I don't think you need to read this with desktop mode anymore. Also fixed every chapter before which has a few(a lot of) grammatical mistakes. I'm deeply sorry about this.
?
"You're-"
"Welcome back to velvet room, Makoto-sama. I apologize for my tardiness."
"Margaret?"
The woman in front of him smiled. "Ah, I'm glad that you remembered me. We've only met one time. So I was afraid that I wouldn't make much of an impression for you to remember me."
"You think wearing full body leather blue suit is not enough to make an impression?" Minato said with a sigh.
"See, I told you, sister. Makoto-sama is a very smart individual." The young man besides Margaret said with a proud smile on his face. "By the way, Makoto-sama, why is your hair white?"
….
Minato stared at boy who's beaming at him.
"…Do I know you?" Minato narrowed his eyes at the young man.
"Huh? You remembered my sister, but not me?" The young man dropped his shoulders and sighed, but he picked himself up fast. "It's me, Theodore. Younger brother of both Elizabeth and Margaret."
"…That doesn't answer my question." Upon hearing the cold, cruel rejection, Theodore shoulders dropped again and this time he could not pick himself up.
"Huh?" Both Caroline and Justine came out from behind and saw their siblings. A genuine smile flashed on twins' faces, more noticeable on Caroline. "Sister?"
At Caroline's words, Margaret widened her eyes and looked directly towards the twins. Theodore looked like he saw something outrageous and profusely looked between the twin's and occasionally looked back to him.
"Sister!" Caroline ran towards her siblings. Justine also ran(walked fast)towards her siblings, following behind her energetic twin. But, both of them were stopped by the hand in front of them.
"Caroline, hold on a moment." Minato get in front of the twins.
"Gah, what now, convict!?"
Minato ignored her and proceeded, "Sure she looks and speaks like Margaret and while it's true that Margaret and I have only met once, confirming that doesn't necessarily make her, you know…'Margaret'." Minato said.
"Ah, Pardon me?" Margaret diverted her attention from twin and directed them to their former guest.
"You're pardoned, but, that's not my point." Minato corrected himself while Margaret and Theodore looked at each other, puzzled. "That god, Yalda-, ah, Yoda-, ah, no…, that god impersonated Igor, so what's to say the same thing isn't happening now?"
Margaret stared at their former guest in front of her for a moment. "Oh, my dear guest, I understand your dilemma, but I-"
"Ah, Yaldabaoth. It 's Yaldabaoth. I remember now."
"-can say with certainty that we are-"
"You know, I got it right in the first time. I don't know why I hesitated."
"Um?" Both siblings stared at the guest in front of him, then each other.
Minato turned back and looked at Margaret. "Oh, I'm sorry, you were saying?". A vein appeared on Margaret's face, but she soldiered on. "Ahem, before I was rudely interrupted, I was saying tha-"
"Give it a rest, convict." Before she could finish, Caroline cut in again with a shrug. Another vein appeared on Margaret's face and her mouth started to twitch.
"Yes, you don't need to worry Makoto-sama, we avatars of power can able to identify each others. The ones in front of us are our siblings." Justine added.
"You can?" Minato asked the twin.
"Yes, we can." Caroline answered with a shrug.
"Well, then, say sooner. Now I look like an idiot." Minato said back with an annoyed face.
"You always look like an idiot!" Caroline also snapped back.
"…Is that blasphemy? Does that count as blasphemy? I think that should count as blasphemy."
Caroline pulled a raspberry(rather maturely)at the Messiah in front of her.
"AHEM!" Margaret reverted their attention to her with a cough. She looked like she's ready to snap at any moment, although the only one who realized that is Theodore. "My guest, it is true that we can sense each avatars of power. I think you should believe what…they said." Margaret took one last look at the twin before looking back at Minato.
"Well, Okay then." Minato retracted his hands and pocketed them. His hair also changed back to his natural blue. And the twins finally ran up to their siblings.
Caroline tackled Theodore and with a wide grin, Justine also nodded towards her sister and turned towards Theodore, "Theo, I'm sorry that I failed to see the truth. We were blindly following the imposter's orders why you were in danger, I am sorry I cannot come to you sooner, for that I apologized. I hope you can also forgive me, sister."Justine, as a mature one, apologized first and foremost.
"It's okay, we were to blame as well." Margaret said back at her sister although she didn't turn away from the guest in front her.
"…What?"
"Please. Don't mind me." Minato weirdly stared back when suddenly the another boy in the room said.
"Y-yes, It's not your fault, Lave-, ah, I mean, ah-…", Theodore fidgeted awkwardly.
Minato looked at the scene with a face that showed no emotion. Theodore's situation got a lot worse. He sweated profusely and started to bite his fingernails, then he suddenly turned towards Margaret, and…he was ignored. He made a horrified face at his sister's cruel rejection but he didn't give up hope and turned towards Minato.
Minato stared at him with a face that says 'why are you looking at me?' Then suddenly a epiphany struck him and Theodore proudly turned towards his sister. "Yes, You don't have to worry about it." Theodore says with a proud face. "Caroline!", 'Annnnnnd fail.'
Justine now dubbed as Caroline looked at her brother in bewilderment. "Ah, I'm Justine."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, Theo. I know you are a bit of scatterbrained. But, I can't believed you mistook us."
"Ohhhh, ah, o-Of course, my sincere apologies, It-ah seems I-uh make a mistake, of course, you're-ah Caroline and she's Justine, of course, I remembered now."
Minato watched the sibling's exchange with a deadpan face. 'Wait, did he forget his sister name?…What?…Ohh.'
"Well, ahem," Minato finally spoke, "That was painful to watch." Margaret didn't say back anything, she seemed to be deep in thought." But, leaving your brother's idiosyncrasy aside, …where's Elizabeth?"
At Minato's question, the brother and sisters trio stopped fooling around and tensed for a moment. Even Margaret seemed to rattle a little.
"What?"
"Ah, Makoto-sama," Theodore timidly called out to him while carefully looking at his older sister.
Finally Margaret collected herself and breathed loudly, "Don't worry, Theodore. I will explain it to him."
"Hm?", 'That sounds bad.'
"Makoto-sama, after you chose to sacrifice yourself to make the great seal,…Elizabeth left the velvet room in order to find a way to save you from that fate." Margaret said this with deep sad voice.
"What?"
"Yes, Sister Elizabeth left us, her family, to save you, you should be honored." Caroline also said with a hint of anger in her voice.
Theodore watched her sister and him with worry. Justine surprisingly kept looking at Caroline.
And Minato…Minato still stared at them with his usual emotionless face, then finally he spoke, "…Why are you guys talking like it's supposed to be news? I already knew about that."
"Huh?" "What?"The exclamations of four velvet siblings echoed across the empty space and with that all the solemnity left the room.
"You knew?" Margaret asked with a dumbfounded face.
"Well, yes, even though I'm a…door, I can still able to hear and see, just couldn't interact."
"Huh!? Then why do you ask where Sister IS!?" Caroline loudly shouted towards the insensitive boy in front of them.
"What? I asked 'where's Elizabeth?' like where is she right now?"Minato answered back with a annoyed face.
"Makoto-sama, we cannot know the exact locations of people who left the velvet room. So we do not know where Elizabeth is exactly right now. Isn't she the one who freed you?" Theodore asked back quizzically.
"No, she's not the one who freed me. And I also know the fact that you guys can't find people. No, what I mean is like …isn't she supposed to be with you guys?"
"Ah, Makoto-sama, we told you that sister Elizabeth left the velvet room. So how could she be with us?" This time Justine took charge and answered back.
"No, I said I already know that. I mean, WHY are you guys talking in circles?"
"WHAT? You are the one who don't understand. Sister left the velvet room and we can't find people outside the velvet room." Caroline said it in a way a teacher would say to a preschooler.
"No, how many times do I have to say I already know that. What I mean is your master, ahhh, Your lord, that's not right, your master's master, ah, whatever," Minato helf his head in annoyance. "Philemon said that she was with YOU guys, HE'S the one who freed Me…albeit Temporarily."
As Minato dropped the Philemon's name, all the residents of velvet room looked at him with very(very) wide eyes and their mouths agape.
"Lord Philemon is the one who freed you?" Margaret looked like she couldn't believe if she didn't say it herself.
"So, you call him 'Lord', good to know."
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!." Caroline shouted loudly.
Margaret continued while holding her head, "Unbelievable. I thought Elizabeth ran out of ideas and took your place as the seal to save you and drop you here without telling anything."
"That sure sounds like Elizabeth, but, no. I haven't seen her in a long time."
"Yes, if so, I think there will be a lot of explanations to do." Justine also said while signing theatrically.
"I suppose so." Minato said back with a sigh of his own."But, before we move on with any explanations,…Can I get a chair first?"
x-x
After some time…
"So, let me start upon how we escape Yaldabaoth's clutches." After explaining to Minato that they didn't have any chairs and they can't make any chairs and made him realize the fact that there's nothing to lean on in this space, Margaret got on with her explanations.
"Our master sensed your arrival when you came to the material plane. So, while we didn't know how you came here, our master seemed to believed that you will definitely cross paths with our captor. At first, we didn't know how he came to learn this, but if Lord Philemon is involved, I think the answer is pretty clear. We couldn't do anything to provide help to you, so we were waiting patiently for our chance to escape."
From there, Theodore took on the explanation, "You see, Our master has great trust in Makoto-sama, that he believed that even with most of your powers used to place the great seal on Mother Goddess, you can easily stand up against the false god. So, we were just doing the only thing we can do and thus, we waited."
"Oh, yeah…about that…."Minato cut in with a sour face.
"Huh! Easily?" Caroline also added with a smirk. "This guy got his ass nearly handed and beaten to shit more than I could count, even then he only won because we helped him in his fight, HaHa, it looks like our Master really misplaced his trust." Caroline finished with a smug face.
"Is that true?" Margaret asked Minato with a little glint in her eyes.
Minato took a glance at grinning girl before he continued."…While I don't particularly agree with her choices of words and uses of languages, I will admit that I have trouble standing up against him,…and if you must know I also have trouble standing up now."
"Makoto-sama, we've already discussed this.", "Sorry."
"Unbelievable, to think that he was even strong enough to give trouble to our esteemed guest. Is that even possible?" Theodore said with a clear surprise.
"Huh? Of course, why wouldn't it be possible for that imposter to be stronger than him?" Caroline asked her siblings.
But, the answer came from Minato. "Oh, well, let me educate you then." Minato said as he turned towards the younger or maybe older girl. "What you should know is that, I happened to be both a death god AND a Messiah. Plus with the power of wildcard. So, theoretically, the only beings stronger than me should be primordials like Nyx or…Zeus."
"Huh? You're that strong?" Caroline asked with a face like she didn't really believe.
"I wasn't finished yet." Caroline made an annoyed face but Minato ignored that and proceeded on." Well, I had to left most of my power at the seal to maintain it, but even with this limited power, I'm supposed to be at the level of a…Bel. So, yeah, a false god being this strong is unprecedented."
"So, where do you think this surge in power comes from?" Justine asked while also thinking to herself.
"Well, the most probable thing would be an accomplice. And I think this was the reason why Philemon sought me out.", Minato turned back towards the Margaret. "Anyway, continues."
"Yes, of course.", Margaret cleared her throat first. "While we don't question our master, we were, of course, skeptical of your coming. We know that Elizabeth is trying to help you but neither of us really believed she would be successful. And our master also wouldn't say anything in that matter."
Theodore again took over from this. "Hence, our reason in believing Elizabeth took your place as a seal. The last time we saw her was when she obtained the Fool arcana, so we think she finally obtained the same power as you and took your place as the seal. But, it seems we were gravely wrong."
"Hmmm, the last you seen her was when she obtained the Fool?" Minato cut in with a question.
"Yes, it was in Yaso Inaba, with Narukami and your friends from your journey." Margaret answered the guest's question with a calm voice.
"Huh?…Then I wonder why did Philemon lied to me then?"
"I don't think Lord Philemon lied. I would say he just bends the truth a little for you to take action." Margaret said back in not so calm voice.
"…And I would say, that's what you called lying."
Margaret glared back at the Messiah in front of her, but he didn't even faze. "Ahem, moving on." Then, she continued with her explanation. "Then we found out that it is indeed true that you would cross paths with our captor. We couldn't see how the battle would play out, but our master without a word prepared for our escape the moment your battle began. And, when you used the sealing spell on the false god, our master took his chance and broke us out from our holdings." Margaret breathed in for a moment. "And that's when things we could not have foreseen started to happen."
"Yes, indeed. Even our master was helpless in such a situation." Theodore said with regrets. "Although our escapes were easy, our master, not so. You see, when we were escaping a large amount of dark energy interrupted us."
"Dark energy? Those things that fall from the sky?" Justine asked her brother.
"Yes, they were the same ones our dear guest encountered. It's energy was so great that even us, avatars of power, can't do nothing in its wake." Theodore paused for a moment. "But, our master tried his best to get us out of there, and he succeeded but he, himself was left in that place." Theodore finished with a sad voice.
"But, our master doesn't left us with nothing though." Margaret continued as Theodore sadly turned around. "He split up his own power and sent it together with us to help.…But, we don't take account of the fact that the dark energy would even be in outside world so even that power was lost in the depths of human consciousness. And we didn't have time to search for it as we realize that, you, Makoto-sama was also in the mercy of that energy."
"Yes, we also found that one of- I mean, our sisters are also with you, so we craft this velvet space hastily and transport you together with our siblings."
"And, that's how, the events to this situation came to be." Margaret finished the explanations.
"…You didn't tell me how he get to the velvet room in the first place though." Minato said after a pause.
"That's because we also don't know how he trapped us or how he get to know the existence of velvet room."
"…What do you mean?"
"The velvet room exists between dream and reality. So, you could say it exists in this universe but at the same time, not. So, even if you, Makoto-sama, searches for this place with your arcana, you wouldn't be able to." Margaret answered the guest's question without missing a beat.
"Hm,I see…so, this was mostly useless then."
"Huh?"
"Well, we didn't learn anything new, and this just gave us more questions than it answered."Minato said back with a deadpan face.
"It's true that we didn't learn anything new, but the exchange of information is important if we want to decide our next course of action." Justine tried to rectify the situation which the Messiah called a waste of time.
"I think the only thing we can do from here is searches for the other wildcard."
"The other wildcard?" Theodore asked back in response.
"Justine will fill you in later.", Minato answered back quickly. "I will search for him, and when I found him, you guys just do your usual thing. Call him here and do fusions, spells, whatever ways you can help. And I will try to help him personally." Minato stopped and thought for a moment of what to say next. "And…I think that's all."
"Why would you want to help the other wild card though?" Margaret also asked Minato as he talked without explaining anything.
"I said Justine will fill you in later, didn't I?" Minato said back, annoyed. " Now, I haven't sleep a wink from the moment I got here, so I will go home now,…bye."Minato waved then turns around.
"Wait, Makoto-sama!" Margaret called out to him but he ignored her and left.
x-x
Shibuya
The streets of Shibuya are always filled with people whether its night or day. Even now late in the hour, the streets are filled with people, and the noise is deafening. So, not even one person noticed a blue haired boy appearing out of nowhere.
"Destination, Mementos, added…You have returned to the real world. Welcome back." A mechanical voice echoed from the boy's pocket.
"Huh?" The boy checked his pocket and took out the thing that's making noises. It was his phone. 'I thought Caroline broke this thing.' The blue haired boy thought to himself as he checked his before broken phone, now being as good as new. 'Ah, whatever.'
Minato opened his phone and checked the app that made the noise from before. 'Hm, is it here before?' He spotted an app with red eyeball icon. 'Mementos? Isn't that what Justine called that place?' Minato tapped that icon and another voice appeared.
''Navigation en route…Navigation failed, please try again later."
"Huh?", 'Geez, what the hell is this thing?'
"Hey, what do you think happened to him?" "Isn't that shujin uniform?"
'Hm?'
"Does he get into a fight?", "He's not wounded though." People started to murmur around him. Minato checked himself and found out the reason.
'Oh,' Now he doesn't have any wounds on his body because he healed himself but, his outfits were another story though. His school coat was gone and he only had the white shirt from underneath the coat. And even that shirt was torn and burned in some places. His trousers were also spotted with large amount of cuts.
'Ah, I forgot that I was wearing this while I fought Caroline.' People were starting to take out their phone. 'No time to wonder about this app, I will have to get home first.'
…And with that Minato Arisato went back to his apartment with an awkward train ride, ignoring the look people were giving to him.
x-x
Tae Takemi walked out of the cafe while thinking to herself. 'Huh, it really isn't possible without test subjects.' The deadline for her medicine was drawing near and she still hasn't made any progress. 'And how the hell did Oyamada caught wind of this?' She has enough trouble trying to make a medicine from the ground up and her former superior with big inferiority complex was now giving her trouble.
"Maybe I should get volunteer students.…No, that will just give Oyamada the chance to shut my clinic down."
"Hey, what do you think happen to him?"
'Hm?' Takemi heard the old couple from the junk shop near her talking.
"Huh? Students these days, maybe he got bullied on way back."
Takemi looked at what the old lady from the couple is pointing at.
"Isn't that the weird kid from before?", Takemi unknowingly said that out loud. Yes, indeed. It is the pale kid she saw yesterday. He already looked near death yesterday. But, this time, he looked like he just fought with Death. '…Seriously though, did he fight with a boar?'
"Ara, Sensei, You know that kid?"
"Huh?"
It looked like the owner of the junk shop heard her talking. "Oh, not really, I just saw him yesterday."
"Now that you say it, I also haven't seen him before."
"Did he move in around here?" The old lady asked her husband. "If so, poor kid then. He just got beat up pretty bad on his first day." The old woman said with a sad voice. "What is this world coming to?"
'Hm, so he just move in around here. huh? …seriously what the hell did he do on his first day to get this beat up.'
"What a weird kid."
x-x
Minato walked fast as soon as he got out of the station, without paying attention to anything. Like anything at all. And as he got to his home, he went in fast like a blur.
He opened the door and entered and closed the door in two second flat. Then he turned around and the empty unfamiliar space that which he called home greeted him.
"…Man, isn't this suck?"
x-x
After taking a bath, Minato got out with a towel on his head. The bathroom was so small that he's not even sure if he bathed in the toilet or not. And he thought his apartment room was small.
The clothes from before had to be thrown out though. He didn't know anything about sewing and even then he left the coat in that place. But, that's not for concern though. Luckily, there are still spare clothes. And for some reasons, his phone is fixed and his bag,which he's not sure when did he lose it, is sitting peacefully in his desk. Now, he still didn't know what the weird app do. It's still saying navigation failed. But, he suspected it is some sort of warp device. Whether Philemon is the one who gave it or not is still in the gray though.
Minato changed his clothes from the box and walked to his desk. 'Nothing's lost, but, there were only books in the first place.' He checked his bag first before doing anything.
"*Sigh*" Minato sighed loudly as he lazily sat upon the chair, staring at the ceiling. "So…what now?", Minato checked the clocks and its already 9. "…I suppose I will just do what I do best." Minato got up and walked towards the wardrobe to take his futon out.
…and what's the best thing he do? Sleeping, of course.
-x-x?
….
…*Ding dong*
'…What?'
….
'Hahhh….'' Minato rolled to the opposite side.
…*Ding Dong*
'Do I have a doorbell?' Minato got up from his sleep as he thought he heard a doorbell. 'Must be my imagination.' He shrugged and went back to sleep.
…*Ding dong*
Okay, this time he didn't imagined it.
'Who would come this early in the morning?' Minato annoyingly got out of his futon and walked towards the door.
'Who would come at this hour?…Actually who even would come?' With these thoughts in his mind, Minato opened his front door.…and the four siblings of velvet room greets him. Justine and Caroline were looking around the place. Theodore was smiling sheepishly while looking at him. And Margaret was in the middle of pushing the doorbell when he opened the door.
….
"…Don't you guys usually call me in my sleep?" Minato said watching each and everyone of them before settling on the eldest. "Since when do you guys accept house call?"
"Ahaha, Makoto-sama, were you sleeping?" Theodore asked nervously.
"It's 3 in the morning, of course I was sleeping."
"This is where you live, huh, convict. Hmmm, Isn't this small?" After looking around the place Caroline rendered her verdict.
"…what are you guys doing here?" Minato asked with a very(very) tired voice.
"Ahem, we were just discussing with Justine and Caroline and we came to know many facts about the wildcard that has already started his journey." Margaret answered the question with a calm voice.
"Yes, and we came here because of that we may need to talk about our plan" Justine also added in.
"…What about the wildcard?" Minato asked back, now the tiredness in his voice gone.
Margaret looked at the young man in front of her carefully …and then she smiled smugly. "Justine will fill you in later." saying her piece, Margaret gracefully walked past through the stunned boy and into his room.
"What?" Minato looked back at the woman walking into the room. He stared at her for a minute or two before it hit him.
"…did she seriously say that to me?"
"You deserved it, Makoto-sama." "You sure do." Both Justine and Caroline also said their piece and followed their sister.
Minato looked back the two kids walking past him again. "What?"
"Pa-Pardon the intrusion." Theodore also smiled nervously and followed after.
Now alone on the front door, Minato stood there in stunned silence.
"…Those siblings gonna be the death of me." With that he also closed his door and followed after the others.
-x-x-
Today's chapter is just outlines of what to expect in the future. Now, the fight scenes are only after Akira came, so the chapters after this will be just Minato trying to stay in school.