Chapter Text
The car felt safe. That was the first thing Yu noticed when he came to consciousness. It evoked the feeling of dozing off while on a road trip, his parents talking in the front seat while he drifted, gazing aimlessly out the window as the scenery passed by.
He wasn’t afraid when he opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by blue velvet and facing two strangers. Even the appearance of the man with the long nose and too-wide smile didn’t startle him. On the contrary, Yu knew on some level that he had been waiting for this moment. He had always been expected in this place at this time, and there was comfort in that.
Comfort had become a rare thing lately, so he welcomed it and met the man’s bloodshot eyes expectantly as they drifted open.
“…Welcome to the Velvet Room.”
Yu inclined his head politely, waiting to hear more. He felt the smooth, cool velvet against the back of his neck as he folded his hands.
“Ah…It seems we have a guest with an intriguing destiny…” the man said with a soft chuckle. His voice was as silken as the expensive upholstery that lined the car’s interior. “My name is Igor… I am delighted to make your acquaintance.”
“Likewise,” Yu replied, and he meant it. “My name is Yu Narukami.”
“Yu Narukami,” Igor repeated, as if he was tasting the name on his tongue. He nodded slowly, pensively. “Well, Yu Narukami, 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.”
At this, Yu frowned. “I…haven’t signed any contract, though.”
“Perhaps not, but it may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future.” Igor raised his hand over the small table before him, which glowed for a moment before a deck of cards appeared. In an ordinary car, they would have been in danger of scattering at any moment. Here, however, they sat perfectly still, waiting. “Do you believe in fortune telling?”
“Um…” Yu shifted in his seat. “I had my palm read once. She said I’d marry a woman with long brown hair and grow up to be a CEO. I’m pretty sure she was just saying what she thought I wanted to hear.” He knew for a fact that both parts of that future would never come true if he could help it.
Igor nodded sympathetically. “It can be hard to find the truthtellers in a world full of charlatans. Perhaps, I can illuminate where others have failed.” He directed the cards with a wave of his hands, watching as they shuffled themselves. Then, three cards were drawn and placed in a row. “I have always enjoyed tarot. Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different.”
Yu leaned forward. The cards were all facedown. “Will these tell my future?”
“This is a three-card spread,” Igor explained. “The first card speaks of your past. The middle card offers insight into your present. The third gives a hint at what the future may hold.”
With a flick of the wrist, Igor overturned the first card without touching it. The image was of a man lying facedown with ten long swords sticking out of his back. His hair was silver and he was wearing what looked like a basketball jersey. With a start, Yu realized that it was him in the picture.
For a split-second, the swords disappeared, and Yu could see himself lying in the mud behind his old school, half of his face pressed into the ground. His entire body felt like it had been tenderized by a meat hammer. His nose was broken. One of his eyes was swollen shut. He felt a sharp pain in his chest with each inhale.
He curled in on himself, trembling, waiting to see if there would be any more. He wanted to get up, wanted to run, but what if they were still there? What if they were waiting for him? Should he just stay down until nightfall?
It was raining. He was so cold.
A drop landed on his hand, and he was back in the Velvet Room again. He realized with a flush of shame that he had started crying. The woman seated next to Igor drew a handkerchief from her pocket and offered it to him without a word, though her smile was kind, her eyes sympathetic.
Igor waited patiently while Yu wiped his face. Once he had his attention again, he spoke quietly. “The Ten of Swords in the upright position indicates hitting rock bottom. You have been betrayed, stabbed in the back, and left wounded and hopeless.”
Yu sniffed, clenching the handkerchief in his hand as he tried to keep from sobbing. The memory was still raw, even though most of the physical damage had healed by now.
He had been asked by his senpai to meet him for a private conversation after school, and Yu had been thrilled and hopeful. Shin-senpai had seemed cold and distant for the previous two days…ever since Yu had taken him aside after basketball practice and confessed that he had a crush on him.
It had been only a week since he came out as gay to his parents. They had been surprised but ultimately accepted him. They had warned him about being careful who he told, just to be safe.
And he thought he was being careful, telling the person who had taken him under his wing when he first joined the team, the person he found himself unable to look away from. All it took was one glance at those startling blue eyes and that infectious grin for Yu to know that fate was smiling down on him. His parents were okay with him being gay, he’d confess to Shin-senpai, and maybe they could even be out as boyfriends! They were both popular members of the basketball team, after all, so no one would dare mess with them!
Except Shin hadn’t really responded to his confession. He just got this odd, closed-off look on his face and told Yu he should probably go home. Yu’s heart had plummeted and remained in the pits when Shin proceeded to avoid him afterward.
However, on that fateful day, Yu was instructed to go behind the school instead of going to the team’s next practice. Shin wanted to talk. Maybe he had simply needed time to process everything and was going to answer Yu’s feelings!
He had definitely answered. Him and the entire team.
They answered until there wasn’t a surface of Yu’s body that wasn’t black and blue.
Then, while he was still recovering in the hospital, he was given notice from the coach that he was being kicked off the team because the others didn’t feel safe around him. His parents pulled him from school, and he didn’t protest.
Taking a deep breath, Yu managed to regain his composure and look at Igor again, who had been waiting silently. “Sorry.”
“Not to worry,” Igor replied. “As I said, this place exists between dream and reality. Time does not follow the same rules here, so you may take all you need.” He gestured to the middle card, which flipped over to reveal a grinning skull.
“Seriously?!” Yu couldn’t help saying when he saw what was written beneath. “Wait, am I dead right now? Is that what-”
Igor held up a hand. “Calm yourself, Yu Narukami. The Death card is not the ill omen many mistake it for. In the upright position, as it is now, it represents great change, a metamorphosis. It is the death of what was and the birth of what shall be.”
“Metamorphosis?” Yu repeated.
Igor nodded. “Such things can be painful, but they are often necessary. Your situation, your life, and even you are due for a great deal of change. Whether this is for the better or for the worse…we shall see.”
When Yu’s parents told him a few weeks ago that he would be enrolled in a new school and would be living with his uncle in Inaba while they traveled for work, he had almost wept with relief. This was his chance to start again, and he wouldn’t make the same mistakes as before! He would make friends and do everything in his power to make a good impression. He wouldn’t cause trouble. He would be safe again. He would be liked again.
He just had to hide that one distasteful part of himself. He had hidden it for so long before telling his parents, so it wouldn’t be hard to go back to hiding. It wasn’t like anyone needed to know. He'd never be able to have a boyfriend, anyway. Inaba was a small town, and small towns were even less accepting of people being different than cities were. There was no point in putting himself in harm’s way again.
He was on his way to Inaba right now…wasn’t he? He realized for the first time that he had come to the Velvet Room after falling asleep on the train.
“And finally, your future,” Igor continued, waving his hand at the third card, which revealed an image of a building being struck by lightning, with people leaping from the wreckage to their deaths.
Why are all the images on these cards scary?! Yu couldn’t help but wonder.
“Hm… The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. It seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent,” Igor murmured.
Yu’s shoulders slumped. “Is there anything…good in this reading? Maybe a hint at what this catastrophe is? Is it like…the betrayal?”
Igor hummed thoughtfully. “I can draw another card for clarification. Let’s see…” Another card leaped from the deck, settling atop the Tower card. It showed a golden crescent moon. “The Moon, in the upright position,” Igor read. “This card represents ‘hesitation’ and ‘mystery.’ Very interesting indeed.”
Yu frowned. This card seemed less scary than the others, but it didn’t lend much more clarity to what he should be expecting. If anything, it made things even murkier.
“It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination,” Igor continued. “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.”
“What will happen when I return?”
Igor folded his hands. “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.”
Yu tried to take all of this in. At the very least, he could tell that Igor was not lying to him. The Velvet Room was meant to be a place that would help him with…whatever was coming next. That was reassuring, though Yu would have been far happier if there was simply no catastrophic mystery waiting for him.
He looked over at the woman, who still hadn’t spoken. What was her role in all this? Before he could ask, Igor noticed where his gaze had fallen.
“Ah! I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you. This is Margaret. She is a resident of this place, like myself.” He gestured toward her with a smile.
Margaret nodded once. “My name is Margaret. I am here to accompany you through your journey.”
Yu nodded back. Belatedly, he remembered that he was still holding the handkerchief she had handed him and held it out a little sheepishly. She took it back and folded it neatly, placing it next to the cards.
“Thanks,” he muttered, then turned back to Igor. “Is there anything else you can tell me about this mystery?”
Igor’s grin widened. “Now, now. That would be telling, wouldn’t it?”
Margaret shot her master a look of rebuke. “What he means is: we don’t know. We are not all-seeing, and tarot is not meant to give overly specific readings. The future in particular is nebulous, so nothing is truly set until it happens.
Igor chuckled mischievously. “In other words, we shall attend to the details another time. Until then, farewell…”
“Wait, what?” Before Yu could say anything more, he felt a wave of drowsiness overcome him. He fought it for only a moment before his head slumped forward.
The train exited a tunnel and he jolted awake, bonking his head against the seat, which was very much not made of plush velvet cushions.
“We will arrive at Yasogami Terminal in a few minutes,” a crisp female voice announced. “Passengers headed for Inaba City and Yasoinaba station, please go to the other side of the platform.”
Yu shook his head to clear the last bit of sleep from it. The dream had been so vivid, he felt like he had actually been transported to another place. Every word, every detail remained perfectly imprinted on his mind.
There was no time to think about that now, however. Grabbing his luggage, he stood up from his seat and got ready to transfer to the final train on his journey to Inaba. One way or another, his new life was about to begin.