The day started out like any other, as the bluish-gray eyes of the blue haired boy flitted open when he noticed the rays of sunshine flooding his room and the noise of the alarm clock, buzzing for him to wake up. The boy, acquiescing to the alarm clock's demand, laid a hand on his electronic clock to shut it up and sat upright in an attempt to prevent himself from going back to his deep slumber. A heavy sigh escaped his lips.
Mondays.
The boy yawned as he left his bed reluctantly and began putting on his school uniform, as usual. He then fitted his headphones and MP3 player around his neck, just how he liked it, grabbed his bag, and left for the front door of the lobby, not even saying a word of goodbye to whoever was left inside of the dormitory (who was most likely only Junpei, being the lazy person he was).
He walked towards the train station, arriving a minute early right before the train came as usual. Entering the train, he quickly took a seat before anyone else could. The doors closed and the train began moving on the tracks – sounds of the train chugging its way through the city. He glanced at the scenery, which had been pointed out by his friend, Yukari, during his first day of school, and who had described the sights as 'beautiful'. The boy agreed, but he hadn't voiced out his opinions, and had only listened to his friend's cheery commentary.
Speak of the Devil. Said brunette girl was the first person he laid eyes on the moment he stepped out of the train. Right on time. Just like always, that Yukari.
"Hey!" she called out to the boy, grabbing his attention, "Minato-kun! You're here early today!"
The boy only gave a slight nod. He had always arrived at school at the same time every single day. But whatever, talking was not his thing.
"Come on, we should go, class is about to start!" the brown haired girl then looked to her left and right, before returning to the boy, "You haven't seen Junpei, have you?"
The boy shook his head.
Yukari sighed, and shook her head as well, "Stupei, always arriving late," she muttered, and then stomped into class as she uttered crueler words about the delinquent's behavior. The blue haired boy gave a shrug, and followed his friend into class.
The day went on just as normal, with the boy sleeping in class along with said delinquent (when he arrived to class, that is). Poor Yukari, covering for both of them during lessons, having needing to wake one of them up if a teacher would call them and then telling them the answer to the questions that the teacher fired at them. All she could do at the end of the day was sigh, while the blue haired gave a silent wave as thanks, and the cap wearing Junpei became as noisy as ever with his gratitude (which she resented at the end, and at which point the blue haired boy left for home to avoid the scene).
Quietly returning back to his dormitory, the blue haired boy secluded himself in his room, watching television, then going back to his studies, and then back to television, and alternated his schedule like so (it's a wonder how he doesn't get sick of such a routine) until half past eleven came. The boy checked his watch to confirm the time once more. Right, enough time to reach Gekkoukan before the Dark Hour, just as the group had promised the day before.
Donning his suit of armor below his uniform and then taking with him his choice of weapon: the sword, the boy left for the school and awaited the Dark Hour in front of the gates of the school, where the others had waited for the boy to arrive, albeit quite tiredly. But no, they had to take their job seriously to make sure that the people are safe, they wouldn't allow sleep to overtake them. Their resolve was their energy source, and they jolted upright when the bell struck twelve, as the school began to twist and turn right in front of them into the infamous tower: Tartarus.
As the teal haired Fuuka prepared her spot inside to do all of the analyzing work for the group, the other made last minute checks of their armors and weapons, making sure everything goes perfectly where they should and what not. When everyone has announced that they were all ready, the teal girl pulled out her SEES gun, made specifically for one purpose and one purpose only, and pulled the trigger as she aimed the gun at her head, "Lucia!"
The pieces of glass broke from the side of the girl's head, an illusion of glass, of course (or at least that's what the group thinks they are), and the gigantic Persona appeared, safekeeping the girl in her glass chamber, "Please be careful!" Fuuka called after the team as a group of four, which consisted of the blue haired boy, Yukari, Junpei, and Akihiko, went inside the labyrinth, starting off where they had left off the night before.
Once inside, the blue haired boy, who acted as the leader for the team, gave them the signal to separate so that they would be able to finish the Shadows much faster. Each member of the team replied with a nod and they went their separate directions, each hunting for their own prey. It wasn't long until the other members of the team lost track of the boy, with each of them focusing on their own battles and with Fuuka assisting the others, as the boy had assured her that he will be alright.
"Ow!" the brown-haired girl exclaimed as she fell, butt-first, on the floor after an attack from a Shadow. She immediately stood up, rubbed her back, and loaded her bow with an arrow, "What's wrong with the Shadows today? They're stronger than usual!"
"Something feels… Odd…" Fuuka answered in Yukari's mind, with her worry filling her voice with every passing second, "It might be better to regroup and fight together,"
"You're right!" Yukari replied as she let loose the arrow right at the Shadow's head, dissolving it into nothingness. Holding tight to her bow, she began to run through the corridors, in hopes of finding her team mates, "Where are the others?"
"Akihiko-senpai is heading your way, Junpei-kun is at the corner to your right," Fuuka said in a clear voice as she concentrated on pinpointing the locations of the others, "But…"
"Where's Minato-kun?" Yukari asked as she waved at Akihiko as he appeared from the corridor, indicating that there were no enemies near them, and led the way to where Junpei was, but with no answer from the teal haired girl, Yukari began to get restless, "Where's Minato-kun, Fuuka!"
"Minato-kun…" the teal haired girl began, but it could easily be heard from her voice that panic was beginning to take over her clear voice, "I can't find him! He's not here!"
"What? He's not here?" Akihiko asked in a surprised voice. He thought that the blue haired boy knew better than to go off alone to another floor, and he was quite sure that the boy wouldn't forsake his group.
"Give me a moment…" Fuuka said as her clear voice returned, indicating her focus, "I can't find him in any of the floors, but… I know he's here somewhere… I can see what he's seeing… I can try to communicate him…"
"Please!" Yukari pleaded with the same mounting worry in her voice.
It took a few moments of Fuuka's deep silence, and the group's restless waiting, for Fuuka to be able to connect with the blue haired male's mind. But with her strong concentration, the girl was finally able to delve within the male's mind, and she closed her eyes, in return opening her mind to what the boy was seeing.
The room that the boy was in was absolutely not like Tartarus. It did not have the fancy decorations or the gloomy atmosphere. It was only a simple room with every corner of it painted white. For what reason, the girl did not know. There was no door, no window, or any crack in the wall that would allow the boy to escape such a place. It would be hopeless to even attempt to flee.
Right in front of the boy was a Shadow, the girl noticed. But it was unlike any other Shadow that SEES has encountered before. The Shadow looked like a real shadow, but it was a human's shadow and it levitated above the ground. There were also really no features to differentiate it as a person from SEES, or anyone in the world, for that matter. The Shadow held no face, had no defined muscles or hair. It was just a simple shadow.
"Minato-kun!" she exclaimed, trying to gain the boy's attention, "Minato-kun!"
But the boy did not take notice of the girl's calls. Instead, he picked up his sword wearily, as if he had been fighting the Shadow to no end since the beginning of time. He charged at the Shadow, his sword held high, and attempted to strike the Shadow, before he was repelled back, as if a force field was covering the Shadow.
The boy stood up, shaking his head to let go of the pain, and took out his special gun from its holster, and pointed the gun at his head, "Orpheus!" he cried out as he pulled the trigger, with the shards of glass breaking, "Agi!"
The harp-wielder appeared above his master, and strummed his harp as he let out a devastating attack. Or at least, attempted to. The fire that had been summoned by the being had only dented the floor, but even the fire looked as if a mysterious force was repelling it, since the fire couldn't even lick the feet of the hovering Shadow. Noticing he had failed, the harp-wielder gave a small bow of apology to his master and disappeared just as fast as he had came.
"Tch," the boy said. There was nothing that he could do to even scratch the Shadow. Just what was it, the girl wondered, "What do you want from me?" he shouted to the Shadow, as he settled his weapons back down, holding the gun in one hand and the sword in the other.
The Shadow mysteriously didn't move, and it didn't move for a long time. Even when it was so obvious that the boy had practically surrendered already, the Shadow didn't even take a single action towards obliterating him. Instead, and after a few moments, the Shadow opened a hole on what is supposed to be his face. The hole, revealing itself as a makeshift mouth, began to close and open like a goldfish, but no words came out of the Shadow.
Then, all of the sudden, everything went black. Fuuka, in a panic for light, opened her eyes, and she realized what had happen. A third party had forcefully cut off her connection. By what or by whom, she didn't know. Maybe it was the Shadow, but maybe it was someone else. She just didn't know! But what she did know was that she couldn't feel the boy anywhere any more. Any presence of him was gone. Completely.
"No… No…" she muttered desperately as tried to back away from the truth. She swallowed and then she told the group the terrible news, "I can't sense him anymore…"
"What!" Mitsuru exclaimed, as she approached Lucia and Fuuka, "You mean… He's gone?"
"I can't…" the girl answered, with her words hanging in the air. Her voice was breaking, as if she was going to cry, "The Shadow…"
"Shadow? What Shadow?" Mitsuru confronted, before giving a sigh to calm herself down and resumed in a lower voice, "Yamagishi, it is imperative that you calm down and try to find Arisato once more, it's impossible for anyone to disappear so suddenly," she said in her calm and strict manner. Even though her voice did not betray her, the redhead bit her lip to try and keep her emotions in line, which she succeeded in doing after a bit of blood began to stream down from her lips.
Fuuka nodded and closed her eyes once more. She took a deep breath, and began to mutter as if she was reciting a spell, "Tell me what you see, Lucia…"
It took a few moments of tension and despair until Fuuka opened her eyes once more, and began to spill out the information that she had received from her Persona, "I can't find Minato-kun anywhere," she said with a surprisingly calm and collected voice, but adding to the surprise, she didn't stop there, and continued on, "But I sense someone else on your floor, Yukari-chan, and the person feels… Familiar,"
"There's someone on our floor?" Yukari asked with shock, but her face then quickly turned into that of anger, "Don't tell me there's another case of bullying in our school! Where is this person?"
"The person is just straight ahead of you!" Fuuka answered quickly, but then gave a gasp as she realized that this person wasn't alone, "Please hurry! I sense a Shadow nearing her location!"
Following the girl's orders, the group hurried to the person's location, running just straight ahead with their weapons at the ready. Once they arrived on the location, they found said person on the floor, lying there in an unconscious state, but breathing, fortunately. But that was still no reason to feel safe yet, for the Shadow (a completely different one from the one in the white room, this one looked more like one of those slimes with a mask) had managed to creep up to the unconscious girl, until, of course, one of Yukari's arrow lodged into the Shadow's hand.
The Shadow cried out in pain, and attempted to attack the archer instead. But before it was able to, the metallic edge of Junpei's sword met with the Shadow's body, and it fell back and attempted to run away, realizing that his opponents were not to be messed with. Unfortunately for the Shadow, Akihiko's glove was able to annihilate the Shadow before it got far, and the Shadow screamed out as it disappeared into thin air, "Weak," Akihiko commented.
Yukari was quick to action, letting her bow fall to the ground as she ran over to the unconscious person. Taking a closer look at said person, Yukari quickly glanced over the details. The person was wearing a Gekkoukan uniform, however, Yukari had never seen her before, and she was sure she had seen everyone there is to the school. Her auburn hair was tied in a fashion similar to a bun and a slight ponytail, nothing much odd about that. The girl wore red headphones around her neck and an MP3 to go along with it, similar to the trademark of the blue haired boy's. But along with the similarity of the headphones, there was something off about the girl that made her seem so alike with someone.
But that wasn't something that Yukari was supposed to think of now, so she went on with the more pressing matters, "Hey! Are you OK? Wake up!" she shouted, "Can you hear me? Wake up! Come on, wake up!" she commanded, shaking the shoulders of the unconscious girl.
The eyelids of the girl began to flutter, and her eyes began to blink after a while, accustoming to the dim light as if she had been living in darkness for all her life. Once she finally began to feel right with the light, the girl then stared at Yukari with her eyes, now revealed to be a red color, a rare thing to find in Gekkoukan, especially eyes that seemed to look so passionate that it was possible for them to burn like raging fire. Yes, Yukari had definitely never seen the girl before in school.
"Where am I?" the girl whispered, obviously drained of energy.
Yukari gave a deep sigh, relieved that the girl was awake, "Don't worry, you're safe now," she assured the girl as she gave a smile, strengthening her own point.
But the girl only looked even more confused, and then stared deeply into Yukari's eyes, as she asked the question: "Who am I?"
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: I don't own Persona, the series, the characters, or anything of it.
My first time posting here, so give me cookies- I mean go easy on me. Reviews are always appreciated though, remember that.
And special thanks to my Beta reader~
Oh right, there was one more thing that I almost forgot to add. The rating of this might change into Mature, I'm still not too sure, but you have been warned. We'll see as this goes on.