Chapter 2

Every day streets are crowded with people
Every night streets are jammed with these noises "Things are so strange, are they real or a dream" "Where am I now, trapped in this city of illusion"

Feel the people hear the voices
They are reaching out to catch you
Feel the rhythms hear the noises
You are beating all the visions
Is it angels is it devils whispering in my ears
Is it emotions is it illusions
I need to be with you

Welcome to the Velvet Room….

Everything in her head was pounding, but she couldn't stop the images from pouring over her eyelids.

"Me? I'm Junpei Iori. Nice to meet ya."

"Yes…Ten years ago… The night I was born into this world, I set foot on this very bridge."

"Strega. They're still alive."

"Chidori!"

"Senpai, we made a promise! Let's find her! And Aigis too!"

"…I'm glad I met you."

...

08/28/2013

With all of those memories bubbling up in her limbs and heart, she burst awake, throwing off the covers. A rough, thick arm blocked her from jumping out of the bed and, when it collided with her stomach, she felt her entire body convulse inward.

As she coughed into her clenched fists, the arm withdrew and awkwardly cradled her head.
"Sorry," a male voice grumbled. "It's…instinct."

She looked up at the boy in painful surprise. He was sitting next to her in the queen-sized bed, his silver hair and chin stubble shimmered in the sunlight cast through the window. His hazel eyes stared down at her scarlet ones, and it scared her how direct he was. She wanted to flinch out of his grasp, but she couldn't so much as breath without groaning in intense discomfort.

"Sorry…," he mumbled again.

"It's…fine…" Her voice was sparse as the silverette laid her back down.

"You had a pretty big gash on your torso," he explained, "I stitched it up as best I could. Oh." He fluffed a pillow beneath her. "I'm Akihiko, by the way." The boy named Akihiko moved to sit beside her.

She shifted into a less uncomfortable position. "I'm….Aki."

Akihiko gave a small, involuntary laugh. Aki stared at him, raising a brow. He shook his head. "It's nothing."

She looked away again. "My full first name is Akira."

He smiled. "I think I'll call you that for now. It'll be less…confusing." She didn't understand what he meant, but let it go. She gazed around the room. They were in a hotel with big brown walls, plush fur carpets, a box tv, and a single fridge idling in the corner. There was also a door next to the bed Akira was lying in, and she imagined that it was the bathroom.

Akihiko sat in a fat armchair near her, still staring intently at her face. She looked back at him, glaring slightly.

"What?" She muttered, her voice guarded.

"Your eyes," he replied. "They look like…." He turned away quickly, suddenly blushing. Akira touched the cheek beneath her scarlet pupils. It was true that eyes like hers weren't common, but why did he bring them up? Were they really so strange?

Akira felt a peculiar draft pass over her torso, and looked down. All of her chest and most of her stomach were expertly wrapped in reddened bandages. She squealed, making Akihiko jump.

"Wh-what's wrong?"

She quickly pulled the sheets back over her body.

"What did you do to my clothes?"

It took Akihiko a moment to process what she was thinking, then his entire neck and face became red. His words became muddled.

"You…I….your wound was pretty big. It ruined your clothes. And….I've had some practice bandaging people…I swear I didn't look at anything."

Akira refused to look at him and buried herself in the blankets. She hid there as her pained breathing finally slowed. She found that as long as she held perfectly still, she didn't hurt so much.

She heard Akihiko sit down and give another sigh. "You ought to rest," he said. "You've been through a lot. We can talk later."

Akira did as he suggested, though it wasn't hard. Even under the strange, current events, she was exhausted. Even if Akihiko had indeed de-clothed her to tress her wounds, she felt inexplicably safe with him.

Sleep found her easily, but her true rest did not.

"Welcome, to the Velvet Room…"

...

Akira was flown back into a disarray of images and faces that she didn't recognize. They were staring at her from afar, then up close. Their lips didn't move at all, but they spoke.

"The sole purpose of my existence is to destroy shadows. For that reason, I was given a personality and a persona."

"Defeating Nyx is... impossible. It has nothing to do with strength, ability, or power. Just as all living things die... and the flow of time is continuous... Nyx cannot be defeated."

"People can't survive without help from others. …We all depend on one another. "

"Don't go! You...you idiot!"

...

Akira thought that she'd awoken again, but came to realize that it was not the case. She looked around her, but found that there was no Akihiko, no bed sheets, no hotel windows-or any window for that matter. She was in room that seemed to resemble an elevator, with a big clock donning high in the center. Doors surrounded her on all sides, and many blankets were draped over them. The oddest part of the place was that most of it appeared blurred to her-especially the two men standing right before her gaze. She felt her mind start to spin and her body tightened. It was like she was being pulled back into the darkness behind her.

"It's not yet your time to meet us, honored guest…." One of the figures said. Their blobbed head gave a nod and she was gone.

...

Akihiko was shaking her awake.

"Akira, are you okay? Wake up!"

Akira drew in a breath, as if she'd been pulled from a drowning ocean-although she'd been screaming, in reality. When she realized what she had been doing, she swiftly forced herself to calm down.

"Sorry," she apologized when she had relaxed. "Bad dreams…."

Akihiko had been fiercely gripping her shoulders, and now he withdrew them, sighing in relief.

"They sound pretty bad to me," he said. Akira sighed, too.

"Sorry…."

"Don't worry about it."

...

After some awkward silence, Akihiko was watching Akira eat the soup he'd ordered her. Akihiko had found one of his old shirts that he didn't usually bother wearing and was letting her wear it. She seemed to be mulling over something, or was perhaps just ignoring him. He never really could tell what others were thinking.

Finally, the question that'd been boiling in him since he'd first found her accidentally slipped out:

"What happened to you out there?"

Akihiko thought Akira would freeze or become guarded. However, she just simply sat and thought for a moment before coolly answering: "I don't remember."

"You don't?"

"No. I'm not even sure where I am."

Akihiko rose to sit beside her on the bed. "You're in Iwatodai." This seemed to surprise her.

"Iwatodai?"

"Yeah. Do you remember who you are?" He didn't know how much memory loss she may have suffered. She gave him an uncertain look; she seemed to know what he was implying.

"Yes, I remember my past. I just don't remember how I got to Iwatodai-or why I came here."

"I see…." Akihiko was suddenly deep in thought. "I have an idea. I have a friend, Mitsuru Kirijo. She might be able to help us."

"Kirijo?" Judging by her expression, she knew the name and the reputation that came with it.

"Yeah. When you've rested a bit more, we'll take you to her and see what she can help us find out. Do you have any family here?"

Akira shook her head.

"Anyone to stay with?"

"No."

Akihiko put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "Then…you may as well stay with me. I can't have you wandering around the place with no protection." She looked uncertain again, and even a little scared.

"I hadn't thought about it that way…."

Akihiko put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry," he said, "I'll look out for you." Akira gave him a small smile and touched his hand, her fingers unintentionally stroking one of the scars between his knuckles. The action was so familiar that it made him jump and withdraw. It startled Akira, but she didn't say anything. He stood and grabbed his red cape, tossing it around his bare shoulders.

"Sorry, but I have to go somewhere," he said to her. "I won't be out for long. Please just…stay here." Akira bobbed her blonde head in a nod, though he couldn't see it with his back turned to her. He swiftly left, slamming the door behind him.

...

When he was outside, he ran blindly through the streets. Her touch had stirred something inside his heart, which he'd come to believe only beat for the battle. It gave him a nostalgia so powerful it made him sick. Her hand was so soft and delicate and comforting.

And then…there were her eyes. They were like looking into mirrors of the past. Their red depths were so deep and the could swim in them, and the emotions they passed were so rich and subtle. He didn't even feel like they were hers, really. Just some relics that Akira had stolen from ancient times…

He finally stopped, heaving in large gulps of air from emptiness around him, and looked up into the night sky. At last realized what had shaken him up enough to make him run.

He wasn't really thinking of Akira, he was thinking of her. Akira's eyes reminded him of his lost love, someone he had strived to forget for all these years. God he hadn't thought of her in so long…

Akira's gaze was not unlike Hers, and that made him remember. It hurt so badly that he had needed to get away from her, and from his own memories. There had to be some way to rid himself of these feelings again. He'd spent years finding ways to do so, and now he needed to put it all into practice…

"Yo," someone called behind him. He lazily looked their way. It was a small gang of men-one with a gun pointed at his head. "Give us all your money."

... ... ... ...

Woot! Another chapter up and running!

Poor Akihiko, with his long lost love being gone and all...It's a shame. :(
Speaking of which, someone asked me if this is an AkihikoXMinako fanfic. You'll just have to wait and see! ;)

The song that opened this was "Long Dream" from The World Ends with You" Soundtrack. It's a DS game, and if you haven't played it, DO IT NAO. It's a Square Enix game, for those who love Kingdom Hearts like I do.

Anyway.

The usual applies to all stories; I don't own the characters or P3P storyline (but I can say I own Akira. :P)