Persona 4: The Novel

Chapter One

That's when he woke up. He remembered everything now. It only seemed like his memory had been wiped clean. Yu was on a train. He was moving from the city to a small town called Inaba. It was only about five minutes before Yu arrived at his stop. At the station, he got a text message from his uncle who was going to be taking care of him. It read: Meet us at Yasoinaba Station at 4pm. He wasn't left waiting for too long. "Hey! Over here!" he heard someone call to him. Yu looked around for a minute, and then spotted a middle aged man with a young girl. he walked over to Yu. "Well, you're more handsome in person than in the photo." By the way the man was talking to him, he realized that was his uncle. "Welcome to Inaba. I'm Ryotaro Dojima. I'll be looking after you." He said. Yu understood now. He hadn't seen his uncle in..... forever. "Let's see... I'm your mother's younger brother... and that about sums it up." Dojima added. "It's been a long time." said Yu. The two than shook hands. "I'll say! I remember when you were still in diapers!" Yu looked over to the little girl. "This here's my daughter." said Dojima. "Come on, Nanako, introduce yourself to your cousin." Yu had never met Nanako before. Dojima had some crazy job that stopped him from coming to visit. "...'lo." Nanako mumbled. Dojima chuckled. "What're you so shy for?" Nanako hit him in the leg lightly. "Well then... Let's get going. My car's over there." said Dojima. It was a bit of a drive back to town, and they ended up stopping for gas. "Hi! Welcome to Moel!" yelled the attendant. "Can you go to the bathroom by yourself?" Dojima asked Nanako. "Uh-huh." said Nanako. "It's in the back to your left. Do you know which way is left? The side you don't hold your chopsticks in." said the attendant. "I know... Geez..." said Nanako under her breath. It looked like the attendant and Dojima were talking. "Are you taking a trip?" said the attendant. "No, we just went to pick him up. He just moved from the big city." said Dojima. "The city, huh...?" exclaimed the attendant. "Fill my car up while you're at it. Regular's fine." said Dojima. "Right away sir!" The attendant started to fill up the car. "Good time as any for a smoke..." said Dojima. the attendant struck up a conversation with Yu. "Are you in high school? Does it surprise a city boy to see how little there is out there? There's so little to do, I'm sure you'll get bored fast. you'll either be hanging out with your friends or doing part-time jobs. Speaking of which, we're actually looking for part-time help right now. Give it some thought, why don't you? We don't mind if you're a student." "Sure I'll think it over." said Yu. "Oh, I should get back to work." said the attendant. Yu started to feel kind of queasy, but it was probably just the trip. Nanako came over. "...Are you okay? Did you get carsick? You don't look to good..." "I'm fine." said Yu. Dojima finished his smoke, and they finished their drive.