'Where am I?'
There was blue. So much blue. The blue in the vehicle that the large man stood in drowned out any hope for other colors to try to grab attention away. But how did he get there? And more importantly, where was there?
It was definitely a small room, more of a small rectangular shaped compartment with windows lining the side that would show nothing but a blue fog outside. On his left was a large black minibar, the various drinks illuminated by a bright blue light. To his right was a large blue couch, the upholstery looking of extremely high value. On the right end of the same couch laid a medium-sized, black container that was used to hold, on top of it, two bottles of wine and two glasses, one looking wide and short, and the other slim and tall. The curtains lining the windows wrapped across the ceiling and continued the, now horribly annoying, trend of blue. But what caught the man's attention most was the L-shaped couch directly in front of him, wrapping around a small blue table.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the small impish man in front of him said, with his impossibly large nose and pointed ears, both made somewhat funny by the extravagant suit he was wearing. Both of his arms rested atop the cane he had, it seemingly holding up the rest of his body, though he was seated on the couch. His bloodshot eyes made him look as though he never slept, or never even closed his eyes to begin with, "Ah... It seems that we have a guest with an intriguing destiny..." The small man gave a small, but hearty, chuckle at his last statement. "My name is Igor... I am delighted to make your acquaintance."
The man noticed that the imp, or Igor apparently, never seemed to lose that strange calm edge to his voice that was slowly worming its way past the shock and confusion the man had. He found himself beginning to slowly lower the guard he never even knew he had raised, the adrenaline of the situation that outright blinded him now wavering off. He found himself beginning to get interested in what the imp had to say.
"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter..." the imp had said, once again in that slow methodical tone he seemed to enjoy so much, "It is a room that only those who are bound by 'contract' may enter..."
A contract? What the hell was he talking about? Why couldn't the man find his voice and figure out what was going on?
"It may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future."
Fate? What fate? He knew better than to believe any of that 'destiny' bullshit, so listening to this old man beginning to prattle on about fate was beginning to give him a migraine. Still, he at least deserved some context about what he was spouting.
"Now then... Why don't you introduce yourself...?" the imp asked curiously, waving his hand towards the man.
"I'm... I'm Guts," the man answered. However, he found that he wasn't too sure if he was correct. He felt as though he was on autopilot, unable to really think about what he was doing before he did it. This lead to many more questions blowing up in his head, too many to even think of a specific example as one would interrupt the other before he could mentally grab it.
"Hm... I see." The imp himself sounded as though he was not too sure about Guts' answer. "Now, let's take a look into your future, shall we?" The man placed his hand on top of table in front of him. The hand began to emit a small, bright glow before fading off. The imp placed his hand back on his cane and asked, "Do you believe in fortune-telling?"
Guts was about to say 'no' and demand to know what the hell was going on here, but he found that he could not get his vocal chords to work. It felt as though he was turned into a statue, forced to watch the scene with the imp play out while remaining completely still.
"Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different..." the imp said as though he were a teacher and talking to a curious student. The imp waved his hand across the table, summoning seven cards that formed into a hexagon with the last one sitting in the middle. He gave a small chuckle once more and continued his speech, "Life itself follows the same principles, doesn't it?"
At this point, Guts was at his limit with the old man. He wanted to know where he was and what the fuck was going on! All he had for answers was this crazy old man ranting about destiny and fortune-telling!
Suddenly, the old man flipped a card over, showing a tower struck with lighting.
"Hm... The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. It seems that a terrible catastrophe is imminent," the imp did not seem worried by this. Instead, he seemed almost curious. "The card indicating the future beyond that is..." he flips another card, showing a crescent moon, "The Moon, in the upright position. This card represents 'hesitation' and 'mystery'... Very interesting indeed." The imp looked as though he never even registered Guts' presence, too focused looking at the two cards that he had just explained. That is, until his eyes shot back to Guts and he once again spoke, "It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you. In the coming days, you will enter a contract of some sort, after which you will return here," the old man gave a slight wave of his hand to emphasize the room they were in, "The coming year is a turning point in your destiny... If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost."
Guts could not believe what he was hearing, what mystery? What misfortune? What destiny?
"My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen," the old man stated. He gave a wave across the table, vanishing the cards seemingly from existence, "Ah! I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you." The imp turned towards a young woman on the other end of the couch, "This is Margaret. She is a resident of this place, like myself."
"My name is Margaret. I am here to accompany you through your journey," the young woman said. Guts noticed her attire, a dark blue dress and yellow accessories. Her hair looked almost blonde, which somehow matched piercing golden eyes. Her lips were a dark red color, made by a thick lipstick. All around she was quite beautiful, only Guts did not exactly care for her aesthetics at the moment.
"We shall attend to the details another time." The imp spoke once more, tearing Guts' attention back to him, "Until then, farewell..."
Farewell? What the hell does that mean?
The televisions in the busy train station were playing some commercial about a bimbo in a bikini. Guts had no idea what it was talking about, he was more aware at the fact that he was now in the middle of a busy train station! What just happened? Wait. Where was he again? Guts looked around, he saw the various people boarding and dispatching from trains arriving to and leaving the station. He felt a heavy weight on his right arm that seemed to remind him of a large suitcase he did not remember packing.
'Was I going somewhere? I can't seem to remember...'
He turned his attention back to the televisions, listening to the news report about some unlucky asshole getting caught cheating on his wife with some announcer. What struck him odd was that while all around him no one seemed to be speaking English, he could understand it perfectly.
'Wait. That's right! I was going somewhere. What was it called again?'
Suddenly, the announcement for the arrival for the train to Yasoinaba was called. Guts found himself walking towards the platform where the train was coming to, still sorting out what was happening. It all felt like a giant blur, a big mess of events that he was trying to put back in order. The train finally arrived and he entered, accidentally bumping into a middle-aged man in a business suit.
"Hey, asshole! How about you watch where you're goin'?" the man said, annoyed at the fact that Guts just cut .02 seconds out of his day.
"What did you just say to me?" Guts said, getting up into the man's face. That was made hard by the fact that Guts towered over the man, who only made it to his shoulders. Guts finally noticed the sound of his own voice. It was gravely and deep, belonging more to some grizzled action hero than to himself.
"N-Nothing!" the man said almost out of fear, "Just givin' you a tip. Jeez. Kids these days need to learn when to listen to a man giving them some advice." The man then walked out of the train, though not before giving a scoff and mumbling something about 'his prime' and 'whooping some ass'.
Beyond that, the rest of the ride seemed outright dull. Guts found himself looking at the window and at the countryside, the fields and the small traditional buildings beginning to pop up more and more as the train reached closer to its destination. He finally manage to look himself over in the reflection shown from the window, seeing a large, muscular young man with dark black hair and eyes wearing what appeared to be a uniform of some kind, a mix of a white button-up shirt with a collared black jacket on top of it. He also wore dark dress pants along with black dress shoes. What got his attention most was the short horizontal scar that went along the bridge of his nose. It did not seem too bad, it only going the length of his nose and stopping before reaching anywhere else on his face, but he knew he wouldn't be winning any beauty contests anyway.
He begun to get more confused as he was trying to remember how he got to the train station. Why was he going to 'Yasoinaba' again? It must have been over something important.
Guts was then torn out of his building mental frustration by a buzzing in his left pocket. He raised his left hand to find out what it was. Until he noticed that his arm was replaced with a heavy iron prosthetic, reaching just below the elbow. One that looked as though he put a heavy gauntlet where his arm should have been. The hand that was there looked closed in a permanent fist, his attempts to mentally move his fingers proving so.
'That's right. I'm a damned cripple.'
His memory of how and why he was at the train station returned as easily as remembering his own name. He was being sent to some backwater town for the next year due to his parents having to work overseas. Instead, he had the 'luxury' of staying with his uncle, Dojima, along with the cousin he knew nothing about. He could not remember why his hand was missing, but he felt as though he had always been like this, that this was the norm for him.
The trip itself would have been bad enough, except that he was not ethnically Japanese, him being adopted by a young married couple shortly after his parents' deaths, as they were close friends, when he was an infant. Guts did not really think that his race would be an actual issue, but he never trusted old towns in general. He thought they were too traditional. Too set about doing some dumb ass festival that only comes about every fifty years and so on and so forth. Still. At least he was lucky enough to fluently speak the language.
Guts resorted to using his right hand to fish the gray plastic device out. Using his thumb to flip the phone's top over, he saw that he had received a message from his uncle.
"Meet us outside Yasoinaba station at 4pm."
Alright. He had a plan for the day. Meet Dojima and set up for the next year.
Although he had remembered what was going on and what to do from there, he still felt that mental blur. Beyond what he could see and hear, he was having trouble focusing on specific things at once. The text on the phone itself seemed to only get blurrier and blurrier, all mashing together into a giant ball of black on the small blue screen. What the hell was going on? Why was he getting so woozy all of a sudden?
Suddenly. A wall of pain smashed into Guts. A horrible burning began to take over his brain; a slow, agonizing burn that felt like a hive of wasps were going nuts inside of his skull. He could hear voices that he did not recognize shouting out to him, though he could not understand them. They all sounded as though a thick static was interrupting them. The only thing he managed to decipher from any of it was one of the voices screaming in fear.
"Guts!"
"GAH!" Guts' hand flew to his head, trying to somehow keep his skull from exploding. The feeling was getting worse, almost as if some horrid worm was eating his brain from the inside out. The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was one of the voices going, "You broke your promise..."
Dojima was having a rough day. First, he was almost late getting home to take his daughter with him so she could meet her cousin at the train station when he picked him up. Second, he was running late getting to the station. At this point the kid might be wandering around town trying to find him. The last time Guts even saw him was when he was three. Guts... Man, his brother-in-law chose a weird name for his son. He lived up to the namesake though. The kid could pull himself through anything. They were all sure he was gonna die when... Ah, screw it. The last thing that Dojima needed was to remind himself how awkward the next year was going to be.
The car was dead silent as Dojima looked towards his daughter, Nanako, in the passenger seat. She was busy fiddling with her seat belt and looking towards the floor, a sharp contrast to how she usually is around her friends or with him at home.
"So... are you excited to meet your cousin?" Dojima inquired. He was not ashamed to admit that he was desperately trying to kill the silence that was suffocating the car, and seemingly making the ride longer than it should have been.
Nanako seemed shocked at her father's sudden interest into her anticipation for her cousin's visit. Being only seven made her not able to see her father's discomfort in the dead silence that had the ride under its heavy thumb. However, despite her father's sociable tone, her nerves made her respond with a small nod. Whether she herself thought it was genuine was unknown.
Her father gave a smile at her and tried his best to reassure her, "Don't worry. If he's not nice then I'll lock him in jail." He was hoping that she would see his joke, but even he was afraid of that being a possibility. Despite seeming happy when he was young, Dojima knew how hard Guts must have had it. Being all alone and him feeling responsible for... Ah! Damn it, he was doing it again.
"How long until we get to the train station?" Nanako asked, her first words ever since Dojima had picked her up from home that day. She sounded as if she was trying to be excited, but secretly holding back the fear she had.
"Oh, not long now." Dojima was happy for the distraction that Nanako had unwittingly provided.
'Maybe the year won't be so bad?'
Guts awoke as the train finally stopped. The announcement over the speaker indicated that he was at the Yasoinaba station.
'Perfect.'
He guessed that the voices must have all been some weird dream he was having during the ride. As Guts walked through the quiet train station, the stark opposite from the last one he was in, he made his way to the entrance. When he stepped outside, he noticed the large number of traditional style buildings surrounding the streets in front of him.
"Hey! Over here!" Guts heard a voice call. His attention then shot towards a middle-aged man waving over towards him. What also shocked him was the little girl standing behind him. The man had short dark hair with stubble growing across his face. He was wearing a light grey button-up shirt with a red tie and dark pants, he was also carrying a jacket strung across his shoulder. The little girl was wearing a dark brown skirt with a white long-sleeved undershirt with a pink sleeveless dress over it. Guts noticed that the girl was clinging to the man's leg.
Right when Guts walked over to the two, the man introduced himself, "Well, you're more handsome in person than in your photo," the man cracked a smile at that, "Welcome to Inaba. I'm Ryotaro Dojima. I'll be looking after you."
Looking after? What a way to make him feel like a little kid.
"Let's see... I was your mother's younger brother... and that about sums it up."
Guts tried his best to seem sociable as he extended his right hand for a handshake, "Good to see ya, I guess."
Dojima gave a chuckle as he accepted the handshake, "You probably don't remember, but we've met before. I changed your diapers, you know?"
Guts grit his teeth when he said that. He hoped that Dojima would not be that relative that loved telling embarrassing stories about when he was a stupid kid. Despite the friendly introduction, Guts could see the little girl cower behind Dojima and try to hide behind his leg.
Dojima gently pushed the little girl in front of him, "This here's my daughter. Come on, Nanako, introduce yourself to your cousin."
The little girl said nothing besides a small attempt at a hello before hiding behind her father once more.
Dojima gave a small laugh at this, "What're you so shy for?"
Nanako gave him a slap across his back for embarrassing her, which Dojima responded with another chuckle.
Guts noticed how strange the scene was to him. It felt so... alien. As though this was the first time he had ever seen something like the interaction between Dojima and Nanako.
"Well then... Let's get going," Dojima announced, "My car's over there." He gave a point somewhere behind him.
As the three were walking towards Dojima's car, Guts accidentally bumped into a rather unfriendly looking girl. She had black hair and eyes, similar to him, and was wearing a sleeveless button up shirt with a black tie. She had a short red plaid skirt with black and white striped thigh-highs. She had a black belt and red and black striped finger-less gloves that went far past her elbow.
"Hey," Guts was prepared to be called an asshole once again for bumping into someone, but the girl instead said, "You dropped this," referring to a crumpled piece of paper in her hand.
"Oh. Thanks." Guts felt pretty foolish for thinking that she would be like that guy on the train. But he had to admit that the situations were really similar.
"Whatever. All I did was pick it up." Guts noticed that the it was a note with Dojima's address on it. Before he knew it, the girl was already gone and Dojima was calling out to him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, curious as what was keeping his nephew from getting in the car.
Guts then simply made his way towards the car.
On the way towards the Dojima home, Nanako brought up that she needed to go to the bathroom. They had stopped off at a gas station somewhere in the central shopping district. As he pulled the small, grey, four-door car next to a pump, an overeager attendant came, practically sprinting, towards them.
"Hi! Welcome to Moel!" the attendant said, standing next to the driver's seat where Dojima was.
"Can you go to the bathroom by yourself?" Dojima asked Nanako, less than eager to allow his youngest daughter to go alone.
She had simply responded with a small "Uh-huh". The two had left the vehicle, Nanako going to find the rest-room and Dojima talking with the attendant.
The attendant noticed the little girl going towards the building and guessed what she was after, "It's in the back, to your left. You know which way's left? The side you don't hold your chopsticks in."
Nanako took the statement as being talked to like a baby, something that rubbed her the wrong way, "I know... Geez..."
Guts made his way out of the car as the attendant asked Dojima if they were taking a trip.
"No, we just went to pick him up. He just moved here from the big city."
"The city, huh...?" The attendant seemed curious about what the man meant by 'the city'.
"Fill up my car while you're at it. Regular's fine," Dojima seemed distracted by something as he almost reflexively gave the order to the attendant, who merrily went about his duty, "Good as time as any for a smoke." He then walked off away from the gas station to enjoy a cigarette.
Now that Guts could plainly see the attendant, he had trouble pinpointing what gender he/she was. The long hair and voice certainly place her/him in the female category, but the masculine looking body made him seem like an unfortunate soul with a long head of hair and androgynous appearance.
"Are you in high school?" the attendant asked, pulling Guts back to the world his mind was about to tear him from.
'High school? What the hell is this guy talking about?'
Just when Guts was about to voice his thoughts, the attendant interrupted any chance of that as he kept going.
"Does it surprise a city boy to see how little there is out here?" the attendant seemed to have a habit of rhetorical questions, "There's so little to do, I'm sure you'll get bored fast. You'll either be hanging out with your friends or doing part-time jobs. Speaking of which, we're actually looking for part-time help right now," the attendant then walked up to Guts and stuck his hand out, "Give it some thought, why don't you? We don't mind if you're a student," Guts gave him a firm handshake as Nanako arrived back to the car, "Oh, I should get back to work." With that, the attendant left.
Guts noticed Nanako looking at him, he was about to ask her what she wanted when a wave of exhaustion washed over him. He had to press his back against the vehicle in order not to pass out or fall to the ground.
"Are you okay? Did you get carsick?" Nanako asked, concerned as she thought she saw him struggling to stay on his feet, "You don't look too good."
"I'm fine," Guts added more force into his reply than he had meant to, he could see as Nanako looked like she thought that she was in trouble, looking down at her feet and scowling. "I'm just... tired. I've had a long day."
Dojima came back to see Guts looking rather pale and wobbly, "What's wrong? You okay?"
Guts reassured him that he was alright, "Just tired. I'm fine."
Dojima seemed please to hear this, but no less worried, "That's understandable. It must have been a long trip for you." Though it sounded true, Dojima knew something was wrong. This was Guts they were talking about. The same kid that got a compound fracture in his arm at school when he was five and walked all the way back to his house before telling anybody. The kid may have been dumb, but he was certainly tough, "Why not take a little walk, get some fresh air? Just let me know when you're ready to go."
"To be honest, I think it'll do me better to rest now. I got stuff in my head I need to sort through." Guts was being half honest. He knew that if he even tried to walk, he would collapse on the ground before his foot could drop.
"Alright then, let's go."
They had finally arrived at the Dojima residence, a small two-story house with a tiny plot of land next to it that would insult the term if anyone called it a 'yard'. It had a decently sized privacy wall with a chain-link gate being the only entrance, a red mailbox lazily hanging next to it.
As they entered, Guts took note of the puny kitchen that seemed to connect into the much larger living room, which had a couch, a table with four pillows for each side, a taller table with three chairs directly beside the kitchen (though it seemed far too cluttered to be of any use) and pinning a bookcase against the wall, and a decent sized television next to the sliding glass door that was being covered with a set of dark blue curtains. Dojima and Nanako were already seated at the table by the television, Dojima sitting on the pillow closest to the couch and Nanako closest to the glass door. Guts took his seat directly across from Nanako. He saw the assortment of various sushi that were clearly processed and store-bought.
"All right, let's have a toast," Dojima said, raising his drink and expecting the rest to follow. After their small toast Dojima continued, "So... Your mom and dad are busy as always... They're working overseas, was it?"
Though the question seemed like one that Guts would have to answer, Dojima seemed more than happy to make it rhetorical by going on, "I know it's only for a year, but getting stuck in a place like this because of your parents... It's rough being a kid," he rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke. He then gave a small wave of his hand to emphasize his home, "Well, it's just me and Nanako here, so it'll be nice having someone like you around. So long as you're here, you're part of the family, so make yourself at home," said Dojima, who gave Guts a small smile.
"Oh. Thanks," Guts was not too sure how else to explain his gratitude. He was never one to beat around the bush. 'Why hide what you were really thinking?' was his motto.
"C'mon, there's no need to be so formal," said Dojima, he was rather amused at how to the point his nephew was and decided to lighten the mood, "Look, you're making Nanako all tense."
Nanako herself immediately shot her gaze down to her food, embarrassed to be the center of attention out of nowhere.
"Well, anyway... Let's eat."
Right when the three were beginning to eat their dinner, Dojima's phone went off with a series of high-pitched beeps.
"Ugh... Who's calling at this hour?" Dojima was being rhetorical, he knew exactly what the call would be about as he pulled his phone out, "Dojima speaking," he gave a slight grumble and stood up, "Yeah? I see. So where is it?" he gave more grumbles and a tired 'uh-huh' to the unheard voice, "All right, I'm on my way," Dojima then put his phone back in his pocket, "Looks like I made the right choice to skip the booze..." he turned to Guts and Nanako, both of whom wishing to know what the call was about, "Sorry, but I gotta go take care of some business. Go ahead and eat without me."
Nanako stood up from the table, as if she were about to speak.
"I don't know how late I'll be. Nanako, you help him out, okay?" requested Dojima, who gestured to Guts with a small hand movement.
Nanako slightly lowered her head and gave a sad 'okay' as Dojima walked out the door. She then heard his voice call out from the door, "Nanako, it's raining out. What did you do with the laundry!?"
"I already brought it in!" she explained, still standing by the table.
"All right. Well, I'm off."
That was the last they heard before the door shut. Nanako sat herself back at the table and turned the TV to the news, which was about to announce the weather.
"~With storm clouds moving in from the west, expect rain throughout the day tomorrow in most areas.~"
Nanako once again paid more attention to her food and gave a soft 'let's eat'. The two ate their dinner in silence, besides whatever the news was talking about, Guts wasn't paying attention to it though.
This remained the same until Guts decided he may as well try to strike up a conversation with the small girl across from him.
"So, what does your dad do?" Guts asked, his gravely voice causing Nanako to momentarily drop her chopsticks. She was not used to the sound of his voice, it being slightly intimidating to her.
"He... investigates stuff. Like crime scenes," Nanako looked as though she was having trouble remembering the word that described Dojima's occupation. She then finally remembered and casually said, "My dad's a detective."
"~And now for the local news.~"
This grabbed both of their attentions as the announcer began to read the latest story.
"~City council secretary Taro Namatame is under fire for an alleged relationship with a female reporter. His wife, enka ballad sensation Misuzu Hiragi, revealed to this station that she will likely pursue damages. In response, Eye Television has decided to cancel all of announcer Mayumi Yamano's televised appearances.~"
"Huh, sounds like that Namatame guy got into some deep shit." Guts seemed amused at the story. He knew nothing of the people it was talking about, but the idea that the guy got caught trying to two-time an aspiring reporter and a famous singer and get away with it brought a dark smile to his face.
"~Until allegations of an affair with Mr. Namatame are resolved, she'll remain off the air and out of the public eye.~"
"This is boring," Nanako, however, seemed less amused than Guts was and changed the channel to some grocery store commercial. The woman announcing the ad seemed far too energetic, along with the irritating music it played.
"~At Junes, everyday is Customer Appreciation Day. Come and see for yourself, and get in touch with our products! Every day's great at your Junes!~"
The ending jingle was enough to cause a migraine. Hopefully that would be the last time he would hear it.
"~Every day's great at your Junes!~" sang a cheery Nanako.
God. Damn it.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Nanako seemed to break out of her singing to see that Guts had barely touched his food.
Guts scanned the room he would be using for the next year. A television held up by a stand that could also be used to hold DVDs, the table and small couch directly across from it currently littered with boxes, the drawers sandwiching the television to hold his clothes, the work desk next to the couch, and finally the small futon in the far corner of the room.
As Guts laid upon said futon, not caring about the fact he was still dressed as the exhaustion he felt earlier came back with a horrible vengeance, all he could think about was how he will have to live in this town for a whole year.
He also thought about how fucking uncomfortable the damned futon was!
He found himself in a strange fog-filled place. It was too thick to even see five feet in front of him. The most he could make out was the ground he was standing on was a red tile.
"~Do you seek the truth?~"
Guts spun around, trying to pinpoint where that strange voice came from. It had a heavy tone, yet sounded empty to his ears, more like a quiet hiss of air than a voice.
"~If it is the truth you seek, than come and find me.~"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Guts was trying to peer through the fog and find whoever was speaking to him. But no matter how hard he tried, the fog only seemed to grow thicker. "Answer me, God damn it!"
The last thing he heard before fading away from the strange place was a multitude of tormenting voices whispering the word 'sacrifice'.
Guts awoke with a start, rising up from his futon and holding his body stable with his elbows. What was that weird place?
"Doesn't matter. It was just a dream," Guts said, meaning it more to be a thought than be said aloud. He wiped his face with his right hand, being careful not to bash his skull in with the left in his dreary state. He heard a knock at his door and Nanako announced that breakfast was ready.
"I have to get up anyway."
As Guts rose to his feet, he saw how wrinkled his uniform was, which he still had on since the day before. He didn't see an issue with still wearing it. It wasn't torn or anything. Who would give a damn about a few wrinkles anyway?
One thing that Guts was not happy about was needing to transfer to a high school in the quiet little town. It was not that he hated school, he 'didn't give a damn one way or the other' about it. What he did hate was having to explain that despite his appearance, he was not out of high school yet.
Despite his young age, Guts seemed to have had a strange aura about him, making him seem much older than he is at first glance. It did not help that he was an introvert, keeping to himself instead of trying to be outgoing. It was not that he was shy or anything, he just never tried to befriend anyone. He always preferred his own company, enjoying solitude more than meeting new people. Though if anyone approached him, he would talk and be more social. However, the fact of how he seemed 'battle-worn', as people said, made it hard for people to approach him and be comfortable. How they came up with 'battle-worn' is beyond him, it sounded ridiculous.
Guts walked down the stairs next to the door way to see Nanako setting the table across from the kitchen for breakfast. The table held toast, eggs, and sausage, all well cooked and ready for the two to eat.
Nanako saw him and gave a casual 'good morning' before the two sat on the chairs across from each other.
"Okay. Let's eat," Nanako said, still with a casual tone that Guts could detect held a hint of shyness.
He also noticed the lack of Dojima, who was nowhere to be seen.
"Did your dad go to work?" Guts was never one for formalities, he almost never addressed people by title when he wasn't forced to.
"There was some kind of trouble. He won't be back," More and more Nanako sounded like a housewife than a little girl, "You're starting school today, right?"
Guts gave a small nod to her as he dug into his breakfast, his mouth full of egg and sausage.
"My school's on the way, so... let's go together," Nanako said, though it sounded more like a request to him.
Guts swallowed the food in his mouth and gave an uncaring shrug.
"Eh, why not."
After breakfast was finished and the two got their supplies for the day, Guts having a dark briefcase and Nanako with a red backpack, they made their way out the door. Just before they went out into the rain, they both retrieved their umbrellas. The two walked out onto the street and were making their way to their schools. However, Nanako stopped in her tracks shortly after and looked towards Guts.
"Um. What grade are you in?" Nanako asked, her tone showing that was generally curious.
"I'm a second year in high school, why?" Guts turned his head towards the little girl, wanting to know why she wanted to know.
"Well, it's just that you look pretty old. So I wanted to know what grade you were in since it seems weird that you would still have to go to school," Nanako could not see how Guts was gritting his teeth in annoyance.
"Let's just get going."
As Guts made his way to an intersection on the way to the school, he could tell by the high school students that passed by on his way, he saw one particular student attempting to ride a bike and carry an umbrella at the same time. That same combo resulted in said student crashing into a nearby stoplight and injuring his man-parts.
Guts could see him writhing in pain, but was content to leave him soaking in the rain and with the possibility that he would never breed. As he walked past him, Guts quietly muttered to himself "See ya later, fucker."
Guts finally arrived at Yasogami High School, a rather traditional looking school with three floors and multiple buildings connected with roofed pathways.
"Well, as the saying goes, what's the worst that could happen?"
The small classroom was abuzz with students talking with their friends and discussing the latest gossip that they had accumulated throughout their vacation. However, some students were less than excited with their class listings than others.
"Ah, man. Talk about bad luck... The homeroom teacher here is Morooka, isn't it?" one student asked, sounding like he was about to be killed by firing squad.
"Yeah, it's King Moron alright... We get to enjoy his long-ass sermons everyday for a whole year..." his friend answered, more accepting of the situation, but no more pleased.
"Hey you guys, I heard there's going to be a transfer student from the city in this class," a female student said, butting into the conversation.
"Huh? Really? A guy or a girl?" the student sitting next to her asked, finding himself more intrigued.
The students sitting in the row of desks next to the group of chatty students soon found their own curiosity peaked.
"A transfer student from the city... Just like you, huh, Yosuke?" a girl with a green and yellow jacket sitting in one of the desks asked her friend, who had his hands and head were splayed across the desktop in front of him, "Huh? You look dead today," she said, noticing his condition.
"Yeah, um... I don't wanna talk about it..." a student with orange headphones said, who wished to bury the events that caused his agony forever.
"What's with him?" the girl asked her other friend, who was wearing a red school uniform and hairband, who sat in front of her friend but turned herself to the side to talk to her.
"Who knows?" the girl in red asked rhetorically.
Shortly after, a man with a set of large buck-teeth and a bad suit, and haircut, entered the room and took his place in front of the chalkboard. Alongside him was a large and muscular man. He looked to be about in his late twenties, yet was wearing a student uniform. He had dark black hair and eyes, along with a scar across the bridge of his nose. Though the most noticeable thing about him was the lack of his left arm, it being replaced by a metal prosthetic that reached up to just below his elbow. The students found themselves shocked to see such a presence in their classroom. Who was that guy? Before they could get an answer, the other man spoke.
"Awright, shut your traps!" the buck-toothed man sounded less than pleased and was not afraid to show it, "I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward!" the man pointed a finger towards the ceiling, "First things first! Just 'cause it's spring doesn't mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons," he then retracted the finger and tapped his thumb against his chest, "Long as I'm around, you students are going to be as pure as driven snow!"
The students already hated everything about the man once again, from his cheap looking blue suit and yellow tie, to his huge teeth that seemed to refuse to enter his mouth, right down to how he looked like a hunch-backed twig with how he stood.
"Now I hate wasting my time, but I'd better introduce the transfer student," Morooka said as though he was somehow warning the class about something they did not catch.
"Uh, Mr. Morooka, sir?" one student asked, his hand raised in the air, "Where is the transfer student?"
"Well if you let me finish, dumb ass, you would know that it would be the big lug right there!" Morooka all but screamed at the student, but he emphasized that he was talking about Guts with a pat to his shoulder. He took the shocked silence of the class as obedience and continued, "This sad sack's been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere like yesterday's garbage."
Already Guts planned to strangle him with his own intestines, but knew that would just cause more trouble than its worth. He'd get him when they were alone.
"And he's just as much of a loser here as he was there, so you girls better not get any ideas about hitting on him!" Morooka then turned to look at Guts, who was gritting his teeth rather violently, "Tell 'em your name, kid, and make it quick."
"I'm Guts," he said, his voice causing discomfort as the class seemed to shuffle in their seats. There was not much he could do besides stand there and talk the abuse... for now.
"I said your name! Not your stupid nickname!" Morooka said, once again got to his near screaming level, "That's it, you're on my shit list, effective immediately."
Just as soon as the class believed that King Moron was done with his sermon, he came back with a vengeance.
"Now listen up!" Morooka's voice back at the near scream again, "This town is miles away from your big city of perverts and assholes, in more ways than one," he then prodded Guts' large shoulder with a finger as he spoke, "You better not even think of getting involved with the girls here, let along abusing them!" Morooka then ceased his poking and turned his head towards the window, "But what do I know... it's not like the old days. Even here, kids grow up so damn fast." He then shifted his tone to a more condescending and sarcastic way of speaking, "Every time I turn my back, you're fooling around on those damn phones, checking your life-journals and your my-places."
Morooka then begun to rant about something no one cared about, or even attempted to. He seemed to drone on for hours until one angel of mercy raised her hand, interrupting his spew of hatred and profanity that quite frankly should have gotten him fired.
"Excuse me! Is it okay if the transfer student sits here?" the girl with the green jacket asked, the entire class seeing her as Jesus Christ incarnate for saving them from the brain cell slaughtering wrath of Morooka's speech.
"Huh? Yeah, sure. Ya hear that? Your seat's over there," Morooka said, broken from his rant about how 'the mass belief of global warming because of dumb ass hipsters is causing a spike in the murder rate among teens'. He then turned his head towards Guts and barked the order to sit down.
Guts did just that, taking his seat next to the girl in green, who had a brown bowl-shaped haircut that matched her eyes.
"He's the worst, huh?" the girl in green whispered to Guts, "Rotten luck for you to get stuck in this class... Well, we just have to hang in there for a year."
Guts could hear people whispering about him throughout the classroom. His favorite rumor at that point was that he was secretly a CIA agent sent to spy on the school. Second to that was that he was a psychopath that was going to start slaughtering the classroom at any moment, which Guts could not deny sounded like that could have been pretty fun.
"Shut your traps! I'm taking roll, and I damn well expect you to respond in an orderly manner!" Morooka barked, ending the students' attempt to continue further with their conversations.
All Guts could think about as Morooka went about the lecture was how tight he'd make that tie.
"Til his head popped off his shoulders..."
"That's all for today. Normal lectures will start tomorrow."
The words of mercy were finally spoken. They were finally free of that Hell hole of a classroom for a whole twenty-four hours!
"Attention, all teachers," the intercom screeched, practically popping a few eardrums, "Please report immediately to the Faculty Office for a brief staff meeting. All students must return to their classrooms and are not to leave the school until further notice."
Morooka turned to face the class and gave the order to stay in the classroom until they heard otherwise, still sounding like a royal prick while doing it of course. He then left the classroom, which seemed to spring to life with his absence. Students all took the time they had to talk with friends and share a general hatred for anything with bad haircuts and large teeth.
Just as the students believed that they were finally able to relax, the sound of sirens began to scream closer and closer to them, eventually fading away but still leaving them worried.
"D-did something really happen? Didn't those sirens sound really close?" one student inquired, sounding like he was about to pass out from anxiety.
"Ugh, I can't see a damn thing. Frickin' fog," another student said, trying to peak out the window to what could have caused the latest ruckus.
Guts then began to ignore the boys at the window, even when one of them walked up to the girl in red and asked something about the announcer staying at an inn. He was tired of being in that damned classroom already. Even the idea that Morooka was in it was pissing him off.
However, he did notice the green girl walking up to, and talking with, the girl in red. Something about the colors the two drew his attention.
"Sheesh, how much longer is this gonna take?" the green one asked her friend, who seemed to be getting impatient.
"There's no telling," her friend said, who was still seated in her desk.
"I shoulda left before that announcement came on," the green one said, sounding bitter for not leaving earlier, "By the way, didja try what I told you the other day?" she asked, her mood doing a complete 180, "You know... That thing about rainy nights..."
Her friend seemed to sink into herself as she told her no, offering an apology as well.
Her friend waved it off and merely said, "Ahhh, that's okay. It's just that I heard a guy in the class next door yell something like, 'My soulmate is Yamano, the announcer!'"
Guts was already getting another migraine at their chit-chat. Why was he so interested? Even when he tried to focus on other things, playing a song or two in his head or thinking about checking his arm for rust, he kept overhearing the two girls' conversation.
Luckily, the intercom announced that the students could leave, but that an incident occurred within the district and that police were dispatched around the school zone.
"Police? That include Dojima?"
Guts then was torn out of his thoughts as he overheard students talking about what had happened. He could also see, out of the corner of his eye, that more than one of his classmates were looking warily at him.
As he rose up from his seat, eager to get away from the class as soon as possible, the two girls he overheard earlier approached him.
"Hey, are you going home by yourself?" the girl in green asked him, "Why don't you come with us?"
Guts was about to reject the offer and leave, but then he really thought about it, wouldn't have been the worst of luck to be seen alone, fresh to town, directly after an incident that involved police? That was a scenario that he would rather avoid for now. However, the girl in green seemed to make his mind up for him.
"Oh, nearly forgot! I'm Chie Satonaka. You know I sit next to you, right?" the girl named Chie asked, giving Guts a warm smile.
"Yep. You're the one that managed to make that buck-toothed asshole shut up for five seconds," Guts answered, showing his bitterness towards the man he was sure was not actually a legal teacher.
Chie was shocked at how the large guy in front of her was quick to talk to her. Usually the transfer students that came to their school started off pretty shy, not willing to openly speak with other students until a few days after they showed up. But not only did he seem comfortable already, he also shared the same level of hatred that would take most students a certain number of days to gather towards King Moron, usually one and a half.
"Well, nice to meet you!" Chie was still trying to seem bright and friendly, turning to her friend in red who had long black hair that reached past her shoulders, "This is Yukiko Amagi."
The Amagi girl then gave a slight bow, "Oh, nice to meet you... I'm sorry that this is so sudden."
"C'mon, don't apologize like that. It makes me look like I got no upbringing," Chie dropped her smile out of embarrassment, "I just wanted to ask some stuff. Really, that's all."
As the three made their way out of the classroom, a brown-haired boy came up to them, looking like he was about to shot by a hidden sniper that only he knew about.
"Uh, umm, Miss Satonaka...?" the boy asked, sounding more worried by the second, "This was really awesome. Like, the way they moved was just amazing to see..." Something was wrong. They all could tell. This was proven as the boy bent his body ninety degrees, his face facing the floor and his arms holding out a case to a DVD, "And... I'm really sorry! It was an accident! Please just have mercy until my next paycheck!"
Chie took the case and the boy took the chance to try to run out of the classroom.
"Stop right there! What did you do to my DVD!?" Chie then chased after him. She easily caught up and decided to play whack-a-mole using her foot and his privates. Having him unable to escape, she opened the case to see a horror that would forever be burned into her mind. "What the!? I can't believe this! It's completely cracked..." Chie gave a wail of despair, "My 'Trial of the Dragon'..."
The boy found his voice once again, "I think mine's cracked too... C-Critical hit to the nads..."
Now that Guts thought about it. That unlucky boy's tone of anguish and suffering sounded familiar.
"A-Are you alright?" Yukiko asked, trying to see if the boy needed any first-aid. Chie always seemed to underestimate the power of her kicks towards him... or maybe not, now that she thought about it.
The boy gave a sly gin and asked in a voice that implied things that made Chie wish to kick him once again, "Oh, Yukiko-san... Are you worried about me?"
Chie would have none of that as she said that he was fine and to ditch him.
All three then left the classroom, leaving a boy with a broken set of equipment to suffer.
As the three made their way past the school gate, a strange boy approached them. He had dark black hair that matched his pupils, which looked as though they were just black spots on his eyes. They could see a different uniform than what they were supposed to wear, meaning that he was from another school.
He began to speak, his voice sounding off to them, "You're Yuki, right? Y-You want to go hang out somewhere?"
Yukiko, who had no idea what he was talking about, tried to let that be shown in her speech, "What...? Wh-Who are you?"
Guts could see students gathering around them, talking about how the boy was attempting something called 'the Amagi Challenge'. The fact that a term was coined about this scenario showed how often this had to have happened.
The boy was getting more forceful with his tone, trying to sound intimidating, "Come on, let's go hang out somewhere."
Chie was quick to jump to her friend's aid, "Back off! You're being a freak!" Guts noticed how volatile she had become in regards to Yukiko.
"Come on. Let's go, Yukiko," the boy said, sounding more dazed than anything at that point. He slowly reached out to grab her arm...
The boy shrieked in pain, feeling the heavy, bone-crushing, grip on his wrist from the large man beside the two girls. What he also noticed was that he seemed less than happy at the moment.
"Back off," he ordered simply.
"What?" the boy asked. 'This wasn't supposed to happen'!
"The girl doesn't want to go with you," the man said, giving a slight shrug that almost tore the boy's arm off when his own arm moved, "So cut your losses and leave."
"W-What happens if I said for you to go screw yourself!?" the boy was getting more frustrated by the minute with that big asshole getting in his way.
"Then I give you your arm back."
The boy scoffed at that, what kind of threat was-
"Up your ass and side ways."
The boy bit his lip and gave an immature 'Fine!' before running off, Guts relinquishing his wrist.
Yukiko was still perplexed by what had just happened, "Wh-What did he want from me...?"
Chie, who caught on to what he was insinuating from the beginning gave a simple answer, "What did he want...? Obviously, he was asking you out on a date."
Yukiko seemed shocked at this, "Huh? Really?"
Chie put her hand to her head, "You really had no clue? Sheesh..." she then reviewed the scenario in her mind, "But then again, that was way over the top. It was creepy how he called you Yuki all of a sudden."
Suddenly, the brown haired student from before walked up to them, pulling his bicycle alongside him.
"Yo, Yukiko-san. Turned down another lovelorn fool, huh?" the boy asked casually, clearly a friend of the three, "Man, you're cruel... You got me the same way last year."
Yukiko put a finger to her chin, trying to remember the scenario the boy spoke of, "I don't recall doing that."
The boy then saw a shot and went for it as fast as he could, "Whoa, you serious? So then, you wanna hang out sometime!?" Guts was fully prepared to take his head off, still pumped up by the adrenaline from before, however he seemed to be understandable when Yukiko rejected his offer, "That'll teach me to get my hopes up..." The boy noticed the transfer student, Guts as he recalled, and felt that he needed to give his input to the situation, "Anyways, you two better not pick on the transfer student too much." He rode away as Chie shouted that they were just curious about him.
Yukiko then turned to Guts and spoke meekly, "U-Um, I'm sorry for dragging you into this..."
Chie saw the mass of students that were watching the situation unfold from the beginning, causing her to want to leave at that very moment, "C'mon, let's go. Everyone's staring."
The two made their way ahead of Guts, who took his time to shout a loud 'Fuck off!' to the onlookers, causing them to scatter like frightened pigeons.
As the three made their way down the street, Chie remarked on the story Guts had told them about why he was in town.
"Ah... so you came here because of your parents' job," Chie gave a seemingly nervous laugh, "Haha, I thought it was something way more serious."
"You thought I was an undercover agent or something?" Guts asked, giving a sly smile as he once again remembered his favorite rumor going on about him.
"There really is nothing here, huh?" Chie asked, changing the subject out of nowhere, "That's what makes it nice, but there is nothing much we can show to people from outside," Chie put a finger to her chin, trying to think of something of worthwhile mention, "Though there is something from Mt. Yasogami... I think our dyed clothes or pottery or something is kinda famous," she then grew a large smile on her face as she found something to bring up about the town, "Oh wait, and there's the Amagi Inn! Yukiko's family runs it. It's the pride of Inaba!"
"Huh? It's... just an old inn," Yukiko said, less excited about it than her friend.
"No way, it's been in all sortsa magazines as a hidden treasure," Chie said, emphasizing the Inn's fame, "It's a great inn! It's been going for generations, and Yukiko here is going to take over someday," she said almost impressed by what she was saying, "Their inn actually attracts a lot of visitors to Inaba. It pretty much keeps this town going."
"... I don't think that's entirely true," Yukiko once again tried to make the inn sound more humble than what her friend was making it out to be.
"So, tell me. You think Yukiko's cute, huh?" Chie asked, once again changing the subject for little reason.
Guts waited for her to keep talking, he was finally catching on to her habit of rhetorical questions (a running trait in the town now that he thought about it), but she seemed to honestly be waiting for an answer.
"Considering that I don't have a migraine when she talks, I'll just go with 'yeah' for now," Guts said, giving a large sigh before he answered.
Chie then laughed and screamed "I knew it!"
"Come on... Don't start this again..." Yukiko said, looking towards the asphalt below her.
"She's really popular at school, but she's never had a boyfriend. Kinda weird, huh?" Chie continued on regardless of what Yukiko was saying.
"C-Come on, stop it," Yukiko said, her face red like her clothes, "Y-You shouldn't believe that, okay? It's not true that I'm popular or that I've never had a boyfriend!" she then realized how awkward she was making the conversation, "Wait, n-no! What I meant to say was, I-I don't need a boyfriend! Geez... Chie!"
"Hahaha!" Chie tried to contain her laughs and apologize, "Sorry, I'm sorry. But this is our chance to talk to someone from the big city, and you barely said a word!" she then noticed something ahead of them, "Hey, what's that?"
Next time:
"Saki Konishi has passed away."
"You guys ever hear of the Midnight Channel?"
"So what's the magician's secret?"
"You did it, you son of a bitch!"
A/N
Hello, internet!This is Plaguegriped here with a Persona 4 retelling! BECAUSE IT HASN'T BEEN DONE BEFORE, RIGHT!?
Ahem, excuse me.
Anyways, one boring and lonely night that involved me unable to get a good night's sleep gave birth to an idea stewing in my brains.
"You know, I think it'd be neat if Guts from Berserk was in Persona 4."
Next thing I knew, I was downloading a writing software and making an account for this site.
Now before P4 fanboys rip my head off for essentially scrapping Yu out for a blood-thirsty psychopath like Guts... Okay, guess I can't talk my way out of that one.
Now before Berserk fanboys rip my head off for essentially turning Guts into a high school student having quirky adventures, I will have you know one thing: THERE IS A FIC WHERE THE ENTIRE CAST IS IN HIGH SCHOOL AND HAS A GUTS/GRIFFITH PAR-. Okay. Not that one. What I'm actually going to say is that the Berserk lore will play a factor later on. Basically, get ready for that psychopathic blood-raging monster we all know and love, Brand of Sacrifice and all.
Please remember to leave a review to help me make this story better, mainly so I can skew away more from the game of Persona and do more side story stuff and not have it be torture to read (assuming this fic isn't already).