Fatal-fame here with a new chapter.
Last time. Issei decided enough was enough and flipped out.
Now things are going to die.
Fatal-fame does not own Highschool DxD, Persona 5, or any other referenced media. This is for entertainment, not for profit.
Beneath the Mask, Past the Pawns.
Ch.4 Willpower.
Issei flexed his fingers as he looked at his hands. The red gloves covering them were tight enough to not fall off, yet loose enough to be comfortable.
"I am the rebel's soul that resides within you." Arsene explained as Issei stared at him.
Arsene was a tall human like being. With a short red jacket and same color legs that lead to black shoes with blades for heels. His main body was a stylish black waistcoat held together with red strings with a white cravat. On his head was a tall top hat, nearly touching the ceiling.
His hands were red palms with black fingers, his nails long and sharp.
His head was shaped like the mask Issei tore off, only it was pure black. Long, sharp horns protruded from his head and curing forward.
His face, a twisted smile made of pulsating black and orange flames.
"If you so desire." Arsene continued as he pulled his left hand in front of his face, curling and uncurling his fingers as he did so, while the other was moved behind his back. " I may consider granting you the power to break through this crisis."
"Talk is cheap." Issei's replied. "Show me this power."
"Hmm, too right…" Arsene seemed to turn his head to Kamoshida. "Very well."
"Who the hell are you...!?" The King asked as Issei turned to him.
"Me?" Issei repeated as he felt something slid out his left sleeve. He held it up, pointing a black, sharp blade at Kamoshida. "I'm the "petty thief" you just pissed off."
"Guards!" Kamoshida barked out a command. The knights got up as the King pointed at Issei. "Start by killing that one!"
With that the two knights seemed to float in the air for a second before dispersing into black and red liquid. Just as fast it sprouted into two pillars of black and red. When it cleared two jack o'lanterns wearing grey witch hats, capes and white gloves holding lanterns.
"You'll learn the true strength of my men!" Boasted the the King as they approached Issei.
"A king who hides behind his soldiers." Issei muttered staring at the knife as he twirled it in his hand, he was pretty sure it was a kukri. "How worthless." He turned to the monsters as he caught the kukri's handle. "I think I was more afraid when you were knights"
He moved his left hand behind his back, ready to swing his new weapon.
'Never used a knife in combat before.' The brown haired teen thought. 'Then again it can't be to hard.'
After all, he was Hyoudou, Issei.
He was better than these punks.
"Detest the enemy before you!" He heard Arsene command behind him as he brought up his right hand to the mask on his face, his other arm held out flat in front of him, palm up. The mask on his face covered in blue flames as chains floated around him. "Change that animosity into power…" Issei felt the rage and disgust transforming inside of him.
"And unleash it!"
"Eiha!" Issei braced himself as he closed his left hand and bent his left arm upwards. Arsene brought his left hand to the floor. Red and black lines swirled underneath the jack o'lantern to his left. The lines proceeded to surge straight up into the monster. It flinched back as the cursed power struck it.
Issei pulled his hand away from his face just in time to dodge a lantern swing from the other jack o'lantern. While he was recovering he was stuck by the one he had earlier hurt.
"Swing your blade!" The brunette heard Arsene command. Without missing a beat Issei swung the knife in a diagonal fashion, followed by a horizontal slash to the left and finally flipping it backwards and striking with an upwards diagonal slash that lead to a backflip.
'Been a while since I fought.' Issei thought as he landed on his feet. 'Didn't think I'd still be this good.'
'Well, whatever.' Brown eyes focused on the remaining enemy. 'I'll think about it later.'
"This power of mine is yours!" His persona announced. "Kill them them however you want. Run wild to your heart's content!"
When Issei was a devil, he never really wanted to fight. He only fought to protect others.
But now…
"Sounds good." There was bloodlust running through him, demanding he struck down all who stood in his way.
He turned to the remaining enemy as it flew towards him and tried to hit him again. He easily dodged it, his body jumping out of the way with a spin. Figuring the pattern he used still worked he brought his hand to his face and gripped the mask and held up his arm.
"Persona." He called out as Arsene appeared behind him. "Gotcha now."
With another casting of eiha, he nearly managed to kill the jack o'lantern.
This time was different, as instead of trying to hit him it seemed to cast something.
Issei was unsure of what it was doing. But the answer soon came to him as he felt the heat of a burst of fire.
It stung more than it hurt, but it was still an annoyance.
'If you want to burn me…' Issei's kukri tore through the monster. 'Bring a dragon or a phoenix!'
With that the thing died. He twirled his knife and slid it back up his sleeve.
He also felt himself get a bit stronger, as if he could fight for just that much longer.
He also found a bit of money, which he quickly grabbed.
Spoils go to the victor and all that.
"What…?" He heard Sakamoto ask, as the adrenalin died down in Issei he started to notice how his clothes had changed.
He was wearing an ankle long tail coat with a tall collar and large cuffs on the sleeves, a black waistcoat, black pants and pointed shoes. The blood red gloves he was wearing had a green circle on the back of the left hand.
All in all he thought he looked good.
"What just happened…?" Sakamoto tried again. Issei turned to look at him.
"Don't know, don't care." Issei replied as he fiddled with the sleeves and the pocket handkerchief on his chest.
"You little.." He heard Kamoshida say as he approached him. Issei's knife slide out of his sleeve and he brandished it towards him.
"Does the King wanna get cut, too?" Issei asked as he prepared for another fight. Before either of them moved Sakamoto shoulder charged Kamoshida away.
"You like that, you son of a bitch!?" The blonds voice was wavering as he asked the question, still not believing what was happening. Issei felt something on his foot and looked down to see a key ring
"Sakamoto-san." Issei got his attention as he kicked the key ring to him. They both ran out the cell, to which Sakamoto closed and locked it.
"All right, I locked it." Sakamoto told Issei as he pulled away from the door. Kamoshida got up, showing the pink underwear underneath his robe.
'I feel so unclean.' Issei tried to repress a shudder as he took a step away from the bars letting out a breath as the felt the rage leaving him.
Yet there was still some anger, waiting to explode outwards
"Damn you." The King roared against the bars.
"What was that..?" Sakamoto asked again as he turned to Issei. "And your clothes…!"
Before Issei could respond a flash of blue light appeared around Issei for a second, when it died down he was in his school uniform.
"Huh." Issei started to look at himself, feeling his bag and glasses. "I have all my stuff. Cool."
"Is that all you have to say!?" Sakamoto was flabbergasted at Issei behavior.
Issei just shrugged at the blond, he had seen enough crazy shit to last him a lifetime.
Honestly this was just different set of circumstances.
And being a devil sort of expanded the whole "anything is possible" thought process.
His thoughts were interrupted as Kamoshida slammed against the bars again.
"We'll talk later." The brunette told the blonde. "Let's get the hell outta here!"
"Right." Sakamoto tossed the keys away. "You lead the way."
As they ran away Issei could have sworn he heard Kamoshida muttering something about thieves again.
But he definitely heard the asshole commanding his guards to give chase.
Both teens made their way up the dirt path next to the cells. Issei saw another bar cell type door, after trying the handle and slammin his shoulder into the door.
"Shit." Issei turned to Sakamoto. "This ways locked, You still have the keys?"
"Uhh." The blond turned away and nervously looked down.
"Right, you threw them." Issei started to look around and noticed a broken bridge.
"You think we can jump it?" Sakamoto asked as he seemed to follow Issei's thought process.
"It's better than staying here." The bespectacled teen reasoned as he jumped across. He turned to see the other teen hop across.
As he landed he grit his teeth in pain.
"You all right?" Issei asked. In all the excitement he didn't really notice if the guy was injured in the crossfire.
"Yeah, just an old injury." Sakamoto flexed his leg a few times. "Nothing to worry about."
"If you say so." Issei was going to keep an eye on him.
If he was the only person who could fight, that made the ones who can't his responsibility to protect.
They ran through the cell door and came to a waterfall. Using some cages in the water they managed to jump across and continue their escape.
Running past water wheels and other cells, they found their way blocked.
"Dammit." Sakamoto cursed as they started to look for a way out. As Issei searched the last cell he found a hole. With a quick shout to get the Sakamoto's attention he and the blond made their way through.
They made their way down the path, but the sounds of knights approaching caused them to turn around and run back the way they came. Noticing a nearby drawbridge they both crossed the water and made their way down the path. See the knights coming from the other side they both hide behind some boxes.
"Their lookin' for us, right." Sakamoto asked. Issei nodded in response.
"I ain't playin' along anymore!" The blond muttered as they got up again. "We gotta find a way outta this damn place!"
"Don't need to tell me twice." Issei replied as they ran down the hall and up a spiral set of stairs.
They came to a large wooden door, which Issei opened a crack. Seeing it was clear he opened the door fully. When Sakamoto walked through he proceeded to close it.
Seeing as they were no closer to an exit they soldiered on.
"The hell…?" Issei heard the blond mutter as they came to a stop.
Dangling over the rushing water were people in cages, begging for help.
"So we weren't the only ones caught." Issei noticed, however he shook his head and turned to Sakamoto. "We can come back for them after we find a way out."
"Sounds good." With that they continued forward until they made it to another drawbridge.
This one, however, was pulled up and next to a statue of the asshole King himself.
"Dammit, we gotta look around." Issei made his way down the path to the end of the cell to hopefully find a lever or something to lower the bridge.
"Hey, over here." He heard a voice bekon, Issei looked around for the source. "Yeah, you. With the brown hair! Blondie! In the cell."
Issei turned to see a…
'Cat?' Issei thought as he inspected it. It was mostly black with the insides of his ears, the tip of his tail, bottom of its face and his hands/paws were white . Its head was disproportionate to his body with large blue eyes. Wearing a belt with a bunch of pouches and a yellow bandana around its neck.
Well the top black part of his head looked like some sort of material, also like a bandana.
'...Gotta admit, I'm caught off guard.'
Perverted old men? Seen it. Knights? Dealt with it. Magical powers? No shit.
A talking cat/human cartoon hybrid?
Not a chance in hell.
"What the hell is this?" Sakamoto voiced his thoughts.
"You're not soldiers of the castle, right!?" The cat thing asked them. "Get me out of here!"
"See the keys right there." The cat pointed at said key.
"We're trying to get the hell outta here." Sakamoto replied. "And you look like an enemy."
"I'm locked up, so how can I be your enemy!?" The cat thing asked in return. "Help me out!"
"...What the hell are you?" Issei asked as he tilted his head. "A cat?"
"I am NOT a cat." It seemed to bristle up in anger. "Say that again and you'll regret it."
Issei was about to say something along the lines of "good luck from that cell." But the sound of metal clanking against metal caught their attention.
"Godammit." Issei cursed. "They're catching up."
"And there's still no service." Sakamoto checked his phone. "Isn't there anyway to contact the outside!?"
"We need to find a way out." Issei looked past the drawbridge. "If we could just lower that."
"Let me out and I'll take you to the exit." The cat bargained. Issei turned to it and after a bit of thought grabbed the key.
"Are you sure?" Sakamoto asked him, causing Issei to hesitate.. "This thing seems to be all talk."
"If you two wanna try and get out by yourselves. Be my guest." The cat replied replied. "When you get caught and executed, don't blame me."
"It's worth a shot." Issei told him as he unlocked the cell. "And that's more than we have wandering aimlessly."
The cat walked out the cell and began to stretch.
"Freedom taste so sweet." The cat purred out as he stopped stretching, his eyes closed.
"Better savour it." Issei caught his attention. "You fuck us over and the last thing I do before I get caught is kill you."
"Dude…" Sakamoto stared at Issei in shock as the cat turned to him fully.
"I won't do that." The cat said as it jumped into the air, glaring at him. Issei glared right back.
"We're," He gestured to Sakamoto and himself. "Trying to escape and the last living things we met tried to kill us." Issei placed his hands into his pockets. "I think I'm allowed to be a bit cautious."
"Fair enough." The cat nodded to him.
"Will both of you hurry up!" Sakamoto whisper yelled at them. "If the cat wants to show us the exit, I say let him, since you already let him out!" The cat turned to glare at the blond.
"I am not a cat!" It stated. "I am Morganna."
"Look, let's just get outta here." The blond listened to the knights getting closer. "Or do you wanna be in the cell again?"
"A-All right, sheesh!" Morgana exhaled. "Follow me, and stay quiet!"
As Morgana ran to the bridge, Sakamoto stopped Issei.
"You really plannin' on killing it!?" He asked, his eyes wide.
"No." Issei answered. "The threat will help him keep his word."
"Okay, I get it." Sakamoto nodded and they ran after Morgana.
Issei wasn't actually sure why he made that threat. Normally it was after someone tried to hurt someone he loved the threats came out.
"You're changing." He heard Arsene say. "Life has forced you to use more persuasive methods to acquire what you want."
Issei was not expecting his persona, whatever the hell that was, to speak to him. But since he had Ddraig he was used to voices in his head.
'I guess.' Issei figured with the stress of his situation, both arrest and being here, along with his awakening his rebel soul or whatever. He was becoming a different person.
Although he wasn't sure he disliked this change.
He was usually the protector, the person who reacts.
Maybe it was time to be a bit more proactive.
Beneath the Mask, Past the Pawns.
Kawakami looked up at the clock as she worked at her desk.
"It's already fourth period." She sighed out. "And Sakura-san said that he had left the house."
She leaned her head on her arm. "Should I call the police…?" After a few seconds she dismissed the thought. "Too much work."
She let out another sigh. "What did I do to deserve this?"
Beneath the Mask, Past the Pawns.
They stopped in front of the Kamoshida statue. Morgana was looking it over intently.
"What're you doin'?" Sakamoto asked, casing the Morgana to turn to them.
"Lowering the bridge." The cat answered. "What does it look like?"
"You, brunette." Morgana turned to Issei. "You seem to pick up things faster than the blondie. Check the mouth of the statue."
Issei, figuring he had nothing to lose, moved in front of the statue. He noticed a dark chain coming out of the top of it.
'A chain.' Issei thought as he turned his head towards the bridge. 'A drawbridge. And he said to check out the statues mouth.'
'Which means…' with that thought Issei put his hand in the statues mouth and pulled it down. The jaw unhinged and the chain started to move.
As it started to pull the bridge down, Issei needed to know something crucial.
"You guys have some hand sanitizer on you?" Issei asked as he pulled his hand out of the statues mouth. "Cause I need some."
Statue or not he didn't want his hand in any mans mouth.
Unless there was no other way, like when Gasper sucked his blood.
His mouth was pretty warm and sometimes this thoughts wandered…
'Issei, now is not the time!' He scolded himself as Morgana and Sakamoto responded negatively.
"How were we supposed to know that!?" Sakamoto asked the cat as he stared at the bridge.
"Amateur." Issei heard Morgana mutter. "Let's just get going!"
They ran across the bridge, but came to a stop as a knight walked through a door.
They slid to a stop. Sakamoto feel back and tried to crawl back.
Issei felt his anger turn into rage and his clothes transformed into his masked outfit.
"Oh shit!" He started to curse in alarm. "Oh shit, it's them!"
Issei prepared to cut the knight to pieces. When the cat bounced off Sakamoto and landed in front of them.
"Tch, ameteur!" Morgana turned his head to blond. "Stay there." He turned to Issei "You can fight, right? Let's do this!"
With that he jumped into the air with a spin. When he landed he pointed his gaze skyward.
"Come…!" He called out. "Zorro!"
With a large pillar of blue energy shot out of the ground behind him.
When the energy cleared, a tall figure stood behind Morgana.
It was primarily black, with a torso that was far bigger than it's thin legs, with an even tinier head wand a blue mustache that extend far past it's head . It was wearing a jacket that lead into a pair of shiny black gloves, holding a small rapier for a thing of its size. On it's back a cape that seemed to flutter in the wind. It's legs were black studded pants that lead into black shoes with spurs.
And on it's waist was a belt with a large, silver Z. Which held onto the sheath of its blade
It smiled as it slashed a Z into the air, before cutting through it with another swing.
"Y-you got one of those things too!?" Sakamoto asked as he looked on, fears not abated.
'Zorro...' Issei thought, the name bouncing around in his skull. 'I know that name.'
Issei was pulled out of his thoughts as the knight burst into red and black.
"Hmph, we will promptly shut them up." Morgana crossed his arms as he boasted.
"Save the bragging until after we win." Issei twirled his knife as two beings appeared. One was the Jack o'lantern thing he had fought before.
The other seemed to be a small baby like demon, mainly pink with black shoes and bat like wings.
Kinda looked like a Menakian from Drag-so ball.
What threw Issei off was the pink spotted black horn protruding from its crotch.
'Everytime I think I can't be surprised anymore, this shit happens.' The brunette thought as he slipped into the stance he used when he fought before. 'I'm not sure why I'm even bothering trying to understand.'
Like why did he have a persona?
The cat had one, was Issei also a cat?
Did Koneko or Kuroka do something to him?
'Whatever.' Issei looked towards the monster. 'I'll deal with this first.'
"Still think they were scarier as knights." Issei commented as Morgana hefted a cutlass bigger than himself as he started to bounce from side to side.
"Damn shadows..." He heard morgana mutter. "They've taken up intercept positions!"
"That what these things are called?" Issei asked as his eyes went to one monster then the other, preparing for any type of movement.
"It means they are not holding back and really want us dead!" Morgana replied instead of answering the question.
"No shit." Issei tone was absolutely sarcastic. "I wasn't sure after the whole "execution" thing. Thanks for clearing that up."
Without giving the cat-thing a chance to respond. He brought a hand to his mask and held out his left arm.
"Persona!" He shouted as Arsene appeared behind him. "Eiha."
Same as before he brought his left hand up and Arsene brought his down.
The cursed power once again flew up into the "Shadow." This time he was aiming for the horn crotch.
Didn't kill it, but it seemed to do some damage.
"Knew it." He heard Morgana mutter. "You ARE an amateur."
"This is how you fight!" With that the cat jumped into the air with a shout of "Zorro." When it appeared it swished it's rapier in a Z as "Garu" was also shouted. Green wind surrounded the jack o'lantern and seemed to converge on it.
Instead of it just flinching back, the wind knocked it out of the air.
"If you strike an enemies weakness, you can knock them down." The blue eyes cat explained. "Use that opening for another strike."
"That's the most basic of basics!" Morgana finished as he rushed towards the jack o'lantern and slashed it with an upper strike, jumping into the air as he did so. As he was coming down he spun in mid air and brought the cutlass down into another slash. After the "Shadow" died he jumped back.
The horn crotch flew towards Issei and swiped at him, which he managed to avoid by side hopping away from it. When he landed he immediately ran towards it.
Diagonal slash, side slash, up slash and the "Shadow" was no more."
He slid the knife back up his sleeve and stood straight. He felt another boost in power, both to him and Arsene.
While he simply felt stronger, Arsene seemed to pick up a new skill.
At least that's what Issei felt, considering the word "Cleave" came to mind.
"Huh, looks like I learned something." He muttered to himself as he grabbed the Yen that fell after the battle. "As if I could get any better."
That surprised him, as he never had that arrogance in his life even before becoming a devil. But for some reason it just felt...natural.
Then again, he was Hyoudou, Issei.
He had every right to be cocky.
"Not bad." He heard a compliment from his side as he turned to Morgana as the rage once again yielded to simple anger. "Your persona's pretty powerful."
"Persona..?" Sakamoto asked wide eyed as he caught up to them. "The things that come outta both of you all dramatic-like?"
"Yes." Morgana turned to the blond. "You saw how brunette ripped his mask off the summon it, right?"
"Well, deep within their heart, everyone wears a mask." The cat continued. "By removing that…" He was interrupted by Issei clothes switching back to his school uniform.
"Back to normal, huh?" Issei said, mostly to himself, the cocky tone gone from his voice.
"It looks like you don't have complete control over your power." Morgana explained after a second. "The transformation shouldn't dissolve like that-"
"Rgh, enough already!" Sakamoto got both of their attention. "This whole thing doesn't make any sense!"
Morgana glared at the blond as he started to jump in the air out of aggravation. "Can't you just shut up and listen, Blondie!?"
"My name's Ryuji, dammit." Ryuji stamped his foot towards the cat. "So, don't call me blondie!"
"Will both of you shut up." They both turned to Issei, wide eyed at the cold tone he was using.
"We can worry about names and shit later." Issei voice was not as cold as when he stood up to Kamoshida, yet it still carried the same weight to it. "Let's get out of here before more knights show up."
"Dude…" Tumbled out of Ryuji's mouth. While Morgana seemed to shake himself out of it.
"R-right. The exit isn't that far." He reached into one of his pouches and handed something to Issei. "Take these and use them carefully."
Issei took the three bottles of medicine into his hand. Nothing fancy, just cheap stuff. Issei put them into his pocket.
"If you need to use one i recommend you do." Morgana told the brunette. "We may have to fight again." After a moment's deliberation he figured he err on the side of caution and used one.
He immediately felt a little bit better, much to his surprise.
'Usually it takes a bit to work' he thought as he stared at the bottle. 'Is the cat connected?'
Maybe that was it. This was some sort of devil drug induced hallucination.
And the cat spiked him in order to do something unspeakable to Koneko.
Cause she was also a cat.
Yeah, that made sense.
Or maybe he hit his head and this was just a coma dream?
Well, he'd just ride this out as long as he had too.
They ran forward, past several cages that they didn't bother to check out. It was not long until they were stopped by another drawbridge. Issei's first reaction was to pull the jaw of the statue next to him to lower the bridge and see if the cat had hand sanitizer cause he didn't answer him before.
"Hold on a sec!" Ryuji's voice stopped him from lowing the bridge. He turned to see the blond walk up to a cell, where a teen in a red track suit laid on the ground.
"I think I've seen what this dude's wearin' before…" He explained to Issei and Morgana. He took a couple seconds before shaking his head. "I'm to flustered! Can't remember a damn thing!"
"We'll come back later." Issei told him as he placed a hand in the mouth of the statue. "But right now, we need to save ourselves."
"I know, but…" The blonde turned back to them. "Who are these guys?"
"We only have to worry about ourselves." Morgana agreed with Issei. "Besides, these people are…"
He was cut off as the drawbridge was lowered. On the other side was a knight approaching fast. Issei quickly jumped back from the statue and landed next to Morgana.
"Fight or run?" He heard the cat ask. He didn't answer as rage took hold once again, turning his clothes into his masked outfit again.
Knife in his hand and smirk on his face. Issei raised his right hand and made a "Come on" gesture.
Morgana brought out his sword from who knows where and started to bounce next to Issei. As he did so the knight transformed into a "Shadow."
This time it was two female fairy type "Shadows" wearing a dark blue one piece, boots, and gloves. They both had brown hair and light blue eyes. One was floating from side to side, holding its face in its hands. The other was just floating there, hands by its sides and less frantically than the other one.
Normally when faced with a female human-shaped enemy, he would perv out and use dress break or something of those lines.
Instead all he felt was utter contempt at the fact these girls would allow their king to be such a bastard.
It didn't matter if they were cute, they were going to die.
Without waiting for anything Issei quickly brought a hand this face, summoning Arsene and casting Eiha.
The cursed power struck the "Shadow" hard, easily knocking it down. Feeling an advantage he cast another Eiha. With both the fairies down Issei figured he should try his new skill.
"Cleave!" Issei shouted as he clenched his left hand into a fist. Arsene did a graceful spin as he brought his leg up, slashing one of the fairies with the blade on his heel, finishing it off.
As the brown haired teen prepared to go for the other one, Morgana quickly ran up and slashed the other fairy, killing it just after the other.
'Guess that's what he means by weakness and getting in another shot.' Issei thought as he looked around incase there was more "Shadows"
Issei twirled the knife and slid it up his sleeve as he walked forward. He picked up the dropped money, happily noting it was more than he got from the last fight.
"I'm so done with this." Issei muttered to himself. "The fact that these things think they can waste my time…"
And with that he was back in his school uniform.
The bespectacled teen, after transforming so many times, seemed to be figuring it out.
'The trigger seems to be pure rage.' He thought as Sakamoto and Morgana argued about the prisoner. 'But, Arsene told me he was the "Rebellious soul" in me.'
'So maybe it's less about the rage, but more the willpower to fight back?'
"You are starting to understand." Arsene seemed to appear before him, but the others didn't seem to notice. "Mis treatment leads to anger, anger leads to rage, and rage leads to the will to rebel."
'That explains that.' Issei agreed as he went to the next point. 'And my confidence comes from that rage?'
"You are what a rebel is to you." Arsene answered back as he crossed his legs in front of him, as if he was sitting down on an invisible chair. "A thief would need to be confidant, wouldn't you agree?"
Issei was about to ask what he meant, he saw Morgana and Sakamoto running ahead. Figuring he could get more answers later he followed. After they stopped to make sure the main hall was clear, they ran through across it and into another door.
They made it into a hall when Morgana stopped in front of a door to their left and one further up to the right.
"We're here." Morgana announced, much to the relief of the two teens.
"Finally!" Sakamoto's body seemed to uncoil. "We're free…!" With that he ran towards the far door and tried to open it. Only to find it wouldn't budge.
"Morgana." Issei's cold tone cut through the room. "Remember what I said earlier?"
"D-Don't jump to conclusions." He stuttered out before opening the door to the left. "Through here."
They went into the room to see it seemed to be a simple storage room.
"How are we supposed to get out from here!?" Sakamoto complained as he looked around. "I don't see a door or windows!"
As he and Morgana started to argue, Issei looked around, Arsene's and Kamoshida's comments coming back to him.
'If I were a thief.' He thought as his eyes locked onto something.
"I would use the ventilation shaft." He said out loud, getting the attention of Morgana and Sakamoto.
"Right." Morgana replied as he and Sakamoto turned to the vent above the shelf. "If you go one at a time, you'll be able to squeeze through."
"All right." Sakamoto climbed up the shelf to the vent. "Just got to get this metal mesh off."
Issei knew what was coming, so he just took a step back and watched the show.
Lo and behold Sakamoto pulled the mesh and fell backwards onto the floor with a loud thud.
"Crap…" The blond muttered as he got up. "Do you think the enemy heard us?"
"If we leave we don't have to find out." Issei said as he climbed up and pulled up the mesh up as well.
"Why are you bringing that?" Sakamoto asked as he once again climbed up the shelf.
"Cover our tracks." Issei explained. "If they don't think we got out of the castle, they'll spend more time inside, while we run for safety."
"Uhh." Sakamoto looked around the room, seeing the mess he had created when fell.
"Hopefully, they'll think we tried and failed to get the mesh off. Then ran somewhere else." The brown haired teen turned to the cat. "You coming?"
"I still have something I need to do." Morgana replied. "So we're separating here."
"All right." Issei said after a second, He motioned to Sakamoto to go first. After the blond made his way through, Issei went through himself. After replacing the mesh he turned to Morgana again.
"I want to apologize for how I acted earlier." Issei told him. "And if you come to the real world, come find me. I'll get you something for helping us out."
"It's fine." Morgana nodded his oversized head, a smile on his face. "And I wouldn't say no to some sushi."
Issei gave a smile back as he turned and went through the shaft, leaving cat on his own.
"They may be useful." Morgana said to himself. "Especially the brunette, if I'm right about this."
So this is chapter 4.
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