Persona 3: Spring of Rebirth

Lack of Information

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," a familiar voice greeted the boy. It was Igor, the long-nosed man from the other night, who sat by the same round blue table, with a wide smile on his face, "It seems we have a new guest, with a most unusual destiny."

Being in this 'Velvet Room' felt strange, he noticed; it felt as if he was weightless, like how in dreams you can feel that if you just let yourself go, you'd be carried away by the wind.

"My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance."

Huh? he was confused. They had met before already, why would Igor bother introducing himself again? Did the creepy man think so lowly of him that he thought he'd have forgotten already?

He tried speaking, but nothing came out. It wasn't like the feeling of not having a mouth from before, but rather, it was the feeling of being a passenger inside his own body. Unable to move or speak. Is this how Minako feels...?

As his body blinked without his command, he noticed the room seemed to have stabilized since the last time he was there. Instead of being two things at the same time, the room was a wide blue elevator, with a big clock hanging on top. It didn't feel like the elevator was moving, but he reckoned that was because of the weightlessness he felt inside the room.

"This room is available only to those who have signed into a contract of sorts." Igor explained, "It exists between dream and reality, mind and matter."

"Contract? I didn't sign anything like that." his own voice spoke. It was different, once again. Instead of being the voice he had been hearing as Kotone, this voice was... his voice. He knew it, instinctively. It was the voice he had spoken with every day of his life, safe for the last couple of days.

Igor chuckled, "A contract isn't always physical. It might be a verbal agreement." The long-nosed man opened his hand, and a contract appeared, "But in this room, they both hold the same weight."

"I see."

"I apologize for not having everything at hand at the moment," Igor closed his palm into a fist, and the contract vanished, "I have another guest right now, and I need to make sure that both of you may be able to make use of all the services we can provide."

"We?"

Igor chuckled, "Ah, yes, pardon me—" he tapped twice at his table, and two peculiar looking individuals appeared next to him. The both appeared to be siblings, having the same light blonde — or maybe it was white? — hair, with vivid yellow eyes. The two wore blue attire, one wearing a suit while the other wore a type of dress. "These are Elizabeth and Theodore. They will be here to aid you, and our other guest, within your journey."

"I apologize for being late," the woman, who surely must have been Elizabeth, spoke, "I had to make sure Theo here looked presentable."

"But it was you—" Theodore tried to interject, but was quickly interrupted by Elizabeth.

"You wouldn't want to cause a scene in front of both our guest and our master, now, would you?"

Theodore sighed, his head down, "Very well," he them turned to the chair the boy sat at, "It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm Theodore, as you know."

"And I'm his older sister Elizabeth."

"Nice to meet you two, I guess, I'm—"

"—Shiomi-chan!"

Kotone felt herself being pulled back to reality by Yukari's voice. She let out a soft groan, opening her eyes. Was that a dream...?