Chapter 2

How long has it been? Had to have been several hours at the very least. That whole time he has spent cleaning this cesspool he was going to, from now on, sleep in. So the only prominent thought on Yu's mind was, what the hell am I doing?

After going through all the shock, the most reasonable thing he could think of was going with the flow. Now the feeling of idiocy overwhelmed that thought. Shouldn't he be going out trying to find his friends? Trying to get back his life? Fine, it's been six years, but his friends wouldn't have just forgotten about him. The bonds he built with them were unbreakable. He would do about anything if the roles were reversed.

Snarling, Yu tossed the feather duster on the floor and pulled out his phone. Ren's memories showed him that this thing had internet access, so he'll use that to look up what's been going on. He pulled up the search bar and put in his name, Yu Narukami. Just as he expected, he was up there.

Several articles about the sudden and mysterious disappearance of the seventeen-year-old teen boy who was last seen on the train leaving Inaba. His memories confirmed this much. What surprised him though was the lack of any evidence of where he went. Not even a single shred of his belongings were found. That detective badge, the watch… all missing entirely.

Swallowing back his raggedy breaths, Yu continued on reading the article, but all it held was conjecture and conspiracies. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be found. The only other thing he could read were the pleas of his friends and family begging the public to help find their lost friend.

Then he reached the next article and his knees dropped to the floor. His eyes widened and tears beaded in his eyes. "Naoto Shirogane has closed the case of the disappearance of Yu Narukami. She explains that, 'Due to insufficient evidence and lack of knowledge, I must admit the case has gone cold. Nothing further can be done.'"

Yu dropped the phone and sat back, hugging his knees to his chest. They weren't looking for him. That article was publish two years ago. After four years they stopped looking for him. All his friends… they gave up. The teen buried his face into his knees, doing everything he can to suffocate the sobs escaping him.

A creak of the staircase brought him back down to earth and Ren sat up, pushing his glasses back in place. Sojiro gazed about the room, brow raised in mild surprise. "What the heck? I heard you making all sorts of noise up here, but I didn't think you were cleaning." He looked around, pinching his glasses to take an inspector's look around with a satisfied smile. "Actually, the place doesn't look too bad." The smile then dropped as he appraised the teen on the floor. "Though it's only natural that you'd want to keep… your room tidy."

Ren flinched at the hesitation. Sojiro must have noticed the tears. The teen quickly looked away, to the corner of the room where the café manager wasn't.

The man grunted. "Is the reality finally hitting you?"

Go to hell. Ren rolled his eyes, refusing to make eye contact.

"It's too late to change anything, all you can do now is move on and try to make most of what you've got left." With one more glance around the room, Sojiro turned to head back down. "Why don't you head to bed for tonight. We've got a long day tomorrow, so I'm going to close up shop and get going."

Ren just listened to the soft steps descending to the floor below, not bothering to answer. Sojiro's words, they ticked him off. It was like the man knew exactly what he was going through and telling him Yu's friends would never come and free him from this hell hole. Move on? Make most of what he has left? That man has no clue what he has lost. Why should he move on?

Ren stood up, fiercely shoving the tears from under his eyes. No, Sojiro was right. What's done is done, there's nothing he could do now. He has to focus on what he has and try to build off of that. Maybe if he can get through this probation he can contact the others and explain to them what happened. Their friendship will never be the same, but it's better than losing it entirely.

Yu smiled, nodding to himself. He just needed to live out the rest of this school year undaunted. Should be easy. Ren was sixteen, he was going through his second year of high school. Yu was suppose to start his third year. He has most of that knowledge down. He answered every question the teachers threw at him and got the top score in all the exams back then. If he was careful this should be a breeze. If he just studied for his third year curriculum, he could spend more time contacting the others next year. He could prove he was Yu, he has knowledge that no one else should know. Maybe he couldn't see Dojima or Nanko again since the strange other world is something they couldn't believe, but the ones who fought with him won't have too much trouble believing him. Teddie is still a whole lot stranger than this debacle after all.

Shoving his casual clothes back into the box Yu held the back of his neck while waving his head side to side. The whole situation has completely exhausted him. With the baggy clothing as his pjs, he plopped onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. The image of that drunken man trying to shove the woman into the car came back. Even with that being a memory his jaw just clenched. That man was despicable. Ren didn't do anything more than pull the man away, the drunken idiot then just fell on his face. However, thinking about if that was Naoto that man was shoving around… there's no way Yu would have stopped at pulling that man away… or maybe he would. It was hard to tell.

Back in Inaba, his little cousin, Nanako whom he regarded as his adorable little sister, was once kidnapped by the very man everyone thought was the murderer. She was dragged down into the other world, slowly dying. Yu fought tooth and nail against every shadow that opposed him to get to her. The Investigation Team even struggled to keep up with him. They were finally able to reach her only to that the other world had already afflicted her with some horrible ailment. She latter died in his arms at the hospital, barley able to speak.

The whole team confronted the man responsible and they were all dead sent on sending him into that accursed world to die just like every other victim. Surprisingly, it was him that stopped it all. Saying that it just didn't feel right, something didn't add up. Even though he watched someone special die, even though the man in front of him was responsible, he couldn't hurt him. He saw someone just as traumatized as they were, saw some sort of misunderstanding he couldn't wrap his head around at the time. They latter found out their little kidnapper was innocent of the murders, he hadn't sent anyone into the other world who then died. In fact, he was deluded into thinking he was saving people by the actual killer.

Yu is so thankful for having such clear head at the time, especially once everyone found out Nanako made that miraculous recovery she did. Not even the doctors expected that. Still not sure how that happened. The prevailing theory is Teddy did it. Surprisingly a lot of theories blame Teddy, that guy was one really guilty bear. Yu could probably write a whole book on what Teddy got up to, some not so family friendly.

A ding from his phone brought him out of his trance, the smile faltering. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen. His blood froze as a red eye icon began blinking at him.

Didn't I… delete this? He dragged the app down and into the trash bin again. He looked around the screen making sure it was gone. Then going into the trash bin to see it resting there. Shaking his head, he permanently deleted it from the trash folder. It shouldn't just randomly reappear again this time.

Dropping his arm to his chest he closed his eyes and sighed as the darkness consumed his consciousness.

Clink-clink. Several clinks on clinks. Yu's eyes snapped open in the cold air. Why was it so cold? Chains were strung over him like confetti, chiming in an invisible breeze. Yu sat up and gazed down at himself, jaw opening and closing. He wore some old style prisoner clothing, all black and white with worn out patches all over. It's like some ancient rags had materialized on his body. His arms were bound in chains, making movement difficult. He threw his feet over the side of the bed, connecting with the frigid concrete floor. The room… it was oddly blue. Almost like the…

A soft chuckle echoed from afar.

Yu spun to look at the entrance of the room he sat in. It was barred, like he were in some jail. Two young girls came walking in front of his cell, each from opposing sides. They both wore blue uniforms and a blue hat. Each had blondish colored hair and a golden eye. Those traits reminded him of Margret, but their size and youthfulness was reminiscence of… Nanako.

Despite seeing their one eye, he couldn't see their other. They both wore eye patches. The girl on the left had her eye patch on her left eye and the one on the right had it covering her right. Their hairstyles were different too, right had it in two buns, left had it braided back behind her head.

He stood up and took a step toward them, and felt something pull on his leg. Looking down he found his left ankle chained to a iron ball. He really was a prisoner. Grunting he stepped up to the bars and grabbed them looking between the two girls standing there. They only turned around to face a nice little wooden desk in front of him. Yu's eyes flew open upon seeing the man sitting there. Igor.

Igor still had his nice suite and white gloves, his head hunched over almost like some stereotypical Igor from some Frankenstein film, but those traits weren't as noticeable as his famous long nose resembling a long beak of a bird. Even the balding scalp with long white strands of hair along the sides of his head stole more attention from the pressed attire.

Yu smiled, Igor was a friend of sorts. Maybe the master of the Velvet Room could help. Just as Yu was about to say something, Igor extended his hand toward Yu and spoke, "Trickster," Yu's voice died in his throat just like his smile. "welcome to my Velvet Room."

The voice… it wasn't light and cheerful like usual. It was so dark and echoed with a firm tone throughout this prison. This wasn't Igor.

Yu blinked and then tried pulling on the bars. Ignoring his struggles, the girl on his right looked at him with the corner of her eye, "So you've come to, inmate."

The girl on his left continued for her twin. "The you in reality is currently fast asleep. You are only experiencing this as a dream." Its almost the exact wording Igor use to tell him back in Inaba.

The right girl snapped at him, "You are in the presence of our master! Stand up straight!"

These two were nothing like Margret, let alone Nanako. Left girl was too apathetic, right was too harsh. What was going on? Was he really in the Velvet Room? Who was this master, does he know Igor?

"Welcome." Yu shot his attention back to the one sitting in the middle of the room. The only place that held light, a spot light on the strange long nosed man. "I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality,"

Mind and matter. Yu thought to himself.

"Mind and matter." The man finished expectedly. "It is a room that only those who are bound by a 'contract' may enter."

This was the same damn speech Igor gave him when he was in Inaba. This did nothing more than confuse him more than when he first entered the Velvet Room a year- seven years ago.

"I am Igor, the master of this place. Remember it well."

Yu's jaw clenched. There was no way this is Igor. The guy was too pompous and aloof, as if he was only greeting Yu as some obligation. 'Igor's' posture even matched that description: crossing his legs as if he wanted nothing to do with his guest. Not to mention the continuous tapping of his fingers against the desk while a limp hand held up his cheek gave the impression that this 'Igor' was bored. Nothing about him was like the real Igor. The real Igor sat at attention, lean in ever so slightly as if trying to gain everything he could about his guest. He was respectable and gave an air of excitement, as if the individual before him were an honored guest he would never be graced with again.

'Igor' continued, ignoring Yu's strange behavior. "I summoned you to speak of important matters. It involves your life as well."

"Important matters?" Every ounce of Yu wanted to demand to be let out, but his investigative mannerisms suppressed the urge. Maybe this has something to do with his disappearance. He couldn't squander the opportunity to gather information.

"Still, this is a surprise…" 'Igor' looked around the room. There were several cells like the one Yu was in. "The state of this room reflects the state of your own heart."

Huh, the real Igor never explained that, but why was his heart like a limousine back in Inaba?

The strange man continued, "To think a prison would appear as such. You truly are a 'prisoner' of fate. In the near future, there is no mistake that ruin awaits you."

"Ruin?" Was this a threat? Further proof this wasn't Igor. Igor warns, he doesn't make it sound inevitable.

"I speak to the end of everything."

An apocalypse, like the one he stopped in Inaba?

"However, there is a means to oppose such a fate. You must be 'rehabilitated.' Rehabilitated toward freedom. That is your only means to avoid ruin. Do you have the resolve to challenge the distortion of the world?"

Well, there's one thing this guy has right about Igor. The damn cryptic insinuations. Letting him know something is coming, but not informing him of what. So everything just culminates into one thing, he has another mystery on his hands. "Wait, what?"

"You didn't decline, hm?" 'Igor' appraised him closer.

Yu tensed, did he make it obvious that he has an inkling of what's happening? Considering what's been happening, he'd like to keep his past of being a persona user a secret just in case. The Velvet Room was closely tied with persona users so there was little doubt the persona abilities may come into play again, but by this guy's, the supposed Igor's, influence. If this guy was trying to play with Yu, Yu wants to have something up his sleeve too.

Rather than dwell on his lack of refusal, this 'Igor' sat back, "Very well, that is enough. Allow me to observe the path of your rehabilitation"

The two girls about faced and looked up at Yu. Igor shifted in his seat, "Ah, pardon me for not introducing the others. To your right is Caroline; to your left, Justine. They serve as wardens here."

Caroline huffed, "Try and struggle as hard as you like."

Justine continued for her sister. "The duty of wardens is to protect inmates. We are also your collaborators… That is, if you remain obedient."

Based on what he knew about Margret, they were suppose to help him. It wasn't some privilege he had to earn. What were these three up to?

As if sensing his distrust Igor sat back, "I shall explain the roles of these two at another occasion. Now then, it seems the night is waning… it is almost time. Take your time to slowly come to understand this place. We will surely meet again, eventually."

With a wave of 'Igor's' hand, alarms blared to life inside his cell. Yu stumbled back and looked around for the source. Caroline stepped up to him, "Time's up. Now hurry up and go back to sleep."

The whole world around him began fading again. Realizing he was about to leave the Velvet Room, Yu pressed up against the bars ready to shout out questions, but before he could use his tongue darkness encased him.

He sat up in bed with a yelp. He looked about the attic frantically. There was no blue, and no chains. He was back in the real world.

Tossing his legs over the side he planted his head in his hands. The Velvet Room. A place he could go to fuse personas and grow stronger to fight the shadows of the other world. Was something happening in the other world again? He doesn't remember hearing about any strange events that could resemble the bizarre murders the Investigation Team had to solve back in Inaba. He'll have to keep his ear to the ground and find out what was happening. Maybe he could use the TV downstairs, check if he still could enter the other world or even if the Midnight Channel was back on. There was too much happening all at once, he couldn't straighten things out.

He pushed himself off the bed and walked over to the shelves with his clothes. For now, he can only dress in the Shujin Uniform and get ready to be enrolled in another school.