he was very glad that he could still recognize her. He could also still recognize all the names of all the people staring at him right now. For some strange reason, he feared that one way or another he had forgotten them all.
…
"Yeah…" Ryuhei muttered, "I'm alright."
The girl looked relieved, and at closer inspection her face was sweating from worry as well—perhaps even more so compared to Ryuhei.
"But what's that all about when you suddenly screamed like a madman?" a student standing in the aisle asked curiously, a student Ryuhei still remembered as Kenji Sanahada. He remembered that he's sitting next to him when the bus first took off—why did he stand on the aisle right now? "We were all laughing and joking and you were sleeping and suddenly you're screaming like the world's about to end! And you're sweating like crazy too, man!"
"Yeah," said another student leaning from behind Ryuhei's seat, "Look at poor Yumi—she was practically blitzing her way towards you with a face as white as a ghost!"
Kanehada Yumi's face quickly went shades of red, though she didn't say anything to deny the allegation.
"Were you having a nightmare, dude?" Kenji asked again.
…
……A nightmare……?
…
Ryuhei nodded as he wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand.
"Yeah," he said, "A nightmare."
"About what?" Kenji pressed on.
"Oy Kenji! Quit bothering him!" someone from behind the bus yelled, while some of the students inside the bus began to chat with each other, occasionally pointing at Ryuhei and giggling for whatever reason.
"Oh shush!" Kenji dismissively waved his hand, "I'm curious to know what kind of thing that could send our boy Ryuhei here screaming like that!"
Ryuhei didn't say anything for a while.
…
A nightmare…?
…Was it all really just a nightmare?
Perhaps he was just too tired before this trip started, although he didn't remember doing anything particularly strenuous before… But maybe it was indeed just a nightmare… Just some silly jokes his brain conjured when he's asleep…
How else could he explain moving from his Study Tour bus to an extremely alien place filled with corpses and strange creatures and now returning to the bus again as if nothing has happened?
…
"It's nothing," Ryuhei said again, "…Just a dream about ghosts," he said the first thing that came up from his mind.
Laughter quickly erupted inside the bus—almost everyone apparently felt amused that the reason behind Ryuhei's scream was just a silly nightmare about ghosts.
Kenji looked slightly disappointed, though it was clear that he thought Ryuhei's answer was amusing too.
The students surrounding Ryuhei dispersed and each returned to their own seats. It didn't take long for the bus to be filled with sound of chatter and laughter and inappropriate jokes again—the situation quickly returned to normal, like nothing ever happened whatsoever.
…
"Hey, Yumi, switch place again," Kenji tugged Yumi's sleeves—of all the students inside the bus, it seemed like she's the only one that did not appear to be completely convinced by Ryuhei's explanation. She still looked at him with a somewhat worried expression on her face. "I want to sit in my seat again—your place filled with so many girls gossiping it's hurting my ears."
Yumi glanced towards Kenji with an annoyed look on her face.
"Oh fine," she grumbled as she stood up and walked towards the back of the bus, where she was greeted by a host of girls looking eager to hear whatever she's about to say.
Kenji sat down on the seat beside Ryuhei.
"Hey," Kenji stole a quick look towards Yumi as he tapped Ryuhei's shoulder, "She likes you, you know. When you fell asleep, she asked me to switch place with her so that she could greet you the moment you're awake. Never seen her so nervous like that trying to strike a conversation with a guy before. Never seen her looked so worried also when you screamed before—her face literally looked like a ghost. Anyway, she was apparently trying to give you some food she made herself… you lucky bastard you. I wonder what she sees in you!"
Kenji laughed.
"But you just had to scream like a madman like that," he continued, "Poor girl, her plans all ruined because people would surely pay attention to you so no private moments between you two… Hey!"
He just realized that Ryuhei didn't pay any attention to him whatsoever. Instead, he was just staring somewhat blankly at his own knees, his mind seemed to be elsewhere entirely.
Kenji just sighed.
"Hhhh…" he said, "You're hopeless man."
He stood up and walked towards Yumi's location (which understandably looked more annoyed since he had the gall to actually come there when he so casually dismissed her before), leaving Ryuhei alone with his own thoughts.
…
"…A nightmare, huh…" Ryuhei muttered inside his thoughts.
"……"
…
-Bip- -Bip- -Bip-
Suddenly his Cell-phone made a sound of incoming message—Ryuhei was surprised by it because he forgot he still had it inside the pocket of his pants.
He calmed himself down and took it from his pocket.
It was an incoming message alright.
He opened it, and what was written there surprised him.
…
"The Contract has Been Made.
Be Forewarned that the Grand Ordeal is Near.
Congratulations! You now have the chance to ChOOSE Between Living a cursed life or dying a cursed death.
Just be Patient, Perhaps everything will be okay in the end. Perhaps.
-The Originator."
-To be Continued-