I LIVE!
Finally, I have a workable idea for a fanfic, and it comes from watching an anime of a video game of all things!
As you might be able to tell from the title of this story, this is based off the storyline of Persona 4, though a few things have been/will be changed. Also: this is based primarily off the anime rather than the games, so no details from Golden or the game.
A few notes: there will occasionally be a change in POV and tense. These come from when Riku is inside the Velvet Room, where the story will be in 1st person, present tense. Otherwise it'll all be 3rd person, past tense.
Anyway, enjoy!
This place…what is it?
The room is long, almost as if it belongs in a limousine, and surrounded in blue ambient light. No, not light. It always looks like that, my mind tells me.
This fabric…I remember the name. It's…
"Welcome," a deep voice interrupts my thoughts, "to the Velvet Room."
My head rises to take in two men garbed in black, and a woman in light blue, a colour that matched her hair. All of their eyes are almost a deep a blue as the room itself. The man at the head of the table has long dark hair, and scars across his face, ones that remind me of old samurai movies. The second man has messy brown hair, though it seems well-kept, and his muscles almost seem to bulge under his skin-tight shirt.
The scarred man looks at me and smiles kindly. "I can see you're a little confused as to what this place is. Well, allow me to explain."
He moves his hand above the table and, to my shock, cards begin to appear in flashes of blue light. Tarot cards, I correct myself.
"This place exists in a realm between," the man explains. "Between dream and reality, between mind and matter. It's a place only those bound by a contract may enter."
"A contract that only a chosen few can make," the second man adds, looking at the woman, who nods.
She opens the large tome on her lap, and the cards that had appeared on the table are suddenly sucked into the book, filling the once empty pages. "Are you one of those few? Are you a person chosen to make a contract? A person with hidden abilities?"
"Perhaps so," the first man interjects. "Now, why not introduce yourself? What's your name?"
My mouth feels dry, my eyelids heavy, but I manage to croak it out.
"Riku. Riku Tsubasa."
A light similar to the ones that appeared when the scarred man summoned the Tarot cards appears on the table, and from it comes a piece of paper. It has a lot of writing on it, most of it in a language I can't understand, but there are two words that I can decipher.
My name. My signature. This…is a contract?
The eyes of all three people widen, but it soon fades into smiles.
"We were right. You are chosen," the woman chuckles.
"We will meet again," the scarred man tells me, his head bowing. "Until then, my friend, we must part."
My head suddenly feels heavy, and I can feel drowsiness growing until my head drops, and I feel like I'm falling.
Falling into a darkness I may never recover from.
Riku Tsubasa's head snapped up as he heard the ding of the train's announcements. He looked around. That's right. He was on a train, bound for his new home town, after the deaths of his parents.
"So what was that room?" he muttered to himself. Eventually he shrugged it off as a dream.
The ding came again, and the train driver's name came on in pleasant tones. "Good afternoon, travellers. Our next and final stop will be Yūgure Station. I repeat: Our final stop will be Yūgure Station. Thank you for travelling with us, and have a nice day."
Riku stood up and collected his two bags from the compartment above him. One was his luggage – clothes, a few gifts for the relatives he was going to live with – and the second was essentially his schoolbag. It was the one he'd used at his old school in Hareyakana, and he'd use it here too.
The train came to a halt, and Riku stepped out onto the platform, which was bare save for himself and a cleaner in terms of people. He walked outside to see exactly what Yūgure looked like for himself.
It seemed like an ordinary, simple mountain town to him, though he had nothing to compare it to. Hareyakana had been a bustling city, and Yūgure was almost microscopic in comparison.
He looked around for his ride – his relatives – but saw nothing. "Is no-one here?" he asked himself.
"Hey!" a male voice interrupted him. Slightly shocked, he turned to see a rather scruffy-looking man in a dark shirt and pants, wearing a slightly-undone light red tie. He had unkempt, spiky dark red hair, and slight dark stubble on his chin. On his arm was a girl who seemed to be about Riku's age, though maybe a little younger. She wore a white top and a dark skirt, while thin-rimmed glasses framed her face.
"Sorry we're late," the man smiled. "I had to pick my niece up from class." He gave a familial affectionate look to the girl at his side. "I say niece, but she's actually my cousin's daughter, who I've taken care of since she…well, you'd know. Sorry."
Riku just nodded, keeping his straight face.
"You really don't remember me, do you? Well, it has been a while since I saw you. Nearly twelve years now… Anyway, my name's Lea Flynn. This is Amanda Yaminoha."
"Hi," the girl said simply, smiling cutely.
"We should get going. It's nearly dinner time." Lea smiled again and led the way to his car. "I bet Yūgure's a big difference from back home in Hareyakana."
"Yeah," Riku replied. "It's a lot smaller for one thing. More peaceful."
"Nothing really happens here," Amanda chimed in. "The worst crime we've ever had was a kid stealing candy from the mall nearby."
"And I threw the book at that punk," Lea chuckled.
"You're a cop?" Riku asked, looking away from a storefront poster of a bikini-clad Brittany.
"Yep, Yūgure Police Department, first class Detective."
"Uncle Lea's the best on the force. Not that that's saying much," Amanda giggled softly.
"Now, now, Amanda, be nice about the guys." Lea's voice was strained.
Lea's house was fairly large for the area, big enough for everyone to have their own room, and his detective's salary was enough for them to have three TVs in the house: one in the lounge, one in Lea's room, and a third in what would become Riku's room.
Dinner was simple – a takeaway pack of sushi, for which Lea apologised. "I'm not that good a cook, so we'll have to make do."
The meal was interrupted, though, when Lea got a call on his cellphone. "Ugh, it's work. Sorry, kids, gotta take this." He stood up with a groaning sigh and answered. "Flynn. I…I see. Alright, I'm on my way." He put his phone away. "Sorry, Riku, but I have to go to work. Something's…happened. You two should be OK on your own, right?"
"Sure!" Amanda beamed.
"Alright then." Lea smiled a sad smile. "I'll see you guys later." He grabbed a suit jacket from nearby and slipped out.
After dinner, Riku and Amanda had a brief conversation before they went to bed, with Riku unpacking quietly until the late hours. When he finally finished, it was almost midnight. With a heavy sigh, he sat on the somewhat hard sofa that faced his TV. "Stuck here, huh?" he wondered quietly.
The raindrops threatened to send him to sleep, but they were interrupted by a flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder.
Midnight hit, and something Riku had not expected happened.
The TV turned itself on, showing a fuzzy-looking sepia screen. He could vaguely see a woman's figure on the screen, but he didn't think anything of it.
Then a voice began to mutter in his head as he stared at the screen.
I am thou…
Riku clutched his head as the voice hit him. Somehow, it physically hurt when this voice spoke to him. What was happening?
I am thou…and thou art I!
He let out a quiet cry of pain, then felt himself collapse onto the sofa.
Riku saw the darkness of sleep…but shuddering constantly at the edge of the black were scratchy words, and a voice continued to mutter like a madman.
I am thou, and thou art I…
In case you haven't clued, the three people in the Velvet Room were Eraqus, Aqua and Terra. Eraqus is essentially a less-creepy Igor, and Aqua is basically Margaret. Terra I threw in because I felt like it.
A note or two:
1. "Yūgure" means "Twilight" in Japanese, and "Hareyakana" is "Radiant". Basically, this means that Riku's moved from a version of Radiant Garden to a version of Twilight Town. I just translated them so I could just use the one name.
2. Amanda is not my creation. She belongs to the mun of askthetravelingfangirl on Tumblr, but she uses the name "Darkblade" for her last name. I translated that into Japanese, then condensed it a little to create the name "Yaminoha".
Anyway, next chapter, we'll meet some of Riku's new friends!