Iwatodai.
A medium-sized city, built originally as an independent port town, it now straddled the man-made Tatsumi Port Island. Most of the city's growth had only come in the past twenty or so years, with the Kirijo Electronics group moving into Iwatodai after splintering from the Nanjo group. As of such, Iwatodai had begun to gain a notoriety for electronics, a large private school being built onto Port Island.
The city and island were interconnected by the Moonlight Bridge and the monorail system, with both stations having shopping centres built into them. Even as the clocks ticked closer and closer to midnight, there was activity anywhere one could look.
It was to this hustle and bustle that the last nightly train bound for Tatsumi Port Island arrived, the doors sliding open as the PA system announced that it was the Iwatodai station. Businessmen, families, all sorts moved to and from the train, taking newly opened spots on the train or dispersing into the crowds.
Despite all that, the teenagers that stepped out near the end of the rush stood out.
A boy and a girl, each carrying a few pieces of luggage with them, almost identical music players worn on lanyards around their necks. The boy dressed in a grey coat and black pants, grey-blue eyes peeking out from behind blue bangs as he gave the busy station a disinterested lookabout before sighing and reaching into a pocket.
The girl next to him, however, seemed delighted as she shifted the grip she had on her duffel bag. Her clothes were even more of a contrast to her companion; bright oranges and reds that were accented by a red scarf, which soon had red headphones clipped onto it. Distinct crimson eyes darted around the station, and her turns made the auburn ponytail she wore swish with barely contained excitement.
"Finally, off the darn train!" she cheered, a fist shooting into the air. "And it's not raining here, even better! I never wanna take a train from Aomori like that again …" Turning to the blue-haired teen as he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket "Hey, Minato, do you wanna grab something from the food stands here to munch while we walk?"
Minato gave a noncommittal shrug, finally unclipping his silver headphones to let them loosely hang around his neck and shoulders. "Depends on what they have available, and if any of it is designed to be eaten on the go," he replied as he unfolded the paper he held with a flick of the wrist. It was a map, printed onto computer paper with faded colors. "... Although, this seems like it'll be a bit of a hike."
The auburn looked over his shoulder to observe the map as well, pouting. "MAN, that is a long ways off from the school," she noted, her finger coming up to trail a path from a marked building to the train station they stood in. "I mean, there seems to be others along the way, but that one seems fairly isolated."
"Maybe because it's a co-ed dorm, Kotone?" Minato shrugged his backpack into a more comfortable position as he spoke, beginning to walk to the station entrance that seemed to lead to their desired path. The auburn, Kotone, gave a thoughtful hum of reply as she followed him.
"Honestly, you'd think they'd have it closer to the school then." She said, a snicker undercutting her voice. "Gotta make sure us 'horny teenagers' don't cause mischief, right?"
Minato responded by rolling his eyes and lightly bonking Kotone on the head with two of his fingers. "Listen, older twin sister or not, I'm not afraid to point out you get into worse mischief on the daily." he laughed lightly as he said that, the two of them stepping out onto the road as the clocks began to chime midnight.
Kotone's reply was cut off as the chiming suddenly stopped, and the atmosphere around the two changed. Electric lights cut out abruptly, their humming silenced as if the noise had never been there; what few people the twins could see seemed to flicker like static for a moment, before coffin-like structures made of obsidian materialised around them. A few standing puddles, the only sign of an early spring rain, darkened in the centre and began to resemble blood. Iwatodai as a whole seemed to take on a sickly green wash, the shadows deepening as an eerily large, golden moon hung low in the sky.
As the silence settled in around them, Minato and Kotone gave one another grim looks. "Well, so much for getting food on the go." Kotone let out a sigh as she shifted her duffel bag to rest in front of her, and she knelt to open it up. "The only plus side is that it means we might have a quicker walk as well, not having to worry about traffic."
"That and we might have to worry about … ankle biters, as it were," Minato's impassive face twitched into wary, and he began to look around to make sure nothing was approaching. "So if we don't want to have to deal with them, we better move fast …"
Kotone glanced up at him, her hands in the duffel bag and rummaging around. "Want me to bring out your board then?" She offered even as she pulled out a wooden hockey stick, the paint on the handle bright despite the scuffs. Minato shook his head.
"Too unfamiliar of a layout, and we don't have the time for you to put on your skates as well to keep up." he looked around again, missing the way Kotone nodded and closed up her bag instead. Hefting it back onto her shoulders, she gave Minato a look and shifted the stick into a position that would make things easier to smack with it.
"Rollout time?" She asked, and gave a grim smirk when Minato nodded. With that, the twins began to walk forward.
Iwatodai proved to be far more intimidating when it was still and dark, the lack of life making their footsteps echo around the maze of steel and glass. More than once, Kotone opted to just hop on a car and walk over it despite Minato's protests, the coffins inside seemingly unaware of her actions. Minato kept himself looking around and down, directing his sister as best as he could towards their destination the entire time.
They had walked for about twenty minutes when he stopped, staring at the intersection that he and Kotone had come upon. "... I … don't recognize this road." He admitted, double checking the map he held in his hand still. "Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?"
"For your sake, I hope you didn't."
A new voice made Minato and Kotonewhip around, looking for the speaker. Their answer was a small laugh from above them, and both of them lifted their gazes; sitting on the poles supporting the traffic lights sat a person. The exact colors of their clothes were impossible to pick out, but it was unmistakably a person. "Sorry to startle you," they continued, and somehow managed to lean forward on their perch. "But, well, you don't exactly sound like you know where you're going. Perhaps I could help?"
Seeing Minato too distracted by how the person had gotten up there, Kotone lowered the raised hockey stick enough to better look up at the speaker. "That depends; what do you get out of it?"
"Eh, nothing. Don't really think you have anything I need." The speaker gave a dismissive wave of their hand at that. "However, the two of you will get through the night with your lives, most likely."
Kotone peered as close as she could at the person despite the distance; even with that, she could only pick out the pale face inside the hoodie by the contrast with the dark fabric, but no details. "... We're trying to find an 'Iwatodai Dorm'," She finally offered, still holding her hockey stick in front of her. "We got here just as midnight hit because of delays, so we're kinda playing by ear with how to get there…"
The speaker tilted their head at that, a white-gloved hand coming up to tap their chin in thought. "Hmm … dorm, dorm … oh!" at that, a laugh escaped them. "That place? You have to turn left and follow that road for about … five minutes? Then you'll be on the Naganaki Shrine Road, and the dorm should be to the left of you."
Minato, finally regaining his senses, shifted on his feet. "That's a relief, at least. Can we get a name? You're the first person we've met who's active in … all this."
There was a pause, and both Minato and Kotone swore they heard something shuffling closer to them. "... Nah. best to keep this anonymous, you know? Don't want to make the wrong people panic, they're prone to doing stupid things." As they spoke, the speaker stood upright on their perch with surprising grace. "Now, hurry on to safety; only wraiths and nightmares are awake by choice, right now."
Watching them turn with a wave of their hand, Minato felt his eyebrows raise. "If that's so, then which of the two are you?"
His question made the speaker pause, and then a coarse laugh hit his ears on the wind. "If you're giving me the option? I'd like to be a wraith."
Before either Minato or Kotone could question them further, they lept to the next traffic lights, and onto a roof from there before vanishing from sight. The twins stared at the spot for a moment longer, and then turned to one another. "...Should we follow their advice?" Minato gave a shrug as he let his brain return to their situation. "I'm not getting any pings, but still, actually seeing someone awake right now …"
"It's at least smarter than staying in one place." Kotone gave a shrug of her own, eyes lifting to the golden moon overhead. "They said it was a shrine road, so if nothing else, we could hide at said shrine until things go back to normal; ankle biters don't seem to like those." Minato nodded in agreement at that, heading to the left handed street.
To both of their admitted shock, the stranger proved honest. Upon reaching the Shrine Road, a four-story brick building caught Minato's eye, and he tapped Kotone's shoulder. "There it is; only took us what, a half hour walk while getting mildly lost?"
Kotone turned at his words, looking at the building as well. Crimson eyes narrowed at one of the large picture windows on the fourth floor, and she shifted the hockey stick so it pointed towards the ground. "... I think I see light up there." She commented as she followed Minato to the front steps.
Minato raised an eyebrow at that, but his angle made it hard to see the fourth floor. "Really? Are you sure it's not the moon reflecting on the glass?" he suggested, doing one last check with the map in his hands. "Well, either way, this is the right address. Here's our home for the next year, hopefully two."
"Hopefully," Kotone echoed his sentiment as she stepped up the stairs with him. "Speaking of hope, are the doors unlocked?" She asked even as she stepped forward, freeing one of her hands to rest on the knob of one of the front doors that seemed more glass than wood.
There was a click in her hand, and the door opened easily. With one more shared look, the twins moved inside the doors. Once both Minato and Kotone were inside, the auburn girl leaned into the door to shut it behind them, cutting off the harsh moonlight. Only then did the twins let out a sigh neither realized they had been holding.
Kotone leaned against the door for a moment, still holding onto her hockey stick. "Hope was with us, it seems." she laughed at that with a shake of her head. Standing up straight again, she gave Minato a look as he leaned against the check in counter, and both twins turned to look around the building they had entered.
From what little they could pick out from the moonlight leaking in through the windows, the first floor was open concept. The sofa and loveseats that rested to the right of the doors were illuminated, a glass table in between them reflecting the moonlight and turned the magazines and books on its surface to shadow. A television's contour was faint against the glass divider, but what laid beyond it, neither twin could tell.
A shoe rack was by the door as well, a charmingly local detail against the predominantly western building design. Clearly, they weren't expected to get mud on the carpet past the entryway, and it made Minato smile in spite of himself as he reached down to take off his boots. About ready to point it out to Kotone, he stopped when he saw her set down her duffel bag instead.
Looking at her, Minato watched Kotone heft the hockey stick onto her shoulder. Feeling the look on her, she glanced back at him and smiled. "I'm gonna poke around the rest of this floor, make sure nothing nasty's waiting for us; don't wanna make it this close and get hit with our guard down, ya know?"
"That would make sense, yeah .." Minato agreed, even as he got both boots off and moved to set them on an open part of the rack. "Just don't trip over anything, Kotone." Chuckling as Kotone responded with an exasperated 'ugh', Minato watched her move over to the living room area, her white 'XXII' hairpins bright against the gloom until she was out of the moonlight.
"She's quite good at manoeuvring in the dark."
The new voice, young and unexpected, almost made Minato leap out of his skin as he whipped around to face it. Behind him was the sign-in counter, the window near it too small to illuminate it fully; there was still enough light to make the speaker visible. A boy, about nine if Minato had to guess, with messy black hair and eerily blue eyes, his black and white striped pajamas a stark contrast to the deep shadows.
Minato glanced back at the shoe rack, perplexed when he did indeed see a pair of children's sneakers; why was a child here?!
"You're late." The child giggled, seemingly not caring that Minato was trying to figure out his presence. "You kept me waiting such a long time, I almost thought you had forgotten me…"
That statement made Minato turn back to the child, confused. "... We've … met before?" he asked, a hand moving to run through his hair. "... I would have been six at the time I was last here, so it's more impressive you remember me, if we did meet then."
"Time waits for no one, after all; not even you or me, nor your quick-witted sister…" The child's cryptic words were no help, and he soon lifted up a red ledger that his arms had been resting on. "But that's neither here nor there right now. Would you please sign this?"
"... the dorm requires logins even at midnight?" Minato blinked, but stepped forward. "I mean … it feels weird they'd entrust this to a kid and not an adult …" His voice tapered off as he opened the ledger and read the contents.
I, the undersigned, do hereby enter this agreement by my own accord.
I accept full responsibility for the results of my actions.
The bright blue ink stood in sharp contrast to the red ledger, enough to make Minato double take before he found the child offering him a pen. Although the common sense in his head was telling the blue-haired teen to refuse, something else was speaking up, louder. It told him to do it, to actually look.
With that in mind, Minato lifted his head to the child again, even as he took the pen. "... Do you need Kotone to sign this, too?"
"Hmm … no. I was only given one of those." The child admitted after a moment, his small smile dropping. "I cannot remember why, but … I know it is meant for you, and you alone. Your sister has a different agreement, as it were."
Minato bit the inside of his cheek, even as his eyes returned to the lapis blue ink that mocked him from the paper. The right answer - the smart answer, a part of his brain argued - would be to put the book back in the child's hands, grab Kotone, and flee the building. But would that actually work? A voice in his head, one that was growing steadily louder, disagreed with the sentiment.
After all, Kotone would probably protest wanting to leave when they'd barely been in the city for more than an hour. Not after the struggle it had taken to even get to Iwatodai in the first place … and with nowhere else to go back to.
That thought alone was what made him finally put the pen on the paper, deliberately writing out the kanji for his name. The ink from the pen was a slightly darker shade of blue than the printed writing of the ledger, and as soon as he finished, both pen and ledger vanished from his hands.
"Wonderful; I look forward to seeing how this year will go." The child spoke up again, and Minato looked at him. The ledger was back, and the child had shifted it to place it in front of his face in a way that it mirrored the way Minato's hair fell across his face. "You can no longer close your eyes or cover your ears, not to the future … nor the past."
Something about that statement made the hairs on Minato's head stand on end, and he opened his voice to speak when the child and ledger simply vanished into the shadows, as if they had never been there to begin with.
"... The past needs to stay where it is," Minato said bitterly after a moment, not expecting an answer. "And that's in a graveyard." His mood soured, Minato crammed his hands into his pants pockets, and glanced out the door windows at the moonlight. Hopefully, Kotone would finish her exploring and trot back over soon; he wanted to discuss the strange child with her.
A few moments passed before the sound of clacking heels made Minato turn his head to the sound, confused; that definitely wasn't Kotone's boots. 'Where IS she anyway?' He thought, stooping to pick up the discarded duffel bag as the sound seemed to get closer.
While his twin didn't appear at the thought, looking at the direction of the sound soon revealed itself as a third new face for the evening; a teenage girl, probably a year or two older than him, wearing a pristine white blouse and charcoal skirt, a large red ribbon tied at the collar of the former. The green tint to the lighting made the red of her hair stand in sharp contrast, a loose curl falling over her left shoulder as she reached the ground floor.
Minato felt himself tense when her gaze fell on him, and he was fully prepared to dart out the door if need be. The redhead also seemed to tense at the sight of him, drawing herself up fully from her apparent rush down the stairs. Any words that might have been said, however, were cut off by a sudden beeping.
"Holy shit! Minato, the microwave is still on!" Kotone's voice echoed from the shadows, making both Minato and the redheaded girl turn in her general direction. Indeed, if he squinted, he could faintly make out the digital clock of a microwave's timer, the buttons obscured by Kotone's hands as she poked at them. "Man, too bad we can't get functional water right now; I have some microwave yakisoba packs in my duffel bag…"
At that, a confused chuckle left the redheaded newcomer, and she shook her head. "So, both of you are here after all," came her comment, her voice relieved. Kotone must not have heard the rapid clack of her arrival, because Minato heard the flurry of panicked noises his sister made before she scrambled away from the microwave.
There was a bang and a loud curse a second later, and both Minato and the redhead stepped closer to it in tandem with the distant sound of a bell. As if cued, the green tint began to recede from the area, electronics in the dorm slowly switching on the further it retreated. Blinking rapidly once the overhead lights were on, Minato stared at his sister as she nursed her hip; a dining room chair was knocked askew from its fellows, the arm right on level for her to crash into when distracted.
To his relief, the redhead just shook her head and stepped towards Kotone. "Apologies, I thought those were all pushed in before going upstairs for the night." she said. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, more embarrassed than anything. … and praying I didn't wake anyone else up with that." Kotone admitted, even through the wince on her face. Minato saw that she still held the hockey stick, although she lowered it when the redhead approached her. Crimson eyes darted around for a second until they found Minato, and Kotone waved him over. "Hey, can you bring my bag over?"
Minato felt an exasperated, but relieved, sigh escape him as he shook his head. "Would it kill you to actually act like the older twin, once in a while?" He couldn't keep the amusement out of his voice as he handed Kotone the duffel bag, but turned his gaze to the redhead. "... We are at the right dorm, correct?"
"Yes. I wasn't expecting you to arrive so late, though." She replied before giving a nod of her head to both twins. "I am Kirijo Mitsuru; I'm sorry that I didn't think to have someone come and fetch you at the station."
"Well, if you didn't know what time the train would be in, it feels kinda rude to make people stand around." Kotone pointed out, hastily stowing her hockey stick back into the duffel bag. "We had some bad delays leaving Aomori, and I think I heard something about freight trains being rerouted due to bad weather in the Yasoinaba area?"
"I'd believe it; winter in that region seems to be mild or harsh with little in between." the newly named Mitsuru crossed her arms over her chest as she spoke. "Was finding the building difficult?"
"Mildly; we got a bit confused at a crossroads." Minato admitted, one hand drifting up to fiddle with his headphones. "Not too big of a delay, and … well, no 'ankle biters' seemed to spot us."
At his mention of 'Ankle biters', Mitsuru's carmine eyes widened, and her gaze shifted to Minato. "... So … you know?" Her voice seemed incredulous, bordering on a strange blend of horror and hope.
Kotone's face turned contemplative, a rare expression that made Minato blink. "What exactly do you mean by 'know' in this case?" She asked after a moment, her craving for yakisoba seemingly forgotten as she opted to hoist her duffel bag onto a shoulder instead. "If you mean the whole … green hooha deal, yeah, we know it's a thing. But we've had … what, one, two encounters with the 'ankle biters'?"
Seeing his sister glance at him at the last statement, Minato shrugged. "... I'd rather not remember the times we've run into them." He replied, voice going into a grim tone. Kotone let out a hum in understanding, nodding.
Mitsuru's gaze shifted between the two of them, her eyes still wide. "... I see." She finally said after a moment. "I admit, this wasn't what I expected, so I'm a bit off balance at the moment." The admittance made Minato and Kotone share a look, confused. Minato briefly contemplated mentioning the stranger at the crossroads who had helped direct them to the dorm, but for some reason, the words wouldn't leave him.
'They remained anonymous for a reason, and I suspect this is part of it …' the thought came to him. Opening his mouth to potentially ask Mitsuru what she had expected, a yawn betrayed him and slipped out instead. The sound made both Mitsuru and Hamuko look at him, and Mitsuru's eyes softened.
"It is rather late, isn't it?" The statement seemed to be more for herself, but Kotone nodded her agreement all the same.
"Yeah, it is, and we had a long train ride." She gave a shrug. "So, table this discussion for after sleep and school tomorrow?" the last word made Minato groan quietly, and Kotone stuck her tongue out at him. "That's what you get for insisting on taking the last train we could, Minato."
"Yeah, yeah …" Not wanting to defend himself, Minato instead looked at Mitsuru. "... how are the rooms divided, for curiosity's sake?"
"By floor," Mitsuru gave a nod as she reached into a pocket on her skirt, withdrawing two keys a moment later. "I can guide the two of you upstairs, but your room will be at the end of the second floor hall. Kotone-san's room is right above yours on the third floor."
"It's not just the three of us here, is it?" Kotone asked as she took her room key, following Mitsuru to the stairs as she did so. Minato fell into step a moment later, sparing a last glance back at the sign-in desk from the first step.
There was no sight of the black-haired child, and it worried him more than he thought.
Shaking his head, Minato came up the stairs behind the two girls, tuning back in to hear the later half of Mitsuru's reply to Kotone "-Takeba Yukari, another Junior like yourselves. They're all aware that you two would be joining us, so don't be surprised if they approach you over the first week."
"That's fair," Kotone nodded as they reached the second floor, Minato a step behind her. Giving her a half smile, Minato waved as he began to head down the hallway.
"Well, bedtime for me. You sleep well, Kotone; a pleasure to meet you, Kirijo-san." he said as he walked backwards, waiting until Kotone also wished him a 'sleep well' before turning around to walk normally. The door at the end of the hall was lit by the now calming moonlight, seeping in from a window as if to welcome him. Frowning as the thought passed through his brain, Minato stuck the key in the knob and opened it and stepped inside.
He was greeted by a handful of boxes on the desk, what few possessions he had waiting for him. A freshly opened school uniform hung off a hanger in a closet, and the t-shirt and shorts he liked to sleep in were on the checkered blue bedspread. "... well, there's an invitation I'm willing to take." He commented to nobody but himself, setting the backpack atop a box and shifting to change.
It took all of five minutes for Minato to crawl into bed, the worries about ankle biters, strange people on traffic lights, and blue-eyed spectral children slipping away as he shut his eyes.
On the floor above him, Kotone stood outside of her bedroom door, head tilted at Mitsuru. "Sorry if Minato seemed a bit … blunt about the ankle biters." She said after a moment, a tired smile coming to her face. "One of our first encounters with them took away a very good friend of ours, so he tries to just sleep through that whole shebang if he can."
Mitsuru's eyes softened at that. "It's no trouble; I can understand the sentiment very well." She shook her head, a sad undertone coming into her voice. "But, as you said, this is something that can be discussed after we've all had time to sleep."
Kotone gave a small laugh and nodded her head. "Yeah, that sounds very nice right now. Rest well, Kirijo-san?"
"Mitsuru is fine; do you have a preference…?"
"Kotone's fine! Saying Arisato would make me and Minato turn around, so it can get kinda confusing." Smiling more, the auburn opened the door to her room as she spoke. "But yes! Sleep well, hopefully day one homework won't drown us~"
The chipper tone seemed to make Mitsuru double-take, but any reply the redhead could make was cut off by Kotone slipping into the room and shutting the door. Staring at the wood for a moment after it had shut, Mitsuru opted to sigh instead, her shoulders relaxing.
"This … is going to be awkward." She said to herself, tugging on the curl over her shoulder. "I was prepared to go through the long observations, but … I don't know if it's necessary at this point." Turning to walk back to her room, Mitsuru paused and glanced over her shoulder at Kotone's room once again. "But … why did I get a strange reading off of her? She seemed more at ease than her brother…"
Her ruminations were cut off by the distant sound of the main doors opening and shutting below her, and Mitsuru shifted her focus to that instead. "Ah, I should tell Shinjiro it's safe to lock the doors now." Filing away the myriad of questions the Arisatos had given her, Mitsuru began to walk down the stairs for the second time that night.
Wait.
Is this me, writing Persona 3 content in the year 2022? You bet your sweet fuckin bippy it is!
Okay so, originally I was planning on updating my OTHER twin protagonist fic (月に叢雲華に風) but ... I completely lost the notes. Poof! Gone! So that plan was scrapped, but talking with my bestie Magnus Ragnar gave me a new bevy of ideas that I'm eager to take a crack at. It's gonna be a bit of a slow start, but some of the canon divergence will pick up from here~
