Mementos

"What does convict do to him?" Caroline said as she and her sister got out from the debris.

"I think he used the same spell he used before." Justine said back as she dusted herself off.

"Before? Justine, you've seen him before?"

"You don't remember him?" Justine looked shock for a moment and then narrowed her eyes and asked her sister. "His name is Makoto Yuki, our first guest."

"First guest?" Justine carefully looked at her sister looking for any reaction. 'What is the meaning of this? Is Caroline really not around at that time?'

"Ah! Sister Elizabeth's guest!" Caroline suddenly exclaimed. At her answer, Justine became relieved, but collected herself and sighed. "Don't scare me like that."

"Sorry, it just slipped my mind. But, isn't the first guest emotionless and impassive guy? Not like this sarcastic, insufferable jerk?" Caroline said with an irritating tone.

"You do know I'm still here, right?" Minato said as he suddenly appeared right behind them, now his white hair gone and with his blue hair and original white shirt.

"Yeah, it's better if you heard that." Caroline said with a smirk on her face.

Minato looked at her for a moment then grunts and turned to Justine.

"Justine, right? You looks like you are the smart one. So, I gonna have to ask you my questions."

"Hey, what does that make me?" Caroline said back but Minato ignored her and proceeded with his question.

"Do you know what a trickster is?" Minato asked, still ignoring the fuming Caroline beside him.

"Trickster? It is what we called our guests." Justine answered without batting an eye.

"Guests? So, it's true that there are more than one wildcard this time."

"Yes, the first guest had already started his journey, but we are still preparing for the second guest."

"Preparing?" Minato stared at them. "…What do you have to do? Think up new kinds of cryptic Messages? The lady who's singing has to clear her throat?"

"…." Justine said nothing back and stared at him with impassive eyes. Caroline also stopped her insults and looked at him.

The atmosphere became suddenly weird.

….

"…It's a joke." Minato said back but still there's no reaction. "I'm sorry, I'm still new to this."

"Hey, are you sure this is Sister Elizabeth's guest? He's acting really out of character." Caroline said with a look of disbelief.

"Well, the appearance matches but his personality is different somehow." Justine said scrutinizing the guest? in front of her.

"There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that but I don't care enough to tell you." Minato said as he ruffled his hair. "So, if there are two wildcards which one I'm supposed to guide on?"

"Why you gonna guide them?" Caroline asked.

"I don't know, someone tell me if I want to completely kill that god, I have to guide the trickster. Now, I don't know what that means but that's my only lead if I really wanna kill that god."

"Who is the one who told you that?" Caroline asked.

"Hmm, If I know that would I have said 'someone'?" Minato said as he turned around and looked around the half-broken tower.

"Forget about that for a moment, how do we get out of here? And what is here in the first place?"

"This place is known as Mementos. It is cognitive palace for all of humanity. You could say that this is the conjoined heart of mankind." Justine answered back in her monotone voice.

"…Okay" Minato said back while still looking around the strange place tinted with red. "I understand it runs in your blood. But, if you wanna explain something to people, you make sure to explain what that something is first."

"Tch, which part of her answer you don't understand?" Caroline said clearly not amused.

"Honestly, every part." Minato shrugged.

"What is there not to understand!? This place is the rift that all of human's desires take form. The heart of all living things, the center of all emotions." Caroline added back but Minato still stared at her with deadpan eyes.

"What!? How can you not still get it?" Caroline added with frustration in her voice.

"Well, for starters, what pray tell is the center of all emotions supposed to be?"

"The center of emotions is supposed to be THE center of emotions."

"Yeahhhh, I know you think you're helping, buuttt…clearly you're not."

"Ahhh, You're so irritating!"

"And, that I understand."

"*Sighh*" Justine sighed tiredly as her sister and their former guest bickered at each other. It was actually pretty one sided though.

"That's enough wasting time. We must plan our next course of action." Justine tried to diffuse the situation by changing the topic.

"Alright, alright." Minato sighed stopping the little girl who's trying to punch him. "As an elder, I will take the higher ground and apologize." Minato said holding his hands up. "Caroline, I'm sorry…that you suck at explaining things."

At his words Caroline finally snapped and took her baton out, "That's it! Prepare to die!" Caroline shouted while leaping towards the eyesore in front of her.

"Makoto-sama, you're not helping." Justine sighed again.

"Isn't taking higher ground means this?" Minato smiled as he dodged the oncoming(Probably fatal)strike.

"Stop dodging!"

"You're hurt. You should rest. Don't move around too much."

"I will REST when I wipe that smirk on your face!"

"It's not a smirk. It's just a mildly amused face."

"Gahhhh!"

As Justine watched her sister antics, she saw their former guest smiling. Not a smile of an all powerful god. Not a smile of a cynical death god. But a beautiful smile of a lonely boy, experiencing joy for the first in a long time.

'It is beautiful, indeed.' Justine thought staring the boy in front of her.

"Wait…" Minato suddenly said holding his hand, stopping Caroline in her tracks. Then he looked around the place he's standing on. The only things he could see on the horizon were the sky and the clouds.

"Um, Maybe I should have started with this question…How do we get down from here?"

x-x

?

One man? stood alone in a place pitch black darkness. His body was chained from head to toe and held down by the four other beings around him. Who were they, you asked? He didn't care. They were no match for him, anyway.

The man? released his power and one by one the chains started to break. The four beings around him tried to hold him down but they indeed were no match for him. Before long, all four of them were engulfed in a red light and they were all absorbed by that no sooner.

The man? now freed of the chains holding down, stood straight and looked around. The darkness started to dispel and a familiar surrounding entered his sight.

It was the velvet room, well, the pseudo-velvet room he constructed.

It is said the velvet room take the form of the heart of its guest. So, when he saw this velvet room form for the first time, he was intrigued by the form it took. A prison. The form that velvet took was none other than a prison. He wondered what the guest was like for it to become a prison among other things. But, now, he felt like this was a mockery to him.

He turned around and indeed there it was. A large silver door. He can able to break the chains seizing him down. He can consume the four archangels holding him back. But, it looked like he cannot break the seal that the Messiah placed. Now, this place truly became a prison for him.

Yaldabaoth walked closer to the door and examined it.

"At least, this was not meant to last forever." But, he didn't know how long. A day, a year, centuries, millennia.

"Maybe, not that long." The god shrugged and walked to the middle of the room. He snapped his finger and a short desk and a chair appeared in front of him.

The man sat upon it with a cruel grin on his face. He then stared upwards with hi bloodshot eyes.

"Soon, that messiah will know that I'm the only one between his world and destruction." The god started to laugh then it get louder and louder. "Soon, he will come back for me. He will know that I am the only one who can save him from that wretched fate." The man's laugh echoed through the place and the velvet blue started to vanish a little by little until it was all filled with blood red.

x-x

"Now this is strange."

A man in a head to toe jet black suit, combined with black mask stood in a place of what appeared to be a spaceship. But, it didn't appear to be a spaceship. It was truly a spaceship.

Akechi Goro was in the palace of his father's colleague and supporter Kunikazu Okumura. The supporter part is a little in a gray now though.

There were rumors of trying to enter political world using his business as a base. And he's here to confirm whether this rumors are true or just rumors. But as luck would have it, he really was trying to do that.

Now he knew his father is not going to take that lightly. He knew political world is dangerous but his father is seriously paranoid. He would not take that lying down. Now, whether Mr. Okumura was trying to backstab or not, his financial supports were undeniably what kept the Shido campaign floated.

So, the million dollar question would be is Mr Okumura usefulness outweighs the risk he imposes or not. But, he suppose it's not his place to question his father's choice.

More importantly though, that's not the strange thing he's baffled with. The velvet room, a suspicious place with an short old man and two kids who occasionally helped him on his work, the place where he fused his personas was now nowhere to he seen. Normally, the blue jail door would be at the entrance of every palaces and even in the real world he would see that door in some places. Now that door is nowhere to be seen.

"Did something happen to them?" Akechi didn't particularly care about them. No matter how you cut that up, they are clearly planning something. It didn't matter how many times they say they are just to help in his 'journey', his detective senses warned him not to trust them.

'You don't actually need to be a detective though. Any normal sane persona would not trust them.' But, at least they were useful tools in his conquest and he would rather not lose his trump card.

"Hmmm, meh. There's nothing I can do, I suppose. I should just wait and see." Akechi Goro pocketed his pistol and took out his phone and walked back to the entrance.

"Oh, there's new cake shop opening, Maybe I will go there before reporting in, Hahhaha."

x-x

"Um, I think that's all." Akura Kurusu packed his things in a box. "There's really not much, anyways." He didn't have not much personal things. He was not an introvert, so he didn't have any games or computer. The only eleterical thing he had was his phone. All of the things in his box are just clothes and…. clothes.

"Hmm, I wonder is there even anyone who will remember me when I leave?" Although his parents tried to delay the probation, in reality he really had nothing to prepare.

"To a unfamiliar city with nothing but clothes on my back. As if my situation isn't worse enough." Akira took out his chair and sat on it staring at his ceiling. "Will I have new friends over there?"

"Who am kidding? No one wants to be friends with a student with a criminal case." Akira rubbed his eyebrows and took out the book from his book he was reading before all this happen.

'Arsene lupin, the gentleman burglar'

x-x

"See anything?"

"What's there to see, there's nothing but clouds."

"…You could have said it in nicer way though." Minato said back and he could hear her teeth screeching but he didn't care. He was looking some kinds of exit or stairs or just something. The last time he was in a tower like this, he flied toward the moon and after that they just came down from stairs. Even now, he could just fly down but his universe power is fearfully low, so he rather not use any of his god power for now. Although if push came to shove he will have to use it though.

"I don't see any exits in my search." Justine the monotone one, younger or older he didn't know, said from behind him.

"Hm, I suppose we have no choice,…But, see, Caroline, you could have said it in a polite way like that."

"Why do I have to be polite to you?" Caroline said pushing the debris in front of her. "Hm, what a waste of our time."

"Now that I think about it, you guys have not answer my question about your siblings." Minato said checking the place for the last time.

"We have not heard from them for a long time. Our master said that they are away with missions of their own." Justine answered the question while Caroline wiped the dusts from her clothes.

"And…you just believe that? no questions asked." Minato asked clearly? surprised.

"Hey, our master's word is absolute. We will do it no matter what." Caroline said back.

"And you know all of this could have been avoided if you have recognized me from the start." Minato said.

"How could we know that you are the wildcard just by looking at you!?" Caroline snapped back.

"I was using multiple personas in front of you, I think It's pretty obvious."

"It looks like you are mistaken about something, Makoto-sama." Justine cut in while Minato was still talking.

"Being able to use multiple persona doesn't necessarily make you a wildcard. All of us, velvet attendants can able to use them and we are surely not wildcards. And before you, there were other humans who can use multiple personas and they are not wildcards either." Justine explained to the god in front of her.

"…Oh…is that so."

"Haha, in your face, convict!" Caroline didn't let up a chance to take a dig at their former guest.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me 'convict'? Anyway, just hang onto me, we will just fly, I mean, float down I guess." Minato walked over to edge of the tower and looked down. "Ack, it really is tall."

Both Justine and Caroline walked over to him. Justine latched her hand on the guest in front of her and Caroline was a little hesitant first, but then she, too also latched her hand.

"We are ready, Makoto-sama." Justine said but no answers came back. "Makoto-sama?"

"Heyyy, convict! we said we're ready." Caroline also said.

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time." Minato held up his head and looked around the place. "Do you guys hear something?"

"What are you talking about?" Caroline looked at his sister and she too was looking at him with a puzzled face. "We don't hear anything."

"No, I'm sure I heard something. Oh, there's that sound again." Minato suddenly turned around try to listen again.

"What sound did you hear?" Justine asked.

"Like, like, uh, something's cracking. Yeah, a cracking sound."

"We don't hear anyt-

…*CRACK, CRACK*

"Oh, now I also heard it." Caroline said back as she too also readied her baton and looked around.

"See, I told you."

"Um! up there!" Justine suddenly shouted and both Minato and Caroline looked up to see…

…"Is that normal?" Minato asked as he saw the reason Justine shouted. The sky above them is cracking like a mirror.

"Abso-absolutely not." Caroline answered back and then countless cracks appeared throughout the sky.

"We do not know what is this, but we can say that this is not a normal situation." Justine answered back.

Minato also summoned back his sword and prepared for anything. The cracks seemed to be spreading as the whole sky was suddenly filled with countless fractures.

'What is this I'm feeling? Dread? No. Despair. That's not it, either. Fear, Why do I feel fear? When I look at it, I feel fear? No, it can't be. But, this fear, it originated from…Chaos?'

"What? Another Go-" Before Minato finished his sentence, the sky completely broke and a wave of darkness came crawling towards him.

"Infinity." As if by instinct Minato crushed his arcana and evokes a shield in front of him.

…*Dooom* The darkness hit the shield and a loud sound was echoed throughout the city. But, the wave didn't stop, it kept on coming. And almost suddenly, all the cracks opened and similar waves of darkness fell down towards the ground around them.

"What The Hell Is Happening!?" Caroline shouted as both her and her twin took cover behind the messiah.

…*Crack*Crack*

The cracking sound appeared again but this time it's not from the sky but the shield in front of them.

"Ohhhh, That's not the sound I want to hear."

The shield finally broke and the darkness consumes all three of them.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!", "Huhh."

x-x

…*Boom*

A loud sound echoed in the dark empty space.

"Rather tenacious, are we?" Philemon said as he destroied the two headed dog in front of him.

"Judging by the rate he's regenerating, it seems large amount of dark energy enters this world." Philemon looked back at the now open door behind him. "Did I make the right choice entrusting the future to him?" The man chuckled a little. "I suppose he's not alone"

The blue butterfly was seen again flying through the window. And behind the window was a human boy named Akira Kurusu, reading a book while spinning the pencil in his hand.

"One bound by fate."

The butterfly was seen again strolling through the city. In one of the shops, a handsome young man was looking at the menu, "I think I will take the pancakes", Akechi gave the menu back to the waitress flashing a smile.

"One bound by emotions"

The butterfly was flying in the red space with a man in the middle. The man was sitting in a chair with a small desk in front of him. "Maybe, I should change the name to Crimson room." The man seemed to ponder for a moment. "I suppose that's the best course of action."

"One bound by sins"

Many waves of darkness was falling down from the sky to place tinted with red.

"And One bound by past."

"Umm, where am I?" Minato Arisato opened his eyes and looked around the place. The space was dark and only the floor seems to be blue. "Blue?"

"And…In this game of life and death,"

Minato stood up and the twins on his body fall off. "Uh!", "Bwap, Ah!" Caroline fell down with a thud. "Huh, where are we?"Justine also woke up and looked around.

"In this world filled with darkness,"

"I think it's a success, sister."

Minato turned towards the voice.

"Good job, Theo." From the darkness came a elegant voice. And then a young man and a mature woman came out.

"You are-"

"I ask of you, Messiah-"

"Welcome back to the velvet room, Makoto-sama. I apologize for my tardiness."

"Margaret?"

"Will You be able to find your light back again?"

-x-x-