The Fool's Journey
Chapter Four
Return to What Is Real
4/11/20XX
Inside the Castle
"Ravage them Arsene!" Akira yelled, snapping the chains of his spirit and releasing a demonic black winged figure. The black of the wings matching the new outfit Akira wore, with crimson gloves, a gray button up and a black waist coat. "Eiha!" The word came naturally to Akira, as if he had known all along what to do.
Arsene with a wicked laugh let out pillars of darkness at one of the guards, destroying it. "Monsieur, run wild to your hearts content!" The persona called with a twisted joy. With one down Akira, as if off of instinct reached into his coat pocket and drew a knife, turning it over in his hand, a glint of hate in his eyes, he dashed towards the remaining guard and jumped impossibly high off the ground, landing on the soldier whilst cleaving his dagger through its eyehole, he then kicked off of its shoulders, and landed a few feet away from its dissipating corpse.
"God that felt good." The black and white mask reappeared on his face. Akira let out a wicked laugh and shot Kamoshida a threatening glance before walking up to him.
"N-no please!" The disgraced king cried, but before he could continue his begging Akira pressed the blade of his knife against Kamoshida's lips, in a silencing gesture. He then moved to press the tip of the knife just under his chin and forced his head up to look at him.
"You're not worth my time, you pathetic excuse of a man." Malice was present in his voice. "If you ever try to hurt Sakamoto, or I, or anyone else I will find you." Kamoshida went to respond, "Ah ah ah, I didn't give you permission to speak."
Akira, having enough fun threatening the whimpering king, struck him with the handle of the knife in the back of the head, knocking him out. He then stood and moved to help Sakamoto up. "Are you okay?"
"Holy shit." He replied breathlessly. "What the hell was that?!"
"I don't know either, but let's save the finding out for when we get out of this castle." Akira tucked the knife away into his pocket. "Can you run?"
"I can try, just don't go too fast." The blond dusted himself off once he got to his feet and stepped out of the cell.
"You're going to rot in here." Akira said coldly to the king as he picked up the cell keys and slammed it shut. "Au revoir."
They had been running through the castle for nearly twenty minutes by now. Kamoshida had clearly been discovered, as guards stormed from corridor to corridor rambling about intruders. Akira and Sakamoto hid behind a stack of crates, just out of sight of the guards. "Dude, can't you take those two? I mean you took out four back in that cell!" The blond whisper shouted.
"I can, but that could draw more attention than we need." I'm not trying to press our luck, he can't defend himself.
"You should listen to your friend blondie." A strange voice called from behind them. "But first can you please get me out of this cell?"
"WHAT THE-" Akira had clasped a hand over Sakamoto's mouth, but admittedly, he voiced what they both were thinking when they saw the cat like creature with a yellow bandana that stood in front of them, clinging to the bars of its cell.
"Good job loudmouth, you're going to bring every guard on this level down to you!" The cat reprimanded the blond.
"Can you blame me?! What the hell are you, some monster-cat?!"
"My name's Morgana, and I'm not a cat you idiot!"
"Both of you be quiet!" Akira interjected, causing immediate silence. "The guards heard his outburst; they're going to be on top of us soon."
"You have a persona, don't you?" The cat snickered. "I heard the guards mention that some kid summoned a monster and locked the king in a cell." I glint of mischief in his eye, he said, "I have one too, I can help you escape!"
"What, you mean the demon thing that exploded out of him?!"
"Yes, the persona." Morgana gave the blond a narrow eyed look.
"How do we know you ain't lying? I mean, I'm surprised he could do that, not to mention some talking monster cat!"
"Grrr I'm not a cat!" Their bickering stopped when they saw Akira fish the keys from his pocket and unlock the cell door, letting Morgana out. "Good to see you have common sense." The not-cat smiled.
Three guards rounded the corner and took a fighting stance as they spotted the teen duo and their new companion. "You assaulted king Kamoshida! I'll kill you with my own blade!"
"King? Oh trust me, that idiot's barely fit to lick boots." Morgana jumped forward. "Allow me." He smirked back at the two. "Come, Zorro!" A large black figure with a rapier burst forth from the cat, "Garu!" It sliced its rapier across the air and released a torrent of violent winds at one of the guards, ripping it apart.
"Holy shit!" Sakamoto yells out, watching the carnage.
"I can't let myself get shown up now can I?" Akira smirked and drew his knife. "Cleave them Arsene!" The black wings burst forth and ripped through the second of the three guards, the third of which changed forms into that of a pixie, and shot forth a spell towards the cat. Said cat pulled out a comically oversized curved sword, spun past the attack and took a swing at its assailant.
During the attackers attempted dodge, Akira tossed his dagger to restrict its movement backwards, as he called Arsene for yet another physical strike, tearing it asunder. The guards were finished.
"Here, you can get out through this air duct." Morgana shut the door behind them as they walked into a room next to the main hall. "The front door would bring too much attention."
"Thanks Morgana." Akira smiled and pet the fur on his head out of gratefulness. "Are you not coming with?"
"I'm looking for something in the castle. This time I don't plan on getting caught." Morgana walked towards the door. "Oh, and I should tell you, when you get back to the real world, don't engage Kamoshida."
"What? Why the hell not?! And the eff do you mean real world?!" Sakamoto kept his mouth shut on the way to safety, but now he had too many questions.
"This castle, it's how he views the school. The students are his subjects, free to punish as he pleases, with him as the king." The cat frowned. "But this isn't the real world blondie, think of it as us being inside his head. The real him, the one in the real world doesn't even know the castle exists, let alone everything that happened in the past hour."
"I… I think I get it…" The blond sighed, shoulders hunched.
"Alright, stay safe Morgana." Akira cut the tension. "We need to get going."
"Of course," the cat waved them off. "…He seems useful…"
"You have returned to the real world." Akira's phone rang out; as the two teens stood once again in the alley they entered the castle from, though back at the start.
"Well shit, I guess the cat wasn't lying." Sakamoto mumbled. "WAIT DID THAT JUST COME FROM YOUR PHONE."
Akira once again had to clasp a hand over the mouth of his friend and press him against a wall in the alley. Could he call him that, a friend? I mean I did save his life after all. "Look, this mystical bullshit has been happening to me for two days now, it freaks me out too but you can't go yelling every time something like this happens okay?" He whisper shouted at the blond, before slowly taking his hand off.
"Okay, okay… But dude it came from your phone!" He looked like he had seen a ghost.
"This stupid eyeball app keeps showing up and I keep deleting it." He showed him his phone. "And now that I think about it, I had it open before we found the castle. I don't know how it works, and I definitely didn't mean to take us there, so just, chill okay…?" Akira internally trembled, afraid that the blond would dismiss him as insane and try and get away from him as soon as possible.
"O-okay, I believe you." Never before has that statement meant so much to Akira. If only he was permitted to enjoy the feeling…
"What are you two doing outside of school?" A vaguely familiar voice called to the two teens, and upon realizing it was a cop they looked at each other with a joint "ohshit" look before turning to face him. "Oh, I know you… the kid from Yongen." He looked unamused. That's how I recognized the voice. Akira thought. "You've graduated from loitering to ditching I see."
"The loitering wasn't a crime, and this is unintentional." Akira quipped. "I'm new to the town and I don't know my way around to save my life, my friend was showing me the way to the school."
"I'll pretend to believe you just to save myself the trouble." The officer rolled his eyes. "Now scram and get to school before I change my mind."
"Yes sir." Akira grabbed Sakamoto's wrist and guided him through the alley and out of sight of the officer.
"Dude, we are so screwed when we get to school." The blond whispered. He was secretly impressed with Akira for being able to handle the situation.
"Oh trust me, I was already screwed, this is just the cherry on top."