Chapter 1: Prologue
A slow melody trickling from a piano echoed in his ears as he opened his eyes in cognition at a voice humming in soprano.
"…Welcome to the Velvet Room." A nasal voice drew his attention to an ill-fit desk that had a humanoid creature with a long nose sitting behind it in the middle of an average and unspecial cafè. "…A place between Mind and Matter—Dreams and Reality. Consciousness and the Unconscious…"
"I am Igor, the Proprietor of the Velvet Room."
His smile appeared oddly comforting; the barista in blue behind the counter keeping her stern golden eyes upon his average visage with an unrecognisable emotion behind those sunny orbs which seemed to be deeply contrasting towards the large-nosed man.
"…You have found yourself in troubling circumstances indeed—irregular and seemingly impossible the situation—you will have our support as long as you sign this contract."
The sound of paper being flicked resonated in the surroundings of chaotically arranged chairs.
A flicker of his eyes elsewhere and through the windows to the cafè there was a sea of blue… actually, talking about the windows—said windows were barred with the actual exit of this room having been sealed. He was stuck.
He attempted to stand up but failed as he was chained to his place atop the chair… it was not time yet to leave it seemed.
"…What's with this place?" He asked at the same time… something odd seemed to be occurring. He felt fractured, broken, shattered.
The man merely smiled. "It is as I told you; this is a place between fiction and illusion, fake and real, delusion and truth. The Velvet Room exists solely to serve those who are entertwined in the anarchy of fate."
He sighed. "I was asking about the cafè."
Another glance over this enclosed room and the indiscrete mess of a cafè seemed wholly visible to the naked eye; there were chairs left in a volatile manner, cups littering the floor and barricades above possible exit-points. It was frankly, an enclosed mess… that oddly seemed comforting.
"This is the state of your mind and soul… abnormally torn and strewn together into a mockery of what it once was." He informed. "Truly, the only continued cause for the preservation of your prolonged existence is the Velvet Room which has… taken liberties in the manner to treat you to a potential contract."
"…So I either die or accept the contract?" He sighed. "Not much of a choice."
The nosed-man chuckled. "Oh, believe me—there is always a choice."
Choice A being life, Choice B being death.
Twak twak
A thump echoed from outside the barricaded door.
"It seems the time for questions has come to an end… it is time for you to accept or refuse the contract."
He sighed and picked up the pen.
By signing this contract you accept the terms of: accepting the responsibilities and consequences of any action or inaction whether they are in your power or not.
His fingers seemed to pause at the actual signing part.
"Hmm." Igor hummed. "It seems your Soul is too fractured to remember your name… what a conundrum."
There was an uncomfortable silence before it was shattered by the Barista who placed bubble tea in front of the distorted individual.
"Igor… I have a solution to this problem of ours."
Igor hummed as he took a deep glance at the beverage. "Are you sure, Kotone? To bless him with an aspect of him?"
She nodded. Igor turned towards him. "…It seems you have a new option; drink this beverage of unknown origins and reobtain your name."
"…Thanks." He nodded towards her before picking up the bubble tea and gulping it in a single try.
"You're welcome… Dear Guest."
And so the contract was signed.
Signed by Tenma Kamijou.
"A fitting name… truly." Igor remarked before his vision began to fade.
"…" He didn't bother saying his goodbyes… he figured they'll meet sometime soon.
[LINE BREAK]
Steel-coloured orbs opened slowly as they analysed the fascinating decor of the ceiling… it seemed polished to an irregular degree—it definitely had to be due to the material of the ceiling, or the place he had found himself in had superb cleaning services. Could be both.
A butterfly flickered in his eyes but another blink of the eye and there was no sign of such a creature.
He lifted his torso up as he thoughtlessly stood up and scanned his surroundings… it seems he found himself in a laboratory of sorts with a lot of bulky steel cupboards—peeking out the window he paused.
It was an infinite void full of twinkling possibilities.
It seems a correction needed to be made to an earlier thought: he was in a space station, not a laboratory. Actually, it could be both. He momentarily scanned that there seemed to be futuristic interfaces and devices.
Before deciding to approach he shoved his palms in his pocket and momentarily paused… he had a pistol in his pocket? No, it seemed to be a model of a pistol. He didn't remember packing that on his way to school.
Bibibibibi
A beeping sound echoed in one of the interfaces and so he calmly walked over to see that it was in a recognisable language.
He clicked a button.
"…There's an answer!" Tenma heard from the other side of the speaker. "—This is Acting Director Kevin Ingrid speaking, we detected a foreign spatial anomaly within your sector; is it a problem or can you safely deliver the resources?"
He had to say something. "Uh, I think I'm the spatial anomaly."
There was an uncomfortable silence.
"And who are you?" The masculine voice growled with hostility.
"…Tenma Kamijou." He calmly responded.
"—I was asking for your allegiance!" The voice roared back which caused Tenma to throw his head back as his ears stung.
"…I don't have one, I just appeared here—I guess?"
"…" He heard a sigh. "How'd you even survive a wormhole? No matter—" Tenma heard a commotion on the man's side. "—It seems the circumstances have changed. Mr Kamijou, I need you to escort the hard-drive connected to this communication device and deliver it to this location at once; you can find the location through the numerous maps within the station but be warned that currently there is an attack from the Anti-Matter Legion so be wary."
"…Anti-Matter Legion?" Tenma asked with hesitation.
"…You don't even know that? You must've come from a long distance away. Just think of them as very bad monsters and avoid them." He said the last bit with a pretentious and condescending tone…
"Understood." He just decided to agree. "On my way."
"Good." Communication was cut out as he flickered the hard-drive into his pocket and walked over to a nearby map. He didn't specifically say where to go but he guessed it was probably the Command Centre which was a fair distance away—around two floors above.
He sighed as he dug his palm in his pocket and put on obsidian-black earphones in his ears as he swiped a sombre tone into play.
He spent a couple of minutes searching the area for anything useful and found a rusty dented sword—it would probably be handy later. He tapped a button on the holographic pad near the door and exited the room.
He had a general gist on where to go; he saw a closed door at the end of the corridor and so decided to take a turn in more open area and thus realised that the space station was quite big—his eyes flickered to a bunch of corpses scattered near the floor but he casually ignored that for the moment as he made sure to avoid any red that could taint his grey-sneakers.
The place seemed fairly empty but there were… dark crystals growing around the place—it seemed dangerous to get too close to and so he made sure to keep a decent distance away.
Luckily, an elevator worked and so he could safely press a button to go to the second flo—
Thump
He hit his head on the ceiling of the elevator as it suddenly paused on the second floor—he was originally on the first floor and needed to go on the third floor… he was an entire floor away.
He had to find another way there—the door opened and he was immediately met with humanoid creatures with crystals sticking out of their bodies.
Sting!
Tenma avoided an attack that could've cleaved through his head in an instant as he avoided an attack by just a hair's breadth by rolling forward. However, unfortunately a grave impact collided with his abdomen as he was tossed into the air and collided with a signboard which cushioned his fall.
He coughed in pain as he laid there still as the humanoid figures approached in a disgustingly slow manner which almost seemed… mocking.
Would he die like this?
Such a thought flickered in his mind as he forced himself to stand.
No.
Despite the constant near-death encounters which he had been coming across… he refused to die like this. He had already accepted death as a possibility, and he wasn't really scared of the possibility—but dying in such a way wasn't really how he wanted things to go.
And so he dug into his pockets and unsheathed the pistol as he proceeded to… aim for his own head.
It might've been adrenaline, desperation or something else—but he would die on his own terms.
And so… words leaked out of his lips.
"Per…"
They seemed to suddenly become wary of him as they could feel the difference in pressure from his weak self.
"So…"
They immediately dove onto his location with crystalline weapons in hand.
"…Na."
A blue axe was a moment away from his skull.
Then an unrepentant burst of azure flame overtook the area.
They were blasted back although they seemingly had enough skill to steady themselves… they gazed upon the former weakling and noticed a humanoid figure behind him.
"I am Thou… Thou art I…"
A pale coat, yellow tie, black pants and shirt with yellow decor along with a flowing white tie under a face that donned an orange visor-mask along with a white face-mask as well as crimson headphones—they took notice of its large sword hunkered over its shoulder.
"…Given Life by the Three."
A single sword from its sword was enough to literally disarm the first assailant as he a burst of amber crimson engulfed another of the bunch.
"I have come, armed with Violence, to Defend."
A surge power gushed forward in his bones as he felt his lips curve upwards…
"I am Askr—Child of the Tree of Ash."
He snapped his fingers.
"Agi."
Flames engulfed them all as he found that these sea-coloured crystalline humanoids seemed to have a particularly fatal weakness to his flames… how enlightening. Channelling his Persona, Tenma joined his other self in cleaving his enemies which weren't particularly susceptible to his flames and eventually… he won.
He had come out atop and lived.
He felt his other self withdraw back into himself and he felt an inexplicable willpower that he never had before—as if he was finally living again.
"Nice."
He did feel somewhat drained, but he decided that he could… "Oh."
He began to fall. That wasn't good.
As his vision began to fall he heard footsteps… along with rough fingers being placed on his wrist.
"…He's alive." He heard a distant echo. "…I'll—you two—"
He consciousness faded.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone