Author's Notes
Well, in case you didn't realize, maintaining speed has been my bane thus far. So, let's continue the trend.
Another slowdown chapter meant to tie some ends that were never loose.
Chapter 12 will probably be uploaded Friday or Saturday.
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Chapter 11
Three
The next day at school, I found Shinako to be the all-too-common combination of peppy, cheerful and energetic, as if someone had replaced her with some genki girl overdosed on caffeine. Even she did not quite understand where the energy had come from.
More importantly, she wasn't in a comatose state for the next week or something, like I had been.
Was I just weak or something?
Suddenly, while walking up the stairs I had remembered.
Exams were in two weeks.
I darted out of the classroom right after last bell, something extremely uncharacteristic of me. While there wasn't any regulations on maximum number of people in the library, there was a sort of unspoken rule in the school that if you couldn't sit down in one minute, you were to either leave or stand bolt upright in a corner, leafing through pages of a textbook.
Since I didn't plan on standing up, I had to get there fast.
"Hey, why're you in such a hurry, Hajime-kun?"
"No time to talk, library."
Shinako decided to follow behind me in a bit of a speedwalk, quite curious. Come to think of it, her classroom's further away from the library than mine. How was she here before me?
"You know, this is why you should study early, so you don't have to tire yourself out after you procrastinate."
"Can't talk, gotta get to library."
I heard a sigh.
"Well, whatever, I guess I need to study too."
A half hour passed without any real incident. I was bored out of mind, as I always was, but somehow I was alive, and quite notably, not driven insane. I hadn't looked away from my book once!
"Hmm, I'm getting kinda hungry, actually."
I looked up at Shinako, who looked a bit bored. She looked at me with intent, having as good as offered an escape to studying.
"Don't you need to study?"
"Don't you?"
"Touché, where're we off to?"
Across from me, Shinako chewed furiously, as if the food on her plate was a fuel for a freight train about to run her over. After popping a roll of kappamaki into her mouth, she reached to the conveyor to grab yet another plate of it.
Surprisingly, she didn't reach for another piece after she swallowed the current.
"Ah, that hits the spot better than studying ever will, right?"
I chuckled. "That is, unless you eat textbooks."
"Which isn't unheard of."
"Wait, what? Anyone in this school do that, or is that just an internet rumour?"
She wolfed down another piece faster than I could even pick a piece up.
"You know, last night I had a really weird dream..."
I raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"
"Yeah, it was weird... I was in this traditional manor, and there was this big black person—like a shadow, not like black black or whatever—and it was chasing me...
"And then you showed up for some reason, and some big guy in a robe popped up, and did nothing, then the shadow beat you without much trouble...
"Then it was after me, and I thought I was going to die or something, then I heard this voice, and a giant nun popped up..."
Well, I hadn't expected she'd start the conversation. I had two choices here...
I dropped my voice. "Actually, Shinako-chan, we need to talk about that."
"Wait, what?" She looked a bit surprised; my reaction was, evidently, not what she had expected. "It's just a dream, Hajime-kun."
"Well, it's hard to explain, really... I'm not entirely sure where to start."
"..."
"Alright, well, bear with me if some parts come out strange, but, basically, imagine if there was a separate world you go to when you dream..."
"...and pretty much, that's it."
I finished my explanation after a minute or so of low talking.
"That's ridiculous."
"Yeah, I'm not good at explaining..."
"No, it doesn't matter how you explain it, it's just ridiculous. Unless I got something wrong, you're saying when I dream, I go to another world where my inner mind is a nun, and can destroy big walking shadows."
"...that's... the gist of it. Maybe I should've had Tadashi-senpai explain or something."
"What, you mean Ajibana-senpai? The captain of the Kendo Team? He's in on this too?"
"Well, no—yes, yes and no, actually, just yes, but no in the way I think you think. I mean, he's also able to go into the dream world place, but you made it sound like you think he's conspiring in some plot against you..."
Shinako's face was somewhere between bemused and mildly amused, an expression that made me think she thought it was all a big joke.
"Just believe me...", I said in desperation.
"Hmm, let's see, I'm to believe that the inner me is a giant nun. Alright, I totally subscribe to this dream world thing."
I sighed. Snark was my thing, damn you!
Her face was now one of concern. "Look, you need to get some bed rest or something, just take it easy with studying or something, because I think your dreams are starting to get loopy. I can tell you're serious about this, but please, don't be. The entire thing's just ridiculous."
I had to salvage this somehow. "Alright, how about this. Tonight, go to sleep at maybe 11:45 P.M., and think about returning to that world last time. I'll see you there."
She sighed. "I know how dreaming works, Hajime-kun. Obviously, if I think about it a lot before I sleep, I'll dream it, right?"
"OK, how about this? In the dream, I'll say a certain word to you, or something. I won't tell you now, in case you dream I say it and I don't say it. Then, we'll meet up tomorrow, and I'll tell you what I said. That'll serve as proof, right?"
Silence.
"...well, OK. Just don't make it too common. Something strange, like... beefsteak."
*
I fell asleep, a glass sitting on the floor, having once held hot milk. Tonight, I wasn't going to take any risks.
A few moments later, I found myself floating, a strangely familiar sensation (familiar being a relative term.) Rather than finding myself on a cliffside, possibly bleeding while sagging at the bottom of a broken wooden wall, I instead found myself in a strange transparent sphere, as I was a while ago. In the center, surely enough, I found me—or him, or someone that looked eerily like me.
"So, you're back."
I didn't have much of a choice, did I?
"It seems you have brought a friend along, one with the same talent as yours. And at the same time, you find a sleeper, and other aides to your cause.
"Perhaps now is the time that I explain my purpose."
I drifted over to him, intent on hearing perfectly.
"The power of Persona is a limitless one, growing, and expanding as easily as your mind can comprehend—at the speed of every mind entering, limitless combinations of the psyche—for it is only as limited as we are, which is to say... it isn't.
"Persona, as you would understand, is your mind. Not the mask with which you cover your face in the real world—the mask which veils your inner mind, the one you show to others—this is what lies beneath. Persona.
"Regardless, whilst one man may have one persona, to show his one face, another may have... many more. Let's say 161. 161 faces.
"I regret to say that you are not one of the people with 161 faces, but rather, you have one. However, as I had said, the connections between minds is tenacious and unbreakable. I shan't dare to understand how it works.
"Your persona is as complex as you are. Others may have an influence, and over time, you may find that your mask may crumble, and that your true face may be different than what you expected."
Whoosh! Over my head.
"It is fine that you do not understand. However, know this—the minds with whom you associate will have a great impact. Over time, you may find that Hotherus may be less of who he is, gaining the minds and the influence of your friends.
"Farewell for now."
*
This time around, I found myself standing on a cliff, crumpled against a broken wooden wall.
Except, thankfully, I could move. Shinako was standing where she was before, pacing back and forth. Across the chasm I had jumped, Tadashi was nowhere to be found (after all, I had not asked him to come along tonight.)
Walking over to me, Shinako asked "Well?"
I cleared my throat, and tried to think of the most random thing I could think of.
"Hmm... bagel and butter. Beefsteak. I don't know."
"So, you're saying this is a dream? If this were a dream, then couldn't I theoretically... fly?"
Looking as if she had eaten a chili pepper, she screwed up her eyes and tried to concentrate. Needless to say, she did not suddenly rocket off into the sky.
"Well, I don't know, I told you it was a dream, but not really a dream..."
"Now, how do we get off of here?"
Which was a good question.
*
To make a long story short, we couldn't get off of the cliff face with anything short of doing the same Hotherus jump I did to get on there—which isn't a good idea to get back, seeing as it'd be an uncontrollable flight into sheer rocky cliff.
I found Shinako after classes, walking to the library.
"Hey, how are you?"
She turned to me. "Not bad."
"Bagel and butter. Beefsteak."
She looked surprised. "Well, that is something, isn't it?"
"Anyways, can you come back to my dormitory later? I need to introduce you to Tadashi-san—assuming you want to further explore the dream world."
She shrugged in a way that made me proud. "Sure, why not?"
*
The atmosphere was nowhere near as tense as it was when Tadashi had explained to me about the dream world. As opposed to the dramatic air that had filled the room back then, this time there was a much more subtle and relaxed feel.
I sat with Shinako in the lounge, watching television (it was turned to a shoujo series she liked watching), while I silently leafed through a magazine left on the table by Tadashi, waiting for him.
At last, Tadashi walked in, looking in a bit of a rush. As he entered the lounge, he turned his eyes first to the television, with a look of relief, then to myself, then to Shinako, which turned his look of relief into slight confusion.
"Hajime-san, this is a male dormitory. I'm not even sure if we're allowed visitors."
"No, Tadashi-san, Shinako-chan recently awakened to her persona. Two or something days ago, remember, at the manor. In the dream world."
Tadashi's face reminded me of Toshiro after being asked a question by the teacher.
"Oh right, where you jumped over that chasm? That was her?"
"Essentially, yeah. She might be joining us. I just need you to finish all the explanation—I mean, I gave a brief one, but I don't think it was that good."
Tadashi sighed and obliged, giving me a somewhat compressed version of the one he gave to myself a while back. Shinako, as I did, did not ask many questions.
"OK, now that that's cleared up, I've been thinking... it might be hard to co-ordinate if she lives several miles away, though. Shall we make our first trip a week or something from now?"
Shinako joined into the conversation. "I personally say we either do it soon—like maybe tomorrow, or after exams are finished. Let's not interrupt studying, OK?"
Tadashi nodded in agreement. "A fair idea. Tomorrow night, then?"
I shrugged. "Sure, whatever."
"Then it's agreed."
The rest of the evening passed without much incident, none of us wanting to study at all. After reading through the various magazines Tadashi had on the coffee table (they were some of the most random subjects I've ever seen, including cooking, kendo, and colleges), I watched television along with them, with Shinako insisting on watching an English movie, so we could do some "studying." Shinako stayed until about 8:00 P.M., when she said it'd take a bit to get home.
All in all, a peaceful evening, completely unlike what happened tomorrow.
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Well, Shinako seemed like she wouldn't just take an explanation. She needs beefsteak.
Beyond that, yeah, Hajime doesn't have the wild card. Sorry if you were expecting that.
Since copy and pasting is great...
And as with before, please do review. Not to beg or anything.