A/n Hello everyone.
A long time has passed since I last updated. To be honest, due to my situation and lack of time I doubted I will ever do that again. But, after allowing some time to pass, I felt this would be a bad path to take. So i figured I will post this update along with new chapter.
I feel you deserve explanation, if you still clicked on the story after such a long time.
You see, my mum's in poor health lately. Not to the point she needs to be constantly hospitalized, but she needs to visit it at least once a week,and I need to provide care for her to the point I had to quit my full-time job and stay at home, taking just on-line job opportunities. I had to quit school too, and, due to all of that, writing was, and still is, the last thing on my mind.
I love writing those stories, but until the situation gets better, I cannot say when I'll update again. I have almost a chapter written for my other story, so I should upload it next week. But after that, I can't promise that I will keep updating every week or two. I will try my best to do that, but until the situation gets better, I may not be able to post regularly. I hope you understand.
OK, enough of the sad stuff. Hope you enjoy this continuation of "Tales of an Evil Mind." :)
"SHIDOOOOO!" Ren screamed, not controlling himself, and ran out of Cafe Leblanc "SHIDOOOOO!"
Sojiro ran after him, shocked with his outburst, and some people looked at him as if the boy was mentally unstable (well, he kind of was.)
He was shaking with fury. All of the painful memories that he managed to block until now... why, why did it happen to him? What did he do wrong?
The trial... Why did everyone take this bastard's Shido's side?
No.
This has been a conspiracy. It was rigged against him from the very beginning. It had to be. He needed to do something. He needed to...
"Hello, Joker." A cat's head suddenly sticked out from his backpack "Did you really think..."
The next thing Morgana knew, he was hanging from a nearby tree, his tail broken in eight places and tied like a bow to one of the branches.
Ren did not have time for that right now. He needed... He needed to blow some steam. Luckily, he knew just the place that would help.
LINE BREAK.
"What the...?" Ren asked furiously, looking at the state of the place. "You have got to be kidding me!"
The blackjack tables were covered in dust. The croupiers have long left the poker tables. The lights were out and the letter "I" has fallen down from the word CASINO hanging by the entrance. The small, black screens now constantly showed the word "Defeat."
Desperately, Ren tried turning on one of the slot machines.
"HEY!" He heard a voice and turned around. He saw a lone Shadow glaring at him "Can't you read, kid!? it says out of order!"
"But i need to-"
Suddenly, a terrible sound erupted somewhere in the halls of the casino. It sounded truly outlandish, and even if Ren tried to act all tough, he had to admit he had goosebumps. Whatever made the noise was not human.
Rapidly, corners of Ren's eyes detected movement above him. He looked up and saw a ghost.
The ghost was standing one floor above him, dressed all in black and spasming hysterically.
"WHY!?" The ghost howled "WHY MAKOTO, WHY, WHY, WHY!?"
Just then it occured to Ren that this ghost is in fact, not a ghost, but simply a terrible loking woman. Her hair were grey and blotched, her make-up blurred and she had visible wrinkles on her face. She was dressed in all-black clothing, similar to a funeral costume.
"There, there, Sae-san." A brown-haired boy hugged her "It will be allright."
The boy had some sort of black-goo substance leaking from him. Ren already killed Akechi, so he suspected something was off.
He coughed audibly. Both Akechi and Sae looked at him, noticing him just now.
"Stand back, Sae-san." The Akechi-lookalike pushed past her "I'll save you! I am merely a sidekick of yours, anyway."
But before he could do anything, Sae ran downstairs, and she kneeled in front of Ren and grabbed his knees.
"Please!" She cried "Please! I'll do anything! You can have my treasure, just give me back Makoto!"
Ren smiled to himself. He was actually starting to enjoy this far more then the dumb slot machines.
"No can do, Nijima-san." He answered calmly "Makoto is out doing an honest job and has my full respect for it. Meanwhile, you run some sort of casino-scam. Everyone in the Metaverse knows you're cheating. I won't let you corrupt her again. She's is better off without you."
Nijima pounded the ground with her fists, crying her heart out.
"PLEASE!" She tried again "You can have this casino!"
"Wait, seriously!?... Then again, staying here and watching you torture yourself is so much more fun."
"You better watch the way you speak to Sae-san." Cognitive Akechi looked at him dangerously.
"Oh, what are you gonna do?" Ren mocked him "Sidekick?"
"That's right, I'm just an irritating little brat and helping Sae-san is the best I could do in my life. Without her, I'd be noone." The detective nodded his head "That's why I will stop you and your evil plan here and now. Sae-san!? SAE SAN, WHAT'S WRONG!?"
"I think a knife's stuck in her chest, dude." Ren pointed out.
Akechi looked at her, then looked at the black-haired boy with terror, which quickly changed into fury.
"YOU... HOW... WHEN!?"
The detective tried to grab him, but soon everything started shaking. One of the slot machines exploded with money, and started a chain reaction. Ren quickly ran to that place and started collecting thousands of yen.
Akechi tried going after him, but one of the golden chandeliers fell off at this very moment, crushing him on the spot.
"Goro!?" The black haired boy looked at him "Goro, are you all right? Shake the chandelier if you can hear me!"
Unfortunately, Akechi did not shake the chandelier.
"Hm, guess it's time to update my records, then."
Feeling he doesn't have a lot of time left, Ren equipped his phone and decided to cheat his way out of the palace once again.
He ignored a little girl's voice that was calling for help and looked around, taking one last look at what he's done.
"Man, Morgana would be so angry right now." He smiled as he pressed the exit button.
Sudden heavy metal guitar riffs cut his thoughts. He realized he's not home yet. The teenager looked down at his phone, and surprised, discovered that it played a video of badly animated characters shooting at each other and even worse animation of explosions, sometimes interrupted by words and sentences like „Mega", „Ultra-realistic graphics" or „No 1. game."
„The hell?" He tried pressing the back button, but only got notification that said „Advertisement: skip in 20...19...18..."
Something cracked and the boy looked up, widening his eyes.
„That does it!" he yelled as he jumped from another falling chandellier „I'm going to kill that old creep!"
LINE BREAK.
At approximately the same time, a young couple looked in surprise at the unusual decor someone hanged on the tree.
"Dear God." The female whispered "What is this? We have to help that poor kitten!"
The male puffed.
„Hold on, my dear." He replied „Perhaps it was placed there for a reason."
„You think so?" The girl looked at her boyfriend.
"Well, it's only a month or so until christmas, and it's getting more and more popular. Maybe it's one of those christmas decorations you can see in the Western TV?"
The couple observed the struggling catfor a few moments until the female sighed.
"I swear, these people in the West have the weirdest traditions."
They both walked away, as Morgana meowed at them hysterically.
LINE BREAk
"One million fourty thousand yen... One million fifty thousand yen..." Ren was sitting in his room, counting the money he earned during his latest heist. "Oh, that reminds me..."
He opened the notebook Sojiro gave him on the first page, half of which was taken by colorful, carefully drawn and decorated letters that formed the words „Mental Shutdowns" and carefully wrote the name of Sae Nijima below the names of Suguru Kamoshida, Goro Akechi and Crash Bandicoot.
He skipped the second page, which, in turn, was titled „Times I've killed Morgana". The rest of the page was torn out, as were four next ones. On the first page that wasn't destroyed, Ren drew yet another heart next to the pink number 5 and began wondering. With just four of the cat's incarnations left, he needed to start thinking how to celebrate that glorious day.
He turned to the next page and placed another short, horizontal line next to 37 previous ones, and scratched it with a vertical one. He did not care about the names of Mementos targets or civilian Shadows, but still, he was quite proud of what he did for living, and this was a nice way to commemorate that.
He closed the notes and remembered to hand it later to Sojiro for review. Although he probably will have to read the notes out loud again, as for some reason the old man outright refused to read the diary lately.
For the first time in a long time, Ren felt relaxed. He decided to turn on the radio.
"... and that's why I decided to start a hunger strike in protest of how the Cambodian government treats the textile workers."
Ren's excitement faltered away as he heard the familiar voice.
"But, Shido-san, why would you opt for such gesture?"
"I think it's only fair to fight against the inequality and poverty in the world. We need to help the weak, and..."
Ren switched the radio off. Shido's words have made him feel sick to his stomach. How could anyone believe such garbage? What if someone like him would become the president? Shido was insane and he needed to be stopped.
The more Ren thought about the politician, the more angry he became.
"SHIDOOOOO!" Ren screamed, not controlling himself, and ran out of Cafe Leblanc "SHIDOOOOO!"
Sojiro ran after him, shocked with his outburst, and some people looked at the boy as if he was mentally unstable (well, he kind of was.)
He was shaking with fury. All of the painful memories that he managed to block until now... why, why did it happen to him? What did he do wrong?
The trial... Why did everyone take this bastard's Shido's side?
Why was he feeling like he's done all this three times today?
No.
This has been a conspiracy. It was rigged against him from the very beggining. It had to be. He needed to do something.
He really could not shake that awful deja-vu feeling. He needed to...
„Joker!" He did not pay attention to the meowing cat as he passed him „Joker, return here and untie me! Untie me right now! JOKER!"
Ren did not have time for that right now. He needed... He needed to blow some steam. Luckily, he knew just the place that would help.
LINE BREAK
„Keep the sake coming. Ladies!" Kaneshiro was laying in a bed next to a fan. Two young girls were sitting next to him, and two more were constantly filling his glass with all kinds of alcohol. „Wow, what a day..."
And what a day that was indeed. Not only his gang took control over Shibuya, which now basically meant he controlled the entire Tokyo, but according to the news report, prosecutor Sae Nijima, which was investigating him back before she was placed in a high-risk solitary confinement in Tokyo's psychiatric ward, has suffered a mental shutdown. He didn't know who the perpetrator was, but he knew he was indebted to the guy.
„Yo, Junya." a young man was suddenly standing above him. „How's it going?"
„Amamiya?" The man raised his eyebrows „What are you-"
„Man, what a day." The boy grabbed one of the girls „Give me that bottle!"
„Amamiya, aren't you forgetting something?"
„Oh?" Ren asked after taking a solid sip of gin „What do you mean, Junya? Anyway, you won't believe whom I..."
„Enough!" Kaneshiro interrupted him and sat up „Kid, I like you but you're going to far. How dare you call me by my first name, no honorifics included?"
„Oh? And how, may I ask, are you better than me?"
„Are you serious? Have you forgotten who's the boss here!?"
„Wait..." Ren took another sip „You meant that's you? Yeah, that's kinda why I'm here."
The gangster raised his eyebrows
„What do you mean?"
„It's funny whom you can find when walking through Shinjuku at nights... Tell me, Junya, why do you claim you're from Tokyo? You grew up in Yokohama, didn't you?"
„How do you know?" The man paled suddenly.
„I honestly found out by accident." The teenager smiled „To think the one I ordered in Shibnjuku last night turned out to be your mother."
„MY MOM IS IN SHINJUKU!?" The man stood up and looked around „OH, SHIT! OH, SHIT! OH, SHIT!
„Calm down, Junya !" Ren also stood up „She's here right now, you can finally set things right!"
„OH SHIT!"
„There you are, you brat!" A middle-aged woman appeared by Ren „What do you think you're doing!? How could you left your family!?"
„Mom... Dad..."
„Oh, stop it!" The woman yelled „All your father told you was, quote: if you want that console, go to work! And you start a crime syndicate opposing to ours!?"
„Let me explain, mom!"
„No explanations!" the woman grabbed his ear and started pulling him toward the exit „UGH! Just you wait until your father finds out about this!"
„NO!" kaneshiro begged „No, please, don't tell papa Kazuma! I'll be good now! I'll be goooood!"
„SILENCE!" the woman yelled „I swear I will hit you if you don't stop, or my last name's not Kiryu!" she looked back at the stunned people in the room „Please, forgive me.I realize my son can be quite bratty when he wants something. You're all free to good. Ren-kun, thank you again. The night was wonderful.
„Wait, what night!?" Kaneshiro's eyes widened as he looked at Ren „Mom, you didn't-"
„SILENCE!" She smacked him „And don't you dare telling your father about this!"
The woman left, still pulling Kaneshiro by the ear. The girls looked at each other.
„Well, looks like we're free now." The first one said
„I never suspected the Kaneshiro empire would fall so suddenly." The other one added.
„What's going on?"
Ren turned around as he heard the familiar voice.
„It's over now, Makoto." He replied „Kaneshiro is gone."
„GONE!?" She jumped in shock and gaped „But... does that mean that..."
„That's right." Ren nodded „I got rid of him."
Makoto could not believe it. She looked at the teenager, but his beautiful, deep black eyes didn't indicate he was lying even a bit.
She looked at the boy with awe. He... he did it.
Sure, he betrayed her and sold her out to Kaneshiro in exchange for twenty five yen he didn't even took.. She was forced to work as a prostitute and serve horny, 50-something year old males...
But that didn't count. Not anymore.
He came for her. He saved her.
Her prince on a white horse.
She could not help herself. She ran towards him, extending her arms, and soon she was drowing in his sweet, sweet embrace. Ren's hug felt different than the ones Daisuke Takanashi used to give her when she was with him back in the first semester of the first year.
As his strong, manly arms closed in around her, she did it again. She stared into his eyes, and his eyes looked like an endless void of space; like a black veil of eternal peace. She felt the tears streaming down her face.
„Th-thank you..." Makoto whispered.
She felt the warm touch of his fingers as he gently carressed her hair. She wanted to cry all the sorrows in the world away on his buff, muscular chest.
„It's okay now, Makoto."
She looked at his face and felt something... something she didn't feel when she was with that strange bloke from class 3-B. The boy's cute face was gleaming in the dark, and Makoto felt Her lips started moving before she knew it, but she didn't do anything to stop them. She just let the words flow.
„Ren... I-i think... I think that I lov-"
Suddenly, Dojima and Adachi entered the room.
„Except that prostitution is illegal so I had to report you." Ren spoke, breaking the hug. „I am so very sorry, Makoto."
„WHAT!?" She backed away, and looked at the two men „Report me? Is this the police!?"
„Oh, scared now?." Dojima mocked „Didn't think about the consequences when you've been breaking the law."
Adachi grabbed her and put the silver cuffs on her hands.
Makoto looked at Ren. This could not be happening again. This was not supposed to happen! He was supposed to be with her forever, carrying her through the hardships of life on his muscular back...
„To think." Ren spoke „Your late sister had an honest job and my full respect for it. But you? You ran some kind of prostitution ring. It's a good thing you won't be able to corupt her again. She was better off without you. Too bad she passed away."
„PASSED AWAY!?" Makoto yelled „What do you..."
„OK, that's it, La Diablita." Dojima interrupted her „We'll talk at the police station."
„Wait! Wait! What did he mean by-"
„Let's go." Dojima pushed her „Rest assured, you won't be coming out of jail for a looong time."
The police officers (and Makoto) passed the other girls and Yakuza members, ignoring all of them. Younger Nijima was all they wanted. Ren turned away from them and looked up towards the sky.
„Well, Sae-san." He whispered „I rescued Makoto. Your turn now..."
„Excuse me?" One of the mafia members raised his hand.
„What!?" Ren turned around. „Can't you see that I'm praying!?"
„I'm sorry, Amamiya-sensei, but... what are we supposed to do now, exactly?"
Ren blinked a few times, then smiled. Oh, he was ready to face Shido now.