Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 - First Moments in novel form

It was a bright and sunny afternoon. The date was April 6th, 2009. The sun's rays shot through the bullet train's windows and bled light into the car. Minato Arisato wearyingly stared out the window,uninterested, as music blared through his headphones. He sighed to himself and thought,

“Going to a new school can't be so bad. I'll meet new people and things will eventually go back to the way they should be..."

He watched building after building pass, until he closed his eyes, and finally drifted off into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, in a place elsewhere, a young woman is leaning against the counter in a dark room. The only visible light is the sunlight making a feeble effort to come through. The sink is left running, leaving the “pssssssssshhhhh...” noise to drone on in the background.

“It's no problem...” The girl said to herself, inhaling and exhaling sharply as if her life were on the line.

“I just...pull the trigger...and do it. No chickening out...” She held the gun up to her temple.

“No turning back!” She closes her eyes, puts her thumb on the trigger and.....

“ Clank!” The gun dropped to the ground. “I can't!” She cried. “I can't do it!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The intercom came to life and woke up Minato. He could hear the brakes squeal and scream as the train came to a complete stop.

"We are now approaching Iwatodai station. I repeat, Iwatodai. If this is your stop, please gather your belongings and prepare to depart. Thank you very much.”

He looked at his watch. “11:55!” He thought. “Was I really out THAT long?”

The train's velocity lowered and lowered until the train halted to a complete stop. The doors slid open, and the passengers started to walk out. Minato did as well. He walked through Iwatodai station. At 11:56 at night, the station was ominously empty except for the other passengers on board. He strolled through until he was in front of Gekkoukan High School. The school that he would be attending. His watch read 11:59 for a few more seconds until it read, “12:00”. As if on cue, the moment his clock read midnight, something extraordinary and horrifying happened.

The usual dark-blue city night sky became a ghastly shade of Green. The moon grew several times it's size, the humming of all the electronic lights and equipment in the city all hummed down and went silent, as if the power had been suddenly cut from them all, and the city's inhabitants.... Minato saw a man,listening to a radio in an alleyway. He said to himself that he started to feel strange. Out of nowhere, he had some kind of dusk,coal-colored material on his hands. It slowly spread to the rest of his body. He started to scream in terror.

“Oh my god...what the hell is this!?” He said to himself, panicked and mortified.

It started to cover his head and eyes until he let out one,final bloodcurdling scream before the alley fell silent. A lone Coffin stood where the man had once been. At this point, Minato kept walking and wondered to himself,

“Just what exactly was I witnessing”?

Noticing that everything electronic had shut down all at once as the clock hit midnight, Including his music player, he took off his earphones,and stuffed them into his coat pocket. The map he had in his hands were correct. This was his dorm. He looked around him and found various pieces of scenery appear to be “Bleeding”. Every clock that wasn't a digital display was frozen at 12:00. It appeared to Minato as if time had stopped.

The light in the lobby of his dorm building was left on, the door was unlocked. Minato stepped in. The warmth of the room was refreshing, after being outside in the cold. He looked around and thought it was kind of odd that this building in particular was the only building to have power. What was going on here? Minato strolled up to the counter on his left, seeing a pen and holder,but nothing to write on. As if something was reading his thoughts, a strange child-like figure came out of the shadows. His skin was pale, his hair was black, and his eyes were a spiritual light blue, he seemed like something not of this world.

“You're late,” He said, just a little bit irritated.

“I've been waiting a long time for you,” The boy snapped his fingers,and a red colored notebook instantaneously appeared on the counter.

He let out a sly,mysterious smile and told Minato, “ Now, if you want to proceed, please sign your name there.”

He pointed at the signature box.

“It's a contract. Don't worry, all it says is that you'll accept full responsibility for your actions. You know, the usual stuff.”

Minato took the pen off the desk and signed in the box. Minato Arisato. There.

After signing, the boy looked Minato straight into the eyes, and stated very clearly,

“No one can escape time. It delivers us all to the same end,every time. You can't plug your ears and cover your eyes.”

He snapped his fingers and the notebook vanished again. Minato felt as if the boy was speaking straight to his soul when he said those words. The strange boy chuckled to himself and stepped back into the shadows.

“And so, it begins...” he murmured, and with that, his whole body entered the shadow, and he vanished.