"Be on the lookout – the first of the four will be on the train with you when you wake up!"
Elizabeth's words rang in my mind as consciousness flickered back into my mind. So I needed to pay attention to the ride into Iwatodai, huh? I was too used to zoning out on trains. Most of this was thanks to my MP3 player, but paying attention wasn't going to be too bad, right?
Turns out it, I didn't have to pay attention at all.
A hand manifested out of what I assumed to be nowhere and yanked one of my headphones off. What followed was the most obnoxious voice I had ever heard.
"HEY! GROUND CONTROL TO MINATO, WE'RE GONNA MISS OUR STOP!"
Oh god, this person was loud. I hate loud people. I turned to face whoever this person was- the one who had the gall to not only pull off one of my headphones, but to shout in my ear.
...But found myself lost for words.
Elizabeth was right. This was definitely someone who was dead in my original journey. If it weren't for her retaining her obnoxious habit of invading my personal space, I may have not recognized her.
"What do you think you're doing, Hamuko?" I asked.
My sister huffed, crossing her arms. She was so different now...I mean, she was five when I last saw her, the night our parents died on Moonlight Bridge. The thing that stuck out to me was her hair. She always struggled and fussed whenever our mother would try to put her hair up. Now it was in a neat, pinned-back ponytail. It was an out-of-character oversight by Elizabeth, but it was still amusing.
"We're going to miss our stop! I was trying to get your skinny ass moving before we ended up stranded on that man-made island in the bay!" Hamuko groaned, learning back on the bench. "It's the last train of the night, if we miss our stop, we're gonna be stuck there overnight..."
"Fine, let's get ready to get off if you're so jumpy." I said, pulling my duffel bag off the seat next to me, approaching the nearest exit.
"Thank goddd..." Hamuko whined, following suit.
The train came to a stop, playing a tone before a mechanical voice called out our stop.
"Iwatodai. Iwatodai."
I grabbed Hamuko by the arm, dragging her out of the train. If everything went right, Elizabeth knew that I experienced the Dark Hour every day from the day my parents died onward. She should have given Hamuko memories of it too. But, this was unlikely. I hate talking about my past. Elizabeth knowing something like that would only happen if she was one, a mind reader, or two, I told her about it and didn't remember. Both of these are possible because my memory is crap, and because Igor is the servant of an elder god. There's no reason he or Elizabeth wouldn't be mind readers. Hamuko and I were only a few meters out of the train station when the sky took a nauseating, familiar shade of green. Following this was the whir of every electronic in the city shutting down.
My younger sister let out a scream of terror, stopping dead in her tracks. God fucking damn it, I had to explain the Dark Hour to my sister now.
"Listen, I know it's unsettling, but we have to keep going." I said, tugging at her.
"W-what's...where are all the people? Why are there coffins everywhere?!" Hamuko croaked, shaking like a leaf.
"They're...they're sleeping. Don't worry." I replied. "Come on, we have to make it to the dorm."
Hamuko began walking again, albeit a slow, shaky pace. As we made our way through the deserted city, she'd whisper things like "is that blood?" or "I saw something move in that alley". I kept myself to short answers, yeses or nos, or the occasional "you're seeing things". Once we arrived at the dorm, I turned back to face her.
"Are you ready?" I asked, letting go of her hand and creaking the front door open.
"Y-you're making it sound like there's gonna be something in there..." Hamuko croaked, letting out a shaky, forced laugh.
"There isn't." I replied, making my way inside. It wasn't long before I heard her making a mad dash up the dorm steps and slamming the door behind her, and falling to the floor.
Before I could speak to her, Hamuko let out another scream of horror, pointing to the space behind the front desk.
"YOU CAN SEE HIM, RIGHT?! I'M NOT CRAZY, AM I?!" She sobbed, crawling backwards on her hands.
"See who?" I asked.
"T-t-the kid! The kid in the...the fucking prison uniform!" She said, pointing back to the space behind the counter.
Oh no. Oh FUCK no. My stomach churned at her description. Please, for the love of all things holy, do not let that be real. Of all the things I didn't need right now, Pharos was at least in the top 10. I was sick of seeing that freaky little...fetus Ryoji halfway through my original journey, and he was not supposed to be back. Hamuko stared into—what I saw as—nothingness, tears welling in her red eyes.
"C-contract? You want me to sign a contract? L-like the kind that'll turn me into a magical girl?" Hamuko scoffed, trying her hardest to compose herself. She stood up, taking shaky steps towards the counter. I tried to stop her, but she pushed me out of the way.
"Alright, I'll sign y-your stupid contract..." She said, picking up a pen from the cup on the counter to sign the invisible document. Why would Hamuko have to sign the contract? My Wild Card ability was stripped as "payment" for redoing my journey. Was she a Wild Card already, but nothing came of her power because she died?
"There! Are you happy?!" Hamuko barked, throwing the pen behind the counter.
The lights flickered on, startling Hamuko one last time before a familiar voice called from the stairs.
"WHO'S DOWN THERE?! I-I WON'T HESITATE!"
Yukari. Of all the people who lived in the dorm, it was odd that her voice brought me so much relief. We weren't exactly "friends" last time around-for the most part, we faked it for the sake of being teammates. I wasn't fond of her for how emotional she was, and she wasn't fond of me for being an "emotionless jerk". I remember on a few occasions she even said she'd prefer that Junpei be the leader of SEES, even though she hated that baseball-capped dork more than me.
"Your new dormmates, that's who." I said, monotone as ever.
"...D-dormmates?" Yukari croaked, approaching my sister and I.
"Yeah. Sorry we got in so late, we had a long train ride." I replied, holding my hand out for Yukari to shake. "I'm Arisato Minato. The girl's my sister."
"Takeba Yukari." She replied, cautiously shaking my hand. "Nobody told me we were getting new dormmates...but then again, I'm rarely kept in the loop."
I turned to Hamuko, who was still rattled from her experience with Pharos, slinging one of her arms around my neck to help her upstairs.
"C'mon, you need some sleep." I said to her, dragging her to the stairs. Apparently, wasn't keeping good enough track of where I was going, as I nearly slammed face-first into Mitsuru.
I stumbled, almost falling down the stairs. Hamuko let out a strangled squack, and Mitsuru gracefully stepped aside, unaffected. Yep, Mitsuru's herself. The timeline isn't too fucked from Elizabeth resurrecting my dead sister.
"I-I'm sorry, my sister and I are both very tired." I groaned, re-balancing myself. "You're Kirijo-san, right?"
"I am...you seem a bit impatient to get to your room, is everything alright?" She replied, looking me and Hamuko up and down.
"We're fine, we've had a long day." I replied, keeping my head down.
"Alright. Your room is at the end of the hall to the right on the second floor. Hers is at the end of the hall to the left on the third floor." Mitsuru replied.
I nodded, hauled Hamuko to the third floor. I practically had to peel her off of me she was so clingy. She wobbly walked towards her room, dragging her bag behind her before turning back to say one last thing.
"D-do you think that kid's gonna come back?" She croaked, still rattled.
"Try not to think about it. If you think about it too much, it'll get worse." I said.
"Says the guy who does nothing but think about stuff too much..." Hamuko snorted, turning away from me and stumbling to her room.
The next morning I woke up early, cleaned myself up, and attempted to make breakfast. Reheated leftovers weren't the best, but it was better than nothing. I got so caught up in making myself food, I didn't notice Yukari enter the kitchen.
"After last night, I thought you'd still be asleep." She said, startling me.
"I-I woke up around 5. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided t-to get a head start." I muttered, trying to avoid eye contact with her. Yukari gave a non-committal grunt in reply, opening the fridge to see if she could find something for herself.
"...You nervous?" Yukari asked, trying her hardest to break the awkward silence.
"I guess." I replied, still trying to remember how the hell the dorm's microwave worked.
"You guess?" Yukari snorted, turning to glare at me. I shrugged, preoccupied with attempting to heat up a bowl of miso soup.
The next hour was a painful mixture of Yukari trying to make small talk and attempting to get Hamuko up and ready for school.
I forgot how nice the train ride to school was. Hamuko seemed to like it too, judging by the way she buzzed around the train car like a little kid. Once we got to school, Yukari gave us a quick and dirty overview of where what classrooms were. To be honest, I kind of needed it. Even if you cut out my time as a door, the school could be still labyrinth-like outside of the Dark Hour.
Hamuko changed her shoes, running to join the rowdy flock of students looking for their class numbers. As I swapped my shoes as well and stepped out of the entry, Yukari tugged my sleeve.
"Hey, about last night…don't tell anyone what you saw, okay?" She said, looking side to side to make sure no one was listening in.
"I won't, I promise." I replied. "...And I'll pass the memo on to my sister for you."
"That'd be great." Yukari said, sighing with relief. "Anyways, I'll see you later."
As Yukari left, I noticed Hamuko jumping and waving, gesturing for me to come take a look at the board for myself. I complied, trying to (politely) get through the sea of teenagers as fast as I could.
"Look! We're in the same class!" Hamuko chirped, pointing to the roster for 2-F.
While I was glad that I was in the same class as her, I now had to explain to Elizabeth that Hamuko was a year younger than me. Great, how was I supposed to cover this one up? Maybe I could say she skipped a grade and leave it at that…
"Looks like I'm going to be able to keep an eye on you after all." I snorted, guiding her in the direction of the teacher's lounge so that we could meet with Ms. Toriumi.
Thanks to Yukari's blurb, I didn't embarrass myself or my younger sister by getting lost on the first day. I thought for a second that I was already off to a better start than last time as I approached the left hall. Nope, no more getting the hallways mixed up for me anymore!
…Okay, that might have been a stretch. Especially after it turned out I went down the right hallway instead of the left one.
I guided myself and my sister to the correct route to reach the teacher's lounge. Like last time, my (or as I should say now, our) teacher approached us as soon as we entered the room.
"Are you two the new students? Arisato Minato and Arisato Hamuko. Both 11th grade, correct?" Ms Toriumi asked, attempting to read both of our files at the same time.
"Yes, that's us." I replied, nodding.
"Wow, you've both lived in a lot of different places." Ms. Toriumi continued, attempting to balance the files while flipping the pages. "Let's see...in 1999...that was what, 10 years ago? Your parents..."
"Passed away in a car accident. It's fine if you didn't read the file ahead of time, the beginning of a new school year is a very busy time." I said, trying to get the conversation over with as politely as possible.
"Thank you, it's rare that I meet a student who understands that." She replied, closing the files and setting them on her desk "Anyways, I'm Ms. Toriumi, I teach Composition. Welcome to our school."
"It's very nice to meet you, ma'am." Hamuko and I said in tandem. Hamuko snorted after she realized we had replied in sync.
"Oh, by the way, I think you're our homeroom teacher! 2-F, right?" Hamuko asked. "I checked the class assignments as soon as we got here."
"Yes, you're both in my class." Ms. Toriumi affirmed. "...And the welcoming ceremony will be starting soon, I can take you both to the auditorium."
School went by quicker than I thought it would. It almost felt like someone pressed a button, then boom, school was over. It wasn't until a familiar baseball-capped dork greeted me that I snapped out of automatic pilot.
"Sup dude!" He said, perky and in-your-face as ever. "How's it going?"
"I'm alright." I replied. "And you are…?"
"I'm Iori Junpei, nice to meet ya." Junpei said.
"Nice to meet you too. I saw your name on the class roster." I said, pretending that this was the first time I met him, and praying my acting wasn't too bad.
"I know how hard it is being the new kid, so I thought I'd say 'hey'!" He replied. "See what a nice guy I am?"
Yukari approached Junpei and I from the front of the classroom, Hamuko following behind her.
"Hey, Yuka-tan!" Junpei chirped, waving to a clearly uninterested Yukari. "I didn't think we'd be in the same class again!"
"At it again? I swear, you'll talk to anyone who'll listen." Yukari said, rolling her eyes. "Do you ever think you might be bothering someone?"
"He's not bothering me." I replied, blunt. Yukari did have a point about Junpei. But, I had already decided-I was going to start early to help them get along better. No more bickering like an old married couple headed towards divorce on my watch.
"Looks like there's a first time for everything." Yukari sighed. "...But it's kinda funny that we're all in the same homeroom."
"Woo, spooky!" Hamuko snickered, making ghost-like hand movements. "Maybe it was FAAAATE!"
"Fate? Gimmie a break." Yukari said, side-eyeing my sister. "But it's still kinda weird."
"Yeah! Kinda like that rumor I heard that you and the new kids came to school together today!" Junpei replied. "Come on, someone's gotta gimmie me the dirt!"
"We live in the same dorm as her!" Hamuko snorted. "There's nothing worthy of a 5-star rumor in that."
"Greaaat, it's the first day of school and people are already talking about something I did?" Yukari groaned, putting her face in her hands. "Now I'm worried..."
The following days went by as quick as the first. All I could think about was the fact that the days leading up until the first shadow attack were becoming fewer. I woke up on April 9th with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Knowing that I had to save not only Yukari and I's lives that night, but also my sister's. It didn't help that pun-loving bastard, Ikutsuki visited the day before.
School went by in a blur, I barely took in anything from class. As the day progressed, the anxiety began to consume me. It got to the point that I didn't even go to sleep that night. I walked in circles around my dorm room, aimless.
The second I felt the building shake, I shot out of my room, running for Hamuko's room on the third floor. I barely even had to think, it was almost as if my body was moving on its own. I pounded on her door so hard I thought my fist was going to break. It didn't even register in my mind when she flung the door open, throwing me onto the ground.
"W-what's going on?" Hamuko croaked, half asleep but concerned. "You were screaming bloody murder...i-is something happening?"
Oh great, I couldn't hear myself screaming. That's always a good sign. I hauled myself off the floor and grabbed Hamuko by the wrist, dragging her up the stairs to the 4th floor.
The building shook again, harder than the first time.
"E-earthquake?!" Hamuko yelped, fully woken up at this point.
I tried to steady my breathing, but my lungs felt like they were burning. I wanted to calmly explain what was going on, but I just fucking couldn't.
"N-no. Worse." I managed to choke out, my throat feeling like coarse sandpaper.
"What the hell are you doing up here?!" I heard Yukari yell from the stairs, she had to be at least a floor and a half below us. I tightened my grip on Hamuko's wrist, leading her out of the 4th floor stairwell to the roof as Yukari yelled for us to stop.
The shadow wasn't there yet when we reached the roof, and it wasn't when Yukari caught up with us, either.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Yukari panted, her face red from anger.
She threw a hockey stick at Hamuko and a short, fake sword at me.
"I don't have time to explain o-or try to talk to you, b-but take those." She added.
I picked up the sword, and Hamuko picked up the hockey stick as if it were a naginata. Whatever, I didn't care as long as she had a way to defend herself. She could hold her damn hockey stick how she wanted to.
The building shook a third time, harder than ever before, and the fear consuming me nearly made me throw up. I watched as a slimy black hand crept up the wall, another one following it, and another, until it had crawled onto the roof. Yukari stood in front of Hamuko and I, pulling out her evoker and muttering to herself over and over that she could do this. Hamuko let out a strangled shriek when Yukari put it to her head and put her finger on the trigger.
I saw the shadow's hand come for Yukari and shoved my sister out of the way so that she wouldn't get hit too. Yukari fell to the ground and her evoker skittered in front of me. I wasted no time picking it up and holding it to my head.
"DON'T!" Hamuko shrieked as I pulled the trigger.
A familiar silver glow grew behind me as Orpheus manifested himself for the first time after I got my second try. I am not going to fuck this up again, not if I have to die again. Not if it means I can save innocent people. Not if it means I can save the sister I barely knew before she was taken away from me the same night my parents were.
I fell to my knees and dropped Yukari's evoker. The burning in my lungs hadn't subsided, but watching as Orpheus killed the slimy, writhing shadow brought me the tiniest bit of comfort. Once it was finished off, it just...went back to normal. No Thanatos ripping Orpheus to shreds and crushing the Magician shadow itself, no me passing out from the sheer shock of the event. It...went silent. It was over, the first of many shadows that would appear on the full moon of each month.
It was that moment that the reality set in. I was doing this, I could do this. That a second try wasn't just some bizarre plan Elizabeth cooked up that could theoretically tear the fabric of reality apart.
...And then, Yukari knocked me out.