Chapter 1: A Fateful Meeting

MAPOV

Monday 4/6/09: Late Evening, Inside a train

"Final stop is Iwatodai. I repeat, Iwatodai."

"Hmm?" I was busy listening to "Burn My Dread" when the conductor made the announcement. Well I'm almost there... I still can't believe I'd ever come back here though. I thought to myself. 10 years ago, I had gotten in a car accident and that left me the only survivor. Both of my parents were lost that day. If anything I should be thankful for coming back here; maybe I can find some answers here.

I went back to listening to my MP3 player just so it could keep me awake for the ride. While I was listening to my music, there was another boy about my age sitting in a seat not too far from me.

He had brushed down black hair and was wearing a leather jacket, finger-less gloves, jeans, and boots that were all black except for the white t-shirt underneath the jacket. He was listening to music like myself. I took a closer look at him and could see a little bit of myself in him. Maybe we could get along.

He began to notice that I was staring at him, and walked towards me. The whole time he kept a straight face, so I was a little nervous that I might have angered him.

"Hey," he said to me. "I noticed you were staring at me for a bit. Something on your mind?"

"Yeah. I was just curious on what you were doing."

"Listening to music, what else?" He seemed a little annoyed. "Anything else you like to add to your observation?"

"Umm... so what are you doing here in Japan anyways?" He rose a brow at me, pondering for an answer.

"I suppose I could tell you," he said simply as he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm here to enroll at Gekkoukan High School."

"Really?" I said in surprise. "Well I'm enrolled to Gekkoukan also."

"Huh. So I guess that would mean that we would be classmates... and possibly dorm mates." He pulled out a brochure from his pocket and presented it to me. "You staying at this dorm I take it?"

"Yeah. Maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing would it, being dorm mates?" He gave a simple hmph. "Actually we could be friends, that way it could make this experience less awkward for you." I stuck my hand out, and noticed that he was taken by surprise from my offer.

"R-really?" I nodded. "Wow... um, thanks." He kept a stoic face as he shook my hand, but I'm sure he's glad to have made a friend.

"We have reached our destination," the conductor had announced.

"Well here's our stop," I said to him and we both got off the train.

"So what time is it?"

"Let me check." I pulled my phone out and read the time. "It's 11:59 PM right now."

"Geez that late huh? Alright we better start heading to our new dorm."

I looked at a wall clock near the entrance of the train station and watched as it changed to 12:00 AM. That time again huh?

The power went out causing the city to be enveloped in darkness. The street lights, the buildings, the cars, hell both my MP3 player and cell phone had no energy in them. A green glow started to emit all around us with the streets becoming covered with blood splatters and the water in a local fountain also turned to blood. All the people around us had turned into coffins.

"Hmm. So something like that happens here too."

"Huh? Umm what are you talking about?" I asked.

"It's nothing. Let's just keep moving. The dorm shouldn't be too far from here."

Eventually we found a tall building that looked to be 5 stories high. There was a plaque on the side of the door saying Iwatodai Dormitory.

"Well this is it. Our new dorm." I said.

Monday 4/6/09: ?, Iwatodai Dormitory

The both of us stepped inside the dorm with the darkness surrounding us along with the green light emanating ever so eerily.

"At least we made it here. Let's just hope that there are other people around here."

"Yeah and preferably ones that AREN'T in coffins." He took this rather well. I mean when I experienced this the first time I was the same way although I questioned why it happened. This guy, however, was unaffected by it.

With the both of us sighing in exasperation, a child-like voice, presumably a boy, pierced our ears and caught the both of us off guard.

"You're late I've been waiting for a long time," he announced causing us to turn over towards the counter. There he was leaning on the counter top with his head resting on his hands all while wearing striped clothing. Another unusual thing about him was his bright blue eyes that seemed to be watching ever so intently and the smile on his face, showing his excitement at seeing us. The both of us walked towards the strange boy.

"I take it you're the kid of the one who runs the dorm," my friend said standing next to me.

He chuckled at what he said and the both of us looked at each other in confusion, but not before he proceeded to talk again.

"Anyways if you want to proceed, please sign here." he stated calmly, and almost like magic he snapped his fingers causing two contracts to appear out of thin air. Both contracts were placed on the top of the counter. I grabbed the feather pen that also appeared and signed my name on the bottom. Minato Arisato

My friend couldn't help but look at my name and said, "So that's your name eh? Well I should've asked you on the train earlier." He began to chuckle. He grabbed the pen and signed his signature on the other contract. I tried to look at his signature so I would know his name, but the moment he finished signing the contract the strange boy took both contracts quickly.

"Time doesn't wait for anyone. It delivers us all to the same end. You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes," he said with a trance-like voice as he made the contracts disappear with a snap of his finger. "And so it begins..." he finished and proceeded to chuckle. He then stepped back into the shadows and vanished right before our eyes.

"Well that was some welcome party," my friend scratched his head. "You have any grasp on what the hell just happened?"

"Not at all, and it's not like we could just ask any-" A yell suddenly interrupted me.

"WHO'S THERE?" We turned to see that there was a girl standing in front of us. She looked to be the same age as us. She had shoulder-length brunette hair and was wearing a short black skirt and pink cardigan with some kind of armband around her left arm, a red ribbon in front of her chest, and some kind of necklace. The girl had a glare as if she was threatening us, but her involuntary shaking says otherwise. "What the?! How can the both of you move," she yelled once again. We just stared at her in silence. "Wait a minute... don't tell me..."

My friend nudged me on the shoulder. "Hey, there's a gun around her thigh," he whispered. Lo and behold there was a gun holster wrapped around her thigh, with her left hand hovering over it. She began to draw her weapon, before she stopped at the command of another voice.

"Takeba, wait!" The girl lowered her gun and turned towards the stairs. At the bottom was another girl, who looked a little older than her. She had long red hair that seemed very silky and she had this sort of regal manner emanating from her presence.

At the same time, power suddenly returned to the building and presumably everywhere else and my MP3 player began playing "Burn My Dread" almost like it was paused for the longest time.

"I didn't think the both of you would arrive so late," she spoke as she started walking toward us and stood next to the other girl. She bowed towards us respectfully, "My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. I am one of the students living in the dorm." Ah, thought that name sounded familiar. She comes from the Kirijo family, and they basically run this whole city. No wonder she gave off that vibe, though there's a bit of coldness in her somehow. It's probably just me.

"This is Yukari Takeba. She's one of the other students living here. She's also a junior this coming spring, just like the both of you."

"...Hey." the identified brunette said still sounding a bit unsure about us. She began to whisper to Mitsuru, "Just who are these two senpai?"

"They are transfer students, it's something very last minute. Right now they'll each be assigned a room before moving to another dorm."

"Is it okay for them to be here?"

"I guess we'll have to wait and see..." Mitsuru said with a slight chuckle. "Anyways sorry about that minor inconvenience."

"It's nothing to be worried about. Stuff like that can happen. Name's Mark Redgrave by the way." Redgrave? That's an unusual name.

"And my name is Minato Arisato. Nice to meet you both." I bowed.

"Okay so now that the introductions are out of the way, I'd like to see my room now. I'm pretty tired," Mark said plainly.I couldn't help but yawn to show my sentiments.

"Ah but of course, it has been a long trip for the both of you." Mitsuru pulled out two keys from her pocket. "Takeba, could you please show them to their rooms?"

"Sure thing senpai," Yukari answered. "Alright you two, follow me to your rooms." The both of us followed Yukari up the stairs to the second floor and led us to the end of the hallway.

"Alright this is it. Pretty easy to remember right? Just at the end of the hall," she said. "Your room is on the right side of the hallway Minato-kun, and your room is opposite to his Mark-kun. So that concludes the tour, do you two have any questions?"

I said to Yukari, "I think we're okay for right now."

"You might say that now, but I think you'll want to ask us later then. Alright have a good night you two." She turned away from us and began to walk towards the stairs, but not before asking one more question. "By the way, was it alright walking here? I mean did any of you two notice anything out of the ordinary?"

"It was fine actually," Mark answered for us.

"I see then. Alright see you two in the morning," Yukari said as she began to walk up the stairs presumably to the girl's floor.

"This was one weird night hasn't it Mark? Um Mark?" He just kept looking towards the stairs that Yukari went up before I snapped him out of his daze.

"W-what?" He asked nervously.

"You alright there bud?" I chuckled. He was quick to nod his head. Maybe he's interested in her. "I was saying that I wish you a good night?"

"Oh. Yeah, good night Minato."

Author's Note

Welp here it is. This is gonna be quite a ride for me. I should explain why I'm doing this. First off I am a fan of both these series, so I thought why not create a cross over between them. Secondly, I always wanted to imagine myself in their world (very dorky I know), so I decided to make myself a character in it. And I sort of want to pair myself up with a certain someone (oh god that sounds REALLY bad). Well I'm more or less using my first name in the story, as he will have some semblance to my real-life personality but he'll pretty much be separate from me. Third, I liked reading POV stories since I found it interesting to see what it's like to see the world as one of the characters and try and mimic their personalities (yes I even do it with some of the females, so there). You may notice that I will have a tendency to focus on certain characters. I will try to refrain from doing this and use other character POVs, but I'm probably going to stick with characters that I like a lot (myself lol, Minato, etc.). Anyways this has dragged on long enough, so hopefully you guys will enjoy this story!

See you in the next chapter!