Persona 5: A Hanged Man's Perspective - Zer0fool (2024)

Chapter 1: A Hanged Man's Perspective

Chapter Text

Day: ?

Time: ?

Location: ?

Threat Level: 100!

The sirens were blaring, if I had known any better I could have sworn that I could have heard them from my home. Yet, I did know better, and more importantly than the alarms going off was making sure we knew where he was. This has to work! We will get out of this! That's the thought that was running through my head, before I could think any more the earpiece I was wearing went off. "Good. Now get running!"

"This is our only chance!" I grimaced at hearing the second voice, but the former was of some comfort to hear. At that note I began running through the halls of the casino making sure to use any and all shadows that I could to hide. I made it about ten feet when from behind me and in my earpiece another voice rang out.

"Stay calm!" I let out a brief sigh as her voice reached my ears. "You can get away now!"

I crept up to the nearest corner and peeked around it to see if our new friends were in occupying the room. Nothing moved and I couldn't hear any footsteps"We'll retrieve the briefcase on our end."

As soon as the next voice rang in my head, another sound could be heard. It almost sounded like they mentioned something about not having us confirmed. Which made me raise my eyebrow. The girl following behind piped up as soon as the transmission was over. "Hm…? What was that…?"

"I don't know but it sounds like trouble!" I bolted across the room as the words left my mouth. I knew we would make it, but that didn't stop me from worrying about him.

"Don't worry about us. Just concentrate on getting away!" I cracked the door opened just enough for me to see the room that lay beyond it. There I saw three men in black suits that began talking about where the intruder was, it was then that they ran down the hallway. Looked like the distraction was working! "But I have to say, showing yourself above that crowd earlier was an excellent move. Nice work as always Joker"

"I bet Skull wouldn't pull it off that smoothly." I couldn't help but grin at that last comment. Despite the situation we were in, everyone could still find a time to make a good joke!

Before Skull could respond however the smaller girl that was with me grabbed my coat's arm and very nervously blurted out, "Just run! Get out of there!"

"You better haul ass!" I growled into the mic, which I quickly followed with by opening the door and rolling behind a few boxes that were stacked in the corner. The shadow completely hiding me. I waved for the redhead to follow me.

"Ok, the enemy's focus is on him." The area before us was a long hallway with a cart or two of coins here or there. That made running for the door a lot easier than it had taken to get the damn briefcase! "Looks like the rest of us can slip away."

"Everyone remember where we are meeting up?" A fourth female voice rang through, it had a softer pitch than the rest of the members on the team. Embarrassingly, I nodded my head in agreement. I rubbed the back of my head in that exact moment. I began hoping my partner wouldn't notice, and those hopes were quickly dashed against the stones as I heard a light chuckle from behind me. Yet before I could reply, her voice got a bit more serious!

"No worries, I can guide you all." I bursted from my hiding spot I made a mad dash for the first cart, sliding in behind it. I quickly checked the area around me, once I knew the coast was clear, I signalled for the girl to move up with me. After a few moments I heard her slid to a stop behind me.

"Take em down Joker!" I told me right then that Joker had run into a bit of an issue. At that moment I know that I had to stay back and wait for a bit. A futuristic computer sound resonated next to me.

"Comparing power levels…" I turned to see a light blue ring of words and a screen floating around my partner. I took a glance at the power levels, I snickered quietly when the numbers finally appeared. Joker was so much stronger than his opponent. "No threat. Get 'em, Joker! Everyone else, head to positions! Use Route B!"

"Area is clear," I rolled out from behind the bin and started to ran as far as I could. This was the plan, as long as we could get out before anything bad happened, we would be fine! "You guys should book here quick, just incase!"

I looked back behind me to make sure the redhead was right on my tail. Seeing that she was right where I hoped she would be… well I would have sighed if it hadn't been for my short breaths. Looking ahead of me, I could see that the door, or Position B was closing fast. An evil smile grew on my face, one that I had grown accustom to having on my face. "OK, pull out before their backup gets here."

"Good. You defeated them with ease!" I new Joker wouldn't have a problem against the weaklings here. I mean after what we just went through… I'd hope they'd be easier.

Suddenly, I heard a gasp from behind me. I stopped on my right foot and spun around to look at my partner. "More of them!? Be careful!"

After a few moments I noticed that her game face had worked its way onto her face, even through the mask I could tell. "Joker, behind you! Go through that door! You should be able to get out that way! Hurry!"

"Dude, can he even hear us!?" Another voice, this one belonging to a boy rang over the comms. Yet, it also rang out from down the hallway we had just came from. I began counting the people that came around the corner to make sure we did have any unwanted guest on their tail. As everyone rounded the corner I counted four boys and three girls. The whole gang minus Joker was here.

"Don't worry, I'm picking up everyone's voices. Just go, Joker!" I waved over to everyone from over the girl's head, which was easy since I was so much taller than her.

"Tch! We got away from a bunch of those guys in black," A boy with his hair bleached and a skull mask on stopped running right next to me. I knew it was the last voice to be heard over the comms. "But there're still loads more of 'em…"

"It really doesn't help with how much we pissed 'em off." I shrugged in frustration, nothing seemed to be going our way now, and it was stress inducing to a ridiculous point! Why did there need to be this many guards on our way out! I felt like there should have been more on the way in! "But I get what you mean we need a swift exit soon or else it's not gonna be pretty for us!"

"Up ahead!" All eyes immediately turned back to the smallest girl in the group as her voice was one of shock with a serious undertone. "Stop! This is bad! Hide, Joker!"

I tapped her shoulder, when she looked up at me I pointed to the door. She nodded in agreement, I took the lead and started to move for the door. After a few moments everyone else all began jogging towards the end of the hallway. "You'll never get away if you just keep fighting. Hide in the shadows, and sneak past when you see an opening!"

Finally making to the door my hands went for two places as soon as the metal frame was within my grasp. My left on the middle of the door and my right searching for the handle. I jiggled the handle a few times, it moved very loosely. Yet the door wasn't budging. "sh*t, its locked!"

"Seriously!" A light haired girl in a red cat mask got frustrated just as the words exited my mouth. "Oh, does anyone else know how to pick a lock besides Joker!?"

"No, but I have a pretty good idea at how loose the lock is." I took a few light steps back and turned toward the blonde guy in the group. "Skull give me a hand with this!"

"You got it!" After patting my shoulder we both jumped in place a few times before we both slammed one of our feet forward. We went into as dead of a sprint as we could at the door being that we were five feet from it. I placed my right shoulder forward bracing myself for the impact. I had just enough time to think that it was going to hurt, and let me tell ya… It did. Me and Skull both slammed our bodies into the door, and with a resounding thud, the pain sprouted all the way through my arm. Yet, I was finally able to tell that I had finally stumbled through the door.

"Son of a bitch!" I started to rub my arm, as I started it that I heard my partner quickly exclaim something to Joker.

"Now's your chance! Run for the stairs!" We all knew he was almost home free, but we were definitely better off than him. After a minute or two of making sure no one was following or going to stumble across us, my partner spoke up again. "Something wrong? The exit should be just ahead."

We all heard a male's voice come in through the comms. It belonged to Joker, we knew that much. "Through there?"

We gathered around the screen that the redhead was projecting so we could watch what was unfolding around us. "Nnh…! That's just how it is. After that commotion, the bottom floor's-"

"-completely closed off." I looked up at another girl in the group, she had medium length brown hair and a sort of half of a knight's face plate for a mask.

"Hey, can you make it!?" We all were starting to get visibly worried. Everything was coming down to this moment… and we were starting to get very worried. My attention turned back to the screen just in time to see Joker jump up onto a stone railing and bolt across it to get close to a giant stain glass window. I couldn't help it as Joker smirked towards the men in black that were after him and JUMP OUT THE WINDOW

"I can't believe you just did that!" My jaw dropped as he gracefully turned through the air. I heard a disapproving hhmph followed by the smaller girl jokingly insult Joker.

"What a show off." I had to hold in my laughter for that one. The way he moved was all perfectly flashy enough to call him a show off. The girl in the red mask rolled her eyes and followed up the show off comment with one of her own.

"You're so reckless, you know that?"

Joker landed on the ground into a roll as though to not hurt himself… and that's when it happened… As Joker stood up, first one bright light appeared, then another and another… suddenly there were many lights one him. And like that our worry turned to fear… "Enemies, here!? These readings… It can't be!"

All of us started to freak out, we couldn't make sense of what was going on. All of our worry and fear for our friend showing through. I clenched my fist as all I could do was watch the scene play out before me. "How the hell did they pull this off!?"

"What's wrong!"

"What happened!?"

"An Ambush!?"

"Joker can you handle this!?"

"Joker!" Immediately all the people who had just appeared before Joker started to chase after him. He started to run as fast as he could to a nearby ladder on the side of the building. Making the jump, Joker started to quickly ascend the ladder. As this was happening, I felt a new pressure on my right arm. I gave a quick glance to see my partner had gripped my sleeve tightly, worried for our friend. Yet that worry was validated when Joker nearly got to the top of the ladder. There was S.W.A.T. team members waiting for him, all of them pointing a gun in his face. Then the closest one raised their gun and smacked Joker in the face with the butt of his gun. Knocking our leader to the ground.

As He was quickly swarmed by cops we all had to look away… Our friend had been arrested… It was at that moment… I thought back to the events that had led to me being here now… The day I met Joker… The day I met Akira Kurusu.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Day: April 11th

Time: Early Morning

Location: ?

"Hisoka!" I groaned as the sound of my name being screamed by a feminine voice. I slowly began to roll onto my right side, which if my eyes were open yet would have given me a pretty good view of my bedroom. "Hisoka Gekido! If you don't get up now you are going to be late!"

"Okay!" I replied to the voice, which belonged to my aunt. My eyes slowly fluttered open and scanned my room. It was small, but there was enough room to live comfortably with it fully furnished.

My bed rest in the, from the door facing in, the top right corner of my room. With a window towards my back. Right in my face was my white colored desk, it was made of heavy plastic and metal supports that could and have survived hell itself. The pleather chair was pushed up all the way so the arms were under it and it's back was against the side of the desk.

I could see my dresser on the other side of the wall, it had a few pictures in their frames across the top. I couldn't make them out from here, but I knew what was in them. Trying not to think about they were, I noticed two out of the four drawers were open slightly. Most likely due to me wearing some clothes from them currently. That added onto the clothes from my closet that currently littered the front of the just mentioned closet told the of the struggle of a teenage life.

Sighing heavily, I knew what was going to come next was not going to be pleasant. I slowly got myself into a now very familiar position so that I can get up. I threw my arms above my head and brought my knees to my chest. Then I threw my legs out and tried to thrust my upper body upward. I had to rock back and forth a few times until I was in a sitting position. "I swear if I don't have abs by the end of this year."

I sighed looking to the source of my issue, my arms were covered in scars and there were a few stitches remaining in both arms. Luckily I had gotten a good portion of my strength back. Though that was after a few months of physical therapy. Though trying to put too much pressure on my arms caused pain to shoot through the entire length of them.

Looking at my arms, I couldn't help but think back to the accident that left me in this state. I remember being the back seat of my parents' car, having a serious talk. We were coming up to an intersection, the light turned and we started to move through forward. That's when I looked up just in time to a large truck come barreling towards us. I yelled for my parents to watch out and through my arms up to protect myself.

I shook myself out of the flash back and focused on finishing my routine. I mindlessly grabbed my school uniform and walked to the bathroom across the hall. After brushing my teeth and putting my deodorant on, I looked in the mirror. I stood out due to my hair style. Almost all of my black hair was short, except for one side of my bangs which hung past my chin. I had a single scar that ran across my cheek, that was not due to the accident. That scar was from a time when I fell off my bike when I was learning how to ride. Final, my green eyes seemed duller than they used too... I guess that was product of the accident.

Returning to my room I scanned for anything I was missing for my day, I found my bag on the floor next to my desk with all my completed homework and books in it. Grabbing the straps I was able to use my own momentum to care the bag off the ground and up onto my shoulder. I quickly spun on my right foot towards the door. Yet, before I started to walk forward, I caught sight of something on my desk. Turning to look at it, my eyes fell upon that of my old camera. I felt a twang of sadness ring out from my chest. Sighing heavily I turned my attention back to the door of my room when I heard from down below. "I'm headed out Hisoka! Remember to wrap you stitches before you leave. I'm also leaving your umbrella by the door!"

"Ok, have a good day at work!" I looked back towards the camera, staring at it for a few moments I reached forward and closed my hand around the bandage wrap that was right next to the camera. I made it harder on myself by not doing so before I put my uniform on, but I rolled up my sleeves and wrapped my arms up to my elbows and my hands as I began walking down the stairs towards the door to the outside world. I looked to the right and saw the kitchen and the front door of the house. My aunt forgot to mention that she had also made breakfast. After quickly eating the oatmeal that she had made I made my way to the door and leaned to the left a little and closed my hand around the handle of my umbrella the moment I felt it touch the palm of my hand.

I reached into my pocket and gripped a small wire in my fingers. Feeling my way along the wire I found my way to the earbud at the end. Pulling the small sound output device into my palm, I pulled it out, bringing it up to so I could see which ear it went into. As the wire snaked out of my pocket the first earbuds twin came out and swung round until it slammed into my chest. After a few moments of searching for the identifying mark on the plastic piece in my hand, I placed the earbud into my right ear.

Opening the door to the outside, the first thing that caught my attention was just how grim it looked out side. Especially in the crowded streets of Yongen-Jaya. Sighing heavily I took my first step to the outside world. I placed my left hand back onto the headphone wire in search of the small port that had buttons to control the music as I placed my umbrella over my right shoulder. The music started in my ear and I began the mindless trek to school. I call it mindless, but there were a lot of dumb steps. Mostly involving moving to a second train line. Yet it helped me to think, about anything really. Thing on my mind that day was how I was the fact that I had to go in for a check-up in the few days. I would finally be getting the last of my stitches removed and they were going to update me "that."

I was getting worried, mostly due to the fact I felt like they were going to tell us the same thing again. "It'd be easier to end it, it will be painless. There are no guarantees that they will ever wake." Yet me and my aunt would say to keep it going. We still had the money to pay for the treatment, I didn't want to think about it at all. In the end it was another headache and pain in my life. Before I knew it I was already at the train station. I took a deep breath, finally ready to face the rest of the day.

TAKE YOUR TIME

New Location: Aoyama-Itchome

New Time: Morning

?: ?

"Thank you Aunt Mitsu." I whispered under my breath, extending the word "thank" to put enficess on it. I popped open the umbrella and stepped out onto the street. Smiling to myself that I didn't have to worry about getting wet. That feeling was short lived as car rushed by me and stopped at a store right in front of me. Of course it was also kinda my fault for walking so close to the side walk. I flicked some of the rainwater that now made its home in my school uniform.

Then I realized that I recognized the license plate of the car. I felt something grip my my heart and squeeze. I realized what it was, it was anger, I was angry because it was that bastard. The reason I left early that day and the reason my parents' car got hit in that exact intersection. I very quietly cursed the bastard under my breath. "Kamoshida."

I stopped walking and closed my eyes. I started to breath in deeply, I couldn't let my anger get the better of me. That's what got me in trouble in the first place with Kamoshida. The world around my went quiet as I focused on my breaths. I was so focused on my breathing that I didn't notice someone run past me until I opened my eyes again and saw a familiar blonde haired vulgar boy just ahead of me. I sighed and started to move forward. I truly had every intention to just walk past him, it would only cause me more problems if I got involved with him now. That was until I heard him say something to another person. I finally noticed that next to the blonde as a frizzy haired guy in glasses.

"...What do you want?" I stopped in my tracks just behind them. "You plannin' on rattin' me out to Kamoshida?"

If it was someone at our school, Shujin Academy, well they wouldn't have reacted the way they did next. "Kamoshida?" I could hear the genuine confusion in his voice. I sighed heavily, I realizing in a single moment that there wasn't anyone at school that didn't know Kamoshida. Meaning only one thing, this guy was a transfer.

"Huh?" Now it was the blonde's turn to be confused as he kicked the ground in front of him. "In that car just now. It was Kamoshida."

I noticed a sudden mood change on his face said that he was now focusing on his anger towards Kamoshida. "He does whatever the hell he wants. Who does he think he is - the king of the castle? Don't you agree?"

"Which castle?" Oh the poor transfer… he had no idea what was going on.

"No, I mean…" Now the blonde had lost all his angry and replaced it with confusion. "Wait. You don't know Kamoshida? Are you for real? You're from Shujin right?"

I had to interrupt at this point. "Yo, Sakamoto is it?"

The frizzy hair and blonde boy now both turned to look at me. With both sets of eyes on me I could feel two very different emotions coming from each of them. The frizzy hair was honestly curious about what was going on. The blonde was frustrated that I was there. "Yeah, and who's askin'?"

"Gekido." I said my last name like it was just a matter of fact. Which… well it was. Still I looked back to frizzy hair. "I haven't seen you around, you a new transfer student? It's the only reason you wouldn't know who Kamoshida is."

"Yeah," The transfer turned toward me and I got a good look at the front of his uniform. I could see the two placed right on the collar. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet another second year." I dipped my head slightly in respect for the transfer student. Though me saying that got the attention of Sakamoto.

"A second year, huh..." Sakamoto adjusted his shoulder as he was saying this, probably due to the bag that was on his shoulder. "We're in the same grade then, and you too Gekido?"

"Yeah," I knew that we were going to have to get going now. We had already wasted enough time. We were going to be late just by walking to school… "Well, we are going to be late."

"Hang on," Sakamoto looked out at the rain for a moment. "The rain ain't to bad and I know a shortcut."

As he turned to walk away, I was going to tell him I would just walk the rest of the way by myself. Due to the fact of the rumors around him I didn't really want to get caught hanging out with him. I didn't need to add that to my list of things to deal with. Before I could protest though, I was hit with a sudden wave of pain shooting through my head. As soon as that happened I figured it would be better to get to school sooner if I was gonna have a headache. After recovering I heard Sakamoto exclaim his own discomfort. "Uuuugh, my head hurts. Dammit…. I wanna go home."

"You aren't the only one." I continued to rub my head with my free hand. I started following Sakamoto towards an alleyway that was near by. The new transfer student was close behind me. Well, if this was bad at least I'd have a witness.

Entering the alley, we immediately took a right turn I noticed right away that there was fork in the road right at the end of the alley. I almost didn't notice when the transfer student stopped walking. The only reason I noticed is because I looked back just to make sure he was still there. He was, but he was looking at a puddle of water we had walked through a few moments again. "Hey, you okay?"

He turned back to me and nodded. "Yeah, just thought I heard something that's all."

I was going to push further but that was when I heard a confused and disgruntled sound coming Sakamoto just up ahead. I motioned for us to move up, looking left I saw Sakamoto there frozen in place. I started to move up closer to him when I finally noticed what he was looking at. "Hey what's wrong- The hell!?"

In front of us was not the school we were promised to make it too, but an old medieval European castle. I know that there was nothing like this in Tokyo other wise I would have gone right after school before to check it out. It was a few moments before I noticed that the transfer student was right next to us. We were completely silent, that was when Sakamoto broke the silence. He turned back toward the alley. "We didn't come the wrong way though. Yeah this should be right."

That was when I noticed words on the side of the castle. "Shujin Academy." "Well it has the school's name and is in the same location."

"It wasn't like this when I was here yesterday." The frizzy haired student not only looked like he was confused, but I noticed something else in his eyes. I could tell he was a little bit excited.

"What's going on here?" Sakamoto turned to both of us as he finished the question with a more complacent look now that he was able to at least take in the site of what was happening. "Guess we'll just have to go and ask."

"Might as well," I finally closed my umbrella and rubbed my shoulder, which was starting to get sore from holding it up. There really wasn't any other option here. So all of us began walking up the steps of the castle. We had no idea what to expect at all. Though I won't lie, just like the transfer, I was a little excited too.

TAKE YOUR TIME

New Location: Shujin? Front Entry

As we entered the door for a moment, I thought we had actually entered into the school, but it almost shifted into a castle look. Which while unnerving was also making my head spin a bit. I had a bad feeling about this, but something in my gut told me that we were in the right place too. Sakamoto was actually able to sum up my feelings on the subject in about two sentences. "Th-that's weird… Where'd the school go?"

"Where are we?" I almost thought I had heard a slight bit of panic in the transfer's voice, but looking at him, he was very calm about the whole thing. Or at least he was on the outside.

"This SHOULD be the school…" The blonde had a face of worry on as well. That didn't make me feel any better, and what he said next didn't help either. "I think…"

Pulling out his phone, frustration started to grow on Sakamoto's face. "Out of service? Where'd we end up…?"

"I don't know, but I don't like this…" I rubbed my arms as a chill started to crawl up my spine.

"The sign was for the school right?" Sakamoto's eyes began looking about the place. Both me and the transfer responded to the question in unison.

"Yeah." The transfer twirled some of his hair in between two fingers and I placed my left hand on my head and started to scratch my hair, it was a nervous habit. Sakamoto quickly turned back to us and stomped his foot.

"Right!? You guys saw it too!"

"It was kinda hard to miss." I readjusted how I was standing leaning more on my left foot than my right. I was very uncomfortable now, my excitement was gone and had been replaced with worry and anxiety. Suddenly I straightened up as a sound reached my ears. All three of us quickly turned and what we saw, well it was a very tall person in a full suite of armor and a human face mask carrying a sword and shield. I was still worried but seeing someone else actually calmed me down a bit. I wasn't the only one as Sakamoto started to rub his head, calming down with the action too.

"Geez, you freaked me out…" The armored individual didn't show any indication that he heard what he had said. This prompted Sakamoto to continue. "Who're you? You a student?"

Still no response, now I was right back to being worried again… If it was, way wouldn't they have said anything. I thought I heard something else, but I was too focused on the guy in front of us. Sakamoto started walking close to the armored individual. The transfer student also calmed down, as indicated by his hands returning to his pant's pockets. "Man, your costume's impressive… Is that armor real?"

Still nothing, this started to upset Sakamoto who was crossing his arms now. His face distorted in frustration. "C'mon, don't just stand there. Say somethin'."

"Sakamoto, I don't think that's a good idea." I reached out toward him as though I could grab him when he was ten feet away from me and move him. "I wouldn't want to make him mad if that armor is real."

"So, we still need answered from him!" Sakamoto stomped his foot again and turned his head to look back at me. Which was a bad idea, because the sound I thought I heard early showed up. Another guy wearing the same armor and carrying the same weapons showed up. This snapped the blonde with us out of his anger and put me and the transfer into a slight panic. "...H-hey, what's going on?"

"What is this?" The transfer looked from me to Sakamoto and back a few times. I wish I had an answer that didn't end in the word ambush, but I didn't.

"I think we just got ambushed!" I quickly lowered myself into a defensive position. I wanted to be ready if they started to charge us! Sakamoto turned back towards we a panicked look similar to the ones we now wore.

"Dude, I don't know!" One of the, guards I'm guessing stepped towards Sakamoto gripping his sword even harder, I figured that meant he was going to use it soon. And I figured knighting us wasn't on the to do list today! Sakamoto got into a defensive stance with me just before the second guard took a step closer to us. "...This sh*t's real. C-calm down! Time out, man!"

"Let's get the hell out of here!" I knew we didn't want to be here any more, it wasn't safe. So I just suggested the first thing that I thought would work for us!

"Agreed!" Sakamoto looked from me to the transfer waiting for his response. Which came right after.

"Got it." I took a few steps then waited for them to get past me. Yet I looked back to see that they hadn't moved yet. A fact that Sakamoto made very clear.

"Stop standin' around and run!" They finally started to run, but just as we started to move as a group, two more guards showed up and surrounded us! "Ugh, what's with these guys!?"

Just as Sakamoto finished his sentence the guard closest to him slammed his shield into his back. I yelped in fear as he yelped in pain. "Sakamoto!"

"Owww…" He quickly looked at me. "I'm alright, but these guys don't screw around. Y-you're gonna break my bones, dammit! The hell do you think you're-"

Sakamoto was cut off as the guard stepped on his back. Then the rest of the guards started to swarm us. I quickly turned and suddenly the world went dark...

Chapter 2: Pillager of Twilight Appears!

Chapter Text

Date:April 11

Location:?

"Hey Gekido," I could feel two things as I woke up. First was the searing pain in my head, which was screaming at me. The second was a hand shaking my shoulder violently, which honestly didn't help with the pain in my head… "Dude, get up! Come on!"

"Ugh…" I reached my hand up to my forehead and started to rub. I quickly recoiled as I found a bump on my head that caused my headache to worsen. Throbbing pain aside. I opened my eyes to look around and saw Sakamoto kneeling next to me. Though that was not what grabbed my attention most. What did it, was the fact we were in a dungeon… and not the "don't tell anyone kind." This was a full blown medieval dungeon! With chains and shackles all over the wall. There was also a metal barred door too! "Wh-what happened? Where are we?"

"Dude… Don't you remember?" Sakamoto looked worried. "Those assholes hit you in the head with a shield!"

That was when I remembered everything that had happened! The castle. The guys in armor. The transfer student. THE TRANSFER STUDENT! I shot forward and frantically looked around the room. That was when I noticed that I was on a wooden cot, and next to it was a second cot. On it was an unmoving form. I realized after a few moments that the frizzy haired transfer was laying on the second cot. "Is he okay!?"

Sakamoto looked over to the transfer student, then back to me. "He's breathing, but they beat him over the head a few times…"

"Damnit…" I slammed my fist into the wooden frame beneath me. I quickly recoiled grabbing my wrist and tried not to scream out in pain. "Son of a-!"

Sakamoto suddenly got a worried look on his face. "Wait a second… No. Are you Hisoka? Hisoka Gekido!?"

I sighed… yeah I knew was going to happen sooner or later… The rumors about me, well, while false… they were also well known in the school. Like how I had planned my parents' accident. Or that I stalked girls, and that's the real reason I had a camera… Not the worst thing, Some people believed me, but most still believed the rumor mill about me. It was all that asshole's fault for everything! "Yeah, the one and only… Don't tell me, you believe the rumors as well, Ryuji Sakamoto, the track traitor?"

Sakamoto's face twisted into one of pain… He knew why I said that. I had to try and make sure that he knew that we were both in the same ship, to an extent. He was considered a delinquent, and people just didn't trust me anymore. "No… We both had to deal with that asshole Kamoshida's bullsh*t!"

"Cool," It didn't exactly make me happy, but I was glad to know he understood my situation as well. I looked back to the transfer once again. We had to wake him up now. That way we could at least try to figure a way out of this cell! "Come on, we got to get him up now."

"Right!" Sakamoto stood up and turned his attention back to the transfer student. I decided it would be best to help him as well. Sakamoto started to shake the transfer student's shoulder similar to the fashion in which he shook my shoulder earlier. "Hey! Wake up!"

After a few moments, the black haired teen opened his eyes and sat up. He seemed like he was in a daze. I sighed seeing that the guy was moving. "Few, glad you're alright."

"You all right?" Ryuji put his hands into his pockets, he seemed worried about the condition of the transfer. "You were knocked in the head…"

"I'm fine." The transfer rubbed his forehead, likely due to the pain of getting smacked in the head hard enough to get knocked out.

I made a fist and knocked on the side of my head. I was also flinched in pain as my head ringed with pain was well. "I guess we both took a smack to skull."

"Are you ok?" I was actually kinda surprised about how genuine concern for me coming from the glasses wearing student. I'm fairly certain with a shocked look on my face, I nodded at him. He smiled for a moment and looked around the dungeon room. "Where are we?"

"How should I know?" Sakamoto got a pissed off look suddenly. "I just woke up too."

"Yeah," I shrugged while looking towards the ground. "Sakamoto woke me up just a minute ago."

"Looks like this ain't no dream…" Sakamoto slammed his foot against the door in frustration. "Ugh, what's goin' on!?"

"Yo," I reached out my hand toward Sakamoto as he started to stomp the door repeatedly. "Calm the eff down Sakamoto!"

"How the hell do you expect me to do that!" Sakamoto stomped his foot again. "Hey, let us outta here! I know there's someone out there!"

"Dammit Sakamoto…" I rubbed my neck and looked back to the transfer student. "Hell of a mess we found ourselves in…"

"Yeah," He started to fiddle with a lock of his hair in his bangs. In his eyes focusing on his fingers though. "Hopefully someone can help us."

"Dammit," A frustrated yell told us that Sakamoto had given up on calling for someone. "Is this some kinda TV set…?"

"Right where the school is...?" I raised an eyebrow at the vulgar teen across from us. "Sakamoto, we are in so much more trouble than some TV prank show!"

"Son of a-!" Ryuji kicked the dirt by his feet. Guess he knew I was right. "You're right… but this is so effed!"

I was about to reply to him when suddenly a loud ghastly scream come from somewhere. It made all three of us jump. All three of us turned toward the door. We ran for the door. Ryuji and the transfer student stood in front of the door, where as I stood to the left of transfer. Sakamoto was the first one of us to speak up. "Th-the hell was that just now…?"

"I-I don't know…" The transfer stuttered. I just stayed silent, this was way to freaky for me to focus on much. The screams continued, this was too much… Ryuji felt the same as me according to his next choice of words.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…" I noticed Sakamoto's grip on the bars of the cell we were in tighten… "You're sh*ttin' me, right…? This is real bad…!"

Ryuji threw his arms away from the bars he was holding a moment ago. That was when I heard loud footsteps and faint laughing. "sh*t! Someone's coming!"

Ryuji's eyes widened "Isn't there some way outta here!? C'mon, we gotta do something!"

All three of us started frantically looking for a way out! All while the footsteps were getting close fast. Yet, nothing… That was when Ryuji who was right by the door got a scared look. "Huh? Did you hear that!?"

A group of three guards showed up. They seem identical to the ones from earlier. The one leading the charge spoke up. "Be glad that your punishment has been decided upon."

"Punishment!?" I reacted involuntarily to the guard. I didn't have time to calm myself. The second guard slammed his shield against the cell in front of me.

"Silence inmate!"

The leader of the group focused on Sakamoto and spoke to us in general. "Your charge is 'unlawful entry.' Thus, you will be sentenced to death."

"Say what!?" Sakamoto was just as shocked as us. Even the transfer, who was being quiet most of the time, spoke up.

"That isn't right!" His grip tightened on the bars in front of him.

I stomped my foot on the bars in front of myself. "What the f*ck!? We don't even know where we are!"

"No one's allowed to do as they please in my castle." I recognized a new voice that came from behind the three guards, but at the same time. It was difficult to place it. Specially since it sounded like it was coming through a really bad headset. So basically, it was distorted. Though I didn't have to wait long to place the voice. The owner stepped up to the cell and the guards made way for them.

There in front of us, was a taller man wearing a cape that was red with different shaded hearts covering it. There was a golden crown on his medium length fluffy black hair. I couldn't really tell him he had anything else on under that. Specially since his hairy legs were visible under the cape. Then there was the condescending grin the man wore like a badge of pride! I immediately got angry. I knew that face, I knew remembered that voice. I clenched my teeth and my fist. Though his eyes glowed a bright yellow. I didn't think about though.

Sakamoto was more shocked rather than angry. "Huh? Wait… Is that you, Kamoshida?"

"Kamoshida…?" That was right… the transfer wouldn't recognize Kamoshida. Especially since this should have been his first day.

"I thought it was some petty thief, but to think it'd be you two, Sakamoto and even you Gekido…" His voice was just as co*cky as his grin… "Are you trying to disobey me again? It looks like you haven't learned your lesson at all, huh? And you brought a friend this time… because you can't do anything for yourselves."

"Go to hell!" I basically yelled at the jackass, I couldn't hold my anger! I wasn't the only one. Sakamoto raised his voice with a look that screamed disdain for the "king" in front of us.

"This ain't funny, you asshole!"

"Is that how you speak to a king? It seems you don't understand the position you're in at all." Kamoshida growled at us. "Not only did you sneak into my castle, you committed the crime of insulting me - the king."

"What the eff kind of bullsh*t are you spouting!?" I flung my hands off the prison door spreading my arms out wide. That was the dumbest thing I had heard all day! "If you're the king of anything, you're the king of ass hats!"

"Silence naive!" His grin only seemed to grow into a full blown sh*t eating smile! "You both will receive the punishment for this transgression, death. It's time for an execution! Take them out!"

"Wh-what!?" I immediately backed up. Death!? H-he couldn't be serious! Could he!?

"S-stop it…!" Sakamoto backed away with me. Both of the other students with me couldn't believe what was happening in front of us! The guards opened the gate and shepherded all three of us to the other end of the cell.

"Start with Sakamoto!"

"... Goddammit…!" Sakamoto yelled as he ran full force and shoulder checked one of the armored guards shoving it to the ground. I was impressed and shocked all at once. "I ain't down for this sh*t! C'mon, we're outta here!"

All I could do was nod, yet before we could make it anywhere. Another guard walked right up to Sakamoto and punched him in the gut so hard that he lifted him off the ground, it was a miracle that the blonde landed on his feet. "Nnngh… Owww…"

"Sakamoto!" I reached out for him, but the guard that was behind him shoved his spear into my face. Forcing me to back away. The transfer grabbed the back of the one guard that Sakamoto had shoved to the ground, who was already back on his feet.

"Get away from him!" Sakamoto looked up to the transfer and me. Fear and desperation in his eyes.

"Just go! Get outta here…!" The pain showed on his face was terrible to watch. I shut my eyes and looked away. It brought me back to the accident… "These guys are serious!"

"Oh?" Kamoshida's voice rang out from the front of the cell. "Running away, are we What heartless friends you are."

I couldn't speak, all I could do was avoid issues and hide from the pain. I couldn't even help someone that was in need... Sakamoto glared at the "king" before us.

"They ain't friends…" My eyes shot open and looked at Sakamoto. "C'mon! Hurry up and go!"

"What's the matter? Too scared to run away?" Kamoshida sounded like was about to laugh, he was enjoying this so much! "Hmph, pathetic scum isn't worth my time… I'll focus on this one's execution…"

With that strode into the room right up to Sakamoto. He grabbed him by his shirt collar and lifted him up. His smile was one that screamed of his evil intent. Once Sakamoto was eye level with Kamoshida, he had the two guards closest to the door hold Ryuji up. The third one blocked me and the transfer of into the corner. Kamoshida pulled his arm behind him and clenched his fist.

"Take this!" With that, he punched Sakamoto once, twice. "Lowly scum!"

Three, four, five times! "Useless pest!"

That was when Kamosida punched Sakamoto out of the arms of the guards and knocking him to the ground. After a moment and a signal from Kamoshida, the two guards that were holding Sakamoto up, moved to behind Kamoshia, who spat on the blonde's head. "... Hmph. Where'd your energy from earlier go?"

The guard to the right of Kamosida grabbed the beaten and weakened Sakamoto by the collar of his uniform and lifted him up. Throwing him closer to the wall. "A peasant like you isn't worth beating."

I clenched my teeth again. There was nothing I could do… Even if I tried help, I would only end up hurting my arms more than I would be a benefit. "I'll have you killed right now."

I couldn't bare to watch… but that was when I heard it… the voice of the transfer. "Stop it!"

I snapped my head to the boy next to me. My mouth gaped open, he was standing up for someone he barely knew… on top of that, this was situation that could very likely end in all three of us dieing!

I wasn't the only one who was shocked. Kamoshida slowly turned his head back to us. His angry glare focused on the transfer. He moved in an weird shoulder sway… and came right up into his face. "What…? Don't you dare tell me you don't know who I am."

An angry grin on Kamoshida's face turned into an expression of pure rage. "That look in your eyes irritates me!"

Kamoshida kicked the transfer onto the ground and against the wall. "Hold him there… After the peasant, it's his turn to die."

I looked at the scene before I got into a defensive stance out of fear. I took a step back, I gritted my teeth and finally made a choice. I reached for the transfer, the guard next to us slammed his shield into my shoulder. Which in turn slammed him into the wall. "Gah!"

The transfer quickly got to his feet the try and help Sakamoto, but was grabbed by both guards to our sides and was slammed back into the wall again. Kamoshida laughed at the boy he was about to have killed again… While Sakamoto begged for his life… "No, no I don't want to die...!"

Everything went in slow motion, the air in the room started to get heavy with what felt like static… Kamoshida had the last guard pick the blonde up by his throat… it raised it's sword up, aimed for Sakamoto's head. Suddenly, I heard the transfer student scream out in pain, I turned to look at him. He was thrashing about in pain. His expression confirmed his state. "No, stop you're hurting him!"

That was when I saw something that scared me more than anything else in the room. I took another step back as I saw the look in the black haired student. It was the most serious and angry look I had ever witnessed! That was when I heard Kamoshida, it shot my look back to the three at the other end of the room. "Execute him!"

"I will stop you." I looked back to the transfer. I was worried again, was he trying to get himself killed!? Kamoshida turned back to the black haired student.

"What was that…?" That was just what we needed though. As everyone focused on the transfer, the guard that was about to kill Sakamoto let him go. Giving the boy much needed air. "You desire to be killed that much…? Fine!"

Kamoshida nodded to the guard to the left of the student slammed his shield into the transfers head, knocking his glasses off. All three guards cornered the transfer the two holding spears crossed them on his neck, holding him up that way. Kamoshida raised his hand. The guard that was about to kill Sakamoto took three steps back and raised his sword. Sakamoto himself was having difficulty standing. All I could do was stand and watch what was about to happen to this teen on his first day at a new school. Though, just as the boy was about to be executed… his eyes shot open and there was rush of air that pushed the guards back! The wave of air was so intense that Kamoshida, Sakamoto, and me and to cover our faces.

When we opened our eyes… we all saw the transfer standing there with a mask straight out of a cheesey thief comic, it was white and had black outlines around the eyes. I couldn't help myself… "A m-mask…?"

The transfer felt the mask for a few moments then grabbed the mask in both of his hands. I will never forget what happened next… He started to pull the mask off his face. Which wouldn't have been a big deal, but there was a sickly ripping sound. That was when I saw the blood! The mask was like part of his skin! He ripped the mask off, screaming in pain as it happened. After a brief moment, he looked up, and his formally grey eyes were a bright yellow… the same as Kamoshida's! A wide co*cky grin slowly grew on his face. Then, I felt the wave of static again as blue flames erupted from the transfer, blowing the blood on his face away and it seemed to heal the wound from ripping his mask off! The fire quickly engulfed him! Where his eyes and mouth once were, there was now a red flame! A laughing could be heard from seemingly nowhere! Kamoshida and his guards quickly backed away from the transfer. The flames grew larger than the transfers frame, but seemed like it had a solid outline.

The flame stayed but slowly moved off the transfer! Revealing a fully intact blacked haired teen. Though I noticed his clothes had changed. He now wore a black leather coat and some sort of armor black coat. As well as all black slacks, red gloves and pointed black shoes. Black chains appeared swirling around the transfer and the blue flames! The flames dissipated to reveal some sort of demon! It had a black face with red flames as it's eyes and mouth. It had a black top hat and a black vest with red over coat and red leggings. It looked monstrous, yet elegant all at the same time! The transfer flung his arms out and large red and black wings shot out of the back of the demon! Another rush of air shot out from the transfer, knocking everyone who was standing to the ground! Kamoshida, started to whimper and and crawled away as fast as he could!

I heard Sakamoto call out from the choas. "Wh-what the...!?"

The transfer stood there in the room with a stance that conveyed his confidence and an almost evil grin plastered on his face! That was when I heard the demon speak! "I am the pillager of twilight - 'Arsene!'"

The demon took a stance while floating in the air. I couldn't believe this…! "Dude, the eff!?"

"I am the rebel's soul that resides within you. If you so desire, I shall consider granting you the power to break through this crisis."

"Give me you power." The transfer nodded toward the demon. I was too shocked to really come up this a coherent sentence!

"Hmph, very well…"

"Who the hell are you…!?" Kamoshida's voice brought me back to, well as close to reality as I could get with this weird situation! "Guards!"

The guards that were once laying on the group suddenly were on their feet in with a unnatural movements and a sickening sound. "Start by killing that one!" Then the exploded into a pool of red and black goo! They recombined into goofy looking pumpkin headed guys wearing black wizard hats and cloaks. As well as one white gloved hands that held a lantern. "You'll learn the true strength of my men!"

A dagger appeared in the transfer's hand and the demon stood ready behind his back. "Detest the enemies before you! Change that animosity into power… and unleash it!"

One of the of jack o' lantern wearing monsters flew towards the teen and red demon. Before it could get within reaching distance of them though, the transfer threw his hand forward, the demon threw itself to the ground with one hand behind it and it's wings up with its arms. I noticed a red energy flow from the demon's hand that was on the ground. That same red energy built up on the ground before the transfer student. Then just before the monster reached him. The energy shot up from the ground slamming it back again. The second one flew up from the side and just before it smacked the transfer student with it's lantern, the demon's arm shot up and grabbed the lantern throwing it into the first one.

"Swing your blade!" The transfer ran up to the monsters, jumping into the air, he slammed the dagger down into the head of the pumpkin of the monster on top. It screamed out in pain and exploded into a black cloud. "This power of mine is yours! Kill them however you want. Run wild to your heart's content!"

This time the weakened monster created flame from its lantern and it blasted the transfer student, knocking him back a few feet. Despite this, his smile never faded. He was enjoying the fight! The monster spoke this time! "You won't get away hee ho!"

"Ravage them, Arsene!" The transfer flung his arms out as Arsene grabbed the monster by its head. It lifted the creature up and slammed it into the ground. It exploded into the same black cloud as the first one. Arsene disappeared and the mask reappeared on the teen's face. Then Sakamoto and me stared blankly at the guy before us. Sakamoto broke the silence that followed the fight.

"What… What was that just now…?" The transfer seemed to just notice that his clothes had changed.

"Huh?" Looking up and down his sleeves. "When did this happen?"

"Really…?" I rubbed the the back of my neck. "That's what you are choosing to focus on, and not the giant demon you summoned?"

Kamoshida stomped up to the transfer now. Incredibly pissed now! "You little…!"

Sakamoto jumped to his feet and shoulder checked Kamoshida knocking him to the ground. "You like that, you son of a bitch!?"

"Lock the cell!" The transfer pointed toward the the keys on the ground.

I bolted for the door, I bent down and scooped up the keys that were laying on the ground. "I tossed the key ring to Sakamoto. "You get the door, I'll make sure no one else is headed this way!"

I quickly looked around the underground tunnel we were in now. There was a river that parted the two walk ways with cells on either side, and cages either in the water or hanging above it. "You got it!"

I heard the cell door slam behind me and the clinking of metal. "OK, it's locked!"

"Damn you!" I jumped when I heard Kamoshida again, I turned to see the weird barely dressed Kamoshida stand up.

"Hey…!" Sakamoto quickly turned back to the transfer. "What was that just now!? And… your clothes…!"

A bright flash of blue light and the transfer's clothes changed back into that of the uniform. Sakamoto and I were surprised. "Whoa, it went back to normal…!?"

Kamoshida started to shake the bars, making all of us jump back. "You bastards!"

"Look Sakamoto," I grabbed his shoulder and shaked him. "I'm sure all of us want answers right now, but we need to run!"

"Oh, r-right!" Sakamoto nodded in agreement. We had to get out of here as fast as possible! "God, this's effin' nuts! Anyways, let's scram! You lead the way!"

"Right!"

"Makes sense, since you can fight these things!" The transfer started to run, I followed close behind him. I heard Sakamoto throw the key ring into the water near by and Kamoshida called for more guards!

"C'mon, we gotta look for a way outta here!" Sakamoto was just behind me and the transfer. We reached the door and he slammed the door with his shoulder, but the metal door didn't budge. I did a quick scan of our surroundings. That's when I noticed a bridge that was broken, it had an area just large enough for us to jump it.

"Guys! Over here!" I ran and jumped the gap. Waving for the two to follow me. Both of them jumped across, luckily for us, the door right next to us was open. I held a hand out to to the door. "Let's get moving!"

We keeped bolting through the are, next there was a waterfall that had four cages that were partially submerged. Sakamoto seemed nervous about jumping over them. "Dude, you better not fall…"

They both went first, Sakamoto being a form track member jumped them easily! Though, I had an issue. Just as I my feet reached the other end, the I slipped and I started to fall into the water. "Oh sh*t!"

Sakamoto noticed what was happening and quickly grabbed my arm. "Argh! Dude, I said not to fall in!"

"Shut up and pull me up!" With a quick motion Sakamoto hand me back up on my feet and we were off again! "I can't believe this! Do you think he was actually going to have us killed…?"

"I don't know man…" We bolted through the area. I heard my footsteps as we passed over a wooden bridge, I had to maneuver myself so that I didn't get hit by an arm of a water wheel. Passing past all that, we came up to another line of cells, the doors were closed, but the cells were empty. I did happen to notice what our source of light was, they were purple fires in dishes that were held aloft by chains. I heard a banging sound, being on edge like I was… I squeaked and quickly turned my head to investigate the sound. It was only the transfer banging his shoulder against another locked door. He motioned for us to move with him.

"Another cell…?" Sakamoto mentioned when he got into the cell. That was when I noticed that there was a hole in the wall that the transfer student was getting down to crawl through.

I slapped Sakamoto's shoulder and moved to get in front of him. "At least we aren't trapped!"

"True…" It was small and cramped. We barely had room to move. "Crap! My bag's stuck!"

"Keep moving!" The transfer waited for both of us to get out of the hole. I grunted in pain as my left arm slammed against a rock when I got out of the small hole. "You ok?"

"Yeah," I rubbed the spot the I slammed. "My arms are just a bit fragile…"

"C'mon," Sakamoto briefly placed a hand on my shoulder as he moved past me. "If you're alright, we gotta keep moving!"

"Agreed." The transfer nodded, and we were off again! Once we got out of that cell, there was a large wooden bridge that went over the river. Which Sakamoto also thought it was something of importance as well. "Is this… a drawbridge?"

"I believe so," It had been long enough since the danger that we were just in, my adrenaline rush was lessened. Though, I was still freaked out… "If we weren't under the threat of death, I would love to just sight see down here."

"Seriously…" Sakamoto raised an eyebrow at me, I just shrugged at the guy. "That aside, the hell is this place?"

"How the hell should I know?" It felt like this whole place just went on forever. It was like a damned mazed right now… We turned right at the end of the bridge, after a few more feet… The transfer stopped after a moment. That was when I heard large, heavy, and metallic footsteps. I quickly looked around the area to try and find the source… I noticed that there was a hallway across the river and near the drawbridge. "sh*t! They're coming!"

"Hey, we gotta hide!" Luckily there was a few barrels and crates. We all quickly just jumped behind them. We waited for a few moments, the footsteps got louder, but after a few moments… they kept getting quieter and quieter… Than, they were out of earshot. "Over there… They're lookin' for us, right?"

The transfer nodded. I agreed with him. "Oh, without a doubt…"

"I ain't playin' along with this anymore!" Sakamoto was basically yell whispered. "We gotta find a way outta this goddamn place!"

"Hey," the transfer tapped Sakamoto on the shoulder and pointed toward a stone archway. "I have a good feeling about this way."

"As long it's not here." We all quickly moved through and up a set of spiral stairs that were right through the stone way.

"If this goes up, you think it heads to the exit?"

"That's the hope, right?" Sakamoto started panting halfway up the stairs, I was also starting to get a bit breathy. Finally, we all got up to the end of the stairwell. Sakamoto was gasping and panting when we found a door at the top.

"I-is this… the exit!?" I felt bad for Sakamoto… After all, he couldn't really run after… well, the incident. So I came up with a quick idea, one that would benefit all three of us.

"Th-there's a chance." I paused for a moment to gather my breath. It was much needed, I was starting to notice the exhaustion of all the running and adrenaline was causing. "Though, I think we should catch our breath for a moment first…"

"Are you crazy Gekido!?" Sakamoto flung his arms out wide and stomped his foot toward me. Yeah, kinda figured that suggestion would cause that. "Those… things are still after us!"

"Yeah, but if we exhaust all our strength now, what happens if that isn't even close to an exit?" I clenched my fist in frustration, no in rage! It was all just now hitting me… Kamoshida was not only the reason my parents were on the road when the accident happened and the reason I'm shunned and ignored. He had just tried to kill us! If he was here right now… I'd… I'd… I'd… I took a deep breath and started to count to ten. I needed to control myself. I couldn't let my emotions get the better of me. " Look, Sakamoto… I'm not saying we wait around for a few minutes, just long enough that we can catch our breaths. Besides, I don't want to keep calling him this guy, or transfer student in my head… Man it sounds worse just saying it…"

Sakamoto dropped his head in defeat. He knew I was right. After a moment he turned to the transfer student. "Fine, so how about it? What's your name?"

"Kurusu," Kurusu looked like he was about to say more, but that was when we heard more footsteps from the bottom of the stairs. "We can finish the introductions once we make it out of here, C'mon!"

"At least we actually got our breath back!" With that, we shoved the door open to see… more dungeon… "I was definitely hoping I was wrong."

"This ain't the exit!?" Sakamoto recoiled in surprise at the scene before us. Though, to be fair, this was some crazy sh*t we had gotten ourselves into… "What the hell is this place!?"

"I don't know." Kurusu looked around for a moment, spotting an open door, he waved for us to follow. "This way!"

As we continue through the open door, we passed another empty cell. "Christ, this place is like a creep's dream…"

Suddenly Sakamoto called for us to stop moving. He pointed to cages that were dangling over the river. "We really did hear people screamin'... So we ain't the only ones who got captured! Is, uh… Is he ok…?"

"There's nothing we can do for them right now." Kurusu looked away from the cages with a pained expression. Yet he continued to forge ahead. I knew why he said this, I looked over to Sakamoto and he looked back to me. We nodded, knowing that if we got caught, we would never be able to help anyone…

The cell blocks would have blended together with the earlier ones if it wasn't for the drawbridge this time being up and having a bust of "king" Kamoshida. It made me sick just thinking about it. We stopped at the drawbridge, but we couldn't find anyway to lower the damn thing. Though, due to my love for photography, I noticed that something didn't seem quite right about the jaw of the statue. I shook my head. I didn't have time to focus on something like that. We needed away out, and we needed it now!

Though after a few more steps… dread filled my heart. We had reached a dead end. "No, no, no! Dammit! This can't be a dead end!"

"Dammit!" Sakamoto kicked a rock into the river that stopped us from continuing our escape. "How the hell're we supposed to get outta here!?"

"I don't know…" Even Kurusu was starting to sound hopeless. That in and of itself made the situation all the worse! He was leading us through here! If he gave up… we wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell! Of course, in the darkest of times… the smallest lights will shine the brightest.

"...Hey, you there." For us the light was about to show itself. And boy was it the most unexpected light in the whole damned universe! "Blondie! Frizzy Hair! Bangs! Look over here!"

We all quickly turned to the cell next to us to locate the source of the new boyish voice. Only to see that it was a small creature! It was mostly covered in black fur with white… paws? There were cat ears upon its head which was comically large for his body. Large blue eyes stared at us in desperation! Finally, it wore a yellow scarf and there were two yellow buttons on its hips. Sakamoto was the first to react. "What is this thing!?"

"You're not soldiers of this castle, right!?" "He" was terrified, and you could hear it in his voice. "Get me out of here! Look, the key's right there!"

Sure enough on the wall next to the cell was a key ring with a few sets of keys. I quickly looked behind us to make sure no one could see us. There could have been a guard or two waiting to jump us! Luckily it seemed as though there was nowhere for them to hide. And on top of that, we would have heard them coming. Sakamoto started letting his anger show now. "We're trying to get the hell out of here…! I mean, you obviously look like an enemy too!"

I looked back to the creature locked up before us. I had to agree with Sakamoto, he reminded me of the things those guards became earlier. They less… pumpkiny…? I guess… Though there was something that obviously made it kinda hard to say he was working for Kamoshida… It was the only reason he was asking for help… "I'm locked up here, so how can I be your enemy!? Help me out!"

"That does make it a bit harder to say he's a guard…" Rubbing the back of my neck I looked to Kurusu. He seemed like he was lost in thought for the moment. Though that ended right as the thing stopped talking.

"Quiet down," Kurusu put his hands in his pockets, though I noticed that behind his glasses, he was darting back and forth between the cat and the way we had come. Though, the strange creature didn't seem to hear, or care about what Kurusu had said.

"I'm beggin you; you have to help me!" Immediately we all heard loud clanging coming from the path. Dammit, we didn't time anymore. I stepped forward and leaned in to the thing.

"Look," I poked it in between it's eyes. "I'll let you out, only if you show us the way out, got it!"

"Dude!" Sakamoto glared back at me. "What are you doing!?"

"We don't have many choices left to us!" I looked back to the little monster. "You know the way, right?"

"Yeah," He nodded quickly, as if this was his last chance for this. "I'll show you the way."

"You better not be lying." Kurusu had the scary underlined threatening tone in his voice. I did not want to be going against him!

"I'm not lying!" The creature looked to Kurusu and continued his begging for freedom. I kinda related to it right now. "It's the truth!"

"This thing sounds like it's all talk..." Sakamoto voiced his doubt, which was probably wise in this situation.

"If you guys think you can get out on your own, then be my guest!"

"What do we do?" Sakamoto looked to Kurusu. I was still willing to trust this thing. Though Sakamoto's doubt was replaced with worry when we heard the guards get closer. "Are you seriously not messin' with us!?"

"If you don't hurry, they'll catch you." That was all I needed to hear, we would just have to put our trust in this little guy.

"Kurusu-san!" I held my right hand out to him. Not even a moment later and I felt the cold metal ring drop onto my palm. I clenched the ring and quickly went to work. I tried damn near every key in the ring before I finally got it. With a loud clink, the door swung open, allowing the strange thing to hop out of the cell. "There we go!"

"Ahhhh…" I then noticed the thing also had a cat tail with a white tip at the end of it as well. This thing was a monster cat! The cat thing stretched once it was a few feet from the cell door. "Freedom tastes so great…"

"Now, where's the exit, you monster cat!?" Sakamoto got right to the point, which if the sound coming up the path was indicating, that was exactly what we needed right now! Though the cat got mad at the statement.

"Don't call me a cat!" His fur shot up a pissed cat as he jumped while throwing his arms down to show his frustration with the situation. "I am Morgana!"

"Morgana?" My mind immediately went to the legend of King Arthur. It had a girl's name, but had a boy's voice. Well it could be worse.

"Shuddup and hurry it up!" Sakamoto clenched his fist like he was about to punch Morgana. I knew he wouldn't, the situation was too dire for us to start fighting now. "You wanna be locked up again!?"

"A-all right, sheesh!" Morgana started to run off towards the drawbridge and called for us to follow. "Follow me, and stay quiet!"

"Oh well…" Sakamoto sounded defeated, almost like he had just lost a race. "Guess we just gotta follow it."

Morgana lead us right back to the statue of the "king." Once again, I noticed that the jaw just didn't look right! What was up with that…

"What're you doing?" Sakamoto spoke up as Morgana stared at the statue himself. He spun on his foot to look at all three of us. With a look that made me seem like he was a teacher that was excited to teach their students.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm lowering the bridge." My eyes widened as it came together. I snapped using my right hand and moved my arm so I was pointing upward. It was well hidden, probably so "inamtes" didn't escape. Though, because of this all eyes were now on me. Each with a different expression. Sakamoto had one eyebrow raised, Kurusu was honestly curious, and Morgana had a co*cky smile on his face. "Did you figure it out Bangs?"

"Heh," A slight grin grow slowly at the corners of my mouth. I moved over to the statue. "The statue is a switch!"

"Uh… What…?" Sakamoto was still so confused. To be fair, it was well hidden. Though Kurusu smiled. He ended up seeing it as well! Morgana's co*cky grin grew even larger!

"The jaw, it's not real stone!" I reached out and pulled the jaw down. The statues eyes lit up like stars in the night. The bridge slowly dropped down, giving us a path farther into the dungeon. I smiled, overly happy that I had seen it. Sakamoto's jaw dropped and he gave me a look of awe. I began rubbing the back of my neck. "Photography club, I focus on little things."

"Good job!" Kurusu placed his hand on my shoulder as he ran past me. Sakamoto snapped out of his awe, and he nodded.

"Yeah, nice work." He gave me a thumbs up. He started to move quickly over the bridge. I looked to Morgana as we started to follow the other two.

"By the way Morgana, My name's not Bangs. Its Hisoka, Hisoka Gekido." I gave the little guy a slight smile. Morgana looked at me for a moment, as if he was making sure he remembered it.

We made it across the bridge, only for another guard to come out of the door on the other side. It walked right in its path. Sakamoto started trying to backpedal, though at it accomplished was him flailing his arms around and slipping onto his ass. "A-aah! sh*t… sh*t, it's them!"

To be honest though, my reaction… not much better. I had to stop myself from moving anymore. Which made me windmill my arms in front of me. It was NOT graceful. Though Kurusu stopped on a dime and as soon as Sakamoto hit the ground, there was a flash of blue light and he was in the outfit from when he was fighting earlier. The guard turned to look at us. "Dammit! Th-they cut us off!"

"Tch… you amateurs!" Morgana ran up and jumped off Sakamoto's shoulder, leaping into the air. He landed in a confident stance looking back at my and Sakamoto. "Stay still! Hey you! You could fight, right?"

Kurusu nodded in response since Morgana was addressing him now. "Yeah, I can!"

"Let's go!" Morgana did a twirling jump and landed with one hand on the ground He looked up to the air and closed his eyes. "Come! Zorro!"

I couldn't believe my eyes as a large pillar of blue fire shot out of Morgana, all three of us recoiled away from Morgana. Out of the pillar of flames came a large figure wearing an all black outfit that reminded me of the old roguish archetype from movies and books. It had yellow eyes that were looking out from what looked like a helmet, or was that a mask? There was an over exaggerated mustache that came up from under the mask…? A flowing black cage was coming off the back. It had a large chest and arms, which made its choice of weapon kinda ridiculous. It wielded a rapier that was barely large enough to fit in its hands. Finally, its legs, they were skinny and long.

After "Zorro" finished materializing, he took his rapier and slashed a large Z in the air. I definitely believed that this could have been a weird anime version of the masked vigilante. Sakamoto was just as shocked as I was by the site of the large figure behind the small cat creature. "You got one of those things too!?"

Though, before he could get a straight answer, the guard before us started to shutter. Just like before it exploded into the red and black liquid, though this time two monsters one of which was the Jack O' Lantern looking things from before, but the second monster was a winged creature with a… well large extremity that he seemed way too proud about! I was interested about how there were two monsters in the one set of armor, but I was more worried about my life to focus on that at the moment. Morgana scoffed that the monsters before him. "Hmph, we will promptly shut them up! Damn Shadows… They've take up intercept positions!"

Morgana kept talking as the battle before was was starting, but I took a mental note about the name of these monsters. They were "Shadows," and they were trying to kill us! Which was a thought that Morgana affirmed next making sure Kurusu knew that he couldn't hold back either! I stopped being able to focus on the words that were being said. First to move was Kurusu who ripped the mask off his face, bringing back Arsene from where it is he went from earlier. Arsene flung his hand forward as the same red energy from before shot out from the ground smacking the winged creature and catching it off guard. It looked like a serious blow too.

That was when the lantern caring monster shot off to the left, passing in front of Morgana and Zorro, a mistake that they did not let go unpunished. Zorro moved his sword in the Z formation as a green energy shot off of tip of the blade. As it hit the pumpkin headed bastard, the energy exploded into a quick but intense wind. The moment the wind died down, the creature screamed out and dropped to the ground. Zorro quickly charged for the downed opponent, the little devil shot out the same energy as Arsene at Morgana. It sounded like it was laughing while doing so, but it took its focus off Arsene who, by the time the energy smacked Morgana, had raked his claws into the demon's flesh, ripping it to shreds. Though it dispersed into the black mist as the claws made the slashing motion. Zorro vanished when Morgana was hit. So to make up for it, a large curved sword appeared in Morgana's hands. Well, it was large for him. He rushed the monster, slashing it twice. The first hit was him using the momentum to care him and the blade into the air. The second was the blade finding purchase into pumpkin as Morgana came back down. The monster also disappeared. Everything other than the fight finally came back into focus.

"Not bad. Your Persona's pretty powerful." Morgana complemented Kurusu as me and Sakamoto finally walked back up to our fellow escapees. Though, the word Morgana used, was not lost on me or Sakamoto.

"Persona…?" Sakamoto brought it up before I could. "Y'mean that thing that comes outta you guys all dramatic-like?"

My curiosity was also raising with this topic in my mind. Persona… I could I had heard that word before, though definitely not in the context of monsters and demons that come out of someone! "I'm wondering that myself."

Morgana turned to look at us, he expression more scholarly than when he was trying to get us to figure the bridge out. I guessed that meant that this topic was not something that you could just guess away at till you got it right. "Yes. You saw how Frizzy Hair here ripped off his mask when he summoned it, right? Well, everybody wears a mask deep within their heart. By removing that…"

Morgana was cut off as another flash of blue light exploded from around Kurusu. Revealing that his school uniform was back once again. This shocked me and Sakamoto to an extent. "Huh…? He turned back to normal…"

"Hm, it looks like you don't have full control over your power yet." Even though it was kinda obvious, especially since Morgana explained that the mask was what was used to summon the Persona, I started to understand. That weird outfit that appeared on Kurusu had something to do with Arsene as well. Morgana continued his lecture on the powers him and Kurusu had. "The transformation shouldn't normally dissolve like that. After all-"

Sakamoto, unable to comprehend all the information coming out of the cat creature ended up interrupting him. "Rrgh, that's enough! This crap doesn't make any sense!"

"Can't you just sit still and listen for once, Blondie!?" Morgana exploded in anger at Sakamoto, jumping up and down. Which didn't help the situation feel any more serious though. It made it feel like a cartoonish dog was about to run in here with a pie in hand… Though, Sakamoto was done being called that weird nickname.

"Don't call me Blondie! My name's Ryuji…" Sakamoto slammed his foot towards the cat monster in anger. I tried to defuse the situation… not to much success though.

"Well, I have to agree Sakamoto." placing one hand in my pocket and rubbing my neck with other. "I'm not fully understanding this… So the Persona… is the mask…?"

"Actually, there's no time for me to lecture you!" Ouch… that made it feel like Morgana was insulting our intelligence, but I had to remind myself… we were being chased here! "You wanna escape this place in one piece, right? Let's go! Oh, but before that… take these. Use to them carefully, OK? Come on, we should hurry. It's not much farther to the exit."

Morgana pulled out three bottles with a glowing blue liquid in them out of a pouch on his right leg and handed one to each of us. There was a label on it, it said "Medicine." With that Morgana was off, Kurusu looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. "Not really ones for original names, huh?"

"Hey as long as it works!" Kurusu started to follow after Morgana and I followed behind. I called out to Morgana as we ran away from the bridge. "Hey, Morgana, how does this work?"

Looking back as he ran, our guide tried his best to make sure we wouldn't be heard. "You pop it open and think about being healed!"

"That's it?"

"Yeah!" I shrugged at the response. I remembered that we had gotten the crap knocked out of us earlier. I could still feel the bruises all over. So I figured that I'd test it out. I thought about the bruises from earlier being non-existent. As the bottle opened, I went to pour some out of the Medicine into my palm. I was shocked to see that instead of that, the liquid inside the bottle shot out in a string of blue light. It enveloped the bottle and washed over me. After a single moment, the bottle was gone, and I felt great! I felt like I had just woken up from the best night of sleep I had ever gotten!

"Holy hell!" A smile made its way onto my lips, this was amazing! "It works!"

"No sh*t!?" Sakamoto called from behind me. I turned back to see his eyes wide as he started to do the same thing. Again the top of the bottle came off and the light washed over him. I could physically see his bruises disappear as the light passed over them. A similar smile started to form on his face to the one on mine. "Daaamn, I feel great!"

We made our way up a very wide set of stone stairs that lead to a second drawbridge with a statue. This place really did feel like it was never ending! Though, just as we reached the bridge, there was a cell to the left of us. Sakamoto turned to look in it and with a shocked look and tone. "Hold on a sec! I feel like I've seen what this dude's wearin' before… Dammit! I'm too flustered! I can't remember a damn, thing!"

I looked over at the guy, but it was good enough of a view to recognize the clothes the guy was wearing. At least not under these circ*mstances. Though, they did seem familiar… Morgana's voice made me snap back to the world around me. "Come on, let's go!"

"Hold on, dammit!" Sakamoto was shocked that it seemed like Morgana wanted to leave the guy to rot in the cell before us. Me and Kurusu were just as shocked about it. If he was going to show us the way, why not this guy! Though our looks seemed to frustrate him more.

"What is it? We need to go, fast!"

"But… who are these guys?" A worried look graced Sakamoto's face. It was an honest question.

Kurusu pushed his glasses up farther on his nose. "I was wondering that myself."

"Do you really think you have time to worry about other people right now!?" Those words stung all three of us. It was natural to want to help someone else! We didn't want the guy to be killed! "Besides they're-"

"There!" We all looked at the bridge to see it drop just in time to see a guard come charging at us. Kurusu and Morgana took defensive positions.

"You should've listened to me…!" Morgana moaned loudly, we obviously didn't know a lot of this place. So it didn't make much sense that he was getting upset at us for it!

"Let's fight!" Kurusu sounded very serious about this. It was like he was ready to go to war. Kurusu's coat and knife reappeared in a flash of blue flame again. Morgana turned to Kurusu with a smile.

"I'm glad you stick to your guns." The guard exploded and reformed into two fairies wearing a dark blue leotard with long gloves and knee high heels. "Looks like it's raring to go too!"

Kurusu ripped his mask off, and once again Arsene headed the call. Appearing as elegant and dangerous as both times before. Arsene charged forward with what sounded like glee. He spun around slashing the first fairy without looking directly at it.

Morgana twirled in the air. "Time for my Persona." Zorro appeared behind him, once again slamming the second fairy with a blast of wind knocking it down and allowing Zorro charge forward and stab it in the chest. The fight was over before it had even started. With a flash, Kurusu was back to normal again. "All right! Let's get away before more show up!"

"Hold on, we can't just leave these guys here…!" I nodded in agreement to Sakamoto.

"There's no telling what will happen to them!" I looked to the side, I wasn't focusing on anything. I just couldn't bring myself to face the guy in the cell.

"Why won't you let us help?" Kurusu tilted his head to the side waiting for the cat's response. Which it did come.

"You guys really don't get it, do you?" Once again, the frustration. Morgana's frustration was about to make me frustrated, then nothing would get done… "Hrgh… There's no time to explain. Look, I'm going. If you don't want to follow, be my guest!"

Morgana ran off across the bridge leaving us behind, and quiet flustered. "Dammit…. Fine, I'm coming!"

"We'll come back with help!" Kurusu called out to the guy in the cell as we all started to follow the cat out again. I felt bad, but we needed to get moving too. I was tempted to just got captured again to see if I could help. Though, that would be way to reckless. I'd only succeed in getting myself killed like that. We finally caught up to Morgana in a small stairwell that had iron bars above a doorway. I could see a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling just beyond.

"The entrance hall is right above here! The exit's close… Keep it up!" Hope started to fill my heart, we were almost out. Though… there was a part of me that wanted to stay and beat the sh*t out of Kamoshida. I knew that would get me nowhere, so I ignored the voice for the one that called for reason and our escape!

We ran past the main doors that we had entered and went into the hallway that the original guard had come from. Which was confusing and worrying, were we just lied to!? Was this a trap!? The hope from earlier slowly sank away again. I swallowed my saliva hard, making a gulping sound. "We're here!"

"Finally! We're saved…!" Sakamoto ran off into a door to the right, the look of relief plastered all over his face. Though when he tried the door… it didn't move an inch! The feeling of dread came back up even louder this time. "...It's not openin'! D'you trick us, you jerk!?"

"Don't jump to conclusions! Over here!" With that Morgana ran to the door directly across from the one the Sakamoto was trying to use. He slipped into it with ease.

"H-hey, wait up!" Sakamoto also disappeared through the door frame.

"This could totally still be a trap…" I rubbed the back of my neck again. I felt like it was gonna be sore from me doing that all day… Kurusu shrugged and smiled at me.

"At least I can fight our way out!" I sighed at the guy, there was no way he would be able to keep that up forever. With that, we both entered the room as well. Only to find it empty except a few bookcases along the wall. The moment that Kurusu saw that there was no exit he started looking around the room. I had to take a deep breath not to yell at Morgana for leading us to dead end, and Sakamoto did yell at Morgana for leading us to a dead end.

"Where are we supposed to get out from!? There aren't even any windows!"

"Ugh, amateur…" Again with the frustration, I was starting to think Morgana needed to go see a monster cat therapist! "This is the most basic of basics."

"A ventilation shaft?" Kurusu looked down at the guide with a curious look in his eyes, that was when I finally noticed it as all. In the top left corner of the room there was a shaft with a mesh covering on top of the bookcase to the left.

"Exactly!" Morgana hopped about with excitement as he began to explain the basic of basics to us. "You guys should be able to squeeze through it one at a time."

"I can see that." I began rubbing my chin in understanding. That actually made a lot of sense.

"I see…" Sakamoto gripped his right shoulder and started to rotate the shoulder in a circle. "Then we just gotta get that metallic mesh off!"

With a running start, Sakamoto hopped up onto the shelves and grabbed the mesh. "And a one, and a-"

He yanked back as hard as he could, the mesh immediately came out of its hold. As it came flying out of the wall, Sakamoto came flying towards the ground with it in hand. "Oww… Crap! The enemy didn't hear us, did they?"

"I don't know, but we should start moving just incase."

"Right!" Sakamoto nodded, and then he looked back to Kurusu. "Seriously, we're finally gettin' outta here…!"

"You should wait on celebrating until you actually get out." I could hear the concern in Morgana's voice as he urged us onward once again. "Now, get going."

"But…" Sakamoto looked towards the cat beast with a downtrodden look. "What about you?"

"Yeah," I couldn't help but worry for him now, he sounded like he was gonna stay here. He had kept his promise, he led us out. I didn't wanna leave him here to be locked up again! "I don't think we should leave you here."

"I'll be fine," Morgana smiled at me before addressing all three of us. "There's something that I still have to do. We're going our separate ways. "

"Thanks," Kurusu turned so that all of him was facing Morgana as he said it. "You saved us."

"Heh. You've got manners." It almost sounded like was trying to joke his way around it. I smiled at the exchange. I began moving for the bookcase and waved at Morgana. "Be careful on your way."

"He's right though, but just don't get caught again!" Morgana huffed at me as I got to the top of the bookcase, using the shelves as ladders. Luckily it didn't take too much to pull myself up, or else I would have ended up on my ass like Sakamoto. I began climbing through the shaft and I heard the sounds of Sakamoto and Kurusu climbing the up behind me. Just as we were about to make it out of the shaft, it suddenly felt like I was trying to move through jello. It was difficult to move. My head felt light, and suddenly, the world warped around us. What came next, well it was truly unexpected...

Chapter 3: The Doctor and Pirate are In!

Chapter Text

Date:April 11

Location:?

Suddenly, I felt myself standing. The shock of it almost made me fall over! My eyes were shut, so I couldn't see what was going on around me. Though, I at least knew I was still with Sakamoto and Kurusu as I heard them start to talk. "Did we make it…?"

"I don't know, hold on." I opened my eyes to see the side of the street that we had started this whole ordeal on. I Kurusu pull his phone out of his pocket, and a voice could be heard coming from it.

"You have returned to the real world. Welcome back." My brain and heart stopped for a moment. D-did it just say that!? We actually did it? I was confused, I was worried, I was happy.

"Huh? Returned…?" Sakamoto was trying not to freak out. Which I completely understood. "...Does that mean we got away?"

"I think so…" I was still trying to wrap my head around what had just happened. I had to focus on the fact that we were safe, or at least that we seemed to be safe. "Everything seems ok…"

"I wonder…" Kurusu put his phone back into his pocket and brought his gaze back up to us. Sakamoto looked down and rubbed his blonde hair.

"I dunno what to think anymore…" I looked around at all the people that were walking past us. It seemed like everything was normal. Though there was something that I couldn't think of that was different… I couldn't think straight though. "What was all that anyways…? That castle, and Kamoshida, and that weird cat!"

"How the eff should I know!?" I threw my arms to the side and took a step toward Sakamoto. This was not natural! There was no way that all three of us had the same hallucination or dream, but there was something that still made sure that we had a dream like thing to it. Reeling myself back in, I sighed. "Sorry, I'm just as freaked out as you are."

"It's okay man." Sakamoto sighed heavily. We all just witnessed the impossible. On top of that, we were lucky to be alive. "The hell's goin' on!?"

"What's with the yelling?" A voice that was getting closer to us grabbed all our attentions. What we saw was when we noticed two police officers coming up to us. One of them had a bike with him… for… some reason. "Are you students of Shujin?"

The officer with the bike seemed angry for some reason, and it was clear to tell in his voice. "Cutting classes, are we?"

"Huh? No!" Sakamoto moved his right leg forward towards the officers and held his towards the officers. Then… I could not believe what he said next! "We were tryin' to get to school, and we ended up at this weird castle!"

"Sakamoto!" I growled at him… there was no way the cops were going to believe that! Kurusu placed his hand on his forehead and shaked his head at Sakamoto…

"...What?" The officer with the bike got even more frustrated at us. That was when I realized what was different, the rain from earlier was gone, and judging by the sun, it was around the middle of the day! "Hand over you bag. You better not be doing any drugs."

Yeah, I saw that one coming. The castle story was ridiculous and it sounded like he was high. I was there and I still didn't believe it. "Why would you think that!?"

I heard me and Kurusu sigh at the same time. Kurusu whispered at Sakamoto. "Because the castle sounds like you're high…"

"S-seriously!?" Sakamoto luckily caught on right away. I nodded at him. The officer turned to us, still being irritated.

"Are you his friends?"

I shrugged, but Kurusu nodded. "Something like that."

"Then you should go to school. Take him with you."

"Like I'm tryin' to say…! I don't know what's goin' on either!" I smacked the back of Sakamoto's head lightly. He snapped at me. "What the eff!?"

"You are making it worse." Glared at Sakamoto to try and get my point across.

"We passed by Shujin on our way here." The cops glaring at me now. I mean, I did just smack someone in front of them. "There was nothing out of the ordinary about it. If you spout any more nonsense, I'll contact your school. Is that what you want?"

"C'mon, say somethin'!" Sakamoto glared over at Kurusu, who looked up at the officers with a blank expression.

"I don't want to be late."

"I think that ship has sailed…" I sighed and looked to the ground.

"Uh, that's not what I meant…" Kurusu started turned and started to walk towards the school. I was kinda shocked, so was Sakamoto. He seemed like he didn't want to be noticed… "W-wait a sec! Is that guy for real…?"

"I don't know…" I followed after him and turned back to Sakamoto as we started off towards the school. "I think it would be in our best interest to go now."

"Dammit… Fine, I'm goin'!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

It was halfway through the school day as we finally got to the building, and shockingly, it was fine… It looked normal, nothing was wrong. We couldn't believe it! "Is this for real…? I'm sure we came the same way…"

"The phone did say we were back in reality." Kurusu twirled his bangs in between his fingers. That was a bit obvious, but still, I didn't know what was real right now…

"That's true… but…" I sighed, we literally went the same way that we did to go to the castle. "What changed…?"

"What's goin' on here…?" Sakamoto was probably just thinking out loud, but that gave time for someone to come out of the door and see all of us standing there.

"That's exactly what I wanted to ask you." The school's counselor come out of the school glaring at us like we had just ran over his cat… "We received a call from the police."

"That damn cop snitched on us after all!"

"You didn't expect that?" I raised an eyebrow at Sakamoto, there was no way that they wouldn't do that. The counselor tapped his foot at us, the aura coming off of him was that of having no leniency.

"It's rare not to see you alone, Sakamoto." The counselor then turned his head toward me. "It's also rare to see you with anyone Gekido. Where were you roaming around until this time?"

Before I could say anything Sakamoto started mumbling. "Uhh… a ca- a castle?"

"Dammit Sakamoto…" I facepalmed immediately as he finished his statement. He really shouldn't have kept bringing it up. That was going to make it worse for us!

"So, you have no intention of giving an honest answer?" I noticed that the door behind the counselor opened. Then a familiar voice spoke up.

"What's this about a 'castle'?" Then the man himself walked up to the top of the stairs in front of the school. All three of us were shocked. Sakamoto was the first to freak out verbally. "Kamoshida!?"

He looked normal… Well, as normal as an arrogant asshole could be… He was wearing a white t-shirt and sweatpants. A stopwatch around his neck. "You seem so carefree, Sakamoto. Oh, and you're here too Gekido? Well, Sakamoto, it's quite the difference from from when you did morning practice for the track team. And you Gekido, you seem so much more aggressive since you left the Photography club."

"Shuddup! It's your fault that-"

"Go to hell Kamoshida, you-" We were both cut off by the counselor. Which pissed us off even more!

"How dare you speak that way to Mr. Kamoshida!" I wanted to tell the counselor to shove it! "... There's not much leeway left for you two, you know?"

"He's the one that provoked me!" Sakamoto, beat me to it. Though, I couldn't just stay quiet anymore.

"He came after us!" The counselor got pissed at us.

"Do you really want to be expelled!?" I started to grind my teeth at his bull crap… "In any case, you'll have to explain yourself! Follow me!"

"What!? This is bullsh*t!"

"This is bull sh*t! What the hell!?" Kurusu watched with, what looked at this with what looked like an indifferent look. It seemed like there was a fire in his eyes. Kamoshida suddenly looked to the counselor.

"Come now. I should have been more considerate, too. Let's just say that we were all to blame." His smile pissed me off… It seemed like he was just happy to see us not get kicked out. I knew it was bullsh*t! It made me even more angry that the counselor just calmed right the hell down!

"Well, if you say so…" I rolled my eyes at that one… "Still, you're coming with me. It's undeniable that you're extremely late."

"Fine…" Sakamoto gave up. I just grumbled as me and Sakamoto started up the stairs.

"By the way… you're that new transfer student, correct? Kurusu…" Both of us glared at Kamoshida on our way up the stairs. I heard him growl something at Kurusu, his first day, and he was already getting Kamoshida's bull!

TAKE YOUR TIME

I was in the counselor's office for about ten minutes, I gave him an excuse that I had collapsed for a few moments. Told them that Kurusu and Sakamoto had both helped me get to the school after making sure I was okay by taking me to a doctor. I had to nudge Sakamoto so he played along. We both got the same bullsh*t as always… Don't do it again. You're lucky that Mr. Kamoshida was so nice to you.

It made me want to gag… Though, now here I was sitting in my class. The teacher wasn't there yet. I shook my foot in anger. I need to distract myself from everything, I quickly pulled out my phone and noticed that there was a message on an instant messaging app. It was from someone named Ali, I sighed in relief. Ali was an online friend that I played a few games with. I quickly opened it up with my phone under my desk. The message read,Hey, we still up for that raid later!? We need to get that, sweet sweet loot!

I smiled to myself. She was a bit odd. She was a big gamer, playing with her over the last few months had let me focus on something other than my position. I replied to her.I'm still ready to kick some ass! Better bring your A-game MC!

I looked up just in time to see the teacher walked in, she was wearing a yellow long sleeved shirt with a blue jean skirt. Kawakami walked into the classroom with Kurusu behind her! Kurusu was the in the same class as me! I started to hear the rumors flow the moment they were in the front of the class. "Being super late on his first day? He really is insane…"

"He looks normal though…"

"But he might slug us if we look him in the eye…" I gritted my teeth, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Kurusu was slowing scanning the room, he stopped when he noticed me. His expression didn't change, but he locked eyes with me. I nodded at him, then Kawakami started to speak.

"Settle down." Her tone was very indifferent, then again, she had been like that as long as I could remember. "... Well, I'd like to introduce a transfer student: Akira Kurusu. Today, we… had him attend from the afternoon on since he wasn't feeling well."

I realized that Kawakami wouldn't want to just tell the class that he was late for no reason. Well, no real reason wasn't true, but no one would really believe the truth. "All right, please say something to the class."

"Nice to meet you." Akira looked out at all the class, stopping for a quick moment at me again. I smirked at the gesture. He heard the rumors people were talking about him. "I hope we get along."

The rumor mill started up once again. "He seems quiet… but I bet when he loses it…"

"I mean, he was arrested for assault, right…?"

"... Uhh, so…" Kawakami just seemed like she didn't want any part of this whole situation. "Your seat will be… Hmm…"

Kawakami pointed to the only empty seat in the whole room. I followed her finger and noticed where he would be sitting. It was right behind the worst person for him to sit by since Kamoshida would without a doubt being trying to get him expelled… He was to be sitting behind the natural blonde, Ann Takamaki. "Over there. The one that's open. Sorry, but can the people nearby please share your textbooks with him for today?"

I could just hear the other students groan. "This sucks…"

I heard a different groan, this one sounded more scared than pissed… I looked directly to my left to see a black haired student covered in bruises. Mishima looked down, like he almost always did. My concentration on everything was broken by the feeling of my phone going off. I peeked at it to see that it was a reply from Ali.Oh, it's on now my Rival! We battle this evening! Goooood luuuck!

I smiled as my concentration was brought back to the class when Mishima started to talk again at Kawakami request. With that, classes continued on as normal.

Class ended pretty quickly, I was starting to head out of the room when I noticed Ms. Kawakami talking to Kurusu and or Sakamoto. Sakamoto walked closely to Kurusu and whispered something in his ear. When Sakamoto walked away in the opposite direction, Kawakami sighed heavily while shaking her head. "See? That's why I don't want you getting involved. Understand?"

When she walked away, I took my chance to get a word in. "Yo, Kurusu."

"Gekido." He nodded toward me a smile actually on his face. I smiled back, but my face quickly turned serious. "What did Sakamoto want?"

"He said he'll be waiting for both of us on the roof." With an ah, I nodded my head. That was the safest place hideout at. No one went up there, so we could all talk in private up there.

"Okay, I'll meet you up there. I got a few things to grab first." With a nod, Kurusu started towards the stairs, but I headed toward the library, I had borrowed a book recently and needed to return it. I noticed all the looks I got on my way past. Some fear, some disgust… I was used to the mm by now. Though it never stopped having at least some form of impact on me.

I wordlessly entered the library and pulled the book from my back. A good portion of the students in the room turned to look at me. Girls shied farther away from me. Guys just glared at me. The girl behind the counter took a quick breath. "Did you need something Gekido-kun?"

"I finished this and would like to return it." I held out the book about Carmilla to the clerk girl. Just in case you don't know Carmilla was a duch*ess who drank the blood of young women to stay beautiful for ever.

"Okay, we finally have the one you've been requesting for awhile in if you'd like to borrow that one now." She took the book from me and placed it on the counter in front of her. I thought for a moment and nodded. She walked over to the shelf behind her, starting the search through the books, her finger finally stopped after about twenty books. Pulling the boom out, she handed it to me. I could she the author's name clearly, Robert Louis Stevenson. I smiled at her and bowed. "Have a good day."

Now I was ready to go to the roof. I moved up the floors until I came up to up to a door with a sign posted on in it right on front of it. The sign mentioned that the roof was off limits, though the truth is that despite this, the teachers never checked up here. You could hide up here all day and no one would find you at all. I opened the door, the sun shined through as it flooded the stairwell I was in. When I could see again, I saw Sakamoto sitting in a chair leaning it on it's back legs. His feet up on the desk. Kurusu was sitting on one of the desk. They both turned to look at me.

"...There you are." Sakamoto seemed frustrated at me.

"Sorry, I had to grab something." I placed my bag next to where Kurusu were sitting then moved and sat on the air conditioning chamber next to the random mess of desk. "So what's up?"

"Well," Sakamoto sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. After he opened his eyes again, he looked between the two of us. "Sorry for callin' you guys up here like this."

Sakamoto turned to Kurusu for his next thing. "I bet Kawakami already told you stuff like 'don't get involved with him,' huh?"

"Yeah," Kurusu nodded then looked toward me. "She also told me to watch out for you as well."

"I figured…" I sighed and looked down to the floor. Then I looked back up. "It's not an uncommon occurrence."

"She said both of you were trouble." I did that kind of weird laugh when you breath out of your nose. Sakamoto did a simple laugh.

"Heh, all of us are pretty much in the same boat." Sakamoto moved so he was holding his leg as it was crossed over his over leg. Then looked back up at Kurusu. "I heard you got a criminal record. Everyone's talkin' about it. No wonder you were so gutsy."

"I heard about it too," I rubbed the back of my neck and stretched his neck. "I don't think you seem like that, though."

"That aside," Sakamoto leaned forward and got more serious. "...What was all that that happened? You know, how we almost got killed at a castle…"

"I wanted to talk about that too…" Now I was leaning forward as well. My arms were crossed over my chest with my elbows resting on my legs.

"It wasn't a dream… right?" Sakamoto was as confused as I was earlier. Though, I did still agree. This was still weird as all hell. I still didn't know how to feel about all of it… "You guys remember it too, yeah?"

Me and Kurusu nodded in agreement. "Well, just 'cause we all remember it doesn't mean much though. I mean, even if it was a dream, you saved us from Kamoshida. So yeah… Thanks Kurusu."

"Agreed," I smiled wide up at the frizzy haired student. He gave us both a smile back. "Thanks a ton, without you there… Well, it would have been a lot worse!"

"Though," Kurusu pushed the glasses farther up his nose. His eyes narrowed as he looked at off to a corner of the roof. "I don't think that could have been a dream since all three of us remember it."

"T-that's…" Sakamoto grimaced, he was right, there was no way that we could all have the same dream. "Still, that Kamoshida we saw there… You prolly don't know about it, but there are some rumors about him."

"The guy we met at the gates?" Kurusu wasn't completely sure if he had met Kamoshida. Which I completely understood. Especially after all that craziness at that castle.

"Yeah," I frowned and looked towards the gate of the school. I noticed all the students that were walking out. Some laughing, others running to get home as soon as possible. "He was the muscular guy there."

"No one says anything against him 'cause he's some medalist who took the volleyball team to nationals." I nodded as Sakamoto continued on. Everyone put the bastard on some sort of pedestal. "The way Kamoshida was king of that castle felt crazy real 'cause of that…"

"Everyone thinks that gives him the right to be a douchebag!" I clenched my fist, I started counting in my head again. I couldn't lose it, not now. Though, before I could finish my counting, Sakamoto said something that shocked both me and Kurusu.

"...I wonder if we can go back to that castle again…" We both looked at him with a concerned look, though there was a part of my mind that agreed with him. Sakamoto shot up suddenly not looking at anything. "Ugh, forget it. Must've all been a dream! It has to be!"

Even if it wasn't, there was evidence to go against it. It was easier to believe that it had been a dream. So I let it go. "Sorry to drag you guys out here like this. That's all I had to say."

"It's fine." Kurusu smiled to Sakamoto.

"Yeah, only thing I got going on is later on tonight." I stood up and went for my bag. I threw it over my right shoulder.

"You know, we might be pretty similar." Sakamoto smile got very wide. "I feel like we're gonna get along just fine as 'troublemakers.' I'm Ryuji Sakamoto."

"Hisoka Gekido" I smirked at the two standing next to me. I felt something that I hadn't for a while. I felt like I belonged somewhere.

"Akira Kurusu." Kurusu smiled almost like he had back in the castle. Though it was warmer than back then. "Is it ok if I call you guys by your first names?"

Me and Sak- no Ryuji laughed, we all agreed that since we were troublemakers together, then we would call each other by our first names. "Well troublemakers, I'll see you guys around then."

"I'll come talk if I see you guys around. Don't ignore me, all right?" Ryuji had a cheerful tone to his voice, I nodded to him. I started out the door, Akira stayed behind as Ryuji came out the door shortly after me. "Seeya."

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date:April 12

I yawned loudly as I got off the train at the stop for school. I was up late playingFatewith Ali. That and I had a short talk with my aunt about the call she received from the school saying that I was late. She didn't care that I was late, she was worried because they told her the lie that I had used to get out of trouble. So, I hated doing it, but I lied to her saying that I had just forgotten to eat. She made me a bento right then and there. Then in the raid, I had actually gotten the legendary jacket for my character's class. I was super happy. Ali got upset because she didn't get any legendary gear. After saying goodnight, I remember having a weird dream.

The dream was about a man in bloody lab coat. He was sitting in a chair with a pistol in his hand. There was banging at the door. The man put the gun to his head and spoke. "You got me this time doctor, but I still win!"

I woke up as the trigger was pulled to a message on my woke up to a messageYou got lucky this time Rival, next victory shall be mine!I couldn't help but smile at that.

Though that brings me to right now. Where I noticed a family face among the crowd of students swarming to Shujin. "Yo, Akira!"

The frizzy haired student turned toward me and smiled. "Hisoka, good morning."

"Morning." We pulled out our umbrellas and popped them open just before we stepped out of the station. And the rain came pouring down on our rain shields. "Man, rain two mornings in a row."

"Makes walking to school a pain…" Akira sighed and rolled his eyes, probably at the rain. I laughed for moment. The gesture seemed out of character for what little I knew of Akira.

"Well, I love the rain." I huge smile grew on my face. I looked around us, and noticed something that made me happy. "I love how it covers the world and makes colors more vibrant and noticeable!"

"Huh," Akira narrowed his eyes and a contemplative look crossed his face. "I've never thought about it like that."

"Well," I sighed my smile turning to a frown now. "I only wish I had my camera to take a picture of this right now…"

"Why don't you?" I froze at the question. I didn't want to tell him yet. So I looked up to see that we were at school, the walk was quick when you didn't have to worry about finding an impossible castle.

"I-I'll tell some other time." I started moving quickly to get up to the school. "Well, see you in class!"

With that I disappeared into the building. Then, the day was a blur, the only real thing that kinda happened was Akira guessed a question right and people whispered amongst themselves that, "Maybe he's not so bad."

Then, school got out, that was when the day got weird… and my life really changed…

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Yo." Ryuji called out to both me and Akira as we came up to the school gates. He had been waiting for us.

"Hey man," I held up a hand to my fellow troublemaker. "What's up?"

"I wanna talk about that castle from yesterday." I cringed a bit at that. I had thought about it for most of the day. Too much of me told me that it really happened. "I tried tellin' myself it was all just a dream… but I couldn't do it."

"You too then." Akira looked toward the ground at the boy's statement. None of us could deny it anymore.

"I can't act like nothing happened. It's all connected to that bastard Kamoshida, after all." That was it, I agreed with that statement, I knew what was coming. I also knew how I was going to respond to it. "I wanna find out what's up that place, matter what."

Ryuji nodded then turned to Akira. "And y'know, you're the only person we can rely on for this stuff. So, you in?"

"You don't even have to ask." Akira pushed his glasses up again, the glare hid his eyes from view. This gave him an even more serious look. "What's next?"

"Ooh… Looks like I managed to talk some sense into you." The blonde's smile grew wide, I smirked at him and nudged his arm with my elbow.

"You didn't do anything!" I chuckled a bit as I spoke. "He was already on board, so don't get too boastful!"

"Shuddup!" Ryuji lightly shoved my shoulder. As soon as I regained my balance. I sighed heavily.

"Are you sure both of you want to do this?" They both glared at me in surprise.

Kurusu was the one to ask. "Yes, you aren't?"

I closed my eyes getting all the info I needed in my head. "We barely made it out alive last time. The only reason we aren't dead, or worse, is Morgana. Even then, we got lucky."

"Come on," Ryuji sounded offended at my worry. "You're telling me that you can just leave it, even after what that bastard did to you!?"

"Why?" I crossed my arms and leaned more of my wait on my right foot. "Why do you want to go back there so badly?"

"I-I…" Ryuji lost all fire for a quick moment. "I want to check out something about the other prisoners there…"

My face went from a serious expression to a softer one. "That's all I needed to hear."

I straightened up. Both of them seemed shocked at me. I gave them an evil grin. "I never said I wouldn't go, I just wanted to make sure you were serious about this. After all, someone's gotta watch your backs."

"Thanks," Akira smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. "Glad to have you on board."

"Sweet!" Sakamoto fight pumped with excitement. "So, I think we should just try and retrace our steps from yesterday."

"That sounds like a good idea." Akira pushed his glasses up again. Though this time I was close enough that his eyes weren't hidden behind the glare.

"In the meantime, you're walkin' to the station, right? Let's go together." Ryuji kinda invited himself. Though, it didn't matter too much. "Lemme know if either of you notice any other weird buildings on the way."

"I'll let you know if I see anything weird," I chuckled out loud at the thought of some of the things that came to mind. "Like a floating building."

Akira rolled his eyes, but with that we were off! We stopped in front of the same building that we all met at yesterday. Ryuji turned to us once we stopped walking. "If a huge castle like that really exists, I'm sure we'll find it in no time."

"That's the hope at least." I scratched at the back of my head. It felt like we were lucky to find it last time. After all, it was large enough we should have been able to see it from a good distance ways.

"...When'd they build something like that though?" Ryuji's question was an honest one. It was a decent question as well. To be so close to the school, and no one know about it… How was that even possible? "We walked that way from here, right?"

"I believe so…" Akira turned back to look at the alleyway near the building we were standing in front of.

"When you put it that way, I'm not so sure anymore…" Ryuji's mood darkened at the response from Akira. Though, after everything that had happened, I was surprised that we even remembered our bags or that we even started from this building… "...All right, this way. Lemme me know if you notice anything."

"You got it boss." I did a mock salute as we all moved toward the alley. We went the exact path that we had taken twice yesterday, and to only our surprise… we ended up in front of the school. "Seriously…?"

"We're at school…" Ryuji started running his hands through his hair, confused. "There wasn't anything out of place along the way, right? I didn't see no castle either…"

"Did we go the same way as before?" Akira turned back to the alley, almost as if to check if there was something that we had missed. I shrugged, and Ryuji turned to Akira.

"...We must've made a wrong turn somewhere. Let's try again." I nodded in agreement to his statement. Though, Akira seemed disheartened by that.

"Again…?" Akira rubbed the back of his neck now.

"Don't worry, I won't mess up this time." Ryuji turned his full body toward Akira, he was ready to keep doing this. I was a little worried that it would be the same result. Though, Akira kinda seemed like he wanted to go home. "Let's go."

We walked through the entire alleyway, from one end to the next. After about five minutes of walking, we ended up in front of the school once again… Akira turned and looked at the top of the buildings surrounding the school and alleyway. I think he was looking for the castle. Ryuji's head dropped in defeat. "For real…?"

"I, uhh…" I rubbed my neck again, looking down each end of the street. "I'm not really surprised."

Ryuji placed his bag on the ground and leaned against the well of the school gates. "Is it smaller than we think it is? What do you guys think?"

"I think that we had to have missed something… right?" I kicked the ground in frustration, this was irritating.

"Guys, check your phones." Akira removed his right hand from his pocket and moved it in a way that got his point across.

"I already did that."

"Me too," I pulled my phone out and zoomed in on a map of the area. "There is nothing on here that mentions an sort of castle."

"Huh? Phone…" Ryuji stepped away from the wall, his eyes wide.

"What's wrong?" I raised one eyebrow when Ryuji seemed like a lightbulb went off.

"Hey, that reminds me - didn't you have a navigation app thingy on, back then?" That was when I remembered that we heard a voice coming from Akira's phone after we escaped the castle!

"Navigation app?" Akira twirled his bangs between his fingers again.

"I dunno if it was or not, but I heard stuff that sounded like one comin' from you phone."

"That's right," I slammed my right fist into my left hand. "Didn't say something like, 'You have returned to the real world?'"

"Lemme see you phone for a bit." Akira pulled his phone out and Ryuji snatched it right away. Ryuji messed around for a bit with Akira's phone. "What's this eyeball-lookin' thing?"

"I can't delete it…" Akira said it almost way too casually. A phone app that you can't delete!? That sounded like a bad horror story, or his phone was hacked.

"Wait, what?" Ryuji's reaction was a little lukewarm to that. "What a weird app…"

"Uh…" I raised my hand to argue with his statement. Before I could, though, Ryuji freaked out.

"Wait this is it!" Ryuji turned the phone back to us, there was a map and a small bar that had the word "Castle" on it. "I knew it-it IS a navigation app! There's even your search history! Oh man, I'm such a genius!"

"I don't know if finding an apps search history says you're a genius." I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Shuddup!" Ryuji was still smiling at us. He was ridiculously happy about this! "Let's try usin' it."

"I dunno about this." Akira voiced his concern, we didn't know much about the app. It could be dangerous using it.

"Why?" Ryuji was about to press a button in the app. "All we're doin' is startin' an app."

"Ryuji, wai-" I held my hand out, but before I could stop him. There was a voice that came out of the phone.

"Kamoshida… Shujin Academy… Pervert… Castle… Beginning navigation."

"There we go!" Ryuji pumped his arms in excitement about it. I facepalmed at him.

"You should have wai-" A weird feeling came over me, it was enough to make me stop. A weird pink aura covered my vision. Akira looked up to the sky at it.

"Hey, what're you-" Ryuji finally noticed it too, then it happened. "Huh? What the hell?"

I noticed that the phone had an eye on the entire screen. It was glitching out all over the place. The world distorted and weird red and black distortions covered the school and my vision moved between seeing the school and a castle. Finally, all I saw the castle. "Look! It's the castle from yesterday!"

"Holy sh*t!" I took a step back in surprise. "You have gotta be sh*tting me!"

Ryuji started to run through the gates of the castle. Me and Akira chased after him. "We made it back… That means what happened yesterday was for real too… Yeargh! Those clothes…!"

I looked at Akira and realized what Ryuji was freaking out about. Akira was in his clothes from yesterday! Even the mask was firmly on his face. "Holy hell, all of it really, happened…"

Akira finally noticed that he had changed too! "That happened last time too, huh!? What's with that outfit!?"

Akira got a large grin on his face as he looked at Ryuji. "Not bad, huh?"

"You LIKE it!?" Ryuji was worried, though I had to admit… Akira looked like a really cool rogue.

"Yeah I do!" Akira's smile got even wider with that.

"I kinda like too." I grabbed my chin as I looked at Akira's outfit. "It looks pretty awesome!"

"Are you guys serious!?" Ryuji seemed like he had just stepped into a crazy person convention. "What's goin' on here!? This makes no effin' sense at all…"

"Hey!" Before I could even make a comment, a familiar voice rang out from around a corner. All three of us had our attention drawn to the voice to see… Morgana! He came hopping over to us with a stern look as he stopped in front of us. "Stop making a commotion."

"Ah…" Ryuji seemed like he had just seen a ghost. Which was understandable, since we all didn't really want to believe that this world was real. At least for a time… "You!?"

"The Shadows started acting up, so I came here wondering what it could be…" Morgana seemed worried about it. He mentioned that word before, I couldn't really remember what he meant by that. "...To think you guys would come back to the entrance when you barely managed to escape."

"What is this place? ...Is it the school?" Ryuji wanted to understand our situation. I think we all did. I was worried we wouldn't really get an explanation, much like what had happened last time.

"That's right." Morgana surprised me, we were actually getting an explanation.

"But it's a castle!" That was the weirdest thing, we were right in front of the school, then it was replaced with the castle.

"This castle IS the school." W-what…? "...But only to this castle's ruler."

Again, what? What the hell? "The castle's ruler…?"

"I think you called him Kamoshida?" Kamoshida… castle ruler. It was weird, there was no way Morgana wasn't making much sense. "It's how his distorted heart view the school."

"Kamoshida… Distorted…?" That still didn't make much sense.

"That…" I raised an eyebrow to the cat, we were actually getting answers. Though, we couldn't correlate the words to the context being used. "Doesn't really mean much to us…"

All three of us exchanged a concerned look, at least, I think Akira had a concerned look. It was difficult to tell while he had the mask on.

"Explain it in a way that makes sense!" Ryuji stomped his foot towards Morgana and swung hi right arm around.

"I shouldn't have expected a moron to get it…" I, again, raised my eyebrows at the cat creature. That was really rude, and I hoped that he wouldn't always be like this.

"What'd you say!?" Ryuji glared back at Morgana, it felt like he was ready to try and kill the monster. Though, any and all hostility towards one another vanished as we heard someone scream out it agony. Akira, Ryuji, and I all were shocked by the pained scream. Morgana wasn't even phased. I had to wonder how long he had been locked up in there. "What was that!?"

"It must be the slaves captive here." Morgana said that sentence like it was nothing. Akira at least seemed like he got more serious. Ryuji was shocked, and me? I gritted my teeth, it made way too much sense for Kamoshida. I felt sick because of it, I had seen what he does to students… I just didn't have proof.

"For real?" Ryuji seemed like he was mostly just asking in general right now. Then more screams rang out from the castle. "Oh, sh*t… It's for real! We saw other guys held captive here yesterday… I'm pretty sure they're from out school."

The moment he said that, I ended up face palming. Why couldn't I have seen it before. The red gym gear with white outlines. They were Shujin's. Everyone turned to me as the slapping sound of my palm hitting my forehead drew their attention. "Dude, you okay?"

I looked to Ryuji who had one of his eyebrows raised. I nodded in response. "Yeah, I just can't believe that I didn't see that before!"

"Anyways." Morgana crossed his arms trying to keep the topic moving. "Most likely on Kamoshia's orders. It's nothing out of the ordinary; it's like that every day here. What's more, you two escaped yesterday. He must have lost his temper quite a bit."

"It makes way too much sense for Kamoshida." I basically growled the words. This son of a bitch was beating someone… again!

"That son of a bitch…!" Ryuji growled the curse over his shoulder as if to try and hide his anger from us.

"Ryuji…? Hisoka…?" Morgana looked to the two of us with a worried look. I didn't notice as I was trying to calm myself again. I had to count in my head for a few moments before letting out a long sigh.

"...This is bullsh*t!" Ryuji turned his attention toward the castle now. Then to my shock, he charged forward and shoulder checked the door of the castle. I guess back then, he didn't have a way to vent his frustrations. "You hear me, Kamoshida!?"

"Ryuji…" I dropped my gaze to my feet.See, it's not just you.My eyes widened as I heard a gentle voice go through my mind. I shook it off after a moment or two.

"Doing that isn't going to open it, you know…" Morgana seemed really sympathetic towards Ryuji right now. I had to agree with him. Even if the door opened, it would those monsters in our faces again… "Still, it seems you have your reasons."

"Hey, Monamona!" And like that, the tension I was feeling was lifted as I tried to make sure that I didn't laugh out loud at Ryuji's mispronunciation of Morgana's name. Morgana was particularly irritated by this

"It's Morgana!"

"Do you know where those voices are comin' from…?" Straight to the point.

"You want me to take you to them?" Morgana looked towards the ground. Then he looked up toward Akira again. "...Well, I guess I could guide you there. But only if he comes with us."

Akira looked as if he was in thought for a moment. Akira looked back up with confidence on his face. "Let's go!"

"It's settled then!" Morgana smiled at the answer.

"For real…!?" Ryuji pumped his fist in excitement. I smiled at the ragtag group that we had made right in front of me.

"Sweet, we should be good to go." I placed my hands in my pockets, I was ready to figure this out. Ryuji suddenly got a sad look on his face.

"...Thanks man!?" I kept smiling.

"All right, let's do this. Follow me!" With that we moved out. We stopped at the vent that we had crawled out of to escape last time. Morgana stood under it and started started to explain. "This is our infiltration point."

"Ain't that where we escaped outta last time…?" Ryuji seemed honestly interested in what was going on.

"That's right. Not barging in through the entrance is one of the basics of phantom thievery." Morgana seemed less condescending this time. Though, Ryuji didn't really seem to notice.

"How're we supposed to know about that stuff…?" Morgana jumped off the barrel near by and then into the vent.

"I'll make sure to teach you as we go." He looked down to us from the vent a waved in a motion that said follow me. "Come on, follow me!"

With that, Morgana moved farther into the vent. Before we could start moving to climb up into the vent, Ryuji started to talk. "So, uh… sorry for draggin' you both into all of this… But I just can't forgive that bastard Kamoshida doin' whatever the hell he wants!"

You should let out our anger like him.The voice came back again. I reached for my forehead as a small headache started to form in it. "Hey, Hisoka, you okay?"

I felt a hand on my left shoulder. I looked up to see Akira. I could see the worry in his eyes. I smiled at him.

"It's nothing, come on let's go." With that we all climbed up into the vent and ended up in the castle. Morgana was waiting for us, and as soon as all of us were on the ground Ryuji spoke up.

"Man, this place is as creepy as always." Morgana got serious, as if we were about to do something dumb and he caught us before hand.

"Mm-hm." He looked between all of us a few times. "Now, make sure you do exactly as I say, all right?"

He ran out of the room with a purpose. "Follow me…!"

We entered into the main area, the right on the other side of the door. "Hey… We went by here when we came in the front…"

"Yeah," I looked around cautiously, I didn't want any guards sneaking up on us this time. "Hopefully this time no guards give us the jump…"

"Yeah…" Ryuji dropped his head. Remembering our encounter yesterday was not very fun for any of us. That was when the area we were in changed in between the castle and the entrance to the school. It was very jarring to say the least. "What the…!? I was seein' double or something just now…! Was that Shujin!?"

"Seriously," The pain in my head came back again, only this time I was dizzy. "I'm getting dizzy just lookin' at it."

"Same here." Akira looked around for a moment, he seemed confused more than anything. Morgana spun around using one foot, looking at all of us.

"I've told you before. This place is your school." That was not helpful still, we needed him to explain it to us in full. "Regardless, we don't have the time to stand around. Who knows when a Shadow might show up. Come on, this way!"

"I agree!" I took a deep breath as we all started to run towards the dungeon again. It was honestly kinda scary. We nearly died last time we were down here. I didn't want to once again. We ran down the stairs and came up to one of those metal barred doors, it was open and on the other side was a guard. Morgana seemed irritated at this.

"Darn… I had a feeling there would be guards here…" He crossed his arms, and seemed pained at this issue. "It looks like we won't be able to avoid conflict from this point forward."

"F-for real…?" Ryuji seemed as worried as someone without a Persona thing should be when a Shadow was in our path. I sighed, I kinda knew that something like this could have happened.

"Oh well. I'll teach you the basics of battle right now. You had better remember all of this. As a rule of thumb, try to ambush as many enemies as you can. Attack the from behind whenever possible."

Akira was nodding to everything that Morgana saying. It almost seemed like he didn't like he wasn't paying attention. "You'll need to rip off their masks to momentarily break the control the Palace ruler has over them. If you succeed, the enemy will be caught off guard, allowing us to jump in for a preemptive attack."

"So rip off the mask." Akira mumbled the thing that he said.

"So we wanna ambush 'em and go for the first strike…" Ryuji was still excited, but I knew that it wouldn't be us going in for the kill. "All right, I got it!"

"Uh, you know you're just going to be watching, right?" I figured as much. "You can't use a Persona… Anyway, let's go!"

"That's lame…" Ryuji seemed defeated again. I tapped his shoulder.

"Hey," I put my right hand up in a thumbs up. "At least we have less of a chance to get hurt."

"That's true…" Ryuji looked like he had just groan. With that, we moved out. Akira and Morgana moved ahead of us. Akira quickly jumped up onto the guards back and ripped the mask off yelling something like, 'Show me your true form!' It revealed another jack o' lantern creature.

It was quickly destroyed by a blast of wind from Zorro. We quickly moved on as fast as we could. We made it over the second bridge we crossed yesterday, once everyone crossed it, Ryuji stopped us. "Why ain't anyone here…?"

We all looked to see the empty cell where the volleyball member was yesterday. Ryuji turned to look at Morgana. "Dammit, they were here before! Where'd they go!?"

"Quiet down!" Morgana halved whispered at Morgana. Ryuji looked shocked, but he was quiet just so he didn't bring any attention to us.

"Oh yeah, there were more of 'em further in too…!" With that Ryuji ran off further into the dungeon. I held a hand out to Ryuji.

"Ryuji, wait…!" I took a few steps when Morgana stepped in front of me.

"Hold up," I was about to protest when he cut me off again. "They might have been transferred already…"

That was the moment when Ryuji came running back towards us. He seemed worried, and rightly so. "Crap, I can hear footsteps comin'! Lots of 'em!"

"Seriously!?" It was my turn to be worried now. "It would be a problem if they discovered us now…

"It would be a problem if they discovered us now…" Morgana brought us over to a door right across from the cell. When all three of us were in front of the door with him. "Hey, let's head into that room. We should be able to hide in there until they leave."

We all crammed our way into the room. Once we were in the room, I stayed close to the door so I could hear if anyone was gonna be coming into the room. Morgana hopped onto the table in the middle of the room. Akira stopped not too far from the door, and Ryuji was halfway into the room. He started trying to catch his breath. "The Shadows probably won't come in here."

Ryuji was gasping and panting for air. "How can you tell?"

"There's a lack of distortion here," Morgana turned to look at Ryuji, he was going into teacher mode again. "Meaning the ruler's control over this area is weak."

We all looked at each other in confusion. Then we went into shock once the little break room changed to a classroom at Shujin. Then back to the castle. What Morgana said suddenly clicked. Ryuji stepped forward. "Is this a classroom…!?"

"What kind of teacher is Kamoshida?" Akira brought out his hand from his coat. I stepped away from the door. "He's a gym teacher! That means this would be classroom, since he doesn't have much say as to what other teachers do!"

"Exactly!" Morgana was very excited about my understanding about the situation. "This place is another reality that the ruler's heart projects."

"This is Kamoshida's reality…?" Ryuji, unlike me and Akira, was having issues understanding what is going on. "sh*t makes no sense at all!"

"I have to agree with that still though." I rubbed the back of my head. "I mean, I understand why Kamoshia doesn't have much power here. Though, that still doesn't mean I understand everything about this castle…"

"One could say it's a world in which one's distorted desires have materialized." Morgana's explanation, still didn't mean much. Though, it did give me a better understanding of this place. "I call such a place a 'Palace.'"

"A Palace…?" Ryuji placed his hands on his sides. I was kinda glad that we didn't have to keep calling it "the castle."

"This is happening because he thinks the school is his own castle." I snorted, I couldn't believe what I was hearing!

"So, it became like this 'cause he just thought of it like that!?" Ryuji started to laugh nervously. "That son of a bitch!"

"You must really hate this Kamoshida guy." Morgana stood in sort of hero pose as he commented on Ryuji's anger.

"Hate doesn't even cover how I feel." Ryuji was almost yelling this at the cat. My fist were clenched in anger as well. I knew how he felt, but, my issue were a bit worse than Ryuji's. "Everything is that asshole's fault!"

"I effing agree!" I stomped my foot, butting into the conversation. "This damn castle feels way too effing real to how that bastard acts!"

"I don't know what happened between him and you guys," Morgana turned to look away from us. His face was one of pain and worry. "But don't let your emotions get the better of you. His lackeys are everywhere inside."

Morgana turned his attention to Akira again. His face now more curious again. "You're curious about your outfit, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Ryuji crossed his arms, his anger still not calming since the outburst. "I'm curious as hell about it too."

"I'm gonna agree with that." I placed my hands back into my pockets, waiting for the answer. Akira looked at all of us for a moment before turning to Morgana.

"Yeah, I am." A man of few words, uh. Morgana turned fully toward Akira.

"That's also because of this world." Okay, again. Little sense, but I assumed he was going to explain. Even if that didn't make much sense, at least we would have more info.

"More stuff that makes no sense…" Ryuji placed his thumbs into his pockets and leaned forward.

"Anything distorts according to how a ruler pleases within his Palace." Morgana now crossed his arms, happy to explain. "A school can turn into a castle like this, after all. In order to prevent such distortions, one must hold a powerful will of rebellion. Your appearance is a manifestation of that. It's the image of rebellion that you hold within."

Ryuji groaned the moment Morgana stopped explaining. "Uuugh, I'm so fed up with all this! I'm more curious about you than his clothes! What the hell are you anyways!?"

Morgana angrily jumped in frustration. "I'm a human-an honest-to-god human!"

That… was… unexpected… "No, you're obviously more like a cat!"

Ryuji would have had a good point, if it wasn't obvious. "This is, well… It's because I lost my true form… I think."

"You think?" That was an odd one, but there were a few options as to what that meant. I was going to have to ask.

"Are you saying that you don't have any memories?" I ended up sitting right on the bench right in front of Morgana.

"Yeah…" Morgana looked almost depressed for a moment, then he quickly got a smile back on his face. "But I do know how to regain my true form. The reason why I snuck in here was for a preliminary investigation of those means. Well, I ended up getting caught though…"

Morgana jumped and flailed his limbs about. "Besides, I've been tortured by Kamoshida too! I'm gonna make him pay for sure!"

I smirked at the cat creature. "Well, join the club."

"What is this, a comic book?" Ryuji seemed worried, my guess was that this did seem like a superhero comic origin. "This is seriously crazy…"

"If we're gonna keep going, we should hurry along." Morgana turned his attention back to Akira. "I'll be counting on your skills this time too, rookie. Got it?"

Before Akira could answer Ryuji turned to him and spoked. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna force it all on you, I thought it might help, so…"

Ryuji turned his torso around and pulled something out of his waist band. When I saw what it was, Akria and me both freaked out! "Ryuji what the f*ck!? Why would you bring that!? Especially to school!?"

"What," The blonde gave me us a confused look. "It's a model gun, so it only makes sounds!"

"Well," I started to rub the back of my neck in exemptance. "I guess that's better."

Though, Morgana didn't seem too happy about it. "That's a toy!"

"But it looks totally real, so it'll at least fake 'em out." Ryuji looked so proud of himself. I got worried again, but there was nothing I could do about it now. "I brought some medicine too. You know what they say: 'Providin' is pre… something.' Huh? Huh?"

"The saying you are looking for is: 'Providing is preventing.'" Akira brought his hands out of his pockets. Morgana, though, ignored Akira's comment, and got worried about Ryuji's readiness.

"So you were planning this from the start…" He seemed a little reluctant. "Well, fine. If you're ready to go we'll resume our infiltration."

Akira walked forward and took the model pistol from Ryuji's hand. He placed it on the inside of his jacket. I guess he found a sort of holster in it. Once he had the new items ready to go, Morgana spoke up again. "Hm, there are probably still soldiers making their rounds outside. Let's use this time to sort through our current situation."

"Okay!" Akira came up to the door, the moment his hand reach the door handle. Morgana spoke up again.

"There should still be soldiers outside. Let's take note of the situation and get out there." Akira barely opened the door and we heard voices from the cracked door.

"Hm, I thought I just heard something move over there… Guess it was my imagination…" I froze there. There was a another voice too.

"And what of the slaves?" A second voice.

"They're all in the training hall." A third voice. "I'd assume they're screaming in pain by now."

"Very well." The first guard spoke up again. "I heard we may have intruders around. Stay on your guard."

After a few moments Akira waved for us to move out. Morgana was the first one to speak up. "Did you hear that?"

We all stepped out of the room looking towards the area that led farther into the dungeon. Ryuji spoke up as we all circled around the middle of the hall. "They said trainin' hall, right?"

"I think that's just a little further ahead. Let's go!" We all moved farther into the dungeon once again. We reached the wide stairway that we had ran up yesterday, when Morgana stopped us. "Shoot. There's a guard on duty here… The way to the training hall should be just past those bars…"

"So you and Akira gotta fight again?" I crouched down next to Morgana, just in case the guard turned this way.

"Seems so. Just don't let it notice you beforehand…" The car was now talking to the black haired teen. "If it does, the Palace's security level will rise."

"A-and what do we do if that happens?" Ryuji asked with a worried tone over my shoulder. I didn't want to turn back so I could keep my eyes on the guard. "Run away?"

"Well, the security level will go back down if we can beat more enemies without getting noticed." I could understand that. Though, Ryuji…

"Th-that sounds, uh… complicated." Of course, I was also starting to think more like this wasn't a castle now… even though it was as long as we were in the… uh, Palace.

"Fine…" Morgana sounded a little irritated having to constantly explain everything he knew. It wasn't our fault, we wouldn't need to know any of this if we hadn't stumbled in here yesterday. "I'll put together some info about the security level. Understanding this is crucial to Palace infiltration, so make sure you read it carefully, OK?"

With that, Morgana pulled out a small book from a pouch on his… I think it was his hip… It was weird trying to tell since, minus his cartoonish head, his body was almost perfectly that of a large cat. Ryuji groaned as he took the book from the cat monster.

With that, Morgana and Akira were off to fight the guard at the end of the stairs. Akira got the drop on the monster again and was able to rip the mask off again. This time to humanoid figures with red flowers on their heads came wailing out of the sludge. Akira moved in first, slicing the closest one with his knife. It reacted in pain and jumped back into a blast of wind from Zorro that tore it to shreds. The second one did a flip in the air bringing its foot down onto Akira. Before it could go anywhere though, Akira grabbed its arm. He waited until its feet had hit the ground again. The moment that they did, Akira swept its legs out from under the small creature. The moment the monster's back hit the ground, Akira brought his knife down into its head right between its eyes. The Shadow died immediately. Taking a quick break to catch his breath, Akira waved us forward. After a moment, he pulled on a lever that opened the bars to, what was called the training room.

"The trainin' hall's up ahead, right?" Ryuji looked to all three of us for the answer. Morgana was the one to respond.

"Yeah, it's a little further. Make sure you watch out for any guards along the way." He was bouncing back and forth on each foot. It was kinda cute, but I also knew that it was so he couldn't be caught off balance. That was something that most fighting styles teach you, and taking a few karate classes when I was little helped me remember that. Though, watching Morgana was the only reason I remembered that. The area we were in now was a long corridor, it had a door off to the left next to a railing. That also had some stairs that led farther down. There were a few boxes off to our left next to a left curve in the hallway. Akira quickly stopped running forward, the stop was abrupt enough that he ended up kicking his foot out and waving his arms around wildly. It was honestly pretty funny, I had to bring my hand up to stop myself from snickering.

He made a motion for us to hide, so we all hid next to the boxes. From around the corner I heard a guard speak up. "Hey, have you seen anyone who looks like an intruder?"

Really… that was their description of us. It was dumb, but I snickered a little. "No, nobody yet…"

"Shoot… I had a feeling there would be a lot of enemies." Morgana moved up next to Akira and they could clearly see the guards. "It'd be impossible to dodge all of them…"

"Then, what do we do?" Ryuji whispered to Morgana. He was in front of me, so I was basically taking up the rear. "Should we try and take 'em down like before?"

"It's not that simple." Morgana sounded frustrated, though more at the guards that were in between us and our goal, rather than at the blonde in front of me. "We still have a long way to go, so we should be conserving energy."

"I-I see…" I could hear the regret in Ryuji's voice. He wanted to be helpful so badly. "Sorry… Dammit, I wish I could fight… I'd at least be able to help out a little bit…"

I placed a hand on Ryuji's shoulder. "With we both could that would be perfect… But, we can't fight these things."

"I-I know…" That was the first time I had ever heard defeat from the blonde. It was kinda shocking. He seemed so confident earlier, this was a completely different side to the story. "All I got is this toy from earlier… I'm such a loser."

"Huh?" Morgana looked back to us. It was difficult to read his emotions at that exact moment. "Do you mean that gun?"

"Yeah… It looks real n' all, but it doesn't shoot anything…"

"I see…" Morgana's eyes went from their normal really large and blue to yellow stars at that moment, it was weird. Morgana was just weird. "Well, there is a way… OK, we'll use that to take down the enemies!"

"What!?" Ryuji had to stop himself from almost yelling out in shock. I was right about there with him at that moment. That whole statement didn't make much sense at all. "Were you listenin' to me? It don't even shoot pellets…"

Before I could ad to the conversation, the guards moved closer, and Morgana whispered back to Akira. "Don't worry, I'm sure this'll work. Attack away, Frizzy Hair!"

"What're we going to do?" Akira sounded worried, I mean, Morgana did just tell him to shoot a fake gun at guys that were trying to kill us.

"Just trust me! Let's do this!"

"Wait, dude! I keep sayin' it's not gonna fire anything!"

"Morgana, this is down right suicidal!"

But Akira shot out from around the corner with the gun in hand. The Shadows exploded into their true forms right then. It was one of the fairies, and the flower head again. I didn't really focus on what Morgana was explaining to Akira. I was too worried about how the fight was going to go. Though, to my shock. Akira pointed the gun at the fairy and fired an ACTUAL bullet! It hit the fairy and knocked her to the ground. Akira unloaded a full clip into the fairy and she dissolved into black mist. All worry I had was gone. To add to this, Morgana pulled out a giant slingshot and shot the flower head a few times. Though, Akira got the killing blow with his pistol.

Me and Ryuji came running out from around the corner, the shock still plastered onto our faces. "That actually just happened!? Holy sh*t, h-how!?"

"Whoa!" Ryuji's voice had just as much shock as when we show Akira summon Arsene for the first time! "Did that toy gun just shoot real freakin' bullets!?"

"This is a cognitive world." That statement was weird to me. Though, it did go along with what he was saying about the school being a castle because Kamoshida viewed it as such. "As long as our opponent views it as real, it becomes such. It's a good thing it's realistic-looking."

"...I don't get it." Ryuji scowled at the explanation. Morgana got a co*cky look on his face.

"I wasn't expecting someone with your brains to understand." I quickly slammed my hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing. I did, however, end up snorting. "How about you, Frizzy Hair? Hisoka? Did you guys get what I said?"

"It's simple logic." Akira smiled as the words left his mouth. Morgana got a grin on his face.

"Heh, just as I was expecting." The cat creature turned to me waiting for my answer.

"Well, from the way you explained it…" I placed my hand over my chin, I started to really think about that statement. So, if it's like what he was saying, that could mean that because it looks real, as long as we don't mention it's a fake… Then it would be real. Though the implications could mean, that eventually, we believe it's real… Perception is king! "I think I understand."

"Well," Morgana put his hands on his hips and co*cked his head to the side. "That's better than Ryuji!"

"Wait, if it's better havin' something realistic, why do you got that slingshot!?" I did that motion that you usually see people do when they agree with a point someone made. "And it was just as strong as a goddamn gun! What about your whole cognitive whatever!?"

"W-well, um…" Morgana sighed, his face was one of defeat. "Fine, you can choose to understand it however you want. Oh by the way, we should decide how we divvy up our roles in battle from here on out."

"He totally dodged my question…" I had to stop myself from laughing again. That was funny.

"Like a damn politician." My smile was so wide right then and there.

"As you can see, there are quite a lot of enemies." Morgana went straight back into teacher mode. "It'll be important to coordinate our moves well. I can keep providing intel for us, but you should decide how we fight, Frizzy Hair."

"Whaddya mean by 'how we fight?'" Ryuji seemed frustrated, which I guess that would because Morgana had been pestering him.

"Basically, what we do in battle." Morgana was still ignoring Ryuji's frustration. "He can order us directly, or let us decide what we do… Though I guess I'm the only other one fighting right now…"

"That does kinda change that statement quite a bit." I raised my eyebrow at the cat. I looked up to Akira, I had a stern look on my face. "So, even though I can't fight, I figure there is something that I can do for you guys. While you guys are focused on a fight, you can't see what is going on outside of the fight. So I'll be the lookout, that way you guys won't get caught off guard."

"Sounds good to me." Akira smirked at me, but with that, he flipped his coat and we were off again. We finally went down to the curve in the hall. It had a sharp left turn back into the hall. Then there was a quick turn to the right. There was another river to our left with a wooden fence between us and it. There was another guard in front of us. Akira leaned down and whispered to Morgana. Morgana charged forward and yelled.

"Time for my Persona!" Zorro appeared and charged the guard. The guard turned just in time to see the rapier slam right into its head. The Shadow never got to react… It died immediately, dispersing into the black mist. Morgana turned back to us with a co*cky grin on his face. We continued forward over a small badly made bridge that crossed over the river. I guess it was a duct, but back on track. We came over the bridge to another turn, Akira held his hand out as he peered past the corner. Morgana snuck up there with him. "A guard… I'm pretty sure that's where we need to be going too…"

"You guys gonna take it down again?" Ryuji actually seemed kinda excited for it this time. I was honestly a little confused at the sudden attitude change.

"I guess that's our only choice… But wait, this might be a good time…" Morgana, once again sounded like he was about to teach Akira something. "OK, I've decided! I'm going to teach you two a special way to fight enemies!"

"A special technique?" Akira didn't even take his view off of the guard as he asked his question.

"Something like that! Let's go!" Akira and Morgana started to charge the guard. Akira pulled out his knife and Morgana pulled out his sword. I couldn't hear what was being said. The guard changed into a fairy again. Akira ripped off his mask and summoned Arsene who slammed his hand onto the ground and used the red and black energy attack on the fairy, knocking it to the ground. Then, the most amazing thing happened. You know, besides the summoning a monster to fight for you. Akira and Morgana turned into blurs of motion. They slammed into the the fairy repeatedly. After a few seconds Akira stopped moving facing me and Ryuji. He fixed his gloves after a moment, then, the black mist exploded out of the fairy and she dispersed. All of us met in front of the door again.

Morgana was very happy with Akira's combat skills. "Mm, that went really well! You're definitely fit for this."

"That was awesome!" I was smiling wide still! I was seriously excited now!

"Wh-what was that super-move thing you just did!?" Ryuji was just as shocked as I was!

"I told you, it's called an All-out Attack." Morgana began explaining the All-out Attack. "If you manage to knock all the enemies down, you might be able to use it to beat them all at once."

"Yeah… That was over quick…" Ryuji seemed upset by the fight, though he sounded shocked still.

"It's a concentrated attack on defenseless enemies, after all." Morgana placed his hands on his lap and swayed side to side. My looked at both Morgana and Akira with a huge smile.

"That will help us out in the future!"

"Now as I mentioned before, I want you to be the head of our command. You can decide when we use this." Morgana looked right at Akira as he spoke up.

"All right." Morgana then restated how to do an All-out attack. We stepped through the door that the Shadow was guarding, there was a table in the center of the room. There were cells on the left side of the room and a pink light with a banner above a door.

"All right, this is it!" Morgana seemed excited that we had finally made it, but a worried look and feeling made its way onto and into me and Ryuji when we read the banner.

"Kamoshida's… Training Hall… of Love…?" Ryuji read it with such anger and he wasn't the only one. My anger found its way back into my mind.How can you forgive someone like that?"What kinda bullsh*t is this!?"

"Kamoshida's bullsh*t!" I stomped my foot on the ground, I had it with this bullsh*t! We kept moving forward, we made it through the small room and into another hallway. We heard a scream come from farther in. We ran down a set of stairs in front of us and cross the bridge. When we made it over the bridge, I saw something that I would both regret and never regret.

"Oh, it it comin' from over there!?" There were students being beaten by guards as they leaned against a volleyball net. With every plea to stop and smack against the back of the volleyball team member, I grimaced. I started feeling sick. The sounds gave me flashbacks to the crash… It was too much… "Dammit! This is bullsh*t!"

I just stood there in silence, I couldn't reply. Morgana however, chastised Ryuji. "How many times do I have to tell you to keep your voice down!?"

"But this is beyond messed up!" I reached up and placed my hand on the bar. Ryuji was seeing this on the volleyball team members for the first time. I knew this was going on… "How do I open this…?"

"Stop it…!" A boy walked over to us, he was covered in bandages… My eyes found their way over to my hand, still covered in wraps. "Leave us alone… It's useless…"

"Huh!?" Ryuji seemed shocked by the boys reaction. Another student who only had a single injury on his left arm walked over.

"If we stay obedient, we won't be executed like you guys!" I dropped my head, they didn't have the will to rebel against Kamoshida. He had broken them beyond what anyone should have been able to handle. This was so effed up… I started to tremble remembering what happened to me. I felt sick to my stomach.

"You're tellin' me you wanna stay in a place like this!?" Ryuji placed his hands on the bars and started getting angry with boys.

"Wait a minute…" Morgana sound worried now. "Were you planning on taking these guys out of here?"

I started mumbling to myself, I made sure I was quiet enough that they couldn't hear me. "It's useless, they don't want the help."

"We can't just leave 'em here!" Ryuji had the most pained look on his face as he turned to face the cat creature.

"How stupid can you be…?" I didn't turn to face any of my party, I felt a few things: dredd, anger, sadness, and finally… something I couldn't place started to well up inside of me.

"What!?"

"These are only humans in Kamoshida's cognition." Morgana sounded like we were supposed to know this already again. "They aren't real humans that have entered from reality. They're different from you two."

"Cognition…?" Ryuji was still way too confused.

"It means there's no point in saving them! They're different from the real ones in the real world." Morgana started to raise his voice now. "You could say that these are extremely similar-looking dolls."

It made sense in a weird way, the real ones didn't admit their fear. "The hell!? Why's it gotta be so complicated!? So the school's a castle, and the students are slaves… It's so on point that it makes me laugh. This really is the inside of that asshole's head…!"

"Still, this is horrible." Morgana walked up next to me, I could see him out of the corner of my eye. "It must mean he treats them as slaves in the real world too."

"In the real world too…?" Ryuji stepped up to the door again, his interest was peaked. "Wait, I know these guys… They're members of the volleyball team - the one Kamoshida coaches for!"

"They must be physically abused every day…" Morgana sounded so saddened for once. "There's no way they'd be so beat up normally."

"Don't tell me…" Ryuji started to get pissed again. "They're going through similar sh*t in reality!?"

"Most likely." Morgana turned to look at Ryuji, and I started to tremble. "I mean, this proves that Kamoshida thinks of them as slaves."

"So it might be for real…" I tried to count to calm myself down. "I heard that Kamoshida's usin' physical punishment. They're just rumors, but… If they're true, wouldn't this be somethin' to report to the police…? I'll use these guys as evidence. If it all goes well, we can take down that asshole Kamoshida…!"

I heard Ryuji tap on his phone a few times then get frustrated. "...Huh? It's not workin'!? We can use the navigation app, but the camera's a no go!?"

"A navigation app?" Morgana sounded confused.

"That's what we used to come here." Ryuji turned to us and asked us if our phones worked, I started to zone out. After a few moments I felt a hand on my shoulder. I lifted my head up and turned to face the owner. It was Akira.

"You okay?" I could tell that he seemed worried. I took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah, sorry to worry you." Akira's face didn't change, but he sighed.

"Ryuji is trying to memorize the volleyball team's faces before we leave." I nodded at him, I knew what he meant, I didn't think there was too much of a point though.

"Okay, I'll keep a look out." With that, Akira and Ryuji went off and looked in each cell, so I kept watching the door. Finally everyone came back over to me.

"Let's go! Quick!" We ran out of the door out of the training hall.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"All right, we're back. We gotta get outta here, quick!" We were back near the safe room from earlier. Though before we could get a sense of what was going on, there was a voice.

"The watch post near the training hall has ceased reporting! Chances of intruder activity are extremely high! All personnel, increase security measures!" We all freaked out at the voices that were heading closer to us. We all hid as guards were getting closer. Morgana was getting worried now.

"Tch, we've stayed here too long… Come on, let's get out of here!"

We booked it to the entrance, he had made it all the way to the stairs in front of main entrance. "The exit's this way! Let's hurry!"

We bursted out into the entrance and had to stop… The bastard himself was with a group of guard, including one in golden armor! We were shocked and basically cornered! "...You knaves again? To think you'd make the same mistake again. You're hopeless!"

Ryuji stepped forward and I took a step back. "The school ain't your castle! I've memorized their faces real good. You're goin' down!"

"It seems it's true when they say 'barking dogs seldom bite.'" Kamoshida got a co*cky grin. We found out that he had an ace in his sleeve. "How far the star runner of the track team has fallen."

"The hell are you gettin' at!?" He was trying to piss Ryuji off!

"I speak of the 'Track Traitor' who acted in violence, ending his teammates dreams." Kamoshida was trying to take the fight out of Ryuji… Just like he did with me. "Oh, I can only imagine the pain of the others who were dragged under with your… selfish act."

He had him, something started to swell up in me again. I didn't know what it was, but it felt familiar. Akira turned to look at Ryuji. "Violence?"

"What a surprise. So you're accompanying him without knowing at all? He betrayed his teammates and crushed their hopes, yet he still carries on as carefree as ever."

"That's not true!" I finally knew what it was, I was going against the fear I was feeling!

"Shut the hell up Kamoshida!" I took a few steps forward towards Shujin's oppressor! I was done dealing with him. "You are to blame for all that!"

"Oh, and you!" His grin got even more sinister. "The coward, who had proof to save his fellow students, but got rid of it to save himself!"

I grimaced, he was talking about the fact he threatened me when he caught me taking pictures of him abusing his team! I had solid proof, he said that would kick me out and slander my name as the one who was beating up the volleyball team. "You forced me! I had no choice!"

"If you hadn't tried to come after me, you wouldn't be in as much trouble as you are now!" I growled at the bastard. "Now everyone believes that you are a monster waiting to snap. You both were just obstacles that I squashed under my heal!"

"You've come along with these fools and are now going to end up dead… How unlucky of you." He was addressing Akira now. He walked past the guard in the golden armor and turned back to him. "Go. Kill them all. Don't sully my castle with garbage."

The golden guard raised his sword in the air and the two normal ones with him stepped forward and exploded into two horses with two horns each!

"Goddammit…"

"That bastard...!" I stomped my foot down.

"Ryuji, Hisoka, move!" Morgana and Akria stepped in front of both of us. The horse surround the two fighters, ramming into them like billy goats, Morgana and Akira tried so hard to fight back, but they were knocked to the ground. Ryuji and couldn't believe our eyes… Kamoshida came back and stomped on Morgana's back. "Rgh… You piece of-"

Akira tried to stand up, but was stomped on by the golden knight. Kamoshida turned to us. I was trembling with my fist closed, but Ryuji was on his knees. He felt defeated and saddened. "I bet you simply came here on a whim and ended up like this. Isn't that right?"

"No…" Ryuji sounded he could barely keep it together. I just stood there, all I could do was remember the crash. My bravery from earlier was gone, I was so dumb to think I could do anything for them…

"What a worthless piece of trash, getting emotional so quickly…" He turned to me next. "And you, you look like you're frozen in fear. I bet you felt like that that one day."

"Don't… you… dare…" I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. He turned back to Ryuji.

"How dare you raise your hand at me." He was winning, if it was just him… then maybe…Fight.But… I couldn't do anything! "Though it was only temporary, have you forgotten my kindness in supervising track practice?"

"Wasn't no practice - it was physical abuse!" Ryuji leaned forward and slammed his fist into the ground. "You just didn't like our team!"

Fight!I can't! It was nothing but an eyesore! The only one who needs to achieve results is me! That coach who got fired was hopeless too… Had he not opposed me with a sound argument, I would've settled it with only breaking his star's leg."

That snapped me out of it… He broke… he broke Ryuji's leg!? I had never heard of that! I looked to Ryuji, a small voice rang in my head.You are not the only victim, remember what you were going to achieve! Remember the pain you saw, the pain you felt after. Both physical and mental. Use it!I can't fight! "...What?"

"Do you need me to deal with your other leg too?" Kamoshida was going too far! "The school will call it self defense anyway! And you Gekido, don't you remember what your actions against me cost you? You're arms haven't even fully healed yet have they? Oh, and your goody two shoes lawyer of dad. Threatening me, me! He got was he deserved!"

"No…" Finally, I felt the tears fall down my cheeks… I had tried my hardest not to think of my dad since the crash… he… the car rolled… my dad…What's wrong? I've been telling you how to deal with this. That pain you feel, all because you wanted to make the world a better place. It isn't fair, he made you a monster to everyone. Come now, is it fair for you to give up now that lives are on the line again?NO!

"Dammit… Am I gonna lose again…?" I heard Ryuji's voice reach my ears, this was what I needed… I was going to help those Kamoshida abused! I wanted to make the world a better place… just like the main character in the book I wanted to read. I was about to change the world for the better, but he made himself into a monster. "Not only can I not run anymore… the track team is gone too 'cause of this asshole…!"

"So that's why…" Morgana looked to both of us with a look of understanding I hadn't seen him use before. Kamoshida digged his foot farther into Morgana's back.

"Once these two are dealt with, you both are next." Kamoshida started to laugh, his face was that of when he came to "apologize" about what had happened to my family! It was a face that only cared about one person, and he was happy that someone that went against him was in pain!

"Ryuji! Hisoka!" Morgana called out our names. I looked to him, his worry… Akira's… and even Ryuji's pain filled my heart with something. I finally knew what it was… it was something that I had held in for so long that I forgot what it was… Pure rage.

"Don't let him win!"

"...You're right." Ryuji started to stand up, his eyes burned with the same intensity as when Akira awake to Arsene.Watch, and maybe then, you will truly remember who to use it!"Everything that was important to me was taken by him… I'll never get 'em back…!"

"Stay there and watch." Kamoshida was so full of himself, he didn't feel the air start to crackle with the same static the filled the air as yesterday. "Look on as these hopeless scum die for nothing because they sided with trash like you."

"No… That's what you are…" Ryuji finally finished standing, he took a defiant stance. He was so intense. "All you think about is using people… You're the real scumbag, Kamoshida!"

Ryuji started to walk toward Kamoshida, and worry started to form on the "king's" face. "What are you doing? Silence him!"

"Stop lookin' down on me with that stupid smile on your face!" Ryuji screamed out the words and then, He gripped his head in pain as his eyes turned yellow.

"You made me wait quite a while."Ryuji started to scream and fell to the ground in pain. "You seek power, correct? Then let us form a pact. Since your name has been disgraced already, why not hoist the flag and wreak havoc…? The 'other you' who exists within desires it thus…"

Ryuji rolled around on the ground still screaming in pain. "The 'other you' who exists within desires it thus… I am thou, thou art I. There is no turning back…"

Ryuji got back to his knees at this point. "The skull of rebellion is your flag henceforth!"

With a flash of blue flame, a skull mask appeared on Ryuji's face. The Golden Knight coffed at Ryuji. "Hmph. What can you do…? Cower in fear and watch!"

The boy gripped the mask with both hands as he got to his feet. Using all of his strength, Ryuji tore the mask off, blood covering his entire upper half of his face. After screaming in agony for a moment, a pillar of blue flame covered the boy! When the flames disappeared, Ryuji was standing there now in what I can only describe as thug clothes with yellow gloves and a red scarf. Behind him was a pirate like figure standing on top of a ship. It had a pirate hat on, two cutlasses crossed across his chest, and a yellow cannon for his right hand. Ryuji had his head down for a moment, but then brought it back up with a very determined smirk on his face. Kamoshida was very displeased with the turn of events all of a sudden. "Ugh… This one as well!?"

"Right on… Wassup, Persona…" Ryuji looked down at his hands with a smile on his face. "This effin' rocks! Now that I got this power, it's time for payback…"

Akira and Morgana got to their feet, ready for a round two! "Yo, I'm ready… Bring it!"

"Ngh… Don't mock me, you brat!" The golden knight slashed his sword at us in anger. He changed into his true form, that of a red knight riding a black horse. As everyone we getting ready for the fight, they didn't notice that another guard was sneaking up behind them.So, do you know what to do now?

"Yes!" I started to move towards the guard, using the growing tension as cover. Ryuji point his finger at the Knight, ready for his payback!

"Blast him away… Captain Kidd!" That was when me and the other guard made our move! He was going to strike Akira, so came in from the side and slammed into him. Knocking him to the ground, I turned toward Kamoshida as everyone was now looking at me!

"Going back to dirty tricks you effing piece of sh*t!?" Kamoshida growled at me. "You know, you had me scared for so long… I thought that I was hiding for a good reason. Guess I was wrong, well now, these guys are gonna give you what you deserve! I swift kick in the ass! I'm gonna help them, not for me! Not for them! Not for my dad! Not for my mom! But for everyone that you have ever hurt you bastard! You don't have power over me anymore!"

So, finally seeing the bigger picture, are you?The gentle voice rang out in my mind once again, it was alien, yet familiar. A pain worse than anything I had ever felt shot out from my head. I gripped my forehead with both hands and knelt forward. I tried to thrash about, to get rid of the pain. Nothing worked. The voice continued.You should have known that it would come to this. You could see his intent, couldn't you. He wanted to make your life unbearable. So, let us return the favor. To help you as such, I will form a contract with you.

Suddenly, the voice changed. It was no longer gentle, it became deep and crazed.I am thou, thou art I. Your name has been dragged through the mud. You felt the need to hide your anger. There is no longer a need for that! So what if you become a monster, so long as you fight for your own justice!

I smiled. They were right. "I like that idea."

I slammed my foot into the ground and rose from my position. A wicked, almost evil grin on my face. With a flash of blue light, I looked straight at Kamoshida. I took a deep breath, and ripped my mask off my face. After a moment of pain, a large man was standing behind me. His long black hair covered his eyes. His right hand was on his chin as if he was contemplating something. In his left hand was an elaborate cane with a rounded tip. He wore a white lab coat that had red stains on the bottom edges of the coat. Under the coat was a light grey suit on with a bright blue undershirt and red tie on. He hand light grey slacks and and black dress shoes.I am the doctor who created his own demon, Jekyll!

With an almost insane smile, I started to laugh. "Well, then. How about we operate doctor. Destroy them, Doctor Jekyll!"

Chapter 4: At Dawn, We Plan!

Chapter Text

Date:April 12

Location:Kamoshida's Palace

Threat Level:100%

"Destroy them, Doctor Jekyll!" I stood there with a defiant stance and an evil grin. Kamoshida was standing there with a worried look on his face. Now suddenly, there were four Persona users before him! All the guards in the room shuddered and exploded into their true forms! Most were the two horned horses, but the knight in red rode his horse before us. The tense in the room was so thick, it could have been cut with a knife. Despite all of that, I felt so damn alive! I was ready to kick some ass! Jekyll looked like he was in deep thought.

"What troublemakers that bother King Kamoshida with trifle matters!" I smirked at the red knight before us. He was pissed because we were being "Trouble makers"!

"Kamoshida's cognition ain't changin', right?" Ryuji turned to me, his determination was impressive! "Come Hisoka! Let's act like the troublemakers we are!"

"Oh, I'm so effin' ready for this!" I popped my knuckles, ready to kick this bastard to the curb! "I'm gonna wreck some sh*t while I'm here!"

"Let's do this, Captain Kidd!" The skull face pirate behind Ryuji almost seemed pleased with the turn of events. I turned back to our foes.

"This is gonna be fun. Come one Dr. Jekyll!" My Persona stepped in front of me ready for the battle. The two horned horses came charging at us. Captain Kidd held up his cannon arm and blasted at one of the two horned horses that were charging us. A small ball of yellow lightning came flying out at the horse. The horse tried to stop its momentum, but it was too late. The ball slammed into the side of the horse, knocking it to the ground. The red knight pointed its spear to me.

"Attack to scrawny one!" My smirk didn't go away what so ever!

"Bring it! You don't know what you're getting into!" I flipped off the red knight and the two horned horse that was still standing. The horse got pissed, stamping his feet, he prepared to charge. He came running toward me. Everyone seemed worried and about sent their Personas to help me. I held my hand up. "Wait!"

The horse was about to pass Dr. Jekyll, that was when his hand quickly reached out for the horses horn. His normal looked fingernails, now black and slowly sharpening. The blood on Dr. Jekyll's lab coat started to creep up the entire coat. His indifferent look on his face changed into a wicked smile that was almost literally ear to ear. His teeth sharpening to a fine point, they looked like perfect triangles. His arms and chest started to swell up. Finally, his hair was flung back away from his eyes. His eyes were starting to glow like and then they bursted into red flames. "Rip them to shreds, Mr. Hyde!"

"What!?" Morgana seemed shocked. I wasn't shocked, if Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were the other me, I knew what that could have meant. "I've never seen anything like this! His Persona can change!?"

Hyde's smile went even wider! His fingernails, now claws slammed into the side of the horse. Which started to scream in pain. Hyde then lifted the monster up over his head, and threw it back to the red knight. Ryuji pointed toward the second horse. "Get 'em Captain!"

Captain Kidd lunged forward and slammed his ship into the horse. The knight tried to slam it's spear into the Captain. He quickly moved backward and grabbed the spear. Ryuji laughed. "Nice try asshole!"

"Arsene!" Akira ripped his mask off summoning in Arsene. Though the Pillager of Twilight was there, he moved up so he was next to Dr. Jekyll. "Morgana! Help me over here! Hisoka, you help Ryuji take care of those horses!"

"Understood!" I pointed toward the first downed horse. "Go Mr. Hyde! Eiha!"

The monstrous man laughed as he gathered the red and black energy in his hand. He took his hand that he gathered the energy into and slammed it into his other hand. The energy released itself from under the first horse. It exploded into the black mist. The Captain turned toward the second horse and blasted it with the same lighting ball as before. The second horse also exploded.

"Dr. Jekyll!" I screamed out then turned back to Ryuji. "Get ready to throw the knight!"

"On it!" Ryuji's smirked at me. I turned back to see that my Persona was back to Dr. Jekyll.

"Kouha!" Dr. Jekyll held up his hand up to his chin and thought for a moment, then brought his hand up to eye level and snapped his fingers. And a bright white light came down on top of the red knight. It seemed like he was in serious pain. After a moment or two, Akira shouted out.

"Ryuji, now!" With that, Captain Kidd turned back towards Arsene and Zorro. He flung the spear and the knight with it! As the knight flew through the air and when he was within range, Akira yelled again. "Morgana, attack!"

Arsene and Zorro lunged forward slamming their fist and sword into the knight, who slammed back into the ground. After groaning in pain the knight finally spoke up. "I am… a loyal subject… of the glorious King Kamoshia… So why… have I lost…!?"

Ryuji entered into a relaxed stance, the co*ckiness not leaving his face as Captain Kidd disappeared and his mask returned. "It just proves that Kamoshida ain't anything special."

Dr. Jekyll vanished and my mask returned as well. "Neither were you, ass hat!"

The guard changed back into the golden knight and was flat on his back. Suddenly, I felt like I could barely stand. I was exhausted, I had no idea why. Ryuji was also gasping for air. "...How 'bout that!?"

"Whoa…" Morgana seemed shocked. "So Ryuji and Hisoka had the potential too…"

"Even if you apologize now…" Ryuji sounded like he could barely breath now. "I ain't forgivin' you…!"

"Same here…!" I took a deep breath and held it for a few moments. "You've done far too much too ever be forgiven…!"

"I told you that this is my castle." Kamoshida still seemed so damned smug! "It seems you still don't understand…"

He barely made a gesture from under the cape and then, well… I very skimply dressed blonde girl walked over to Kamoshida and started to hang off of his arm. Ryuji was shocked, I was too. "Wh- Takamaki!?"

Morgana got excited, for some reason… "Oh…! Wha… What a meow-velous and beautiful girl…!"

"Dude…" I looked over to Morgana. "Seriously…?"

"What!?" Morgana looked at me like he hadn't done anything, but that was just creepy… Then Ryuji started up again.

"What's going on…!?" Ryuji's eyes were wide, and honestly… I didn't know if it was because of seeing Takamaki in a skippy pink leopard bikini, or just that she was even here. Of course, after awakening to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I was calm enough to think about more than a few things. I had a good idea of why she was here though.

"Something seems off." Akira felt similar to how I did about the whole thing. The way she was acting… Despite the rumors of her and Kamoshida, I had never even seen her with a smile on her face near him…

"Yeah, now that you mention it…" Thank god everyone was on the same page. Well, almost on the same page. "But why is she even here!?"

Kamoshida turned his head toward Takamaki and used his hand to raise her chin up. This made me feel sick. One of the words that was used by the Nav to find this place was pervert. Ryuji was pissed about it too, and he let it be known. "Hey! Let go of her, you perv!"

"How many times must I tell you until you understand?" Kamoshida turned his head back to us. I hated the fact that his smug ass look was still plastered on the bastards ugly mug! "This is MY castle - a place in which I can do whatever I want. Everyone wishes to be loved by me… That is, everyone besides slow-witted thieves like you."

"Sorry, but I'd rather you take your love and shove up your own ass!" I growled at the bastard, just everything he kept saying was pissing me off even more! I wanted to summon in Hyde to paint the room with him. Though the thought that I wanted to be better than this asshat stopped me from doing so. Kamoshida glared daggers at me now.

"Say another word and I'll make you beg for mercy!" I could see that his fist were clenched. I couldn't help but think that he couldn't do a damn thing about us right now. Though, I was worried about everyone with me, and about Takamaki-san. I wanted my suspicions confirmed before I acted.

"Takamaki!" Ryuji screamed for the natural blonde clinging to the bastard himself. "Say somethin'!"

"Calm down, Ryuji!" Morgana interjected. "It seems that girl isn't the real one. She's the same as those slaves - a being made from Kamoshida's cognition of her!"

"Are you jealous?" I felt like I was gonna vomit… This was sick, he was flaunting her off like he was a damned pimp… "Well, I'm not surprised. Women aren't drawn to problematic punks like you."

"Dammit…!" Ryuji looked like he was about to blow a gasket. Kamoshida screamed out in anger.

"Clean them up this instant!" Suddenly, three more guards appeared out of nowhere right in front of us!

"We're outnumbered…" Morgana scanned the situation, I scanned the room and noticed that there was a few guards waiting from the hall that led to the dungeons… "Let's scram before we get surrounded!"

"We're not gonna do anything and just run!?" Ryuji looked like he was worried about what was going on. Akira spoke up against him with his own statement.

"We can't die here." I also looked to the blonde boy.

"If we die here, who will help the slaves?" Ryuji groaned in frustration and Morgana looked at both of Akira and me.

"Thank god you both have level heads."

"Ngh… Fine." Ryuji gave into reason, we needed to leave and we needed to leave now! "We'll expose what you really are, no matter what! You better be ready for us…!"

Kamoshida started laughing at us like a madman. "I was beginning to get bored of torturing the ones here! Come at me whenever you want, if you don't care about your life! Haaaaahahaha!"

"Ignore him. Let's go!" Following Morgana's advice, we bolted.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Once we made it out of the castle we all took time to gather our breath. Ryuji had his hands on his knees, Akira placed his hands on his hips. Morgana was laying face first on the ground, and I had my hands on the back of my head with my arms out to the side. Ryuji caught his breath first, being a former track team member had benefits. "Anyways! I don't remember changin' into this!"

I looked at Ryuji's outfit again. I had to admit, he looked badass. That was when I realized that I also had different clothes! I had on black slacks and black boots, those were the first things I noticed. Then I saw that I had white gloves with red finger tips. The wrappings on my arms stayed, which for once, I didn't see them as a weakness. I saw the wrappings as a chance to improve myself. I had a very short red leather jacket. The bottom of my jacket ended halfway on my torso, it also had a hood that was currently on my head. There was also a button down vest under it that was black. I had a white button down with a black tie on that was not tucked into the vest. "Holy sh*t, Ryuji, we look badass!"

"Heh, you think so?" Ryuji looked pleased at that comment. He turned to Akira. "What do you think?"

"You look like thug." I think Akira meant it as a compliment, but it really didn't sound like it.

"What the hell?" Yeah, like I said. "I-it's much better than your magician-lookin' one!"

"I don't know, I like Akira's outfit more." I rested my hand on my chin thinking about what who looked cooler.

"What the hell dude!?" I shrugged at Ryuji's frustration. I didn't think that it was that big of a deal. Though, I was a tad bit bothered by the fact I looked like an anarchist… Though, each of us looked like a video game protagonist. Our conversation was cut short by voices coming from the castle.

"Did you find them?" Morgana got up from the ground.

"Quiet!" We all tensed up, with all the guards that were looking for us… We'd be in trouble if only one of them found us. Mostly because we were backed up into a corner.

"No. Search that way!"

After a moment we all relaxed as the tension lessened. "So what's goin' on? I'm completely lost, man…!"

"I told you before." Morgana looked to Ryuji, we were all a bit more quiet so that way we didn't act attention to the OUTSIDE of the castle. "When a Persona-user opposes a Palace's ruler and becomes a threat to them, this happens. It's to prevent you from being affected by distortions."

"Is this… a skull?" Ryuji placed his hand onto his mask… His mask…? Oh, sh*t! I had one too! I placed a hand on the mask covering my face. I also realized that over my right eye was a targeting reticule, meaning that there was a glass lense over my eye. Placing my hand on my mask, and what I could tell by looking through them, I gathered that my mask had two halves to it. One was a smooth white material and rougher black material was the other. Though, it was separated by a smoother grey lightning bolt like design. The right side was the smoother one, and the left one was the rougher half. Finally the mask itself had a crescent edges on both halves of the top and bottom of the mask. Before I could ask about was up with me, Morgana spoke up looking at both me and Ryuji.

"Your appearance reflects your inner self. It's the rebel that slumbers within…" Then turning to look directly at Ryuji. "Not that you'll get it."

I had hope that he would, but… "Nope…"

"Then stop asking questions and accept what you see for what it is." It was kinda harsh, but we also didn't have much more time.

"Easy for you to say." Ryuji suddenly got very worried, and what he said… had the same affect on me too… "Wait, we're in deep sh*t!"

"I said to be quiet!" Morgana had a point but I was more worried because I suddenly understood what he was worried about. What if Kamoshida came after us!

"We might've gotten away here, but we're still screwed with Kamoshida at the real school…" Exactly, that would mean everything we just did would be for nothing!

"That's quite sharp of you!" Morgana seemed happy at Ryuji's understanding of the situation. "...For being an idiot."

I chuckled a bit at that. I don't it was rude, but kinda funny. "Relax. The Kamoshida in reality can't possibly know about what happens here. A Shadow is the true self that is suppressed - a side of one's personality they don't want to see."

"...So we're OK?" Ryuji placed his hand on his head as he thought about what was being said.

"That's what it sounds like." I rubbed the back of my neck in thought. I was starting to understand how a lot of how the world worked.

"Did the Kamoshida in reality remember about the execution?" Ryuji seemed shocked at the cat's words. "There you have it."

"All right!" Ryuji moved his arm in a circular motion. "Now that we know that, all we gotta do is-"

Ryuji was cut off by the small monstercat. "Wait. I guided you as promised. It's your turn to cooperate with me. That's why I was super nice about teaching you idiots everything."

We were all confused. "Huh? Cooperate?"

"Yeah, I'm with Ryuji…" It seemed like I was gonna be rubbing neck a lot right now.

"Don't you remember?" Morgana cast his gaze off to the side now. "I originally came here for an investigation. I need to erase the distortion from my body and regain my real form! That's why we must delve deep into Mementos and-"

And Ryuji interrupted Morgana this time. "Whoa, hold up. What're you goin' on and on about? We never said anything about helpin' you out."

"Huh? Don't tell me…" Morgana was shocked and looked to Akira now. "Are you not going to repay the hospitality I showed you? Especially you! You're going to up and leave, even though you're already part of my master plan!?

"I never promised." Akira shook his head and I had to stop myself from laughing again as Morgana's irises and pupils shrunk down to the size of pin heads.

"See? I wasn't lyin'." Even though, I kinda liked Morgana, I had to agree with both of them here.

"Sorry Morgana, Kamoshida is our main priority." I shrugged and tilted my head at him.

"Is it because I'm not human…? Because I'm like a cat…? Is that why you're making a fool of me!?" Morgana started to rant and rave about his situation.

"Not really…" I rubbed my neck again and looked away from the small creature.

"We're busy!" Ryuji faced palmed again. Though he bent down so he was face to face with Morgana. "Thanks for everything, cat. You've got guts, bein' a cat and all! See you around!"

I also bent down to Morgana, but I rubbed the top of his head. "Seriously, you saved our asses. I grateful for it! Hopefully we see you later!"

Then the three of us ran away from the castle once more. As we were running I heard Morgana yell at us. "Hey! What the hell!? Ugh, seriously! Why're you wrapping this up like everything's all hunky-dory!? Oh hell no! Get back here! ...Grr… GRAAGGHHH!"

The world started to distort around us as we left the castle once more.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"You have returned to the real world. Welcome back." We all heard the Nav speak up once again. I noticed that we were in the alley right in front of the school gate. Ryuji was leaning against and air conditioner, I held my hands against the back of my neck again, and Akira had his hands on his hips again.

"...Thank god. We're back." Ryuji took a step away from the wall and looked to both of us. "I dragged you guys around a lot, huh? Sorry, guys."

Ryuji sighed heavily, but I slapped his shoulder for with a smile on my face. "Don't worry about it."

"Thanks." Ryuji smiled at me and I noticed that Akira smiled at us. "Ugh, I'm dead tired… How you holdin' up?"

"I could use a nap." Akira answered first, then I sighed, I felt exhausted all of a sudden.

"I could go for one, no doubt…" I took a deep breath to try and regain myself. Ryuji also seemed exhausted.

"Me too…" Ryuji put his thumbs into his pockets, his signature stance. "Man, I'm gonna sleep like a rock when I get home."

"Agreed!" I shot my arm up feeling good about myself for once in a long time!

"But damn, if what we saw was for real, this is gonna get good!" I smiled a wide as Ryuji was, it was good, we all felt great. All we needed to do was get proof of what Kamoshida was doing, and down he goes! "I totally remember the faces of the guys Kamoshida was treatin' like slaves."

"So what, are we gonna try and get some confessions?" My smile turned into an indifferent look.

"Hell yeah!" Ryuji's smile was wide, it was like he was ready to take on the world. "Once we make 'em fess up to any physical abuse, Kamoshida will be done."

"I hope you know that we will be very hard pressed to get them." I gave Ryuji a worried look. I tried to get some of the volleyball members to confess before. "Kamoshida was right, I did try and get them to last time."

Ryuji's smile dropped, I didn't want to bring down the mood, but I also wanted to be realistic. Akira grabbed our attention by snapping with a smile on his face. "But this time, there are three people who know the truth! We have a better chance of people believing us."

"Oh!" Ryuji's smile shot right back up. I smiled at the "troublemakers" I was with, their enthusiasm made me actually believe that we could accomplish this. "So… you guys wanna help me look for those guys or any witnesses?"

"Sure, I'll help." Akira smiled at Ryuji. I sighed at those idiots, I was really enjoying my time with them. They both looked at me waiting for my response.

"Well, I still don't know if we can do it." I rubbed the back of my neck, yeah I had faith. Though, there was still that realistic part of me that was worried we would be stonewalled once again. "But, after everything that we have been through in the last few days…"

I didn't look at them for a moment. I acted like I was in thought for that time. I looked back to those two with a smile on my face. "You should have known that you guys didn't need to ask me to help."

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" Ryuji got excited again, and Akira smiled. Though, Ryuji's look quickly turned serious as he looked away from Akira. "Hey Akira, so… If you're thinkin' of layin' low 'cause you got a record, I don't think that'll help… Everyone already knows. They totally got you pegged as a criminal."

"Yeah," I rubbed my neck again, I also looked away from Akira. "I'm sure you know, but it's all everyone has been talking about since yesterday…"

"How'd that happen?" Akira sounded calm, there wasn't a hint of anger in his voice or on his face. He was honestly curious. Ryuji got angry and looked back to Akira with a stern look.

"Kamoshida opened his damn mouth!" I figured that it was that… But hearing it, hearing it pissed me off even more. Akira seemed more shocked than angry.

"A teacher did that…?" Ryuji crossed his arms, and I placed my hands on my hips and shook my head.

"I'm not shocked at all…" I looked back to Ryuji and Akira. "I mean, look at what he did to me and Ryuji."

"No one else besides a teacher could've leaked it that fast!" Ryuji was right, I could have bet that a teacher brought it up in casual conversation. Since he doesn't want anything thing to happen that he doesn't like in his "castle." He was probably trying to get rid of Akira… "It doesn't matter if it's a student or a club; that asshole just wrecks things he doesn't agree with. Like Hisoka said, just like he did to us…! No one'll take anything I say seriously. Still, those rumors about him gettin' physical might be real. And after seein' Kamoshida's distorted-heart thing in persona, there's no way I can just sit back!"

"I effing agree with you!" My fist clenched at my sides. Akira didn't waste anytime responding after me.

"Of course." Ryuji pumped his fist to get both of us hyped up.

"I'm countin' on you!" He was ready for this, honestly… so was I. "Don't worry; I'm hyped about this too!"

I felt a bond of trust coming off the two, I smiled as I felt like I got to know these two a bit better. Though I also knew that it was a long round for all of us. That road all started he-! My train of thought was interrupted by a stomach that was growling. Ryuji looked like he was embarrassed by something. So I figured it was his stomach. "Right. I haven't eaten anything since lunch."

"Well that's your own fault." I pinched the bridge of my nose. Though, my stomach also felt a tad light. "Though, I am gonna kinda agree with you."

"It'd be weird splittin' off now, so why don't we all grab a bite somewhere?" I nodded at the idea. After the castle, I could go for a bite.

"I'm down." I gave him a thumbs up. Akira nodded with a small smile on his face as well.

"Sure."

"Just follow me." Ryuji seemed way too excited for just food. "I mean, I totally gotta hear about your past!"

"I'm honestly curious about that myself." I held my hand barely out from my torso. I got an evil grin on my face. "That is, I'm not gonna force you like our thug here."

"Shuddup!" Ryuji glared at me and I couldn't help but laugh.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"WHAT!?" We were sitting in the beef bowl shop in Shibuya. Me and Ryuji listened to Akira's story, about how he tried to help that woman, but the drunk he tried to get off of her tripped. The guy sued him and made the woman tell the cops that Akira attacked the guy! Kamoshida pissed me off, but just hearing that story enraged me! "The hell man! How much sh*ttier can that asshole get!?"

"EFFIN' BULL!" I slammed my bowl back onto the counter, there was no way he should have gotten away with what he did! "That's such sh*t!"

"Guys, calm down." Akira was right, I counted again, yeah it sucked, but there was nothing we could do about it.

"Sorry…" I took another bite of my food, now having calmed down.

"Are you guys for real?" Ryuji was still pissed, I don't think he was gonna be calm for a bit. "If it was me, I wouldn't calm down until I punched that dick in the face."

Though, he shocked me as he calmed down as he started eating again, though he started to talk with his mouth, which was… just, ew. "So… you left your hometown, and… you're livin' here now, huh?"

"That is what he said Ryuji." I pointed to his mouth so that he might get an idea that I was bothered by his eating and talking at the same time. He glared at my attempt to make fun of him. He also didn't seem to get that I was bothered by his eating.

"Shuddup…!" We all continued to eat our food for a few minutes then, Ryuji started to conversation again. Though, he was finally done talking with food in his mouth. "We all might be more alike than I originally thought."

"Probably right, I mean, we all got falsely accused. But Akira's is much worse." I set the bowl down and stretched as far as I could.

"What did you do?" Akira asked the question all casual. Ryuji seemed shocked.

"I don't got a record like you do." Ryuji then put a foot in his mouth. "I mean, that's not the point. I guess it's how we're treated like a pain in the ass by the people around us, like we don't belong."

"I see…" I rubbed the back of my neck again. I stared at my bowl of food, it kinda left like I was waiting for sudden wisdom. "I agree with that."

"Right…" Ryuji sighed as he also stared at his food. "I did something stupid at school before, too."

Ryuji quickly shoved the rest of his food into his mouth and slammed his food onto the counter. "The place you're livin' now is in… Yongen, right?"

I must've missed that piece of information, after all, I was kinda focused on food for a moment. Akira nodded in agreement to Ryuji's question. "Hey, that's where I'm staying too. My aunt has a house there. Small world, huh?"

Akira smiled at me. "I guess so."

"Anyways, it's rush hour on the subways." Ryuji spoke the truth, it would be a pain in the ass for us to try and head home now. "I suggest you kill some time before headin' home."

"Seriously, it's like hell at this time of day…" I sighed heavily. "That train crash ain't helping it much either."

"What the hell man." Ryuji opened a jar in front of him and started to put garlic into Akira's food. "You barely touched your food."

"What are you doing?" Akira didn't try to stop him, but I was kinda confused about it as well. He was basically just adding more to Akira's food.

"Just let me do it." Ryuji's smile was incredibly wide while he was putting more in Akira's bowl. "I gotta thank you for helpin' me. Anyways, I got your guys' backs if you got mine from tomorrow on."

I chuckled, it felt like we were making an underground resistance against Kamoshida. "As long we do something about Kamoshida, I'm sure we'll all feel better about bein' at school."

Akira nodded, we all knew that was true. "You speak the truth there, Ryuji my boy."

"Oh, yeah!" Ryuji pulled his phone out around eye level. "Tell me your guys' numbers. Chat ID too."

I pulled my phone out as well as Akira. Though, I noticed something. There was a message from Ali on my phone. Before I went to put their numbers in my phone, I opened the message.Sorry, but I'm not really not in the mood to play tonight.

The moment I read it, Ryuji looked over at my phone. His eyebrows raised as he saw my phone. "Hold on, Hisoka… Who is HoneyOTU?"

I looked up at Ryuji for a moment with a confused look. "Honey…? Oh! That's Ali, she's on online friend."

"Ali…?" Akira leaned forward so he could see me. "Why do you call her that?"

"Oh, well that's her character's name in the game we play together." Ryuji got a smirk on his face. I got worried looking at his face, I hoped that it wouldn't be too-

"She your girlfriend?" The moment the word left his mouth, I started coughing on air. I hit my chest a few times so I could try and regain myself.

"THE HELL!?" My eyes were wide, I couldn't believe what he just said! Yeah she was my friend, but I had never even seen or met her! "NO! No, no, no, no! We are just friends!"

"Sure, whatever you say buddy." Ryuji's smirk didn't diminish at all. "Anyway, we still gotta exchange numbers."

After we did that, Ryuji's face became serious again. "Just you wait, Kamoshida…"

"He won't know what hit him." My face also turned into a snarl, I was ready to kick him to the curb!

"We're gonna start right away tomorrow." I nodded in agreement. "First, let's hit up those guys that were kept as slaves."

"We should get a good chance since there's the volleyball rally tomorrow." I rubbed my chin in thought, I was hoping that we could get some info.

"sh*t's recommended by Kamoshida." Ryuji looked to Akira as he spoke up. "Makes me wanna gag. But thanks to that, we got no classes in the afternoon, and we can walk around unnoticed. Well, I guess we can work out the details tomorrow."

"I agree, that way we can get a lay of the land first and foremost." Ryuji put his phone away and started to put more ginger into Akira's food. "C'mon, you gotta eat more. There's tons of ginger here."

After a bit, we left the shop and both me and Akira parted ways with Ryuji. Determination full in our expressions. We were ready for anything! Me and Akira didn't talk too much more since when we got off the train we separated after a few minutes. When I made it home, I replied to Ali.It's okay, I'm too tired for a session tonight anyway. Hope you feel better later MC.

As soon as the message was sent, my phone went off. It was Ryuji.

SR: Hey, I decided to go ahead and message you.

SR: Can you guys see this?

KA: Yep.

GH: Loud and clear!

SR: I'm gonna be counting on you guys tomorrow, OK?

GH: Same here, we got this!

SR: Damn right we do!

KA: Got it!

SR: We've come this far, so you guys gotta stick with me to the end.

GH: You make it sound like we weren't going too.

SR: Let's save those guys who've been getting abused.

That was the last message I got that night. I passed out as soon as I got to my room. It was the best night's sleep I've had in a long time.

Chapter 5: Back to Square One

Chapter Text

Date:April 13

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Expose Kamoshida

Kamoshida jumped up to slam the ball over the net. Mishima tried to stop the ball, but it slammed into his shoulder knocking him to the ground. A ref blew his whistle to signal that the teachers' team had scored. The teachers were way to happy that they were beating high schoolers! I groaned loudly, I hated this. It also didn't help that I couldn't go much because of my arms.

The teachers went for another set, and you could see the volleyball team members all looked worried. I ended up focusing on Mishima who looked down as he started back away from the rest of the guys. Then I heard Ryuji's voice over all the cheering. The three of us were on the floor against the back wall of the gym. Ryuji was wearing the pants and t-shirt of the gym uniform with both sleeves and legs rolled up. Akira was next to him with the jacket on unzipped. I had the jacket half zipped. "Still sticks out… Hasn't changed a bit."

Ryuji slowly turned back to us, when he realized we were looking, he stretched his arms and yawned loudly. "Pretty boring. Right?"

Akira smirked at him, I chuckled. "You can say that again."

Ryuji immediately went to a bored stance. Akira looked past him, I noticed that Takamaki was sitting in one of the chairs. I didn't really care enough to pay attention to her, but I also knew that Ryuji and Takamaki knew each other in middle school. Suddenly everyone got really excited as Kamoshida jumped up and spiked the ball as hard as he could over three students. The ball went sailing past them and slammed right into Mishima's face! It hit him so hard that Mishima stumbled for a moment before falling. Mishima hit the ground with a loud thud.

I got a good look a Kamoshida's face. He looked upset, and stood there for a few moments before quickly running over to Mishima. "Sorry! Hey, are you all right!? Someone! Take him to the nurse's office!"

I groaned, he was just playing it up. I knew he didn't care about Mishima, who, was on the volleyball team. Kamoshida sat Mishima up and another student came over and quickly helped him up and out of the gym. Ryuji sounded angry as he spoke up next. "He'll pay soon enough…"

"Agreed!" I growled in agreement. Ryuji threw the ball back to the people who were playing, but, it felt like it was more trying to hit Kamoshida.

Kamoshida was staring at us for a few moments, then turned back toward the group with a smile on his face. "All right, let's resume the match!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

After the match we met up by the vending machines in the corridor. It was time to get our game plan. Ryuji was the first to talk. "That asshole's actin' like a king over here too…"

"He's always let's a little bit of his true colors out during a game." I crossed my arms, I was just a angry as Ryuji. This all nothing more than a chance for Kamoshida to show off.

"Get know each other better, my ass." Ryuji started to rant about Kamoshida, I knew how he felt though. "It's just a one-man show for him to stroke his ego. And how he acted like he was worried about Mishima? What an abusive d-bag…! Well, anyways. Now's our chance to go look for the guys we saw were slaves yesterday. Let's look for the faces we saw at the castle. All members of the team should be here today."

Akira and I nodded. "Well, I'll see if anyone that I talked before has changed their minds."

"I'll be sure to find someone to spill about Kamoshida's physical abuse." Ryuji nodded in agreement to me about my plan. "Just you wait, asshole."

"Where are you searching?" Akira looked to Ryuji when he asked.

"...The first one that popped out was a guy from Class D, so let's start from there." I recognized that one. That member was in our class. "That's your guys' class. Hopefully you can get him to talk without any issues. People have been avoidin' me lately, so… Oh, but you're kinda in the same boat, huh."

"Yeah, I don't know how well it's gonna go for me either…" I rubbed the back of my neck for a few moments. "Not a lot of people want to deal with me recently either… Though, I will come and help you with the guy from our class."

"Okay, let's go." Akira motioned for us to come with him. We all headed it the third floor and class D. There was a lot of people that started to whisper and mumble about us. Mostly stuff about how Akira attacked people. I gritted my teeth, all this bullsh*t pissed me off the more I heard it! Finally once we got up to the classroom. Once inside, it was easy to see the volleyball member, mostly because of all the wounds and bandages covering him.

Akira walked straight up to him. "Excuse me?"

The sacred volleyball player turned towards the voice coming up to him. "Are you skipping out on the volleyball rally? I guess I expect it from you, transfer."

Ryuji quickly leaned in a whispered to both of us. "Hey, that's the guy who was over at the castle."

"You too, Sakamoto!? AND Gekido!?" He was getting visibly nervous now, most likely because he felt like we were ganging up on him. Which made me think that I should back off, but I don't think that would make much of a difference. "What do you guys want…?"

"It's okay, we just want to ask a question." I held up my hands in the air so he could see that I was empty handed.

"What is it…?" He very slightly relaxed for a moment. Then, Akira was blunt about it.

"How did you get injured?" He immediately started to freak out. Not verbally, but visibly.

"It's from practice! What does that have to do with anything?"

"Kamoshida did it to you, right?" Ryuji and Akira were both being blunt, but, beating around the bush would be worse right now. "Look, I ain't gonna tell anyone you squealed. Just tell us about how Kamoshida's abusin' you."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" There was the verbal, it was a certainty. There was no change in how they acted from before!

"You're scared?" Akira spoke softly, but it wasn't enough to calm the guy down.

"I'm not!" Now he was attacking us in anger. "You guys are talking complete nonsense!"

"Dude, calm the hell down!" I clenched my fist, he was starting to piss me off now. "We are just trying to help you!"

"Don't try n' hide it!" Ryuji was also getting pissed now. "We already know!"

"You… You know?" He immediately started to calm down. "You have proof?"

That stopped us… we had nothing… "Well, uh… I…"

"This is ridiculous." The volleyball player turned to look right at me. "Especially you Gekido! This is the second time you've tried to go after him with no proof! Please, leave me alone. You're really bothering me!"

"Whatever…" I turned away before anyone could say anything else. "We'll figure it out ourselves!"

"...All right, that's enough." Ryuji also turned away from the student as well. "C'mon, let's go."

We left the room and once we were out and in the hall, Ryuji was the first to speak. "That injury ain't normal! And he still won't fess up…"

"There's a good chance Kamoshida is threatening him with something." I growled at the thought.

"I was just thinking about that!" Ryuji nodded to me, but before we could continue that line of thought, he remembered something. "Crap. If we keep goin' at this pace, the ball game's gonna end…"

"Let's split up." It was a great idea for how much time we had left.

"Guess that'd be faster." Ryuji seemed to agree that it was a good idea. "I'll check the Practice Building for people before clubs start. You handle the Classroom Building, Akira. Hisoka, you see about the Court yard."

"Yeah, you know I'm not gonna find much there, right?" I raised an eyebrow at Ryuji. He sighed at me.

"Well, we have both buildings covered…" He dropped his head down in frustration. "Besides, if we miss someone you can catch them on their way past us!"

"It's whatever man." I smirked at Ryuji, I wasn't that serious. "I'll head over there now."

"Okay." Ryuji turned back to Akira. "There's a third-year on the volleyball team that I remember. I think he's in… 3 C? He might be around his classroom. The third-year classrooms are on the first floor. He was gettin' beat pretty badly at the castle. He might have some injuries here too… Anyways, I'll hit you guys up if I find anything. Seeya!"

"I'll do the same thing." I waved as I started to walked away. "Talk to you guys later!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

"What a surprise, five minutes and nothing!" I leaned back against the bench I was sitting on. No one had showed up fromt the volleyball team. I sighed heavily, there was nothing I could really do. Though, I still stayed until I got a message from them. I was worried that I wasn't being that helpful. Though, I also knew that they wouldn't have much luck with that because of how everyone reacted to me last time. My assumption when I had gotten a message from Ryuji and Akira mentioning that they ran into a dead end. Ryuji brought up another one member, and Akira went to look into it. "Well, maybe I'll go look for them now."

I was about get up from the bench when I heard the wood creak underneath me. I looked back down and turned my head to the right. Sitting next to me was a girl that had on a second year shirt and the uniform's skirt. She had on a black knee brace on her right leg, and her long black hair was tied up in a ponytail with a pink hairband. Her brown eyes looked sad. There was one thing that was weird about what she was doing… She sat next to me when there was an empty bench near by. She looked up to me with a sad smile. "Hello Gekido-san."

"Suzui-san, how are you?" I gave her a half smile, since she was being polite to me. This was Shiho Suzui, a second year on the girls' volleyball team… Wait, she was a volleyball team!

"I'm… alright…" I looked for a tell that she was lying. I found that her eyes and her pause was enough for me to tell that something was up. "I was wondering how you were, I mean we aren't in the same class and we don't get to talk that much…"

Poor girl, she seemed so stressed right now. There wasn't much I could do for her right now. I took a deep breath. "Okay, so how's volleyball going…?"

I saw as Suzui recoiled from my question. "I-It's alright, I mean, the worst part is… is not getting to spend much time with Ann anymore."

"Okay… it seems like Takamaki-san has been very supportive of you." I couldn't do it… She was going too much, trying to do this to her was too much for her right now. The mention of her friend though, brought out a smile too her face.

"Yeah, she's made it easier for me." It was reassuring to see her smile, though her eyes still screamed sadness. It was lessened a little at the moment, but it was still there, waiting to come back. "That reminds me, you seem happier since the last time we spoke."

I thought about it, despite everything that was happening, I was happy. I did a half smile of my own. "Well, I guess, I found my own supportive friends…"

I rubbed my neck again. I looked back at her, she seemed even happier for me. "I'm happy for you Gekido-san."

I smiled back at her, but before that I could reply, the bell rang, and my phone went off.

SR: Dammit, we're outta time. How'd it go?

KA: Take a wild guess.

SR: So you didn't have any luck either…

HG: Same here, no one showed up.

SR: Mkay, let's regroup for now. See you in the courtyard?

HG: I'll stay here.

"Sorry, Suzui, I have to go." I gave her a small smile. Which she reciprocated, it made me feel bad. I enjoyed my talk with Suzui-san.

"It's okay, I have to go to practice now." I froze when she said that. I was worried for her, she had just as many bruises as the other volleyball members. I watched as she stood up and started walking away, I froze for a moment… then.

"Hey, Suzui-san…" I stood up, she looked back at me. I took a breath before I started to speak up. "If you ever need to talk about… anything, anything at all. You can talk to me…"

She gave me a half smile and nodded. "Thank you Gekido-san. Well, have a good day…"

"You too…" I sighed, I had hope that she would came talk if she needed it. Though, I had to get back on track. "Well, now to the guys!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

Ironically, because of my conversation with Suzui-san, I was not the first person at our meet up area by the vending machines. Actually Ryuji and Takamaki-san where there, and I apparently got there just in time to hear the start of an argument. Takamaki-san was yelling at Ryuji. "Right back at you. You're not even in our class."

"...We just happened to get to know each other." Ryuji didn't sound very convincing, I sighed and felt like I had to step in.

"Well, I got to know both of them the other day and I am in the same class as you and Akira." I walked up rubbing the back of my neck. I leaned up against the pillar right behind her. I know it seemed like we were ganging up on her, but I wasn't going to just not help my friends. Takamaki glared at me for a moment, and in response I gave her a co*cky smile. "Sup, Takamaki-san."

She continues to glare at all of us. "That still doesn't change the fact of you guys lying about the other day. What ever… What're you planning on doing to Mr. Kamoshida?"

I stopped leaning against the pillar with a shocked look on my face. Ryuji was also shocked… "Huh…? I see, I getcha. You're all buddy-buddy with Kamoshida after all."

"This has nothing to do with you, Sakamoto!" I growled, I knew that this fight wouldn't help anyone. Though, I knew that we needed Ann off our back, and I was getting mad.

"You're wrong, it does have to do with us!" I slammed my foot down. "He's done enough to us too dammit!"

"...Gekido!?" Takamaki recoiled in shock at my statement. Then Ryuji added in.

"Exactly, and if you found out what he's been doin' behind your back, you'd dump him right away." Ann recoiled again, it seemed like she was bothered by these too statements.

"Behind my back…?" Takamaki's voice quieted down a little. "What's that supposed to mean…?"

Ryuji turned to look at Akira, who was giving him a look that said to back off. Ryuji unclenched his fist and placed them back in his pockets. "You wouldn't get it."

"Anyway, people are already talking about you three." Takamaki's voice got serious, though, it sounded less like threat and more like a warning. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but no one's gonna help you. I'm warning you, just in case. That's all."

With that, she left. We all watched her as she left, the tension in the air disappeared. Once we thought we were in the clear, we all turned back to each other. Ryuji spoke up first. "Why's she gotta be so aggressive all the time…?"

"You know her?" Akira seemed like he wasn't even worried about what just happened. Ryuji focused back on Akira.

"We just went to the same middle school." Ryuji seemed completely calm now.

"It was awkward to watch them interact together when they first got here." I leaned back against the pillar. Ryuji quickly looked back to me with a glare. "Oh don't even, you straight acted like you had a crush on her! Infact, I think you got red those first few times you saw each other after coming here."

"Shuddup!" Ryuji sighed heavily at me. "Anyways, that's not what we're here to talk about. I had no luck on my end. What about you two? Did anything like someone's name turn up?"

"No luck for me, but…" I rubbed the back of my neck. "I had a short talk with Shiho Suzui, I didn't get any info though."

"Dammit… What about you Akira." Akira looked at both of us.

"Well, the name Mishima came up." That made me and Ryuji shocked. I completely forgot that Mishima was in the volleyball club! "He was called in for special 'coaching.'"

"...Special 'coaching,' huh?" Ryuji crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "True. I always see that guy covered in bruises."

"I'm not gonna lie, I forgot that he was in the volleyball club…" I sighed and closed my eyes, that was kinda embarrassing. "Think he's still here?"

"Yeah, I just saw him." Ryuji looked at me. "Let's go talk to him before he leaves then."

TAKE YOUR TIME

We ran through the school building and we were lucky enough to run into Mishima as he was walking out of the school! Ryuji got to him first. "Hey, got a second?"

"Sakamoto…?" Mishima turned to look at all of us. He was shocked about Ryuji, Akira, and me showing up to talk to him! "Gekido? And you, too…!?"

"C'mon, we just wanna chat." Ryuji was being fairly aggressive about it. Guess he still had some of his anger from the argument with Takamaki. "Kamoshida's been 'coaching' you, huh? You sure it's not just physical abuse?"

I face palmed at Ryuji right then! That was way too forward! Mishima quickly back away from us and looked to the ground. "Certainly not!"

"What're you talkin' all polite for? Anyways." Ryuji was trying for damage control now. "We saw him spike you today. Right in the face."

"Serious Mishima…" I place my hands in my pockets, I didn't want Mishima to freak out on us. "It almost seemed like he did it on purpose…"

"That was just because I'm not good at the sport…" A blatant lie. It seemed like he was being forced to protect Kamoshida… It made me sick, it seemed like they were being threatened!

"...Still, that doesn't explain all the other bruises you've got." Ryuji sounded more sympathetic now. Though, it seemed like Mishima didn't want any of it.

"They're from practice…!" Mishima was very angry at us.

"That's bull and you know it!" I glared at Mishima, hoping he'd get the point! Ryuji added to my statement.

"Is he forcin' you to keep quiet?" Mishima looked away from us, we had our answer, just not from his mouth.

"That's…" Before we could get anymore out of Mishima… the bastard showed up…

"What's going on here?" Kamoshida sounded pissed off, not at us, but at Mishima. "Mishima, isn't it time for practice?"

Mishima walked down and sounded scared… "I-I'm not feeling well today…"

"What?" You could almost feel the smugness coming off of him at that moment! "Maybe you're better off quitting then."

Mishima seemed shocked, that was obviously not something he wanted. "You're never going to improve that crappy form unless you show up to practice."

My and Ryuji had heard enough! We both stepped in between Kamoshida and Mishima. "Didn't you hear? He ain't feelin' well!"

"So back off Kamoshida!" My and Ryuji growled at the large man. Though that didn't go over well with him…

"Well, Mishima?" He ignored us, but you could hear how mad he was. "Are you coming to practice or not?"

"...I'll go." That was enough for for him to get up in our faces with the most pissed off look that I had seen him use in a long time.

"As for you two, any more trouble and you'll be gone from this school for sure." The threat actually seemed real at that moment. I just growled and continued to look at him, Ryuji turned his head and curse under his breath.

"Bastard…" Kamoshida then looked up to Akira, who, might I ad, has done nothing wrong this whole time!

"Same goes for you." He growled at Akira, it was loud enough that all of the other students had started to look our way. "Didn't the principal tell you to keep in line?"

When Akira spoke up, I heard something I didn't expect from the cool headed transfer. Disdain and anger. "You have an amazing spike."

"Hmph. Just don't get in the way of my practice." He sounded like he didn't get those feeling from Akira. "All these unsettling rumors are making the students anxious, after all."

He was holding Akira's record over his head like a get out of jail free card! Ryuji muttered at Kamoshida with anger still thick in his voice. "That's your own goddamn fault."

Before I could ad in my two cents, Kamoshida turned back to Mishima. "This won't get us anywhere. Let's go, Mishima. Shujin Academy is a place where those with aspirations come to learn. Unworthy students like yourselves don't have any right to be here."

Kamoshida had started to walk away from us, and turned back to glare at us for the last line in his damned rant. "Get with the program!"

"Yes, sir." He walked away from us, leaving Mishima there next to us. Ryuji and I couldn't take that asshat serious.

"That asshole…" Ryuji growled at Kamoshida. "He's gonna pay for this…!"

"More like that dickhe*d!" I stomped my foot toward the "teacher." "Plus, I agree!"

"...There's no point." We all turned back to Mishima again, still angry.

"Huh!?" Ryuji was the only one of us who questioned it.

"Proving that he's physically abusing us… is meaningless." I fully turned back to the boy now.

"Oh yeah, how so 'class rep.'" I placed my hands on my hips, I wanted to hear his answer to this one.

"Everybody knows…" That caught me off guard… "The principal, our parents… They all know and they all keep quiet about it."

"No way…" I took a step away from Mishima, I couldn't believe it… I didn't want to believe it either!

"This has gotta be a joke…" Ryuji turned back to Mishima. I could barely see that Akira was clenching his teeth. It was not good, what we were hearing said that we were against the world right now!

"...Don't be a pain." Mishima glared toward the ground. "You don't understand what I'm going through. Shouldn't you of all people know that nothing's going to help…!?"

Me and Ryuji look Mishima in the face now… Yeah, we knew, but we couldn't just do nothing! With that, Mishima ran off toward volleyball practice… Leaving all of us to stand there in silence… Ryuji, broke the silence first. "Dammit…"

"Are you gonna quiet?" Akira still sounded frustrated, I didn't blame him…

"No… I ain't givin' up." I gave them a half smile.

"Good, I mean, we wouldn't be good troublemakers…" I still didn't feel the best after what Mishima said, but I didn't know how less to make the situation better.

"...I'll try one more time to persuade the other guys. That's… all I can do." Ryuji looked down, I sighed, I wanted to start heading home now. With that we all parted ways, ready to just rest. When I made it home I got a few messages from the guys.

SR: Hey, this don't make any damn sense.

SR: The principal and even the parents know about the abuse.

SR: Why ain't anybody speaking up!?

GH: Could be that Kamoshida promised the students something…

GH: Maybe a letter of rec?

KA: Because Volleyball.

GH: So you think so too, huh?

GH: What about you Ryuji?

SR: Yeah…

SR: It's basically because Kamoshida made the volleyball team famous, yeah?

GH: I agree with that.

SR: Even so, that don't give him the right to do whatever he wants!

SR: He's beating kids up, and all they're allowed to do is endure.

GH: It's sick...

SR: And that follower of his doesn't give one single sh*t…

KA: Who are you talking about?

SR: Ann Takamaki. You met her in the courtyard, remember?

SR: You and Hisoka should know her. I mean, she's in your class, dude.

SR: Ugh! What a load of bull!

SR: I can't let it end like this.

GH: Good, cause, neither am I!

SR: I'm gonna try and find someone who knows about what's going on with Kamoshida during break tomorrow.

SR: Just you watch, I ain't giving up!

I sighed as I sat on the bed in my room. I thought about maybe trying to play a game to clear my head. I looked through all of the games that I had. After about ten minutes of looking I ended up sending a message to Ali.

SpecterYANA: Hey, Ali… sorry, I'm not in the mood to play again tonight.

HoneyOTU: That's okay, neither am I.

SpecterYANA: Well, I still hope you feel better soon.

HoneyOTU: You too.

With that… I slowly went to sleep… All the worry and anger staying in my mind. Though despite all of it, there was part of me that smiled when I thought back to my conversation with Suzui-san. She made me think about my position currently, and I fell asleep knowing that my friends would have my back tomorrow, no matter how far we were from taking Kamoshida down!

Akira Confidants:

Chariot:Ryuji rank 1

Hanged-man(1):Hisoka rank 1 [Ability: Lookout]

Confidant ability: Lookout

A small chance that enemy reinforcements will be ambushed!

Chapter 6: Good News Turns Sour

Chapter Text

Date:April 14

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Expose Kamoshida

I rubbed the back of my neck, my hoodie's sleeve slipped down my arm relieving the wrappings. Yep, I decided that today, I would not wear the blazer anymore. Now, I was wearing my hoodie that was a gift from Ali actually. It was a black hoodie that was baggy on my arms and zipped up in the middle. On the back of it, there was a white skull like design. In the skull, its eyes were a power button and a camera aperture. Under it, was AFK, apparently, Ali told me it was a special order for me. Thinking about the other day and Ryuji asking if I was dating Ali… I shook my head quickly, my cheeks warming up. I had never even met her! I don't even know what she looked like! I shook my head and tried to get my head back on straight.

I noticed that Akira was a little ahead of me, it seemed like he was focused on something. I didn't move to get closer to him, I just focused another conversation that I have had recently. My talk with Shiho Suzui, that talk was all I needed to keep my driving spirit going for taking Kamoshida down. There was obviously something going on that made going to practice a nightmare for her too. If not for the guys, then for Shiho and Mishima, I would make sure Kamoshida got what was coming to him! The bastard would pay! We were obviously were the only ones who were going to do anything about Kamoshida!

We didn't have any real leads right now, but we couldn't give up. Ryuji was looking as we spoke. I made it up to the school gate and refocused myself so that I could focus on school. At least until school was over, and all three of us reconvened.

TAKE YOUR TIME

We were sitting in class when my phone started to go off. I looked up to see if the teacher, Mr. Ushimaru, was looking anywhere toward me. Luckily he wasn't. I quickly looked down at the messages that I had gotten.

SR: So about witnesses…

SR: I was wondering if we could get something outta Takamaki.

GH: So no real luck with the next lead, huh?

SR: No… Not really…

KA: Since she's with Kamoshida?

SR: No that's not why.

GH: What, so then why?

SR: Just hear me out.

GH: Not saying I won't.

SR: You know how we didn't get a thing outta the volleyball team?

SR: I figured it'd be a good idea to talk to someone who knows about them.

GH: That… makes a lot of sense actually.

SR: Takamaki's BFFs with a starter. A girl named Suzui.

GH: I already tried talking to her yesterday, like I said, nothing.

SR: Which is why we talk to Takamaki instead!

SR: I also tried to get Suzui to talk during break, but I got nothing.

SR: So we try to get Takamaki to talk to her instead.

SR: Then again, I guess it'll be hard to get her to help us…

GH: That is true…

GH: She does seem to have it out for us.

SR: Sorry. Lemme see what else I can come up with.

GH: Let's hope we can get something soon.

KA: Agreed, talk to you guys later.

I put my phone away and quickly looked up in time to see Mr. Ushimaru's glance land on me. I did the best that I could to look like I had done nothing. I sighed once his eyes landed on Akira on the other side of the room.

TAKE YOUR TIME

I was on my way back to our apparent meet up spot in the courtyard. I had a cup of noodles in my hand, I had forgotten food for lunch, so this was all I had. The noodles still had to wait until they were done. Just as I left the door to the outside, I noticed someone headed toward me. "Hey, Suzui-san, how are you?"

I smiled at her, that is until I noticed her left eye. My face went from a smile to a face of horror. Her left eye was black and swollen. "Oh… Gekido-san, I'm okay… Don't worry about my eye… I fell during practice…"

"O-oh, okay…" My horrified look went to one of concern. "A-are you sure there isn't anything you wanna talk about…"

"Yes… I'm sorry Gekido-san, but I'm late for practice…" I couldn't help but feel concerned. She walked a little ways away, then stopped and turned back to me. "Hey, Gekido-san… can you please try to get along with Ann…"

"Huh?" I quickly turned and looked behind at Shiho.

"She's kinda like you, always being labelled wrongly…" My eyes grew wide upon hearing that. Not because of how she looked, but because I knew what that line sounded like on the end of my tongue. I knew how I felt when I said them too… "And she's in the same class as you, so I just hope you guys can get along."

"Suzui…" I didn't use the honorific, because right now, right now was the chance I had to help someone who was in the same shoes as me at one point. The only difference was that there was someone who was there for me, and if what Mishima said was try… Even Shiho's parents were ignoring what was happening to her… "I will, but I want to let you know… I won't make as good as a friend for her as you are. I-I think that you help her keep going, just she does for you…"

She gave me a half smile and nodded. "I will do my best…"

"Okay…" With that, she walked off… I hope I made it through to her. That's all I could do right now… was hope… So, I did that, I hoped that Shiho would be okay as I reached the spot. Ryuji was already there, waiting for us. "Ryuji…?"

"Hey!" Ryuji was furiously tapping his foot waiting for me and Akira. "Akira with you?"

"No he, I haven't seen him since I got out of class." Ryuji nodded.

"I want to wait until he gets here to start…" He kept tapping his foot faster. I opened my noodles, which were now ready to eat. I got a few bites in when Akira showed up. Ryuji finally spoke up, not even looking to see if Akira had arrived. An angry look on his face. "Dammit. What the hell…"

"Did you find someone?" Akira was already on point. Ryuji sighed heavily before looking up to Akira.

"Is that what it looks like?" I figured he'd be pretty upset since.

"Ryuji, c'mon don't take it out on Akira." I glared at the blonde who sighed again.

"Sorry man, I don't mean to take it out on you but…" Ryuji slammed his fist against the vending machine right next to him. "All of 'em kept sayin' the same sh*t Mishima was talkin' about…! Kamoshida had to have told 'em something! At this rate… it looks like we'll have to go to him directly…"

"I don't feel that would be a very good idea…" I sighed before slurping up a few noodles. Ryuji and Akira both stared at me. "What…?"

"Dude… seriously…" Ryuji raised an eyebrow at me.

"What, I forgot my lunch…" I took another bite of my food, I was trying to distract myself from my conversation with Shiho that I just had. "Anyways, continue."

Akira turned and look at Ryuji with an almost defeated look. "There's no point."

Ryuji sighed heavily in disappointment. Taking his arm off of the machine. "I know… But seriously, isn't there something we can do?"

"We shouldn't give up for one…" I sighed after that sentence… It was kind of a no brainer, but I still felt like it needed to say.

"No way I'm gonna give in like this!" Ryuji sounded as confident as he always was. "Can you think of anything?"

"I got nothing…" I rubbed the back on my neck with the back of my hand that held the chop sticks. I wish I could do something more right now… "Well, nothing that we hadn't tried already…"

"How about a sneak attack?" I raised my eyebrows at that Akira once he mentioned that.

"Uh… That doesn't seem very good…" I sighed at Akira, he shrugged at me for a that one.

"That'd be fine if we could do it without gettin' caught, but… if we did, we'd be seriously done for." Ryuji was serious about that for a moment. At least he brought up the point about us being in trouble for it. "You got any other ideas…?"

"Call the cops." Akira sounded very calm about that one.

"So you wanna tell 'em about the castle?" Once again, he had a good point. "They'd never believe us… Have any other ideas… What do we do…?"

"I got nothing…" I sighed for a moment, there was nothing that I could think of. What could we even do right now…? "There isn't much that couldn't get us in trouble."

"Let's punish the king." Akira said that with such conviction. Mine and Ryuji's eyes expanded in shock. Did he really mean that, did he think that we could go and beat the crap out of the Kamoshida in the other world!

"The king…?" Ryuji thought about it for a moment. "You mean that other world's Kamoshida? I didn't think about that, but…"

"Could we actually do that…?" I was shocked, just the thought about it made me think that if it affected this Kamoshida… We could save everyone else in one fell swoop. "Would that work!?"

"Is there any meaning to-" Ryuji was about to continue, but there was a familiar voice that rang out from around the corner. It made us more shocked than Akira suggesting we go attack the other Kamoshida.

"I finally found you…" The voice was small, but loud enough to grab anyone's attention. A small black cat with white mouth and paws. It was wearing a yellow scarf.

"You say something?" Ryuji looked around for a few moments. Akira shook his head, though, I looked down at the cat and raised my brow at it. The cat jumped up on the table right in front of me and my noodles.

"Don't think you can get away with not paying me back for helping you." We all realized at that moment… the CAT was talking! It was talking in the same voice as Morgana!

"That voice…" Ryuji reacted in shock as he recognized the voice. "Is that you Morgana!?"

"I'm… honestly… Not shocked anymore…" I couldn't hold my mouth shut looking at the small black cat talk to us. "Just… after the castle and the Personas… Nope, nothing…"

"How dare you up and leave me the other day!?" Morgana closed his eyes and shook his head at us. The tone in his voice was him being pissed off.

"The cat's talkin'!?" Ryuji still couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was kinda funny to see him react like that. Still, it was not something we seemed like we would have say in the real world. "The cat is talking…"

I kept shaking my head back and forth repeatedly at the cat. I couldn't believe this… it was weird. "Yep, the cat is talking, and it sounds like Morgana…"

"I am NOT a cat!" Yep, that is Morgana, bar and none. It was the weirdest thing that I could have said was going to happen today. "This is just what happened when I came to this world! It was a lot of trouble finding you three."

Ryuji, in his shock took a few steps forward and looked down at the cat. His eyes were as large a pancakes! "Wait… You came to our world!? Does that mean you've got a phone!?"

I quickly stood up and smacked Ryuji on the back of his head. Ryuji quickly turned to me. "What was that for!?"

"He's a cat!" I pointed toward Morgana standing on the table. That was a dumb thing, and I thought he would have known better. "Why would he have a phone!?"

"I am NOT a cat!" Morgana yelled at us again. Morgana turned away from us and started to lick his paw. "You don't need one when you're at my level. I did get pretty lost making my escape though…"

"That aside, why can you talk!?" Ryuji seemed frustrated and stomped his foot toward Morgana. "You're a cat!"

Morgana started to scratch his ear with his back leg. Still sounding as angry as before. "How should I know!?"

"You hearin' this too…?" Ryuji turned and looked at Akira, this whole situation was like a scene out of a gag anime! Akira looked back at Ryuji with a slightly shocked face. Then he grinned evilly at Ryuji.

"Meow?" Akira pulled his hand outta his pocket and I started to laugh at the situation as it unfolded before me. I couldn't help it. Ryuji stomped his foot on the group and was starting to freak out at Akira, which made me laugh even more.

"This is no time to be jokin' around!" Morgana started lick his paw again and Ryuji turned to me. "Why are you laughin' now!?"

"Because… this… is… hilarious!" I had to grab my stomach I was laughing so much. "How… isn't… it… to… you!?"

"You guys are having a rough time of this, hm?" My laughing was starting to die down now, but I was still laughing way too much. "I heard you mention something about witnesses."

"Oh, shuddup." Ryuji and Morgana were already bickering and they hadn't even around each other for five minutes! Morgana got a smug look and you could hear it in his voice.

"You know, I could tell you a thing or two about what to do about Kamoshida." Morgana turned and looked back at Akira, it almost looked like when an animal looked toward the person they wanted attention from. "You were pretty close just a moment ago."

My laughing had finally died down at that moment. "God, that condescendin' attitude! This thing's gotta be Morgana!"

"You were still doubting me!?" My laughing started right back up again! It was dumb that I was enjoying this moment way too much. Ryuji freaked out at Morgana's raised voice.

"Ack…! Quiet down!" I took a deep breath to try and calm my laughter just in time for two staff members walking out of the Classroom building. They were not being quite either.

"We really have to be looking for a cat in a busy time like this…?" I recognized the first voice as the teacher in charge of the disciplinary committee. The second voice belonged to a member of the disciplinary committee.

"I just heard a meow somewhere near here." That started to make me think… were we the only ones that could hear Morgana…?

"Make sure you check every nook and cranny around." Luckily they moved in the opposite direction of us. So they didn't even see the black cat surrounded by three second years. After we made sure that no one was seeing, then we all turned back to Morgana.

"Meow…?" Ryuji was confused about the conversation that we just heard. "Does that mean only us three can understand what you're saying?"

"Looks like it." Morgana just went right back to licking his paw again.

"What the hell's goin' on…?" Ryuji rubbed the back of his head for a few moments. That was a little weird that no one could hear Morgana.

"How the hell should we know…?" I placed my hands on my hips and shook my head. We couldn't guess why only we could understand Morgana.

"Anyways, what you were talkin' about earlier…" Ryuji brought this train wreck of a conversation back on track once again. "Is it for real?"

"You're quite the skeptic for being an idiot." I snickered again, I couldn't help myself again. Ryuji started rolling his shoulder again.

"Hey, tell us more." I wanted to hear about that that as well. We needed any info we could get our hands on by this point. So, Anything Morgana could give us was welcome. "Then again, this probably ain't the best place…"

"We could go to the roof." I held my hand out towards the Ryuji. Who thought about it for a moment.

"Yeah, that'll work." Ryuji swiped his hand quickly grabbing Morgana by the scruff. Morgana meowed loudly in protest. He held Morgana out to us. "Here, stick it in one of your guys' bags for now! It should be just small enough to fit!"

"What!?" I recoiled in shock as Ryuji held out the black cat towards me. "I can not fit him in my bag!"

"W-well neither can I!" Ryuji looked back and forth between Akira and I. Before I could respond, Morgana started to freak out at us.

"Hey!" He was wrangling his legs trying to get out of Ryuji's grasp. "How dare you treat me like-"

With that, Akira held out his bag and Ryuji quickly stuffed the cat in the bag and Akira zipped it all the way up. Sealing the cat inside, we could hear him through the bag. Akira looked at us with a smirk on his face. "Well, now we should get up to the roof."

"You… huh… you guys know how weird all of this is right?" I raised my eyebrow at the guys. They looked back to each other, and then back to me. "Right…?"

"Yeah…" Ryuji dropped his head while Akira's bag was shaking back and forth quickly as Morgana tried to escape his prison. "We should get goin' now."

"Agreed." Akira threw his bag over his shoulder and I could hear Morgana shriek from in the bag as he was flung around for a moment. "C'mon!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

We finally made it up to the roof, and we all set our bags by the door. Akira opened his bag and Morgana quickly jumped out and vented for a moment. "...Don't be so rough with me!"

Ryuji stomped his foot on the ground and stepped towards Morgana. "Enough of that! You said you know how we can do something about Kamoshida, right?"

Morgana got a quick smile as Ryuji asked his question. "It has to do with what this guy was talking about earlier. You'll need to attack his castle."

I raised my eyebrows up and sat on the desk that was behind me. "Boy, your mood changed quickly. Guess you really enjoy telling people about this stuff."

"Something like that." Morgana chuckled quickly then looked back to all of us. Ryuji scratched at his hairline for a moment. He obviously confused at the words the Morgana brought up.

"What do you mean…?" Morgana finally set down on the ground before us. His voice was much more calm than it was before and when he was in the bag. Which… I honestly completely understood why he would do so.

"That castle is how Kamoshida views this school." Teacher mode was activated, and we weren't going to stop it for any reason. "He doesn't realize what happens in there, but it's deeply connected to the depths of his heart. Thus, if the castle disappears, it would naturally impact the real Kamoshida."

"What'd happen?" Ryuji crossed his arms, for once we weren't confused, but curious about what was going on. Morgana was more than willing to keep the listen going.

"A Palace is a manifestation of a person's distorted desires." That was a line that we had heard from Morgana before. "So, if that castle were no more…"

"His desires would be gone." Akira spoke up to finish the line from Morgana. My mouth dropped as Akira finished his question. I understood what that meant, but that was a very ridiculous sounding. We would literally destroy a man's desires!

"Precisely!" Morgana was very happy about Akira's answer. "You sure pick up things fast!"

"For real!?" Ryuji freaked out, so did I. This was the best news we had gotten all day! "H-he's gonna turn good!?"

"That's amazing!" I stood up with a smile on his face. That was the solution to everything! "That could be the answer we need!"

"But… is that really gettin' back at him?" Ryuji sounded almost defeated again. That was the moment that I ended up agreeing with him. We wanted to get back at Kamoshida… not just turn him into a good guy…

"Yeah, I wanted to try and get back at him." I crossed my arms and sat back down again. It really didn't do what we wanted it to do.

"Erasing a Palace essentially means forcing the owner to have a change of heart." We all started listening closely now. "However, even though their warped wants disappear, the crimes they committed remain. Kamoshida will become unable to bear the weight of those crimes, and he'll confess them himself!"

That was music to my ears! The bastard would tell people about his crimes, HIMSELF! "You for real!? That's possible!?"

"That would perfect!" I pumped my arms in excitement! "There would be almost no denying the crimes if the culprit told people themselves!"

"And since the Palace will no longer exist, he'll forget what we did there as well." I stopped at that moment. Wait… didn't he just say that they wouldn't…

"Wait, Morgana!" I stepped closer to the cat, a serious look on my face. "Didn't you say that they wouldn't know what happens in the Palace…?"

"Yes, I did." Morgana looked to me with a smile on his face. Or what I thought was a smile at least. "They don't notice what happens in their Palace. Though, as we work throughout the Palace, we may change their perception of people and things around them. They will forget the changes in their perception."

"Well… thank you for that explanation." I nodded at Morgana, I really did appreciate it.

"Not only will we be able to bring Kamoshida down, but there won't even be a trace of our involvement." That made it even better! We couldn't be held accountable for a sudden change in Kamoshida!

"That's amazing!" Ryuji couldn't hold his excitement in! "You are one incredible cat!"

"True, except for the cat part!" I snickered at Morgana's frustration towards Ryuji.

"I still don't see it." I smirked at Morgana who glared at me. Thought Ryuji beat him to it.

"So?" Ryuji was ecstatic and ready to get back to the Palace! "How do we get rid of the Palace!?"

"By stealing the Treasure held within." And the curiosity came right back up to us.

"Stealing…?" Ryuji crossed his left leg in front of his right leg. Though I was kinda confused too…

"That… doesn't mean much to us right now…" I sighed heavily and sat back down again.

"I'll tell you more once you agree to go ahead with this." A slight bit of smugness appeared in Morgana's voice. "It's my most valuable, secret plan, after all. If you want to help me out, I'll gladly teach you. What's your call?"

"Our luck's runnin' dry lookin' for witnesses." Ryuji turned to look at Akira and me, I agreed with Ryuji on that. "Guess we have no choice but to go along…"

"I feel the same." I raised my hand up into the air. I didn't see any other way out of this. Akira nodded for a moment before he spoke up.

"You're right." It seemed like we were all on the same page for this one. Which I was very glad about. Morgana started to sound even more smug.

"...Good." He stood up and stretched for a moment before continuing. "Oh, right. There's one more thing I should tell you. If we erase a Palace, there is no doubt that the person's distorted desires will be erased as well. But desires are what we all need in order to survive. The will to sleep, eat, fall in love-those sorts of things."

"What're you gettin' at?" I was not ready to go down that rabbit hole… We had just gotten good news… We didn't need this…

"Morgana… please don't tell us this…" I slowly stood up. I was not ready for that…

"If all of those yearnings were to vanish, they'd be no different than someone who has shut down entirely." There it was, I still didn't want this. It was making it me sad. "They may even die if they're not given proper care. So…"

"They might die…!?" Ryuji suddenly got pissed off all of a sudden. I got depressed, that was not good. We wanted to get back at him, not kill him!

"Will you listen to everything I have to say first?" Morgana also got upset, he sounded frustrated.

"Would their death be our fault…?" Morgana dropped his arms to his side.

"I-I think so…" I placed my hand on my forehead. I was not okay with this!

"Aren't you determined enough to face those kinds of risks?" Morgana gave us a determined look. Ryuji placed his thumbs back in his pockets and looked back to Akira.

"Hey… What do you think?" Ryuji sounded upset, and I agreed with that. I did not wish to kill anyone.

"I don't want to kill him." Akira's head dropped slightly. We were all having difficulty dealing with this.

"I agree with Akira…" I rubbed the back of my neck.

"Sheesh… I come all this way, and this is what I get." Morgana sounded completely defeated and started to turn away from us. "It's not like anyone will ever find out."

"That's not the point!" Ryuji growled at Morgana. Even I slammed my foot down!

"It's an effing moral question!" I stomped toward the small black cat!

"If we just go around secretly doin' whatever we want, we'd be no better than that effin' Kamoshida…"

"Exactly!" I pointed at Ryuji in agreement! "I don't want to be anything like that sh*t head!"

"Isn't this your only option?" Morgana basically growled at us. Though, he quickly calmed down. "...I'll come back later. Make sure you've made your decision by then."

Morgana ran off once he was done talking. Ryuji grimaced in anger now. "Man, we're gettin' all worked up for nothing… Dammit! I'll try and see if I can figure out another way… C'mon, let's get outta here."

"Let us know what you find…" I sighed and walked away from the roof. We all parted our ways at that moment. Me and Akira walked silently from the school, by the time we got to the gate, Ryuji started to message us again.

SR: Hey. I heard something that got my attention.

SR: About that Suzui girl… Looks like rumors are going around about her and Kamoshida.

That message made me freeze up, there was something wrong with Suzui! I felt bad, because I didn't try to help…

SR: If they're true, it's no wonder I couldn't get her to talk.

SR: Still something about that doesn't seem right.

KA: Do you know something?

SR: It's nothing so clear but, but…

SR: I've known Takamaki and Suzui since middle school.

SR: There's just no way Kamoshida's their type, y'know?

GH: I agree with that one.

SR: So… I gotta wonder where those rumors came from.

SR: Well, whatever. I'll try asking around some more.

GH: Let us know what you find!

"It's going to be difficult from here on, isn't it…" I looked at the phone screen for a moment before looking up to Akira.

"Yeah, but we will figure this out." Akira sounded so sure of himself. With that, we left the school building.

TAKE YOUR TIME

We made it to the Shibuya station together when we both heard a familiar voice. "Will you please give it a rest!? I told you, I'm not feeling up to it…"

We both turned to see Ann Takamaki yelling at someone over her phone. She seemed very upset.. "Wait, what…!? That's not what you promised! And you call yourself a teacher!? This has nothing to do with Shiho!"

The person on the other line apparently hung up on Takamaki. Though, her bringing up Suzui brought my mood down even further. Takamaki ended up curling into a ball on the ground. "Shiho's… starting position…"

I wanted to help her, but… me and Takamaki, well we'd probably get in a fight at the current moment. I turned to Akira and sighed. "You should help her, I'm gonna head home. I think my presence would only make things worse right now."

Akira nodded at me. "I'll call you later. Let you know if I get any info…"

With that, I was off. When I got home, my aunt was still at home. I went up to my room and thought about what to do now… I was feeling way too down. After a moment or two, I grabbed my phone. There was one thing I could do to cheer myself up right now.

TAKE YOUR TIME

The room would have been dark, if not for the multiple computer screens before the short girl. She typed away at her new project, she needed some surveillance to make sure her dad was actually working. She was so focused on her project that she jumped when her phone went off. She freaked and took a moment to collect herself before reaching for her phone.

SpecterYANA: Hey, I need to talk to someone…

SpecterYANA: Are you available…?

"So, my rival wishes to speak to me!" It was one of her few good days that was having. So far, nothing has really happened today. So felt up to it as well, so instead of messaging him back. She called him and pulled up a screen on her computer. Throw it, she could see a teenage boy with messy brown hair and the bangs on his left side of his head came down and were perfectly cut to a flat line. His eyes screamed sadness to her.

"Hello?"Specter spoke up looking at the profile icon for the girl talking to him. "Ali?"

"Hey Specter, what's up?" Ali brought one arm around her legs while the other held her phone. Specter sighed heavily through the phone. She could see him place his free hand on his forehead. "I need some advice…"

"My Rival wants advice from me, huh?" She tried to sound confident and cool, but she was worried. Specter was her only real friend she'd had in a long time and she didn't want to mess anything up this time. "As the generous MC, I will gladly help you!"

"Thanks, I knew I could count on you."She watched as he repositioned the phone so he could better talk to Ali. "I've been given a very difficult choice… there's a quest that I've run into… I need to save the innocents from an evil king… but the only way I have… could cause some serious damage to the king… Maybe even kill him… I just wanted to know… what do you think I should do…?"

Ali stopped for a moment and thought about her friend's question. Finally she had the answer. "Well, for whatever game it is you're playing, if you are being the hero… I'd say take that risk, the innocents are more important than the king… Or that's what I'd do as the great and powerful MC ALIBABA!"

She pointed her hand into the air even though Specter couldn't she Alibaba do this, he started to laugh. Ali looked to the screen. She saw Spector had a huge grin on his face and it was one of the brightest smiles she'd ever seen him have. She didn't know why, but her cheeks slowly grew warm. "That's why you're effing awesome Ali. Well, Miss MC, thanks I feel better. Though, I should probably go to bed early, long day of school ahead of me."

"Okay, goodnight, my Rival!" Ali smiled softly at the face on the screen which now held a somber smile.

"Goodnight, my MC." With that, Specter hung up and set his phone down next to him. Ali closed the window, still smiling at her talk with her friend. She heard a door in the house open, and from the hallway she heard a familiar voice.

"Futaba, I'm home."

Chapter 7: The Fallen Inspire Actions!

Chapter Text

Date:April 15

Location:Yongen-Jaya

Current Objective:Expose Kamoshida

"Yo, Akira!" I ran up next to the transfer student. As he came into my view after he left an alleyway. I quickly glanced down the alley as I reached my frizzy haired friend. I saw that there was a cafe, Cafe Leblanc. He did say that he was staying in a cafe the other day. Akira stopped and turned to look at me. "What's up? How did the talk with Takamaki-san go?"

"It… it made me think about everything…" Akira sighed and dropped his head for a moment. He looked back up to me and I noticed a fire in his eyes. "I feel stronger about finding a way to end this sooner, rather than later."

I nodded for a moment, we needed a quick end to this issue. Kamoshida seemed like he was getting worse. Though, I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't just because we were snooping around here. I couldn't help but worry about what was going on. "Well… I think… I think we should do what Morgana suggested!"

Akira gave me a shocked look, which, I don't blame him. After all, I was very against it yesterday. Now, suddenly, I wanted to risk something that I was so against. "Why's that…?"

"Well…" I took a deep breath, I needed to convince myself to argue that. "There are people that need help that aren't us. Those are the people truly suffering… I want to take the chance, after all, Morgana said he would only die without proper care."

I could see the cogs in Akira's head start to turn as he thought about what I said. By this point we had started to walk. After a few moments Akira nodded at me. "Okay, well, I still would like to try and find another option before we try for that."

"I understand." I looked away from Akira. "Honestly, with how dependable you've been for this whole 'investigation,' I'd be okay with you calling the shots on it from here on out."

"Well, thanks." Akira twirled his bangs in what almost seemed like embarrassment. He looked at me and smirked for a moment. "By the way, what's up with the hoodie?"

"Oh this?" I smiled back at my friend with a little evil glare. "I decided that I was done wearing that damn blazer. No one said anything about me wearing it either, so I don't care anymore."

"That sounds good to me?" Akira grinned at that information. "Well, Ryuji does wear that ZOMG shirt under his blazer."

I chuckled a bit. The conversation continued with small talk, like me asking why he doesn't talk much. His answer, he said that he is just a quiet person. I could respect that answer. I was just kinda happy to understand him a bit more.

TAKE YOUR TIME

I will admit, I wasn't really paying attention to to Mr. Ushimaru at that moment. I wanted to figure out how to convince Ryuji to agree with me about going into the Palace again. "So I assume all of you know about the separation of powers? There are three branches of government. The National Diet is legislative, the Cabinet is executive, and the Supreme Court is judiciary. This division of power provides checks and balances, which ensures no one branch becomes unstoppable."

My eyes started to wander across the room, my eyes landed on where Akira was sitting just in time to see Akira freak out. What the hell… did someone do something to his desk? That's what I thought until I barely heard a voice. "Have you… your mind…? No matter… do, there's… one option… You'd be… listening to me."

I thought that the whispering voice sounded familiar, and Mr. Ushimaru confirmed my suspicions. "Hm? Did I hear a cat just now?"

I could barely understand why he was here, and in Akira's desk! Everyone started to look around for a few to try and find out where the cat was! "Could that rumored cat be nearby…? Settle down, we are in the middle of an important lecture."

I rolled my eyes and turned to look out the window into the hall. My phone went off when I noticed something. It looked like someone was on the roof of the school, I squinted to try and get a good look at them. Suddenly the guy who was sitting by the door stood up and looked at the window. "Hey… What's that…!?"

My eyes grew wide, there was someone on the roof. But they were not behind the fence that was around the whole area!

"Enough! This is a class room!" Mr. Ushimaru tried to reel in the class, but it wasn't happening I stood straight out of my desk. "Sit down Gekido!"

"Wait…" Another girl near my desk started to freak out. "She's gonna jump…!"

Mishima stood up and looked out the windows too! "Suzui…?"

Takamaki stood up quickly as well. "Shiho…?"

I was frozen in place standing up as people started to run out of the room! "Hey! Stay in your seats! Do not step foot outside of this room!"

I couldn't move until I saw Takamaki-san and Akira run past me. Finally, I got the courage to start moving out into the hallway! I saw her there on the ledge of the roof, and instead of standing there and watching, I bolted for the roof as fast as my legs would take me! I wasn't as fast as Ryuji, but I had to make it in time! "No… Don't do it…"

I had to shove my way through a crowds of people that were just watching! "Effing move! Out of the way dammit!"

I forced my way up to the third floor, there were people shoving their way past me to see Suzui on the roof! It pissed me the hell off! Did none of these people care that someone was attempting to kill themselves! I made my way up to the roof door… I froze at that moment… what could I say to help…? Could I do anything…? What was I thinking!? I couldn't just stand there! I forced myself through the door and out into the open air of the roof. I felt a weight lift from my shoulders to see that Suzui was still there! "Suzui-san!"

"Huh!?" Suzui could barely turn to look at me with where she was. "G-Gekido…? Why are you here…?"

"Because, I can't just stand there and watch as were about to jump!" I slammed my foot down. I knew people could more than likely see me.

"I-I can't… I can't take it…" Her head was barely turned toward me, but I could see the tears in her eyes. I had to take a breath, and I couldn't hesitate here!

"It's okay, trust me…" I held out my hands to the sides. "I know how this feels Suzui… Please come back here…"

I could see that her face was twisted in pain. Her left eye was swollen and black. "How can you know… How can you know!?"

"Because I was where you are right now…" I clenched my fist, I didn't want any of this to happen… I felt my arms start to shake… the same way they did the first day I woke up after the crash… "It was right after the crash… I found out my dad was dead and my mom was in a coma… I felt like there was nothing left for me… I couldn't take the emotional pain, and the physical pain from the nerve damage done to my arms…"

"H-how did you manage…?" I froze, I realized the reason that I kept going… anger… anger at Kamoshida, anger at truck driver that hit us. Anger at myself for getting caught by Kamoshida with evidence against him in the first place.

"I found a reason to keep going…" I felt my face contort into a pained expression. I had no idea if I was making any headway. "Come back over here and I'm sure someone can help you find a reason."

Shiho looked down toward the ground, then she turned back to me. "I'm sorry… Kamoshida… he… he…"

I don't want to to say what she said to me that day on the roof… I admit I was so shocked about what she said that I froze right then and there. Then she looked back to the ground. I realized what she was doing as her left foot moved off the ledge. "Shiho, NO DON'T!"

She fell… I ran to the fence and saw her body laying there on the ground. My jaw dropped open, I couldn't believe what it was that I just witnessed! I… I could have done something…

I ran back out of the roof area. I jumped most of the stairs that I could, though, once I hit the ground… my foot slipped and I slammed my shoulder into the floor. I didn't feel any pain, my adrenaline rush stopped that from happening. I ran as fast as I could, shoving my way through the crowd. I heard people growling at me. I didn't care, I had one goal in mind, I had to get to the courtyard where Shiho landed. "Get the hell out of the way!"

Finally, I made it to the door leading to the courtyard. I still had to maneuver my way through the crowd though, shoving my way past all the assholes pulling their phones out! I finally found my way out of the crowd of people and I was right in front of Shiho, who was now on a stretcher. Takamaki was to my side. "Shiho…!"

Takamaki could barely handle it, seeing her best friend laying on a stretcher with paramedics surrounding her. From behind me I heard someone else calling out for me. "Hisoka! Dammit move! Hisoka!?"

"Ryuji, Akira, over here!" I called out to the blonde as I could see his hair quickly moving through the crowd. I quickly looked back to see Ryuji and Akira had appeared behind me. Everyone but the three of us were trying to get pictures and video of Shiho on the stretcher! "What the eff!? Can't you see someone's been hurt!"

"What the hell's wrong with these people…!?" One of the paramedics can running up to the crowd.

"We need someone to go with her…" I turned back toward Shiho and the paramedic. "Are there any teachers around?"

"I-I'm not in charge of her class though…" I wanted to yell at that cowardly bastard for that! None of the damn teachers were willing to go with her!

"We should leave this to Principal Kobayakawa…" That was bullsh*t! Was no one willing to go with her! Takamaki stomped her foot in anger and fear.

"I'll go!" The paramedic was about to say something else, but this was it. I couldn't just stand by anymore!

"Is it alright if I go with!?" I quickly shouted out and ran out of the crowd. Ryuji and Akira were surprised by my offer. Takamaki-san turned around to look at me in shock as well.

The Paramedic looked at both me and Takamaki-san. "Yea, just please hurry!"

Me and Takamaki quickly run next to Shiho and we both dropped down so we could see her face. I let Takamaki speak first. "Shiho… Why…?"

"Ann…?" Suzui sounded so weak… It was hard to look at her in her current condition. "I'm sorry. I… I can't take this… anymore…"

"Gekido-san… I'm sorry… I wanted… to listen to you… I hope you can… forgive me…"

"There's nothing to forgive…" I gripped the side of the stretcher. I looked toward the ground. "I'm the one who's sorry, I could have done more…"

"No… don't blame… yourself… it's not… your… fault…" Suzui smiled at me, I couldn't believe that she was still smiling… Then she turned to Takamaki.

"Shiho…?" Suzui brought Ann closer to her and started to whisper in Takamaki's ears. Takamaki shoots her head back up and seemed shocked. Then Suzui turned to me. "Kamoshida!?"

She then passed out fromt eh pain. Takamaki started to freak out no, and so did I. "No… Shiho!?"

"Hey… c'mon Suzui…!" I gripped the side of the stretcher. "C'mon!?"

The paramedics grabbed the stretcher and moved Shiho into the ambulance. I turned back to Akira and Ryuji. There were actual tears in my eyes. I may not have known Suzui that well, but I knew how she was feeling. "You guys know who did this! Go get him!"

Me and Takamaki filed into the back of the ambulance. The paramedics were hard at work, me and Takamaki were on the same side of the stretcher. She leaned in, her eyes filled with tears. "Why…?"

"What…?" I looked at her, the tears were starting to fall from her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She looked at me full on, she was screaming for help…

"Why did this happen…?" I could hear the shakiness in her voice. "Why did… why did you come…?"

"I… I don't why this happened…" I clenched my fist as hard as I could. My knuckles started to turn white. I had an idea why this happened… but I did not want to say it to Ann…

"But… but, why did you come…?" Ann's eyes were serious, I would not be getting away without answering this.

"Because… because… I was were she was just before she jumped…" I unclenched my fist. I saw Takamaki's eyes widen. "It happened after the accident I was in…"

I told Takamaki the same thing I did to Suzui on the roof of the school. She seemed like she could only stare at me. After a few moments, she got that serious look back in her eye. "It's your fault though, isn't it…?"

"What…?" I recoiled away from Takamaki in shock. What did she mean by that!?

"You were the one that caused the crash, right?" Her face got even more serious. That's when it hit me… the rumors about me, that I was the one who peeped on the girls instead of Kamoshida… That I grabbed the wheel and swerved the car into oncoming traffic…

"It's all bullsh*t…" I glared toward the floor of the vehicle away from Takamaki. "Kamoshida was just covering his ass… I… I got evidence of him peeping on the girls in the locker room, and of him beating members of the boys' team… But I accidentally left auto flash on my camera… I moved in a way that made the shot just dark enough for the flash to go off… Kamoshida caught me with all those pictures that I had taken! The bastard threatened to have me expelled if I didn't delete the pictures! When I didn't budge… He took my camera and threatened to smash it if I didn't go along with him!"

I looked over to see Takamaki's face had changed from that of her serious face to one of shock. "W-what!? Why didn't you just let him smash it then…?"

"Well… I didn't want the camera destroyed…" I placed my hands on my knees and rubbed them a bit being nervous. "It was the last thing that my grandma gave me before she passed… I deleted the photos as he wanted… He told the principal that he caught me trying to take pictures of the girls' volleyball team… They called my parents, and when they came to pick me up… I told them my side of the story… They believed me over Kamoshida… My dad was a lawyer, and he was talking about trying to put a case on against him when a truck driver had one of those psychotic breakdowns. He… he lost control of his truck and it slammed into the side of my parents' car… When I finally came back to school, months later… I couldn't walk around the school without hearing outrageous stories like, I tried to force a girl to have sex with me, or I stabbed my dad and that's what caused the crash… I later found out that Kamoshida got one of the girls on his team to spread those rumors about me… I never tried to fight them, because I didn't feel it was worth it anymore…"

Ann looked away from me like she felt ashamed of something… "I-I'm so sorry Gekido…"

"Why?" I tilted my head at the natural blonde next to me. She looked to Shiho her face darkened…

"I-I… I believed some of those rumors…" Takamaki's tears were finally starting to fall from her eyes… It seems like everything was way too much for her right now… She started to sob into the her hands. "Shiho… I'm sorry…"

I placed my hand on her shoulder and rubbed it, she needed someone to help her. I thought back to whose fault this really was… Kamoshida… I was going to make him pay… Though, now… he needed to know how it felt! There was no way in hell we weren't going into the Palace after this!

TAKE YOUR TIME

Akira couldn't believe this! Not only did someone just try to kill themselves, but there was a damn good chance that Kamoshida did something unspeakable! After getting the information from Mishima, Ryuji had run off to Kamoshida's office. Mishima had then accompanied Akira on his way to Kamoshida's office just outside of the gym. They chased after Ryuji, who almost blindly charged forward. Akira knew he wanted answers, they all did.

That's why he wasn't charging after Ryuji to stop him, but to there as back up against the tyrant "king" of the school. Ryuji had just charged straight into the office without a thought. Akira took a deep breath and him and Mishima both busted through the door right behind the blonde track runner. Kamoshida was alerted to the noise of his door slamming open, not once, but twice. He turned around to look at them, confused. "...Huh?"

"You bastard!" Ryuji was pissed, not that it wasn't a normal thing for Ryuji to be pissed at Kamoshida. Though, Akira realized this wasn't anger, no… This was rage! "The hell did you do to that girl!?"

Kamoshida tried to wave the three kids out of the office. A move which irritated Akira a fair amount. "What are you talking about?"

Ryuji yelled out of anger and kicked one of the chairs over. "Don't play dumb with me!"

Kamoshida slammed his hands down onto the desk, now he was pissed! "That is enough!"

Mishima, bruised and broken… seemed to finally have the courage to stand against his "coach." "What you did… wasn't coaching…!"

Akira stood there between these two who were ready to fight this bastard, and he couldn't help but feel that they still wouldn't win... "What did you say?"

"You… you ordered me to call Suzui here…" Mishima grabbed the sides of his head, Akira took note of the anger and fear that mixed in with the bruised volleyball player. "I can only imagine what you did to her…!"

Akira stood there looking back and forth between everyone in the room. His own anger well under his control. Two people here on their side being angry would only worsen the situation. Kamoshida now stood out of his chair crossing his arms over his chest. Looking down on all three students in a pose that screamed out his ego. "You're going on and on about things you have no proof of… Basically, you're simply making these claims because you can't be a regular on the team, right?"

Mishima didn't care about any of that! Right now, this was not about him, it was about Suzui! "That's not what this is about…!"

"Even if it is exactly as you imagine it to be, hypothetically speaking… what can you do?" The "king" placed his hands on his hips and leaned forward in an even more smug stance. It had been about thirty minutes since Suzui left the school with Takamaki and Hisoka. "We just received a call from the hospital. Suzui's in a coma, and her chances of recovery are slim… How would someone like that make a statement?"

This shocked all three of the students before the bastard. Akira's fist clenched as the words left the man's mouth. He could only imagine how Takamaki and Hisoka were feeling right now! Though, right now, Kamoshida was his main focus. The man placed the back of his hand on his head and leaned back so he was standing straight up. "There's no chance of her getting better, I hear… The poor girl."

"No…" Mishima sounded so shocked by this, he seemed to look up to Suzui… "That can't be…"

Ryuji clenched his fist and hunched his shoulders, it looked like he was ready to fight! "You goddamn…!"

"This, again…?" Kamoshida stopped over playing his "worry" and focused on Ryuji. "Does this mean we need to have yet another case of 'self-defense?'"

"You shut your mouth you son of a bitch!" Ryuji moved to make a wide punch at the teacher, a word which Akira wished he couldn't use to describe this monster! Ryuji was about to make a swing, but Akira knew that would make any action they take against Kamoshida, null. So he stepped forward and grabbed Ryuji's arm to stop him from hitting the man before them. "Why're you stoppin' me…!?"

"Don't let him get to you." Akira shook his head. Ryuji was in enough trouble as it was, he didn't want his friend to have to go through anymore. Ryuji shook free of the frizzy haired transfer's grip.

"But still!" Akira wanted to Kamoshida as much as Ryuji, so they would just have to hit him where it hurt most. Not physically… Hisoka was right.

"Oh?" Kamoshida seemed shocked at Akira's actions, as if it were a joke though. "You're stopping him? What a surprise. There's no need to hold back. Why not attack me…? Ohhh, you can't. Hahaha, but of course you can't!"

Kamoshida went back to his desk with his anger showing on his face again. "Everyone present right now… will be expelled. I'm reporting all of you at the next board meeting. Oh, and Hisoka Gekido too!"

"Wha-" Ryuji lost all sensible thought after that. Mishima defiantly stepped forward.

"You can't make a decision like that…!" He seemed to straighten up a bit as if to show his determination. "Especially since Gekido-san isn't even here!"

"Who would seriously consider what scum like you say?" Kamoshida turned back to everyone present. Anger and smugness plastered all over his face at once. "You threatened me too, Mishima, and Gekido is always with these two, so he obviously shares their views. You both are just as responsible."

"Huh…?" Mishima put his hand up to his chest as if he was having a heart attack. This couldn't be real! Could it…?

"To think you didn't know why I kept someone as talentless as you on the team." Kamoshida sounded like he wanted to cause a comtion, and he was going to do his best to tear these three down! "You act like you're a victim, but you leaked his criminal records, didn't you? It's all over the internet, correct? How terrible."

Ryuji and Akira turned to look at Mishima, his head down in defeat… Akira figured out that he was a pawn just from what Kamoshida tried to do. He didn't hold a grudge, but it was still a shock to him. Ryuji spoke first. "Mishima…?"

Mishima got down to the ground and curled up into a ball. "He told me to do it. I had no choice…"

Kamoshida started laughing maniacally and tried to have the kids out of his room again. Akira turned to look at the monster one more time. "No one will believe Hisoka had anything to do with this!"

"Oh?" Kamoshida spun his chair around one more time to look at the eyesore before him. "And why's that?"

"He was the only one who went to the roof to try and talk Suzui-san down off the ledge!" Akira stomped his foot toward the teacher. He would not let any of his friends take this fall! Though, Kamoshida's eyes widened, not with fear or shock, but with inspiration!

"Oh, that's perfect!" The monster started to laugh again! He turned back toward the paperwork he started to get everyone expelled! "So Gekido went up to the roof to harass poor Suzui-chan until she couldn't take it anymore. Then, oh boy, then she jumped to her off the roof to get away from his constant bullying of her!"

Akira stepped back in shock, he had let his anger get the better of him. Now one of his friends would be considered the reason a girl tried to kill herself! "N-no…"

"Now, are we finished here?" The "king" growled at the three students in the room with him. "You're all expelled! You're done for; your futures are mine to take. Now get out of my sight."

Ryuji straightened up in anger and turned to glare at Kamoshida out of the corner of his eye. "I can't believe this asshole's gettin' away with this…!"

"He'll eat his words." Akira glared at the "king" knowing that now was the time, he would have to message Hisoka as soon as they left the room. Ryuji seemed shocked by Akira's choice of words though.

"Huh…?" Then, it suddenly hit him, they had one thing that could guarantee that they would come out on top! "Oh right. We have that!"

"Huh?" Kamoshida was still pissed that these low lifes hadn't left his office yet. "Have you lost your minds? I don't understand what garbage like you are thinking, but go ahead and try. All you can do is wait for your disposal though…"

As Akira left the room, one thought stayed in his mind. Just wait, you son of a bitch!

Chapter 8: Code Names

Chapter Text

Date:April 15

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Expose Kamoshida

"We can't waste any time." Ryuji slammed his fist against the blue vending machine next to him. I was furious. I get messages from Akira and Ryuji about what happened. The bastard had done too much! He was going to expel all four of us for the most bullsh*t reasons I could think of! Basically, just because he didn't like us, so he wanted us gone! He was going to try and slander my name even more now! "We gotta hurry up and go to that world and beat the sh*t outta that asshole!"

"I f*cking agree!" I slammed my fist into my palm and cracked a few of my knuckles! "It's time we give him what's coming to that son of a bitch!"

"...We're not beating him up." Morgana growled at us from the table. Guess he wanted to make sure we stayed calm. "We're simply stealing his distorted desires. Can I assume that you've made up your minds about this-about how he might suffer a mental shutdown?"

"...I have." Ryuji growled out the words. He got incredibly pissed all of a sudden. "Someone almost died because of him! I don't give a rat's ass what happens to him anymore!"

"I made my mind up about this last night!" I growled the words out as well. "He can go suck on his effing tombstone for all I care!"

"And you?" Morgana turned and looked at Akira. It seemed like Morgana didn't want to do anything unless we all agreed on it.

"I agree." Akira nodded, his face was one of anger now. "He's done too much to let go unpunished now!"

"...Then it's settled." Morgana seemed happy now. We were ready, and it was time!

"By the way, is gettin' rid of a Palace hard…?" Ryuji brought up a very good point. We didn't know much about what we were about to do in the first place. So we needed some solid answers now. "You've tried it before, right?"

"...When did I ever say that?" Wait… oh no… Don't tell me…

"...Eh?" Ryuji seemed confused now. That was a bit bad that we suddenly had a little less confidence. "WHAT!? Were you just pretendin' to know!?"

"Oh, what the sh*t!?" I took a deep breath. "Tell me you were not just pulling our damned legs Morgana!"

Suddenly, a voice appeared that shocked us more than Morgana's lack of actually doing the THING HE WAS TEACHING US TO DO! Takamaki stood there with a very worried look on her face. "Is it true that you're getting expelled? Everyone's talking about it…"

Ryuji looked to the ground. "That asshole's at it again…!"

"He just can't keep his effing mouth shut…!" I mumbled out the words, I was pissed enough about Suzui!

"So you came all this way to tell us that?" Ryuji was pissed at Takamaki, I didn't feel the same anymore… Someone who would have been on Kamoshida's side so "heavily" wouldn't have reacted the way she did to Suzui's suicide attempt!

"If you're going to deal with Kamoshida… let me in on it too." I was honestly the only one who didn't seem shocked about her request! Though, I knew that she couldn't come with us… That world was far too dangerous for someone without a Persona. "I can't just sit back and do nothing after what happened to Shiho!"

Ryuji knew that we couldn't just tell why she couldn't come with us. So he tried to make an excuse, but the one he came up with, was not very good… "This has nothing to do with you… Don't butt your head into this…"

"But it does!" Takamaki stomped her foot at us. She was the one who was right in this situation. "Shiho's my-"

Ryuji took a confident stance and stomped back at Takamaki. "I said don't get in our way!"

Takamaki glared at the ground than looked to me. "Gekido, you know I'm right! Come on, tell him…!"

My face twisted into a look of pain and looked away from her. "I'm… I'm sorry Takamaki… I don't think you should come with us… It's… It's going to be too much for…"

Her face didn't change, I felt like an asshole as she turned and ran away from us around the corner… Morgana seemed to agree that he didn't like what was going on… "...That was harsh."

"We can't take her somewhere like that…" Ryuji sounded pained as well. I nodded in agreement.

"I agree…" I looked up at Ryuji. I didn't want Takamaki to get hurt as well. "If she got hurt… I don't think I could ever forgive myself."

"I hope that she doesn't torment herself over this." Morgana sounded like he couldn't forgive himself already… "When it comes down to it, women don't hesitate."

"We just gotta hurry up and deal with Kamoshida." Ryuji growled out again. Though, he was right. It was the best for us to take him down now! "Let's go already!"

We moved to the alleyway right in front of the school. Morgana was on top of a pipe right behind us. "The moment we cross over, we'll treat each other like phantom thieves, so I hope you're ready."

"Huh?" Ryuji turned back to look at the black cat. "Phantom thieves?"

Morgana got a very excited look on his face. "Those who covertly sneak in and stylishly steal Treasure-that is what we become!"

"Damn!" I rubbed my chin thinking about that. "That actually sounds pretty badass!"

"I see." Akira smiled at at the thought as well. Ryuji got a huge damned smile on his face. He moved his shoulder in a circular motion.

"That sounds kinda cool!" Then he quickly got right back on track. "So we just gotta say the school, Kamoshida's name, and… castle? Then we end up in bizarro world."

"Sounds about right for every other time we've used the app." I rubbed the back of my neck for a moment. "Let's get in there!"

"...How the hell's all this work?" Ryuji's question, actually made me stop… it was way to good of a question. The app just kinda came outta nowhere and we kinda just gotta expect it… "Someone make it?"

"You know, I was wondering the same thing…" Now I was scratching at the back of my neck. I really wanted to know. I noticed Akira was shuffling out of the corner of my eye. He seemed a little unnerved about that question.

"It doesn't matter." I really didn't believe that, but I trusted Akira enough to drop the line of thought for now. Ryuji placed his phone back in his pocket.

"True." Ryuji seemed content with not knowing for now. "There's no point in thinkin' about it now. We'll show that effin' Kamoshida!"

"Eff yeah!" I pumped my fist. It was time! Morgana agreed with me.

"Let's go!" Though, little did we know that someone was watching us. Takamaki was literally just around the corner.

"They really are going to do something…" She whispered to herself just quiet enough for us to not hear her. "They're doing something on their phone? A name… School…? Huh…!?"

Akira pressed the button to start the transition. We entered into the other world. To show that we made it, the castle was right in front of us, and on top of that, we were in our other clothes and our mask were firmly on our face. "All right! Time to bust on through!"

"Damn straight Ryuji!" I pumped my fist again, I was ready to kick some ass! Though… we were all shocked again, to hear a familiar voice behind us.

"What is this!?" Takamaki came running up to us at that moment. I was honestly shocked by this one. So was Ryuji, who took a step back in shock.

"T-Takamaki!?"

"You have gotta be joking…" I rubbed the back of my neck. How the hell did this happen!

"Those voices… Sakamoto, Gekido!?" Takamaki was shocked to see that it was all of us standing there. "And… are you Kurusu-kun!?"

"Wh-wh-why are you here!?" Real smooth there Ryuji, totally nothing suspicious going on here! Takamaki seemed just a frustrated as we all were!

"How should I know!?" She place her left hand on her hip and her right hand on her forehead. "What's going on? Hey, where are we…!? Isn't this the school!?"

I looked over at Morgana to see that he was practically drooling over Takamaki. "Dude, seriously, that's kinda weird."

"Wh-what!?" Morgana quickly tried to regain his composure. "I-I see. Perhaps she was dragged in because of that app thing. If multiple people can enter with the person who uses it, it stands to reason it'll pull anyone nearby."

That made a lot of sense when you thought about it. Though, I did still notice his attempt to change the subject. "Okay, but nice try there Morgana."

"Shut up!" The cat jumped up in frustration at me, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. "I was simply trying to explain why she's here!"

"Wait, so THIS is related to Kamoshida!?" Damn, she actually picked up on that pretty quick… I sighed rubbing the back of my neck. I was starting to do that quite often recently.

"Anyways, you gotta leave!" Ryuji was quick to try and get Takamaki outta the Palace. Which was honestly, probably for the best. That way she wouldn't get hurt. Takamaki stomped her foot defiantly at us and waved her arms in a wide swipe.

"No!" I figured that she was determined to help us take Kamoshida down. We couldn't let it happen. Not unless she suddenly got a Persona outta nowhere!

"Takamaki-san, calm down." Takamaki-san turned to look at me. Her eyes showed the same anger as her yelling at Ryuji. I remembered at that moment that my mask made it difficult to see my eyes and my expression. I hoped like hell that moving the mask up farther on my on my head wouldn't summon in Jekyll… That would make this impossible to explain! Oh, absolute relief that the mask slid up to my forehead. I knew that my my face had a look that said that I was"Look, it's dangerous here. I know you wanna help us, and believe me, you are the one person who deserves to take that son of a bitch down!"

"Then please, let me help you guys!" Takamaki's eyes and expression softened. It seemed like her view of me had also softened. I wanted to let her stay… there was just far too many things that could go wrong with her here… I didn't want see anything like that happen to anyone after the last few close calls we had in this god forsaken place! "I didn't help Shiho before… You tried Gekido-san! So, let me help her this time!"

"I'm sorry Takamaki…" I sighed and looked away from her. I felt terrible, even more than earlier… "It's far too dangerous."

"How is it!?" Takamaki got frustrated again. Though, her frustration was about to be replaced with shock.

"The Shadows are going to find us if you make a scene." At least Morgana would be the one to explain. We would sound crazy trying to explain Shadows to Takamaki. Morgana, while being a monster cat, would have been the only one that sounded sane explaining Shadows.

"No way!" Takamaki recoiled in shock and maybe a little bit of fear. "It talked!? Oh my god, it's a monster cat…!"

"Monster…?" I felt a little bit bad for Morgana, though… it was still a little weird that he seemed infatuated with Takamaki. I placed my hand on his shoulder.

"You better explain what's going on!" She got right back into her defiant stance. "I won't leave until you do!"

Ryuji turned to look at us, being defiant himself. "Looks like we gotta force her. But… how're we supposed to do that?"

"Just take her back to where we came in." Morgana leaned past my side so he could see the bleach blonde. "That's how it worked last time, right?"

"O-oh, yeah." Ryuji sounded shocked just by Morgana's statement. He looked to both Akira and me. "Can you guys lend me a hand?"

"I feel bad…" Akira pulled one of his hands out of his pocket and I could see that he really did feel bad. "I mean, it was her best friend…"

"We can't deal with Kamoshida if we don't!" He was right, that's why we were here. We couldn't keep protecting her like Akira and Morgana did for me and Ryuji before.

"...I know." Akira and Ryuji turned to me. I held my hands up quickly as their gaze feel on me.

"I am not forcing her out of here." With that they both turned to Takamaki. Who got a puzzling look on her face.

"What're you-" Takamaki tried to get answers out of us, but Ryuji interrupted her.

"We'll explain after everything's over!" Ryuji, Akira, and Morgana started to walk toward the girl who took a step or two back. As this was happening I went to move my mask into place. Though I did get to see that Ryuji placed his hand near Takamaki's rear.

"Hey! And just where are you touching!?"

"Whoa, sorry, I didn't mean-" Ryuji really quickly moved his hands away from her, but quickly realizes what he was trying to do. "...That's not important!"

"You guys seriously- Ah!?" With that, they did a quick shove and Takamaki disappeared through a distortion back into the real world. Ryuji sighed and dropped his head quickly. He turned back to us with a serious look.

"We better be careful from now on when we use that app…" Morgana freaked out at us for a moment.

"You should've checked the tools you used!" I held my hands up and kinda held and took a step back. "Why do I-the one who was just watching-know more about it than you two!?"

"Sh-shuddup!" Ryuji wasn't really able to come up with a retorte. "Geez, Takamaki found out right when we were startin' off… We gotta deal with this fast!"

"I agree with that." I placed my hands in the pockets of my chest length jacket. "We should start to move out soon."

"That girl's name is Ann Takamaki, right?" Morgana looked up at me and Ryuji. He didn't wait for us to answer as he looked down and too the side. "Lady Ann…"

"Again… seriously Morgana?" I raised my eyebrows at the black cat. He looked back to me with a frustrated look on his face. I smirked at him for a moment.

"Would you knock that off already!" Morgana jumped up at me like earlier. I chuckled for a moment once again.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"The Shadows have noticed us." We all were hidden by the "Shujin Academy" watching the castle. "You better brace yourselves, got it? We're counting on you, Joker!"

"Joker?" Ryuji and me were both confused. "That a nickname?"

"Don't refer to it in such a lame way." Morgana got angry at us for a moment. "It's a code name. What kind of stupid phantom thief would use their real name!? I'm not down for that! And there's no telling what kind of effect yelling our real names will have on the Palace… It's just a precaution."

"A code name!?" My eyes got wide in excitement. "Okay, now that sounds badass!"

"So, why's he Joker?" Ryuji rubbed the back of his head. Morgana turned to Akira again, making Ryuji and I turn towards the transfer student.

"Because he's our trump card when it comes to fighting strength." I nodded at the name, it was badass. At least, I thought so.

"Not bad." Akira nodded in agreement as well. "I really like it!"

"It's settled then!" Morgana was very happy at that moment. Well, I started working through the thought, making sure that I would call Akira, Joker. It seemed a bit easier than I thought. It was kinda like a nickname for him. Morgana turned and looked up to Ryuji. "Next up is you, Ryuji. You'll be… Let's see… 'Thug.'"

"Are you pickin' a fight with me!?" Ryuji slammed his foot down at the cat monster. "I'll choose it myself! Hm… When it comes to me, It's gotta be this mask. Honestly, I actually kinda like it. What if we named me after this?"

"Fine…" Morgana sighed in frustration at Ryuji. "Fine… Why not 'Skull' then?"

"Ooh!" Ryuji pumped his fist in excitement. "That sounds awesome! I'm Skull!"

"Okay, so now it's time for Gekido's code name." Morgana, Aki-Joker, dammit, and Ryuji. All three of them got a curious look. "Hmm… what about, 'Anarchist,' going for something like Ryuji?"

"Oh, hell no!" I flinched away from the terrible idea. I did not like they way that sounded. Besides, I did not want to be called that! "What do you got Ryuji?"

"How about…." Ryuji rubbed the back of his head while he started thinking. "'Punk!' Huh, huh, that's pretty cool right?"

I raised my highbrows at Ryuji, though, I know he couldn't see it. "...No. Akira?"

"'Lookout?'" Akira shrugged his shoulders at me. I nodded for a moment thinking about it. "You did say you could be one for us."

"Yeah, I like that one better." It was better, but I really didn't care about it too much. Then… it hit me, I already had a code name! One that I really liked as well! "Though… I got a better one. What do you guys think of 'Specter!?'"

"'Specter,' huh?" Ryuji nodded and smiled at me. "Yeah… that sounds pretty awesome!"

"Okay, so Hisoka is Specter then." Morgana got an evil smile. "Well, it's better than Skull at least!"

"You pickin' a fight!?" Ryuji stomped a foot towards Morgana. I rolled my eyes at the two, I felt like this would be a normal thing. Ryuji grumbled under his breath for a moment. Then he turned back to us. "Anyway, what do we do about this one's code name?"

"What do you guys think?" It seemed like Akira didn't have an idea about what to call the cat. I honestly didn't have one either, so I just shrugged. Ryuji took a quick moment to think about a code name.

"...How about Mona?" Ryuji smirked about his suggestion.

"Are you seriously going to call him the mispronunciation of his name that you did the other day?" I raised my eyebrows at Skull.

"Shuddup. It's a decent code name at least, right?" Skull was still smiling, I was finally trying to get a hang of his code name.

"Decent enough." I sighed and turned to Joker. "What do you think about it Joker?"

"I think that works." Joker smirked at us.

"Well, if Joker thinks it's easier to call me that, then I'll go with it." Morgana seemed pretty agreeable with Skull's suggestion. I was kinda shocked honestly. It was a bit weird with how much they were fighting recently. "All right. From here on out, we're Joker, Skull, Specter, and Mona. We need to be absolutely thorough about using those code names from now on!"

"All right!" Ryuji, or Skull I mean, sounded excited about it. I was kinda excited, but I was still worried about what was going on. "Let's go nab this Treasure thing!"

"You said it!" I took a deep breath, there was many ways this could go right. There were many ways this could go wrong. Though, there was also many ways this could go right. Today was going to be the first day that I truly used my Persona for the first time. I know I used it the other day, but that was just instinct. Now I had to use it more than once… God I was hoped that it would be as natural as the first time.

"Hold up you two." We both turned toward Mona who was pulling something up out of his pockets. And showing off that Mona had real life Hammerspace, the cat pulled out a long metal pipe and and straight sword out of his damned pockets! My jaw dropped seeing him pull that stuff from seeming nowhere! "Me and Joker already have weapons, but you two need some still."

"What the hell!?" Skull's jaw was also about to hit the ground. I noticed that Joker's eyes were a bit wide as well. "How the eff did you fit those in there!?"

"It's part of the distortion that's affecting my body…" Mona turned and looked down toward the ground. I kinda felt bad for bringing it up. "Anyways, I only have two weapons here. So you two will have to figure out who get's which one."

Me and Skull looked right at each other and immediately spoke up at the same time. "Straight sword!"

"Pipe!" Skull's smirk was wide. I back away for a moment to let him grab the pipe that he wanted from Mona's grasp. I grabbed the sword from Mona right after Skull grabbed his weapon. "Damn! I could do some real damage with this thing!"

"Good, cause we are going in!" Joker smirked at us, and we all quickly moved up to the hole that we kept coming in and out of. We quickly jumped up and crammed ourselves through the air vent once more. Skull called out from behind me as I was jumping up into the vent.

"Looks like they don't know 'bout this way in yet." Morgana spoke up to us as we were about the crawl in through the door.

"Joker, Skull, Specter…" He probably just wanted to us to remember the code names. "Are you ready? Let's go!"

We all nodded, and with that we jumped back into the castle. Akira was ahead of me and stopped by the doors. He looked back to us as we all jumped into the castle. We moved farther in and Joker went to open another door across the hall from the room we were in. Though, we were all stopped once we heard voices coming from the entrance. "Praise be to King Kamoshida! Death to the intruders!"

Ryuji was caught off guard by the chanting. "Wh-what the hell!?"

He moved up to the door leading to the entrance hall. His eyes widened. "Hey look! Ain't that…"

We all moved up a little closer to the entrance hall and noticed that there was a sh*t load of guards! In front of them on top of the staircase and standing in front of a painting of Kamoshida as a golden armored knight was the bastard's shadow! I felt my anger growing as I saw him! "Those intruders the other day were quite entertaining. However, I can't allow that trash to ransack my castle! Strengthen the security! Kill them on sight! I'll reward whoever brings me their heads."

I noticed that there was a golden knight, similar to the one from the other day was standing in front of the rest of the guards. Though, like mindless slaves, they all started to chant once more. "Praise be to King Kamoshida! Death to the intruders!"

"Hey, Mona." Skull leaned back into the hall and looked to Mona. "Can't we just beat the crap outta him and call it a day?"

I rolled my eyes at Skull's question. That was a dumb idea in the first place! If we tried, we would get destroyed immediately! "Look at all the soldiers, idiot! It'd be suicide. And I'm sure you don't want a repeat of last time. Besides, don't you want him to confess his sins? There's no point beating him up. We need to steal his materialized desires… The Treasure."

"I agree with Morg- I mean, Mona, on this one." Despite the fact I wanted Kamoshida to feel all the pain he put Suzui through, I knew we couldn't do much against that many enemies at once. "We would get destroyed in seconds of that fight starting…"

"Fiiine." Ryuji sighed heavily as we told him not to go gung-ho and start fighting all the Shadows in the next room. "So, where is it?"

"It has to be somewhere in the depths of this castle." Mona stated that as if it was a matter of fact. We learned that even if he knew a lot about these Palaces, he hadn't stolen a Treasure before. "Let's infiltrate further in while he's out here!"

"Sounds good to me." I stood up and leaned against the wall stretching my arms out above my head as I stood up. Everyone stood up quickly. "Joker, we got your back."

I placed my right hand on his shoulder and gave him a thumbs up with my other hand. We went back to the door Joker tried to open up a moment ago. Akira opened the door and recoiled in shock by failing his arms around randomly. It was kinda funny to see honestly. Though, I did get to see that he recoiled due to there being a Shadow in the room right in front of us. We all quickly hid on either side of the door. Akira sighed as we got into cover. "That was too close…"

"Dammit, there's a guard over here too…" Ryuji growled for a moment, though that was replaced by barely contained excitement. "Should we kick its ass?"

"Hold on…" Morgana held his paw up at Skull to try and get him to calm down a little. He looked like he was in thought for a single second, then he started up. "Hmmm… This might be a good opportunity to teach you something… All right, Joker! Are you ready to take it down?"

"Let's go." Joker ran into the room quickly and slashed his knife at the guard which reacted by exploding into the goo. The goo reformed into the the form of the fairy. I had a feeling that there was going to be a lot of those little ones around here. We all shoved ourselves into the room, but the distortion of the room seemed to expand. Almost as if the Palace knew we needed the space to fight the Shadow! I was kinda surprised by this, but not enough to try and bring it up as I was certain the Mona would just say something about the distortions and the affects of it on the area around us.

It was just nice to know that if we need the room to fight… we would get it! Mona went into teacher mode once the room gave us the space to fight. "Remember how I taught you Hold Ups and All-out Attacks? I'll teach you their practical use now."

I drew my sword and placed the tip into the ground, as it was a tad bit too heavy for me to freehand it at the moment… I need to get a bit more strength back in my arms for that. Though, I kept my right hand on the handle at all times. I knew that I would need to strike quick if the Shadow came at me. I also figured that now was the time to heavily focus on Morgana's lessons! "There's another use for Hold Ups besides simply defeating enemies. Shadows are being born from people's hearts, so naturally, they can talk too. In other words, you can communicate with them. Get it?"

That was an interesting thing to note. Though, from the sounds of it, none of the guard Shadows were anything like Kamoshida's, so I guess we weren't going to be killing a random person's personality! Which that thought gave me a little bit of confidence to fight these things with my full force! "If you talk to them when they're cornered, they might offer money or items since they don't want to die. In fact, talking has a better chance of scoring something great, as opposed to just offing them. Well then, let's do the first step: Knock all the enemies down, and do a Hold Up!"

Akira pulled out his pistol and pulled the trigger. The bullet whistled through the air and slammed into the stomach of the fairy. I smiled at the black frizzy haired thief. "Nice shot!"

Joker and Mona came running up to the fairy. Joker in the front and Mona in the back of the Shadow. I looked to Skull nodded toward the downed Shadow. Skull charged forward and slammed his pipe in his hand and trying to look as threatening as possible! I held my sword toward the fairy, my hand and arm were shaking too much to seem threatening. The Shadow was shocked at the sudden attack. "Seriously!? You guys are the intruders that King Kamoshida was talking about…? It can't get worse than this… What're you going to do with me!?"

Akira stood there for a second as he thought about what to ask for. Then he ask the Shadow for something. "Give me an item."

"Huh?" The Shadow was even more shocked than when it was knocked down. "So you'll let me live if I just give you something?"

"Well, something along those lines…" Morgana sounded smug, though for once I didn't blame him. We had the upper hand in this fight. "Now let it be money or items. Just cough it up!"

"But, this happened so suddenly…" The fairy suddenly sounded very scared about the situation it was in. "I actually don't have anything on me… I-I usually do though, you know!?"

"W-wait, what?" Morgana looked like all the life was just sucked out of him… I wasn't able to hold in my chuckles. It was an odd situation, we were going to let this Shadow live, but… it didn't have anything to give us. "Oh… This isn't how I was planning this to go. Uh… Anyway, it can't be helped if that's the case time for you to go to hell."

I couldn't help but feel that, that was a little too harsh. Though, if we let it go without anything in return, it could easily get us caught… Though, the Shadow was not willing to go out like this. "W-wait!"

"Sorry, but we're in a hurry."

"No, wait up!" Mona stopped and raised an eyebrow at the Shadow. "Can't we work something out? Don't kill me, please! Won't you let me go?"

"You chose the wrong enemy." Joker sounded like he didn't have any emotions in his voice. The fairy rolled it's eyes at him.

"Ugh!" The groan was a little weird coming from the fairy. "Sorry, but that sounded really lame. That was the best one liner you could come up with? I say cheesy stuff like that all the time too, though. I guess I'm more like you than I thought. Whoa, I feel different! Something's happening!"

"What the…!?" Mona seemed shocked, I guess this was a first him as well. "What's going on!?"

The fairy quickly got up, but everyone was still on edge and pointed our weapons at the Shadow once more. "...Oh yeah, I remember now! I don't belong just to King Kamoshida… I'm an existence that drifts about in the sea of hummanity's souls… My real name… is 'Pixie!' I'm Pixie! From now on, I'll live on inside your heart!"

Then, the Shadow started to glow a bright blue as it changed into the shape of Akira's mask and slammed itself on his mask and disappeared after a quick flash of blue fire. All of us were taken off guard! That was amazing! Mona was the most surprised by this. "What was that just now…? What happened…!?"

The distortion around us quickly changed the room back to normal. Which, now that I got a good look at the room, it was very small with four tables and two benches for each table. There was one other door besides the one that came in through. Skull was the next one to speak out in shock. "Wh-what the hell was that about? The enemy got sucked into Joker's mask!"

"I-I have no idea!" I was right, it was a first for Mona, just as it was a first for us! "I wasn't expecting that either…"

"It was kinda awesome though!" I put my hand on Akira's shoulder and shook it a bit. "I kinda hope you can do that more than once!"

Joker rubbed the back of his head with a smug smirk on his face. Though, in our distraction, we didn't notice that another guard had walked up behind us! "Intruders!? Halt!"

"Crap, they noticed us!" Skull was so shocked by the sudden Shadow's appearance. I just kinda rubbed the back on my neck again.

"I'm really not that shocked, I mean we were kinda distracted and not trying to hide at all…" The guard shuddered and dispersed into the black liquid goo. It recombined into the forms of two of the two horned horse that nearly killed Akira and Mona the other day. One more, the room distorted into a large area for us to fight within. Joker stood still as the two beast prepared to charge us. Their hooves scraping across the stone floor beneath them!

"I got this." Joker stepped toward the monsters with confidence. Then, they started to charge us, but the moment they did… Joker ripped off his mask. I was very confused since only Skull's Persona could knock them down. Though, before we could do anything, I realized that it was not Arsene that was summoned, but was instead Pixie! She lifted her hands as sparks started to fly from her palms. A moment later, a lighting bolt struck one of the two horses. It also stopped the advance of the second horse!

Mona was so shocked by everything that Joker was proving that he could do right now! "I-is that the Shadow from earlier!? Don't tell me… Did you take the Shadow's appearance and powers as a Persona!?"

Joker got his evil smile and turned Pixie toward the second two horned beast. The same sparks flying off her hands. The lighting struck the beast a moment later! "Come on, let's take them down!"

Joker called for an all out attack, it was finally time for me to use my sword. The shock of Joker having a second Persona was quite a big shock! We all scattered around the Shadows in blurts of motion. I did my part by slashing my blade along them as I shot past. Once we were done, Akira dropped down and adjusted his gloves just in time with the Shadows exploding. "Show's over!"

That was pretty awesome, but Mona was too confused to let what just happen slide. Something that I liked about the cat monster. He needed answers. "Holy… Does that mean you can wield multiple Personas?"

The room shrunk once more, leaving us back in the room we were just in. Skull turned to Mona with his jaw hanging open. I did the same, but just wide eyes, no hanging jaw. "H-hey, Mona! What was that about!? What did Joker do?"

"I'm also, super curious about that…" I was amazed, not only did this Phantom Thieving seem natural to Joker, and he was a great fighter, but now this!

"He sealed the enemy's appearance and powers into his mask, and made it his new Persona…" Mona seemed very serious about this new discover. "I've never seen anyone do it before… I didn't even know it was possible!"

"It's nothing important." Joker kinda shrugged at the statements made. But boy did we disagree with that.

"You say that… but only one heart exist per person, so normally a person can only have one Persona." Skull scratched his head at Mona, then he looked to me.

"But what about Specter?" We all turned to look at Skull. "Doesn't he have more than one Persona?"

"Well, I don't think that's the case." Mona looked my square in the eye as he spoke. "If I'm right, your Persona, Specter, is one that has multiple names."

"Well, it is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." I rubbed the back of my neck, I really didn't think that mine was all that special compared to Joker's ability.

"Still, that being said, I've never seen a Persona that transforms either." Mona looked toward the ground while being lost in thought for a brief moment before snapping out of it. "That being said, this is incredible! That ability will give us a huge advantage in battle! All right, try to do that even more if the opportunity arises! You guys better help out too, Skull, Specter!"

Skull got even more fired up off of Morgana's statement. Honestly, I did too! "Hell yeah! We'll hold every last one of 'em up!"

"Eff yes!" I pumped my fist in excitement. "Nothing's gonna stop us from taking that bastard down a peg!"

Mona's eyes turned into golden sparkles as he looked at Joker. "Hehe, I like you even more now! I really do have someone special on my hands!"

With that thought in our minds, we set off once more! There was nothing Kamoshida or his Shadow could do to stop us now! Or at least we thought so… but it seemed like a higher power had other thoughts in mind… Especially since a certain app was finding it's why onto a certain someone's phone…

Chapter 9: Birth of a Femme Fatal

Chapter Text

Date:April 15

Location:Kamoshida's Castle

Current Objective:Steal Kamoshida's Treasure

"Guys, there is another hall through here." I peeked through the door that we hadn't gone through. I could see that there was another doorway to on the wall opposite of the one we were coming from. There was also one farther down the hall. It seemed like a small side hall.

"There any enemies in there?" Skull crouched next to the door besides me. His hand on my shoulder. Joker and Mona were watching the other door for any more guards. We didn't want to got caught like that again. Next time it could be a whole squad, and while we were proving we were strong… we couldn't take on too many enemies at once.

"No, the hall seems clear, but that doesn't mean that they won't just come out of the doors I can see." I stood up and moved away from the door. Turning back to Mona and Joker, I waved for them to move over to me. "There are two doors. I don't see any real way for us to get caught in there."

"Good." Mona put his paw under his chin in thought. "We can't just sit here and wait for more guards to show up."

Joker nodded, but he scratched at the back of his head. Joker looked up to us with a curious look on his face. "So how do you guys think we should proceed?"

"We need to keep goin'!" Skull clenched his fist, he wanted to plow on through the Palace so that we could take the Treasure quick. That way Kamoshida would be dealt with quickly. "We can just take out any enemies that come at us!"

Mona sighed heavily at Skull for his suggestion. "You moron, we can't just take out every enemy that we come across! We would exhaust ourselves way too quickly. It would make it much easier for us to get taken out!"

"What'd you say!?" Skull stomped toward the monster cat. Mona growled at Skull, I rolled my eyes at the two.

"So that's one for stealth and one for all out war." I rubbed the back of my neck, despite how I felt about Kamoshida. I knew that we couldn't attack every single Shadow that came across our path. So I agreed with Mona. "Though, I have to agree with Mona here. We could have more problems going loud than we would going quite. With we are careful we could take out a lot of Shadows."

"Fine…" Skull sighed heavily at my choice to go with the cat's plan. "I mean, we would have to fight a sh*t ton of enemies…"

"Alright, stealthy it is." Joker nodded and I opened the door just wide enough for us to slip through. We quickly found that the next room had only one door. The one that was on the opposite wall was another hall way with armor sets on either side of the wall, though, we couldn't go down that path as it was sectioned off by a gate. The bars of the gate were spear like bars that were stabbed into the ground. We moved up to the next door, Joker quickly moved into the room. On the other side of the door was a cobble stone room that had a few benches and pillars near the center of the room. There were also weapon racks that were lining the wall and in between pillars and benches. There were also three Shadows patrolling the room.

"We should probably sneak by all of these guys." Mona whispered to us as we watched the guards patrol to make sure we wouldn't get caught. "We should do this one at a time."

"Agreed." Joker looked around the corner of the frame to see if any of the guards could see us. The answer was apparently that none of them were looking this way as Joker, in a blur of motion jumped up behind the closest pillar. He waited for a moment, then he rolled behind the next pillar. Mona quickly moved to the first pillar. That was when two of Shadows patrolling the room came up dangerously close to the transfer and black cat. They both leaned really close against the pillars they were hiding behind. I was worried that we would have a hell of a time fighting three of them. I knew that we couldn't just sneak around forever.

Joker quickly moved around the one side of the pillar and Mona moved forward. Skull took Mona's place. I barely saw Joker move quickly and low to the ground to another pillar, if we didn't move quick they would all see us pretty quick. Mona and Skull moved quickly and quietly to their next spots. I sighed quietly and after a quick moment I took a running start and rolled behind the first pillar just in time for the guard to miss me disappear behind it. I noticed Skull quickly turn around the pillar as the Shadow that patrols around the pillar he was behind moved away from him. I quickly moved behind the next pillar.

I was getting very nervous about getting caught. Especially when a guard stopped right by my head. At that moment, Skull tapped my shoulder. "C'mon, we gotta move to the next room now!"

I nodded, and as soon as the guard started to move away from his position right next to me, Skull and I moved quickly, but low to the ground. We made it to the next door just before the guard could see us! Mona and Joker were waiting for us through the door, which they barely kept open for us. "You guys did good."

I smirked at the cat and Skull. That was pretty cool, it made me feel like a badass! Though Skull noticed a door right in front of us that waved with a hazy distortion. "Ooooh, it's another hazy-lookin' door! This is that thing! Uhhh, what was it call…?"

"I safe room…?" I raised my eyebrow at the blonde. "It wasn't that hard of a name to remember bro."

"Shuddup!" Skull grumbled at me in frustration of my poking fun at him. Mona spoke up from next to Joker.

"We can discuss our strategy inside." It was a good plan, and it was a perfect place to hide. "There are a lot of places even I don't know about in here…"

"Good idea." With that we entered into the safe room.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"This is that place from earlier…!" Ann Takamaki walked up toward the castle. She was so frustrated at those four for pushing her out of this place. She thought that at least Gekido would help her… though he did sound actually worried about her. Still, she couldn't believe that she made her way back to this place! That thought made her pull out her phone, a confused look on her face. "What's up with this app?"

She was staring at the app icon that had a red background with a black eye symbol in the middle of it. The app didn't have a name, but it worked similar to that of a navigation app. "I just said the words Sakamoto said, and I ended up-"

"Princess!?" A muffled and distorted voice interrupted her. Ann quickly shoved her phone back into her pocket and looked up to try and find the source of the voice.

"Huh?" What she say was three fully armored knights come charging towards her!

"Princess!" As they quickly moved faster than she could react, though she was so shocked that she froze in place. The figures grabbed her and started to drag her toward the castle!

"Aaaaaaaaaah!" Ann was kicking and screaming, trying to get away from them. But to no avail…

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Aren't there even more Shadows here than before?" Skull sounded worried, we had just gotten into the safe room. Though that didn't stop the sounds of guards run past the door. It sounded like they had somewhere to be in a hurry! "Just gettin' this far's been a real pain in my ass!"

"Not just yours Skull…" I rubbed the back of my neck again. We hadn't come very far into the into the castle. Though, do to our prior "disagreements," we did need to figure out how to go through the rest of the castle. "Though, I do admit that it sucks just sitting in here. They sure are up in arms about something right now."

Morgana groaned in frustration at us. "It's all because you guys provoked Kamoshida, you know. Still… he seems awfully on guard…"

"Anyways how are supposed to steal that treasure thing?" Skull brought up a good point, but I felt like there was something we needed to do first. Pointedly… getting to the Treasure in the first place. Though, I had a feeling that would be easier said than done.

"Don't be so hasty." Mona was quick to confirm that thought. "First we need to secure an infiltration route."

"A what…?" Skull seemed fairly confused about what that meant. I figured that could mean that a few things, so I went for a guess.

"Do you mean that we need to clear up an easy path for us to get to the Treasure?" I held my hand out to Mona hoping that he would answer. Which he got a smile on his face as I brought up the question.

"Hmm, that was a good guess, for an amateur." I felt a pretty good sense of accomplishment. I was starting to learn more about this. I hoped like hell it was going to go as smooth as it currently was. Well… as smooth as getting threatened with expulsion, and having Takamaki catch us as soon as we started Phantom Thieving, could go anyway. "You're right Specter. But honestly, I think we need a little more manpower in order to accomplish this. I mean we have a good team with four. At least one more person would be nice…"

"Hey, you say you don't have your memories and all, but somehow you still know about that kinda stuff?" Skull turned to us, his voice having a little bit of concern for us. "Do you guys think this thing's really got amnesia?"

"I don't think he'd go to such extremes if he didn't." I believed Mona, at least to an extent. "It could be something like muscle memory. You know, some things you just can't forget."

"I believe in Mona." Joker smiled at Skull with a calm and collected vibe. "He would have turned us over to him right away if he was with Kamoshida."

"At least you two are a step above that moron." Aaaaaaaand here we go again. It was getting a tad annoying still. Skull turned to Mona with a scowl on his face.

"Don't call me a moron!" The blonde started to scratch and rub his head in frustration. "You sure talk big, but what if it turns out you're just some stray cat in the end?"

"That can't be…" Mona shook his head and stared toward the ground. There was a lot going around in his head at that moment.

"Skull, that was a tad mean…" I smacked Skull on the back of his head while giving him a glare. Though, he couldn't see that.

"Dude!" Skull glared at me and was about to continue, but a voice outside the door stopped him.

"Still, why was the princess in such an odd place…?" That took me off guard, not only was I not expecting an enemy outside the door. But there was something interesting that they mentioned.

"Princess…?" Skull barely spoke up at all. Mona moved closer to the door and placed his ear against the door.

"I could have sworn we were pursuing the readings of an intruder…"

"It doesn't matter now." A second Shadow spoke up with his distorted voice from next to the first. "We must take her back to King Kamoshida!"

"Who's this princess they're talkin' about…?" Skull relaxed really quickly after the Shadows moved away from the door. Mona opened the door and slipped out the safe room. I was worried that he would get caught right away!

"I should probably look into this!" Skull sighed very heavily.

"And yet another question goes unanswered…" I could understand his frustration, but it still was kinda dumb that he kept getting this upset by Mona. And Mona by him.

"At least he has answered some of our question." I held my hand up by my face with it open. "There are just too many things that are difficult to understand in general. Like the Palaces and the nav."

"Yeah, they are mysterious… but Morgana's got 'em both beat." Skull acted casually about saying Mona's real name! Joker sighed at Skull, he forgot something important enough that we all agreed to it.

"Code names, remember." Joker smirked at Skull. "C'mon man."

"Crap, sorry!" Skull quickly realized his mistake. Almost freaking out about it. "What was I again? Oh yeah, Skull!"

At that moment, Mona came charging back through the door breathing heavily. "This is bad!"

"That was fast!" Skull seemed more worried about Mona's quick return other than the fact he had bad news!

"What's wrong Mona!?" I leaned in closer to the cat. There was something serious enough happening that Mona was freaked out!

"Your friend…" Mona gasped for breath. "Lady Ann! She's been taken by Shadows…!"

Skull was confused about that, I was trying to comprehend what he said. "Wait, what? We sent her home earlier."

Then… it hit me! "Guys, what if… what if Takamaki-san got the app herself!"

"That's what I was thinking!" Mona freaked out in the doorway, the door was still open, but we had bigger concerns!

"Oh no…" Skull finally put it together then and there. "Don't tell me it got put on hers just like mine and Specter's…!? Dammit! We let her out for her own safety, and she just came back in by herself…!"

"Mona did warn us…" I grumbled, I already had to deal with Suzui-san getting hurt today… I did not want the same thing to happen to Takamaki! "We gotta move now!"

"Agreed!" Joker straightened his gloves and motioned for us to follow him. Skull growled out in worry right after this.

"Dammit, we don't got time to be takin' a break!" Skull grabbed his mace. Mona growled from next to the blonde.

"We need to hurry and rescue her!" I nodded in agreement. "Follow me! I'll guide you!"

"Lead the way Mona!" I put my hand on my sword, we needed to take out anyone that got in our way immediately! We all busted through the door and Mona started moving ahead of us.

"She's just past that dining room-looking place! Let's go!" Everyone started to move back towards the last few rooms we went through, we made it to the door when there was someone yelling.

"Is this some kind of filming?" That voice was definitely Takamaki-san's. "Who's in charge here?"

"I am not very surprised by this." I sighed heavily, though that was a mistake as one of the guards we bypassed turned around to see us just kinda hanging out in the doorway.

"Intruders!" The other two guards in the room turned to look at us. They started to charge us. My three allies turned and stared at me with stink eyes.

"My bad…" I rubbed the back of my neck as everyone drew their weapons. Joker, Skull, and Mona all attacked the three guards. The guards shuddered and exploded into three flower headed creatures. They tried to corner us, but we were ready for them. The one in the middle charged Joker, who held up his hands to block the kick the flower tried to hit him with. The creature spun and dropped down enough so that all we could see was the flower on its head. Then Skull went and ripped his mask off.

"Get 'em Persona!" Skull screamed the words as the Captain appeared behind the blonde. The Persona grabbed his cannon arm and fired a literal cannon ball out of that arm. It slammed into the flower creature on the left. It sent the the little monster flying into a pillar. It exploded into black mist after it fell to the ground.

"You did it Skull!" Mona sounded surprised that Skull was able to pull off a kill. I ran up to the one in the middle, sword in hand. Due to its weight, I had to drag the blade on the ground behind me. As i got closer the monster, I placed my left hand on the hilt. I used both hands to swing the blade in an upward arc to the left. Then from left to right, the momentum making let go of the hilt. I finally brought my sword straight down. The flower creature, once more exploded into a black mist. "Way to go Specter!"

Finally, Joker removed his mask and summoned in Arsene. The Pillager flew at the last creature. The creature seemed like it was trying to run away, but the Persona caught up to it. The Persona raked its claws threw the Shadow. It was torn to shreds by Arsene's sharp claws. Once the battle was over, everyone turned to look at me. "What, I said was sorry…? Besides, we gotta get to Takamaki-san!"

"He's right, let's go!" Joker waved for us to follow him as he started running again. We made it back to the small hallway just outside the, what was apparently, a dining room! We were just about to pass the once gated hallway, but he could hear Takamaki's voice gasp from down the hall as she gasped.

"This way!" Mona called out as he started run toward the door on the other end of that hall. As we passed through the hall, there were sets of armor lining the hall, but one was scattered along the pedestal it was on. We once again heard Takamaki's voice.

"Look, I'll apologize for touching the armor without permission!" Skull groaned from behind me.

"She totally doesn't get what's goin' on!" I could hear the frustration in his voice. I sighed and moved my arms so that my open palms were up in the air by my head.

"At least she's somewhat calm..." Mona was probably the one out of the four of us who was completely on point.

"Let's hurry! We have to save her!" We didn't waste any more time. We moved quickly to the door. "Are you ready?"

"I'm good to go!" Joker placed his hands on the door. Mona nodded, we were all good to go!

"OK, let's go!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

Takamaki was tied up to a wooden X with her arms above her head and her legs spread apart. She was struggling against her restraints. Two of the guards that had dragged her into the castle. "What's all this about!? Seriously, I'm gonna call the cops!"

"So, this is the intruder." A familiar voice rang out nearby, but something was off. The voice sounded… distorted. Like it had two pitches. Shadow Kamoshida came into Takamaki's view.

"Kamoshida!?" Takamaki's voice sounded incredibly shocked by seeing him her. Why was he here? Then, someone else walked up next to Kamoshida that shocked Takamaki even more! It was… herself!? But in a skimpy leopard print bikini with cat ears and purple heels! "Who's that…? More importantly, what is this place!? Why's the school turned into something like this!?"

"I can't believe you mistook my Ann for someone like her." Kamoshida was ignoring Takamaki and started to laugh. "Are you afraid?"

"What is that outfit…?" Takamaki didn't seemed very… concerned about what was happening to her, as much as she was concerned with the sight before her. "Have you lost your mind?"

"I do as I pleas here." Kamoshida moved his hand up to his shin, opening his cape to reveal his pink underwear. "After all, this is my castle… The world of my desires."

"What the-!?" Takamaki was very confused… Well, more than she was before. "Wait… is this some red-light district!?"

Kamoshida seemed to chuckle at Takamaki's questions. It was kinda creepy… "What a live slave."

Takamaki started to struggle once more. She had enough of this crap! "This isn't funny! Enough of the bullsh*t, Kamoshida!"

Kamoshida scoffed at Takamaki's outrage and turned back to the cognitive Takamaki. "The girl's decided to tell me off. What do you think of that?"

The cognitive being started to sway and talk in voice that made it sound like she was high. "Talking back is, like… totally unforgivable…"

"In that case… she should be executed." Kamoshida turned back to Takamaki with an angry scowl on his face. Takamaki gasped at the statement and a guard captain started to slowly walk up to her. Her fear started to raise quickly… "Now then, how should I play with you? Shall I tear you into little pieces?"

"Are you kidding me…?" Takamaki realized how hopeless her situation was… That was when the door opened.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"This is effed up…" Skull was right! The site before us had my stomach in knots. It was ridiculous, all the girls from the volleyball team were laying on the ground topless and moving seductively. "Is that what he thinks of the girls on the volleyball team…!?"

"It makes me sick!" I growled at the site before me. "We will give that son of a bitch what's coming to him!"

"Hey, that's…" Mona pointed to the other side of the room where we could see that Takamaki was in trouble! She was tied up to a wooden X with a guard captain right in front of her! There were two other guards on either side of her. Then there was Shadow Kamoshida and the "Princess" Ann.

"Dammit, Takamaki-san!" I ran up towards the group, the rest of my group right behind me. Kamoshida scoffed at us.

"Just when I was about to start enjoying myself." I would have rolled my eyes at the statement if there wasn't a chance for Takamaki to be killed on a moment's notice! Takamaki did not seem shocked to see us. Mostly, scared about Kamoshida and the other her.

"What's the deal with this guy…!?" Takamaki was definitely scared! I couldn't blame her, we were in a similar situation the other day.

"You little…" Skull growled at the "king!" Though, he sounded unamused at us. Which was really irritating me!

"...How many times are you gonna come back?" He growled at us, but then he focused on me. "Especially you! Why don't you go run off like the little coward that you are!"

"No chance you bastard!" I stomped my foot at the Shadow in anger. I knew that he would do his best to poke at me, hoping to piss me off. Well, I already was! After seeing what happened with Suzui… Seeing her tear filled eyes disappear past that edge. Seeing her broken body laying there… I didn't stay at the hospital, because I could not stand to see her hooked up to all those machines… No, one person was enough in life… But I have to sit there knowing there are two in that situation because of me… "We are not leaving until we have Takamaki-san!"

"Oh right, the girl." Kamoshida developed a sh*t eating grin on his face and he turned toward Takamaki. "I bet you're just those thieves. You came here because you're pissed at me, huh? But ah… I forget that chick's name, but it's your fault she jumped, you know."

That caught me off guard. What did that he mean by that!? Takamaki was also caught off guard by Kamoshida's attempt to throw blame on her. "You were so reluctant to throw yourself on me that I had her take your place."

That was the straw that broke the camel's back! It was not just Takamaki, but me too! "You bastard!"

"I'm gonna send you to hell you mother fu-!" I started to step toward Kamoshida, but Joker grabbed my arm. "What are you doing!?"

"The guards!" Joker nodded toward the guard captain that had taken a few steps toward Takamaki. Dread started to fill my heart.

"No, don't!" I held a hand up to Takamaki, her eyes looked the same as Suzui's before she jumped… The terror and rage together.

The two normal guards on both her sides crossed their swords against Takamaki's chest. She flinched out of fear. "Take one more step and i'll kill her on the spot."

"Dammit…!" I heards Skull curse under his breath from behind me. This was someone that he had known for a few years up for death row right now! "This doesn't look good guys…!"

"Just sit back and enjoy the dismantlement show." The son of a bitches sh*t eating grin was getting to me once again! Though, I was worried for Takamaki…

"You son of a bitch!" I clenched my fist, Joker let go of my arm. I noticed that his own fist were clenched. There wasn't much of an option for us here… and it seemed like time was starting to diminish. Takamaki also started to scream in fear.

"No! Don't!" Her voice quivered in fear as she spoke… Kamoshida's expression turned into a very disgusting and pervy face.

"Maybe I'll start with her clothes…" I almost gagged at the bastard! Though the fake Takamaki just giggled at the "king…"

"You're such a perv!" There was no way that this fake Takamaki was anything like the real one. The real one… she would have kicked his ass for speaking about Suzui that way! I felt sick, everything that I saw in this bastard's heart did nothing but make me despise him more!

Skull got worried about the fate of our classmate. "H-hey, what're we gonna do!?"

"I don't know…" Joker's voice faltered… The situation was bleak… And there wasn't much of a way out. Especially as the guard captain slowly moved closer to the natural blonde.

"Takamaki!" Skull screamed out. I couldn't even breathe anymore.

"Is this… my punishment for what happened to Shiho…?" A pit now formed in my stomach, like I was about to make a speech in front of thousands of people…

"That's more like it." Kamoshida grinned again as he stared down Takamaki. "You should've looked like this from the start."

"Shiho… I'm so sorry…" The pit suddenly disappeared as the words made their way to my ears. I took a quick deep breath.

"It's not your fault!" I screamed to Takamaki-san. I just hoped that she would listen to me. "You can't give in!"

"Huh…?" She looked straight at me. Her eyes wide. "Gekido-san…?"

I saw some of the fire return to her eyes, Joker nodded with a smirk next to me. "You're just going to listen?"

"...You guys are right." Takamaki suddenly looked mad all of a sudden. "Letting this piece of sh*t toy with me… What was I thinking…!?"

"That's the way…" I whispered the words just barely under my breath. Though, Kamoshida tried to speak up once more. Though, he seemed angry.

"It's like I always say. Slaves should just behave and-"

"...Shut up!" Takamaki growled at the Shadow, interrupting him. "I've had enough of this… You've pissed me off, you son of a bitch!"

"My… It's taken far too long."Takamaki started to react in pain, as she threw her head back and i could see her eyes had changed to a bright yellow. Just like with Joker, Skull, and me when we got out Personas! "Tell me. Who is going to avenge her if you don't?"

Takamaki started to move her body to try and get rid of the pain in her head. Though, because of the restraints, she just kinda wiggled. "Forgiving him was never the option… Such is the scream of the other you that dwells within… I am thou, thou art I… We can finally forge a contract…"

Tears and silva were running down Takamaki's face. Her screaming had subsided, and I could barely hear her whisper. "I hear you… Carmen."

The natural blonde flung her head upwards as a flash of blue flame a red cat mask appeared on her face. "You're right. No more holding back…!"

Kamoshida recoiled away from the girl in fear. "There you go… Nothing can be solved by restraining yourself."

Blue flame appeared on the restraints that held Takamaki down. The flames appeared to weaken the bonds enough for her to break them off of her. She reached for the mask.Understand? Then I'll gladly lend you my strength."

With a scream of pain, Takamaki ripped the mask off of her face and a pillar of blue engulfed the girl. When it died down, behind Takamaki was a large red skinned woman wearing a red and black dress that revealed most of her cleavage and had a ring of roses around her hips. She had a black cat mask on and a cigar in her mouth. She had black twin tails. She wore red and black heels that went up most her legs. Finally, connected to the women by thorns were two male figures in tuxedos that had red Heart heads with heart eyes and vent like mouths.

Takamaki was there with the most angry face I had ever seen on her. Her clothes were replaced with with a dark red leather suite with a cat tail. Her hands were covered by long pink gloves. One of the guards that were behind Takamaki was so focused on her Persona that had appeared before him enough that he didn't have time to react as the small girl ran up to him and kicked his sword into the air. Takamaki jumped up into the air and caught the blade just into to slash through the fake Takamaki!

Her fake vanished in a cloud of black mist. Kamoshida, now terrified, back up behind his guard captain. Takamaki looked up from her attack and turned back to the bastard as she stood up. "You know what? I'm not some cheap girl you can toy with… you scumbag."

"Bitch…!" I snorted at the bastard's poor attempt of a come back.

"You stole everything from Shiho…" Takamaki dropped the sword as she took a few steps toward the Shadow. All four of us were now standing in front of her Persona. Skull was cracking his knuckles, Mona looked menacing toward the Shadows, Joker gave them a smirk, and I crossed my arms at them. "You destroyed her… Now it's your turn!"

Takamaki pointed straight at him. "I will rob you of everything…!"

"Well, talk about your last surprise Takamaki." I grinned at the natural blonde. This was going to be interesting.

"How dare you!" The guard captain sounded frustrated at us, and his two soldiers stood behind him, ready to act! "Enough of you insolence!"

All three of them exploded together and mixed together, and reformed into one Shadow. It was a demon with red skin that sat on a toilet… Not the most glamorous of enemies. Takamaki glared at the new shadow, just before she got a smirk on her face. "No, I've had enough of you. No one's gonna stop me now!"

She brought her hand up in front of her in a fist. She dropped down on her left knee with her right arm behind her and her left hand on the ground. "Let's go, Carmen!"

Chapter 10: A Bad Day with Good News

Chapter Text

Date:April 15

Location:Kamoshida's Castle

Current Objective:Steal Kamoshida's Treasure

"How dare you deny King Kamoshida's love, you selfish lass!?" The demon on the now floating toilet growled at us. "Pay for this insolence with your life!"

"That dirtbag just sees women as sexual outlets!" Takamaki growled back at the demon. Let me tell you, this was not something on my list of things that I thought that I would ever see in my life. "Don't make me laugh at that 'love' bullsh*t!"

Takamaki moved her hand up to her face, while moving her arm in a circle. "C'mon Carmen! Let's give 'em hell!"

Takamaki was the first to act, her mask was already off and Carmen was behind her. There were sparks that surrounded the demon. The air seemed to heat up around it, and in an instant a ball of fire surrounded it, disappearing as fast as it appeared. So, basically, it was like an incendiary grenade went off on the guy! The guard captain seemed like he took extra damage from the flames and it knocked him and his toilet down on the ground. Again, not what I thought that I would be seeing this day… Mona got excited. "You did it! They've fallen flat!"

We all charged forward and and surrounded the demon. Takamaki looked to all of us. "Let's get serious!"

We went for an all out attack, it was difficult to see what everyone was doing during the attack but I could hear Mona yell out to us from somewhere. "This will end it!"

We all stopped and were ready to take a victory lap, but we noticed that the Shadow was was still standing. On top of that, he was up again, and boy… he was not happy! "You insolent children… How dare you!?"

"Well, that's the first time that hasn't worked for us…" I took a few steps back dragging my blade behind me. I looked back to Mona, I had a worried look, but again, my mask covered most of my upper face. So he probably didn't see it… I had to remember that I would have to rely on my voice in the Palace… "Any reason we should be worried…?"

"No, it seems like Lady Ann has it's weakness." Mona looked to me as he was hopping back and forth in his battle stance. "The only big issue is that it's stronger than normal Shadows. Don't worry Specter, we got this!"

I smirked at the cat. I was going to enjoy this! If I couldn't make Kamoshida feel pain, I could make his guards feel the pain! "Pillage them, Arsene!"

I looked right back to Joker as Arsene appeared behind him. The demon thief flew straight toward the toilet demon and tried to rake his claws through it. But, once Arsene's claws made contact with the guard captain, they just scraped his skin! "Physical damage doesn't do much to it! Focus on magic attacks!"

"On it!" I yelled to Joker and run forward a few steps and ripped my mask off. "Time for an operation, Dr. Jekyll!"

Jekyll appeared with his cane in hand! He pulled a vial out of his jacket and pulled the the quirk off. A bright white light came spilling out of the container and slammed into the demon. He reacted in pain and looked right at me. He seemed angry that I had just attacked him. I clenched his fist and looked down with a face that screamed constipation… Though, the green wind energy from before was back, but it appeared as small whirlwinds around all five of us. I felt pain course through my chest as the wind knocked me back a few feet and the air ws knocked right out of me. I clenched my chest with a gasp for air. "Da...dammit that hurt!"

"Oh no!" Mona cried out from his spot in the fight and pointed toward Skull. "Skull's be knocked flat!"

We all turned towards the former runner and there he was on the ground, and he looked ruff… He was gasping for air for longer than I was. I made the mental note that Skull was more easily affected by wind, just like the Shadow was affected by fire more! The guard took advantage of our concern for Skull and a turquoise light emanated from it. Takamaki cried out to Mona. "What did that thing just do!?"

"It healed itself!" Mona grimaced at the giant Shadow. "I don't think it was by much though."

Mona pulled his slingshot out of his hammer space and started to shoot at the guard captain. Five small metal ball slammed into the demon in multiple places. It actually looked like it hurt like hell! Mona turned quickly ran up to Skull. "Skull, are you OK? Watch your health."

"Easier said than done Mona!" Skull quickly jumped back to his feet. "It's time for payback!"

Skulled ripped his mask off once with a scream. "Captain Kidd!"

The pirate appeared in all of his glory behind the troublemaker. Captain Kidd gripped his arm and pointed it straight at the Shadow. That familiar yellow glow appeared out of its cannon. The energy quickly struck the demon in a flash of yellow. Though it only proved to be unaffected as, while we knew he took damage, the Shadow barely took any. Joker was quick to turn to Skull. "Skull, looks like your attacks aren't very effective against this one!"

"Dammit!" Skull cursed at his luck, there wasn't much that he could do in the fight!

"Then I got this!" Takamaki yelled to us, and we all looked at her as she ripped her mask off once more. "Carmen!"

With that, the elegant women in red and black appeared. The sparks appeared around the guard captain once again. The explosion of fire raked the Shadow enough that it fell to the ground once again. Though, this time, it seemed like it wouldn't be getting back up! "To think… there would be a woman… who could stand up to King Kamoshida…"

Takamaki put her right hand on her hip and flipped one of her twin tails. "Pfft, outside of school, that guy's nothing but a pathetic loser!"

With that, the guard captain vanished in a cloud of smoke. Though Takamaki, immediately dropped with her hands on her knees and her head down. The rest of us turned to the now lonely king. He had recoiled in fear of our show of power! "Oh sh*t…!"

The bastard ran for it. The moment he was out of eyesight, Takamaki dropped the rest of the way to the ground. As she dropped, the blonde yelled at him. "Wait…!"

Skull wanted answers now, and he was going to get them. "Why'd you come here, man!? And more importantly, how!?"

"Hey!" Mona growled at Skull. "Is that how you speak to a woman!?"

"Well, we still need those answers…" I rubbed the back of my neck. Once more, they both had their points.

"Still." Mona turned back to Takamaki with worry in his eyes. "Are you all right, Lady Ann!?"

"Lady Ann…?" Takamaki seemed like she just now noticed Mona's presence. "Wait, what is this thing? Is it alive…? How can it talk? And… where in the world are we…!?"

"J-just calm down." Mona was starting to freak out a little bit. "Everything's going to be OK; don't worry."

"How am I supposed to calm down!?" Takamaki shoved her hand on the black cat's head. She used him as leverage so she could stand up. Once she was back on her feet, Mona's head bobbled back and forth like a bobble head. Then, just like the rest of us, she finally noticed that her clothes had changed. Which embarrassed her enough to try and hide herself from our views. "H-huh…? Why am I dressed like this!? When did I-"

She dropped to her knees with her arms crossed over her chest. "Ugh what's with this!?"

"Takamaki-san, calm down." I leaned down and placed a hand on her shoulder. She quickly looked up at me with a growl.

"How can you expect me to be calm!?" Welp… she had me beat there. We weren't even that calm when we changed, though.

"You uh… you have a point…" I leaned back to stand up and looked to Mona. "Got anything?"

"No, I'm stumped…" Mona looked toward the door that Kamoshida had run out of with a worried look. "A search party will be coming for us soon. There's no time to explain. We don't have a choice. Let's retreat for now!"

"We were just gettin' fired up, and you had to go and get in the way…" Skull scratched the top of his head in frustration. "Rgh, fine…"

Skull moved closer to Takamaki. "Here… gimme your arm. Specter, you take the other side."

I nodded at the at the blonde. We got Takamaki up and moved to leave the castle. With the exhausted girl.

TAKE YOUR TIME

We had made our way to subway near the school once we got out of the Palace. Takamaki had regained a little of her strength after a few minutes. Ryuji had just gotten back from getting drinks. He looked to Takamaki. "Which one you want?"

"Whichever's not carbonated." It seemed like Takamaki had also calmed down after leaving the Palace. Which was good, there was no way we would have been able to explain any of this to her if she wasn't calm. Ryuji looked to both bottled drinks in his hands.

"Uh, they're both actually." I snickered at the bleach blonde. He gave me a glare. "Don't give me that, I didn't know she wouldn't want a carbonated one!"

"It's still funny dude." I smirked at Ryuji. "Speaking of, did they have any melon soda left?"

Ryuji sighed heavily. "I've only got two hands dude…"

"That was not my question." I still still had my smirk on my face. I was enjoying this, not the making fun of Ryuji, but just talking with these guys. Yeah, I mean we fight dangerous monsters by summoning in other monsters in another world, but it felt like things were normal again.

"Yeah, the machine had a few bottles left in it." Ryuji nodded to the machines behind me. I pumped my fist in excitement.

"Yes!" Takamaki rolled her eyes, but I could see a smile on her face as she reached of the cola that Ryuji was caring. Ryuji held the soda out to her, once she took it, he turned to Akira.

"Here ya go." Akira took the clear soda from Ryuji with a smile on his face.

"Thanks Ryuji." As soon as Akira took the soda in his hands, Mona popped out of his school bag. I guess he was getting used to it.

"What about me?" Now, that would have been a sight to see. A small black cat drinking a soda. Though, the more I thought about it, the more I remembered big, mean, and constipated. Yeah, nothing would beat that for the day at least. Ryuji raised an eyebrow at Morgana.

"Huh?" Ryuji put some weight onto his left foot and crossed his arms. "But you're a cat."

I heard Takamaki giggle at the exchange between the two. It was good see that she calmed down after everything that had happened. Mona turned to Takamaki. "...Have you calmed down, Lady Ann?"

"Um… Morgana, right?" She didn't seem shocked about Morgana anymore, just confused. "I really am talking to a cat… This feels so strange… Oh, sorry! You're not a cat, right?"

"It's only natural that you're confused." Morgana seemed way too calm about Takamaki compared to the three of us. That was, well, it was annoying, but I understood that we didn't need to be on alert at that moment. "Demanding that you all of this right after what you went through is asking too much."

"Honestly, I still can't believe what happened." Takamaki seemed like she was shaken up by a memory again. "And that power… my Persona…"

"Yeah, that was our reactions to it as well." I rubbed the back of my neck. "It was overwhelming, but natural…"

"It's the will of your rebellion, Lady Ann." Mona interjected, I guess my explanation was lack luster. "With it, you'll be able to fight in that other world."

"So if what you told me is true, we can make Kamoshida have a change of heart, right?" Takamaki wanted to get right to business, I understood that. "Is it really possible…? Can we actually force him to confess his crimes?"

"The volleyball team's keepin' quiet about this, while teachers and turn a blind eye." Ryuji got serious as well. After all, there was a pretty good reason for it. "If guys like us try and complain, they're just gonna shoot us down. Goin' all in on this plan is the only choice we got."

"Yeah, everyone will take that bastard's word over us." I reached my hands up with my index and middle fingers up so I could do air quotes. "All because he says we are 'problem kids.'"

"Then let me help too." The tone in Takamaki's voice was deathly serious. "I want to make him pay for what happened to Shiho. He just keeps going like nothing happened, even after what he did to her… I'll never forgive him."

"You aren't the only one." My expression became a scowl. Me and Takamaki never really talked before, but now… we both had a reason to work together. It was kinda like me and Ryuji before as well. It was odd to think that this terrible thing had brought us together. "He needs to pay for what happened…"

Everyone nodded, but after a quick moment, Ryuji's eyes widened! "Wait, did you just say, 'let me help?' You mean you want us to take you along?"

"Don't act like I'm going to drag you down." Takamaki growled at the bleach blonde. "Weren't you watching? I can fight too."

Ryuji turned to both of us with a concerned look. "Hey, what should we do?"

"I think we should let her help…" I looked to Akira, I had an indifferent expression. She wanted to avenge Suzui, and I was not going to stop her.

"She was a big help in that fight." Akira pushed his glasses up to help give emphasis on his point. "She'll be great."

Morgana spoke up with his opinion as well. "I agree as well. We are lacking in manpower, after all. Don't worry, I'll protect her."

"Really subtle Morgana." I smirked at the cat. Morgana looked over at me and hissed. That made me laugh. "You say you're not a cat, but then you do things like that!"

"I am not a cat!" The cat nearly jumped out of the bag at me. I laughed again.

"I know, I know!" Though Takamaki was still very serious about coming along. "Look, even if you said no, I'd just go in alone."

"Oh right, she can go by herself…" Ryuji rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. Yeah, that was a bit of an oversight that we had already dealt with once today. That was not the something that we needed another run with. That could have been a hell of a lot worse then it was today! "I guess it'd be more dangerous turnin' her down… Rgh, fine…"

"Then it's decided." Takamaki's tone lighted up really quick after hearing all of us agree for her to join us. "Well, I hope we get along!"

"I'd say, so far, so good." I grinned at the natural blonde. All of us had gotten along fairly well so far. We also fought together pretty well. "Here's to keeping it up!"

Takamaki turned to me and Akira, her face was very serious once more. "I'm going to make Kamoshida atone for what he did. Not just for Shiho's sake… but for everything he's done. I won't let any more people suffer because of him. I'll do whatever it takes!"

I could tell that she had a strong fight resolve. It reminded me about my own resolve to stop this bastard! And soon, we would take him down! "Just let me know when you're heading back in… Oh wait! We don't have each other's info. Hey, give me your number and chat ID. And, um…"

We all pulled out our phones and exchanged numbers with Takamaki. She looked to all of us. "I'll be counting on you, then. Same goes for you, Morgana."

"The pleasure is all mine, Lady Ann." Takamaki nodded and walked away from everyone to head on home. Morgana watched Takamaki leave the area. "What a kind girl… Such admirable consideration for others… And the innocence to cast herself into the jaws of death to achieve her goal… She cares about her friends, and she's beautiful to boot… What a girl! She's captured my heart…"

"Dude." Ryuji had an odd expression on his face as he looked at the black cat.

"That's what I've been saying!" I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. Morgana's fixation on Takamaki was weird, but we still had other things to focus on.

"You know, it'd be better if this group could get together quick from now on…" That seemed to snap Morgana's attention back to reality!

"True." The cat seemed like he was in teacher mode again. "Our best option would be to make a secret hideout where we could discuss these things."

"A hideout, huh…?" Ryuji rubbed his chin at the thought. "I like the sound of that."

"I agree, that sounds so badass!" I grinned like a mad man, this was turning out to sound like an awesome deal! "That sounds exactly like what a Phantom Thief would do!"

"The school rooftop would work…" That was an awesome idea that Morgana had. No one would go up there, especially now that Suzui… Well… we wouldn't have anyone bother us. "It seems like nobody goes up there. For the time being, that will make the perfect hideout. I can't contact you from inside a Palace, so I'll stay in this world. That being said, I'll need someone to take care of me. I'm personally nominating you. You should feel honored."

"What!?" Akira seemed shocked, well he did just kinda invite himself in. Ryuji gota slightly irritated expression on his face.

"...This's all you." He didn't really sound like it though. "There's no way I can at my place."

"What about Hisoka?" Akira turned to me with interest in his eyes. And what seemed to be a bit of pleading.

"It'd be difficult to convince my aunt right now." I scratched the back of my head. Mistu would believe that would be a big issue. She worked late and would say that Morgana would be alone too long. Though, I could take him on some nights after school. "Though, if you want, there are some days that I could take him home with me. It helps that they we live in the same part of town."

Akira sighed at his situation. I believed that this had something to do his situation with his guardian. "That… that should be okay."

There was a voice started talking about the trains. Ryuji turned toward the train. "Well, we now have our hideout, so let's meet there tomorrow!"

With that he walked away. Morgana looked to Akira's face from over his shoulder. "OK! Let's go look at one of my new residences for this world."

Akira sighed again and looked to me. "Don't worry, I'll talk to my aunt about letting Morgana stay for a few nights."

"Thanks, not sure if my guardian will let Morgana stay with me." I figured it would be something like that.

"Well, let's hope we get some good answers." With that, the train came into the station and we left for home.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Hey, aunt Mitsu, you home?" That was all I got to say before I heard loud steps and quick breathes. A woman that was not a much taller than I was come running from the kitchen with a frenzied look on her face. Her short black hair was similar to mine. Her green eyes showed her worry and fear. She was wearing a blouse and slacks. "Hi… You O-"

Before I could finish even speaking my aunt Mitsu wrapped her arms around my neck. I could hear her breathing in sobs. "Oh thank god you're OK! I heard the news about the student that jumped from the school roof! I got so worried, especially when I couldn't get a hold of you!"

That was when I was reminded that our phones didn't have any signal in the Palace. I hugged my aunt back. "Sorry I worried you, my phone was dead."

"It's OK, I'm just glad that you're fine…" I felt her arms tighten before they relaxed and she stepped away. "That must have been scary today…"

"Yeah, it was someone I know… I-I watched her hit the ground…" Her face dropped straight back to into a frown. I had a feeling that I knew what she was going to say.

"I'm sorry… it must have brought back memories…" I nodded, my mind went back to Suzui in the hospital. "Well… I heard that she is stable."

"Yeah… I went with her to the hospital…" I rubbed the back of my neck and looked away from my aunt. Her eyes widened, I knew definitely knew what was coming next…

"S-so, did you see 'her…?'" I looked back to her and I could not see her eyes anymore. Her shoulder length hair covering her eyes. Still I took a deep breath and kept looking at Mitsu.

"No, I was there for my classmate, not mom." She brought her face up so I could see her eyes, they seemed void of light. This was nothing new… she had been the like this since the accident. She was my dad's sister, but my dad died in the accident. With me being severely injured and my mother… in a camo… She lost most of her family that day.

"Oh, OK…" Mitsu coughed for a moment and walked back into the kitchen. I followed her to see that there were take out containers on the counters and plates of curry on the table. "So, I got Leblanc curry for dinner."

"Ok, cool." I moved to take my seat on the other side of the table from my aunt. "So… I have a question."

"Huh?" Mitsu quickly brought her head back up to look at me. "What is it?"

"So, my friend that lives here in Yongen-Jaya found a… huh… a stray cat!" Making lying to my aunt was almost impossible. Mostly because she knew most, if not all my tells. Her eyebrows raised up as I mentioned Morgana. "He doesn't know if his guardian will let him keep it. We were wondering if…"

"Look, Whiskers…" My aunt sighed heavily. There it was again… "I don't think we can keep a cat here all the time…"

"It wouldn't be all the time!" I quickly put my hands up, that was the truth. It was crunch time. Do or die! "He thinks he will get to keep the cat most of the time! So, it would only be for a day or two at a time and after school."

Mitsu said again. She stayed in thought for a few minutes. I ended up taking my seat at the table before she spoke up again. "Well… as long as it won't be here alone for long periods of time…"

My eyes widened, I had just sat down, but I quickly got up from my seat at the table and ran over to my aunt and gave her a hug! "Thank you Mitsu!"

I felt her lips curl into a smile. "You're welcome Whiskers, now eat the curry before it gets cold!"

That was one problem solved! Now, we just had to take down Kamoshida!

TAKE YOUR TIME

It was getting late, and I was just about to go to sleep. I went to lay down when my phone went off twice. I grabbed the small computer and checked it. I had one message from two people. I was kinda surprised, I had a message from Takamaki and message from Ali! I checked the message from Takamaki first.

TA: Hey, Gekido. I wanted to thank you for today.

GH: What for?

TA: For trying to help with Shiho.

TA: You went up to try and talk her down while everyone else just stood and watched…

GH: But… I didn't help…

GH: I made it worse…

TA: That's not true.

TA: Gekido, she would have jumped without you there.

TA: You didn't make it worse.

GH: I guess…

TA: Seriously, you guys have done more for everyone that has been affected by that bastard then anyone else!

GH: ...Thanks, that helps.

TA: Of course, and Gekido…

GH: Yeah Takamaki?

TA: It's okay if you call me Ann, is it OK if I call you Hisoka?

That shocked me! This was a very personal thing for people to do… but, I did do a lot to help save her best friend… and we were going to be fighting alongside one another. It just made sense to me.

GH: Sure, it'd be odd not to after everything we've been through.

TA: Awesome! Well, see you tomorrow Hisoka!

GH: See you tomorrow Ann.

Well, if one good thing came out of today, it was that I had gotten another friend. Though, I couldn't ignore my old friends either. I checked my message from Ali.

HoneyOTU: Hey Specter! How'd that quest go?

SpecterYANA: It… went well.

SpecterYANA: Though, it's one of those quest that doesn't end the way you thought it would. Got a new part member to help take down the king though!

HoneyOTU: 0.0

HoneyOTU: Damn Rival!

HoneyOTU: It sounds like you're doing better now though!

SpecterYANA: Yeah, you helped me out a lot with that, thanks Ali.

SpecterYANA: I wouldn't have been able to beat it without you. You're the best MC.

HoneyOTU: /

HoneyOTU: I'm sure you could have, but thanks. Get some sleep my amazing Rival!

SpecterYANA: You too my favorite MC.

It seemed like things were going good for us now. I felt like life would just keep getting better and better from this point on, now all we needed to do was take Kamoshida down!

Akira's Confidant Ranks

New Confidant:Lovers:Ann Takamaki (Ability: Baton Pass)

New Confidant:Magician:Morgana (Infiltration Tools)

Chapter 11: Supply Run, The Doctor

Chapter Text

Date:April 16

Location:Gekido Household

Current Objective:Steal Kamoshida's Treasure

I was in rush, how the hell did I forget to set my alarm! I had barely managed to get most of my clothes on when I had to stop to quickly wrap my arms. It wasn't the best, but the wraps were good enough to hold. I quickly threw the bandages onto the table. That was when my hand brushed against something… I froze, slowly turning my head toward what my hand had brushed against. What ended up seeing was my camera. A wave of memories came rushing back to me.

My grandma's smile as she gave me the camera. My joy as my picture won a prize. My shock as I was first payed to take a family's photographs. My fear as I took pictures of what Kamoshida was doing. The anger when he threatened to smash my camera. Then… then, my rebellion to finally go against the son of a bitch!

"Well… why not go against him even more." My expression changed into a the most evil smirk that I have ever had. I gripped the black camera and placed its wrap around my neck. A wave of nostalgia hit me as the weight of my camera pressed against my neck. I took a deep breath and sighed in a happiness. "Well Kamoshida you son of bitch, hope this gives you one hell of a heart attack!"

I started to finished up getting ready for school and then started down the stairs. "Hey, Whiskers, I know you're going to be late but I'm working late tonight. I'll leave some food on the counter so you can get some food later. Have a good day at school, love you Whiskers."

"Love you too aunt Mitsu." I waved to my aunt as I quickly busted through the door. I didn't want her to see me with my camera, so I couldn't even stop to talk to her. I had to keep running through the back streets of Yangen-Jaya to get to the trains before I would be late for school.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Hey, is that Gekido-san with his camera?" I knew this would happen if I brought my camera. I wasn't told that I couldn't bring it to school, I was just always just too scare to bring it with. I know that Kamoshida would be pissed if he heard that I had it with me. Which is what I wanted!

"I bet he has pictures of all the girls he stakes on it!" Okay, that was ridiculous! There was so much about this that made no damn sense. Why is it that with when people hear one rumor, they immediately make things worse!

"Best to probably just avoid him…" I knew that I could take it. Besides, Kamoshida would just be content that I was being expelled soon! So I just kept on walking. That was a mistake on his part, but I would not be the one to tell him that! Though, my part was done, now everyone who believed Kamoshida was a good guy needed to do their part.

I waited a few hours, but just as lunch started, I walked past the P.E. office and I heard something. "What!? That trash has his camera!? Well, thank you for letting me know…"

I stopped to see if I could hear anything else. Though, I did hear quick moving feet. I decided that it would be best to kept moving. Specially since I would be easily noticed in my hoodie. I started to fast walk, I had left my camera in my locker, but I was starting to think that I would need to keep it on me so Kamoshida didn't break it. I heard the door open and heavy footsteps. I luckily had made my way into the stair well and tried to quickly so that way the son of bitch wouldn't find me. Unfortunately for me… he had the same idea as me. He found me at my locker. "The hell do you think you're doing!?"

"Getting my property from my locker." I pulled my camera out and Kamoshida grabbed it and tried to take it out of my hands. "Hey, let go!"

"I told you not to bring this back to school!" I yanked hard enough that pain shot down my arms. I yelped and let go as Kamoshida quickly tried going through the pictures! "If I find anything I don't like, I'll take this!"

"Then I'll bring it up with my guardian!" I rubbed my arms trying to get the nerves to calm down. Kamoshida laughed at me.

"I'll just tell the everyone that I found pictures of female students on here!" I put his hands on his hips with my camera in his hands. "I told you, no one will believe over me!"

He decided to ignore me and keep looking though my pictures. His face kept getting more and more frustrated. I did delete the pictures of his crimes, and I bet he really wanted to smash my camera, but if he did it with no reason… there would be issues. After a minute or two he shoved the camera back into my hands. "Fine, keep the damn thing… But if see you anywhere near my practice with that thing, me and you may need a case of 'self defense!'"

With that the bastard stormed off. I kept my blank stare until he was out of eyesight, there, my blank expression turned into an evil grin. "That felt good."

TAKE YOUR TIME

I was in class, my camera was in my bag so my friends couldn't see it. I wanted it to stay a secret for now. I was spacing off when my phone vibrating almost made me jump out of my seat! So I quickly and very quietly pulled my phone out.

SR: Hey, we're meeting up at the hideout after school, right?

TA: Don't text now. We're in class.

SR: Whoa! You mean you're actually listening to all this crap?

GH: I'm agreeing with Ryuji on this one.

GH: I've got too much on my mind to focus on school right now.

TA: Yeah, nothing is really sticking with me today…

SR: I know, right?

SR: Anyways, hideout after school?

GH: I'll be there.

TA: Where exactly is this "hideout"?

SR: The school roof.

TA: Wait, we can still go up there?

KA: Yeah, I guess people are too scared to go up there after everything.

SR: I'll yet you in.

SR: Welp, I'll be waiting. Just come on up once school's over.

KA: Gotcha.

SR: I'm gonna fine you if you're late!

"Hey,-!" Mr. Ushimaru yelled out looking straight at Akira. "You! Pay attention! Is that how you listen when someone's talking to you!?"

I could feel a murderous intent coming off of the middle aged teacher… He pulled his arm back and I felt bad for Akira… he was about to feel the Ushimaru bullet pitch… A piece of chalk flew through the air and smacked Akira straight in the head! Other students started to whisper amongst themselves. "Ooh… That looked like it hurt."

"He hit him right in the forehead…" Mr. Ushimaru's voice sounded a bit smug after that.

"That's what you get for daydreaming!" Almost immediately, he went on a small tangent. "Kids these days have no respect for their elders."

I felt so bad for Akia, but it was kinda funny. Though, I had been hit with it before as well. So I wouldn't hold it over his head.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Smile!" I had my camera up and ready the moment Ryuji opened the door for me and he was shocked to see my camera right in his face! The camera clicked just in time to get a hilarious face from the bleach blonde. I moved the camera away from my face.

"Hey… what the-!?" When I got a good look at the picture I got of him, I started laughing so hard that I doubled over! His nostrils were flared up his mouth was lopsided and his eyes were wide!

"Oh, I am saving that one!" I turned the screen for Ryuji to see his face. When he did, his eyes widened once again.

"Dude, what the eff!?" Ryuji didn't sound pissed, but embarrassed. "Please don't!"

"Don't worry, I won't show it to anyone." I smirked at the blonde. He sighed in relief that was until I spoke again. "Expect Akira, Morgana, and Ann!"

"Wait, what no!" I ran past Ryuji up to the other two students.

"What are you two doing now?" Ann raised an eyebrow at me as I slid to a stop in front of them. I placed my camera so that the two could see the picture of Ryuji! Ann tried to hold in her laughter, Akira actually started to laugh, and Morgana looked up to the bleach blonde. "Wow, that's a good look for you Ryuji!"

"Shuddup!" I snickered at everyone's reaction to the picture. It felt good for me to show people some of my pictures. "Let's just get goin'!"

"Hold… on…!" Akira held his hand up trying to stop his laughter. After a few moments, his laughter finally started to die down. Finally regaining his composure, Akira took a deep breath.
"Anyway, everyone ready to go."

"Hold on, it's still too early for us to go to the Palace." That was a big turnaround from how we were feeling about stealing Kamoshida's treasure.

"Wait, Morgana…" I leaned against the ventilation shaft behind me. I looked to the black cat with my eyebrows raised. "Why aren't we just going to and stealing the Treasure right now?"

"Don't underestimate the dangers of that place." That was honestly the best point that he could have brought up to us. "We need to prepare."

"Ain't that Persona sh*t we got enough to deal with it?" Ryuji got upset, he wanted to get straight back to the Palace. Morgana sighed at him, he was clearly frustrated.

"That's exactly what I mean when I say don't underestimate it." The glare coming from the cat felt like knives. I'm just glad they weren't at me. "You'll die if you mess up in there. So again, we need prepare beforehand."

"But… how exactly are we supposed to do that?" Ann did have another really good point with that. What could we even do to prepare, the weird medicine that Morgana gave us didn't seem like something that we could even find in the real world… So it sounded like we would have to go into the Palace to get that.

"I'm glad you asked Lady Ann." There was Morgana's teacher mode again. "First, we'll need to find better equipment for all of you."

"You talkin' about weapons?" Ryuji seemed to have calmed down and was on board with us. "I know a kick-ass place!"

"In that case, you can handle that side of things." Well, it was moving at a fairly smooth pace. "The only other thing would be stocking up on medicine. Fatigue is unavoidable in a Palace…"

"And where can we get medicine?" It was a good question, but I took a moment to think about it. Then it hit me!

"Actually I know a place." Everyone turned toward me. "There is a doctor Yongen, I got my painkillers from when I was going through physical therapy. She makes her own painkillers and I even heard a rumor that she makes energy boosters."

"We actually know that about that place, though not the rumors…" Morgana spoke up with an energetic look. "Well, then the three of us will head off for Yongen for today!"

"Wait, why the three of us?" Akira tilted his head to the side. I was a bit confused at why all three of us were needed.

"I won't be able to get close enough by myself!" That was true, a cat trying to get medicine would not work out very well… "Plus, Hisoka knows the doctor. They may be more willing to cooperate with us if someone they know is there."

"That does make sense." I nodded in agreement at the cat's statement. We broke for the day, we had a few good plans for a resupply. We would definitely be ready before the next time we went into the Palace!

TAKE YOUR TIME

"So, as a warning, she has a weird sense of humor." I held my arms up for a moment with an almost strained look on my face.

"What does that have to do with us getting medicine?" Akira raised an eyebrow at me. It really didn't have much to do with getting the medicine, but still.

"...Nothing…." I slowly closed my hands and lowered my arms down. "Anyway, let's get going."

"Wait, we need a plan to get her to give us the medicine…" Morgana called out to me as my hand reached the door. That was… well, yeah it was dumb of me to not remember that. Though, Akira seemed confident.

"We'll think of something." Akira smirked at us. I was beginning to realize that smirk meant that he had a plan in mind.

"...Well, I guess that's the only choice we have." Morgana took a moment to compose himself. "We'll just have to go for it. All right, let's step inside."

I pushed the door open and allowed the frizzy haired teen and the black cat go through the door first. When we entered into the clinic, I remembered the layout of the place fairly well. The blue door opened into a small waiting room that had red seats lining the walls, the row of seats by the door had a plant next to them and a window above them. There was a billboard and an eye chart seat above the other seats. There was an orange chain on against the wall that was on the far side of the door. A bathroom was in the far right corner of the room. Another blue door was straight in front of us. Right next to us was a small thing holding health brochures, there was a second one next to the bathroom. Finally, straight to the left of the door was a small window with shelves of medication.

There was a woman in the room with the meds. Her black hair was a disheveled bowl cut with her. Her nails were black, and her skin was smooth and pale. She wore a black studded choker and a silver necklace. She had a lab coat on, and under that was a small black dress with a blood red dress. Her name tag was clearly visible on her lab coat. It read "Tae Takemi."

I knew Tae for a few months now. Like I had mentioned, she was how I went to for my pain meds when I was going through physical therapy. She was a good person as far as I could tell. Akira went straight up to the counter. "Excuse me."

Tae looked up from her work. Without missing a beat she spoke as soon as her eyes met Akira's. "...Is this your first visit? Hm? I feel like I've seen you somewhere before…"

"At Leblanc." Akira loved his matter of fact statements. "Last night."

"Hmmm…" Doctor Takemi seemed lost in thought. "Well, whatever…"

I took a few more steps into the building and Tae moved her head to see who else was in her office. "Well, if it isn't Hisoka Gekido."

I gave an awkward smile and rubbed the back of my neck. "Hi Doctor Takemi."

"Are you here with this young man?" She pointed her pencil toward Akira with a curious look in her eyes. "Or are you here for another reason. A refill, perhaps?"

"No, no, like you said, I'm here with him." I pointed toward Akira. Though I realized too late that I could have said that I was here for a refill! Dammit! I was mentally face palming myself for that one! "He's not feeling well, and since he just moved here I thought I would show him to you!"

"Well, you'll have to pay my referral fee." Takemi closed her eyes and I think that she was laughing in her head. Akira went for his wallet when Tae opened her eyes again. A small smile one face. "That was joke. So, what are you here for today?"

After my blunder, I hoped that Akira had a plan for what he was going to say. "My body feels lethargic."

Doctor Takemi didn't say anything, just sat there silent for a moment. "...Fine. Please head to the exam room. Since he's your friend, you can come with Hisoka."

"Thanks Doctor!" with that, we moved into the exam room. She asked Akira a few question about his health diet. After that was done, she started writing something in her notes.

"...In a case like yours, it's usually just due to stress." Tae kept writing in her notes, she didn't look up for a bit. "I'm going to prescribe you some pain relievers, OK?"

Yes! That was exactly what we needed! This was going great! I knew that Tae would come in for us! "Actually, I still need to restock those… So let's go with sleeping pills instead. Sleep is the best medicine anyway."

And like that, our hopes were dashed against the stones… I never saw that coming… she usually always had stock of her medicine! "Which, type of pill do you want, a sweet-tasting one or a bitter one?"

"I want the painkillers." I was worried that Akira was pushing it now. There was too much that could go wrong just from that single statement… Tae finally put her notes down and looked straight at the frizzy haired student.

"Is that right?" Takemi new what she was doing and she went straight in for the kill! "And I bet you think you should have a year-long supply of them too."

Akira looked confused as he looked straight at the older woman. "You're not sick at all, are you? I'm not as dumb as I look, you know… I'm guessing you're here because you heard the rumors about me, huh?"

Akira was about to speak up, but I interrupted him. "Actually its for me!"

Everyone stopped and looked at me. The looks I got were either confusion or skepticism. I took a deep sigh. "My arms are still killing me, I can't even use them to pull myself out of bed… My doctor says that I don't need them anymore. So… so I had this guy come here and try and get me the meds… s-since I knew that if my doctor found out you would get in a lot of trouble!"

Tae stared at me for a few moments. She started to write in her notes again. "I guess high school kids have it tough nowadays too, huh?"

I was confused by her remake about that. Sometimes, I had no idea what Takemi thought sometimes. It was rather scary sight. "You should have just said so Hisoka."

"I-I'm sorry Doctor Takemi…" I looked toward the ground, I felt bad for lying to her. It always felt like she was looking out for me. "It's my fault… don't report this gu-"

"I'll prescribe you some medication Kurusu-san." Me and Akira both stopped and looked right at the doctor with shocked looks. "But only medication that will help you recover your health. Since your 'arm pains' make some task difficult."

Holy sh*t… she really did look after me… It felt good to know that someone other than my friends had my back. "I guess it's fine. You seem pretty earnest, and you don't look like you'll be any trouble. And I know you won't abuse any substance Hisoka."

"Thank you so much Tae!" I quickly bowed in respect to the woman! "You have no idea what this means to me!"

"Calm down." Tae set her pen down on her desk. She turned back to Akira, since he was my accomplice, he needed to know about her and her medicine. "This is my private practice. All the medicine I dispense is original. I have a license to make my own formulas."

She didn't turn to look away from Akira as she crossed her legs, though, she slowly moved her eyes between the two of us. "You've likely seen them being sold. At various hospitals. It's your responsibility to take care of yourself. So if that's OK with you, stop by anytime."

"That'll really help." She looked up started slowly moving her clip board like it was a fan as her arm rested on her leg. After hearing Akira's statement, she brought her arm up and waved the clipboard to put emphasis on her point.

"Great. It's nice that you're quick on the uptake…" Well, not so much a point as it was a compliment. "Saves me the hassle."

Tae uncrossed her legs and leaned forward with one hand on her chin. "You're a pretty weird kid, you? Though, I guess that makes you a perfect friend of Hisoka."

I gave an awkward smile and rubbed the back of my neck. Yeah, no way in hell that wouldn't come up later. Specially since I heard Morgana snicker at the comment! "Well, as long as you don't cause me any trouble, it's not my problem…"

Doctor Takemi turned away from us and back to her desk. "This is all I've got right now…"

It didn't take long for Akira to pick out a few different medicines. He mostly got a few Recov-R: 50 mgs and one Relax Gel. He didn't have much money as of the current moment. I hoped that he would still have enough for weapons tomorrow. "That… should work."

Tae typed a few things out on her computer and finally, she stood up and walked into the other room. After a few moments, she came back with a pill bottle and a tube label Relax Gel. "Here you go."

"Thank you Doctor Takemi." Akira stood up and bowed to the physician. I smiled at her and nodded.

"Thank you for everything Tae!" I received a half smile back from her.

"Take care Hisoka." With that, we left the exam room and immediately almost ran into an older gentleman with a briefcase in his hand and wearing a suite. He looked pissed off. So we both moved off to the side and let him walk past us. We started heading for the door until Tae's voice made us stop. She sounded irritated. "...What's the reason for your visit? Do you have a cold? Stomachache? Athlete's foot? Whatever it is, you'll need to take a number…"

That set off alarms because Tae didn't give out numbers when it came to patients. The man yelled loud enough that we would have heard him from outside the clinic! "...Enough of this! You're the only one who could have developed that type of medicine."

Akira started walking close to the exam room to hear what was going on better. I stayed where I was. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"Don't play dumb with me." This man was incredibly mad! Like, I don't think Kamoshida was this mad with us! "Rumor has it, it's a drug so potent it can give a person unlimited power."

"Really, that's news to me." Akira started to lean against the counter now. We were both listening in with extreme intrigue now.

"Developing experimental drugs, medicine, and herbal remedies violates all health regulations." What the hell was this guy about!? "Are you attempting to create a super-stimulant? A drug like that will only become a social issue."

"You're really persistent, you know that?" The frustration was through the roof in Tae's voice! "I'm just a quack…"

I looked to Akira with a worried and serious look, he pushed his glasses up and nodded back to me. "The police may not be taking action, but I imagine the media will soon pick up on it. You intend to ruin my reputation again, huh? You're a disgrace to the medical community."

"...Tsk!" Tae sounded like she had had enough of this guy. I didn't blame her at all. The guy sounded like a jackass!

"What's with the look?" I sighed, I was having enough of the guy at this point! "That was your mistake, was it not? I won't be responsible for you criminal actions. Dispose of that 'medicine' immediately and resign. The name 'Tae Takemi' will never- Hey, is somebody there!?"

That was enough for both me and Akira to bolt out the door, no way in hell we were going to get caught snooping on that conversation! Once we made it out of the clinic, Morgana popped his head out of Akira's bag. "Geez, they almost caught us."

"At least we got out before they saw us!" I took a breath taking in the situation.

"Sounded like they were talking about something dangerous…" The cat was already in teacher mode. That was quick! "Could that woman be hiding some extra strong medicine…?"

"We should use that." Akira smirked at the thought of all of us with unlimited energy. We could take out the Palace in day easily!

"I agree." Morgana was pleased with the discovery of the rumor. "If it's that strong, it might come in handy at the Palace."

"I don't know if she made it though…" They both turned back to me with confused looks.

"What do you?" Akira tilted his head at me.

"I don't know… just doesn't sound like Tae…" I rubbed the back of my neck. Sighing, I gave in, if I was wrong, it would be better for us to ask about the medicine later. "Fine, you guys can ask… Tae would be too suspicious if I asked…"

"OK, let's come back when that man isn't here." Akira nodded in agreement. Morgana got happy suddenly and looked to both of us. "Anyway, good work you two!"

"Thanks." Before I could bring up the next subject that was on my mind, our phones went off.

SR: You know there's a shop in Shibuya that sells model guns.

SR: I'd be glad to take you there if you want.

KA: Sounds good.

GH: I think I'll tag along too, after all, we all need a gun.

GH: It was way to useful in Akira's hands.

SR: Agreed!

SR: Welp, let's figure out where to meet.

SR: You at least know how to get to Shibuya Station, yeah?

GH: God I hope so!

GH: Specially since we get on the same train!

TA: Hey, I can't make it. Can I trust you guys to check the place out for me?

SR: You can't come?

TA: Not tomorrow.

TA: I made plans to go see Shiho in the hospital.

GH: Damn…

GH: I'd go with, but… to many memories there right now…

TA: It's OK, just make sure to get me something awesome!

SR: Don't worry, we got this.

SR: Well, seeya in Shibuya, Akira, Hisoka! I'll be in front of the station!

"We might be able to get our hands on some decent stuff if this store really has model guns." Morgana leaned away from Akira's phone. I guess that's how he reads the messages we send… though how he gets into Akira's desk at school with no one noticing him… Now that was a mystery I'd love solved! "Well, we can leave that for tomorrow. Let's go home!"

"Actually, I wanted to bring that up since I forgot to." The frizzy haired boy and the black cat both turned to look at me. The confusion well ingrained in their faces. "My aunt actually OK'd you staying at the house every so often."

"Really!?" Morgana's eyes widened, I can understand why. He just went from no home to two homes in the matter of a few days! I nodded at the cat who looked to Akira.

"So, why don't you take him home with you tonight?" Akira smiled at Morgana's excitement, it was good to see those two getting along. Now, all I had to do was hope him and my aunt Mitsu got along great!

"That sounds like a good idea." I took my Shujin bag off my shoulder and unzipped it on the ground. "Get in here Morgana."

The cat leaped from Akira's shoulder into my bag which was then lifted onto my shoulder. "Well, I'll see you two tomorrow."

Akira waved at us as he headed for Leblanc. I started walking farther down the street. Morgana was so excited to see my home that he kept trying to guess what it was like. I smiled, it was nice to see him not be so serious all the time!

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Aunt Mitsu, I'm home!" I kicked my shoes off as I entered into the house. I placed my bag down and Morgana jumped out as he started to take in the surroundings. He must have been speechless. Guess Akira's current home wasn't all that great.

"Okay, I have dinner ready for you!" Morgana jumped when he heard my aunt's voice coming from behind him. I heard footsteps and sure enough my aunt came around the corner to see me and Morgana standing there. Her eyes widened when she saw Morgana, though not in a shocked way, but in the way that just screams "awwwwwww!" "Oh. My. God… He's adorable!"

My aunt Mitsu quickly bent down and picked Morgana up. Morgana was shocked enough by the action that he started to yell. "Hey, what the!? Put me down!"

I snickered at the thought of what my aunt was hearing! "Aw, he likes me!"

"I'm sure he does." I smirked and made my way to the kitchen to eat. Mitsu and Morgana were close behind me.

"What's his name?" Her question was followed by Morgana finally accepting the fact that he was being carried.

"Morgana." Great, now Akira was rubbing off on me! "My friend thought it would be a good idea if we introduce you two now."

"Well, he's still your responsibility as long as he's in this house." It was a good thing that we were having fish for dinner. My aunt tore one up and slowly started to feed the pieces to Morgana. Who, probably thought it best to be quiet right now. "Got it Whiskers?"

I winced at the use of my nickname in front of Morgana. I was right to do so as Morgana turned to look at me with a sly grin. "Whiskers, huh?"

I laughed nervously and rubbed the back of my neck. "Y-yeah, I know. I promise there won't be any destroyed furniture!"

"Good!" My aunt finally sat down at the table with me. "Let's eat!"

Before I ate though, I leaned down and rubbed Morgana's head and whispered. "There's nothing I can do to keep you from calling me that in front of Ryuji, is there?"

"Nope!"

"I knew it…"

Chapter 12: Supply Run, Shady Business

Chapter Text

Date:April 17

Location:Gekido Household

Current Objective:Steal Kamoshida's Treasure

I could barely move as the alarm started to go off. I placed my hand on my forehead, I could feel the rough skin from my the large scar on my palm. There was an unfamiliar weight on my chest. I looked up to see Morgana laying on my chest. I sighed at the cat, the alarm was going off loud enough to wake me up from deep sleep. I took both my hands and moved them so they were under Morgana who slowly started to wake up. "H-huh…? What's going-"

With a quick inhale I heaved the cat up. A discomfort grew in my arms as the weight and gravity weighed down on my limbs. "Onto the floor!"

I used all the strength I could muster and threw Morgana up and towards the middle of the room. "Hey! What the!? Meoooow!"

I heard a thud as Morgana landed in the middle of the room, followed by an annoyed groan. "What was that for!?"

I groaned as I rocked back and forth into a sitting position. I smirked at the cat. "What, I needed to get up."

"You couldn't have gotten me up any other way!?" Morgana growled at me. I knew he was going to tell Ryuji about my nickname in the first place, so I was gonna have a bit of fun with it. "Anyways, it's a bit creepy for me to try and get ready for the day with you in here. You mind heading downstairs?"

"Fine…" Morgana grumbled as he walked towards the door, he left the room as I turned the alarm off. Remembering that it was Sunday, I felt a bit free since I didn't have to wear my uniform. After going through my usual routine, I looked in my closet and knew exactly what I was going to wear. I grinned as reached for the zip up hoodie. I put on a white button down shirt, black slacks and my white and black shoes. I finally threw the zip up hoodie on and zipped it up most of the way. The hoodie itself was orange with red outlines and on the shoulders there were white camera apertures. Finally there were white words on the chest and stomach. They read "I'M SOOC." With that, I was ready to go through the rest of the day!

Morgana came back into the room after a few minutes. He got there just as I finished zipping up my hoodie. "You look ready to go."

"Yeah, so we should head soon and meet up with Akira and Ryuji." I quickly grabbed my camera as I started to head for the door.

"Hold up." Morgana's voice called out to me as I passed into the hallway. Looking back at the cat, he had a stern look on his face. "I need a place for you to carry me."

"Right…" I stepped back into my room and thought about it, and I just grabbed my school bag. I opened it out and placed the bag on the ground for the cat to jump in. He eagerly did so. "Okay, now let's get going!"

With that, we moved out of the house and moved down the street to see Akira waiting for us by Leblanc. He waved us over with a smile on his face. His casual clothes included grey shoes. He had normal blue jeans on. He wore a white v-neck that had black out lines. Finally he had on a black suit jacket. It was kinda fancy for casual clothes. "So, how did it go last night?"

"I think it went well." I smiled and Morgana jumped from my bag to the ground. He had an evil smirk on his face. Which was kinda difficult to tell since he looked like a normal cat right now.

"Yeah, and I learned something interesting about this guy." My eyes widened as I realized what Morgana was about to tell Akira. "His nic-"

I quickly leaned down and covered the cat's mouth with my hand! "Nice aunt loves Morgana! Y-yeah, that's it!"

Akira raised an eyebrow at me as Morgana struggled against my hand. I made sure not to let it leave his mouth as he muffled what I believe were curses at me. I awkwardly laughed. Morgana finally broke away from my grasp and huffed at me. "Fine, that's what I was going to say."

"Well… let's go meet up with Ryuji." Akira put his bag down for Morgana to get in it. After he jumped in the bag, the cat looked at me with the evil eye. I just awkwardly girnned.

"Yeah, let's head out!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Looks like you guys made it." Ryuji was outside the station like he said that he would be. His casual clothes included orange shoes ,black jeans, a black tea shirt with a yelling yellow face, and a purple hoodie with 777 on the back of it. Without waiting for us to respond he turned around and headed straight for the station square. "Mkay, let's get goin'. The shop's over this way!"

"Cool, hopefully this goes as smooth as yesterday did." I rubbed the back of my neck with my right hand and held my camera in my left. The main reason that I kept it with me was because, you never know when a good opportunity for a good picture would show up. Since we were in Shibuya, that moment could last for a second. So, I wanted to get back into practice and be prepared for anything that could show up!

"Yeah, getting the medicine from Dr. Takemi went really well." Akira smiled at me as we started to follow Ryuji. We moved past the crowds to what looked like a subway car that was detached. There was a small crowd of people gathered in front of the car. There was a man with a receding hair line in a suite. He had a banner on over shoulder. He was a politician. He was speaking to the small crowd.

"Everyone, please wake up!" The guy seemed familiar to me for some reason, but the way he spoke seemed like it had a lot of passion behind it. "This country is twisted!"

"This politician's actually saying some decent things, but not many people are stopping to listen…" Morgana spoke up as he poked his head up out of Akira's bag. Ryuji seemed bored by the speech.

"Eh, people give speeches all the time." Ryuji just seemed indifferent. "Plus, politics are pretty boring, anyways."

"It is something that we should pay attention to sooner or later." I spoke up as I raised my camera up and actually took a picture of the politician. The picture was at an angle and I possed it so that he was just showing up past the head of a woman's head. I moved my camera so that Ryuji and Akira could see it. "It's not the best, but I think it looks good."

"I am going to have to agree." Akira smirked at the picture, I noticed that Morgana looked up over Akira's shoulder. Ryuji nodded at the image I had taken.

"Not bad." His face didn't change much as he moved his view from the camera to our faces. "We're almost there. Just don't get lost in the crowd."

With that, we started to move through the crowd of people. Since we were near central street, there was a crap load of people waiting to cross the street. I could hear a few people start talking about things that we passed. "Can you imagine how terrible it would be to have been in one of those accidents…?"

I didn't stop moving, but that quote stayed in my mind. The first thought that came into my mind was that of the fact that it was about the Mental Shut Downs. It was the worst thing that had ever happened to me… so pretty damn terrible! Though, the thought was quickly shot from my mind when I heard a businessman talking on a phone. "Isn't there a Big Bang Burger on Central Street?"

I snickered at the the man's question, it was just the timing that got me. People were so weird that one could be contemplating others pain and not even a few feet away, another could be getting the munchies. It was a very entertaining thought.

Luckily, by the time we actually got to the cross walk, it was already good for us to cross it. I almost my friends in the crowd, but thanks to Ryuji's hair, I was able to stay on the right trail. When we finally made it to Central Street Ryuji spoke up. "Follow me. The shop can be pretty confusin' to find sometimes."

Ryuji started to move down the street past a few of the stores, Akira and I followed the bleach blonde. There was a few people Speaking up again once more. "When did these weird accidents start happening again?"

I grimaced once more, just hearing it made me rack my brain to think about that… It wasn't the first time that I had that thought. Like, if I could think about when it started then I could find a reason why the accident happened. I knew it wouldn't change what happened though… Ryuji stopped by an alleyway and waited for us. We caught to the blonde quickly and he turned the corner and headed down the alley. From that, I figured out that the store was down the alley. Sure enough, there it was. The store was tucked into the corner of the alley was a small shop with chain link fences in the windows and had a green neon sign was above the store that read "Untouchable." The name of the store just sounded sketchy enough if you asked.

Ryuji stopped and waited for us. "This is it. Pretty legit, huh?"

"Pretty sketchy if you me…" I rubbed the back of my neck. This place was really kinda creepy.

"I have to agree with Hisoka on this one." I was glad to know that Akira was at least with me on this!

"Well, we don't really have much of a choice right now." Ryuji's smile faded into an indifferent face. "Oh yeah, now that we're here… you guys know anything about military stuff?"

"No."

"Nope." Me and Akira shut Ryuji down so fast with that question.

"I guess worst comes to worst we can just ask the shopkeep what they recommend." Well, that was at least a good idea. "C'mon, let's go."

With that… we entered into Untouchables. There wasn't much that we could do. We looked around for a bit. There was something that caught my eye, so I kept it in my mind. After a few minutes, Akira walked up to the shopkeep, which I would have to describe as surly, who looked up at all three of us. The guy at the counter had greyish hair that was buzzed down with sideburns and a stubble mustache and beard. He had a lollipop in his mouth. He wore a grey hat with yellow ear defenders on the top of the hat. He also had a black turtleneck sweater on under a long grey trench coat with a red peace sign on it. He had blue jeans and dark boots on. Which we could see since his feet were up on the counter in front of his laptop. He was reading a magazine before he looked up at us. "You know what you want yet?"

"We really don't know what we want… any ideas what we should get?" Akira was being fairly polite about our lack of knowledge. The surly manager slightly raised an eyebrow out at us.

"...You lookin' for recommendations…?" He quickly went right back into the magazine once more. "I dunno, just buy whatever looks interestin' to you."

Ryuji looked to us with a very frustrated work. "Ugh, some customer service…"

The manager looked up to Ryuji and then right back down to the magazine. He sounded just as frustrated as Ryuji was. "Fine, whaddya want? An automatic? A revolver?"

"Uh, automatic…?" Ryuji showed confused and I was shocked that he didn't know that… I mean, I knew that… mostly cause I played video games that had choices like this. I sighed at the blonde. "Dude, why're you talkin' about cars now!?"

That was the dumbest question I had heard all week! The shop owner now just sounded angry at Ryuji. "Listen, this here's an enthusiast shop. My regulars'll be mad if I let a casual like you hang around."

"I'm not a feakin' casual!" Ryuji got angry back at the manager, stomping his foot and bringing his fist up by his chest and leaned in toward the man. "I bought sh*t from here like, last week!"

"Huh, can't remember you." This was going to much worse than yesterday… I thought of how to fix it.

"You bastard…" Ryuji dropped his head in defeat. The story owner turned his attention to both me and Akira next.

"And you two?" When he turned his head, I could finally see the green gecko tattoo on his neck. "Lookin' for somethin'?"

"I'll take a real looking rifle." The shop owner raised his eyebrows at me.

He smirked back at me. "So, you gonna try and rob someone with it?"

That caught me off guard, it seemed like was suspicious of us. This could be bad if he tried to turn us in… That would be really bad for us… We had yet to even get back to the Palace! "I… uh…"

"I'm kiddin', I don't care what you do with 'em." The guy chuckled at his joke… Akira, Ryuji, and I laughed awkwardly at us. "Now, if you look close, you'll be able to tell these're models. Real guns feel… different. Maybe someday I'll show and your friend the real good stuff though… if you got the guts for it, of course."

Despite the way the guy had scared the crap outta us, the way he held himself… it just felt familiar to me. I couldn't quite put my fingers on it. That being said, he stood up from his chair and started to walk away, but he turned to us once again before he fully walked away. "...But for now, you get the beginner selection. Just sit tight, I'll bring 'em out. Also, the Grand is gonna be one thousand four hundred yen."

"Oh, thanks!" I was kinda surprised by his change of mood all of a sudden. Now he was being super helpful. As soon as he walked away Ryuji turned to us with a big smile on his face.

"...We did it, dude." I sighed at the blonde. It could have gone SO much better… He could have not escalated the situation…

"It could have gone a lot smoother though, Ryuji…" I rubbed the back of my neck and started fishing for my wallet. His smile did not fade at all.

"So what, we still get the weapons we need!" He started to laugh to himself. I rolled my eyes, he didn't really seem to notice what that could mean for us… "We totally gotta go for some fancy sh*t, right? I want 'em to shine! Oh, and here's the cash for mine. Pick me out something good!"

Ryuji handed about five thousand yen to Akira. That was when the manager came back. I ended up paying for my model gun, which was a bit longer than I thought it would be. Though, he had it wrapped up. Which was good… I had no idea how I was going to sneak this into the school though… I just had to hope that it was in a few pieces. Akira bought himself a new gun and a freaking shotgun for Ryuji! Damn… that was impressive! After it was all said and done, Akira walked toward the door and Ryuji called out to him. "You goin' home already…?"

"Yeah, we got the gear so we should head back." Akira had his hand on the door, so I decided that I should head back as well. I patted Ryuji's shoulder as I made my way to the door.

"Anyways, I'll have you do the choosin' from now on. Get me the strongest-lookin' one!" With that we headed out the door and headed for home. The rest of the night was really uneventful, I got no messages and no pictures were taken on my way home.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date:April 18

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Steal Kamoshida's Treasure

"Good morning." I wanted to gag as me and Akira came up to the school building. Kamoshida was out watching all the students come into the school with a sh*t eating grin on his face. It was like he was trying to taunt us. "C'mon, hurry up and get to class!"

He stopped when he noticed me and Akira standing nearby. He turned straight at us and put his hands on his hips. His smile was gone, replaced with a frown. "Good morning."

He almost spat at us when he said that! "Kamoshida." I returned the favor with that one!

"Good morning." Akira nonchalantly said good morning. We started to walk past him when he turned back to us and I could hear the smugness in his voice!

"...That admirable behavior won't do you any good once you're expelled." I glared at him as we started to walk past him. We both just continued on past him.

"God I hate that bastard…" I cursed as soon as we were out of earshot. Akira laughed at my statement, and it made me smile a bit. Today… today we were going to go back to the Palace! "We got him on the ropes and he doesn't even know it."

"You can say that again." Akira smirked at me, it was that evil smirk that showed up even more after his awakening.

"We got him on the ropes and he doesn't even know it." I smirked back at Akira. Who shook his head at me.

"I didn't think that you would…"

"Heh, that was your first mistake Akira!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

It was the middle of class when once more, my phone started to go off. I slowly pulled my phone out of my pocket to see what was going on. As I figured, Ryuji was messaging us once again.

SR: So, I saw Kamoshida outside the school gate this morning.

SR: He was just standing there looking at me with this sh*t-eating grin on his face.

TA: Ugh, that's annoying… He was probably mocking you.

GH: Without a doubt.

GH: He told Akira and me that our good behavior wouldn't matter.

SR: He's gettin' co*cky!

SR: Honestly, seeing that got me even more fired up about this.

GH: I'm ready to do this! He'll never see us coming!

TA: Yeah, I'm worried about Shiho, but I want to concentrate on our operation too.

TA: And I won't let myself get exhausted like last time.

GH: Well, it'll be easier for us to conserve energy this time.

TA: That's true.

SR: The board meeting's May 2nd, right?

SR: We just gotta take care of him before then.

KA: My mind is made up.

KA: I need to do this.

SR: Same goes for me.

TA: Me too!

GH: I'm not letting you guys do this alone!

TA: I'll do my best. No going in without me, OK?

SR: Yeah, you better let us know if you're going into the Palace.

TAKE YOUR TIME

The last bell of the day finally rang. I could feel my energy raising, I was so ready to do this! I walked up next to Akira just in time for Morgana to speak up. "It's finally time to set the plan in motion. I bet the others are ready to go and waiting on the signal. Well, I'll leave the planning to you."

Mission Start!

"Let's take Kamoshida's twisted heart!" Once Morgana was done talking, we knew it was time. Time to meet up out the hide out. Akira turned to me and Ann turned to look at him as well. Akira smirked and pushed his glasses up on his face and nodded at us. With that, we all made our way up to the roof. We went up at different times, mostly so Kamoshida wouldn't get suspicious of us.

We all finally were gathered up in the hideout. Takamaki was sitting on a desk, Morgana was on the desk next to her. Ryuji sat sideways in a fold out chair, Akira was leaning against an air conditioner. I was standing next to to Ryuji fiddling with my camera. "I hope you all understand that our time limit is May second."

Morgana had a very serious look on his face. Takamaki had one her face as well. "We basically just have to go to that castle and steal the Treasure from Kamoshida, right?"

"But wait, what even is a Treasure?" Ryuji had a few good questions, and I had to agree with his want of more info. We were still going in a little blind. "I wanna know that before we do anything."

"A Treasure is the physical form of the Palace ruler's distorted desires." Morgana went into teacher mode once more.

"So does that mean the Treasure is the sort of 'core' of the Palace?" I tilted my head at the cat, who seemed impressed with my guess.

"That's right." Morgana nodded his head in confirmation of my answer. "Once we steal it, the Palace will crumble… I think."

"You think?" I raised an eyebrow at the cat in worry… "I guess at least know the Palace could be destroyed…"

"Having said that, even I don't know what Kamoshida's Treasure is going to be." That would make sense, especially since something that is a Treasure to someone isn't to another.

"And where can we find it?" Another really good question that needed to be answered. Though, I had a good idea that the answer would be a bit more complicated than we wanted it to be.

"There's no way knowing that until we go in and find out." Just like I thought, it was just as complicated I thought it would be. "But if I had to guess, I'd say he has it locked up somewhere in the depths of the Palace."

"Eh, I think I get it now." I didn't really think that Ryuji completely understood what was going on. "We just gotta find the Treasure, yeah?"

"Pretty much." Welp, finally, a simple answer. "There's just a lot we won't know until we go in… In any case, our objective is to find the Treasure's location somewhere in the Palace. Make sure we go about this with time to spare so we can avoid any unforeseen circ*mstances… I expect great things from you guys."

Akira smiled and walked away from the conditioner. "Let's do this!"

"I ready to bust loose!" Ryuji kicked off the ground so that he was standing as he pulled out his phone. He activated the Nav and the world started to distort around us. It was time!

TAKE YOUR TIME

We all stood in a circle near Ann as we looked on. Ryuji crossed one arm over his chest and brought up his other hand to his chin. He began to lean forward as he stared at Ann. "But daaaamn…"

I rolled my eyes at the bleach blonde. He was sounding like Morgaan right now. Ann didn't seem to notice as she flipped on of her twin tails over her shoulder. "Hm? What's up?"

"N-nothing." I chuckled at Ryuji as he was having trouble covering his tracks. "I was just thinkin' we should choose a code name for you too."

"A code name?" Ann was understandably confused by what he was saying to her.

"I'm Skull, he's Joker, Spectoer is over, and that's Mona." Ryuji brought his hand back up to his chin as he was in thought. I was just glad that we both remembered everyone's code name.

"Smooth save by the way Skull." I nudged the blonde's shoulder with my elbow, I gave him an evil smirk on top of that. "Sounded like Mona for a moment."

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Skull and Mona both spoke up at the same time. I laughed at the two's reaction. It was so perfect! Though, Mona did something that I wish he didn't to this day… "That's big talk from someone who's nickname is Whiskers!"

My eyes widened as the word left the cat's mouth. Skull's eyes also widened, but his mouth curved into a smil. "Are you for real!?"

"Mona, I'm going to get back at one of these days!" I stomped my foot at the cat as Joker and Ann started to giggle and laugh at my nickname.

"How'd you get that one?" Skull continued to poke fun at me. I rolled my eyes again, I was never going to hear the end of this one.

"My aunt gave it to me!" I growled at the bleach blonde, but we also needed to deal with something else! "Hey, look can we get back of freaking track of giving Ann and code name!"

"Oh, right!" Mona stopped his evil grinning as he turned back to look at Ann. "Judging by your costume…"

"I mean, she's got that tail and stufff, so…" Ryuji thought about it for a moment, but then I saw a slight grin on his face. "What about Whi-"

"Finish that sentence and I have Mr. Hyde take care of you." Ryuji held up his hands quickly in defense. He turned to Joker.

"Whadda you think, Akira?" Akira started to mess with a lock of his hair by twirling it in between his fingers.

"Catgirl." Ann's eyes got wide now.

"Wait!" She recoiled in shock for a moment. "Is that what you're going to call me from now on!? I am SO not down with this!"

"What do you wanna be called, then?" Ryuji sounded exasperated at the blonde.

"Um, something better than just a little cat…" She crossed her arm across her stomach and brought a hand up to her chin, she looked toward the ground but brought it up as the idea came to her mind. "Maybe… 'Panther?' That sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?"

"Huh? Why?" Skull looked toward Ann with a disappointed look on his face.

"Cause it sounds more… ferocious?" She sounded so confused on what she was even saying now.

"It's better than Catgirl or… Whiskers…" I growled out my aunt's nickname for me. I did not want Ryuji to know it, and now that he did… I knew everyone would soon! Though, Mona ended saying something that would help me get back at him later.

"She's a cougar…!" His eyes were closed and his face had a blissful smile on it.

"Don't call me that!" An- Panther… growled at Mona. She quickly looked up toward Joker. "More importantly, Kamoshida…!"

"Oh, right. Let's go!"

"Finally, let's do this!" It was finally time… time to take that son of bitch Kamoshida down! I was not going to let him continue this anymore!

Chapter 13: Infiltration, Start!

Chapter Text

Date:April 18

Location:Kamoshida's Palace

Current Objective:Steal Kamoshida's Treasure

"All right, let's start fresh and get going!" Skull slammed his fist into his open palm, the excitement was just exploding off of him! I was just as excited, it was go time! Mona spoke up too.

"It's game time from this point forward." He stood in front of the three of us, he was hoping back and forth between on his feet. "I'll teach you guys the basics of infiltrating Palaces as we go."

We all started to move toward the Palace. We were determined to go through the entire Palace today! "So Joker will still in charge of us in battle."

"OK, I'll keep watch for anything guys trying to sneak up to us." I got an evil grin, I knew I could keep the enemies from surprising us. Well, at least some of them, it could have been so much worse. "I believe that I could even help us get the drop on 'em?"

"Wait, you can do that!?" Panther freaked out a bit. I had yet to put that into practice, so I needed to try it out now. Ann turned back to Joker. "Hey Joker are-"

Ann stopped herself and stared back at toward the entrance of the Palace. "Joker?"

"What's up?" I looked back to Joker just standing still staring at a wall. It was definitely odd. He didn't even really blink for a bit. "Joker…?"

"Hey man, you alright?" Skull called out to the team's leader. It was a minute or two later when he finally started to move naturally once more. We all walked back closer to the frizzy haired teen with worried expressions on our faces. He turned back to look at us like he hadn't just stared at a corner for a while.

"Something wrong?" Mona was the first one to speak up once our leader started to move once more. "You were just standing around all of a sudden."

"It was kinda creepy…" I rubbed the back of my neck, if he wasn't feeling well we could wait to do this till a later date. Just so long as it happened before the board meeting we would be fine. It would suck to have to stop before we even started though, but we needed Joker at his best if we were going to make it through this place. Joker smiled at us.

"Yeah, just needed a minute." Our leader sounded alright enough as it stood, but that didn't stop us from worrying. Skull scratched the back of his head.

"Why were you spacin' out like that…?" This was not the weird things that happened recently, but it was worrying a bit. "It's kinda hard to tell what you're thinkin' sometimes."

"Let's just say that he's a man of high caliber." Mona seemed like he was not a worried anymore. I sighed, we would have to believe he was alright for now.

"I don't know if high caliber is the word I would use." I rubbed my chin and smirked at the frizzy haired boy. Who looked at me with a smirk of his own.

"Well, I don't know if you have any room to talk Whiskers." I immediately dropped my arm and glared at Joker.

"Touche…" That was a good burn… Though, now we had to focus on the Palace.

"So, where do we start?" Skull actually focused on the task at hand. That was an actual surprise!

"Let's head to the safe room we found last time." I figured out that we would have to do that. "It's on the first floor of the west building. That's pretty close to our usual entrance. It should be a pretty decent starting point."

A confused face found its way to Panther's face. "Safe room…?"

"It'll make sense when we get to it, Panther." I tapped the natural blonde's shoulder as I started to move toward the castle. Though Mona cleared his throat and we all turned to look at the black cat.

"Actually, we don't have to walk there." I raised my eyebrows at the cat. I had no idea what would allow us to travel like that. "You guys know how you used the navigation app to get to the Palace?"

"Yeah?" Joker seemed to be on the same page as I was. I had no idea where Mona was trying to go with this…

"Well, we should be able use the app to travel between all the safe rooms we find." Mona seemed like he was a little unsure of the idea that he was presenting to us. "I think…"

"There it is…" I sighed and everyone seemed just as unsure as Mona was.

"Well… I mean, it couldn't hurt to try." Joker pulled his phone out and started to move through his phone. After a moment or two, the world started to distort again. Only, once the distortion disappeared… we actually were in the Safe Room! "Well… it works…"

"That… that was unexpected…" My eyes were wide, I literally had no idea what had just happened. Though, from the way that Mona made explained it, it really did sound like it was the same as us using the app to get to the Palace.

"D-damn, this is effin' insane!" Skull's eyes were wide and he scratched the back of his head. Panther was more confused at the room that we were in.

"Hey, what is with this room!?" She didn't seem as shocked as she should have.

"It's a gap in the cognition." Mona's teacher mode was surfacing once again! "A safe room, if you will."

"Yeah, still not getting it." Panther sounded disappointed by the fact that she couldn't understand this almost indefinable place. Well, at least it was just alien to us.

"I don't think too much about it." I rubbed the back of my neck. "There are some parts of this place that I think only Mona can understand."

"Uhh, I'm fuzzy on the details, but I think it's some kinda spot where Shadows can't find us." Skull almost grumbled the words out.

"Huh… I didn't think a place like that existed in here." It did feel like it most of the time. Shadows seemed like they could come out of almost every corner that you could see and couldn't… "So, what do we do in this 'safe room?'"

"It's a good place to get away and just take a breather." I stretched out my arms as I explained my view on what the safe room was for. "Plus it gives us a chance to discuss our progress and if we are feeling up to continue."

"Huh…" Panther seemed to think about it for a second. "Those are important. I guess I'll rest for a bit too then. Let me know when we're ready to head out, Joker."

We all sat around the table and Joker just stood up next to Panther. Mona stood up at the front of the table and started to try and get an idea on the situation. "OK then, let's get a grasp of our current situation."

"How's our progress?" Joker held his hand out in front of him as he asked us the question.

"Hey, you think the Treasure's far?" Skull's question seemed a little impatient. Something that Mona also noticed in his voice.

"Didn't we just get in here?" Mona's voice seemed a tad frustrated and understanding. "Based on how the castle looks, we still have a long way to go."

"I still can't believe a phone app took us somewhere like this." Panther's voice seemed a tad excited and confused. Skull smirked under his mask at everyone.

"Well, not all of us need that app, y'know…" His arms were out stretched on the table as she explained the fact that Mona didn't need the app the go between worlds. "The cat can just come in on his own."

"I am NOT a cat!" I started to chuckle at our guide through the Palace. It was kinda adorable that he kept trying to deny it. Even if he didn't start out as a cat, he currently was a cat.

"So wait, what's the deal with those soldier things that are serving Kamoshida?" Panther seemed that giddy about the Shadows. "They transform into weird monsters whenever we fight them…"

"The Shadows right, Panther?" I tilted my head at the girl. It was a very good point, we didn't know much about them. "Well, Mona, what do you got for us there?"

"Yeah, I've been wonderin' about those guard dudes too." Skull's face seemed disgruntled about the enemies that we had to fight. "What's their deal?"

"I can explain it… but it'll be complicated." Mona's teacher mode was right around the corner. "Do you want to hear?"

"It would be good to know." Joker looked at the black cat. I was glad that we were going to get more information on the Shadows.

"Deep in the innermost depths of every human's heart lies their true personality-their Shadow." Wait… that reminded me of something… It was like something that I read before. "So it's not that the guards are transforming into those things… Those are their actual forms. The reason they look like gods and other mythical beings is because they spawn from the human psyche."

"Wh-whoa…" Panther seemed shocked about the information that we just got dropped on us. "But wait, what are they doing in Kamoshida's castle to begin with?"

"I was wondering that myself." I turned my right hand so that my palm was facing up.

"It seems like the distortion of the Palace draws them in." Mona's explanation was a bit off. "Once they're here, their forms change and they become underlings for the Palace ruler. When you think about it, the Palace ruler is just the Shadow of whoever owns the Palace… Maybe these places have something to do with the worlds in our minds, or the collective unconscious…"

"Oh, OK." Skull seemed like he understood it… at least it seemed like that. "Wait, that don't make any sense!"

Like I said, seemed like he did. Mona seemed disappointed at Skull. "I had a feeling you'd say that… Well, you don't need to think too hard about it. They're enemies, so don't let your guard down, OK? Is there anything else you want to discuss?"

"How is everyone?" Joker looked back and forth between everyone.

"Well, we just started, so I feel like I can take on the effing world!" I smirked at our leader. Panther and Skull nodded in agreement with me.

"Everyone still seems energetic." Mona smiled at our leader. "I think we can keep exploring if you're feeling up to it."

"Well, I think we're done here." Panther moved away from the table. Joker moved to the door and all of us moved toward the door. Skull's excitement showed through as he spoke up next.

"All right, let's do this!" I held my hand up to the bleach blonde and he slapped my palm, giving me a high five. The moment we exited out of the safe room, there was a guard right outside of the door. We quickly and quietly scrambled for corners to hide behind. Luckily enough for us, we all found a place to hide from the guard just in time for him to turn around. I was around the corner with Mona and Panther, Joker was behind the couch and Skull was against the door frame of the safe room. All of us were kinda freaking out as the Shadow started to slowly move towards us.

Joker looked to us as the Shadow got closer to him, he turned back to us and nodded. I believed he was giving us a signal that he was about to attack. My suspicions were confirmed when Joker quickly jumped jump and spun around using the Shadows shoulders. He ripped the mask off with a shout. "Show me your true form!"

He jumped off of the Shadow as it fell to the ground. Two of the flower headed creatures came out of the armor. We were lucky to have ambushed the guard the way that we did. After a few quick physical attacks, Panther dispatched the enemies quickly with the fireballs from the other day. They vanished in a puff of black mist and smoke. Once the battle was over we all stretched for a quick moment. Panther smiled the at all of us with a bright expression. "Huh? That was way too easy."

"You can say that one again." I rolled my shoulders to relax my arms and muscles. My sword was still fairly heavy, it was light enough for me to carry around. The issue was that was the longer I swung it around, the more it strained my arms. It started to hurt like a son of a bitch after a while, but I wanted to start trying fight through all of that pain. Maybe at some point, it would get easier to fight. Maybe there was a lighter sword out there.

Joker moved toward the door, but Mona stopped him just before he opened the door. "We haven't explored past here yet. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious as we push on."

He nodded at Mona and he opened the door revealing a kitchen and or a food storage room. There are barrels lining the walls. There were plates of food on the tables and candles. There were two guards patrolling the room. We ran into the room and hid behind a pillar in the middle of the room. We waited for one guard to walk behind a corner and then Joker ambushed the guard that was walking between two tables with food. A Pixie and a two horned horse appeared from the guard.

I got to use my gun for the first time. I pulled the rifle out and dropped to one knee, as Skull knocked down the horse with a bolt of lighting. I took four shoots out of my rifle, and the moment the last shot rang out of my gun the clip ejected with a loudPING!All four shots slammed into the Pixie the bullets ran straight through the Shadow as it bleed black liquid. The creature recoiled in pain and landed on the ground. We all surrounded the Shadows and everyone looked to me. I grinned evilly, I knew what it was they wanted me to do. I jumped up toward the Shadows and everyone followed me. "Let's clean house!"

We all quickly moved and attacked the two Shadows. We hit them as we moved back and forth repeatedly. Once we finally stopped attacking, I landed away from the Shadows but facing them. I turned away from them and dusted off my shirt and flicked my wrist up and pointed my thumbs down with an evil smirk on my face. "Smile for the camera!"

When I looked back toward where the Shadows stood a moment before to see… the other guard coming around the corner. I went for my gun but it was too late… I was unable to help ambush the Shadows! The guard exploded into two to the two horned horses. At this point, they were very easy to take down. Skull was only able to shock one of them as soon as the fight started before one charge and slammed into Panther. Before the horse could slam its hooves into her head, Joker used his Pixie to knock the horse down.

After we surrounded the Shadows, Joker started to talk to it. The talk started with Joker asking it to lend him his power. It was the weirdest thing that I could have seen all day… and that's saying something. The two started to talk about the most mundane stuff. Like, how to respect elders and about food! I think that was the last thing that I could think of for getting Shadows to follow you! Joker did it though, he got one of the horses to become a Persona. I heard him say something under his breath as we let the second Shadow disappear. "Bicorn."

"Hmph, no match for me!" Skull sounded confident that the take down was easy. Though, I just wish I could have caught them off guard. Though there worse things that could have happened. Moved to the next door and when we opened it, once more… there was a Shadow in the way. We snuck up behind the next guard and Joker ambushed it. What we saw was… it the grosses Shadow that we had seen so far! It was a red demon with fur around its neck and… Dear freaking god! The only thing that was covering the demon's… thing… was a leopard skinned cone! After recoiling, we all quickly attacked the bastards and we had to take them down.

After the fight, something just… felt different in my mind. Like I felt like there was something that was more powerful in my mind. "Guys, I think that I gotta new move!"

Everyone turned around and looked at me. Mona seemed impressed with me. "That's great, any idea what it is?"

"There's a word on the tip of my tongue." I took a moment to think about it. I thought about it for a moment, but finally the word came to my mind. "Dazzler."

"I haven't heard of that one yet…" Mona actually seems shocked about something for once. It was an interesting feeling. Plus, I actually had an idea about what it did. It was going to be interesting to try it out and see if I was right. We continued through the hall that the Shadow was in and opened the door at the end of the hall on the right wall. Once we were through it, there was a stone stairwell that was in disrepair. There were barrels and a box. We were about to go up the stairs, but Joker stopped.

"Hey guys, hold up for a moment." He was looking at the box that was near by. We all turned back to Joker as we saw him swipe at the box and it broke. After it broke, we saw that he had a golden helmet in his hand. "Huh…"

"Wait, what!?" Skull's eyes were wide as flower petals fell all around the box. I had a shocked expression, how the hell did he know that was there!?

"How are you going to care that through the entire Palace?" That was when I remembered that there was I remembered that Mona had hammer space! It was the best place to hold anything valuable that we find here! At least until we get back to the real world. "Actually, Mona, think you can carry that in your pockets?"

"Well, yeah." I snatched the helmet from Akira and handed the cat the golden object. Which, he stuffed into his pocket with little to no problems. "Now, let's keep going, we are still pretty far from the Treasure."

We all nodded and we started up the stairs which was broken not to far from the top. Though, the rug that was laying on the floor stayed up due to the rubble underneath it. We ran up the curved stairway until we reached a broken part of the stairs that we couldn't keep walking up it. There were barrels laying around a door frame that was right before the broken stairs. The moment we walked through the door there was a Shadow standing just after a door on the left wall. There were a few chairs along the walls, and windows. The light that came out of the windows was actually very pretty, it seemed like it was like a kaleidoscope.

Skull spoke up with a frustrated tone. "Damn… There's one here too… Oh well… Guess we just gotta ambush it from behind again…"

Mona seemed like he wasn't in for that idea. "Well sure, if you wanna go about it the orthodox way. But there's a more stylish route! See those sofas on the sides of the hallways? Hide behind those so you can get closer to the enemy. Once it's in range, jump on it and rip its mask off!"

"Damn, this is gonna be badass!" I rubbed my chin in interage about that idea. Though, Panter brought me back to the real world.

"Hey! This isn't a movie!" She was right, we needed to focus on the fact that this was a life or death situation we were in now!

"Joker, with your poise, you should be able to pull it off." I had to agree with Mona that Joker should probably be the one to do all of the flipping and quick movements. "Give it a try!"

It was really cool to see Joker move like that. He was a blur of black and purple as he quickly moved between the sofas… which I still thought were chairs! Though, that as an irrelevant argument. Once he was close enough to the Shadow Mona whispered to us. "We've got our sights set on them. The timing's up to you!"

Just before the Shadow started to walk away Joker jumped the guy. He exploded into two little green creatures poking their heads and hands out of bronze jars. "All right! The first move is ours!"

I ended up getting to go first, so I thought it was time to try out the new move! The guys in jars didn't have much time to react as I ripped my mask off and Dr. Jekyll appeared behind me. "Let's go for the new move!"

Jekyll reached into his coat and pulled out a flask and threw it toward the creature on the right. Just before the creature could move out of the way, there was an explosion of a bright yellow light. The guy in the jar started moving in small circles, I guess it worked! He was dizzy! "The enemy is dizzy, good job Specter!"

Mona sounded proud of me making the Shadow dizzy! Joker called out to Mona. "Hit him with a Garu!"

"Zorro!" Mona did his little twirl into the air. As Zorro appeared next to Dr. Jekyll. He moved his rapier in a Z motion and hit the Dizzy Shadow with a blast of wind. It was just what we needed to hit them with as the Shadow was knocked up into the air by the wind blast and he landed onto the ground. Zorro did it again, knocking down both of the Shadows down! We all surrounded the Shadows. "Ha! It's almost scary how good I am!"

I rolled my eyes at that the cat as I aimed my gun at the Shadows. The creatures in the jug screamed out. "Waaah! Save me, King Kamoshida…"

"Lend me your power!" Joker sounded so calm and collected as he talked to the Shadow. It seemed worried about the proposal.

"Hey, let's talk!" It sounded like a little kid almost. It was kinda weird… "I gotta find out if you're a weird human or not! So, humans like to have 'bedtime stories,' right? Guess what I want you to read to me before you tuck me into bed!"

Joker took a moment to think about what he was going to reply to the Shadow. "I'll make your sleep eternal."

Shadow seemed worried about Joker's response. "Why'd you say that? Ohhh, you're one of those people who needs a 'reality chick!' Oh yeah! I heard human kids cry when they hafta go to the doctor and get their shots. Is it scary to get a shot? Does it make you cry, mister?"

"I endure it." Joker actually spoke up really quickly. The Shadow worried once more. It was kinda weird. It literally seemed like it was a kid that we were dealing with.

"Wow, I couldn't do that." Suddenly the Shadow Recoiled in shock. "Whoa, that's the same as me… Wait, what the- I think I remember something!" The Shadow suddenly jumped into the air with a twirl and started to flow into the air again. "You know, I'm not really a Shadow! I came from the humans sea of souls! My real name's Agathion! You and I are the same, mister!" The Shadow changed into a bright blue light and reformed into a mask that looked like Joker's and it went right into his mask.

"That's an interesting Persona!" I probably would never get used to Joker getting new Personas that way. It was interesting to say the least. Though, we were starting to me progress through the Palace. With each step we took toward the Treasure… the more excited I got!

Chapter 14: Dark Places

Chapter Text

Date:April 18

Location:Kamoshida's Palace

Current Objective:Steal Kamoshida's Treasure

Joker tried to open the door next to where we had just fought the last Shadow. The door didn't move whatsoever. Skull sighed in disappointment at our luck with that door. "This door ain't movin'. Let's try somewhere else."

Joker quickly hid behind the corner just past the door. There was another Shadow just past the corner. We all slipped behind Joker against the wall. Joker quickly moved down the hall toward the Shadow. The order of which we all followed Joker was Panther, me, Skull, and Mona. Joker moved farther down the hall toward the Shadow, then Panther quickly moved behind the chair that Joker had just left. I moved up to the corner just in time to see Joker quickly flipped around the guards shoulders and ripped its mask off. We all moved up as quickly as we could to join the fight.

The Shadow exploded into two women with green flowing hair. They had red dresses and white head dress. Joker started out the fight by firing a shot out of his pistol at the Shadow. I summoned in Hyde as he fired out a black and red energy blast. The Shadow recoiled in pain, and in return she summoned a cold wind that formed into a ball of ice that flew toward me. I quickly took a step to the side and I leaned away from the ball of ice. Panther retaliated by summoning in Carmen. Sparks appeared around the Shadow. Flame engulfing it, it was knocked to the ground. The second Shadow seemed scared of the Persona now. Just as she threw another ice ball at Panther, but fire engulfed the ball as well. We went into an all out attack! Once we finished the attack, Panther landed and spun around. She leaned forward and made a peace sign. "A beautiful rose had thorns!"

"I almost broke a sweat there." I took a deep breath remembering the ice ball coming toward me! We continued forward down the hall. There was a door on the right wall. Joker gripped the handle of the door and leaned against the door as he opened the door. The room beyond was incredible odd. There were pillars with goat heads on them. They surrounded the center of the room that had a wooden table with something on top of it. "Guys, there something on that table."

"But the bars're blockin' our way in…" Skull brought up a very good point with that. All of the bars in the center of the room were keeping us out and we had no way in right now. Mona seemed interested with what the bars were keeping from us.

"If he's protecting it this securely, it has to be important." I had to agree, Kamoshida was the type of person that he kept stuff from everyone. Just like he somehow kept touching Shiho a secret… I took a deep breath, trying to calm down before I get angry. "That means there should be a way in and out of there. Joker, do you think you can solve the mystery of this room? I'm sure your observation skills will help you get through!"

"I'm on it." Joker took a moment and walked around the room staring at the ram heads. They each had a ring on chain hanging from them. After a few moments, he pulled one of the rings… nothing happened. Then, he walked around to the other side of the room and there was another one on the other side of the room. He pulled another ring and immediately the bars raised up. It made sense to me. Skull seemed shocked though.

"Whoa…" His eyes were wide and his jaw almost dropped to the floor.

"As expected from you, Joker!" Mona seemed proud once more. Joker smirked and we walked up to the table where the ting that we noticed that there was an old piece of paper on the table.

"What the hell?" Skull sounded very disappointed by the discovery. "He had it all locked up and sh*t, but it was just some old map…?"

"You're hopeless…" Mona was very disappointed by Skull's lack of interest in the map. "Don't you realize how vital a map is? Having this will give us a better grasp of the topography of the Palace. It's a true necessity for a phantom thief. This should make securing a route much easier."

"Wait, does it say where the Treasure is on there?" Takamaki was getting right to the point! It was an important thing that we needed to know. Mona's face though seemed disappointed.

"Oh…" His face was one that was a face of defeat. "Actually, it seems like this map is incomplete… There might be more of them around."

"Well, then all we gotta do is look for another map and we should be able to find our way to the Treasure easily!" I rubbed my chin in thought. "There's a good chance that he would hide the map somewhere near the end of this map. No doubt there will be similar security measures hiding the next map as there was on this one."

"That's quiet intuitive of you Specter." I put my hand behind my back and bowed to the black cat. Joker rolled the map up and placed it on the inside of his jacket. With that… we were off again! Following the map, we exited out of the map room into another hallway with paintings of Kamoshida lining the walls. There was a Shadow halfway down the hall. Joker hid behind a few chairs, and once he was within range I whispered out to our leader.

"The Shadow is with striking distance, the timing is yours Joker." Joker flipped up on the Shadow and ripped its mask off. The Shadow exploded into a single Bicorn. We just kind of beat stick the Shadow down with physical attacks. Luckily for us, the Shadow was weak enough for us to take down with a few hits.

"That enemy was really weak." Mona taunted the Shadow that we just completely destroyed. We walked toward the corner. Mona quickly jumped to the corner and appeared around it. "Enemy ahead! Be careful!"

We zipped around the corner and ambushed another Shadow. It exploded into the red demons we all didn't like… I went first and summoned in Dr. Jekyll, attacking them with the light energy once again. Knocking them down both of the Shadows, we once again went in for an all-out attack. "Let's do this!"

After all the attacks were down, I once again thumbs downed the enemies. "Not even worth the camera film!"

"They were too weak to bother with." Takamaki scoffed out at the Shadows. We continued through the door into the main entrance, only now we were on the second floor. Joker went and tried to go through a gate to our left, but it wasn't opening for anyone!

"More bars!?" Skull freaked out at the face that we were blocked once again!

"And the thing we need to pull is on the other side…" Panther just looked depressed about that fact. "Should we find another way?"

"I don't really see another way…" So he looked up and with a smirk, he run up to a bookcase and hopped on top of it, then onto a little lip that allowed us to walk above all of the main entrance! It was genius! We ran along the roof and even across the chandeliers! It was awesome! We continued the way over the other side of the entrance. Once we made it over there, there was an open door that led into what I could only describe as a break room. The moment we entered into the room, Mona spoke up.

"A safe room might be close by, Joker." He was looking at a door that was on the left side of the room. "Why don't we use it?"

"Hold on." Joker walked over to a glowing chest that was also in the same room. We got close to it and Mona spoke up once he saw that it was locked up.

"Huh, it's locked…" His face jumped from frustrated to joyful. "It needs a lockpick… We have 1 of those. Want to open it?"

Joker took a moment or two, but with a lockpick that he pulled out of his pocket. I leaned in close as he went to open it. Once it was opened, I saw a gold breastplate and a large orb of Onyx in the chest. I slapped Joker on the Shoulder and pumped my fist in excitement! Then we quickly entered into the safe room. We sat around the table and tried to get a grasp of our situation again. Panther seemed confused as she looked over to Skull. "Uh, Skull… What are you smirking about over there?"

Skull turned to the natural blonde and he was smirking. "Oh, sorry 'bout that. I was just thinkin' back to how we crossed over those chandeliers. I mean, don't all this just make you feel like we're real thieves?"

"It was kinda cool." I smiled back at the bleach blonde. "It was a bit of a rush."

Panther sighed at the two of us. "You know we still have a long way to go, right?"

"Oh, I know, but we also need to focus on something other than just getting through or we may get tired quickly." My face turned into a serious one when I looked over to Panther.

"I guess you're right…" She sighed, she just kinda excepted that one. Though, Mona spoke up.

"She's got a point." He seemed like he wanted to get us back on track as well. "Even looking at this optimistically, there's still a lot ahead of us."

"I know, I know…" Skull sighed and grimaced at the cat. "Don't worry I'm gonna keep givin' this sh*t everything I got!"

We decided that it was time was keep going. We moved through the next door. Skull spoke up next time. "If the map's right, we still got a long way to go…"

"Hey…" Mona pointed toward some Shadows that were just standing by a door. "Look to the left… There are some Shadows here too. Now, you can't just blindly rush into a fight. First you need to ascertain how strong they are."

"How're we supposed to do that?" Skull questioned the cat. He seemed more than happy to reply.

"Well, we'll need to observe the enemy's actions and get some insight into their skills." Mona seemed to focus on the leader of the group again. "That should be possible for you Joker."

The hall that we did just enter into had a staircase. We moved through the hall, there was two corners before we ran into a Shadow. We were able to ambush the guard. It exploded into a two green horses that were missing their back legs. It took us a few attacks, but we finally figured out that Skull had the best chance to take them out. He knocked them down with two electric blast. "All right! Time for some pain!" Skull called out as we went into an all out attack. After we finished the attack, Skull fell onto his face but jumped up and pumped his fist and held out his index and pinky fingers. "That's all she wrote!"

After it, we quickly moved to the next corner to see that there was yet another Shadow right there on the other side of it. We ambushed it and it exploded into two more of the horses. Skull knocked them both down once more. Once that happened, Joker was able to convince one of them to be his Persona. They were apparently called Kelpie. We continued through the hall and up some stairs that were nearby. There was another Shadow up at the top of the stairs. We had to wait for a few moments. Though, we were able ambush it, it exploded into two Agathions and a pixie. We made quick work of the weaker Shadows.

We moved farther in the Palace until we reached a large dining room. There were a few Shadows patrolling the area. Unfortunately, we were unable to get away without being spotted, as Panther accidentally bumped into a palate. The worst bit was that the Shadow that attacked us turned into four of the red demons. We all knocked them down with a combo of my bless skill and everyone's guns. Joker, for some reason, convinced one of the Incubuses to join as a Persona. I noticed that the next guard coming at us, I pulled out my rifle and took a shot at the guard's head.

The Shadow exploded into two of the green haired women again. Joker actually knocked the Shadows down with a blast of lighting. We took them out with an all out attack, after the attack, Joker dropped down on his feet and adjusted his gloves. "The show's over!"

Finally, getting a lay of the room. We could see that we were only in one half of the room as the other half was separated by barred gates, but one was open near a side room. Before we moved into the second half of the room, we ventured into the side room to see a treasure chest just sitting in the corner. Skull seemed very excited about the chest. "Treasure chest spotted! Let's open it!"

Joker quickly unlatched the chest and threw it open. Inside was a little bottle of blue glowing liquid. There was a label on the bottle as well. It read "Snuff Soul."

"What the hell is Snuff Soul?" I rubbed the back of my neck in confusion. Mona perked up when he heard that.

"A snuff soul!?" Mona quickly jumped up on Joker's shoulder and peered into the box. "That's a great find! It restores your energy and allows you to use your Persona more!"

"Damn!" Skull smirked evilly at the bottle. This would help us out greatly. Joker moved over from the chest to the door. He tried the doorknob and when it wouldn't move, he slammed his shoulder against the door. His and Mona's face were disappointed with what was going on.

"This door won't budge." Mona sighed but turned back to the dining area again. "Let's find a different route, Joker."

We all hid behind the table. A Shadow was close enough for Joker to get him. Ann seemed ready for a fight. "Let's get it, right now!" Joker, jumped on their shoulders and ripped the mask off revealing two more green horses. We were able to knock all of the horses down thanks to Joker's Pixie and Skull with quick blast of electricity. Joker was able to convince the Shadow to join him. The green horses were apparently called Kelpies. We quickly moved on and through an ark like doorway. It led to a kitchen with two stone stoves.

There was one Shadow patrolling the kitchen. We hid behind a table that had cutlery on it. We ambushed it and it turned out to be four Agathions. Mona knocked all of them down with wind like blast. Once they were all knocked down we took them out with an all-out attack. Skull pumped his fist after the fight! "Hell yeah! A new move!"

It seemed like we were all going to get a few good moves. We all moved into the next room through a wooden door. The room we moved into was a wine cellar, and we saw that there was already a Shadow that was walking around the corner of the shelves. There was a door on the far end of the room. Though, I could see that there was some sort of bars holding the doors shut. Joker moved behind a box that was near by us. I moved up and poked him in the shoulder. "Hey, it looks like we can't get through the door. We need to find another way out of here."

Joker nodded and quickly moved over to the shelf and jumped up on the shelf. He lifted himself up by gripping the top with the shelf and lifted himself up with a flip. Once he was up there and waved for us to follow him. Mona hopped on top of the box and then up the shelf. Panther gripped the top of the shelf with both hands and pulled herself on top of the shelf with a single leap. Skull gripped the the shelf and hefted himself up. I had to follow Mona's example since I was scared that I would fall flat on my face. I jumped up to the shelf just as the Shadow was about to walk around the corner. Though Joker reached out his hand and pulled me up. I took a quick and silent sigh. Once up there I saw that there was a vent above the top of a shelf across the room.

We all quickly moved across the top of each shelf. We quickly moved through the vent and once we were on the other side, we were in another room with a Shadow standing in front of a treasure chest. Mona whispered excitedly. "Look, a treasure chest! Let's take whatever is in there too!"

"Mona… there's a guard there…" I raised my eyebrow at the cat. There was literally no way for us to sneak in there and take it.

"That's OK." Mona's voie went from excited to teacher mode in a few moments. "Hey, Joker, do you think we can ambush it from here?"

"I don't know." Joker shrugged at the cat. Though Mona continued.

"It should be the same as hiding and jumping toward an enemy." That made sense, I could see the correlation between the two. "Give it a try."

It happened in an instant! Joker moved so fast to a point where he was standing behind the Shadow. There was a single Incubus that came out of the Shadow. I swung my sword at the Shadow, though, the Shadow quickly moved in on Joker, he prepared to defend himself. Though, the Incubus seemed terrified. "Uncle! This has gotta be it…"

"Give me some money." Joker was so calm about what was going on here. The Shadow was willing to accept it though. The Shadow gave us actual yen! It was only about two hundred yen, but it was pretty cool! It was also a lesson about the enemy. The Shadows would beg for their lives!

"I didn't realize even Shadows beg for their lives…" It seemed like Panter was just as shocked as I was about this realization. "That's actually kind of surprising…"

"Shadows have emotions too, you know." Mona was giving us more answers about what it was we were fighting. "Of course they'll be afraid if you corner them like that. It might be worth purposely creating such situations to get them begging for their lives."

"I can see the value of that." I placed my hand on my chin and nodded while thinking about that. "They may even be willing to part with more there."

Though, we continued on after that. We opened the chest in front of us. Joker pulled out what looked like an anklet. He shrugged and placed it in his pocket. Opened the door to reveal the empty hallway that was on the other side of the door in the wine cellar. Joker turned his head way toward a window that was down the hall. He focused in onto a vase that was just standing into the corner. He swiped his hand through it and a nude candle stand was in his hand. We all just groaned at the sight of the item and Mona placed it in his pockets again. There was a door that was to our right that we had passed first. It was white with gold trimmings. Once we moved through it, we were in another circular staircase.

This one empty and in tact. So we just moved up the stairs to the next floor There was a closed gate right in front of us and an open doorway to our right, it led into a long hallway with a Shadow walking halfway done the hall. Though, once we stepped through the door Mona spoke up. "The cognition here is weak… There may be a safe room nearby." We all quickly moved across the hall and into the Safe Room. "This looks usable… Let's take a break, Joker."

"I'm down for that!" I stretched my arms out as we sat around the table. We tried getting a good grasp of our situation. "There were a lot of enemies around here… We have to be getting closer, where do you think we are, Mona?"

"I think this is still the beginning stages." That didn't give me much confidence. That meant that we had a long way to go. That did not bode well, I knew I could keep going for a while. Though, I could sense fatigue just starting to creep up on me. "I don't sense the Treasure anywhere near here."

"I guess we have a long way to go…" Panther seemed worried about that statement. It almost seemed like we may have to do this in two days. We decided to keep going anyway, we were not stopping until we were tired. Joker moved over to the door and I kicked up off my chair.

"Let's keep on rolling!" We all moved out of the door. Joker jumped behind a nearby chair as the Shadow started to move back toward us. Joker quickly moved to hide behind another chair that was closer. Joker ambushed the guard and it exploded into one green haired woman and a knight in steel armor riding a red horse with a golden trident. Panther was able to attack the green haired woman with a fireball. We started to attack the knight, but nothing we did hurt the Shadow much.

The knight actually charged at us, but the issue was he charged at me! I was focusing on the girl, I didn't see it coming! He smacked me in my stomach with his trident! It knocked the breath out of me. I fell to the ground. I heard everyone continue to fight. Though, I got up just to see that Joker was talking to the knight. I guess we got him in a corner. Joker was able to convince the Berith to join. We continued passed the the hall and moved passed a corner to see that there were two turns coming up. It was a fork in the road. There was one with a Shadow walking down the turn that was on the left. We ambushed it, and it exploded into four Agothions. We quickly took them out with little to know issues. We just rushed them. One got an electric bolt off on Skull, so he didn't get too much. "All right, we beat 'em! Let's go, Joker."

We moved back and moved down the right turn. There was a door, and once we were in the room we noticed that there was a small library. We all just kinda searched the small room, but Joker found something almost immediately. Mona noticed this first as Joker was staring at a book. "Are you curious about that book, Joker?"

"Yeah, it has a weird name on it." Joker picked it up as Mona started to continuing on.

"Hmmm… I guess we can always take it with us if you want!" There was a book called the Slave Book. Which was a bull sh*t about that one. I got frustrated by the book, I had to take a few moments to calm down. "The Slave Book, huh…? That sounds kind of important…"

We moved back through the hall and started back down the left turn once more. Though we ran right back into another Shadow that we got an ambush one it. It exploded into two Kelpies. We all took them down with a few attacks. There was another long hallyw that had a door on the right wall. We entered into the door to be treated to what the map said was large cross of hallways and a few rooms in. Straight down the hall there was a door with spears that were blocking another door with a ram head with another pull ring. "Hey, this is just like the one we saw before! If I'm rememberin' right, we just gotta pull this…"

Skull made it sound easy, but I had a feeling… "I don't know if it will be that easy…"

"Wait, there's a round indentation underneath…" Mona pointed out a certain thing that I had noticed. It was an indent that seemed like it needed something in it. "It looks like it won't move unless we fill that."

"So we need a key…" Panther put it in simple turns though… "I wonder where it could be."

"Guess it's time to go on an item hunt!" I stretched my arms out as we continued on to our right and a Shadow came out from around the corner. We got a good ambush on it and it exploded into four Agothions. Mona took half of them out with wind and Joker took out the last two were taken out with Kelpie. There was a door past the Shadow and there was a door to the right. We went into the door and it opened into a study room. With two desk and a large bookshelf wall. There was another book that Joker focused on again.

"Did that catch your attention, Joker?" Joker nodded at the black cat. "We should take it with us!" The new book was the book of the King, so it had to be about Kamoshida. The anger from the slave book came back and added on to the king book, it took a few more moments longer to calm down.

"The King Book, what's this…?" Panther was confused about that one. It was weird that he kept naming them. Following the map, we turned left once we left the door and took another left turn. There was a door on the left wall, there was a similar study through the door. Once again, there was a book that Joker focused onto another book again.

"Hey Joker, what's up, is there another book?" I raised my eyebrows at the new book, and Panther got excited from behind us.

"Then let's bring it along!" Joker reached out and grabbed the new book. It was named the Queen Book. Which didn't upset me as much as the other two.

"The Queen Book?" Skull's voice held tones of confusion in it. "Is this some kinda special book?"

With that, we left the room and took a right and continued down the hall that we just came from, but it continued farther in. There was a Shadow way down the hall, but we took a quick left turn into a door that once we opened it, revealed a large library. Though, that was not the only thing that we noticed as Panther pointed out next. "Whoa, it's so musty…"

"A library, huh?" Mona sounded intrigued by our new discovery. "This definitely seems fishy."

I couldn't help but question the small cat like creature on this one. "How so Mona? It kinda seems normal to me."

"Come on, it's a library in a castle." I didn't really see where it was going right now… "There has to be some kind of secret mechanism in here. Let's look around, Joker."

We walked into the room the rest of the way, but Joker took a quick turn to the book self on the left side. Skull started to spoke up on the kind of books that were there. "Let's see… 'The History of Kamoshida'... 'Tracing Kamoshida's Steps'... 'Kamoshida's Heroisms'... 'Kamoshida's Law'...? What the hell? All these goddamn books're about Kamoshida!"

I gritted my teeth at the names of the books, it was just a physical form of the bastard's ego! Mona's voice brought me straight back down to earth! "That reminds me, we found a book earlier, didn't we?"

"Let's try putting it in." Joker reached into his coat and started going through the three of them. Mona seemed like he liked the idea there.

"Yeah, something might happen if we put a book in here…" Joker looked through the books for a few moments.

"It's going to be the King Book." I walked up next to Joker as he looked at the books and placed the King Book on the self and slammed his fist against the book to finish putting it in. We then moved over to the book self on the far wall from the door.

"There are all sorts of books here…" Panther had leaned in and was reading the books. "The titles don't have any rhyme or reason to them. Huh? This book… has Shiho's name in the title… Wait… It's not just this one! All of the books here are about female students…!"

"'Ann Takamaki: The Charming Doll.'" Skull read the book with disgust. I felt my anger raising once again! "Holy sh*t…"

"What the heck is this…!?" I grinded my teeth together. I hated this!

"It's the effing Queen Book's slot!" Everyone looked at me. My hands were clenched very tightly. I had to shut my eyes. Everyone went silent as Joker placed the Queen Book in the slot. Finally, we moved to the wall that the door was on. Mona spoke up first now. "Hm… Wait a second. The books on this shelf seem familiar."

"These're the names of the volleyball team members!" The anger rose once more! I hated this more than the bastard trying to get us expelled! "Wait, what the hell? All of the titles are boys from our school!"

"'Ryuji Sakamoto: The Vulgar Ape.'" Mona chuckled at the book's name. "'Hisoka Gekido: The Worthless Coward.' There's ones here for Skull and Specter."

"That bastard!" It was Skull's turn to get angry. "Who the hell does he think he is!?"

Joker placed the Slave book into the slot and we heard machines start to move. The wall that we didn't even place a book in moved away to reveal another room. Skull was shocked by this, but I was too focused on not letting my anger get the better of me. "Whoa, it opened up!?"

"You got it, Joker!" Mona was so excited for our leader, but Joker turned back to me.

"Actually, Specter figured it all out." Mona looked at me and realized his mistake.

"You're right, you did great Specter." I nodded, I couldn't deal with this. "Let's take a look inside!"

We walked into the secret room and that was when I saw it… It was the worst thing that I could have imagined! Skull was just as shocked as I was. "Ugh… The hell is this room? There're tons of pictures of Suzui in here! Wait… It's all pics of her…?"

Panther was just speechless at the horror before her. Joker noticed this. "We'll make him pay for this."

"Yeah…" Panther seemed to perk up a bit. "Definitely. I feel even more motivated to do this now…"

"I'm sure it'll feel awful, but we should search this room." I didn't notice anyone one say this. I was starting to see red… "There has to be something in here if he was hiding it with such an elaborate trick."

"This… f*cking… BASTARD!" I clenched my fist and everyone turned back to me with shock and fear on their face. I quickly pulled my sword out and charged at the closest object! I was not letting a single thing in this room stay! f*ck Kamoshida! f*ck what he has done! f*ck this Palace!

Chapter 15: True Feelings of Self

Chapter Text

Date: April 18

Location: Kamoshida’s Palace

Current Objective: Steal Kamoshida’s Treasure

I don’t remember exactly what happened. All I remember right away, was me screaming and swinging my sword around. Also, the color red. Though, what had happened, as I was later told, was… I charged at the barrels to the left of the room. Slashing my sword through a few of the barrels, just screaming and yelling incoherently. After a few barrels were destroyed that way, I started kicking them.

“Specter! Specter, calm down!” Mona tried to get lessen my temper, but I couldn’t hear him, I was too far gone at that moment. Once all of the barrels were in pieces, I slammed my sword into the wall and started running my blade across the wall ripping the wallpaper and the photos of Suzui. Mona jumped up on my shoulders to try and get me to calm down. But, with my wild movements, the cat couldn’t keep a grip on me. I ended up flinging him off of my shoulders. “Ow… guys… we need to calm him down before he alerts all the Shadows in the area!”

“Dammit, Specter calm the hell down!” Skull tried getting close to me but had to back away as I about hit him on my back swing. “What the hell man!?”

“Specter, please, it’s OK…” Panther tried her hand at calming me down. “Shiho’s OK! She’s still alive!”

That wasn’t enough to bring me back to it. I continued to try and destroy the room. Though, there was something the brought me back to the real world. I brought my hand back to swing once again and just before I actually swung, I felt a hand grab my wrist. I stopped, I was brought straight back to reality. I turned to see what stopped me only to be met with a fist to my face! I grunted as soon as I recoiled away from the fist and landed on the ground. I hit the ground hard enough to bounce has I landed. When I looked up to see what hit me, I saw Joker with a serious look on his face. “That’s enough Hisoka!”

Everyone else was so shocked that Joker actually punched me. I gritted my teeth and clenched my teeth. I was still angry. “No it isn’t! He deserves worse than we are giving him! I am so effing sick of him hurting people!”

“Specter…” I barely heard Panther’s pained whisper at me. “Shiho is alive though…”

“BUT MY DAD ISN’T!” I screamed out at my friends. I didn’t want to have this arguement. I knew I wasn’t the only person that Kamoshida had hurt… but everyone else was still alive! “Kamoshida is the reason my dad is dead… and why my mom is in a coma!”

This made everyone recoil in shock. I hadn’t told everyone what exactly happened to me during the crash. “Hisoka…” Panther looked away from me with pain covering her face.

“How…?” Skull was in shock at my comment. I know I shouldn’t blame him for the accident, but I couldn’t not… if that bastard hadn’t bullsh*t his way around the truth… my parents wouldn’t have been there to pick me up!

“You aren’t the only Kamoshida has hurt though.” Joker glared at me angrily. He was basically growling at me. Though, I did almost ruin our infiltration. “We are doing this so no one else gets hurt!” Joker reached down and gripped me by my collar. He lifted my up so he was in my face. “You need to be able to control your emotions! This was not OK, Hisoka! I’m actually sorry about what happened to you. Think about everyone like Suzui-san who still have to deal with what that bastard is doing to them! That’s why we are here!”

After I thought about it for a moment, my anger started to slip away. I felt my face grew wet under my mask. Akira let go of my collar and I dropped to my knees. I started to shake as all of my feelings started to overwhelm me… I started to sob, I moved my mask up off of my eyes so that my mask didn’t fill up with tears. “I… I’m sorry… I… I remember seeing my dad being zipped up in a body bag as they but me into the ambulance… I felt like everything I had known was being taken from me… I… I don’t… don’t blame Kamoshida for what happened to my parents…”

I was avoiding it… it was easier to tell myself that it was Kamoshida’s fault… I didn’t want to face my true thoughts here. Panther walked over to me, she knelt down started to rub my shoulders“Then who are you blaming? Why are you doing this, Specter?”

“I couldn’t do anything… I haven’t been able to save… anyone…” I started to see little wet spots appear on the carpet under me. After a moment, I realized, it was my tears. “Suzui-san still jumped… I… I could have sa… saved her… I cou… could have saved the entire… volley… ball team, but I deleted the photos… to save myself…”

“Dude…” Skull walked over to us now. I could barely breath besides sobbing now… “No one is going to blame you, I mean, look at me. I didn’t even try to save anyone.”

“Specter, you are really brave.” Mona was also trying to help me as well. “I mean, even before you got a Persona you tried to go against Kamoshida… you are still trying to fight back against him.”

I finally got control of my breathing I rubbed my eyes dry using my sleeves. I took one more deep breath, then Joker spoke up. “You good?”

I nodded and moved my mask back down onto my face. “Thanks guys… I still… I still wanna take this bastard down for what he did to Suzui-san. This is the only thing I can do for the people I let down…”

Joker nodded and he held his hand out to me. I reached out and took my friend’s hand and he pulled me up and off my ass… I was ready to keep going. I still felt it it was my fault, but I could make up for all of it now! I had chance to make things right, and I was sure as hell wasn’t going to waste it! Though… I made it so much more difficult for us to find the key that we needed to continue.

After a few minutes a searching through the mess I made, Joker moved over to a bookcase that I hadn’t made it over too. Joker quickly looked about the shelves. He quickly find something. “Hey, guys, I think I found something.”

I was holding a plank of wood that used to be a barrel when he said that. I quickly dropped the wood and moved over to him with Panther, Skull, and Mona. Panther got there first and got to see the object that our leader was holding. “Is this… a medal?”

“It seems that way.” There was something about the way that the medal looked that made me think that I had seen it before… I couldn’t quite place it though.

“That size, and that shape… I think that’s our key!” Mona exclaimed that with such excitement. I realized that he was right! “Remember that round indentation we saw back near those bars?”

“Wait, there’s something under the medal too.” I quickly looked to the shelf and grabbed the large piece of parchment. I immediately realized what it was.

“Hey, its another map!” I held up it for everyone to see. Mona jumped up in excitement!

“Oh…!” His ears were moving quickly as he looked at the map. “It’s a different map from the one we have! This is lucky… Let’s take it with us! Aha! Our map’s complete now!”

“So is it gonna tell us where the Treasure is?” Skull seemed to want to get back on point again. Which after what I just did… I don’t blame him.

“It seems like it says that the Treasure iiiiis…” I pointed at look like a half oval. Panther peered over the map as I looked at the map. “Here.”

“That’s a weird-shaped building…” She seemed to analyze the structure for a moment. “Could it be a tower or something?”

“Considering our current position…” Mona took a moment to think about the length of the castle on the map. “I’d say we’re about halfway there.”

“All right!” Skull’s face had a huge smile on it. “Let’s hurry over there!”

“No.” Mona stopped that quickly and killed Skull’s excitement. “Now that we know how much we have left, we can calculate the best way to pace ourselves. Let’s keep exploring, but take breaks when you need to, Joker.”

We quickly moved back out of the room after making sure that the Shadow that was patrolling the hall was looking the other way. We made it back to the door that had the bars in front of them. Once we made, Mona looked to Joker as he stood in front of the place to put the medal in. “If we activate this device, we should be able to open the door.”

Joker place the medal and the ram’s head lowered down and let the ring come into Joker’s reach. Pulling the ring down, the bars dropped down.”

“Sweet!” Skull was very excited for us to be moving on. “Looks like it worked.”

“Now we can keep going!” Panther almost squealed in excitement. I nodded in agreement.

“We are one step closer now.” We stepped through the door. Right after we walked through the door, we were greeted with a long hallway with stairs halfway through it. We quickly moved through the hall, and once we made it toward the end of the hall, Mona spoke up.

“Hrm, this sensation…” Mona sounded like he was in thought for a moment. “I think there’s a safe room.”

There was a white door with gold trimming. Joker entered into that room to show us that there was safe room. We all sat around the table, but Ann seemed out of it. Skull and I noticed that. “You still thinkin’ about that room we saw earlier?”

I looked down as I was thinking about it now. “My mind just keeps coming back to what Shiho must have been going through…”

“I’m sorry Panther…” I couldn’t bring my eyes up to meet hers. She sighed at me when the words left my mouth. “I could have stopped this… If I had just stood up against Kamoshida…”

“Specter, it’s OK.” I was able to bring my eyes up to look at the natural blonde. “It’s not your fault… it's Kamoshida’s. You tried to help Shiho.”

I gave her a small smile and nodded at her. Skull, trying to break up the awkwardness that had grew in the room. “Yo Mona, where we at right now?”

“Huh?” Mona shook his head and looked to Skull. “W-well, I’d say somewhere around halfway through…”

“You hear that?” Skull looked to me and Panther with a serious look. “Just gotta go the other half and then we can get revenge for her!”

“Yeah…” Panther still didn’t seem to perk up at all. “You’re right. Sorry for being such a downer. I’ll do my best from now on!”

“I don’t think that you have to apologize for that.” I sighed and kept reminding myself that it wasn’t my fault in my head. It was a lot harder than it seemed honestly. “We just gotta get to the Treasure now!”

She nodded at me and we moved to leave the room now. I noticed Mona looking at me as we were moving away. I realized what he was thinking since he was looking at me with a sad expression and he moved between me and Panther. I sighed as I knelt down so I could whisper to the cat. “Hey, just so you know… I don’t have feelings for Panther like that. Though, I wouldn’t mind just being her friend.”

“R-really!?” Mona almost jumped up to my normal height with excitement. “I-I mean, so what if you have feelings for Lady Ann or not!?”

Sighed and shook my head. I stood up and moved to rejoin the others. “I just said that I didn’t, dude.”

We continued on into the room that was across the hall from the Safe Room. It seemed like a smaller, less symmetrical version of the room that he got the first map from. Only without the bars. There was a door on the other side of the room. There were no enemies so we decided to just go through the door. The next room that we entered, well it shocked me! Just from the little bit of the room that I could see, I could tell it was a chapel! Mona seemed to notice it too. “Hold on, Joker! This place is huge… yet there are no guards? That seems suspicious…”

Oh… I guess he was more on point with our purpose here right now. Though, it seemed like Skull was also there. “But the Treasure’s up ahead, right? We don’t got a choice but to keep goin’.”

“I guess that’s true… but we need to make sure we’re ready for whatever might be ahead.” They both had the very valid points, I placed my hand on my sword just to be on the safe side. “What do you think, Joker? Should we continue onward?”

“Let’s do it.” Joker nodded as we all moved to the center of the room where we could start to move up the to a huge statue and the room shifted from a chapel to the gym. Oh god, it made sense…

“Wait, was that… the gym…?” Panther was shocked. By the sight that was before us. I nodded.

“Of course it was…” I grumbled, my sadness was being slowly replaced with determination to take Kamoshida down! “It’s the most important place to him…”

“I get it…” Skull seemed to grumble as well. “The gym’s some kinda holy place for him. He’s a god there.”

“That’s exactly what I thought…” I rubbed the back of my neck in frustration. “He acted like he was more than human when he was in the gym!”

We all walked closer to the statue of the “king” and with each step, I gripped my sword tighter. There was something that was about to happen. We made it straight to the center of the room. Panther was completely pissed just looking at the statue. “I can’t believe he can think like that… especially after what he did to Shiho…”

“God, that bastard makes me so freakin’ sick!” Skull growled out the words. “Just you wait, Kamoshida…!”

I remembered, just standing there in the shadow, no pun intended, of Kamoshida’s statue… I wasn’t just doing this for Suzui, or for my parents… Anyone like Kamoshida needed a reality check! No one had the right to act like this toward anyone! “It’s time someone made you see reality, you bastard…”

“I see…” A voice came out from somewhere unseen. We all looked around in confusion, but I slowly started to unsheath my sword. “So you’re the ones who tampered with the library. It seems my time waiting here has paid off…”

A golden armored guard captain appeared before us. “Just as that ape there said, this place is a holy ground for our great King Kamoshida. It is preposterous for miscreants like yourselves to come waltzing in like this.”

The Shadow exploded into the form of a winged knight covered in armor. “You will pay for foolishly defying King Kamoshida… with your lives!”

“I knew this would happen!” Mona grumbled at our luck. Though, it was pretty obvious when you looked at the room. “Well, we don’t have a choice! Let’s take it down!”

“Like hell I’m gonna let this guy stop us now!” I growled out and fully unsheathed my sword and stood ready for a fight! The armored angel spread his arms out and lifted up higher into the air. There was a red energy surrounding the Shadow. Mona immediately recognized what was happening.

“Look! He’s trying to do something!” Mona looked worried, but still collected. “It’s important to guard if you think you’re in danger!”

“Everyone… guard!” Joker quickly moved into a defensive stance. All of us nodded in agreement and we all moved into a defensive stance. Luckily we all followed suite of our leader. The shadow slammed his sword against Mona, and just the sound of the hit made it clear that the attack was devastating! However, Mona was still standing. In retaliation, Joker Summoned in Arsene. “Go! Persona!”

The demonic thief appeared behind Joker. The thief gathered the dark energy in his hand and slammed his palm into the ground. The dark energy came up from under it. The angel like creature seemed like it was actually hurt by the attack. Panther started to move forward and summoned in her Persona. “Dance, Carmen!”

The fireball that she creates didn’t do much. The angel didn’t even recoil from the attack. Skull quickly summoned in Captain Kidd. “Wipe ‘em, Persona!” The pirate appeared before us and fired off a thunderbolt at the angel, once more, the angel barely reacted. I got a chance to get an attack off. I Summoned in Jekyll. “Rip them him to shreds Doctor!”

Jekyll pulled out his bottle and poured out the white liquid and the holy light hit the angel. I didn’t think that anything would happen but the Shadow reacted with the pain and recoiled away from the hit. “Man, this thing just doesn’t wanna die!”

I gritted my teeth as the angel turned and focused on me for my comment, but before it could react, Mona got a turn in on the bastard! Mona summoned in Zorro. “Witness my resolve!”

The swashbuckler appeared in an attack stance. Slashing his blade around in a Z, a small ball of wind slammed against the angel. Once more, it reacted in pain. Though, Mona still looked a little out of it… The pain from the angel’s attack must have been getting to him by now. I was getting worried about him. Though, the angel didn’t attack, which was lucky for us! Minus the fact that he was charging himself with the red energy once more! I knew I had to get the Shadow off of Mona before something bad happened though!

Joker, Mona, and Panther blocked, preparing for the upcoming attack! It seemed like Skull and me had the same idea! Though he kept Captain Kidd in the fight and ready for anything! The captain surged forward toward the Shadow and bashed its breastplate with his cannon hand. The angel backed away and seemed to look like it was on its last leg. That was when I was ready to take a shot. “Hope my camera skills come in handy!”

I know that I had shot before… but this was closer to life or death than I thought. I took a deep breath, and waited. The Shadow started to act like he was about to attack. Just before he could move, I pulled the trigger! The sound of my rifle going off was preceded by the sound of a grunt and a death throw. The Shadow exploded into black mist as the bullet ripped through its head, killing it!

Even though the battle was kinda short… it was exhausting. We were all panting for our breath once the bastard was gone. Skull was the first to try and talk again. “Didn’t realize those things could be that tough…”

“Yeah…” Mona seemed to be the first one of us to catch his breath, which was impressive considering the blow he had taken during the fight. “It looks like he’s making a concerted effort to stop us now. Joker, I’ve helped you learn a few different things so far, but there’s no more time for lessons. I’ll compile some info you’ll need to know for battle, so be sure to take a look later.”

“All things considered… I think we’ve been making awesome progress so far!” I had to take a long breath before I spoke with that one. “I think’ll be easier for us now.”

And as if on que… six Shadows appeared all over the chapel. Everyone turned and looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Not… one… word…”

“What should we do?” Panther was the first to focus on the point that we were in trouble if we didn’t do something. “Head back?”

“No, the Treasure is definitely up ahead, and there has to be a path to it somewhere.” Mona looked around us and the Shadows started to move toward us. “Let’s take these guys out and look around, Joker!”

The Shadows all exploded into their true forms. They became four Kelpies and two Beriths. Joker knocked down the two Beriths with ice blast from his Silky and then used what we called Baton Pass to give Skull an opening to knock down all four Kelpies with Captain Kidd! “Taggin’ in!”

With that, we did an All-Out Attack to finish off all the Shadows. I stretched out as the room was now truly empty. “Sweet, now that we’re done with that, let’s get going!”

We started to move through the Chapel room to try and figure out which way to go. Eventually, we found a stack of boxes that we could climb up. Which brought us up to a balcony where we discovered that the door was barred shut. It was keeping us from moving forward. Though, Joker decided to try the same thing we did in the entrance room. There was a ledge that all of us could get up to so we hopped up there. This allowed us a path across the top of the Chapel by jumping across the gaps in between the pillars. We went from one end to the room to the other. Until there was a walkway above a few small Kamoshida statues. We ran over the top of those and across to the other side. Then we had to jump back toward the large statue once more.

Once we had dropped down there, we were free to keep moving. We came into a hallway that connected to the door that was barred shut. Once we made it into the hall, there was a Shadow just around the corner. Which I had to pleasure of spotting first as I took point on the corner. “I have eyes on a Shadow.”

Like all the other times, we zig-zagged across the room using chairs to move closer to the Shadow. Once we were in range, we ambushed it. It exploded into three Kelpies which Skull quickly took care of without a second thought. Panther seemed impressed by the speed in which we took the enemies down. “And, we’re done. C’mon, let’s go.”

There were three doors in the middle of the hall. The first wouldn’t open, the second opened up into a small rest room. The last one opened into a library where we were immediately face-to-face with a Shadow… Joker got the jump on the guard as the Shadow was recoiling from us opening the door.

It exploded into two Silkys and an Incubus. We literally beat the Shadows down until one of the Silkys started to beg for its life. We convinced it to give us few hundred yen. Once that was over, we moved on to the next part of the hall until we made it to another circular staircase. We kept moving on up until we reached a door. We moved through the door and there was more stairs. Moving up them, we ended up coming up to a roof like area. There, we could see the tower that we had the Treasure within our grasp!

Chapter 16: Grasping Our Goal

Chapter Text

Date: April 18

Location: Kamoshida’s Palace

Current Objective: Steal Kamoshida’s Treasure

“Hey, take a look at that!” Skull called out as he pointed up to the largest tower in the center of the castle. Mona quickly pulled out the map and looked between it and the tower.

“Oh!” Mona actually seemed shocked, though it seemed obvious that the tower was where we were going. “That matches up with the map. There’s no doubt that’s the tower we’re headed for.”

“So the Treasure’s up there!” Panther seemed excited that our journey was near the end of it. I smiled at our group as everyone was getting hyped up. Though, once I saw Joker… I remembered him decking me in the face, and my stomach dropped. I was nervous, I think, I think I was scared of Joker.

“Hell yeah, we did it!” Skull seemed way to over confident that we could just stroll on in and steal the Treasure! “So… where’s the entrance? All the way up there…?”

“Don’t count the skins of badgers which haven’t been caught, Skull.” I urged caution to the bleach blonde. He sighed heavily at me.

“I know, I know…” I was proven immediately right as huge red glowing Shadows that just looked like they would destroy us in a single hit! “Ugh! Not again…”

“It’s no surprise that security would be tight around here.” Mona looked annoyed by the situation that was before us. “But as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained! Let’s go, Joker!”

“Hold up!” I held my hand up and Joker turned around to look at me quickly. I almost recoiled, dammit I would have to find a way to get over it soon. This could make fighting go badly for me… “Those Shadows just look tough… I think if we are gonna make it to the Treasure today, we should avoid fighting these guys.”

I saw that out of everyone, Skull was the only one that seemed a bit bummed out by that statement. Joker nodded at me. “Okay, we’ll do our best to sneak past them. There are a lot of them on top of that. We’ll be in trouble if any of spot us. So we need to sneak by all of them.”

Luckily for us, there were boxes that made a semi maze that was low enough for us to hide from the Shadows. We waited as a Shadow was looking right at where we were standing. Once he started to move away, we all quickly moved to hide behind a row of boxes that were parallel with the door frame. There was two rows that intersected with the one that we were hiding behind that we had to quickly run around the boxes and just made it behind the another row. Now we were facing three rows of four boxes and just had to wait and move quickly once the Shadow turned to walk back.

Once he did, we started to move starting from the second row. We had to move fast. We started moving to the next row, but had to hid on the right corner of the boxes because the rest of the Shadows could see us if we didn’t move. Once we were against the four row, we had to move to another insect with the fourth row. We quickly hid against it and moved so we were right by the door. Joker tried to open it, but it was locked. Skull was freaking out as the Shadows were sure to hear it. “Seriously!? It ain’t openin’!”

“The Treasure has to be at the top of this tower.” Mona whispered as the Shadows were about to turn back to us. “Is there anyway we can climb up?”

That was when I noticed that a few boxes that had a cloth draped over them. I tapped Joker’s shoulder and pointed to them. He nodded and me and him quickly climbed up the boxes just in time for everyone to see us climb up and the Shadows to continue on their patrol. We all made it up just in time to not be seen! There was a ledge for us to hop up on. Joker jumped up to a ledge that was on a fence like structure on the roof. Then, jumping over spiked poles, hopped over to another ledge that ran the long way across the castle. We all followed in suite. We came across another ledge and fence like structure that we hopped on and across. We could see even more of the tower now. It looked amazing… if it wasn’t for the fact that it wasn’t made for that bastard!

“Part of me wishes I had my camera right now.” I was grunted as I pulled myself up and onto the ledge. “The rest of me wants to tear this bastard down!”

“I can agree with that!” Skull smirked at me as we got up and started hopping across the side of the castle. We kept hopping until we made it to an unfinished tower. We started to climb the side of that tower. We got to stairs that led to another wall of the tower that had a covenant pathway for us to climb up. We climbed up the side until we came to a dead end that an open window beside it! We hopped back inside the castle on a ledge inside. After that, we jumped down onto a pile of boxes. There were large metal doors on that led out of the room. Once we were on the other side…

What we saw was madness! It looked like the tower was falling apart! Blocks were missing, the floor raised and fell apart in different places! There were statues of girls’ volleyball members, only it was just of their breast and butts.

“Wh-what’s going on!?” Panther was rightfully shocked! Though, Mona seemed rather calm about this.

“The distortion is getting stronger…” So, the closer we got to the Treasure… the weirder the Palace would get. “The Treasure has got to be nearby!”

We moved through the tower as it wasn’t just a circular staircase. So we were looking for a staircase. There was a metal door that led to the center of the tower. Once we entered into it, we were met with an odd sight. There was a platform with four of the bust statues with a lever on it. I raised an eyebrow to this sight. “The hell!?”

“What’s this…?” Panther was just a confused as I was. Which was understandable with where we were. We all walked onto the platform and Joker pulled the lever and we all realized that we were on an elevator. Though, now we had no idea where we were A point at which Skull felt the need to focus on.

“H-hey, where are we?” There was a small hallway that had a small staircase in it. There seemed to be another elevator if we took a right turn. Though, we were more interested in the path that led straight down the hallway. We all walked down the small hall, we ended up seeing that there was a large painting of Kamoshida.

The painting was of his Shadow with a happy expression and his cape flowing in the wind. It looked smug as hell. It was disgusting to look at, Panther looked specifically disgusted. “What the heck…? This is disgusting…”

“Either way… it’s kinda strange that this would be a dead end.” Joker ended up walking up and pushing against the painting. The picture gave way under Joker’s touch as it started to spin. So he waved to us, together all of us jumped through the painting. We all landed on a staircase, it took me a moment to figure out where we ended up. Though, Skull seemed a tad lost.

“Huh?” Just like the rest of us, Skull was on guard and ready to attack. “This looks familiar…”

“It’s the entrance hall, you know…?” I sighed as Skull shrugged at me. “We’ve been here five times now, Skull.”

“That’s really impressive Specter.” Mona nodded giving the impression that he was impressed. “He’s right, this is the entrance.”

Panther seemed shocked by the fact that we were back at the front of the castle. “I didn’t realize we would end up back here…”

Skull’s face moved into an expression that was shocked. “Hey look! There used to be tons of soldiers wanderin’ around, but I don’t see any of ‘em now…”

“That could be a problem…” I started to rub my chin in thought. The only reason that they wouldn’t be here anymore… “We should be careful when we go back up the elevator… Kamoshida probably called the guards up the tower…”

We decided that it would be best to go back up the elevator, so we jumped back through the painting and went back to the elevator. Riding it back up to the tower. We finally moved to the other metal door that moves into another fourth of the the floor that we were on. The room warped into a way that made a path to another Shadow. We ambushed it, and it exploded into two women with brown hair and demon wings. Joker pulled out his pistol and shot them both. He was able to convince one of the Succubi to join him. There was a locked chest next to the door. Joker unlocked the chest with a lockpick that he pulled out of his pocket.

In the chest was a small dull sword and a sash. Joker held the sash out to as and I just kinda shrugged and wrapped it around my left arm. It felt weird… I felt a bit invigorated by it. Just like I got a new breath. We opened to the door next to the chest to come face-to-face with yet another Shadow. The Shadow was facing away from us, so we got the jump on it. It exploded into a smaller form of the angel in armor from earlier. Everyone tried to attack it like we did with the large one. Expect, something was obviously different about this one. So I summoned in Hyde to attack it. “Leave nothing left, HYDE!”

The dark and red energy built up in Mr. Hyde’s hands he rushed forward and grabbed the Shadow by both sides of its head. The energy followed into the angel’s head, it slumped to the ground after that. Mona seemed impressed by that display. “Specter knocked an enemy down! Keep it up!”

I cracked my knuckles as I went in for an All-Out Attack! “We got their number!” We flew around the room attacking the Shadow. Once we finished that, I landed and did my motions ending with my thumbs down. “The outcome of obvious!”

Once we moved on, there was a barred door, but since this was just a tower, it was obvious were it would go. Though, Mona noticed something else. “Hrm? This feeling… Maybe there’s a safe room…” Sure enough there was a white door with gold trimming that was next to the barred door. Once we entered it, we were greeted with a safe room for sure.

“Awesome, now we can take a break!” Once more we decided to get a grasp of our progress. It just felt like we were a whole lot closer now. Skull spoke up first.

“We finally got in the tower…” He sounded a bit tired. I didn’t blame him, we had been through alot in this place. “It’s startin’ to feel like we’re closin’ in on the end…”

Mona nodded in agreement, which filled me with a bit of hope that we could do this! “Yeah, the distortion in here is particularly strong. We should be getting close to the Treasure.”

“Though, I get the feeling security here is gonna be tougher as well…” I sighed as the thought of the large angel that we had fought in the chapel came to my mind.

“Yeah, I was just wondering if that meant the enemies would be stronger too…” Panther added to my own comment. “We better be prepared for that…”

We all nodded in agreement. Joker moved to the door. Skull seemed excited to keep moving. “All right, let’s do this!”

We moved to the left of the safe room, and we couldn’t see anywhere to go. As we got closer to the window, suddenly a staircase formed as we got closer! It was so weird but awesome looking! We ran up the newly formed staircase. There was another metal door at the top of the stairs that we kinda regret going through. On the other side was a room full of statues of butts… yep, just butts… and they followed you! The butts formed an upside down seven in their pattern and there were two Shadows patrolling the statues. There was two small staircases that led to another platform, but the left side was barred off.

There was a Shadow near by the the door we had just walked through, so we up and ambushed it. It turned into two Pixies and two Beriths. Joker knocked both of the knights down with ice blast and passed the baton to Skull. “Taggin’ in!”

Skull killed the two Pixies with lighting blast. Joker was able to convince one of the knights to hand over another Soul Drop! We moved from that battle and made a B line straight for the other Shadow, we ambushed it as well and it exploded into some sort of owlman. I got a hit or two on the bastard, but Mona hit it with his slingshot and knocked it down. Joker was also able to convince this Shadow called an Andras to join him… I was beginning to think that he was getting rid of some of his Personas, there was no way he could hold an unlimited amount of them! We moved up the stairs and saw a powerful Shadow and another normal Shadow. We moved behind a small ledge so the large powerful Shadow didn’t see us, but me moved so that we could get the normal one.

That Shadow almost caught us, but we got the jump on it just in time. It exploded into one Succubus and two Incubi! Joker and Mona took out the Succubus with two normal attacks. Panther and I took out one of the Incubi, and Skull finished the fight! The large Shadow came around the corner just in time to see us and exploded into one large angel and two Pixies, Joker knocked all three of them down with Arsene. Joker tried to convince the angel to join the team, but it said that he was too powerful for the transfer and gave us a Devil Fruit instead. With that, we moved on once again. Right next to where we were standing when the fights started, another staircase formed. Moved up to come to another metal door, we pushed through it and found another staircase.

We moved up this one and found a large hall in front of us, and next to us was an odd platform with metal walkways. We moved to the large hallway, but the tower distorted so a large wall formed in front of us. So we went to go to the metal walkway, but just before Joker stepped in, I noticed something move. I rushed up and grabbed the back of Joker’s coat and yanked him out of the way of large swinging blades! “N-nice save Specter…!”

“No problem…” I sighed heavily as the blades kept moving just fast enough for us to not be able to make it past them. “So… any idea what this this…?”

“It’s a classic security measure.” Mona made it sound like this was an everyday thing! “My tail might be in danger if we try to force our way through…”

“Oh yeah, same for Panther’s.” Skull really missed the point of this trap…

“Yeah, cause the tails are the most important things…” I sighed at the two, I hope they weren’t that serious…

“So… what do we do?” That, was at least a good question. “No way we’re gettin’ through here as is.”

Joker looked behind us as the bust of Kamoshida. “I have a good idea.” The frizzy haired thief moved over and stood in front of the smug looking bust of Kamoshida. Wait… bust of… THAT’S RIGHT!

“Yo, you think this controls those swinging things!?” Skull put it so elegantly. Though, he was right! It was just like the drawbridge controls in the dungeon! They hadn’t been anywhere else in the Palace so I had forgotten about them! Joker pulled the jaw of the statue, but nothing happened even as he tried it a few more times…

Mona sighed at our luck in this situation. “I didn’t think it would be that easy. We’ll probably need some kind of key for it…”

“We gotta look for a key again?” Skull sighed heavily in frustration at this. Though, I had to agree, this was ridiculous! “What a pain in the ass…”

“Where would it be though?” Panther spoke up as well. “There weren’t any suspicious rooms on the way here.”

“Then, wouldn’t a high level guard have it…?” I just thought out loud, but Mona nodded in agreement with me.

“Hm… That probably would be the most likely scenario…” Mona sighed at that though, it was a bit of a pain. We were so close, but so far! “OK! Let’s do this, Joker! We need to find the Shadow with that key!”

We moved down to the last level and noticed that a few new guards had appeared, but we really didn’t want to fight them, so we snuck past them, and once we got to the seven moration of the butt statues, there was a guard captain that wasn’t there before! We go the drop on the Shadow that turned into another red knight that we fought when Skull and me awaken to our Personas! Skull immediately knocked it down with lightning and started an All-Out Attack! “Let’s tear ‘em apart!”

Once we stopped attacking the Shadow, Skull fell flat on his face, but jumped up onto his feet quickly and held out his thumb, index, and pinky fingers. “And don’t come back!”

With that, we found something that had a label on it that read, “Randy Right Eye.” “H-hey, that Shadow did have something… But what the hell is this? An eye?”

It clicked at that moment, and I noticed that Mona figured it out as well. “Oh, I just figured it out! This must be how we stop those scythes!”

“The statue didn’t have eyes like the ones from the dungeon!” I exclaimed to Skull, who also realized that as well! Though… Panther beat him to it.

“Wait… dungeon…?” She raised an eyebrow at me. I remembered right then that Panther wasn’t with us when we were down there.

“Yeah… Don’t worry about it…” Skull finally got his two cents in after i rubbed the back of my neck.

“Ugh, how much grosser can he get?” The bleach blonde seemed as if he couldn’t even look at the eye anymore. “So this is gonna stop those things, huh?”

“Well, we’ll need one more.” Mona placed his paw against his chin in thought. “Another guard captain probably has it. Let’s try checking the other floors, Jokers!”

We moved to the next floor down and noticed that it was crawling with guard captains! “Crap… They all look like high-rankin’ soldiers! Are we gonna have to beat all of ‘em?”

“That would work, but there should only be one actual guard captain among them.” Mona seemed serious, but turned to Joker with a smile on his face. “Do you have any way to tell them apart, Joker? I’d think you of all people would have the skills to figure out which is the real one.”

Joker looked at the Shadows for a moment. Then he pointed to the guard by the door. “That one!” It took some work, but we had a small window in which we got the guard. There were three in the room and there was a moment in which all three of them had their backs to us. That was when we struck. We ambushed the Shadow, again it was a red knight, we took it out in the same way as the last one! We got another eye for it, this one was called the “Lustful Left Eye.” “Sweet, we got both of that bastard’s eyes! Let’s go stop those swingin’ things!”

We made our way back to the scythes, we avoided everything in our path, we just wanted to get to the scythes. Once we made it back there, we stood in front of the statue. “We have both eyes now. Try putting them in, Joker!”

Joker placed both eyes in the statue and pulled the jaw. The scythes slowed to a stop and stayed put in the sides of the wall. Skull seemed really hyped by this. “All right! We can get across!”

We hopped our way across the metal platforms, there was a chest that rest on a side platform. We got a Soul Drop out of it and moved on our way. There was a Shadow that was patrolling the other side, but we were getting tired and just wanted to get to the end of this Palace! So we waited for his back to be turned, then we made a break for it!

There was a staircase to the left of the room that we were in and we ran up that quickly. I was starting to think that the tower only had metal doors as we ran into another one at the top of the staircase. We entered into the door to find a half room that had rounded rows of Kamoshida busts. There was walls that were filled with barred doors that we had no chance of getting through. Plus the floor raised up to keep us from going to another door that was on the other side of the room. There was a place that seemed like it had the stairs that raised up. Though, we were a tad confused since as we got closer… nothing happened.

“Huh…?” Skull, like me seemed a bit worried that nothing was happening. Though, what shocked us more… was that something was behind us.

“Hmph.” The voice was distorted and angry sounding. “You are gravely mistaken if you think stairs will appear for you whenever you’d like.”

Well all turned around to see a guard captain appear from the floor. Mona scoffed at the Shadow. “So this guy’s stopping them… The Treasure is near here… If that thing is protecting this place, it must be strong… Are you ready Joker…?”

“Let’s end this!” Joker fixed his gloves as we all walked up to face down the Shadow before us, we were ready to take this son of a bitch down!

“This majestic tower penetrating the sky represents the admirable King Kamoshida’s most sacred place…” It just bothered me that every Shadow was a pain. “It is nowhere for children like yourselves! Prepare for your punishment!”

“What kind of selfish reasoning is that!?” Panther was rightfully pissed at this guys response, we were to be punished just because we were here!? Nah, he could go to hell for that one. “The only one who needs to be punished is you!”

That was when… well, all of us truly regretted anything… The shadow turned into what looked like the cut of head of a penis… No, joke… it was disgusting… a point that Panther also brought up through simply screaming at the Shadow. As much as I would love to skip this fight… it was important to our journey through Kamoshida’s Palace.

“I think I’m going to have a nightmare or two after this…” I shivered at the thought of what those nightmares were going to be like.

“It’s coming!” Mona yelled at as the Shadow was getting ready to fight.

“You couldn’t have picked a different phrasing!?” I couldn’t believe that was what Mona decided would be the best way to warn us! Joker started out the fight by slashing at the… Shadow… yep all I’m gonna call that thing… I don’t how we were able to tell, but it seemed like the Shadow stared at Panther. Since it didn’t have eyes, it was difficult to tell where this thing was looking. Mona also went in for an attack by slashing the Shadow with his scimitar. He flipped up into the air for the first slash and used his downward motion for the next slash.

“Perrrsonaaa!” Skull ripped his mask off as Captain Kidd formed behind him and fired a lightning bolt at the Shadow. Though, it didn’t seemed phased… again, difficult to tell… Though Panther took a shot at it.

“Get Ready!” Panther ripped her mask from her face and Carmen appeared behind the red suited blonde. The usual fireball followed the Femme Fatal’s summoning. I was getting the idea that this thing may not like magic, but I had to be sure.

“Now or never!” I had to be sure, as my mask was torn from my face, Dr. Jekyll appeared and once again used the light magic that I had grown accustomed to seeing him pour out of his bottle. The light formed a small ball around the Shadow, but again… he didn’t react much. “Guys, I think we should focus on physical attacks!”

“Dammit!” Skull cursed out as he started to breath heavily… We were getting to the point that we would have to stop unless we wanted to get killed! The Shadow chuckled… or chocked, I don’t know… Though, there was a warm green glow that emanated from the Shadow. Mona grumbled as soon as he saw this.

“It healed itself!” I groaned at hearing this, man this was a pain! Though, I think that was an opening that it needed, and I noticed far too late that the Shadow had threw itself at me. I felt a heavy impact in my chest as it slammed into my and threw my body a few feet away. I lost all of my breath and crumpled to the ground. I would have screamed out in pain, but all I managed was a small groan and gasp as I desperately tried to fill my lungs back up with oxygen! “Specter got knocked down! Cover him while he’s getting up!”

My vision went blurry, and from what I heard and was told, everyone was so shocked by the Shadow knocking me down that he did the same thing to Mona. It seemed like there was too much going wrong, but Mona was still standing, if only barely… “I-I could use a hand here…”

Finally, the team got their groove back and Joker summoned in Arsene how lunged at the Shadow and Skull hand Captain Kidd do the same. The Shadow was on its last legs as I was finally able to roll back up to my feet! “Won’t get me like that again you bastard!”

I ripped my mask off once more. I knew what I wanted to happen and the difference was that instead of Mr. Hyde appearing, Dr. Jekyll appeared and pulled out a flintlock pistol from his coat. He fired the hand gun at the Shadow. It wasn’t enough to kill it, but I didn’t have to worry about it as Panther took it out by swinging and cracking her wip against the Shadows side and it exploded into the black mist. We were finally done with that son of a bitch, but damn… The pain running through my chest was almost too much… Skull put it best though. “OK! We can keep movin’ now!”

That was all I wanted to do, I wanted to just get through this Palace and get to the Treasure, I was done with being here. Panther seemed to feel the same way. “I-I so done with this place…”

“Can we agree to never talk about that last fight ever again…?” I gritted my teeth, out of everything… fighting the head of a penis is a fight was not what I thought I would ever be doing in my life…

“Gladly…” Joker sighed heavily while trying to catch his breath, we were all running on empty. I hoped that we were almost there. “Let’s just get to the Treasure and get out of here…”

This time when we ran to the spot where we thought that the stairs would be, they actually showed up! There were three platforms just hanging there in the air. The stairs formed by constantly turning right with each time it reached another platform. Once we made it to the top, there was another staircase that formed up to another metal door. Once more, there was a spiral staircase and we moved up until we found two torso statues on either side of a closed door. That was when we noticed that there was also a Shadow on the other side of the right statue. Luckily for us, the Shadow was walking away. So we followed it slowly, it reached another door and stopped.

That was when we ambushed the Shadow. Though, by this point, we were all too tired… So we all just rushed the the Pixie and Berith that the Shadow exploded into. We took them both out with nothing but our weapons. Once we were done with that fight, we went into the door right in front of us to find out that it was a safe room. Mona took a sigh. “This looks usable… Let’s take a break, Joker.”

We took note of our progress once more. “Aren’t we gettin’ pretty close to the top of the tower?”

“Yeah, the Treasure’s presence is very near now.” Mona seemed very sure of himself now. This was very promising. “We should be just about there!”

Panther took a breath of relief. “It’s almost time… My heart’s starting to beat a little faster.”

I took a deep breath, it was almost over… I was about to actually save someone! I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes. But I took a breath to calm down, we weren’t done yet. “Let’s finish this and give this bastard what’s coming to him!”

“OK, let’s get back to exploring.” Panther sighed as we left the Safe Room. Here it was, the home stretch! We walked right up to the huge white doors with their gold trimmings and Joker slammed his shoulder into them, but they didn’t budge. “...It’s not opening.”

“What is this door anyways?” Skull was kinda shocked by the size of the doors before us. Though, I had to agree with him. The doors really felt like Kamoshida was compensating for something! “It’s pretty freakin’ huge…”

“It almost feels like the doors represent his ego…” That got a giggle out of Panther and a chuckle out of Joker and Skull. Mona focused on the task at hand though.

“The Treasure is most likely ahead… We’re almost there.” I was at the point that if Mona said so, then it was most likely true.

“Isn’t there another way we can get in?” Panther was sounding a bit anxious now. “Try looking around, Joker!”

And yet, there was another thing that happened that was really kinda awkward… The statue on the left side of the door was facing down the staircase and had its butt facing us. So, Joker jumped up on the statues ass and then onto a platform on top of that. I rolled my eyes at the ridiculous way for us to continue forward! “Seriously!?”

Still, we all followed, and once up there, there was a small platform that was just on a small jump away from the the one that we were standing on. Then we hopped up onto a small opening that led into the next room. Once we made it in, Skull almost yelled in excitement. “OK! We’re in!”

“Quiet down, you idiot!” Mona slammed his paw over Skull’s mouth who tried to recoil away and spit any fur out of his mouth, but Mona moved his paw away and pointed down below us, where Kamoshida was talking a large number of guards. “Oh sh*t, it’s Kamoshida…!”

“And a ton of soldiers…” Panther seemed worried, but from the way they were acting, I could tell that they hadn’t seen us. Though, Kamoshida spoke up to his guards now.

“How have you not captured the intruders yet!?” He seemed pretty pissed that we were good enough to avoid his army!

“I apologize, my liege!” The soldier closest to Kamoshida sounded scared as he tried to calm his “king’s” mind. Mona ended up drawing my attention away from Kamoshida now.

“I bet he’d never imagine we’re in the same room as him.” The cat sounded super confident now. “Come on, let’s keep moving…”

Though before we did, I turned back to Kamoshida. Joker turned back to me. “Hey, Specter… you good…?”

I looked back to my friend, I was still a little scared of him, but not terribly now. I nodded. “I’m good, I don’t really feel anything now. I… I think you won’t have to worry about me getting pissed at him like in that room anymore.”

Joker nodded and we made our move. We moved slow and low to the ground to a door that was right behind the throne and up a set of stairs. Luckily, we were on the same floor as the door and not Kamoshida. We went through the door and found ourselves in a long hallway that had a large wooden door at the far end of it. We walked right up to the door. This had to be it! “This sturdy-lookin’ door’s pretty promisin’. Let’s head inside!”

That was the best news that I had gotten in the last few days! We opened the door to come face-to-face with the largest pile of gold that you could imagine! “Whoa, what is this place!? Holy sh*t! That Treasure thing’s gotta be in here!”

“You just read my mind Skull!” I grinned so large, but There was something that made me a bit confused… “What the hell is that hazy thing floating over the vase there?”

We all walked a bit closer to what can only be described as a cloud of haze. All of us surrounded that haze and Mona jumped up on the vase it was over. “Hehe… That’s the Treasure. We finally found it!”

“Are you sure?” Joker raised an eyebrow at the cat. It was really weird that this would be what caused his desires.

“Just hold on a second.” Oh, teacher mode activated. “I was planning on telling you more once we made it this far. Simply finding the Treasure isn’t enough. We’ll need to make it materialize before we can steal it.”

Make it materialize…? That confused us greatly. Skull leaned against the vase while looking at the cat. “Whaddya mean…?”

“Desires have no physical form by nature.” That was true, you could grab a feeling. “Hence, we’ll need to make the real person aware that their desires are in fact a Treasure. Once they’re conscious that their desires might be stolen, the Treasure will finally show itself.”

I seemed like sound logic for what we were doing. Though, Panther understood that we still needed more. “But how do we do that?”

Mona seemed really confident now. “We warn them. Tell them, ‘We’re going to steal your heart.’”

That got me and Skull and bit hyped up. “So we’re gonna send a calling card!? That’s totally what a phantom thief would do!”

“Not going to lie, I’m excited!” I smirked at my friends, this was gonna be awesome!

“Once we do that, the Treasure will appear for certain…!” Mona seemed a bit confident, but I was waiting for it. “I think!”

“There it is…” I sighed, that was worrying, but still. We had nothing to go on, so we still had to trust him for now.

“That again…?” Skull sighed heavily at the cat. “Either way, sounds like it’s worth givin’ it a shot!”

“Our infiltration route is secure.” Mona jumped up in joy as he looked to Joker. “All that’s left now is to pump out a calling card in reality, then come back to take the Treasure!”

“This is it, huh?” Panther looked to the ground, I understood how she felt. It was nerve wracking and exciting as well. Joker nodded at her.

“Let’s do this!” Mona jumped up in a bit of excitement still.

“That’s the spirit!” I smiled at my friends, we came a long way from being victims now. “Once we send out the calling card, there will be no turning back. Just let me know when you’re ready. We’ll head back to the hideout and send out that calling card! We’ve secured our route… So, what should we do now? Do you want to head out for today?”

“We are all too tired to stay in the Palace, let’s leave.” Joker looked to all of us, we were all exhausted from going through the Palace. Skull was still excited still.

“Yeah!” It almost seemed like he was still ready to go! “Let’s get the hell outta here before Kamoshida finds us!”

With that, we moved back to the Safe Room and used the phone to go back to the entrance. We all moved to the drawbridge and Joker pulled his phone out. Mona looked up to our leader. “We’ve secured our route to the Treasure… Do you want to get out of here?”

“Let’s return to the real world.” Joker nodded, it was to for us to get going. It had to have been late now.

“Mkay, all we gotta do now is steal the Treasure that shows up, yeah?” Skull had finally calmed down, it was time though, time for us to head out. “It’s finally time.”

Panther also took a breath from exhaustion. “But we need to send the calling card first. When should we do it?”

“I think we need a day for two to prepare first.” I sighed, we couldn’t burn ourselves out way too quickly. “Who knows what is gonna happen when we go to get it.”

“I agree.” Mona nodded for a moment. “Let’s retreat for now, then we can talk more about that stuff back at the hideout Oh, and well done today!.”

There it was the world warped around us and we left the other world.

TAKE YOUR TIME

I was back in my room, I was too tired to deal with anything else. I was in my bed trying to pass out, when I felt my phone go off.

SR: Back home yet? I’m pooped…

SR: It hit me like a goddamn ton of bricks right when I sat down…

TA: Well, I guess we did walk pretty far in.

TA: I’m glad we found that Treasure thing though.

GH: I feel like I’ve been running with 80 kilograms on my shoulders…

GH: Obviously I’m also emotionally exhausted.

SR: So Kamoshida’ll turn into a good guy if we steal that, huh…

SR: Either way, it’s up to you when we send the card, Akira.

TA: Call us over to the hideout when you’re ready.

KA: Nice work, guys.

GH: Aww, you’re going to make me blush…

TA: See ya!

GH: Night guys!

I was about closed my phone when I noticed that I actually had a missed call and a few unread text… Everything was from Ali! I quickly read the messages.

HoneyOTU: Hey… I feel like I need to talk…

HoneyOTU: Specter…?

HoneyOTU: Are you okay!?

HoneyOTU: OK, you’re starting to scare me!

HoneyOTU: Specter!!!

SpecterYANA: Holy hell! Ali, I’m so freaking sorry!

SpecterYANA: I was in a place with no signal for awhile…

SpecterYANA: Ali…?

After a few moments… my phone started to ring. I picked it up without looking at the caller. The moment I answered the phone, I heard sniffling. “Specter…?”

“Ali!” I took a deep breath, I felt so bad, I left her alone and confused. “I’m so sorry…”

“It’s OK…” I still heard her sniffling. “I-I had a bad day…”

“I understand…” This was rare, it wasn’t the worst day she could have, but it was still bad. “I’ll stay on the line as long as you need. I want to make up for missing you earlier.”

“Thank you…” I heard her sob for a quick moment. I knew she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong, but she would just talk to me for a while. “You really are the best Rival…”

I smiled, I should have remembered that I already help someone that I care about… I don’t need to be a hero… Though, that wasn’t going to stop me from saving everyone from Kamoshida. “You are the best MC.”

I listened to her talk about a few anime that she had watched in the last few days and a game that she had played. I think I that fell asleep at some point while listening to her. When I woke up, she was still on the line and I could hear her breathing. I grew a small small, this gave me all the drive I needed.

Chapter 17: Running Mircale

Chapter Text

Date: April 19

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: Send Calling Card

“Hi there, everyone…” We were in class and another second year teacher stood in front of us. He had short black hair and and wore a black suit with white frills. I sighed, at the way the guy held himself was weird… He moved like he was an actor on a stage. It didn’t really bother me, but that was odd. “I’m Mr. Hiruta, your biology teacher. You must all be shocked by what happened with Suzui-san.”

I couldn’t lie, it was still fresh in my mind. I no longer blamed myself though. I was just happy that she was still alive. “It was a shock to me too… Although, I can relate to how she felt. Her eyes devoid of life as they looked upon this sad, hopeless world. Well, I suppose everyone views the world differently. Let’s have a test.”

The teacher’s eyes shot across the room, they landed on my for a moment. Though, they ended up landing on Akira. “You there! Take a look at this diagram.”

My eyes fluttered as I started to yawn, I stopped paying attention. I was really tired from last night. Even though, I was happy to help Ali out, I was way too tired to focus on school today… I would have to ask Akira if he has notes on this that I could barrow notes for. My focus kinda came back as I heard some of the other students start to whisper about Akira. Mostly it was that they didn’t think he would be smart due to his status as a delinquent.

I didn’t really care any more, but I looked over to another person that I had forgotten was a victim of Kamoshida. Mishima seemed like he wasn’t even trying to take notes. He was grimacing at the situation he was in. I clenched my fist, I knew we needed to take a few days to relax, but I wanted to take Kamoshida down as soon as we could! I whispered under my breath, hoping no one could hear me. “Just give a few days… We got this…”

TAKE YOUR TIME

I stretched as I was standing up. The end of the school day had come and gone. I could see the sun starting to set, part of me wanted to go to Asakusa and take a few pictures from the top of the Sky Tower. Though, before I could decide if I was going to do so or not, I noticed that Akira was walking straight for me. “Hey, Hisoka.”

“Akira, what’s up?” I tilted my head to my friend, I was a little worried at he had decided that we should send the calling card today. I still wanted to rest. “We going to the hideout?”

“No.” I almost sighed out loud in relief. “Though, Ryuji wanted me to invite you to come work out with him.”

My eyes got a little wider from hearing that. “Huh…? Why was I invited?”

“Well, you know how he is, so let’s go get changed.” Akira smirked at me as he walked away.

“Wait, but I didn’t answer?” Akira turned back and smirked at me.

“I know, but you know he’s going to make you do this still.” I sighed, dammit Akira was right… I was not getting away from this, no matter how hard I tried… I wanted to rest, not work out…

TAKE YOUR TIME

“Man, this spot brings back memories…” Ryuji stretched his arms above his head. All three of us were out behind the gym in our gym uniforms. I sighed and slouched. The clouds had started to move in… even if I got out of here in the next few minutes… it would be too late to take the picture I wanted… Ryuji looked to both of us. I honestly wouldn’t know much of where we were. I never cared for sports, so I didn’t even know who was on a sports team until the rumors of Ryuji reached my ears. “This is my secret trainin’ spot. Er… was. Back when I was on the track team.”

“Ah, so it was you that I would see back here.” I straightened back up. Akira titled his head toward me with a confused look. “There were times back before everything with the track team happened that I would walk past the back of the gym on my way to find a spot to take a picture when I would see someone running back here.”

“Wait, really?” Ryuji was the confused one now. “I guess that was you back then?”

I smirked and nodded, it was interesting to learn that someone that I used to think was just a random face in the crowd was a friend now. I never would have thought as much. Ryuji nodded, but he seemed to go back on on thing that was on his mind. “Actually, I’ve been thinkin’ of tryin’ to run again.”

“Why’s that?” Akira seemed shocked, I mean, after everything that he went through, I would have thought that he wouldn’t want to.

“Fightin’ in that other world was a total shock.” Ryuji grimaced, it seemed like he was in physical pain. “I couldn’t move like I used to. It just felt… lame.”

I looked to my arms covered in wraps still. “I can understand that… It may be a bit different from how you move, but I have difficulty lifting my sword sometimes…”

Ryuji got a large grin on his face. It seemed like he had a huge idea. “Well, that’s why I invited you Hisoka. So I started thinkin’, maybe I need to build up my muscles again. I figure that I could help you build up some strength as well. Anything’s gotta be better than our flimsy bodies, right?”

“I… guess…” I raised an eyebrow and rubbed the back of my neck. Ryuji seemed pretty content with that answer.

“Plus, maybe then I’ll be able to help out a little more.” Akira smiled as both of us and then nodded to Ryuji.

“I’m counting on you.” Ryuji rubbed his nose before placing his thumb back into his pockets.

“Heheh.” That little laugh made me smile a little bit as well. Despite that we were in a terrible situation that we were doing something that could get us killed, we were having fun still. “I’m totally gonna wreck your expectations!”

“I can do so as well.” I slipped my hands into my pockets as well. Akira nodded at me with a smile. Ryuji’s face got rather serious now.

“Anyways, you act like it’s only me and Hisoka who’s gonna be doin’ this, buy you’re gettin’ in on it too.” Akira’s face went from a smile to his eyes widening in fear. I started to snicker and laugh at my friend’s face of pure horror at the fact he would have to run! “Whoa, don’t look so surprised! Why’d you think I had you go and change into that?”

“I don’t know, moral support…?” That made me start to laugh even more! He wasn’t serious was he!? “It’s not funny Hisoka!”

“Yes, yes it is!” This was very funny to me!

“It’d be pointless if we all weren’t gettin’ super fast, right?” Ryuji seemed a bit disappointed, but that face was quickly replaced with a huge grin. “All right, I’m gonna do some knee lift sprints. You and Hisoka are stuck with the normal ones!”

We started to run around the school immediately after he finished saying that. It wasn’t helping my arms, but he was right, I needed to get faster. I would need to keep up with everyone, even if I was tired. It was exhausting, and once we stopped, I was out of breath, but Ryuji was leaning down and was breathing really hard. He was leaning forward with his hands on his knees. “Ughhh… Damn, my legs’re all tight…”

“You… you OK?” I was finally able to get my breath back. Ryuji nodded, he slowly moved back to a standing position once more. His face never changed from being serious. “Before Kamoshida came along, the track team was the biggest thing this school had goin’ for it.”

I slowly looked down, I understood where this was going, and how it felt. “But it all changed after he got our coach fired and took over as the sub. That bastard… Right from the very start he was tryin’ to get rid of us. He’d give us crazy workouts, then when we couldn’t do ‘em, he’d add even more on top of that… Day after day was nothing but that bullsh*t…”

That was something that I could sympathize with. Kamoshida acted like my camera, something that had given me a reason in life… was nothing, all because it didn’t further his goals. “He was goin’ after me especially. He knew… He knew I was the kinda guy who’d fight back. If my time dropped even a little, he’d cuss me out. Then on top of that, he brought up my parents…”

This was something made me stop and take a breath. I had a feeling where this would go… I had heard of another track member complaining about how Ryuji and blaming is attitude on his parents. I didn’t really want to press, but Akira was the kind of person who wanted more information. “What about them?”

Ryuji forze for a moment. He rubbed the back of his head and shook his foot. “Truth is, my mom’s the only one I got.”

“Damn…” That just slipped out, I really knew how that felt. “I’m sorry Ryuji… We are in a similar boat then, huh?”

“Yeah… kinda…” Ryuji closed his eyes and tried to continue his train of thought. “All my dad did when he was still around was drink. Sometimes he’d even eat me, or my mom. I dunno how that bastard Kamoshida found out, but he told the whole goddamn team… And as you guys can guess, I lost it and hit him. It was like he wanted me to do it though. He called it an ‘act of violence,’ and shut the team down…”

It was different from my situation in a lot of ways… But it was those similar ways that made me realize just how much me and Ryuji were alike. I decided that it would be best for me to be quite and let him finish. “Thanks to that, the other guys on the team treat me like some kinda traitor… And they ain’t wrong. ‘Cause of me, they all lost their shot at the championship…”

It seemed like he was down for now. So I took a breath and sighed. “I’m sorry that you had to go through that…”

“Well… it’s not as bad as your situation…” That was odd, because I thought that Ryuji had it worse than I did. Akira seemed like he wanted to ask something, so I let him continue.

“Do you want to go back?” Ryuji’s face didn’t change from the depressed look that he had on his face now.

“To the track team? Nah…” He paused for a moment before he crossed his arms and glared at Akira, not in an angry way though… “C’mon, don’t ask me tough questions like that. I’m not very smart, y’know!”

I left a bit of humor grow from in my chest. I didn’t want to laugh right now though… Though, Ryuji got a big smile back after a moment. “Anyways, it doesn’t matter now. That’s all in the past! I’m only thinkin’ about the future now! That’s what we’re gonna do-build the future! We gotta think positive thoughts, brother!”

Ryuji held up his hand and me and Akira realized that he wanted a high five, so we both held up our hands as well. He slapped both of our hands hard enough to move both of us. He rolled his shoulder for a moment, and then said something that scared the crap outta me! “C’mon, we’re all warmed up, right? How ‘bout another run? By the way, Akira, you’re actually pretty good at runnin’.”

I groaned after hearing his first sentence. With that, Ryuji slapped my shoulder and laughed. “C’mon Hisoka, you got this!”

“I don’t wanna!” Akira and Ryuji both laughed at me with my childish complaining. We ran for another thirty minutes… I was exhausted on the way home…

TAKE YOUR TIME

I flopped back on back as I got to my room. I knew I wasn’t getting up until I got up for school tomorrow now though. Ryuji and Akira ran me really ragged during our run… Well, maybe tomorrow I could get a break… Though, that was when my phone buzzed at me. I reached down and looked at the screen to see what was going on. I had a message from Ali

HoneyOTU: Hey… sorry about last night :(

SpecterYANA: It’s OK, it was really late. I ended up getting enough sleep anyway.

HoneyOTU: That’s good :)

SpecterYANA: Yeah, speaking of, when did you pass out?

HoneyOTU: It was shortly after you did…

HoneyOTU: Speaking of late nights.

SpecterYANA: Yes?

HoneyOTU: I was wondering if your good for game night on Sunday?

SpecterYANA: Of course, I will see you there my MC!

HoneyOTU: Good, better prepare, because I’ll use my super move!

HoneyOTU: Well, good night my Rival!

SpecterYANA: Good night my MC!

With that, I ended going to sleep shortly after that. I was almost ready to send the calling card, and I felt like everything was starting to work out for me now. We just had to steal the Treasure now!

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date: April 20

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: Send Calling Card

Once more, my phone went off during class. I was beginning to understand that this was going to be a usual thing. When I looked at the phone, I realized that it was started by Ryuji once again!

SR: Man, we need some cash.

TA: Why are you bringing that up now?

GH: I have to agree, I don’t see the why that’s important right now.

SR: Well we can get all sorts of weapons and meds and sh*t now…

SR: But we can’t actually buy any of it without some dough.

KA: We need to earn some.

GH: Well, that’s better than just relying on Shadows for our money.

TA: I agree, though, I already have a part time job.

GH: Seriously!?

GH: I didn’t know that.

TA: Yeah, I work part time as a model.

GH: OK, not surprised anymore.

TA: What do you mean by that?

GH: Nothing.

GH: Oh… I just realized how that sounds…

KA: Smooth Hisoka.

GH: Oh shut up Akira!

GH: I meant, it sounds like something you would enjoy!

TA: Its fine Hisoka. I understand what you where going with that.

SR: Anyway!

SR: Don’t make it sound so easy Akira…

GH: Well, the rest of us could get part time jobs.

SR: I dunno, I don’t feel like it…

SR: Oh sh*t.

SR: I’m in class!

SR: Sorry, I gotta leave the chat for now. Seeya!

I rolled my eyes, boy Ryuji seemed a little lazy now. Though, that was a good point that he made… We would need some money to make up for the fact that we would need more stuff now. I figured that I would have to find a part time job soon, I knew that Akira would do it to help us out. Plus… it wouldn’t be fair to Ann to let her be the only person with a job on the team.

TAKE YOUR TIME

I saw Akira getting ready to leave when I figured it would be a idea for both of us to go and look for jobs together. So, I went to walk over to him. “Yo, Akira.”

“Hisoka?” Akira smiled at me and I noticed someone poke their head out from behind Akira’s shoulder.

“Hey Hisoka.” I nodded to Morgana as he whispered out to me. Akira moved his shoulders, signalling the cat the move back into the bag so no one caught them like that.

“What’s up?” Akira placed his hands in his pockets. Damn he was always so relaxed…

“Well, I thought about that conversation that we had earlier.” He nodded at me, and despite that some people use that to avoid listening, I could tell that he actually was. “Well, I figured me and you could go try and find some jobs that one or both of us could work at.”

“Sounds good, I saw some brochures at the Shibuya station.” He nodded for us to move out. Guess I would be spending my time figuring out a job with Akira today.

TAKE YOUR TIME

“Freaking ran…” I sighed out as I shook my arms, hoping to dry my sleeves a bit, I had my umbrella with me, but that didn’t stop a car from passing by as we about reached the station to Shibuya. I heard Akira chuckle a bit at my issue. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up Akira. Just know its still raining, and that means there are a lot of puddles between here and home!”

“Bring it!” Akira smirked at me with a wicked look on his face. I lightly pushed my friend in his shoulder. We were in front of a magazine stand for part time jobs. Morgana popped his head out of the bag once we both picked up the magazines.

“There are some conditions to apply to some jobs aren’t there?” He tilted his head at the magazines as we started to open them.

“Yeah, but for most jobs, it's still fairly easy to surpass all of them.” I flipped through to the help wanted section to see that there were… only three jobs that high schoolers could apply for… “Seriously… I applied to at least two of these before!”

“Convenience store, flower shop, and beef bowl shop…” Akira sighed as he looked through the three jobs. “I can only apply for two of them right now if that makes you feel better at all.”

“It does a little bit.” I sighed as I closed the book. I figured that I wouldn’t be able to get any of the jobs there. It was frustrating. “Hey, Akira, you live in a cafe, right?”

He raised an eyebrow and nodded at me. I stood there for a moment and thought about my situation. I wasn’t strong enough to work at the convenience store, and since I wrapped my arms, people usually didn’t want me working with their food, I know that if I tried what I was thinking, I may run into the same problem… “You think the owner needs an extra hand around the shop?”

Akira thought about it for a moment. He looked away from me as he thought about his answer. “I could ask Sojiro-san if he needs anymore help. I’ll let you know what his answer is tomorrow.”

“Cool!” I figured that would be a good way to get the money we needed to operate in the Palace, at least… it would be more reliable than people asking for their pictures taken. “That makes my life so much eas-”

At that moment, I heard and felt my phone start to ring in my pocket. I pulled out the small device to see a familiar number that I couldn’t quite remember where I had seen it before. “Sorry, I’m gonna take this really quick… Hello…?”

“Is this Hisoka Gekido-san?” The voice on the other line was a female. I could other sounds in the background of the call. I started to glare off into space as the call continued.

“Yes, this is him.” I cleared my throat quickly as my voice cracked a bit. “May I ask who it is calling?”

“Oh, right, sorry!” I heard the sound of a pen against plastic and paper for a quick moment. “I’m the nurse in charge of taking care of your mother.”

That made me shoot right the hell up! This was the scariest call of my life at that moment. They normally didn’t call me or my aunt for anything! I started to breath heavily out of fear. “Wh-what are you calling about!? Is something wrong!?”

I realized that the sounds I heard in the background were monitors tracking people’s pulses and people talking amongst themselves. “No, fact it's the exact opposite! Your mother, she’s awake!”

I froze… that… I… couldn’t even think straight… There were too many thoughts going through my mind all at once. Happiness, doubt, fear, anger, sadness, and joy all ran through my mind all at once. I started to stumble back a few steps until my back was against a wall.

“Hisoka…? Hisoka?” Akira called out to me, I almost didn’t hear him due to the roaring of my own thoughts. I turned to look at my friend. “Is everything OK?”

“So, if you could, she has requested to see you.” This was terrible timing, I nodded at Akira. I started to feel tears swell up in my eyes. A smile forming on my face as well.

“Yes… yes, I will be other as soon as I can.” I was trying my best to not just out right cry.

“OK, we will be waiting for you.” The nurse sounded happy that I was going to show up to see my mom. “I assume you remember the visiting times?”

“Yes, thank you again…!” I slowly slid down the wall that I had leaned against! Akira looked at me with a worried look. “My… mom…!”

Akira’s eyes widened upon hearing that. He was scared of what happened. “Is… is she OK!?”

“She… she’s better than OK!” I quickly jumped to my feet with my hands way above my head! “My mom’s awake!”

I saw Akira’s face go from fear to just pure shock. “That’s… amazing!”

“I’ll say!” Morgana popped his head back up from the bag and his face seemed just shocked as Akira’s! “It’s a miracle, are you going to see her?”

“Of course!” I’m sure that my smile was as wide was possible! “Would you guys like to come with me?”

I saw their faces as they turned to look at each other, go from shocked to smiles. “Sure.”

TAKE YOUR TIME

I was nervous as all hell… I hadn't seen my mom awake since the day of the accident. I stopped visiting after I completed my physical therapy. I just couldn’t help but keep thinking of the accident… I was scared that my mom would never wake up again… I was about to turn away, but Akira put his hand on my shoulder. “You got this.”

I took a deep breath and opened the door. The light from the windows almost blinded me as I entered into the room. After a moment, the light faded. There she was… my mom… She was in a pure white hospital gown. She had short black hair and blue eyes. She had a small smile on her face. I could see that she had a few small scars on her right cheek. That was where the glass would have cut her face. “Hisoka… I’m glad you’re OK.”

I started to become overcome with emotions. “M-mom…”

She held her hands up toward me, her eyes closed and her smile got even wider. I moved slowly at first, but then I ran at her. I almost jumped into her arms! “I’m sorry that I did that to you…”

“It’s not your fault mom…” I squeezed her even tighter. I was so happy… I had never been as happy as I was that day at that point. After a few moments of silence, my mom finally looked up and noticed Akira. “Oh, I’m sorry, and you are?”

“It’s OK, I’m Akira Kurusu.” Akira bowed to my mom with a small smile on his face. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Gekido-san.”

“Is he your friend Hisoka?” Mom looked to me as I moved so I was standing again. I nodded in confirmation to my mom’s question. “Well Kurusu-san, please call me Aiko. Anyway, it seems like I missed a lot, so maybe you two could fill me in on all that?”

I smiled, me and Akira started to tell my mom about what has happened since she was in a coma. She seemed to give me an interested look when I told her about Ali… boy… a lot of people thought I had a thing for her… This went on for a few hours, but eventually… we were told that visiting hours were over. Me and Akira ended up parting ways once we got to Leblanc. Once I got home, my aunt Mitsu was in the living room. “Hey, you’re home late. Have a good day?”

“What, you didn’t get called?” I tilted my head in confusion. I saw her face go from happy to confused and a little disgruntled.

“A call from who…?” I figured that I should just tell her. My smile got huge.

“The hospital, Mom is awake!” I was too happy that night, that I didn’t notice my aunt’s face darken at my comment. “I went and saw her with one of my friends!”

“Oh, well, I guess that I should go visit her now.” She turned away from me, and I continued up the stairs.

“Well, night. Love you aunt Mitsu!”

“Love you too, Hisoka…”

Akira’s Confidants:

Chariot: Ryuji Sakamoto (Rank 2: Baton Pass)

Hanged-Man: Hisoka Gekido (Rank 2: Baton Pass)

Chapter 18: King's Reaction!

Chapter Text

Date: April 21

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: Send Calling Card

“Hisoka-san, can you come here for a moment.” Kawakami called me over to her as she spotted me in the hall. The day had just ended, but she looked worried, like she was running late for something. I figured that I didn’t have much of a choice.

“What’s up, Kawakami-sensei?” I wasn’t really not annoyed that she had stopped me. It just felt odd that she would stop me, a student that she believed the rumors about. Or maybe she didn’t believe them… I could never tell with her. Then again, I never really asked, I had been too focused on keeping my head down until now. Anyway, she pulled out a folder from her bag and handed it to me.

“Can you please take this to the student council room for me?” I tilted my head, but decided that I shouldn’t really ask about what was going there. I took the folder with a small smile and nodded at the messy brown haired teacher.

“Of course.” She started to smile at me the moment I agreed to do this simple task for her.

“Thank you, you're a lifesaver!” With that, she started to run out of school building. I sighed, I did not want to find out what was with her. So I moved up to the third floor and made my way to the student council room. A few of the members of the student council walked past me with smiles on their faces. I reached out to the door with a sigh, quickly moved into the room.

I was actually shocked to see that there was still one more member in the room. The last person in the room, besides me, was the student council president, Makoto Niijima. She had short brown hair with a brown french braid styled head band in the center of her head. Instead of the normal uniform, she wore the undershirt that had the symbol of a third year on it. She had a black button down vest on over that. She wore the uniform skirt and black leggings. Her reddish-brown eyes looked up from a book that she was reading and met with my green ones. “Oh, Gekido-san…”

“Niijima-senpai.” I never really talked to her much, but I can’t say that we were ever on bad terms. I know that Niijima-sempai tried her best to be the best that she could for everyone, but for now… I could see it in her eyes… she did currently believe the rumors…

“Can I help you?” She did her best to give me a polite smile. It was admirable, I didn’t really care that much though. I sighed and held up the folder so Niijima-senpai could see it.

“Kawakami-sensei asked me to bring this up here.” I walked over to the table and gently sat the folder down in front of the brunette. “I assume it's some sort a budget for you guys.”

“That…” Makoto opened the folder and slowly looked through the papers inside the folder. “Is a very apt guess. Thank you Gekido-san…”

“Yep.” I turned to walk out of the room, but before I could make it out.

“Um… Gekido-san…?” I stopped as my hand was almost to the door. I looked back at the brunette. I could see that she seemed a bit sad. I sighed, and turned back.

“Yes Senpai?” I had an indifferent look plastered my face on. I uh… I felt bad, I always looked up to Niijima-senpai. I actually used to ask her to help me study during my first year. She always seemed busy, but she was willing to help someone study. I wouldn’t say we were friends… but if Kamoshida hadn’t spread those rumors about me, I think we would have been friends.

“I…” She slowly looked away from me. I was actually curious about what she would say. “I just want to say that I’m sorry. “I hope you have a good day…”

I could see that she was still trying… I really couldn’t help but let that bring a small smile to my face. “You too Niijima-senpai, you too.”

With that, I actually did leave the room. Maybe I could try to be friends with her after everything with Kamoshida was said and done… maybe. Time would tell. Until then, I wanted to get home.

TAKE YOUR TIME

My phone started buzzing in my hand as I start to receive a call from an unfamiliar number. I decided that I should answer it anyway. “Hello…?”

“Hisoka?” That was a familiar voice though! “It’s Akira, I’m calling you from Leblanc’s phone. Sojiro had me call you from here so you would have the number.”

“Oh… kay…?” I started to frown in confusion and tilted my head.

“So he wants you to come over to Leblanc and talk.” I was still confused at what he was trying to say… I was quiet for a moment. “Don’t you remember…? We talked about me asking Sojiro about giving you a job here?”

“Oh that’s right!” I slapped my forehead, I had forgotten that I asked Akira to do that for me. I must have forgotten after I visited my mom yesterday! “I will be over there soon!”

I ran from the station to Leblanc as fast as I possibly could. I had to quickly jump around a few people so that I didn’t run into some people. Finally, I made it to the front of the cafe. I could clearly see that threw the glass door.

The inside of the cafe had a semi-wooden floor with tall chairs at the counter. There was a tile floor next to all the booths. The booths had stain glass lights above them. There was to blackboard menus hanging above the counter. A small white and yellow rotary phone sat at the corner of the counter next to the door. I could see the wine glass like lights above the counter. I could see the TV on the far wall. There was a ton of different types of coffee lining the wall behind the counter. There was a few pots of coffee cooking on the far end of the counter. There was also a small potted plant next to the pots. There was also a sink on the far wall.

I opened up the door and heard the bell above the door jingle as I walked through the door. Which caught the attention of a man washing dishes behind the counter. He had a receding hairline of pure black hair that moved down to a pair of side burns and into a long goatee. He wore a salmon pink button down shirt with a black pinstripe apron. He also had a thin pair of black glasses over his grey eyes. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, uh… Sakura-san?” I tilted my head to the side for a moment. I was so hoping that he was Sojiro Sakura.

“Ah, you must be Gekido-san?” The man’s voice was gruff, but soft. Which was weird to say, but still. I nodded to the Sakura-san. “So, you’re Akira’s friend?”

“Yes sir.” I just kinda stood there awkwardly in the doorway. Sojiro sighed at me after a few moments.

“Well, come in.” With that, I moved and placed my bag in one of the booths and sat next to it. Sakura-san dried his hands off and moved around the counter to sit on one of the chairs at the counter after he turned it to face me. “Now, I don’t really need a part timer here. Though, Akira told me about your situation.”

I quickly moved my hands to my arms… I was worried that I was about to be told no, only because of my arms. Sakura-san had a look of no nonsense right now. “Though, I don’t really care about your arms so long as you can make a cup of coffee.”

That made me perk right up! That was the best news I had gotten all day! “Yes Sakura-san! I had to make coffee for my parents before the accident!”

“Well, let’s see it.” Oh no… I was not ready for this… My eyes widened quickly. I scrambled to my feet and started to move toward the counter. Sakura-san turned his chair around so he was facing the counter. Once I was on the other side… Sakura-san pointed to one of the glass jars behind the counter. “Make me a cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain.”

I nodded and quickly moved to the start to make the coffee. I won’t bore you with the details of me making coffee, but Sakura-san focused on me as I was scrambling to make the cup of coffee… I was not used to making it with the old style equipment. Once it was done, I poured the coffee into a cup and pasted it to Sakura-san. He took a sip of the coffee and just closed his eyes as he thought about everything that he had just seen me do. After about a minute, I couldn’t do much… “Sooo… how is it?”

Sakura-san finally opened his eyes. “It’s not good.” That broke my spirits… I couldn’t believe it… This seemed like my best chance to get a job right now and it wa- “But it’s not bad. I can work with this. Alright… so, what days work for you?”

I froze… th-there was no way… I-I couldn’t believe it! I actually did it! “Uh… um, so days… right… I-I think that Sundays thru Tuesdays would be the best days for me!”

“OK, you don’t have to work everyday because of I can’t afford to have you here all the time.” I nodded with increased excitement.

“Th-thank you Sakura-san!” I noticed that Sakura-san had a small smile on his face.

“By the way, call me Boss, everyone does.”

“Oh, OK.” That was a good nickname, especially since he would be my boss. “Well, thank you Boss!”

“Well, I’ll see you on Sunday Gekido-san.” I was so excited! Though, I did remember that I had game night soon. Though, thankfully… my job wouldn’t interfere with it. I had to say… these last three days of rest had been the best I could have asked for!

“See you then Boss!” With that, I grabbed my stuff and ran out of the cafe and ran back to my house!

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date: 22

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: Send Calling Card

Here we were, on the roof, our hideout! We had rested for a few days, now… now we were ready for this! It was time! Morgana sat triumphantly on a desk next to Akira. “All right! All that’s left now is to send out the calling card and take Kamoshida’s heart!”

“Couldn’t we have just sent one at the deginnin’ of all this…?” Skull brought up a fairly good point. Though, I had a feeling that was not the case, I mean, we were Phantom Thieves… Phantom Thieves usually left a calling card saying that they could have stolen something! They were like hackers that tech companies hired to find weaknesses in their security. Only, no one wanted their help. That means that we needed to be at the Treasure to do so!

“It’s not that simple.” Well, it seemed like I was on the right track now. “A Treasure won’t stay materialized forever. Once the impression is gone, the Treasure will disappear. I think it’ll last around a day, at most.”

“Well then…” That was a huge shock… and was really worrying for us… “That doesn’t really give us a whole lot of time…”

“Anyways, we can send a callin’ card right now, yeah?” Skull sounded impatent now. I didn’t blame him, this was it, this is what we had been waiting for. “Let’s do it and steal that bastard’s heart!”

“I have to agree with Skull…” I slammed my fist into my open palm. I felt determined! I was ready to move on from this! “It’s time that we take Kamoshida down a peg or two!”

Akira pushed up his glasses then crossed his arms. A determined look on his face. “Send the calling card!”

“I’ve been waitin’ to hear you say that!” Ryuji sood up in excitement and walked just past the desk before he turned back to us. “Tomorrow’s finally the day.”

“So we send the calling card in morning… and carry out the plan by the end of the day, right?” Ann sat on the air conditioning vent. It was a good idea to make sure that we all had the process down.

“Correct.” Morgana started to scratch his ear. “The effect won’t last that long… Are you worried?”

“Heh.” Ann almost sounded very like she wanted to kick his ass now! “Waited too long.”

“Perfect.” Morgana then turned to me and with a smirk on his face. “What about you Hisoka?”

“Hell yeah!” I rolled my shoulder. I knew that we would be doing this tomorrow, but I was ready to go! “It’s been a long time coming!”

“We’re going to pull this off, no matter what!” Ann glared out into space, I believe that she was thinking of what it would be like for us to steal the Treasure.

“Yeah…” I glared toward the ground now. I knew what this was for. “For Suzui-san… for Mishima-san… and for the rest of the volleyball teams!”

Everyone nodded in agreement with me. Morgana started to lick his right paw. “So, who’s going to write the card?”

Oh… that was a good point. Well, when I thought about it, I felt that- “Leave it to me!”

That snapped my attention back to Ryuji. It was a little worrying that one of the most emotional members of the group right now, would write the calling card… Ann seemed to worried about it as well. “Why?”

“Why…?” Ryuji slammed his foot toward Ann in frustration. “Why wouldn’t it be me!?”

I sighed and held up one finger. “Your history with Kamoshida.” I held up a second finger and kept holding up more as I made more points. “That history making you very emotional toward Kamoshida. The fact that anyone of us could slip up and make a mistake that would connect the calling card back to us. The fact that you, Akira, and I would immediately blamed for the calling card anyway. Finally, you are not the most academic of us.”

“Oh, shuddup!” Ryuji slammed his foot at me and I started to chuckle a bit. That was a pretty good reaction! Ann decided to add in another thing.

“This is important.” She glared straight through Ryuji and into his soul. “Are you sure you can handle the pressure?”

“I must agree with both of them.” Morgana seemed worried about Ryuji doing this as well. Though, all of us being worried didn’t really change what he thought about all of it.

“I really wanna get him good!” Ryuji seemed upset, but his face quickly changed to a happy expression. “Lemme write it… C’mon, please?”

I think we all kinda gave up there… Akira nodded at him. “All right Ryuji, you can write it.”

Ryuji pumped his fist in excitement and it was almost infectious. “Yeah, I got this!”

“Hey, are you sure about this…?” Ann sounded very serious about all of this. “If they find out our identities, all this work with be for nothing…”

“I know, I know!” Ryuji still couldn’t take his smile off his face. Morgana smirked at all of us.

“All right, then!” Morgana seemed very excited as well. This was gonna be one hell of a show! “Tomorrow it is! You better not slack off on this.”

TAKE YOUR TIME

I was laying in bed when my phone when off once again.

SR: Man, there’s so much I wanna write on the calling card. It’s kinda tough figuring out what to say.

TA: Are you sure you’re really capable of this!?

GH: I think that we just have a little bit of faith.

SR: Wow, thanks man!

GH: I mean, not like we have much of a choice now.

SR: For real!? C’mon!

SR: Don’t worry, I got it. I even made a logo for us.

TA: ...A logo?

SR: Yup. You’ll get to see it tomorrow.

GH: Man I hope no one figures out its from us…

SR: You worry too much!

GH: I think you’re not worrying enough…

SR: Anyways, you guys should rest up.

SR: If we screw up tomorrow, we’re totally done for.

KA: I’m counting on you guys.

TA: Yup, I’m sure we can do this.

GH: I got everyone’s back!

SR: Just remember, we can’t trust any sh*tty adults.

SR: That’s why we gotta do this ourselves.

SR: Anyways, let’s pull this off and surprise everyone!

With that, I was ready to go to bed. I wanted tomorrow to come as fast as possible!

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date: April 23

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: Wait for Kamoshida’s Response

“A calling card…?” A large portion of the student body was standing there by the entrance of the school next to the announcement boards. There were small red calling cards posted all over the board. Ann was just walking in the school building when she noticed this.

“I heard it was already posted by the time everyone got here this morning.” With that, Ann walked close enough to read the board.

The card… which I had noticed earlier, was red with an odd logo that was just a cartoon mouth with eyes peering out from under a top hat. The words “Take Your Heart” underneath it. Ann, proceed to read the calling card. “Sir Suguru Kamoshida, the utter bastard of lust. We know how sh*tty you are, and that you put your twisted desires on students that can’t fight back. That’s why we have decided to steal away those desires and make you confess your sins. This will be done tomorrow, so we hope you will be ready. From, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts… Wow.”

Ann finally turned around to see us standing down the hall from the notice board. She walked toward us as all the students kept on gossiping away. When she got close Ryuji was so excited about his work that he couldn’t help but talk very loudly about what he had done. “Not bad, eh? I looked up a bunch of similar stuff online for reference.”

“Um… Yeah…” Ann didn’t sound impressed about Ryuji’s work. “I know what you wanted to say, but it sounded like an idiot trying to be an adult.”

“Personally, I thought that he should have been more poetic.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Like, it should have said something like, ‘We will make you confess your crimes with your own mouth.’ Something like that.”

Morgana popped up out of Akira’s bag as well. “Your logo’s a little lacking, too.”

“OK, y’know what?” Ryuji looked a little bit offended, though mostly at Morgana’s comment. “Th-that ain’t true!”

Did Mr. Kamoshida do something wrong…?” A few of the students started to speak up again.

“Does this mean the rumors are true!?”

“Wait a sec… Is someone gonna take something from Mr. Kamoshida…?”

“What’s with this weird logo?” Yeah… it was a little weird. “And who’re these Phantom Thieves of Hearts people…?”

Ryuji kicked the ground a little kid that was offended by someone not liking his painting. “...It got everyone excited, so it’s all good, yeah?”

That was when the guest of honor showed up himself! Here was the real test of Ryuji’s calling card. Kamoshida stood there for a moment before yelling out! “Who’s responsible for this…!?”

“...Look at that.” Morgana… still not hiding back in Akira’s bag… sounded very happy! “A predictable reaction for someone who knows what we mean by distorted desires.”

“Yeah, but you should probably hide Morgana…” I pointed down so that Morgana would get the hint. He realized that if Kamoshida turned around to look at us right now… we would be in trouble. So, he did slip back into Akira’s bag. Though, Ryuji was still very happy about his success… I mean, it did piss him off.

“I think it’s hittin’ him pretty hard.” Kamoshida started to fail about and scared the rest of the students away.

“Did you do this!?” He sounded like he was about to explode! “Or was it you!?” He turned around to look at us and he stomped his way over to us. “...Was it you three!?”

“No, I’m just as shocked as you.” It wasn’t a big lie, I was shocked that it worked!

“What’re you talking about?” Akira played it off like a pro! He sounded like he normally does, and I couldn’t even see a tell about him lying.

“So, you’re playing dumb…?” He still thought that he had the upper hand here! It was beautiful! I was trying my best not to laugh at that point. “Eh, it’s not a problem. You’ll be expelled soon enough anyway.”

Suddenly the world distorted around us, it was dark and we couldn’t see anything but Kamoshida’s Shadow! “

“Come… Steal it, if you can!” With that, the world returned to normal and he walked away from us. Once he was out of ear shot, I started to snicker a bit.

“That was beautiful!” I rolled my shoulder. This was awesome!

“Judging from Kamoshida’s response…” Morgana popped back up from Akira’s bag again. “I’m sure we had an effect on his Palace!”

That was great news! News that Ann wanted elaborated. “Does that mean the Treasure’s appeared!? We’ll be able to get it today, right?”

Morgana’s face became very serious all of a sudden. “It’s not just ‘today.’ It’s ONLY today. The impact of seeing a calling card doesn’t last long, and it cannot be repeated. This we be our one chance to steal the Treasure.”

“One day’s more than enough for us!” Ryuji was still very excited! I knew how he felt though!

“We got this!” I slammed my fist into my palm once more! “Let’s go kick some ass!”

Once the day was over, all we had to do was go into the Palace and Kamoshida’s Treasure was as good as ours!

Akira’s confidants:

New Confidant: Death: Tae Takemi (Rejuvenation)

Chapter 19: End of the Castle of Lust!

Chapter Text

Date: April 23

Location: Kamoshida’s Palace

Current Objective: Steal Kamoshida’s Treasure!

Alert: 99%

Here we were, it was time! The Palace was quiet, but we were so ready to go that we didn’t care! “Let’s go! Don’t let your guard down!”

Akira pulled out his phone and the world distorted around us and suddenly we were in a safe room. We immediately turned to the door to run out. Mona spoke up as Joker reached for the doorknob. “Our only objective today is stealing the Treasure! Let’s go!”

When we moved out of the Safe Room, we were right next to the Throne room. Only… now, the door was wide open, which was weird, but we didn’t care. I leaned around the door and looked around the throne room, it was clear. “That’s weird… there’s no one here?”

“What the hell!?” Skull was very shocked by this… “The door’s just sittin’ open, and there aren’t any soldiers around…”

“This place is probably undermanned now that they all got assigned elsewhere.” Mona seemed very sure about this… I looked around the room for motion, of which I couldn’t see any… “Either way, we win as long as we can steal the Treasure! Let’s keep going!”

With that, we ran for it! Through the center of the room until was made into the Treasure room. Only this time… instead of a hazy floating orb, there was a large golden crown! Mona got very excited as we got closer to it! “Aww yeeeeaaaaaaah! The Treasure has appeared!”

“Man, it’s huge!” It really was huge, Skull was right. There was no way that crown fit on Kamoshida’s head!

“What do you think!?” Mona hopping up and down in excitement! “It’s just as I said! Now we can steal it! Ahh… this shine brings tears to my eyes…”

“...It kinda pisses me off.” Panther growled at the golden and red crown. “Why is it so pretty…? Isn’t this Kamoshida’s desires?”

“Maybe he thinks his desires are pretty…?” I rubbed the back of my neck. I sighed heavily at the thought of Kamoshida thinking he was doing a beautiful thing… It disgusted me to no end.

“I guess that might explain it…” Panther still seemed upset by the very sight of the crown. “Hey Mona, do you have any idea why it’s like that?”

“T-Treasure…” Mona’s eyes light up like Christmas lights now! Skull raised an eyebrow at Mona.

“Uh, the cat’s acting awfully excited.” I was waiting for Mona to react to the comment, but he didn’t.

“What’s wrong?” Panther seemed a bit worried now. “Is something…?”

Before Panther could finish speaking, Mona screamed out and jumped up into the air and landed onto the crown! “Meeeeoooow! Mrrrroooow!”

“That’s not catnip…” Joker’s joke made me have to try and hold in a laughing fit, but I couldn’t do it! I doubled over and started to laugh.

“Meow, meow!” Mona still didn’t calm down, I actually started to calm down and control my breathing. “Mewwww!”

“All right, that’s enough, you stupid cat!” Skull stomped toward Mona, and this time, the black cat came to his senses and jumped off the crown.

“Oh, um, yeah…” Mona actually seemed disappointed in himself. “Forgive me for displaying such an insolent display in front of a lady…”

That was a pretty weird display of… well, I don’t know what that was about. “That was very unexpected, Mona… That was not very odd compared to how you usually act.”

“Yeah, that was completely out of character for you.” Panther raised an eyebrow to Mona. This was the oddest thing about Mona yet… “What was that about?”

“I couldn’t stop it either…” Mona was upset about his actions still. I really couldn’t do much either. “To think I’d be drawn to human desires this much…” Mona suddenly got a huge smile on his face. “Doesn’t that prove I’m human!?”

“I wouldn’t really say that…” I sighed at the cat, there was no way that we could tell if that meant if he was human or not…

“A-anyways, you guys need to carry it!” That was not good news for me… Though, Mona was too small to be of any help in carrying the crown in the first place. Skull sighed and walked up to the crown.

“All you do is bark orders…” He sounded like he was about to be furious at Mona. “Still, this was easier than I thought! I thought for sure there’d be some sort insane trap or something.”

“His Palace will disappear if we take this back, right?” Panther stared at the crown with anger and hope. “And Kamoshida will change too…”

“...That should be the case.” Mona sounded very confident about it, and everyone moved to get around the crown. “Hey, Hisoka, help them with the crown.”

“I-I uh… I can’t…” I rubbed the back of my neck again. Everyone turned to look at me. Skull recoiled in shock.

“What!? Why not!?” He sounded very shocked with no real anger. I held up my right hand and pointed to it as my hand started to shake slightly.

“I don’t have enough strength to left as much as that thing looks…” Joker nodded and Skull dropped his head in defeat.

“Fiiine…” Skull kicked the ground in annoyance. Panther sighed at the news.

“Well, I’m its a good reason…” With that, everyone else turned back to the crown. Joker, Panther, and Skull all reached out and held their hands under the crown. Once all of their hands touched the crown, it dropped into their hands with its full weight. All three of them grunted. “It’s heavy…!”

“I can at least make sure the way is clear for you guys…” I felt bad… but there was no way for me to help with this… Plus, if we got in a fight after I carried that… I wouldn’t be able to do much… Though, Mona ended up grabbing my attention after a moment.

“To think it’d go so well…” He was very happy at the fact that we had not only find the Treasure, but actually had it in our grasp, literally. “I’ve even found four Persona users in the process… My judgement was correct. I made the right choice in making a deal with you! Nyahaha!”

With that, we made the slow and almost painful… It was painful to watch… trek back to the Safe Room. We made it halfway through the throne room when, suddenly… there was a voice that called out. “Go, go! Let’s go! Ka-mo-shida!”

I quickly pulled my gun out and searched for what was definitely a surprise attack! There was a grunt that came from over head, and suddenly the crown was knocked right out of everyone’s hands! There was a shadow as the form of Kamoshida’s Shadow flew over our heads and landed right in front of the throne and held his hand out. Before the crown came to a complete stop, there was a bright flash of light, and suddenly the crown was a normal sized crown in Kamoshida’s Shadow. The cognitive Ann ran up and hugged him. Kamoshida was tossing his crown in the air slightly. His face was incredibly smug. “I won’t let anyone take this! This proves that I am the king of this castle-it is the core of this world!”

“Dammit!” I cursed and gripped my rifle all the harder! This was bull! “I didn’t think an attack would come from above…!”

“That rat bastard…” Panther growled out at the sight of the other version of herself before us. “That’s how he sees me, isn’t it!?”

“Yo, pervert.” Skull relaxed into a stance with his thumbs in his pockets. “Were you waitin’ to ambush us?”

“Man, I guess that we can ad stalker to the list now!” I smirked out at the bastard. Though, he just smiled right back at us.

“I just made it easier to find you.” I couldn’t take him serious with the other Ann on his shoulder. “I’ll dispose of you myself. Right here, right now.”

“That’s our line you sexually-harassin’ D-bag!” Skull stomped his foot at the bastard, but Kamoshida just shook his head and smirked at us.

“What a selfish misunderstanding…” Panther got really pissed, just like I was!

“How is it a misunderstanding!?” Panther stomped her foot at Kamoshida now. “You were doing things that you kept secret from others!”

“There is not effing excuse for what you did to anyone!” I growled at Kamoshida as I tightened my grip on my gun, if you could see my knuckles, they would have been pure white from the death grip I had on it. “There is nothing that gives you the right to treat people the way that you effing do! You knew that were terrible things to do as well! Otherwise you WOULDN’T have kept them secret!”

“The people around me were the ones who kept it a secret.” Kamoshida’s smirk was aggravating! “Adults who wanted to share in my accomplishments, students who the drive to become winners… They willingly protect me so that we all may profit from it.”

“Profit!?” Skull sounded shocked, but from the sounds of that, I thought that they may be betting on the games…

“There are too many imbeciles that don’t understand that!” He thought that he had the most control in the world! I was very upset now, I just wanted to throw down now! “Including naive brats like you and that girl who tried to kill herself!”

I was getting angry again, but Panther seemed calm about what was going on. “True, she’s a total idiot… letting you manipulate her, trying to commit suicide… And I’m even more of a dumbass for not realizing that…! But no matter what kind of fool someone might be… They don’t need your permission to live their lives!”

“Drop the attitude, you mediocre peasant!” Kamoshida sounded like he was done with our sh*t now. “There’s no wrong in using gifts from my gain! I’m a cut above all other humans!”

“Above huh…” I took a few steps forward now, I was ready to knock this asshole out. “I guess it's easy to be above other humans when you are a power hungry demon you crush others beneath your sick and twisted desires!”

That was when it happened… dark energy surrounded Kamoshida and his voice became even more distorted as he started to laugh. He flung his arms out now. “That’s right. I’m not like you…” He pulled the fake Ann closer to him again, and held the crown up to his face. “I am a demon who rules this world!”

There was a ripping sound as Kamoshida began to distort and grow in size, his shadow quickly growing to a ridiculous size! Drool began to fall all over the ground. Skull was taken aback, then again… we all were. “Wh-what the hell…!?”

Kamoshida laughed as his new form had taken shape! He was now a red skinned demon with four arms! The right arms held a glass of wine with the fake Ann in it and a golden knife. His left arms held a riding crop and a golden fork. His crown was on top of his head as his eyes were about to pop out of his head and didn’t focus on one thing as both moved like a chameleon's eyes! His lips and teeth were replaced with sharp edges to make up his mouth as an almost six to seven foot long pale tongue slithered around like a snake! There was a golden chalice was placed in front of him, and there were pale female legs sticking out of it. Finally, chained to Kamoshida were mostly naked small creatures with metal helms, I counted four of them as well. “I’m allowed to do whatever the hell I want!”

Joker gritted his teeth, he also had enough at this point. I flung his arm back behind him in defiance! “You’re wrong! And nothings gonna save you now!”

“Nnngh… graaaaaaaagh!” Kamoshida’s eyes darted back and forth between all five of us. “You goddamn, no-good sh*tty brats! Haven’t you been taught not to point at people!? Huh!?”

Mona pointed to his head next. “Look! The Treasure’s over there! We should catch him off guard and steal it! Let’s attack him and wait for that opportunity! Finally, we can take on Kamoshida himself… Everyone, let’s do this!”

“You don’t gotta tell me twice!” Skull slapped his pipe into his hands a few times! I couldn’t help but think that the sight before me reminded me of a depiction of a prince of hell, Asmodeus. Akira started off the fight, he summoned in a Persona that we hadn’t seen before, it was a small red demon with red hands that hopped back and forth with joy and his black hair covered his eyes.

There was a dark and green energy that flew surrounded Kamoshida and once it hit him, I could tell that Kamoshida was moving slower than before. As Kamoshida was trying to deal with that, Skull summoned in Captain Kidd. “Persona! Yeah!”

Red energy came up from the ground underneath Joker. “What the hell are you brats planning!?”

Kamoshida was being very wary of what we were doing… though, after all. This was a life or death situation now! Once that happened, Mona did a flip into the air and once he landed, Zorro was there. Zorro moved his sword in the Z pattern and slammed the green wind energy into Kamoshida. His new demon form recoiled in pain as the wind slammed into him. “Gah! You bastard!”

“I could say that to you!” I reached for my mask and ripped it off of my face. “Dr. Jekyll, Snap!” With that, Jekyll appeared behind me, I held my hand up in a finger gun as Dr. Jekyll pulled out his pistol and fired a shot off at the demon. He didn’t react too much, but I could still tell that it did damage. Next, just as he finished recoiled, Ann summoned in Carmen. A dark and pale red colored energy assaulted Kamoshida.

“I weakened his attacks!” Panther call out to us as she prepared for whatever Kamoshida had instore for us! The monster slapped behind him using the riding crop. Suddenly, a ridiculous amount of volleyballs came out of nowhere. The slaves jumped back before jumping into the air and slammed against all of the balls toward Mona, who luckily jumped to the side as all of the guns slammed into ground harmlessly. He slammed the riding crop once again and this time the volleyballs flew toward Panther who side stepped out of the way, standing on one foot for a moment before starting to moving back into her fighting stance.

Kamoshida started to laugh as Joker summoned in the small red demon once again. It ran forward and rolled its punches. Ryuji summoned in Captain Kidd again and this time, the Persona charged forward and head but the monster before us! It was actually really badass! Once more, Zorro used the wind magic once more. Kamoshida seemed very upset now that we continued to attack him repeatedly!

I ripped my mask off and Dr. Jekyll reappeared and opened up another bottle and poured out the white energy out of the bottle once more. Panther summoned in Carmen again, the fireball slammed into the demon again. Now, Kamoshida slammed the golden fork into the chalice and pulled out a pair of legs from the chalice and ate it. “Nnnnngh! I need healin’! Come at me, you pieces of sh*t! I ain’t lettin’ you sleep tonight!”

“He healed himself…?” Mona was not the only shocked by this realization. We all were. “Is it because he ate those inside there…?”

Kamoshida smacked the crop once more, and this time, the balls came straight for me! I quickly rolled to the side in order to avoid the the balls. Joker ran forward at the chalice, Kamoshida realizing what he was doing tried to slam his knife into Joker a few times. Each time missing. Joker slashed his knife against the chalice. The chalice actually gave under the knife. Kamoshida was very pissed! “Hey! You don’t know what this is worth, so stop touching it! Don’t do it anymore, got it? I’ve warned you!”

“When someone tells us not to do something, it makes us want to do it even more!” Mona seemed very happy about that! Honestly, I agreed with him, and with a quick look over everyone else’s face, they all agreed with it too! With that, Kamoshida turned his head and quickly turned it to the other side! His tongue quickly whipped back and slammed into all of us! It was disgusting! We were all covered in his drool. Though, to make it even worse, Kamoshida too a drink of the wine in his cup and the fake Ann in the cup slipped into his mouth and SUCKED on it! After a moment, he brought the cup back to his mouth and let the fake Ann fall back into the cup!

I pulled out my rifle and started to shoot the cup and the each of my four bullets that slammed into the chalice left a dent! Skull had Captain Kidd slam his cannon hand into the chalice! It actually cracked along the side of it! Panther charged up and slapped the chalice with her whip, the crack spread even farther! Kamoshida cracked the crop once more, the slaves slamming the balls toward me the moment I stood up from shooting the chalice. All of the balls slammed into me at varying speeds, a few actually hurt! It wasn’t enough to knock me down though!

Joker summoned in Arsene now, and the demon thief racked its claws against the chalice which shattered into pieces! Kamoshida recoiled in emotional pain this time! “...Ack! No way… This was from when I won the national…”

“All right!” Now, Kamoshida was open for an All-Out Attack! Though, I guess he thought that he could convince us still!

“You think that you can get away with doing such a thing?” It really just sounded like a child having a tantrum because a kid stole his toy! “Do you realize who I am…!? I am Kamoshida! Don’t you get it!?”

“So what?” Akira was pissed the look in his eye just screamed that he wanted to end Kamoshida!

“Huh…!?” Kamoshida could comprehend that someone didn’t give a sh*t about him! “Like I keep saying! I am Kamoshida! I’m the king!”

“You look down on everyone… but you’re seriously lame right now.” Skull growled at the “King!” Panther wanted to join in on this as well!

“We came all this way to steal that!” Panther motion toward the crown. “Will you just give it up and hand it over?”

“The more you wine and complain about this, the more I wanna shove that crown down your throat!” I growled as well, I would not let Kamoshida go, we came to far! “Just had us the effing crown and we’ll just leave to bitch and moan!”

“Silence!” Kamoshida had no say in what was about to happen, but he still acted like he had all the power! “I won’t let the likes of you have this!”

“You still have the energy to say things like that!?” Mona growled in anger. “Then we’re going to up our game as well!” Now we did an all out attack! We all ran about the throne room, racking our weapons against Kamoshida! Once we stopped attacking, Kamoshida seemed wounded. Though he still seemed able to fight!

“I’m the king…!” More bitching, it seemed like, once it came down to it, that’s all he could do! “If I’m not, then who is!?”

“We won’t get anywhere with brute force…” Mona was right, Kamoshida was tougher than the Shadows that we had fought up till now. Joker’s eyes darted around the room. “What do we do!?”

“Let’s go for the crown.” Joker smirked at it, Kamoshida was moving his knife and fork like he was about to focus on those! I felt like that would do a lot more to me then everyone else.

“I see…” Mona seemed to see the same thing as Joker. “In that case, time for Plan B! Look over at that terrace!” Mona pointed at the walkway that we used yesterday to get to the Treasure! “While the others are drawing Kamoshida’s attention, have someone go there! Let’s steal the Treasure without him noticing!”

The moment we finished speaking, Kamoshida slammed his knife down on Skull! It looked like it really hurt, but Skull was still in the fight! Mona realized that now was the time. “Let’s take that Treasure!”

“Hey, I am not be much use in this fight right now!” I gripped my sword harder. I knew that I could do this! “I can take the crown away from Kamoshida!” Joker nodded in agreement for me to go. “I got this guys!” I quickly moved against the pillar right next to Kamoshida!

“Attack Kamoshida!” Mona called out to the rest of the team. “Keep him busy!”

Joker summoned in an Archangel who slammed its sword against Kamoshida who recoiled in pain. Captain Kidd shot out his bolt of lighting at the demon! Panther pulled out her SMG and began firing at Kamoshida. He was done with us now though. “How dare you keep defying me… Looks like I gotta bring out the big guns! Slaves! Bring over you-know-what!”

The slaves quickly ran away and past the rest of the team. That was worrisome… “Time for my killshot from when I was active and rockin’ it! Killshot… as in I’ll make the kill!”

“It feels like he’s gonna attack!” Mona was right, I saw the slaves run out of the room and they were coming back with something… “Keep your guard up!”

With that, everyone blocked as the slaves brought back the world’s largest volleyball! They threw it up into the air and Kamoshida jumped up and spiked the damn thing! It caused an explosion that I was just out of the radius for! Thanks to them blocking, everyone took minimal damage from that attack! I was about ready to make my move! “Attack Kamoshida! Keep him busy!”

Mona quickly shot a few metal slugs from his slingshot, Joker unloaded his pistol into Kamoshida. Panther summoned in Carmen and used the fireball once more! Skull unloaded his shotgun into the bastard to end that round of attacks! Kamoshida started to moan again… “Now listen up. This school exists because I’m around. You’re the only ones who don’t respect me, you know!”

“Sweet, he hasn’t seen my yet!” I took a deep breath as I slowly stood up again. “I’m proceeding as planned! I’ll get the Treasure away from him!” I hopped up and was barely gripping on the top of the pillar, I didn’t want to move too far incase Kamoshida saw me!

I only was able to hold onto the pillar since I had my legs wrapped around the neck area of the pillar. I couldn’t see what happened next, but I heard the knife, and Kamoshida slurping up the wine… I heard gun fire, lighting and wind! Then Kamoshida started up again! “You’re misunderstanding it all! I haven’t sexually harassed anyone! They came onto me because they wanted to get on my good side!”

It took everything in my power not to yell at Kamoshida! “I still haven’t been seen, this is going well! It shouldn’t take me much longer!”

I hopped up one more time, now I quickly moved along the railing on the walkway, until I was behind a bush. I noticed that Panther dropped Kamoshida’s power again! Only to get a knife to the face! Kamoshida took a moment to stare at Panther after that! Arsene charged at Kamoshida and raked his claws against Kamoshida again. Captain Kidd slammed his ship into the Kamoshida as well! Panther used another clip of her SMG on Kamoshida once more! “Is there one less of you? I knew it! They’re missing! Where’d they go!?”

I stood up with my rifle aimed at the crown. “Too little, too late you son of a bitch! Just smile for the camera!” I pulled the trigger right as Kamoshida moved the wine glass in front of his crown. The glass exploded and the crown flew off Kamoshida’s head!

“Noooo!” Kamoshida dropped what remained of the glass and the crop. He was so shocked that he lost the crown, and tried grasping for it in the air! “My… my precious…!”

“Good, Kamoshida’s shaken up!” Mona was very excited for that! Panther held her gun up to Kamoshida and I joined back up with everyone.

“I think we can do this…!” With this, everyone started to attack the bastard with no end. Kamoshida could barely move. Finally, Joker summoned in Arsene and he used the red and dark energy! Black mist exploded out of Kamoshida’s form! He screamed like he was dying and fell flat on his face! The crown rolled toward us and shrunk once more. We started to move toward the crown, but Kamoshida rolled at it and grabbed the crown, he ran away toward a balcony! We wall chased him down, but he had nowhere to run. Me and Panther took a step forward. “What’s wrong? Not running away?”

“You could jump for it.” I clenched my fist and took another step forward. “You’re a great athlete, right?”

“It’s always been like this… all those goddamn hyenas forcing their expectations on me…!” He growled out the words, like he was being forced to do this! “I’m doing this all for them! What’s wrong about demanding a reward for that!?”

I held my sword in my hand and walked toward the bastard. I clenched my sword in my hand so tightly, my knuckles had to be white under the wraps. Skull sighed and growled at Kamoshida again. “Now you’re makin’ excuses…? We’ll do something about that distorted heart of yours.”

After grunting in frustration, I walked toward Kamoshida, gripping my blade. “Bet you feel powerless, huh? Well, that’s how everyone you messed with flet!” I could see that Kamoshida was trembling. I held my sword behind me as I stepped closer to Kamoshida. “That’s how I felt for the past few months. Nothing was more terrifying than seeing all control I had in my life, vanish before my eyes.”

Kamoshida fell to the ground and I lifted my sword above my head. None of my teammates said anything, and I slammed my blade down towards Kamoshida. He closed his eyes only for my sword to be right next to his head in the ground. “But, I don’t blame you for everything that happened to me. So, I should let the person who does take care of you.”

I pulled my blade out of the wall and walked back to the group. Joker placed a hand on my shoulder as I walked by. Though, Panther was ready to continue attacking him. “Scared? Right now you’re seeing the same view that Shiho did. I’m sure she was scared too… expect she had no choice but to jump… What will you do? Will you jump…? Or would you rather die here?”

Panther’s mask disappeared and Carmen appeared behind her. Two large fireballs appeared in her hands. Kamoshida gripped his crown tighter and scooted back a little in fear. Mona looked to Panther. “Do you want to finish him off? It’s your call.”

Kamoshida was officially terrified! “No please wait! I beg you… just forgive meeee!”

“Shut up.” I finally understood that some people were affected in much worse ways then I was. Panther deserved this chance. “I bet everyone told you the same. But you… you took everything from them!”

Panther yelled out the last sentence, and sent the fireballs flying toward Kamoshida! The missed him. Since they were magic, Panther meant to miss. Kamoshida looked at where the fireball had landed and quickly held out the crown. “I accept defeat… You want this? Take it.”

He threw it to Joker, who caught it was ease. Tears started to form in Kamoshida’s eyes. I think he finally understood the situation that he was in. “Go ahead and finish me off… You do that… and my real self will go down too…”

I finally grasped the situation as well… we were in control of whether he died or not. Joker tilted his head, Skull rubbed the back of his head, and I grimaced. Mona stayed in a confidant stance, Panther’s hands twitched. “You have the right since you won…”

Mona noticed that Panther’s hands had clenched. His face went from upset to interested as he looked up to Panther’s face. She held her left hand up and sent the second fireball straight at Kamoshida! We were so scared that she had just killed him! Skull freaked out. “Ann!”

“Ann don’t!” I called out as I held my hand up to her. Though, the fire ball landed right next to Kamoshida, instead of hitting him! Kamoshida turned to look at the burn mark, and Panther called Carmen away as her mask reappeared. “If his mind shuts down, he can’t admit his crimes.”

Mona leaned back as the rest of us relaxed. Mona moved his paw up to rub under his nose. “You’re kind, Lady Ann…”

“No…” I shook my head… I knew what was going on in her head. I had the same thought. “This is worse…”

Kamoshida started to cry. “I’ve lost. You’re through when you lose… What am I - what am I supposed to do now…?”

“Atone for your sins…” Joker glared at the man that we had just fought. It was the best thing that we could do about him. Kamoshida took a deep breath and sighed heavily as he looked up from the ground.

“All right…” He seemed like he was different… I couldn’t tell how though… “I will leave now and return to my real self…” Kamoshida smiled as he started to fade away with a blue light. “I’ll make certain that I-”

With that, the “king” was gone, but the moment that he was gone, the castle started to rumble! Mona looked up to us as we were trying to figure out what happened! “Hey, just so you know, we don’t have time to waste.”

Skull moved his mask up on his forehead, as he looked around the room. “This place is about to collapse!”

We all moved out mask up on our foreheads. The castle started to shake and hunks of rock and brick started to fall all around us! We were starting to freak out! Mona, kinda seemed like an asshole… because he just sat on the ground and licked his paws. He rubbed his ear as hell. Skull started to move forward toward the exit. “Run!”

We did though! We continued to run through the entire Palace, now huge chunks of the Palace were falling down! We were just barely ahead of most of the destruction! Ann looked back behind her and started to scream! “We’re gonna die! We’re so gonna die!”

“Just keep going!” I yelled out, I didn’t wanna look at what was going on behind us! Morgana, who was now in his cat form, jumped on Ann’s head.

“Hey, what the-!?” He then bunny hopped his way across our heads to Akira’s shoulder!

“No fair, you jerk!” Ryuji called out to the cat who just looked back at us and just meowed at him. We kept running, then after a few more moments, Ryuji suddenly slipped and fell straight to the ground! We all quickly stopped and turned around, Ann freaked out the most.

“Ryuji!” She ran towards him until he held up his hand toward us.

“Heh… It’s just been a while, so I just tripped, is all.” He was playing it off, but we could not stop if we wanted to make out of here alive! So I quickly ran over to him and picked him up as the crumbling castle was catching up to us!

“I really don’t care about your pride or what ever.” I lifted Ryuji up onto his feet. “Let’s go!”

With that, we started to run again. There was a bright light that showed up from the end of a hallway. We just kept running closer and closer to the light. We were enveloped in the bright once we made it to the end.

Chapter 20: Awaiting the Change of Heart

Chapter Text

Date: April 23

Location: Shujin Academy Gates

Current Objective: None

When we opened our eyes, we were in the alley in front of the school building. We were all breathing very heavy due to all the damned running we just had to do. Ann panted for a moment. “That sucked…”

“You can say that again.” I leaned forward and put my hands on the back of my head. I finally gotten my breath under control. Ryuji also leaned back and pulled out his phone. After a moment or two, I could clearly see the shock on his face.

“Look at the nav!” We all pulled out our phones, quickly opening the app. I heard three different apps at once.

“The destination has been deleted.” The icon for the Palace was gone. We could no longer use the app to return there. Of course, just the fact that the castle fell all around us was a dead give away too…

“...It’s true.” Ann almost sighed with relief at the loss of the Palace. “We can’t go there anymore.”

Mona, on the other hand, had other things that he was worried about. “What about the Treasure!?”

That almost made me freak out as well, I didn’t see the crown at all as we were running out of there. Though, with a smug smile and the sound of two small metal pieces hitting each other, he pulled out a gold medal. OK, OK, I know, the crown, that at one point was large enough I could take a bath in it, so it was almost 175 centimeters tall! That crown, was now a small gold metal. Ryuji seemed to need a moment on this one. “What the…?”

“...A medal?” Ann didn’t seem to get it right away either. “Wait, where’d that crown go?”

“What’s goin’ on…?” Ryuji crossed his arms and turned to look at Morgana. Morgana seemed a bit saddened by something now.

“It means, that was the source of Kamoshida’s desires.” His look was still down trodden. “To him, this medal is worth as much as that crown we saw in the Palace.”

“An Olympic medal…” Ryuji basically spat at the damn thing. Though, he actually seemed a bit saddened. “So, that perv kept clingin’ to his past glory and couldn’t let it go…”

I moved my left hand across my chest and put my right hand up to my chin. “That would make a lot of sense. He always seemed to focus more on his accomplishments than anything else.”

“But… this means that Kamoshida’s heart might have changed, right?” That was the million yen question right there. Did the man in question actually have a change of heart or not… It didn’t do us any favors that tomorrow was a Sunday…

“...Probably.” Morgana did not sound too confident in that answer. It was worrying, though, it was his first time doing this…

“Man… I hope you are right…” I sighed, but Ryuji started to freak out!

“How can you be so calm, Hisoka!?” He stomped toward me and clenched his fist. “Our expulsion on the line here!”

“This is the first successful example for me too.” Yeah, there it is. It could not get much worse than not working. “However, there’s no doubt that this has affected Kamoshida’s personality quite a lot. The entire Palace disappeared, after all.”

“Ugh, I feel all antsy!” Ryuji was still worried about everything, of course, he had very good reason to be worried. “Ain’t there a way to check now?”

“We’ll know soon enough.” Akira nodded toward Ryuji.

“I agree…” I stretched my arms above my head. “Things will just get worse if we all we did was worry about this.”

“Right…” Ann brought her right hand on her chest. Morgana got upset now being angry instead of sad.

“Come on, why the gloomy faces?” Morgana looked to everyone. “Be happy! We completed this with great success, you know.”

“We just don’t know if everything’s OK yet…” Ryuji had the best point for us to not be freaking out.

“I’m pretty sure it’ll be fine.” Morgana stretched out his back. He seemed very relaxed now. “Remember how Kamoshida’s Shadow said that he’s returning to his self in reality? Suguru Kamoshida was a scum. Still… He did seem to regain his conscience somewhat at the end.”

“It seemed so.” Akira nodded with a half smile. None of us really cared about Kamoshida… but this was a good thing.

“There are definitely those who have been saved thanks to what you’ve done.” Now what Morgana was saying made me smile.

“Yeah…” Ann looked to the cat, her face more relaxed again. Ryuji seemed to relax again as well.

“Anyways, I guess we gotta wait.” He crossed his arms as he looked to Akira. “It all boils down to what’s gonna happen to Kamoshida… or if we’re gettin’ expelled for real…”

“We shouldn’t worry about what we don’t know right now…” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. We couldn’t do anything about it for now…

“Let’s be patient.” We all nodded in agreement with Akira.

“...Right.” Ryuji still seemed like doom and gloom, but still. “C’mon, let’s go home.”

And so we did… Now, all we had to do was wait for Kamoshida to show if he had a change of heart or not.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date: April 24

Location: Yongen-Jaya

Current Objective: Wait for the Change of Heart

It was finally the day of my first shift at Leblanc… I we actually kinda worried. I didn’t want to mess up on my first day. The worst case scenario would be that I would be that I get fired on my first day… I could not stay calm at all for the entire day… I wanted to try and get some time to calm down with one of my friends… but they all seemed to be focusing on other things. Before I knew what was going on… it was time… I sighed heavily as I stood outside of Leblanc. “It’s alright Hisoka… just deep breaths… It’s your first day… so he’s more than likely gonna train you…”

I pushed the door open to see that the shop was mostly empty, save for Boss standing reading a newspaper at the counter. He looked up from his paper with a confused look on his face. “Hm? Oh right. It’s Sunday.”

Boss swung his feet so that he was standing as he placed his newspaper onto the counter. I moved farther into the cafe as boss moved into the small kitchen area. Just as I was about to reach the end of the counter, an apron came flying out of the kitchen. Thanks to my time in the Palace, I quickly snatched the piece of cloth out of the air. “You might want to roll up your sleeves or take off your jacket.”

“O-oh, OK!” I quickly took my I’M SOOC jacket off and placed it behind the counter. Now that my jacket was off… I felt a bit naked… I decided not to wrap my hands and wrist today, mostly so that I didn’t get them soaked in coffee or dishwater… My scars were very prominent, they didn’t look bad, but you could tell something bad happened to me. Also now visible, at least until I put my apron on was my plain black shirt. It just felt like I shouldn’t do anything special with my clothes outside of my hoodie. So, I didn’t do anything with it.

I took a quick breath as I threw the apron on over my head. Boss was next to me behind the counter. Sakura-san smirked at me as I put the apron on over my head. “OK, now that your working at my story, you’ll need to hammer home the basics.”

“I’m ready and willing to learn Boss.” I smiled back at him, he nodded with a look of actual surprise. Alright, that seemed good. “So what’s first?”

Boss started to laugh a little bit. “Now hold on, don’t rush it. So your first, I’m going to teach you to make a cup of coffee. As you can probably tell, the store isn’t the busiest place, but I’m particular about how we make coffee.”

“OK.” I nodded in understanding, Sojiro went to get one of the jars down off of the shelves behind him when the bell for the door rang. We both turned our attention to the door to see… “Aunt Mitsu?”

“So, this is where you ran off too in a hurry…” My aunt shifted her stance and placed a hand on her hip. A smile growing on her face. “You should have told me that you got a job you know.”

“Well, I thought your name sounded familiar, your Mitsu-chan’s nephew, huh?” Boss turned to look at me now. I rubbed the back of my neck, it was a bit awkward, but then again… Aunt Mitsu’s favorite meal was Leblanc’s curry…

“Yep, and I’m his guardian, too.” Her smile grew wider. I hoped like hell that Akira or one of the others would walk through that door… I know for a fact that she would do her best to embarrass me if they came in right now…

“S-so, you’re off early Mitsu…” I wanted to try and change the subject quick. “Did you run out of clients for the day?”

“No, I had to cancel my appointments for the day…” She said and sat down at the counter. “I could use a cup of coffee, though.”

Boss smiled at me. “Well, this is the perfect time to teach you the basics then. What will it be Mitsu-chan?”

“Well Boss, why not something simple.” I sighed as Sakura-san grabbed a jar off the shelf and started to teach me how to make a cup of coffee. He explained how to roast the beans and when was the best time to poor the cup. Once the cup was done, he sat the coffee in front of my aunt. She took a sip and sighed. “That’s what I needed. Though, it could use some work.”

I sighed in relief, it could have been bad if even my aunt hated the coffee I made… “So… why did you have to cancel your appointments…?”

Now she sighed in frustration… “A prosecutor wanted me to give a psychiatric evaluation of someone who suffered one of those Psychotic Breakdowns they’ve been talking about on the news…”

She leaned back in the stool that she was sitting in. “There wasn’t anything that I could find that was wrong with the guy… but according to the report, he almost drove through a crowd of people at central street.”

Boss sighed at Mitsu’s story. “Hey, Mitsu-chan… should you really be telling us this?”

“They didn’t say I couldn’t.” Now she looked at Boss with a playful smile. It was a bit weird, but I didn’t think anything of it. “Still, she wanted me to find something and almost threatened me if I didn’t find anything to help her case… Damn bitch…”

OK, no I raised an eyebrow, Mitsu didn’t usual swear, and when she did… it was pretty serious… Whoever this woman was seriously pissed her off… Oh yeah, I almost forgot… Mitsu was a physiatrist, she was a pretty popular one too… if a prosecutor looking to her for a psych eval wasn’t either to tell you that. Mitsu started to smile again after a moment or two. “Well, the coffee helps though.”

“Glad to hear it.” Boss leaned back with his arms crossed and a smile on his face. “Well, you did good Gekido-san.”

That made me feel good. Mitsu stuck around and talked for awhile. Though, eventually, she left and my shift was over. Before I left though, Boss paid me about two thousand five hundred yen! It was good, too bad we already took care of Kamoshida… there wasn’t much use I could think of for the money at that point… Still, I was happy for it.

After getting off of work, like I promised… I was ready to play a game with Ali! We started up a call beforehand. “Took you long enough to get here!”

I started to laugh a little bit at that. “Sorry, I had my first day at my new job!”

“Oooooh?” I could hear the intrigue in Ali’s voice. She was honestly interested in that? “Where is it? Where is it?”

Once more, I chuckled even more. “It’s at a cafe in Tokyo, the boss is kinda awesome. I’m just happy that my shift ended in time.”

“Well, I never would have never forgiven you if you missed this!” I could already imagine what she looked like as she said that. What every she looks like, but she’s got the fake frustrated look on her face but it's turned away from the screen with her arms crossed. I bet it look adorable.

“Oh, you would have forgiven me when you got the game invite!” I smirked evilly, she knew that I was right. We have doing back a forths like this for months now. I still enjoyed it, it almost reminded me of how I joked around with Morgana and Ryuji. I guess, this was just how I was with my friends.

“That’s beside the point!” I could hear the frustration in her voice, she was upset at the fact that I was right! Ha, another win for me! “Start up the game so I can beat you already, my Rival!”

“Oh, it’s on now!” I smirked evilly as I started up the game. I was ready to go! “I’m definitely gonna win now!”

Needless to say, but… Ali wiped the floor with me that night.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date: April 25

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: Wait for the Change of Heart

It was lunch time, Ryuji had grabbed me and Akira out of our classroom. He seemed… frustrated, I couldn’t blame him. We had to wait for Kamoshida to have a change of heart, mean while… our expulsion was getting closer and closer… We were right in the hall outside of our class. Ryuji was leaning against the wall, Akira was slouched with his hands in his pockets, while I was standing there with one hand on the back of my neck and the other in my hoodie pocket. Ryuji suddenly looked up to both of us. “Have you seen Kamoshida?”

Oh sh*t! I didn’t even realize that until now! I hadn’t seen Kamoshida that entire day! Akira shook his head to answer the bleach blonde’s question. I sighed at the realization… “No, I didn’t even think about it till now either…”

Ryuji stopped leaning against the wall now. “You really think he changed?”

“I hope so.” Akira sighed as the words came out of his mouth. It was kinda terrifying not having any idea with we succeeded or not… It was almost the day of the board meeting, and Akira’s life literally hanged in the balance of this working!

“You said it…” I dropped my arm down to my side and stood up straight… This was intense…

“Damn, this is nerve-rackin’...” Yeah, that was true…

“Nevermind, YOU said it Ryuji!” We all nodded at that, it was almost too much for us… That was when another voice reached our ears.

“Oh, perfect timing!” It was Ms. Kawakami, and she moved rather quickly over to us. “Study hall will be held instead of PE today. I’m letting you know just in case you haven’t heard. Mr. Kamoshida has taken the day off.”

That was very interesting news for us to hear! That made all three of us straighten up a bit. “He ain’t here…?”

“Don’t tell anyone you heard this from me…” Kawakami crossed her arms and looked a bit worried… “But we received word that Mr. Kamoshida is placing himself under suspension. It’s such an important time before the tournament too… Principal Kobayakawa went to talk to him about it, but he supposedly wasn’t making any sense…”

OK, OK, that WAS what we wanted to hear! Though, we were so worried that it wouldn’t work that it came as more of a shock than anything else! It was enough to make Ryuji and me recoil in shock! “No way! Seriously!?”

“Wait, a suspension!?” Ryuji freaked out a bit more than I did. Kawakami quickly turned to us with a serious look and a hushed tone.

“Not so loud!” She quickly returned to an indifferent voice. “The talks about your expulsions may be put on hold too… I don’t know too much about it though… Anyway, I’ve relayed what’s going on to you.”

With that, Kawakami walked away from us, and we had gotten more information than we could have dreamed of from that conversation! Ryuji crossed his arms as he looked to both Akira and me. “Looks like something happened… At least it sounds different from a mental shutdown…”

“At least we can say that…” I sighed heavily… “It could still go south for all of us, so just be ready just incase they still try to expel us. Though, for your sake Akira… I really hope that it doesn’t come to that…”

Akira nodded in agreement, it was difficult to see, but you could barely see the worry in his eyes. He didn’t want to go to prison… We couldn’t let that happen after we had already been through a lot. Still, all we could do was wait… though, I figured now would be a good time to get some studying in.

After all, if we didn’t get expelled… exams would be coming up fast on all four of us. That was one thing that I couldn’t fall behind in… Though, before I could do that… I had another shift that I had to work tonight. My attention was brought back to reality as the lunch bell rang, it was time for us to go back to class. This had to work… no it was going to work!

After school… Sojiro just had me practice making more coffee, nothing really exciting… and that was bothering me more than working… I needed to go do something for myself… and soon!

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date: April 26

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: Wait for the Change of Heart

The waiting was starting to get to me. It was not the best thing for my current state of mind. I just wanted something to do, but still, nothing was really happening at school either. I did have to work my shift at Leblanc after school. It was my third and final shift for the next four days. I decided to stay a bit later than I Boss usually wanted me too.

Boss had me washing dishes in the back of the shop. Well, I say back, but it was really just an indent in the wall behind the counter with a sink. It was the evening now when I heard the bell above the door ring. I leaned back so I could see who it was. I should have figured, but it was Akira. I moved back and waved to him. “Yo, Akira.”

“Hey Hisoka.” I noticed Boss look between the two of us.

“Gekido-san, you can go ahead and leave now.” I was a bit shocked. Boss placed an envelope on the counter near me. “Here is your pay for the day.”

“Oh, thanks Boss!” I quickly moved and grabbed the envelope. I started to take off my apron and grabbed my jacket from under the counter. As I was throwing it on, Akira moved closer to me.

“Hey, you wanna hang out for a bit?” Akira smiled at me, I guess that would be a pretty good way to spend my time.

“Sure, there’s a few good places that I can take pictures of nearby.” I stretched out and moved to grab my things. “That is… if your cool with it?”

“Sure.” So we headed out, yeah I mean… we just walked around Yongen-Jaya. I got a few pictures of the different angles of the streets and corners. I got a few people who gave me some odd looks, well I mean, I was a high school student taking random pictures of the streets… Finally, we stopped in front of Takemi’s clinic. “Damn… I forgot how awkward it was dealing with the passer bys…”

I sighed as I went through my pictures. Akira seemed worried about what was happening, after all, I just admitted that I was feeling a bit odd about it. I looked up in time to see that face. “Huh, you worried about me?”

“Yeah, you got some pretty nasty looks.” I couldn’t help but smirk at that reaction.

“Damn Akira…” I rubbed the back my neck. “It’s OK dude, I used to get those looks all the time. I mean, you don’t normally see a guy just taking images of the streets you see everyday. Or a random flower on the side of the road. It’s just been a few months since I’ve dealt with all the looks.”

I turned back to my camera, and finally landed on a picture of a dog that was perfectly sitting at a corner. Though, the two streets went at two different angles. So it looked like the buildings and streets all met at the dog. “Oh, this one is pretty cool, have a look.”

I leaned the camera over to Akira. “Wow, that’s actually really impressive Hisoka.”

“Ha haa!” I almost jumped in excitement, it had been so long since I could honestly say that I was sharing my pictures with someone else. “Man, this is a great feeling! I need to show my mom this one later! Oh yeah, I just remembered something… what do you think of getting a picture taken of all of us if the Kamoshida thing goes well?”

Akira smiled at my request. It was nice, after all of the time I was dealing with my pain alone. I had friends all over the place. I had Ali, and I had Akira, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana, finally, I had Boss, Mitsu, and my mom. “Sure, just make sure to get my good side!”

I started to laugh at that, oh that was pretty good! “Man, for how quiet you are, you have got all the sass in the damn world, my friend! You and Ali have gotta teach me all of your tricks, you both are some pretty good sass masters!”

“That, my friend, is a trade secret.” Akira got his trademark evil smirk on his face. “Are you sure that you are worthy of the secrets?”

I just kept laughing at that one, once again. “Maybe another time, it’s getting late. We still got school to deal with. Plus, Boss will probably kick your ass if you’re out too late.”

With that, we went our separate ways. We didn’t have much time left until the meeting… That would always be on our mind, no matter what… Though, I was happy just to relax until then!

Those days? Well, they came and went really quick… Not much happened over those next few days, I finally finished the Jekyll and Hyde book. So, I returned it and got a book on different myths. I guess it was an encyclopedia on myths. Though, I guess this one focused on Aztec myths. It was odd, though, I was OK with learning more.

I studied a little bit as well, but still. Not much happened. I still had hope that this would work. Kamoshida never showed up for school again Until the day finally came. The day that we were waiting for… May second…

TAKE YOUR TIME

Akira’s Confidants:

Chariot: Ryuji Sakamoto (Rank 3: Follow Up)

Hanged-Man: Hisoka Gekido (Rank 3: Follow Up)

Death: Tae Takemi (Rank 1: Rejuvenation)

Hierophant: Sojiro Sakura (Rank 1: Coffee Basics)

Chapter 21: The Results!

Chapter Text

Date: May 2

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: A Wait the Change of Heart

"Mondays are such a drag…” I couldn’t help but overhear someone on my way to school with Akira. We weren’t really talking… today was the make or break of the operation… If Kamoshida didn’t have a change of heart today, Akira was getting expelled and arrested. Still, we kept listening to everyone else. “Why couldn’t they give us today off, too? We have the rest of the week off starting tomorrow…”

“Yeah, it’s ridiculous.” Another student started to speak back to his friend. “Speaking of, what’s up with that calling card? The one sent to Kamoshida.”

Me and Akira turned to look at each other with raised eyebrows. People could not stop talking about the calling card anymore… “Didn’t it say something about ‘stealing his distorted desires’ or something weird like that?”

“Yeah, something like that…” The sleepy student that started speaking it back up. “I’m sure it’s just a prank. No one’s taking it seriously.”

“Well…” I sighed and look back at Akira with a worried look. “Let’s hope that it doesn’t stay that way for too long… Otherwise, things are gonna get worse really quick.”

“Yeah…” Akira sighed I could very clearly see the scared look on his face now. It was not fun to see me friend like that. All we could do is wait for the results… and we had no time lift.

TAKE YOUR TIME

“What’s with the sudden morning assembly…?” The students were all talking amongst themselves. There were stories already, like this was about the calling card, or it was the rumors of Kamoshida. Though, there was one that made sense… I didn’t like hearing it though…

“I bet it’s about that girl that jumped the other day.” Yep, there it was… There was no doubt in my mind that it was being hell on Ann and me. Specially with how rude they were being about it.

“They don’t have to tell us not to commit suicide.” I sighed and made my way to Ann in the middle of the crowd. I placed my hand on her shoulder and she was so tense that she jumped in surprise!

“Hey, you OK?” I could see the worry in her eyes, just like in Akira’s. Today was starting so bad… I could not imagine what it would be like for us, if the change of heart did not happen!

“I will be…” Ann sighed will she trying to try and shake a bit. “There’s just a lot going on…”

“There was that weird calling card too, so I guess the teachers are freaking out?” Again, the calling card… I think the four of us would have been arrested if anyone had figured out that we were behind it… Ann sighed once more. A downtrodden look made a pit appear in my chest. The principal finally got up on the stage, and before he started to speak, I patted Ann’s shoulder once more.

“I understand, it’ll work…” I noticed that the principal was getting his script in order… “We got him, I know it… We got him for Suzui-san.”

“Y-yeah…” Finally the Principal, finally started to speak up.

“Let’s begin this school-wide morning assembly.” The large overweight man had a very serious look on his face. “As you all know, a tragic event took place the other day. Thankfully, we have been informed that she has pulled through, but it will take time until she recovers.”

I noticed that Ann stiffened up once more. The reminders of Suzui’s condition was not the best thing for her once more. “Everyone here has a bright future ahead. I implore that you rethink the importance of life and-”

That moment… the intensity for all four of us started to stiff up once more. The loud sound of a metal door creaking and slamming against the wall. I heard Ann gasp as we all turned to see Mr. Kamoshida standing there! The moment has finally come, our answer was here.

I had hope that it worked even more since Kamoshida seemed like he was depressed… The Principal started to freak out now! “Mr. Kamoshida, what’s the-”

“I… have been reborn.” Kamoshida’s voice sounded devoid of life, and he no longer had the posture of confidence that he once held. His shoulders were slumped, his head was pointed toward the ground. Finally, he was leaning forward slightly. “That is why I will confess everything to you all…”

Kamoshida barely shuffled toward the stage. I heard Ann once more when Kamoshida was up on the stage. “...Huh?”

“Here it comes…” I started to hold my breath in anticipation. I was so worried, but so hopeful as well. There was so many things that could happen in the next few moments.

“I have repeatedly done things that were… unbecoming of a teacher.” I breathed in even more now! I knew it was coming… it was right there! “Verbally abusing students… physically abusing my team, spreading false rumors of students, and… sexually harassing female students. I am the reason why Shiho Suzui tried to kill herself!”

Finally, I let my breath out. There it was! We did it! Kamoshida was having a change of heart! Kamoshida dropped to his knees and started to sob. The other students started to quickly and wildly talk about what they had just learned! Kamoshida, finally looked up and moved his head across the crowd. “I thought of this school as my own castle… There were even students that I sentenced to expulsion, simply because I didn’t like them… I will, of course, rescind those… I am truly sorry for putting innocent youths through such horrible acts… I am an arrogant, shallow… and shameful person. No, I’m worse than that…”

Kamoshida dropped down to his hands and knees with his head against the ground. Then, something unexpected happened! “I will take responsibility and kill myself for it…!”

The students started to freak out again! Ann’s fist clenched and I could see that she was biting her tongue. I placed my hand back on her shoulder. “Let your voice be heard!”

“Mr. Kamoshida!” The Principal rushed around the front of the podium to try and get Kamoshida off the stage. “Please get off the stage for now!”

“Everyone, return to your classes!” The teachers were starting to try and get us out of the gym. I felt my heart almost jump up my throat! We actually did it!

“I-” Kamoshida started to sob, but there was one voice that stopped everyone.

“Don’t run, you bastard!” It was Ann! She wasn’t let Kamoshida off that easy! “Shiho’s still alive even after all the things that made her want to die! You have no right to run from this!”

I nodded, as much as I wanted to scream and yell at the sun of bitch, Ann needed this more than me. Kamoshida looked up at Ann, then closed his eyes as he sat back up. “You’re right… You’re absolutely right… I should be punished under the law and atone for my crimes… I did horrible things to Takamaki-san, as well. In return for giving Suzui-san a position on the team… I tried to force her into having relations.”

Kamoshida looked right at me and I saw his eyes start to water even more. “On top of that… I blackmailed Gekido-san into deleting evidence of my crimes, and spread false rumors of him… Painting him as the one sexually harassing girls.”

That was honestly the biggest shock of everything so far… I didn’t expect that. I noticed a lot of students avert they gaze from me. I could see the guilt and shame in their faces. “As of today, I will resign from my position as an instructor and turn myself in. Someone, please call the police!”

“This morning’s assembly is over!” One of the teachers walked through the crowd quickly, trying to get all of us to leave ASAP. “Return to you classes immediately!”

“Isn’t this just like what that calling card said…?” The students started to talking once again!

“Does this mean the Phantom Thieves thing was for real!?”

“Was something done to Kamoshida!?”

“C’mon, there’s no way you could steal someone’s heart!”

“But why else would he start saying things like he’ll kill himself or turn himself in?”

“Maybe because it almost got leaked? Don’t they go easier on you if you turn yourself in?”

“I wonder what happened…”

“Who knows? But man, Kamoshida turned out to be one sick bastard.”

There was a lot of other things that were going on now, but the teachers started to focus on getting us out again. “Return to your classrooms at once!”

After everyone else moved out of the gym, leaving just Ann, Ryuji, Akira, and me. We were all on the left end of the gym and Ann was just staring out at the stage. “His heart really did change…”

“Seems like it.” Ryuji lazily kicked the ground. This was… well, it was something else entirely. “But, was this really for the best?”

“I know what you mean…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I mean, it felt like we were getting what we wanted… not much for anyone else…”

“But what Kamoshida said…” Akira’s gaze went straight to the ground. I was glad that he was alright… but I knew what he was feeling now…

“You mean the police stuff?” Ryuji seemed depressed about it. “Well, that’s true…”

That was when Mishima and two female students walked up to us. “Huh…? What the…?”

Mishima bowed to Ann. “Takamaki-san… I’m sorry!”

“Huh…?” Ann’s eyes were wide in shock.

“We all knew… but we pretended we didn’t.” Mishima sounded depressed about his situation. The too girls looked to Ann and me!

“Takamaki-san, Gekido-san, I had you both all wrong…” She sounded sincere, but also weirdly, excited. “I’m sorry that I spread rumors about you!”

“I didn’t know at all…” The other girl seemed like she couldn’t really look at us now. “Kamoshida was forcefully pushing himself on you… It must’ve been so hard for you…! And you Gekido-san… How he made it seemed like you were a terrible person… Being shunned by everyone must have been difficult…”

“I’m sure there’s a ton of people who want to apologize to you guys.” The first and taller girl, I could see her the guilt in her eyes. “We’re so sorry…!”

“It’s fine.” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “I did just as much shunning as you guys did…”

“The same goes for me too…” Ann and me both actually seemed upset. Of course, I was, but I could tell that Ann was too. “Besides, that’s all in the past now.”

Another teach came up to us, realizing that we weren’t in class. “Hey, you there! Return to class at once!”

“W-well, see you later then…” The two girls and the teacher all left the gym. Mishima turned and and looked to at Akira.

“I can’t apologize enough for what I did to you…” I could see the determination in Mishima’s eyes. “I swear I’ll make it up to you someday.”

Mishima started to slowly walk away from us now. The shock of everything was too much at this point… “Looks like Kamoshida ain’t the only one that had a change of heart. Man, I’m glad for you guys. Looks like those weird rumors are gonna go away.”

“My thing doesn’t really matter.” Ann kept looking toward the ground and I sighed heavily.

“I don’t really care if people still hate me.” I sighed heavily, I felt like I had grown, I used to care about being shunned. Now, now I just didn’t care. “Besides, we achieved our goal.”

Ann nodded, her face was downtrodden as she started to think about the situation. “Yeah, hisoka’s right. We made Kamoshida apologize about Shiho… That’s more than enough for me.”

“You should hurry and tell her about it then.” Ryuji actually made some sense there. Suzui deserved to know about this, even if she wasn’t wake for it.

“Yeah.” With that, we moved to finish the day off.

TAKE YOUR TIME

“I totally freaked out…” Ryuji, Morgana, Akira, and me were all on the roof of the school once more. Though, it felt like it was going to be one of the last times. “He really did have a change of heart… And we were lucky his mind didn’t get messed up either! This was an A+ job!”

“Does this mean that they won’t have a mental shutdown even if their Palace disappears…?” Morgana seemed lost in thought about this one. I placed my hand on the desk in front of him. “I see… So we need to persuade the Shadow without killing it, and then send it back to its real self. Our targets won’t undergo a cognitive collapse if we do that.”

“It would seem so.” I smirked at the cat. “You know, for being the one with all the information, you really don’t know much, huh?”

“Shut up!” Morgana arched his back up in anger at me. I started to laugh a little at the cat.

“So, we can get ‘em to confess with no bad stuff?” Ryuji rubbed under his nose, a huge smile plastered across his face. “Hey! That works for me!”

“Do you have to be so loud?” Ann walked up to us out of nowhere, I almost jumped out of my seat when she spoke up.

“Holy crap!” I put my hand up to my chest and my eyes widened! “How did I not hear you open that door!?”

“I don’t know!” Ann seemed a bit upset again. Then again, it could have been because of everyone yelling. “Maybe because of how loud Ryuji has been.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Ryuji was being super laid back now. Though, he quickly became serious. “So… how’d it go? With Shiho, I mean…”

“Oh yeah…” I sighed slightly, I still felt bad about Shiho’s condition. Though, there wasn’t much that I could do about it now. “How is she?”

Ann developed a huge smile on her face and she clapped her hands together. “She’s regained consciousness…!”

“WHAT!?” I stood up immediately upon hearing that. “Th-that’s amazing!”

Ann turned away from us and leaned down, she was shaking… “It was only for a little bit, but I got to talk to her…! I was able to tell her that Kamoshida admitted to what he did…!”

We all looked at each other and waited for Ann to calm down. She stood up and wided a few tears away from her eyes. “Shiho, she… she told me she was sorry… Looks like she found out that I was flirting with Kamoshida for her sake… And here I was, wanting to apologize to her.”

“Kamoshida’s at fault for all this.” Morgana was very serious about that, but he was right.

“I know.” Ann seemed to become saddened at that moment… She quickly explained why too. “Shiho’s mom is thinking of transferring her to another school after she recovers. The whole sexual harassment and attempted suicide… people will label her after that. Sounded like Shiho had the same idea too.”

“It’s gonna get lonely…” Ryuji looked up to Ann with understanding eyes. I guess all of us actually understood that loneliness…

“I’m sorry that it’s coming to this…” I cast my gaze down, I wish I could do more for them… I really did…

“No, it’s not your fault…” Ann’s expression didn’t change. “But, I think it’s for the best… I’m sure it’ll be hard if she stays here.”

“She’s alive.” Ryuji’s voice was softer than any other time I have ever heard him speak before. “You can see her anytime.”

Ann nodded and put her hands behind her back. There was a lot for us to think about and Ann was the first one to figure that out. “...I need to change too.”

“You’re not the only one…” I quickly breathed out my nose. Ryuji seemed to realize that the tension was so think that you could cut it with a knife!

“That aside, I was surprised you could hold yourself back against Kamoshida’s Shadow.” I rolled my eyes at the bleach blonde.

“Really smooth segway there Ryuji…” He turned to me with an expression that screamed “the hell I do?”

“It wasn’t like that…” Ann seemed to beat Ryuji to the punch there. “I just wanted Kamoshida to apologize himself.”

“You’re so kind, Lady Ann.” Morgana spoke up to Ann, though, I had a feeling that wasn’t so much the case. I had a feeling that her feelings were similar to mine…

“No matter how much of a sh*t bag he was, finishing him off woulda left a bad aftertaste, huh?” Ryuji had a fairly good point now.

“I have to agree with that.” I rubbed the back of my neck in a little bit of frustration, but also in understanding. I my have hated Kamoshida… I may have wanted him dead… but I couldn’t kill him.

“Huh?” Ann seemed confused now. She brought her hands back to her sides. “That’s not it. I think revenge is better served if I make him repent. Realizing what he’s done, he’ll grovel for forgiveness the rest of his life, you know? I just believe there are fates worse than death.”

Yep, I was right. “OK, that is another point that I agree with!”

“Holy sh*t…” Ryuji turned to look at Akira, both of their eyes wide with fear. “A-anyways, that’s all settled… But you know, there was one more thing I was wonderin’ about that castle. Why was Kamoshida the only one who had that Metaverse thing?”

“Yeah, I was wondering that myself.” I stretched my arms above my head. I groaned a bit as my joints started to pop.

“It isn’t necessarily limited to him.” Morgana looked between both me and Ryuji. Once more, we were giving more information after the fact. “It isn’t necessarily limited to him. It’s something anyone could have if their heart became warped from their desires.”

“Anyone…” Ann brought up a good point… that meant that all three of us could have a Palace as well. Morgana suddenly got a bit… smug? co*cky? I was never able to figure that one out…

“Wanna check it out?” Ryuji immediately recoiled a bit.

“N-not right now.” I had to agree with Ryuji. We just had a major victory, but things were still tense. We could not deal with the getting caught right now, not when the rumors were still fresh. “People are still gonna be talkin’ about Kamoshida. Then again, it’s totally impossible for someone to find out what we did at his Palace.”

“Yeah, about that…” Ann’s tone worried me greatly now. “Weird rumors about you guys are already going around. Stuff like, you got together and threatened Kamoshida with something close to physical violence…”

“The hell!?” Ryuji seemed shocked by this, but me…

“Yeah… I can’t really say that I’m shocked at all.” I rubbed the back of my neck once more. It was starting to feel like a trademark of mine. “I mean, you guys already got in that argument with him. Of course, that being said, let me guess… It also says I threatened him?”

“Yeah…” Ann gave her best, “it could be worse,” smile. It, uh… it didn’t work. “People aren’t going to easily believe that phantom thieves really exist. The calling card’s being treated like it was a prank by someone who knew what Kamoshida was doing.”

“Makes sense…” Ryuji was being down about it, but it was true, there wasn’t much that we could do about the other students, and even the teachers not believing the phantom thieves business. “We’re the ones who did it, and I still don’t completely believe it myself.”

“Things are way too heated right now…” I leaned back and put my hand on my bag that was laying next to me. Ann nodded in agreement with me.

“Let’s wait for things to settle down for the time being.” She was right. Though, being one that was quick to move on, Ryuji pulled out his phone with a huge grin on his face.

“Anyways, let’s check how much this medal can be sold for.” I rolled my eyes and smirked at the bleach blonde.

“You know those things aren’t pure gold, right?” Ryuji, Ann, and Akira all turned to look at me with shock on their faces.

“S-seriously!?” Ryuji’s eyes were even wider.

“Yep, if I remember it correctly…” I scratched at the back of my head. “They are at least ninety five point two percent silver and plated in at least six grams of gold.”

“W-wow… how do you know that?” Ann also seemed impressed, which I didn’t understand. It was a simple thing to learn.

“I just found it out one day and it stayed in my mind.” They still had shocked expressions on their faces. I raised an eyebrow at them. “What…?”

“Ho-how are your grades…?” Ann gave me a concerned look, which I didn’t really understand.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged at the natural blonde, I never really understand what was going on. “They’ve been pretty good so far.”

“A-anyway…” Ryuji went right back to looking at his phone. “It’d be better if we pawned it off ASAP. Ooh, got a hit…! Wait, thirty thousand yen!? That’s all a gold medal’s worth!?”

“Remember that time in middle school?” Ann crossed her arms and smiled brightly at Ryuji. “I lent you some money.”

Ryuji quickly stood to his feet and freaked out. “There’s no way I borrowed thirty thousand yen from you!”

Ann stopped crossing her arms now, her smile still huge. “Wouldn’t it be around that much with compounded interest?”

“Interest my ass!” Ryuji turned to me and Akira. “Come on you guys, help me out here!”

I started laughing and ended up slapping my knee. “No way man, you are on your own now!”

“What!?” Ryuji recoiled in shock once more. Ann sighed for a moment.

“I’m not saying that I’m taking all of it” She sounded a bit upset now, it was still really freaking to me at that point. “I mean it’s your fault for not paying me back all these years! It’s just common sense!”

“God Dammit…” Ryuji gave up and placed his hands back into his pockets. Morgana kinda snickered.

“I agree on laying low and keeping an eye on the situation.” He sounded a tad over confident. “However, you dragged me into this. It would be nonsense not to celebrate a successful mission.”

I smiled once more. “That is something that I can agree with it.”

“I guess we could blow this dirty money on something fun.” Ryuji was smiling again. We just did something awesome like going through the inside of someone’s head and stole his twisted desires! This was something that we should celebrate, especially since it saved a lot of people from Kamoshida!

“Discussions among phantom thieves are to take place over luxurious food.” Morgana said it like there was something that was a matter of fact. Though, if it was a fact, it was a fact that was completely OK with me. “How about it?”

“Hey, wait-” Ann seemed like it was a problem, but she took a moment to think about it. “...Nah, I guess it’s fine. There’s somewhere I want to go then.”

“Where’s that?” Ryuji Ryuji almost tilted his head in interest.

Ann turned to him and held her hand up. “It’s a place Shiho and I have been wanting to go for a while.”

“I owe money, so I can’t complain…” Ryuji pitifully kicked at the ground. “You guys good with that?”

“I’m perfectly fine with that.” I stretched my arms above my head and smiled. Akira also smiled at everyone.

“Fine by me.” Akira was still sitting, but it had been a long day too.

“Awesome.” We were all smiling like idiots at this point, this was the first big thing that we would do as friends, and the first time we could honestly relax since school started. “I’m excited for this!”

“I’ll leave it to your discretion as well, Lady Ann.” Morgana turned his head toward Ann, he was just as excited for this as any of us.

“I’ll call and check the prices later then.” Ryuji seemed ridiculously happy about all this.

“When should we go?” Boy, it really felt like Ryuji was getting way to far ahead of himself now! “Wanna do it son, like tomorrow?”

“Why don’t we go on the last day of the holidays?” Ann made a good point. “It’ll help energize us when life starts up again the day after.”

“Then… the fifth, on Children’s day.” I remembered that it was almost Golden Week then!

“That sounds like the best day for it!” Now I stood up, it sounded like we were reaching the end of our conversation. Despite that, we were going to go at the end of holidays, but there was a place that I wanted to go soon.

“So, who’s going to sell this?” Ann crossed her arms, now that was a better question now.

“Leave that to us.” Morgana smiled widely at us once more. “We know a store that’ll buy anything. Don’t we, Joker?”

“Yeah…” Joker seemed a bit worried about Morgana’s answer, but I was not going to argue with him.

“OK, I’ll leave that to you guys.” With that, we broke for the day. Though, there was a place that I wanted to go before I went home. I was on my way to Ueno!

MISSION SUCCESS!

RESULTS:

Average party level:

Level 10

Hisoka Skills:

Eiga, Kouha, Dazzler, Snap

Chapter 22: Let There Be Food!

Chapter Text

Date:May 2

Location:Ueno

Current Objective:Lay Low

It had been a long time since I had been to the art museum in Ueno. I was excited to see if there was anything new in the museum. I had my camera around my neck, though, that was mostly because I didn't want to keep it my bag for the rest of the day. The museum brought back some good memories from when I was younger. Mostly me just being excited about the pictures that in the museum. Still, there were a lot of good art pieces. I was about to enter into the section for paintings, when suddenly… I was on the ground.

OK, OK, I need to explain that one a bit… I was looking down at the brochure I grabbed to explore the museum. I really wasn't focusing on the world around me, which was my fault. Anyways, I continued walking when suddenly something solid stopped my movement! It was someone that was walking the opposite direction as me. The force of us walking into each other was enough to slam us apart and throw me to the ground. "Ow, son of a bitch!"

I was rubbing the back of my head, but then quickly remembered that my camera was with me! I quickly moved to check my camera, so there I was sitting on the floor of an art museum scrambling to work with my camera. "Are you alright?"

I looked up to see a fairly tall guy with medium length black hair. He wore a white button down school uniform and black jeans. The uniform jacket had a crest on it. I believe the crest was called a fleur-de-lis… On his hip was a set of keys on a ring. He had avery indifferent look on his face as he reached his hand down toward me. "Yeah, I'm fine, sorry for bumping into you…"

"Oh, well that is quite alright." A small smile found its way to the guy's face. "Are you interested in art?"

Man, that was an odd transition… "Well, yeah… kinda. I'm a photographer, well amatuer photographer. What about you, any interest in the arts?"

"Oh, well I am a painter." My eyes widened, I finally realized that I recognized that uniform… it was a Koesai High uniform! It was a school that hosted talented youths from all over the country! "Do you appreciate other forms of art… uh…"

"Gekido, Hisoka Gekido." I bowed slightly in a respect. "And to answer your question, not as much as photography. And what's your name?"

"Oh my, forgive me, I'm Yusuke Kitagawa." Well Kitagawa-san seemed a bit disheartened by my answer. "And may I ask why you believe that photography is the greatest form of art…? I mean after all can you not see the beauty in all the paintings around you? Can you not see the emotions the artist put into them?"

Oh, right, he's a painter…That was the thought that came to me. Well, I didn't want to ruin his mood or anything… but he asked me an honest question. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you Kitagawa-san, I do see the beauty in the paintings. I see the beauty of those people's emotions. It's just, I appreciate the beauty that can come from one's mind, but I just feel it's more impressive if you can show people the beauty of the world around them."

I could see Kitagawa's expression soften as he heard my answer. Though, before he could speak up, I heard another person's voice as a laugh rang out nearby. "Spoken like a true artist!"

That was when an older man walked up to us. He was dressed in a traditional garb and had his grey hair tied up in a ponytail. I saw Kitagawa-san's face go back to indifferent. "Sensei."

"So Yusuke, who is your new friend?" The older man had a bright smile on his face. I couldn't help but feel like I had seen him before… I couldn't quite place it… Still, I bowed at the man.

"I'm Hisoka Gekido." I wish that I could place the guy's face. Still, when I looked back up to the man, he was smiling.

"Well, it is nice to meet you Gekido-kun." He then turned back to Kitagawa-san. "Well, I hate to end your conversation, but we need to head out Yusuke."

"Of course Sensei." Yusuke moved his hand up to his chest and looked to the old man again, before turning back to me. "Well, should we meet again, Gekido-san, I would very much so love to continue this conversation."

Kitagawa-san bowed to me and I did back. I rubbed the back of my neck when we stood up again. "I would too Kitagawa-san, I'd also like to see one of your one of your paintings someday."

He smiled back to me. "I would love to see some of your pictures some time as well, oh! Before I leave, would you like to exchange contact information?"

"Oh!" I moved to pull my phone out and we exchanged numbers. With that, we went our separate ways. Though… I still swore that I recognized his Sensei's face… I didn't want to dwell on it though, I just continued on my way and enjoyed the rest of my night.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date:May 5

Current Objective:Lay Low

Nothing really happened over the next few days. I mean, I played a few games with Ali, and texted my friends, Akira sold the medal just in time. Now, there we were, it was the fifth and I was waiting for everyone to show up in front of the hotel that Ann had told us to meet at. I was messaging Ali, it was mostly just us going back and forth about how the game we played the other day. My MC was very pleased with her victory over me… We had placed a bet that the one who scored the lowest the entire night would have to get rid of their favorite weapon…

I lost a really good gun… Still, I smiled at her playful attempts to frustrate me. Though, I had been there for about half an hour when I heard a familiar set of voices. "Hisoka!"

"Told you we wouldn't be the first one's here." It was Akira and Morgana. Akira rolled his eyes at Morgana, the cat seemed to be as smug as always. I smiled at the arrival of the two. It was nice to not be alone here, I was starting to get some odd looks by the people coming and going from the hotel. Though, they're arrival was quickly met with two other voices.

"Yo!"

"Hey there!" The three of us turned to Ryuji and Ann walking towards us, though, they were kinda close to each other. Though, it was a pretty crowded street at the time. "Glad you guys made it!"

Ann give us a big smile as she flipped one of her twin tails back over her shoulder. Ryuji was also smiling at everyone as well. "Sorry, were you guys waitin' long?"

"We just got here." Morgana popped out of Akira's bag with a smile on his face and pointed to Akira and himself. Though, I started to tap my foot and rub the back of my neck.

"I've been here for sometime though." I tried my best to say it in such a tone as to not say that I was upset, because I really wasn't.

"Sorry…" Ann got a frustrated look on her face. It seemed like she didn't want to say why they were late though, so I let it go.

"It's fine, come on!" I smiled brightly at everyone and moved toward the door. "Let's eat!"

TAKE YOUR TIME

"So good…!" Ryuji was stuffing his face so so much meat that I'm fairly certain that he met his protein intake for the next two months. Ann's plate had nothing put sugary pastries on it… Akira's plate had a few different things, but nothing too impressive, though that was probably due to the fact he was also "eating for two," since he was feeding Morgana as well. I also had a fairly even plate going for me. A few meats, pastries, and greens.

"No wonder Lady Ann chose this place…!" Morgana seemed very excited by this place, or… at least the food.

"I have to agree, the food is pretty good!" I moved to put a fork full of what I believed to be some sort of pork. I don't really remember what it all tasted like, but still I remember enjoying the hell out of it.

"Of course it's good." Ann was holding her plate up in the air and her fork in the other. "This is a famous hotel, after all. Oh, yeah, I heard the police are coming to interview some people at school."

"That's troublesome." Morgana's face dropped into a serious look. Though, that was fairly understandable… Three of us were already being accused of threatening Kamoshida. Specially mine and Ryuji's… We were victims of Kamoshida, and people still think both of us are actually still delinquents…

"Our names will come up for sure." Ryuji looked at all of us with a saddened look on his face… "People're spreadin' all sorts of rumors about us and Kamoshida…"

There was a silence that fell over us. The realization of our situation hitting us hard… Ryuji finally broke the silence. "But we got 'em pumped up! I keep hearin' stuff like, 'The Phantom Thieves really stole his heart!'I think most people don't believe it, but some of them actually seem grateful. Look at this."

Ryuji pulled out his phone out and showed it all four of us. It was a website, it looked kinda cool though. The name was pretty attention grabbing now! Ann's face showed the shock that all of us were feeling! "The Phantom Aficionado Website…?"

There were a few messages for us on the page. "'Well don, Phantom Thieves'... 'Now I can keep going too'... 'Thank you for giving us hope'..."

"Pretty cool, huh?" Ryuji was ecstatic about everything to do with the website. Though, I understood that feeling. I was starting to feel a bit good too!

Ann seemed really happy now. "I was just desperate to deal with my own problems, but seeing people saying all this feels… strange."

"I can agree with that." I rubbed the back of my neck and it just felt good, but weird that I was being praised and ridiculed at the same time. "I just feels odd, but in a good way… right?"

"Yeah…" Ryuji's smile said that he agreed with me and Ann. He then focused on Akira, my gaze moving over to him as well. "Hey… What do we do now?"

"We good on time?" Akira immediately started to eat once more. His eyes moved over to a clock that was on the wall behind Ann. Ryuji was still holding his phone up in the air gave Akira a confused look.

"Huh?" Ryuji's confusion suddenly turned into fear. "Oh crap, you're totally right! We only got an hour to eat!"

"Just fifty minutes left!" Ann jumped to her feet and freaked out! I really didn't see a reason for all the freaking out. I was happy with just eating a normal meal now. I was just fine with the food I currently had. Though, Ryuji and Ann didn't seem like it.

"I'm not gonna finish all the beef dishes at this pace!" Again, I didn't really see an issue with that, but, he could eat what he wanted to at this point.

"I need to eat my way through the entire dessert menu…!"Wait, WHAT!?Ann's response to that made me feel sick! There were too many sugars there! I was starting to feel sick just thinking about it! Ann quickly stormed off and Ryuji almost glared at Akira.

"Look after our stuff!" I rolled my eyes, there was almost no way that they would finish all the food that they were talking about in time… Though… I had to admit… the fish dishes sounded good. "We'll snag something for you guys too, don't worry!"

As Ryuji walked away, Akira turned back to me with a confused look on his face. "S-should I be concerned…?"

"With those too…" I gritted my teeth and sucked in. "Yes, most definitely."

Akira sighed and I could not blame him. Especially when they came back with most of a pie, a large stack of pancakes, what looked like a rib cage, and the largest sandwich I had ever seen! Then, there was the large plate of beans next to Ryuji… Though, they both seemed too engrossed in their food. "Aw man, it melts in my mouth!"

"Seriously?" Morgana was surprised by Ryuji's choice of food. "Only meat?"

"Now, where should I start?" Ann was way too happy to be eating all that cake…

"And she's all about the cake…" Morgana seemed like he was about to be sick too.

"I don't think I can look at sugar for the next month…" I shook my head and went back to finishing off my first plate of food. All that was left there was few bites of a grilled tilapia. Which, let me tell you… was probably my favorite way to eat fish!

"So happy…" Ann almost squealed as she shoved a bite of cake in her mouth.

"Hey. Calories." Ryuji smirked evilly at the natural blonde. Who, in tow got an upset face toward the former runner.

"Shuddup!" I was hoping that she would have a good reason for her reaction… but it was only semi understandable. "How much do you think one of these costs!? I'll never get the chance to do this again! Mmm, the Wilton Hotel cake buffet… I'd heard rumors, but I never thought it'd be so amazing!"

"I never thought I'd see anyone scramble for food like you guys did…" I rubbed the back of my neck, I had just finished the last of my food, but I was still hungry. "I think I am about to go get a small plate though…"

"Speaking of… where's our share?" Morgana looked right at Ann with hope in his eyes, but when I saw where Ryuji's hand moved too… Yeah, I knew where this was going…

"I didn't really know what you'd want…" Ryuji was smiling brightly as he pushed the gaint plate of beans toward Akira and Morgana. "So I just grabbed you some beans."

"B-beans?" Morgana was in shock, I honestly was too… I mean, beans where a good source of protein so I thought they were for Ryuji.

"Really…?" Akira just squinted at the bleach blonde, and if looks could kill… Ryuji would have died right then and there! "Just beans…?"

"There were some pretty bizarre things there too, so we got you a variety of those." Ann smiled, but Akira, Morgana, and I all winced in pain as she finished her sentence. "Fried bananas, preserved eggs, and… some kind of beans."

"M-more beans…!?" Morgana and Akira were very shocked at the realization of the food that our friends had given them.

"We put so much on the plate that it got all mixed up, but it should probably still taste good." My eyes widened at Ann's pore explanation! That should not be any reason to put random food on a plate…

"That is… well, grotesque…" I rubbed the back of my neck and sighed. "That plate might as well be a Mystery Food X…"

"That sounds appropriate…" Akira grimaced at the plate of the food. It was an odd thing, I felt sick just looking at it… Blah…

"Hisoka is right, this is just plain grotesque…" Morgana could barely look at it too. "Let's go Akira. These two just don't know what fine dining means! We'll show them!"

"Leave it to me." Akira pushed his glasses up on his face. Morgana got very excited.

"That's reassuring!" Morgana turned to the other two with an angry look at one another. "You guys watch our things while we're gone! Wait patiently for our return!"

"Ahhh, it's like a meaty explosion in my mouth…!" Ryuji wasn't paying attention at all.

"Ooh, this part's cream cheese!" Ann also wasn't paying attention to what was going on at all.

"Well…" I looked up to Akira and Morgana. I gave them and lazy salute. "I wish you the best of luck you two."

"We are gonna need it." They nodded off and went to get the food. Ann finally looked to me.

"Aren't you going to get more food?" She finally seemed to get out of her cake induced daydream.

"I… I think I lost my appetite." Ann shrugged and went straight back to her cake. A little bit of time went by before Akira and Morgana came back. Once he did, my appetite kinda came back, but not enough for me to want to go get more.

"...Ooh, you brought a ton back." Ryuji seemed shocked by the amount of food that the two had brought back. "Whaddya think about comin' up against such ritzy food?"

"Honestly, I just want to eat the food." Akira's response seemed honest and I was perfectly OK with it.

"I was thinkin' that too, but take a bite." Ryuji seemed very happy about the food. "Usin' better ingredients makes stuff taste way different!"

"Look at you, acting like you have a refined palate all of a sudden." Mona grimaced a bit, but I snickered at the conversation going on.

"Don't you think you're eatin' too much, Mona?" Ryuji seemed like he was worried about the cat this time.

"There's no knowing when we'll get to come here again." Morgana was now very happy. They were right, but I guess I just wasn't that hungry. Meh, no sweat off my back.

"Sure, but you guys brought back loads of food…" Ann seemed upset about all the food. "It'd be a shame to let it all go to waste. Why don't you help them out, Ryuji, Hisoka?"

"We should all help." Ryuji rubbed under his nose and seemed worried, I grinned at both of our friends. Though, Ann beat me to it again.

"Oh, me?" Ann sounded nervous all of a sudden. "I'm wayyyy too stuffed! I couldn't possibly help!"

"Yeah… stuffin' your face with cake…" OK, Ryuji made me start laughing.

"This is why I got a small plate!" My smug grin was so big! "I'll help out as much as I can, but no promises! So, Ryuji, better help out as well!"

"Fiiiine…." With that, Akira, Morgana, and Ryuji just dug into the food around us, I ate what I could, but I refused to eat more than I could handle. Though, it just felt like no matter how much we ate, the amount of food stayed the same…

"There's still more…?" Morgana sounded like he was in pain.

"Don't give up!" Ryuji growled at the cat and Akira. "Let's keep at it!"

After what was close to an hour, all the food was gone. Akira, Morgana, and Ryuji were miserable.

"W-we did it…" I could hear the pain in his voice.

"Y-yeah…" Ryuji also seemed like he was in pain! "This is a victory… for all of us…"

"T-that was a breeze…" Akira was trying to his best to calm himself, but it was really working… It seemed like it was enough for Ryuji to understand it though.

"Is you stomach… the size of a freakin' Palace…?" Ann and I started to snicker at them.

"Good job, you guys." Ann was doing her best to sound genuine. "How about one last dish to cleanse your palates? I recommend the seasonal tart! The grapefruit has both alluring sweetness and a tangy sourness!"

I couldn't hold it anymore! I just started to laugh at all three of them as they started to act lke they were about to throw up. "That is very rude Ann!"

"Stop… I don't wanna hear about sour stuff…" Ryuji burped and held his hand up in front of his mouth. "This isn't good… I gotta go to the bathroom…"

"M-me too…" Morgana sounded bad now. "Please carry me gently…"

They were just about to stand up when a man and a woman walked by the table. "My, look at that table…"

"They must not normally have the opportunity to eat such exquisite food." I had to grit my teeth while biting my tongue not to yell at the woman for her next sentence.

"I can only imagine what their parents must be like." That pissed me right the f*ck off! I wasn't the only one.

"What was that…?" I think Ryuji would have stayed mad, if not for the fact that he was about to throw up! "Urp! We don't got time for that… C'mon, let's go…"

With that, the three of them went off to go to the bathroom. Once they were gone, Ann turned to me with a worried look. "H-hey, Hisoka… are you OK…?"

I released the grip my teeth had on my tongue with a heavy sigh. I looked up to her with saddened eyes. "Yeah… I don't think I would have been able to stop myself if my mom wasn't awake…"

"I'm surprised you were able to hold yourself back at all…" Her face showed nothing but sympathy to me. I did my best to bring a smile to my face.

"It's OK, I don't wanna ruin this for everyone." I smiled warmly at the natural blonde. That was the truth, I could not let these people try and bother me. "Besides, it has been fun so far."

I saw Ann start to smile at me again. "Here, let me go get that pastry I was talking about."

"Oh, you don't have too." I held up my left hand up to try and stop her, and my right hand was rubbing the back of my neck. I had my eyes closed and had my face had a small smile on it too. "I'm pretty full as it is…"

"Are you sure?" Ann was part way out of her seat as I stopped her. "It's the least I can do for everything…"

"Ann, trust me." I continued to smiling at her. "You guys helped me a lot in the Palace as well. If anyone deserves to be thanked, it's you guys."

Ann nodded but continued to stand up. Even though, I didn't want her to go out of her way for me… "You did a lot for me too, I think you deserve this."

With that, Ann stood up to walk away. After a few moments… there was the sound of a crash, I turned around to she Ann and another woman standing in front of a woman and a broken plate. "What is wrong with you!?"

"Me, you bumped into me!" Ann growled at the woman. I slowly placed my hand on my head. I had a feeling, that the guys were having just as much issue...

Chapter 23: The Phantom Thieves!

Chapter Text

Date: May 5

Location: Shibuya

Current Objective: Lay Low

“What the hell is your problem!?” The woman was so angry at Ann, there was no real reason for it! Yes, she dropped her plate because she had bumped into Ann, but I seriously felt like there was nothing that deserved that anger. “I’m surprised that this place even let the likes of you and your friends in here.”

“The likes of- the likes of me!?” Ann was starting to growl at the woman, so now was the time to intervene. I came up to Ann and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Ann, come on.” She turned to see my face, I think she was expecting me to try and just pull her away, but when she turned to look at me… she saw me glaring at the woman. Now, let me tell you this… I am not very intimidating. Ryuji can scare people away just by walking up, the bleached hair does that at times. I however am a skinny sticked armed boy with the look of a guy who have never been in a fight. That last one was not very true anymore, but it used to be.

Anyway! My glare was surprisingly, enough to get the woman to fix her blouse and walk away to go get staff. I didn’t know if she was going to get us kicked out or just get someone to clean the plate. After we got back to the table again, Ann sighed heavily and looked up to me. “Thanks…”

“No problem.” I rubbed the back of my neck and we couldn’t really look at each other. I was kinda upset by how rude some of these people were being. “That woman was kind of being a bitch anyways…” We just waited there, both of us just kinda fuming for a bit, that was when the other three members of our group returned.

“What took you so long?” Ann just growled at the guys as they got back. Ryuji recoiled at the Ann’s anger.

“Why’re you all pissy…?” His eyes were in shock, I didn’t really blame him though. Ann’s anger did seem like it was out of nowhere.

“Sorry… I had a run-in with some woman a second ago.” Ann realized what had happened and calmed right the hell back down. “She bumped into me, but then said it was all my fault when she dropped her plate…”

“On top of that, she was up in Ann’s face until I showed up.” I looked back over where it had happened to see an employee sweeping up the broken shards of the glass. “It was ridiculous!”

“Sounds like a real bitch…” Ryuji looked away and growled about the woman.

“Yeah…” Ann looked at Ryuji with soft eyes. “Thanks though. But… the restaurant workers all looked at me with this disapproving expression…”

Everyone moved back to sit back down. We were all very quiet until all of us were seated once more. “I wonder if we’re out of place here…”

“It always feels like this…” Akira looked to the ground with a saddened look. We stayed quiet once more. Finally, Ryuji broke the silence.

“Hey, Morgana.” The cat popped his head up and out of the bag.

“What is it?” The seemed fairly eager to respond to the bleach blonde.

“...Anyone could have a Palace, yeah?” I raised an eyebrow at Ryuji’s question. It gave me an idea about what Ryuji was thinking…

“Anyone with a strong distorted desire.” I moved forward in my seat just before Ryuji leaned forward. All of us were super invested in what Ryuji was about to say.

“Same for them havin’ a change of heat if their Treasure gets stolen?” I was right, he was thinking the same thing that I thought he was. This would be an undertaking for us, but if it was anything like like Kamoshida’s we could do this! Though, not everyone was on the same page.

“Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?” Ann almost tilted her head in confusion. Though, that did make me wonder what happened while they were gone.

“We had trouble earlier too.” Ryuji’s face fell to a grimace as he started to explain the situation. “These selfish sh*theads who just looked down on everyone else… I was just wonderin’ if we’d be able to change those kindsa people too.”

Both Akira and Ann seemed shocked, but I nodded as I understood what was happening. “You mean… you want to continue as the Phantom Thieves?”

“...I’ve been thinkin’.” Ryuji’s voice seemed to soften up as he continued to speak. “We put a lot of work into changin’ Kamoshida’s heart, but nobody believes in the Phantom Thieves. Plus… those guys who had no other choice but to just deal with it are thankin’ us. Us, of all people.”

“There are a lot of victims.” Akira looked to the ground with a sad look and Ann also got a bit down as well. I won’t lie, I was also feeling the issues as well.

“I… I agree.” Ann looked down at the empty plates in front of us. “If we ignore people who are in trouble, I’d go back to being the same as I was before…!”

“Well… that’s true.” Morgana also seemed a bit down now as well. I figured it was my turn to go and speak up.

“I don’t want to ignore the people like Mishima-kun and Suzui-san…” I leaned forward and placed my right hand over my left hand. “I mean, yeah I did start to go after Kamoshida for myself, but I ended that doing it for his victims…”

“That… is also true…” Morgana looked down again. Suddenly he looked up as his face moved back and forth between all four of us. “You’re under my tutelage. There’s nothing we can’t accomplish as phantom thieves!”

“Shouldn’t we be able to help ‘em out?” I wanted nothing more than to help the people that needed it, mostly because of knowing what being in that kind of situation can do to someone…

“But…” Ann seemed worried now, not saddened, just worried about something. “That means we’ll have to fight Shadows again, doesn’t it…?”

“Indeed.” Morgana nodded but he seemed like he was trying to smile to try and calm her down. “That can’t be avoided.”

“Eh, I’m sure we’ll manage.” Ryuji smiled brightly at the black cat. I nodded in agreement. “Right?”

“Hey, we did it once before.” I lean back in the chair I had another bright smile. “I bet it’ll be so much easier now!”

“I want to help people as well!” Akira smiled as well. We were all starting to feel pretty good now.

“Heh… Even if you guys are still just fledglings, this means we’re an actual organization now.” Morgana’s voice was lightening up and I was feeling better along with it.

“Fledglings…?” Ann seemed like she was also starting to brighten up! “Haha, that’s actually pretty fitting for us.”

“All right, it’s settled!” Ryuji was super excited now! I had to admit that I was getting all sorts of gitty now! “We’re gonna catch all these sh*ty adults by surprise, and make ourselves known to the world!”

“Hell yeah!” I raised my fist up into the air with an even bigger smile on my face now! “I’m down with this!”

“Are you OK being our leader?” Ann turned to look at Akira, which kinda made all of us turn to him. That was a good question, Akira had lead us through Kamoshida’s Palace well enough. So I had to agree with her. I didn’t think that anyone else would be good enough to lead us in our endeavors in being Phantom Thieves.

“Of course.” Akira nodded with a small smile on his face. “I’m honored.”

“No objections here!” The excitement was running fairly high with everyone now. “I can’t handle all that responsibility stuff.”

“I am onboard with that.” I smiled and nodded at Akira. “He did way too good of a job leading us before.”

“Where’s my say in this…?” Morgana nodded with a smile as he also looked at Akira. “But Lady Ann made the recommendation, so I’ll allow it.”

“Awesome!” I rubbed the back of my neck as I started to think about the next thing that we would need. “We need a name.”

“Oh yeah, we should decide on a name for our group.” Ryuji smiled as his eyes lingered over the whole group. “I just went with Phantom Thieves of Hearts last time, but don’t you think a real name would be cooler?”

“Ooh, I’ve got it!” Ann leaned forward and placed her hands under her left knee as she placed hit on her right knee. “I want it to be something both cute and luxurious sounding… Let me see… How about ‘The Diamonds?’”

“...I’m gettin’ a real little league baseball feel from it.” I had to agree with Ryuji there, it just didn’t feel that it was really what we needed for us as the Phantom Thieves.

“Yeah, it just doesn’t feel right…” I rubbed the back of my neck as we continued to think on a name.

“Well then, here’s my suggestion.” Morgana seemed a bit excited about his idea for the name now. “How about ‘Tilefish Poele?’”

“That… sounds familiar…” I leaned my head to one side I know that I had heard that…

“Tile… what?” Ryuji seemed just as confused as I was now. It didn’t seem like that big of a thing, but still…

“That’s what I ate earlier.” Morgana was very happy about his choice… oh boy… “It’s commemorative, no?”

“Hell no, you idiot!” Ryuji growled at the black cat and I just sat there and sighed. He looked up to Akira we a look of disappointment and sadness… “Ugh, you decide for us…”

“Yeah, I agree…” I rubbed the back of my neck again. “I can’t come up with anything better…”

Akira sighed and pulled out a small journal and a pen. He sat there for a few moments… after about a minute, Akira looked up to all of us with a small smile. “The Phantoms.”

“Huh, that’s not bad at all.” Ann nodded not having no real objections with the name. I don’t think any of us did.

“A good name, for a rookie.” Morgana seemed like he didn’t want to give us a full complement and honestly, I knew that he was being honest about the name.

“I think it sounds pretty awesome as well!” I moved around in the chair I was on. I was actually getting on the hype train now.

“The Phantoms.” Ryuji slightly nodded his head in agreement with the name. We goin’ with that?”

“Yeah, since everyone agrees with it!” Akira smiled as we all agreed with the name. He placed the journal back in his pocket. Ann leaned forward and placed her head in her hand and her elbow on her knee.

“Well now that the name’s set, who’s our next target?” That was the question of the day, who’s it…

“There are tons of rotten adults and all…” Ryuji moved his hand to rub his nose. Once he dropped his hand back down he spoke up once more. “Why not just stick to targeting big names?”

“Like a CEO?” Akira had his right arm draped over the back of the couch that he was currently sitting on. His answer made a lot of sense.

“I can agree with that one.” There were a lot of corrupt companies out there and a lot of those companies hand terrible CEO’s, so it just made sense that we would go after them. “It seems like the best choice for us. Though, if we want people to believe in us, it would need to be big enough to get it all over the news.”

“I totally think more people would believe in us if we did that!” Ryuji seemed like he was completely on the same page as I was.

“That’s not a bad idea Hisoka.” Morgana nodded along with my comment. Ann stopped leaning back as Morgana finished speaking.

“True.” Ann seemed like she was a bit worried about the plan, but at the idea seemed to grow on her now. “If we become better known… we might be able to give courage to a lot more people. I don’t really like the idea of just picking someone out of the blue though.”

“Let’s narrow it down to someone we can all agree on then.” That was another really good from Ryuji. It was an idea that Morgana seemed to agree with as well.

“Hm, so we need a bigwig we decide on unanimously.” Morgana’s face seemed like it was lost in thought for a moment.

“I like that unanimous decision part!” Ann closed her eyes and smiled brightly at the idea. “It’s like we’re making some kind of pact!”

“I agree, it means that we can’t go after someone just because of a grudge!” I smirked, this was going to be awesome!

“Now then, this is the official formation of the Phantom Thieves organization!” The conversation seemed like we were about to continue down that line of thought, but the conversation derailed as Ann looked up at a clock.

“Oh no!” The shock on her face was a huge contrast from the look of joy that was on her face a moment ago. “Our time for the buffet ran out…”

“I guess we’ll just have to talk more tomorrow.” Ryuji slightly nodded in Ann’s direction. I guess that made a lot of sense. With that, we broke for the day and headed home.

STEAL YOUR HEART!

Date: Unknown

Location: Unknown

Current Objective: Unknown

“Leave the briefcase!” The brown haired teen with a red crow mask and a white prince’s outfit called out as we moved quickly down an alleyway. It lead away from the casino and through the streets. As we ran I felt something in my hand. It was a smaller hand, I looked down to see my partner’s hand in mine. Her hand wrapped in a long black sleeve with neon green finger tips. “It’s only going to slow us down!”

I quickly gripped onto my jacket and made sure that I had something I had been holding onto for awhile now. I sighed in relief as I felt the object still in my jacket. I looked back to see Ryu- dammit! Skull! I turned back to see Skull running with the briefcase in his right hand. I could see Panther running right next to him. A girl in a three musketeers like outfit and a small black mask called out as we rounded the next to Mona. “But we need it for the change of heart!”

“Dammit…” I was starting to run out of breathes and I could hear some footsteps coming from down the alleyway. “I hate to say this, but I think Crow is right! They must have a damned tracker or something on it!”

“Son of a-” I heard Skull grumble to himself as we continued on running. A taller teen in a fox mask and blue thief like jumpsuit nodded in agreement.

“I feel that Spector is right…” I could tell without even looking at his face that he was upset about having to drop the briefcase… “It’s being too much of a burden…”

“We were so close…” The girl in the biker’s outfit grumbled to herself as we stopped and Skull turned on his foot and chicked the metal case as far back as he possibly could! It went a fairly good distance before slamming into the ground with thud!

“I’m sorry Queen…” Panther placed her hand on Queen’s shoulder. Both of them had fairly depressed looks on their faces… “We all knew what this meant for you…”

“It’s not just that…” She crouched down to the ground and I looked away, I knew what she was about to say… We all knew… “Joker… h-he…”

We all looked down toward the ground… this would affect us all for sure… All we had to do was cross our fingers that this would work…

STEAL YOUR HEART!

Date: May 6

Location: Shujin Academy

Current Objective: Find a New Target

“Like you heard last week, gym class is canceled today.” Kawakami sounded even more stressed than usual. Of course, after everything that had happened with Kamoshida, all the teachers were being questioned on their involvement in the scandal. No one else had been arrested, I didn’t know if anyone else was going to either. I was more worried about the victims of Kamoshida. Mishima seemed like he was in a lot higher of spirits recently. “Instead, I’m supposed to give you some guidance. The gist is, don’t go around talking about the incident. That’s all.”

Kawakami didn’t seem too happy about what she was having to tell us. “The police are still investigating Mr. Kamoshida, so I can’t say anything myself. As a teacher though, I’m ashamed for not having noticed that a student was suffering like that… I’m not defending him, but as a colleague, he just seemed like… well, a normal person. Honestly, it still doesn’t feel real. I guess people can have multiple sides to them…”

I sighed, I believed her, but that doesn’t change the fact there were going to be rumors that she was in on it… “Oh yeah, I just remembered something I learned about psychology. They say that humans have several different personalities hidden in their subconscious. Oh, to be clear, I’m not talking about multiple personality disorder. These different personalities can be a different gender or a different age from you. I mean, if you think about how gods and monsters in myths were first based on the human image… If you actually saw one of those personalities with your own eyes, it might look like a monster.”

That right there, that… that caught my attention! Was that about Personas and Shadows!? “Hm? You all seem more alert than usual. Did I say something wrong? Well, I’m just saying what I’ve heard. It feels like I just now understood what I learned long ago.”

TAKE YOUR TIME

We were all standing right next to our classroom with Ryuji during lunch. “It ain’t much, but we’ve been gettin’ more postings on the Phantom Aficionado Website… ‘I want to make my friend apologize for not returning the stuff I lent him.’ Ugh, deal with that yourself!”

After a few moments there where two girls that walked out of our class. Ann seemed to take special notice of them. “Hey, those girls…”

“You know that phantom thieves rumor about stealing Kamoshida’s heart?” OK, that grabbed all of our attentions. “I wonder if it’s true.”

“It’s got to be made up. Do you seriously believe they exist?”

“But look at what happened to Kamoshida.”

“He probably just couldn’t keep hiding it after that girl tried to kill herself.”

“Yeah, you might be right. I guess there’s no way they really exist.”

“Most importantly, it seriously sucks that our school is gonna be known for stuff like this!”

“I wonder if it’ll affect our college entrance…”

The girls started to walk away from us and Ryuji’s face went into a downcast look. “That’s prolly a normal reaction for now, but… they’ll see soon enough! If we can take care of two or three famous guys, people’ll have to believe we exist.”

Ryuji’s face quickly snapped back to the excitement that was on his face when he started to look through the comments a moment ago. “So about those big shots… We don’t have any leads yet, right? Plus there’s that rumor about you three threatening Kamoshida too…”

“Yeah…” I rubbed the back of my neck, I was kinda nervous that people would try to take action against us. It was a dumb thought, but at the time, it seemed very real… “I’ve been studying and taking pictures to get my mind off of it.”

“Looks like Hisoka is already trying to live a normal, honest school life for the time being.” Morgana quickly popped out of Akira’s bag and placed his paws on the frizzied teen’s shoulder. “Still, make sure you stay prepared just in case anything comes up, all right?”

“I’ll keep an eye out for info on any big shots that might be comin’ around.” Ryuji relaxed as he placed his phone back into his pocket. Ann relax and smiled, the excitement finally hitting her too!

“And I’ll try to dig up some dirt online.” I nodded, it seemed like we were getting fairly well organized now.

“I will search the rumor mill for any thing we can use.” I smiled back to everyone as well. We had a few things we needed to check, hopefully there was a someone big coming to the city soon…

“We went and formed the Phantom Thieves group, but we can’t even find a target…” Ryuji suddenly got a little down. He rubbed the back of his head and looked to the ground.

“There, there…” Ann seemed a little sympathetic about it. Ryuji rubbed the back of his head again.

“I guess sometimes things just don’t go the way we want ‘em too…” Ryuji was still depressed and I placed a hand on his shoulder.

“At least we aren’t in a dungeon with Kamoshida showing off his underwear!” I saw everyone physically shake in remembrance.

“Don’t remind me…” Ann sighed in frustration now. It was the best time for us right now. We just had to lay low and nothing else! This should be simple… at least we thought it would be…

PART 1, THE CASTLE OF LUST

END

Chapter 24: New Target?

Chapter Text

Date:May 6

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Find a Target

It was finally the afternoon, it was being a slow day. Of course… seeing Niijima-senpai with a look of distress had me worried, when I saw her, I wanted to ask her if she would help me study for the exams. I decided against it after seeing her face and the determination in her walk… I was looking out of the window across the hall from my class. My mind was wondering, my mind was all over the place.

There were a lot of people who thought Akira, Ryuji, and I had threatened Kamoshida into admitting his crimes. I was a bit worried that the cops would be on to us… Though, there was a chance that the school wouldn't want what happened to be talked about. We could only hope for the best. My phone going off brought my attention away from the window.

SR: The police are really here… I saw 'em at the entrance.

TA: I saw them too! They were talking to the teachers!

GH: Seriously!? Holy crap, people are really taking this seriously…

SR: That change of heart thing's seriously amazing, huh!?

TA: I hope they don't find out we're responsible…

SR: I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. There's no proof it was us.

GH: Still, I can't help but worry.

KA: I'm also concerned.

SR: C'mon, don't worry so much guys.

TA: But I mean, haven't rumors been going around about how you guys threatened Kamoshida?

SR: This world's Kamoshida shouldn't know anything about what actually happened to him though.

HG: Still, we can't just pretend like we won't be suspects.

SR: We did what was right. Don't go freaking out over some label.

HG: OK, OK, fine…

SR: Man, I really can't wait to keep living this double life!

SR: All right, Akira! We're gonna be counting on you!

I sighed and quickly slipped my phone back into my pocket. My gaze moved back toward the window. I knew exams were coming up, but I was not in a studying move all of a sudden…

TAKE YOUR TIME

School had finally ended when I noticed the Mishima had quickly jumped to his feet and moved over to the other side of the room. His step had a light movement to him. He stopped right in front of Akira with a smile on his face. So I sat there and acted like I was going over my notes. "...Hey. Have you seen the Phantom Aficionado Website?"

"Yeah, I've heard of it." Akira nodded toward the smaller black haired boy. Mishima started to twirl his hair in between his fingers on his right hand.

"I'm the one who started it." I had to do my best to not yell out in shock! Mishima moved quickly up closer to Akira's face. "Um…! You guys are the Phantom Thieves, aren't you?"

Again! I had to do my best to not yell out in shock! That was not the best thing to heard all of a sudden! "What…?"

"...Sorry." Mishima shook his head and slowly moved back a few feet. "Although… if things really are as I think, I should keep it a secret. Kamoshida used me, and I did some horrible things to you guys. This isn't much of a way for me to apologize for it… But if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know!"

"That's great but…" Akira seemed uncomfortable with the line of conversation that was taking place, but still, Mishima kept on going. Akira leaned back against the desk behind him.

"I'm glad to hear that." Mishima turned and looked out the window in the classroom. "There are many more evil adults outside of Kamoshida. But I'm sure the Phantom Thieves will do something… They can't let this end after just one target. That's why I wanted to make a forum where people could post their problems."

Mishima turned back to Akira with a determined look on his face. "There are probably a lot of people who have high hopes for the Phantom Thieves' next move. So I've also implemented an anonymous poll on the site."

Mishima pulled his phone out of his pocket, placed his left fist against his hip and showed the screen to the frizzy haired teen. "'Do you believe in the Phantom Thieves, or not?' I… hope someday my forum is filled with supportful posts. I'd really like to help out in the Phantom Thieves' act of justice! ...Can I, please?"

"It's up to you…" Akira seemed worried still, he seemed like he wasn't in a position to deny anything Mishima was saying… Mishima chuckled at Akira's response, at least someone was having fun.

"In that case, I'll just do what I want." It really seemed like Mishima had very high expectations. "...See you."

With that Mishima ran away and out into the hall. I stood up to see Ann and Ryuji with worried looks nod over to Akira. I nodded back and we all moved over to our leader. Ryuji looked around to see if there was anyone else. "We heard all that. Geez… it was a little awkward tryin' to figure out when to walk over here."

"I was just listening." I sat down on top of the desk in front of Akira. "He was fanboying pretty hard about you."

"So that forum is Mishima-kun's…" Ann seemed shocked, but due to him being the one to leak Akira's record, I figured he had those kinds of skill. Morgana, who had popped back out of Akira's bag was freaking out.

"Has he figured out our identities?" I chuckled a little bit about that.

"With how much he was fanboying, I think are pretty safe." I crossed my arms in front of my chest with a huge smile on my face.

"I don't know about that." Ann smiled back at me, but it seemed more like amusem*nt than anything else. "He at least seemed to be playing it cool at least."

"I guess we should have a little chat about this later." Ryuji seemed frustrated and rubbed his nose.

"I will say though… a forum where people can post problems may prove unexpectedly useful." Morgana, no longer freaking out, now started sounding very excited. Though, we were all a bit confused on what the cat meant.

"Anyways, we gotta get lookin' for a new target." Ryuji looked to Ann and me. I sighed, I knew this was gonna be tough for me.

"And we need to stay sharp until we manage to find one." Ann started next, while they were both right, I just didn't want to talk to other people while this rumor was still going around… "Once we do, we'll have to head into another Palace, so we should prep our equipment and-"

"Wait, oh CRAP!" Ryuji recoiled in fear and shock, which made me and Ann do so.

"Holy sh*t Ryuji!" I placed my hand on my chest and breathed heavily.

"What's with you!?" Ann sounded as scared as Ryuji did!

"D-d-don't we have an exam comin' up!?" I rolled my eyes at the bleached blonde.

"...Judging by that reaction, I'd assume you're going to struggle this time too?" Ann half-ass glared at Ryuji.

"I-it's not like you're any better!" The panic in Ryuji's voice, diminished the glare on his face. "All you're good at is English!"

"I'd rather that than be bad at every subject!" The fight between the two seemed to be increasing now. Suddenly, I felt a bit of glee show find its way into me.

"Even your Japanese is questionable at best, Ryuji." Morgana poked fun at Ryuji. Ryuji ground his foot into the ground as he glared at the cat.

"What's questionable is whether you're really even a human…" That was a blow blow! It was a really good comeback, that was until… "Good comeback, huh?"

"It would have been good if you hadn't asked if it was." I raised an eyebrow up at the bleached blonde teen.

"Oh, who asked you!?" Ryuji half growled at me. Morgana, however was not very happy either.

"...Let's discuss this with our fists!" Ryuji knelt down into a fighting stance as he glared at the cat.

"Bring it!" Ann seemed like she had enough of the two right now.

"Will you two stop it!?" Ann growled at them both. I however, felt I had the best thing to stop the tensions!

"Well guys, I think I know what we need to do now!" I clapped my hands together. I had an evil look in my eyes. Ryuji gave me a wary look now.

"What are you talking about…?" I pulled out a notebook and waved it back and forth. "Wait, SERIOUSLY!?"

"Oh yes!" I stood up and moved toward the door. "We are gonna study, and none of you are getting out of this! Let's go!"

"Do we have too…?" I heard Ryuji grown in displeasure at my want to study. I turned to look at the group with an evil look and a mile wide smile on my face.

"Hey, being good students will keep the suspicion off of us!" I saw all three of my friends groan at the sheer displeasure!

"He's right though…" Akira sighed as he started toward me. "Let's get going…"

"I can't believe that we are going to study!" Ryuji groaned again as we started to move into the hall.

"Come on, I'll buy food at the diner!" I saw the rest of the Phantom Thieves perk up at that! We studied for a few hours at the diner in Shibuya and let me tell you, the food was awesome!

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date:May 7

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Find new target

"None of these post are any good." Ryuji had on foot against the table on the roof and one arm over the back of his chair. I sighed as well, there seemed to be no good targets anywhere. "Everyone's just bitchin' about their parents or their boyfriends. There ain't even a hint of a hint about a new Palace…"

"We can't get everything online…" Ann seemed just as visually upset as Ryuji and I were. "Finding a post with a name and location is asking a lot…"

"Yeah, there isn't any good leads in the rumor mill either…" Though, that still could have been because of the rumor that Ryuji, Akira, and I threatened Kamoshida. So I couldn't get close at all while the other people were talking. So, it made it a lot more difficult to get information. "We just keep running into dead ends all around…"

"Guess we just gotta find one ourselves then!" Ryuji seemed pretty disappointed by our predicament. Morgana started to lick his paw and seemed frustrated at us.

"Are you seriously suggesting we look for a target that even the police have overlooked?" That did seem like a very bad idea… We would just be screaming random names into the Metanav…

"...Yeah, you're right." Luckily, Ryuji seemed to agree with the cat. "We should prolly just hold off 'til exams are done with, huh? We can wait and see for a little longer, then worry about comin' up emptyhanded if it happens…"

At that moment, the door opened and Morgana ran off as so not to be seen by the new comer. Me and Ann were taken aback! Niijima-senpai walked up to us! She actually seemed shocked to see me with everyone else. "This place is off limits you know. I really would have expected you to know that Gekido-kun…"

"No one ever seemed to stop us before." It wasn't the best excuse, but it was true, teachers never really stopped us, even after Suzui-san's attempt… "So it never seemed like a big deal."

"Really…?" Niijima-senpai seemed fairly disappointed with me. I felt bad, but I couldn't just give in because I felt bad. "That still doesn't change the fact that its off limits."

Ryuji glared up at her all of a sudden. "...We'll get outta here once we're done chattin'. Anyways, what's Miss Council President want with us?"

"The troublemaker, the girl of rumor, the victimized photographer, and the infamous transfer student…" She seemed intrigued about us. "Interesting combination."

Ann got very upset with our senpai, as much as I enjoyed my time with Niijima-senpai… well, I had to agree with Ann on this one. "Great way to start a conversation…"

"By the way…" Niijima-senpai turned and looked to Akira with intent. "It seems as though you got to know Mr. Kamoshida pretty well."

She was accusing us of the rumors… go figure… I won't lie, I was very saddened by this… Akira kept his cool though. "Not really. We barely spoke since I got here."

"Yeah, y'know he's only been here a month or so." Ryuji was growling at the student council president.

"Hm…" Makoto seemed even more interested now. "I heard Mr. Kamoshida used a volleyball team member to spread details of your past record. Don't you hate him? Mr. Kamoshida, I mean."

"What's all this about?" Ryuji was still fairly upset! I just looked up to Niijima-senpai with a very upset look, I was very saddened about it… "My friend here's an upstanding guy."

"I don't mean to offend." Makoto very softly recoiled, she crossed her left arm over her stomach and rested her right elbow on her arm and rested her knuckles against her check. "Many students have been shaken up by what happened with Mr. Kamoshida. The rumors about that odd, calling card-esque posting aren't going away either."

Ann, Ryuji, and I all looked at one another. Ann looked up to Niijima-senpai with a shocked look. "I didn't expect someone like you would care about that tactless stuff, Niijima-senpai."

"I dunno that it was tactless…" Ryuji really didn't shouldn't have said that, mostly because it would put him in a position as a suspect… "Anyways, we done here? We can't leave if you keep talkn' to us."

"At least try to understand my position." Niijima-senpai was very upset now, it almost seemed like she didn't want to do this. "Being forced to deal with this horseplay…"

"Horseplay…!?" Me and Ann both broke at that one, we both said it at the same time.

"Are you freaking kidding me!?" Though, I just kept going!

"Ah yes, by the way…" Niijima-senpai brushed her hair out of her face. "It's been decided that this place will be closed off due to the incident. I heard some people are coming up here without permission, after all… I'm sorry to have interrupted you."

With that, Niijima-senpai turned to walk away from us, but I quickly stood up. I was far too upset to deal with it now! "So, what, you are just going to accuse us and leave!?"

Niijima-senpai turned back to look at me, her face had frustration written all over her face. That was until she saw how angry and sad I was. "W-what…?"

"You weren't here Niijima-senpai!" I stomped my foot as the I was doing my best to hold back tears, but I couldn't keep it in… I started to sob… I couldn't believe that I was being accused of being a criminal from someone I trusted, it was too much… "Y...you weren't here… when… when Shiho Suzui was on the edge…! You were not… not here when she vanished pa… past that ledge…"

"Gekido-kun…" I could see the pain in her eyes… That made me feel a bit better, but still… It was too much for me… Niijima-senpai turned and looked away, she couldn't deal with the high emotions right now either… I almost didn't hear her next statement. "I'm… I'm sorry…" She spoke up right after that. "Please don't try to come back up here without permission from a teacher… Goodbye…"

Niijima-senpai left the roof, as soon as the door closed, Ann stood up to her feet angry as all hell! I was trying to calm down… I was barely sobbing now… Akira and Ryuji taking in what was going on. "What was that about?"

Morgana landed right infront of us on the desk, he seemed fairly upset now. "...She's on to us. That girl seems rather sharp. We should be cautious of her."

"I… I wish… that she would not do… do this…" I rubbed my eyes as I felt the tears against my hands… Suddenly Ann realized that I was still upset…

"Hisoka!" Ann brought her hands up to her mouth in shock as realized my state. "I'm sorry… I… I forgot that you were here when it happened…"

I finally regained my composure and took a deep breath. "It's alright Ann. It was still just as bad for me as it was for you."

She nodded, and all of us stayed there for a moment… that was until Morgana broke the silence. "Well… study hard. Especially you, Ryuji. There are bound to be traps that will need to be solved with brains. Keep in mind that everything you do in you daily lives has an impact on your abilities."

Ann nodded and adjusted her stance and placed her hands behind her back. "True, studying won't be so bad if we just think of it as helping us prepare to be phantom thieves…"

"That's a great way to view it." I grinned at the natural blonde now. Ryuji sighed as he stood up with a distressed look on his face.

"I guess you got a point…" His voice sounded like he was about to die of boredom. "But man, it's just so lame… I was all fired up about helpin' people, not about studyin'..."

"Well I do have somewhere interesting to show you beforehand." Morgana sounded very happy right now. It was almost worrying… "You guys did originally promise to help me out with my mission, after all."

"Huh?" Ryuji was confused now, though, I didn't blame him. A lot had happened since we made that deal. "Mission?"

"Follow me." Morgana pointed toward the door back into the school. We had no idea what we were about to go into now.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Morgana had brought us up to the entrance to the underground walkway in the Shibuya station. It was still weird that he suddenly showed up here. Akira leaned against the support of the entrance. Ryuji was sitting on the ground leaning against the old subway car next to the walkway. Ann was standing next to Ryuji and I was sitting down across from Ryuji with my camera in my hands. Morgana was laying on entrance next to Akira. I had went through my photos on the way here, I had realized on the way here that I hadn't taken a picture of us when we made the Phantom Thieves. Ryuji looked up to the cat with a confused look. "What're you bringin' us here for?"

"Just do as I told you." Morgana seemed focused on the task at hand. Ryuji had his phone in his hand and he turned to look at it.

"All right, I've got the Phantom Aficionado Website up." Despite that Ryuji seemed confused still, but was relatively complaint. "Now what?"

"Look for a post with a full name in it." Morgana almost sounded like his excitement was starting to grow very slowly as we continued up farther and farther.

"I already said there's no info on any big shots." Ryuji seemed even more confused at the cat's response. "Don't you remember?"

"Hey, maybe there's a good reason for it." I shrugged and shoved my head back into my camera as I waited for something to happen. "I mean after all, what do we have to lose?"

Ryuji sighed at me with an almost upset look. "Yeah, I guess you're right… But man, people actually go put someone's real name on here. That's some scary sh*t…"

"You're telling me…" I rubbed the back of my neck. I wasn't looking at my phone, mostly because it would be counter productive for three people to be looking at the same site.

"'He won't listen to what I say…'" Ann seemed interested in that message, but it seemed that her interest was short lived. "No wait, there's no name on this one."

"'Someone's bad-mouthin' me in online chat rooms…'" Ryuji held the phone up for everyone to see the message. It seemed good, but it just didn't seem to fit in with our motives. "This one's got a name."

"Ignore those." Morgana kept his own excitement up as everything kept moving forward. "Aren't there any posts about more serious trouble?"

"'I don't know what to do about my ex who's stalking me. His name is Natsuhiko Nakanohara.'" That one that Ann found sounded perfect! Then, something else happened that sounded even better! "It says he's a teller at City Hall."

"A government worker's stalkin' someone…?" Ryuji almost groaned at the issue.

"That's just messed up!" I finally turned my camera started to stand up with a frustrated look at the situation that a government worker was putting someone else into. "I think he sounds like a good target."

"Glad you agree Hisoka." Morgana nodded in my direction with a smile on his face. "All right, now get the Meta-Nav ready."

"We're just gonna jump right into a Palace?" Ryuji sounded super excited now! I was just as excited as well! "Fine by me!"

"Hey, what happened to all that talk of 'unanimous decision?'" Ann looked up to Akira with a concerned look. "What do you think we should do, Akira, Hisoka?"

"I already said my piece, I wanna go after him!" I rolled my shoulder with a smile on my face. Akira nodded back with a smile just as big as mine.

"Let's go." Akira spoke with a hint of excitement and determination as well.

"That's what I'm talkin' about!" Ryuji seemed even more excited now!

"OK then." Ann smiled at us, it seemed as though we had reached a decision! "Let's go."

"We need a name and a place, right?" Ryuji seemed like he was very much so on task right now. "So the name is…"

"Actually, we don't need a location this time." Morgana stopped Ryuji before he could continue on with the process of using the Meta-Nav. "Just enter exactly what I say. The keyword is… 'Mementos.'"

"Huh?" Ryuji turned to look at the cat and tilted his head. "What're you tryin' to pull?"

"Just listen to me." Morgana sounded frustrated now, though, I guess that could because of the fact we sounded close to what we did. "It should work… I think."

"Geez, that again…?" Ryuji almost sighed at the cat as he turned back to his phone. "Uhhh… 'M-e-m-e-n-t-o-s,' was it?"

Candidate found.Ryuji jumped to his feet as the phone rang out the approval sound! Ryuji was incredibly shocked. "We got a hit!?"

"Just as I thought!" We didn't get a chance to respond as the world distorted around us. We were going in… head first if we had to.

Akira's confidants:

New Confidant:Moon:Yuki Mishima(Rank 1: Mishima's Support)

Chapter 25: Beware the Clingy Ex-Boyfriend

Chapter Text

Date: May 7

Location: Shibuya Central Station?

Current Objective: Infiltrate Natushiko Nakanohara’s Palace?

The moment the distortion was gone, the change was very much so noticable! The usually crowded Shibuya was suddenly empty! There was wasn’t a single persona around us! This was enough of a shock to all of us that we immediately recoiled! “Everyone disappeared…! It… kinda feels like I’m walking on air…?”

“Yeah, I feel it too…” I shivered as I jumped straight to my feet. The ground felt like it wasn’t even solid… Which made it even weirder to stand… It was really creepy without anyone else around, it was like being in a dark alleyway at night. “Damn, this is disturbing…”

“Is this that Nakanohara guy’s Palace?” Ryuji quickly turned his head to Morgana with fear and wonder in his eyes.

“That’s half right, but half wrong.” Morgana was suddenly being very confusing… Though it felt like he was trying to keep teaching us more about this place again. “This is a type of Palace, but it’s different from the normal ones. Come on, let’s head down. The Shadows here lurk underground. I don’t quite understand why. It may be because they’re drawn to something.”

“Underground…?” Ann seemed just as confused as I was being now. “How are we going to get there?”

“How?” Morgana’s voice went back to his smug voice showed up once more. “You use it every day on your way to school. Follow me!”

“Ah!” Ryuji freaked out as Morgana started down the stairs to the underground walkway. “Wait up, cat!”

“Well, follow the professor.” With that, I quickly followed the small black cat into the underground walkway. I could hear the footsteps of my friends following my down the stairs! Once we made it down the stairs, there were a few things that didn’t make a whole lot of sense once we made it down there. The light of the subway landing was covered in a black, almost organic growth and the area seemed to have a red tint to it. “Oh, yeah… not ominous at all…”

“The hell is this place…?” Ryuji mumbled under his breath as we saw the odd appearance… Ryuji turned around and recoiled in shock as his gaze fell on Morgana. “Wait, our clothes changed!?”

That was just as shocking as our surroundings were! We were in danger! Ann also turned around to look at Morgana, with a shocked face as well! “The Shadows know we’re here!?”

“Dammit!” I cursed and also turned back to the black cat to find him in his Metaverse form. Though there was something that smacked into my chest as I turned, I would have looked down, but I was too focused on the fact that we were in danger. “We need to be on guard now!”

“They’ve known since the moment we stepped in.” Morgana sounded way to calm about what was going on! This was not good!

“You should’ve told us!” Ryuji stomped his foot down and growled at Morgana.

“I agree!” I flung my arms out to my sides with an angry look on my face. “We could have been face-to-face with one right now!”

“We’re still safe right here.” Immediately, I started to calm down, though I was still too focused to find out what it was that was on my chest. “I’ve come to investigate a number of times. Shadows never come up to this floor. But it’s a different story once you go down. This place is simply teeming with them.”

“More importantly, what is this Mementos!?” Ann growled at Morgana, it sounded like she was fairly done with this conversation already! “It’s about time you start explaining.”

“Mementos is… everyone’s Palace.” Morgana slightly turned away from us, and the paused in his speaking added a dramatic effect to his speech, which I will say this, that one went with a great effect! That was very shocking thing to hear!

“Huh?” Ryuji seemed more confused than I was shocked. “Whaddya mean ‘everyone’s’...?”

“A Palace as grand as the previous castle only forms when a person’s wishes are extremely distorted.” I didn’t know what to think of what we had just learned. “So, instead of many individual Palaces, the general public has one gigantic shared Palace. That’s where we are now… Mementos.”

“Yeah, I will admit that feels a lot different than Kamoshida’s Palace…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I don’t know, it feels like its more… I don’t know, empty… I guess.”

“When you say shared… you mean they’re all put together?” Ryuji relaxed and closed his eyes as he started trying to think about what we were now learning. “Even though they’re just strangers…?”

“Think of it as the collective unconscious…” Morgana turned his head even farther away from us. “No, never mind. You wouldn’t understand that.”

“Actually, I understand the rough idea of that.” I rubbed the back of my neck to find a strap there. Finally getting the idea to look down to see that for some reason, my camera was still sitting there against my chest. Which was very weird, I mean I already knew that the thing didn’t work, and everything else I had been wearing, including my bag had been replaced with my Phantom Thieves outfit now. I shook my head and refocused on my conversation with Morgana. “I mean, if we can use the Metaverse to go into other people’s hearts. Then the Metaverse is kinda a physical manifestation of people’s hearts and if this is a place for those without a strong distorted desire, then they don’t stand out enough for them to have a manifestation of their hearts. So, all of those hearts that don’t stand out are from here, am I close enough?”

“Wow…” Morgana titled his head back to me with a shocked look. “That was a pretty good guess, while not entirely right, it was a good explanation of Mementos.”

“Still, what you’re both saying is…” Ann took a moment to think about what she was about to say next. “Using this place, we can even change the hearts of people who don’t have a Palace?”

“I was just making an educated guess…” I raised an eyebrow and turned to Morgana with a semi shocked look on my face. “Though, that would make sense based on what you told us…”

“Well, that’s correct!” Morgana seemed very happy that me and Ann were understanding, to some degree, what he was explaining to us. “The steps to do so are slightly different though.”

Ryuji turned back to the escalators that led into the dark of the subway, I could see a little bit of worry in his eyes. “But this place looks pretty huge. Are we gonna be able to get around just by walkin’...?”

With that, Morgana stepped off the the top of the escalator that he was standing on and hopped over the far side of the room. He took a deep breath as he walked over there. “It seems the time has finally come…”

We all turned to the cat with confused looks. Morgana started doing a pose that I can only describe as a super sentai pose. “Morganaaa… transfoooooorm!”

And with that, the small black cat monster jumped into the air and with a puff of smoke as a large Morgana themed van slammed into the ground right in front of us! This, very much so, scared and shocked the crap outta us! It didn’t help that it moved and started to talk! “Come now, Panther. Ladies first.”

“A car…!?” Ann’s jaw dropped almost to the ground. It was kinda ridiculous. It was like we had just be moved into an anime!

“No way!” You could hear the disbelief in Ryuji’s voice at this point. Morgana’s car form jumped up as it continued to talk in his normal voice.

“This comes from the way cognition materializes in the Metaverse, plus a bit of extra training.” The car bounced back and forth as Morgana continued to speak to us. “It’s not dissimilar to how you guys transform.”

“You turnin’ into a car is totally different than out clothes changin’!” Ryuji held his fist up in front of his face then threw it back behind him.

“For some reason, ‘cats turning into buses’ is extremely widespread cognition among the general public.” I was right, I had just remembered what I was thinking of the moment that Morgana turned into a car.

“I was just about to say, ‘What kinda Studio Ghibli mess did we just step into!?’” I almost yelled the words out. I was still very shocked by the fact that our car, was one, actually a human, two had a Persona, three, had a weird monster cat form in the Metaverse, and four, could turn into a freaking bus! “Cause, if its a Studio Ghibli thing, then I can understand a bus…”

“Wait, why didn’t you do this at the castle!?” Ryuji stomped his foot toward the ca- er, bus… that’s right, he was a bus still at that moment. He also, basically growled at Morgana. I did just remembered that we were in a Palace at that moment as well. Though, he brought up a very good point, we could have been down with the Palace in an hour if he had changed into a car while we were there.

“I would have if I could!” Though, Mona also had a point. The castle was pretty small, and all those damned stairs… “But that castle was cramped, there were tons of stairs, and no way this fits on top of a chandelier!”

As Mona was talking, Skull walked over and stepped into the car, which Panther had a few ideas about. “Hey, Skull! Ladies first!”

“Stop pullin’ me!” I could hear Skull starting to grunt and groan as Panther was starting to pull him out of Mona’s car form. “That’s dangerous!”

The car jumped into the air with a shock. “Panther! Please be gentle!”

I sighed very heavily at that moment… Turning to Joker I shrugged at him. “How did we not get caught in the Palace…?”

“I don’t know…” Joker was just as exasperated with this as I was. “Let’s go.”

We all piled into the car, though Joker, Skull, and Panther were in the back seat. Where as I was in the passenger seat. Skull crossed his legs and leaned one arm over the back of the seat. “All aboard! Let’s go!”

After a moment of nothing happening we all looked to the dashboard in confusion. Though, Mona spoke up. “Why are you all just sitting back there? I’m a car, remember? I’m not going anywhere unless someone drives me.”

“You can’t drive yourself!” Skull actually seemed pretty shocked by this information. I just sighed and rubbed the back of my neck.

“Yeah… I should have guessed…” Panther looked at all of us with a semi worried expression.

“Do either of you know how to drive?” Panther brought up a really, really good question… Though, I pretty much figured what the answers would be.

“I uh… I have never been behind the wheel of a car…” I rubbed the back of my neck again… I was not very confident in my ability to drive at all… I was fairly certain I would kill us if I tried to drive… “So… what about you Joker…?”

Joker rolled his neck with with a really big smirk on his face. That in and of itself was… worrying at the very least… “Time to bust my moves!”

“Yeah… that’s… comforting…?” I looked to everyone else in the car to see they were just as worried as me.

“...Um, safety first, OK?” Panther didn’t sound very comforted by Joker’s confidence… Though, Mona spoke up and it kept silence from falling over the car.

“You’d better not smash up my beautiful face, you hear me!?” Well, it sounded like we didn’t have much of choice, so I sighed.

“Just be careful, OK…?” With that, Joker moved to get in the driver’s seat, I was right next him and Skull and Panther were still in the back seat.

“Now start the engine!” Mona almost growled at Joker as he was on way to the driver’s seat. “You can’t drive if it’s not running!”

Skull groaned as Joker opened the door. “Geez, what a pain… Where’s the key to this thing?”

“Why would you need a key!?” I turned to look at the steering wheel to see that there wasn’t an ignition or key slot. “There’s a switch just down next to the steering wheel.”

Joker reached down and flipped a switch. “That tickles! Lower, lower!”

Joker flipped another switch and the car started to purr to life… that wasn’t a pun… Mona’s car form literally purred at us. “Oh, there… That feels sooo goooooood…”

“Yep… this isn’t weird at all guys…” The sarcasm on my voice was so think that I don’t think I could cut it with my sword. “The car is purring… whatever, let’s get going.”

“Don’t underestimate my meowtary engine.” OK, I will admit that I chuckled at Mona’s joke… it was dumb but still kinda funny. “We’re going full throttle! It’s time to fly!”

With that, we headed down into the darkness of Mementos for the first time… it definitely wouldn’t be the last either…

MISSION START!

Mementos:

Path of Qimranut, Area 1

Once we got down to where the subway would have normally have been… Well what we saw was definitely not a normal subway! It had a normal looking enough looking stop area. Though, the air and tracks looked unnatural… The darkness in front of us made it so we couldn’t see more than maybe twenty feet in front of us. It bothered me enough that I thought that my skin was crawling…. Skull did sum up how it felt. “Man… This place totally does feel like a Palace…”

“Yeah, I guess it’d be strange driving on the tracks like this in the real world…” Panther seemed to be feeling weird about the area as well. “Anyway, Nakanohara’s somewhere in here, right?”

“Most likely in a segment of his own creation.” Mona spoke up, we had yet to move, though, we still needed to know more about where we were. “Don’t worry, it won’t be the size of a Palace. Our next step is to find an entrance to that segment.”

“Do we have any idea what this entrance will look like?” I had an idea of what Mona was going to say in response to him.

“I have no idea, but strong distortions should be a pretty obvious visual clue.” There it was, I knew that he meant well, but it was still a bit worrying that he didn’t have the answers…

“So we just gotta go wanderin’ around for it then?” Skull sighed very loudly about the situation. “What a goddamn pain in the ass…”

Once Skull stopped speaking, Joker stepped on the gas. We started to move, but I went to check my camera… I remember Skull’s phone not working very well when he tried it in Kamoshida’s Palace. I pressed the power button and my camera powered up like normal. I was actually able to go through my pictures like normal. I looked up to see us taking a left turn, the tunnels in Mementos seemed like they weren’t like normal train tracks. They what they turned didn’t wide enough for trains to work down here. The ceiling was way too high above the ground. I moved my camera up to my face and pointed it out of the car.

“Hey, Specter, what are you doing?” I heard Panther’s voice call out to me from the back seat. I dropped it slightly and turned back to her with a small smile on my face.

“Oh, I am just testing my camera out.” I held it out for her to see. I was happy to talk to someone else about my camera. “When we were in Kamoshida’s castle, Skull tried to take a picture with his phone, but the camera wasn’t working.”

“Really?” I could see Panther’s confusion on her face. “Then why are you trying to take a picture?”

“Well, I wanna see if me camera works.” I smiled even larger at her and she nodded back in response.

“Oh, well let’s see it!” I could hear the excitement in her voice, it made me a bit giddy as well. This was actually kinda exciting… This could mean that I could take images of the Metaverse! I decided at the last moment, that I didn’t want to just take an image of Mementos, so I turned around and took an image of of Skull and Panther in the backseat! Both of them were shocked as they heard the camera click. “Wh-what the!?”

“What? No one wants to see a picture of a dark tunnel.” I smirked at my two friends sitting in the back seat of the Mona car.

“That’s true… but please warn us next time…” Skull sighed heavily at me, I nodded, we knew that we could wear our mask off our faces, and it would be bad if any images off my camera found their way online if it worked…

“Sorry, I’ll be more careful, just got a little excited.” I nodded and took a deep breath as I looked down toward the small screen on the back side of my camera. I felt the excitement growing in my mind the more and more I got closer to seeing if it would work. I pressed the button that would let me see my saved photos… There it was… an actual photo of Skull and Panther sitting in the back of the car, their mask covering their faces, but you could see the shock in their eyes and with their open mouths. “Holy sh*t! It worked!”

“Wait, seriously!” Skull and Panther both quickly leaned over the seat to quickly see the picture. “How the hell did you get that to work!?”

“That’s amazing!” Joker didn’t look over to camera… which was honestly, probably for the best. We didn’t want him to crash Mona… I was still so shocked that my camera actually took a real picture from in the Metaverse.

“Hey Mona?” I called out to the cat slash car as we took a turn into a large empty room. We left that said room really quick and continued to move down the tunnels.

“What is it, Spector?” I heard Mona’s voice like it was coming from the speakers of the car, but like he was just standing next to me.

“Do you have any idea why my camera works but Ryuji’s phone didn’t?” That was an honest question… I hoped Mona had an answer…

“I don’t really know… I think it might have something to with your Persona ability Spector…” I heard a long sigh from Mona as Joker turned us right into a long straightaway. “Though, I think you’ll have to develop your power even more first.”

“Huh…” I was lost in thought about what my Persona’s power could be that would allow me to take pictures in the Metaverse. About a minute of thought later, Skull’s voice broke me out of my thoughts.

“Dude, the hell is this…?” I looked to see what Skull was looking out, and I was just as shocked he was. There in front of us was a what I can only describe as a portal! The train tracks seemed like they were ripped off the ground and twisted into the air into a black and red portal. “It’s all wavy and sh*t.”

“This is the place…” Mona spoke up from the car once more. This was still taking some time for me to get used to… “I sense the target up ahead. Now, are you ready, Joker?”

“Let’s do it!” Joker called out and I took in a deep breath as Joker hit the gas and Mona jump! The car jumped! Just wrap your head around that for a moment. You did it…? Good, OK, so the car jumped into the portal. Once we were on the other side, there was a small room with what looked like veins hanging from the ceiling. The tracks that we were following ended right in front of us. There was someone standing there in front of us. The moment the car stopped, we all quickly rolled out of Mona’s car form and in a puff of smoke Mona ran up next to us.

“Hey, something’s there!” Skull seemed anxious now. Though, it was a very ominous in Mementos, so anything could happen all of a sudden.

“That seems to be Nakanohara’s Shadow.” Mona glared at the figure off in the distance. It was difficult for us to make out what was in front of us, I could tell that it was a person, but I knew it was a person, but I couldn’t make out anything about them.

“Lemme see.” Skull spoke up once more with a determined look plastered on his face. “Some front desk guy at City Hall became a stalker, right?”

“I don’t know how much evil he’s done, but we have to do something if he’s bothering other people.” Ann sounded almost furious about what Nakanohara had done. Something that I could understand. I mean it seemed like it was similar to how Suzui-san felt about Kamoshida.

“Yeah, no one deserves to be as scared as his ex does right now…” I took a breath and placed a hand on my camera, which was now attached to my hip where I wouldn’t hit it while fighting, it was on my left side and I changed my fighting stance so that my left hip was away from the fight. “So let’s make this guy have a change of heart!”

“All right, we’ll go talk to him.” Mona nodded in agreement with me and we started to walk toward Nakanohara’s Shadow. As we continued farther into the room, we started to hear a voice.

“She’s mine…” That was when we got close and Shadow Nakanohara turned to us. He was in a business suit, he also had a pair of glasses on and a bowl cut in his black hair. “Who are you!?”

“Are you that stalker!?” Panther growled and moved her arms in anger as she stomped toward the guy. “Haven’t you ever stopped to consider how your ex feels?”

“She’s my property!” The Shadow waved his hand to dismiss Panther’s comment as his yellow eyes glared at her. “I can do whatever I want with her! It’s not like she didn’t treat me like a plaything! What’s wrong with me doing the same!?”

“You can’t treat someone like sh*t just ‘cause they did it to you!” Skull started to growl at Shadow Nakanohara with pure anger in his eyes. “What a load of crap…”

“You saying that she’s your property is complete bullsh*t!” I stomped toward the Shadow as his yellow eyes moved over to me. I growled at the bastard, my left hip turned away from him. “You can’t own someone. You are so concerned with your own wants that you can’t think about anyone else! WWe are going to change the hearts of every son of a bitch like you!”

“There are millions of people far worse than me!” The Shadow wasn’t having any of our crap. He threw his hand to the side trying to add to his point. “What about Madarame…? He stole everything from me, but you’re letting him off the hook!?”

That name rang a bell in my mind. I couldn’t quite place the name, though I knew that I had heard it somewhere before. Though it seemed like my bleached blonde friend hadn’t heard the name before. “...Madarame? The hell’s this guy goin’ on about?”

Before any of us could respond, Nakanohara exploded into black and red goo! Now, we were on high alert, all of us pulled our weapons out as Nakanohara’s Shadow form was revealed. It was a small red demon with a large belly button and red horns poking out of his black bowl cut. Mona jumped into the air waving his arms. “Get ready! Here he comes!”

“Now that I finally have what’s rightfully mine…” Nakanohara danced back and forth with a huge smile on his face, showing off a row of large teeth. “I’m not going to let you take it away… Look… This is a winner-takes-all world. Come fight me and I’ll show you what I mean!”

The moment that he growled out at us, the area grew and changed to give us a larger area to fight in! The small demon started charging at us swinging his fist wildly in the air! I watched Joker back away by doing a backflip into a handstand and landed on his knees and moved for his mask! “Persona!”

With that, Berith appeared and started to charge at Nakanohara! He swung his spear toward the Shadow which quickly shuffled to the side and the spear barely missed the small demon as Mona yelled out. “Time for my Persona!”

Zorro appeared and slashed his rapier in a Z formation and summoned in the a blast of green wind energy that slammed into the small demon throwing him into a nearby pillar. Now Skull charged forward and ripped his mask off. “Peeersooona!”

Captain Kidd appeared on his boat and lunged for the Shadow! Slamming his boat into the small demon back into the pillar once more! The little bastard was not moving from that spot. Skull made sure that the Shadow could not move from his current spot. Now Panther summoned in Carmin. “Dance Carmin!”

The lady in red moved elegantly and summoned in a fireball right as Captain Kidd moved out of the way of the battle. The small demon being engulfed in flames! Now it was my turn to fight! I ripped my mask off with excitement and summoned in Mr. Hyde. “Leave nothing left, Mr. Hyde!”

The large muscular monster appeared with a wicked grin on his face. The Monster lifted his hand up as the black energy appeared in his hand. He crushed the energy in his hand as the dark energy exploded out from under the small demon. The Demon was looking ruff now. The monster growled in pain, but he had one more trick up his sleeve! The charged at us, not the Persona’s but us! He slammed himself toward all five of us and there was a dust cloud that covered us. We all got a few bruises all over us. That was when we sent our Persona’s at the Shadow once more! Though, Berith was replaced with Arsene how waited for Captain Kidd’s lightning bolt slammed into the Shadow. The demon started to try and back away, but Mr. Hyde rushed forward and slammed the small demon’s head into the ground. Arsene rushed forward now and raked his claws through the small red creature’s back and it exploded back into the form of Nakanohara.

The moment Nakanohara appeared back in his human form, he slinked away from us. We immediately desummoned our Personas. I could see the look of regret on his face. “I-I was wrong… Please forgive me… That evil teacher used me, then threw me out on the street. That’s what caused my fixation on her…”

“Evil teacher?” Joker tilted his head toward the Shadow in confusion. I think that he was talking about the Madarame person that was mentioned earlier…

“Huh?” Skull seemed like he was starting to understand a little bit about the guy. “Could it be that Madarame guy he was talkin’ about earlier?”

“Yeah… I just didn’t want anyone to throw me out again…” I actually understood what he was talking about. That made me understand how he felt. When I was being ridiculed by Kamoshida… no one even wanted to look at me. I felt like he was going through something that was at least a little similar.

“So some selfish bastard was making you suffer too…” Panther seemed like she also understood what the guy was going through as well. Though, we also had to keep on point. “Still, you shouldn’t have dragged an unrelated woman into your mess.”

“Seriously…” I rubbed the back of my neck as I reached for my camera and checked for any damage. After a moment or two, I noticed that there was no damage to my camera. “You tortured her just as bad, if not worse than you were being tortured.”

“Yes, I know that now.” His face was truly that of regret. “I’ll put an end to my love for her… Hey, you can change people’s hearts, right? In that case… Won’t you change Madarame’s heart!? Before more people fall victim to him…”

Right after he stopped talking… he disappeared in a burst of blue light. He left behind him, a small glowing blue orb. “Change… Madarame’s heart?”

Panther seemed to have something on her mind. Ryuji however focused on the orb. “Hm? What’s that shinin’ thing?”

Mona crossed his arms with a serious look on his face. “It’s the bud of a Treasure. Had we left it be, it very well may have blossomed into a Palace. Joker, this will make a perfect reward!”

Joker moved forward and swiped the small ball from the air and it changed into a very large stack of yen and a small pearl! Joker nodded and placed his hands and the items in his pockets. We all moved so we could see Joker’s face. Skull had a very productive thought on his mind. “So Nakanohara had a change of heart, right?”

“That’s a very good question.” I rubbed the back of my neck and rolled my neck as well. “So, did he?”

“Most likely.” Mona said it so deadpanned that it was almost funny!

“But how are we supposed to know if we succeeded?” Panther brought up a good point, but I knew that answer to that one!

“Well, we could keep an eye on the website, maybe the girl will post in Nakanohara had a change of heart.” I moved my hand from the back of my neck to in front of my chest. I turned my head back to Mona. “Don’t you think so?”

“Yeah, you have a point there Spector.” Mona nodded toward me with a small smile on his face. Skull started to seem very happy all of a sudden.

“Either way, trainin’ against Shadows down here’s the best!” Skull’s face had a huge smile on his face. He seemed super pumped and ready to go. “It’s great prep for our next target!”

“It’s also nice to be able to give courage to the people who post their problems online.” Panther moved her right twin tail off and behind her shoulder with a smile.

“Plus we could learn more about the Palaces while we are down here.” I moved to put my weight on my right leg. That was the best thing that I could think of. Though Mona placed his hands on his hips and his left ear dropped slightly.

“On top of that, we can sell whatever treasure we get for some cold, hard cash!” I hated to admit it, even though he was right. We needed more money if we were going to do anything more in the Palaces.

“Sounds like things are goin’ pretty great for us!” Skull smiled super brightly. This was the moment that I feel really solidified our start as the Phantom Thieves. “...All right, we did it!”

“Hold on.” Mona got very serious once more. “There’s somewhere I want to show you guys before we leave.”

“What, there’s more?” Skull brought his hand up to his chin in thought. Mona jumped up with a smile on his face in response.

“Don’t worry, it won’t take long.” Everyone started to move toward the entrance, but I cleared my throat and everyone turned to look at me.

“Well, before we leave, I would like to take another picture!” I smiled brightly at my friends. Everyone else turned to look at each other for a moment, but a moment later they all turned to me with smiles on their faces.

“Sure why not.” Joker smiled back at me and we all gathered behind me. Joker was to my right, Mona was holding on to Joker’s shoulder, Panther was to my left, and Skull was behind me. We all smiled, Skull held up a thumbs up, Mona smiled, Panther held up a peace sign, Joker placed his hand behind his neck and smirked, I held the camera up so I could get everyone in the picture. I held my hand on my mask and tried to adjust it as I took the picture. It came out well and we all loved the image.

Mission Accomplished!

Chapter 26

Chapter Text

Date:May 7

Location:Mementos

Current Objective:Search Mementos

We had just completed a change of heart and were now leaving Nakanohara's area within Mementos. We were back into the tunnels of the underground Palace, in the Mona car. I was in the back seat now with Skull, who had a question about our next step. "So? What else you wanna do?"

"There's something I'd like to check in an area farther in." I nodded as Mona started to speak up. I still felt fairly good after we had just accomplished another change of heart! I was up for us to keep going farther in Mementos. "First off, we should look for a platform that'll let us descend."

"Wait, you've been here before, right?" Skull's voice held a quality of confusion in it. "Don't you got like a map or something?"

"That would hold no meaning in this place." Morgana seemed to have a bit of mysticism in his voice. "The layout changes every time you enter."

That would explain it! Though, that didn't make a lot of of sense still. I had an idea of what it meant. I believed that it simply meant what it sounded like. Mementos changed shape every time you come into the Palace. So it could have been like some sort of Schrodinger's Palace, the path doesn't truly exist until you see it. It seems like I was not the only one to have this idea. Panther seemed just as shocked as I was. "Wait, so our path changes too!?"

"What the hell!?" While I was interested in what changed in the Palace, I was rather frustrated… "That would make this place very difficult to navigate…"

"This place is the fused cognition of a countless number of people." Mona was going right back into teacher mode. I was awaiting the his answer as to the odd quality of Mementos. "It's constantly shifting. Even so, our destination should be pretty close. I'm counting on you, Joker."

The frizzy haired teen nodded with a smirk on his face. We started to make back through the air that we were in. I turned my head and just looked out the window as we started to pass different areas. The only sound that filled the air was Mona's engine, that was until I heard Skull's voice. "Last night? Fifty push-ups. Just look at these guns!"

I turned back to see Skull flexing his arms and looking between me and Panther. I chuckled at bleach blonde. Specially when Panther almost sighed at him. "Wow. Haven't heard anyone call them 'guns' in a while."

"Damn, Panther!" I started to laugh at the red clad girl's response! She started to laugh along with me, Skull's face dropped into a frown as Joker and Mona joined in as well! After a moment, Skull joined in as well. We were having a pretty good time, that was until I noticed something moving in the darkness a little farther ahead of us. As we got closer, I noticed that there was a large writhing black mass covered in porcelain white mask with black eye slots. It was obviously a Shadow, any one of us could tell from any distance. Just the feeling you got from the thing left no room for doubt. "Joker, up ahead, a Shadow!"

"I see it." I could see the worry in our leader's eyes. There wasn't enough room for us to move past the creature on either side without it seeing us! There was not much that we could do in this situation. We didn't know if we could start a fight with the Shadow while on the tracks. That was… until Mona started to speak up.

"Ram it!" We all quickly turned to the dashboard with wide eyes. That did not sound very good… it just seemed more dangerous than driving the Mona car around on a subway tracks! That in and of itself was really creepy and terrifying to think that a train could show up at any point in time! Though, if there were any trains, I felt like would have ran into them long before we got to Nakanohara's area. "You can knock them down if you ram into it!"

"OK!" Joker quickly got wicked look on his face as he slowly moved his foot from the brake to the gas pedal… This was either going to be really cool… or really bad… Spoiler alert… it was pretty damned awesome! Joker stomped on the gas and charged toward the Shadow as what I can only guess was the Shadow's back was turned toward us. I could feel the momentum as we slowly got closer and closer to the monster! The Shadow reacted like it could hear us, but before it could turn around, the Mona car literally jumped into the air! And at full speed we slammed into the large form of the Shadow. The Shadow spun through the air and slammed into the ground. The moment that the Mona car landed, we all filed out as quickly as we could and in a puff of smoke, Mona was once again in his monstercat form. The Shadow writhed even more so than before, exploded into a few knights on horse.

We had them completely caught off guard and dispatched them with one round of attacks. The moment the battle ended, Mona quickly changed back into a car and stopped in front of us. We hoped back in and continued forth. It didn't take too long, just a few more moments later, and a few quick turns, we found a new platform. Mona seemed fairly excited. "A platform! We can go farther down!"

We all quickly got out of the car and before we moved toward the stairs, Skull seemed shocked. "H-hold a sec… You guys hearin' something?" There was a low rumbling sound coming from the direction of the downward escalator, though it was on the other side of the tracks. After a moment or two, there was a train with a red glow that came to a stop at a platform on the other side. "The trains're totally runnin'!"

"OK, now I'm a bit worried about being here…" I sighed heavily at the realization that I was wrong and that the trains were running on the tracks! "I really wish i would have known this already!"

"Of course the trains are running." Mona, who was still in car form called out to us again. "We're in the subway, you."

Panther's face now grew into an expression of frustration. "Yeah, but I thought this was a Palace!"

"Then maybe this how the public views this place?" Mona's voice was calm and collected as he looked for the answer to this rather difficult question. I could understand how odd it seemed, we were literally looking at the entire public's collective thoughts give a physical form! That is not something that if you even knew everything about it, that you could explain simply… It'd be like trying to explain the green to someone that was color blind! "I don't know."

"People go through this darkness… every day…?" Panther's voice had a hint of sadness hidden in it. Her eye's lowered toward the floor, I wished that I knew what was going on in her head at that moment. Because if it was anything like what I was thinking, then it would scare anyone who saw this to try and change their ways…

Though, there was a more important question that was lingering in the air. One, that Skull was more focused on than how Mementos made him feel. "Forget that! You sure we're cool runnin' around on these tracks!?"

"It should be fine as long as we're not on the same ones… I think." Mona's pause was way too worrying for any of us to calm down at all! "I'm no train expert." That… made way too much sense… He was an expert on the Metaverse.

"You've gottta be kiddin' me…" Skull almost sighed with Mona's lack of knowledge on trains. Which, like I already mentioned, was a little unfair. I mean, not even I couldn't tell you how safe it was to be on these tracks, for all I knew, there was a train heading straight for us right now!

"Cut him a little bit of slack here, Skull." I rubbed the back of my head and sighed at my bleached blonde haired friend. This was the first time the four of us had been down here, but it was also at least the second time that Mona had been down here. I was gonna go out on a limb and I assumed that Mona didn't stay down here for longer than an hour or so at a time. I really hoped that I was right or this was going to go so terribly wrong…

"Anyway, let's head to the lower area." Mona's voice quickly went from concerned to excited in the matter of moments. "It should be right after we go down that escalator."

We went down the escalator to a platform that seemed like it could have been straight out of Harry Potter's worst nightmares! There was a dark red glow coming off of a few passing trains. The black gunk that was all over the place was growing out of the pillars. "All right, there it is! What I want to check is just past there!"

The platform was a pretty good distance long, it was at least a hundred feet from the escalator to the area that we were trying to get to. Once we got there, we were greeted by the most out of place that we had seen so far! There were small hexagonal pillars with weird red lined patterns and circles that added to the eerie feeling of the floor that we were on. Though, the most amounis part of this platform was the large solid stone wall with the same patterns all over it. The patterns of the wall made it seem like there was a weird looking diamond in the middle of the wall. "...What is this place? It's kinda creepy."

"I'd have to say that it's more ominous than anything else." I rubbed the back of my neck as everyone turned to look at me for a moment before they turned back to the wall. "It just feels like a omen… Not to mention that it's a dead end, so what is it we are here for?"

"Now hold on…" Mona turned back to us with a hopeful look. It really seemed like he had quite a bit riding on this wall… I will say, that was enough for me to stay there. I promised to help out Mona, so I needed to make sure that this would help him. "Just watch. This is most likely not an ordinary wall. If my hunch is correct."

With that, Mona walked up to the door and placed a paw on it. There was an immediate response, first there was a low but intense rumbling that caught us all off guard. We all kept our gaze plastered to the wall and after a moment or two, the diamond in the middle of the wall raised up and the four circles that were left over from the wall rolled out of the way. This revealed that there was another stairway that lead farther down into Mementos… The wall was really a large and imposing door that had blocked any real form of progress. "I wish that I could say that I'm not shocked, but yet here I am, shocked by the Metaverse once more…"

Suddenly a voice called out from our phones. The MetaNav started to speak up once more. "A new area has been confirmed in the depths. Updating guidance information."

"See!?" Mona started to jump in excitement. It seemed as if Mona's goal, or at least part of it was completed in the opening of the door. "It's just as I thought!"

"What do you mean?" Panther tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"That wall wouldn't budge when I came here by myself before." This was the first time that I had heard the excitement stay in Mona's voice as he went into his teacher mode. If I hadn't been so focused on what he was saying at the time, it would have brought a small smile to my face. Still, we needed answers, and it seemed like we were reaching the back of the "How to be a Phantom Thief 101" book. "But it'd be weird for the deepest part of Mementos to be some normal place like this, wouldn't it?"

"So you were thinkin' there's gotta be more?" Skull crossed his arms as he was trying to figure out what it was that Mona was saying.

"Yeah!" Mona nodded to agree with the teen. "Now that Kamoshida's Palace is gone and people are actually starting to talk about us… I knew something had to have changed down here!"

"How deep is it?" Panther's curiosity sound like it had gotten the better of her. Though, I couldn't really argue with it. Despite how creepy Mementos was, there was something about it that seemed to gnah at that primal instinct that tells you to jump when you are standing on a cliff over water. "Should we try going further down?"

"Let's not." Mona seemed to be done with our adventure for the day. Which after a few moments of standing there, I could feel the start of the fatigue that I had gotten from being Kamoshida's Palace. I was starting to wonder if this was because of the Metaverse itself, or summoning my Persona… "That's not why we're here today, remember? We've already accomplished our goal. We should head back and I'll explain more once we're home."

We waited for a moment as Mona started to move past us and we all headed back to entrance of the weird as hell Palace of the General Public.

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Mementos, huh…?" Ryuji was leaning against the old subway car that was outside of the train station. Ann was to his right and they were facing Morgana who was to the right of me and Akira. We all felt a tad tired, if you looked closely, you could see that we were moving just a little stiff. "I still don't really get that place. Oh, and what was that wall thing we saw at the end?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but it blocked us from going in past a certain depth." Morgana's face had changed into one of a determination since we had left the Palace. "If Mementos is the public's Palace though… it might be affected by the general public's belief in us."

"So the basicly, the bigger the target we go after, hopefully the more people believe in us, the farther down that we can go in Mementos." I placed my hands in my pocket with a quick little smile on my face.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking." Morgana nodded in agreement with me. Ann moved her right hand up to her chin with a curious look on her face.

"Why do you know so much about it, Morgana?" That was a very good question that I was honestly surprised that none of us had asked yet. With my curiosity also peaked, I moved my head to focus back on the black cat.

"My memories are a little foggy in that regard…" Morgana's face turned downward toward the ground now. I could see the sadness in his eyes. After learning that he didn't have his memories awhile ago, this made understanding how he felt all the easier in the moment now. "However, I need to know what lies in the depths of Mementos, no matter what."

"No matter what…?" Ann quickly dropped her hand to her side and looked back up to Morgana. Morgana quickly stood up on all fours and the sadness was quickly replaced with that determination once more!

"Mementos is not just everyone's Palace, it's the source of all Palaces." That was a shock! That was big news and I was even more focused on the small cat now! "It used to be that Palaces like Kamoshida's with one ruler simply didn't exist. So, if we can do something about the greatest cause of distortions, I'm certain my appearance will…!"

I felt a twinge of sadness in my chest at the last statement toward the small cat. Ann started to play with one of her twintails and I could hear that same twinge of sadness in her voice. "You wanted someone to save you too."

Morgana started to freak out, he arched his back and his eyes grew wide as his tail shot straight up into the air and shook violently. That statement really caught him off guard. "I-I just needed pawns."

Ryuji took a step away from the train car now, his hands still at his pockets. "I see… So that's why came pokin' your nose around with us."

"...I'll help you." Ann's face had a small sincere smile on her face. "I hope you can regain what you've lost."

I got a small, but sincere smile of my own now. "Well, I already said I'd help you out, and I don't plan on backing out of that anytime soon."

"I'll… be relying on you guys." Morgana's face and voice both seemed to be sad now. It was nice that he was starting to open up to us even more now.

"By the way Morgana… are you a boy?" And like that, the mood took a drastic turn! "Or might you be a girl?"

"Oh dear god I hope your a boy…" I smiled at the black cat with a larger smile now. "I mean, that's how I've been addressing you!"

"Definitely a boy." Akira turned his head to Morgana with a small of his own. Ann got a huge smile on her face. As she looked to me and Akira.

"Yeah, I agree… I wanted to make sure though just in case." I started to chuckled at the thought of the girl that Morgana was crushing on thinking he was a girl! Ryuji turned his head up toward the skyline of the city as a huge smile found its way on his face as well!

"He could turn out to be pretty ancient." I started to chuckle at that image now! Just the moment that Morgana turns human, he immediately uses his sword as a cane and looks like Gandalf the Grey! "What if he smells like an old person?"

"I hadn't thought of that!" I started to full on laugh now. I had to move my arms to my stomach and I doubled over laughing at the mental images of girl Morgana and oldman Morgana!

"Stop that…" Morgana's face went into a grimace. After a moment or so the cat's face changed from the grimace that he was currently wearing changed into a face of anger. "In any case, of course I'm male! I mean, I…"

"What is it?" Ann started to show some concern for Morgana. I could see that everyone was a little bit worried for our team member. There was a pause for a moment or two. Then Morgana started to speak up once more.

"No… It's nothing." The sadness from earlier was plastered all over Morgana's face. "We're done talking about that! Anyway, we now know that we can perform minor changes of heart in Mementos. If we come across any eye-catching leads, it may be worth dealing with them for a bit of combat practice."

"There weren't any other outstanding ones though…" Ann almost sighed in frustration. From what was being said before we went into Mementos, that was a very true statement.

"Well, the would be that as we get more people that believe in us, the better request we would get." I held my hand out to put emphasis on my statement. "So right now, we only go simple highschool issues. Just imagine what request we could get later on!"

"Yeah, just what I was thinkin'!" Ryuji just leaned back against the train car once more. The biggest smile I had ever seen on someone's face until then grew on his face. "After all the big fish are our main targets after all."

"First you need to find a way to get through your exams." I could hear the cheeriness in Morgana's voice once more. Though, the moment that those words left Morgana's mouth, Ryuji's face turned into one of dread. The bleach blonde dropped his head in defeat.

"I gotta study…" I started to laugh at our friend, it was enough that I didn't notice someone was watching us from a far….

TAKE YOUR TIME

"Champagne flutes and dinner suits that keep your focus away from the cheating hands."I beat of the song pumped against my ears through my my headphones. I could feel the granite rub off the tip of my pencil as continued to work out a problem that I was working on. Unlike Ryuji, who I knew would be playing games right now, I wanted to focus on my studying. "Tell me does that sexy gown say what she's got in store for her man? So we roll the dice, see where they may fall come on, why don't we spin the wheel see whom it-"

That was the moment that my phone stopped playing music in return for a loud buzzing. I ripped my eyes away from my study materials. I looked down at my phone to see that Ali was calling me. I felt a small smile come to my face as I pressed my finger on the answer button. It was quiet for a moment after I answered the call. "Yo?"

"Spector, you there…?"My smile slowly faded once more as I heard the small quivering in her voice. She was having another bad night… I didn't need her to tell me, this time at least…

"Yeah, I'm here…" I leaned back in my chair and brought my phone closer to my face. My headphones didn't have a microphone on them, I had to make sure that she could still hear me talking. "You feeling OK…?"

"N-no…"There was silence on her line, so I waited. Rushing her right now would only serve to make her clam up even more. I sat there in silence waiting for her response. Finally… "Do… do you think I'm a bad person…?"

The question caught me off guard, she had never really given me anything like before… I was getting more worried now… I took a moment to gather my thoughts, and finally bringing the words I wanted to up from my throat. "No, I don't think you are a bad person."

"Oh…"There was another long pause from her line. This one was almost worrying… "S-so… wh-what do you think of me…?"

Again… I was caught off guard! I had flashbacks to Ryuji picking on me for my… apparent crush on Ali… I took a quick breath and felt a pit grow in my stomach. "Honestly… I think you are my best friend Ali, you are someone that I enjoy talking to. I… I want to get to know you more…"

This time there was an even longer pause, then… "O-oh… OK… Thank you… my Rival…"

"Of course my MC." My smile started to slowly come back. "You doing better?"

"Yeah… I'm sorry, your st- probably studying, so I'll let you go now."I could hear a little bit of her cheer voice return. Though, the pit in my stomach had not gone away. I think I wanted to continue to talk to her, but she was right… I needed to study still…

"Y-yeah… its OK, I'm glad your feeling better…" I rubbed the back of my neck as my eyes moved toward the ground. "Good night Ali…"

"Good night Spector!"With that… the phone line went dead, and my music started once more. I took a deep breath and slammed my head against my desk and sighed heavily… I think I was finally starting to agree Ryuji… but I didn't want to admit that...

Chapter 27: Ugh Midterms

Chapter Text

Date:May 8

Location:Leblanc

Current Objective:Lay Low/Search for New Target

My shift had just ended at Leblanc, and here I was, studying at one of its booths. "Why are you doing that here and not at your home…?" Boss shook his head in frustration. I guess he was hoping to close the store up soon. Yet here I was making it so he couldn't go home whatsoever! I felt a little bad the middle-aged cafe owner. Though, I currently didn't want to go home yet. Aunt Mitsu wasn't home that night. She said that she had a new client that she needed to work with. I had a feeling that the cops wanted to make sure that Kamoshida's change of heart wasn't him being blackmailed…

"Well, Mitsu's at work so I'd just be home alone anyway." I didn't look up from my notes as I scribbled away the answers to the practice questions that I was working through. I did, however, start to rub my eyes. It was a fairly busy day today. While I still wasn't the best at making coffee, I did get a compliment on the coffee that I made. Let me tell you, that was a moment of pride for me! "So Boss, did you have anywhere that you need to be tonight?"

There was a large sigh for the older man as I heard the clinking of dishes in the sink. "No, I just wasn't planning on spending my night with another man…" I couldn't help, I started to laugh at the man's statement. It was fairly humorous to me, the way that the man seemed to be caring but frustrated about it. "Hey, knock that off! Geez… why do I have to deal with this…"

"I'm sorry Boss, it was just really funny that you think I'm a man." I finally looked up and smiled at Boss finally. He seemed a tad surprised and pushed his glasses up farther upon his face using his wrist. It was a few moments before Boss spoke up again.

"Well, I guess it's alright for you to stay here at least until I have Kurusu-san close up the shop." I was a little shocked at the response at my employer! I looked back at my work with a small smile on my face. We sat there like that for about half an hour, that was until I heard the clinging of a bell. Sojiro looked up from his dishes as I looked up from my studying to see Akira walk in through the door. "Ah, your back."

"Sorry, I was at dinner with a friend." Sojiro sighed very lightly at the frizzy-haired teen who started to play with his bangs a little bit. There seemed to be a little bit of tension between the two.

"It's fine, I'm gonna close up shop now." After that, Sojiro finished up the dishes and walked out the door with a goodbye to both of us. Once the door closed Akira turned back to me with an almost puzzled look on his face.

"So, why are you still here?" Akira titled his head toward me with his eyebrow up. I pointed toward the mess of books and notes out in front of me.

"My Aunt Mitsu isn't home, so I'd figure that I'd just stay here to study." Akira nodded at him and held up his hand.

"I'll be right back." The frizzy-haired teen ran up the stairs in the back of the cafe. He was gone for about a minute, after that, I saw him and Morgana come back down the stairs. Akira placed a few books on the table across from me. "So, where should we start?"

I started laughing at my friend, he had a huge smile on his face. After a moment or two, I looked at the pile of books he had in front of him. I reached out across the table and pulled out his math book. I saw his eyes started to go wide from shock. "Well, I was on math, so let's start there."

"Son of a bitch…" I realized at that moment why he seemed shocked. I started to laugh once more!

"Your worst subject is math isn't it!?" Akira nodded his head slowly in shame. I laughed at my friend. "Here, I'll help you with it."

So for most of the night, I ended up helping Akira with math. After about two hours of helping Akira with math and the different formulas that we needed for the Midterms coming up, he was getting most of the questions right. I was satisfied with how easily he was figuring everything out and I decided that I should leave and head home. I was exhausted and ready to pass the hell out!

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date:May 9

Location:Shibuya Station

Current Objective:Lay Low/Search for New Target

Akira and I were waiting for our train to Aoyama-Itchome so we could get to school. Akira checking the Phan-site, while I was checking the news on an update for the game me and Ali played. It seemed like I had to download that new update so Ali and I could play a new raid. It wasn't important but I wanted to try and play with her since she wasn't in the best of moods the other day. At that moment, Ann showed up as I had finally finished up my research. "Morning… Uhh…"

Finally looking up from our phones, we came face-to-face with Ann's face showing signs of being upset. Akira tilted his head in confusion to the natural blonde. "You have allergies?"

"Actually… I've been having this feeling that someone's been watching me…" I certainly grabbed our attention. It could be the cops being on to us. Maybe Mishima had told a few people even though he said he'd keep it a secret. "No, it can't be… Oh! Maybe I just can't shake off the feeling of infiltrating a Palace!"

"Oh, yeah, I can see that…" I finally placed my phone into my pocket as I started to rub the back of my neck. "I mean we do deal with quite a bit of paranoia inside the Palaces, huh?"

"Yeah, we're always cautious inside Palaces of not being noticed, you know!" She almost seemed a little out of it right after that. Turning her head so she was looking down. "So it has to be my imagination… Yeah…"

Akira and I looked at each other with a sense of worry in our eyes… but we continued with our day as normal. As the train came into the station… we failed to notice that someone was looking in our direction…

TAKE YOUR TIME

At some point in the class, my phone started to go off. I was so focused on the class and taking notes that it almost made me jump straight out of my desk! I looked around for a few moments to make sure that there were no eyes on me. After a few moments of making sure that I didn't gather anyone's attention, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see the group chat with the other P-Thieves was going off.

SR: Hey, don't you think that the atmosphere at school's kinda different now?

TA: You mean with there being no Kamoshida?

SR: Yeah, nobody ever talked about him out in open like this before.

GH: I know what you mean, it just feels like people are more willing to talk.

KA: That's true. Even I can feel the difference.

SR: I wish someone'd just thank us for it or something…

GH: I don't think that was the point Ryuji…

SR: Still… they don't have to thank us directly!

SR: Just the Phantom Thieves!

TA: Either way, everything has worked out for the best.

TA: After all, Kamoshida's actually being punished for his crimes.

TA: That's victory enough for me.

KA: I agree.

KA: We helped those who needed it.

GH: Hell yeah!

GH: That is the best feeling I've had in a long while!

SR: I wonder what's gonna happen to him now.

SR: I mean, he's a famous criminal at this point, right?

GH: Kamoshida?

GH: He will probably spend quite a few years in prison, if not most of his life.

GH: Not to mention that he will be discriminated for the rest of his life now.

SR: That makes sense.

TA: That might be true, but I don't have any sympathy for him.

TA: He got what he deserved.

GH: I completely agree.

GH: Even though he had a change of heart, he deserved everything that he came his way!

SR: For sure.

With that, our conversation came to a stop. I looked up as the teacher was starting to turn around. I quickly slipped my phone back into my pocket just in time to not get caught. I took a deep breath and continued with my notes. Not much happened without the rest of the day. The rest of my day was fairly simple, mostly consisting of my shift and studying.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date:May 10

Location:Train Station

I yawned as I finally made my down the train station, I was running a little late, but I was lucky enough to make it to Shibuya on time to chat my normal train to school! I was starting to make my way down the stairs, as I made my way onto the platform, I noticed two familiar figures waiting there for the train… It was Akira and Niijima-senpai! I felt a bit of fear grow in my throat… I was worried that she was trying to get information off of Akira… I started to move slower and closer to Akira and Makoto. Once I was close enough to hear what they were saying, I did my best to hide and listen in.

"You also seem pretty close to Takamaki-san and Gekido-kun if you're all coming to school together." I could hear her voice had a bit of intrigue in it… but there was something else that was in her voice… I couldn't quite place what it was. "You just transferred here though… I guess you three just really click."

"We're all in the same class is all." I had no idea how Akira could stay so calm under pressure. He was fairly intelligent and probably knew what she was doing. "They have just been showing me around."

"...I see." Niijima-senpai brought her hand up to her chain with a sly smile on her face. Now it seemed like she may have been enjoying the mental struggle between the two. "You seemed a lot closer than that yesterday morning."

Now Akira started to smile back at Niijima-Senpai. They were both playing all the cards they had to try and get one up on the other. It was terrifying since I knew the mental capacity of both of them! This was a very intense game of chess… Niijima-senpai dropped her hand from her chin but her eyes were closed and her smile was still on her face. It was her move now, and she planned on making it a big play! "I heard she was a victim of Mr. Kamoshida but was that all there was to it…?"

She knew that Ann had something to do with the change of heart! Damn, she was good. She was bringing out a knight in his one! She finally opened her eyes and dropped the smile. Giving her a calm confident look that mirrored Akira's expression. "Either way, closer inspection should clear everything up… Goodbye."

"Goodbye Senpai." Akira bowed to her as Makoto-senpai walked away. Once she was out of earshot, I made my way out of my hiding spot and stood next to Akira. I took a deep breath as I came to a stop next to my friend. "You hear all of that?"

"Yep." I moved my hands into my pockets and turned to Akira with a smile on my face. "I gotta say, I'm impressed with both of you."

"Oh, how so?" Akira turned to me with an eyebrow raised. The look of confusion look on his face made me chuckle a little bit.

"That mental game of chess you guys had." I leaned back against the pillar with my smile turning into a fairly sly smile. "You needed my help with math, but that display was freaking impressive!"

"Oh come on, trig is freaking hard!" He turned his head back toward where Niijima-senpai had walked toward. "Though, that was fun…"

I leaned forward and saw admiration on my friend's face. That made me smile a little quite a bit more. Before we could say anything else, the train for school finally showed up. With that, we moved off to school for the day.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Inui-sensei was standing in front of the class with the sternest look I had ever seen on his face. He moved his eyes back and forth with what I can only assume was contempt. He looked over the entire class, but I could tell that his gaze lingered on a few students. Mostly those who had bad grades and Akira. That one I could tell was simply because Akira still had all the rumors hanging over his head. "You have exams starting tomorrow. It's too late to cram, so don't even try it. Now then, picking up from last time…"

The lesson continued from there, ending with Inui-sensei asking Akira a question. I took notes for the entirety of the class. The rest of my day included, even more, studying, as tomorrow was the day. I wanted to be as ready as possible! It was nowhere near an all-nighter, but I remember feeling like it was.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Date:May 11

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Survive Exams!

I left for school a little early, as I made it into the building, I didn't have my headphones on and I started listening to everyone as they walked into the building. "Did Kamoshida really have a psychotic breakdown?"

"Shoot I haven't studied at all…"

"Have you heard what happened since then?"

"This sucks… I pulled an all-nighter last night."

"Really? Did you get caught?" I took a quick breath. My grades had always been good, just good enough that I never really got in trouble, but test… test scared me… These were large parts of my grades. I failed one once, and that was enough for me to fail a class in middle school. That was enough to make me worry about test day. I quickly moved into my classroom and waited for the day to start. I did nod and say hi to Akira and Ann as they came into the class, but they were both nervous too. Finally… Inui-sensei came into the room as the bell rang. He passed out stacks of papers to the class and returned to the front of the class.

"Now then, let the first day of exams begin!" The moment the words left his mouth, you could hear the stampede of pencils hit the paper. The first question was a biology one. It was a box with 3 lines running behind it A, B, and C. The question asked that even though the lines A and C were connected, it looked like it was connected to B. It wanted to know what the phenomenon was called.

The answers were a mirage, an optical illusion, and astigmatism. I knew the answer was that of an optical illusion. The next one was an essay asking why people will see the same thing differently. I did my best to give a good enough answer. With that, I moved quickly through the rest of the test, but finally, just as I finished the final question on the test, Inui-sensei called out to us. "Time is up. Put down your pencils and put your hands under your desks."

Date:12

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Survive Exams!

This day, it was Hiruta-sensei's turn to be in charge of the class. He started the test in his usual manner of dramatically waving his arms around. "Today is the second day of exams. You may begin."

Once more, the large wave of pencils hitting paper rang out through the class. The first question was notable for the fact it had an image of someone from an older era of Japan. The question asked which of the falling expressions came from the name of the position that Minamoto no Yosh*tsune held? The answers were A: Braggart, B: Magistrate's Patronage, C: Hot Pot attendant, D: Domineering husband. I had a fairly good guess that it was B: Magistrate's Patronage.

Way later in the testing, there was another question that caught my attention. It was asking the origin of the English word "talent'. The answers I could use for that were, A: the name of a sum of currency. B: the name of a saint. C: the name of an artist. After debating over it for a few minutes, I finally chose to go with A. I continued with the testing, I had no real issue for the rest of the day.

Date:May 13

Location:Shujin Academy

Current Objective:Survive Exams!

"Today's the third day of exams." Chouno-sensei was in charge of our class today. Her hands were on hips with a fairly bored look on her face. "Go ahead and get started."

I was starting to feel the drag of the test days now… I had stayed up later than I had meant to last night. I was starting to have a bit tougher of time focusing on the exam now. I only remember a few questions now. One was asking about Socrates and what he said evil was born from. I remember going and writing down that it was ignorance. Then came a question asking about how many colors were needed to paint Japan so no two adjacent areas are the same color. I believe I answered with four.

Once that day was over, I dragged myself back home… Throwing myself onto my head with a heavy sigh. "Many I hope tomorrow isn't as stressful as today." I don't remember much after that as I quickly passed out.

So I will say that this took longer to post here because I was being way too lazy.

That being said, I do intend on finishing this one up here.

Now with the Scramble and the Royal coming out soon,

I hope I can make it even more enjoyable!

Chapter 28: A Meeting

Chapter Text

Date:May 14

Location:Train station

Current Objective:Survive Midterms

Finally, the last day of exams had come. I was tired, but I was also confident that I would at least pass the exams. Though, I did have to get on the second train to school, I wasn't worried about being late for school though, especially since, as I got off my train I saw Akira and Ryuji standing there. "Yo, guys!"

Akira and Ryuji both turned toward me and Morgana popped up out of Akira's bag with a smile. "Hisoka, did you stay up all night?"

"What…?" I raised an eyebrow at the cat who's expression slowly went from a smile to a smirk as he turned to look at Ryuji. "No, I got a good amount of hours of sleep."

It seemed like Morgana was going to say something, but before he could give a response to my answer, Ann showed up. She yawned as she walked up to us. "Morning…"

"Yo, look who else is yawnin'." Ryuji quickly straightened up with a smile on his face. As my focus shifted over to the bleached blonde, I realized why I was asked the question. I could see the bags under Ryuji's eyes. I mouthed "Oooooh!" As the realization hit me.

"Exams are almost over, so I thought I'd make one last effort across the finish line." I could see the bags under her eyes as well. This made it clear to me that my friends had pulled one last all-nighter to get through finals… or just procrastinated. I could only hope that we all could pass the exams.

Morgana smiled at our natural blonde friend. "Impressive, Lady Ann. You're quite different from this stupid monkey I know."

"Huh? Don't gimme that crap." Ryuji stomped toward Akira as he glared straight at the cat. That was the moment I realized how difficult laying low was going to be. "Your brain's tiny compared to mine."

"Size is meaningless if there's nothing inside, you know." Morgana smirked toward Ryuji. Meanwhile, I started to glare at the bleached hair teen. After a moment or two, Ryuji finally noticed me.

"What!?" His eyes widened as he met with my gaze.

"Ryuji… did you study last night?" I glared even more at Ryuji. I was not very pleased with my friend at that point. I was kinda upset with Ryuji, we all knew what needed to study to fit in, but at the very least, there was the plausible excuse that Ryuji very really had a good grade. Still, though, he could have at least tried to study! Ryuji slinked away from me in a little bit of fear.

"I… uh… I mean, I tried to, but I just ended up playing video games for most of the night." I shook my head back at the bleached blonde.

"It's fine Ryuji, just try to and do your best today…" I sighed heavily once the words left my mouth. I was about to continue my line of thought, but I noticed Ann focus on something else that seemed like it was out of view. She turned away from us and looked toward the crowd of people on the station's platform. Ann's expression quickly shifted into a look of worry.

"Am I imagining things…?" I almost didn't hear the words leave her mouth. I will admit that it was a bit unnerving that we had no idea that we didn't know what Ann was worried about. For all we knew, there could have been a cop following us. I was not the only one that noticed something was up with her. Ryuji quickly turned his head to look at her and he had a very worried look on his face. Akira raised an eyebrow at her and he started to look worried as well.

"What's wrong?" Ann slowly turned back to the four of us. Her look softened a little as she looked toward us. Ryuji's look also quickly softened to a point.

"What, you see a groper or something?" Ryuji spoke in a fairly serious voice and it was an odd thing for him to say, I was shocked at the way that he asked the question. Though, with some of the people in the city, yeah, I could also believe it.

Ann seemed like she was about to sigh, but still, she did her best to answer as honestly as she could. "No, that's not it. It's… nothing." I didn't believe her and from a long sigh coming from Morgana, I was not the only one, but both of us didn't bring up our doubt. We quickly moved to board the train to get to Shujin. The mood quickly shifted between all of us on the train ride. Akira, Ryuji, and I all kept our eyes out for anything suspicious.

Once the train stopped we all slowly moved toward the escalators out of the station. I noticed Ann's eyes move to a head of black hair that was bobbing up and down as we got off the train. I slowly moved to my camera. If there was a suspicious person, I would get a picture of them before it became a problem for us. As we were riding up the escalator, Ann turned and suddenly recoiled in shock. "Oh my god, that guy got off!"

She turned toward Akira who looked straight at her face. I didn't turn around, because if I did, we might have lost the guy. "Isn't this bad…"

"It's OK Ann, we're here for you." As soon as the words left my mouth, Ryuji yawned and stretched his arms above his head. Ann got noticeably upset at Ryuji's lackluster response. She slightly leaned toward the bleached blonde with her hands on her hips.

"Hey! At least act as if you care!" I couldn't help but laugh a little at that one. Akira also seemed to get a pretty good kick outta the situation that we found ourselves in as a smirk found its way onto his face. Ryuji sighed as he dropped his arms and didn't even look at Ann directly.

"Fine…" The thuggish teen started to rub the side of his head. He started to walk past us with a determined look on his face. "Come on."

"Huh…?" Ann seemed confused as he walked passed us. Our eyes followed Ryuji as he made his way out of the station. We all quickly followed our friend out of the station. We waited for a few minutes for Ann's "stalker." We had her stand-alone a few feet away from the station. There were a few feet steps followed by the clinking of keys. After a few steps, the clinking stopped for just a moment. Then it picked up once more as the person walked closer and closer to Ann. After a few more feet, Ann turned around just in time for us to jump in front of the guy and I snapped a picture of the guy. Though, I realized at that exact moment that I knew the stalker!

Standing before us with a confused look on his face was Kitagawa-san! My shock was very visible on my face! I couldn't even lower my camera though, it was ridiculous to me that Ann's stalker! Ryuji and Akira looked up and down Kitagawa-san, then turned back to Ann. "Hey, uh… are you sure it's him? Or are you just that self-conscious."

"Rgh, I'm not that-" Ann got pissed and leaned toward Ryuji with anger on her face, but she was cut off by Kitagawa-san.

"Is there something you want?" I finally dropped my camera as Ann shoved her way past all three of us. She stormed toward the taller teen and shoved a finger in his face as he moved away from her.

"That's my line!" You could hear her worry and anger as she shoved her way into his personal space. "You were the one stalking me!"

Kitagawa-san looked at Ann's finger, then back to her face with an even more confused face as he reached up to fix and stray strand of hair out of his face. "Stalking you…? That's outrageous."

"I know you've been following me!" Ann was not letting up, but I was finally starting to get ready to speak up once more. "Ever since the train!"

"That's because…" Kitagawa-san started to speak, but I sighed heavily and cut him off.

"Something to do with art…" Everyone turned to look at me with confused looks, this was just a confusing moment right now… "Am I right Kitagawa-san?"

Finally, I saw recognition slowly show on his face. "Ah, Gekido-san! Yes, you are correct!"

Ann whipped around and started to point in my face now. "Wait! You know him!? How? When?"

"It's a bit of a longer story then we have…" I sighed heavily, it seemed as if Ann was going to press the question further, that was until a black car rolled up and grabbed all of our attention. As it slowed to a stop. Once the car stopped, the blacked-out window rolled down. It revealed the old man that was with Kitagawa at the art exhibit!

"My goodness… I had wondered why you left the car." He seemed amused that Kitagawa-san's actions. "So this is where your passion led. All's well that ends well."

The older man started to laugh as we all looked awkwardly at him. After a few moments of that, Kitagawa-san looked down and brought his hand up to his chest. "I saw you from the car… and I couldn't help myself from chasing after you. I didn't even notice the calls from Sensei… But thank goodness, I caught up to you."

"Ok…" Ann still seemed on edge. Though, she also seemed a bit confused at Kitagawa-san. I sighed, I knew it was a little odd in the first place. Though, I guess I didn't know Kitagawa-san very well myself. Ryuji also seemed confused. Though I was about to start sighing when Kitagawa-san started to babble in an almost nonsensical way…

"You're the woman I've been searching for all this time!" Let me tell you… if I was drinking something, I would have done a spit take! This was the most shocking string of words I have heard in a long time! "Please won't you-"

"W-wait a minute, I-" Ann tried to get a word in otherwise, but…

"-Be the model for my next art piece!?" I felt a wave of calm as the words left the artist's mouth. It was a bit weird still, don't get me wrong, but much better than what we thought we were going to be dealing with a few minutes earlier. While I seemed to relax a bit, my friends seemed a bit more confused. Ann brought her hand up to her chin and looked off into the distance.

"Model?" I sighed a bit and turned to look at the man in the car as the exchange was going on.

"All that I've drawn till now has been lacking, but I feel a passion from you like no one else." Kitagawa-san felt like he was speaking from the heart but the moment he finished speaking I the voice of Morgana. The cat seemed a bit agitated.

"This man's highly suspicious!" Ryuji turned to look at Ann who seemed like she was lost in thought. I turned back as I heard Morgana speak so I was ready to reply when Ryuji started to speak up again.

"Ain't this a recruit for some shady business?" Ryuji was thankfully still kinda worried for Ann, and if I hadn't known Kitagawa-san to be an artist then I would have been worried as well. Of course, that would also be why I don't ask random people to be the subjects of my photos.

"I do think it's a bit more innocent than you think…" I sighed, I wanted to help them understand him, but then again, I also didn't understand him either. Kinda felt like a lost cause, almost.

"Will you cooperate with me?" Kitagawa-san seemed a little desperate and a little excited for Ann to answer. Ann still seemed lost in concentration. "What do you say?"

"Hold your horses!" Ryuji slammed his foot down and glared at the artist as he growled. "Who're you anyway?"

"Oh, where are my manners?" Kitagawa-san finally relaxed a bit as he straightened up and turned his attention to Ryuji. "I'm a second-year at Kosei High's fine-arts division. My name is Yusuke Kitagawa."

The moment he finished his introduction Yusuke slammed Ryuji out of his way as he stepped closer to Ann, I instinctively took a step closer to Ann as Kitagawa-san continued speaking. "I'm Madarame-sensei's pupil, and I am being allowed residence at his place. I'm striving to become an artist."

That last bit seemed to shock Ann a bit as her eyes widened. "Huh!? Do you mean THAT Madarame? The one who was on 'Good Morning Japan' the other day?"

At that moment I was hit with an "oh sh*t!" moment! "Wait! Kitagawa-san your sensei is the famous painter Madarame!?"

"The very same." The artist to be stated like it wasn't an amazing fact that he was being taught by the most famous artist in all of Japan! I can't believe that it took me this long to recognize him! Then again with all that had happened up till now, I shouldn't have blamed myself for not noticing, after all my life was a bit crazy since Akira moved to the city. Ryuji turned his head to look at me and Ann.

"You guys know who that is?" I quickly nodded my head, I still appreciated all forms of art, plus with Madrame being plastered all over the news there was no way for me not to know him. Ann, however, beat me to speaking.

"He was introduced as a super-famous Japanese-style artist who's been recognized all over the world." Ann suddenly seemed to have a scared look on her face as a realization hit her. "But we heard that name the other day in Mementos…"

The moment the words left her mouth the memories of what had happened came back to me. That was not a good thing either. Ann was right, the guy we fought told us to take down Madarame for him… Before any more thoughts could be formed about it, Madarame spoke up from the car.

"Yusuke!" The older man seemed happy as he spoke to his student. Kitagawa-san realized that he was taking up a lot of his sensei's time.

"I'm sorry, Sensei. I'll be right there!" I looked at my phone myself and realized that we were running out of time, we weren't late yet, but time was running a bit short now.

"That old guy's Madarame…?" Ryuji seemed so lost. I put my phone back into my pocket as Yusuke took a few steps closer to Ann again.

"Madarame-sensei's exhibition will begin at the department store near the station tomorrow." The tall dark-haired student beamed at his hopeful muse. "I'll be there to help on opening day. Please come by. It'd be great if you could give me your answer in regard to being a model then…"

Kitagawa-san handed tickets to Ann and me with a smile. "Of course you are also welcome to come to Gekkido-san!"

Then his face turned into a glare as he handed tickets to Ryuji and Akira. "I bet you have no interest in the fine arts, but I'll give you tickets too."

"Thank Kitagawa-san." I smiled warmly as I took the ticket and carefully placed it in my wallet, the tall student smiled and turned to Akira.

"Well then, I hope to see you tomorrow!" With that, he got in Madarame's car. "Oh and good luck on finding your own inspiration Gekkido-san!"

With that master and student drove away leaving us on the side of the street watching their car. After a few moments, Ryuji finally spoke up as he kicked at the air. "That guy's as easy to read as a book… you're not plannin' on goin', are you?"

Ann wasted no time responding, but her voice had a hint of worry in it. "I think I will."

"I am too," I spoke up as I started to move toward school noticing the shocked looks on my friends' faces. "We are gonna be late guys let's go!"

"Oh no!" I heard Ann freak out as she ran past me. "I'll you guys later!"

After she ran past me I swore I heard Morgana nearly yell. "How dare he go after Lady Ann… I've memorized that face of yours, Yusuke!"

"Maybe focus on helping him get through Midterms!" I smirked as I continued. This was the last day, and hopefully, we all would survive the day. I could only hope that my tutoring helped Akira out just a bit.

"Don't remind me…" Ryuji groaned loudly as he started to follow us.

TAKE YOUR TIME

We all gathered at the station near Shibuya after finishing up Midterms. Ann stretched as I smiled as we all took a moment to relax. "Mmmmmm, it's over!"

Ryuji didn't share Ann's enthusiasm as he looked defeated. "It's over… How 'bout you guys…?"

Ryuji looked to both Akira and me. I smirked at my friend. "Well I generally do alright in test as long as I studied and I did study."

"Go figure…" Ryuji looked defeated as he dropped his head looking to the ground. After a moment he looked back up to Akira. "How 'bout it Akira?"

"I'm feeling confident, had some help studying." Akira smiled as he grabbed his shoulder and rolled his head.

"Damn right you better have done well on those tests," I smirked at the frizzy-haired teen.

"Anyways, can we stop talkin' about the exams?" Ryuji still seemed a bit defeated as he pulled out his phone. "Like it or not, they're gonna come back graded next week. Rather than focus on stuff that's over with…"

"What're you looking at?" Ann seemed generally curious at the bleach blonde. Ryuji looked up and I leaned over to see the Phan-site.

"The usual site..." Ryuji seemed even more disappointed now. "It's no use. There ain't any useful info. The number of posts are gettin' less and less too…"

With that Ryuji placed his phone back in his pocket as Morgana started to speak up. "I am not letting this end as a one-hit-wonder, Okay?"

"There's no point in getting antsy though." Ann swayed herself side to side as she spoke up. "I know! Why don't we go eat lunch somewhere? We still have some money leftover from the other day."

"I want sushi then!" Ryuji got very excited again, his face lit up. "Or domestic-raised eel!"

"We don't have THAT much left." Ann nearly signed at Ryuji for that one.

"I would be fine if we just get a decent meal." I stretched I was gonna have to get a bite after this anyway...

"Oh right. There are those tickets to Madarame's exhibit!" I was so happy Ann brought that up because we needed to discuss this. "Wait, that's tomorrow."

Morgana suddenly looked scared, or at least as scared as a cat could look. "Don't tell me. Was it love at first sight with that Yusuke guy…?"

"Dude…" I shook my head a bit. "Lower it a few notches."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?" Morgana growled at me but I raised my hands in defense.

"Nothing at all."

"It's not like that." Ann seemed a tad frustrated with the cat. At which the cat finally relaxed.

"O-of course not." Morgana seemed a bit shocked though.

"When I was watching that special on TV, his artwork was pretty nice." Ann started playing with her hair as she continued. "Plus, we've got free tickets. Besides, this could also be related to what we heard in Mementos."

"I fully agree with that." I rubbed the back of my neck. "The name and situation of Kitagawa-san line up too perfectly."

"Madarame, was it?" Ryuji seemed to be remembering that as well.

"I'm curious too." Akira spoke up removing a hand from his pocket to mess with his hair. He did do that a lot. Morgana seemed determined and made a curious sound.

"That aside, what should do about the other two tickets besides Hisoka's?" Ann seemed excited and playful as she spoke. "Want to go appreciate some fine arts for once?"

"I mean, I'm going no matter what." I rubbed at the back of my neck. "I mean I met Kitagwa-san at an art museum."

"Fine arts, huh…" Ryuji already sounded bored with the idea. Yet before he could say no, Morgana spoke up.

"I suggest, we should all go together!" I was a bit excited at this, I was going to get to share a passion of mine with the group. Yet I know we also had to be somewhat serious about all this. "Appreciating the fine arts builds character. A phantom thief who can't identify an original is lame."

"Well, if everyone's going…" Ryuji relaxed a bit more and gave in. I did a small fist pump.

"It's settled then!" Seemed just as excited as I was, even Akira smiled at all of us.

"I'm looking forward to this." I placed a hand on my camera as they talked. I would have to ask them tomorrow but I kinda wanted to get a picture of all of us together by the exhibit.

"Just the phrase 'going to an art exhibit' sounds kinda mature." Ann was right it did sound mature… didn't mean it was though. "Let's meet at the exhibit entrance tomorrow."

We all nodded and ended up going our separate ways at that point. Once I got home, I played a littleFatewith Ali, we had a good time then I went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

I'M BACKBITCHES!

It's been way too long, I've been through a lot of bad things, but a lot of good things too recently.

That would be what took so long for this to come out. So, something that needs to be talked about it P5 the Royal.

Yes, I'm getting it, no I'm not making a new version of the story. But, that being said I will rewrite chapters to fit Royal events.

Anyways, it's good to be back.

Chapter 29: The Gallery

Chapter Text

Date:May 15

Location:Shibuya

Current Objective:Gather Information

Well, my plan for a photo wasn't going to happen… the rain was coming down hard while we were waiting in line. Finally, though, it was our turn to enter into the building. There were a lot of people inside looking over all of the paintings. Morgana poked his head out of Akira's bag and looked worried as the rest of us scanned the room. "So crowded…"

"I'm not surprised…" I placed my hands in my pockets and looked around the room a bit more. Ryuji turned his attention to the black cat though.

"It'll be a pain in the ass if someone sees you, so don't stick your head out too much, all right?" He had a point, we didn't want to get kicked out. It was at this moment that Kitagawa-san walked over, just before he could see Morgana, the black cat slipped back into the bag.

Yusuke seemed happy to see at least Ann. "You came!"

"Um… yeah." Ann seemed a bit shocked, I don't fully know why the dark-haired artist was very excited about drawing her. His excitement kept up as he turned to me.

"You as well Gekkido-san." Yusuke seemed friendly enough to me still.

"I wouldn't have missed this." Notably, I kept my camera in its bag because of course, they wouldn't allow photos of the art. Though Yusuke did seem to take note of the camera smiling a bit more when he saw my tool of art. Yet then he looked to Ryuji and the smile vanished.

"You really came." I could hear the venom in the second year's voice. Ryuji in response glared back, crossing his arms and leaning on one foot.

"What'd you expect when you left us those tickets!?" The tension between those two was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"Make sure that you don't get in the way of other visitors." Kitagawa-san's face seemed to relax. He then turned back to Ann, even though we were on friendly terms, he seemed to be hyper-focusing on his hopeful model candidate. "Come now. I'll show you around. I'd like to speak more about the picture I'd like to draw too. Gekkido-san, I trust you can keep these two in check."

"I mean, yeah." I knew Akira and Ryuji would behave themselves, but if it helped Yusuke relax, I'd agree. Ryuji sighed heavily at the request, and Ann seemed to give in, turning to us with a slightly worried look on her face.

"Well, see you guys later." With that Ann walked away with Kitagawa. Morgana popped back out of the bag looking like he had seen a ghost.

"Will Lady Ann be all right!?" I figured he'd be worried. "What if he drags her behind some painting and tries something funny?"

"I doubt Kitagawa-san is capable of that." I sighed and shook my head. "Besides, why are you out of the bag! Ryuji told you not to come out!"

Ryuji sighed as the black cat slipped back into the bag, Ryuji seemed so bored. "Are we really gonna 'appreciate' the fine arts? Can't we just go home?"

"Let's learn about Madarame." Akira turned fully towards Ryuji. I was thankful Akira wanted to stay, even if it was to get more information.

"I guess we should do a quick pass through it once.." Ryuji seemed defeated as he dropped his head and shoulders. "Uh… Which way are we supposed to start?"

"Come on guys, this way." I started to walk towards the first few pieces of art yet there was something else that immediately caught our attention. It was Madarame himself next to a news crew.

"It's that old man from the other day." I turned to Ryuji with a weird and confused look on my face. When Ryuji noticed me he seemed just as confused. "What?"

"You kidding me Ryuji?" I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck.

"What!?" Before I reply to the bleach blonde the interviewer started to speak.

"We continue to be truly surprised by your imagination." The woman seemed excited to be talking to the famous artist. "You have such expansive styles, it's hard to believe that it all stems from one person… Where in the world does all your inspiration come from?"

For some reason that one line, stuck out to me. Yet before I could think more about it, Ryuji took a few steps closer and Madarame started to speak. "Well… it is rather difficult to put into words… They naturally well up from within my heart like bubbles rising one after another in a spring."

Now Akira and I walked up next to Ryuji. "Naturally, you say?"

"What's important is to distance oneself from worldly desires such as money and fame." That seemed odd coming from the old artist currently talking to an interviewer. "My atelier is a modest shack, but it is more than enough to pursue true beauty."

This stuck out to Ryuji as he straightened up and crossed his arms. "A shack?"

"I see…" The woman seemed to take a second to think about it. "So the act of emptying one's mind gives rise to inner beauty. Still to think we could hear the word 'shack' coming from the great artist Madarame."

"You would understand if you saw it." Madarame laughed gently. Ryuji seemed to connect some dots.

"Wasn't the word 'shack' something…" Yet before we could discuss it further a guest to the exhibit noticed the artist.

"Madarame-san is actually here!?" This grabbed the attention of yet another customer who ran up.

"Over here!" Then another.

"I'm so glad I came on opening day!" Then suddenly… the swarm… oh, man… the swarm… so many people… They shoved their way past us trying to get a look at the famous artist! A few of them ended up hurting my arms and I grimaced and gasped in pain.

"Hey, stop pushin'...!" Ryuji looked to me as his eyes widened. "Hey, Hisoka! Akira come on we gotta get him outta here! There's way too many people!"

Ryuji somehow maneuvered in front of me and moved me out of the exhibit. "Anyways, we gotta head for the exit! Don't die on us, all right!?"

"Ow son of a-!" I nearly had to curl up in hopes that my stitches wouldn't reopen. "N-no promises!"

With that, we all made our way out of the exhibit after a quick look over I sighed in relief. Ryuji and Akira sighed as well. Ryuji spoke up first. "You good Hisoka?"

"Y-yeah… luckily no blood." I smiled a little.

"That was rough…" Akira seemed worried about me. I reached up and started to rub my neck. "How much longer before your stitches get removed?"

"Well, it could be another month, especially with all the fighting in the metaverse." Morgana sighed. Finally, Ryuji slid down against the railing we were by and groaned.

"Ow, that old lady totally elbowed me…" Ryuji took a moment to gather his thoughts. "But thanks to that, I remember now."

"About what?" Ryuji's words caught both of our attention.

"Well, lemme get to it." Ryuji started to scroll through his phone now. "It's about a post online… Here, look at this."

I leaned down to look at his screen, it was the Phan-site. Yet before I could say anything Ann started to walk up to us visibly upset. "Why'd you leave without me!?"

"You got it all wrong we got dragged into this huge crowd and-" Ryuji tried to defend us but I ended up interrupting him.

"We got trampled and I think one of my stitches almost opened up." Ann suddenly got worried and gently grabbed my arm.

"W-wait, did they!?" Ann looked over my arm. I shook my head in response.

"No, I'm fine." Ann sighed in relief as Ryuji held his phone up for Ann to see too.

"Eh, anyways." I got the feeling this was actually important. "You gotta look at this too. This post might be about Madarame."

That got all of our attention for sure! "What's it say?"

"'A master of the Japanese arts is plagiarizing his pupil's work. Only his public face is shown on TV.'" Suddenly the comment about many styles hit me even harder. Yet Ann reacted first.

"Plagiarizing!?" I was just as shocked but I knew what I had heard.

"It… actually makes a bit of sense, you generally try to focus on one style of art… and many of Madarame's famous pieces are different styles…" I reached down for my camera and sighed.

"I didn't think much of it when I first saw it, but hearing 'shack' and 'Madarame' triggered it." Ryuji looked down and continued reading. "'His treatment of the pupils who live with him is awful. He teaches nothing and bosses them around. He treats them inhumanely as if disciplining a dog…'"

Morgana finally popped out of his bag. "Abuse on top of plagiarism, hm…?"

"If this is real, it'll be a huge scandal." Ryuji sounded excited. I couldn't blame him.

"I wonder if Kitagawa-kun posted this." I looked at Ann, that was a possibility. "I mean, he IS a pupil of his."

"Who knows?" That was right it was an anonymous forum site. "It's anonymous and all…"

"In that case…" Morgana seemed to connect the dots. "It's possible the Madarame we heard about in Mementos is referring to the same one."

"A man like that doing such a thing…?" Ann seemed shocked by this information.

"It said only his public face is shown…" I sighed and leaned back against the railing. "For all, we know the post was downplayed."

"That's true…" Ann seemed to get an idea. "I wonder if we can ask that Shadow from earlier about this. Oh. Actually, we just need to talk to him in reality."

"And how do we go about that?" Ryuji already had a point… "Are we gonna explain it all, startin' with Mementos?"

"Besides, if we make a move out in the open, there's the possibility that Madarame will find out." Morgana and Ryuji both made incredibly valid points.

"Oh…" Ann seemed out of ideas, I sat there listening to the rain hit the window for a moment trying to think. "Yeah, right…"

"Hey, what do you think about Madarame?" Ryuji pointed out the question towards our frizzy-haired friend. "Doesn't he seem suspicious?"

"He does." Akira, the man of few, but meaning full words.

"I know right?" Ryuji didn't miss a beat replying now. "This all fits way too well to just be a coincidence. If this post is legit, ain't this kinda target we've been waitin' for?"

"Well, yeah, but…" Ann seemed conflicted. "Is it really true…?"

"If it is, I can't forgive someone like that." I nearly growled, but my bleach blonde friend realized this and switched the subject.

"By the way, Ann, what'd you do about the whole modeling thing?" At least it was still an important topic.

"Kitagawa-kun gave me his contact info." Ann grabbed her bag and crossed her legs. "And, the address to his sensei's atelier."

Ryuji was so excited he stood up. "He said he lives there, right?" All the pieces were falling into place. "Perfect timing. Let's try goin' tomorrow. We're off to Madarame's house right after school!"

"Huh?" Ann seemed incredibly shocked. "You want me to model tomorrow!? This is too sudden…"

"What?" Now the bleach blonde teen was confused. "We're just gonna talk to Kitagawa."

"Oh, that's what you meant…" I couldn't help but chuckle at Ann's response. "Hey, what's so funny?"

"Nothing, just the fact that you are so worried about this." I smirked at Ann who huffed back at me.

"This is serious!" She stomped her foot at me with a frustrated look. Again, I couldn't help but laugh. "Come on Hisoka!"

"I'm s-sorry!" I grabbed my stomach due to my laughter. "Don't worry, we won't make you do something insane. Well… any more insane than fighting Shadows."

Ann sighed and gave in, she knew I was right. We all continued with some small talk then headed our separate ways. When I got home, though, I got a message from Ali.

HoneyOTU: Hey, how are feeling today?

SpectorYANA: Alright, went to an art exhibit in Shibuya, with some friends.

HoneyOTU: Oh, was it that Madarame exhibit I read about online?

SpectorYANA: Yeah… got trampled though… almost had my stitches open up.

HoneyOTU: WHAT!?

SpectorYANA: I'm fine, don't worry, my friend got me out of there before any serious damage could be done.

HoneyOTU: Still! Man… the world is scary sometimes.

SpctorYANA: How about your day?

HoneyOTU: Finished watching an anime series today!

SpectorYANA: Nice, if you finished it, it must be good!

HoneyOTU: Oh yeah! I heard there's a figure coming out for it soon, I'll have to buy it once it comes out!

SpctorYANA: LOL, send me a link and I'll see if I like it.

HoneyOTU: Okay! Once you finish it we can talk about it!

SpectorYANA: Yeah, well I'm kinda tired so I'll catch up with you tomorrow.

HoneyOTU: Okay, night Spector!

SpectorYANA: Night Ali!

With that, I laid in bed and light sleep took me. I was a little disappointed I didn't get to share my love of art. But something a bit more important came of today. I had to hope the Yusuke was willing to help us… we needed to know if Madarame was who we suspected him to be.

All rights reserved to their rightful owners.

I will say it...

I do feel like I needed more from Hisoka here.

That being said, I just can't think of where to put it.

Still, I do hope you enjoyed it.

Chapter 30: The Shack

Chapter Text

Chapter 31: The Museum

Chapter Text