Chapter 2: You've Started a New Life
The young man woke gasping and thrashing, the terror of the dream still fresh in his mind as he slowly pulled himself back into true wakefulness. Taking heavy slow breaths he allowed the gentle patter of rain on the roof to soothe his frayed nerves, that nightmare had not been pleasant. That horrifying path, the thickness of the fog pressing in on all sides, and that awful sinister voice whispering incessantly in his ear growing louder and louder as the fog began to slither into his nose and mouth, choking his breath from him and bearing him slowly to the floor. Shaking his head he stood up, that was definitely something he didn't need to dwell on, and from the smell of it he could soon distract himself with a delicious breakfast; swiftly pulling on his school uniform he rushed down the stairs a slight smile on his face.
His smile lasted until the moment he entered the kitchen and saw his cousin preparing breakfast alone, his uncle nowhere in sight.
"Hey Nanako, is your dad already at work?"
The young girl nodded meekly and set a plate of eggs on the table in front of him and the youth began to shovel them quickly into his mouth doing his best to avoid further conversation with the young girl.
"Are you ready to go to school; my school is on the way so we can walk together?"
He opened his mouth to refuse, but quickly shut it when he realised that he had no idea where the hell he was actually walking and that it would probably be a good idea to have a guide so he nodded swiftly.
"Sounds like a plan Nanako, give me a moment to grab my bag and we'll be on the way."
Rushing upstairs to grab his bag and umbrella, he gave himself a quick look in the mirror, satisfied with his appearance he returned downstairs to find Nanako waiting by the front door and they both began the trek to school.
Nanako was slightly more talkative on the walk down the floodplain and her cousin found himself curious as to what had caused the little girl to be able to speak with such maturity despite her age. It wasn't long before the two parted ways and following the direction Nanako had indicated he found himself approaching his new school. The school was nice, at least for one settled in a backwoods town, and so far the students he'd seen hadn't stared at him, though that might have had something to do with the idiot who had lost his balance on his bike and was currently bouncing around clutching his genitals and groaning like a wounded gazelle. Silently laughing to himself the teen ducked his head down and quickly made his way into the entrance hall of the school and went to find his homeroom teacher.
The teacher was possibly the most physically unappealing human being he had ever laid eyes on; and it took only a few moments for him to discover that the man's personality wasn't much better.
"Excuse me," the young student began, "I'm a transfer student, and I'm looking for a Mr. Morooka?"
The man in question growled in irritation before flipping open the file sitting on the table in front of him and scanning it.
"You're Kaitō Lupin correct?" Without waiting for the youth to respond he barrelled on. "A half breed delinquent name, fit for a half bred delinquent I suppose." Standing he motioned for the youth to follow him, and stalked into the hallway.
Kaitō scowled in irritation at that statement, but followed the teacher quietly.
"I've been teaching delinquents like you for years, but I have to say kid, you're the first one I've seen who has absolutely nothing in their file that indicates what they were sent here for." Halting outside of class 2-2 the teacher glared hatefully at the young student. "You must have people in high places to keep that record of yours clean, you better not do anything to mess up their hard work." And with that final threat he turned and walked into the classroom.
"Alright all of you listen up, we've got a transfer student this year, and none of you better think about getting close to him, you little ingrates are going to be pure as driven snow."
Kaitō felt his eyebrows rise at that intro, what a fun way to meet everybody.
"Now write your name on the board and take a seat, ya hear me?"
Kaitō sighed, moved over to the blackboard and wrote his name on the board, before turning to address the class, and with a desire to irritate the teacher said something he hadn't quite planned too.
"You guys are lucky, I normally prefer to share my name only with whatever young woman I decide to sully so she feels more special during." The class gasped and stared, but it was worth it for the look on the teachers face.
"Now you listen here you little…degenerate, you're now officially on my shit list!" The teacher looked as though he was about to go on another mini rant about chastity when he was interrupted by a lyrical voice.
"Excuse me; can the transfer student sit here?" Kaitō found his eyes darting to the raised hand in the third row, and he found himself eagerly checking out the young woman who had spoken up in his defence.
She was pretty, in a tomboyish sort of way, though her face had multiple band aids on it; and her left eye was tinged with a healing bruise. Her hands were covered by black fingerless gloves and she was wearing a green sweatshirt that the perverted side of his brain noticed was baggy enough to disguise the size of her chest, and Kaitō briefly wondered what she would look like with it off. Shaking his head to clear himself of that thought he made his way over to the empty seat next to her, her feet were currently propped up on it, and Kaitō briefly took notice of her strong lean legs, and the knee high combat boots she wore.
"Bad luck getting stuck with King Moron, he's definitely the worst."
With a friendly smile the girl moved her legs out of his seat and held her hand out to shake.
Smiling he took it, noticing her deceptively strong grip.
"Names Chie Satonaka, nice to meet ya new guy" the young woman said cheerfully.
Kaitō smiled softly in return as he took his seat, next to her.
"Nice to meet you as well," He indicated the blackboard, "names up there."
Chie smiled brightly and leaned over conspiratorily.
"So what did a fine upstanding young man like you do to end up in the Morons den?"
Kaitō snorted softly, and smirked mockingly at her.
"Bit rude to ask don't you think, you show me yours and I'll show you mine."
Blushing slightly Chie leaned back into her seat, and nodded slightly in agreement.
"I get into fights, often." She said, touching the various bandages across her face. "It's not a very ladylike habit, especially as I seem to win." Chie's smile waned into something more sardonic, and she reached into her pocket, pulling out a lollipop and popping it into her mouth. "Your turn now."
"I have a bit of a problem with sticky fingers, and you could say I stole the wrong thing, ended up here."
"Well you definitely picked the wrong place to get sent."
"Will you two degenerates shut the hell up, and will you spit that damn thing out Satonaka?"
Chie gave a long suffering glance towards Kaitō, but turned back towards the teacher.
"Whatever you say sir."
It was after class, when a young man approached Satonaka, wringing his hands nervously and handing her what looked to be a DVD case.
"I had a really good time watching this and please don't hurt me I'll buy you a replacement!"
Chie looked curiously into the box, and sighed with resignation at the disk that lay inside, completely snapped in half.
"It's fine Yosuke, we'll deal with it later, just get the replacement and we'll call it even."
While saying this, the young woman approached slowly, before seizing Yosuke and suddenly slamming him genitals first into a nearby desk.
Without a second glance Chie stalked angrily out of the room, Kaitō on her heels, waiting outside the room was an elegant young woman clothed in red, with long black hair.
"Beating up somebody again Chie, you know that's not very nice right?"
"Well you know me Yukiko, sometimes I can't control myself, that's why I'm in class 2-2"
Yukiko smiled softly, before glancing towards Kaitō.
"Oh sorry Yukiko, this is Kaitō, he sits next me in class now, and speaking of class King Moron made me get rid of my last one, do you have my spares?"
Yukiko giggled and reached into her bag, pulling out a handful of lollipops and handing them to Chie. Chie squealed happily popping one in her mouth and pocketing the rest.
"And that Kaitō is why Yukiko here is my oldest friend." She began walking towards the school staircase and the two others fell into step behind her.
As Kaitō and the girls strolled out of the school gate a youth approached the trio, he was, and there was no kind way to phrase it, incredibly creepy and Kaitō felt himself instantly on edge.
"Hey you're Yuki right, you want to hang out somewhere?"
Yukiko appeared uncomfortable, and before she could answer Kaitō stepped in front of her.
"Hey there pal, despite the creepy alleyway vibe, I doubt the lady is interested." The youth looked nonplussed, before his face tightened in rage.
"What did you say to me?"
"She's not interested, back off creepy." This time it was Chie, and despite the fact that she had a cardboard stick hanging out of the corner of her mouth, even Kaitō had to admit the girl exuded serious killer edge.
A slight stare off ensued, however Kaitō towered over the other man, and eventually the creeper uttered an oath and ran off.
"Now that he's taken care of shall we continue on our way?" Without waiting for a response from the girls he began a brisk walk back into town. The women followed, walking with him and pointing out little curiosities of the sleepy town of Inaba, and Kaitō politely smiled and filed the information away for any future use.
"So ummm, I was kind of wondering, where exactly did you transfer from?" Chie asked an innocent enough question, but Kaitō could hear the hesitation in it and he knew exactly where it was leading.
"I'm from Tokyo, lived there almost my whole life, but my parents are on a rather lengthy business trip so they sent me out here."
Chie looked momentarily confused by this and looked as though she were about to ask another question when he pre-empted her next question.
"I'm not completely Japanese, that's why I don't look like I'm from here, mixed blood." There was a moment of silence following this pronouncement and Chie sensing his discomfort chose to change the subject.
"So you must think Yukiko is pretty cute huh?"
"Certainly she's pretty enough, not really my type though."
That was probably not the answer Chie had been expecting, however she was stopped from pursuing her line of questioning when she noticed a large crowd gathered in front of them.
Whatever it was that the crowd had been observing was gone, however the people still hadn't dispersed and the trio found themselves approaching the crowd curiously.
"What are you doing here?" The bark of a familiar voice startled Kaitō, and he turned to see his Uncle Dojima striding towards him.
"We were just passing through Uncle, did something happen?"
Dojima swore under his breath and muttered something about the principal keeping people away when a young man rushed past him and fell to the side of the road vomit spilling from his mouth.
"Adachi how long are you going to act like a rookie, you want to get sent back to the central office!"
Kaitō watched in mild sympathy as the man called Adachi dabbed his mouth with the end of his tie and strolled sheepishly back into the crime scene.
"Anyway you kids should probably head home, we still have business here." With this parting statement Dojima turned and followed the man Kaitō assumed was his partner.
Chie and Yukiko were talking quietly before they announced that they would be parting ways with Kaitō and with a subdued wave they turned and went on their own way. As he watched them walk away the young man pondered quietly to himself about something he had overheard, what the hell had been hanging from the telephone pole?
His question was answered that very evening as he watched the news alone with Nanako, the body of some television reporter had been found around noon, which would explain why his Uncle was not yet home from work. Nanako seemed concerned for her father, at least until the stupid Junes jingle came back on the TV and she began to sing along with it. Smiling indulgently Kaitō briefly marvelled at the optimism of youth and how she seemed to distract herself so easily. As for him he moved upstairs into his room and spent the evening unpacking what was left of his things, and though tired he was still reluctant to go to bed. He stayed up fairly late, reading a book to himself and wondering where his uncle was, and furthermore how the hell he had ended up in this town right when a mysterious murder had happened.
"If my luck doesn't start to improve," he thought to himself "I'll never make it through the year."
A/N: So there's two chapters down, and I'm already starting to change stuff around just a bit, including certain members if the IT being juvenile delinquents, this won't be huge changes in their characters, just how they're introduced to the Protagonist, I have to say I have just a tiny crush on my version of delinquent Chie, and if any of my readers are artists and want too I would love absolutely love to see some artist representations, may even use one for my cover image, but alas I lack the ability to draw. Any way you can check story progress and other nonsense on the blog, link is in the description. As always I want to thank Atlus for creating such a wonderful series, my friend Lilfox, and of course all you wonderful readers who have given me a chance, I certainly hope you'll end up loving this story. Oh and as a final aside this story is currently without a beta so all mistakes are totally the fault of my lack of grammar skills.