Chapter Text
“Yu, can you come down to the living room? Your father and I need to inform you of something.” A professionally dressed woman with silver hair enters her apartment along with another professionally dressed man, her husband.
A silver haired boy, Yu, leaves his room and quietly walks down the hall to speak with his parents. “…Yes?”
“Your father and I will be going to the United States for the company. The trip will be starting in a few months and we’ll be gone for about a year. You’ll be staying with your uncle during this period of time.” She speaks fast, as though she’s addressing a client.
Yu being left alone to fend for himself wasn't exactly uncommon. Yu having to move to an entirely new place for his parents’ jobs wasn’t exactly uncommon. On any other day, he would simply lie down and take it. He believed it was hopeless to argue against his cutthroat business-centric parents. But today, he felt different. Maybe he got up on the wrong side of the bed. Maybe the right one. No matter how his bed might have affected his judgment, he felt something today. Anger.
“…And why can’t I go with you?”
His father finally spoke up. “You can’t speak English, son. You’d be lost and-“
“I can speak English, actually. Maybe if you were around more, you would know that.”
“Watch your tone, young man. If you speak English, then that’s wonderful. It’ll look great on your college applications. But regardless, it’s a business trip. We would barely be able to see you even if you came with us.”
“…What’s the difference?”
They both stared at him. “What?”
“What’s the difference? You’re never around whether you’re in the country or not!”
“That’s not fair. You know your father and I try to-“
“I don’t know that, actually. I barely know anything about you!”
“That is ENOUGH! I thought we raised you to be more mature than this… tantrum!”
“You? Or the babysitters?”
The tension between the three was palpable. Eventually, though, the older man’s countenance was the first to soften. “Dear… maybe he is right. I can’t say that I do know much about our son now that I think about it.”
“I… this is…” his mother was still visibly flustered, but took a breath and sighed. “No… You’re right, Yu. We haven’t really had much… ‘Family Time’ in our lives. I…”
Another silence took over the room, but the tension was lightening. “This trip has been in the works for years. We can’t cancel it. But… we can see if our accommodations can be upgraded to suit you as well.”
Yu wanted to stay mad at his parents. They had pushed him away his whole life, and only now did they begin to get to know him. He tried to keep up the same walls he had for most of his life, but he couldn’t help letting them crumble a little.
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A frizzy-haired boy slowly shifts into consciousness as a fluttering piano melody fills the air of the limousine that he is in. He looks around, confused and concerned. Dude… What the hell is this? Am I dreaming?
“Welcome,” A strange voice alerts the boy to the other people in the cabin with him. “To the Velvet Room.”
Across from the boy is a strange balding old man with an eerily large grin and bulging eyes. He wears a tuxedo and has a… freakishly large nose.
Whaaat the hell? Was that chicken expired? The boy shook his head and tries everything he can think of to wake himself up.
“Ah… it seems we have a guest with an intriguing destiny. Hm hm hm…” The old man regains his attention. “My name is Igor...I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter...It is a room that only those who are bound by a ’contract’ may enter...It may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future. Now then...Why don't you introduce yourself...?”
Alarm bells begin ringing in the boy’s head. This weird ass old man is asking for my name. What the hell, dude. Though… Shit, I guess if it’s a dream there’s nothing to lose. He clears his throat, but his voice still cracks when he speaks. “H- Hanamura Yosuke.”
“Hm… I see. Now, let's take a look into your future, shall we? Do you believe in fortune telling? Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different… Hm hm… Life itself follows the same principles, does it not?”
As if I didn’t get enough of that tarot shit in the city.
Not looking, Igor flips over a card with an illustration of a tower being struck by lightning. Isn’t that one bad?
“Hm...The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. It seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent. The card indicating the future beyond that is…”
He flips over a card with an illustration of a crescent moon and a crayfish.
“The Moon, in the upright position. This card represents ’hesitation’ and ’mystery’...Very interesting indeed. It seems you will encounter a misfortune close to home, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you. In the coming days, you will enter into a contract of some sort, after which you will return here. The coming year is a turning point in your destiny...If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost. My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen. Ah! I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you. This is Agatha. She is a resident of this place, like myself.”
Igor gestures to the girl next to him, a European-looking girl wearing a deep blue outfit with platinum blond hair and piercing yellow eyes. She looks to be about Yosuke’s age. She bows to Yosuke and smiles. “I am Agatha. I will be here to accompany you throughout your journey.”
Igor looks at Yosuke. “We shall attend to the details another time. Until then, I leave you with one question; have you dealt with the Moel shipments yet?”
“What?” Yosuke was confused as the old man’s voice took on a more feminine tone with this non-sequitur.
“Hana-Chan!”
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(4/11/2011)
And he was up. Yosuke clears the sleep from his eyes as he re-enters the real world. “Saki-Senpai…?” Damnit! This is so embarrassing…
“Hehe. Tired, huh?” Saki smiles down at him, and Yosuke feels his guts drop as his blood pressure goes wild. “Your dad couldn’t find you, so he asked me to look for you. Have you picked up the Moel shipments yet?”
“Uhh… Nope! I’ll get on that right now! Don’t tell him I forgot, please!” Yosuke shoots up and moves to leave the break room.
Saki giggles at him. “Sure, Hana-Chan. Just don’t take too long.”
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As Yosuke rides towards the gas station, he thinks about the weird dream he had.
Dreams are supposed to be based off of things you’ve seen before, right? Where did I see that weird ass old guy, then? And I never remember my dreams, why is this one so clear? He snorts to himself. Ooh, maybe some kind of prophetic-
“Look out!” Yosuke is brought back to himself just before he rams into a trash can. Somehow, he manages to get himself lodged inside of it, completely stuck.
After struggling for a little while, he hears the same voice from earlier approaching the trash can. “Haha, alright there?”
“Could you help me out of here?”
“Of course.” The owner of the voice pulls on Yosuke’s legs, and just like that, he’s out. Yosuke takes this chance to look at his savior. They are a very androgynous looking person, with piercing red eyes and curly gray hair. They wear the Moel gas station uniform. “You’re here to pick up the shipment for Junes, right?”
Yosuke is a little surprised, but chalks it up to his preceding reputation as the Junes kid and follows the attendant as they walk into the store. “Yep. Thanks for the help, by the way.”
“No problem.” The attendant pulls out a clipboard and hands it to Yosuke, turning to pick up one of the boxes. “Just sign here, if you would.”
Yosuke signs his name and takes the box under his arm. He glances at the attendant to see them smiling with their hand extended. Yosuke smiles back and extends his other hand to shake it.
As Yosuke is fixing the box to his bike, he almost collapses from a sudden, splitting headache. Ugh, maybe I did eat something expired…
“Excuse me?” Yosuke turns to see an unfriendly-looking girl with green eyes staring at him, holding a receipt. “You dropped this.”
Yosuke takes the receipt from her hand. “Oh! Y- yeah, thanks.”
The girl scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Whatever.” She walks off.
Weird… Yosuke dusts himself off and sets up his bike to ride back to Junes.