Persona 3: Spring of Rebirth

Tartarus

"Welcome, once again, to the Velvet Room."

Kotone woke up and was met with the somewhat familiar — it was still an unusual place, but she was getting used to it — sight of the blue room. She turned her head to look around — she was in control of her body this time, which was a relief; the room was still the elevator from her previous visit. Most importantly, however, was the person sitting right by her side; a perfect replica of the face she had grown accustomed to seeing in the mirror over these past few days.

"Minako...?"

The replica blinked and nodded, slightly surprised — seeing a replica of herself speak to her was just as weird to her as it was for Kotone, "Y-Yeah. And you're—"

"Yeah. It's me."

"Huh... that's weird."

"What do you mean?"

"I... never asked for your name."

".............." Kotone remained silent for a moment, looking down. "I... just call me Kotone." she didn't want to say any more than that. It was the name she had been identifying with herself; in truth, she had no idea what her real name was. She had no memory of that. No memory of being called by another name — or rather, no memory of what that name would be; she had bits and pieces of memories of people calling out to the boy, but there was no name in those memories, only an indistinguishable noise, and whenever she tried thinking back to it, to try to remember, it gave her a headache.

Minako's mouth opened; her first instinct was to argue, to say that her companion must certainly have a name of their own, but... she decided against it. The expression on Kotone's face, which she didn't usually get to see, as they shared the same body, showed this conversation made her very uncomfortable, — or maybe sad was more appropriate — so instead, Minako just nodded.

"Ahem..." Igor cleaned his throat. The two had completely ignored him, even after he welcomed them back to the room. "I apologize it took a while for me to be able to welcome you two back here." His grin widened, "I must say, though... your situation is something that has managed to subvert even my own expectations. To think your destinies would be intertwined to this point..." Igor's voice had a hint of amusement that he didn't seem interested in hiding.

As Igor spoke, Kotone's eyes still wandered around the room, landing on Elizabeth, who stood by the long-nosed man, on the opposite side to her brother; she could swear she saw, for just a second, the blonde — or was her hair white? It was hard to tell — haired woman wink at her. It felt to her like she was demonstrating a sense of familiarity; had her dream from the other day been more than just a dream—?

"Time does not affect the Velvet Room in the same manner that it does the real world," Elizabeth said, unprompted, almost as if she were speaking directly to Kotone. Had she noticed the confusion on her expression?

"Elizabeth..." Igor's tone sounded like that of a parent reprimanding a child for saying something they shouldn't.

"I apologize." Elizabeth said. She didn't seem at all sorry, however, as she had a smile on her face. There was an awkward pause within the room, as all those present were silent, only the music that played within the room making any kind of noise, before Igor spoke again.

"...as I was saying, we, of the Velvet Room, are here to aid our guests in their journey. As your power grows—"

"You mean our Persona, right? Whatever that is..."

"Yes," Igor, "Your power, your Persona, comes from your heart. In a way it is the manifestation of the many aspects of your soul. And in another, it is the masks that you wear given form."