No clue where this came from, I found these 4 chapters saved on my computer, and I sort of like the idea (must be why I wrote it in the first place). Not sure if I'll get back to it, since I don't quite know where I was going with it. But if I get inspiration, or someone asks me to, I will try to keep writing.
This is not a Romance!!! I know that much, it's a family fic, you'll understand why next chapter.
There is definitely a major OC, so don't read if you don't like, that and if you don't like major story alterations, you probably shouldn't either, (tho this isn't really altering the game plot much, just that Shinjiro shouldn't die, as far as I know).
When I'm scared, I tend to talk alot.
The moon turned suddenly green, and the sophomore sighed, not even glancing around at sudden change of all the people in that sleazy part of town turning into coffins as the walls began to ooze blood.
"At least it's finally quiet," he muttered to himself, pondering just up and leaving while it was quiet.
Then he heard the scream. Oddly, it wasn't the normal wordless cry of terror. Instead, someone clearly cried, "Can anyone hear me?!"
He heard distant feet on tar and cursed himself for being to soft as he rand off in the direction of the scream. As he neared the feet, he heard a young woman talking to herself out loud. "Of course not they're all coffins. What am I supposed to do?!"
Then there was a thud.
He winced in sympathy and was forced to stop at a 12 foot tall fence, cursing he turned to go around.
The girl scrambled to her feet and ran down a side street, a dark blob a few hundred feet behind her.
She realized to late it was a dead end and turned to face her pursuer, not between her and the only way out. It slowed as it realized she couldn't escape, and she laughed nervously.
"That was smart, trip while running for your life, huh." She smiled shakily, "I'm really going to die then, aren't I?"
The shadow lunged at her and she closed her eyes.
Shinjiro managed to get back around and hurried towards the sound of the shadow, worried that the feet had stopped.
Then he heard her explain the thud and raced around the corner, just as the shadow charged the high school student standing there. Without time to consider the consequences, he whipped out his evoker and released his Persona, "Castor!" She looked up in surprise in time to see the mounted knight crash into her attacker, ripping it into a thousand pieces. She was shocked, and horrified as it turned to her.
Shinjiro felt Castor breaking away from his hold and tried to force him down in terror. Castor wasn't having any of that, and charged…
"Did you say Castor?" The girl stammered, scrambling into the corner.
Shinjiro blinked at her in surprise, and Castor backed up, before dissipating. "Uh, yea," Shinjiro replied awkwardly as she blinked and stood up.
"Thank you," She said quickly, "You saved me, right?"
"Yea…" Shinjiro replied, "Are you really that calm all the time?"
She blinked, then laughed nervously, bordering on tired hysteria. "No," she told him when she straightened, "I'm scared out of my wits right now. But when I'm scared I tend to talk a lot. It's a sort of defense mechanism."
"How does that defend you?" Shinjiro asked incredulously, unaware that he had talked more with this girl than anyone he'd met since he left school.
"When I'm scared, it's almost always because I have to talk to somebody human," she said bluntly, "If I can talk instead of freezing up, they don't think I'm shy, and leave me alone." She smiled slightly, shaking, "I guess it doesn't help much when I'm being attacked for real." She walked over to him, and looked at him for a moment before she glanced away, "I'm an idiot aren't I, thinking I'd want to be in any story but real life. It's certainly exciting, but I'm not going to survive this." She smiled weakly at him, "I always knew I'd be useless in any of my favorite stories. But it's more fun to read manga than to live in real life, isn't it."
"You're scared," Shinjiro stated, somewhat bemused by the strangely coherent chatter.
"Terrified," she said with a nod, "What's going on?"
Shinjiro stared at her, a high school girl who could think… He thought Mitsuru was the only one, and she'd been trained to do that. "Well…" he said glancing around, "There is an hour between midnight and 12:01 that most people turn to coffins for. Many of those things that attacked you are out then, and they eat anyone who is out of a coffin that they can get their hands… um… whatever on. The result of that is Apathy Syndrome."
She sat down hard, landing in a puddle of blood. He looked at her, and saw she was shivering but nodding slowly, "So, I don't get mangled, even if it rips me to shreds, I just loose my mind completely." She laughed again, "It's silly, but I can't seem to think of anything worse than that."
He nodded shortly, "You won't remember this after you return to the real world, and next time this happens, you will probably just turn into a coffin, if you haven't been experiencing this until now."
She looked at him sharply, "I've been asleep for two hours by now. How would I know?"
She looked away as he digested that there were actually high school students who slept.
"Does this wash out?" She asked suddenly, startling him.
He looked over to se her standing, holding the dripping end of her sweatshirt, her pants were also soaked. "It's part of the dark hour. It won't even have happened when this ends."
She blinked, then smiled, "Oh, good."
He turned and started away.
"Hey wait!" She started after him.
"The dark hour is almost over, you should go home before you wake up and don't know how you got here," Shinjiro told her shortly. She stopped and he kept walking.
"Well, thank you, and thank Castor for me."
He stopped and turned to her, the moon turned blue, and the sounds of life started up again.
"What's your name sempai?" she asked him from where she stood against the alleyway.
"Shinjiro Aragaki," he replied, then realized the change in lights. Glancing around in shock, he verified, that the dark hour was over.
"See you at school," her cheery voice called out to him, and he spun around, she remembered?! But she had disappeared past him into the crowd.
