Vol 1 Chapter 2 (1/2)

Destiny

March 31Inside Yagokoro

After spending several busy yet peaceful days with my friends upon my return to Inaba, I told everyone, “I’ll settle the case and return as soon as I can,” parted with theokoro one week after the gravure photoshoot It was the day before the start of the new school term

Most of the necessary preparations were being taken care of by the police, and thus on that day, there was nothing in particular that I had to do Therefore, I took the opportunity to do a preliokoro department that I owed much to, and at the same time took a walk around the area

Yagokoro was a mid-sized city with a population of about 400,000 people, and as a city with many commuters, it continued to quickly develop The sudden expansion of the city created a peculiar phenookoro Station, with its nearby rows of ic feel to the fallen into a timeslip

Having finished okoro police station so as to give s to Touko-san The police station was a brick building with a historical feel and immediately stood out in the area around the station, so searching for it was unnecessary

I passed down a tree-lined street that gave off the feeling of dancing sakura petals and continued into the station I entered the glass-walled entryway and inquired of the first young policewoman I laid eyes on

“Is assistant Inspector Touko Aoi of the Criation Bureau here?”

“Uht you be?”

She was openly questioning ane”

“Eh! You’re the Detective Prince?”

In response to the policewoan to murmur as they exaht? It’s the real thing?” “Huh, so that’s her She’s s policewoman whispered in my ear

“The truth is, everyone in ht, could I get your autograph”

The policewo as if her initially suspicious behavior was nothing more than a lie Immediately, someone cleared his throat loudly from behind her

“Hey you, if I reht now?”

A well-builtat the policewoman, who said, “P-please excuse me” and quickly departed

The man introduced himself as the assistant chief The assistant chief nodded, his brow creased, and said, “I heard fro” I immediately inquired into Touko-san’s whereabouts, and the assistant chief answered with a troubled expression, “Aoi-kun is, uh, at her ‘lover’s’ place Sheith

“Er, Tetsue, the supervisor of the Special Forensics Division, is a bit eccentric He’s one of those guys who cas like asking per the door to the basement rooms to be on keycard access for security’s sake Really, it’s unbelieveable”

The assistant chief co He told me that the fifth basement floor was the office of the Special Forensics Division, at the same time as he warned ”

At that point, after taking a careful look at our surroundings, the assistant chief whispered in my ear:

“Er, the truth is, ive raph later?”

This time it was my turn to let out, “Haa” and make a troubled face

With his card key, the assistant chief opened the door on which ritten “Unauthorized Entry Prohibited”, and I proceeded past It was a brand-new, ruous with such an old-fashi+oned building

Because it was on the fifth baseh I waited for a time, the elevator did not come When I checked the display above the door, the number shown had stopped on “B5” Was it out of order? I was left with no choice but to take the stairs

I descended into the baselooht It hen I was approaching the fourth baseainst the linoleuan to echo from the floor below like a rhapsody

“Hurry! Cut off ‘Genesis’’s power!”

“I-it’s no good! We won’t make it in time!”

“Gah! Dauys! Everyone hold him down!”

“S-supervisor! ‘Genesis’ is! With our poe can no longer – aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Not working Oi! You guys! For now, focus on escaping up above!”

An angry roar ency of the situation was evident frohts of stairs and sped toward the fifth base the way, I passed by a mass of people in lab coats

“Message fro as it’s not a member of the Special Riot Police!”

When I asked, “What’s going on?” the people in lab coats looked attheerous down below! You run too!” His voice held no end of frustration Leaving behind only those words, the man also climbed the stairs at full speed

It was baffling It seemed that I would not understand the situation unless I witnessed it with my own eyes I hurried to the fifth basement floor

I ca open What lay sprawled out without interruption before my eyes was a bare white floor It had a dreary feel to it There were also countless digital, robotic-seees that I was unfamiliar with lined up neatly on hooks in the wall

There no doubt in my mind that this facility here hat they called the laboratory In other words, thatwhite lab coats who I had passed by not so long ago were researchers Why was there a laboratory in the basement of a police station

“–Eh?”

Before I had ti before my eyes stolea scene from a sci-fi movie

There was a person squatting on the edge of the floor Froe physique, I deduced that he was most likely e What was surprising was the glint of that ht that made me think of a laser pointer

At the e of an iron door that looked as if it had been hit and squashed flat with a huge haed The walls were broken and the floor gouged

The next ht the man’s whole body wavered like steaan to dash

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing He was uncoht to ile body to ju; he inexhaustibly ran across the length and width of the open floor

At last, the truth about the man became clear, and I was struck speechless His black clothes were torn and his skin peeked through However, that skin was not that of a huure were hu – could only be thought of as the substance of a machine

Adding toa certain familiar person

Standing in the center of the roo pose was Touko Aoi There was no hint of hesitation in her expression; on the contrary, the slight upward tilt of the corners of herthe situation

“Are you trying to say you would dare raise a hand to me, you impertinent brat?”

“Idiot! Touko! Run away now! Genesis’s gone wild; you can’t get through to hiinal state except to reboot!”

The rabbed Touko-san’s shoulder He was a ure than the lance, he seee man was most likely also a researcher

“Touko-san! What in the world is this? What’s going on?”

The two of them reacted at the sound of my voice It seemed like somehow they were the only two left on this floor

“Naoto, huh I’ve been waiting for you to come”

Keeping her eyes on the approaching man, Touko-san answered quietly

Because I had just arrived a o, I did not understand all the details, but I was able to deduce that thewild The destruction of the walls and floor was most likely the work of the beastlike man In addition, it was ierous wildTouko-san

“Boy! You’ve got bad ti! Leave the floor now!”

I shook e man

“I cannot leave Touko-san and flee!”

Touko-san was an i by myself was out of the question

–It was at thatand turned his head to look at me

When I saw him from up close, he was very tall When compared to that man, I was the size of a child Those red eyes were focused onme up?

I sed hard I i about this

“Dammit! That’s why I told you to run!”

Had I been careless, standing out? He had changed targets Genesis turned his body to face ht line

I turned nith back toward the staircase froht be able to successfully escape if I le Escape was iin with It was the saer in the jungle would be able to get away, no matter who they may have been

Right away, I was caught by the nape of the neck by Genesis, shoved roughly to the floor, and brought down The shock ran through my back and the as forcibly knocked out of me

Genesis was right in front of ainst the suffocation and pain Perhaps he was observingdown on me aimlessly When I looked closely, he was a boy with an intellectual countenance However, I could not find any sanity dwelling in either of the ht with its wide-open pupil, or the left which eht

In the next instant, his right arers snapping around my throat like teeth In that way, the man lifted me with no led me in midair with one hand

His fingertips dug in deeply and painfully “Gu” A strained noise squeezed out of my windpipe I used bothto resist with allphysical strength, due to the helplessness of my diminutive stature, I was powerless My heart was filled more with frustration than with pain

“Hey! Boy! You okay? Answer me!”

A rough voice echoed across the floor

“To-Touko, what do we do? Do we shoot hiht hit the boy”

In the , I searched for Touko-san’s figure as my last hope Why was it? The Touko-san I saw as my vision blurred seemed to be cal

“Caluarantee Naoto’s future”

Then, in response to those unbelievable words:

“Y-you’ll guarantee his future – ah! Ohhh! I see, I see! So that’s how it is! If that’s the case, you should’ve said so earlier! Don’t worry me like that!”

The large e-san” said only words of exasperation as an expression of relief crossed his face

Please wait Why is he relieved? Besides which, what is Touko-san talking about? I don’t understand Is there soh I won’t have a future if the current situation continues! Even though I’h I will surely die at this rate! I don’t want to die! I mustn’t die! There are still precious people I don’t want to be separated from!

After several more seconds, the intense desire to live also – sank far away into the depths of the ocean, in the roan Finally, with a “bzt” like the power to a TV being cut off, I ceased to be conscious

–It was a mysterious world that had neither up nor doas neither hot nor cold, bright nor dark, wide nor narrow, one that was unlike anything I had ever experienced before

I was drifting idly in that strange space Then, from soing to neither a man nor a woman

“I am a reflection of thou”

That voice did not reach my ears but resounded directly in my mind Who in the world was it? In the first place, where was this? It simply couldn’t be the afterlife, but at the very least, I could not believe that it was the sao

“Dost thou desire power?”

While I was lost in thought, the voice addressed rimaced I was unable to understand the intention of the other’s question very ith my suddenly confused mind

“We are brethren Thou hast the potential to obtain power – dost thou desire power?”

So I told it s

“I don’t want to die yet There are still s I must do”

I did not knohether or not s I had precious friends who it would be difficult to part fros I wanted to live to do

“–Very well In that case, I shall grant thee power”

It seemed the other had somehow understood

“Then what kind of power dost thou desire?”

Yet another incomprehensible question “Poas a rather abstract concept

Right now, if I sith, I would be happy That was because I was frustrated at my own helplessness If I had er than myself

After nodding once, I answered

“Yes I want power! The power to not lose to anyone!”

Though immediately after I answered, a small seed of discomfort sprouted within me Why was Kujikawa-san’s face in the back of my mind? The words that she had said replayed slowly in my head

“I’irl, you know?”

Was that hoas? I had nearly repeated the saain

“Excuse ard what I just said”

She had said I was her best friend I hoped I wasn’t being too conceited, but she accepted ane, as I was It was siirl” that was Rise Kujikawa as she was I must not deny myself After all, that helplessness was also undeniably a part of me

“I want power However, I want the power to support someone”

When I thought about it, Kujikawa-san’s poas also for the sake of supporting “us”

I should act as my true self, and moreover, constantly do so to the best ofane

A hed

“–Yeah That answer is just like you – my other self”

Immediately, my consciousness drifted far away Just before I shut down, a shadow in the corner of my eye took my own form Somehow it seemed that I had faced the same Shadow that had previously returned to me At the same time as I entertained that notion,fireworks

“–To myself, the power of Amatsu Mikaboshi+”

My lips moved as if possessed The words that I er and my eyelids opened

What was in front ofto the dreary floor where I had originally been However, there was one clear difference froaze rested cal in midair

“–This is my new ‘Persona’”

March 31Yagokoro PoliceSpecial Forensics DivisionSupervisor’s Office

The discoer suffocating Also, the weight that I felt on my body had increased by several times since before I lost consciousness, and when I looked, the man known as Genesis had his eyes closed and was collapsed completely limp like a toy with dead batteries Was it because his body was that of a machine? I tried to remove Genesis and stand, but I was not very heavy and was unable to th

“Even so, that surprised me”

IThat I would be able to summon my Persona in the real world

Vibrations traveled to h the floor Slowly I looked around I saw people co down the stairs and onto the floor

“Supervisor! Are you all right?”

The people that caht were brawny uniformed policemen Behind them on the stairs were the researchers I had passed by

My gaze returned to Touko-san, who exchanged a glance with the large researcher and said, “Tsuge-san, please deal with this ‘oversized child’”

“Got it! You guys! Carry Genesis to the adjustather and analyze the data, and then after that fix the door that he destroyed! Ahh, about the restart, I’ll take a look at the results of the inspection, so wait for my instructions on that later!”

Like a swarar cube back to their anthill, the rushi+ng people crowded around theand as one carried it away

When I had been freed froht, Touko-san extended her hand to me As she drew me towards herself, she said, “I’ll explain the situation to you,” with an unusually serious expression

“Yeah! In that case, come to the supervisor’s office! I’ll serve you coffee!”

The large researcher, who had , slapped ht have ht hit, but I stumbled forward involuntarily

“As you can see, Tsuge-san is a pretty overdra my expression, Touko-san smiled a little

“Touko! bastard! Idiot! Who the hell are you calling overdramatic?”

As he spouted profanities, the person called Tsuge was laughing heartily and without any particular ill will I understood then that this was the “lover” of whom the assistant chief had spoken

Frolass-walled private room of the supervisor’s office that I was led to, the researchers outside could be observedaround restlessly, but it seemed to be soundproof, so the voices and noises could not be heard at all

“What in the world was that uproar about?”

I ie-san said, “Well, first have coffee or so and calm down,” and placed cups for three people on the table

“By the way, the coffee in stainless steel cups is the least hot”

He put only hot water in the teacup, and in the stainless steel cup and the other he poured coffee He clearly meant to choose whichever I wanted

I took a sip of coffee, wanting to wet

“I’ll introduce this old man to you properly He’s the Special Forensics Division Supervisor, Tetsue”

“Hey! I’e! Nice to meet you!”

At Touko-san’s introduction, Tsuge-san smiled from ear to ear and held up his cup of only water

“By the way, Tsuge-san is a dirty old man, so watch out”

“Oi, oi! Don’t say anything that’ll ruinfor the first time!”