Disclaimer: I do own a copy of the game Persona 4, but I am not the owner of its story, ideas, characters, and settings. All rights belong to Atlus, the great creators of this great game and series.
Chapter 1
One in the Same
Fog.
Fog so thick and so deep that you couldn't even see what was in front of you. Pale gray enveloped the area, shrouding even the senses except for the slight feeling of light jostling.
"Ahh..It seems we have a new guest here," a voice called out from the fog, sounding happy and amused at the same time.
Hearing this caused a young man to snap out of his trance and stare into the pale haze as he tried to gain his bearings.
The voice gave a chuckle and with it the fog began to slowly dissipate into a dark violet hue along with two figures mere feet away from where the young man was.
"Welcome…to the Velvet Room." The voice spoke in a deep tone, wisdom beyond ages seemingly pouring from every word.
The young man took a glance at his newly uncovered surrounds. Velvet blue covered the entire room as the young man sat on a plush seat.
"It seems that we have a guest that has a most intriguing destiny that I haven't seen in quite a while." The man gave a short chuckle, "Ahh…But where are my manners? My name…is Igor and I am delighted to make your acquaintance."
The man named Igor was an older looking gentleman. He sat on the opposite side of the young man, his hands folded under his chin, elbows resting on a small table in front of him, and eyes closed, as if contemplating something. The man had a very…unique appearance to say the least. His long nose easily reaching over where he had his hands and curving shortly after, as if in a beak-like fashion. His ears had a pointed tip like those seen on magical creatures and his hairline had resided so far back that if left him bald on top, leaving him with wild gray patch on the back of his head. He wore an expensive black suit with white gloves and white flower in his breast pocket. The man opened his eyes, revealing big bloodshot eyes that had the ability to stare through you. And even with his appearance, the man gave a smile. One that looked gentle, but still had a creepy factor to it.
The young man across from Igor looked to his left and saw a window. He looked out and saw the fog that had he had been in earlier, but this fog seemed different. It seemed as if it was deeper and more sinister.
Igor saw this and waved a gloved hand in front of his face, gaining the attention of the young man. "My apologies my young acquaintance. You must be very confused right now as to where you are. Do not fret! This place exists only between dream and reality, mind and matter…It is a place that only those that are bound by a 'contract' may enter." The man gave another light chuckle. "There is no need for alarm my young acquaintance! But, it may be that such a fate awaits you within the near future…"
The man waved his hand over the small table where he rested his elbow and, out of thin air, a set of blue cards appeared on the table. "How about we have a small glance into your future, shall we? With a snap of his fingers, the deck of cards vanished and was replaced with a three by three set of cards. "Do you believe in fortune telling young man?" The young man wanted to answer, but was cut off before he had the chance to speak. "I find it simply fascinating! Each reading is done with the same cards, and yet the result is always different." The man chortled and shook his head. "Life itself has the same principles, doesn't it?"
Igor leaned forward and flipped the card in the upper left corner. "Hmm," he rubbed his chin, gazing intently on the card in front of him. "The Tower in the upright position. This represents the immediate future. It seems that a terrible catastrophe is in the imminent future. The card indicating the future beyond that is…" The man this time flipped over the card in the upper right corner. "The Moon, in the upright position. This card represents 'hesitation' and 'mystery'…Yes. Very interesting indeed." Igor then moved his hand to the middle card on the bottom row and flipped it over. "Temperance, in the reversed position. This represents 'harmony' and or 'synthesis'. You will have deep troubles within yourself, but whether you are able to overcome it or not…is an entirely different matter."
Igor glanced up from the cards with a serious gaze. "It seems that you will encounter a great misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be thrust upon you. All the while, you will have conflicts within yourself. In the coming days, you will enter in a contract of some sort, after which you will return here."
Igor waved his hands over the cards and made them vanish, this time not to return. He place his elbows back on the table and assumed the pose he had earlier.
"The coming year is the turning point in your destiny. If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost." The room was deathly silent. "My duty is to provide assistance to our guests and to ensure that future does not happen."
Something seemed to hit Igor as he gestured his hand to his left. "Ah! I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you." The assistant in question was a woman with platinum blonde hair beside him. "This is Margaret. She is a resident of the Velvet Room like myself."
Igor turned his head slightly to look at the woman, to which she gave a short nod. "Hello. My name is Margaret." Her voice sounded monotone and her facial expressions were practically non-existent, if any at all. She said the line as if she had rehearsed it her whole life. "I am here to accompany you on this journey ahead." With that, Margaret turned her head back down into the huge tome that she had in her lap.
"We both have much assistance to provide you during the course of your long journey ahead." Igor continued. "But it shall have to wait to another time. Until then, farewell…"
The room began to fade into black as the young man felt his eye-lids begin to close.
The young man woke up startled, his heart beating and sweat covering his forehead. What did he dream that made him awaken so rudely? The young man wiped the sweat from his forehead and leaned back into his train seat as he looked out at the scenery passing by, his mind going back to the previous couple of days.
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"Class, today our friend and fellow student Souji Seta will be leaving us due to his parents work overseas. He will be living with his relatives until next year when he returns…"
Souji tuned out his teacher midway through his rambling. Of course he was moving. His parents were always on the move, but it didn't affect him much. He was used to his parents not being around at home, he had his friends from school to hang out with and to keep him company. But when his father came to him the week before and told him that he would have to stay with his relatives out in the sticks, he wanted to object, but deep down he really didn't care, so he just sighed and resigned to his fate. There was no way that they were going to change their minds, especially when it came to their high-profile jobs.
On his last day of school, the news of Souji's leaving had spread around the school like wildfire. He had wanted to keep this whole thing under the radar. Sure there were people that he wanted to say goodbye to, but since it was the news of the day, that wasn't going to happen. Souji had to endure a painfully awkward day of tears, hugs, and goodbyes.
Being popular had its ups, but it definitely had its downs too. Sure his cool appearance, his participation in athletics, and his extraordinarily good grades made him the target for everyone to socialize with him and thus invited to hang out with other classmates on a regular basis, but were they really his friends?
Souji often contemplated this when he had time to himself and always came to a crossroads with himself.
On one hand, he never really felt a connection to others. Hell, he had problems remembering their names at times. He carried on half-assed conversations, even if you could call them that, with them; never giving his full attention. On the other hand though, he had actually grown accustom to the night life with his so-called "friends". The outings to the arcade, the various nights of group dates to karaoke booths, and being in a crowd in general actually pleased him. It made Souji feel good to have human contact; God knows his parents weren't giving him any. Maybe it was his way of coping with the situation?
"So Seta-kun, is there anything that you would like to say to your fellow classmates?"
Yeah…they were just classmates. Nothing more, nothing less. Just other teenagers trying to survive high school like Souji. He didn't have a connection to them. He just put on his normal deadpan face and addressed the class.
"I'll..uh…miss you all I guess." He lied. "I will cherish every moment that we've had together." Another lie. This one sent the class into overload. Some of the more popular girls in class began to tear up, while the rest of the class moaned and groaned.
God, that made Souji feel like such a hypocrite. He could care less about them, but at the same time he felt bad about seeing them react this way. Had they really cared for him? Was it him that never really opened up to them because of his old notions about people in general?
Nah, He just chalked it up to him being a people pleaser.
The teacher motioned for Souji to return to his seat. Once there he rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. He didn't want to delve too much into the morals of his past actions, what's done is done. No going back.
Souji gave a small groan and put his head down on the desk. He just wanted this day to be over with.
The Next Day
Souji stood all alone on the train platform. Of course nobody showed up. He was just one person. Not a friend, not a lover, not anything. Souji mentally kicked himself for feeling bad for them yesterday. Did anyone really truly care for him?
The teen just gave a heavy sigh as he saw his train roll into the station. Some would think of him for a week, maybe two tops, before he would disappear from their lives. A normal person would be sad that they were all alone with no one there to see him or her off or even at least sending them a goodbye message, but Souji wasn't normal. He would just dust off his shoulders and move forward, like the countless times he's done before. Perhaps the only reason that he let the others feel attached to him in the first place was because this was his hometown. He thought that his parents had finally decided to settle down and wanted to be rooted down back home, but it was just a childish notion.
The doors to the train slid open and without hesitation, Souji stepped into the desolate train. He sat his bag down beside him and took a seat next to the window.
"Goodbye Tokyo, I'll miss the places, not the people."
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"Still though, moving me out to the sticks? I was somewhat content at where I was at already. The city had plenty of distractions. Malls, arcades, and theaters…What does this place have? Nothing of interest more than likely." Souji continued to gaze out of his window as the train sped along the tracks. "At least the trip here is nice."
"Come on Souji, I think that this change in scenery will be good for the both of us. God knows how much I hated to be around all those buffoons." A voice resonated within Souji's mind.
"You know that's not entirely true. Many of them were like me, trying to cling to something to forget about another." There was a questioning silence in the air. "Maybe you are right, but still…..some part of me still enjoyed the nights out." Souji mumbled back to himself.
"Well you did not get that from me. I despised them. All their 'Friendship' was just whitewash." The voice retorted back coldly.
Souji winced at the words, but as they say, "The truth hurts". Yu was right.
That's right…Yu.
Yu Narukami…a part of Souji that only he could see and hear. And though he was in his mind, Souji considered him a close friend and even his brother at lengths. Yu had been there for Souji for as long as he could remember.
To any normal person, this would seem like a case of an individual who is mentally disturbed. A person talking to themself and actually holding a conversation is just downright ludicrous, but to Souji, it was a normal aspect of his life. Though, he didn't go around spouting that he had voices in his head, he kept silent about it. Yu was a person that he could talk to on a daily basis. Someone that actually knew Souji for who he was.
Souji looked into the train window and saw what looked like his own reflection, but it seemed different. Instead of Souji, it was Yu who was looking at him. Yu's eyes always had this piercing sort of stare instead of Souji's own naturally soft gaze. Yu even had a deeper octave voice than Souji's to go with his piercing stare.
And even with these differences, they couldn't get along any better.
Yu gave a sigh, "Hey…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been that hard on you." Yu said apologetically. "I thought things would have been different this time too. I guess we were both wrong, huh?"
"Hey don't take all the blame. I got a little too comfortable and I let them get a little under my skin." Souji said with a wave of his hand. "We just need to put this behind us and continue on."
Yu gave a lopsided grin and nodded his head. "Agreed."
Time passed as both parties conversed with each other until the familiar ding of the train's announcement came on. "We will be arriving in Inaba in five minutes."
"That's us then…." Souji thought as he grabbed his duffel-bag beside him.
Inaba… The town which he would be staying in for the next year. Souji slumped back in his seat with his bag beside him and gave a sigh.
Inaba. Even the name made it sound like a small town out in the middle of nowhere. But being the optimist that he tried to be, Souji hoped that there would be a way to entertain himself through the year in this town. It wouldn't be that bad. Right?
The train pulled slowly into the station and soon the doors slid open, revealing Souji's new home.
"There's nothing here…" Souji mumbled to himself, somewhat amazed at his surroundings compared to that of the city.
"Clean air, the smell of grass and flowers, the simplistic feel….. I think I'm going to like this place. What about you?" Yu said contently.
"I would joke about how a being within my own mind is able to 'like' something, but I'm not going into that argument right now…"
Yu was about to give his retort, but was interrupted when he heard a voice call out.
"Hey! Over here," a man in his early thirties shouted out. Souji walked strolled over to the man, bag on hand.
"Nice to see ya' again Souji." The teen knew that this had to be his uncle, how else would he know him by name? He stood there with a grin on his face and a cigarette in his mouth. The man had a gray dress shirt with a red tie done haphazardly with a matching suit jacket slung over his shoulder and pair of dark brown slacks.
"Well, you look better in person than you do in your photo." The man gave a small chuckle. "My name is Ryotaro Dojima. I'll be taking care of you." The man extended his hand out.
"Thank you" He extended his own hand and reciprocated with a firm handshake. "Thank you for taking me in Dojima-san."
Dojima gave a small look of surprise before bursting out in laughter and giving a hard slap on Souji's back, nearly knocking the wind out of him. "No need to be formal you know. We're family after all!" The man paused, tilting his head slightly to the side. "Let's see…I'm your mother's younger brother….and that about sums it up. Don't tell me you forgot about me."
"I..um…I'm sorry if I don't really remember you." Souji said as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm not surprised." Dojima gave a nonchalant shrug. "The last time I saw you, you were still in diapers." Dojima shifted to his right, revealing a small little girl. She had brunette hair, tied up in pigtails with pink ribbon. "This is my daughter Nanako." He gave the girl a push forward, allowing Souji to get a good look at her. She wore a long sleeve-dress that was white from the chest up, brown down at the waist, and ending with a pink skirt. Overall the attire had the adorableness of a little girl written all over it.
"Come on Nanako, introduce yourself to your cousin."
Souji gave a warm smile and squatted in front of the little girl, extending his hand. "It's very nice to meet you Nanako-chan."
The girl was too shy to meet Souji's face, so she took to looking at his shoulder. She rolled on the balls of her feet, a scarlet red blush forming across her cheeks, managing to squeak out a tiny "..'lo" before retreating to the safety of her dad's back. Souji gave a warm chuckle as he retracted his hand.
Dojima laughed at the sight as well. "What're you acting so shy for?"
Nanako mumbled something into her dad's shirt before slapping him on the small of his back out of frustration.
"Ow! Haha…" Dojima continued to laugh as Souji rose back to his feet. "My car is just around the corner, let's get going."
Souji walked to the back of the station wagon and began to put his duffle bag in. "Well, they are a nice pair, huh Souji?"
"Yeah. I wonder why Mother hasn't talked about them much. Sure, she said his name in passing, but she never really described him to me." Souji answered back as he walked around to the front of the vehicle.
With the luggage in the vehicle, the three piled in, Nanako in the back seat and Souji and Dojima up front.
Dojima started the car and was soon on the road into town.
The ride into town was quiet for the most part. Souji had answered Dojima's simple questions like "How old are you?" and "How are your parents," but that wasn't enough to keep a conversation going and it was beginning to cause tension. Dojima sensed this and turned on the radio to break the silence in the car.
It was apparently a talk radio show as a male reporter came on the air. "If you are just tuning in, we are covering the alleged affair between councilman Taro Namatame and reporter Mayumi Yammano. We now turn to our correspondents. Do yo-" The male reporter's voice began to be replaced by static. Dojima fiddled with the knobs seeing if he could fix the problem, but only made it worse to the point that there was only the mean hiss of static.
Dojima gave an annoyed grunt and turned the radio off, deciding that trying to have a conversation would be a better alternative to that headache inducing sound. Dojima opened his mouth to speak, but was cut-off by the sound of a small ringing noise. He looked down at his dashboard and saw that the "Low Gas" light had come on. "Ugh, come on. I thought that I just filled the tank up last week."
"Dad…bathroom." Nanako whispered from the back.
"We have to go to the gas station so you can use it there. Thankfully it's on the way home." Dojima quickly drove up to the near gas station and pulled up to the pump. All three got out of the vehicle, Souji needed to get out and stretch out his legs. The three were greeted by an attendee clad in a red and white jacket combo and red baseball cap.
"Hello! Welcome to Moel!" Souji couldn't make heads or tails if it was a man or a woman from the baggy coat and cap covering his or her hair and most of their face as well. He thought that it would be best just to keep his mouth shut instead of being rude and asking questions and causing a scene.
"Regular is fine." Dojima said to the attendant before looking down at his daughter. "Can you go to the bathroom by yourself?"
Nanako nodded her head. "Uh-huh." She began to walk to the station , but soon slowed down. She couldn't figure out which way to go.
This was noticed by the attendant. "It's toward the back, to your left. You know which way is left right? The hand that you don't hold your chopsticks in."
The young brunette huffed and mumbled under her breath. "I know….Geez." She quickly stormed off to the bathroom.
The attendant rubbed the back his or her neck. "I don't mean to be nosy, but are you going on a trip?"
"Oh, no we just picked him up from the train station." Dojima pointed to Souji. "He just arrived here from the city."
"The big city, huh?" The worker grinned, eyes pinned on the silverette.
"Well, this is a good time as any for a smoke…" Dojima thought as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket.
"I'll pump your gas right away sir." Dojima gave a nod and walked to the street as he put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
The attendant pulled the nozzle from its pump and put it into the car. The attendant then left the pump and walked over to Souji.
"Are you in high school?" The attendant asked.
Souji's head snapped around as he replied "Huh? Oh..yeah."
"Does it surprise you to see so little out here?"
"Well I guess you could say that." Souji said as he looked out to the surrounding country.
"Well that's understandable. There's so little to do out here that you'll get bored pretty fast." Souji's shoulders dropped a little at this. "You'll either be hanging out with your friends or working part-time jobs." The attendant snapped his or her fingers "That's right! We're hiring right now too. Give it some thought, why don't you? We don't mind if you're a student."
The attendant took a step forward and extended a hand to the silverette. Not wanting to be rude, he extended his own and shook the hand of the attendant. Souji felt something weird as he connected with the attendant, an electric tingle spread throughout his body and a warm feeling rose through him as a light flashed before his eyes.
"Oh, I should get back to work!" The attendant let go of Souji's hand and quickly walked back to the pump.
Souji began to feel light headed and stumbled back over to the car and leaned against the passenger side door. "What…the hell is going on? Why am I so sick all of a sudden?" Souji felt like the world was spinning around him and that he would empty the contents of his stomach at any time.
"This…is interesting. I can….feel something. I don't know what it is, but this is new."Yu contemplated. That's when Yu sensed something wasn't right, Souji hasn't responded like he usually does. "Souji are you alright? Talk to me."
Souji's face was beginning to become flushed as, what felt like fire, burned through his veins. "I don't feel too good…Yu."
"Are you okay? You don't look so good." a voice came from behind Souji. He whipped around and saw Nanako who was standing with concern in her eyes. She was only feet away, but her voice sounded like she was a world away.
"Oh…yeah. I'm alright." He put on a smile, hoping that she would buy it.
Nanako stood there for a second, her tiny eyes seemingly scrutinizing Souji. "Hmm…okay then…" She pouted and ran back to the other side of the car and climbed into her seat.
Souji breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want to worry anyone right now, let alone a child.
Dojima had returned from his smoke break to see Souji in his sorry state. "Are you okay?"
Souji spun around to face his uncle. "Yeah, I think I'm just…tired from the trip." Souji hoped that his act would make it past his uncle now.
He looked Souji up and down and rubbed his five o'clock shadow. "Hmm… Well, if you're starting to come down with something, we have some medicine you can take when we get home. Think you can make it till then?" Souji nodded his head. "Okay. Let's go then."
Dojima paid for the gas and they all piled into the car. Souji leaned back in his seat and sighed out. He was already beginning to feel somewhat better. The heat flash had died down, but the feeling of disorientation was still there and Souji had gained a pulsating headache now.
"Today just isn't my day, huh?" Souji rubbed his temples. "I'm starting to feel tired…" Souji felt his eye-lids grow heavy as he felt fatigue set into him. Souji leaned against the window and closed his eyes.
Maybe just closing his eyes for a moment would make him feel better?
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"We're here."
Souji jerked up violently as he felt someone put a hand in his shoulder and shake him.
"Wh-what?"
"W-We're here." Dojima repeated with a confused look on his face. "Did you fall asleep on the ride here?"
"I guess so…" Souji mumbled out as he rubbed his eyes.
Had he really fallen asleep the whole car ride over? It had only felt like minutes had passed since he closed his eyes. Souji shook the cobwebs out of his head and exited the car.
"This is our home." Dojima said he walked toward the back of the car, grabbing Souji's duffel bag and handing it to him. The three then walked toward the front of the house to where Souji could get a good look at it.
It was a very simple styled house. It had and old, but humbled feeling to it as Souji walked through the front door. "So this is where we're staying for the next year, huh?"
Souji wasn't very excited about the prospect of this, but decided to keep it to himself. This was his uncle's house and he didn't want to leave a bad first impression on him.
"You can go ahead and take you bag to your room while I get dinner ready. It's the room at the end of the hall upstairs." Dojima said as he took off his shoes.
Souji gave a singular nod and after removing his own shoes, he trekked up the stairs and found his room. He opened the door and was greeted with the sight of various boxes stuffed in the average sized room. Souji flung his bag to the side and maneuvered around the many obstacles to the small leather couch that was against the wall, promptly flopping down on it. He was still awfully tired from before.
"Why did I get sick so suddenly back at the gas station?" Souji mumbled to himself as he ran his hand through his silver hair.
"I don't know. All I know is that it affected me as well. That was something very alien to me. I have never been able to 'feel' your sicknesses before, but at the gas station I felt something seemingly setting fire to our soul." Yu chimed in, his voice giving off a dark tone.
Souji contemplated what could have caused this to happen, but was getting nowhere fast. He scratched the back of his neck and gave out an exasperated sigh. "Maybe I'm overthinking this. I probably caught some sort of weird bug from the train ride and it hit me all at once."
Yu was silent for a time before speaking. "I hope that is so…" Yu trailed off, not sounding very confident with Souji's hypothesis.
Souji rubbed his eyes one good time before head out of his room, dinner was probably ready by now and he didn't want to hold his relatives up from eating. Souji descended down the stairs and was greeted with a table of sushi, rice, and other side dishes. It looked pretty appetizing right now, since Souji had nothing to eat besides a piece of fruit he had that morning. Dojima waved him over, Souji promptly took a seat next to his uncle. Nanako walked in from the kitchen with three drinks in her tiny arms and placed them in front of Souji and her father.
Once Nanako settled herself in her place, Dojima raised his drink in the air. "Let's have a toast!" The other two followed suit and clinked their cans with each other and took a sip.
Dojima was the first to break the ice over the dinner table. "So, your parents are out on business again, huh?" Souji gave a solemn nod and took another sip of his drink. "I know it's only for a year, but being stuck in a place like this….it must be rough on you."
"Souji shook his head. "I'm somewhat used to it now. At first it was pretty hard to just drop everything I knew and leave, but I guess time took care of that." Souji said keeping his eyes straight ahead. He already got over that old feeling of sadness from this morning.
"Dojima's mouth twitched a slight frown, thinking he touched a nerve. He quickly decided to change the subject. "So it's just me and Nanako here. It'll be good to have someone else around for a while." Dojima glanced over to his daughter and saw that she was completely absorbed with some show on T.V.
"So long as you're here, you're part of the family, so make yourself at home." Dojima finished with a gentle smile.
"Home…Family…" Did Souji truly know the meaning of those words? He had always been dragged from place to place by his parents, and then left to defend himself once they attended to their jobs. But something struck a chord within Souji with the way Dojima said those words. It made Souji feel an old sense of longing.
"Thank you for your kindness Uncle." Souji said with a small hint of sincerity in his voice.
He gave a small bow to Dojima, which made him laugh. "Haha! C'mon, no need to be so formal! Look, you're making Nanako all tense."
Souji turned to his young cousin. Nanako gained a small blush and turned her eyes down to her lap. Souji gave a small smile to himself. "That's cute," said Yu.
"Well, let's eat." Dojima picked up his chopsticks and nearly had a piece of sushi in his mouth before his cellphone rang. He gave a disgruntled mumble before fishing through his pocket to find his phone. He pressed the receive button and out it to his ear. "Dojima speaking…."
Souji turned his gaze to his uncle whose expression changed to one of tiredness and frustration. What was going on?
Dojima got up on his feet and walked into the kitchen. "Uh-huh….I see. Where is it?" Dojima gave a small sigh, "Alright, I'm on my way." Dojima closed his phone and mumbled to himself. "Looks like I made the right choice to skip the booze tonight..."
Dojima picked up his suit jacket, slinging it over his shoulder and turning back to Souji and Nanako. "Sorry, but I've business I need to take care of. Go ahead and eat without me."
Nanako stood up from the table. "Dad?"
Dojima rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, but I don't know how late I'll be. Nanako, help him out, okay?"
"…Okay" Disappointment was evident in her voice.
It hurt Souji to hear the pain in her. It reminded him of him when he was a child whenever his parents told him that he would be moving away from his friends back then.
Dojima opened the door and seemed to get even more annoyed that it was raining outside. "Nanako, it's raining. What did you do with the laundry?"
"I brought it in already."
"Okay. Well, I'm off then." Dojima exited out and headed to the car. The sound of the engine easily heard when he left.
Nanako turned her attention to the television and turned up the volume. It was the weather report. "Now let's take a look at the breakdown of tomorrow's weather. With storm clouds moving in from the west, expect rain showers throughout the day in most areas."
Souji felt the tense atmosphere between them and decided to strike up a conversation. "Soo…" Souji took a second to think of what to say. "What does your father do?"
The girl looked up from her food. "He….investigates stuff. Like crime scenes. My dad is a detective."
Souji was pleasantly surprised. He never knew that he was related to a detective off all people. Police work like that always intrigued him. He was a very big mystery buff, often reading Sherlock Holmes and other mystery novels to pass the time when he was home. Maybe Souji could talk to him a bit to see what it's like to be a detective.
The evening news came on, the announcer giving the latest report. "City council secretary, Taro Namatame is under fire from an alleged relationship with a female reporter." The image of a thin, sad looking man was showed in the corner of the screen. "His wife, enka ballad sensation Misuzu Hiiragi, revealed to the station that she will likely pursue damages." The photo of a woman in a kimono replaced the one of Narotame. "In response, Eye Television has decided to cancel all of the announcer Mayumi Yamano's televised apperances. Until allegations of an affair Mr. Namatame are resolved, she'll off the air and out of the public eye."
"…This is boring" Nanako reached over to the remote and began flipping channels for something to watch.
Souji had to agree with his younger cousin. There was nothing of interest in that story. It was more than likely a straight cut case of a wealthy politician having an inflated ego and thinking he could get anything he wanted. He got caught red handed with his hand in the cookie jar.
A happy jingle came on and caught the silverette's attention. "At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day! Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products!"
"Oh it's a commercial for that mega-store, been a while since we saw one of their commercials." Souji commented mentally.
"Maybe that's because we rarely watch television in the first place."
Souji just shrugged his shoulders as the cheesy ending tune came on. "Every day young life Junes!"
Nanako seemed to beam at this and sang back the tune with joy. Souji gave an amused smile. "That makes two."
"Ah, the innocence of children. Remember when we were like that?"
"Yeah, but that was cut rather short, wasn't it? I'm really more surprised that I can actually remember that far back. That or it's you that is remembering for me."
Yu gave a dry chuckle. "I guess you could say that I am the brains of the outfit, since if I wasn't here you wouldn't even remember what you did thirty minutes ago."
"I don't have bad memory. I just don't pay attention to things that aren't important."
"A lot of things aren't important to you then."
Souji was about to retort, but was cut off by a small voice across the table. "Are you going to eat?" Nanako asked with her head tilted slightly.
He must have been staring into space for a while when he was talking with Yu. Souji nodded his head and begun to eat the rest of his dinner.
Souji thanked Nanako for his meal and, sensing that she was still tense from not knowing him, decided to retire to bed early for the night.
He walked into his room and was greeted with boxes again. Souji gave a small sigh and waved them off, they would be a problem for tomorrow night. He was too tired to even begin to think of unpacking. He grabbed his duffel bag from where he threw it and changed into his night pajamas, a white long-sleeved shirt and a pair of black sweat pants.
Souji walked over to the closet and pulled out the futon. He cleared a space for himself and turned off the lights. Sleep sounded like a fine prospect right now.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Souji opened his eyes and found himself down on his knee, a deep fog surrounding him. He slowly stood up and saw that he was dressed in his Yasogomi High uniform. He shook his head and tried to gain a sense of where he was at, but any notion of that was quickly dismissed. The fog was simply too thick to know heads or tails of what was around him.
"Do you seek the truth?" A mysterious voiced called out.
Souji whipped around to pinpoint where the voice came from. The fog only seemed to thicken in front of him.
"What the hell is going on? Who are you?" Souji shouted out.
"If it is the truth you desire, come and find me." The voice called out, this time from in front of him. The voice didn't seem to have malice in it, but at the same time it sounded….cold. It also held this…unnatural air around it, making it hard to differentiate it between male and female.
Souji squinted his eyes and saw a red blocky path begin to reveal itself to him. He took a step forward and felt something clack against his back. He reached around and grabbed the handle of whatever it was and pulled it out. Souji brought up to his face and saw that it was a katana. And not just any, but what seemed like a high quality one as well. It wasn't too heavy so it wasn't cumbersome and it wasn't thin to that the sword would be flimsy, it also had a very sharp edge to it. This was the real deal. Souji ran his hand down the length of the blade, old kendo skills coming to mind. It had been about a year and a half since he last picked up a sword. He suppressed the urge to swing the dangerous weapon around and simply returned it to its sheath.
The teen slowly walked forward, following the weird misshapen path before him. Souji felt alone in his travel down the long path, he was used to the feeling of loneliness, but something made this feeling intense more and more as he walked on. The dead silent world around him didn't help things either. Everything about this place screamed eerie and dangerous, so Souji kept his guard up. He soon came upon a huge black and red-colored portal-like door. Souji looked behind him and saw that the path behind had dissolved back into the fog.
"No going back now…" The silverette apprehensively reached out to the door but was stopped when he felt something manifest itself beside him. He quickly turned his head and leapt back, drawing his sword in one fluid motion. The teen strained his eyes to see what looked like a male figure in front of him. It seemed…familiar. He slowly inched closer to the figure, the fog slowly dissipating from around the figure. Once Souji was upon the figure he gasped in shock as he saw who it was. It was a carbon copy of himself on his knee, his head pointed to the ground.
Souji felt a lump in his throat as he nervously called out to his twin. "W-Who are you? Why do you look like me?!"
This caused the Souji look-alike to snap his head up. "Is that you?" The voice from the clone caught Souji off-guard, "Is that you Souji?"
Souji relaxed his stance once the cogs in his brain started to work. "…Yu? Is that you?" The silverette walked closer to the figure and saw the same sharp eyes that he had come to know over the many years. It was indeed Yu! Souji let his sword down and stared in amazement. He had never seen Yu this way, he looked like a living breathing person, not just a voice in his mind or a reflection in the mirror!
"Yu you're….alive! You're actually a real person!" Souji said as he looked him up and down.
Yu slowly stood up and began doing the same thing as well, amazed that he had his own body to control. "I…I am at a loss for words." Yu looked glanced up and saw Souji standing before him. "Souji! I have a body!"
Souji was about to respond to him, but was stopped by a looming presence next to him. The hypnotic door besides the two seemed to glow a darker shade of red, as if beckoning for the pair to enter through it. Souji looked over to Yu, he nodded his head. Souji gave a quick nod back and reached out to the door, feeling the cold pulsating aura coming from it. The door swirled in a kaleidoscope like pattern and vanished before their eyes. The two walked through the door and were blinded by a bright white flash of light, the both of them raising their arms up in reflex to shield their faces. After a couple of second the pair let their guard down and were greeted with a silhouette in the fog up in the distance, they couldn't make out whether the figure was male or female.
"So…it is you that are pursuing me." The figure said in a cold voice, the same as the one from earlier.
"Who are you and what is this place?!" Souji shouted out to the figure, his hand steadily gripping the hilt of his blade.
"Why have I come alive outside of Souji?" Yu called out in a less menacing voice as his compatriot, but on guard as well.
"You seek the truth, do you not? Hmhmhm…try all you like." The voice said in a mocking manner.
Normally, Souji would never fly off the handle in this type of situation, but this wasn't a normal situation. Souji drew his blade and rushed forward. Yu called out to Souji to stop, but his words fell on deaf ears as Souji swung at the figure's chest. Souji's blade only met air as it passed harmlessly through the figure. Souji's stance and his attacks were slightly askew, the year and half off of his training showing, but that didn't deter the silverette.
"Everyone sees what they want….." Souji went for another slice toward the figure's head, but met air again. "And the fog only deepens…"
Souji jumped back and took another running start to the figure. Yu looked on as he felt some type of energy well up inside of him. He stretched out his arm and a card floated down from above, a gentle blue light radiating from it. Once in his hand, Yu crushed it within his fist, releasing a torrent of energy from within him. Souji felt this and turned to him and saw that a gigantic figure began to manifest itself behind Yu. Even though it was only a silhouette, it was very imposing. It carried a huge bladed weapon with it as gave out an ancient howl and looked forward to its opponent. Yu glared at the figure and the being began to do his bidding.
The huge silhouette slashed out with his blade, but had the same effect as Souji did before. The beast gave a low growl and attempted a second strike, trying to cleave the figure in two. It only met with failure, causing the beast to retreat back.
"Hmm…interesting. You can see little, even though this fog blocks your vision."
The beast didn't care for the figure's words and began to well something within itself. Both Souji and Yu could feel the energy draining from them and giving it to the beast. One word popped within their minds at the same time and simultaneously they both called out.
"ZIO!"
The beast let out a deafening roar, releasing the pent up energy that it had gathered into a huge lightning bolt that came down atop the figure's head in blinding white rage. Souji and Yu shielded their faces until the raging lighting died off. After the violent attack, the beast began to fade back into the nothingness from which it came. The mysterious figure still stood, unaffected by the fierce lightning.
"…I see you both possess a special quality about you." The two were too tired from the fight to respond. Yu had fallen to his knee, trying to regain his breath and Souji had dug his blade into the ground, using it as crutch to hold him up.
"…Will we meet again?" The fog began to become thicker and thicker. "At another place than this…" Both Souji and Yu's vision began to blur as the figure gave a dark chuckle. "Hmhm…I look forward to it…"
And with that, the world grew dark as both parties fell unconscious.
Author's Note:
Well, here we are people.
I have always toyed around with this idea in my head. There are two different names for the main character, Souji Seta and Yu Narukami. Now I thought that each name represented a different side of the same person. I played around with idea of this and it had fleshed out into this. I do not know if this idea has been tried before or not. If so, please tell me where so I can give props to whoever wrote this idea first. (That sneaky bastard, whoever you are)
I also apologize if I messed up on the tarot reading in the beginning. I did as much research as I could to make the scene fit. If anyone can point any mistakes in that, I would gladly appreciate it.
I hope that you all enjoyed this first chapter and I hope to see you all in the coming chapters!
WW.