Chapter 3: Inside the Darkness
|?|
"Oww! Ugh, my head..."
Shintaro's eyes could only pick up hazy, blue and white 'static', but his head was pounding with pain.
"Kohaku? Kei? Where are you? I can't see you...!"
Oh my god! This isn't like that sarin gas attack I read about, is it? Wait, no, that was different from this. Take a deep breath - I need to try to calm down.
The haze disappeared, and to Shintaro's relief, he could see the Bella Donna again. That relief soon turned to fright, however, as everything had now been altered inexplicably. No one was in the eating area, nor did any of the tables have any meals on them. It was totally silent – a pin dropping probably would echo for miles. All the colours had changed, too, to mixtures of black and bright green. All the seating and tables looked darker too, becoming more sophisticated designs, and the modern LED lights were now sconces aflame.
"Where did everyone go?" Shintaro said, clutching his head. He walked away from his table, half expecting someone to pop out and yell 'surprise'. But this was no joke. Everything around him had a strange teal tint to it as if powerful overhead lights were shining down on the area. The world had changed, and danger was likely afoot.
Staying here was proving fruitless. He quickly tried to use his mobile phone, but there was no signal. Coverage in Shinshuto City was rarely an issue, so this seemed even more peculiar. Rather than simply stay in the food court, he began to walk downstairs, which had also changed to the dark green and black design.
On the second floor, he couldn't see anybody. Which considering how busy the mall was after school, was surprising. There wasn't even the sound of cars driving by. Out of curiosity, he walked by Digital Domain again – but that, too, was vacant. In fact, it was completely pitch black, but with a faint green light in the far back – far too faint to illuminate the room, but enough to stand out.
Am I dreaming? Please, someone, wake me up! Hurry!
Suddenly, the doors to the 'store' opened. A series of lights overhead flashed, revealing a much different interior than the computer store. It was an elaborately decorated red and gold room, full of strange paintings that seemed like swirls of random colours. However, one of them seemed brighter than the others, and it seemed to depict a giant tree being blown by a fierce wind.
"There's no way this shop could be renovated so quickly," Shintaro quietly muttered, fiercely scrutinising his environment.
There was a plush red carpet, complete with a gold-trim rug, and the chandeliers above him, as well as the grand black piano to the side of the room. There was also a bed to the other side with pleasant flowery sheets. Shintaro had no idea what this place was, or why it had replaced a computer store, but being in here felt oddly poignant. He didn't remember being in a room like this as a child, so why these feelings came to him, he didn't know.
That doesn't make sense. All I can see outside is rain battering against the glass. But today it was clear and bright. Am I just dreaming? Because if I am, I want to wake up now!
Finally, he was able to focus on the green light. It was from an opened box on the far table, with a handwritten letter to the right. Curious, he looked at the letter.
For the one true to my heart, I bestow upon you this gift of knowledge. Do not waste it. All I ask is that you never change who you are. Farewell.
"Is this meant for...me? Who wrote this? The same person who sent me the message?" Shintaro muttered, glancing at the black writing. It was almost like calligraphy, the amount of effort devoted to it. On the bottom right corner of the paper, though, there was a striking symbol that had actually been painted. It was of a red bird, of a species Shintaro could not pinpoint. Yet he had seen it before, he thought. Perhaps on a nature documentary.
This is disturbing. I shouldn't be reading love notes meant for others. It can't be for me, I've never had a girlfriend. And Haku and I are just friends, it's been that for years. Akari-san's got a crush on that Katashi athlete in the third year. Kei, I've only just met! Will someone just tell me what's going on?
Next, he looked inside the box – there was a smartphone inside. In fact, it was another Gnosis – the same kind Kei had just purchased. Looking to his left and right, he saw nothing except generic vases containing bright green plants. Apprehensively, he took the Gnosis. While it didn't seem to come with a charger, it used a standard micro USB port, and Shintaro had plenty of cables like those back home.
When he turned it on, he saw the same screens Kei had. Although what he hadn't noticed was, in the upper right corner, neon-green letters spelling out his own name. Even though he hadn't synced the device to any of his online accounts yet, or even gone online. The letters disappeared shortly afterwards, but they seemed to burn within Shintaro's mind.
"Then all of this is for me?" Shintaro asked, to no one in particular. "Oh, right. I better look for the others!" Frantic, he took the Gnosis with him and raced frantically out of the store. Upon doing so, the room immediately turned dark, and the doors slammed shut. Ignoring this, for now, he continued his search.
Meanwhile
"Ow, my head - Huh...?"
Kohaku couldn't believe what had just happened. She had been in the food court with Kei and Shintaro for an early dinner, but after Kei scanned the QR code on the tablet, everything had become very strange.
She now appeared to be on the ground floor, outside her favourite shop – the music and film store Symphony Corporation, or just 'Symph' for short. Outside of her schooling, one of her favourite things to do was to listen to music of any kind. And she loved picking up releases on DVD, even foreign ones.
Last week, I bought 'Harmagedon: Genma Taisen', which was absolute trash. Were our standards that bad in 1983? Hang on a minute, why am I thinking so casually? No one's here in this mall at all, and everything feels so much eerie. And I don't see Kei or Shintaro, either.
Heart racing, and her head burning with pain, she tried to use her phone. But there was no reception, not even a nearby Wi-Fi access point. Confused, she began to walk away, only for the doors to Symph to open wide. Gasping, she took a closer look. When she did, she found her surroundings made even less sense.
Rather than shelves of DVDs, CDs, or anything audio related, there were weapons everywhere. Swords, spears, daggers, maces, everything. Perturbed, she inched closer to the front desk, which was empty. Just as she stopped, she felt something in her bag vibrate. Thinking it was her phone, she opened it – but inside was a completely different phone right next to her old one. A Gnosis.
"But I never bought one of these!" Kohaku said, disturbed. "This isn't Kei's, is it? No, I never even touched hers..."
Confused, Kohaku looked at the screen. There was a notification from an app she had never seen before – Visions. Curious, she touched the notification – and there was a blaring loud rocking track. The video was only of burning letters reading 'Arms Race', in front of a muscular arm wrestling another. Kohaku gulped, wondering what sort of madness had she been dragged into.
"Thank you for coming. We regret to inform you that the proprietor is not working tonight, and will not be back until tomorrow evening. As a newcomer, however, you are still obliged to take a starter weapon. Those in the front rack will be suitable. Any others are off-limits until you obtain enough finances to purchase higher quality weaponry. All information regarding weaponry can be accessed after you have 'Awakened' in the 'Help' tab of the main application."
"What? This can't be happening. Newcomer to what?!" Kohaku screamed. "I am not taking a weapon! Why would I ever need one?! I've never had to fight for my life!"
But it's not like this is a normal situation, is it? I mean, how can one music store change into this illegal armoury so quickly? And where are Shintaro and Kei?
Conflicted, she made her way to the front rack. The weapons in front of her looked impressive, but only one felt 'right' for her. The naginata, a traditional weapon among Samurai class. It was, in layman's terms, a blade on a stick – akin to the European glaive. She lifted it into her arms, and despite feeling hefty at first, she began to feel comfortable with the weight.
After several moments of reflection, she decided that provided it was only used for self-defence, she should hold on it. As she made that choice, however, the weapon disappeared, and there was another notification on her tablet. It was pointing to a new app, called 'Equipment'. Hesitantly, she stabbed on it, uncertain what to expect. Upon opening it, it read:
Weapon: Naginata
- A basic naginata, a traditional weapon of Japanese female warriors.
Accessory: Hair Ribbon
A charmingly cute hair ribbon, given by a mother as a gift.
This perplexed her even more. Somehow, it knew exactly who had gifted her this hair ribbon. It even described it the same way Akari had done when she had first seen Kohaku wear it.
"How does this thing know about that?"
"Kohaku!" A voice yelled. Kohaku gasped, turning around. To her relief, there was Shintaro. Without hesitating, she ran to hug him. "Take it easy, I'm right here..."
"Where the hell did you go?" Kohaku asked. "I thought it was just me stuck here..."
"I'm sorry, I was checking the food court, but I was the only one there..." Shintaro said. "It's almost like thi Bella Donna. That computer shop upstairs is now some weird bedroom! And in there, I found..."
He presented to Kohaku the Gnosis phone he had been 'given' there. Concerned, Kohaku waited. Sure enough, the screen turned on with the 'Visions' application.
"Argh!" Shintaro screamed, leaping up. Kohaku almost laughed, but in this situation, comedy was not helpful. "What kind of app is 'Visions'?"
"Open it and see," Kohaku said. Gulping, Shintaro opened it, his hands shaking. It played the exact same message – and while it did, Kohaku's head began to hurt even more. It was like something in her was trying to burst out of her head, trying to break free.
"Why would I need a weapon?" Shintaro asked.
"I don't know, but this app thing seems to think it's essential," Kohaku said. "But when I chose mine, it disappeared into my Gnosis..."
"Really? How come you have one as well?" Shintaro said.
"I...I don't know." Kohaku said. "I didn't pick it up anywhere. I was looking in my bag, and there it was, right next to my normal phone."
"That's insane..." Shintaro said. "I'd never even heard of this brand before today. Now all three of us have one. We can't chalk this up to coincidence..."
Concerned, he looked around to take in his surroundings. He went to the weapon rack, and thinking about it, he finally picked out a weapon – a rapier sword, with a blade that was almost white. As he did, it vanished, and it went into his machine. "Hey!"
"Look at what it says..." Kohaku said, anxious.
"Uh..." Shintaro said. "Something about...my sword being basic. And it's talking about my wristwatch?"
"It knew that my mother gave me this ribbon, Taro-kun!" Kohaku said. "Something is really weird here. We've got to go find Kei-san, before something really bad happens!"
"You're right. Let's go!" Shintaro said. The two of them walked out, back into the desolate, gloomy mall they had once loved.
|Bella Donna|
Not long after leaving the store, which might have been called 'Arms Race', they heard an unsettling cacophony of voices. Almost bestial, yet heavily distorted. And yet they didn't seem to be coming from the loudspeakers, which were deathly silent.
"Where are those sounds coming from?" Shintaro asked. Both checked their Gnosis, but the phones were silent.
"I have no idea!" Kohaku said. "Maybe we ought to look at the Gnosis more carefully. After all, there might be a way to get things back to normal – ARGH!"
"What?! Don't scare me like – Whoa?!"
Right in front of them were two black moving piles of ooze. Yet these seemed to have red eyes. Quickly, these red eyes lit up, and the two shadowy monsters changed into strange red humanoids, with a giant crescent moon for a head, each carrying a huge sack over their shoulders.
"Damn humans! Time you go to sleep! Forever!" They said, with menacing smiles.
"Oh my god! Run!" Shintaro screamed. Hastily, he grabbed Kohaku's hand, and the two began sprinting down the stairs. From what he could hear behind them, though, the monsters were not letting them leave. They seemed to be in hot pursuit.
"Where are we even going?!" Kohaku demanded.
"The bus, where else?!" Shintaro said.
"Do you really think there's a bus right now?" Kohaku asked. "Wait, look! Right by the front gateway!"
Standing in front of the gate was a rather pale, disturbed looking Kei. Upon seeing her two new faces, she gasped and suddenly held out her arm. A glowing light appeared from her bag, and soon she was wielding a katana.
"Kei!" Shintaro cried, relieved.
"Shintaro! Kohaku! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Kei said. "I knew you had to be somewhere, but -"
"We're being followed! No time to chat!" Shintaro said, looking behind him. The two monsters were still chasing them, even angrier than ever.
"They're going to kill us!" Kohaku wailed.
"You got weapons from that strange store too, didn't you?" Kei said, as the two caught up to her. They stood, side by side, at the two sack-wielding monsters. "I think you need to do something called an Awakening first until you can use them properly!"
"Awakening? What the hell is that?!" Shintaro said. "Oh no! Look out!" One of the monsters was about to lunge at him – but before it could do so, Kohaku grabbed and shoved him out of harm's way.
"You humans have ruined our peace! We're gonna bash your brains out!" The creatures shouted. Shintaro gulped, looking left and right, panting for breath.
"How are we going to get out of this alive?!" Kohaku said. "These things..." Suddenly, her tear-stricken eyes went wide with horror. "Oh no! That's why there's no one here but us...the monsters killed all the other shoppers!"
"Seriously? Then that means, this entire city is in danger!" Shintaro said.
"Then, is this the end? Huh – ah! My head, it – argh!" Kei said. Suddenly, the air around her changed, and the two creatures advanced on her. Her entire body was glowing a bright blue, and she held her katana tightly in both hands.
Before the other two could do anything, there was a big flash of blue light, and a holographic image of a card appeared. On one side, it depicted the 'Fool' image of tarot card reading. On the other side, was a feminine deity. Kei stared at it, resolved. It seemed her headache had vanished.
"What is that?" Kohaku asked, mystified.
"She's beautiful..." Shintaro said, in all honesty.
Kei, looking at the card, looked down at her self, examining her hands. Then, with confidence, she gazed at the two enemies, and said one word.
"Persona!"
Both monsters seemed incensed with rage at the sight. They lunged forward, but then there was an explosion of blue smoke, knocking them backwards. Shintaro and Kohaku shielded themselves with their arms, and when the light faded, they looked forward.
There, floating in mid-air, was the same goddess from the card. A fair-skinned lady, she had on a long, flowing emerald green dress, with magical jewellery of that same stone to match. Swirling around her were petals of numerous gorgeous flowers, and her long, wavy brown hair was silky and went to her bare feet. In her right hand, she held a wooden staff with a green wreath acrest, and a sunflower in the centre.
I am thou. Thou art I. I cometh from the sea of thy heart. I am Ostara, the one who shall guide you to a new dawn.