Chapter Text
“The trickster is a collective shadow figure, a summation of all the inferior traits of character in individuals. And since the individual shadow is never absent as a component of personality, the collective figure can construct itself out of it continually.”
- Carl Jung
"I am thou, thou art I..."
There's that voice again, it wakes me from the little sleep I've gotten. I don't think any of this is a hallucination anymore, considering the weird dream I had where I was in a cell, there were children as the wardens, and an old man with a nose that looked like a dick. Anything is possible at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if I started to fly or end up in another dimension. I think I'd start pulling my hair out if either of those happened to me.
I better hurry and get ready for school, not that I care if I'm late or anything, I don't want to deal with the scumbag of a principal. He's dying to get rid of me, but I'm only there for the school's reputation, so he has to restrain himself a bit. In all honesty, he'd probably die of a heart attack before he gets to me.
I head downstairs and I'm greeted by Sakura, he has a cigarette in his mouth, the news is on, and he's brewing coffee. I'm surprised he keeps the news on, he strikes me as the kind of man who only cares about themselves and the ones who are extremely close to them. In a way, we're all like that... I guess.
He puts his cigarette out as he notices me, he signals me to come up to the bar, "So, you're actually going to school today?"
"I mean, it's not like I have a choice," I shrug.
"Hmph, well good," He points at a plate of curry, "Here, I'll feed you, just be sure to finish it before the regulars come in."
I sit down to eat, it's not bad, I'll give him that.
"Hey, Sakura-san, do you know what line I'm supposed to transfer to?" I ask.
"The Aoyama-Itchome one, kid," He responds with a hint of annoyance and rolls his eyes.
I finish my meal and then get out of my chair, "Thank you for the meal, Sakura-san," I bow to him and he raises a brow, "Oh? Looks like you do have some manners after all."
"Hmm?" I haven't been much of an ass so far, sure I got a smart mouth, but I try to contain it at least.
"Now, you better get goin'," He grabs my plate and goes into the kitchen, "Heard it's gonna rain today, country boy," He yells from the back.
Country boy? Is he serious? You know what, I won't bother asking him for an umbrella, I'll just hurry and get there before it starts.
I head out of the store and thankfully, it hasn't begun yet. Maybe for once in my life, I'll be lucky and it won't start till later on.
I go to the station and I get on the train, it's crowded with people, they all keep pushing and shoving each other for the tiniest bit of space. I think this public transport system is one of the most demeaning things a person could ever go through, my hatred for this begins to grow each passing second I'm on here. I look around the train to people watch, mostly everyone on here is an office worker who looks fed up with their life and their dead end jobs and there's only a couple of students as well.
Aoyama-Itchome... this is Aoyama-Itchome...
Finally. As I get off, I hear school girls talking about yet another mental shutdown, that's all I've heard people talk about these past two days. There's other things to discuss but I guess this is more important.
I leave the station and there goes the bit of luck I had, it's starting to rain, not heavily, but enough to get you wet.
I run under a store's canopy and pull out my phone to check the time... and the app is back, I continuously stare at it for a few minutes
A minute goes by and someone comes up to stand under the canopy for shelter as well, they have a hood over their head to protect their hair from getting wet, as they pull it down, I'm greeted by how blonde and thick it is. I see it's a girl, she looks to be American, she has pale skin and blue eyes, her hair is in a twin tails style, red leggings, and a Shujin jacket, she has a nice frame too. She's pretty, but she doesn't hold a candle to the girl from yesterday, I'm afraid. I must have been staring at her for a while, she turns her head and she looks at me then slightly smiles.
"Do you go to Shujin too?" She asks.
Before I can respond, a car pulls up out of nowhere and when she spots it, she looks like she just saw a ghost. The driver rolls down the windows and I take look to see who's driving and my stomach begins to turn, it's a man wearing a tracksuit, his hair is curly, and his nose looks as if it's been beaten with a brick. I bet it's seen better days, he must be an athlete or a fighter.
"Hey, need a lift?" He says in a sultry voice, and then winks at her.
The girl stands there for a brief moment, she doesn't reply with words, only nods at him. As she gets inside the car, the man looks over at me with a contempt smile on his face, then he looks away rolling his eyes.
Before he rolls the window all the way up, I sneak another glance at the girl, she looks to be in distress.
They drive off and I hear a boy yell out, "YOU BASTARD!" he tries to run after them, but he doesn't push himself any further. His hands are balled into fists as he walks back. I look at him and notice he isn't wearing the school's given sweater, instead he has a graphic yellow t-shirt on, his suspenders are down against his thighs, and his hair is bleached. He doesn't seem to follow the dress code all the way, good for him.
"Who was that?" I ask.
He turns to me and has a shocked expression on his face, "You don't know who that is?"
"No, is he a teacher or something?"
He looks me up and down and crosses his arms, "Uh, you sure you go to Shujin?"
"I would hope so," I say as I look down at my uniform.
"That's Kamoshida, he's an egotistical piece of sh*t, be lucky you don't know him, he goes around treating everyone like their his own slaves and he sees himself as the king of a castle."
"And he's a pervert too,poor Takamaki..."
"Was that the girl who got in the car with him?"
He nods.
"He thinks he's some big shot 'cause of his past, I've never seen someone with an ego that's as big as his. He'll treat people he doesn't know like garbage, even if people do respect him, he's still a dick. He always thinks he's better than everyone at school."
He must really hate this guy or something.
He looks up at the sky and then back at me, "I think we better get goin', looks like the rain is letting up," he walks ahead, "Follow me, erm, I didn't catch your name..."
"Ren Amamiya."
"Heh, I'm Ryuji Sakamato," He has a childish grin on his face, "Anyways follow me, I know a shortcut that'll get us there faster."
He leads me into an alley and shouts, "Hurry up, man!" what's he in a big hurry for?
What the f*ck was that?
I look back, I could've sworn I heard footsteps or something behind me. As I still scan the alley, I hear Sakamato scream, "WHAT THE EFF IS THAT!?" I find it funny he says every curse word under the sun except for f*ck.
I catch up to him and he's pointing at the school, but it doesn't take the shape of the school, instead it's a castle. But what's different about this one is that it isn't over a moat that castles are on. It has banners over the cobblestone walls, I look up at the sky and it's changed from gray to purple, the moon is out and it's enormous. The towers look as and the drawbridge lowers automatically. There's an eerie feeling about this place, it feels like I'm being watched and there's some sort of music playing too.
Maybe this is just a bad dream or a hallucination, it has to be.
Sakamato begins to laugh like he's gone insane and he shakes his head, "I must be having one of those shutdowns I keep hearin' people talk about or I'm hallucinating."
"I doubt it if we're both here," I sigh, "Well, maybe we are."
"There's no way I'm seeing a castle instead of the school," He points out at the sign, "Look, it says Shujin, right?" I look straight ahead and it does in fact say 'Shujin Academy'
"Huh, every other building looked the same on the way here, except for this one." I add on, "What the hell is going on?"
"I dunno, we should go in and figure out what's going on." Who just decides on going inside of a place that looks suspicious? Idiots, that's who.
As we walk towards the entrance, I notice that around my feet are puddles despite it not being wet around, and there's a color that splatters each time I take a step.
We stand there for a few brief moments, and only one thought plagues my mind, I hope we don't get ambushed... then we go inside.
On the inside, it looks disgustingly grand. There are pillars with gold carvings on them, spiral staircases, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and red carpet leading up the steps. The music seems to have followed us inside of the castle as well.
I look over and near the left staircase is a statue of some sort, Sakamato goes up to it and yells, "WHAT THE EFF MAN!?" I come up to him and I take a glance to see who it is, it's Kamoshida. He's posing like a Renaissance statue, but at the very least, he has some clothing on.
"Why is he here!?" Sakamato asks.
I shrug, "Beats me..." How the hell am I supposed to know?
We stand there for another minute and I look straight ahead up on the second floor, there is a painting on the wall, I head up the stairs and Sakamato follows behind me, we get to the painting and of course, it's Kamoshida, he's posing like a war hero in a knight's outfit. Whoever painted this could've at least fixed up his nose, it looks even more crooked up close. His jawline is even worse too.
Sakamato reaches a hand out to touch it and the painting switches around to a horrid sight, it's yet another painting of Kamoshida. He's standing tall, flexing his muscles without a shirt or pants on, he only has three things on, a revolting red cape with hearts over it, a glittery pink speedo, and a crown. I look over the bottom of the painting and there are school girls in the painting, instead of wearing the uniform, they have their gym uniforms on, but it isn't like the regular ones. The shirt is much shorter and so are the shorts. They are all bowing down and kissing at his feet like they're worshiping some sort of God.
Kissing one's feet is seen as an act of submission or even respect, he must be in over his head if he thinks he's a God.
"That effin' pervert, I can't even act surprised he'd have something like that!" Sakamato balls his hands into fists and shakes his head, "What the hell is going on!?"
As we head downstairs, he yells out in frustration, "That asshole!"
Before I can reply, I hear heavy footsteps approaching us, the both of us at the same time turn our heads to see who or what is coming up.
It's a guard with a spear and a shield, "HALT!" halt my ass, we haven't even moved anywhere else. "YOU ARE IN THE CASTLE OF LORD KAMOSHIDA!" Sakamato's eyes look as if they are about to pop out of his head, we already know this is related to him, but it's still hard to believe.
"Holy sh*t..." Sakamato whispers, "This can't be happening..."
He needs to close his eyes, they're gonna pop out of his head and I'll be the one that has to pick them up.
"Who the hell are you!?"
"YOU ARE IN THE CASTLE OF KING SUGURU KAMOSHIDA."
"Alright, buddy, we get it."
Sakamato looks at me then back at the guard. Another one comes running to the other guards side, but it doesn't say anything. Before either of us can do anything, one of the guards hits him in the back with its shield and kicks him in the stomach causing him to pass out. The guard lifts him over its shoulder the other one comes up to me and punches me in the solar plexus knocking the wind completely out of me, then it smacks me in the head its shield, before my vision went black, I heard it yell, "AKE THEM TO THE CELLS!"
Ah sh*t.
"Dude! Wake up!" What the f*ck?
I open my eyes to see that Sakamato is crouched down in front of me, he's staring at me with bug eyes and he asks, "You alright man?"
I sit up from where I was laying, "Yeah, are you?" and then I get up.
"sh*t, I think so."
I look around and I see I'm in yet another cell, and before I can look for an exit, I hear the most bloodcurdling scream, "STOP IT, PLEASE!"
"What the eff was that!?"
We hear more of the screaming, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"he starts to turn pale and begins to gag.
I walk up to the cell door and I look outside of it, there's a drawbridge straight across from us, there's a stream and a water wheel, but I notice that there is no one else in the cells. That scream had to have come out of someone and somewhere.
"Holy sh*t... you've gotta be kidding me..." He turns his head, then looks at me and whispers, "This can't be happening..."
He begins to pace around the cell.
I notice on the wall there's chains and cuffs, like a medieval torture device. Before I can look at the other things in the room, we hear multiple guards come up to the cell door.
Sakamato mutters under his breath.
"Your final punishment has been decided." The guard in front of the door says.
"PUNISHMENT!?" I yell out.
"Your charge is unlawful entry and disrespecting the King's castle. The both of you have broken into our Lord's castle, tried to ransack it, and desecrated it. Therefore, you shall be sentenced to death."
Sakamato screams, "DEATH!?"
I knew it, the old man was right about my fate, I'm supposed to die in a jail cell. Well, at least I'm not alone if I'm going to.
"Damn it..."
Another voice comes in, "Hmph, thieves." Sakamoto looks like he immediately recognizes it and whispers, "Kamoshida..."
He comes up to the cell door and he has the same revolting cape and pair of underwear he had on in that painting, and his eyes are a glowing yellow, it reminds me of Justine and Caroline's eye.
"YOU BASTARD, LET US GO!"
"You should've learned your place like the other pieces of trash that have wasted my time. You have no right to disobey me again," He scowls.
"Heh, it seems you've brought a friend with you," He begins to laugh, "That is quite the surprise."
"He ain't my friend, asshole..."
"Now, is that how you talk to someone with a higher power over you? Hmph, you're nothing but a piece of trash. You'll go where the other peasants go."
The guard opens the cell door and they come inside, Sakamato starts cowering back, he looks over at me and then back at the guards, he runs full speed into one of them knocking one down and he yells, "WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE, AIN'T NO WAY I'M DYING HERE."
Before he can run out of the cell, one of the other guards hits him directly in the ribs with its shield.
He drops to a knee, "Go... get out of here," He says weakly.
"You dumbass, I'm not leaving you here."
Kamoshida signals the guard over to where I'm standing and points his sword at me. The other guards in the room pick Sakamato up and hold him by his shoulders, he begins to punch him repeatedly in the face, and yells at him, "You're nothing but scum! A low-life piece of sh*t!"
After he's done beating him, the guards throw him to the ground like he's nothing but a piece of trash, to add insult to the injury, he spits on Sakamato.
"Peasants like you will never be up to my level, you should have never went against me in the first place! Do you want me to break your other leg? Would that be sufficient enough for you to know you are nothing and will never be anything?" He laughs, "And don't even bother telling the principal, you know he won't take you seriously, besides I'll tell them it was in self-defense like last time."
Kamoshida picks him up from the ground and throws him to another part of the cell.
"YOU ASSHOLE!" I scream out.
"Do you not know who I am?" He grins.
"No, I don't," Right after I said that, he kicks me in the stomach and I collapse to my knees, then bends down and tells the guards to hold me in place.
"Hmph, after the peasant is killed, I want him to be slaughtered next."
I attempt to push them off of me, but they shove me back into the wall.
He picks Sakamato off the ground and holds him by the neck, his face is starting to turn a deep red.
The guard pushes the shaft of its spear against my windpipe and I choke out, "Let me go-"
As I tried to force the guards off of me, everything surrounding me turns pitch black and I hear another voice, it doesn't sound like the one I've been hearing for the past few days...
A blue butterfly appears and it floats around beautifully, its wings shimmer as it says, "This truly is an unjust game... your chances at winning are almost slim to none... but if you can hear my voice, there may be a possibility open to you and you may be able to win this... please..."
"Who are you!?"
"Good..."
It begins to fade away and as it disappears, a throbbing pain in my head comes, now, I can see everything again.
I hear cackling, it's the same one I heard earlier...
"Are you simply going to watch this?Are you going to leave him and make him fend for himself so you can live?"
"N-No..."
"Now then, tell me, was your decision in the past a mistake?"
"I know that it wasn't, I'll never regret it..."
"Good," It begins to cackle, "Now, vow to me! I am thou, thou art I! Thou who art willing to perform blasphemous acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name, and release thy rage! Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to the lowest pits of purgatory!”
As the voice disappears, I look over at Kamoshida, "I'm going to stop you!"
He let goes of Sakamato, he's left squeezing his throat and trying to catch his breath.
"Really? You think that you can stop me?" He starts laughing again, "Hmph, it's no matter..."
He points at the guards and one hits me in the face and knocks my glasses off of my face, the other shoves me back into the wall, both of their spears are crossed over me forming an x.
"Now, kill him!"
As one of the guards lowers its sword, a strong gust of wind comes out of nowhere and it almost pushes Kamoshida to the ground. It gets the guards off of me, I see in his face he feels nothing but fear. I begin to feel a strange sensation on my face, it's like there's something on it. I take my hands up to my face and I feel a mask, I try to take it off but I can feel it pull my flesh along with it, ah, f*ck it. I rip it off and I begin to scream as if I'm being stabbed repeatedly. The flesh that was ripped off leaves my face exposed and I feel the blood come rushing out like a fountain. The air that touches my skin stings, but it feels good in a way.
Then blue flames appear and wrap my entire body, I hear the same cackling again, the flames unravel off of my body and the voice has now taken form into something demonesque. It has a red Victorian suit with a top hat, it has feathery wings that are black and bigger than its own body, a face that looks like a carved jack o' lantern and it burns with an orange, nails that are long and as sharp as the edge of a broken bottle, and its heels take shape of a knife.
"I am the pillager of twilight! Thou shall call me Arsène!"
I look down to notice that my clothes have changed. I'm no longer in my school uniform, I'm wearing something out of a Victorian era, a long smooth black coat, a gray vest that's fitted tight against me, with pointed, black suit pants, and crimson red gloves. sh*t, I probably look good as hell right now, never mind that Ren...
"I am the other you! The rebellious soul that lives deep within your heart, I'll consider giving my power if you ever so desire to break through this crisis!"
"Give me your strength, Arsène"
It cackles, "Very well."
"G-Guards! Get him!"
"The power of mine is now yours, kill them however you want!"
I run towards the guards and their armor falls to the ground, it begins to morph into something else, they take the shape of a jack o' lantern...
Out of nowhere, there's a knife in my hands, I go up and swing my newfound weapon at them, I'm more shocked as I've never used a knife, well in this purpose before, it's like my body has been trained for this and it knows what to do.
I move smoothly as if I'm a spy in combat.
As I jump and swing my blade, my coat flaps behind me as if it's a cape, I must look like a some sort of superhero.
Hmph, managed to take out a few and only one remains... I rip off the mask and it comes off without ripping my skin off, I yell out, "Arsène, ravage them!" and he appears with chains surrounding him with the same blue flames, then he casts red and black magic, it swirls up from the ground and the guard screams, it doesn't fall to the ground like a regular body would, it turns to black smoke instead.
After the smoke fades, I feel the mask return to my face, I take it off to inspect it, it's a birdlike domino black and white masquerade mask.
"The eff was that...," Sakamato sounds baffled, "Dude, you're dressed like a magician."
Then mutters, "Now all you need is a damn top hat..."
These clothes look better than the school's uniform, at the very least.
"You jealous or something?" He looks at me as if I'm insane, "Hell no!" Oh, he's jealous, for sure.
Kamoshida cowers back, before he can escape, Sakamato shoves him to the ground, and the keys to the cell are on the floor, "GET THE KEYS AND LOCK THE DAMN CELL!" I scream out at Sakamato.
The both of us runs out and he locks the cell behind us, "YOU PEASANTS, GET BACK HERE!"
"Nah, we're good, asshole."
As we leave the cell, the blue flames return around my body and my clothes turn back into the school's uniform.
"Dude, why'd your clothes change?" Sakamato asks.
"I don't know, but I miss it." I say sullenly.
"For real!?" He starts to laugh, "Never mind that, we gotta get outta here! You can take the lead since you got that weird ass power." Woah, throwing me to the front lines? Well, he'd get his ass whooped again if I didn't get Arsène to help.
We run out of the first part of the dungeon and Sakamato points out at one of the traps above the stream, "Dude... look at that," there's someone wearing the school's uniform in the trap with a helmet over his head and he's reaching out of the cell bars, I can hear moan "Help me!"
"Um, is he okay?" Sakamato asks.
"Huh, I don't know..."
I point over to another door and there's another set of staircases, we go up them and we reach yet another part of the dungeon, there's more cells, I look inside each of them and there's students with the same helmet on their heads, in one of them a boy is down on the ground.
And eventually we reach a dead end.
"Crap, we're stuck here..." Sakamato says out of breath, and out of nowhere a high pitched voice comes in, "Hey! Blondie and Glasses!" Glasses!?
The voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard, I look to see where it's coming from and inside the cell is an anthropomorphic cat, it wears a yellow scarf, tuxedo fur, its head is bigger than its entire body, and it has piercing blue eyes.
"A CAT!?" Sakamato screams out.
"I AM NOT A CAT!"
"Uh, you sure as hell look like one, well, you got a pretty big head..."
"I just happen to look like a cat!"
"Look, I can help you guys get out of here!"
"I don't believe you."
Sakamato adds on, "Yeah, we can't trust you, you might be an enemy too!"
"Are you serious, how the hell can I be an enemy if I'm locked in this cell AND I'm offering to help you escape!? Help me out damn it!" It sure as hell is a cat, it sounds like a cat screeching in the middle of the night begging for food.
"Be quiet, unless you want more guards to come and beat all of our asses at once," I say through gritted teeth.
"Oh, come on! You have to help me!" It's practically begging at this point.
"Damn it, I can hear them already...," Sakamato pulls out his phone and shakes his head, "sh*t, I still got no phone service either..."
"You two don't want to get caught and executed, right?"
"You better not be lying."
"I AM NOT, IT'S THE TRUTH!"
Sakamato gets the cat out of the cell and it begins to purr, just like a cat.
"Where's the exit, you monster cat?"
"How many times do I have to tell you that I am not a cat, I am Morgana!" How were we supposed to know that? Must be a foreign breed or something.
"Calm down, Morgana," This cat is really pissing me off, to make things worse, its voice makes me want to rip my ears off.
It slowly blinks at me and draws out a big sigh,"Just, follow me and keep your mouths shut," The cat turns to me, "You have a Persona on you, right?" it asks.
"A what?"
"Never mind, just know that you can fight here, if we run into an enemy, I'll back you up."
"A fighting cat? How much weirder does it get..."
"SHUT UP!"
As the cat directs us out of the dungeon, Sakamato goes up to one of the remaining cells and grips on the bars, inside is a boy wearing a team's uniform with yet another , "We can't leave him here!" He exclaims, and the cat shakes its head, "He isn't real."
"What do you mean he isn't real, he's standing right there!"
"You idiot! That's a cognitive being!"
He doesn't register a thing, I see sparks flying out of his head indicating that his brain isn't working.
"Huh?"
"I don't have time to explain this, just know that they aren't real humans!"
"Oh..."
We head into the entrance hall once again and all of the guards seem to be either in the dungeon or in another part of the castle, it's an odd feeling, seeing a teacher almost naked attempting to kill two school boys, then finding a talking cat, I doubt anyone would believe this.
"Damn, this place is still creepy as hell..."
We head into a hallway and there's trophies even in the bookshelf, and there's frames of medals on the walls, I look on the opposite side of the wall and there's a picture of him and it must be the volleyball team, he stands tall and proud and his hair doesn't look as bad as it does now, his nose isn't crooked either. They hold up in the picture a medal and they have their free arms around each other's neck.
"I recognize this one, it's from when they won nationals and got an effin' gold medal, that asshole still holds onto that former glory and even gave one of his moves a name, 'the gold medal spike', it ain't even that good enough to get a medal over, but he somehow got one."
"I still don't know why this place even exists..."
"Well, it's a byproduct of his cognition..."
"Huh? His cog-what?"
"You know, how people perceive the world and what they view to be reality?"
"No, I don't know..." Sakamato trails off.
"Let's just go, in here."
The cat leads us into a room, "Okay, you guys can escape through here," then points at a ventilation shaft.
"Ooh, I think I can get that thing off!"
Sakamato runs up the bookshelf like a monkey and somehow manages to rip the pure steel cover off, he has muscles rather than having a brain, but that's okay.
He jumps back off and tosses the cover to the ground, as it falls, it sounds as if a one hundred pound weight was dropped onto the floor and causes a loud echo.
"Uh, I hope no one heard that..."
"So, this is where we say goodbye."
"What about you, Morgana?" I ask.
"I've got something I need to do here, so you guys need to go and get out of here," It starts to lick at its paw.
Sakamato pats it on the head, "Well, thanks cat!"
"I'm not-" It groans, "You know what, you're welcome, at least you have some manners for being vulgar..."
I climb up the shelf after Sakamato and look back at the cat, "Go on, Glasses!"
As we head through the shaft, everything warps and turns black.
"Returning to the real world..."
"RETURNING TO THE REAL WORLD!?"
"So we haven't been hallucinating the whole time?"
"FOR REAL?" He yells out sarcastically, and I can't help but snicker.
He pulls out his phone, "sh*t, we're late for school..." He groans, "We better get going."
"That was exhausting, dude..."
We get to the school to see that it's no longer the obscenely huge castle, and there's no drawbridge or music playing either.
"No way,what the hell is goin' on?"
"That's what I want to know, Sakamato," A teacher comes out the entrance his arms crossed, "You two are late, where were you all at?"
"Erm, we were in a castle..."
"You're joking right, you can't even be honest, can you?"
"What's this I hear about a castle?" Kamoshida comes out of the front entrance with a smug look on his face, "It's a shame you're late again, you know, you used to take school seriously along with track and field, Sakamato."
"I did, but you ruined it for me, you asshole!"
"How dare you talk to Mr. Kamoshida that way!? You're going straight to the guidance office after that!"
Kamoshida looks over at the teacher, "Now hold on, I'm part of the blame too, why don't we say it was a heated exchange, but we worked it out?"
"If you say so..."
"You still need to come with me, it's undeniable that you are late once again."
Sakamato mutters, "Asshole," and goes with the teacher.
Kamoshida looks at me, "So, you're that new transfer student, huh?"
As he looks me up and down, the same expression he had when I awoke Arsène is now written all over his face, it's no longer smug, "Have we met somewhere before?"
"I saw a girl get inside of your car."The castle.
"Ah, I remember now," He scratches his head, "Well, I'll overlook this just once."
"Can you overlook some more?" I ask nicely.
"You think you're a Joker, don't you?" Why yes I do! I pride myself in my humor.
"Get inside, Ms. Kawakami's been waiting for you the whole time, she's in the faculty office."
He says through gritted teeth, "And good luck with your new school life," as I walk past him.
The hell is that supposed to mean?
The moment I step inside, all eyes are on me. Some of the people look like they've seen a ghost and the others have a look of pure anger on their faces. The hell did I do? Sure, I came in late, but are these reactions necessary?
As I head towards the stairs, I hear people whisper, "Oh my god! Is that him?" Him?
"Isn't he the one with the criminal record!?" My heart drops to my stomach, I stand there looking around and more whispers come in, "I heard he carries all sorts of weapons with him!"Weapons? Sure, I had a knife, but I don't have it anymore!
"I heard he's in a Yakuza gang!"Okay, now that one is just ridiculous.
"Supposedly, he assaulted someone and now he's here." Where'd they hear that from?
I head up the stairs and the rumors continue on, someone even said I assaulted a cop, yeah, sure.
I find the faculty office and I go inside, Kawakami looks unhappy that I actually showed up.
"Oh, well, look who it is," She says sarcastically, "You know, it's past the fourth period and it's lunch now, correct?"
"Yep." I notice the eye bags have gotten progressively darker, she must overwork herself even though it's only been a day since I last saw her.
"I heard you were late with Sakamato."
"I was, it's not like we had a choice, but what's it to you?"
"You didn't have a choice, huh?Where were you two that caused you to miss half of the school day?"
"We were stuck in a castle."
She stares at me, then blinks slowly, she shakes her head and sighs, "Are you serious?"
"Very."
She looks too exhausted to deal with this, but she does anyway, "Never mind that, I'll let it slide just this one time, but don't expect me to be so lenient with you."
"Now, come on and I'll have you introduce yourself to the class, and please, don't tell them you were in a castle." She says tiredly.
I follow after her and we head inside the classroom, everyone begins glaring daggers at me, but there's only one person who isn't, there's a boy staring down his desk, he's covered in bruises and bandages, and he looks terrified.
I look in the corner of the room, I see that it's that girl from this morning, Takamaki, she stares out of the window and doesn't pay attention to what's going on.
Kawakami points at me, "Erm, this is..."
"Ren Amamiya."
"He seems quiet, but I bet he'll beat the sh*t out of you if you piss him off..."Oh, come on.
"Um, you can sit behind Takamaki-san, since that is the only available seat."
I go to my seat and Takamaki looks at me then mutters, "Lies..." and that causes everyone to start chattering, they aren't even trying to keep their voices down.
"Did you see that!? Do you think she's cheating on him with Mr. Kamoshida?"Uh huh...
"She totally knows him!"
The final bell rings...
I head out of the classroom and I'm greeted by Sakamato, "Yo, listen about earlier-" before he says anything else, he's cut off by Kawakami, "What do you want with him, Sakamato?"
"Why do you care so much? I just wanna talk to him, that's all."
She eyes him suspiciously, "Uh huh, you two better not get into any trouble, you hear me?" She sounds like a mom lecturing her child.
"Meet me on the roof, we got to talk about you know what," He whispers and walks off.
"You know, he used to take school seriously, same with the track team...," She sighs, "And his hair wasn't bleached either."
Before I walk up the stairs Kawakami says, "Just be careful around him, he's nothing but trouble." Well, that's kind of rude, he doesn't seem like a bad guy or anything.
I get to the roof and Sakamato waves at me, "What's up," He looks around, "Listen about earlier, that was some insane sh*t."
"Yeah, it sure was."
"D'you think we can go back there? I wonder if that place has anything to do with him, I mean we saw him there, but I dunno..."
"There's some rumors about Kamoshida, you know, the guy we saw in the castle? But no one cares enough to look into them 'cause he took the volleyball team to nationals."
"Eh, it had to have been a dream, I mean there's no way something like that could happen in real life, but anyways I should thank you for saving my ass back there," He reaches a fist out to me, I reciprocate the fist bump.
"It's no problem, Sakamato."
He snickers, "You don't have to call me Sakamato, I'm not a fan of honorifics or anything."
I nod, "Me either, you can just call me Ren."
"Heh, well then, Ren, I'd better get goin', I'll see you around."
He heads down the stairs and yells, "And don't ignore me if I come up to you!"
I better get home, sh*t, what am I going to tell Sakura? Eh, I'll think of something.
I go inside Leblanc and Sakura is standing there with another cigarette in his mouth, he looks over at me and shakes his head, "I got a nice little call from your school today, they told me you skipped half of the day, mind explaining?"
"I didn't mean to."
He scoffs, "You didn't mean to, huh? You realize that the little future you do have is at stake, right?"
"I do."
He sighs, "Just take things more seriously, you're lucky they didn't expel you on your first day," then waves me off, "Get on upstairs."
Now, I'm back in another prison, the attic.
But at least I'm free to have my own thoughts, innsane isn't a good enough word to describe what went on today... I remember what Morgana told me, something about a Persona, I know that word, kind of, Jung had a theory about it along with that trickster stuff.
Well, I don't like the sound of this at all.
I just know I'm going to have another one of those dreams tonight.
"Wake up, inmate."
Well, I called it.
I get off the plank for a bed and walk up to the cell bars, straight through them, I see that the old man is clapping like I'm being used for his amusem*nt.
"My, my! it seems you have finally awoken to your powers!"
"My powers?"
"Please, don't act dumb, our master has granted this just for you," Justine says.
"Wow, I thought you were the nice one...," I mutter.
"We are not here to be nice, our sole duties are to help and protect you, that is all," She adds on, "And being nice would only make you weak."
"Ouch..."
"Moving on," The old man begins to tap his fingers on his desk, "You have awoken to something I like to call a 'Persona', a Persona is the other you, or better yet, the soul that has been held within you, hidden and buried. But it seems you were in a crisis and you rebelled against your given Fate and awoken it."
He begins to clap once more, "Allow me to congratulate you on this achievement!" He had this planned out, huh? I wonder if he had something to do with that app.
"Are you the one who created that app?"
"Of course, The Metaverse navigator app comes in handy, doesn't it? Though it's a shame you've only used it once and you were alone."
"I wasn't alone, I had Ryuji with me."
He seems to ignore what I just said, "If there are people who prove to be useful to you, I shall grant them the same powers as you," He continues on, "And as you fight, you shall become stronger, that will be key to your rehabilitation."
"If you ignore your given duty and neglect becoming stronger, you will in fact face your fate and die," Justine says nonchalantly.
"Okay, but I didn't ask for this!" I yell out.
"Oh, but you will soon come to appreciate this."
"BE LUCKY OUR MASTER GRANTED SOMETHING LIKE THIS FOR YOU!"
"Ah, we get so little time to talk..."
"GO BACK TO SLEEP, INMATE!" Caroline screeches as she hits the cell, "WE'LL COME BACK FOR YOU SOON!"
"Show me you are worthy of this power..."
![The Rebel - inthismourningair - Persona 5 [Archive of Our Own] (2024)](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8/h8AAvMB+NzmkbcAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)