She was asleep. And she was oddly aware of that fact. Yet, her conscious was unusually clear. Could this really be just a dream? She heard familiar sounds. And the surface she was sitting on was moving in a familiar fashion.

When she opened her eyes, her suspicions were confirmed. She was on a train. Her gaze was directed at the window, which showed her the scenery passing by outside; a shore-scape before a wide, wide, strangely unmoving ocean. The sky was dark and hung by oddly thick clouds. The atmosphere was strange, dark and yet nostalgic. She turned her head to look in front of her. The train card she was in was blue. Blue seats, blue curtains before the windows, blue walls with golden accents, a dark blue floor... It seemed like it was an old train cart, everything looked elaborately ornate and almost antique. It had a sense of nostalgia to it. How she had gotten into this train cart, she had no idea. And she still felt like she was fast asleep, in midst a dream.

She wasn't alone in this blue, nostalgic train cart. On the bench across from her, only a white table separating them, there was a woman. She was a beautiful lady with golden hair and golden eyes. Her clothing, however, was blue, just as the train cart was. And then, there was someone else. On the same bench as the woman, close to the window, sat a young man with steel-grey hair, staring out at the ocean absentmindedly. Nanako was surprised when she recognized his face.

"You are…!"

It was the same boy she had met in her classroom this day. The boy who had made her sign that contract. Though, now he no longer wore the white, traditional clothing she had seen in him before. Now he was dressed in the same dark blue as the woman besides him. The clothing he wore reminded Nanako of the Gakuran-Uniforms worn by the boys on her old school. When she spoke, he didn't react to her voice. He just kept staring out of the window, onto this unnaturally calm ocean, seeming as if his thoughts were far, far away.

It was then, before Nanako could even make another attempt to talk to him, that the woman with the golden hair spoke,

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."

Hearing this, Nanako immediately sat up straight and focused on the woman. She had such a calm, serious, almost regal voice, that it immediately evoked respect within the girl when she heard it. Her aura was strong and elegant, and there was a sense of nobility to her.

"It has been a while since we have been able to welcome guests here. For this reason, I must apologize for any eventual inconveniences that might occur. Let me begin by introducing myself. I am Margaret, a servant and resident of this room."

Nanako kept looking at the lady in wonder, occasionally glancing to the boy who would not stop staring outside the window. There were a million questions going through her head. Eventually, she decided to start with the most important one.

"Am I… dreaming?" the girl asked the lady shyly. The presence of this place and this woman was so overwhelming; it made her feel small and unimportant.

The woman's expression remained unchanged. She spoke to Nanako.

"The answer is 'Yes' just as much as it is 'No'," the woman began to give an explanation Nanako didn't understand. "This is a place between dream and reality, mind and matter. A room for those who have forged a contract that binds them to their destiny and their destiny to this room, to nurture the strength of their soul and come closer to the fulfillment of their true potential."

"A contract?" The girl interjected in surprise and her eyes immediately wandered to the young man in the blue Gakuran. As she looked at him, so did the woman – Margaret. Finally, the boy showed some sort of reaction. Slowly, he looked away from the window, sitting straight in his spot on the bench instead. Though his eyes were now turned to Nanako, he was barely focused on her. And his look was as empty as before. Though Nanako and Margaret were both devoting attention to him now, he remained silent.

"…I believe you have met before," Margaret stated, turning her attention back to the girl. She seemed more thoughtful than before now. Nanako nodded and kept looking at the boy. Margaret allowed a small pause, as if she, too, wanted to wait and see if the young man would show a reaction. When he didn't, she continued,

"I must inform you, as our guest, that I am not the true Master of this room. As such, the services I, by myself, can grant you are unfortunately limited. Regardless of this, as well as your own unusual circumstances, I will do what is necessary to provide you with the best services that are possible at this time, in order to support you on your journey."

Nanako continued to be confused, "Journey? What journey?"

"A journey lies ahead of you," the woman explained. "And at its end, a choice awaits you. Once you reached that point, your destination will be decided by your own hand and your own actions. However, in order to reach this point, you must first become aware of your potential and your gift."

"My gift?"

"As for now, you are traveling near unfamiliar waters, on a path that was laid out to you by a destiny that is and is not yours. This makes you unusual, even among our guests, in every sense of the word."

Nanako did not respond to this. She simply had not the slightest of ideas what was going on here. Focusing her attention on the silent boy again, she kept watching him.

"…Your ordeal is about to begin," she could hear Margaret say. "Whether or not you will arrive at your destination will depend on the strength of your will, whether or not you will find a reality you wish for will depend on the strength of your choice. For now, however, I must bid you farewell… until we meet again."

Before Nanako could even fully take in what had just been told to her, she already realized how her eyelids began to grow heavier and the outlines of the people before her and her surroundings began to blur. As her consciousness slowly faded, she gave a last look to the boy sitting by Margaret's side. And then, just a moment before she drifted away, she felt as if she saw his lips move and heard his voice say just one word,

Nanako…


April 3rd 2021
(Aries)

Saturday

Early Morning

"Nanako-saaaaaan!"

There was knocking on her door when she slowly came too. She lacked orientation and needed a few seconds to become aware of where she was and where the sounds came from. When she gained this orientation, she realized that she was in her room, in the Shitsunen High School's girls' dorm and that the one knocking at the door had the voice of Miyuri Fujishima, the girl she had become acquainted to the day before. The knocking continued.

"Nanako-san, are you awake? I wanted to ask you if you want to go to school together with me!"

Finally, Nanako was aware enough to use her own voice and respond,

"I just woke up, Miyuri-san. Give me a few minutes," she said loudly, so the other girl would hear.

"Ah! So you're coming?" Miyuri sounded delighted. "Great! I'll be waiting for you down at breakfast!" See you there!"

The sound of steps getting more distant announced that Miyuri had left for the dining room. Nanako stayed in bed for a bit, staring at the ceiling. Her memory was blurry, but she could recall having an odd dream… What had that been about?

Whether or not it had a meaning, it had caused her to oversleep a bit, a fact she became aware of when she turned to take a look at the clock. No wonder Miyuri had been up to wake her already. Feeling a bit of panic that she might be late welling up within her, Nanako finally jumped out of bed and began to prepare herself for the day hastily.


Lunchtime

That day, too, Nanako somehow found herself sitting next to Miyuri in every class. It was good to have someone to lead her around everywhere while she still wasn't used to the place, of course. Still, getting to talk to a few other people would have been nice. On the other hand, it wasn't like Nanako even made much of an effort to talk to anyone else. Maybe she had just gotten that used to Miyuri already, or maybe it was just a natural shyness kicking in. She'd always been a bit on the reserved side. And at least Nanako wouldn't feel useless in any way around Miyuri. In the course of the two days they had known each other she already had to pass her answers twice, help her search erasers or pencils she dropped on the floor several times and seen her get into minor troubles with the teachers at least trice. That girl really seemed to have a knack for getting into uncomfortable situations. At least she wasn't wearing the wrong school uniform again today, which was an improvement. She had, however, forgotten her lunch money at home, which was troublesome.

During lunch break, Nanako decided to share her Bento with her companion for this reason. Thankfully, the dorm rooms were equipped with a small kitchen-corner. Eating bought lunch every day would definitely get expensive after a while. The two girls talked for a while, as the lunch box grew more and more empty.

"Umm, by the way…" Miyuri stopped eating for a moment. "I know, it's still ways off, but have you already decided what clubs you're gonna join? Well, aside from the music club. Just curious."

Nanako somehow felt uneasy being asked that. Why was it that the first thought this brought to her mind was that Miyuri might decide to join the same club as her once she had chosen? Still, she answered truthfully.

"Well, I don't really know what clubs there are yet. Aside from playing piano, I don't know what I'd like to try either."

"How about a sports team?" Miyuri suggested. "We have a Jodo team, y'know."

"Jodo… You mean staff-fighting?"

Miyuri nodded, "I thought about joining myself. I mean, of course, I actually find Bojutsu much cooler but you gotta take what you can get, right? …There's an Iaido Team too, but that sport's mostly for show. They really just learn how to fancily draw the sword and take stances from what I've heard."

"I like Iaido, " Nanako said. "I think it's cool how they are under total control of everything when even just drawing the weapon. It looks really amazing."

"O-Oh, really?" Miyuri seemed to be taken by total surprise by that response. However, soon a smile spread on her face. "Hey, why don't you try it then? Iaido, I mean."

"I don't know. I've never really tried sports before," Nanako glanced away.

Miyuri wouldn't let off, "Well, there's a first time for anything! 'Sides, I think you'd really look neat with a sword! "

Nanako wanted to open her mouth and say something about the idea of herself with a wooden sword, practicing Iaido, when loud voices from across the room ended their conversation by taking everyone's attention.

"Are you kidding me?!"

Alarmed by the loud shouting, the girls – just like everyone else in the room – turned to look for the source. What they found were two male students, standing by the windows. One of them was Eiji Emoto. The other one was nobody Nanako knew yet, but the glare in his eyes was bone-chillingly cold. It was this latter one, from whom the yelling had come.

"What's going on there?" Miyuri, for once, kept her voice down, seeming a little frightened by the commotion. Nanako said nothing and just listened to how the scene continued.

"Matsushita-senpai, just calm down, alright?" Emoto was holding his hands in front of his body again, as if to ward off the other boy's negativity. "You should take a deep breath, think this through and…"

He didn't get to finish.

"Stop bullshitting me, Emoto! You pull this on me and expect me to be calm?! This isn't funny in the least!" The boy hit the wall next to him and Emoto with so much force, it shook, "You're the editor of the student paper! It's your job to take care of stuff like that, damn it! So don't give me that 'There's nothing I can do' crap!"

Now Emoto himself, despite obviously not being the aggressive one in the conversation, was the one to take a deep breath, as if to calm down, "I already told you, Matsushita-senpai. There's no "Akemi Nishimura" on this school. I can't put articles about missing people that don't exist in the paper! Alright?"

"Don't… exist…?" the other boy – Matsushita – seemed obviously horrified for a moment, before he started wildly shaking his head. "What are you talking about?! Of course Akemi exist! Akemi, Nishimura! She's in the girls' Jodo team! She brought us up to second place in the last tournament! You even wrote a freakin' article about that, for god's sake!"

Emoto just kept his eyes on the other boy, listening, in-taking, but clearly not fully understanding,

"It's true that we placed second in that tournament, but there just was no "Akemi Nishimura" involved. I checked the registers after you asked me the other day. Matsushita…no. Takeichi-senpai. Please, believe me. There never was a girl with this name here."

"T-That's…" Matsushita kept shaking his head. "…That's not true! How can you say that? Emoto! Just the other day, you tried to make her go out with you! How can you dare to say that about her? Akemi… Akemi's…"

Eiji Emoto kept his eyes on the tortured-looking boy, seeming deeply worried and uneasy. He slowly moved his hand, trying to place it on Matsushita's shoulder.

"Takeichi… are you…"

"Don't touch me!" With a sudden movement of his own hand, Takeichi Matsushita slapped Emoto's away. Emoto stared, but said nothing. Matsushita's eyes were red now and it was clear he was barely holding back tears. "What the hell are you doing, Emoto?! Akemi… Akemi's been missing for days and you don't want to do anything? Don't you even care?! She's probably out there… scared… alone… and nobody's coming… And the police won't help me… and you won't either… Akemi… How could you and everyone just forget Akemi?! Hell!"

"T-Takeichi…"

"Just shut up!"

This was where the conversation stopped. Before Emoto could do anything else, Matsushita had already run away, right through the mass of on-looking students, out of the room.

"Takeichi! Matsushita-senpai, wait!" Emoto called after him, but he was already gone. The look in Emoto's face made it clear that he was considering going after him, but he didn't. It might have had to do with the fact that the first bell had rung just after Matsushita crossed through the door.

As most of the other students sat down again, Miyuri, somewhat to Nanako's surprise, got up from her seat and approached the still-shocked Emoto. Nanako, for no special reason, decided to follow her.

"Hey, Emoto… Are you alright?" Miyuri seemed unusually worried when she approached the boy, who was in the process of sitting down at his desk again.

"Yeah... Just fine. Don't worry about it," Emoto's eyes, though, told a different story. It was clear some things were going through his head.

"You sure…?" There was an unusual softness in Miyuri's voice, which, however, vanished as soon as she started the next sentence. "What was that guy's deal anyway? Something about some… Akemi? Who is that?"

Emoto sighed deeply, "You're asking the wrong guy there. I'm wondering the same thing. …That was Takeichi Matsushita, a senior. He's the captain of our Baseball Team."

"Did something happen to him?" Nanako asked carefully, causing Emoto to make a few gestures as he went on explain.

"I don't know. The other day, he suddenly came to me and begged me for help with finding someone… Some "Akemi Nishimura". Apparently star of the Jodo team."

"Huh? Really?" Miyuri tilted her head a bit. "That's weird. I researched the Jodo team yesterday, but I didn't see anything about her."

"Yeah, and neither has the rest of the school," Emoto went on, leaning back in his seat and seeming exhausted. "Nothing in the registers, nothing when I asked the teachers… not even her alleged classmates knew anything."

Nanako put her fingers to her mouth, puzzled, "Then he just imagined her?"

"That's what it seems like," Miyuri swayed a bit left and right as she seemed thoughtful, "But he seemed so serious about it. So, he like… had hallucinations? Poor guy…"

"I've known him since Grade School. He's always been sort of dissatisfied with his, well… lack of relationships," Emoto gave a short, bitter laugh. "Maybe he dreamt her up as an imaginary girlfriend or something… though…"

"…Though?" Miyuri asked, but Emoto just shook his head in response.

"Never mind. I'm just thinking."

As Emoto fell silent again, obviously still having things on his mind, the girls looked at each other in a confused manner. Neither of them was too sure what to think of the matter. However, the second bell rang out soon after, urging them to return to their seats. The matter of Takeichi Matsushita and his non-existent Akemi Nishimura was moved to the back of their minds over the course of the remaining school day.


After School

Miyuri had a big grin on her face. Nanako was alarmed. Miyuri with a big grin on her face didn't bode well.

"Guess what I got us, Nanako-san!"

Nanako could think of a number of snarky answers to this, but she decided to not be mean and instead went for the clueless approach.

"I don't know. What is it?"

"Not here, not here!" she replied in a way too cheerful manner. "I don't have them here. Wait till we're out of the building, then I'll show you!"

Wondering why she bothered to even tell her here if the thing she got wasn't here, Nanako nodded and continued her way out of school with Miyuri. As soon as they were past the school gates, Miyuri took Nanako's hand and tugged it. Then, she dragged her in the exact opposite direction from where they needed to go, behind a bush. Before Nanako knew it, she was hidden from everyone's eyes within the vegetation, alongside Miyuri.

"Heh Heh…" Miyuri had begun to cram in the bush they were hiding behind, as Nanako could only stand besides and watch. She was very aware where this was going. In fact, she was even pretty sure that she knew exactly what Miyuri was going to show her. Her suspicion turned out to be true, of course, when the other girl turned around to her, smiling brightly as the sun.

"Heeere we go! What do you think?"

In her hands, Miyuri was holding two wooden objects, both of them long, thin and round.

"That's a Bokken," Nanako stated, skeptically eyeing what she had identified as a wooden sword.

"And a Bô!" Miyuri grinned. "Now we can try them out by ourselves and see which club we wanna join! Isn't that cool?"

Nanako had only one thing to say about that, "Where did you get those?"

The fact that Miyuri hid them behind the bushes made it painfully obvious she didn't just buy or legally borrow them. How flustered she looked upon being asked this didn't really help either.

"Umm… I sort of… took them from the sports-resources when nobody was looking," she admitted with shame. "D-Don't worry about it! We'll bring them back once we're done and nobody will ever know they were missing! Doesn't that sound like a plan?"

"Like a horrible plan," Nanako replied with blunt honesty. This was crossing a line for her, as she tried to clearly show by giving Miyuri the most disapproving look she had to offer. "We'll get into trouble. And you know it."

"Hey…c'mon!" Even though Miyuri still had that dumb grin on her face, her voice sounded pleading now. "I really just want to try! Just once! If we don't try, how are we ever gonna know if we'd actually like it?"

"There's try-out trainings," said Nanako, pointing out the obvious flaw in Miyuri's argument.

"But those are so far off! And so overbooked you barely even get to touch the weapons!" Miyuri continued to argue. "We'll train over at the shrine, where nobody will ever know that those aren't ours! C'mon, Nanako-saaaan! Please?"

And now, Miyuri was giving her puppy dog eyes. The kind that looks so poor and helpless, you feel guilty just seeing it, regardless of how innocent you actually are. And Nanako kept looking at her in a disapproving manner. And blinked. And looked and blinked.

And closed her eyes and sighed.


Nanako could only try to imagine what she would have to tell her father if she came back home next week because of getting suspended for this.

'Dad, I got caught playing with weapons in a public place with my slightly insane friend'

That would definitely not fare well with a veteran detective, nope, not in the least. Well, though, she would probably at least score points for original ways of getting into trouble, she supposed.

Thank goodness the area around the shrine, as well as the shrine itself were surprisingly empty today, meaning nobody was watching as she and Miyuri flailed around the wooden weapons, of which they had no actual idea how to use them correctly, in the air like idiots. It was fun, that much Nanako would admit, and she liked standing there, attempting to imitate the Iaido-athletes she had seen on TV before. She went into the most Samurai-like stances she could think of and drew the wooden sword as elegantly as she could. She had a feeling that she was probably doing everything wrong that one could possibly do wrong, but Miyuri clapped in amazement regardless.

"Whoop! Way to go, Nanako-san! You look really cool when you do that!"

"Eheh… Thanks." Despite not being convinced of it herself, Nanako smiled when she put the sword away, walking over to Miyuri. "You're not bad with the Bô yourself! I was surprised."

She wasn't lying about this; despite it being plainly obviously that Miyuri had no actual training in Bôjutsu whatsoever, she had somehow managed to make what amounted to basically random flailing at least look unexpectedly pretty and gracious. In a strange way, Nanako found herself actually impressed. Miyuri blushed a bit.

"Hm? You think so?" she showed a smile again. "Well, what do you think then? You and me, Jodo club?"

"Hm. I'll decide later," Nanako decided, packing the sword away. "When there are try-out trainings."

"Ah?" Miyuri had visibly not expected this answer. She sounded disappointed. "Killjoy! Awww… I guess I'll have no choice but to wait as well, then, huh."

So she was only in it so she could be in a club with her. Having figured as much before, Nanako sighed. If Miyuri and she joined the same sports club, that would mean a near constant presence of the other girl for six days every week, wouldn't it? For some reason, this didn't sound all too desirable to Nanako. Maybe it had to do with the prospect of possibly being dragged into actions like this one again and again from now on. Even if she had fun playing with the Bokken, she was rather sure that this wasn't something she wanted to make habit. Taking a look in the direction of the horizon, Nanako turned to Miyuri again.

"It's getting late," she said. "We should return those and head back to the dorm."

Miyuri looked like she wanted to argue for just a moment, but then took a look at the slowly darkening sky herself and nodded

"Ah… Alright," she packed away the Bô carefully, as to not damage it – she had apparently really meant it when she had claimed she would take good care of the weapons – and turned to Nanako once more, "Hey, before we leave…"

"Hm?" Nanako showed that Miyuri had her attention and moved her head a bit. The other girl was smiling.

"Remember how we drew fortunes the other day? How about we do that again?" Miyuri asked. "Just for fun, before we head back? Heh… Think about it. If we draw "Worst Luck" now and the Shrine-Goddess comes to take us, at least we're prepared!"

Teasingly, Miyuri started playing around with the Bô again. Nanako could actually grin at that joke. The Shrine Goddess' curse… Yeah, wooden training weapons from their school were definitely the perfect protection against that. As for Miyuri's offer to draw another fortune, she didn't see any reason to speak against it. With a short nod Nanako signaled that she was OK with it. Miyuri seemed happy to see that. The two girls got on their way to the Omikuji, inserted their coins into the offertory box and each drew their fortunes. Nanako needed to turn a bit to get into the right light to read hers.

'Good Luck – Beginning a Journey', it read.

She silently looked at it for a while. 'Beginning a Journey'… Somewhere, in the back of her mind, this rang familiar. Where had she heard this before? After a bit of thinking, she remembered with surprise.

'A journey lies ahead of you. And at its end, a choice awaits you. Once you reached that point, your destination will be decided by your own hand and your own actions. However, in order to reach this point, you must first become aware of your potential and your gift.'

Nanako stared at the snippet of paper for a bit. Was this a coincidence? Confused, she turned to look at Miyuri, wondering if maybe she should tell her about this – however, the Miyuri she found when she turned her head was not in the mood she expected her to be.

The black haired girl's smile from earlier was gone now, and Nanako didn't know why, though she had a suspicion when she realized that Miyuri, too, was staring at her fortune, just like Nanako had been a few moments ago. She looked unusually somber. Over a fortune, though? Nanako didn't understand. It was just a snippet of paper. Nothing that could actually harm her, right? Miyuri had said so herself. And still, the other girl was standing there, with that unhappy look on her face, sighing.

"Miyuri-san…?" Nanako asked, just to get Miyuri's attention away from the fortune. The poor girl really was a sorry sight like this.

Miyuri didn't react for a bit. Then, she slowly raised her eyes from the paper, and looked at Nanako, trying to smile. The sun was sinking behind her.

"Nanako-san," she said. "…Thank you."

"Thank me for what?" Nanako asked, not understanding. Miyuri hesitated to respond this. In the end, however, she did.

"You're great…" Miyuri said. "You're really great. You said nothing, up till now… And you even came here with me. Even though I do such stupid things… acting the way I do…"

Nanako didn't respond. This just came too sudden. What had gotten into Miyuri now? This was completely different from how she had acted before.

"…I'm dragging you everywhere, but didn't even ask you once yet if you actually want that," she went on. "You probably don't really want to go everywhere with me … I mean… you probably want to meet as many people as possible. You're new. You want to build up your own identity in this school, don't you? So me clinging to you... That's… that's probably…"

Miyuri looked directly at Nanako with her forced smile, "I've probably been a burden already… right? …I'm sorry."

Finally, Nanako found her voice again. Disconcerted, she spoke to the girl before her,

"Miyuri-san, what's wrong? Why are you saying this now?"

Silently, Miyuri didn't talk anymore, but kept up her dishonest, sad-looking smile for a few moments, leaving Nanako to stand there, helpless regarding how to act now.

And then, much too suddenly, the world changed.


It was a strange moment, like an invisible flash somewhere around them, a sudden skip in everything, that Nanako yet felt so clearly, it almost made her sick. That kind of sudden change.

And then, the sky was gone. Instead, there was an unsettling, dark, swirling void above them. The sun was nowhere to be seen. Where the bit of light that was obviously still there, as they could still see things around them, came from, they didn't understand. The ground felt cold. Everything seemed colorless, muted, almost grey. The air didn't move and carried a sickening metallic smell and taste.

The entire world around them had suddenly turned cold, motionless and colorless.

What was happening?

Nanako looked around, not understanding what was going on. Was this real, or was she daydreaming? She only realized that she wasn't the only one seeing this when Miyuri besides her left out a deep gasp.

"W-What is this?" she could hear her shriek. "T-The sky… E-Everything! What's going on?"

The girls stepped away until they found themselves standing back to back. The freezing cold of the sickening air only made the chill in their bones worse. They could feel each other shiver. They could hear each other breathing heavily.

"Nanako-san…" Miyuri was whispering now. "You're… you're seeing this too, right? It's not just me."

Nanako nodded.

"We should… go back to the dorm," she suggested, unable to hide her own fear, as Miyuri kept turning her head left and right, looking at everything around them, as if to search an exit of sorts.

"If we get to the dorm… is everything gonna be normal?" Miyuri wondered aloud, her voice shaking. "What happened? Why does everything look like that…?"

By this point, it had become obvious that Miyuri wasn't going to move by herself, as she kept staring around, mesmerized. Nanako finally took the other girl's hand and attempted to lead her away like this, which worked. On shaky legs, but still, Miyuri followed after Nanako, looking even more disoriented than Nanako herself. Somewhere on the way to where the dorm was supposed to be, Miyuri started talking again.

"I… I have a bad feeling," she said. "Nanako-san… Are we going the right direction? I… I feel like something was wrong."

Just then, Nanako had stopped at a crossing, looking at all directions. She agreed with Miyuri: Something was off. It might just have been because of how little orientation she currently had at the moment in general, but Nanako quickly realized that she didn't know this crossing. In fact, the entire area, while seeming familiar, seemed different in layout. There were more turns and side paths than she remembered… many identical houses seemed to appear again and again in the most random places, as if someone had wildly played with the tiles in a building-simulator-game. It was almost like the entire area had turned into a labyrinth.

Nanako took a deep breath. A labyrinth. That sounded crazy. But if it was true…

She didn't get to think about it any further. Miyuri's scream wouldn't allow her to.

"AH!"

Alarmed, Nanako quickly checked which direction Miyuri was looking – and caught a glimpse of her deeply horrified face as she did so – then turned to look into that direction herself. And that moment, her face probably ended up looking as horrified as that of her companion.

There was something coming their direction. But whatever it was, it looked like nothing Nanako had ever seen before. Crawling, clawing to the floor, dragging themselves along it with abnormal speed, changing from shapeless masses of black, slime-like substances into other, equally alien shapes, moving closer with masks for faces, dead, black holes staring where eyes should be.

Monsters. There was no other word for what they saw. Those were monsters. Nanako felt her heart pounding almost painfully hard in her chest. She tried to back off… That's when she suddenly felt a weight by her hand pull her down a bit. It was Miyuri. She had collapsed into her knees.

"W-What…" Miyuri was barely even 'talking', her words were breathed out in short, heavy gasps. "What… is this…? Why…?"

With wide open, emptily staring eyes, the black haired girl limply sat on the floor, making no visible effort to stand back up again. Nanako tugged Miyuri's hand, in an attempt to make her snap out of her apparent paralysis. 'Get up', she thought. 'Get up. If you don't, we are going to…!'

But Miyuri wouldn't get up. She wouldn't even move. Frozen in place, she just stared at what was drawing closer to them. And there Nanako was, holding the other girl's hand and at a complete loss. What should she do? Just let go and run? She couldn't just leave Miyuri behind. But if she didn't both of them would die. Staying here would do neither of them any good. And still…

"I don't want to..." Nanako could suddenly hear the black haired girl mumble with her trembling voice. "I don't want to die… I don't want to… not like this…"

Nanako looked down at Miyuri, as the girl closed her eyes, shook her head and screamed.

"Not as this Miyuri Fujishima!"

That moment, Nanako's eyes became wider. She didn't fully know why, but something in her head had just "clicked". Something in Miyuri's voice and her words… she didn't even really know herself what it was. That moment, she only knew one new thing: Miyuri couldn't die here. No matter how, she couldn't let her die. She had to make her run.

Nanako took all her strength. Grabbing Miyuri's arm with both hands, she pulled the other girl back onto her feet. Nanako put Miyuri's arm across her shoulder and carried her on her back like this. Had Miyuri just been a little taller this would have been nigh impossible. It was already hard as it was. But she had to try. Making Miyuri hang on to her as tightly as she could make her, Nanako began to run.

Down the streets that seemed so familiar and yet so off. Further, further, just where the dorm should be. It should be there, it just should. But it didn't come. No matter how far she ran, it just wouldn't appear down the streets. The same identical buildings kept repeating. The same trees, the same fences… She wasn't going anywhere. It was as if she was the famous hamster in its wheel. The longer she kept running, the clearer it became to Nanako that she couldn't escape. And more and more of the monsters began to gather, draw closer. She ran faster. And faster, and faster. And then, she tripped.

Painfully sliding across the hard, cold ground, Nanako found Miyuri thrown off her back, now lying beside her, barely conscious, whimpering. Nanako herself lifted her body off the ground, in order to go on. That's when she realized that they had been surrounded. To their right, to their left. Behind them and in front of them. The monsters were everywhere. They had nowhere to run. And Miyuri was still lying there. Not moving. Just occasionally sobbing in fear. What could she do? Was there even anything she could do? Nanako was at a loss. As the monsters kept drawing closer, all she knew was that she couldn't think of any way out. But there had to be. There just had to be…

She remembered…

She had been there before. In a nightmare. Her lungs hurting, her heart struggling to beat. Her whole body, heavy and tired. And she couldn't go anywhere. And it seemed to all be over. But then, the nightmare had turned into a normal dream. And she had heard voices. Voices, that told her…

"…Hang in there."

Nanako's whole body was shaking. Her legs were heavy and her sides ached. But she got up. First the right leg, then the left leg… she got back onto her feet.

"Miyuri-san… hang in there…"

And Nanako stood. With her hands stretched out wide and her feet firmly grounded, she stood in front of Miyuri, like a wall. Then, she reached to her bag and pulled out the Bokken. Whichever monster would try to eat Miyuri would have to go through her first. She wouldn't let them. Miyuri wouldn't die here. And neither would Nanako herself. Ready to draw the Bokken, Nanako starred right at the approaching monsters. Scared. But ready to stand and face it. That was, when something happened.

In a short, sudden moment, a feeling like a barrier falling overcame Nanako. A shattering sound from within her mind that made her flinch. She had to hold her head for a moment. And then, it was, as if a voice was speaking to her.

Thou art I.

And I am Thou.

The voice was a woman's… her own voice? She didn't understand. It was then, that Nanako seemed to have suddenly lost control over her actions. There was a blue light that seemed to be coming from a source she couldn't pinpoint. As the monsters approached further, she stopped trembling. She stared right at them. She felt herself breathing. And then, syllable by syllable she heard herself pronounce a word.

"Per…"

It was a word she knew…

"So…"

But suddenly, it seemed as if the meaning had been altered…

"Na."

Something shattered. Even louder than before. A sudden rush of pure power overcame Nanako, causing her eyes to open wide, and a gasp to escape her mouth. It took away her pain, her fatigue, and even her fear. In that one short moment, Nanako felt … "strong". She felt powerful, as if she could take on anything and anyone with her own two hands. A smirk appeared on her face, as the blue glow grew stronger. There was something behind her. And she was aware of it. She didn't even need to turn to look to know that it was there. Or to know what it was or what it looked like. She just knew. She just understood. It was there. It was part of her. Her power.

The voice rang out again, this time louder.

"Thou art I

And I am Thou.

From the sea of thy soul, I come.

I am the one between spirits and mortals

The mediator of the land of dead,

Shirayama-hime!"

Behind Nanako, there was a being. A gigantic woman at least twice her own size, probably even more, floating in the air. Her pitch-black hair was decorated with beads and chrysanthemums, braided in the most elaborate ways, while two long, pigtail-like strands extended left and right, freely flowing by the sides of her body. Her eyes appeared to be just two red, shinning rubies. Her skin was white as porcelain. She was glad in a beautiful, deep red silk. Two crystalline formations on her back seemed to be taking the shape of wings, giving her an angelic appearance. An otherworldly aura surrounded that woman.

The rush of power had yet to subside. Nanako was smirking. With the Bokken firmly in her hands, she charged against the monsters.

"AGI!" she commanded the being behind her – her "Persona" – and the angelic woman obeyed. With a mere wink of her hand, one of the monsters before her burst into flames, causing all of the remaining ones to back off alarmed. Nanako took the chance and dashes off to attack the creatures. She slashed away at them with her wooden short, cutting them down one after another, thinning out the rows, as Shirayama-hime continued to ignite them systematically. With every flame spell the Persona cast, Nanako fell a bit of the power rushing through her mind being drained away. As the battle continued, her awareness of her situation gradually returned. But she kept going. She had a means of fighting back, she couldn't give up. Further and further, she cleared out the rows. It seemed as if she was getting close to opening a path she and Miyuri could escape through. Hope welled up within her…

And then, out of nowhere, more monsters appeared. The blood in Nanako's veins felt like it was freezing. Reinforcements.

"N-No…"

She was distracted for just a moment, but that was enough. Taking her off-guard, one of the creatures leapt at her, attacking her. Nanako was hit, thrown to the ground and had no chance for quick recovery. As she fell, the creature immediately took the chance to rush past her, right at the defenseless Miyuri. Nanako watched in shock.

"M-Miyuri-san!" she shouted out, focusing her mind on controlling her Persona. Trying to cast Agi on the creatures, she attempted to drive them off the other girl again, but she took too long to regain concentration. Before she knew it, two more of the creatures were already leaping at her. Instinctively, Nanako brought her Bokken into a guarding stance before her body. But then, what next? She didn't know. If those creatures were just too many… and would just keep coming, with no chance of ever stopping them, not even with her Persona… If they had nowhere to run, what would she do?

Nanako was prepared for an impact that never came. Instead, she heard a boy's voice call out in short distance.

"Go! Kim-Un-Kamui! "

The same blue light that had appeared earlier, when Nanako's Persona had been summoned, shone once more. The monsters that had been leaping at her were now frozen in gigantic crystals of ice before they could ever reach her. And then, the ice-crystals shattered, and the enclosed monsters with them. Nothing but a sparkling rain of ice-shards remained. Nanako was stunned. What had happened? She had trouble bringing the events that had just occurred into order in her mind. Only one thing was clear to her: Someone had saved her. This "someone" became visible to her as soon as the rain of ice subsided a bit:

In short distance from her, Nanako could see a young blonde man with sky-blue eyes, wearing a long, brown coat. He would have looked normal enough, hadn't he worn a kind of metal-glove with three long, sharp steel-claws attached to it on his right hand. Above his left hand, something that looked like a card was hovering.

"Grrr… Shadows! Shadows, Shadows, everywhere, Shadows!" Nanako could hear the young man yell in a strange tone. His voice almost broke into a higher pitch. "I've had it with you guys! Bad enough you have to go around messing this whole world up, now you're attacking helpless girls too?! Well, congratulations, you just made me mad!"

The man in the coat stood up straight, turning the hand with the claws a bit, as if to warm it up,

"Just you wait… I'll show you just what happens when you hunt in another bear's territory! Here I go!"

Roaring loudly, the young man charged right into the monsters, tearing through them with his claw-glove, skilled and with force. One after another, he tore the creatures to the ground, sometimes even in just one strike.

Nanako was baffled, but not for long, because she didn't have the time to remain so. As soon as the creatures were distracted enough from her, she jumped back onto her feet and began slashing away at them with her Bokken again herself. She was by far less effective than the young man, but it was better than just standing by and watching like a damsel. The young man took notice of her being back in the battle and threw her a grin. In lack of a better response for that, Nanako just nodded. That was the moment the man's smile was suddenly dropped.

"Behind you!" he yelled, causing Nanako to turn around alarmed. One of the monsters was leaping at her.

"Shield me, Shirayama-hime!" she shouted instinctively and the Persona heeded her call, immediately casting its fire spell. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to do any good. The monster simply jumped right through the flames, at Nanako. Only in the last second could she block the attack with her Bokken.

"Watch out!"

The young man rushed to her side, and got the monsters away from her, by slashing back at them with his claws as they were busy trying to break Nanako's defense. He moved to her side.

"These Shadows absorb fire!" he told her. "You're not going to kill them with Agi-spells!"

"B-But that's all I have!" Nanako admitted to her ally.

"Then leave these guys to me! You go, focus on the ones with the blue masks!"

"Blue… masks… alright!"

As the blonde focused and summoned forth his own Persona – a gigantic, bear-like being with extensions that resembled jet-engines, Nanako searched out the enemies that fit the description the man had given. When she found them, she immediately sent out Shirayama-hime against them. It worked better than she expected: Her fire magic literally burnt through these opponents, leaving not even ashes behind. Like this, Nanako kept going. However, she couldn't help but notice that her pool of spiritual energy kept being depleted. How much longer would she be able to go on? Regardless of his far superior strength, it seemed to not be much different on the blonde man's end.

"Damn… Where do they keep coming from?! It's like an endless stream!" he growled at the unchangingly numerous masses of enemies. "We can't defeat them all… We gotta retreat!"

Nanako was too distracted to care much for this unsettling observation by her new ally: In far distances, she saw how the creatures had latched onto the still, unconscious, black haired girl, warping around her.

"Miyuri-san!" Nanako exclaimed, running her direction. The young man was shocked to see this.

"No! Come back!"

Nanako didn't listen. She only had one thing on her mind. Saving Miyuri. She had to save her. She had to save her. Miyuri couldn't die here. Miyuri couldn't die here, because… she had to talk to her. She had to talk to her and ask her. What she had meant when she said those things earlier. What she had meant by them. Nanako wanted to know. She just wanted to know what Miyuri had really felt when she had told her all these things, in front of the omikuji, by the Haraedo shrine. And that was why, come what may, Miyuri couldn't die here. Not now. Not like this. In a state of panic, Nanako tried to tear through the monsters attacking her classmate. With all her remaining strength, she slashed and ignited what she could. And then, finally, she saw an opening. She could see Miyuri's hand… Miyuri's hand was so close. She reached out to it, tried to grab it, tried to take it and pull her out there…

And then Nanako felt an impact on the back of her head.

Before she could even feel pain, the whole world turned black on her.


A/N:

I have that bad habit of not updating a story if it doesn't get reviews, but I figure I should break that. I have written too much of this already to just quit uploading now because of something like that. I'll just keep uploading material until I run out and after that, I can still decide if the story is worth continuing or not.