The Beast of Lust
Chapter 1: You can run, you can hide but you can't escape from me
"Hey, hey, Takamaki."
The whisper came from a random girl from her class. Jolting herself out of her daydream, Ann Takamaki turned to face the girl. Ann did not bother to remember her name. It did not matter to Ann. After all, none of them had defended her from the insults from the rest of the school. Hell, even the teachers turned a blind eye to all of them calling her 'Kamoshida's slut'.
"Did you ever hear about the story of the Joker?" the girl continued, "I think everyone apart from you have heard about it already. Make sure you keep this as a secret from the adults, even Kamoshida sensei."
Rolling her eyes at the girl's words, Ann gestured for the girl to continue, hoping that she could quickly get this done and over with. The two of them were sitting in the courtyard, a little far off from the vending machines. Glancing furtively from side to side, the girl said, "Rumour has it that there is a mysterious person roaming around Tokyo known as the Joker. Much like the teens that got sucked into the television, the boy who halted the end of the world and the one from an alternate dimension, it has a special ability."
A cold breeze swept through the courtyard. These caused the girl to pause and shiver due to the cold. Even Ann who was clad in both the thick school blazer and a hoodie was beginning to feel a sudden chill. Staring straight into Ann's eyes, the girl murmured, "It can steal hearts, changing the minds and perspectives of whoever or whatever it wished. It can change even the strongest and bravest of men to become weak cowards or even completely erase a person's identity."
Taking a deep breath, the girl was about to complete her tale before being interrupted by a ear splitting scream. Ann's eyes widened upon hearing that voice. She would recognise it anywhere. Bolting to her feet, she raced in the direction of said voice that appeared to be coming from the roof of the school building. A large crowd had already begun to gather at the feet of the building, with many students already whipping out their smartphones to video the scene.
To Ann's horror, her suspicions were confirmed. Her best friend Shiho Suzui was dangling off the edge of the school roof. Letting out another scream, Shiho appeared to be shaking her head repeatedly. Gritting her teeth, Ann shoved the students out of the way as she rushed off to the staircase.
Flying up the stairs, she soon arrived at the roof access door that she slammed open. To Ann's surprise, she found that Shiho was not alone on the roof. With her was a black haired man clad in a trench coat with three coattails. He was wearing dress shoes along with a grey dress shirt and black dress pants. Tilting his head slightly in Ann's direction, she realised that he had a domino mask slid on his face. Shiho was still sitting on the wrong side of the fence that surrounded the roof.
Rushing towards Shiho, Ann screamed, "What the hell do you think you are doing Shiho? Don't you dare jump, don't you dare leave me!"
Yet, Shiho did not reply Ann. Her gaze appeared to be fixated upon the view before her, simply staring off at the void that she considered leaping off. Ann's heart was palpitating wildly as she observed Shiho's lack of reaction to her shouts. Gripping the fence, Ann screeched, "Shiho please listen to me! Get off of the ledge now! Come back to this side, we can talk more when you have!"
"She cannot hear you."
Startled by the sudden voice, Ann whirled and saw the man still standing there calmly. His hands were in his pockets as he studied Ann's face intently. Only then did Ann notice that his eyes were an unnerving unnatural yellow colour. Nodding in satisfaction at something that he had seemingly found on Ann's face, the man said, "Your friend is currently struggling with something known as the Call of The Void. How undesirable, that the fiend has caused this much of a problem."
"Save her! How the fuck can you just be standing here so calmly? My best friend wants to kill herself and instead of helping like a decent human being, you are just standing there! If you know so much about the current condition that she is in, then why aren't you helping her?" Ann shouted at the man.
Chuckling at her outburst, the man simply raised his head up towards the sky. Ominous grey clouds, as though sensing the situation, had already taken over the clear blue skies from earlier. Sliding one of his hands out of his pocket and revealing a bright red gloved, the man simply snapped his fingers. Reality appeared to bend and twist before Ann's eyes as her vision slowly began to flicker red with black patches appearing in it.
Ann blinked. Reality had returned to normal except for the fact that Shiho was now sitting on the right side of the fence at her feet. Seeing her friend returned to her safe and sound, Ann immediately enveloped Shiho in a crushing hug. Tears were trickling down Ann's eyes in relief. However, Shiho's eyes were glassy and unseeing, as though she was in a trance.
"Good, you do know when to cry Ann Takamaki. Your friend's condition ought to clear up soon, just give her some time to rest and collect herself." The wind ruffled the man's collar, causing him to turn into its direction. Leaping with grace beyond that of an ordinary human, the man had easily jumped onto the top of the fence surrounding the roof. A fence that was at least one and a half storeys tall.
"Who are you? No, what are you?" Ann Takamaki cried out towards the man.
Glancing back towards her with a cocky grin upon his face, he waved before replying, "You already know who I am."
Ann blinked. The man was gone leaving her alone with Shiho upon that rooftop. Yet, Ann somehow felt that the man was not lying. She knew who he was, on some instinctive level that was seemingly deeply ingrained into her psyche. That man was the Joker.
Makoto Niijima was stressed. She could not believe that her term as the Student Council President of Shujin Academy was already being filled with so much work with two large scale incidents. A student had tried to kill herself earlier today and had come damn well close to doing so. Furthermore, there was that transfer student to take into account.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Makoto closed her eyes and attempted to relax herself. She had to remain calm, a pillar of support in this stormy time if she was to be of any use to the student population. The attempted suicide had shaken everyone up more than she had expected. Standing up from her previous seated position, she began to pace the Student Council room. The rest of the council had already returned home leaving her alone with her thoughts.
A knock on the door snapped her out of it. Glancing towards the door, Makoto said, "Come in."
To her surprise, a head of blonde hair entered the Student Council room. Ann Takamaki. The supposed slut of Kamoshida sensei as well as the best friend of the girl from this afternoon. Makoto had thought that Ann had gone with Shiho to the hospital, but it appears that she might have been wrong.
"Kaichou, I came back from the hospital because I have something important to tell you. This might sound a little weird but, have you ever heard of the Joker?" Ann asked uneasily. There was a look of doubt plastered upon her face as though she herself could not believe that she had asked that.
The Joker. Makoto had heard that title before. The main character of a certain set of rumours that had been buzzing about the students of Shujin Academy. For some odd reason, the teachers appear to be left out of the loop of this particular piece of information. Nodding her head in response to Ann's question, Makoto gestured for her Ann to continue.
"Well then, Kaichou, would you still believe me if I said that he was on the roof with Shihou and me this afternoon?"
The girl was running through the back alleys surrounding Shujin Academy. Breathing heavily, she kept glancing behind her as though there was something hot on her heels. Slowly coming to a stop, she leaned against a wall to catch her breath. She was still in her indoor shoes and her bag had been ditched so as to not hinder her escape from her pursuer.
"Found you!" A sing song voice exclaimed as a male with blue tinted black hair appeared to fall out of the sky. Drool was leaking out of his open mouth as his insane black eyes locked onto the girl. He was Yuuki Mishima, a member of the male volleyball team. The key word being 'was'.
Shrieking in fear, the girl bolted, attempting to put as much distance between herself and her predator. Giggling in excitement, Mishima bounded off after her. This game of cat and mouse continued before the girl, either in her exhaustion or confusion, took a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end. Realising that she was boxed in, she turned around only to find him staring at her.
He was slightly hunched over in an animalistic manner and he appeared to be salivating even more than before. The girl began to scream, "Someone! Please someone help me! Someone, anyone please… Oomph!"
Mishima had roughly shoved his right hand over her mouth, effectively silencing her cries. Licking his lips, Mishima stared into the girl's terrified eyes before saying, "Now, now, no need to be scared. I'm just going to have some fun with you, or more precisely your body. This is so much more fun than anything I've ever done!"
Unbuckling his belt with his free hand, Mishima practically ripped off his pants. The girl began thrashing around violently in an attempt to escape his grip but somehow, she was being held in place by the meer strength of his right hand. Pulling down his boxers, Mishima licked his lips once more before glancing down at the girl. Staring fearfully at his private part, the girl began to twist about in another attempt to escape.
Then, for some odd reason, the girl's vision began to be filled with black holes that were surrounded with a red tinge. When she blinked again, she did not feel the weight of Mishima's hand on her mouth. She was alone in that alley. Her eyes rolled over in relief and the last thing she saw before she blacked out was another boy with bleached blond hair in a Shujin Academy uniform rushing towards her.
"Hmmph. It seems like you had lost control to the lust lurking inside of you, Yuuki Mishima." The Joker stared down at the boy with a look of pity. He had transported the two of them away from Mishima's victim to the rooftop of an apartment block on the other side of Tokyo. Mishima appeared to be staring confoundedly at his hands, as though wondering where the girl he was about to rape had vanished to.
Turning to the Joker, he began to snarl viciously as his hands slowly began to warp into claws. His tongue began growing longer and horns sprouted out of his oddly coloured hair. Lunging at the Joker, he only found his claws shredding through air. Glancing upwards, he found that the Joker had leapt into the air above him. Landing with feline-like grace a small distance from Mishima, Joker merely shook his head in disappointment.
"Too think that your will was so easily consumed by that fiend. It would appear that you are my enemy now Mishima, the kids gloves are off. How unfortunate that is for you, Mishima. I do hope that you will be able to recover from this."
The Joker narrowed his bright yellow eyes before drawing a knife and leaping straight for Mishima. Roaring in rage, Mishima charged to meet him, only to find that he had been outsped once more by the Joker. Twirling his knife in his hands, the Joker stared at Mishima with predatory eyes, only for Mishima to collapse to the ground as blood spurted from two cuts on his ankles.
Crouching down to bring himself closer to Mishima, Joker whispered, "To me, you are already as good as gone Mishima. Even I might not be able to to return you to your former self after the damage done by the fiend. All the best Mishima, this is your own fault for poking your head into matters you do not understand. I guess you could say that this is your own bad luck."
Placing his hand atop of Mishima's forehead, the Joker's eyes seemed to gleam an even brighter shade of yellow. Screams began to escape from Mishima, much like the screams from the girl he had attempted to rape.
"Thank you for confiding in me Takamaki." Makoto said as she guided Ann out of the Student Council room.
"Thank you for listening to me Kaichou. By the way, you might not want to stay in school this late. I've heard disturbing things that have happened to people who do so." Ann replied as she moved out of the room. Giving Ann an indulging smile, Makoto nodded before opening the Student Council room door.
To Makoto's surprise and Ann's shock, Kamoshida sensei stood directly outside the door of the room. Giving the two of them a smile, Kamoshida droned, "You know, the two of you should not be staying in school too late. Especially after such an unfortunate incident this afternoon."
Narrowing her eyes at the gym teacher, Makoto picked up her school bag before replying, "We understand that sensei. We were just about to leave the premises."
As the two girls stepped out of the Student Council room, Kamoshida immediately grabbed hold of Ann's hand. Ann failed to stifle a scream from the sudden contact from him. Leaning down towards her head, Kamoshida took a sniff of Ann's hair before breaking into a smile. He drawled, "Well, well. You smell really good today Ann."
Eyes widening at his movements, Makoto attempted to pull Ann out of Kamoshida's grip. Glaring at him, Makoto shouted, "Sensei, I do not think that that is very good behaviour! You should not be doing these things even if you are a teacher!"
Somehow, Makoto's words had got to him and cause Kamoshida's grip to slacken, allowing Makoto to pull Ann out of his grasp. Frowning at her words, Kamoshida appeared to be staring at the ceiling, deep in thought. However, he quickly brightened up.
"My dear Niijima, I think you got it wrong. I'm no teacher, I am the King of this Goddamned School!" Kamoshida roared. Tears appeared to form in reality in the form of red ripples that covered the entire school. Kamoshida appeared to be morphing before the eyes of the two girls. He seemed to be growing bigger, more muscular and horns began to sprout atop his head.
Grabbing Ann's hand, Makoto pulled her into a run as they began to run out of the school and away from the creature that was Kamoshida. As they made their escape from the school, they ran past other students who appeared to be completely at ease despite the fact that the creature was stalking them through the halls.
Reaching the exit, the two girls did not even bother to switch their shoes and simply burst out of the school building. Ann made the mistake of making one last look behind her before exiting the school. What she saw would be forever etched into her mind. A creature that was at least two metres tall hunk of muscle stood behind them. It had horns that stuck out of its head along with a ridiculously long tongue that would not stop dripping with saliva. Its eyes were a bright yellow, a yellow much like the Joker's, that appeared to stare into her soul.
However, the worst thing for the two of them was what the creature said before the doors of the school slammed shut. It was so horrible perhaps because they knew it to be true.
"Go on, run! You might escape from me today but I will always be here tomorrow. I am the King and this school my castle! Go on and run Niijima and Takamaki. Go on and hide. You will have to return here some day! You will have to return here to me! After all,
you can run, you can hide but you can't escape from me!"
[A/N]: This is clearly a Persona 5 AU. Some of the themes and events that occur in this fic might disgust some of you guys. This is my first time writing something like this and I hope that you guys enjoyed it. I will try to keep to an update schedule this time (I hope). This fic also takes a lot of inspiration from Boogiepop. Strongly recommend you guys to check that out too. This is only the 1st chapter in Act 1 of what might be a very long fic. Personally, I hope that I can see this one through unlike A World's New Journey (that is going to be on an indefinite hiatus). Thanks for reading and see you guys next time.