I do not own the Persona series nor do I own the Megami Tensei super-series that it is a part of. I do own the ideas, plot, and characters of this fanfic. Any products, services, logos, works, or companies referenced are the property of their respective owners. Also, a small thing for reviewers. The style will be a bit simple and undetailed to start with. This is a stylistic choice and will change and develop as the story progresses.
Chapter: Journey
Hello, I am Yamada Taro. I am a 17-year old Japanese high school student, although I am currently on break. My father has recently been diagnosed with some lung issues, so my family had to move out of the big city we've lived in my entire life. We're currently on a train to the town of Osaka where we will stay with my uncle for a day before going on to the small town of Okako. I've been suffering insomnia the last couple days, but the movement of the train and clear night sky lull me into sleep.
When I opened my eyes, the filled train car was empty. The dull red seats and grey interior had been replaced with blue. Looking out of the window, instead of the rural areas I should have seen, it was space. Just blackness and millions of small points of light. Looking around, I noticed that I had moved from the left side of the car to the center and all the other seats had disappeared. Somehow it had changed while I was looking around. Probably just a dream, nothing too strange.
A small, clothed table came into view in front of me. A hunched man with sparse white hair and an extremely large, almost comedic nose appeared as well. Then a rough-looking tall man, almost seven feet tall I would guess, with spiked blond hair appeared. The long-nosed man wore a black suit, while the tall man wore a blue suit that looked too formal for him, kind of like an elevator attendant or limo driver.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room, my dear young man," the long-nosed man greeted. He opened his eyes, revealing them to be very bloodshot. I muttered something back, but even I am not sure what it was. "My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This man is Victor, a resident here like myself."
"'Sup," the rough-looking man greeted in a surprisingly deep but clear voice. The long-nosed man, Igor, gave him a small look of annoyance.
"This place," Igor resumed, "exists between dream and reality, mind and matter...It is a place where only those bound by a contract may enter. Perhaps your destiny will lead you that way soon. Now then, why don't you introduce yourself?"
"I-I am Yamada Taro, sir," I stutter out. I am not sure why I called him sir, he just has a certain air about him. The rough-looking man, Victor, smirks and chuckles a little to himself.
"Interesting, greetings Yamada Taro. Now then, do you believe in tarot." He ran his hand over the table and an array of blue cards appeared on it.
"Yes," I muttered weakly. I've never thought about fortune-telling before, really, but this was just too surreal to deny anything for sure.
"Good," he replied with a chuckle. "Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different." He chuckled again. "But life follows the same principles, doesn't it?" He pointed at a card which flipped itself over. "The card representing the immediate future is Fortune in the upright position. A symbol of, well, fortune. It seems that your fortune will change in some way. It will likely be good, but everything must cycle so it cannot be said for certain."
He pointed to a second card, which also flipped over. "The card representing the future beyond that is The Chariot. A complex card, it can mean a hard fight or a merging of two groups under one leader, among other things." For some reason, he ignored the other cards. "It seems that there will be a sudden change of fortune and you will be forced into either a fight or a position of leadership, possibly both.
"In the next few days, you will enter into a contract. My duty to you, a guest here, is to provide assistance and make sure that nothing terrible befalls you. We will talk more some other time. Until then, farewell." The two men disappeared. Then the table, followed by the train. Then the stars blinked out, and I was left in total darkness.
I woke up on the real train. People surrounded me, but the noise was low as the sun was just beginning to rise and most were asleep still. What had just happened? Was that really just a dream, or was it something more? It felt too weird to be real, but also felt too important to just be a dream.
I noticed my reflection in the window and looked over it. Short brown hair, thankfully still in good condition after sleeping against the train seat. I've been told that before that my face looked generic, and I really didn't have any noteworthy features: dark eyes, average nose and mouth, small chin. I was average height, average width. I don't work out but I don't spend all my time just lounging around so I had average muscling. Even my name was kind of generic. I guess I am totally generic and average, so how could something big be happening to me?
As I mulled over my thoughts, the city pulled into view. More people had started waking up and looking at the town. Just something that happened every day, a train pulling into a major city. The sun rising like any normal day. But it was also an unusual day. With the arrival in Osaka, a whole new life for me starts. Who known how things will go?
We arrived at the train station and me and my parents got off the train. My uncle, my father's older brother and a rather round man in bright clothes, greeted us there. He gave us a ride back to his home. He lived in an apartment building and led us up to where his family lived.
He lived with his wife and young daughter-my aunt and cousin-but they were out when we arrived. The apartment was clean and rather lackluster, nothing very memorable. It kind of reminds me of myself.
Later on, while my parents were talking to my uncle and I sat there being ignored, my aunt and cousin came back. My aunt was apparently even older than my uncle, though I didn't know her age, but looked only a few years older than myself. My cousin was young, though I don't remember exactly how young since it's been a while since I last saw her. They both greeted me warmly, but soon left me alone like the others. Normally I am not such a loner, but the dream just sticks in my head and makes me think.
"I am going out for a walk, I will stick in the neighborhood," I called to the others. I need some air, and I won't get that thinking to myself.
"Don't forget the address, be back soon," my dad responded with barely a thought.
I put back on my shoes and left the apartment, noting the number and address as I left. I've never been to Osaka before so I just followed the sidewalk in a circle a few times.
As I came in front of the apartment building again, I noticed a small shrine across the street. Weird, I could have sworn it was a shop before, but now it was definitely a shrine. So I crossed the street and went into it. It was rather plain, just the shrine itself and a small garden and gate, but I felt myself drawn to it.
"Oh, hello, we don't get many visitors" a woman greeted me from behind. I turned around to look at her. She wore a white robe unlike one a shrine worker would usually wear. She had curly brown hair and looked foreign, like she was from Europe or something with a deep tan and green eyes.
"Oh, It is okay for me to be here, isn't it?" She responded with a smile and didn't say anything out loud for a few minutes.
"Of course it is. Please, make a prayer to the temple god before you leave."
"Of course, what is his name?" She just smiled at me again. I am not sure what to make of that smile, so I just go up to the shrine and make a small prayer to a god who I don't even know the name of. When I finished, I felt an odd flow of energy through my body and my thoughts cleared up. When I looked around, the shrine worker had disappeared so I left and returned to the apartment.
I spent the night on a spare futon in my cousin's room. It was surprisingly comfortable, but I couldn't get to sleep. I tossed and turned in bed for a while with my eyes closed, but nothing happened. Finally I gave up and started thinking about the last day. A strange vision, a store changing into a shrine, a meeting with a mysterious woman. It was all very...what the heck is that? I opened my eyes and noticed something weird out the window of the room. The curtain on it had been torn off and it no longer looked out to the city. Instead I saw a hall of mirrors. Looking around, I saw that the room around me had also changed. My cousin had disappeared and the door became a mirror which I could see into perfectly despite a lack of light in the room.
I got up and approached the mirror, watching as my shadow grew. When I got within arms reach, I set a hand on it. My reflection didn't put out its hand. It's eyes started glowing yellow and I stumbled back, falling onto my cousin's small bed.
"What are you?" I shouted at the reflection, which still remained in the same position.
"I am a shadow of the true inner self," it replied. The voice sounded like my own, but with an echo onto it. "I am...hmm." It let out an odd laugh. "I am nothing, there is nothing inside. Not even doubt, you are empty. I can feel some emotion, but they mean nothing, you have nothing true inside."
"Wh-what are you saying? Of course I have something inside." I stuttered out the sentence. "This isn't even possible, what are you?"
"As I said, I am a shadow of the true inner self. I am you. Or I would be, if there was anything to you."
"Shut up, you aren't-" I cut myself off as a thought struck me. I said it myself, I am generic. I never get overly emotional, I never stand out in anything, I am absolutely plain. "You're right, you are me. I do feel some things, like irritation right now. But I am undefined. I am just 'that guy' who no one really knows, not even I do. But it doesn't have to be that way. If you're telling me to change, I will. You are me, thank you."
The shadow smiled. "Yes, I am thou." A blue light engulfed it. When the light faded, a new form stood there. It looked like a brown ninja. He had Sarutobi etched on a grey metal headband and a monkey's tail. He did a quick spin in the air, revealing a 10 on his back and that he was floating mid-air. "And thou art I. I am Sarutobi Sasuke, the Agile Koga of the Sanada Ten Braves." He faded away as the sentence finished.
"What in the world?" I felt a flash of pain in my head and fell over, sinking into unconscious.
I woke up the next morning back on the futon. Everything looked normal again, and I couldn't help but wonder if what happened last night was just a dream. I mean, that just wasn't possible, why am I even thinking it could have been real. But it seems to coincidental with the other dream and my visit to the shrine. As I started to stand up, my head practically split open in pain and I fell back onto the futon.
The image of the brown ninja from my dream appeared in my head surrounded by space. A weird grid of information, like something from a video game, appeared. I didn't recognize any of it, but somehow I could make it out. It read: Level 1, Fool Arcana. Sarutobi Sasuke. Resists Wind, Weak to Electric, Blocks Light. Knows Garu, Bash, and Rakukaja. Then it listed Strength, Magic, Endurance, Agility, and Luck; and had a number besides each, a mixture of twos and threes. What does any of that mean?
As I finished looking over it, the headache faded and the image disappeared. I opened my eyes to see my cousin tiredly looking at me.
"Don't worry, go back to sleep," I told her as I got up. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep. I closed my eyes and fell into thought.
The information I just saw shows that either everything from the last day or so was real, or I've gone mad. Either way, I am worried. How could this be real? A dimension between dreams and reality with a train and mysterious passengers? A dream where I had to confront my 'real self' which then became some sort of ninja? No way this can be real, but I am not mad either.
I have to see Igor or that shrine maiden, they are both suspicious if they are real at all. I can't just go to a realm 'between reality and dreams', but the shrine across the street should be easy enough. No one else was awake, and a look out of the window showed that the sun was actually just rising. We would be leaving to Okako soon, so I should hurry up. I wrote up a quick note that I was running across the street for a little while. My parents probably wouldn't care that I ran out since they would know where I was.
Unfortunately, there was no shrine across the street. Just a small grocery store. Maybe I am mad. No, this whole thing stinks of impossible magic, maybe getting to the shrine requires magic too? What did I do before going there yesterday? I walked around the neighborhood a few times, like four or five. So I did that again.
The shrine still wasn't there. I tried going around the neighborhood again. Still nothing. So I decided to go into the store. To my surprise, the cashier was the shrine maiden. She looked at me as I came in and made eye contact. I felt fear looking into her eyes, but forced myself to approach the counter.
"Hello, sir," she greeted. Her voice was warm, but didn't clear my fear or apprehension. "Nice to see you again."
"Nice to see you, too," I returned the greetings. "Hey, um, uh…"
"Not now," she said flatly. "That is not a public matter. I will explain everything later."
"I won't be here later," I managed to gather up and say. "I am leaving to another town and I probably won't be coming back."
"And? Everything will be explained in due time."
"But-" she cut me off with a raised hand.
"Everything will be explained," she repeated.
"Fine." I grabbed a candy bar and drink and pulled out my wallet. "I will take this then, might as well get something while I am here." After making my purchase, I went back to the apartment. My father and uncle were awake and eating some breakfast.
"Hey, Taro," my uncle greeted. "Where were you?"
"Just ran across the street to buy some things from the store there," I replied.
"Well, we are heading out in an hour," my father spoke up. "Make sure you are ready."
"Okay."
It took two hours to get to our new house. Then it took an extra hour and a half for the moving truck with all of our things in it to arrive. We unpacked quickly and waited for something else to happen.