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Caroline and Justine had their backs to him, their focus on what information they were imparting to their master, but Igor’s eyes were locked on him, something far colder than usual in that stare. The rattling of cold chains and clanging of iron bars faded away, the same as waking of a new day. But the bustling noise of the city wasn’t what greeted him on the other side of the faded dream.The room was bathed in a familiar blue light, but the cold thick air was replaced with warmth. Light flashed by the glass windows painting the far wall, giving the room the appearance that it was rising.“Where am I?” Akira mumbled to himself, taking a careful step forward. No metal weighed on his ankle, but the clothes that he wore were definitely the same ones he always wore in that prison. The floor was covered in a plush carpet, he dug his toes in relishing the break from cold hard floors that filled his life. Step after step, he crossed the room to the cloth covered table near the glass wall.The clock that took up a large portion of the wall was frozen, stopped a minute before midnight, none of the hands budged despite the clearly moving room. He could finally see that there were cards on the table, dark blue to match the rest of the environment. They were tarot cards and only two were pulled from the deck, Death and the Fool. The Fool card felt eerily familiar, as if he had seen it before. His fingers reached out to the card and stopped when pale fingers grabbed his wrist.Jumping back, he stumbled on his own feet, his Phantom Thief grace abandoning him. His eyes locked on the young man who had stopped him. He was breathtaking and the familiarity matched the card. A name was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn’t force it out.“I wondered why she had told me to hang around,” the young man said lifting the Fool card from the table, “it makes sense now.”“What,” Akira asked and then quickly followed that question with a different one, “where are we?”Dark eyes looked at him through bangs and a single eyebrow raised. No words were needed, but he spoke anyways, “you already know that answer.”“The Velvet Room,” his chest lightened when the words came out.The young man hummed in agreement, taking a seat behind the table. He set the card down after studying it for a moment. Picking up the other card he frowned at it, he set it back down with a shake of his head.“This Velvet Room looks different,” Akira said as he looked around again. Even though the underlying feeling was the same, it had a very different look to it and a different air. The visible eye locked on him, the other peeking through the slight gaps in the dark hair. “The Velvet Room is an ever changing space,” he said after a moment, looking away to also take in the surroundings, “it changes to suit the need.”“Have we met before?” The words jumped from his lips before he registered them, a follow up question spilling out quickly after it. “What’s your name?”“Minato,” the young man said slowly, as if testing the name, “I’m Minato.” An emotion brushed over his face and vanished too fast for Akira to name it. “As for if we have met yet,” he paused after the words and regarded the teen standing before him, “potentially.”The Phantom Thief sat in a chair across from Minato, suddenly exhausted. “What do you mean potentially?”Raising both his hands, he held them like a balanced scale, his voice drops a bit lower as he speaks. “This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter,” he dropped his hands to stare at Akira, “did Igor never tell you that?”“It sounds familiar,” he said, scrunching his eyebrows together as he thought back on the cryptic things the long nosed man always said.Minato sighed heavily, “that means that maybe we did meet at some point, or maybe that we will meet at some point, or maybe this is all a dream and we never met.”Akira parted his lips, but a voice started calling out his name. He looked around as the voice faintly echoed through the room, gradually getting loud. A hand covered his eyes and raw pain and suffering struck his heart at the touch. As if emotions were flowing from those fingers straight to his heart. Something brushed his cheek, a small almost pop noise could be heard from the touch. “Looks like it is time for you to wake up Akira.”Sunlight burned at his eyes and sharp claws pricked at his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring the warm wetness around them and the cooling streaks on his cheeks, except one spot of warmth.“Joker!” a familiar high pitched voice hissed at him, “get up or you will be late for class!”As he sat up Morgana went tumbling from his chest. His room was the same, slightly dusty storage space filled with the scent of coffee. He looked around for any sign of something, but what that something was he didn’t know.“Hey!” Morgana yowled digging his claws into Akira’s leg. “Are you awake yet? Were you having a bad dream?”Taking in a deep breath he looked back down at his friend and patted the not-a-cat’s head. “I don’t think it was bad, though I’m not sure.”Morgana scoffed and leapt off the bed, giving the student orders to get ready for school. As Akira grabbed his bag, his focus centered on the card sitting on the desk. A single tarot card, left behind by a mysterious customer.Taking the card in hand the name flashed in his memories, “Minato.”