LOADING…
LOADED.
"Time never waits.
It delivers all equally to the same end.
You, who wish to safeguard the future
however limited it may be...
You will be given one year.
Go forth without falter,
with your heart as your guide..."
"Attention passengers. We are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience caused by the delay. The next stop is Iwatodai."
The train's intercom blared as it approached its destination. However, its sole passenger barely heard the warning, being more engrossed in the music playing through his headphones. "Burn My Dread". Classic.
The brunette sighed as he saw a bright blue butterfly fly outside the window. Weird, but it wasn't the first time he saw that little thing, so he could let it slide. Realizing that his stop was next, the boy removed his headphones and stood up, checking the time on his phone.
11:58 PM.
"Dammit..." He muttered as the train came to a halt. The doors opened and he walked out, somewhat angrily. "It's almost Green Scream again..."
11:59 PM.
"Eh. Might as well wait until it starts. No need to rush, especially during that time."
Tick...
Tick...
Tick...
CRASH!
And like that, the world around him went silent... and so did his headphones.
Everything around him was covered in a kind of dark green hue. Blood covered the floor and seemed to ooze out of every crack possible. Any source of water had been transformed into dark crimson blood. And where everyone once stood, a coffin stood tall, making the scenery look like something straight out of a horror film.
"Green Scream, you never cease to amaze me." The boy chuckled before walking out of the station, ignoring the putrid smell from the blood around him. "Now let's see here..." He took out a paper from his pocket. "Says here I'm supposed to go to the Kirijo Dorm..." He blinked. "Hehe... Kirijo... There's a name I haven't heard in a while." The brunette shrugged and straightened his orange jacket. "Well, no point in standing around thinking about it. At least this thing came with instructions on how to get there." He smiled before taking his first few steps into the city.
"Iwatodai..." The boy thought as he walked through the endless rows of coffins and blood. "It's been years since I've been here... It may be Green Scream right now, but this place still brings back memories..."
Both good and bad. Very very bad.
He shook his head, repressing the horrifying memory. That was years ago. He didn't need to think about it anymore. "Keep it together man..." He muttered, stopping in front of a building. "Kirijo Dorm. Owned by the Kirijo Group itself." He chuckled. "Kinda hard to find something that isn't nowadays." He noticed an eerie dim illumination in the dorm, which puzzled him. "That's weird. I thought power wasn't supposed to work right now..."
He shrugged before opening the door and walking in. Sure enough, the room was lightly illuminated. The boy would've been lying if he said he didn't feel relieved seeing a color other than red and green during Green Scream.
"You're late."
The brunette nearly jumped out of his skin. Sitting on a desk in the room was a young boy, looking about nine or ten years old. He was dressed in a prison garb and stared at the brunette with an unnerving smile on his face.
"The heck?" The brunette thought. "What's a kid doing here? More importantly, what's he doing awake during Green Scream?! Shouldn't he be a coffin?!"
"I've been waiting for you for a long time." The kid said, only creeping the brunette out more. "If you want to proceed, then please sign here. It's a contract." The brunette blinked and looked over at what the boy was gesturing to. Next to him was a little red folder, with a single sheet of paper in it, with the fine print right above the signature line.
"I hath chooseth this fate of mine own free will. I shall take full responsibility of mine actions and the consequences to come from them."
"...I'm not selling my soul to you, am I?" The child chuckled before handing the older boy a quill.
"Don't worry. There's no need to be scared." He said. "It only binds you to accepting full responsibility for your actions. You know, the usual stuff."
"Doesn't seem very usual to me..." The boy muttered, earning a giggle from the prison boy. "You're going to stay on my case until I sign this stupid thing, huh?"
"Yep."
The brunette sighed and grabbed the quill and dipped it in ink. He scribbled his signature on the paper. "Happy?"
The boy gave a another smile before taking the contract off the table. With a flick of his hand, it disappeared like a card in a magic trick.
"Trippy." The brunette said, impressed. "I know a little magic myself. What else can you do?" The child smiled. Even in the strange atmosphere, the child's smile didn't seem as frightening anymore. I'm fact, he looked... friendly.
"Oh, more than you can imagine." He smiled. "You know... no one can escape time. It delivers us all to the same end..." The brunette tilted his head, confused.
"Huh?" What the heck was that supposed to mean? "What are you talking about?"
"You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes..." The boy stepped back into the shadows. "And so it begins." The brunette tried to reach out to him, but he vanished, without a trace. The light shutting off at the same time made the scene look even scarier.
He could only stare where the boy once was.
"Just what was that about..." He whispered.
"Who's there?!"
The second jump of the day. The brunette muttered something under his breath before hearing footsteps. The boy glanced at the staircase where a girl in a pink cardigan came down, panting and looking at him as if he was a monster.
She was wearing a school uniform under her cardigan and had a red arm band with the word "S.E.E.S." written on it. An acronym? She had light brown hair like him and had big beautiful brown eyes.
The boy looked confused until he realized something.
She was awake during Green Scream.
"Another one?" He whispered. Just how many more people would he could be awake during this time?
"W-What?! W-Who are-?! She fumbled over her words as she stared at him. She took a step back as the two continued their staring contest.
"Um..." The brunette really didn't know what to say. The girl's legs trembled and sweat dripped down her cheeks. She looked terrified of something...
Was she afraid of him? What, was this the wrong dorm or something? Maybe she thought he was some kind of burglar or something. Either way, that didn't explain why she was so frightened or why she was awake during Green Scream! Besides, why was she afraid? She's the one with the gun!
Wait, what?!
The girl reached for the gun wrapped around her thigh. "H-Hey, wait!" He cried, but she didn't listen. "Hold on! Don't do anything crazy here!" She shakily grabbed the firearm, which had the word "S.E.E.S." engraved into it. She grabbed the handle with both hands and pointed it at-
Her forehead?!
"Woah! What are you doing?!" The boy yelled, hoping to stop her from doing something rash, insane and and just plain crazy. "Hold on-"
"Takeba! Wait!"
Both brunettes froze as a third voice was heard from the top of the stairs. One that practically dripped with authority.
And like that, the lights came back on. Which was good. The smell of blood was getting on the boy's nerves.
"Hello~ nurse..." The boy whispered as soon as he saw a red haired young woman walk down the stairs. She had a flawless figure and stood with a kind of royal elegance. A somewhat pale complexion, but nonetheless flawless skin. "Plus she looks hot in that uniform!" The brunette girl looked at him strangely before turning her attention back to the woman.
"I didn't think you'd arrive so late." The redhead said. "My name is Misturu Kirijo. I'm one of the students who lives in this dorm."
"She lives here?" The boy thought before realization came over him. "Wait, Kirijo?"
Misturu nodded. "Yes. I am the granddaughter of Koetsu Kirijo, founder of the Kirijo Group."
...
The boy whistled. "Hot damn..."
"Who's he?" The brunette girl asked, gaining the others attention. The girl in the pink cardigan scanned the brunette boy.
There were lots of small details she didn't notice about him at first. First, there was his hair. He was a brunette, but he had these bright orange highlights in his hair. He had a pair of headphones around his neck and sunglasses sitting on top of his head. His eyes were olive green. He wore a bright orange jacket that seemed to glow a bit in the dark. The brown combat boots he was wearing were also a bit strange...
"'Sup!" He said, making the girl jump. "Nice to meet ya! My name's DJ." The girl in pink blinked.
"...DJ...-san?" She asked, looking over to the redhead. Mitsuru sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Yes... I remember the confusion that your name ended up bringing up..." She muttered, making the boy smirk. "He's a transfer student. It was a last decision to assign him to here. Although it was a bit difficult due to certain... circumstance. All your documents and files state your name as "DJKL", correct?"
"That's my name, don't wear it out! He smiled as the pink girl holstered her gun. "Or at least that's what my parents put on my birth certificate. I think it's an acronym for something, but I don't know... What about you?" The girl in pink jumped. "What's your name?"
"O-Oh!" She stuttered. "I-I'm Yukari Takeba... N-Nice to meet you."
"Takeba here will be a Junior this spring, like you." Mitsuru finished. DJ nodded.
"Okay... Question." He pointed at Yukari. "Why the heck do you have a gun and why the heck did you almost commit bloody suicide?" Yukari paled as DJ's gaze fixated on her.
"H-Huh?! Oh, um... Well" She twiddled her thumbs and averted his gaze. "it's sorta... like a hobby."
"A hobby?"
"It's for self-defense." Mitsuru stepped in, taking DJ's attention off of Yukari. "It's not a real gun, of course, but you know how it is these days." DJ raised an eyebrow. Did this woman think he was stupid?
Well, he obviously wasn't going to get an answer right now, so he might as well play along.
"Okay..." He paused. "Hey, is this a girls dorm?" He asked, looking around. "Or are there any other guys here?"
"No, this dorm is co-ed." Mitsuru explained. The boy blinked before a rather large and perverse grin crept up on his face, unnerving both girls. "This arrangement is only temporary though. You'll eventually be assigned to a boys dorm later." The grin fell.
"Aw man..." He muttered before sighing.
"Anyway, it's getting late." Mitsuru said. "You should get some rest. Your room is on the second floor, at the end of the hallway. Your things should already be there."
"Oh, I'll show you the way." Yukari said, finally building up courage to talk to the boy. "Follow me." DJ nodded and followed her up the stairs, walking past Mitsuru.
"..." He stayed silent as he felt her gaze on him. "Either she's checking me out or she knows I don't believe her story... Either way, I know she's hiding something."
"This is it." Yukari suddenly said, breaking him out of his thoughts. He had been so busy thinking about Mitsuru, he hadn't noticed that they already climbed up to the second floor.
"Not to self: Work on observational skills... And start paying more attention to cute girls." He thought. She handed him the room key. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it. It's pretty easy to remember, right? I mean, it is right at the end of the hall..." She perked up and smiled at him. "So, do you have any questions?"
He blinked. Before putting a hand on his chin. Could he get any information out of her? She seemed like a pretty bad liar, seeing how nervous she was earlier under pressure.
"Does that kid live here too?" DJ asked, earning a confused look from Yukari.
"Kid?"
"Yeah, the kid in the prison get up." He said, confusing her even more. "The one who made me sign that contract. Does he live here?" Yukari glared and crossed her arms.
"If this is a joke, it's not very funny." She said, making the boy gulp. One thing he learned from this experience: Women in Iwatodai are terrifying.
"U-um... F-Forget it... It's nothing." DJ unlocked his door and stepped in.
"Hey." Yukari's voice made him turn around. "On your way here from the station, was everything… okay?" She asked. DJ froze. Should he tell her about Green Scream? She was awake during it, so it probably wouldn't hurt to let her know either…
Nah. Best keep it a secret for now.
"Nothing I haven't lived through before." He answered. It wasn't a lie, he had been in Green Scream many many times before. Yukari seemed a bit puzzled by the answer, but nodded.
"Oh. Okay." She said, turning around to leave. "Well, I um… Guess I'll see you around DJ-san."
"Night Takeba-san." He said making her turn around. She blinked.
"Y-You don' have to call me that DJ-san." She said "Just Yukari is fine. We're living in the same dorm so... We might as well try to be friends." DJ nodded.
"Friends huh..." He started, looking at her. It was a but weird, especially with what happened earlier, but... she looked sincere enough. And cute too. He couldn't say no to a face like that. He smiled at her. "I like the sound of that. Good night Yukari-san." She smiled back.
"Good night DJ-san." She said before turning around to walk away. DJ smiled and walked into his room, shutting the door behind him. He glanced around his new dormitory.
It wasn't huge, but it certainly wasn't small. All of his stuff was already there, packaged in several boxes by the wall. The dorm had pretty much everything he needed though. There was a desk, the bed, a bathroom.
"Hey, this place isn't that bad." He said, looking around. "Could use a little redecorating though. "I wonder if I can put my old turntable here... Probably have to ask permission first. Plus there's sending issues..." He shrugged. "Oh well." He took off his headphones and his sunglasses, placing them on the desk. "Might as well get some rest."
It took a while to find his clothes in the middle of his stuff, but once he found clothes good for sleeping, he quickly changed and hopped onto the bed. He sighed and stared out the window. The city looked so lively, even though it was the 12:12 AM in the morning. Then again, anytime was livelier than the time that happened nearly ten minutes ago.
"DJ..." He sighed covering himself up.
"Welcome back to Iwatodai."
Persona 3 FES:
"Advent of the Fool"
PLEASE, TYPE YOUR NAME:
"DJKL"
SELECT YOUR DIFFICULTY:
NORMAL
EASY
HARD -
HARD MODE IS A CHALLENGING EXPERIENCE THAT WILL PUT EVEN THE MOST EXPERIENCED GAMER TO THE TEST. ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO PLAY ON THIS MODE?
YES -
NO
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING TO PLAY PERSONA 3 FES: "ADVENT OF THE FOOL".
IN THIS GAME, YOU CAN TRANSFER YOUR DATA FROM PREVIOUS PERSONA GAMES INTO THIS ONE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRANSFER YOUR PERSONA 3 AND/OR PERSONA 3 FES DATA?
YES
NO -
ARE YOU SURE?
YES -
NO
SAVING...
SAVED.
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR JOURNEY AND ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE!