Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 3 or 4.
Chapter 2
"Welcome to the Velvet Room." The long-nosed man said with a wide grin on his face. "My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance."
"This place exists between dreams and reality, mind and matter. Only those bound by a contract may enter this place." The man named Igor continued.
"You would want our assistance to help you through your journey." With a wave of his hand, a red folder with a feather quilt pen and an ink bottle appeared on top of the small table. The folder flipped open and in it contained a contract. It read:
'I chose this fate of mine through my own free will.'
Mizuki picked up the feather and dipped it in the ink bottle. She signed on the piece of paper, not knowing what she was doing.
'Mizuki Arisato'
The bluenette stared at the name. She signed it but the surname wasn't hers. It was supposed to be Shirogane. Not Arisato. But something made her sign that name. Before she could do anything, the contract and pen had already disappeared.
"Now that you have signed the contract, you shall be welcomed here in the Velvet Room." Igor said "I only ask for one thing in return. That you'll abide by the contract and take full responsibility for your actions that you will make."
"I understand." Mizuki said. If that was all, she just needed to be careful of her choices and nothing more.
"Hold on to this." A small flash of light came down and landed inside Mizuki's pocket.
"That is called the Velvet Key. It will assist you to enter this place the next time we meet but you will come here in your own accord."
Igor looked at the man standing beside him. "I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you."
The man with gold eyes slightly bowed at her direction.
"My name is Theodore. But please feel free to call me Theo."
Igor looked back at Mizuki. "Now, time marches on in your world."
Light started blind the bluenette's vision.
"Till we meet again." She heard Igor say before the bright light quickly engulfed her.
She pressed her eyelids shut as the morning sunlight blinded her. After a moment, she slowly opened them just to find herself puzzled. Mizuki doesn't remember sleeping in the living room but seeing her school papers scattered on top of the coffee table meant she probably forgot to do her school assignments and did it in the middle of the night then falling asleep in the process.
She drew her hand in her hair, before sighing.
"What is all…a dream?" Mizuki said to no one but herself. She removed her hand from her hair and let it rest on her lap.
She looked outside the window, still trying to remember what had happened but nothing came. Mizuki was trying so hard to remember, she didn't notice a blue butterfly fluttering past by.
Taking a deep breath, Ken knocked on the Faculty Office door before entering. The room looked more or less, like a normal classroom except the fact that this was a faculty room. The room is filled with cabinets and desks used by the teachers. There was a small podium in front of the board. The board was full of writings about important dates and reminders.
"Oh, are you one of the new transfer student?" a teacher said from her desk which is near the door. She stood up and was holding something which looked like a scepter.
"You must be Ken Amada, a junior correct?" she said. Ken nodded in response.
"I'm Miss Sofue and I teach World History. Welcome to Yasogami High." Ms. Sofue said.
"Oh...thank you, Sofue-sensei."
"Such good mannerisms. We could use more students like you around here." Sofue smiled. "As for you're classroom assignment, you're in 2-2. That would be my class."
She glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. "Class is about to start soon. I just need to finish my work here before I introduce you to your new classmates. Could you wait in the hallway for the time being?"
"Of course, Sensei." Ken said. He turned around and headed out of the Office, not after hearing what Miss Sofue said.
"Have you met the other transfer student? You probably have seen him as you entered. He's waiting outside."
The hallway of the first floor was almost deserted as Ken left the Faculty Office. Class is probably about to start. Just like his teacher instructed, he waited outside.
"You're one of the transfer students…right?" a voice said. Ken looked up to see a boy his age with messy reddish brown hair and dark crimson eyes. He is wearing the regular uniform but his jacket is not buttoned up.
"I'm also one of the new transfer students. I'm Ryuu Yuzuki."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ken Amada." The two teenagers shook hands before they started to talk to each other.
"Have you just moved here recently?" Ken asked.
"No. My family used to live here before we decided to move to the city and then come back here." Ryuu answered. "How about you?"
"Me and my father used to live in Iwaitodai before he got a job transfer here." Ken said.
"Really?" Ryuu asked. They were about to continue their conversation but they were cut off by the school bell and their homeroom teacher arrived to introduce them to the class.
Mizuki entered her classroom just in time before the school bell rang. She was breathing heavily as if she just ran a marathon.
"…Made it!" Mizuki said.
"Yeah. You made it just in time. The teacher hasn't arrived yet." Nanako said as she approached the bluenette.
Mizuki fixed the barrettes on her hair before she looked at Nanako. "Good thing to. Or else I have to bare your fans' agony. Why did you tie your hair?"
"I thought it looks good on me." Nanako said, touching the ribbons which held her long pigtails. It suited her quite well. "And they're not only my fans, they're yours too."
"It's not really our fault we have them." Mizuki sighed. "I just want to know how it started."
"Well, that's a secret only available for the boys here in our school." One of their classmates said. The two girls turned their attention to a boy with messy brown hair and dark brown eyes.
"But…for a certain fee, I might be able to give you girls some info." He added.
"No thank you, Isamu. I can get by without that info of yours." Mizuki said.
The boy named Isamu shrugged. "Knew that you wouldn't accept. Anyways, what took you so long? Miss Sofue would've poked you with that scepter of hers to death if you arrived late."
"I had to rewrite my term paper for Literature." Mizuki simply replied.
Isamu stared at her for a while before saying "W-Wait a minute…we had an assignment for Literature!...Crap…I'll just do it later during our Lunch break."
"I don't think that will work, Isamu-kun." Nanako said with a sweatdrop.
"I have already made up my mind." Isamu said. "…Anyways, have you guys heard? They say we might be having two transfer students today! And they're both from the city!"
"Just like you're cousin, huh, Nanako?" Mizuki said. "Speaking of which…how is Souji-san?"
"Oh, Big Bro is attending a university in Tokyo along with Big Sis Yukiko and the others." Nanako replied.
"Yeah…I haven't seen Yosuke-san around lately." Isamu said. "He's best friends with Souji-san, right?"
Nanako nodded. With that, they heard the school bell ring again and all of them went back to their seats. Mizuki went to hers which is in the third row with Isamu sitting behind her while Nanako sat in front of her.
Miss Sofue entered the classroom before the two male students entered. There was a lot of murmuring, more coming from the girls.
"They're so cute~!"
"You think they're available?"
"Who knows? I just want to stare at them the whole day!"
Mizuki rolled her eyes when she heard this before turning her attention to the transfer students. She stopped when her eyes fell on a certain brunette.
Ken surveyed his new classroom. He could hear the murmurs and squealing of the girls but he quickly shrugged it off. He decided to look for a familiar face and when he looked at the third row, he was perplexed on what he saw.
'Hey, isn't that…?' they both thought.
"Alright everyone, settle down now." Miss Sofue said. "I know that you all have heard that we'll be having two new transfer students today. Why don't you introduce yourselves?"
It was Ryuu who spoke first. "Hello. I'm Ryuu Yuzuki. Please take good care of me." He greeted with a smile on his face.
"And I'm Ken Amada. Pleased to meet you." Ken said to his new classmates.
"Now class, any questions?" When nobody raised their hands, their teacher continued. "Alright, you need new seats. Amada-kun, could you sit next to Dojima-chan? Nanako-chan, raise your hand so that he knows who his new seatmate will be. As for you, Yuzuki-kun, you could sit in front of Takahashi-kun…WHO IS CLEARLY EATING BEHIND A TEXTBOOK! YOU KNOW I CAN SEE YOU FROM HERE, ISAMU!"
All of class 2-2 laughed. Isamu just scratched his head. "Heh…looks like I'm caught. And looks like we'll be having a new seatmate, huh, Mizuki-chan."
After School
Ken was just fixing his school things when he heard someone talk to him.
"Hey…"
He looked up and saw Mizuki standing if front of his desk.
"Never thought you're going to be my classmate again." Ken said.
"Yeah." Mizuki agreed. "Although you never really said you'll be moving here. Much less where you'll be transferring schools."
"You never said you studied here in Inaba."
"True." "Oh, so Mizuki-chan knows one of the new transfer students."
Isamu, with Ryuu and Nanako following behind him, approached the pair.
"You're Ken Amada, right?" he asked. Ken nodded in reply. "I'm Isamu Takahashi. Pleased to meet you. Oh, and this is Nanako Dojima."
"Hello." Nanako greeted.
"Nice to meet you too." Ken said.
"And Ryuu, this is Mizuki Shirogane. Mizuki, this is Ryuu." Isamu said, introducing the two of them.
"Nice to meet you." Mizuki said.
"Nice to meet you too." Ryuu replied. "Hey, are you somewhat related to Naoto Shirogane?"
"Naoto Shirogane?" Ken asked "You mean the 'Prince Detective'?"
Mizuki nodded. "I mentioned it before."
"I see him every time on television." Ryuu stated. "He's some Ace Detective alright."
Isamu looked at the group before speaking, "You guys headed home? Why don't we show you around Inaba for a while?"
"Like a tour?" Ken asked.
"Yeah! It will be fun!" Isamu exclaimed. "And I'll treat you guys to Junes!"
"…J-Junes?" Nanako asked. She took Isamu's nod for a yes then she beamed.
"What do you say guys?" Isamu continued to ask.
In the end, everyone agreed to go.
They all sat in the circular table which is filled with different food they bought from the food stalls.
"Oh, is that the reason why you moved here, Amada-san?" Nanako said "I thought it was something more serious.
"It's fine with me, and please, call me Ken. Amada-san sounds too formal." He said.
"But who would've thought Ryuu-san lived here." Isamu said. "Now I know why you looked so familiar."
"Well," says Ryuu "It's a long story actually on why my family and I kept on moving."
As Ryuu told his story, another group of students, who are sitting beside them, were talking really loudly. They couldn't help but overhear.
"Hey, you think it will be on tonight?"
"Guess so. The forecast did say it will be raining tonight."
"Man that show is getting better and better! I just can't believe it only happens every midnight."
"...Oh they must be talking about that show." Isamu said.
"What show?" Ken asked.
"Don't worry. It just some old rumors. They just started to pop up again last month." Answered Isamu.
"C'mon. There's no harm telling." Ryuu said.
"Well, I don't know the full details about it but they say that if one would stare at the screen of a closed television, alone, at midnight on a rainy night, they would see someone." Isamu paused before he continued "I don't know if you're supposed to see your soul mate or a deceased loved one. All I know is that you see someone there…and it's an old rumor. It's probably not true."
"I heard that rumor before." Nanako said. "It died down two years ago. But it just suddenly came back."
"Even if the rumor is real or not, it's catching everyone's interest." Mizuki said "That's I've been mostly hearing recently."
"Why don't we give it a try? To see if it's real or not?" Ryuu asked. Everyone nodded. They needed to see if this old rumor is true.
Ken wondered to himself. 'This sounds like the Dark Hour. I wonder if the two have a connection or not.'
It started to rain heavily as it almost reached midnight. Mizuki was alone in her room as she looked outside. The lights were closed so the only source of light was coming from lighting from the outside.
'I really wonder if that rumor is true.' She thought as she walked towards the closed television.
At first, nothing happened but the TV opened on its own. There was static but Mizuki could make out a figure of a man wearing a lab coat. She blinked and the image changed. Instead of the figure, a face of a mask replaced it.
"What…?" Mizuki reached out to the screen. Wasn't this a man a moment ago?
Her hand was inches away from screen when something came out of it. An arm. It grabbed her left wrist and started to pull her towards the TV. It dragged her until the lower half of her arm got stuck.
Mizuki didn't recover quickly from shock. Her arm was stuck inside the TV! But something else entered her mind. Pain. Unbelievable pain. She tried her best not to shout. She didn't want the other members in the household to worry.
There was a roll of thunder and she felt the grip on her arm go. She removed her arm from the TV and fell on the floor with a loud thud, cradling her left wrist which burdens most of the pain.
She looked at her wrist and felt her heart stop for a moment. The knock on the door made her come back to her senses.
"Um…Shirogane-sama? Is everything alright?"
"Y-Yeah! I'm fine. T-there's nothing to worry about." Mizuki answered in a loud yet hoarse voice. Even to her it sounded fake.
She heard footsteps getting distant so she assumed they were going back to bed.
Mizuki looked back at her arm and looked at it. There, as if carved by a knife, written with thick bright red blood which is her own:
'XIII'
Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the second chapter. It does have some length though but I did my best with it. You guys might be confused on why Nanako here is a teenager. It was relevant to this story. In the originally game, Nanako would still be a child. I did the math and since she is very important to this story, I made her age a bit. I hope you readers understand.
I assumed that the Shirogane family is very rich and must be living in a really big estate. That would also mean they have helpers in the house.
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