A/N: This story was inspired by another story on this side, which sadly doesn't appear to be continued anymore. So, I decided to write my own sh*t.
The screen showed the familiar desktop background of an white haired anime girl, petting a white furred dragon. As soon as the cursor changed from a blue circle back into the familiar white arrow, it moved down and pressed the Chrome Browser button. A white window appeared and once again the arrow turned into a blue circle for two seconds. When it was normal again, the browser window showed a selection of the mostly visited websites ever since the user had been starting to use the browser. The cursor went to the upper right part of the selection and pressed on the window. Again the circle, again the white screen, until part by part the website appeared, including the adds. On the upper left the name Umbra127 was displayed next to a small picture of a red eyed anime girl with auburn hair. Under the name was a list of words: Profile, Friends, Groups, Settings. The cursor went up to friends, opening a list of various user names. The cursor didn't had to go far, as the friend was on top, marked as one of the favorites. It pressed the name Moongazer_XIII, which was next to a photo of a white masked person. A chat window opened upon the command.
Umbra127: Heya!
Moongazer_XIII: What's up?
Umbra127: Finally finished P3! But the ending, WHY?! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY?! ;(
Moongazer_XIII: I take it, you didn't like it, huh?
Umbra127: How can ANYONE actually LIKE that PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT OF AN ENDING?! I hate you atlus! BURN IN HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLL! :(
Moongazer_XIII: Well...it's actually a clever ending. You know, everything ending like a greek tragedy.
Umbra127: CLEVER?! How COULD you, you, YOU TRAITOR!? :{ I HATE YOU!
Moongazer_XIII: Sorry, sorry, calm down ;)
Umbra127: HOW?! I can NEVER EVER touch this game again without crying!
Moongazer_XIII: You have my sympathy?
Umbra127: I'm gonna kill it!
Moongazer_XIII: What?
Umbra127: I'm gonna take it to the shooting range and destroy it! My PSP, how could you betray me!
Moongazer_XIII: Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
~Umbra127 has gone offline~
~Umbra127 has gone online~
Umbra127: Why? Why is fate soooooooooooooooooo cruel to me :`(
Moongazer_XIII: Don't worry, you'll get over it. Eventually. I think ;)
Umbra127: Just leave me and my sorrow alone ;(
Moongazer_XIII: Yeah, yeah. Hey, serious question and I mean, really serious.
Umbra127: Okay?
Moongazer_XIII: If you had the chance, like you could save the protagonist from Persona 3 and for that you HAD to take his place as the Great Seal. Would you really do it?
Umbra127: No. I'd be way too scared of dying. And just imagine, being stuck forever there, no one even appreciating of what you did for humanity. And if I'm 100% honest, I don't think us humans deserve to be safe.
Moongazer_XIII: Wow, really? Sounds morbid.
Umbra127: Think about it. We all are aware of the problems in the world, but are we really doing something to stop it? Oh sure, I donate to charity every once in awhile, but most of the time I pretty much act like there's nothing wrong, like most people. You know, it's funny. Just last week in school I held a lecture about how we use too much plastic. I got myself at least four new plastic bags the same week.
Moongazer_XIII: So, you would rather see humanity die?
Umbra127: Definitely.
Umbra127: NOT.
Umbra127: We humans need to fix our own mistakes, somehow! In theory we CAN do it. We'd just need to move our lazy asses and actually start with something ;)
Moongazer_XIII: Well, you already made the first step by donating to charity. That's more than I do. Great, now I feel guilty. Thank you.
Umbra127: You're welcome! ;) Woops, brother is calling! Need to pick him up from the tutor. Gonna tackle Persona 4 today. Laters!
Moongazer_XIII: Don't shoot your PSP!
XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII
?/?/?
UNKNOWN
Far away, in a place that is unreachable for most humans, Erebus, the personification of humanity's wish to die, raged against the stone statue, which hung in front of two gigantic double doors. No matter how hard he pulled, the seemingly weak looking barbed wire, kept the statue in place. The statue itself looked like a young, naked human male, whose hair covered one of his eyes. He looked down on the two headed beast, seemingly without a care in the world. But what else would you expect from a statue? Except this was no ordinary out of the ordinary lock, which locked away a quite out of the ordinary prisoner.
Being sealed away from the world of the living wasn't exactly pleasant to say the least. But then again, Nyx, the goddess of the night had not exactly done much these past century other than awaiting to be called to bring an end to humanity. And not too long ago that call came and she was summoned to earth by her son. But then something happened to her son and she couldn't bring the end of the world without Death acting as her Avatar. Only later would she learn about the human looking weapon named "Aigis", which had been designed specifically to stop the shadows with a power called "Persona". It was during the second calling, a decade later, when she personally saw the weapon through her son's eyes, who acted as an Avatar. She had to admit, she was impressed on how far human technology had developed. The last time she actually saw any humans, they were far away from using electricity for their inventions. It clearly showed how out of touch she had been. It had also reasonably surprised her to see the other humans. Not that she didn't expect any resistance, far from it. After what happened to her son, she expected some kind of resistance. What did surprise her was the rest of the humans not using some kind of more modern weapon. During the battle, she was connected to her son's mind and now had all of his memories.
After losing the battle against the humans, she spent most of her "prison life" viewing all those memories, all the precious moments (and the flirting moments too) her son had spent with his friends. She had watched human society, the ups and downs, learned a little about human history during the lessons her son took. It wasn't much, but it gave her a general idea of where human society was and why they were calling for the fall to come. To think that just one human could stop her, by acquiring the power of the universe of all things! The goddess had a hard time comprehending how a normal human could acquire such power. Although this Minato Arisato did held her son captive inside his very soul for a decade, the power of the universe was something that even eluded the gods, herself included. And she was above death!
Well, it wasn't like she had anything better to do than thinking about this. She might just find the explanation for all of this one day. Although the chances of this happening were slimmer than her finding an escape route.
While the goddess was ready to resign herself to her fate, when out of nowhere the goddess could feel another presence in her prison. At first she thought she was imagining things, until her eyes fell upon a human floating in mid-air. No, not a human, the goddess realized. It was the soul of a human. The aura of her son could still be felt on this one, meaning the human only died recently. But this was odd. Normally Chronos would guide the souls of those who died into the afterlife. Not to mention it should be impossible for even souls to enter this place, else the goddess could have easily broken out with the help of her shadows.
Nyx certainly was curious as to how this soul ended up in her prison. Using her abilities, Nyx shapeshifted into a human form, which was almost a copy of her avatar. The only differences were, she wasn't wearing, her hair was longer and she had dark, blue eyes. She kept the wings and armor.
With a little wave of her hand, the soul of the girl floated towards Nyx, until she was in front of the goddess on chest height. Next she did was put a hand on the girl's forehead and let it stay there for a couple of seconds.
...There is nothing abnormal about her. Her memories suggest she died in a car accident. Nothing suggests anything magical being involved. I should look a little deeper into her memories. Something might have happened in her past.
…
…
…
"WHAT?!" The night goddess exclaimed in surprise. She had come across a particular picture inside the girl's memories, one that was showing four of the humans who stood against her. In front of the humans stood her son in his avatar form. The location was definitely the top of tartarus, no doubt about it. But the strangest thing about all of this, was that the picture could be seen on the screen on one of those small human devices. Nyx wasn't familiar with the name of this particular device. There were also symbols on the picture, which displayed the battle.
"I have the feeling this girl isn't as normal as she firstly appears."
*around five minutes later*
"A GAME!?" Nyx exclaimed. "In her world, this world is nothing more than a GAME?!"
Overall, the goddess felt more insulted than angry. Guessing that this soul was from another dimension wasn't hard after looking into her memories. How it went into this particular dimension normally would have awakened Nyx's curiosity. But right now the goddess was too busy not annihilating what could possibly her only company for the next two eternities or so. A human was better than no one. Even a dead one.
After having calmed down somewhat, Nyx returned to the soul, which was still floating at the spot of where she left it. Quickly the goddess flew over to the human.
"Hmph, a game. What a disgrace. Still, a soul from another dimension. Whoever brought you here must have immense power. I doubt I'll find any kind of answer inside of you. Besides, knowing all about you would destroy the purpose of any kind of conversation we will have. I think it is time to wake you-
Wait. What is this?"
Something small, blue and shiny flew into the direction of Nyx and the soul. Upon closer inspection, the "thing" turned out to be a Butterfly of some sorts. Of course this couldn't possibly be a normal butterfly. Nyx could feel the spiritual energy just as good, as she could feel the life energy of Minato inside the seal.
Curiously the goddess watched as the butterfly settled down on the chest area of the soul. The insect stayed there for a couple of seconds, before it became airborne once again. It flew straight ahead, ignoring Nyx' presence and then all of the sudden, it disappeared in a bright light. As the Goddess' eyes readjusted themselves, she saw of what appeared to be a crack in reality. She could see some kind of green field on the other side of the rift. Carefully she tried to go through the rift, but was stopped by an invisible force. She growled, as there was obviously a chance to escape her prison, but something still held her back. She was about to attack the rift, maybe making it bigger would help, when she finally noticed the soul flying towards the rift. Surprised she watched as the feet went through the rift without any problem. Slowly, but steadily the rest of the "body" followed.
Nyx thought quickly. She had an idea as to how she could use the soul in order to get out of her prison. Currently the soul was lacking a body. She had a body, meaning the goddess could give the soul her own body. Her own soul could remain inside the body as well, as the bodies of gods were generally stronger than those of mortals. However, since this was an untested method, she had no idea of the possible side effects it might have.
The soul was now halfway through.
"This is not the time to think, but to act." The goddess stated, before channeling the spiritual energy.
XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII
In front of the seal, a figure smiled to itself. "My work here is done."
XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII_XIII
04/01/2011
Afternoon
For Detective Tohru Adachi April Fool's Day was just another boring day at work. His new boss, Detective Ryotaro Dojima, wasn't one for pranks. Not that he forbid a little fun inside the office, but it was best not to target him, be it accidental or otherwise. Adachi heard from one of his colleagues that the last guy who put tortilla sauce into his boss' coffee had to help working in the archive. No one wanted to help Osaki in the archive. Not only was the dude a little loco, but how his way of organizing things went straight over everyone's head.
Right now, Adachi and Dojima were enjoying a break at the local gas station. Not that there was much to do in this out of nowhere place called Inaba. Hell, Adachi's first case had been finding a stray cat! This wasn't police work! The pro of course was that there wasn't much to do, the con was he would get nowhere with his career.
Sighing he took another donut out of the box the two detectives shared and bit into it.
"You know, I thought at least the kids were up to something on April Fool's." the younger detective commented. Dojima swallowed the rest of his donut, before answering.
"Just you wait. Last year they came with fireworks to the shopping district and almost burned the liquor store down. We were lucky everyone helped keeping the fire at bay, before the fire brigade arrived."
"Really? Wow." Adachi shook his head. "Is it just me or get kids dumber with each generation? The worst we ever did was throwing rocks at windows."
Dojima gave Adachi a look, before shrugging. "Well, I certainly hope they have learned their lesson. Oh, who am I kidding, I'm sure any moment we'll hear something from the radio."
Just as he said this, Adachi heard a sound behind him. It definitely wasn't the radio in the car, rather it sounded like some girl grunting in pain. He turned around and looked for the sound, yet behind him was nothing more than a bush. The man was about to shrug it off, as his imagination, when he heard the sound again, along with the bush rustling. He looked over to Dojima and found the man more occupied with the newspaper than anything else. Curios, the young detective walked sideways to the bush. Behind it, he found a teenage girl lying in the grass. She wore a beige pullover, an orange checkered skirt, long black stockings and red boots. Her hair was a reddish brown, bound in a ponytail, with hair clips in an XXII pattern. She opened her red eyes for a second, before closing them again and slumping down.
"Dojima-san!" Adachi shouted. "Call an ambulance!"
"What?!" The newspaper forgotten, detective Dojima ran to his colleague. Upon seeing the girl, the senior took out his cell phone and called 119.
"This is Detective Dojima, I'm at the Moel Gas Station. A girl is lying here unconscious. She doesn't appear to be injured, at least not from the outside. Alright, thanks." Dojima put his phone away, looking back to Adachi. His colleague had brought the girl into a stable position. He was glad that he could at least rely on his partner, when it really counted.
"How is she?"
"Well, she is breathing. Looks more like she's asleep, really."
"Hmmm…" Dojima kneeled down right next to his colleague and checked the pulse. It was there, slowly, but steadily. The detective grabbed into one of her pockets and took out her purse. He quickly opened the thing and took out the ID.
"Minako Arisato...why does this ring a bell?" Dojima asked more himself, than Adachi. He checked further and took out a few more cards. One in particular got his attention. "Now this is interesting. She has a weapons license."
"Huh?!" Adachi looked up in shock. "But I thought it's impossible for citizens to acquire a gun license!"
"Difficult, but not impossible." Dojima explained. "The government made it harder to acquire weapons for citizens to weaken the Yakuza. It requires special circumstances for someone like her to own a gun. Not to mention, you have to be able to pay heavy expenses for a safe, an alarm system around your house and a couple of other things. Does she have her gun with her?"
Adachi searched quickly, but discreetly, since Dojima was watching. "No. I guess she left it home. Or do you think…?"
The older detective nodded. "I'll look around the area. Maybe she dropped it. But I'll also send some guys over to her home, to look if it is there. I don't want to imagine what could happen if someone really stole her gun."
While Adachi kept watch over the girl, Dojima started walking around, looking for anything that even in the least resembled a gun. He looked everywhere, from the bushes, to the trash cans, even the rarely clean toilet of the gas station. But he had no luck in finding it. By the time he came back, the sirens of the arriving ambulance could be heard. A few passing people watched curiously at the whole scenery and Dojima could only shake his head. A part of him wanted to yell at those people, telling them to get lost, if they didn't want to help, but that would have been pointless anyway. Humans just were like that, that was an unchangeable fact. Luckily the ambulance arrived and in routine fashion, the paramedics put her on a stretcher and into the vehicle.
"How long has it been, since you found her?"
"Uhh...around 20 minutes." Adachi answered the medic's question, after taking a look on his watch.
"Was she awake at any given time?"
"No." Dojima answered this time. "And she didn't react in any way, when we tried to wake her up."
"All right." the medic nodded. "We'll take it from here, detectives. Should we call station, if she wakes up?"
"Better." Dojima nodded. "She's licensed to carry a gun and we have yet to find it."
"Oh. Oh shit. A-anyways, we'll be on our way." The paramedic quickly climbed into the vehicle and drove off towards the hospital. Adachi looked over to his boss.
"So, what now?"
"Now we wait for the boys to make their report. It shouldn't take too long for them."
"Uhh…, I just remembered." Adachi scratched the back of his head. "How are the guys gonna get it? They don't have the key, do they?"
Dojima shook his head again. "Part of being allowed to carry a gun is having a special lock on your house, which has an electronic lock. You can only open it with a 12 digit long code and the guys who were sent over inspected the whole security system of the house. They just need to call the security company for the code."
"Ah, I see. So does every police member has access to those."
"No, you have to pre-registered and the owner of the house has to approve that you're allowed to look it up. Else every police officer could ask for the code and I hate to say it, grab whatever they wanted."
"Hmm, makes sense. I know, I wouldn't want strangers to just be able to go into my house. Though, all they would find is instant ramen. Haha."
Dojima shook his head again. He thought that if Adachi only did something to fix that attitude of his, he might find a great partner for life. Hopefully someone who could cook.
It was at this moment that Dojima's phone began ringing. Within a second the man picked it up and accepted the call.
"Dojima speaking. Uh-huh. Good, thanks. See you back at the station." He put the phone back into his pocket, before speaking. "That was the boys. They checked the house and found the gun safely stored away."
"That's great news. At least we don't have a nutjob with a gun running around town, right?"
"Right." Dojima agreed, though he didn't share Adachi's cheerful demeanor. "That doesn't mean our work is over however. Someone might have attacked that girl. Until we know for certain what happened, we should ask around."
Adachi barely managed to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "There goes a slow day. Oh well, it's still better than rescuing cats…" he muttered the last part, not knowing that Dojima could hear him. The senior decided to keep his opinion to himself, however.