Standing on the shore
The Red Child of the east
Watching the vast sea
Asleep in a bed
The fearless leader lies sick
Dreaming of blue rooms
A storm is brewing
In the sea between the lands
The bridge between worlds
嵐子
The Child of Storms
Nine years passed. Nine years of rebuilding, and then building some more. An era of peace and prosperity seemed to be beginning for the first time in a long time. With the help of trusted advisors and some unorthodox ruling techniques, the new queen had been able to accomplish in nine years a recovery that takes most countries upwards of twenty. A large part of her success was attributed to the time she spent outside of the castle, going 'undercover' to learn the conditions her citizens live in. Things certainly seemed to be looking up for the kingdom of Kei.
On that day, the queen was on one of these 'missions' in the eastern province of Bu, where she was staying in a small town which overlooked the Kyokai. After finishing helping out with a poor family's farm work (in hopes of making them less poor) she found herself standing alone on a cliff, staring out into the emptiness of the ocean. She wore her normal outfit for such excursions, the loose grey pants and shirt unchanged over the years. Ponytail blowing in the wind, the queen examined the seas from which she had arrived those nine years ago a clueless girl, knowing nothing of the land she now ruled and called home. Many things had changed since then, but the sea remained. The always-present reminder of the separation between the land of eternal kings and the land of artificial light sprawled out in front of her.
"It would be 2009 now, wouldn't it?" She asked to no one in particular. The wind, maybe? It could only howl in response. "I wonder how much things have changed since I left, a lot can happen in nine years." Pulling her sword from its wrap, she looked over its features as she has thousands of times before. "I can still remember the day this all started. The me from back then would probably have a real hard time recognizing me now. I guess the same goes for anyone I knew too. Everyone's probably moved on long ago, and so have I." She willed an image of a crowded city street onto the sword, showing people young and old hurrying past each other, each in a hurry to get somewhere. "It still exists, somewhere out there, but to me, Hourai is all in the past now."
She returned the sword to her back and straightened up. "Dinner will probably be ready soon, I should head back." She turned around, but before she could start to walk away, she heard a violent sound from behind her, one akin to a speeding freight train one might encounter in Hourai. Turning back around, she saw what had been a perfectly clear sky only seconds earlier had transformed into a giant whirling mass of wind headed straight for shore. Sudden, random storms like this didn't just happen in this world. No, this was something more severe. If she looked close enough into the center of the storm, she could see a bright yellow light. This was a Shoku, one of the storms which connect the worlds, bringing all manners of destruction, as well as new lives into this world. It was how she got here, and the only way she could go back to the other one.
She turned around and broke into a full sprint – at least, that was what she wanted to do. In reality, her limbs didn't move an inch. She could only stand there, paralyzed by fear and curiosity at once. The storm barreled towards her, kicking up massive waves with the winds circling around its mesmerizing golden core. As it drew closer, her senses dulled, hypnotized by the storm in front of her, until she could no longer hear the voices calling out to her, or feel the ground that was supposed to be beneath her feet.
"Youshi, the wind's picking up, you should really get – Youshi, what are you doing! Come back here! Youshi! Youshiii!" And with that, unbeknownst to them, their queen was gone.
Prologue
2009 September 18 25:00
Minato Arisato sat in his chair, looking uninterested, but listening intently to the man sitting on the couch across from him. His blue hair fell over his face, matching the décor of the room around him in which nearly all of the fixtures were covered in a soft blue velvet that gave the room quite the otherworldly feel. The room, naturally, was an elevator, rising eternally with no certain destination. The man across from him, whose name was Igor, appeared as a short, old man with an absurdly long nose the size of his foot. Igor had just finished informing Minato of a new way to fuse personae, increasing the potential power of the boy's ability to summon ephemeral creatures to deal damage to his enemies, the Shadows. Shadows were, to Minato's understanding, evil monsters which fed off human minds and created the mysterious Dark Hour at the stroke of midnight each day.
Igor reached a hand out, "Before we conclude, Master Arisato, there is one more matter we must discuss. It appears you will soon get involved in another's journey in addition to your own. I hope that you can handle the added burden this may cause. Worry not, you should still be able to continue on your journey as expected, but if this new problem is not solved, then it may carry the consequences worse than your present matter." He straightened up, "For now, I must return you to your world. Until next time, farewell."
Igor and the room disappeared as the world slowly faded to white and Minato's consciousness was pulled out of the Velvet Room and back into the real world. He awoke in his bed, looking at the calendar which his dorm mates (specifically Aigis) graciously kept up-to-date for him. Both September 19th and 20th had been crossed off, meaning that he had been in bed for two days.
*CRASH * All of a sudden, a racket could be heard from downstairs, so Minato decided to go down to see what it was (in addition to announcing his awakening and getting breakfast). At the top of the stairs, he saw Ken Amada, the dorm's resident elementary school student, sitting on a step looking over the lobby. Upon hearing Minato's footsteps behind him, he got up and turned to face the direction they were coming from.
"Oh, Minato! You're awake!"
"Good morning Ken. What's going on down there?" He asked with a yawn, referring to the loud sound a few seconds earlier.
Ken looked a little shocked, but the shock quickly faded, as if he expected the question to be asked but hoped it wouldn't. "Ah… That's gonna take a while."
Confused, Minato asked, "Why is that?"
"Well…"
-THE NIGHT BEFORE-
It was the Dark Hour, and the streets were painted green by what little moonlight was offered by the crescent moon. Puddles of what appeared to be blood lay all over the city. Eight people and a dog walked alone on the now deserted streets of what is normally a bustling city center. They all wore their school uniforms despite there having been no school that day. Also, they were armed to the teeth with all manner of weapons, be it swords, bows, axes or even guns, one of which each member in the group carried save for the dog and the blonde girl.
The member in the baseball cap, by the name of Junpei, let out a sigh. "I can't believe we're really going to Tartarus without leader!" He stopped for a moment, then ran up to the group's most senior member, the red-haired Mitsuru Kirijo, and spoke to her with an excited tone in great contrast to the environment around them, "Hey, if leader's not gonna be there, who's gonna be leading us then?"
Mitsuru did not even bother to look at him, "I am, of course." She kept walking, as Junpei stopped in his tracks, pouting a little bit before moving on, having not really expected anything more.
"Come on, you didn't seriously expect her to chose you, did you?" Spoke Yukari, the brown-haired girl who was now walking beside Junpei; the two of them were some of the best acquainted in the group, and Yukari could not pass up an opportunity to deliver some kind of insulting statement to her long-time classmate.
"Well, not really," Junpei sighed, "but you can't know if you don't…" suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, mouth wide open as if he were preparing to eat an entire hamburger in one bite, staring forwards.
"Huh? What is it?" Yukari led her eyes to where Junpei was looking. They had arrived on the grounds of Gekkoukan High School, directly under the shadow of the massive tower called Tartarus. Tartarus was extremely unsettling to look at, but they have been here many times before, and the world of the Dark Hour never changed, so there should be nothing surprising there. It was then that her eyes landed on the ground in front of the tower's entrance. There lay a woman, not much older than them, with bright red hair, on a whole different level compared to Mitsuru's, and dressed as if she were playing the warrior in a stage play. Despite her youthful appearance, this person had a look about her of someone who has seen a lot in her lifetime and lived to tell the tale. And what a tale that must be! For a girl who is probably still in high school to show up, unconscious, during a time in which no ordinary person should be able to function, all the while wearing a torn tunic that looks straight out of ancient times.
The group, upon noticing her, immediately broke into a sprint towards the mysterious girl. Fuuka, the group's teal-haired navigator was the first one to reach her. "Are you okay?" she asked while shaking the girl's shoulder vigorously.
"How'd this chick get here?" Shinjiro, the group's brute for lack of a better term, calmly walked up behind everyone who had already formed a circle around her. "And why is her sword still on her back? You'd assume she passed out from fighting shadows, but it's hard to do that without using your weapon."
"I don't think that is the most pressing matter at this time, Aragaki." Mitsuru scolded. "More importantly, how is she even here? I don't sense a Persona on her. However…"
"Ngh." Everyone immediately turned their attention to the girl, who was starting to awaken. She lifted her head and examined her surroundings before asking, "Where… am I? Is this… Japan?"
"Yes, we are in fact on Tatsumi Port Island," Mitsuru spoke, "This is just the Dark Hour, it has happened every night for as long as I remember. Most people are incapable of operating during this time. It seems you, however, are not. If I may ask, who are you?" She spoke slowly and calmly, but in such a way to make it as intimidating as possible.
"I'm You… ko. Youko Nakajima. And you are?" The girl, Youko, however, was not one to be intimidated easily it seems, as she stood up to face Mitsuru, and, despite how scary Mitsuru could be, looked at her with a face hard enough to stop a speeding bullet train.
"We are the Special Extracurricular Execution Squad, otherwise known as SEES. Our mission is to discover the mysteries behind this phenomenon and prevent it from harming normal society any more, hopefully by finding a way to rid the world of this hour."
Youko swung her head around a little more, taking in the full visuals of the Dark Hour. "Yeah, I can see why you'd want to do that." She relaxed her muscles a bit and turned back towards Mitsuru, "If you don't mind, I'm a little tired. Do you have anywhere I could sleep and we could discuss this in the morning?"
Junpei's eyes lit up, "Yeah! We've got an extra room in the dorm, right Misuru?" Even if he had someone he was dedicated to, it was just part of his nature to act as charming as possible when it came to women.
Mitsuru crossed her arms and let out a sigh. "Very well, then," she said with as much authority as before, despite not being the one making the decision, "it can be arranged, but I expect you to hold up your end of the deal as well. Once you are fully rested you will tell us everything you know."
"Mitsuru!" Akihiko, the silver-haired boxer, spoke, "don't you think you're being a little too harsh on her? Weren't we all the same way?" It wasn't rare for Mitsuru, heir to the prestigious Kirijo Group, to take a hard tone when she wanted something done, and it was always very effective, but no one knew what she wanted from Youko, who was, to their knowledge, just a confused girl who woke up in the Dark Hour without warning, an experience almost everyone in the group has (save Aigis, who was created with the express purpose of functioning in the Dark Hour).
"Yes, well…" Mitsuru briefly closed her eyes, "she just seems… different. As if there is something that we ought to know." She opened her eyes, and turned her attention back towards the newcomer, "What I said still stands. You should follow me, I will take you to the dorm." She angled her head up and announced to the rest of the group, "everyone, I will be leaving now, but you should still get the training that was planned, so Akihiko will be leading the party into Tartarus tonight. I will see you all back at the dorm."
She bid farewell to her teammates and left, the two red heads fading into the distance. "Aww, why isn't it ever me?" "Do I even need to answer that question, Stupei?" With that, the atmosphere lightened and the group carried on doing what they had planned to do – killing shadows in Tartarus.
"… and now she's trying to cook breakfast." Minato just sat intently while Ken gave a recount of the previous night's events.
"So we still don't know anything about her, then?" Minato asked. Ken only shook his head in response. They planned to have the discussion over breakfast with everyone, Youko included, attending. Upon hearing they were to have breakfast together led Youko to get it in her head that she should cook the breakfast as a sort of thanks for providing a bed to sleep in. As it turned out, she hadn't ever cooked for a group before, and, as such, had no idea what she was doing, leading to the current situation.
"What does this do?" "That's a hand blender, we don't need it." Various sounds drifted from the kitchen, the sounds of someone who has not cooked anything more complex than instant ramen in their life at odds with those of an experienced gourmet chef, it seemed. Walking downstairs, Minato saw the table had been set for eleven – glasses, plates, chairs and all for the eight people in SEES, the guest from last night, Aigis (who doesn't actually eat), and Koromaru, the dog. Most of them were on the sofas in the lobby, eagerly awaiting the group breakfast, something which really hadn't happened before. In the 'kitchen,' if it could really be called that, in reality it was just a few cabinets behind a little bar table in which someone had put cooking utensils and installed a microwave, stood Youko, as previously mentioned, as well as Shinjiro, who had recently revealed himself as the master chef within the group, and was quite deserving of the title. While Shinjiro skillfully cooked the breakfast, Youko stood by the side constantly offering help (which Shinjiro always refused), and inquiring about various items strewn around the area like a curious child—asking what they did or how one would use it.
The first person to notice Minato coming down was Junpei, seated on the sofa opposite the staircase. "Hey, Minato! You're finally awake! Boy do I have some things to tell you!"
He waved his hand high in the air like he was trying to guide an airplane on the runway, shouting across the room so everyone in the dorm, and possibly the adjacent buildings, could hear him. Everyone present immediately turned to him, many offering cheerful greetings, but Minato felt his attention focus not just on one, but both of the red-heads in the room.
The reason to focus on Youko was obvious, as she was the new mystery. From what Minato could tell, she was just as Ken had described her. Her hair was red, like Mitsuru's, but tied up into a ponytail rather than let down. She smiled courteously, walking over to Minato with flawless stride. However, there was something about her which seemed… fake. As if this wasn't her normal appearance and she was just putting on a show. The feeling subsided as she came to Minato and offered a slight bow. "So you must be Minato. I'm Youko Nakajima, nice to meet you."
Minato returned the greeting and the two talked a little more, but out of the corner of his eye, he could see Mitsuru had her eyes leveled at Youko from across the room, with an oddly suspecting glare. It was possible that she felt the same thing Minato did, but that wouldn't explain such hostility. The only other possibility he could think of was that something must have happened between them on the walk to the dorm last night, but Ken had told him that Mitsuru said they didn't talk at all during the walk because Youko was far too tired.
"Hey guys, food's ready!" Shinjiro snapped Minato out of his daze as they all began walking towards the table. The gruff upperclassman had prepared a massive meal, with each chair having a plate in front of it, topped with a freshly-cooked omelette that looked like it had just been taken right out a cooking magazine. All manner of other foods lined the middle of the table—pastries, meats and anything else which one would wish for at a group breakfast such as this. Everyone immediately found a seat around the table and reached for the silverware.
Of course, with a meal so good right in front of them, one would naturally want to dig in as fast as possible, but there was a reason behind this breakfast other than good food, and they had some talking to do.
"Now that we have our food, shall we begin?" Mitsuru spoke from her seat at the end of the table, which was actually a stool which was a little too big because the table only had eight seats. Junpei's face lit up and his mouth opened enthusiastically, but before he could get a word out, Mitsuru continued. "About Miss Nakajima, I mean."
Suddenly the food looked only half as appetizing. "Come on, Mitsuru!" Akihiko said, "You could at least let her eat something first!" "Us too!" Junpei added. Mitsuru shifted a little bit, having not really thought about that, but she still kept her eyes locked on the other redhead, determined to get whatever answers she wanted.
As everyone else's eyes were on Mitsuru, "No," Youko spoke up, "it's okay." They all turned to see her sitting on the other end of the table, in a similar stool, with the same kind of composure as the SEES member. She held her hand up in a placating gesture and leaned forward. "So, what did you want to ask me?"
Mitsuru asked her first question without hesitation, "First of all, is Youko Nakajima your real name?"
"Woah, wait!" Yukari interrupted, "do you really have to be so hard on her? You weren't like this for the rest of us! What's different now?"
"No, it's fine." Youko said before Mitsuru could answer, "It seems only natural for my appearance last night to raise a lot of questions. To answer your question, Miss Kirijo, yes. Youko Nakajima was the name I was given when I was born." Before, she spoke with conviction, but it was friendly. Now, she spoke in a whole different way, as if she were a prosecutor, trying to lead Mitsuru into saying certain things, whatever they may be, in the very same way that Mitsuru was to her.
"Your choice of words makes me wonder, " Mitsuru leaned forward, as if she were on to something, "when were you born?"
Youko kept looking straight at Mitsuru, and, without skipping a beat, answered, "June 1983."
The reaction was instant. All of the SEES members jumped, shouting things like "No way!" or "That's Impossible!" or even "Aww, she's so much older than me…" All of the SEES members save two, Aigis due to her inability to react, and Mitsuru.
"I see… So it's just as I thought," Mitsuru's calm, if a bit subdued voice silenced all of the others, making them all turn towards her with equally incredulous looks on their faces. "If my assumptions are correct, then you would be that same Youko Nakajima that disappeared almost ten years ago, in the spring of the year 2000, am I right?"
Youko, unperturbed by the other's reactions, kept talking as if it were just her and Mitsuru in the room. "You would be correct."
Junpei jumped in, asking Mitsuru, "Wait, what's this about? How did you know about that?" and for once, he managed to illicit a response from Mitsuru, who was often referred to as an 'ice queen' due to her ferocity when she gets on your case, and her being about as responsive to outside interference as a brick wall.
Mitsuru lowered her head, and began to speak a little more slowly, almost apologetically it seemed. "Well, since Yakushima, I've been collecting any information about bizarre cases which occurred around the time of the incident ten years ago, and I found one case particularly interesting." Everyone, even Koromaru, was listening intently to what Mitsuru had to say. The incident she referred to was something all of the SEES members were quite aware of, as it caused the Dark Hour and many deaths all because of Mitsuru's own grandfather. "I found a few news articles telling about how a girl was taken away just after school let out and was never seen again. What was most interesting was that many of the eyewitness reports seemed to mention large monsters, in the shape of massive black birds, causing havoc, along with the normal strange man found in kidnapping cases. At first, I was confused as to why there'd be shadows outside of the Dark Hour, but then I realized, 'what if there was some sort of ex-scientist who wanted to continue the research my grandfather did?' However, I had no clues as to who that scientist may have been or what their research could have entailed, but now it seems clearer. My father told me they had been working on a time-manipulation device—"
"Let me just stop you right there." Youko interjected before Mitsuru could even continue with her hypothesis. "I don't believe my situation has anything to do with these 'shadows' or your family."
"And how is that? I don't see anything else it could—"
"There is something else, and you definitely haven't heard of it before." Youko adjusted her stool as she began to tell her story, "You see, I was born in this world, but I am not truly of it." Receiving only blank stares, she did something none of the SEES members could have ever imagined someone could do. At the drop of a hat, she changed from a pale girl with dull black eyes and muted red hair into a much more impressive figure, with the same body and face shape, but much darker skin with wild green eyes and bright red hair that was almost fluorescent. "They call my kind 'taika,' conceived over there but born over here. I had lived sixteen years as Youko Nakajima, and I didn't know it at the time, but that 'strange man,' Keiki, wasn't there to take me away, but to bring me home."
If anyone of the people in SEES were still in their seats after the previous revelations, they were standing straight up now. "So you're… not human?" Fuuka spoke, timidly letting out the question that was on everyone's minds.
Youko, rather than give a definite answer like she had been doing, merely shrugged. "I'm not sure about that… as far as I know I'm biologically like anyone else, I just have some extra… circumstances."
"So you are a superhuman, then?" Aigis, who had been quiet throughout the conversation so far spoke, alerting the others to her presence in the room more than anything.
Junpei turned his head towards her, "Ah… that's right. Aigis isn't really human either. We should be used to weird stuff like this by now!" He laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. He then turned back to face Youko, "But still, why are you telling us this stuff? And how can you be so calm about it?"
"Well, " she started, "I'm telling you this because I need someone to help me." She stood up and leaned into the table, "Over there, I'm actually a Queen, and that comes with some… unique conditions. For one, becoming a ruler over there results in one becoming ageless and nearly immortal." Some of the SEES members shouted in incredulity, but Youko continued, "however, if a ruler fails to rule their land in a just and proper manner in accordance with the will of heaven, they will, to be brief, be struck down by divine action and their kingdom will suffer due to the absence of a ruler and the people will become plagued with famine, monsters, and often actual plague."
"Wait," Shinjiro interrupted, "you expect us to believe that not only are you a ruler of a land in this magical world but that you're freaking immortal? That's ridiculous!"
"Do you expect me to believe the world stops at midnight and no one but you can use this extra time?" She coughed, then continued speaking, "Regardless of whether you believe me or not, if I don't get back there in time, something might happen and I, as well as thousands or even hundreds of thousands of others could die. That is why I need your help, because you are the most likely to believe it, and you can do things no other people can, so if anyone can find a way, it would be you guys." She sat back on her stool and changed back into her original appearance while the others watched, still standing and dumbstruck.
Having nothing to say, they all ate the rest of their meal in silence and went their separate ways for the day. Yukari offered to take Youko shopping, as the redhead had arrived with only one set of clothes, and those would not do in the modern world. After a few hours of going through various clothing stores looking for things which appealed to the queen's (much more refined than even she knew now) tastes, they sat down to rest on one of the benches surrounding the mall's central fountain, plopping their bags down next to them. "You know," ventured Yukari, "you got an awful lot for someone who plans on leaving as soon as possible."
Youko jerked her head in her direction in a disarmed shock. "Huh? I did? I usually go through that many clothes in a day, and I have a feeling I'll be here for at least a week so…" She looked towards the ground, a hint of her hair color finding its way to her cheeks, "I didn't realize I'd already become so disconnected with this world, I can only imagine how Shouryuu would feel…"
Yukari laughed, a hand raised to stop the exiled queen from rambling on, "don't worry about it! After all, Mitsuru is said she'd pay for it all. In fact, if you don't want any of this stuff, I'd be happy to take it off your hands." She let out another chuckle. With the mood having picked up a little, she decided then was the time to ask the question she'd been waiting to ask all morning. "Hey, if you don't mind me asking, what is it like… over there? I mean, if you don't want to talk about it…"
"You say that like it's a traumatic experience." Youko's answer was not what Yukari had expected, "To put it simply, imagine ancient China with more magic, so to speak." She paused for a second, "well, there's no real magic you can use, it's just the will of heaven expressed in a rather in-your-face manner."
"Huh? What does that mean?"
"Well, as I said this morning, when a monarch strays from 'the way,' the heavens will punish them. First by sending Youma, monsters, into their kingdom, then killing their kirin, then the errant monarch themselves, and, to top it all off, sending more Youma." Yukari had no idea how to react to that, was she supposed to be interested? Or appalled? She settled on both. "Oh, but the heavens' influence isn't just punishing. When a monarch dies, the kirin chooses another king, one which heaven decides is the one person in the realm most fit to rule." A pause, "That sounded much more positive in my head."
Yukari, now that Youko had finished her explanation, was still unsure how to respond. "A… giraffe chooses the king?"
"No, nothing like that," Youko laughed, "a unicorn. A unicorn made of pure, condensed, generosity chooses the king."
Yukari was rendered so speechless, she failed to speak for the next hour while the two of them went back to shopping and eventually returned to the dorm.
After getting back to the dorm and getting settled in some of her new clothes, Youko was approached by Mitsuru in the lobby. She held a number of manila folders and spoke quickly. "Nakajima, I'd like you to come with me. I'm going to tell my father about this development and I want you to be there as well."
"The CEO?"
"Yes. My father expects reports on any out-of-the-ordinary occurrences within our group, and I would certainly consider this out-of-the-ordinary." She turned and started walking briskly towards the door, expecting Youko to follow suit. "I would normally submit the reports to Chairman Ikustuki," she spoke while she walked, "but he is in a school board meeting at the moment, and I believe my father would be more knowledgeable about this."
Youko nodded to herself. "Hmm, that makes sense." Upon opening the door, they were confronted with the sight of an extremely fancy car and well-dressed chauffeur. "Are these… yours?"
Mitsuru lowered her head, almost to a facepalm. "Yes… whenever I make an appointment to meet with my father, he always sends this." She let out a small sigh, "I appreciate the gesture, but when everyone is looking at you, it feels a little less comfortable."
"I totally get that," Youko laughed, "It always feels so weird to get special treatment like that." She took a step towards the car. "But of course, it seems to make people happy when you accept it, doesn't it?"
Mitsuru nodded, "I guess it does…" She walked past Youko and motioned for the chauffeur to open the door. "Then, let's go."
After the ride through the city, during which they, as expected, received a lot of stares, they arrived at the Kirijo headquarters and rode up to the top floor, where the CEO, Takeharu Kirijo was awaiting them. The chair he sat in wasn't too posh, but it wasn't your normal desk chair either – it was the perfect balance of fancy and friendly. However, the same couldn't be said about his face. He wore several scars on his brow and a black eyepatch over his right eye. Even with the ghost of a smile which appeared on his face upon seeing his daughter – even that seemed oddly businesslike – his face still appeared capable of scaring off all the combined navies in the world while he raided a poor merchant ship. He stood up upon Mitsuru's entry, giving a greeting and motioning for his daughter and her acquaintance to sit in the chairs which lined the side of the room, just far enough from the wall to fit bookcases containing his assorted library of books on business and conduct laws – helpful when someone marches into his office and accuses him of shady practices.
"So, I heard you had quite the shock last night, Mitsuru." Takeharu said as the girls had settled down.
"Yes, Father, it was… quite the shock"
Takeharu leaned in towards his daughter, "So, would you mind telling me what exactly happened?"
"Right… We were going to Tartarus like normal to train, and then…" Mitsuru explained every detail of what happened the night before, leaving out the question of Youko's… identity, opting to leave that explanation to the 'queen' herself.
Takeharu sat through the whole explanation silently nodding as he connected the pieces of Mitsuru's story in his mind. As his daughter's retelling drew to a close, he found the time to talk, "Mm-hmm, so I assume this is the girl you found, correct?" He turned towards Youko, "Miss Nakajima, am I right?" she nodded, "I seem to recall a certain case a while ago involving a person of the same name, are you aware of that?"
Youko nodded again, "Yes, that was me."
"Then, if you don't mind, could you explain what you know of the time in between?"
"Yes, I can do that. You see…" Youko then went into her explanation of the other world and her special status in it. Takeharu was even more interested at this point, leaning all the way in with his scary complexion which would have frightened practically everyone save for the two girls in the room.
"That's… a very interesting story. I must say I've never heard anything like that before…" He trailed off on his sentence, something he almost never does.
"So you don't know what to do?" Mitsuru asked.
Takeharu snapped his head back up, "Actually, I think I actually have heard such a story before." He opened his desk to retrieve a folder which he began rifling through. "It was somewhere in here… Ah, yes. It was the fall of year 2000 and we were finishing with our investigations into events which might have been caused by our 'incident.' All of a sudden, there was a development in one of the most mysterious of the cases which even our best shadow-researchers were unable to come up with an explanation for. Apparently one of the students gone missing in this case suddenly reappeared, almost completely unscathed yet unable to provide any satisfactory explanation as to what had happened while she was missing or what could have happened to the other two." Youko's eyes perked up, just slightly, with recognition. "We decided to look into her case and interview her and the answers she provided were… well… just what miss Nakajima had said just now. Back then we rejected her explanation and left the case as 'uncertain' in our records, but now, it might not really be so far fetched considering what I've heard up to now."
"That girl," Youko spoke up, "Was that… Sugimoto, by any chance?"
"Yes, it was –"
"I feel, " Youko spoke again before Takeharu could finish, "that, while I'm here in this world, I should at least talk to her once more. I have to, so when I go back, I can know I have completed all of my responsibilities over on this side."
Author's Note
So, I wrote this three years ago. I originally wanted to wait until I was sure I could finish it to publish it, but I know now that I probably won't be able to. I still love what I have written and wish I had done more, but I hardly remember anything about the source materials and I'm not sure I would be able to write even half as well as I have here. Maybe if there's enough demand I might be motivated to go through the Twelve Kingdoms again and pick this up, but don't count on it.
Either way, I enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much.