Chapter Two - Burn my Dread...

"What is Atlus anyway...?"

Junpei wondered this aloud as Mitsuru had gotten out her iPad and tried searching for the company supposedly behind the production for this game. Alas, she hadn't found any results concerning said company. Which was beyond aggravating.

And then the intro ended, the entire team trying to ignore all the scenes flashing by and mocking them for their rather dumbstruck reactions. Leading into the menu, which had an outright beautiful piano sequence playing over it which would have tugged at their hearts and brought them to tears had they not been so taken aback by the prospect of the fact that this game was actually a thing.

Playing along, they came across the option to either play The Journey or The Answer. They wanted to play neither.

"What do we pick...?" Aigis asked the others. "Any suggestions?"

"...Well, The Answer is bonus content, right?" Akihiko said, still wary of the whole affair. "So, that makes The Journey the main game, which, according to the back of the box is...over sixty hours long, so..."

"Do we really want to play this?" Ken asked. "We can just close the game and never think about it ever again..."

Yukari was half in agreement and half in disagreement. She was caught between wanting to know the truth of what this game was, and wanting to find whoever had gotten it to stores and throttle him/her. But she was, more to the point, scared. Frightened of what this game would present. Terrified of what it had in store for her and the rest of the team.

Would she see him again? Would she want to see him again?

...Of course she would...she still wanted to see him. Even after all this time, but...what if...what if the game showed her something of him she didn't want to see-?

Ring ring.

Junpei's phone was abuzz with a new text message. Opening his phone, he had figured it was Toshiro-san messaging him at a bad time until he read the text. Then, his mouth widened in horror as he squeaked out, "Guys...?"

Yukari and Fuuka got up from their seats, Aigis following suit to see just what had rendered their friend into such a state of fear. Then, they fell into that same state upon reading the message itself:

All of you must play both the Journey and the Answer, on Normal Difficulty.
You'll know the truth when you complete the game.

"Uh huh. We'll see about that," Junpei growled, attempting a call at the number presented to him.

He gave up after the seventeenth attempt at a call.

The messages he'd try to send would all get cut off due to the phone saying there was a problem with network connection. Any time the others had tried to make calls of their own would end up the same way. Nothing was getting anywhere.

"We're back to square one...," Yukari muttered irately. "Who would do this!? Who could do this!?"

"He said we'd know the truth if we finish the game," Junpei said in response, very miffed at his inability to get in contact with the mastermind behind all this. "Don't think we have a choice in this but to play..."

"But...sixty hours?" Fuuka mused. "Isn't that...kind of long? Even for a game, I mean..."

Junpei nodded. Games usually pushed for, like, forty hours, maybe? Even fifty hours...rarely, if ever, had he found a game which pushed sixty. And with The Answer...how long was that going to be? They all had jobs. Lives to live. And this was a game...

...But it was a game worth playing.

"We've got to figure out who's behind all this," Junpei resolutely said. "We've all gotta make free time for this. Guys, I know that this is freaky and weird and we all wanna put this behind us, but...but we don't know what's going on, and we've got to figure it out. This guy...whoever did this knows things. Who knows what he'll do if we don't do what he says?"

Yukari shifted in her seat, clearly uneasy with all of this...but finding no flaw in Junpei's argument.

"...I'm free on Sundays," Mitsuru said. "I think I'll be able to see this through. Aigis, Akihiko, and Fuuka are free on Sunday as well, but only from 3:00 PM onwards."

"Alright...I'm free on that day, too," Ken muttered.

Koromaru barked.

"I'm practically free everyday after five PM...but...Yuka-tan...?"

He was hesitant to call her out because he saw in her eyes something that he had never wanted to see in her eyes again after leaving the Abyss of Time.

"I think I can make it on Sundays, too."

Her statement betrayed the look in her eyes.

"Alright...," Junpei strained. "Let's play...The Journey."

After selecting "Normal" difficulty, the first cutscene of the entire game played out before them.

A message popped up on screen, one that sent a chill down their collective spine at how ominous it was.

Time never waits.
It delivers all equally to the same end.

You, who wish to safeguard the future,
However limited it may be...

You will be given one year;
Go forth without falter,

With your heart as your guide...

The game was practically speaking to them...or was it? Was it programmed with the knowledge that this was meant solely for them? Or...was it speaking to someone else? It said, "your heart," so...whose heart is it talking about? Ours? Or...?

Mitsuru's head was moving rapidly at the implications set by the message, and she covered her mouth grimly as she leaned back in her seat, already in a complete state of loathing to finish the rest of the game despite playing not even five minutes of it.

The scene shifted to a full moon beyond a veil of misty clouds, the clouds retreating so that the TV screen could bask in the hauntingly cold white of the moon. This did not go unnoticed by the S.E.E.S. members, so they all felt a rather nagging pang of hurt at the sight of it.

Then the moon zoomed out, revealing it to be but a mere part of a series of white circles, and then it zoomed out even more to reveal that it was all on an LED screen, advertising something they figured was either deodorant or sunscreen. Seeing as there was a bikini-wearing woman on the screen, it was most likely the latter product.

But then, casually - so casually that it felt almost like a slap on the face - he strolled by.

They all widened their eyes and had their mouths agape, an anvil dropping in the distance.

Yukari gripped her seat as her lips quivered. Junpei pursed his lips and gripped the controller, his hands steadily getting sweatier. Fuuka leaned back in her seat and tried stroking her upper arms to make herself feel safer. Akihiko just closed his eyes and averted his head. Aigis had no reaction, Koromaru's ears perked up, Mitsuru lurched forward, Ken blinked and clenched his teeth.

At that moment, Junpei regretted even picking up the game.

He kept on walking, listening to music as his dull eyes stared either straight ahead or at the ground. He was walking along a street filled with people talking about nonsense and living their lives like nothing was wrong, unaware that a year from this very point, they were in danger of the end of the world itself.

Some scenes of the cityscape were animated in slow-motion, giving the team moments to glance at the world he'd surrounded himself in before they had entered his life.

But interspersed throughout this were scenes which terrified everyone, especially Yukari.

First, she was sitting on the ground, curled up into a ball and her hand on her head.

Yukari flinched at the sudden sight of herself.

Water dripped, and she pulled a silver gun up off the ground.

Junpei turned to see her in the most restrained form of panic a person could have had.

She pointed the gun to her head, breathing heavily.

Soon, everyone had a horrible taste in their mouths at this.

She and the gun were interspersed with scenes of him looking up while at a crossroads. Her eyes, then his, then the sound of the faucet.

Then, she dropped the gun and wept loud enough for the sounds to be heard outside the window of the dorm.

It took all of her willpower not to get up and out of the apartment.

Junpei pressed on. Wanting to see what was next.

This was personal, now.

He didn't know how bad it was going to get.