Chapter 2: Disappearing Act
*Warning* Spoilers for the events of Persona 4. (Even though this is a sequel fic I just wanted you to know)
The first day of school had ended and Alex had still felt unnerved on his principal's mysterious actions. While looking for his locker number in one of the hallways at his school he overheard a few girls gossiping.
"Did you hear about locker 103?"
"Huh? No why?"
"They say that locker is haunted by the ghost of a kid who died here"
The other girl yelped "A Ghost? H-here?"
"Get a hold of yourself, yeesh, but yea there was this one girl who was at the school at night or something and when she went past that locker she heard voices coming out of it"
"What kind of story is that? Why would she be there at night? That's not even scary"
Alex then looked at the small slip of paper with his locker number at it after hearing this, 104. Next to the ghost locker. And did they say a kid who died?
Flashback 2021 Gekkoukan at night.
Akihiko and Mitsuru walk down the dark hallways of the high school at night. Mitsuru stops in her tracks and faces Akihiko.
"There," she points at the locker 103. "Do you know who that belonged to?"
Akihiko nods "You're referring to him of course"
"Yes and there is something I'd like to show you" she takes out a single key and opens the thick lock on the door of the locker, she opens it slowly making sure Akihiko is catching a glimpse of what is inside.
"What is that?" Akihiko shocked and awed. Inside the locker is a rift where the wall should be of red and black stripes.
"This is some kind of entry way into the world of shadows, I think it's here as some kind of power from Tartarus, and chose this place because of his power"
"So what was Tartarus then? Is it still here?"
"Tartarus was perhaps a piece of the shadow world that was placed into this reality after the explosion over 20 years ago. Shadows unfortunately will always exist, and what we've been finding in some of the latest unsolved murders in the city may be shadow related."
"So what's keeping the shadows away from reality then?"
"Well think of the coffins, we are protected from a barrier so to say, and say that barrier weakens or opens if the person's will to live breaks, then the shadows are free to prey on their host"
"Their host? Sounds like the two, humans and shadows are connected"
Mitsuru nodding, "Quite right think of it like actual shadows, everyone has one, and for every person in reality there is a shadow trying to break free in that world"
"Ok then, and back to this gateway then?"
"Yes well from certain studies either there are certain different levels or realities of the shadow world there are also various ways inside, a unconscious dream state, or manufactured ones like the dark hour, then there are places that have this energy that have a weaker boundary of the 2 worlds."
"One more thing Akihiko, it seems this one only works at midnight"
Midnight. Akihiko thought. Who could have guessed.
Present day. Dormitory.
Back at the dorm Alex was the only one there, principal Akihiko would have had to still be at school, and Maiko must have gone out with her girlfriends. Heading back to his room he decided to watch some Japanese T.V.
*click* "With the power of friendship and love I am Phoenix ranger Hero-man V!"
*click* "Tonight on Who's who, we're here with local boy Ken Amada who I've heard is just returning from Harvard University."
*click* "A review on the latest Tatsumi Port Island murder, 18 year old Yusei Fukushima was found dead just outside a local hospital." The announcement intrigued ALex so he kept it going. "No cause of death was stated, however the body was found with coins placed on the eyes as following numerous other killings of students from ages 16-24. The police deny the cause as a homicide. As we spoke to the boy's parents they said that their son was feeling signs of depression after having been expelled from private school. With this knowledge some say that the death was possibly a suicide attempt by overexposure."
The news made Alex feel disturbed, then his mind turned back to Akihiko and Maiko, his mind spiraling out of control he felt the need to distract himself so he shut the television off and put on his coat. Perhaps some time at Paulownia mall would help him relax.
Later.
Alex circled around the malls central fountain when he caught a glimpse of someone familiar, it was Akihiko Sanada. Unnerved about the man since his last encounter .He trailed him hiding in the crowds of people, keeping pace with him, looking at the stores he would go into until he saw Akihiko enter the Club Escapade. He then tried to go in after him only to then see the open hours sheet in front of the door, naturally its open during evenings, if he went in there he would be spotted immediately. Still finding his Sensei here became certain that something mysterious was afoot here.
He decided that it would be best to come back at night and check around see if the owner would have talked to him, maybe get him to spill something. So after returning to the dorm, constantly wrapping his head around what exactly all of these strange things meant, more than his Sensei but those weird dreams, occurring darkness, and that Minato kid who kept showing up one way or another.
Then someone entered, it was Akihiko. He gave Alex a short look and walked upstairs not saying anything.
Flashback Club Escapade hours ago
At Club Escapade, Akihiko opened the door like he belonged there. A bartender turns his head toward him after hearing the door. The bartender seeing who walked in uninvited returned to rubbing his counter trying to ignore Akihiko. He steps up to the barstool and sits down, waiting for a reaction by the man but being denied.
Akihiko clears his throat after being given the cold shoulder. " I thought you would listen if I came here you would ..."
"I thought I made it perfectly clear, no. It's over just stop." The ball-capped bartender interrupting him with hostility, then looked away again, keeping away from his eyes.
"Junpei..." Akihiko sighed out sombrely. "What happened to us? Have we really lost touch?"
Junpei rolled his eyes at him. "Like we were friends then? Tch, was just because I had powers, that's it. And after the fighting it was just me! I actually got over it, not like Yukari who might be in a mental house or committed suicide! Or you and Mitsuru, who just can let it go, can't accept that you don't have powers anymore!" Junpei panting, catching breath after his rant, and Akihiko biting his lip.
"It's not just some stupid attempt to fight shadows, there's more to it. People are dying, and you know what happens when these creatures are just left to do what they want. And for the record Junpei that story is a lot different than getting expelled, or finding you years later having to take you to the police station." Akihiko raised his voice back, then gets up from the bar stool with his back to Junpei now, clearly his stance would not change.
Akihiko then turned his head back to Junpei after standing in front of the door "You're the one hiding, trying to forget about the past."
At Escapade, present time.
Alex slipped through the door attempting to blend in the crowd and music, but felt awkward for the older drinking crowd and he was still wearing his Gekkoukan uniform. Alex thought one of the bartenders or employees would have had to have seen him coming in, so he went to the front counter. Junpei was at the counter servicing drinks when he spotted the high-school student
"Hey Kid, you're not here for a couple of drinks eh?" Alex gulped, nervous sweat drops on his forehead. Junpei laughs out loud
"I'm just kidding" He chuckles to himself " No alcohol has been served since a bill on drunk driving, didn't you notice there were no bouncers kid?" Alex dumbstruck, his mind left long ago, he didn't know whether to laugh it off or apologize, so he just blanked out for a moment.
"You wanted to say something kid?" Junpei snapping him back to reality.
"Oh, yea, that uh, um ..." coughs in his hand, "Was there a guy thirties, goatee white hair who came here in the afternoon, did you see him?"
Junpei took a bit to think. Akihiko? Should I be honest? Come on brain! "Yes I was here, why you need to know? I dunno where he's heading."
Alex immediately shot out his next question "Why was he here? You know him?"
Junpei knew he couldn't answer that " Uh I don't remember" Alex had the feeling that wasn't the whole story.
"Well it seemed he would have to have been invited if he were to be in there when it's closed like that in the afternoon." His interrogation actually changed powers as Junpei was now on the spot by Alex.
"Alright, damn kid you sure play detective, I did see him in the afternoon, and we had a chat, a short one. It was a personal talk between old friends, now if that's what you needed to here there it is." Alex bowed his head and was about to walk away until a realization struck Junpei. Akihiko and Mitsuru kept talking about starting a new team, and Alex having been in contact with Akihiko could have very well meant that he had powers too, so he called him over as he was about to walk away.
"Hey kid! What's your name?" Alex looked back to Junpei "Alex Wade."
"I'm Junpei Iori. How would you like to make some money?"
"A Job?" Wade seemed interested seeing as how he wouldn't have his parents looking after him he could really use spare cash for food, games, etc.
"Yea come by on the weekend for an interview, I'm about to fire that idiot who won't show up or do anything, drop by again sometime see how ya do." Alex thanked Junpei for the offer and headed for the dormitory.
On the way back from the mall Alex remembered something, he took out his phone dialled the number to his step-mother.
"Hello?"
"Hi Mom."
"You didn't call me right when you landed like you said." Alex again was conflicted between making up a lie like his phone wasn't charged but that seemed predictable and just stuck to honesty.
"I'm sorry I just was just jet lagged and forgot, please don't be mad."
"I'm not mad I was just worried. Did you find out where you're staying?"
Alex made his way walking down the street while talking and stopped at a red light. He was standing there beside a dozen other people who just huddled together it made it uncomfortable to talk on the phone like this.
"Yea they got me into some old Dormitory with one other girl and the Principal."
"Oh? What's he like?"
"He's... Interesting" The light had turned green and one girl with long rose pink hair walked forward to cross but Alex noticed a car that wasn't stopping at the light he quickly reacted and pulled her back to the sidewalk.
The girl looking stunned how she just came that close to death froze for a second, then noticed Alex still was holding her hand. She pulled away from his grasp and smacked him across the face. Alex recovering had a look that said 'what the hell?' Then went heard the feint voice of his step mom on his phone.
"I'll call you tomorrow, Love you, bye." and hung up.
~Later at the dorm.~
Alex was dragging his feet tired, it was midnight and he really should have thought about the time it would have taken to get from the mall and back here. He stopped by Maiko's room which had the door open and she wasn't there. He saw that there were a number of boxes of clothes and things opened but not unpacked in her room yet, and there may be more things she wanted from her parent's. So he carried on to his bedroom for tonight.
After undressing from his school clothes, and brushing his teeth Alex had a late shower he walked to his bed noticing there was something laying there. He picked it up and it was a key, with a velvet blue colour, and a blank card. Alex didn't know what to make of it. What's the key supposed to be for? And a card? He then remembered those dreams of The Velvet room, so clearly they didn't seem like any dream he had in his life, and now this key...
Alex shook his head in disbelief, he was tired and his mind was no doubt getting into weird places like why Maiko was gone, what as if she got kidnapped or something. He looked to the window to see the city, and saw a blue butterfly and Alex just stared at it, then realized something and went through his bags to pull out his notebook. The last page with the blue butterfly was missing.
*April 13th*
Alex had got up, ate breakfast and headed for school. On the way there he was greeted by Mori who he met yesterday. "Yo, Maiko not here?" Alex forgot about her,
"She was at her parents I think, maybe they dropped her off?" So the two went to class to find her. But she wasn't there, the two looked at each other. They both tried to assume that maybe she had been feeling sick and didn't return to their dorm, but they kept thinking the entire day where Maiko could really be.
After school the two met up outside the building, Mori approached Alex first. "Hey I've got Maiko's homework here if shes at home I got an excuse to see her. Weird though that she'd miss the second day of school, last year she had perfect attendance haha. Wanna come?"
Alex felt what was going on was serious,while there was no reason to worry a premonition crept inside him that something terrible has or was going to happen,and it would be alright to check. "Yea, you walked home with her before?" Mori scratches the back of his neck, his brain shuts down.
"Uh, no I follo… I mean seen here walk this way a few… times I guess" Alex snickers lightly and slaps his friend on the back
"You got a real crush on her man, you really got to make it less obvious some times".
Mori jerks his head up at the comment "You don't think she knows? Right? Right?" Alex laughs restrained again
"Yea but I think she doesn't mind."
The two friends take a train to the boulevard where Maiko's Mother lives, inside the train Mori didn't stop checking his phone texting a bazillion texts to her number and checking for responses. They arrive at the door and Mori who's general shyness lead him a good ten paces away from the door, it was Alex who decided to knock. Her mother answered the door.
Alex went straight to asking her "I'm a friend from Maiko's class, she didn't come to school today is she home?" The woman looked puzzled
"Well I'm afraid we haven't seen her in a couple of days now, you said she missed school?"
"Yes ma'am, well if you haven't seen her I guess we'll be on our way" Alex turned from the door and it shut, Mori stepped up into view and had a frantic look on his face.
"Oh shit dude this is bad, real bad! bad! bad !bad! BAD man!"
"Shut up and think for a second here! Think about what we know right now, and take a goddamn deep breath!" Mori took a few deep breaths and then sat down against a wall.
"Ok then what DO we know?" Mori nearly having a heart attack.
"Well Maiko wasn't at school or her parents, obviously the last place I can think her going would be the dorm presuming she never left for school in the first place."
"Ok then we can just stop by to the dorm and find her, what then if she's not there?" His eyes are blinking rapidly, nose sniffing constantly.
"I... I don't know." Mori nearly jumps "We'd have to do what we can and search her room." Mori stood up and then began to speed walk ahead of Alex.
Alex began to bolt toward him. He tried to get a look at his face and it was red with tears. He didn't know how to calm him down he was feeling on the inside the same as Mori right there. Poor kid, the hell is wrong with me I should have just calmed him down instead of not answering! But all this weird stuff going on can't stop thinking... just hope we find her.
A long walk back to the dorm had calmed Mori some, his eyes still reddened but he could tell as soon as things would be straightened out everything would be alright, right?
As soon as Mori entered the door he ran to the staircase and shouted "Maiko! Are you home?"
"Hey! Don't yell, we're not supposed to other people here! The HM might flip." But Mori didn't listen, he ran up the stairs and then started circling having no clue where to actually go. Alex then caught up to him and pointed the direction "It's that one". Mori barged into the room, hell he would have kicked the door if it wasn't already open, and that was a bad sign.
"She's gone!" Mori shouted. And when Alex made it in he began to notice things he didn't last night, although the room looked exactly the same mess it was before it now seemed more off. He scanned the room with his eyes while Mori paced around franticly something began to catch his eye that seemed unnerving. The television hummed lightly like it was on without a channel yet when he saw the wire it wasn't even plugged in, he then took this to Mori to try and get help coming to the bottom of this thing. They pulled it out slightly to see if it was plugged in something else or had batteries but there was nothing. The then looked at the black screen and felt spooked.
"What the hell is going on?" Alex thought aloud. Then as Mori put his face closer to the television to make sure the humming he was hearing was the TV at all the screen lit up with the picture of a stage. This made Mori jump back. The two were in such awe at what they were seeing that they began double taking the TV screen and the unplugged wire. Then the darkened stage was lit up by a spotlight where a smoke cloud then popped in a magician in a flashy entrance. The Magician turned to the "camera" and revealed to be wearing a mask.
"Welcome, Welcome to those who tuned just in I am tonight's entertainment, and also waiting to be entertained, for my first trick I'm going to pull a rabbit out of my hat. Yes this is no mere smoke and mirrors but true magic of course!" There the Magician took his hat and tapped the inner rim three times. "Now I shall say the magic words, Hocus! Pocus!" he the pulls from his hat the head of Maiko unconscious with bunny ears on her head. The crowd applauds and cheers.
Mori clenches his fist " That son of a bitch!"
The magician then puts back on his hat. "Yes now I would like you all to meet our lovely assistant Maiko!" and in a puff of smoke she appeared strung up on a board her wrists in irons. The two men seethed in rage. "And for anyone who would think of rescuing this fine damsel you can't! Nope this broadcast is filmed live in our luxurious Shadow Realm, and besides why would she need rescuing we're all having a good time here folks right?" the crowd cheers him on. "Yes indeed kiddos, and if you're still feeling daring enough come on down! And my, my the clock sure is ticking, only two days left before it's last call for our little show, Tootles!" Then the program cuts. Mori was devastated, and Alex was just completely lost,
"We got to go and save here dude!" Mori pointing out the obvious. Alex on replies with an equally obvious
" Yea and how do we do that, did you hear what he said, Shadow realm? I mean a guy that out of his mind to say those things and on camera, with an audience, and it was like he was talking right to us on the TV, which isn't even plugged in!" The two headed downstairs looking around the whole dorm for any evidence of kidnapping it was like she just disappeared, like in a poor choice of words 'magic'.
Alex then turned on the computer on the front sign in desk of the dorm. Mori asked him " What are you doing?"
"I'm looking up the internet for any weird shit like this."
He worked back to some of the key words the Magician said during his broadcast. like shadow realm, just links to some anime and bands of that name nothing useful. Then looked up the latest unexplained murders, mostly it was speculation and conspiracy sites, all victims were from ages 16 to 24 and each one was said to be depressed. Alex had only known Maiko for a day and would have no thought if Maiko was ever depressed. Looking at other unexplained murders he came to a particular link. "10 years since the Yasoinaba Murders and residents still do not feel safe in their own homes." he scrolled down skimming through the article explaining the year long case a link came up with Tohru Adachi the convicted murderer of the 2 victims from that case at least ten years ago. The magician's face was covered and the TV in Maiko's room was too small to get a good glimpse at his physical features, but Adachi was still in jail for a consecutive life sentence, no good.
Then the front door opened up and both of the boys heads turned to Akihiko Sanada.
"I know everything" his first words, they actually raised the tension.
"We can save her, but I need you two to do what I say no matter how strange it all sounds, if I could have all this explained there would be no problem." Mori looked up to Alex to see his reaction, Alex knowing there would be no other choice Nodded in agreement. Akihiko cracked a grin,
"Very good, then lets get started"
Author's Note. The plot thickens. Next chapter is the Awakening.