#there’s a ton of new and old oc lore to them that i’m too lazy to explain

[slcepily]

i’ve had a ponysona since like age 9 and this is the latest iteration of her

[legacy-by-darkryuu]

Remaster: Step Toward the Future, Chapter 1

Summary: Set in BTN/MFOMT/DS: Jill ("Claire") is struggling to find a goal in life after high school. After her parents boot her off to her late grandfather's farm, everything around her is never quite the same as she struggles to find herself and her future. Remastered from original 2004 release. Jill/Cliff, minor Jill/Kai, minor Jill/Gray, minor Jill/Doctor. OC/Popuri, OC/Elli.

Also available on Archive of Our Own

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Blanket Disclaimer: I don’t own Story of Seasons, Harvest Moon, or Rune Factory.

Rating: M/Adult

Author’s Note:

2023 Notes: It is DONE. It only took four years because of flipping adulthood. I can’t say it was fruitless. Along with the full rewrite of Step Toward the Future, I completed the prequel stories! Originally, when I was gung-ho writing this in the 00s-10s, I skipped around and did not actually write how some of the characters got here. Especially the kids, my God. They just popped up in Yuki, the Sophomore fanfic following Step Toward the Future. And there’s mentions of the characters but like you never meet them. It’s been weird as hell but I fixed it! All characters are now accounted for.

I will be posting for a while, there is a TON of content. I do not believe I can get into Fanfiction.net for some reason, or at least it’s not loading for me (I promise you, it could have fully closed and I’d have missed it) so it will be on Archive of Our Own and on Tumblr…once I pretty up the site. My motivation for anything lately is crap. But it’ll be on legacy-by-darkryuu at some point. I will host the ‘Classic’ version there unless otherwise specified.

It stays true to form…to a point, then, if somehow you’ve read it between 2004-2016, it goes the FF7 route and goes complete revamp. Still chaotic, still pretty nonsense but I seriously cannot reformulate this whole series by rectifying that, lol.

It’s a trifle darker than the original? Just a wee bit. And while real world chronologically, this is the first story I wrote, in the series, Nomad falls before this and may be a good read for some elements but not required. But that’s all I’ve got. Happy reading.

2019 Rewrite Notes: So, I finally decided to stop being lazy since I am working on the original six’s stories (mostly Shin’s right now) and just edit this bad boy to fit where we are now. I have like 90 different versions sitting in this folder but we’ll call this the “Forever Edit” until I edit something else into the storyline.

It’s only necessary for some unsavory things that were ‘normal’ when I was fourteen. It did kind of strike me as funny that Cliff’s ‘gentlemanliness’ is a little gross to me now. It just didn’t come off naturally. Also, while Jill was a loner and aloof in the original version, while she’s not super friendly ‘everyone is my friend!’, I don’t get the idea she’d purposefully be that way so that’s gonna be played down. Also, since Koji’s our quintessential dark child, she may still dress darkly and have a few of the original stylings but that’s gonna be rolled back a little too. And just some general cohesiveness corrections. ADDITIONALLY, I hope I can truncate this disaster to make it a more reasonable amount of chapters.

I’m going to remove the classic version from FF.Net again but you can still access it on Archive of Our Own. I know a lot of my old time readers are nostalgic and the version over there was how it was ORIGINALLY uploaded.

New time readers, welcome to the series. It’s cray. I have literally been writing this thing for fifteen years. I have slowed down due to being a full-time employed millennial so I get in where I fit in now. This story is set in 2004. It’s an AU take on the game. There will be lore and Easter eggs toward the series but overall, just take the characters and throw them into a real setting. Be forewarned, some of your favorite characters may be portrayed as unsavory but this changes (now). I hope you enjoy! Happy reading~

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Jill was lost in her own world amidst the heavy metal and moshing as she walked through the concert of one of the local bands, shoving past the riled up fans, cursing them silently under her breath. Like clockwork, again, she wasn’t in a good mood. The screaming rhythm that she had come to love wasn’t numbing her dismay at all.

She’d been tasked to take care of her great-grandfather’s farm and she was leaving tomorrow morning.

It wasn’t like her but she whined for nearly three weeks. It wasn’t what she WANTED to do…but, her parents demanded to know her alternatives. She…had none. They assured that this was something for her to do in the meantime then. She had five other brothers, but she was chosen out of all of them. Most likely because, out of all of them, she was the only one not attending college aside from the oldest who already had a career.

Mumbling lightly, she started for the exit, seeing as the concert wasn’t providing her any joy and tomorrow was going to be a long day.

And the sooner she figured out what step she had going toward her future, the sooner she got to leave.

She heard the alarm beeping, but she didn’t want to wake up. She didn’t want to go. Why was she being forced to do this? What did she, someone who’d only known the city for eighteen years, know about farming?

She picked up her alarm clock and threw it across the room, burying her face into her pillow. Whose test was this exactly? “Well, good morning, Sunshine” said a sarcastic voice. She looked to the door of her large room to see her older brother, Yagami Koji, standing there, wearing dark colored jeans and a black button up shirt, an ever loving child of darkness with dark hair and dark eyes to match. Jill sat up and grumbled, “Shut up and kill me.” He smiled gently and came further in to sit on her bed, “Princess, you know I’d go for you if mom and dad weren’t so invested in seeing you do something.” “Can’t I take time to figure that out? I just don’t know! I’m not like you or Shin, I don’t know what I want to do!” she protested, referring to their oldest brother who had a full blown career now. “And you can do that while you’re managing the farm” he said warmly, “Hell, maybe you’ll have an epiphany in like the first year then one of us will come and run it the rest of the way until it’s sold. You have to admit, Jilly, you’ve been sitting around for not days or weeks or even months, but close to a full year, doing absolutely nothing. We have super lenient parents but they do not care for idleness. You already got to see they didn’t let it fly with your twin.” Yea, she guessed she was the spoiled one now, she did think she’d get a pass. She sat up and hugged his waist, whining, “Big brother…” He stroked her long blond hair and rested his chin on top of her head, “Mmm, tell you what: how about I come and help on my next break. Sound okay?” She sighed. “I guess...”

"Psh, you guess? Can you imagine Koji actually farming?” said a snickering voice. They both looked up and Koji glared back at him. “I’d do better farming than you can, punkass.” The other oldest, Yagami Nerimaru, known amongst their family as ‘Nelly’, gave Koji a large grin and placed his left hand on his hip. He shook a spatula at them. “The nerve. And after I got up all early and crap to fix breakfast. I’m hurt.” Koji stood and rolled his eyes at Nelly, his younger less gloomy twin “How sweet of you. Did you hit your head or something?” “Bah. I can’t do anything out of the kindness of my heart?” Koji raised an eyebrow, blinking innocently “Kindness? Is there any?” Koji laughed and ran down the hallway as Nelly threw the spatula at him. He glared in the direction Koji fled, most likely having missed as Koji was master at dodging. Jill groaned. Her brothers…her stomach flopped and she winced, biting her lip as nervousness suddenly overtook her.

“What if no one there likes me?” she whispered.

“What are you talking about? Does it even matter?” Nelly questioned.

“Yea, if I have to stay there for three or more years until we sell it or someone takes it over, it kind of does” she huffed. Nelly suddenly leered, looking back down the hallway, “Oi, Koji!” Somehow, she knew what direction this was going already when Koji reappeared. Nelly glowered, “She’s gonna be in ol’ country town without our supervision and probably meeting all sorts of shmucks.” “It crossed my mind” Koji assured. Jill groaned, burying her face in her hands. Here we go. She had maybe two boyfriends in her life because these two and, to a smaller degree, her other three brothers terrified anything identifying as male away from her. Hell, they might take this from her with that option looming overhead.

“But I’m leaning that Jill’s city sensibilities aren’t gonna be swayed by some country dude” Koji added. What now? Jill gave him a look as Nelly looked dubious. “I dunno, dude, country girls are hot, why are the dudes gonna be any different?” Koji mused over this and she groaned again, “Okay, while you two decide if you’re sending bodyguards with me, leave so I can take a shower.” She went into the large bathroom in her almost suite-like room and turned on the radio to Yellowcard, an American band. Undressing and climbing into her shower, she started to wash her hair and wonder...

Did they have showers? Oh God, she was going to die.

She wandered out after several minutes and pulled on her black shirt and a pair of red pants. Heading downstairs in the Yagami mansion to the kitchen, she found some of her brothers swinging pots and pans at each other, Koji and Nelly milling in the corner, probably still discussing her supervision while all that nonsense went on around them. She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. Well, one pro: She was leaving some of this insanity behind.

XXX

Shin, her oldest brother, glanced at her as she gulped heavily. He was driving her to the ferry station on Hondo, the main island where she’d lived her whole life, to spirit her to this farming island. Her father, Yagami Yamada, a big-time surgeon, was supposed to but got called in to treat a patient.

Her mother also was called to surgery. Fashion surgery, that is. Apparently, there were two models on opposite spectrums in a show, one gaining weight to wear an outfit and another losing too much. Her mother, the great Yagami Dana, went to fix it so neither of them lost the opportunity.

Nelly and Koji only came to the mansion this morning to see her off from there, they had to get back to college. Somehow, she was glad as Shin was always generally the absolute calmest of all of them. She needed that right now…

Shin smiled. “You okay, sweetie?”

“Of course not” she grumbled.

He gave her a warmer smile, “You’ll be fine, imoto.”

“Yahhh, if you don’t scare the living crap out of your neighbors first” said a drowsy voice.

She glared at her own male twin, Tony. Shin cut his eyes in the rearview mirror at him. “You’re not helping, Tony.”

Tony smiled, “She knows I’m kidding. But seriously, remember, these people probably don’t even know what a CD is so you might not want to be blasting your EMO or any version of alt-rock immediately.”

She gasped at this revelation then sobbed into his shoulder. “I’m gonna die!”

Tony patted her head, “You’ll be fine, Jilly. I’m not a huge fan of this idea either but, y’know, it’s something to do while you figure shit out.”

“And who knows? Maybe you’ll find a boyfriend too” said the final, and youngest, brother in the group, Shaun.

She leered behind her, “Well, if you and Tony weren’t so busy waging war, you’d know that Koji and Nelly expressly forbid it.”

“Yeah, you better not without any of us there. Men are shit” grumbled Tony.

She glowered at him, “Even if I was capable of getting a guy to talk to me, given not one of you loons has ever allowed me to truly get the experience, I wouldn’t want some back-country hick.”

Shaun laughed, “You definitely won’t get a boyfriend with that attitude!”

“She won’t get one at all!” snapped Tony.

Shin scolded them both to silence before he smiled again, “Just try to enjoy yourself, Jill. I…also am not a great fan of you pursuing anyone at this junction but, whatever happens will happen.”

“...If you say so, Shin.”

She didn’t know. Maybe this would be the worst experience of her life.

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It…was beyond rustic. It was…almost like she time traveled. Jill wandered slowly into…a square? The streets were cobblestones. There was no pavement. There were shops, sure, but…

She was alone. All alone. She’d had five brothers and two parents her whole life, the very idea of ‘alone’ was traumatizing. But she wasn’t exactly ‘alone’. She was amongst absolute strangers. Their electric eyes gave her suspicious looks as she slowly wandered through town, down cobblestone streets, to find a grocery store. She just needed food. Everyone needed to eat, right?

She had no idea where anything was. Jill watched them whisper and raise eyebrows at her. Chills ran up and down her spine and her stomach was twirling. So this was it, huh? Going from her comfortable cozy circumstances to Judgmental Town 101? It was…it was stupid high school again and she literally just graduated. She didn’t even feel okay asking these people where the damn grocery store was.

Her lips began to twitch and before she knew it, she had stopped to sit on a bench to cry. Everyone on the street looked positively startled and started to quickly walk away from her, disturbed. Why? Did she look that scary? She cried into her hands, wishing her brothers were there to help. How could she survive when everybody judged her before they even got to know her?

She choked on sobs, rubbing her eyes. What was wrong with her? She was having a nervous breakdown for what reason? This was not the Yagami way. They just struggled and fought until things leveled out. She was not going to be the one Yagami breaking down because she couldn’t get groceries, especially given her brothers survived pretty much actual Hell.

Suddenly, a shadow came over her before someone sat down next to her. She sniveled, very startled, and looked to her side, about to glare and question what they were doing? Everyone was ignoring her or hadn’t they noticed?

But her eyes widened and she had to keep her mouth from falling open. A guy was beside her, a concerned look on his face. But that wasn’t what got her…

She didn’t think hot guys would even be here.

He had golden dirty brown hair that reached a little bit down his back, past his shoulders, pulled back in a ponytail. His eyes were bright blue and full of something warm and captivating...and he had on a black shirt and ripped jeans...

One thing was for sure: this was not the average town person she’d passed.

He tilted his head slightly to the side and finally asked, his voice soft and gentle, “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Now could she really say to this rather extremely handsome young gentleman her reason for crying like a complete idiot in the middle of town? No, she couldn’t.

Then again. “I...I can’t find the grocery store” she sobbed.

He gave her a breathtaking smile and chuckled, “That all? It’s all right. This town isn’t set up very conveniently.”

“It’s just no one would help me...” she blubbered, instantly feeling silly.

He frowned, “You’re new here, right? No one offered to show you around?”

She shook her head. Even the mayor hadn’t asked if she wanted a tour. He just ran away as soon as he showed her to the farm. The guy continued to frown for a moment then gave her another bright smile.

“Well then, allow me the honor. I am Izumi Cliff” he introduced himself, standing and putting his hand out to help her up.

Izumi…? She reached slowly toward his outstretched hand and took it. So warm. “H-hi, Izumi-san. I’m Yagami Jill. I’m going to be running the Obinata Farm. Um, sorry for the random...breakdown. It’s probably not the best way to meet someone. Rather awkward, I’d say.”

He smiled pleasantly, “Why? I have them everyday. This town is about as fun as getting a root canal.”

”Eek” she winced.

“Indeed...” he smirked, watching some snooty woman go by.

“So...you’re going to show me the grocery store?” she asked hopefully.

“I’ll do more than that! I’ll show you where the few things that exist are in this town” he said in an almost haughty manner.

She smiled shyly, “I’m honored.”

“Believe me, the honor’s all mine” he replied, bowing.

He led her back to…“Oki doki, square one.”

She didn’t feel annoyed, in fact, she fought off giggling, “Um...my farm? I kind of got down where this is.”

“Well, I’d hope you’d know your way here, I guess” he grinned.

He led her upwards and stopped in front of an old looking building with smoke looming from it. “This is the blacksmith.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Blacksmith? For what? It’s the 21st century.”

“Here, it’s like the 19th century. Four channels of television and they’re still using books. I mean, who actually reads anymore? We have the internet and fanfiction for that” he mused.

She laughed despite herself, “I mean, I do still read books but what’s the use of the blacksmith then?”

“I think he makes tools and stuff. I think. I dunno, I don’t talk to these people very often. All I know is his grandson is like, quiet Satan.”

“What?”

“Well, maybe not Satan, but quiet Lucifer” he ‘corrected’.

She laughed, surprised at herself, but very amused, “Those are like the same thing!”

“Okay, okay, he’s kind of a nice guy once you get to know him but he’s tsundere to a tee. Don’t be too off put if he says something terrible but doesn’t mean it” Cliff snickered.

She chuckled and nodded. He led her forward a bit to another house.

“This is the house of Duke and Manna. They’re like, upper class to the max but they sell wine and grape juice” he said before breaking off, musing.

“Hmm?” she questioned, sensing he had more to say.

“Well, I suggest avoiding Duke. He doesn’t like youth.”

She smirked at that, “Sounds kind of…old.”

“Yea, he’s kind of weird.” Cliff led her forward to another house. “This is Anna and Basil’s house. They’re the local botanists. They also have a daughter named Mary. She’s smart and ‘I know so much more than you, loser’ and she works in the library. Not that I really go there.”

She groaned, “I probably won’t either. I have to learn to farm. I guess I’ll be reading ‘fanfictions’ if I do have free time.”

He waved his hand, “Damn straight! And that said place is right there. The library…also known as the Legion of Doom.”

She chuckled again and he led her around the bend. “This is the mayor’s house right here...he lives with this photographer named Kano. Kano came from the mainland too. I think he said he’s from Wasaba or something.”

“Oh my God, really?” Her dad came up there, maybe he knew him.

“Yep! The mayor lets him stay here for now until I guess he finds a Ms. Mayor. I mean, the guy needs someone to keep him warm at night. He’s not exactly a looker.”

She giggled as the mayor’s appearance popped into her head. “Yea, I have never met anyone wearing a top hat not as a costume before. I thought those went out of style.”

Cliff laughed, “Yeah, I was pretty blown away when I came here too.”

So, he wasn’t from around here either and Izumi…it could be a coincidence. What made him settle in these parts? Walking up a bit to the next house, Cliff smiled. “Well, this lady is pretty nice. Her name’s Ellen and she has a granddaughter named Elli and her grandson, Stu. She makes a nice apple pie for everyone during the holidays.”

Jill smiled softly, more at the look on his face rather than what he was saying, “At least someone pleasant exists, huh?”

“Oh, they are few and in between.”

The place next door happened to be… “Here it is, as promised: The grocery store.”

She groaned and blushed, “I feel so stupid...”

“Don’t, really. This place looks like all the rest of the houses.”

She smiled at his comfort and then noticed a random girl glaring at them from the benches nearby. She was wearing a white tube top, a pair of jean hot pants and a purple vest. Her hair was blond in the front and brown in the back and she had piercing green eyes.

“Why are you hanging out in front of our store? Get lost, losers!” she snapped.

“And that would be the store owner’s lovely daughter, Karen. Don’t worry. I find her mother Sasha to be rather kind. Wonder what happened with her daughter...” Cliff remarked.

Karen glared furiously at him and he grabbed Jill’s hand, quickly dashing by. She blushed at the little contact, her heart fluttering. He released it once they were a nice distance away from the angry Karen.

“Best not taunt that one” he grinned, shaking his head, “I mean, like Grey, she’s nice, just tends to get a little irritable about her circumstances from time to time.”

Circumstances? He looked around and then pointed at a white building.

“That is the doctor’s office. Note that everyone calls him ‘The Doctor’ but his name is Dr. Ishikawa though. Really nice guy, one of my closest buddies here.”

Jill frowned, that name ringing a bell too. Dr. Ishikawa…

They rounded another corner and he pointed up a walkway. “That’s the church. They have confession and services. Y’know, stuff like that.”

She nodded and they walked up the path a little more. He frowned and blinked a little. “This is the inn slash restaurant where I stay. Here is where Doug and Ann live.”

He looked upwards for a moment, as if thinking, then laughed, “Never mind. Let us continue!”

She stared at him as he passed her then continued to follow. He showed her everywhere that day and she felt so grateful to him. They went back to the store where they got a lot of dirty looks from fellow shoppers. Great. But Cliff smiled as if he didn’t notice them.

And she did the same. She wasn’t alone right now.  

They walked back to her house and she smiled at him, “Thanks so much. I’m glad I found someone in town that’s nice.”

He smiled sheepishly, “You bet. And no need to thank me. It was my pleasure.”

He then grinned, “Well, I’ll leave you to unpack and stuff. Hope to see more of you.”

She nodded and watched him walk off. Huh.

She was actually starting to look forward to this a bit more. Maybe…this was a step forward.

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End Notes: Yellowcard?! Who the hell is that?! This takes place in 2004, bruh! This was some nostalgic research here. And I am 200% going to the When We Were Young 2023 music festival! Koji, Nelly, Tony, and Shaun are the farmer from Back to Nature/More Friends of Mineral Town/DS. Just…not really. When we were kids, I played as Koji, my cousin sort of played as Nelly, my younger cousin played as Tony, and, just to be inclusive, we had one other cousin play in spirit as Shaun. Shin is the farmer from Save the Homeland/Hero of Leaf Valley. Jill is the blonde protagonist from Back to Nature: For Girls and DS Cute. I can find no real remaining evidence but, prior to “Jill”, the brunette AnWL character, ‘Claire’ was Jill. Thus, why I named her such…I don’t remember when or why the shift came. Just remember, this was written sort of before Another Wonderful Life came out (Crazy, right?). Mineral Town is way bigger in scope than it is in the game. It’ll be developed over the stories.