Message to the readers: Hi guys! I present you my fanfiction work for the yet-to-be-released Persona 5! *Ta-dah!* I can't wait for the release of the game itself! (Please Atlus, make it earlier :'( ) To contain myself from excitement, I have whipped up a story which is mostly based on the trailer itself and then sprinkled few of my own ideas. Regretabbly, I have nothing to add; so please delight yourselves with my fanfic story.
"You are slave...want emancipation?"
-P5 recurring motif
The protagonist's senses slowly lightens up to life. He squinted his eyes a few times to make his vision clearer. As soon as he can perceive anything from his senses, he sees...blue. Lavender-blue hue paints the flooring and the light it emanates; he wasn't very familiar of this place. Where is he? All he knows is that he is a passenger in a train bound for Shibuya station. He could never recalled being in a strange place...
"...Welcome to the Velvet Room, my dear guest..."
An eerie, cold voice resonated to his ears. He felt a chilling sensation that jogs to the bottom of his spine, an unsettling feeling roams wildly at his chest. In fear, he held is high up, attempting to find the source of this vexing voice. He panned his head from left to right, and he came to an perplexed conclusion. He WAS inside a train, the handles that were hanging up from the ceiling and the train doors, undoubtedly it is inside a train. But a strange train it is to have a lavender-blue themed hue and a TABLE!? Not just the table that is placed before him, a strange gentleman with inhuman-long nose sits comfortably with its elbows resting on the blue table. He might have been the one who spoke up earlier.
"...I see that you have awakened..."
He didn't know how to put words on this scenario he had run into. He insists to himself as merely a dream, his real self sleeping inside the monorail. However, he cannot dismiss the fact that this man is staring at him accompanied with a wide grin, all are in a creepy manner.
"...I am Igor, I am delighted to make your acquaintance..."
So his named was 'Igor' then? He felt a strange feeling that made him think that this 'Igor' man is somebody of powerful being or a mind reader. He tried his hypothesis by thinking it out loudly 'Where is this place?' At first, he wasn't expecting an answer.
"...This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter...Only those who have signed the contract can enter this place..."
Igor's reply startled him. So it's confirmed that he's a mind reader...at this rate, this conversation will be very silent, at least. But speaking it out feels more natural. Wait...signed a contract!? When did he signed a contract before?
From his confusion, an object is seen illuminated brightly at the center of the table, before it gradually dims. That object seems to be a touch tablet and it displays an actual contract in electronic form. He lunged forward to get a better picture, and he is shocked to accept the fact that there is his bold signature above on his name. The contents seems illegible to read from the distance but there is a line that's distinct from the rest that boldly reads. "I chooseth this fate of mine own free will."
The line didn't seem very special since it's easy to understand, so he didn't seem bothered by the idea. But he took notice of his reflection from the digital screen. He is crowned with black unkempt spiky hair, dons a thick-rimmed glasses and his dreamy dark eyes.
"Henceforth, you shall be welcome here in the Velvet Room. You are destined to hone your unique ability, and you will require my help to do so. I only ask one thing in return... ... that you abide by the contract, and assume responsibility for the choices you make."
At Igor's words, that request seems very easy to understand, but there's an unshaken feeling that something's not right even if this is inside a dream. While pondering at his seat, a smaller ball of light hovers near him slowly unveils a shining blue key.
"...'Til we meet again..."
Before he could say anything, his consciousness has been entirely swallowed by the darkness.
{...Shibuya station...ten minutes...}
His fogged head slowly drains away as his consciousness has returned to him. He had a rough dream while sleeping, no, rather a wild mysterious dream that it is worth reflecting upon to. The announcement of the train made him to woke up apparently. If he interpret it right, his station will be less than ten minutes before arrival. The best way to kill off time is to recall about this mysterious dream he had. His dream is in the 'Velvet Room' which he talked to a man named 'Igor' who has his 'contract' and was given a 'key'. One conjecture that he made up is that he sold his soul to an innocent-looking devil while in his sleep...but if the statement in the contract is true, now it's unlikely that will happen since no devil wants the victim to not be his slave. What about the key? He shuffled his pockets and by haptics, he can tell a quite bulky key is found in his possession. He sighed by the fact it was not just a dream.
Inside the train that he is in, he took a glimpse to the faces of the commuters of this line. Their faces spoke of anxiety, boredom and ignorance. It seemed that they didn't even noticed him snoozing off the train, let alone his sudden awakening from his sleep. He took a relieving breath from the fact, he trust that he should familiarize the surroundings a little.
Several panels of paper that hung at the metal bars of the train contains the headlines of yesterday's news. Strangle, tax evasion, scams...all are sore news. He thought, and quickly lost interest in it. Why bother reading news when it's filled with nothing but sins and lies?
He have thought of checking up on his phone. He's glad that his phone is still right on his pockets, and he grabbed for it then proceed on viewing on his phone. '1 new email' He'd expect at least spam just to have something fresh on his inbox. At his touch smartphone, he tapped on the new email icon.
|From: SHUJIN HIGH SCHOOL
|Pleased to meet you, and welcome to Shujin High School! To
|ensure that you won't be lost, we have provided you 'help';
|rest assured that this 'help' is a map file attached in this e-mail.
|since we fear that a new student might stray away, we have
|other option to choose. We have sent a representative for the
|new student, you, to fetch. May we wish you a happy and
|auspicious life for the school year served for you!
A file in bitmap format is attached with it. It holds the direction to the school that is annotated in thick red line that starts from the train station and laces to the school. The distance needs a little walk, but it's casual for him. While digesting the information in the email, something caught his attention which made him to placed his phone back to his pockets.
"Huh?"
By the doorway, she recognized two girls in uniform; one has a short ponytail with her right hand grasping at her pink phone and the other one has short bangs who seemed to be the noisy one of the two. The girls chatted in a laudable fashion, that he can pick off a handful of words from their conversation. Most of them were about expectations for the school year and the clubs they're joining. He assumed the girls were attending the same school with him, but their endless chattering killed his interest on hearing any further.
{...Next stop...Shibuya station...}
The train slows down its speed as it builds up momentum simultaneously. He sensed that he will be off in few minutes or less. He take a look at the outside through the window to scan the metropolitan suburbs of Shibuya. Indeed, any minute the train will arrive at the next stop: Shibuya station. The mechanical sound of the locomotive dies down gradually as it slowly approaches the next stop.
Then he realized something unusual. He had an unexplained feeling that the 'e-mail' his school sent has quite a suspicious aura, the same feeling he had when he was in the Velvet Room. Could they be linked together somehow? His mind is fuzzy, his heart beats faster than before. Are they? He could not avoid the stupefied look of his face as the mere hypothesis could be true...nonetheless, he can ponder about this later as the train is nearing to stop at the station. As the train halted, he adjusted his glasses and wears his blank, apathetic face. He shouldered his bag and made an exit through the train doors.
The Shibuya intersection is crowded as ever before. The apparitions of the normal passerby seemed to motioned back and forth as he follows the route to his destination. He took out his phone and opened the file that he accessed earlier to make sure he wouldn't get lost.
Aside from the expressionless passerby who would glued their eyes at their cellphones, several wide-screen digital billboards dotted several areas of the facades of buildings that are gathered near the intersection. The typical commercials of retailer goods, the faces of the prominent people flashes at the screens and several soporific spoofs it shows. These are nowhere in line to catch any of his attention or any citizen who'd rather stare blankly at their cellular screens.
All of a sudden, only his footsteps can be heard echoing to his ears. He took a pause from walking and he managed to take off his eyes from his smartphone. It felt...like everything's frozen in time.
Something's going on, that's what he thought as he rotated his head three-hundred sixty degrees just to learn the fact that each and every one are frozen still, like statues. By the center of the intersection, he spotted an out-of-the-ordinary bluish flame that rages brightly. Nothing's ordinary from the start, so he'd check it out the source. He swam at the sea of people before he now stands in front of the blue flame.
His face shifted to a mix of surprise and determination. Through his thick-rimmed glasses, he could tell a faint recognition of a figure from the bright-blue ember.
While casting off a blank gaze, the e-mail that he received suddenly crossed his mind. As he realized that something's off, he hypothesized that it's not the directions the 'help' they were offering to, but something else. Now, he remembered the message as clear as day. That message was...
"...PER-SO-NA..."
Author's Notes: End of the one-shot chapter fanfic for Persona 5! How'd you like it? Good? Not that Good? I accept constructive review for this chapter, but I don't expect anyone to favorite or follow because one, I will not add more chapters and two, It will take a while before Atlus releases another teaser (or why not the game itself?) Hahaha...
FUN FACT: This whole story took me three hours of my bed time! Read that, THREE HOURS! X( (I'm not blaming anybody but myself.)
ANOTHER LAME 'FUN' FACT: THIS ONE HAS EXACTLY 2015 WORDS! (That includes this whole sentence.)
I accept reviews, but don't bother to favorite or follow this story. (Seriously!)
I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE PERSONA SERIES