4/14/26
"...Hey, Genkei. What's wrong? Shouldn't you be in school?"
"I-ah-Uh-um-I need to... well, hide. I-I'm being followed..."
"Followed? What do you mean?"
"Um... A creepy gay guy is coming after me. He looks, like, 30 years old... he tried to get me to come with him, and he chased me when I started to run. I don't feel safe... and I know he saw me enter the area. I want you to help me disappear..."
"Disappear?"
"...Um... I... I know your secret. Y-You can disappear. I want to disappear as well."
"...Well, it's not disappearing. But if you live with Kanna, I guess it was only a matter of time until you found out. Fine, I'll help you disappear for a few hours. Does the school know what's going on?"
"They wouldn't listen... It's better for them to think I'm being truant. ...Oh shit, there he is, quick, quick, quick!"
"Oh, there you are! Why don't you two handsome gentlemen come back to my house?"
"...Follow me."
"Come on, come on, come on, get him away from me!"
"BEGINNING-NAVIGATION."
"Wh-Wh-What... the... hell..."
"Welcome to your landlord's heart."
"His... heart? A place like this? ...When did you change?"
"It's a long story. We'll just hang out here for a few hours."
"Th-Thank you... So, what exactly is this place...? How did you find it?"
"It's a long story, but I'll explain what I can. Be prepared for the ridiculous."
"...And that about does it. Lancelot over here's like my own guardian angel. The other four have these, as well."
"I wouldn't call myself an angel."
"Wow... Just, wow... If I were anywhere else, I'd call you insane. ...How long have we been in here?
"I don't know. Lancelot, keep Yamato company. I'll check to see if the stalker is still around."
"Of course."
Robin left the palace and jogged about to see if the creepy man was still around.
"...Nothing here... here... here... ...Wait a minute."
"ROBIN, EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"
"...Well, shit."
"We were w-worried about y-you. Why d-did you go b-b-back in without us, and while t-tired at t-that?"
"Both of you, calm down. I have an expla-"
"You asked for us to not go in today! What was so important that you couldn't bring us?!"
"Kanna, I-"
"Answer me, you damn womanizer!"
"Kanna, shut the fuck up!"
"...So your sword is called Arondight?"
"My blade is a part of a set of four. There's Excalibur, which was the sword of my liege, King Arthur. Arondight is the antithesis of Excalibur, given to me by my stepmother, the Lady of the Lake. Galatine is Sir Gawain's sword. The best way I can put it into words is that Galatine is Excalibur's younger brother. Then there's Laevetein, a blade forged by faeries and given to Sir Percival. Excalibur's blade was one of wind. Galatine's, ice. Arondight's, fire. Laevetein's, lightning."
"When were you alive?"
"I was never bothered to keep records of years. Even I am unaware of just how long I have spent in my formless, thoughtless slumber. It indeed makes me wonder in my former brothers in arms suffered the same fate."
"Former brothers in arms? Did you have a falling-out?"
"I... suppose you could say that. Lust had filled my heart in regards to King Arthur's wife. I slept with her. And every day, my heart was filled with anguish and guilt, but I was too weak to surpass my human nature. King Arthur found out that the queen was having an affair when she gave birth to my son, although he did not know about my involvement. He sentenced her to death."
"..."
"As I watched over the execution, I thought that maybe I would be able to move past my lust. I felt a great sorrow, and guilt had pierced my heart more than ever before. I believed that after my period of grieving was over, I would prepared to be loyal to the King again. But then, I did something that, to this day, I am disgusted by. Gawain's brothers were in charge of the execution... I slaughtered them. All of them. I butchered them like pigs and fled with the queen and my infant son in my arms. In the aftermath, a civil war started. King Arthur lost control of a part of the kingdom, and I suspect the adultery to have played a role. Gawain left the knights to enact vengeance on me on the behalf of his brethren. Percival wasn't present, but I have no doubts that he was deeply wounded by my betrayal. I would give the world for a chance to apologize to them."
"That sounds like it was pretty painful. Not just for them, but for you."
"Do not speak to me as if I was a victim in the matter. The entirety of it was my fault. King Arthur was killed in the battle of Camlann. Gawain died unable to appease the tormented spirits of his brothers. Percival disappeared after finding the holy grail's location, his fate is a mystery. I could have prevented all three, had I simply demonstrated more self-control. I am a disgrace to the Lady of the Lake. A disgrace to the Knights of the Round Table. A disgrace to Camelot! A disgrace to my very bloodline!"
"Lancelot, please listen to me. We all make mistakes. It's in our nature as human beings. We always have the capacity to mess up worse than we did. Think about it this way. What you did was horrible. But it's better than if you took the throne for yourself and ruled Camelot as a tyrant. None of us are immune to it. All of us have the potential to be the world's next worst person on earth. And inevitably, somebody will be the next Hitler or Bin Laden. ...You probably don't know who those are, but long story short, they ordered the deaths of thousands upon millions of innocent people. Not just responsible for, but ordered. And what's important is that you didn't stay sunken to the level you did. Even if it's too late to apologize to the other knights in person, you can still do so through your actions."
"...Thank you, young one. I shall take your opinion into account. ...Lord Robin appears to be angry at the moment."
"Angry?"
"He appears to be arguing with Lady Inzan. The man who ran after you appears to be gone, however."
"...Uh-oh. How do I get out of here?"
"You have a device made of metal, correct?"
"Do you mean a phone? Yes, I do. ... Oh, I see it. Thank you."
"Kanna, for fuck's sake, shut up and listen to me!"
"Both of you, be quiet!"
"...Yamato?"
"Don't fight, he's here because of me. I saw you guys disappear into the Landlord's palace the same day the Striker attacked you. On my way to school, I started being chased by a man. I was afraid that he'd do something very illegal to me, and I had Llewellyn-san's number in my phone, so I called him. We went into the palace to hide from him, and he caught me up with what you've been doing."
"...Seriously? You couldn't be bothered to let Eiji and I know? We were worried about you, especially given that you said you were tired today!"
"Look, I'm sorry. He said he wanted to meet me at his house ASAP, so I just went there. Entering the palace wasn't planned."
"Ugh... Well, now we have four extra classes worth of lectures to make up now. Robin, come with us. We'll spend some time studying at the library, and discuss what we'll do."
"Kanna, wait."
"What is it, Genkei?"
"Let me help."
"...What?"
"I want to help you. Palaces sound pretty terrifying, but I want to help you out."
"No, that's out of the question."
"But I-"
"Yamato, you have your whole life ahead of you! I won't let you throw it away!"
"...Yes, Ma'am."
"... Yamato, please. Don't take me the wrong way. I just want you to be safe. The rest of us, we don't have a choice. We're the only people who can enter palaces. If we won't do it, nobody else can. But you have your whole life ahead of you. Stay in school, go to college, make a name for yourself. Don't throw your life away on this. We didn't have the choice; you do. ...Let's go."
The three walked away. Yosei walked into his house and called the school. After he explained himself, he sat down and opened the palace navigator.
"...If this is how it works... Yamato Genkei."
"Candidate Found."
"...Prison."
"Candidate Found."
Robin: Yosei, Professor.
Yosei: Sorry, in class, can't talk.
Zuan: What is it, Robin? I'm on break.
Zuan: If anything, I'm simply glad you're alright.
Robin: Sorry about disappearing. Yamato got in trouble, had to help out.
Robin: Yes, he knows about palaces.
Robin: No, the visit wasn't planned.
Robin: Yes, Kanna and I started fighting.
Zuan: I see. Is something wrong?
Robin: Whaddaya mean.
Zuan: You're not usually this curt. Did something happen?
Robin: Sorry. Kinda pissed at Kanna right now.
Robin: Blew up on me for helping Genkei.
Robin: As if the trip was planned.
Robin: And as it turns out I hate being yelled at.
Robin: Stresses me out to all hell.
Robin: And when I'm stressed I drink.
Robin: Three sheets to the wind right now.
Zuan: Take some time to rest and collect your thoughts. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Hopefully, both you and Kanna will have calmed down by then.
Robin: Kanna's calm; I'm the one who's drunk and pissed off right now!
"He's a lost cause..."
The school bell rung, and Zuan heard students leaving the lecture halls. He called Yosei, and spoke.
"Yosei. Do you have a moment?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Your next class is free, right? Do you mind running over to his location and driving him home? He's drunk. And angry. I get the feeling he'll explain."
"Alright, hopefully I can do it in an hour. I'll see you at home, professor."
"Ugh... my head aches..."
Yamato flopped onto his bed and began reading "The Dwarf" aloud to himself.
"...As the ginormous spider let out a bloodcurdling scream, it fell through its web to the forest floor below, dead. 'Loffey! Are you alright?!' Ileac shouted as he ran to his wounded comrade. 'This venom... the spider bit you!' 'It's too late for me. Leave me and destroy the locket!' 'I won't leave you here. We left together, and we'll end this together.'"
"Shaaaaa..."
"GAH!"
Yamato dropped the book as he screamed and turned his head every which way in a paranoid panic.
"...I guess it's nothing..."
Yamato picked the book back up and continued reading. As he poured into the book, he heard the voice again.
"Wryyyyyy..."
"Wh-Who's there?!"
Nothing.
"...Am I going insane...?"
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.
"...If someone's not there, I'm calling my psychiatrist..."
Yamato walked over to the door and opened it slowly. He saw Yosei standing there with a book in his hand.
"...Um, you're Orochi-san, right?"
"Yeah. I heard about what happened today from Robin. He was not happy, to say the least. But I noticed that you had a ton of books from the last time I visited, so I thought I'd grab you one I thought you'd like. I'm not too familiar with you, though, so sorry if it's not your cup of tea."
"Oh, thanks. ...This looks pretty cool, thanks."
"Now, what do we do about Kawaguchiya?"
"Wait, what?! Who said that?!"
"...Yamato, calm down. One moment. ...You heard that?"
"You heard it too? Oh man, I thought I was going crazy...Wait, hold on, who even said that?!"
"...That was Arngrim, my Persona... How can you hear him outside of the palace?"
"I don't know! Soon after I exited my palace, I've been hearing noises with a similar dis-"
"Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait, what? Exited YOUR palace?"
"Yeah. I searched through my heart to find the keywords, and entered. I walked around for a while, but it began to feel like an earthquake started, so I ran away and left. After I got back, I heard a voice with a similar distortion. I almost had a heart attack. I only heard it twice, but-"
"...Ushaaaaaaa..."
"GAH! ...Did you hear it just now?!"
"Yeah... Yamato, did you awaken to a persona...?"
"Uh... What do you mean?"
"Follow me a minute. I need to see this."
"Uh, okay..."
"...I can't believe it."
"I know, right? I didn't expect to be put into this."
A mask had manifested on Yamato's face during the transition between the palace and the real world. The mask took the form of a black, metal helmet with gold ornaments. The steel mask covered all but his mouth and chin, and the rest of his head was covered in black cloth. From the back of the mask extended black steel that angled down, arranged in plates. Connecting all of it was pins and nails of gold, and a small button appeared on the left side of his mask. However, his appearance had not changed otherwise.
"...You really did awaken to a persona. But then... Why didn't the rest of your clothes change?"
"I... genuinely have no clue. My persona also appears to be very strange in comparison to, at the very least, Lancelot. Take a look."
Yamato pressed the button on his helmet and the mask flung backwards, locking itself at the top of his helmet. Behind Yamato manifested something that resembled a deep blue viscous blob. However, unlike the other personas, it appeared to flicker, and almost seemed like it faded in and out of existence.
"I have no idea what it's name is... I actually have no idea what it's supposed to be. All I know is, I have it. I didn't even hear it speak until it gave me the spook of my life a little bit ago."
"Why didn't you tell anybody?"
"Um... Kanna... told me to stay out of the palace business."
"Well, now that you've got a Persona that speaks without your knowledge, that might be difficult to hide..."
"I know, I know... But after I heard what happened with Takeshita, I just wanted to see if I could do the same thing to myself, and rid myself of my demons... After I entered, the mask appeared on my face, but it kept flickering in and out."
"Very odd..."
"Yeah. I can't even use anything with it. Robin said that we can each use magic that we automatically seem to know, but I can't get mine to do anything. I tried searching my brain, nothing. I tried the spells he mentioned. Dia, Agi, Rakukaja, Taruna, Kouha, Gry- none of it works. I even tried making up words. But I just can't get him to do anything. ... If he even IS a he."
"I believe I know what this is."
"Huh? You do?"
"He is awakened to his persona... but at the same time, he is not."
"What do you mean-WOAH!"
The blob suddenly lunged toward Yosei. Yamato stumbled back and tried to recall his Persona, but it didn't work.
"Wh-What the hell is going on?!"
"Yosei, I am able to take form by using your shadow as a vessel! Yamato's persona has been called forth, but it has no shadow to claim as its body! Since he is not, in a sense, his own persona, it's acting on it's own impulses instead of Yamato's! He's powerless to control it! He cannot even recall it!"
"Then what are you two waiting for?! Take it down!"
"Yamato! It is still your persona! Any damage to it will also be applied to you! If we do enough damage to force it to withdraw, we could very well kill you!"
"I don't care! Do it! I don't have anything to work for anyways!"
"Yamato, think about Kanna! She-"
"DO IT! SAVE YOURSELF!"
"YAMATO, I WON'T-"
"DO IT!"
The blob grew and moved to crush Yosei and Arngrim. Yosei stared at Yamato, and closed his eyes, overcome with guilt.
"...YAMATO, I'M SORRY! KOUHA!"
"HAAAAAH!"
Yosei:
Moon has reached level 1. Yamato Genkei.
Kanna:
Lovers has been temporarily reversed. Robin Ó Llewellyn.
?: Moon.
As of right now, nothing of Yamato's persona is unknown. However, it is very aggressive and operates in complete defiance of Yamato. It's only half-awakened, not given a shadow to take form in. As such, takes the form of a translucent blue blob. Unable to speak, unable to think, and acts based on its primal instincts to kill.
Sorry that this one is so short. I've hit a blank earlier this week and I'm still recovering somewhat. Hopefully I can get back into the groove I was in in summer soon. Please leave any suggestions or criticisms you have. Stay safe.