A Terrible Night (OPEN)

Hikaru could barely keep his eyes open, let alone raise his head off of the lunch table. He felt utterly void of energy and concentration, two things he normally held an abundance of; not even the delicious aroma of his sloppy joe could give him any energy to eat any more. Hikaru was certainly worried; anyone that knew him would be stunned by this sudden change of mood. This energy-depraved state persisted throughout the day, making sleeping in class a huge certainty for Hikaru.

And those accursed nightmares were to blame.

It had been weeks since he started getting them in the middle of the night, but it never seemed to hold much of an impact on him; he always seemed to keep up with school with no change in his energy level. Today must have been the day where those nightmares finally struck him with the collective hours of lost sleep. He thought to talk to somebody about them, but from what Alex made it sound, nobody could quite do anything about it.

"I just need a sympathetic ear, I guess. Somebody who will at least listen to my troubles, even when they have no solution."

Hikaru managed to raise his head to see somebody getting closer to him. Although the bags under his eyes were faint, it was fairly obvious from his glazed expression that he wasn't feeling right. He decided to at least say hi.

"Hey, um, what's up? *YAWN*"

Kazuya found himself lying on the floor and it is a mess everywhere. What happened? Oh, Kazuya just attended a friend's party who happens to live in the dorms. Kazuya must've partied really hard and fell asleep without noticing it due to fatigue. It seems that he is not the only though, some of the other party animals fell asleep on the floor like Kazuya. There are a bunch marker scribblings on his face and he is too tired to notice it. He can't really notice it since there is no mirror everywhere on the room. So slowly, Kazuya carefully leaves the room without stepping on the sleepyheads. Kazuya was glad to get out of the room safely, he feels like he have completed a mission.

He goes downstairs and was about to leave when he saw a person staying up all night. "Hey what's up?" Kazuya greeted the boy to confirm if he is conscious with his surroundings. He fears that he might get accused of being a burglar especially when he is not a familiar face around here. He doesn't sleep here because of the fact that he has a small rental house in San Malarus. He slowly approached the teenage and try not to make him panic.

Hikaru struggled to bring his heavy-as-lead head up from the table but managed to catch it with hands, using his elbows to prop him up on the table to observe the stranger. The stranger had some curiously pale skin and was dressed from head to toe in a variety of blue clothing, like Alex. However, there seemed to be a variety of marker scribbles across his face, ranging from squiggles to more... profane messages. He tried to force a smile but found it dissolving as he recalled that he was feeling void of energy. He at least felt like he should respond.
"Ahh... Sorry. I'm, uh, not exactly in tip-top shape. I had a pretty terrible night, and I don't know how long I can keep myself awake. But I don't want you to bother you if you're already on your way to somewhere."
""Hang on, Hikaru. What if this guy's willing to listen? ...No, not unless he asks. For all I know, he's just a guy who doesn't really care about me..."
"Oh, by the way, you should wash your face pretty soon. People are probably giving you looks because of that scribbling on your face."

Kazuya was glad to know that the boy doesn't know him and he also doesn't know whether he lives here or not. It seem the guy had a terrible night, maybe he got a nightmare? Well, he wouldn't be keeping himself awake if it's a great dream. "a terrible night huh? Mind telling what it is?" Kazuya then walked up to the boy and stood beside him. "Well, I know we just met but you can tell me everything so that thing will be out of your mind" he added but the boy told him that he has scribblings on his face. "What?" Kazuya rubbed his face and there is a whiteboard marker stain on his finger. "I didn't notice this. Thanks for telling" he thanked him then rushed to the nearest sink to wash the scribblings off his face then returned to Hikaru once he was done with his face. "Ok i'm ready to listen"

Strength:

Hikaru felt a twinge of joy from talking with this stranger; something about the boy gave Hikaru a bit of strength, enough to turn the corners of his mouth up and smile. He at least sounded invested enough in Hikaru's problem to offer his aid in alleviating his thoughts. Hikaru was happy somebody wanted to talk to him, but he was also concerned with talking about his nightmares; Hikaru believed that they were somehow connected to his shadow, as Alex made reference to.
As the boy ran off to find some water to wash his face off, Hikaru's mind debated on whether or not to tell him the truth about his nightmares.

"What could he do about them? If they're really connected to my shadow, I doubt he could stop them until... it's too late. Alex mentioned these people who could help Alex rescue me, but who are they? And how could they follow me into some other dimension? Gah, whatever! Just tell him the truth; he's offering to help, take it."

By the time he finished debating, he looked up to see the pale boy sitting opposite of him. His gentle smile gave him the confidence to talk about it. However, Hikaru would first extend his hand to him.

"Um, my name's Hikaru Ryouichi. Thanks for, you know, offering to listen...
As you probably guessed, I'm suffering from a bit of sleep deprivation thanks to these nightmares I've been having every day this week. They're all the same nightmare; same place, same situation, same conversation. Well, not exactly the same; each night, the nightmares are getting more vivid, longer, and it feels more real with each passing night. I... don't know why, but these dreams always keep me in a state of panic, even when nothing is really happening...

Alright, so I'm just floating in this field of emptiness- nothing but darkness for as far as I can tell. I can't really move anything other than my eyes. In each nightmare, there's this... pair of huge golden eyes staring at me, not even blinking. I can't tell who they belong to, but I can see this... shadow behind it. It's really, really dark, so I can't even tell what it is. But those menacing eyes just stare down at me, and from the void I can hear this... chant echoing. It was really distant at first, but now I can hear it clearly. It says stuff like 'I am thou, thou art I', 'The time is coming...', and last night, it said 'Face who you truly are, or surrender your life'. Now, I know it's a nightmare, but it feels so real it scary."

Hikaru realized that he was no longer supporting his head, meaning that at least some energy was returning to his body. He smiled weakily at the stranger.
"Please tell me I'm not going crazy."

Kazuya shaked Hikaru's hand and introduced himself as well "I am Kazuya Fujiwara. Nice to meet you". Kazuya would then listen to the boy, he is talking about his nightmares. Kazuya eyes widened because Hikaru mentioned something familiar. Someone with golden eyes and says things like 'i am thou, thou art I" and "the time is coming". It was undoubtedly Hikaru's Shadow Self. Kazuya already knew about this and the first person he saved from a Shadow Self is Nilo. Oh no, it will happen to this boy too! and that means, he has the potential to be Persona-User! If Kazuya or anyone else saved him from his Shadow that is. Kazuya scratched his chin and said "You're not going crazy Hikaru. In fact, you're in trouble like in real trouble." he then looked seriously at Hikaru. "I know that this sound really crazy but the person with golden eyes you're talking about, is none other than you. It's your 'Shadow Self' and i have experienced a friend encountering his shadow self as well. I don't know but it seems that this shadow is holding the negative side of him so that means he is the negative side of you. The only thing this 'shadow' wants is you, dead. I know how to end this, I will kill this 'shadow'. You have no any means of weapon of defeating this shadow because normal weapons has no effect on them. Also..." Kazuya stopped there and he realized he is telling too much. He thought that Hikaru shall discover the rest for himself. "I think i've told too much. All I want to say is; in order to stop your nightmares, I or someone with 'potential' shall defeat this shadow of yours. I think you must discover the rest by yourself" Kazuya added. "It sounds really crazy but it's not when you experienced it so be careful"

Kazuya Fujiwari. A friendly name for a friendly guy. He was at least nice enough to attentively listen to Hikaru's nightmare visions, and that alone made Hikaru happy. Hikaru could feel some strength returning to his personality, but his mood took quite a turn when Kazuya reached his conclusion.

Hikaru wasn't going crazy. His Shadow was a very real threat, and it was looking to kill him. Not only that, but his Shadow was immune to normal weapons, and Kazuya would supposedly be able to defeat this monster. Even worse, he made it sound like this had happened before.

Hikaru couldn't help but grip his head once more, almost on the verge of tears. First Alex, now Kazuya; both of them hinted at Hikaru's imminent abduction, but Hikaru still felt doubt in his heart that anyone could save him. After all, if normal weapons couldn't kill the Shadow, how could they expect to kill him? Kazuya seemed hesitant to give him any more information than necessary, which only fueled his burning curiousity for answers... answers he could only get once this tragic fate occurs. Hikaru felt anger boiling in his thoughts, an emotion that rarely had such a powerful sway over him.
After waiting a moment to collect himself, he finally spoke.
"So, this Shadow thing... Can you explain what he is?"

Kazuya doesn't want to answer his question but it seemed that he made Hikaru even more nervous due to what he said that his nightmare was real and this 'real' nightmare is going to kill him. So in order to cool Hikaru a little bit, Kazuya answered his question. "Except for the shadow that looks like you or everyone. This 'shadows' are mysterious creatures that holds human emotions, negative ones to be in fact. Some are weak and some are strong but due to the negative emotions they are holding, shadows tend to be dangerous. You'll be doomed if you confront one of them and you don't have any means of defense against them". Gosh, this would make Hikaru not to sleep for that reason. He shall not worry because as long as he has a friend who is a Persona-User or someone with potential can save him from his true self. "You have nothing to worry about. Good thing, I've met you and you told me about this. So the next time he kidnapped you" he gave Hikaru a serious look in the eye and continued his statement "I'll kill it".

"Great. Just great. What have I just walked into? It's like everyone but me knows what's going on, and I can never get all the information. C-can this even be stopped? Is it inevitable? Is there the possibility that... I could die with that Shadow taking my place... and likely killing other people? Oh, God... Why? Why me? WHY ME?!"

Hikaru was practically turning red with anger, but he quickly dismissed his anger, likely not wanting to press Kazuya any further; he was lending a sympathetic ear and whatever help he could give. There wasn't a good reason to get angry with him.

"Alright, thanks for offering to help. I'm guessing I'll need that soon anyway. But, you know, you're not the first person to hint at this. My friend, Alex, he's the one who figured this would happen soon. He... read my future with tarot cards. Normally I'm not so shaken up by something like that, but it weighs pretty heavily on my mind, especially the way he looked at those cards with fear. I just need to ask, though I don't expect you to give me the full story.

Has this happened before? Are you and Alex acquainted or something? It feels like there's this network of information with you two that I can't grasp."

"Yes, these things happened before they're not just viral to the community. It didn't happened to me but it happened to my friend, we found him in the middle of the deserted waste along with his shadow. I am glad to tell you that I and a friend managed to save him. Also, I do not know this 'Alex' guy you speak of" Kazuya gave Hikaru a light smile that means there is nothing to worry about for now. "There is nothing to worry about. I will be here for you Hikaru. I just don't want these things happening again. I will do everything to stop your nightmare. So goodbye for now" Kazuya bowed at Hikaru then walked out to the table. Kazuya stopped when he forgot something to give. So Kazuya returned to him and gave him a piece of paper, it was Kazuya's phone number just in case. "This is my number.Call me when ur in a trouble or just send some random message once you saw that 'shadow' of yours. Once again,goodbye" Kazuya said before totally leaving the scene leaving Hikaru alone and a piece of paper.

[EXIT]

Hikaru accepted Kazuya's number and waved goodbye to Kazuya. Although Hikaru's concern in his current dilemma were deepening, he couldn't help but feel a bit more secure; both Alex and Kazuya seemed to know more than they were letting on, so they would likely have experience in dealing with his Shadow.

As Hikaru entered Kazuya's number into his phone, one question still lingered in his mind.

What was his Shadow like? It apparently had human emotions and shared his appearance but wanted to kill him for some reason. But how did his personality differ from his Shadow's personality? How much of him did it really know? Hikaru imagined that if it was impersonating him, it wouldn't get far unless it knew how he acted.

Hikaru shook the thought aside, finished the rest of his sandwich, and wandered back to the ferry.

[Hikaru END]