Chapter 0: Prologue

On a train, on April 11th 52,011 Y.A.S. (2011 A.C.E) Yu Narukami was on his way to start a new school year in Yasoinaba, a small rural town about four hours away from Tokyo. While he had been prepared for complete and utter boredom on the train ride there, he didn't expect to be told a story by a woman sitting across the aisle from him. It was filled with Self-Proclaimed Heroes, soldiers, young kids and old pilots filled with hopes and dreams, Deities and Demigods and their servants, selfish Anti-Heroes, seeresses, The last Human and of An Almighty God and his Savior of souls who overthrew him to get her sister back and to save the extinct humans and bring about a new world for those souls to thrive.

"This Journey is over now. It ended long before you were born." said the woman, as she looked out the window. Yu blinked, and in a flash saw velvet and learned of a tragic mystery soon to take place. And Yu remembered. He remembered being on this train before, going to live with his uncle, meeting friends, creating bonds, trying to solve a serial-murder case, and… failing. Everyone… He remembered his loyal sidekick who loves kung fu, his Detective Princess, his tough guy kohai that could knit anything in the blink of an eye, his chef-in-much-needed-training, his idol pop star who was smitten with him even after all of his rejections, his bearific student who wants to know what it's like to live, and his partner both in the shadow world and in the human world. He remembered all of them and all of their pleas as they were absorbed by the fog. Once he blinked again, he was back on the train just as it was pulling into the station, with a rigid posture and his highly trained mask barely covering his shame and sadness. Both he and the woman walked towards the exit, and as the door slid open Yu could have sworn he heard the woman say "I wonder when the next one will be." under her breath but decided to write it off as him just being tired.

As he stretched his arms out to try to get some feeling back into his stiff shoulders, the woman had taken a total of three small steps before stopping and looking up to the sky with what looked like the first smile she had given in a long, long time judging from how genuine it was. The last time he had seen a smile like that was with Nanako when both of them decided to go walk around the Samegawa Riverbed, with only the sounds of the babbling water and Nanako's giggling of "Big Bro, look at this!". Just the memory of that brought a smile of Yu's own to his face, however, it didn't last long. Just a week after that day and she was gone, kidnapped by Namatame and thrown into the hospital because of that poisonous fog in the TV world. Before Yu could continue down that path of dark and morbid thoughts of what once already happened, he was snapped out of it by the woman's voice.

"I only know…. that soon we'll be together." It was a pretty simple sentence, but behind the words were layers upon layers of emotions, wave after wave of joy, happiness, and sorrow. But the strongest one that Yu could feel, was hope. 'This woman must have gone through a lot of trouble.' he thought. Yu's curiosity took over as he asked the woman, "Expecting someone?"

"Yeah… my sister. Serah Farron." The woman turned around and stuck a hand out to him. "I'm Claire. Claire Farron. I'm going to be staying in Inaba for a while. Is this your first time here too?" Yu shook his head as a negative.

"Yu, Yu Narukami. And no, I've been here before I think. Back when I was a little kid. I'm going to be staying with my uncle for a year until my parents are done on business." Here, Claire looked slightly intrigued.

"You look responsible enough to take care of yourself. And you certainly have this aura of confidence and diligence about you. Why wouldn't they let you stay at home?" A small sorrowful laugh came from Yu.

"When they leave they turn off all the electricity, and water utilities to save money. They hardly pay attention to me anyway, so they just left two days ago without so much of a good-bye. So," here he gestured to himself. "I called my uncle and here I am."

Claire studied him for a minute before giving him a reassuring smile, before reaching into her bag and pulling out a small grey flip phone. "You have a phone?" Claire asked, and was shortly given an answer by him pulling his own phone out. "Here, let me get your number. You can call me whenever you want to talk okay? I've… been through a lack of parents as well so I might be able to help." Yu paused. He didn't really see the harm in it, and this would be the first time in the past multiple years, even the other year he spent in that time that didn't seem to exist anymore, that anyone asked about him. 'Come to think of it, am I the only one that had memories of the past year?... probably not, considering… that they were all swallowed up by that damned Fog. And what am I even supposed to do about Adachi? We failed last time because we weren't strong enough, and now we don't even have that strength anymore!' As he thought and thought throughout that mindset, he eventually asked a question that chilled him to the bone. 'What about all of my Personas!? Do I even have Izanagi anymore? Izanagi! Can you hear me?!' but the only thing he got as an answer was silence. Before he could try again, a hand waved in front of his face.

"Hey, are you alright? You don't look so good…" Claire questioned, concern gracing her face. The poor kid hadn't blinked in the past minute or so, and started to look paler by the second. When she spoke he finally blinked and it looked like it dawned on him that he wasn't alone here. Yu gave her his phone as he said, "Go ahead and put your number in." and was soon given hers in return to do the same. Once he finished, Yu decided to take a quick peek through her contacts only to see that he was the only one on the phone. He was also unaware that Claire had done the same, except to see that Yu only had one other contact of Ryotaro Dojima. Claire deduced that it was his uncle, as he said earlier that he called his uncle. They soon gave each other back their phones.

"Well, I should really go. That reservation at the inn won't stay forever. Call me if you wanna talk, okay?" And as Yu said Good-bye to his acquaintance, he was slightly surprised that he didn't start a social link with the woman. Before he could dwell on it any longer, she was gone and Dojima was coming into view with Nanako in tow, with neither of them seeming to remember them and the meeting went the same as last time with only a single difference. As the Dojimas went to the car and Yu took a step forward, Yu heard a voice behind him call "Wait!"

As he turned, he was greeted with the image of a teenage girl with black hair, a white shirt with a red and black plaid skirt. 'This didn't happen last time. Who is she?' She rose her hand as if to shake hands, but as he did the same, she dropped a piece of paper in his hand. "You dropped this." Yu unrolled it to find that it was the paper he had written Dojima's address on.

"Thanks a lot." Yu said, and almost instantaneously the girl replied, "It's just a piece of paper. I didn't do anything special." And then she was gone. Dazed and confused by the new experiences that he went through on the day he was only supposed to meet the Dojimas.

He really could use a patra right now.

AN:/ (11/27/2018) I've gone ahead and worked on fixing minor errors. Thanks to all your support!

Spes Aeterna