Persona 4: Replay Chapter 1

-ASHLEY'S DREAM-

I woke up to find myself in a small, odd-looking blue room. Well, actually, it didn't feel like a room, but more like the inside of a moving vehicle once I noticed the windows. I felt the vehicle move and jerk, so apparently, it was moving pretty damn fast. Another thing I noticed out of the corner of my eye was an older girl sitting in front of me. "Wow...this must be one of my normal dreams." I said as I looked around from my seat. "Well, this is boring. Where's the dancing hippos and the chainsaw wielding gummy worms?" I asked aloud.

The girl looked at me with a stern gaze and sighed inwardly. "Miss," she spoke in a polite, crisp tone. "If you wish to continue, you have to sign the contract." She held out a thin red book with a single sheet of paper inside. "All it says is that you will take responsibility for your actions while your here."

I nodded and signed the weird contract without another thought. If this was just a dream, none of this would affect me when I woke up, right?

"It is time for you to go back." Said the girl again, who looked at me with intense yellow eyes. "My master and I will see you soon."

After that, my vision began to get fuzzy and my head became less and less clear. Soon, the vehicle and the girl with the beautiful silver hair and intense yellow eyes vanished from my sight as everything went dark.

-A FEW HOURS LATER-

"Miss...Miss...ake up...time...up." I heard someone say as they tried to pull me out of my much needed sleep. I opened my eyes and looked at who was doing it, which happened to be one o the flight attendants. "Miss, we've landed, so it is time to wake up." the flight attendant said as she stood back up and smiled at me. "Th-Thank you." I said quietly and tiredly. I noticed everyone else had gotten off the plane. I gathered my things and left the plane, headed to baggage and piked up my other bags and began to walk to the train station, following the signs, and got onto the train after putting my bags up.

I still had about another two hours before I got to my new town of Yasoinaba. I yawned and laid my head on the window. Just before I shut my eyes, I could have sworn I saw a beautiful blue butterfly fluttering about in front of my window again. I yawned, shut my eyes, and began to doze and sleep once more...

-ASHLEY'S DREAM WORLD-

"Huh? The same dream twice?" I asked aloud. This time, instead of just the girl this time, there was an older man with a very large nose sitting in front of me.

"Welcome...To the Velvet Room." He said as he looked up at me. My eyes widened in surprise. He looked EXACTLY like a character from my game. "Igor..." I mumbled quietly to myself.

"Ah...It seems we have a guest with an intriguing destiny." he chuckled "My name is Igor...I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mi-" he continued until I interrupted him.

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those who are bound by a "contract" may enter..." I finished his next sentence for him.

Igor chuckled. "Ah...So it seems you know where you are then. May I guess that you also know as to why your here?" he asked and chuckled again

I shook my head and spoke again. "Well, only those who have the Wild Card ability may come in here after signing your contract. But this should be impossible, you don't exist. Your Igor, you should only exist in a video game series called Persona."

He chuckled once more. "Remember what both you and I said, this place exists between dream and reality. What is reality to you can be a dream, or perhaps even a game, to another."

I just nodded dumbly. He continued. "Now, you have two important jobs here...I will only tell you one, but you need to finish the other before you may leave for your home."

"Jobs?" I asked. He nodded "Yes, you must find you way back to your home, or should I say, your world." I just stared at him and he continued speaking. "You have traded places with another from our world, and you must take his place while here. You may return to your world in one year's time if you chose, but only after you completed the other job here."

I nodded once more, confused again. I didn't believe him though since I know a close friend of mine had a persona dream once, and had met Pharos from Persona 3 and had spoken with him. Igor looked at me. "I know you do not believe me now, but in time, you will. And Ashley, do not forget about your jobs while your here." he said as everything got dark once more...

-REAL WORLD, 2 HOURS LATER-

I groaned and opened my eyes, remembering my weird dream." I stretched, popping my back in the process, and heard the conductor announce we were in Yasoinaba. I quickly grabbed my bags and walked off the train and out of the station until I saw someone wave me over and yell. It was an older man and a small girl. 'This must be the family I'm staying with for the year.' I thought and walked over to them.

The man held out his hand and I took it and shook. "Well, you're more beautiful in person than in your photo." he let go of my hand and continued, "Welcome to Inaba. I'm Ryotaro Dojima. I'll be looking after you...Let's see...I'm your mother's younger brother...and that about sums it up."

"Brother? That can't be right. Mom's brother is Uncle Henry, not this guy." I thought. Ryotaro looked at me for a moment, I guess expecting me to respond. "It's been a l-long time." I stuttered and looked down. I was never good with new people. 'Okay. Maybe what Igor said is true...impossible, but true...' I thought to myself.

"I'll say. You've really grown. I still remember when you were in diapers..."Ryotaro said as he gently pushed a the small girl from behind him. "This here's my daughter. Come on Nanako, introduce yourself to your cousin."

Nanako looked like she was nervous, or maybe even scared. She looked down. "...'lo" was all she said to me before returning to her place behind my "Uncle". 'Ah, what a great introduction! It is one for the ages! The greatest I've ever heard!' I smart-assed in my mind. I smiled a bit at my thought and Nanako blushed, thinking the smile was for her.

Ryotaro chuckled. "What're you so shy for?" Nanako then chose to smack him on the back, and from my guess, pretty hard too from the sound of it. "Ow!" Ryotaro laughed. After a few moments of awkward silence Ryotaro spoke up. "Well then...let's get going. My car's over there" and with that, he turned, picked up two of my bags, and walked away to his car, Nanako following him closely. I grabbed my two bags, adjusted my backpack, and followed.

We got into the and drove for a little while before stopping at a gas station since Nanako had to go to the bathroom. I decided it was a good time for a stretch. I unbuckled my seat belt and hopped out, shutting the door behind me. I chose to ignore the conversation Uncle Ryotaro and the attendant were having. I stretched and popped my back. I moaned quietly from the feeling. I heard the attendant walk up to me. "Are you in high school?" he asked I nodded and he continued. "Your Uncle said you were from the city."

This time I shook my head no. "I'm from small town in America. It's even smaller than this place." I said. "Well, if your bored, we're actually looking for part time help right now. Give it some thought why don't you? We don't mind if you're a student." he finished and held out his hand. I took and shook it gently. "Oh, I should get back to work." and with that he left.

I noticed Nanako came back, but my head started to hurt. I rubbed it a bit to try and get the feeling to go away. Nanako looked up at me. "...Are you okay? Did you get carsick? You don't look too good..." I nodded, not feeling too good anymore. I started to feel dizzy, so I leaned against the car and rubbed my head again. Ryotaro came back, paid and got back into the car. Nanako and I hopped back in and Ryotaro drove off to my new home.

When we walked in, I still wasn't feeling too good, and when I saw Ryotaro get out three things of instant ramen, I spoke up. "Ryotaro, I'm just going to go to bed. I don't feel too well..." Ryotaro frowned and put a hand on my forehead. "You have a small fever, so, okay." I nodded and climbed the stairs to my new room. I grabbed my pillow and stuffed animals and laid down on the couch, not having enough energy to roll open my new futon and soon fell asleep...

-End chapter one-