Chapter 1: Arrival

(Narukami Yuu)


Blue. The floor, the ceiling, the furnishing. Everything is blue. Even though there's window, I can't quite clearly see the outside because it seems there's a really dense fog outside. It's quite unlike what I'd normally see throughout my ordinary days. I recognize the slight rumbling as an engine and realize than I'm in a car, and yet, my heart is mysteriously calm.

"Welcome to the Velvet room." The voice comes from an old man sitting in front of me, with the bizarre face and a really long nose while making expression that appear to be a smile. Sitting quietly to the left of the old man is a woman as beautiful and delicate as an ice sculpture while on the other side there's a short black-haired girl wearing a blue officer's cap and a choker necklace with a lock who seems to be pouting.

"Ah.. It seems we have a guest with an intriguing destiny." *chuckles*

"My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance." He continue to speaks.

The Velvet Room. Igor. Ah, I see. This must be a dream. Though I've never been here before, not that I remember anyway. However even if I were here before, I think I'd remember seeing an old man with pointed ears and a calm and courteous way of speaking.

"This place exist between dream and reality, mind, and matter. It is a room that only those who are bound by a 'contract' may enter," Igor continue speaking. "It may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future." After hearing what he said, I'm surprised. He speaks as if he knows what's going on in my mind, that I wondered why I ended up in this place.

"Now then, why don't you introduce yourself?" Igor asked.

"Yuu Narukami." I replied.

"Ah, I see," Igor said.

"Now then, let's take a look onto your future, shall we? Do you believe in fortune telling?" Igor asked as he swept a number of card with his white gloved hand in a table in front of him.

"Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different. Life itself follows the same principles, doesn't it?" *chuckles* He then picked and show me a card with a tower stricken by lightning, from which two small figures fall down picture and a roman number "16" in the lower middle part, "XVI".

"Hm.. The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. It seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent," Igor explained. "The card indication the future beyond that is." He then picked and show me another card. A card with a two dogs howling at the Moon around a pool with a lobster in it, with two towers in the background and a roman number "18" in the lower middle part, "XVIII".

"The moon, in the upright. This card represents 'hesitation' and 'mystery'. Very interesting indeed," He said as he chuckles. "It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you," Igor continue to explain even though I don't really understand what he means. "The coming year is a turning point in your destiny. If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost. My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen."

"Ah! I have neglected to imtroduce my assistant to you," Igor said as he open his left hand as if pointing to the beautiful woman beside him. "This is Margaret. She is a resident of this place, like myself."

"My name is Margaret. I am here to accompany you through your journey." She finally speaks. Her voice is as cold as I expected it to be.

"We shall attend to the details another time," Igor said. "Untill then, farewell."


I only have the opportunity to say my name because Igor asked. I was too confused and staggered to said anything else. As soon as he finished talking, suddenly the light so blinding came to my eyes. When I open my eyes, for a moment, I can't figure out where I am or what I'm doing, so I look around for a while. Oh right. I was on a train to Inaba, to my Uncle's place. "What a weird dream." I muttered to myself. The train itself is only have one car and is rather old. Beside me, there're only three other people in it. That's how rural Inaba is. I remember mom said I was here before when I was still 3 years old, but I can't really recall my memory from that far back.

As I remembered where I was and what I was doing, I pull out a picture of my Mother's younger brother and his daughter from my bag. He was giving her daugther a piggyback ride while wearing a dark gray shirt with pulled up sleeves, a loose, light red necktie and a brown belt with a metal buckle as well as a pair of dress pants along with dark brown shoes in the picture. Her daughter, Nanako, I think her name is, seems to be a cute little girl with brown hair, short pigtails and brown eyes. I am going to stay with them for a year due to my parents' works in USA. They were often not coming back home for 2-3 months since I was still in middle school, but this was a first time that they have to stay there for a whole year so my mother asked her little brother to take care of me starting today, April 11th 2011.

"Thank you for riding with us. We'll reach our final stop, Yasoiba Station, momentarily. Please prepare to exit." Soon after I hear the train notification, I stand up and take my bag preparing to make my first step to the rural city I am going to stay for a whole year. The one car train that's taking me finally stopped. I was quite tired for sitting in the trains for a long time. My fatique is refreshed as I take a long breath of a fresh air and see a peaceful and beautiful scenery of a big bloomed sakura tree near the station.

I was told by mom that Uncle will come to picked me up in front of the station, but he isn't there. I wonder what he's doing. I wait for about 15 minutes before I picked up the picture I saw earlier in the train because in the back of the picture was written my Uncle's adress. When I turn the picture to see the adress, it's taken by a strong wind. I'm really surprised. The picture fell to the feet of the girl with short black-haired girl wearing a choker necklace with a lock I saw in my dream earlier, but she's not wearing her blue officer's cap this time. She's standing underneath the big sakura tree I admired earlier. I could've have sworn she was not there before. Apparently she's wearing wears a sleeveless white shirt, a short black necktie with various safety pins and a checkered skirt along with a black belt and a fancy, golden buckle which resembles a heart with wings. Additionally, she has black-striped red protective sleeves and black-striped white stockings. Her black long, dark gray heeled boots are checkered as well. She took the picture and walked toward me. "You dropped this, here," she said as she hand me the picture with her little left hand.

"Thank you." I said.

"It's nothing. All I did was pick it up." She said as she walked away soon after she handed me the picture. Her voice is really calm and undertone. I'm still stunned and confused so I could only set my eyes on her as she walked away from me and couldn't even get my mouth to asked why she is here. A moment later I just realize the man name Igor in my dream never did tell me about the girl on his right side.

"Hey there! Over here Yuu!" A voice from afar I heard is calling my name. It managed to take away my sight from her for a moment. It seems it was my Uncle with her daughter who come to pick me up. They look exactly like they were in my picture. They were walking towards me.

"Hey, you're much more handsome than your photo. I'll be taking care of you." My uncle politely said. "I'm your sister's little brother, Ryotaro Dojima."

"Hello. I'm Yuu Narukami. Nice to meet you." I said as I lower my head to greet my uncle who was kind enough to take care of me for the next year.

"Yes likewise," he said. "I'm on my off-duty right now. I figured you'd be pretty wiped after that long trip, so I was told to pick you up by my sister."

"Ah and this is Nanako," he said as he pushed her daughter forward. "Go on and say hi."

I replied with a smile to both of them, little Nanako seems scared and hide behind her father's back as she looked away from me. So I crouch and give her an even bigger smile. "Hello there."

"Hello." She said with a very low voice as she hide even closer to her father side. Such a shy girl.

"Alright then, let's go." My Uncle said as he invited me to his car. I follow a step behind him to his car, but before that I look back to see if the girl from my dream earlier is still there.

She was not. "Was it my imagination?" I wondered.


While we were in the car I heard the news about City Council Member of Inaba Namatane Taro is under suspicion of having an affair in the car's radio. The same news I heard in the train earlier. Uncle decide to stopped for a moment at gas station to filled up the tank of the car. Nanako take this opportunity to pee in the station. I stand outside the car near my Uncle, waiting for Nanako. Uncle's car is a white compact SUV. Judging by its inside out appearance and performance, I can tell that Uncle Dojima is a really neat person.

"Going somewhere?" a friendly looking gas station attendant strike a conversation with Uncle.

"No, I just came by to pick this guy up," He replied, "He just moved here today from Tokyo."

"I'll leave it to you. Fill her up." Uncle said.

"OK!"

It seems the gas attendant is quite familiar with my Uncle. He has wavy, almost long gray hair, red eyes, and a pale complexion and is wearing a Moel gas station uniform with orange and white lines. After he put the nozzle to the car's tank, he's inviting me for a chat while my Uncle was going to see if Nanako is alright, "Are you a high schooler?"

"Huh? Yeah." I replied.

"We need some new part-timers here, You interested?" He politely offered me a job here.

"I think..." Before I can say anything, he has already started to talk again.

"Does it surpise you how little there is to do here compared to Tokyo?" He said. "You'll get bored sick if you don't work or somethin'."

"Well, just give it some thought. Pleasure meeting you." He said as he was giving me his hand for a handshake. So I took his offer and also said, "Pleasure meeting you."

"Well, I'd get back to work." He said with a big smile on his face. So I also returned his smile. Being in rural town sure is different. Everyone seems to be so nice and polite. As soon as he goes, I suddenly feel lightheaded and unbalanced. My head feels like getting stabbed by countless needles so I grab my head with my hand. Seeing me unwell, both of them seems worried.

"Are you okay?" Nanako said with a very worried face. "Car sick? You don't look so good."

"No, I'm fine," I replied with a little smile.

"You must be beat up after a long trip. We better get hurry back home." Both of them seems really worried. I feel really bad to make them worried so I tried my best to hide it in the way to my Uncle's home.


Finally we arrive in Uncle's house. The house seems pretty simple. I can see from the outside that it has a backyard and a little area that appear to be for gardening. Once we're inside I can see it has 2 bedroom in the ground floor and one large living room which combine with kitchen, complete with TV and table for us to eat together, and of course all other things like fridge, cupboard, and other things you would commonly found in living room and kitchen. After we enter, we decide to eat together the three sushi package that he already bought before he was picking me up on a table in front of the TV. Although she tried to hide it, I can see Nanako is very happy to eat a meal with his father.

"You're a part of the family," He said calmly to me. "So feel free to make yourself at home."

"Itadakimasu!" Nanako said cheerfully.

As soon as we take the first bite, Uncle's phone's ringing. He take it and step away from me and Nanako. I can see Nanako's looking down while his father taking the call as if she knew what's going to happen.

"Sorry about this but you guys can start eating without me." He said as he take back his jacket that he put earlier on the chair.

"Dad!" Nanako tried to chasing her father.

"I don't know when I'll be back." Uncle said without looking back and closed the door.

Uncle left without hesitation. Leaving me and Nanako behind. I feel bad for Nanako but I didn't know what I could do at the moment so we just continue eating with cold atmoshpere. I tried to strike a little conversation.

"Your father... is a detective?" I asked.

"Yeah," she answered.

"It's always like this," Nanako said with a really low voice. "There's a phone call and he's gone."

I feel bad for Nanako. Though I feel I can understand her feeling a little since my parents were also like Nanako's father. In order to break the ice, I try turning on the TV. Junes' commercial's airing and suddenly Nanako's exppression changed.

"Everyday's great at you Junes!~" She sing along the song cheerfully.

I was confussed when I saw it and ended up staring at her for a moment. Well, she is still a kid after all. I'm glad I could cheer her up even a little. I ended up singing along the song commercial with her. "Everyday's great at you Junes!~"

She give me a big smile before she returned to her room.

After I and Nanako finished eating, I go to my room. It's in the only room in the upstairs. I couldn't say my room is big, but I couldn't say it was small either. The room is still messy because it's full of my packed stuff but there was already a bed, a 14' TV, a study desk, and all other stuff you'd find in a boy teenager's room. The night still young and I'm not so tired, so I decide to begin unpacking my stuff. As I see my old high school uniform, I remember my first year of high school in Tokyo. I could only remember the face of Kurosawa Keiji, a classmate who always been so persistent about inviting me to interacts with others, in which I usually rejected. He has a slightly long dark hair to match with his dark black sharp eyes and he seems to always wearing his uniform sloppily. Well, I guess that's kind of his job since he was our class representative. Other than him, I couldn't really remember anyone else. Not long after I began, I suddenly feel my dizziness from earlier strikes back. I decide to stop unpacking and lay my body in the bed for a while. Before I knew it, I'm already asleep.

"Do you want to know the truth?" I heard a hard and deep voice speaking to me. As I open my eyes, I could only saw a black figure in the middle of dense fog.

"Is this a dream?" I muttered.

"Then try to catch it."

It seems like it was that figure that was speaking to me. He walked away from me as if challenging me to chase him. I feel very tired even if I wanted to chased him. I ended up closing my eyes again.

"Who it that?" I thought before I'm closing my eyes.


Author's Note:

As you may read in summary, I write this "retelling" of P4G in a way that all main characters in this epic journey is connected to each other. Their relationship is not "Yu-centrist" as we saw in the game and anime. So I decided to make both main story (about the murder case) and the side story with perspective of someone who is not Yu as many chance as I can get. Main story is not change, just "how to get there" is change, a little.

The biggest change is that I change Persona's ability to actually change the person into a Persona, except for navi type Persona like Rise Kujikawa and Fuuka Yamagishi. When you think about it, it's near to impossible for "human" to survive attack from monsters more that 3 times bigger and with attack like fire, lightning, and such, thus the change. I don't plan change how Rise's Persona though, since hers are navi type and fair for her to have that risk.

Also the main characters shares all their thought with each other, given the opportunity, not just to Yuu. This is what I mean by "SL won't be Yuu-centrist".

I already watched and played the anime and the game so many times, but I see there's a lot of chance that "couples" could be born during their one year chasing of the truth. So I also write this to fulfill what I think the characters should do in some events if the game and add some additional events myself. So please bear with it if the story is more or less the same as the game or the anime, especially chapter 1-5. I think they are mandatory events that Yu has to go through in that particular order (the game also didn't give the player many option about how the "play" it until this point), so I don't change it as well in order to not changing the main story too much. However starting 6 and beyond, as the game also gave the player a lot of option about how they "play" it, I'll also add and/or change some events more often and with much content.

If some main/side event took the perceptive of other characters other than Yu, then he'd act as the game cutscene and/or as he would in the anime at that part.

I also planned to stopped for a moment when this story reach 30th October 2011, the time PQ events start to write the story about P3's story in this style (also until PQ start for theirs, on 18th September 2009, and finish their story first) and make their memory not completely wiped so that both crew can possibly meet and know each other at some point after 30th October 2011. And continue to P4AU, P4D (not with dancing, but battle) and beyond, their adult life.

Thanks for reading and please review my writing so I can do better. :)