Memories Of Another

Chapter 3

Riding a wooden ship through a storm with a crew that barely managed to differentiate between starboard and port turned out to be not as suicidal as it sounded. After all, they only crashed the ship against a bunch of rocks, which were sticking out of the ocean next to an island and then all of them got thrown off the ship, landed on the said island and lost consciousness until the next morning. All in all, the escapees had been pretty lucky, especially considering they were more or less unharmed. Sure Magilou and Minato sprouted a few bruises from the crash and for some reason, it was only them, but all in all, they were no worse for wear. Of course, it took everyone some time to wake up and Minato turned out to be the first one.

The first thing he felt before even opening his eyes was the sheer cold that engulfed his entire body. More through instinct, than an actual thought process, Minato internally switched his Persona from Orpheus to one that was more suited for the cold. Almost immediately it felt like his body temperature was rising in a matter of seconds, even though in reality the body itself became simply more resistant to the cold. The boy couldn't suppress a groan escaping his lips, as he pushed himself off the ground. Snow fell off his head and after opening his eyes, the blue-haired boy noted that it was snowing in the entire area. After getting up on his feet, Minato surveyed the entire area and took note of everything previously mentioned. It said something about his character that he managed to take the entire situation with a calm demeanor. After checking everyone's condition, he was a little surprised, but also relieved that everyone else appeared to be fine. He was about to wake up Seres, who had landed a few feet away from the rest when he could hear the sound of snow being crunched on regular bases. And it was getting louder.

Given his past experience with the local population, Minato decided it was best to hide behind a rock and observe whoever was coming. The boy quickly found himself surprised for a second time that day, as he found a small boy approaching the crash site. The young boy had shining blonde hair, wore a white robe of some sorts, along with black boots and a huge black color that hung loosely around his neck. At first, Minato assumed that the boy was part of the Exorcists that he had fought against earlier. The clothes were pretty much an indication of that. But then Minato reminded himself that the kid looked to be around the age Ken had been in. There was no way a military group like the exorcists had children on their employee list, right?

The child for some reason decided to approach Velvet, who was still out cold. The blonde knelt down and held his hands out just above the body of the daemon. Before Minato could even do so much as guess as to what the boy was up to, the hands of the blonde started to glow in a white light. The former Gekkoukan High Student watched with curiosity as for a short amount of time Velvet was engulfed in that light. During that time the woman showed first signs of waking up. She tilted her head in a way that she was facing the boy and her eyes fluttered open. Minato could hear her say something, but she was speaking too quiet for him to make out anything she was saying.

The light faded and along with it, the boy retracted his hands and looked down on Velvet. She for some reason got up quickly, appearing to be alarmed by the presence of the boy. The quick motioned surprised the blonde and he ran away from Velvet. On his way, he picked up the compass from the ship without even stopping. However, the boy didn't get very far. Not because Velvet was chasing him, but rather because there were two other daemons, who decided the boy would make a good snack. One reminded Minato a lot of the mythical werewolves and the other looked almost like a normal hawk if it wouldn't be so big.

"Stand back!" Velvet shouted and positioned herself in front of the boy. Minato figured this was as good of a time as any other to come out of his hiding place and help the woman fight off the daemons. Luckily he didn't lose his weapon during the storm, though the fact that he was still wearing nothing more than his high school uniform left him weary. Apparently, Velvet had no problem wearing no armor whatsoever and engaged the werewolf creature in a fierce fight. While the two exchanged swipes with each other, Minato was left to handle the bird. Here was the problem though. For some reason that bird was able to shoot it's feathers towards Minato, using them as projectiles. Those feathers turned out to be as sharp as knives, as the boy found out the hard way, by receiving multiple cuts on clothes and body alike. What made things even more annoying was that the hawk kept flying in the air and kept shooting those feathers at Minato. The boy found himself dodging the projectiles for quite some time. And from the looks of things, the beast didn't appear to be running out of ammo anytime soon.