TWEWY X Persona 5
Chapter Two
Rebel and Awaken.
*Night Before*
With a gasp, Ren re-opens his eyes.
No longer in his attic room, instead he sees above him was nothing but the abyss with chains dangling from above, clinking ominously like they were counting down to his doom. The walls were blue velvet leather, fancy on appearance yet they are bereft of class and comfort. Looking at himself, he sees he is, to his shock and bafflement, wearing a white jumpsuit with black stripes from his ankles to his collar. On his wrists are arm's length shackles, bound to him.
"Wha…where am I?", he asks quietly, sitting up.
He finds himself in what was a jail cell, small and confining, a small toilet near him with a sink and a mirror that didn't reflect. Looking at the ground he finds shackles on his ankles as well. Except it was a ball and chain on his right ankle. Then he hears a laugh, low but mischievous. Glancing up to the cell bars, decorated with chains and a small desk with a slot for food, orange light outside his cell like it was taunting him with freedom. Then he sees someone walking by and stands before him.
He thought it'd be a warden or someone with authority in this…prison, but instead, it was a child. A little girl. Until when she stepped slightly to the right, another girl stepped in front of the prisoner. Twin girls just by their looks alone, platinum blonde hair and yellow eyes, both wearing a black eye patch with the letter "V" over one of their eyes and a blue prison guard outfit.
The girl on the left has a long braid and a hat with the letters "O-Y-O-O," while the one on the right has hair buns and a hat with the letters "X-M-R-N." The letters appear to spell "OXYMORON.", for whatever reason this place could justify. They wear a brassard on their left arm. They also have matching black ties. The child on the right seems to be carrying an electric shock baton. Ren didn't need an explanation for that piece's purpose…
Each of their expression granted Ren an idea on them, the girl without the baton a very composed and calm look but the other had a small smirk on her face like she had been waiting for an inmate to arrive for a very long time. They both stand aside in sync, allowing him to see who oversaw this prison. Ahead of the three was a man sitting at his desk, but Ren sweats at the sight of him. He looks like a bizarre old man with a long nose, pointed ears, and bulging, bloodshot eyes. He wears a black suit with white gloves.
"What the hell…is this?", he asks lowly and almost timidly. The bizarre man simply offers his hand while using his other to prop up his head.
"Trickster…welcome, to my Velvet Room,", the bizarre man greets. Ren tries desperately hard to hide the disturbing look from adorning his face, the man's mad grin didn't even disappear when he greeted him. Ren grabbed the bars of his cell and shakes them but finds them sturdy and unshakable. "So, you've come to, Inmate,", greets the girl with a smirk.
"The you, in reality, is currently fast asleep,", the composed girl reveals, "You are only experiencing this as a dream.".
"A-A dream?", Ren gasped. What in the heck did he eat before he went to bed?
The more aggressive girl stomps her foot and says: "You're in the presence of our master! Stand up straight!". Ren looks up to the bizarre man, still watching him. "Welcome. I am delighted to make your acquaintance," greets the bizarre man. Deep in tone and composed yet not as empty as the girl, "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter". Ren shakes his head, not remotely delighted to make this man acquaintance and wishing the other him from reality would wake up and get him out of this nightmare.
"W-Who are you? Where am I!? And why am I in jail!?", Ren asks, shaking his bars. The bizarre man raised his hand casually, showing off this place. "This is the Velvet Room. A room that only those who are bound by a "contract" may enter," he explained, "I am Igor, the master of this place. Remember it well". "Oh don't worry, the nightmares in the coming days will help me remember your name!" panics the black-haired youth as he clenched the bars tightly.
Igor begins to tap his fingers in a sequence on the table, watching Ren. "I summoned you here, to speak of important matters," he starts, "It involves your life as well". Ren begins the shake and rattles the bars, desperation rushing through his body as he tries to break free. "Let me out of here!" he demands. The snarky girl then slams the shock baton against his cell, sparking electricity upon the metal rods, scaring the boy to back away.
"Know your place, Inmate! Who do you think you're talking to!?" she shouts. Ren backs away but Igor hums. "Still, this is a surprise…" he remarks, "The state of this room reflects the state of your heart". Ren looks back at the pointy nose man and approached the steel bars again, looking around to see there were cells like his, but they were empty. Three levels all in a circle yet bar his jail cell, they were untouched, and even from here, he couldn't sense any life had been present before him.
"To think a prison would appear as such", Igor says. "Hold on, a prison? Reflecting my heart? What's that supposed to mean?", Ren asked. Igor looks back at him and remarks: "You are indeed a prisoner of fate. Soon, there is no mistake that ruin awaits you". "Ruin? My future? Wait…" Ren starts but then Sojiro's words of advice rang in his head.
"Behave yourself for the year and if god forbid, nothing happens, your probation will be lifted".
He feels his grip on the bars loosen and the strength in his fade, head downcast. Is this creature foretelling his future was doomed, that even if he does his best to behave and not stir trouble, will it all be for nothing but a small reprieve from damnation? Is this "Velvet Room" some sort of terrible omen or a twisted glimpse of his new home in jail? Was he truly doomed before he even began?
"You gotta be kidding me…" he sighed.
With a chuckle, the bizarre man says: "Worry not. There IS a means to oppose such a fate as yours". Ren lifts his head to face him, almost showing that glimmer of hope within his eyes. Igor continues: "You must be rehabilitated. Rehabilitated toward freedom, it will be your only means to avoid ruin…IF you have the resolve to challenge the distortion of the world".
"Distortion of the world…what? What's that?", Ren thinks quietly. Based on how this man refused to answer him or even address his questions, being silent was probably his best bet now. "Allow me to observe the path of your rehabilitation,", Igor says but then the girls turned form to face Ren. "Ahh…pardon me. I neglected to introduce the others", he says politely. "To your right is Caroline, and to your left is Justine".
"They serve as wardens here", he finishes.
With a callous laugh, Caroline taunts Ren into struggling as much and hard as he desired, already telling Ren he wasn't going to like that girl. Justine however explains she and her "sister" were wardens, bound by duty to protect inmates while serving as his collaborators…provided he remains obedient to them. "Their roles will be explained on another occasion. It seems the night is waning…time to wake up…Trickster".
Questions linger in his mind yet Ren's only response was a gasp before the world returns to darkness…
*Present time*
Ren was severely regretting not taking the second option of just doing community service. He was only in Shibuya for three days and already he lamented ever setting foot in the big city. His new home was an attic that hadn't heard of spring cleaning since Sojiro bought the building, his school principal was a pompous as ass hat, the teacher immediately regrets taking him in, he was late on his first day, then there's that pervy teacher.
And to top it all off, he was somehow in a castle with other students.
Yup…should have taken community service…
"Yo…where in the hell are we?", Beat asks, scratching his neck as they entered the foyer. Neku hummed in thought as they take in this place. Everything felt like an actual castle, the floors were black and white patterned tiles covered with elegant yet gaudy red carpet, chandeliers hanging around them like the owner is just flaunting their wealth, expensive fancy torches hung on the pillars around them, and ahead is a flight of stairs on marbled stone with more red carpet.
"W-where's the school?" Ryuji asks, "I mean…the gate said "Shujin", didn't it?".
"Pretty sure Shujin wasn't a freaking castle last time I came here…sign be damned…" Neku grunts out. As the other two boys look around with the spiky blond asking more inane questions, Beat shuffles closer to Neku and quietly asked the dreaded question.
"Phones…ya don't think we're…back, do ya?", he asked, "Back in…ya know…the UG?". Neku resisted the urge to snap at that question and bit his tongue, Beat had a very good question after all, and heck, for all he knew maybe they were.
"I…don't think so…remember how you get there?", he says quietly. Beat frowns with memory and punches his hand together, grunting tensely and growling quietly. The Underground, or as the previous veterans call it, the UG, a place within Shibuya that can only be entered when someone's life is snatched away. A parallel plane of existence of Shibuya, or for all of Japan for all Neku knows, never left that far.
But this place was a completely alien world in comparison. The UG at least was the same layout as the Real Ground (RG), Shibuya, major differences aside. Here it was like they were taken to another world, the colors were pinkish and almost psychedelic, and apparently, it spawns castles. "Hey, I can't get a signal either!", Ryuji speaks up. They look at their phones and confirm nothing was coming or out, which only confuses the two. Even in the UG, they could still use their phones to a degree.
"Yo, we got in'comin!," Beat growls. All four eyes glance to see, fitting the location of their stay, is a large knight with an equally large shield and sword with a faded jade-colored mask of all things. Ryuji sighed and scratched his hair, saying: "Jeez, ya freaked me out…who're you? A student?". He approaches the armored warrior and even compliments the armor, especially for a student cosplayer. Neku and Beat however readied themselves to start running and judging by Ren's piercing glare he wasn't buying this cosplay either.
"Hey C'mon, say something! It's cool and all but ya could tell us your name!", Ryuji says impatiently. Then another knight appears in front of them, this time Ryuji stepped back. "H-Hey…what's goin' on here?" the blonde asks, losing his nerve. Neku and Beat glare at the knights, the blonde taking a more aggressive stance towards them while Neku calculates their options.
"This the real deal here…" growled Neku, "We've gotta get out of here!". The four boys immediately make a break for the entrance, only to be cut off by two more knights appearing from thin air. Trapped by the four lumbering knights, the students frantically looked for an escape, except Ryuji was bashed roughly by the giant shield, forcing him on his hands and knees in pain.
"Screw this!" Beat shouts and charged at one knight. He tried to dropkick him, except his momentum was halted by the giant shield and he falls onto his side, and when he tried to get up, he has a sword aimed at his throat. He snarls at the knight, cursing it while the other two boys step back as the knights close in on them. "Phones, Four-Eyes, run!" Beat shouts. Neku sighs in defeat as he relaxed his stance, shaking his head.
"No point…we're caught," he sighed.
And with those final words, Neku takes a pommel to his skull along with Ren…
*?*
"Hey! Hey, wake up!".
Ren squints then weakly opens his eyes and sees Ryuji watching him. Ren throws his legs over what he feared was a prison bed and rubbed his head, with Ryuji looming over him with a worried look. "You ok?" he asks. Ren nods his head weakly, grimacing at the pain throbbing in his skull before he takes in his new surroundings. And like a cruel joke and even an ominous foreshadowing of his future, he finds himself in a jail cell.
Or in this case, a dungeon.
Dark and dank with the sounds of running water, brownstone walls with chains hanging around them, barrels littered around with his bed being nothing more than a rough wooden board with a sheet, and finally black metal iron gates. He sees Beat kicking and pulling on the gates while Neku was looking around for anything they could use. Ren rubbed his forehead and shakes it then, getting off the bed.
"What about everyone else?" he inquired.
"Nobodies dead, just a few bruises," Neku says, turning to him, "The guards dragged us here and then just left, at least that's what these two said".
"OPEN THIS FREAKING CAGE AND LET US OUT ALREADY!" roars Beat, shaking the bars furiously, "WE AIN'T DONE SHIT!".
"…Beat's not taking the sentence well…" Neku remarked.
"Damn it…this is so messed up," Ryuji groaned, "How do we get out of here?". They tried to find any other exit, a weakened wall, loose bars, or even thought of tricking the knights by hiding. Except with each attempt failed or too many holes in their plan to warrant an attempt. During their search, footsteps rang out in the empty dungeons at last, and when they looked through the bars, they see the knights marching towards them.
"Be grateful, your punishment has been decided", the leader of the entourage says, standing before the gate. The four glared at them but only Ryuji demanded the answer to the reason for their punishment. "You are being charged for "unlawful entry". Thus, you will all be sentenced to death".
"Nobody is allowed to do as they please in my castle," a voice boasts. The knights stepped aside to allow the mysterious voice to be witnessed by the four prisoners and to their shock and disbelief, it is Kamoshida. Except he is wearing a gold crown, red heart printed cape, and pink underwear, leaving his torso and hairy legs exposed. Also, they see his eyes were glowing yellow, and even his voice had an echo to it like two people were speaking at once.
"What in the hell is this? Is that…Kamoshida?", Neku questions, "Without pants…damn this really is a nightmare".
Kamoshida sneers at Ryuji, saying: "Here I was thinking it was some petty thief but to think it was just you, Sakamoto…". Then his sneer shifts into an ugly smug look like he had already won some game. "Are you disobeying me again? Haven't you learned your lesson?". "And look, you even brought friends with you? Figures…you can't do anything by yourself".
With an aggressive shake of the bars, Ryuji shouts: "THIS AIN'T FUNNY, ASSHOLE!". This makes the man turn his sights from the other back to the outbursting boy with amusement.
"Is that how you speak to a king? You don't understand your position now", he sighed, "You not only snuck into MY castle, but you've also committed the biggest crime here. Insulting the king". His smile shifts into an even smugger, more condescending smile. "The punishment for that…is death". Then with one wave of his hand, he commands the execution to be taken out. The four boys stepped back, some in fear while some were planning.
The knights entered their cells, the three of them cornered Ryuji like trapping a wild animal. The boy grits his teeth while the pervy teacher was smirking at them, completely fixed on watching the show. With one subtle glance to Neku, who nodded, Beat then rushed towards the knight. He roared as he shoulder tackles the knight and smashed them into the wall, startling Kamoshida and gets the other knights to turn their heads.
Ryuji quickly takes the opportunity to tackle the knight closest to him and knocks them onto their back. "Come on! I ain't down for this shit!" he commands. He makes the attempt to run, but the knight still standing appears before him and delivers a devastating punch to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Neku and Ren rush in to jump on the knight, stopping them from finishing the job, except all they were able to accomplish was hindering its movement ever so slightly.
"Just get out of here!" coughed Ryuji, "These guys aren't playing around!".
Kamoshida glanced at the two, smirking wickedly at them. He taunts them, accusing them of being heartless for abandoning their friend, despite Ryuji trying to play down their bond. He pleads with them to flee, to escape. Beat however shouts back.
"Shut your mouth, ya fool! Ain't nobody gonna get left behind!". Beat's tries to kick the back of the knight's knee to get them down but all he did was the equivalent of brushing his shoe against a stone wall. The knight then turns its massive body despite Beat using his muscular weight against them, and soon enough it overpowers Beat and throws him aside like he was a doll. Neku calls his name as Kamoshida laughs victoriously.
"Pfft, you're all pathetic…why don't you just do what I tell you and lie down?" he taunts.
"This coming from the guy without pants?" mocks Neku with a callous smirk. Kamoshida snaps his head to the boy as Ren is pushed to the wall by the knight, and when it tries to grab the orange-haired boy, Neku ducks under it. He runs around it and rushes for Kamoshida, fist clenched, and with a yell, he manages to deliver a punch to his face. Kamoshida shouts out in pain, just as Neku goes for another punch.
But then a knight stands before him, and with the two blondes screaming his name, the knight brings down his sword on Neku's back. Neku freezes as a splash of crimson shoots out of his back and stains the knight. He falls forward with a thud, gasping in shock and pain as his back leaks crimson. Kamoshida rubbed his jaw and glares smugly at the bleeding boy, twitching in shock as he gasps in pain. With a growl, he kicks Neku's side and then like disregarding someone else's trash, walks past him.
"Keep an eye on that brat, focus on executing that one," Kamoshida commands, gesturing to Ryuji. Beat roars in a fit of rage, only being held back by one knight's shield pinning him to the ground, he thrashes around and curses Kamoshida with every swear he knows while Ren has his back against the wall, frozen. Ryuji is then held up by the two remaining knights, held by his arms as Kamoshida stands before him. With that twisted smile, he begins to pummel Ryuji, shouting insults at him as the poor blond is beaten.
Ren squeezes the wall behind him, helplessness seeping into his being while Beat still struggles to break free, calling out to Neku. Ryuji's cries of pain and pleads for mercy ring out along with the beatings, Ren shaking his head. Soon after what feels like an eternity, Ryuji is punched one last time and falls to the floor, whimpering in pain with that scum of a teacher looming over him. Kamoshida scoffed at Ryuji, asking where'd all his energy go.
Like a true scum of "royalty", the king of the castle declares the blond vulgar teen wasn't worth beating any longer and decided he's had enough fun. His execution would continue.
"Stop it…" Ren says quietly.
He couldn't find that voice within him, that voice that told him to stand up. The same will along with it, steeled by a sense of righteousness and justice. The same one that got him into this whole mess, the probation, the transfer to a new city and school, and now this. Maybe if he kept quiet, maybe if he begged for mercy Kamoshida would just leave him alone or at least make his execution short and painless. But looking at Ryuji's beaten form, Neku's possibly dying body, and the raged Beat, he feels it.
"Stop it!" he says louder.
Kamoshida stops moving and looks back, just in time to see Ren's eyes turn into steel.
"STOP IT!" he shouts.
Kamoshida turned on him fully, ignoring Ryuji. "What? Don't you dare tell me you don't know who I am?" he glowers as he approached him. He leans down to stare at him directly in the eyes, "That look in your eyes…really pisses me off". He then kicked Ren in the stomach and knocks him on his rear with his back slamming into the wall. "Hold him there…once this peasant dies, he goes next," he commands before returning to the beaten boy.
Ren tries to rush in and stop them, but he is then held against the wall by two knights while the king looms over Ryuji. As Kamoshida laughs over the boy's pleas for mercy, Beat's cries for Neku going on, Ren looks over in despair.
"This is truly an unjust game…your chances of winning are almost none" a voice sings. Ren almost groans, even fate is pointing out how screwed they were. But as he laments, his eyes spot a strange butterfly-shaped creature fluttering around in front of him with blue light. Eyes widened behind his glasses as the creature hovers around him, it continues to speak. "But if my voice can reach you…then perhaps there is a possibility open to you".
Ren gasped quietly as the creature disappears like an apparition in the air, and as he feels his strength wane in defeat, another calls.
"What's the matter? Are you going to just watch? Forsaking them to save yourself?".
Ren's eyes scour the place for the voice but no one bar that perverted teacher was speaking, and from the way the knights just stood there holding him in place, he wondered if only he could hear it. Maybe he was losing his mind, death was but a moment away from him after all. Maybe this was the inner voice he was supposed to be hearing his whole life that pleaded him to be smart, to do the right thing. Yet there is something…otherworldly about it, it has a strange tone of charm within it.
"Was your previous decision a mistake then?".
Previous decision…the moment he chose to not ignore someone in need. Was it a mistake back then? Was that just a poor judgment call on his end? He almost surrendered and said yes to that question…but he didn't. Looking back on it, Ren would be the first to say, based on how it ended, it might have been something he couldn't do alone. Yet, even if he was doomed to this predicament he was caught up in, he saved someone. He spared them an even worse fate than what could have been if he didn't step up.
"It…wasn't. I hate this…I hate how everything, the whole world just decided to shit on my life…but…I saved someone. I helped someone when nobody else would…" he answers within his heart.
"…very well…I have heeded your resolve".
Suddenly Ren stops his struggles with a loud gasp, and then pain…inhuman pain. He screams in agony as his struggles change to thrashing around like a wild animal, crying out in pain.
"Vow to me".
Thrashing his head like he was trying to escape, Ren throws his head around like a man desperate to throw his skull off his shoulders.
"I am thou, thou art I…".
He clenched his fists in pain, teeth-gritting while he still thrashed around, the voice in his head booming with untold power within him.
"Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name and release thy rage! Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!".
"ENOUGH!" roars Ren, the pain in his eyes vanished as a darker, more determined look forms. His outburst interrupts the execution, and worst of all interrupted Kamoshida. He turns his eyes to the boy now gritting his teeth as whatever fear, trepidation, and even despair dies. No more would he forsake his justice for society. No more would someone decide his way of life, and most important of all. No one would confine him like a prisoner.
"You heard me…you heard what I said," he growls as Kamoshida stares down the boy, "You act like you're a king of a castle…but you're nothing more than a perverted piece of garbage, preying on people who can't fight back, just like you are now. You can't do anything without somebody holding your hand…and you act so high mighty where in truth? You're probably BELOW that "peasant" …".
Livid and terrified of this young man's resolve, his words cut deep into this man, Kamoshida growls. "Y-You want to die THAT bad? Fine! Execute him first!" he commands. His fear doesn't go unnoticed by the two boys. The shield man holding Ren smacks the boy with his shield, knocking the glasses off his face, and while staggering, Ren is then held up by the neck with two spears crisscrossed below it.
As the knight lifts its sword to deliver the final blow to this rebellious youth, a heartbeat resonates within Ren's chest, and with a gasp from him, a powerful gust of wind bursts forth from him. The knights were halted in movement and even Kamoshida had to raise a hand to protect his eyes from this burst of power. The wind is thickened into gales of wind, dense and strong like steel. When it fades, Kamoshida lifts his eyes to see what just happened.
Ren lifts his head and shows replacing his fallen glasses was…a mask. A black and white, birdlike domino mask. The boy feels it with both hands, and then he starts to pry it off. He struggles with grunts and growls, pulling the mask that seemed to be glued to his face. As he peels it, blood spurts from his face before with a final cry of agonized pain, Ren rips the mask off with a splash of crimson. His cheeks to his jaw drenched in red, but when on his face with dark yellow eyes is a mad grin, just like the apparition of himself days before.
Suddenly his entire body is engulfed in blue flames, consuming him with only a fiery set of eyes and smile left behind before the flames grow into a taller life form. With one weak turn of his head, Neku watches at that same creature he saw appears before them, scaring the pathetic king to hide behind his knights. The orange-haired youth watches as Ren begins to reappear from the flames with that wild grin and evil gaze in his eyes, enjoying the look of terror on the king's face.
As Ren stands before the four foes, behind him the blue flames that took the form of blue fire began to reveal a taller…man, behind Ren, hovering over him like a ghost or guardian devil. As black chains dance around the boy, he waves both his arms, and like a perfect mimic, the tall man performs the same motion. This causes a powerful burst of wind to push aside the men forward, but the impact for the two knights was enough to crush their bones and necks.
Kamoshida could only watch in utter terror at the sight of this demon of a boy before, like a coward, runs off for safety. Beat and Ryuji only stare at the boy with the same question that escaped their lips.
"W-What the…".
Ren only grins madly at the two boys before he turns his eyes to the sole knight who stood up against the boy as the king demands his head. Ren's grin only darkens when he notes the shaking knees of the knight, as he flicks his hand. No longer in his school uniform, Ren now wears a black ankle-length tailcoat, a high-necked waistcoat with gold accents, black pants, brown-black winklepickers, and a pair of red gloves.
But before he lets the knight taste the bitter end of its life, he turns to the "demon". "I am the pillager of twilight- "Arséne!", the demon reveals. Arsène has, from top to bottom: a very tall top hat, a long-horned mask for its face. A cropped red eighteenth-century-esque suit worn open with the collar popped, stitched heart designs on the shoulders, a white ruffle tie, a black, tailed corset running down its torso; large, black, feathery wings starting at around the small of its back; claws; red coverings on its legs resembling pants and boots with blade-like heels.
"I am the rebel soul that resides within you. If you so desire, I shall consider granting you the power to break through this crisis" he offers. With a smirk of his own, Ren requests this power. Arsène "humphs" and agrees to the request. The mask Ren ripped off his face returns via a blue flame as he turns to the knight near Neku, Kamoshida behind it like a true coward. But without any traces of fear in Ren, however, the boy flicks his hand and sliding down from his sleeve, is a dagger.
He spins it around his dexterous fingers before grabbing it and aimed it at the knight with a wild grin. The knight, be it out of fear of the king's wrath or Ren, rushes in. It brings its sword down on Ren, only for him to gracefully leap over the knight, and with a single front flip, he slices its neck from behind and upon landing on his feet, turns back to Kamoshida just as the knight collapses. The nearly naked king staggers back in fear, demanding to know who was this rebel.
"…a Trickster" Ren answers.
Before Kamoshida could say a word, he is suddenly smashed on his back by a barrel, carried by a still enraged Beat. The impact shattered the wooden structure and knocks the pervy teacher on his face. Beat then rushes to Neku and as carefully as he could, he hoists the headphone-wearing teenager on his back, turning to the other two.
"Get your asses moving! We gotta get phones to a doctor or something!" he bellows. Ren turns to Ryuji and quickly grabbed his hand and helps him onto his feet, telling him to follow Beat. Together they all raced outside just as Kamoshida rubbed his head in pain. He realizes his prisoners were escaping and snaps his head to them in time to see Ryuji closing the door.
"Y-You little brats!" he shouts, racing toward the door and grabbed the bars. He then smirked but then frowns. They see his hands searching for something within his robes, but a single whistle earns the attention of everyone. Spinning on his red finger is a handful of keys on a big round metal string, the Trickster whistling innocently. Kamoshida snarls at him and demands him to hand over the keys. In true teenage rebellion fashion, Ren not only opens the ring and piles each key into his palm, but he also then tosses ALL of them into the river.
"Go fish," he says before giving him a salute and runs off with the other two.
Ren leads the two through this dungeon, running up the small hills while taking in their surroundings. A dungeon that has certainly been lacking in prisoners with so many cells empty, other hanging cells over the rivers are rusted beyond use, many of them already polluted the clear waters rushing by. Based on how quick Kamoshida had been to get started on the execution of the teenagers, Ren wondered if these cells were just included in the castle.
When they came to a dead-end, they paused for a moment to ponder where to go next, but Ren sees that thanks to the cages that were dropped in the water, they could be used for platforms to help the boys to get across the river. Though Ryuji wasn't so sure himself, Ren leaps and skips across the river using the cages while Beat, even with extra weight on his back, manages to get across with no hassle.
"Dude, you're carrying Neku like he weighs nothin'!" Ryuji compliments just when he lands on the other side.
"Phones here weigh as much as a little girl! And he's got muscle" Beat laughed, but his voice is strained as he tries as hard as he can not note how quiet and light Neku was. He isn't a doctor but with that amount of blood lost, it'd be a miracle if Neku was awake and cracking subtle jabs. "Come on, we can talk shit after we get Phone to a doc!". He rushes on ahead before waiting for a response, desperate to get out of this place as soon as they could.
He knew Neku would probably kick his ass for thinking this but he wished they were back in UG instead of this crap-hole of a castle. At least there he'd have defended or kicked Kamoshida's ass and then escaped. But here in this screwed-up place, he was as about as helpful as a kid taking on a bully from college. At least with Ren and whatever the hell that red demon is, they have a chance to fight back.
"The hell is that thing anyway? Ain't no noise I've ever seen!" he thinks.
He is stopped by Ren, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back. Before Beat could snap at him, Ren placed a finger to his mouth and gestured to the end of the road where there was a corner leading further down. "I've got a way" he assures, gesturing another door. He opens it and leads them inside. Only to find themselves staring at what they dread to be a tower with a very tall winding stairway to wherever the heck it'd take them.
They opted to go for it, believing that perhaps they were underground and if this could lead them back to the main entrance or something close to it, then they'd have a better chance of getting out of here. So forth, they ran up the stairs and its winding towering design, Beat barely slowing down even with Neku, if nothing else he looked even more determined to climb the stairs. Ren was beginning to wonder if Beat was just that stubborn.
Reaching the top, to their dismay, they find themselves in what seemed like a complete copy of their previous spot. "Aww come on!", Beat cursed, "Who the hell designs the same dungeon!?". Ren shakes his head and when he looks down the pathway on his left, he points out something worrying. Hanging from the rushing stream of water, they see two changes housing students like them. The difference was their heads were encased in a very bizarre helmet. It was like knights except the eyelids and mouthpiece looked more…suggestive.
"The hell? There are others here too?" Ryuji asked.
"What's with those helmets?" Beat asks, "They don't look so good…".
Reluctantly, the three carried on. With Neku on death's doorstep and having no way to rescue those students, they cut their losses and rush on to escape. They come to a drawbridge that is held up and to their irritation, there was no method to lower it. Ren and Ryuji look around while Beat keeps his distance, but when both boys sigh and reveal they find nothing of use, he cursed.
"Damn it! Who makes a freaking drawbridge but not make the lever or whatever obvious!?".
He glanced back at Neku's pale face; his angry look shifts into worry. How much longer can the guy go without help, and who knows how much longer this place will go on.
"Hey, over here!".
The three jump in alarm, Ren taking his dagger out while Ryuji frantically looks around. "Come over here! Frizzy head! Blondies!". Ren points out a single cell down by the wall with an old rotting wooden key holding bar. Ren goes first with his dagger and when he investigates the cell, he relaxes slightly and gestures the two to come on over. The two blondes approach the cell and see the prisoner.
An anthropomorphic and biped tuxedo cat-like creature was behind the cell with a large spheroidal head. Its fur is predominantly black, except on its limbs and tail which appear white. The bottom front half of its face or his mouth is also white. It appears to wear a mask that covers much of its face (which can be unbuttoned from behind) with elliptic eyes consisting of white sclerae, blue irises, and black pupils. The outer ears are black with white inner ears. It has a yellow scarf around the neck and a utility belt around the hips, with two golden buttons and two bags attached. Finally, it has pink paw pads.
"W-What the hell is that thing!?" shouts Ryuji, staggering backward.
"You guys aren't the castle guards! Get me out of here!" begged the small cat-like creature. It even points to the key holding bar, gesturing the keys to likely its cell. However, the trio of boys was wary of this creature. With this more twisted and downright murderous Kamoshida, the knights, Ren's sudden power, and this bizarre world, trust issues were created.
"We're trying to get out of here too! Hell, you could be an enemy for all we know!" Ryuji accused.
"I'm locked in THIS CELL! How the heck am I a threat to you guys!" the cat asked with wide eyes and desperation in its voice, "Sides, I can help you get out of here!". Ren glanced back at the cat and the three boys, biting his inner cheek in heavy debate with letting the creature out or just leaving it. He shakes his head, they were short on time and it was chipping away fast. But then the cat sees Neku, and points at him.
"Hold up, your friend's hurt right? Let me out and I'll heal him!". Beat glares at him, then with a curse, he runs to the keys, yanks them off, and opens the cell regardless of Ryuji's protest. Once it was out of its cell, it stretches and sighs in relief.
"Ahhh…freedom" it breathes. But hen Ryuji stomps his foot aggressively towards the creature, demanding to uphold their end of the bargain, calling them "monster cat". "I am NOT a cat! The name is Morgana and don't you forget it!". First Morgana leads them back to the bridge and asks Ren to pull down the jaw of the Kamoshida statue. Doing so not only comically stretched the jaw but also lowers the bridge.
"HOW WERE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!?" Ryuji shouts.
"Did you even check the statue?" Morgana asks with irritation. "Pfft, amateurs. Come on, I'll heal your friend once we find somewhere safe!".
Beat growls at this but the cat was already running across the bridge, followed by Ren and Ryuji. "That little feline bastard better does his part…or I'm gonna toss him in the river," Beat grunts, chasing the others. But they don't make it halfway from the bridge before they encountered four more knights. Ryuji shrieks in terror and falls back on his rear while Ren steps in front of him. Morgana groans and leaps over the shrieking boy.
"Stand back newbies, let the professional handle this," he says and turns to Ren, "You can fight too, right?".
Ren nods and flicks out his dagger, while Morgana stands firm at the opposition. "Come…ZORRO!". With a burst of blue light spiraling into a pillar, much like Ren's first awakening, Morgana is bathed in powerful energies for a shorter time in comparison. When the fires fade, standing above Morgana is a strangely shaped human. Very thin legs while its torso and arms were beefy large, a small head with a steel helmet shaped like a hat, comically large V-shaped metal mustache. In its hand was a rapier and with a quick flurry of swings, it traced the letter "Z" in the air.
"You too!?" Beat says, "You got one of those things?".
"Bingo, now stand back and let us deal with those guys!" Morgana commanded.
Ren nodded but when he turns around, he cursed. "Guys, behind us!". The team look back and saw more of the knights chasing them down, this time a whole platoon of them. Morgana lets a "yikes" out and then turned back to the enemy ahead of them in time to see the knights explode into a red glob before a new shape takes form before their eyes. Now a ghostly creature with a pumpkin head and a very vulgar-looking monster appear before them.
"Monsters now?" Beat growled, "Damn it, take them out fast yo!".
Quickly Ren rushes in with Morgana leaping into the air. The pumpkin head weaves its lantern and fires four trailing flames towards the Trickster while the vulgar creature flies towards the cat. Ren with incredible footwork manages to leap and jump around the flames before he slides underneath the final trial on his knees while leaning back enough to slide. Once he gets to his feet, he jumps into the air, twirling his body around and with the dagger held in a reverse grip, splits the head of the wannabe jack-o-lantern.
Morgana spins forward like a buzz saw, green wind forming a wheel around him and together with a large sword he carried, Morgana cuts into the vulgar creature. He easily sliced through it and rolls forward with a few flips until he lands on his pawed feet. He gave Ren a cocky nod, but their victory is taken away when more monsters appeared in front of them.
"Damn it, they're out for blood here!" Morgana groaned.
The knights finally crossed the bridge, closing in on the five escaping prisoners. Ren spots this and quickly backpedals back to Beat and Ryuji, calling for Arséne. The strange being appears from blue light as Ren aims his hand and calls out for power, dark reddish energy surged in his red hand. He clenched his fist and then three pillars of the same dark energy entrap the knights and close on them, crushing their armor and killing the hosts inside.
He stands in front of Beat and Ryuji, dagger in hand, and stares down the horde of knights. A total of eight with the respawned monsters, three easy targets, and two whatever the hell he and Morgana have, a bad situation. "Beat, when Morgana clears the front, take Ryuji and make a break for it!", Ren commands, sidestepping a sword swipe. He plunged his dagger into the throat of the knight and danced around its dying form, yanking out of his weapon to deflect another blade.
Beat nodded with reluctance, but behind him, more monsters spawned. A pumpkin head cackles evilly and fires more fire at the punk boy. Its laugh alerts Beat and when he spins around, he is stuck on the chest and thrown off his feet. With a cry of pain, Beat falls on his side with Neku bouncing off him and onto the ground with a thud. The punk shouts his name as more monsters and knights began to swarm them.
Ryuji tries to reach Neku after grabbing a piece of wood and smacks aside the pumpkin heads swarming them, but the knights began to overwhelm him. Beat ripped off his burning jacket and tosses it on a knight's head, scrambles to his feet to try and save Neku from the knights. They used their shields to form a wall and trapped Beat in place, forcing him to contend with the vulgar creatures swarming him.
"Morgana, Ren! Neku's in trouble!" Beat shouts, "Someone go to him!".
"I've my paws full over here!" Morgana yelps, dodging more of the fires from the pumpkin heads. Even Ren is starting to be swarmed by the knights, his body still unadjusted to the new powers granted to him and this first experience of true combat was a bit too much for the first-timer. He looks at Neku's form and desperately cuts his way to him while using whatever powers Arséne could give him.
All the while with the four fighting for their lives, the fifth's conscious state fades…
"Am…am I…g-gonna die…?" asks the barely conscious boy as his vision blurs, the world goes slower and echoey for him. "Why…? Why here? So soon…?". He could feel the cold seeping into him, his strength waning as he could barely keep his eyes open. Hearing his name being screamed by his best friend, everyone else fighting and trying to reach him. Weird…the last time he perished, he believed nobody even noticed he was gone.
It was weird to remember, how you died. He died alone, he died without any prelude or hint, he died without someone being there to mourn him. And maybe a part of him was grateful that he'd be forgotten that even death was just casual for him. So why now? Why now was he feeling so…conflicted?
His eyes glanced weakly to the people who are trying to save him, the desperate looking Beat trying to break through to him, the wild panic in Ren's eyes as he viciously cleaves his way to the boy and even Ryuji, who he barely knows, was fighting with anything he could to help him. If the others were here, they'd be no different.
He could dream of Rhyme using her young but wiser brain to make a nuke out everything here, Eri would probably just go ape shit on those monsters…and Shiki?
There was no stopping that girl when he needed her here.
"N-No…I…I…I don't want to die…" he weakly pleads, "My world can't end here…".
"So…you've decided to rebel?".
Neku's shallow breathing is stopped as a sudden grip clutches his body and soul, his dulling eyes brighten. He couldn't thrash around without irritating his wound, but he twitches and gasps as something, something deep inside him awakens. "Once you faced death without a means to deny it, once you fought your way to the end, to expand your horizons…and now faced with the same dilemma, will you rebel against it?".
Neku growls and grunts in pain as he rolled onto his back, clutching his head while ignoring the pain in his back. He lets out a weak yell as he starts to claw at his face, something was there, something was holding him back. Chaining him…
"So be it! Let us form a contract! Together we will ride into destiny! We live and die OUR way! I am thou, thou art I! Ride into the storm!".
Slowly, as if he were possessed, Neku gets to his feet as the knights close in on him with their blades high. Neku stands before them with his head downcast, and then when he raised his head high, there was a wild and mischievous grin on his face as his eyes glowed yellow. Along…with a mask. It was a smaller pale unique skull design that a certain graffiti artist made, minus the bottom half being attacked. Without an ounce of hesitation, Neku rips off his mask and a burst of power roars to life beneath him.
Encompassing the boy, the power doesn't blow the knights away, it eradicated them and even a few of the weaker monsters. This catches the attention of the four, witnessing Neku's awakening. As the blue tower of power fades away, Neku walks out of it, changed just like Ren.
Instead of his uniform, Neku wears high black boots and dark jeans with a single belt wrapped around each thigh. A belt featuring the same graffiti skull buckle wraps around his waist, on his left arm is old samurai armor with red clothing. The right arm is only covering the bicep, he wears a fingerless gauntlet, but the backhand has twenty circular slots. The coat is a deep violet with two coattails and a pronounced buckled collar and a black strap going over his right shoulder wrapping around his chest, with two golden studs on the front.
On the back is the full skull graffiti in bright violet. The front of the coat is also patterned individually from the rest of it, resembling a sort of vest or body armor, with a zipper closed all the way up from the waist to the bottom of his neck. His mask has the top of the graffiti skull minus the end. The gang watches in awe of this new form while Neku lifts his right hand.
"I don't know if this is the UG or some other world…but I do know you freaks are in my way. Fine by me, if that's how this game is gonna be…then I'm all in", he says as his hand is glowing with psyche energy.
"Let's show them how to play the game, Sanada Yukimura!".
Behind him, floating above the new player is a warrior from what seems like the Sengoku era, wearing brilliant dark red samurai armor, wielding a beautiful cross spear with blades as large as an arm, with black fiery hair, piercing blue eyes in the form of fire with the graffiti reaper's skull for its face. The famous warrior of the Sengoku era and Japan's greatest hero, Sanada Yukimura.
The game…has just begun.
A/N:
Well that was a long one for…chapter two…
Okay truth be told I wasn't expecting this to get so much attention so soon but I am truly thankful for everyone who reads, follows, favourites and even reviewed this.
Response time:
KingJGamer and Guest: Its only under the KH tag because I'm trying to decide something. If I think it doesn't work, it will be switched to TWEWY tags. And yes, the Metaverse (Persona bizarre world) is differently from the UG.
SnowTrue: I am planning on focusing on trauma not just for Neku but the other Players. And yes, I am going with the idea of Neku not liking guns. And a massive thank you for the writing tips, I hope it makes this more professional. And fair enough, I won't use orbs as a term for eyes.
Anyways, thanks to everyone for the support and I hope you enjoyed this one. I will be asking my own questions next time, unless any of you who followed my previous story don't want it. As always everyone, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!