Chapter 6:
Akira walks out of the office with Ryuji, followed closely by Mishima. Akira can barely hear anything save for a ringing in his ears. Expelled. Wait, not yet. He said he'd bring it up at the next board meeting. When is that?
"I can't believe this asshole is getting away with this!" Ryuji says, regaining Akira's attention.
"He won't. We've got to find Morgana," Akira replies.
"Oh right, we have that!" Ryuji says.
"Let's go somewhere more private," Akira suggests. "Morgana is likely in the courtyard if he's not still in my desk."
"Actually, I'm down here. But yes, let's go to the courtyard," Morgana says standing between Akira's feet.
"We can't waste any time," Ryuji says as he pounds a vending machine. "We gotta go to that other world and beat the shit out of that asshole!"
"We're only going to steal his treasure but nonetheless, we've gotta do something," Morgana says. "Judging by how that went in there you two have made up your minds about my proposal earlier?"
Both nod their heads. They had been texting about it non-stop for the past two days and had made up their minds before everything had happened today anyway.
"We'll take the risk of the mental shutdown," Akira tells Morgana.
"Then it's settled. Since none of us have ever done this before—"
"You've never done this before?!" Ryuji exclaims.
"Did I ever say that I had? People know how to do things they've never actually done before your moron—"
"Is it true you're getting expelled?" a voice says behind them. All parties turn to see her, Takamaki-san standing there. She looks terrible, with her bloodshot eyes and her disheveled hair and clothes. She looks like she's been gone day instead of hours.
XXXX
Her question catches them off guard. Ann doesn't know why she's here, not really. They told her they couldn't let her in while the doctors worked on Shiho and said they'd call her when they knew more. Ann hailed a taxi back to school only to find out the news from some students as she walked in the building. They're just staring at her, the two of them and some stray cat on the table, she needs to say something.
"Everyone's talking about it…" she says.
"That asshole's at it again," Sakamoto-kun mutters to himself. "Did you really come all this way just to tell us that?"
Ann is taken aback momentarily by this comment. She expected them to be secretive, she was not expecting hostile.
"No, if you're going after Kamoshida, I want in," she says. The look of shock on their faces gives her another moment to speak, "I can't just sit back and do nothing after what happened to Shiho!"
"This has nothing to do with you, don't butt your head into this," Sakamoto-kun tells her.
"But it does! Shiho's my—"
"Ok."
XXXX
All heads turn to look at Akira.
"WHAT?!" Ryuji and Morgana both exclaim. "Dude, this isn't how things are supposed to go. We can't just bring her in.
"We can," Akira replies, "and we are."
"Akira," Morgana begins, "she doesn't even have a persona. It's dangerous even if you do have one! We can't bring her in."
"Ryuji and I got ours when we needed it, and it was full of emotional turmoil. I think she'll be fine."
"B-but we're not even sure if that's how Personas work!" Morgana continues.
"Then I suppose we'll find out," Akira says turning to Ann. "Meet us in the alley out in front of school once the last period is over."
"Dude, I don't think this is right," Ryuji says.
"What are you guys talking about?" Ann asks.
"Trust me," Akira replies. "She'll be fine."
XXXX
Akira stands with Ryuji and Morgana, waiting for Ann to arrive. There's no talking, the events of the day have ruined the chance for small talk. Akira keeps playing Shiho falling, over and over again in his head. Her body hitting the ground, the small bounce it had when it did. His stomach has been tight all day, and that wasn't even counting everything with Kamoshida. He doesn't doubt that Kamoshida will follow through with that threat.
"When's the next board meeting?" he asks Ryuji.
"Shit man, I dunno. Couple of weeks maybe?" he replies.
So, we've got a couple of weeks to fight our way through this castle and steal the treasure of whatever Kamoshida holds dear. Just as Akira is about to speak again, Ann rounds the corner of the alley and meets with them.
"Good, this is the place," she says. "So, what are we planning? Are we going to mess with his car? Find out where he lives and tail him for dirt or something. I'm sure if we had evidence of him doing something, we could…" she stops speaking. The two of them pull out their phones and begin typing.
Kurusu-kun looks over at her, "Are you sure you're ready to get back at Kamoshida? This isn't something you'll be able to back out of."
"Yes, I'm ready," Ann says. The words were out of her mouth before she even thought of them, but they were true. Kurusu-kun gives her a small smile and presses his phone.
XXXX
As he does so, Ann feels a piercing stabbing sensation in her head. As soon as it appears however, it is gone. Ann opens her eyes to see the two boys dressed in strange outfits and the world covered in a purple haze. As the haze clears Ann sees that the sky is a dark magenta with large clouds moving very quickly. But, that all pales to the school.
The school is a castle, complete with drawbridge and everything. Ann makes her way over to the lowered drawbridge just to see if it's all actually real. As her foot taps the wood, she's convinced. She doesn't know why it convinced her exactly, but her mind is made up. This is real. A bipedal cat walks up behind Ann and taps her leg.
"Are you alright Lady Ann?" it asks.
Ann just stares at it. It's a cat, with a large head and a handkerchief and mask on. The two boys walk up next to her as well.
"For the record, I still think this is a bad idea," Sakamoto-kun says. He looks so strange with that biker outfit and skull mask on.
"Noted," Kurusu-kun replies. "Are you alright Takamaki-san?"
Ann continues to stare. At the boys. At the cat. The castle. Everything is so strange, and it all seemed to happen at the push of a button.
"Ann," she gets out. "Call me Ann."
"Alright well you know I'm Ryuji," Ryuji says, "he's Akira, and that's Morgana." Ryuji says this pointing to the cat.
"What is this place?" Ann asks them all.
"It's how we're going to deal with Kamoshida," Morgana says. "It's called the metaverse, think of it like a parallel reality alongside our own. Here, a person's true self can manifest and take whatever form it takes in that persons' heart. Since Kamoshida sees himself as the king of the castle in the school, his heart has created this palace in the metaverse. Our plan is to get the root of his desires, the treasure of the palace, and take it. In theory this should take away Kamoshida's desires in reality and he'll have a change of heart."
Ann nods in understanding. It may be a talking cat, but at least what it's talking about is making sense. Sort of. She continues trying to make sense of all of this but as she stands here it gets easier every minute.
"I need a minute," she tells them.
"Ok, just don't go too far," Ryuji tells her as she begins to walk across the drawbridge toward some bushes.
XXXX
"She'll be fine," Akira tells Ryuji after Ann rounds the corner. The sounds of retching come from behind the bush.
"Really? Because it doesn't sound like she's fine," Ryuji retorts.
"Uh guys," Morgana says.
"Not now Morgana," Ryuji says. "we can't protect her and go after the shadows in the castle at the same time."
"She might awaken to a persona of her own. Remember ours? We were both in danger and pretty stressed and that's when they appeared. She's upset about Shiho, I'm guessing if there was a time, it's now."
"Guys," Morgana tries again.
"In a sec, dude," Ryuji interrupts. "Look I know you feel bad for her, but it won't do her any good to see the inside of the heart of the dude who likely raped her best friend and tried—"
"GUYS!" Morgana shouts.
"WHAT?!" they both shout back. As they turn to look at Morgana, they see that multiple shadows are making their way out of the castle and towards them and the bushes Ann is in. Akira begins to summon Arsene as Ryuji does the same for Captain Kidd, but more guards rush out of the castle. They're outnumbered, and they know it.
"DON'T MOVE!" one of the shadows shouts at them. The other shadows move to surround them, pointing lances at the two boys and the cat. Seems like they're focusing all their attention on us instead of Ann. If we play this right, we can get away. Akira raises his hands and nudges Ryuji to do the same.
"Listen," he whispers to Ryuji and Morgana, "King Kamoshida knows us by now, we might be able to get them to bring us to him." Ryuji and Morgana raise their hands as well as the guards surround them.
"WE'RE TAKING YOU TO KING KAMOSHIDA," another guard shouts.
"See?" Akira says to his thieves in crime.
The sound of a rock hitting the back of one of the guards' head pulls all attention to it as the guard turns around to see who threw it. Ann stands there, a mix of fury and fear in her face.
"Leave. My. Friends. Alone." She tells the shadow.
"PRINCESS!" it shouts back.
"Princess?" Akira and Ann say.
"Come with us princess, it's dangerous out here with thieves like this roaming about," the guard says as two more approach Ann.
"Hey! Get your hands off me! Where exactly do you think you're touching?" Ann struggles as two guards move to lift her off the ground but settle for just holding her upper arms forcefully.
"We'll get the princess inside to the room of lust," one guard holding Ann says. "Execute the thieves and join us. King Kamoshida is requesting all those on the main level attend the show."
The guards leading Ann begin to walk away as she screams. Akira feels a tight pain in his heart hearing her scream for their help and they drag her inside the castle and bar the door. He angles his head down towards Morgana and begins whispering.
"Do you think we can take this many?"
"Well there's three of us and five of them. Those aren't great odds, but we could conceivable do it."
"Alright then, PER-SONA!" Akira shouts.
A/N: Thanks for your reviews and words of encouragement! I won't claim to be an experienced writer and likely fall short when it comes to common mistakes. From here on out I'll be making a better effort about what you've suggested, however this chapter was written prior to this so it might still have those issues. The pace of the story will likely not differ from this current setting however I'm planning on rewriting the first 2-3 chapters as I'm unhappy with how short they are and how much they gloss over everything. Again, thank you for reading and supporting with kind words!