Chapter Two: Awakening

4/8, Morning

Minato was up before anyone else, so he decided to be helpful to Hamuko, he went downstairs to the kitchen still clad in his pajamas and got out all the things his sister would need for breakfast. Afterwards he went back up to the second floor and took a quick shower.

On the way out he passed Akihiko in the hall "Morning, I didn't think you'd be up this early." His senior commented.

Minato shrugged "I just went down and got everything set up for Hamuko is all." Receiving a nod of acknowledgement he continued to his room to finish getting ready for school. After which Minato went back to the ground floor to hear the telltale sounds of omelets being prepared.

"Morning, bro." She said, not even looking up from her cooking, "Yours 'll be done in a minute, thanks for getting everything out by the way." He nodded and went to the lounge to watch the news,

"The recent rise in cases of the Mysterious disease known as Apathy Syndrome continues, with five more cases being confirmed yesterday. Doctors, Psychologists, and Sociologists remain baffled by the illness, being wholly unable to determine if it is a physiological or psychological ailment…" the anchor continued as Minato lost interest. Apathy Syndrome seems to be all the news talks about lately, sure what it does to a person is disturbing as hell, and the fact no one seems to know anything about what causes it doesn't help matters. But you'd think they'd have other news to talk about at least, or did they just decide to run near constant specials to take advantage of situation for ratings?

"Breakfast is ready~!" Hamuko called out in a song like fashion. Minato removed himself from the chair he'd been occupying and moved to the dining area to eat, taking a seat across from Mitsuru just as Akihiko and Yukari walked in. "Kirijo-senpai, Sanada-senpai, Takeba-san." He gave a terse greeting to them.

"Good Morning." Yukari greeted somewhat tiredly, Mitsuru nodding in acknowledgement, while Akihiko grunted, moving past Hamuko, who came out with the last of the food, to get a protein shake from the fridge. The first thing Minato noticed when his senpai came back out was that he looked like he'd been in a fight of some kind. Lost pretty badly too from the looks of it, probably one of those 'real life situations' he talked about last night.

The blue haired teen caught the boxer's eye and shrugged, what his senior did in his spare time wasn't his business. Though, I have to admit, he waited a while to leave, it was just around that time before I went to sleep and he definitely didn't leave before then...

He stopped his musing on timing and promptly ate his breakfast, making small talk with everyone as he did so. He and Akihiko were the first ones to finish, going back into the kitchen to wash their dishes, "So, Minato, you feel like going for a run before school? " The boxer spoke up as they finished drying their plates.

"Really? It seems to me like you ran into trouble last night Sanada-senpai. I honestly didn't think you'd be up for anything strenuous today." Minato was actually surprised, though it has been a while since I got some good exercise, cardio is important after all.

"What this?" Akihiko gestured to the still visible bruises on him, "Nah, it looks a lot worse than it is, so you up for it or not?"

"Depends, are we swinging back here, or are we going all the way to school?" Minato asked

"The latter." Akihiko was getting a grin; he already knew Minato's answer from the way he'd asked the question.

"I'll go get my bag." He smirked at his senpai as the two left the room, getting a nod back in return.

The other three had all apparently finished their food as well, "Tres Bein, Hamuko-san, that was very good." Mitsuru commented, Yukari nodded in agreement, though she seemed awkward around their red headed Senpai. The girls looked up as the two walked past them, "We're going to get in a run, so don't wait up." Akihiko announced.

"Try not to be late then." Mitsuru seemed to have expected exactly that, as she showed no surprise whatsoever.

"We won't, and thanks for the food Hamuko." The Silver haired Boxer said as the two walked into the lounge area, and then went upstairs to retrieve their school supplies before heading out the door, Minato signed out first, just as the other three went to get their things ready for the day.

They started at a reasonable pace, not really that much faster than a jog; though this was more due to the amount of people they were sharing their path with than anything else.

"So what's the route Sanada-senpai?" Minato asked genuinely curious, I seriously doubt we have the time to cross the Moonlight Bridge, at least not if we don't want to miss the first two hours or so of school.

"Start by running up to the station and taking the early train to Port Island, and then we'll take the roundabout way to school." Akihiko replied pointedly, ignoring more than a few starring girls. "So how's Iwatodai treating you and your sister so far?" He started making conversation when he noticed that the pace wasn't hard on his junior.

"It's been okay so far, we lived here a long time ago, so that helps with the acclimatization." Minato responded and was about to continue when he noticed they were coming up on the station. Wouldn't even take ten minutes to get here if I was really moving, can't believe we got lost for almost an hour. I blame that stupid map. What map doesn't show the cardinal directions, or have a legend of some sort for that matter?

The two slowed to a walk as they entered the train station, idling around waiting for the monorail to arrive. "Hey, isn't that the transfer student who was with Yukari-san the other day?" a few students were talking over by some vending machines.

Minato just sighed; he hated being the center of attention. You'd think with a school as large as Gekkoukan, no one would take notice of a few transfer students, and even then something more interesting should get people's attention quickly enough.

"Say, Sanada-Senpai, do you know when the sports clubs are going to start taking new members?" Minato asked to distract himself from the gossip, and he was genuinely curious.

"Should start next week, depending on the club, Boxing is full up so we won't be unless someone drops out, Archery too now that I think about it. Why? You gonna go out for Kendo?" Akihiko responded helpfully

Minato nodded, "It's a good way to stay in shape." He'd picked up kendo about seven years ago at his grandfather's insistence and had loved every second of it since. Minato had actually become very health conscious since the accident, as the crash had done a significant amount of damage and his immune system had almost completely failed as well. He'd finally been given a clean bill of health after almost a year in and out of the hospital and more surgeries than he cared to count, and was determined to keep it.

The train finally arrived, and the two continued comparing the benefits of Kendo and Boxing, as they stood near one of the doors, not bothering to actually sit down. After a while they got to the subject of diet and dietary supplements.

"A decent amount of protein in your diet is important senpai, but you have to practice moderation, a buildup of excess protein could make you very sick. You need a careful balance of everything to maintain homeostasis, but too much of any one thing will hurt you." Minato advised his senpai.

"Yeah but that's why I only do it before or after a workout, then it gets used up repairing muscles before it can buildup and become a problem. " Akihiko defended himself.

"True enough, but you still need to be careful, take some vitamin supplements or put a bit of diversity in your diet. What's your opinion on potatoes?" Minato continued the conversation

"They're okay, but why are you asking?" Akihiko looked confused

"Potatoes are one of the most nutritionally packed things in existence, just baking one and putting cheese or butter on it actually constitutes a nutritionally complete meal." Minato explained, "I could pick some up when I'm out with Hamuko today if you want me to."

"Yeah, yeah that sounds good, simple and easy to make." Akihiko looked thoughtful, "Any other advice?"

Minato thought for a second, "Try not to rely on supplements and shakes, they're just that, supplements. Your body isn't made to directly process that large of a concentration of any one thing, so try limiting the protein shakes and stuff to only after workouts. Eat a peanut butter sandwich or something with a lot of protein before, and get in a snack like an apple or some other fruit after. It's also important to remember to stay hydrated, always drink at least a bottle or two over the course of a workout, but that's just common sense." He finished

Akihiko looked impressed, "You know your stuff. So what made you decide to start working out?" He was actually curious.

Minato had a brief internal debate about talking about it before speaking. "Well, I won't go into detail, that's personal, but I will say I spent a long time in the hospital as a kid and absolutely hated it."

Akihiko nodded, and the two fell into an amicable silence for the rest of the ride to Port Island. Once there the two exited the train only to be accosted by a group of girls who had apparently been waiting. "Akihiko-senpai! Will you go out with me?" "You're sooo cool senpai!" and various other phrases that Minato was sure were straight out of an anime greeted the two. Picking up the pace, they managed to lose the girls, who apparently had at least the decency to stop once it was clear they were being ignored.

"Tch, sorry about that, they get annoying sometimes. " Akihiko apologized, "But anyways, now's when the run really starts." He smiled as he said that.

Minato for his part also smiled, and the two set off, this time at a much faster pace. They looped past the hospital, then went up to Paulownia Mall, actually going parallel to the school and passing Mitsuru, then looped around and went to Gekkoukan itself. It eventually turned into a pseudo-race, with both of them trying to get ahead of the other, while still keeping a sustainable speed. All in all they'd been running for nonstop for almost 45 minutes, though they slowed their pace twice to rest, before they stopped. They arrived at the school just after Hamuko and Yukari, the two girls walking and having their own conversation ahead of them.

"Now that was a good run, we should do it again Sanada-senpai." Minato said a workout like that is a pretty good way to start the day off.

"Definitely, it'll be good to have someone who can keep up with me." Akihiko said with a knowing and somewhat hopeful look in his eye.

They had only just changed shoes and left the locker area when the warning bell to get to class sounded, "Well, looks like the run isn't quite over yet, eh Senpai?" Minato joked.

"Try not to be late." Akihiko responded the two sharing a brief glance before dashing off in opposite directions, rushing toward their respective classrooms.

Class 2-F, Afternoon

He'd barely made it, but Minato was not late for class that day. Note to self, start a few minutes earlier when going for a run before school. Classes had gone by fairly normally after that, though every teacher had some particular brand of insanity, Mr. Ono, for example, wore a samurai helmet spent the class lamenting about having to teach history other than that directly relating to the samurai themselves. There was also a Math Teacher who could barely do basic equations and rambled on about the "Aesthetics of the numbers" or some such nonsense. Right now they were in Composition with Ms. Toriumi, who apparently pulled double duty as an English teacher as well. Then again, this school seems to be understaffed in general, hell they've even got the nurse teaching a few classes.

"Open your textbooks and we'll take a look at the first novel by… Zenzou Kasai." Ms. Toriumi pulled Minato out of his thoughts, focusing him on the lesion at hand. "Ugh… why him? I'd much rather teach Utsubo Kubota." And there goes the illusion of there being any normal teachers here. Oh well at least this year will be interesting.

"He became famous as a singer, but he's also produced fine literature. " She continued on her mini-rant about Kubota. "I wonder why it's not in the textbook. Well, I'll just bring Kutoba's book next time." She stopped when she actually bothered to look at the students, "…Hey, Junpei! Were you listening? Who did I say was my favorite author?" she zeroed in on him, as he was looking out into space.

"H-huh? U-ummm…" he looked around like a deer caught in headlights, "psst, who does she like?" the man in the hat whispered to Minato, okay, normally I would leave him to his fate, but given how inane and off topic that question is I'll help.

"Utsubo Kubota." He whispered back, which Junpei promptly repeated back to the class.

"Oh that's right! You were listening to me after all!" Ms. Toriumi seemed to perk up when Junpei answered correctly.

"Eheheheh… You know how I like to pay attention." The man in the hat said nervously. "Man you saved my bacon Minato." He went back to whispering.

"Everybody gets one." Minato responded, becoming mildly annoyed when all his classmates started talking about him. Hamuko just beamed at him and said "Good job," while looking rather pleased with the situation.

The class continued for a while after that, Junpei's correct answer apparently having appeased Ms. Toriumi enough to actually teach the material in the textbook with only minor grumbling on her part. So things went smoothly until she caught a student in the back sleeping and gave them an extra assignment along requiring them to bring her a slice of cake, something Minato was pretty sure was completely illegal. They must be terribly understaffed; it's the only way to explain the sheer insanity of the teachers. The school must have just gotten desperate enough to just take anyone who applied.

Port Island station, after school

Hamuko was content, even if they were going to eventually move to other dorms, something she was personally starting to doubt from their dorm mates were acting, they now had enough food to last until the next time they got their allowance. She'd also gone ahead and repaid Minato from the change on this trip, seeing as yesterday's run to wasn't that expensive. Though it was somewhat hard for only two people to carry as many bags as they were currently lugging around.

"Hey, Minato, Hamuko, what's up?" Hamuko smiled when she heard Junpei's voice, she genuinely liked his upbeat attitude and found him a fun guy to be around.

Turning to greet him she gave a small wave that looked somewhat comical due to the groceries slung on her arm. "Hey Junpei, we're just headed back to our dorm with these groceries." She said

"Oh yeah? Here lemme, help with that. Least I can do after Ms. Toriumi's class." Junpei took some of the bags from each of them, lightening their load to a more reasonable level.

"Thanks, Iori-san" Minato said as he shifted his remaining bags to give himself greater freedom of movement.

"So, dude, I heard you came to school with Akihiko-senpai, what's up with that?" The Man and the Hat asked as he got a more comfortable hold on his new burden.

"He asked me if I wanted to go on a run with him before school is al. He lives at the dorm with us." Minato explained.

"Oh, wow, did you guys get lucky and get put in the cool people's dorm or what?" Junpei was shocked.

"Actually other than us it seems to be just Yukari-san, Akihiko-senpai, and Mitsuru-senpai." Hamuko interjected, "Though I don't think they're very good at taking care of themselves, all there was in the kitchen was instant ramen, bread, eggs, and a ton of protein shakes."

"Oh wow, so I guess Mitsuru-senpai gave you some money to get food then?" He asked

"Nah, Grandpa gave us some money for settling in, so I just used some of it to buy this, we really got lucky with a bunch of sales today." She responded.

Junpei looked impressed, "Dang, you certainly can take care of yourself; I can barely make instant ramen."

The three talked more on the way, with Junpei giving back his burden and heading home once they reached the dorm. As they walked through the door they heard Yukari's voice, "Oh, they're back."

She was sitting in the lounge with a man in a tan dress suit and black turtle neck. He seemed to be fairly tall and thin, his overly long brown hair falling to past his shoulders. As he turned to them Hamuko could see the glasses on his fact. "So these are our new guests…" He was about to continue but then noticed the bags in their hands. "Well, I suppose introductions can wait until they've put away those groceries. Why don't we help the out Yukari?" The quartet went to the kitchen and divided the work of putting everything up, spices; salt and other things went in the cabinets, while several assorted cheeses, vegies, fruits and meats, along with another liter of milk and a loaf of bread all went in the fridge. All in all while the food would last about a week or two, there were enough spices to last a few months.

Once that work was done, they went back out into the lounge where the man formally introduced himself "My name is Shuji Ikutski. I'm the Chairmen of the Board for Gekkoukan. 'Ikutski'… hard to says isn't it? That's why I don't like introducing myself; even I get tongue tied sometimes… but please have a seat."

Something about how Ikutski was carrying himself set off warning bells inside Hamuko's head. Possible minor speech impediment aside, seriously Ikutski is not that hard to say, I can't help but be suspicious of him for some reason…

The three teens moved to one of the couches, with Yukari in the middle, Minato closest to Ikutski and Hmauko on the other side.

"I apologize about the confusion regarding your accommodations. However, it may take a while longer for you to receive the proper room assignments. Is there anything you'd like to ask?" Ikutski said.

The way he'd said it all but confirmed Hamuko's earlier suspicions about the room assignments, though now I'm starting to think it's a lot less benign than I originally thought it was.

From the subtle shift in her brother's body language she could tell that he was thinking along the same lines.

"Why are you here?" Her brother beat her to the punch, with about the only question in this situation that didn't have an obvious answer, or would arouse suspicion.

"To welcome you of course." Ikutski said far too quickly for Hamuko's liking, He probably had this conversation planned out in advance. The realization was not a comforting one to her, as Chairmen of the Board; he would have access to their files, meaning he could look at them to get a good idea of what to say and when.

"Well, to be honest, I do have other business here. Speaking of which… where's Mitsuru, Yukari?" He changed the subject before the twins could further inquire into his motives.

"She's upstairs." Yukari said, seeming a little off put by the subject change herself.

"As diligent as always. Although it doesn't hurt to come down and say hello. Is there anything else?" Ikutski continued to dominate the course of the conversation, leaving the twins only an illusion of control. Conceding defeat they both said no, "Then I hope you have a successful school year. Now, if you'll excuse me… You must be tired from all that excitement, you should go to bed early. As they say 'the early bird catches the book worm!'" He chuckled at his own humor, "Please forgive the pun." Then he went upstairs, presumably to talk to Mitsuru.

Yukari sighed, "You'll get used to his lame jokes."

Hamuko locked eyes with her brother, the two reaching the consensus to search their rooms for anything odd, considering that Ikutski just told them to go to bed, and it was only a quarter to seven. They gave a good night to Yukari, and quickly went upstairs, at the second floor landing Minato grabbed her before she could keep going, "Don't do anything if you find something, we'll talk about what to do tomorrow." He spoke in what she'd deemed his 'Big Brother Voice'.

He then went to his own room, leaving her to make her way to hers. As she got to the third floor she saw Ikutski deep in conversation with Mitsuru, they abruptly stopped with they saw her. Hamuko decided to give a casual wave as she passed. Going down the hall to her room she made sure not to give them a second glance. Once Hamuko was inside she begain to look around for anything out of place, she checked her desk, her bed, her bookshelf, eventually after finding nothing in those places, her eyes swept the wall, looking for any off tint coloration or bumps.

After finding nothing for a while she almost gave up, when she say what appeared to be a small bump, only visible because of the contrast created by a shadow made by light reflecting off of her MP3 and hitting the boxes. Most would dismiss it as a trick of the light, but she wanted to be sure, so taking a hand mirror she tried to extrapolate the effect, and succeeded, the bump turned out to be a rise too perfect to be anything benign and too well positioned to be anything but a camera. Note to self, never call Grandpa Johei paranoid again.

She took out her phone and texted her brother, -found something on the top of my wall, near the corner across from the door, I think it's a camera.-

It took a few minutes for Minato to respond, - I have one too, same place, I'm going to ask Grandfather about this and see if he has any advice. Try to get your homework done and get some sleep. I'll tell you if he says anything tomorrow-

Hamuko put away her phone and sighed, try to get some sleep he says, yeah right, like I can sleep knowing someone's watching me. She spent the rest of the night doing homework and once that was done, she eventually managed to read herself to sleep.

? Late Night

Minato had only just gone to sleep after sending a message to his grandfather when he was seemingly awakened, no that wasn't the right word, it felt like he was awake but at the same time he was still sleeping. A quick glance around showed he was in what appeared to be a massive blue elevator rapidly going upwards, with a large clock rapidly turning across from him , his sister there as well, sitting in a lyre shaped chair and looking just as confused as he felt. He also ascertained that the two were not alone, across from them, on the other side of a small table with a blue cloth sat a small man with an enormous nose, pointed ears, and eyes that were far too large for a human being. On either side of his loveseat stood two people, on man and one woman in blue elevator attendant uniforms, with striking pure silver hair and gold eyes, both held some sort of large grimiore.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, my dear young guests." The small imp of a man spoke, and a song started to play, a soothing yet mysterious piano piece with haunting vocals that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance." The Small man continued, "This is Elizabeth and Theodore." He gestured to the other two, "They are resident's here like myself."

"Pleased to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

They started speaking at the same time, though Theodore's greeting was longer than Elizabeth's.

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter… It's been years since we've had a guest." Igor seemed to exude a happy and somewhat excited energy, then he waved his hand and the contracts from when they first entered the dorm appeared on the table and opened themselves. "Only those who have signed the contract can enter this place. Henceforth, you shall be welcome here in the Velvet Room." He exclaimed "You are destined to hone your unique ability, and you will require my help to do so. I only ask one thing in return, that you abide by the contract, and assume responsibility for the choices you make."

Minato nodded his head, "I intended to do that regardless."

"Excellent, and what of you my young dear, will you abide by the contract?"

Hamuko if anything looked even more confused, "Yes, but I really don't understand what's going on…"

Igor nodded, in what Minato assumed to be sympathy, "That is fine, for now." He made another motion with his arm and two blue keys appeared floating down into their hands. "Hold on to these."

"Till we meet again." He said in parting once they had the keys in hand, the image of the Velvet room becoming more and more blurry and indistinct by the second.

4/9 Morning

Minato awoke thinking about how strange the dream was, only to find the key still in his hand even in the waking world. So more than a dream then? I'll have to talk to Hamuko about it after school, damn first the cameras and now this, what's next eldritch abominations? Maybe a literal field trip into hell?

Just then he heard his phone vibrate, he opened it and saw a message from his Grandfather, -I'll look into things on my end, but I think I have a hunch on what's going on, just wait for me to get some answers on my end, I should have them by tomorrow. All in all though I think you'll be fine. Naoto wants you two to call soon, but if you do call before I get back to you on this, don't tell her anything.–

"Well that's that at least." He muttered as he went to start his day, grabbing his school uniform and heading to the showers. He was nearly done when he heard Akihiko enter the stall next to his. "Hey Minato, you up for another run this morning?" Minato briefly contemplated it, "Sorry Sanada-senpai, there's some things I need to go over with Hamuko this morning. How's tomorrow sound?" Probably best to tell her what Grandfather said first, the Velvet Room can wait. Though it might be best to bring the key just in case.

"Yeah, tomorrow sounds good, I'm thinking if we get up early enough we could go the whole way without taking the train. Maybe freeze something tonight and heat it for breakfast before we go." Akihiko was actually getting excited at the prospect of running that far.

"Maybe not that, but I'm not opposed to the route we did yesterday." Minato finished washing and proceeded to dry himself off, "Seriously though senpai, you'd have to eat a ton just to balance that out, well unless you have an ungodly metabolism like my sister, then you might need two or three tons. Speaking of Hamuko and Food, I believe she's making pancakes this morning." He'd put on his uniform as was walking out the door as he spoke. Moving back into his room he finish getting ready for school, and shoved the Velvet Key in his pocket.

He ran into Yukari on the way down, having heard Akihiko get ready "Good morning Minato-san!" She sounded and looked a bit awkward around him, probably saw us snooping around for the cameras last night, or is just against the spying thing in general. I'll ask her after Grandfather gets back to me. "Good morning Takeba-san." He replied, setting aside his analysis of her body language.

"So, Hamuko rushed past me this morning, she said something about pancakes…" His dorm mate seemed more confused than anything

"Our Mother called it the 'All American' it basically consists of an ungodly amount of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. She got the idea while she was studying abroad in university according to Grandfather. Hamuko only makes it when she's celebrating something or if she's upset." Minato explained as they reached the first floor

Yukari seemed to try to come up with a response, eventually settling on a simple "Oh", which was promptly repeated as the two walked into the dining area, a large stack of pancakes was at the center of the table, with a plate piled with bacon to one side and a large bowl of eggs on the other, all in all it was probably more than even five people could eat. Hamuko was already eating a rather large amount herself.

"The All American." Was all Minato said before grabbing a plate and piling food on it, good thing I'm planning on joining kendo, otherwise I might just have to take Akihiko up on that longer run.

Yukari slowly copied his actions, looking at the two from the corner of her eye. Minato noticed but didn't care, locking eyes with his sister, and sending the silent message of "We need to talk", apparently it was received because she nodded back to him.

"Holy hell…" Minato turned to look at the two seniors standing in shock at the amount of food before them.

"Akihiko!" Mitsuru recovered first and scolded him. Well I suppose that's one way to save face, if nothing else.

"Senpai! Have as much as you like, I made plenty." Hamuko beamed at them, Yukari seemed to release some of the tension she'd been unconsciously holding when she heard the other girl's cheery voice. Minato knew it wasn't a false cheer either, she'd apparently been thinking on the situation and reached a conclusion that she liked. Probably the same one I've reached, but we could both be way off base. Naoto has always been better at this kind of thing than us.

The five spent a good twenty minutes trying to finish the food, with Hamuko eating the most by far, but even then they had to put some in the fridge, choosing to just have it for dinner. With a plethora of thank you's from the other dorm mates as they went on their separate routes to school the two fell into a silent walk.

"So, did Grandpa get back to you?" Hamuko was the one that broke it.

"Yes, he says he thinks we should be fine, but he wants to check. So don't do anything, and don't mention it to Naoto." He responded.

"Right, and the Velvet Room? I know it wasn't just a dream." She took out her Key, now that he had the chance to see it up close; there were minute but noticeable differences to his own.

"Wait and see I guess, we could scour Port Island and Iwatodai, but it's such a large area that it would take days for us to find the entrance, if at all. And that's assuming we knew what to look for, which we don't." He answered "So, why the All American?"

"I was thinking, and remember how in Kyoto some people would sometimes be in that time, but only for one day and then never again? Well I think that's what the cameras are for, to see if us being active was just a onetime thing or not. Add that to the fact we know for a fact at least Yukari-san and Mitsuru-senpai don't walk around in coffins and it all comes together. They're like us, and they wanna see if we're able to operate during that time. We're not alone! So that's why I made the All American!" She was giving a 100 mega-watt smile during her quiet exposition.

"There are other possibilities, but that seems like the most reasonable one, taking Grandfather's response into account." He actually started to think of the implications of that, "Say, the armbands, do you remember what they said?"

"What?" The confused look she gave her made the vocalization totally redundant.

"The armbands Krijio-senpai and Takeba-san were wearing when we got to the dorm, do you remember what they said?" He elaborated his previous question.

"Now that you mention it, they were wearing the same armband, it had some sort of Acronym on it, but I can't remember the letters." She scrunched her face in thought as she spoke. "And those gun things, they're definitely more than a support group." She contemplated but then she smiled, and giggled, "Look at us, cracking into a mystery, and here I thought Naoto was the junior detective."

"Pfft, if Naoto were here, it'd probably already be solved; we aren't nearly as good as her when it comes to this." He gave a chuckle of his own. "We'll have to give her a call later today won't we? "

"But of course, and as her favorite cousin/older sibling figure, I get to talk to her first~!" She sing-songed

"Whatever helps you sleep at night Hamuko, whatever helps you sleep at night." He said playfully

Gekkoukan, Morning.

"Ahem… I'm Mr. Ekoda. I'll be teaching you Classic Literature." Mr. Ekoda stood at the front of the class in a grey suit, his whole demeanor giving off a sense of hostility and defensiveness. "I'll be teaching you about good old Japan all year. Some people say classic lit. isn't relevant to everyday life, but oh, how they're wrong!" He continued into a full on outburst, "The students, the other teachers… Wrong, wrong, wrong! Nobody understands Classic Literature…" Wow, but is his inferiority complex making me want to sleep, should I, on the pro side, I won't have to listen to him, but on the cons if I get caught he might single me out… Yeah becoming the target of that walking case study on inferiority isn't worth it.

"Hey… are you listening to me!? You children, open your textbooks. First on our syllabus is "Ise Monogatari," the origin of Japanese Literature. It's a very interesting story; you youngsters might call it, 'da bomb'." Ekoda continued

Dear God/Lucifer/Cthulhu/Vishnu/Odin/other assorted deities and eldritch horrors, whatever I've done to deserve this punishment, I truly am sorry. Really I am, so could you please just end this, I promise I won't do it again, I swear.

He sighed, "I can tell you people are zoning out…"

And so the lesion dragged on, and was surprisingly much more tolerable after that point, Minato's prayer for deliverance seemingly heard by some kind entity.

Afterschool

The two walked home with Junpei, getting into a heated debate about who would win in a fight between Boba Fett and Samus, with Junpei actually having solid reasoning for backing Samus, while Hamuko was quick to point out Boba Fett's escapades in the books. Minato then pointed out that not only does Samus constantly lose the neigh irreplaceable gear that is literally integrated into her armor at the start of every game, but also how Boba Fett got eaten by the same completely immobile creature multiple times. This lead to him being called a kill joy repeatedly on the train ride to Iwotodai station.

The good natured teasing continued until Junpei parted was to return to his own home, the twins then continued to talk on their own the way back to the dorm. Once they got there they noticed the other three where out, so they took the opportunity to call Naoto, putting the phone on speaker so they could both talk at once.

"Hello Minato." They could hear they're younger cousin just bursting with questions.

"What, no greeting for me!? I feel, shocked, betrayed, it's almost like I'm not your favorite Nao-chan!" Hamuko said, Minato then spoke, "We're alone right now so we put you on speaker."

"Oh, hello to you to Hamuko." The 13 year old's voice conveyed feigned exasperation at her cousin's antics.

The conversation then flowed into them answering a barrage of questions from the overly curious girl on Gekkoukan and their dorm mates. A rapid fire interrogation and a fair bit of teasing took the better part of an hour before Naoto hung up to do her homework. By that point the twins had moved to Minato's room for privacy, at least in a relative sense, as the others began arriving home. Once the call was done they went and heated up dinner, having more small talk with the others before moving back to their own rooms to do their own homework and sleep.

4/9 Dark hour

Minato was awakened rather violently by an earthquake level of shaking, quickly throwing on something, which just happened to be his pajama bottoms, a random white tee, and his uniform blazer, he was about to open the door when Yukari banged on it. "WAKE UP! Sorry but I'm coming in!" the door, which he'd been sure to lock was suddenly flung open and she ran in awkwardly holding a short sword, Hamuko stood behind her in just her pjamas uncertainly holding a naginata.

"I don't have time to explain. We have to get out of here now!" Yukari was clearly panicked by whatever the hell was happening. Probably not gonna be able to get a straight answer out of her in this state.

"Then let's go." He said, burying his own growing trepidation under a façade of calm.

Just then the building shook again, and it was accompanied by a loud bang, almost as if a truck had just rammed the dorm.

"Hurry downstairs, we'll leave through the back door!" She started to turn "Wait" she handed him the sword, "take this, just in case." He nodded, and gripped the hilt. Certainly sharper than a Shinai that's for sure, He noted

"Okay, let's go!" She sounded more confident now, either by the fact they could protect themselves, or the calm air he was faking Minato couldn't tell.

They made a mad dash down the stairs, in attempt to reach the back door as quickly as possible, a plan that lasted until they actually got to their chosen escape route.

"Alright, we should be safe now… " Yukari was breathing a little quickly

She said, without irony Minato snarked in his head, hmm, I'm being sarcastic in what is most likely a life or death situation, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Hamuko simply looked confused now, having gained back some confidence.

Their relief was short lived as a transceiver in Yukari's ear buzzed, "Y-yes, I hear you!" Minato couldn't make out what the other person was saying, he did hear the panicked "WHAT!?" that came after though.

Then a loud bang erupted from the door, as something tried to force its way in, causing the three to jump back.

Definitely heard that though

"L-let's pull back!" Yukari stuttered as the banging continued. And pull back they did, going back up the stairs as fast as they came down

They'd just gotten to the second floor when what Minato could only assume was the sound of the door being destroyed reached their ears. "What are we going to do? They're downstairs!" Yukari was not handling the situation well, which is bad, because she's the only one that knows what the actual fuck is going on.

Minato spoke this time "If we can't go down the only way left is up!" he somehow managed to keep his voice even despite having absolutely no desire to find out what was downstairs.

After Yukari registered his statement, a mad dash to the roof ensued that put their earlier hurry to get down to shame. With occasional breaking and shaking coming from increasingly nearby sources to keep them motivated they reached the roof before the other things did. Hamuko bent down and breathed rapidly and deeply, totally out of breath from the escape.

Okay assuming whatever the hell we're running from can't climb at a 90 degree angle with almost no hand holds we'll be fine.

Yukari sighed in relief, "I think we're okay for now…" just then a large black hand grabbed onto the railing on the end of the roof.

Fuck, shouldn't have tempted fate.

More hand gripped the wall as the creature began to haul itself up, a single hand rising above the rest gripping a blue mask with the Roman numeral I on the forehead and turning it like a periscope. After a second of looking around, as it were, the eye holes of the mask zeroed in on them.

Oh, it can see us… OH FUCK THAT THING CAN SEE US! This realization was enough to break Minato's façade, causing his eyes to widen and his body to start shaking, he senses went into overdrive. But through it all he could feel a faint, calling, at the back of his mind, as if something was telling him to release it.

Then the monster pulled dozens of swords out of nowhere, all of them shaped vaguely like a cross between a sewing needle and a scissor blade, but no less deadly for it, considering they were about as long as he was tall. It pulled itself over the edge, showing its form to be nothing more than arms coming out of a black mass; it used its free arms to rapidly pull itself towards them.

Yukari got between them and it, "Those monsters, we call them shadows." Then she pulled the gun at her hip and put it to her head.

"Wai-" Minato was cut off as she pulled the trigger and some sort of blue energy swirled around her, then she tried again, having evidently failed to do what she intended.

The Shadow reached her and the attempted to impale her on one of its swords, she managed to dodge, unfortunately, though she avoided getting impaled, the not-gun flew to Minato's feet, and Yukari got a nasty cut on her leg. Apparently satisfied she was no longer a threat, if it had truly considered her one in the first place, the Shadow turned its attention to the twins. For Minato everything seemed to be going in slow motion, the faint tugging in his head became a rapid pounding throughout his skull as something in his mind demanded to be released. Heartbeat in his ears he reached down and picked up the weapon from the pool of blood by his feet.

"Go on." The voice of the boy from their arrival at the dorm echoed through his skull.

Cradling the tool in his hands, the pounding in his head subsided, replaced by a cool certainty and a silent promise of power. He slowly put the barrel to his head, finger firmly on the trigger, as a word forced its way through his lips, he instinctively knew it was the name for the power he felt in his mind. "Per…so….na" it felt alien on his tongue, yet at the same time it felt right, like greeting a long lost friend.

He depressed the trigger, hearing the hammer crash and feeling the recoil, despite this, however, nothing came out of the barrel, indeed where brain, blood and skull should have been ejected by the round, instead there was what looked like shattered, glowing blue glass. Above him a large figure formed in the column of blue energy that suddenly surrounded Minato. A seemingly mechanical body, with its torso being a light blue, the upper part of its limbs unpainted metal, and blow the rest white was a pale white, it had a red scarf on, completely obscuring the neck, it's head was a matte black, with glowing red eyes and stark white hair, it carried a giant white lyre on its back. Then the being spoke its words echoing through the twisted night.

Thou art I

And I am thou

From the sea of thy soul I cometh

I am Orpheus, Master of Strings!

It punctuated this declaration with an unnatural roar, which was followed by an explosion of fire on the shadow, driving it back. Minato smiled, the power feeling right to him, coming as naturally as walking or breathing. The jubilation was short lived however, as a splitting pain quickly shot its way through him, centered in skull. He yelled in pain bending over and clutching his head as Orpheus was torn apart from the inside. As the pain reached its height the persona was torn asunder in a spectacular fashion, leaving a much darker creature in its place.

This being was a dull black all on its torso and head, what passed for the creature's face was a bone skull that looked to be from some sort of dragon or dinosaur, complemented by its white gloves and legs, which contrasted with its black torso. Eight thin coffins were chained to its back, serving as a macabre set of wings. In its hand the creature held a cruel sword that gave off an aura of pain and death. Unlike Orpheus this creature gave no words, merely a hateful roar, before proceeding to brutalize the shadow. It cut into its arms with its blade, ripping and tearing at anything it could grab with the other hand. It was over in seconds as the last remaining arm of the shadow was crushed in its grip. Then it looked at Hamuko, even with no eyes or facial features to speak of, the waves of contempt could be felt coming off the creature, it held her in its gaze for another minute, before simply turning back into Orpheus.

Hamuko had never been so afraid in her life as she had in those endless seconds under the creature's gaze. She nearly collapsed out of relief when it turned back into Orpheus, but then she noticed that it continued to look at her, with what she could have sworn was pity. She met the persona's gaze and it held the stare before returning to her brother's side. Then smaller shadows began to climb onto the roof, "Agi!" The strange word came out of Minato's mouth like a command and the persona obeyed, strumming its lyre before one of the shadows erupted in fire and died, while Minato finished another with a well-placed thrust into its mask.

Okay Hamuko you can do this, the big one is dead, just aim for the masks and everything will be fine…

"Hamuko!" she turned just in time to see him throw the gun at her. After barely catching it she scrutinized it closely, and felt the same tugging Minato had, less insistent but there all the same. "I am thou." She whispered as she copied her brother's earlier action, she saw him fighting more of the small shadows with Orpheus, burning and stabbing. She pulled the trigger.

Thou art I

And I am thou

From the sea of thy soul I cometh

I am Persephone, Queen of Hades!

Her persona took the form of a mechanical woman, her body the color of pale skin, covered in a flowing red sleeveless robe that split mid-thigh, showing off her black thigh high boots and gloves. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into an impossibly high ponytail; her piercing blue eyes gazed outwards at the shadows. Disturbingly, however, Persephone had long bronze chains attached to her ankles, wrists and neck, secured by painful looking shackles.

Hamuko only spent a second taking in the appearance of her persona before joining her brother in the fray, thrusting and swinging her naginata with a precision she would have been perplexed at had she taken the time to think about it. "Garu!" she commanded Persephone to unleash a scything blast of wind on the shadows, pushing them back and severing their black limbs. Eventually the twins fell into synch, Hamuko using her sweeping strikes to cover Minato when he in dashed to stab or otherwise disable any shadow that exposed itself by trying to strike at them, and they used Garu and Agi in conjunction to cover a larger area with the flames. With their more efficient, if still somewhat clumsy, teamwork the two managed to best the last of the shadows after about a few more minutes of fighting.

"W-w-w-we did it!" Hamuko was panting heavily, leaning heavily on her weapon for support, as Persephone retreated into her mind.

"Great." Was all Minato managed to say before he fell forward unconscious, Orpheus simply disappearing immediately beforehand.

"MINATO!" She only just managed to stop him from falling on his sword, Yukari meanwhile finally recovered from the shock of the past few minutes enough to help, rushing over to check if he was okay, rolling him onto his back and feeling for a pulse. Hamuko however began panicking, "No, no no no no no no no, this can't be happening, this can't be happening." Tears were starting to form in her eyes as she looked at her brother on the ground, Yukari attempting to wake him up once she determined his vitals were all there.

Just then the door flew open, and the seniors rushed out, Akihiko, quickly checking over Yukari's work, before setting aside a first aid kit and moving to pick up Minato, Hamuko having been pushed to the side by her classmate, rushed over to embrace her unconscious twin, steadfastly refusing to let go. After a minute of fighting the girl in pink and the boxer managed to peel her off with Misturu's help, said woman, held her underclassmen in an iron grip while she gave orders. "Akihiko, the Dark Hour is ending in a few minutes, and the Chairmen is going to call for an ambulance, stay with Arisato until then." The other Senior nodded carrying Minato into the building, "Takeba, go take care of your leg, it doesn't look that bad but looks can be deceiving."

"Yes, ma'am." Yukari gave an apologetic look to Hamuko, still struggling and now openly crying while muttering her brother's name incoherently, before turning and limping off the roof.

With the others gone, Mitsuru turned her attention to the girl in her grip, steadily lowering her to the ground as, she noticed that she was the only thing actually keeping Hamuko standing, kneeling over the now sitting girl she spoke in a soft voice, as one would speak to a scared animal. "Hamuko, Hamuko I need you to look at me, he's only exhausted from summoning his persona, Minato is going to be fine." She loosened her grip on Hamuko's arms; just enough to make her not feel trapped but also enough to trap her again should she need to, the other girl looked into her eyes, searching for any signs of deception. Apparently satisfied with what she saw as Mitsuru held her gaze, she began to calm down. Once she was at least fully calm Mitsuru began quietly prodding Hamuko and directing her to downstairs with little resistance due to shock and exhaustion of both the physical and mental varieties, she eventually got her down to the first floor just as the world returned to normal though by that point the younger girl was leaning on her heavily just to stay up. By the time the ambulances arrived to take the three underclassmen to Tatsumi Memorial Hopital, Yukari's leg needed stiches, the last vestiges of adrenaline had worked their way out of Hamuko's system and she was fast asleep.

And so the Journey began.

AN: So there's chapter two down, Honestly I thought this one was gonna be a lot shorter, as there's not really a lot that happens in the first two days, you're just introduced to the class mechanics and then you get a really easy tutorial fight. There's only so much I can do even with adding my own fluff to fill the gaps. Honestly the thing I'm most disappointed in is the fight, yeah I know it's basically a tutorial where losing is next to impossible even if you try because you're fighting like three cowardly maya's, that I'm convinced are nerfed somehow. So I had to rely on the characters to carry the day, cause let's face it Thanatos drank some of that OP juice before he popped out of Minato's head.

As for the Mitsuru thing let me explain, that was just her saying soothing things to calm down a girl having a panic attack, as someone who has dealt with that kind of thing before it's not really about what you say, so much as how you say it. And you'd have to be emotionally retarded, and yes I'm using that term correctly, to fuck it up, Mitsuru is emotionally stunted, so she's capable of the needed level of empathy and projection, even if she's somewhat awkward about it.

On to the self-deprecation, once again my overall though on this is, it could have been better. Maybe one day when I've honed my skills a bit more, and it's not two in the morning I can come back and rewrite it to my satisfaction. Overall I think the pacing's a bit funny for my liking, it goes from too fast to too slow and I can't think of a way to fix it without screwing up the flow in some other way. I used its way too fucking much at the end there, but that's for lack of a better word more than anything else. I could go on about the various things I think could have been done better but then the author's note would end up as long as the chapter so I'll end this here.

Thank you for reading and please review and critique so that I can improve, and I'll be sure to answer any questions you have. Until next time.