In this chapter; we're starting to see Yu suspect there's more to Minato than just a regular high-schooler as it continues off from where Minato left Yu and his friends but with Yu's POV to see his perspective on Minato's attitude. This chapter gives Yu some information on who Minato is, but our P3 protag won't be joining the Investigation Team until a few chapters from now.
Also this takes place before Kanji's abduction due to the date, so I have changed a few things in the meeting with Kanji's Mother and Kanji himself next chapter to make it flow more with the story. I didn't want EVERYTHING to be copied directly from the game and since Minato is added in I had to add different scenes with him in, so yea.
I've also watched a few scenes from Golden like the beach vacation and ski trip. I might think about adding those in as it'd be nice to have something like that later on and not just have the characters worrying about the investigation. As I said in my first chapter I've only played Persona 4 on PS2 so far and I won't be watching full play-throughs for Golden it will most likely just be for just those special scenes where they go on trips so something else happens for the characters to get more development together.
Anyways, hope you enjoy! And this is probably my longest chapter so far in this story XD
Chapter 4: Maze of Life
Yu's POV – 05/15 Sun – Daytime – Junes Food Court
"If you see a blue door … tell me what the old man says."
I turn around with shock written on my face as I face Minato only to see him already walking away from us. I stand up from my seat at the table and call out to the other teen, "Hey! Minato-san, what was that?" He just gave me a short wave as a reply before he disappeared amongst the crowd of people at Junes.
I stared in the direction he had gone; still in shock.
What did that mean?
Did that mean that Minato knew about … the Velvet Room?
That he knew about … Personas…
T...That can't be...
"That was odd…" I heard Yosuke mutter and turned towards him. "What did he mean by that, Yu?"
I shook my head at Yosuke's question; still shaken by the fact that the new transfer student could potentially know about our secret. I looked down in thought as a question formed in my head. If he knows then … wouldn't that make him a valuable ally; especially if he knows more than we do about the shadows and Personas?
I stood up firmly, gaining the attention of the others. It's decided then. I'm going to pay a visit to the Velvet Room. I look to my friends with a thoughtful yet firm look. "I need to go somewhere right now. Can we continue this tomorrow afterschool?"
They stared at me in surprise, looking at each other before turning their gaze back to me. "But we have to discuss the murder and the other world, partner," Yosuke complained.
I nod at his statement as I pushed my chair in. "I understand that, but something has come up and I really need to go. We'll continue this tomorrow, okay?"
Yosuke groaned and nodded. "Fine…"
"Fine by me."
"Okay. I should get back to the inn anyway."
"Good. See you all tomorrow." I then quickly, turned around and rushed out of the Junes food court and towards North shopping district where I knew the Velvet Room door was.
Igor … you have to explain this!
North Shopping District
Maybe I shouldn't have run all the way here…
Ugh…
I bent down on my knees and panted in front of Daidara's Metalwork's to catch my breath a bit before I even bothered to enter the blue door between the bookstore and Daidara's. I took in a deep breath and let it out before standing back up and walking towards the door and opening it. A flash of light encased my being and I was standing before an old long-nosed man with a young white-blond haired woman sitting beside him. The room was a dark shade of blue and the inside looked like a limo with seats and the windows showed the car was possibly moving through a thick fog.
"I see, that you are here because you wish to ask me a question. Is that right?" the man; who I've come to know as Igor over the past month through dreams and random visits. He helps me with my Persona fusions as well as explaining many things that could occur in my future.
I nod my head at his question with a small gulp. I have to admit the atmosphere here feels just as oppressive as that in the TV world, so talking with these two … makes me feel somewhat uneasy at times.
"By all means then … ask away." He gave me his signature smile which seemed to give me the chills.
"Umm … a transfer student by the name of Minato Arisato mentioned the Velvet Room," I told him, trying to steady my uneasiness.
"By what way did he speak of the room?" Igor's blond assistant; Margaret asked me; her golden-yellow eyes glancing over at me for a mere moment before looking back at her Master.
"He said; 'If you see a blue door … tell me what the old man says'." I told her, but her response was just a small giggle while Igor gave her a small glance from behind his folded hands before going back to eyeing me with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"That boy … is no enemy of yours. However both yours and his destinies are intertwined at the moment."
"Intertwined?" I questioned Igor; now curious about Minato.
Who is he?
He somehow knows about Igor and the Velvet Room, so how...
Igor just gave me a faint nod at best. "That is all I will give you." I stared at him and looked to Margaret; who stayed silent. "If you wish to know more … it would be best to confront him yourself." Igor's eyes then narrowed at me. "You two are more alike than you realise."
05/16 Mon
Yasogami High - Afterschool
It was Monday and we just finished our last class of the day. We were ready to discuss what I had delayed yesterday after Minato had showed up, but since Minato is technically in our class we had to wait for him to leave. As he's the only student here who actually bothers talking to us a part from the occasional student who just wants to know the latest gossip.
He's someone who I think is a lot like me.
He's sent to a foreign area; away from his friends and family which makes him have to somehow deal with creating new bonds with people. It's hard when you already don't know how to really talk to people like he does, but I get where he's coming from.
Is that what Igor meant? I don't know…
However once Minato left the room we were free to finally discuss what we saw though we kept an eye out in case he came back. Chie looked at us with a slight frown crossing her features. She was the first to break the silence between us. "The one who was on last night … it's that guy, right?"
This question caused Yosuke to look thoughtful for a moment before nodding, "Kanji Tatsumi, huh? He definitely didn't look like the social type."
Chie's frown changed to one of worry as she folded her arms with a small sigh. "Now that's an understatement. Isn't he like really scary? I mean, did you see the news special the other day?"
"Yea, I saw it."
"You mean the special on biker gangs? I watched it too," Yukiko decided to jump into the conversation. Her eyes went to the ground suddenly; taken over by sadness. "He wasn't like that when he was younger though..."
This surprised the three of us as we stared at Yukiko in surprise.
She knew Kanji!
"You know him, Yukiko?" Chie asked the question that had been on mine and probably Yosuke's mind.
She nodded her head at Chie's question with a small smile on her face. "Uh-huh. But we haven't talked to each other in a long time. His family runs a textile shop and we've been a costumer of theirs for many years. So I speak with Kanji-kun's Mother from time to time."
Yosuke exchanged a tiny glance at me before looking back at Yukiko; letting out a small groan. "I'm not even gonna ask…"
"I don't think I will either," I stated, calmly.
Chie looked at us with slight horror and anger appearing on her face. "What are you two babbling about!? Get your heads out of the gutter!"
Yosuke squeaked and nodded his head in an instant at Chie's shout while I just nodded as a small reply.
Yukiko looked taken aback by our comments, but tried to shake it off as best as she could. "W…Well … why don't we go there now? We might … be able to talk to him in person?"
Chie nodded. "Sounds good. At least we can ask if anything strange has happened lately."
Yosuke groaned and looked as if he was recalling memories of being kicked in the privates by Chie. "Please, don't let him use me as a punching bag…"
"I'm pretty sure he won't fly off the handle in his family's store or at the very least with his Mother around," I told Yosuke to make him calm down.
"Yea, you're right. Let's get going then."
"If things get rough we're counting on you guys!" Chie smiled at us.
It was almost as if she purposely hadn't heard us.
Yosuke and I turned our attention towards Chie in shock; brows raised. "You … are the worst…" he groaned out.
South Shopping District
We arrived at the Southern Shopping District a half an hour later. We walked up the street, past Aiya and towards Tatsumi Textiles. It was just past the small abandoned shrine. It was a small shop like the rest around here, but still looked like it was in business.
We opened the front sliding door and walked inside to see an elderly woman crouched on the floor talking to … is that Minato?
As we approached I saw that the outfit this person wore was different to the one Minato wore yesterday. He had worn a black jacket with grey pants while this person was wearing a dark blue jacket with striped pants. They also had a blue hat on. Minato doesn't wear a hat.
"Hello," Yukiko decided to make our attendance known to the two people.
The woman turned toward us with a graceful smile on her face. "Ah, Yuki-chan. It's so nice to see you again."
"Well, then, if you'll excuse me ma'am," the person said. It looks like a boy yet the voice … it's hard to tell. It's definitely not Minato now after hearing the voice. His voice is a lot deeper than that.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't help more," Kanji's Mother told the boy.
I'll just say that this person is a boy for now. They look like one so…
The boy nodded his head at Kanji's Mother in gratitude. "It's alright. You've given me plenty to think about. Thank you."
The boy turned around and nodded at us before walking past our small group for the door. He even has the same colour hair and eyes as Minato; dark blue hair and greyish-blue eyes. How odd. I really need to stop thinking about these things so much…
"Hey!" I turned to Yosuke to see he had called to the boy; who turned around to face us again.
"Yes?"
"You … kind of look like a friend of ours. The similarities are actually scaring me," Yosuke stated and I just smacked my hand to my forehead at his stupidity.
Really, Yosuke, you just have to say that outright to someone?
You idiot…
"A lot of people look alike in society. Now I must be off," he said to us; not bothered by this information. Though I thought I did see a hint of wariness cross over the boy's eyes before leaving.
Was he really not bothered or … is he actually slightly curious now?
The sliding door closed behind him and Yosuke blinked. "What's up with him? Weirdo…"
"Maybe it's because you offended him…" I told Yosuke.
The headphones wearing teen turned towards me with wide eyes and pointed to the door. "They do! The blue hair and greyish-blue eyes! They also have this weird reclusive aura about them! That can't be a coincidence!"
"I understand that it was a bit of a surprise, but how about we put that mystery on hold for now," I told him. This caused Yosuke to sigh and nod at me.
We turned back towards the girls to notice that Yukiko and Chie were talking with Mrs Tatsumi and decided to look around the shop for any clues. I walked over to the right where a bunch of different coloured materials were while Yosuke walked over to the left near a bunch of boxes and other materials lay. "Partner, over here!" I heard Yosuke's voice and approached him over near a bundle of red material. "Dude … do you recognise this?"
"Umm … wasn't it in the room with all those faceless posters of Ms Yamano?" I asked and Yosuke turned to me, looking slightly worried.
"That's what's bothering me. If this is the same scarf we saw … then there is a connection."
"Are you acquaintances of Ms Yamano?" Mrs Tatsumi asked us, turning our attention to the woman.
"Uhh … well, kind of…" Yosuke tried to explain as he turned to face the woman fully. I kept my attention fully on the scarf, trying to process all this new information. "Um … did Ms Yamano happen to have a scarf like this?"
Kanji's Mother nodded at the question. "Yes. It was a special order she placed."
We all froze up at hearing this; glancing at one another as if to deny what we had just heard. This was beginning to look bad...
"Oh man … there is a connection to the first case! What are we gonna do?" Chie exclaimed, looking back at the scarf with a hint of worry.
"H…How should I know?"
As we were about to discuss more details about this the doorbell rung and a deliveryman yelled from the front door. Mrs Tatsumi stated she had to take care of this and left us in the shop.
We all looked at each other after she left. It was as if a bomb had been put in front of us and we had to disconnect the right wire to stop the timer. This case just got more and more frustrating the more we headed in.
"It really is connected to the first case after all…" Yosuke muttered out, biting his lower lip. "…but it's just a scarf. Would the killer target someone just because of that? Dammit, what's going on?"
"How about we talk more outside?" I suggested to them and they all nodded at me.
The four of us headed outside of the textile shop, looking disgruntled at what we had just discovered; until Yukiko looked across the road and gasped. "Huh … it's Kanji-kun!"
Yosuke looked in the same direction before exclaiming, "Quick-hide!"
I looked at him, confused. "Why?"
He just grabbed my jacket and dragged me behind a red newspaper stand. "Just come on!"
All four of us hid behind the same newspaper stand together, watching Kanji talk with the same boy that had been in the textile shop a little while ago. Should I call him Minato's look-alike?
Maybe I should…
It might be easier to remember than just calling him 'boy'.
"You're not fooling anyone, you know…" Chie muttered, squished beside us and I sighed.
She was right. We stick out just like this red newspaper stand among all this brown and grey on the buildings. How can he not see us?
"Shhh! I can't hear what they're saying!" Yosuke exclaimed in a whisper.
"I didn't know you were such an eavesdropper, Yosuke," I whispered back with a smirk.
"I'm not … it's … for the investigation!" Yosuke whispered back a little louder than intended. "Now shush!"
I roll my eyes at him and look over to Kanji and Minato's look-alike. That's … a mouthful. I think I'll go back a step. We stayed silent from then on and listened in on their conversation.
"T…Tomorrow's fine with me…" Kanji stammered through his sentence. Is he really the same big bad tough guy we saw from the news? He seems more nervous than anything else and to someone smaller than him. "Huh? S…School? 'Course I'm going to school…"
"Then I'll meet you at the gates after school tomorrow," the boy told Kanji with a calm tone. Yea, that's better.
After telling Kanji that the boy turned around and walked the other way. Wait, did that boy just ask Kanji … out on a date? What just happened here?
"D…Did he just say that he was interested?" Kanji asked himself; scratching behind his head in confusion. This just adds more to my question. However … why would that boy want to ask Kanji out? I frowned at this thought as I eyed the confused blond across the road. "He's a guy … and I'm a guy … but … he's interested in me?" Kanji's head suddenly turns in our direction, spotting us. He whirls around fully and points at us with a glare on his face. "Huh? What the hell are you pricks looking at?!"
"Shit!" Yosuke exclaimed as Kanji came at us, but we ran off down the street. We could all feel his glare following us, but when we finally reached the bottom of Southern Shopping District we noticed he wasn't chasing us. So we decided to stop and rest to think about what we had heard.
He must have just decided to scare us off so he could think about what was going to happen tomorrow.
Chie groaned as she leaned forward, catching her breath. "That scared the hell out of me. He's even worse in person than he is on TV."
"The one on TV last night was definitely Kanji-kun," Yukiko thought out loud and we all turned to her, agreeing.
"Yea … and I just realised something," Yosuke said, making me look at him.
"What's that?" I asked.
He looked at me with a thoughtful expression before looking back at the girls. "Remember the common points we were talking about? His Mum fits the pattern. She's a woman, and she knew Ms Yamano." Yosuke's expression changed quite quickly to an exhausted and worried one. "But it was her son who appeared on TV … so what does that mean?"
I looked down at the ground for a moment.
What Yosuke said made sense.
Kanji's Mother seemed more like a target than Kanji did … so why?
I looked back up and at my friends as it suddenly hit me and decided to share my thoughts with them. "They could both be targets."
Yosuke's eyes widened at this, blinking twice at my answer. "Whoa. I hadn't thought of that."
"Oh … maybe it's similar to my case." We both turned to face Yukiko now as she was speaking. "If you think about it, my Mother fit the victim profile more than I did. She was the one who dealt directly with Ms Yamano … but I was the one who was targeted."
This caused Chie to cross her arms with a frown crossing her face, "Does it mean it'll be the kid again instead of the Mother?" Her expression quickly changed to one of worry as she sighed. "But if that's true then the killer's motive makes no sense at all. It's got nothing to do with silencing witnesses or revenge or anything."
"You think we're on the wrong track?" Yosuke questioned while he looked down at the ground. "Maybe even the first case had nothing to do with grudges or revenge…"
We all scratched our heads in thought after discussing the case a little more.
"Augh! I'm totally lost!"
"We can't ignore this."
"Weren't Kanji and that boy making plans for tomorrow after school," I suggested.
This brought the others attention back to me and I froze. "That's right, they were. It does seem pretty suspicious of why he'd accept something like that from another guy." Yosuke cringed at this thought. "Then again … it's better than outright asking the guy…"
"Oh! This sounds exciting!"
"So, we'll be staking out Kanji and his family's store to make sure the killer doesn't get ahead of us?" I asked the group and they nod.
"That being said … Yukiko can I have your cell number?" Yosuke asked, looking over at the red-dressed girl.
Real smooth Yosuke…
"Hey … was this your plan all along?" Chie asked, a deep sigh escaping her lips.
Yosuke glances at Chie in a panic and shakes his head in denial. "Uh, no? I got everyone's phone number except for hers. And the Y section of my address book needs filling out."
Chie shook her head at Yosuke; cringing at his bad attempt to get Yukiko's number. "While we're on the subject can you stop calling me at night to tell me dirty jokes? You really sound like a pervert."
Yosuke once again looked panicked and looked at me for help. I just gave a small shrug and he looked to the ground before looking back at Yukiko for her answer. "H…Hey! I'm trying to have a conversation with Yukiko here!"
We all turned to look at her and saw that her eyes were on the ground as though in thought. She suddenly glanced up with surprise springing on her face. "Oh, that reminds me … I need to buy tofu on my way home."
We all sweat-dropped at the way she casually shot Yosuke down. I glanced back over at him to see him looking at the ground, slightly depressed. "Whoa, didn't even hear a word I said…"
She more like ignored you than didn't hear you…
