Note: I'll lessen the amount of POV switches in the future, I just felt it was appropriate in the first chapter.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

- Lao Tzu

Chapter 1 – The Beginning of a Journey

January 1st 2010

"The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate. By entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope. But the arcana is the means by which all is revealed. Along the beaten path lies the absolute end. It does not matter who you are, death awaits you."

And with that, our fates were sealed…

Time never waits.

It delivers all equally to the same end.

The two of you, who wish to safeguard the future,

however limited it may be…

You two will be given one year;

Go forth without falter,

with your hearts as your guide.

April 6th 2009

Minato POV

Burn my Dread. That's the name of my favourite song. It's funny because I don't really know what the songs about. Maybe it's about destroying fear or some kind of deeper meaning. Despite that, I love that song and its multiple versions. In every playlist I have, it's right at the top.

Speaking of which, I was cycling through my playlist to pass the time. For a moment I was tempted to play Time, my sister's favourite song, but in the end I went for some Daft Punk. You can't really go wrong with them. Music helps to distract me when I'm travelling. I get travel sick pretty easily so my parents got me a music player when I was young so I wouldn't think about the journey. I've never looked back since.

It used to be me, Mom, Dad, Miki and Naoto. Now, it's just Miki and I; after that car accident ten years ago. Naoto isn't dead or anything, she just lives with Grandpa Shirogane. I haven't seen her in nine years, if you can believe that, and neither has Miki. Speak of the devil, Miki has apparently decided that my shoulder would be a good place to rest her head.

Minako POV

Oh boy, here we go. I know that look he's giving me. That's the "get off my shoulder Miki" look. He knows I'll always win though because I have the perfect strategy. Step one, rest head on brother's shoulder. Step two, wait for him to turn to me and he'll make remark. Step three, reply with cute comment and puppy dog eyes. Step four, he relents and I get comfortable.

"Can I help you, Miki?" He asks. Alright, show time. I flicker my eyelashes so my eyes get watery and then open them really wide. With the combination of innocent face and adorableness, he already begins to relent slightly.

"Sorry big bro, I was just a little tired," I said as sweetly as possible. He rolled his eyes and returned to scanning through his playlist. And the winner is, Minako Arisato! I had a small victory dance in my head after defeating my emo brother in adorable combat, but the moment was short lived after a bump in the train line nearly launched me from my seat. Luckily, my brother was there to catch me, as he always did. He grabbed me by my waist and gently pulled me back to my seat. Oh here we go, now he's going to patronise me. Sadly, I have to thank the ass.

"Thank you," I muttered quietly in the hope he wouldn't hear me.

"There's nothing I wouldn't do for my little sister," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Hey, were twins remember! Just because you were pulled out first, doesn't make you my elder."

"Whatever you say, little sister." Sticking my tongue at him didn't show my maturity, but it made me feel better.

Sitting in a train carriage alone is pretty creepy, so I was glad that Minato was coming with me to our new school. Of course, that probably would have happened no matter what school I'd chosen to go to. If I had chosen a school in Tokyo, he would have applied there too. If I had applied to a school in a small town like Inaba, then he would have come too. Even if I had applied overseas, he would have made the effort to apply there as well.

There's something about big brothers like Minato, they're always looking out for their little sisters. Shame I can't go to the same school as Naoto but she's two years younger than us and I don't even know what she looks like now. I haven't seen her in nine years. Far too long. Because Grandpa was always so busy he could only take in one of us and since Mini and I were twins, Grandpa thought it would be cruel to split us up. We ended up living with aunty Arisato, my mom's sister. After this year, I'm going to talk to Mini about going to visit her and Grandpa Shirogane.

My eyes began to wander around the small train carriage we were riding in. We were the only ones in this carriage and the whole thing looked kind of generic. The interior was a silvery metal, with benches to sit on and handlebars to hold on too. What really was odd was the time. It was ridiculously late and I swear we were meant to have been off this train about four hours ago.

"Hey, Mini, wasn't this train meant to have arrived at Port Island ages ago?"

Minato POV

Despite trying to ignore the journey, my eyes were brought to my watch, upon hearing Miki's statement. Obviously she hadn't been listening when the intercom had announced that they would have to make a couple of diversions. However, she had a point. Four hours was a pretty big diversion. Actually it was close to midnight. "Don't worry, they said they would have to make some diversions," I assured.

"But what if we're locked out of our new dorm? We don't have a key remember. We were meant to pick one up from a Senpai at the dorm."

"I know, but I have to talk to you about that."

"Oh yeah? What's up?" I pulled out the school pamphlet and skipped to the page with our dorm assignments.

"Take a look here. It says that "All students will be transferred to a male or female dorm if they have no place to live on the island"."

"Alright, what's your point?"

"The point is there are no co-ed dorms. So why are we in the same dormitory?" Miki's head tilted to the side and her nose scrunched up slightly in thought. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her pamphlet and sure enough, it said that we were in the same dorm.

"Huh, you've got a point actually. Maybe it's a typo." Maybe, but I wasn't convinced. "I guess we'll just have to talk to whoever's in charge when we get there. And don't worry, I'll do the talking. I know how you are with people."

I hate people. Not my sister of course but I hate dealing with people. It's not healthy, I'm fully aware of that, but I just can't deal with it. Despite being my twin, my sister is my exact opposite. Popular, outgoing, friendly, she instantly makes friends wherever she goes. Me, I prefer to stay at home and study. I'm always that guy in the class that no one really knows or cares about. To everyone else, I'm just Minako's brother. And you know what? That's fine by me. Top grades at nearly every school I've been too make it worthwhile. Wish I could say the same for Miki, but she usually sleeps through class. She has no one to blame but herself when she receives a fail.

I look over to Miki and she's smirking at me now. It takes me a minute to figure why, but it soon hits me when I notice that she's gazing up at the top of my head. It's my hair again. Why does she always have a go at me about my hair? "Go on," I say, "I know you want to get it out of your system." She sits up a bit and start pulling at my bangs slightly.

"You haven't had blue hair for like ten years, or something like that. You were such a weird kid. What kid has blue hair at that age?" I grumble as she keeps playing with it, ruffling it until it got messy. "Seriously, I thought it was hilarious when you had that green mohawk two years ago, but what's with the bangs? Why would anyone willingly block half their vision?" I was thankful we were the only two in this part of the train.

"Y'know, I don't complain about your hair."

"True, but that's because it's perfect."

"Perfectly boring."

"Correction, perfectly cute."

I pretty much gave up on stopping her. The only way to stop her was to put my hands on her and pull her off me. I wouldn't feel right about that, even if I didn't hurt her in the process. Thankfully she got bored and went back to looking at her pamphlet while I did my best to sort out my messy hair. It takes me ages to get it right, only for Miki to mess with it. Before Miki could get up to anymore shenanigans, an announcement rang through the train's intercom.

Minako POV

"Due to a malfunction in the switching system, today's rail schedule has been greatly altered. We apologize to any customers who were in a hurry."

Oh thanks, that makes me feel so much better, I thought to myself sarcastically.

"The next stop is Iwatodi…"

"OH THANK GOD!" I couldn't help but shout out my relief to no one in particular, apart from my brother. Good thing he had put the volume in his Ipod set to max. I lightly tapped him on the shoulder and he looked very annoyed at me.

"What now?"

"They said that the next stop is Iwatodi. We'd better get ready." He grunted but did as I suggested. He stood up and grabbed our bags from the compartment above us and handed me mine which I quickly put over my shoulder. Mini could tell I was eager to get off and despite his quiet nature, I could tell he felt the same.

"By the way," he said, "This is the city, so there will likely still be a lot of people up. Just stick close to me alright. I don't want to lose you in a crowd."

"Relax, it's like midnight. It won't be that bad." Looking back, I should have known not to say those famous last words. Those words are up there with what could possibly go wrong?

The train began to break to a halt and Mini led us to the carriage exit. As soon as the train finally came to a stop, I was a little overwhelmed by what I saw. I've lived in big cities before, at midnight there were still people about, but they were generally thinned out. There were so many people at the station alone. They were all just milling about, talking, drinking and some just seemed to be standing around. Instinctively, my hand grabbed on to Mini's and I held it tightly. I hate to admit it, but sometimes, I do feel like his little sister. It isn't always a bad feeling.

The doors opened and we stepped out into the station. I felt his hand squeeze tighter on mine as he tried to keep me as close as possible. It was my idea to go to the dorm in our new school uniforms, but a little bit of me really wish we hadn't. Especially because of the skirt I was wearing. I could feel a few eyes on my legs but I held my head up high. Thinking about my adventurous sister always made me feel a little braver. I hated heights, but Naoto loved them. She kept dragging me up trees and hills to the point where I wanted to faint. The smile on her face though always made it worth braving the tall peaks. I'll keep going for Naoto.

Mini pushed past the crowd of people in our path. He acted as my shield through the masses of bodies in our way and soon enough, we had made it to the other side unscathed. A small sigh of relief left my lips as I looked up at brother. He had a smile on his face because he loved acting like a big brother. He looked up at the station's clock and his smile disappeared.

"Crap, it'll be midnight in a bit. We'd better hurry," he said. I didn't argue with that so I let go of his hand and we quickened our pace out of the station and into the main street.

*Tick*

*Tock*

*Tick*

*Tock*

*Tick*

Minato POV

As soon as we stepped out of the station, everything went dead quiet. That was the first oddity I noticed. I looked around and none of the street lights were on. In fact, everything had a sort of greenish glow to it. The eerie atmosphere made me clutch my bag and my sisters hand a bit tighter. Miki noticed this and looked up at me in worry.

"Bro, what's wrong?

"Everything just got really… quiet." Miki looked confused at first, but I noticed that it was slowly dawning on her as well when her head began darting in all directions.

"Where the heck did everybody go?" That was something I hadn't noticed. Before I could think on it any further, my sisters expression turned to one of shock as she gazed up at the sky.

"Miki, what's wrong?" I asked, unable to hide my worry from her. She didn't respond. Instead, she continued to look up at the sky. I followed her gaze and realised that she was looking up at the moon. At first I was confused as to why she was so entranced by it. Then as I took a closer look, I began to have trouble looking away. I could barely make out my sister's voice beside me.

"Doesn't the moon look really… creepy tonight?" The moon was definitely bigger than usual. In fact, it was emitting a sort of green glow. The moon doesn't actually emit light, it reflects light. That's why it appears so bright in the sky. So the reason it was glowing green was a complete mystery to me. Something was wrong, and my suspicions were confirmed when I spotted a coffin.

I only looked away from the moon for half a second, but in that time I spotted a lone coffin just a couple of feet down the street from us. There was a red liquid leaking from the top of the wooden structure that I assumed was blood. I looked back inside the train station and in the places of the people that were once standing around in the station, were identical coffins. Everyone, besides Miki and I, were now inside coffins.

The one thought going through my head was that I had to stay calm for Miki's sake. At that moment I looked over to her to see her staring wide eyed at the coffin down the street. On closer inspection, there were a couple down the pathway. Her hand clasped tighter on mine as she gazed at the wooden omens that lined the path ahead of us.

"Miki," I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Stay calm and walk with me. Let's get to the dorm."

Not another word was said between us as we marched towards our assigned dormitory. Along the way, our eyes never stayed on a single coffin for too long.

Minako POV

I should have been more relieved when we made it to the dormitory unharmed, but the feeling of dread that was building inside me refused to leave. More than once, I swore I saw something that wasn't human moving through the shadows. Mini's face had remained stoic throughout the trip but I could tell he was scared too. He was just a lot better at hiding it than me.

We stood in front of the large dormitory building for a moment before venturing inside. To our surprise, the door was actually unlocked. Mini assumed that they left it unlocked because they were expecting us. Of course anyone inside was likely inside a coffin now. I had the idea at one point to maybe take a peek inside one of the coffins, but a stern look from Mini deterred me from that. Every step we had taken seemed to echo eerily around us. I really hoped my mind was playing tricks on me because if there was something out there, then there was more than enough noise to let them know we were about.

"What are we gonna do?" I blurted out to nobody in particular. Mini put his hand on the door handle and turned to me.

"I don't know what's going on, but above all else, we've got each other." I nodded at him as I felt a bit assured. "Everybody inside is likely in a coffin now, but the door isn't unlocked so they must have been expecting us. You ready?" I nodded again. "Alright then, once were inside, let's wait this out."

Mini gently pushed the door open and held it for me as I walked in first. I guess he figured it would be safer inside rather than outside, but I wasn't thrilled about venturing in first. Apart from the creepy glow, everything looked relatively normal. The walls were brown and in front of me I could see a couple of couches, a small TV, and a dining table at the far end. I could also see a staircase leading upwards and beside that were two doors that led to male and female bathrooms. Everything looked pretty normal and with no coffins or blood to boot. I heard the door click shut behind and my brother walked up next to me.

"We're safe," he said with finality.

"Welcome." Both of our heads snapped towards a new voice. We looked over to a welcome desk right beside us, and a young boy was standing behind it. He was kind of creepy with his dead eyes and constant smile, but he was just a kid so I didn't think too much about.

My brother took off his headphones off as they hadn't been working since the moon turned green and the kid addressed us. "You're late. I've been waiting a long time."

Looking at the kid made me totally forget about what was going on outside. I put my brightest smile on and addressed him back. "Hey, nice to meetcha. You haven't been up all night waiting for us have you?" Mini just grunted to himself as he eyed the boy suspiciously.

"Time matters little to me", said the boy, "but I appreciate your concern." He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. I instinctively blinked and when I opened my eyes again, he was now standing right in front of us. "Now if you want to proceed, then please sign here. It's a contract." I blinked a couple of times before looking at what he motioning to. On the desk was indeed something that looked like a contract. "There's no need to be scared. It only binds you to accepting full responsibility for your actions."

Most people would have been wary about signing something they didn't fully understand. I just kind of shrugged and grabbed the pen beside the paper. I signed 'Minako Arisato' on the dotted line but made sure there was enough space for bro. Mini didn't jump at the chance to sign it, instead he took the boring route and read it to himself.

"I chooseth this fate of my own free will," he read aloud. "Although this is worded funny, I don't see anything out of the ordinary. I guess this really is just a contract saying we take responsibility for our actions while living here. Fair enough."

"Yes, something like that," muttered the boy. Minato signed it as well, and the boy quickly picked up the contract with a pale hand. He looked like death. "Time is something no one can escape. It delivers us all to the same end." As he said that, he moved the contract across his face and it seemingly vanished from existence. "Wishing won't make it go away. And so it begins."

Just like that, the boy disappeared right in front of us.

We stood there in silence for a couple of minutes before I spoke again. "Mini?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Did that boy really just vanish in front of us?"

"Yeah… yeah he did."

"… Do you think we would like living in an asylum? I think we've gone crazy."

"Who's there!?"

Minato POV

A panicked stricken brunette had descended the staircase and was staring right at us. She seemed scared, which wasn't unusual considering what was going on outside. However, she seemed especially scared of us. Her eyes held nothing but terror and sweat was leaking from her forehead. Her hand lowered slightly until it was hovering over something strapped to her leg. It was a holster, and in the holster was a gun. Instinct took over at that point as I threw myself in front of Miki. I was far too scared to even utter a sentence as I waited for the brunette to move next. Miki let out a tiny 'eep' but then I heard somebody else enter.

"Takeba, wait!" A tall, beautiful redhead was standing right at the foot of the stairs. As soon as the brunette took her eyes off of us, the greenish glow vanished and in its place was the usual lighting you would expect. My music began to play again too, but I quickly turned it off. The brunettes tension lowered, but the redhead approached us with a quickened pace. Miki stood out from behind me and came back to my side. The redhead stood next to the brunette. I think she was trying to keep her calm.

"I didn't think you'd arrive so late," she stated. "My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. I'm one of the students who live at the dorm." She walked with a certain grace, and I got the sense that she was well off just from her presence. Her clothing looked very expensive as well. I was still shaken up from a moment ago, and I assume Miki was the same because we neglected to introduce ourselves.

"… Who are they?" Asked the brunette.

"They're transfer students. It was a last minute decision to assign them here." That explained why both me a Miki were in the same dorm. "He will be eventually moved to a boy's dorm. She will also be moved to a different girl's dorm."

"… Is it okay for them to be here?"

"I guess we'll see," Mitsuru said with a small smile. I could tell that Miki didn't like being left out of the conversation as she suddenly butted in.

"Oh, I'm Minako Arisato by the way. And this is my twin brother, Minato Arisato." I simply nodded my head. There wasn't any point getting friendly, considering the fact we wouldn't be here long.

"Well met," said Mitsuru. "This is Yukari Takeba. She'll be a junior this spring, just like you two."

"… Hi, I'm Yukari," she said cautiously.

"Why do you have a gun?" Blurted out Miki.

Real smooth there, Sis.

"Huh? Um, well, it's sorta like a hobby…" I wasn't particularly good at telling if somebody was lying. However, she clearly was. It didn't really matter to me though. "Well, not a hobby but…"

"You know how it is these days," interrupted Mitsuru. "It's for self-defence." That sounded a lot more believable. My sister was wearing her usual goofy grin so she probably didn't get the obvious lie. She was always too trusting. "It's not a real gun of course."

"Oh that's cool. Can I have one?" Minako asked sweetly.

"Absolutely not! Real or fake, you'd find some way to blow your own head off." My outburst sent Miki back a bit. Mitsuru caught our attention again when she cleared her throat.

"It's getting late so you two should get some rest." She pointed to me. "Your room is on the second floor at the end of the hallway."

"I'll see myself there then. Thank you for your kindness." I lightly bowed and carried my bag with me to the stairs. "Good night everyone," I said as I ascended the staircase. I just wanted to put this weird day behind me.

Minako POV

Yukari was nice, she kind of reminded me of myself. As soon as Mini left in a sour mood, Yukari said she could show me to my room. I guess he was still freaked out from earlier but still, he could have made an effort to be nice. We talked a little bit and I explained that Mini was more of the loner type which she quickly understood. Looking at the gun now, it looked very real but at the same time I could see it wasn't loaded. Even if it was real, I'm sure she was just a little freaked out from all those coffins. Although I was surprised that hadn't come up at all. We were on the third floor and we stopped at the last door.

"This is it," said Yukari with a friendly smile. "Pretty easy to remember, huh? …Since it's at the end of the hall."

"Yeah, thanks Yukari."

"Don't mention it," she said with laugh. "So, any questions?"

"Oh yeah I do have one. Does that boy live here?"

"Boy?"

"Yeah, you know. The one with the striped shirt and the dead eyes. He looks kind of pale."

She just looked at me like I had a second head. "What are you talking about?"

"I guess I was mistaken," I lied through my teeth. There was a boy, but I guess they definitely didn't know him. Maybe he was connected to that weird stuff earlier.

"Um, can I ask you something?" Her confusion was gone, and now she looked more worried.

"Sure, go ahead."

"On your way here from the station, was everything okay?"

"Oh, well the moon kind of turned green and stuff. Then everybody turned into coffins and I think there were pools of blood all other the place. Apart from that, everything was cool. Anyway I better get some shut eye, laters!"

I left her standing there, slack-jawed at my bluntness. When I closed the door, I heard her suddenly sprint to her room in a panic. I couldn't help but burst out laughing. It was mean, but kind of funny. I knew right then though that this was going to be a very interesting year.

Just a note for future reference, Mini is pronounced Me-Knee by Minako. So there have been a few written versions of this classic game, but I can't seem to find a proper one where it features both the male and the female protagonists. So expect hilarity, adventure, friendship and romance from this story. Another note to make is that I will no be pairing everybody up, only if I find it appropriate. However, I am also very open to suggestions so don't be afraid to put one in a review.