Chapter One: Arrival
"My, my, such an interesting fate these two have, wouldn't you agree, Philemon? Quite the interesting tale in the first place, but I must admit, I dislike the idea of only one of the two surviving that night, far too much potential lost. Thus I have changed that, now we have two Fools for the price of one; I do wonder what will happen."
"Your interference was neither needed nor wanted Lucifer. While you haven't changed the Journey's end, you have altered the path significantly. I must admit, I'm curious as to why you would do this, surely if you thought the end was unsatisfying you could have aided them more directly, I do not understand your reasoning Light-Bringer."
"I do this for the same reason I do anything, to protect humanity and grant them freedom, to bring Chaos, it is true that preventing one death will not alter the end of the Journey, I doubt even the Demi-Fiend could accomplish that, but it will alter what comes after significantly."
"You say you protect them, but you always seem to leave a very large amount of destruction and death in your wake, as for what comes after, while I was only expecting one guest, they are still my charges… ah, you wish to add one with the power of the Wild Card to your ranks. So I assume you intend to further escalate your war with YHVH by having the one you've saved join you?"
"You speak as if I will not give them a choice in the matter; I am not like the True Enemy. No, I've merely tipped the scales a bit more in humanity's favor is all. We have that in common do we not, the desire to guide them?"
"Do not compare us, Fallen One, your vision would bring naught but suffering and destruction, Chaos left unchecked is just as bad as the Tyrant's despotism. Not to mention the sheer amount of tragedy you bring, in the end you are attempting to force your will upon humanity just as he is. "
"Perhaps, but how much unnecessary suffering does your inaction bring? How many meaningless deaths, such as the one I have so kindly prevented, have occurred because you did nothing? If my actions make me evil Philemon, then your refusal to act makes you the same. Tell me that boy, Tatsuya, couldn't all of his suffering have been avoided if you'd merely-"
"ENOUGH! Unless you wish to see just how powerful I am, Light-Bringer, you will cease speaking of that subject."
"I'm merely pointing out that we are the same, we actually care for humanity, we wish to see them grow and become stronger, whereas our counterparts have nothing but contempt for them, seeing them as naught but vermin and tools. Despite our own differing stances on what exactly the aforementioned growth entails, after all what we wish it to be is ultimately irrelevant. They will find their own way, whether that way is to the Heavens or to the Abyss, it all depends on if they can be saved from their own desires. Nevertheless, it should be quite the interesting Journey to watch, the stage is set, the die is cast, and the cards have been dealt, let us see if these Fools will rise to the occasion or if they will Fall beneath the weight of destiny."
"I have faith they will succeed, the Light in their hearts may be dim, but once it has been kindled it will burn a swath through the Shadows, and defy Death itself."
4/6 Late Night
Two teens sat practically alone on the late train, one a boy of average height, wearing a school uniform consisting of an open black jacket, with a white dress shirt underneath, he had dress pants and shoes to match the jacket, what was truly striking however was his unusual blue hair, which sharply contrasted with his silver headphones, and the perpetually bored expression on his face. His companion was a slightly shorter girl with brown hair, silver XXII hair piece, who appeared to be wearing the female equivalent of his uniform, the main difference being her jacket was closed, as well as sporting a medium length skirt and long white socks. She'd forgone the dress shoes the other was wearing in favor of red and white sneakers. Her brown hair was pulled back into a short disorderly pony tail and held by the pin. Her face was framed by messy bangs and a pair of red headphones.
The boy was staring out the window as he had been for the past few hours, watching the darkness flow by and listening to his music as the train thundered onward to its destination. The girl by contrast, had been asleep for almost an hour and a half; the small semblance of order imposed upon her hair by the pin was effectively ruined due to her constant shifting.
It was near midnight when the voice came through the train's PA system, which had suddenly blared to life, spouting out something about a malfunction in the switching system as explanation to its extremely delayed schedule. The blue haired teen didn't really acknowledge the excuse; instead he focused his blue-grey eyes on the speaker, listening past his music for the next stop to be announced. A second later he was rewarded, "Iwatodai, the next stop is Iwatodai. Please do not leave any luggage or personal items when leaving the train."
Across from the boy the other teen stirred from her slumber, headphones playing a softer song, she briefly stretched and rubbed her eyes in an attempt to clear the drowsiness still dogging her after the nap. "Minaaato, are we there yet?" The girl took off her headphones and looked at him with striking red eyes that betrayed a mix of boredom, impatience, and, if he looked hard enough, a well hidden trace of nervousness. Reaching across to smooth the girls hair, as much to comfort her as to actually fix the increasingly disheveled mess on her head, Minato spoke in a flat, bored monotone, "It's the next stop, we'll be there in a few minutes," the striking dichotomy of his voice and expression with the comforting gesture did not go unnoticed by his companion.
"Seriously bro, you need to work on your expressiveness, otherwise you're not going to make any friends, and then who will eat my cookies? Do you want those countless cookies to be to go to waste, because you didn't have anyone to share them with?"
Minato attempted to intercede "Hamuko, I don't think that…" he was verbally blitzed by his sister however, "I work hard on those cookies you know, slaving over a hot oven just to bring some joy into my cousin and brother's lives, but you don't even eat them all, you two waste so many it's nothing short of a tragedy! A travesty! Hours spent making the dough from scratch, lovingly spreading the chocolate chips just right so that every bite gives you that wonderful feeling of gooey euphoria, the amazing sensation of chocolate slightly melted from the warmth of its breaded prison being freed onto your tongue!" She paused to take a breath and continued, "Wasting cookies is nothing short of a sin Minato, a SIN! These are no factory produced chemical laden things sold in any common store! These cookies are made by your adoring sister-"
"Hamuko!" Minato swiftly ended her rant about sweets, "Yes?" "We're here" sure enough the train was slowing down, and would come to a complete stop in only another minute or so. Hamuko looked around, having been so caught up in her rant as to forget just how near they were to their destination, "Oh". She blinked and looked out the window, as the train pulled into the station, "Attention passengers, we have now arrived at our destination, please depart the train" the speakers projected another message, punctuated by the sound of the doors opening.
"Come on Minato, our new life awaits!" Hamuko quickly slung her bag over her shoulder, as Minato did the same, he attempted to step out into the aisle only for her to grab him by the arm and drag him out to the station. Just as expected the train station was mostly deserted at such a late hour, however, one thing caught the siblings attention, it was a rather large blue butterfly. It almost seemed to be glowing as it gracefully fluttered to them, circling them both before briefly touching them, first Minato followed by Hamuko, it circled them once more before disappearing into the shadows, a faint, quickly fading glow was the only evidence it had even been there at all. The two looked around in slightly confused daze, attempting to make sense of what just happened, before Hamuko's eyes landed on the clock, only a few seconds from midnight. She visibly tensed, grabbing her brother's hand in a near crushing grip. And then the world Shifted.
Everything electronic suddenly went dead all at once, the ATMs, the lights, the clock, even their MP3 players, it all stopped as if suddenly sapped of power. Pools of blood began to form seemingly out of nowhere, the floors, the stairs; blood even began oozing down a few of the walls. The few people in the station were suddenly replaced with oversized obsidian coffins, each one polished to mirror shine. The atmosphere became heavy and oppressive, making it noticeably harder to breath. The world was bathed in a pale green light that seemed to permeate everywhere, even indoors, just bright enough to find ones way, but dark enough that one could easily avoid being seen. Most strikingly, however, was the moon; now a bright yellow as well as unnaturally large and imposing in the sky. With the change came a lurching of despair in their stomachs, they looked into each other's eyes and by silent agreement began to walk towards the station's exit.
Outside under the baleful gaze of the moon which seemed to take up a quarter of the sky, Minato started rummaging through his pockets, slipping his hand out of his sister's vice, he reached into his jacket and withdrew a map. "Let's see, we're at Iwatodai station, and we need to get to the Dorms… So three blocks down and then a left… or is that a right?" Minato mumbled a bit as he read the map.
"OH, just let me see that thing! It can't be that hard to read and I don't want to be out here at this hour." Snatching the map from him, Hamuko looked at it, then began turning it in various ways, unable to decipher exactly what was what, or find any indication of direction beyond very hard to read street names, or a legend of any sort for that matter "What the hell kind of map is this? Half of what's on here doesn't make any sense!"
She quickly handed him back the now slightly crumpled paper. Maintaining his still bored expression Minato smoothed it out to the best of his ability, "Well let's get going, after all, the dorm isn't supposed to be far from here, even without the map we should be able to find it pretty easily." So the two began walking in the direction the map seemed to indicate their destination was in.
Nearly an hour of walking and no less than five heated arguments at various intersections later the two finally arrived at the Iwatodai Dormitory.
Hamuko sighed, "Finally, it's bad enough we got lost in the first place, but all the coffins and blood just make it so much worse." Minato for his part merely shrugged, walking up to the door and holding it open for his sister, as the two entered inside they noticed something, the lights in the room were on but rather than banishing the shadows the light seemed to only make them deeper, as if drawing them out into the room. Hamuko was about to comment on it when a voice spoke from just left of them.
"You're late; I've been waiting a long time for you."
They both stiffened at the sound, slowly turning to face its source. On the other side of the sign in desk there was a boy in stripped clothing with looking at them while using his hands to prop up his head. Perhaps the more disturbing thing was how much he looked like a younger version of Minato; the two had only just acknowledged the resemblance when he was suddenly right in front of them, having just appeared there without actually moving. Once he was sure he had their attention he started to speak again, "Now if you want to proceed please sign your name there." He snapped then, and the two could hear the sound of folders being opened. "It's a contract, don't worry all it says is that you'll accept full responsibility for your actions. You know, the usual stuff." Indeed on the desk there were two open folders, each containing a contract that had the exact same words:
I, the signator of this contract, hereby accept full and total responsibility for the consequences of my actions.
I chooseth this fate of my own free will.
Once again the siblings' eyes found each other, the gaze held for a minute before a consensus was reached, seeing the sentences as harmless enough they signed their names on the lines.
Arisato, Minato
Arisato, Hamuko
The boy gave a disturbing smirk when they looked back at him, holding the now closed contracts in his hand, "No one can escape time, it delivers us all to the same end. You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes." As he spoke, he raised the contracts to his face, and with a turn of his hand they disappeared entirely. The lights suddenly went out, and the boy began to slowly vanish into the shadows "And so it begins." Before either sibling could so much as process the statement, he was gone.
"Who's there!?" a panicked shout broke through any thoughts the two were having about the strange boy. Near the stairs stood a girl who looked to be about their age, wearing a pink sweater over what they assumed was the same uniform they had, a white choker with a heart on the side, and a red armband that said 'S.E.E.S', but most importantly, strapped to her leg was what appeared to be a gun, one which she was quickly moving to unholster.
That got a reaction out of Minato, who quickly moved in front of Hamuko, just as the Girl's hand reached the weapon and started to pull it out. "Takeba wait!" before things could get out of hand, a more mature and controlled voice interjected, the girl looking to the new presence, visibly calming at the sight of them. At that moment the world returned to normal, the sound of the siblings' music, having picked up exactly where it left off, filling the still tense air.
The situation having seemingly been resolved the siblings looked to their apparent savior, she was breathtakingly beautiful, her long red hair completely covered one eye and a good portion of her face, though it did not obscure her other eye, a slightly darker red than Hamuko's own eyes, it was nonetheless striking in its own right, clearly analyzing the two of them, it betrayed a great depth of intelligence and control. Height wise she was in the middle of them all, being shorter than Minato, but taller than Hamuko and the other girl. She was wearing a white blouse, the same armband as the other girl, a long black skirt, knee high leather boots and a red ribbon around her neck. Even the gun belt at her waste didn't seem out of place.
In what seemed to be a total contrast to the confrontation that had only just occurred, she walked up past the other girl and calmly introduced herself, "I didn't think you'd arrive so late. My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. I'm one of the students who live in this dorm."
"Who are they?" Takeba spoke; she seemed to have completely calmed down from her earlier state of panic, though Minato made sure to stay between her and Hamuko.
"They're transfer students. It was a last minute decision to assign them here." Mitsuru explained to their apparent dorm mate, "They'll eventually be moved to rooms in the other dorms."
"Is it okay for them to be here?" Takeba asked, while Hamuko began trying to elbow her way past Minato.
"I guess we'll see…" Mitsuru looked amused, whether by Hamuko's antics, as she'd quickly escalated her attempts to see the other two people in the room better, Minato's stubborn refusal to so much as budge, or her companion's apparent paranoia and lack of anything remotely resembling subtlety the twins couldn't tell.
"This is Yukari Takeba." Mitsuru introduced their apparent dorm mate, "she'll be a junior this spring just like you."
Yukari gave a half bow and a "Hey"
"Why do you have a gun?" Hamuko asked, her head tilted slightly in equal parts confusion and the desire to see around her brother.
Yukari seemed to be caught off guard by the question "Huh?" she scrambled for a reasonable excuse, "Um, well it's sorta like a hobby… well not a hobby, but."
"You know how it is these days…" Mitsuru interjected to save Yukari's floundering attempt at an explanation. "It's for self-defense. It's not a real gun of course."
This statement seemed to appease Minato somewhat and he allowed Hamuko out from behind him, though he stayed close enough to get back in front of her easily should that turn out to be a lie.
"It's getting late, so you should get some rest." As if to agree with Mitsuru's assessment Hamuko let out a large yawn, having apparently burned through whatever energy sleeping on the train earned her.
"Your rooms are on the second and third floors respectively, each at the end of the hallway. Your things should already be there." Mitsuru then gave a rather pointed look to Yukari.
"Oh… I'll show you the way. Follow me." She seemed to understand the unspoken command Mitsuru gave her.
After walking up the stairs they arrived at Minato's room first, "This is it. Pretty easy to remember huh? Since its right at the end of the hall." She continued on, "Oh yeah, make sure you don't lose your key, or you'll never hear the end of it." She paused for a second, "so any questions?"
Surprisingly it was Minato who responded this time, "Does that kid live here too?" His sister looked genuinely shocked at not only the subject manner, but because he actually sounded interested in it.
Yukari for her part just looked confused, "What kid? What are you talking about?" she thought for a second, "…C'mon, it's not funny."
"Um… can I ask you something?" She seemed slightly hesitant and nervous "On your way here from the station, was everything okay?"
"What do you mean?" The twins asked simultaneously, though in very different tones, Minato fading back to his normal bored sound, while Hamuko's own voice was tinged with hope.
"You know what I-" Yukari began to elaborate, but seemed to decide against it, "Never mind." Hamuko's expression fell at that, "It seems like you're alright."
Yukari spoke up, either oblivious to the other girl's disappointment or simply opting to ignore it, "Well we'd better get going." As she walked off with Hamuko in tow the latter turned around and said "'Night, Minato!" her voice filled with a false cheer. "Goodnight Hamuko," he responded as he went into the room and prepared to sleep what was left of the night away.
The two girls went up to the next floor, after walking down the hall to Hamuko's room and repeating her warning about losing the room key, as well as a preemptive "save your questions for later" Yukari went to her own room. Hamuko, now alone with her thoughts, let out a large sigh, "So much for that" still sullen about the other girl's change of subject, as she'd been hoping for answers to at least of few of the questions that had been plaguing her and Minato for years now. After some deliberation she decided it would simply be best to get some sleep, it was still a school night after all, and it wouldn't do to show up looking sleep deprived on her first day.
4/7 Early Morning
Minato had just finished getting ready for the day when a series of knocks sounded at his door. "It's Yukari. Are you awake?" He briefly contemplated what she wanted. Most likely she's been roped into showing Hamuko and I the way to school, it might be best to take her up on the offer, if only to appease Kirijo-san, I get the feeling being on her bad side would make things extremely unpleasant. His internal deliberation was interrupted by the distinctive, and much louder, voice of his sister. "I know you're awake Minato, so hurry up and open the door!" a series of louder knocks punctuated the command.
Briefly rolling his eyes at his sister's antics, and silently hoping she didn't break the door, Minato strolled across his room and did as ordered. Hamuko didn't even wait for the door to be all the way open before shoving her way into his room, with a slightly apologetic looking Yukari following, "Good Morning, did you sleep okay?"
As well as can be expected when someone tries to pull a not-gun on you as your welcome, yes. Counter to his internal commentary, Minato gave a small shrug. Seeing that as a good enough response Yukari continued on, "Mitsuru-senpai asked me to take you to school." On a first name basis with our senpai are you? That bit actually caught his attention as the two didn't seem that close from what he picked up on last night. Though it may just be a result of being in the same club, they were wearing the same armband after all.
Oblivious to his scrutiny, Yukari talked on somewhat awkwardly, "It's getting late sooo…. Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah I'm ready." The blue haired boy spoke for the first time in the conversation.
"Good! I've already made you a lunch, oh I'm so excited!" Hamuko chose to interject, bouncing somewhat on the balls of her feet.
"Okay. Then let's go." Yukari smiled at Hamuko's energy.
As the three walked to Iwatodai station, Yukari pointed out various stores, restaurants and other points of interest along the way, occasionally giving a hello to a passing student. Well at least she's easy to follow, being the only one wearing pink with a white on black uniform. Minato idly thought as he took in the surroundings trying to determine if there was a more direct route. Hamuko for her part was practically bouncing into every step, eyes wide as she tried to take in as much as possible.
The impromptu tour continued on the train, with Yukari, mentioning the places that they hadn't seen on the way, most of the information centered on the Paulownia Mall, and Gekkoukan high school. "So that's it." She'd reached the end of the information, though Minato had to admit, it was actually helpful as it gave him something of a reference to go by.
Hamuko, for her part, was enraptured by the view as the monorail went over the ocean; "It feels like we're flying!" The childish awe in his sister's words made a small smile appear on Minato's face, and Yukari giggled a bit at the comment, "I know, it's my favorite part." Then the school came into view, its pristine white walls seemed to give off a light of their own, nearly blinding him, Minato wasn't the only one apparently as he noticed a few others averting their eyes as well.
When the three got off the train and began the walk to school, the first thing Minato noticed was the sheer density of students. Apparently the pamphlets weren't lying, they have a massive student body, no wonder the school is so huge, you'd probably fill a normal sized school to bursting with this many people. He'd apparently gone deeper into his musing than he'd thought, because before he knew it they were at the gates. "Well this is it, we're here, welcome to Gekkoukan High school, hope you like it!"
When they walked by the shoe lockers Yukari turned around, "You're okay from here, right?" A nod from both siblings, though Hamuko's was much more exaggerated, and she continued "You should go see your homeroom teacher first. The Faculty office is right there to the left." She pointed to the hallway near what appeared to be the classroom assignment postings "…And that concludes the tour. Do you have any questions before I go?"
Well Hamuko did say I should try to make some friends, at least if I do she'll have someone else to give diabetes to with those cookies of hers. "Which class are you in?"
Yukari clearly wasn't prepared for him to ask that, in fact she'd been looking semi-expectantly at his sister when she'd asked, "Me? I dunno… I haven't looked at the classroom assignments yet." Minato was somewhat impressed with how quickly she composed herself, and somewhat surprised at her next topic. "Hey, about last night… Don't tell anyone about what you saw okay?" Well isn't that too bad, and here I was going to center my memoirs around it, the hour of coffins, blood, and a girl that knows absolutely nothing about subtly. I'm pretty sure it would have been a best seller.
"…See ya later." Yukari belted out awkwardly under Hamuko's own exasperated gaze, then walked off rather quickly.
Hamuko sighed and looked at Minato, "Well, at least we know we aren't crazy, let's go look at the class assignments before we go to the faculty office."
Minato chuckled "ahh the old song and dance, it never changes."
The two made their way to the board, maneuvering through the crowd of those who had the same idea. Scanning the board for their names the two failed to find them, however a second look revealed a sticky note just barely holding on, "Hamuko and Minato Arisato, Class F." Hamuko read aloud, "Well at least we know they didn't forget about us, Faculty office it is!" She then grabbed his hand and began quite literally dragging him to the destination.
Faculty Office
Hamuko's excitement wasn't as genuine as it seemed, in fact, she was more nervous than anything, I know it was my idea to come back here, but I can't help worrying that this might make him worse. No he needs closure; he can't keep ignoring what happened. The duo entered the Faculty office, gaining the attention of a teacher "Oh, are you the new students?" they both nodded "Hamuko and Minato Arisato, 11th grade correct?"
"Yes Ma'am." Hamuko responded with cheer, trying to make a good impression.
"Wow, you've lived in a lot of different places… Let's see in 1999… that was ten years ago" please don't talk about it, please don't talk about it. "Your parents-" Minato tried to hide his flinch at the subject, and probably would have if Hamuko wasn't watching him like a hawk out of the corner of her eye. The teacher meanwhile let out a sharp gasp, having clearly read far enough to find the subject uncomfortable, "I'm sorry, I've been so busy I didn't have time to read this beforehand."
"I'm Ms. Toriumi. I teach Composition. Welcome to our school." Hamuko was grateful for the subject change; Minato didn't handle it well when people pried into the matter of their parents. He doesn't handle anything well, keeping everything bottled up like he does just isn't right.
"Nice to meet you!" The two showed an uncanny ability to say the exact same thing with two totally different tones of voice. Hamuko's enthusiastic pitch and Minato's polite, subdued tone conflicting to create a strange dichotomy.
"Wow, such enthusiasm! Have you seen the classroom assignments? You're in 2-F; that's my class. But first we need to go to the auditorium. The Welcoming Ceremony will be starting soon. Follow me." Ms. Toriumi led the two through the halls, and giving a helpful tour of the school along the way, though it just mostly confirmed what Yukari had said earlier.
She seems nice, certainly nicer than a few of the teachers we've had; I hope we don't have to deal with any mean teachers this year. Still though, other than yesterday this seems like it's going to be a good start to the year. Grandpa certainly has made sure everything went smoothly, even being as far away as he is. I'll have to remember to call and tell him about all about it later.
Little did she know the horror they were about to be subjected to…
Gekkoukan Auditorium
"As you begin the new school year, I'd like each of you to remember the old proverb, "if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well" When applied to student life this means." The old principle continued on in a speech that so boring it could be weaponized.
I swear this man could put an insomniac to sleep, hell, just record this speech as a miracle cure, you'd make millions, demand for melatonin would plummet, it'd be worthless compared to this. Minato's internal monologue was interrupted by the student behind him.
"Psst… Hey... You came to school with Yukari this morning right? I saw you two walking together. Hey I have a question."
Really, I thought you were just stating information both of us already knew, I would never have guessed that you'd have a question of all things.
"Do you know if she has a boyfriend?"
Why am I not surprised? At least the silver lining is he that he isn't asking me about Hamuko, seriously I know we look nothing alike but still did they really have to assume we were in a relationship? Anyways, back to this idiot, sarcasm, lies, or the truth. For some reason I feel that he probably can't even spell sarcasm let alone understand it, lies would get Yukari angry, so truth it is.
"I don't know." Minato spoke as he ended his internal debate. Probably the result of having known her for less than twelve hours, maybe at two weeks she'll open up and give me all of her tragic backstory.
"I see, I thought you might know, but I guess not. Hey about that other girl, you and her seemed kinda close." Minato definitely didn't like the suggestive tone he was using.
"She's my sister." Minato somehow made the simple three word statement sound threatening without actually changing from his normal bored tone, which if the look on a certain students face was any indication, simply made it that much worse.
"I hear talking. I believe it's someone in Ms. Toriumi's class." The boy jumped back into his own seat, before the teacher could zero in on him. "Shh! Be quiet! You're going to get me in trouble!" Ms. Toriumi herself also spoke up; giving a glare that Minato was secretly glad to not have focused on him.
That of course did nothing to deter the three fourths of the student body having conversations. Unfortunately, that also meant there was nothing to really take Minato's attention away from the Principal's speech. This is gonna be a long Welcoming Ceremony.
Class 2-F, After School
Standing by her brother in the class room Hamuko, noticed a student walking up to them, he had a goatee, wore a purple shirt under his school jacket, as opposed to the normal white, and he also had a hat. He stood slightly taller than Minato, forcing Hamuko to look up to see his face. "S'up dudes?" He greeted. "How's it goin'?"
Noticing the look Mianto was giving the newcomer, she elbowed him, and sent him a look, the command 'be nice' very clearly received.
"Who are you?" he asked, not nice per se, but not impolite either.
"Me? I'm Junpei Iori. Nice to meet ya."
Hamuko smiled, "Hi! I'm Hamuko, and this is my twin brother Minato." She punctuated this by hugging Minato's neck. He promptly broke the hold, by straightening to his full height.
"Really? 'Cause, no offence, but you two look nothin' alike." Before either of them could respond, Yukari walked over, capturing his attention.
"Hey, it's Yuka-tan! I didn't think we'd be in the same class again." The Man in the Hat didn't actually sound surprised at all.
Yukari gave an overly dramatic sigh "At it again huh? I swear, you'll talk to anyone if they'll listen. Did you ever think you might be bothering someone?"
"What? But I was just bein' friendly…" Junpei actually seemed somewhat off put by the accusation.
"If you say so." She took on a teasing edge, "Anyway looks like we're in the same homeroom…"
"It's probably just a coincidence." Minato observed, only to be immediately overruled by his sister, "WRONG! It clearly must be Fate!"
That earned her incredulous looks from the other three. "Fate? Yeah Right." Yukari dismissed her statement with a snort before chuckling "Still, I'm a little surprised." The Girl in Pink smiled at the twins.
"Um, Hello, Are you forgetting that I'm in this class too?" Junpei broke back into the conversation, "By the way, I heard you three came to school together this morning. What's up with that? C'mon, gimme the dirt!" Hamuko could tell that he was both satisfying his own curiosity and getting back at Yukari for the earlier teasing at the same time.
"Wh-what are you talking about!? We live in the same dorm. There's nothing going on, okay. Why are people even talking about it? Now you have me worried…"
And judging by that overly defensive reaction it appears to have worked pretty well. Might as well help a brother out, right? Hehehehehe. Putting on her best pout Hamuko spoke up, "Awww really? And here I was hoping I was gonna be an Auntie."
This caused both Yukari and Minato to double take, the former in complete shock, while the latter gave her a glare that promised retribution. Junpei's grin turned into a full on smirk and the two exchanged a high five before the conversation picked up again.
"Hey…" Yukari looked around nervously "You didn't say anything to anyone about… you know what did you?"
Is she serious? Junpei is RIGHT HERE, and you ask that? Even after what just happened? I don't know whether to thank whatever gods there may be I have someone this easy to tease, or lament the lack of subtly.
"Nope" Her brother's response broke Hamuko out of her thoughts.
"Okay, good." Yukari's relieved response didn't actually help appearances, "Seriously… Don't say anything about last night, alright?" For some reason she specifically looked at Minato when she said that.
Hamuko's face morphed into naked shock "What!?" the flat quiet tone contrasting with her normal energy. She couldn't have made that sound any worse if she'd tried. Junpei apparently shared her sentiments if his own expression of shock was anything to go by.
"Wh-what?" Yukari looked and sounded put off by the two. Oh my god, she doesn't realize what that sounded like at all does she?
"L-last night…?" Junpei was clearly in shock.
Minato just looked bored of the conversation, but that was how he normally looked.
"I… am gonna be an Auntie?" Hamuko simply couldn't pass up the chance to tease her brother; Yukari had unwittingly set it up perfectly, though she herself was a casualty of it. Acceptable losses.
The Glare Minato sent her way would have caused most people to cower in fear, but fortunately Hamuko knew there wasn't any force behind it. You never can actually bring yourself to follow through on those threats, verbal or not, you so love to make to me, hell you can't even stay mad at Naoto for more than five minutes at a time before forgiving her. Anyone else though…
"W-wait a minute! Don't get the wrong idea!" Yukari was reacting more violently than she'd expected, "Listen! I just met him yesterday and there's absolutely nothing between us!" She calmed down after that. "Geez… I've gotta go. I've got something to take care of for the archery team. But, you'd better not start any rumors!" She quickly walked away from the three.
"Ah, who cares? No one takes rumors seriously anyway. She's so paranoid." Junpei looked exasperated but quickly became excited again. "But hey, it's your first day here and people are already talking about you! Believe it or not, she's actually pretty popular, You da Man!"
Hamuko beamed at him, "Hehehe, this gonna be a fun year. I can feel it!" The two shared another high five. The three then walked out of the class room, heading home, talking about this and that, turns out Junpei and Minato had some common ground in a shared love of fighting games, while Haumko whole heartedly backed Junpei's theory that all crane game machines were both rigged and cursed.
They parted ways with Junpei at Iwatodai Station and headed back to the dorm. "You're apologizing to Yukari." Minato's stern tone didn't brook any argument, "I know, I went too far, but come on, she totally set that up!" She defended. The two finished walking to the dormitory, and were greeted my Mitsuru, "Welcome back." Looked up from her book as the two entered, as the two looked at the sign in book, only Mitsuru's name was on it, something Minato corrected by signing his name, while Hamuko just ignored it, "You should finish unpacking Minato!" she said as she skipped up to her room.
Following her own advice, Hamuko got to work, putting up posters, assembling a small book shelf, and filling said book shelf, a hobby both her and Minato had picked up by reading Naoto when she was little, setting up her play station, her laptop, organizing her cloths, and making a list of things she needed to buy. Or at least that's what she would have insisted she was doing to anyone who walked into what could only be described as organized chaos, her things were separated, but that's where the order ended, the cloths were just randomly hung up or folded on top of each other, the books were simply put on the shelf, and a box fort occupied one corner.
"Annnnd done!" She smiled to herself, no one could call her room messy, though no one other than her could make any sense of it either. Her things unpacked she went back down stairs to check on the state of the kitchen. Only to find two cabinets full of instant ramen and a barely stocked fridge, that had bread, cheese, eggs, milk, which she was fairly sure was expired, and more protein shakes than a single person could drink in a month. Suppressing a scream of frustration at the kitchen's state, Hamuko checked the milk, threw it out, and then taking the pen from the sign in desk, she began expanding the list she'd started earlier, muttering violently to herself all the while.
She saw Mitsuru watching with a raised eyebrow, before Minato came down the stairs talking with a man with silver hair, standing taller than anyone else in the dorm, with a red sweater vest in place of the normal Gekkoukan blazer. He seemed to be pulling on a pair of leather gloves, "Kendo huh? Well to each their own I guess, don't get me wrong it's great training for your reflexes, but I prefer boxing, more applicable in real life situations." Her brother nodded, apparently conceding the point. Then they noticed her "So you must Hamuko then, name's Akihiko Sanada." The taller boy extended his now gloved hand and she shook it before turning to her brother and shoving the list she'd made into his hands.
"Here, I need you to get the things I marked by so I can make breakfast tomorrow, the rest can wait for after school, and I'll pay you back when we get home." She finished doling out instructions to her brother, "Oh right, how do you guys feel about omelets?"
Akihiko nodded in the affirmative, "Balanced nutrition, with enough protein to start the day off right, a good choice."
Mitsuru up from her book again, "That sounds fine, Thank you, Arisato."
"Nope, none of that Senpai, you can call Minato over there 'Arisato' all you like, since he's a stickler for formality, but you can just call me Hamuko, less confusing that way." As she'd spoken she'd already started taking stock of the various pots, pans, plates, and utensils in the kitchen.
"Then I insist you do the same Hamuko-san." The senior spoke up after recovering for a second.
"I'll get going then, shouldn't be out more than an hour or two." Minato said, having taken the pen, gone back to the sign in sheet, singed it and moved to leave.
One look from Mitsuru was all it took for Akihiko to rush to the entrance "I'll go with you." He said just before the two exited the building.
Once they were gone, silence settled over the dorm, occasionally broken by clanging as Hamuko moved something or otherwise rearranged the kitchen. Mitsuru spoke up breaking it more thoroughly, "So, it seems as if you're the more take-charge of the two of you, as it were?" she ventured.
A brief laugh echoed at that, "Seems like it doesn't it? Actually Minato makes most of the big choices, I might be the more sociable one, but I'm terrible at planning ahead. I just kinda defer to him on most things, except for the kitchen, the kitchen is my domain."
"So coming here was his decision?" She asked, not purely out of friendly curiosity.
Hamuko paused at that, "That's a bit more complicated, it was my idea to come back here, but convincing him took a while, but yeah, I didn't want to come without him so I guess it was his decision in a way."
Noting that her junior clearly didn't want to go into detail, Mitsuru changed the subject to the much safer topic of Gekkoukan, and the conversation flowed until the boys got back carrying several bags of groceries each. Several minutes of putting up the newly acquired food, small talk, and one apology to Yukari, when she got back, later, the twins went to sleep. At 12:00:00 the world shifted for an hour, and at 12:00:01 it returned to normal, and the twins lives went on, both unaware of the ordeals to come.
Yay! Authors note time, so this is my first fanfiction in a long time; the last thing I wrote being a now deleted halo fic over on spacebattles several years ago. And personally having read this over think I could have done a lot better. But we all have to start somewhere right? So 16 pages and 7,000+ words later, here we are, the start of Persona 3: Shattered Fate. No, this will not just be a novelization with two protagonists, while that's a fun idea, you eventually run into the problem of them sharing half of their social links with barely any differences between them. Though Shattered Fate will draw very heavily from Persona 3, I mean, it is a Persona 3 fic after all, but there will be some twists and turns not in the game, like having both MCs for example.
There are a lot of things that inspired this story, though the main three are Persona 3: Remix, Persona 3: Fairly English Story, and Persona: Defiance of Fate, By EnternalCombOver, SamJaz, and Solid Shark respectively. Seriously go read those; they're probably leagues above what this'll ever be.
Oh and as a final note, this chapter turned out a lot longer than I'd thought it would be. I honestly don't know if future chapters will be the same length, but I guarantee they'll be over 1,000 words, because having anything less would trigger a pet peeve of mine.
Anyways, please take the time to leave a review so that I can improve my shitty writing, and thanks for reading. If you have any questions or such I'll be sure to respond to them.
AN2: Hurrah for formatting error's that I didn't catch until after I posted the story! went through and fixed 'em though.
