Some Lost Memories and an Old Bamboo Comb – Chapter 34 [Volume II]
{May 1, 2011} {Cloudy}
[Dojima Residence, Daytime]
Since there was no school today, Yu Narukami decided to spend this Sunday with his Persona Izanagi however he liked. The grey-haired protagonist was in the middle of getting on his casual winter clothes while Izanagi leaned on Yu's door with his arms folded, looking out the window to the rural countryside…
"The Midnight Channel isn't coming on until after a while, what are thou going to do today…?" Izanagi inquired to Yu as he finished up getting dressed for the day…
"Hmm, I'm not sure yet…" Yu remarked to his Persona as he looked out the window too. Suddenly, the flip phone in Yu's pocket began ringing, he pulled it out to see that it was Chie calling him…
"Oh hello? It's me, Chie. Do you have time to go inside the TV today? Now that Yukiko's with us, I think it might be good for her to get some experience being in that place. Just give us a call if you want to go. See ya!" Chie's cheerful voice was heard by the two, the grey-haired protagonist closed his phone and returned back into his pocket. He went over to the TV set in the room and checked the weather for the next seven days… it was gonna rain on Monday.
"We'll go inside the TV tomorrow to train the others, and defeat any strong Shadows lurking around…" Yu stated to Izanagi as began remembering that one menacing Shadow that took over Yukiko's Castle… The Contrarian King.
"With my current self at thy side, thou are powerful enough to defeat this shadow more quickly than before…" Izanagi told the Yu, showing confidence in his tone… The Japanese God then walked toward Yu and faded with a bluish aura inside his body…
"Alright, let's go!" Yu stated to himself, he walked out the door and checked-in with his cousin Nanako in the living room watching TV by the table. Yu then quickly existed the Dojima Residence to go around the town…
[Central Shopping District – South: Daidara's Metalworks, Daytime]
Yu and Izanagi headed inside the workshop of Master Daidara. The two were shopping for armor and accessories for their "new" party member Yukiko. Yu quickly got a Fire Vow but then noticed something in particular. Behind the Counter, Master Daidara had stopped working on making a new sword with the new materials brought in by city boy. Daidara examined him with a serious eye as he looked around his shop. Daidara noticed that Yu had a surprised look on his face as he began to notice some particular "high-level" weapons, armor, and accessories all on display…
"That's strange…" The grey-haired boy thought in his mind as he looked around the shop, the Master blacksmith began to speak to Yu sternly…
"You… did you come from the city? That degenerate, city…? I lived there, too, once… When I was young and naive, a mere stripling, still wet behind the ears. Here, the air and the water and the light are more pure. I've forgotten everything from my time in that hell." Daidara remarked jadedly, Yu perked up as he heard Daidara's words from the counter.
"Well I don't think it's that bad… gotta admit though, I do feel at home in this place too. It's kinda odd of a feeling you know? It feels good to be here, Hehe." Yu answered Daidara with an awkward chuckle while itching his cheek slightly.
"Hmm…" Master Daidara scowled at him but seemed to get what the boy was saying in a way. He then continued work to forging a new sword for him.
Yu continued to eye some of the "art" great armor sets of Full Jin-Baori and Haten Robes, along with a whole collection of weapons used previously by the Team. How in the world did Daidara's stuff carry over!? That's awesome!
"I noticed you have some masterpieces that I've seen before, I would like to buy them…" Yu tried to maintain a usual calm demeanor over this awesome new revelation. Though it's kind of hard to because life was becoming so much easier for him in this fresh reality or "second play through" or whatever you want to call it…
"Hmm? Seen before…? Well, whatever. If you have the money, this art is yours to wield but remember, use my art with purpose and conviction, not mindless violence…" Daidara announced to him, the grey-haired boy nodded.
"I will…" Yu took the gear he wanted and went over to the counter to pay with his stuffed wallet.
"This is so strange, why has this large selection of weapons and armor just suddenly come back on this day? I mean we helped him create all of that "art" before right…?" Izanagi curiously asked his user.
"Yeah, it's weird, but it's a big help to us either way. It'll make our future battles go more smoothly…" Yu told his Persona with a cheerful look on his face, they made their way out of Daidara's Metal Works.
"The world must have changed again, it's slowly becoming a reality that is cozier for us than before…" Izanagi spoke again, rather curious of what's behind the next corner…
[Central Shopping District, Daytime]
"Even if we're not hitting the TV today, Yukiko should at least be prepared…" As he spoke, Yu began strolling up North of the Shopping District with the ghostly form of Izanagi following him closely, as they continued their casual walk on the uphill road to where the soda machine rested at the end of the block, suddenly from outta nowhere, a student from a rival school who isn't definitely involved in the case later on starts barking at them.
"The police still haven't caught the killer? Those idiots! Can't they do anything right!? I tell ya, the world is chock-full of idiots! Take those morons that ride around on bikes in the middle of the night for example! Guys like that can't do anything without each other! They're worthless! And lemme tell ya…" Mitsuo Kubo complained to our grey haired protagonist since he didn't recognize him from their first meeting, though Yu looked like he didn't really want to talk to him.
"Well this is awkward…" Yu thought out to Izanagi while looking like he was paying his full attention to Kubo because he didn't want to be rude.
"Did thou accidentally press X during thy walk…?" Izanagi suggested with a perplexed look on his face, his hand on his chin.
"Wait… What?" Yu was pretty baffled by what his persona had said, this is real life right?
"Ah just, never mind…" The Japanese God spoke with a very trivializing tone… The student from a rival school ranted on and on. Yu manages to escape somewhere between "Why women of today are awful…" and "Why newer tabletop games are all terrible." The two headed back to the South of the Shopping District, leaving Mitsuo to his own devices.
"Geez, why don't we just take care of him now so we don't deal with him later?" Yu uttered in his mind to his persona as they walked back…
"How do we do that? If he hasn't murdered thy teacher and if that event doesn't happen in our timeline, we can't meet Naoto under the same circumstances and we won't be able discover the Truth like before. For example, we can't even go after Nametame until it's time to…" Izanagi explained to his user, floating behind him.
"Oh… Good point, but does King Moron really have to die for this can't we just try to save him at least?" Yu wondered to his persona, Izanagi pondered what to say…
"Well… Things happen for a "reason" and we move on…" Izanagi uttered rather bluntly, the grey-haired protagonist gave him a puzzling look.
"That's odd of you to say, Izanagi. Things that are awful in our lives won't ever change if we don't try to actively change them…" Yu argued a bit, though not trying to sound too assertive. Just being a bystander and watching his own story play out before him was tiring, it's like watching a movie again because you didn't see the ending, it's tedious. Yu wishes for change to happen… but why?
"It's just a bad a feeling I have, we can't mess things up in our favor. I apologize if this upsets thou… thou must understand… that things happen for a reason." Izanagi stated once more, apologizing to his user profusely.
"Let's just go to the Velvet Room, see what's there for us today…" Yu told Izanagi with a slightly exasperated tone as they headed to the Velvet Door near the end of the block. Surprsingly, Marie was standing by said glowing blue door with impaitentence of that of a child…
"Oh… You're here. I've been waiting for you. Hey, why don't you take me somewhere? I don't know the area. You know your way around, right?" Marie beamed her eyes toward the taller boy with anticipation. It seems Marie wants to go out…
"Sure, I guess. I don't really have anything planned for today." Yu uttered somewhat indifferently to Marie while rubbing his neck from stiffness.
"Yeah, let's go! Today, I want to go to a lively place. I want to go to "Joo-nes." I heard about that place." Marie exclaimed as the two of them began walking together…
[Junes - Electronics department, Daytime]
Yu was dragged here by an excited Marie... The two teens walking in the TV section, before them was one of many flat screens on display. Marie was curious of what the heck went on before they got there, a lot people at Junes were rushing to get something…
"Hey, what happened just now? "Time Sale" …? Everyone was rushing to grab something called "sallah drezzing?" Whatever it is, it must be worth fighting for." Marie looked at Yu very convinced of this, the grey-haired boy grew sweat drops in confusion at the girl's odd way of thinking.
"By comparison, she makes thou seem normal…" Izanagi added quietly inside Yu's head. Suddenly, Yu and Izanagi hear a familiar voice from a distance.
"Hey, Yu-kun! What a coincidence! What are you doing here?" Chie came running to them as she noticed their team leader, Chie had a smile on her face, she noted that Yu was with someone else.
"Who's this girl? She's so cute." A surprised Chie noticed the Girl in the blue hat standing with them.
"This is Marie." Yu quickly introduced Marie, the trendy girl was caught off guard by the abruptness. Marie noticed Chie standing before her.
"Huh? Oh, yeah…" Marie looked perplexed by the other girl, Chie smiled.
"Marie-chan, huh? Ooh, that's a nice name. Oh, I'm Chie Satonaka. Nice to meet you!" Chie stated cheerfully to Marie. The trendy girl was lost for words.
"Okay…" Marie seemed nervous around other people, the other two noted this behavior. Marie turned herself around and noticed the big flat screen before her.
"I know what this is. It shows a lot of stuff." Marie stared into the big TV.
"Oh, you came to look at the TVs, too? Yeah, I want one, too. We still haven't replaced our old one." Chie came up to Marie and the big flat screen.
"I-I don't want one! I don't, but…" Marie thought for a moment, and then something came to mind.
"Maybe… Can you turn it to "StarScandalz?" Marie stated to Chie, Yu wondered what the heck that was and how the hell did watch TV in the Velvet room.
"What kind of show is that…?" Yu curiously asked Marie, she turned toward Yu to explain.
"Huh? It's, like... One of those shows, right? The ones where they're all like "blah de blah de blah." Marie vividly explained to the grey-haired boy.
"Everybody watches it. Margaret told me that." For some reason, Marie seems proud as she spoke... Yu and Izanagi were still pretty baffled by what the odd girl was saying. Marie seems interested in the TV...
"So, how do you watch it?" Marie questioned with some curiosity.
"Well, you press the power button on the side or front to switch it on. Next you can just press the other buttons that are marked with the words Channel, go up or down to find whatever that show you watch…" Yu explained in detail with a demonstration by pointing all over the flat screen in front of them.
"Huh!? Are you one of those people who doesn't watch TV!?" Chie was stunned to hear something like that about Marie.
"There isn't one in the room." Marie casually explained to the girl in green.
"Really!? Wow. You must have super-strict parents." Chie added.
"Girl, I don't think I could stand it. Life without Kung Fu movies...Brr!" Chie exclaimed with a wince.
"Oh… But there's no "eclectic loutwits" in that room." Marie stated with childish pronunciation.
"Remember… She said the word "Nostalgic" once… I remember…" Izanagi indicated inside Yu's head.
"There's has to be at least a couple, how is she watching shows like that?" Chie wondered with an inch on her head.
"I'll tell The Nose to install one of those "eclectic loutwits." There's nothing to do in there!" Marie with determined eyes marched off from the Electronics section of Junes, quickly leaving both Yu and Chie behind.
"Hey, wait, Marie-chan!? …You don't even have electricity in your room!?" Chie was baffled along with Yu. Like seriously, how can Margaret even watch TV?
[Junes, Food court – Daytime]
Yu came with Marie and Chie, they sat at a round table full of food each of them from Junes... save for Chie.
"Whew, that was the good stuff. Satisfaction! I haven't had the steak here in a while, but it really isn't all that bad." Chie let off of sigh of relaxation after eating plenty of steak from her dish. The meat-loving Girl then noticed that Marie and Yu haven't touch their food, the reality is it's only been 2 minutes and Chie is a really fast eater…
"Marie-chan, you haven't eaten at all. You, too, Yu-kun. You've gotta eat if you want to grow up big and strong. Just kidding, haha!" Chie added with a teasing laugh.
"You eat too fast… You're gonna be fat one day." Marie casually stated to Chie, causing her and Tomoe inside her mind to be self-conscious about their bodies and Yu and Izanagi to wince.
"I didn't need to hear that!" Chie exclaimed with paranoia, she got up from her seat.
"Uh… I'll go get us some drinks! O-Oolong tea sounds good." Chie runs off quickly to soda machine for fat reducing tea.
"There's a lot of people at this "Joo-nes" place. Why? Don't they anything else to do? If they have TVs, they should be watching them instead of wasting time here." Marie spoke at the table, Yu wonders if there was anything better to do in Inaba, He's got nothing except fishing.
"Well… I guess…" Yu utters under his breath. A young boy runs near their table suddenly, looking at the food stand from a distance.
"Mommy, I'm thirsty! I wanna soda!" The boy begged his mother who came walking behind, Marie watch them curiously, Yu noticed the look on face… longing.
"No. You just had one. You'll have to wait." His Mother told her son.
"I wannit, I wannit!" The Child whined to his mother.
"I said no. You'll rot your teeth." His Mother remained stern with her son. Marie continued to watch the mother and son as they left...
"Hey...Do you think I was ever like that?" Marie asked the grey-haired boy.
"You don't remember?" Yu stated with curiosity, well she certainly isn't human but everyone has some creator.
"Yeah. There's a lot I don't remember...Everything." Marie looked serious...
"I don't remember anything. I was just walking...I had nowhere to go, and I just ended up in that car. Then Margaret told me to stay there. She also gave me the name "Marie" …It'd be hard to get around without a name." Marie tells Yu how she came to the Velvet Room. Yu had previously speculated that she is definitely not just some "ordinary" Velvet Attendant.
"So you can't remember anything?" Yu added, trying learn as much as he could about her.
"I don't need to." Despite her casual words, Marie had a concerned expression...
"But...I don't know why, but this town is familiar to me." Marie's eyes were interested as to why that was. Yu grew somewhat curious of that; he's never seen around before in the past cycle of the year.
"Do you remember anything else?" Yu furthered questioned.
"...I don't know. The only thing I remember-or more like "know"-is that this is mine." Marie stood up and brought out something from her bag, an old bamboo comb in her hand…
"I had this from the start. This is definitely mine. But...so what? This doesn't help anything…" Marie confided in Yu about her memory... Izanagi noticed the old bamboo comb in Marie's hand from inside of Yu's mind.
"This Comb…" Izanagi carried seriousness in his tone, the grey-haired boy noticed his persona's shocked words.
"Something wrong Izanagi…?" Yu mentally asked Izanagi with concern, there's something going on with that comb…
"…" Izanagi remained quiet. Marie spoke to Yu once more with some surprising words.
"You're search for the "truth," right…? …You should stop. There's no such thing." Marie told the leader of the Investigation Team, Yu was blanked face.
"…" The grey-haired boy grew suspicious of Marie; he did not allow it to show on his face, Marie sat herself down again at the table.
"...This conversation's boring. Let's talk about something else." Marie stated with jaded eyes… silence remained.
"Sorry to keep you waiting! The shop was busy, so I just ordered and came back here. They'll bring it to us when it's ready." Chie came walking back to the table with a smile but then notices the mood atmosphere, Yu's eye were tense while Marie's were full of disinterest.
"Uhh… Is it me, or is the mood a bit heavy around here? D-Don't worry, you two! I ordered for all of us! Oolong tea for everybody!" Chie exclaimed nervously, trying to bring the mood around her up. After talking with Marie and Chie, Yu escorted Marie back to the Velvet Room...
Omake #9 – The Childhood of Two Creative Twins – (Part 2)
{Unknown Date, but when the Sea of the Unconscious was still pretty Chaotic…}
Lazily laying down on the white cloudy plains of the cognitive Japanese Heaven, the child versions of Izanagi and Izanami gazed up at the "night-like" sky together… Izanagi was always pretty perplexed as to why everything was so dark all the time…
"Being unable to see everything really is troublesome, I keep bumping into things…" Izanagi grimaced as he sat up from the clouds. The young male kami rubbed his forehead with a cold wet cloth because of a bruise he got from accidentally running into something, Izanami snickered at her brother and his misfortune in good fun…
"That's what you get for running around Nagi! You almost made me trip too!" Izanami seemed miffed as she sat up from her own spot in the clouds. She began wagging her finger at him. The two twins were with their mother for the rest of the day as other lower heavenly kami began working on fixing up the crack in the wood Izanagi had made with his head on one of the shrine entrance pillars… this all happened just a short distance away from where they were.
Izanagi and Izanami's mother was tending to a patch of tall bamboo that grew out from the clouds like soil… The mother carefully removed bits of bamboo from the roots with a small knife she had, it seemed that their mother planned to use it for something. Izanami observed her mother and became curious of what she was doing while her brother Izanagi continued tending to his forehead, the mother of the twin kami had given him the cold wet cloth so it wouldn't hurt that much…
"Hey mom, what are you doing?" Izanami asked her mother, who was the goddess of the Universe. Like her children, she had long grey-colored hair and was much taller than an average human. Their mother also wore a metal mask that concealed her whole face like many of the other heavenly kami except for children like Izanagi and Izanami who weren't old enough to wear them. Kuninotoko was her name.
"Hmm? Oh! N-Nothing much! I simply needed this bamboo to craft…" Kuninotoko timidly reacted to her young daughter's simple question, she was a very soft-spoken woman… The Mother Goddess hid her knife and some of the bamboo within her golden robe from her children's eyes. It was pretty obvious that she was hiding something more about it…
"Really? What are you making mom?" Izanagi grew curious of his mother too as he managed to ease some pain from his forehead. Their mother sighed in defeat as she wanted to do this unseen by her children (who were also grounded for the shrine incident). Kuninotoko warmly smiled underneath her mask to the children's curiosities and approached them to explain. She sat herself down between both her kids on the white cloudy plains…
"I'm hand-making a gift for a special occasion, that is all…" Kuninotoko spoke and then affectionately began to ruffle the grey-hair on both her children's heads. The twin kami were confused as to what she meant by special… an anniversary?
"Well, is it for Dad?" The curious Izanami questioned once more as she gazed into the look of her mother's glee-filled eyes inside her mask…
"Oh no… but it's a surprise for the coming future!" Kuninotoko answered the young female kami with some added cheerfulness in her tone… the twins were still confused as to what she meant but decided to honor the surprise…
"I guess we can find out about it later, I hope we'll be able to see whatever it is in this nice "light" we have here…" Izanagi grumbled about the dark starry sky that covered their cognitive heaven, he'll never forgive it for the pain it caused him…
"Oh that's right, Nagi wondered why it's always so dark… again." Izanami remembered her earlier conversation with Izanagi and told her mother as if the younger female kami already knew why it was always "night" ...unlike her brother. Kuninotoko began to look very bewildered by her son's lack of knowing something so simple…
"Izanagi! Have you not been listening to the lectures of the five elders? They have already told you countless times!" Kuninotoko somewhat scolded her youngest son. Izanami also was always the more attentive twin while Izanagi was always daydreaming. The young male kami made an excuse to his mom…
"I-I forgot! M-Must have hit my head too hard on the sacred pillar! Yeah, that's it!" Izanagi told Kuninotoko with some believability in his voice, it was acted pretty well. His mother simply sighed in annoyance. The Goddess of the Universe comically began mushing the cheeks her son's face together with her hands in frustration while Izanami chuckled at all of it… Kuninotoko soon released of her son's face from her grasp.
"Izanami, please make sure that your brother is a lot more careful next time…" Kuninotoko told her youngest daughter who agreed that she would. Izanami had a rather teasing smile aimed at her brother, Izanagi stuck his tongue out at his sister for tattling on him, Izanami did the same back at Izanagi for making her run in wooden geta. Their mother once again sighed in exasperation at the behavior of her beloved kids…
"For reference, it is my sister-in-law who provides the small stars that you see in our dark sky… Even if it's a dim light, we are all grateful to her for it. Please be more considerate Izanagi, Izanami." Kuninotoko lectured the children for her own sanity's sake, both kids started to look up at the dark sky to see those stars with some newfound insight. Their auntie was actually the Goddess of the all-stars… the two young kami felt very small in comparison to their elders.
"Do you understand? Okay then, now let us go home my precious children! It's time for your supper…" Kuninotoko slowly stood up from the cloudy plains, she made the path for them to return home. Izanagi and Izanami soon followed their mother back to the "Celestial Palace" of the Mikoto…
"Hey Nami, wasn't it breakfast time a while ago?" Izanagi whispered to his sister behind their mother as they roamed among the clouds…
"Hehe you're right Nagi, even our mom can't tell what time it is!" Izanami whispered back to Izanagi in surprise as they strolled amongst the clouds…
Author's Note: