Work Text
5 April 2012 (Thu)
Bi-bi-bi-bi-bi!!
Yukari groaned and rolled over to snooze her alarm again. She lay sprawled in her bed, golden-brown hair scattered aimlessly across her pillow, and limbs askew as she stretched. She let out a labored sigh, and rolled back over to try and get comfortable again—arm here, leg there, torso twisted this way…No luck.And so, with a final groan of protest, she swung her legs over the edge of her bed and opened her eyes.She gazed around the room, taking in the familiar sights of her apartment. She shuffled over to her tiny kitchenette and began boiling water for instant coffee, letting out a series of drawn-out yawns in the process. She ambled over to her dresser where she had laid out her outfit for the day the night before. She slowly climbed into her faded blue jeans, pink tank-top, and knit, white cardigan, before going to finish making her coffee, which she poured into a large travel mug. She checked her bag one final time before slipping on her shoes and heading out the door into the cool, morning air.She walked casually down the few blocks to her campus, taking small sips of her coffee all the while. As she came closer, she admired the change in architecture from small, cramped apartments, to large, pristine buildings with lots of large windows that let in the morning sunlight. She double checked her classroom number—Mori 203, and headed for the smaller, cozier-looking building at the outskirts of campus, feeling ready to start her first day of classes.“Aikawa, Riku?”“Here sensei.”“Aoki, Kaito?”“Here.”The teacher’s voice rang out cheerfully as each student responded in turn. Yukari rolled her eyes and propped her head up on her hand and continued drinking her coffee. “What a waste of time,” she thought.“…Ariki, Makoto?”“It’s ‘Makoto Yuki’, sensei” rang out a cheery voice from just beside Yukari.Yukari’s heart skipped a beat.She whipped her head to the side to see the person who the voice belonged to.A girl sat in the seat two over from her; auburn hair tied back in a ponytail, and held into place with long, metal bobby-pins. She sat upright in her chair, arms neatly folded in front of her, bright eyes staring forward eagerly. Her outfit looked more like one you’d see at an office, not at school—a crisp white blouse with a red bow, a tan blazer, and a pristinely-pleated plaid skirt accompanied by black stockings and cognac heels. Her bag was fancy-looking, being made of white leather, and she wore gold hoop earrings to bring the look together. The only part that betrayed the office-secretary look were a pair of familiar-looking headphones draped around her neck.It had to be a coincidence, but what a coincidence it was…“Last call for Takeba, Yukari…”“Ah, I’m here!” Yukari yelled back as she snapped back to reality, drawing stares from around her. Her face grew hot, and she slid slightly down in her chair as a few students let out chuckles around her.“Not a morning person I see…” the professor taunted. Yukari grimaced and let out a soft “No ma’am,” in response, keeping her eyes glued to her desk for the remainder of the roll call.The remainder of the class thankfully proceeded forward without further incident.Yukari hastily stuffed her notes in her bag as her classes came to a close and quickly made her way downstairs and out of the building. The walk home was uneventful, as had been her other classes that day. She soon came to her complex on the edge of town, unlocked the door to her apartment, set her bag down by the door with her shoes, and flopped onto her bed somewhat dejectedly.For a little while, she stared quietly at the ceiling, contemplating making something to snack on.
Ping!
Yukari blinked, then reached into her pocket and pulled out her mobile. “1 new message” was displayed on-screen, and she opened it to a message from Mitsuru:
Salut, ma cherie!!
I hope your first day of classes go well today! It’s still strange being almost done in April when normally I’d be just beginning!
I’ll be returning to Japan in late May for summer vacation. The Kirijo Group will likely coerce me into working again, but I’d love to come see you if you have the time!
Affecteusement,
-M
itsuru
Yukari smiled as she began drafting her response. Having gone all the way to France for college (which, of course she was able to do), Mitsuru’s messages had a habit of being peppered with French phrases and words, which added an extra element of charm to them.
Mitsuru,
YES!! I would love to see you when you get back! Late birthday celebration perhaps? Just the 2 of us? (^_−)~♡
Classes are fine, but I’m def gonna need your help w/ English at some point…call me sometime this weekend??
Hugs,
-Y <3
She then lay back down, letting her phone rest loosely in her hand.Yukari spent the rest of the evening in an uneventful fashion. She looked over her notes from that day’s classes, checked her schedule for the next day’s class load, set about preparing lunch and an outfit for the next day, ate dinner, showered, and finished off the evening in bed with a mug of tea whilst absentmindedly browsing online stores.
7 April 2012 (Saturday)
Fwhip!
The arrow met its mark on the bullseye, just a couple hairs to the left of the centre. Yukari took a deep breath and reached back for another arrow. Upon grasping at air, she turned her head to see that her stash of arrows had been used up.Her concentration thus broken, she noticed that the sun was hanging rather low in the sky, and she looked at the clock on the back wall of the archery range—5:28pm, just about time to leave. With a tired sigh, she let her bow arm hang at her side as she walked over to begin collecting her arrows to pack up for the evening.Yukari locked the storage closet after a final check-over and proceeded out into the crowded main hall full of other students finishing up their clubs for the day. The sounds of chatter echoed in cacophony throughout the linoleum hall with discussion of the weekend being the topic of most conversations. Yukari pushed her way silently through the crowd and towards the exit.As she neared the double doors at the end of the hall however, a scene caught the corner of her eye—two older male students stood in an open doorway leading out of the hall, behind which she could only barely make out the girl from her English class. She seemed visibly distressed at their presence as she attempted to duck between them and into the hall, but to no avail. Narrowing her eyebrows, Yukari began approaching the doorway.“Oh—my—goshhh!! Is that you Makoto??” Yukari announced once she was in earshot of the two male students and Makoto, putting on the preppiest, most obnoxious, American sorority girl attitude she could muster. “I haven’t seen you in agesss!! We need to catch up—Right. Now.”The two male students turned towards Yukari in surprise, and Makoto’s face melted from agony into tired relief. “Yukari!!” she called back, keeping up with Yukari’s charade and quickly putting on an excited face of her own, “since when are you going here?? Come on, let’s get outta here—I have so much to tell you!!”The two girls linked arms and walked out of the building together, chatting loudly about made-up spring vacation topics, and leaving the two disgruntled men behind them.After making it a little ways off campus pretending to chat, Yukari finally dropped her charade and let go of Makoto’s arm. “Honestly, I can’t believe men are like that sometimes…” she scoffed as she looked behind them to ensure they weren’t still being followed. “I think we’ve lost them, so you should hopefully be okay now.”“I don’t know how to thank you,” Makoto said, breathing a sigh of relief.“Do you know those two?”Makoto shook her head. “Never met ‘em, but they say they’re in our English class. I assumed they had come to Lit club for help, but all they wanted was me to go home with one of them…” Makoto shuddered in disgust as she finished her sentence.“Gross…” Yukari groaned in agreement. “Feel free to stick close to me if that happens again, yeah?”“You mean it?”“Of course!” Yukari nodded, “Us girls gotta have each other’s backs ya’know.”“But still…” Makoto mused, “I feel like I still owe you one for today.”“Really, it’s no big deal,” Yukari shrugged.“Come on, there’s gotta be some way I can repay you,” Makoto pressed.Yukari feigned an exasperated sigh. “Wellll…” she began, “if you really feel the need, I could use some help with this English homework? Got any plans this evening?”Makoto’s eyes lit up and she shook her head. “That sounds great!” she exclaimed.Yukari smiled. “Great, my place is just down the street. I can make us tea if you’d like as well.”“Sounds wonderful!”“Okay, so how’s this: ‘After I dealed with the problem—…’”“It’d be ‘dealt’ in this case—deal is irregular.”“But it’s just like ‘heal’ and ‘seal’! You said those were regular!”“They are,” Makoto replied, “but ‘deal’ is an exception.”“Ugh, seriously??” Yukari groaned and lied back in exasperation. “Why even have rules if there are all these exceptions??”Makoto shrugged, “Just how it is, I guess.”“Bleh…” Yukari heaved herself up and fished her mobile out of her pocket. The time read 20:15 on the lock screen. “Oh, wow, I didn’t realize how late it was already!” she said, looking at the time.She turned her head to look out the window, was met with bright moonlight flooding in from outside, bathing the secondhand coffee table in ample amounts of soft, yellow light.“Weird…” she remarked, as the hairs on the back of her neck began to tickle.“Something wrong?” Makoto asked.Yukari shook her head, “Probably nothing,” she said, standing up and stretching her stiff limbs, “it’s late after a long day.”“Fair enough. I didn’t realize how late it was either—I should probably be heading home soon,” Makoto agreed.Yukari nodded. “Thanks again for the English help though!”“Anytime!” Makoto replied, her cheery smile looking somewhat eerie in the harsh moonlight.
Knock-knock-knock!
Yukari turned towards the door, skeptical, and a little frightened.“You expecting someone?” Makoto asked, raising an eyebrow.“No…certainly not this late,” Yukari replied, slowly getting up and moving towards the door. Her hands shaking slightly, she braced herself against the door and looked through the peephole. Immediately, she turned away with a mixture of shock and anger on her face.“What’s wrong?”“It’s those two dudes who were harassing you at school today,” Yukari hissed, “They must have followed us here…”“Are you serious?!”“Shhh!” Yukari shushed, “If we stay quiet, they might leave us alone.”
Knock-knock-knock!
The two girls sat, frozen in terror—Yukari against the door, and Makoto facing her, still seated at the table.They waited in heavy silence. It felt like an eternity.Suddenly, a loud crunch sounded as a hand punched through the wooden door, showering Yukari in splinters. Yukari screamed and scrambled back against the adjacent wall, watching, wide-eyed as the hand fumbled around, found the doorknob, and unlocked it to let itself in.The two boys from school stood eerily in the doorway, silhouetted by a sickly-green sky and yellow moonlight. Yukari swore they were larger than she remembered them, and the image of their shadowy figures sent her mind into a panicked frenzy.“What the hell are you doing breaking into my house?!” she finally yelled, as her voice un-choked itself from her throat. “I’ll call the police if you don’t leave right now!” she continued, fumbling for her mobile.The two boys remained silent and slowly turned their heads to look at each other. They exchanged an evil grin before turning back towards Yukari. One of them licked their lips with a forked tongue, and the other’s eyes were glowing an eerie yellow. Their arms melted into a black, amorphous substance, which sprouted claws where hands had once been.“Leave us ALONE!!”Yukari turned to see Makoto brandishing a metal curtain rod at the two creatures, a determined expression on her face. “I don’t know what the hell you really are, but I’ve had enough of it!”“Makoto, no!!” Yukari shouted, “They’re not human—!”“I see that!” Makoto shouted back, “But that’s not gonna stop me from beating their asses into next week!”“No, Makoto, you don’t underst—!”Ignoring Yukari’s pleas, Makoto charged at the nightmarish creatures, whacking one over the head with her improvised weapon, and sending it reeling. The other swiped at her, letting out a guttural growl, but she jumped back at the last second and managed to stay on her feet. Another swing was enough to break off the second creature’s arm, which dropped to the floor and hissed as it melted into nothingness.Having since recovered, the first creature lunged at Makoto with blinding force. It tackled her, knocking the curtain rod from her hands and sending her toppling to the ground. She groaned and struggled against its iron grip, but no matter how much she squirmed, she stayed pinned down. The creature squeezed its clawed hand and Makoto’s struggling slowly became weaker and weaker until she soon let out a strained sigh as her eyes rolled back in her head, leaving her limp on the ground.Yukari remained paralyzed with fear against the wall, unable to move or even scream. This had to be a nightmare, but it felt too real to be a dream. The creatures now turned away from Makoto and towards her—where there had once been faces, a blue mask now hung in front of blackness, with two wide eyes and an open mouth.As the creatures plodded towards the frozen Yukari, Makoto began muttering in her unconscious delirium, her limbs seizing and twitching. And then, clear as day, three syllables left her mouth:“Persona?…”The sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the room and into the quiet night.The apparition of a woman adorned in tattered, white robes rose from where Makoto had once lain. Her arms and legs were bound by iron chains, and a mourning veil obscured her face. As the mysterious apparition got to her feet, a black viper slithered out from the folds of her rags and coiled itself near her legs.The creatures that were closing in on Yukari turned and paused, as if studying the ghostly woman. As they did, the viper at her feet lunged at one of them, sinking its fangs into its neck. The creature cried out in pain as it slowly melted into a puddle of smouldering sludge which soon vanished in a puff of black smoke.The other creature, enraged, swung its arm at the viper, sending it flying into the woman’s arms. It slithered meekly back into the woman’s robes as she turned her veiled face towards the creature. She carefully lifted the veil in front of her face to reveal a void with two, gleaming red eyes. Jets of orange flame shot forth from the void, enveloping the nightmarish creature who let out a ghastly wail as it soon joined its late companion as a puff of smoke.Turning towards Yukari, the ghostly woman nodded, then faded away into nothingness, leaving Makoto’s limp body behind. Yukari continued watching, still unmoving, as Makoto’s eyelids fluttered open. She soon sat up, clutching her head in pain, and begin to speak in dazed fragments.“What…what happened?” Makoto asked, still dazed. “That…that woman…who?…… huh?………?”And then she promptly passed out again.