Chapter 1 changelog:
29/3/2020: Changed a bit in the Author's Note which caused a bit of confusion.
14/4/2020: Saya no longer lives near the shrine - she lives at the shrine. Also, wait, THIS IS THE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL?!
26/7/2020: Can we all just agree that "Erin Anakuzen" sounds better than "Eri Anakuzen"?
14/2/2021: Rewrote chapter completely. Pretend the above lines never existed.
She slowly, gently, opened the bedroom door, making sure not to wake the sleeping girl inside.
Erin Anakuzen moved the door so that only a small crack of light leaked through, and tiptoed to her daughter's bed. Saya still slept. "She looks so peaceful." Erin thought. She knelt down beside the bed, and as she watched Saya sleep, remembered all the things the two had done together in the past weeks.
The beach trip - neither had been there in a long time, and Saya had had a lot of fun with her friends there.
The Mount Fuji climb - one item off Erin's bucket list. Saya seemed to like the peace and the spiritual air there as well - it made her feel at peace. "Living in a Shinto shrine must have rubbed off on her." Erin mused.
The highlight? "Crystallace's concert, definitely." Months ago, a group of students on a school trip from faraway Monomori High had visited the local area, and a small detachment of those - 4 out of 6 of Crystallace's members - had visited the Anakuzen Shrine. On a surprising amount of common ground, Erin befriended the band's leader, Suzuha. Months later, the band returned to Tokyo, this time complete and by themselves, for their first performance outside of their hometown. Erin and Saya were invited, and, unlike her quiet self, Saya agreed to go - and had a blast. "For a months-old high school girl band, they're really good."
Erin wanted more of those days. She was beginning to really value the time she spent with her daughter. But...
Erin smiled sadly to herself. Then she leaned forward and kissed Saya lightly on the cheek. "I love you, Saya. More than anything."
Saya stirred. "Mmph...Mom..."
"Oops, I might have woken her up." Erin thought, sneaking out of the room. She glanced one last time at her daughter before closing the door.
...
...
...
Monday, April 11th, 20XX
Beepbeepbeep. Beepbeepbeep. Beepbeepbeep. Bee-
Groaning tiredly, Saya dismissed her phone's alarm and sat up on her bed. Her black hair was a long tangled mess, as it always was in the early mornings. A tiny crack of light leaked in through the curtains from the cloudy skies outside. Saya stepped off her bed...and nearly tripped on a book she'd left on the ground, an outlier in her otherwise tidy room. "I'd forgotten I'd just dropped that on the ground last night..." She opened the curtains and picked up the book. "The Tale of Yoshitsune and Shizuka...Huh." Placing on her desk, she opened her bedroom door and went out.
Hair tied up in ponytail, check.
School bag, filled and prepared.
Shujin Academy winter uniform - Saya stood in front of the mirror and scanned herself. Aside form the standard uniform, Saya wore red trousers below her skirt - the hakama of the miko's traditional outfit. This was meant to make her school-to-work transition quicker. "I hope the teachers don't mind...at least it doesn't look too bad."
Today was the first day of Saya Anakuzen's second year as a high schooler.
Ding. "Ah, the toast is ready." "Welcome to today's 7 o'clock morning news..."
Saya stared at the weather forecast on the television as she ate her breakfast. "Huh, looks like it's going to rain today. That's just like what last night's forecast said. I'd better bring an umbrella."
Later, shoes on, her backpack slung across both shoulders, Saya called out, "Bye, Mom!"
There was no response. Only silence. Then Saya felt idiotic, and sad. Of course there would be no response. It had been 2 years, yet she'd forgotten.
She was gone.
The Shibuya subway seemed more crowded than usual that day. As Saya stepped off the train, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. A text message.
R: Man, I don't wanna go to school today...
Saya rolled her eyes. The text was from Ryuji Sakamoto, a student in her year. Once a member of the now-defunct Shujin track team, Ryuji was known as the school's delinquent. Saya had, on the behalf of her homeroom teacher, helped him recover his grades after the track team's disbandment late last year, and found out that he was nicer than he looked. Nevertheless...
Saya's reply was curt.
S: Please do not text me about something so trivial again.
A few minutes later, while walking to school, Saya felt a drop of cold water hit her shoulder. Then two. Three. Sighing, she retrieved her umbrella from her backpack and deployed it as the rain began.
Then she saw him. A boy with black frizzy hair and glasses, also wearing the Shujin uniform, bringing his bag over his head. It didn't take much for Saya to realize that he must have forgotten, or not known, that it would rain. "Hey!" She called out, holding out her umbrella. "Get under here!"
The boy looked stunned for a bit, then ran to beneath Saya's umbrella. "Thanks." He said. "Although...I don't think this umbrella is big enough for the two of us."
Saya looked up. Indeed, her umbrella was not large enough to completely shelter both her and the boy at once, even if they itched closer. Without a moment of hesitation, she moved the umbrella over the boy's head, shielding him fully from the rain in exchange for leaving herself exposed on the left side.
The boy looked surprised at this. "Uh...aren't you afraid of getting wet?"
"It's fine." Saya replied, already feeling her shoulder get soaked. "Let's just go. You're going to Shujin too, right?"
Akira Kurusu stood under the awning, watching the heavy rain pour on the streets. "Mental note: Next time, watch the weather forecast. Or at least bring an umbrella." He looked to his left, at the girl who had just helped him.
She was short - the top of her head barely reached his chin - and generally smaller than the average high school girl, although her voice was a bit deeper than he expected. Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail, and Akira was fairly sure that neither the odd red leggings she wore or the bandages that were wrapped around her hands and arms were part of the girls' winter uniform. Her face betrayed very little emotion other than the glimpse of concern she'd displayed earlier when offering him a spot under her umbrella, giving Akira the impression of someone who was cold and distant to others.
"At this rate, by the time the rain ends we'll be late for school." She said.
Akira looked out at the ongoing natural shower, which seemed to be intensifying. "Yeah."
After a moment when neither spoke a word, the girl suddenly extended her umbrella to Akira. "Here, take my umbrella and go to school by yourself. I'll catch up."
Akira blinked. "But...you might end up being late."
The girl shrugged. "I can just do a little explaining. The teachers will understand. Come on, just take it and go, you wouldn't want to be late for your first day of school.
"Look who's talking..." Akira thought, knowing this was the first day of school for every Shujin student. Still, he hesitated at her offer. She was being nice, he could see that. But... "Of course she would be nice. She doesn't know about me, or what happened to me." So he shook his head. "Thanks, but I can't. Just go ahead. I'll be fine as well."
The girl arched her eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
She hesitated, as if wondering whether she should keep pressing her kindness, before pulling her umbrella back and sighing. "Alright. Just don't go out in the rain, unless you want to catch a cold."
Akira watched the girl walk away. "She does seem nice...but she'll probably just turn against me once she hears about my criminal record."
He thought back. That night when he tried to help a woman being harassed by a drunk man, then got falsely accused of assault and somehow lost. Everyone had shunned him then. No one believed his story, only the false one conjured up by the man - he was just a criminal in others' eyes. All except for one person.
Just one. The only one who still loved him, the only true family he knew he had left. Akira raised his eyes to the sky. "Minori...I hope you're okay. Please try to control yourself."
"I've never seen him before." Saya mused. The boy she'd helped earlier looked her age, and she figured that he was either a first or second-year. "Is he a transfer student?" While pondering this, Saya took little notice of the blonde girl who ran past her in the opposite direction.
The rain cleared as Saya neared Shujin. When she stepped through the gate, her phone vibrated.
Sh: Same class!
Attached to the text was a photograph of one of the boards that listed which students were assigned to which class. Saya scanned the picture and recognized 3 names: hers, Ryuji, and Shiho Suzui.
Saya smiled to herself. Shiho was the only one in Shujin to whom the miko connected with. Both found common ground in being extremely kind girls with low self-esteem and difficulties in making friends. But whereas Shiho was shy but much more successful in befriending others, Saya simply distanced herself by choice.
She'd been that way ever since her mother died. Many of her friends did not help her grieve after she found out that Erin was dead, having apparently fallen off the roof of a tower somehow. The very few friends who tried to support her only found her closed off, unwilling to accept help. Her kindness, her willingness to give to others, those parts of her did not change. She simply no longer showed it as often, as clearly, and refused to received others' kindness, at least on the surface. And so Saya's past friends slowly faded away from her life.
It didn't help that the Anakuzen Shrine, once a lively place under Erin's management, now had very little visitors, if there were any. And it was becoming run-down, as Saya didn't have the money for repairs - she had to work part-time just to keep herself afloat. Though her mother had left her a large amount of money, Saya didn't dare touch it except for in emergencies.
Simply put, Saya did not have the time or motivation to maintain her relationships. Because of this, her social interactions with her past friends became slowly fewer and fewer in number until they were practically gone, and the few incidental encounters she had with them became rather uncomfortable. Speaking of...
As Saya made her way towards her homeroom, she crossed a familiar face. Bob-cut brown hair, red eyes. Makoto Niijima, a third-year.
Both stopped and looked at each other. Makoto looked surprised. Saya's face, however, remained neutral. After a moment of awkward silence, Saya continued walking. "Once again...she did nothing."
Saya noticed one peculiar thing during the morning assembly that day: Ryuji wasn't there. She figured he was just a bit late, so didn't pay the matter much mind.
"And now," announced the principal, "I am proud to introduce our beloved gym teacher, our Olympic medalist, Suguru Kamoshida."
The auditorium erupted into cheers and applause as Kamoshida stepped up to the podium. Saya, however, did not cheer for him, and she noticed that she wasn't the only one. The volleyball team actually seemed downtrodden when they saw their coach.
Saya narrowed her eyes. She'd heard a lot of rumors about Kamoshida abusing his students, and would have, as with all rumors, immediately dismissed them had it not been for one thing.
"I don't trust him."
"Who?" Saya asked, curious.
"The gym teacher." Erin said matter-of-factly. "Kamoshida."
Saya tilted her head. "Why not?"
"Well...he seems too full of himself. Plus, I noticed that some of the students here seem way too uncomfortable around him, as if he did something to them. And..." There seemed to be something else, but Erin couldn't, or wouldn't, say it. Nevertheless, it had been enough to make Saya steer clear of the gym teacher - and eventually develop suspicions about him.
"I might have to look into those rumors a bit more." Saya thought. "Hopefully they're just as false as everything else I've heard, but if they're true, then..." She shuddered at the implications.
When the assembly ended and Saya went to her homeroom, she found out that she was seated in the center-right of the class, with Shiho a desk ahead of her and Ryuji directly to her left. Again, Saya saw that Ryuji had not arrived. She shrugged it off again, but with a bit of alarm.
Then third period came, and Ryuji still hadn't arrived.
Feeling a splitting headache coming on, Saya thought back to the text message she'd received when she got off the train that morning. "Surely he wasn't serious? He might cut classes, but I don't think he'd just skip school. He wouldn't want to disappoint his mother like that." She was getting concerned. Had something happened to Ryuji?
Finally, mercifully, during lunchtime, Ryuji arrived...along with a certain frizzy-haired transfer student.
Ryuji didn't step into the class worrying about getting chewed out by whoever his new teacher was. His primary source of concern right now was a particular shrine maiden, whom he knew was in his homeroom. And there she was, sitting in the middle-left (his) of the classroom. Seething. Ryuji could feel her murderous aura radiating to where he stood in the front of the classroom, eclipsing everyone else.
Then the teacher pointed him to his seat - right next to Saya. Ryuji gulped. She didn't make any moves as he sat down, and they simply sat there until the bell rang for the end of school.
The moment Ryuji stood up then, almost forgetting about Saya, he felt a book collide forcefully with the back of his head. "Ow! Wha-?"
"That's for making me worry, you idiot!" Saya snapped, scowling. "Why the hell were you so late anyway?!"
"I...uh...you wouldn't believe it!" Ryuji said quickly, panicking. Of course she wouldn't. Even if she was superstitious/religious, she wouldn't buy his story of getting lost in a castle inhabited by supernatural forces.
She crossed her arms. "Try me."
"Uh, I...I got lost in a castle!"
"...You what?"
Saya massaged her forehead, trying to comprehend what she'd just heard. The gist was this: Ryuji, along with the transfer student named Akira Kurusu, were walking to school like normal students when they somehow ended up in a castle where Shujin Academy was supposed to be. There they were captured by knights and nearly executed by a skimpily dressed, king-like version of Suguru Kamoshida, their PE teacher. However, Akira awakened some sort of power to summon a large, gentleman-thief like figure with magical powers, and in the process gained magical powers himself, plus a phantom thief outfit. Then the knights turned into monsters, and Akira fought and defeated them, then he and Ryuji escaped. On their way out, they encountered a cat-like creature named Morgana, who had powers similar to Akira. The creature explained that the castle was part of the "Metaverse", a world based on people's cognition; that their summons, called "Personas", were physical manifestations of one's rebellious will.
Saya wasn't sure whether to believe Ryuji's story or not. It seemed too wild to be false. Then again, Ryuji didn't show any signs of lying, and...
...if that's what she was working on...
Even then, Saya wanted to confirm it with someone else - the other person who "got lost in a castle".
"This Akira Kurusu," Saya said, "the transfer student you were with. Describe him."
Ryuji was surprised at her request, but answered anyway. "Uh...black frizzy hair, wears glasses. He's in...1-A, I think?"
"Huh." Saya thought of the boy she'd helped in the rain that morning. If that really was the "criminal" transfer student everyone was talking about, then that was one more reason not to believe everything she heard. The other students' descriptions of him as a hardened criminal seemed so distant to the Akira that Saya had met - kinder, simply put. In any case...
Saya made a mental note to find Akira tomorrow - she had work to do at home.
Not that her shrine maiden work involved much now. She was mainly a groundskeeper, maintaining what parts of the slightly-run-down Anakuzen Shrine she could protect. Occasionally there would be a visitor, but they were rare - rarer still were moments when Saya met them, since on weekdays she was away from the shrine for half a day. She was the only miko there - there had been more girls employed there during Erin's heyday, but they were gone.
As Saya finished sweeping the shrine, however, she caught sight of a certain frizzy-haired student passing by her shrine. "It's him." Saya realized. She leaned her broom against the wall. "I should probably confront him now." As she was about to call out to Akira, however, he turned a corner and disappeared out of sight. Frowning, Saya followed him, and the moment she rounded the corner left, she saw Akira walk into a building she was familiar with.
Café LeBlanc.
She watched from a window as Akira talked with the cafe's proprietor, Sojiro Sakura, whom she knew. Then, to her surprise, instead of leaving, Akira went upstairs, to the cafe's attic. With no other choice, Saya decided to enter.
Akira still found it hard to believe what had happened that day. "King" Kamoshida, his Persona, Arsene, Shadows, the Metaverse...all those thoughts swirled in his head like a vortex. He checked his phone, and found that the mysterious red eyeball app titled "MetaNav", in defiance of his many attempts to delete it, remained. "This must be what brought me and Ryuji to that castle..." He thought.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a jingling bell - another customer. "Ah, Saya, good evening." He heard Sojiro greet the new patron. "We're about to close up shop, unfortunately."
"Good evening, Sakura-san." A girl's voice - Saya - replied. A voice that seemed vaguely familiar to Akira. "I'm not here to drink anything. I'm looking for someone, actually. A boy from Shujin Academy just walked here, right? Black frizzy hair, glasses?" Akira realized that she was talking about him.
"That's the kid in my care, actually. Name's Akira. Come to think of it, he goes to your school, doesn't he?"
"Yes, he does."
"Do you need something from him? He's upstairs."
"Yes, I do need to talk to him, actually. A few things. No need to call him down here, I'll go up myself. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
Moments later, Akira heard Saya go up the stairs. He stood up, opened his mouth to say something - a greeting, perhaps - then closed it again in shock.
The girl standing in front of him was wearing a shrine maiden outfit - the whole package, hakama, kosode, even her ponytailed hair was tied with a red ribbon. Akira wondered for a split second whether she was cosplaying. Then he remembered that there was an actual Shinto shrine nearby.
Still, it was something else that surprised Akira the most. Short. Black hair in a ponytail. That face.
"This is the girl who helped me when it rained this morning!"
"Hello." Saya said, her face wearing a neutral expression that he'd seen before. "I believe we've met before."
"Err...good evening?" Akira wasn't sure how to begin at first.
"Everyone at Shujin is already talking about you. Akira Kurusu, the transfer student."
"What...exactly are they talking about?" Akira asked, though he knew the answer and dreaded it.
In the tone that implied that she disagreed with "everyone", Saya said, "Well, apparently you've got a criminal record. Assault...then drugs, theft, the works."
Akira felt anger bubbling up within him. All he did was help a woman getting harassed by a drunk man, and now pretty much the whole world had turned against him. It was all so unjust. "I..." He unconsciously clenched his fists, then realizing this, released them.
"That is the face of someone who is not guilty of assault." Saya thought, staring intently at Akira. Now she was definitely sure that the rumors surrounding Akira Kurusu were nonsense. Saya's mouth curved into the faintest hint of a warm smile. "If it's any consolation, I think that's stupid. You're a lot kinder than they say, I can already tell. Even if you happened to be half a day late on your first day of school. Besides, if you actually did that much, you'd be in juvenile hall, not school. Plus...I believe in second chances."
She saw Akira cool down considerably. "I...thanks."
"But anyway, that's not what I'm here for." Saya started pacing around the room. "I'm here to learn why you were late."
Akira's eyebrows arched a bit. He's a bit suspicious. Surprised, too. Of course. "Why?"
"Because you were traveling with a friend of mine at the time."
Akira's surprise intensified. Ryuji, apparently the school delinquent, was friends with this girl? "Well, I...I got lost."
"In a castle?" Saya said, emphasizing the last word.
Akira realized that Ryuji had told him the full story. "Well...yes. Do you believe it?" He expected no.
Saya tilted her head. Then Akira heard her say, "Yes."
Yet another answer that took Akira aback. "What? But...why?"
Saya leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. After remaining silent for a short while, she said, "I guess...it's because this castle, if it exists, might give me answers to another important question that I've been asking myself for a long time. I want to know." She took a step towards Akira. "Are you going to try and go back to the castle tomorrow?"
Akira considered his options for a while. He thought about saying no, then realized that Ryuji was going with or without him, and he wasn't capable of fighting like Akira could. "Yes. With Ryuji."
"Good." Saya breathed - in relief? He wasn't sure. "You'll be meeting each other at the school gates tomorrow, won't you? Then I'll be there, and I'll follow you."
"But it's dangerous." Akira immediately said without hesitating. "There are monsters in there, and they could kill you."
"But you two somehow got out alive." Saya replied, apparently having expected Akira's attempt to discourage her. "Because, for reasons unexplained, you manifested some sort of supernatural power and was able to fight your way out."
"I didn't think Ryuji spilled that much..." Akira frowned to himself. Saya continued, "And if you're going back into a place you know for a fact is life-threatening, that must mean you're prepared to deal with whatever's in there. In that case, is it really that much trouble to escort a girl like me?"
Akira was about to open his mouth to protest, but Saya quickly took another step towards him, this time with a certain determination. "Look, I don't care if you want to stop me or not. If you don't let me go with you guys, I'll just tail you. Besides, I'm not going to get in your way. If this castle you got lost in turns out to not exist, and it was just a figment of your highly creative imaginations, then I'll pretend that nothing happened. Deal?"
Akira still hesitated in accepting. "What do you want?"
Saya sighed in exasperation. "Haven't I already told you? I have questions about things you wouldn't understand, and this "castle" could give me the answers to them. Besides...someone needs to act as a voice of reason, in case something goes wrong."
The two students stared at each other. Akira thought that the girl facing him now was, personality-wise, so radically different from the girl with the umbrella. He thought. And thought. And finally...he relented. "Fine." It wasn't like he had a choice. He didn't think he could stop Ryuji from trying to find the castle again, nor could he prevent Saya from following them in. At the very least, this way, he could protect them with his Persona.
Saya brightened. "Good! Was that so hard?" Akira was amazed at how quickly her mood changed. "Well then, I'll be leaving you. Remember, school gates, tomorrow. Good night." And so the shrine maiden descended the stairs back down to the café.
That night, Saya found it extraordinarily difficult to sleep. Not a rare occasion, as she was used to pulling all-nighters. But the cause this time was different entirely - anticipation. A mixture of excitement and anxiety battered Saya's mind as she sat on her bed. Is this what I've been finally looking for? Was this what my mother had been doing that got her killed? What if that castle wasn't real?
Two years ago, Saya was alone in her house at the back of the Anakuzen Shrine, waiting for her mother to come home. It was evening, cloudy. Then her phone rang. A woman's voice - one of Erin's colleagues, as Saya remembered - told her in a shaky voice that Erin had died. She'd fallen off the roof of a tower, apparently having committed suicide. The colleague was sobbing as she broke the news. When she hung up, Saya had felt numb for a moment. Then she broke down.
At her funeral, as she wept, a man in a black suit read to her what seemed to be a suicide note written by Erin, expressing her hatred for her daughter and how she'd hindered her "research". What...research? Saya had wondered, vaguely, for Erin had never told her anything of the sort, except for one occasion. But she felt like Erin had loved her to the very end. Her writing such a note seemed so nonsensical to her logic-oriented mind.
Then, when the mourners had mostly went home, a man, another one of Erin's colleagues, pulled Saya aside. He told Saya the truth, which many others did not know.
Erin Anakuzen did not kill herself. She was killed.
And that lit a fire in Saya. A fire that burned bright ever since, propelling her to search, however fruitlessly, for whoever had murdered her mother, and why. She dug into what little that Erin had left behind, and found notes and papers on whatever project Erin had been working on that she refused to disclose to Saya.
And this castle, this distorted version of Shujin Academy, may finally either provide an end to Saya's chase...or intensify it further, even if it came at a cost to the now-orphaned miko.
In the original AN for the older versions of this first chapter, I said that I had no idea what I was doing. Luckily, I do now.
For one thing, I now have a concrete image of Saya's character. Simply put, she's the smartest of the Phantom Thieves (more than even Akira and Makoto), and skilled at psychological warfare and manipulation. (Like a foil to Shido, I guess?) She's also unfailingly kind. BUT...she's physically weak, self-conscious, and most importantly almost cannot trust anyone. Not even the Phantom Thieves, aside from one.
So, several other things I need to establish. One: Saya will be spending the first two Palaces - Kamoshida and Madarame - without a Persona. She technically still joins the Phantom Thieves at the beginning of Kamoshida's Palace and her confidant will begin right after the first Mementos trip, but her Awakening will happen during an original Palace, sandwiched between Madarame's and Kaneshiro's Palaces. So expect dates during the first half to change around a bit, to accommodate this original Palace.
Two: This has a lot of OCs. Not as much as you think - it's still a one-digit number - but right now, including Saya, there will be six. Only half of those are Persona-users, though, and one doesn't awaken until...post-game? Like, a Palace that takes place after Yaldabaoth's fall? (Not Maruki.)
Three: This isn't the only chapter I'm going to rewrite. In fact, I think I'll be redoing everything up to Chapter 7, which is the latest chapter by the time I'm writing this. I'm trying to hammer 8 out but this early part is actually kind of difficult to write.
I guess that's it. I'll try to get Chapter 8 published before rewriting 2 and 3, to better fit my vision of Saya and her story.
Look forward to new stuff! (Yes, that's my new catchphrase now.)