The scene opens up to a first-person point of view, as we looked through the groggy eyes of someone as they slowly wake up and see the ceiling to some room. Getting up the person soon noticed two things.

One, the room was completely blue. Blue carpet, blue walls, and even blue window curtains! The only thing now blue was the red chair that was seated near where they were sitting at, oh by the way she was sitting on a BLUE couch.

The second thing they noticed was the person sitting in the red chair… well, they hoped it was a person. Said person looked at them with big bulging eyes and a huge grin on his face that stretched all the way to his pointed ears that were hidden behind a HUGE nose.

"Welcome~!" the large nose man said in a surprisingly soft voice that didn't fit his scary looks. "To the velvet room!"

The what room? This was confusing our protagonist as they looked around the room again, hopefully, they could figure out what was going on.

"Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep in the real world," the man continued, his ghoulish appearance becoming less and less terrifying with every calming world he spoke. "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. My name is Igor… I am delighted to make your acquaintance. Now, what is your name, dear guest?"

The person blinks as a voice comes from the person telling Igor their name.

"Ruby Rose?" said Igor as his grin grew bigger. "That is just the name for someone who is a guest of the velvet room, though I do say, it's a fitting name for one such as yourself."

As Igor says this a mirror appears next to him out of thin air. Startling the person it was pointed at. The person whose eyes we've been using to see this strange world now has a face to go along with it.

As the person looked at the large mirror an image stared back, and it was a girl! A fair-skinned, young girl with silver eyes and black neck-length choppy hair that gradated to dark red at the tips. A girl who was dressed in only a simple light blue hospital gown!?

Letting out an "eep!", the young girl wrapped her arms around herself as she looked at the long-nosed man with a pout, which earned her a small chuckle. Soon though a second voice joined in on the laughter as the door to the room opened up and a young man, maybe around 20 walked through.

"Well, things seem to be lively," said the young man as his golden-colored eyes danced with glee. The young man was fair-skinned like Ruby, he also had a choppy hair cut, but while her dark hair was cut short, the young man's silver/white hair was a bit longer and the back of it reached past his neck. He was also dressed up in a male nurse's outfit. That had the letters V.R written in gold on his shoulders. He also had a standard single-head stethoscope hanging off his shoulders.

Walking through the room, the young man went towards an old radio stationed on an old desk and turned it on.

(play Persona 5 OST - Aria Of The Soul)

"Ah, allow me to introduce my associate. This is Henry. Like myself, he is a resident of this place," Igor explained motioning to the man.

Said man gave a small wave towards Ruby as a gentle smile spread across his face.

"Greetings Patient," Henry said in his soft tone voice that set her to ease. "I'm happy to meet one such as yourself, it's rare for Master to bring visitors."

"Patient?" muttered Ruby as she looked at the two with a raised brow.

"Indeed. This place reflects the heart of the guest. It would seem that you have suffered quite a bit, haven't you?" Igor said, his smile never going away.

The young girl looked away, not wanting to look Igor in the eyes.

"Do not feel ashamed. Life is not without hardships, and though yours may be more dramatic than others, you are no less worthy of healing. We are here to facilitate your recovery."

"Yes," Henry said with a smile that was filled with nothing but support and kindness. "The Master shall give you counsel while I provide the proper service to help you on your journey."

"But before that," Igor interrupted as a table appeared in front of him with a deck of cards on top. "Let us see what your future holds."

Confused, Ruby looked towards Henry with a raised brow. The silverish white-haired man let out a small laugh as he gestured back to his master.

"The master is fond of fortune-telling," he said as he soon stepped back to let his master take center stage.

"Indeed. Though the cards are the same, the result is always different. Much like with life." With a wave of his hands, six cards arranged themselves on the table. "The card for your immediate future is…" Igor made a motion as if he was grabbing something and flipping it over. Though his hand was nowhere near the card, the one closest to Ruby obeyed. She flinched as she saw a disturbing image of an imposing tower, split in half by a bolt of lightning as a person fell off of it, the number XVI on the bottom. "The Tower, in the upright position. This card represents sudden, drastic change, the upheaval of things you have been accustomed to, but also of revelations. The card for the future after that is…" Igor repeated the action, revealing the card to the left of the first one. The card revealed was that of a large crescent moon with a face on it, and above it what looked like a lobster, with a river running behind the moon. The number XVIII at the bottom. "The Moon, in the upright position. This card symbolizes illusions, mystery, but also intuition." He turned to face her. "It would seem that soon you will encounter something that will irrevocably change your perceptions of life, uprooting everything you have known. And soon, you will be confronted with a mystery that you must solve soon after. Usually, this would be enough, but as part of your recovery, I would like to try one more card."

He motioned for a card to flip, this one to the right of the first card. Ruby tilted her head for a moment, confused at what she saw, only to realize it was upside down. After tilting her head some more she got a better idea of what she was looking at and flinched. In the center was an intimidating goat skull, surrounded by chains that seemed to form a heart, with a small pentagram above it. At the bottom were two demonic-looking faces looking at each other, one male and one female. The number at the bottom, or top, in this case, was XV. "The Devil, in the reverse position. The Devil represents your darker self, your baser instincts, and addiction. However, with it reversed it can also mean denial of one's desires, restraint, and detachment." He looked back at her. "This represents what you must overcome to achieve your goal. I wonder if you can figure out exactly what that is?"

"Master you are getting ahead of yourself," Henry interrupted. "We need our Patient to figure out her own path."

Igor chuckled. "Forgive me, Hector. It seems I myself have been indulging a bit too much with our new guest. Now, let's move on. This is the card that represents you," Igor said with a snap his fingers. Soon the cards on the table burst into blue flames. Causing Ruby to yell out in fright, but was soon mesmerized by the azure flames as they rose up into the air and shot down into Igor's hands. They soon all took shape into his palm into the shape of a single card. Holding it between his fingers, the balding man smiled as he flipped it to show Ruby. "The Fool."

Ruby blinked confusingly as she stared at the card. Which had the image of a person with a jester hat walk down a long road and with a bag over his shoulder and a small dog chasing after him?

Ruby puffed up her cheeks at what she could see as a joke at her expense.

"Oh, don't be offended, my dear guest. The Fool represents beginnings, both in travels and experience. It is a lack of knowledge, but an openness to the new. But most importantly to you is this," he motioned to the number at the bottom: 0. "Zero is such a curious number, isn't it? It's represents nothing, and yet has infinite possibilities before it."

"It's is quite an honor to have such a card Patient," Henry said with a large amount of respect in his eyes. "You have something great, truly wondrous."

Before Ruby could ask him to explain, Igor coughed gently to get their attention.

"Now, while I enjoy the company, it seems our time is almost to an end," Igor said, and to emphasize his point the sounds of an old bell could be heard from outside. As if. "You will be waking up soon, but don't worry. We will be meeting again VERY soon, my dear guest. Until then, farewell."

With that, Henry walked towards her and gently took her hand as he guided her towards the office door.

"As the master said, we will meet again, and when that happens we will be here to help you," Henry said with a smile as he opened the door. Letting a blinding light filled the room.

Ruby winced as the light enveloped everything. Soon all she could see was nothing but white as a voice called out to her.

"Ruby..."

"Ruby."

"Ruby!"

-(waking world)-

"RUBY! Wake UP!" shouted a male voice as said girl jolted awake from the constant shaking she was being put through. Looking around the groggy teen saw that she was on a bus, a school bus to be more precise. Turning towards the person who woke her up she was greeted to a familiar sight.

"Oh… hey, Oscar," Ruby muttered as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes as the now named Oscar let out an annoyed sigh, running his hands through his hair.

Oscar is a boy who was pretty short in stature. His skin is tanned and he has a faint, perpetual blush and freckles on his cheeks. His hair is dark brown and his eyes are hazel, the main iris being forest green, with accents of burnt orange and yellow around the pupil. He was also sporting a simple button-up white shirt and a pair of simple jeans and a pair of worn brown boots being the only thing out of place on his little get-up.

"You need to get up, we're about to get to school," Oscar muttered. Almost sounding like he would rather be anywhere but their current destination.

Nodding, the young girl gave herself a small look over to make sure she didn't wrinkle her clothes while sleeping, or worst, drooling all over herself. Letting out a sigh of relief as she saw her outfit wasn't ruined at all. She wore a red t-shirt with a large black rose printed on the front of it, along with a red plaid skirt, and some black thigh high stockings, and a pair of tennis shoes.

Letting out a content sigh the silver-eyed girl gave a smile to the farm boy.

"Thanks for waking me up Oscar," she said. Causing the young boy to let out a small laugh as he scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Yeah…, well, to be honest, I only did it because someone… 'asked' me too," the smaller teen said with a mutter. But before Ruby could ask what he meant the young man was soon dragged out of his seat and was replaced with a new person who was giving our protagonist an impish grin.

"Neo?" Ruby asked as she looked at her BEST-friend. Said girl whose hair matched her full name Neapolitan. One half (the left) being brown, and the other half (right) being pink and being the dominant color as well. She also had heterochromia, meaning her eyes were two different colors. The right is left, and the right being pink, an unusual color but it seems to fit Neo's whole color scheme. She was also fair skin like Ruby which went well with her choice of clothing.

Unlike the other two Neo always seem to prefer more pricey kinds of clothes, and today was no different from her wearing a pink designer T-Shirt with a cream-colored Tomoe symbol on it (which looked like three commas in a swirl). Over that was a white jean jacket. She was also wearing a pair of tight jeans and a pair of high heel boots. She wore those to make up for the fact she was pretty short for her age, something she doesn't like being pointed out.

And the final piece to round out her outfit was a red scarf around her neck. The only thing that clashed with her outfit but she didn't seem to mind at all.

'Hey, sweety,' Neo signed out with her hand while sporting her grin. Neo was mute so she had to communicate ether with sign language or by writing her words. Though only Ruby and a very few others bothered to learn the first method to talk to her. 'Had me worried there for a bit when I couldn't get you up. So I had to ask little Oscar for help to wake our Sleeping Beauty up.'

"You do know I'm taller than you right," said boy muttered while taking a seat across from them. The farm boy leveled as small glare at the smirking girl who just waved off his annoyance with a simple wave.

"Also doesn't Sleeping Beauty wake up from a kiss," Ruby asked. Getting a small nervous cough from Oscar, who decided to move to the back of the bus, and a flat look from Neo.

'Please don't joke about that,' Neo signed.

"But I wasn't-eep!" Ruby yelled out as the bus made a sudden stop. Causing her lurch forward.

"Ok ya brats," shouted the old, balding, and squinty-eyed bus driver. "We're all here! Now get moving so I can end my shift!"

"As pleasant as ever, just like the rest of the workers in this school," Oscar muttered as he grabbed his school bag and made his way out with the rest of the students. Neo and Ruby doing the same as they made small talk along the way.

'So did you enjoy your beauty sleep?' Neo asked with a wink. 'Not like you need it.'

Laughing at her friend's 'joke', Ruby just shrugged as they walked out of the bus and walked passed a sign with the words "Welcome to Signal academy". "It was fine, just a little strange with these two guys."

That seems to be the wrong thing to say as Neo let out a gasp before grabbing Ruby by the shoulders with a pout. She then started to sign.

'How could you have one of those dreams?' she signed with a huff. 'And with TWO guys!?'

"I-IT WASN'T ONE OF THOSE KINDS OF DREAMS!" Ruby shouted with a blush. "It was just a weird dream where I was in a counseling room."

'Counseling? Like a therapist?'

"Actually, kinda like a… not a hospital, but… what are they called?"

"An asylum?" came Oscar's voice from behind them, having caught up to them.

"Yeah, that's it! Thanks, Oscar."

"No problem… What are you talking about? I just came in now." the farm boy asked.

'Just Ruby almost giving me a heart attack when she mentions about dreams with two guys,' Neo signed. Getting a slap on the shoulder from a blushing Ruby.

"W-What?! I didn't know you were into that kind of-" Oscar began, blushing furiously.

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! UGH!" she groaned. "It was some weird dream where there were these two guys in an asylum with me! One was a creepy old guy with a long nose that did fortune-telling, and the other some kind of doctor guy! That's all!"

'... did you think the second one was cute?' Neo asked with a raised brow.

"No! I mean, he was nice and kinda handsome I guess, but I wasn't thinking about him like that. He was talking about my 'rehabilitation' or something. If he was real I'm sure his patients would really like him… Uh, why do you wanna know anyway, Neo?" she asked.

'No reason,' huffed out Neo as she decided to walk faster leaving the other two behind.

"What was that about?" Ruby thought aloud.

"Really? Even I can see it," Oscar muttered, low enough that Ruby couldn't hear her.

"Oh well," Ruby said with a shrug before she grabbed Oscar by the hand and dragged him forward. "Let's go before we miss homeroom."

"Yeah," Oscar said sarcastically with an eye roll. "Heaven forbid we make the teachers like us even less than they already do."

"Don't be like that," Ruby huffed out with her cheeks puffed out. "Just because we might get in a little trouble with the teachers doesn't mean we should stop doing our best!"

"A little?" Oscar asked with a flat look. "Last time I checked we've all been in detention for one thing or another."

The young farmhand lifted one hand as he started listing off a few things.

"You're STILL in trouble for making a GUN in shop class," Oscar said with an annoyed look. The amount of chaos that day was still talked about to this day.

"I wanted to see if I could," Ruby muttered with a blush. "Besides it was just a replica of one! No inner parts or nothing!"

Rolling his eyes the farm boy continued. "I still need to apologize for mouthing off to the teacher for making a remark about my accent,"

"You can barely tell you have one," Ruby said with a smile before quickly saying. "Not that I didn't like the way you sounded before!"

Smiling in gratitude from Ruby's kind words. Oscar continued. "And then there's Neo…"

"You're not going to say what Neo did?" Ruby asked.

"What HASN'T she done?" Oscar muttered out. "Honestly, she's only getting detention because they can't pin the other crap she's done."

"She's not that bad," Ruby defended her best friend. "She just has… anger issues."

"Ruby it's only an Issue when someone makes her mad," Oscar muttered. "And this school is filled to the brim with people that set her off."

"Come on Oscar!" Ruby sighed out. "She wouldn't hurt a fly."

"You're right. Because a fly is an innocent creature that never knowingly did anything to anybody," Oscar said with a bit of sass. "But everything else? She'll maim if they give her a reason."

Ruby just stared at him for a moment. "... Pfft! You're such a kidder, Oscar." she laughed and pulled him along.

"You are too pure for this world," he muttered under his breath.

"Nah," Ruby countered while sticking her tongue out with a cute smile. "I just try to look at the brighter side."

'It's all you can do sometimes,' the red-themed girl thought with a frown, something she kept hidden from Oscar as she kept looking forward as she dragged her male friend through the crowded halls making sure to avoid bumping into any of the annoyed students how gave them scathing looks for all the commotion they were making so early in the morning.

Just another day at Signal Academy. A place that once valued in good relationships between students now was a place of short-tempered students and teachers. Where most in the school would rather argue or even get into fights. While others would just avoid any conflict at all. Truly a place filled to the brim with animosity.

A place that breeds Hatred.

The scene ends off at a close up towards the tile floor of the school's hallway where a black liquid starts to pour out through the cracks. All the while no one noticing this strange occurrence even when people started walking over the ever-growing puddle.

Chapter end. Next chapter. Another day at school.