TWEWY X Persona 5
Chapter Three
Escape.
Power…power courses through him.
Euphoric, like drinking the finest wine from the oldest bottle, he felt as if he were born anew. Not even back in the UG at his most powerful could compare to this form. His psych powers were at a whole new level to him, like he could pick up a pin fresh from the box and unleash its full potential just by equipping it to himself.
Looking at his gloves and his new clothes, Neku then gazes toward the remnants of their enemies, the jack-o-lanterns cackling at him while the vulgar monsters taunt him lewdly. With a smirk, Neku lifts his glowing right hand and aims at the vulgar monsters flying toward him. In an instant, one of them is shrouded in blue shining light, freezing in the air, and with just one flick of his hand, Neku slammed it into the three and together crushes him into the wall.
Next, Neku lifts his left hand and encases the jack-o-lanterns in a block of ice, six in total. He turns to Ren and without even opening his mouth, Ren complies with the request. The dark Trickster dashes past each block of ice and slashes his dagger-like a whirlwind, flipping and leaping around them while slashing and only with a single flip in the air and gracefully landing on his feet, he flicks his dagger and the blocks shatter into thousands of pieces.
The last bit of trouble is finally dealt with; Ren looks back to Neku checking himself out. "The hell is this?" he questions, the moment of rushing power finally passes him, "Where's my uniform? Oh shit…. don't tell me it's gone forever, they cost a lot".
"THAT'S your biggest concern?" Ren asks with a smirk, "Not that samurai popping out of you? The fact you have superpowers or look like a K-Pop reject?".
Neku glares at him before gesturing his jacket: "Says the wannabe detective…".
"Screw your costumes or whatever the hell those things were!" Beat shouts, "What about your back?".
Neku blinks and then taps his lower back and doesn't feel anything. He turns and does a few stretches, but nothing hurts him. Whatever happened, his wounds have recovered and if he is lucky, all the traces of the wound would be nothing more than a faint scar. While he did this, Morgana crossed his arms and even smirks approvingly at the two boys. "Not bad…your Persona's are pretty powerful" he praised.
"Persona? Wait, those things that came out of us?" Ren asks, looking at the child-sized cat.
"Yeah, you saw how orange boy over there summoned his when he ripped off his mask? And I'm assuming it was the same thing for frizzy hair over here?" Morgana asked. Both Persona users nodded and he continues: "Well everybody has a mask deep within their heart. By removing that-
"Their Personas come out?" Neku says crossing his arms. Morgana nodded in time when Ren suddenly was coated with a blue fire and when it vanishes, he is wearing his uniform. "Huh? What just happened?".
"Hmm…looks like he doesn't have full control over his powers JUST yet," Morgana says "But it shouldn't dissolve like that-
"DUDE! We don't have time for all this Persona or whatever!" Beat grumbles stomping his foot, "If Ren's Persona thing ain't at his full control yet, we're down to two! AND we've still got Kamo-dickhead's guards to deal with!".
"If you would sit still and listen blondie…" Morgana grunts but Beat cuts him off yet again with a growl. He stubbornly informs him of his name along with Ryuji's and the others. Morgana opened his mouth to retort with likely another insult, but upon Beat's outburst, he frowns. Regardless of his lack of patience, the punk had a vital point. They were still hold up in the dungeon and likely when there is no response from the original legion of monsters/guards, they'll send more.
And like Beat said, with Ren still unable to fully master his power, he and Neku, far as he knows, won't be enough to take on the king's soldiers. The cat grumbles and then agrees that it was probably better to save the lecture for a time when they weren't going to be eviscerated by the guards and proclaims the exit wasn't that much farther and speeds off with the teens following close.
During the escape, Neku was pondering on what info he was given by the furball and continuously looks at himself and touched his mask on the occasion. This crushed any doubt in his mind that they were in some parallel version of the UG, from how the monsters worked, powers, and even the world was bound by a completely different set of rules. When he used his psych powers, there was something different about them compared to how he used them before.
For example being he was able to use two with a different hand, where before he had to concentrate using just one to its fullest. Here, thanks to Sanada, it was as if it came to him like he's been doing it all his life. Looking at his right glove, he sees that at least five of the circles were already filled with pins. Pins from the UG and even from his old collection that he's kept with him since he won the game. He did pin a few of them on his bag out of memory's sake and maybe out of consideration for Shiki.
As far as he can see, the pins consist of:
Long live the ice, Pyrokinesis, First Gear, Stellar Flurry, and Healing Drink.
Not all of them were anything to boast about certainly but if he is right, then maybe applying the other pins to his gauntlet could give him more power. Except he strongly remembers he was limited to six or so during his time in the UG. He recalled when he tried to "break the rules" and use more than that, he was struck by an overcharge of sorts and damn near died afterward, only saved by Shiki's healing.
Here, however…maybe things could work out in his favor this time?
Up ahead of the team they see another drawbridge with the same statue of Kamoshida. But when they approached it, Ryuji stops and turns to his left. There, in a jail cell, there is a Shujin student on the floor in what looked to be exhaustion and agony. Ryuji approached the jail cell, claiming he swore he knew this person's face but isn't able to recall properly due to being flustered. To which Neku completely understood, given what's happened in the past half hour of their challenging lives.
Morgana on the other hand was more eager to get out of here than wait on Ryuji's memory to function. The boy demands they hold on a second and asks the cat more about this. They start to argue, the cat demanding they just go while the blondie demands answers, just long enough for a knight to find them. On the plus side, it stupidly lowers the bridge and charges towards them. Neku steps up and lifts his gauntlet-wearing hand and calls: "Pyrokinesis!".
A line of flames rises to the waist length of the teens and like drawing, Neku traces the fires around the knight and holds them in place. He guides the flames to cloak the knight in fire, burning through the metal and causing the knight to flail around in a desperate attempt to put itself out, allowing Neku to rush in and use the "Stellar Flurry" pin to fiercely stab rapidly into the knight. Cutting through its dense armor, Neku kicks it aside into the rushing river below them, letting the knight suffer a watery death.
"Bridge is clear, come on!" he says.
"Wait! We can't just leave these guys here! Who knows what that pervert will do to them!?" Ryuji argued. Even Beat was close to agreeing with him. Morgana sighed impatiently before Ren turns to him. Unfortunately, Morgana groans impatiently and instead of risking time to explain it to these three, he gave them an ultimatum. Either waste time to save these guys or come with him to escape, either way, he leaves before hearing their response. Against their moral compasses, the two blondes reluctantly leave behind the prisoner and Ren follows them.
Following the furball once more, he leads them up a flight of stairs with Neku covering the rear in case of there being an ambush. As true to his word, Morgana assures the gang that the entrance hall would be just ahead of them once they climbed the stairs. To the relief of the escapees, they were back in the same hall where they were caught by the perverted teacher's guards. And a bonus, there was no sign of a guard patrol or anyone else serving that scum.
Morgana leads the gang into a small hall where using the left door, they entered what looks like a small library. Something told Neku reading wasn't a particular past time for Kamoshida, and if it was, he wasn't curious to learn his reading tastes. Morgana points out the ventilation shaft with a metal mesh adorned. That was their ticket out of this place.
Though Ren comments on how modern that was and how it clashed with the aesthetics of this place…nobody knew why that bothered him so much.
Neku uses his telekinesis ability to rip off the mesh and gently lowers the thing back to the ground as quietly as possible. "We're finally getting out of here," Ryuji says with relief in his voice.
"Don't celebrate just yet. Do it WHEN you're actually out of here," Morgana stresses before telling them to get going.
"And what about you? You're sticking around?" Ren asked.
"I've still got something to do here. This is where we go our separate ways," he says.
"Well try not to get caught again," Ren replied with a chuckle, "Thanks for your help".
Farewells were given, the four teenagers climb up the bookshelves and crawl through the ventilation shaft, leaving Morgana to whatever goal he still had to achieve. The humanoid-looking cat folds his tiny stubby arms and contemplates the uses of the four teenagers, especially the two Persona users…
*Shibuya*
After feeling as though their entire bodies were being shifted and pulled like taffy, the four teenagers feel a great sense of exhaustion overtaking them and start panting. Neku wipes the sweat off his forehead, then frowned when he felt his skin. He looks at his arms and body as a whole and sees he was back in his Shujin uniform. Further glances around him showed, to everyone's relief, they were indeed back in Shibuya.
"W-We made it," Beat pants, hands on his knees.
"You have returned to the real world. Welcome back". A robotic voice calls quietly from Ren's phone. He blinked as the others turned to his phone, questions piling up. But the one question that is finally answered to both boys, without any doubt, is that the world wasn't the UG. At least they can safely say for certainty anyways. The other questions still linger on their minds for sure, Morgana, Kamoshida, the castle, and more. Neku checked himself and tries to see if he was still empowered by Sanada Yukimura but finds apart from the stiffness of his back wound, nothing had changed with him.
Ryuji's angry questioning however gains the party the police's attention. Two officers approach the four after identifying their uniforms. Immediately they were accused of cutting classes, and as Neku predicted, Ryuji ran his mouth about EVERYTHING that happened with Beat backing him up. The orange-haired student sighed as he rubbed his face with his left hand, just when his day couldn't get any worse his best friend just had to prove him wrong.
Of course, after talking about the castle, the police demanded they'd open their bags on the grounds of possibly taking drugs. It takes all Neku's strength not to punch Ryuji when he challenges the police's request.
"At this point just saying we took something would make more sense than what just happened today…" he thinks, wondering if this was all just one hell of a fever dream.
The police "assure" the boys that they passed Shujin earlier and there are no sightings of any castles or anything else out of the ordinary. Of course they also "warned" them any further nonsensical garbage spewed from their mouths would result in the police calling the school. Ren instantly steps in and calmly defuses the situation, chuckling shyly and even sheepishly admitting that they were all still just waking from their sleep.
He, embarrassingly, confessed they spent all last night gaming and he, being new to this city, got them lost. Neku chimed in, saying Ryuji was still sleeping walking, and seeing things. They bowed politely and assured the officers they'd make it back to school before the day was over and without letting Ryuji land them into more hot waters, they skedaddled out of there.
"Dudes! Ya couldn't back me up there!?" Ryuji hissed as Beat leads them to the school. Ryuji had lost his leading privilege for obvious reasons.
"And what the hell did you expect us to say? "Oh yeah officer, we went to a castle, nearly got executed, and then BOOM! We had historical and fictional characters POP out of us and killed monsters!" Neku groaned, running a hand through his hair, "We'd be lucky if getting our asses chewed out was the worst they'd do".
"Neku's right," concurs Ren, "Let's just focus on getting to Shujin first".
Thankfully Shujin wasn't as far as he thought it'd be, and in less than ten minutes later here they stood before the school. Not a castle in sight nor any signs of monsters, just a regular old building where all sorts of things could happen. Ryuji was still unable to believe that this wasn't a castle, and even Neku was wondering if they stepped inside, would it be a school hall or the castle foyer. But still, nothing seemed nor felt out of the ordinary.
"I swear, this was the way we came before…what the hell is going on here?" Ryuji asked.
"The same question I wanted to ask".
All four blanched in despair when they see, just to add more rotten luck to their names, a school counselor marches out of the building and glares at the four. "We've received a call from the police about four Shujin students cutting classes," he says with a knowing tone.
"Bastard cop snitched on us after all," Beat growled but low and quiet.
The counselor immediately eyes Ryuji, then says: "Its rare to see you alone, Sakamoto. Who is this and where did you roam around this time?".
Ryuji, stupidly, stammers "castle", which of course resulted in the counselor assuming none of them had the intention to say what happened. Neku however was thinking of all sorts of alibis and excuses to save their hides. Maybe they could try that video game excuse and play stupid (despite Ryuji being far ahead of them) long enough for the counselor to just let them go and not deal with their stupidity. They can't afford to be in any more trouble after all, especially since as far as he knows, Ren hadn't even started school yet.
Then a familiar voice inquired about the castle in question. And who could it be other than the very "ruler" of said castle?
"Kamoshida!?" shouts the spiky blonde.
"That's me…you seem so carefree, Sakamoto" he greets with that tone of his, the one where it feigns kindness and makes up for sheer arrogance, "A huge difference from you did the track team's morning practice".
Almost like a switch had flipped in a nano-second, Ryuji snarls at the coach and if the three other teens hadn't been there they'd swear he'd attack him. The counselor instantly shuts down the boy's tone, sternly and even smugly warning him he was already on thin ice with the school. Undeterred, Ryuji aggressively reminds the counselor that Kamoshida was the one who started this fight, which results in the old man asking the spiky-haired boy if he just wants to be expelled already.
He turns to Beat and Neku with that disgusted look on his face and asked their side of the whole situation. Neku casually says he was helping at his part-time job at the café in Udagawa and Beat was there for a short interview, hence why they were together. He shrugged with indifference as he explained they were late because the interview was going so well that they lost track of time, and by then they bumped into Ryuji and Ren, hence why they were together.
"You expect me to believe you?" the counselor questions while Kamoshida smugly glowers at the orange-haired youth. In response, Neku takes out his phone and brings up his employer's number, and challenged the counselor to call his bluff. Incensed at the boy's disobedience (or lack of respect), the counselor demands he sees them BOTH after class for a proper discussion, while he turns back to Ryuji and says he'll be discussing more his potential expulsion.
"Come now. I shouldn't have antagonized him like that, we're both to blame here," Kamoshida says with a chirp in his tone. And just like the three students expect, that counselor just went along with him. Kamoshida however certainly didn't step in for Ryuji's sake when the counselor still took him away to lecture him about being exceptionally late. With defeat in his voice and body language, Ryuji followed him, but not before giving the pervy teacher one hateful glare.
Kamoshida then turned to Neku and Beat, the blonde heatedly glaring while Neku shows the usual gloomy disinterest in the man. Without a word, Neku walks up the steps after giving Ren a nod and a silent "later", Beat followed him with a huff. As Neku passes the coach, the man glowers at him.
"What? Not gonna say thanks, Sakuraba?" taunted the coach.
"I said thanks to my boss. What do I owe you?" replied Neku as he walks off with a wave. Beat wears a shit-eating grin as they entered the building. Kamoshida curses lowly before returning his eyes to Ren, his eyes narrowed. He asks if they had seen each other before, which catches Ren off guard. Does he know about the events taking place in the castle? But then as he nearly panicked, they have indeed met before.
"Sort've. I was at the station when you gave that student a lift here," he revealed, no sense in lying. Kamoshida nodded with an "ah" then greets him properly with all the false kindness the human could give. And of course, he had to remind the boy of any trouble caused by him and he'd be expelled. But like Ren, Kamoshida wanted him out of his sight as quickly as possible so he told him to go to the faculty office and meet with Ms. Kawakami.
"Oh, joy…time to meet another teacher who will likely be as giddy to welcome me to Shujin…" he thinks remorsefully as he walks into the school.
No sooner does Ren enter the school building he could feel every single pair of eyes glued to him as if Kamoshida walked in nude. Whispers of his criminal past began to sing overhead, everyone looking at him like he was just waiting for an excuse to assault someone. The students who were less than quiet already presented him with the speculations he'll be dealing with throughout his school year here, from possessing a knife concealed within his bag.
Which…in a bizarre sense wasn't TOO far from the truth if his other world form were any indication.
Drugs in his possession, has an explosive temper, beat the snot out of some student for looking at him weirdly, and all kinds of stupid junk. When he climbed a flight of stairs to the second floor, two girls almost jumped off the stairs out of fear of him, and when he turned a corner another student tripped over himself to escape his wrath. Were he not under such terrible circumstances Ren would've laughed at the ordeal and brush it off.
He arrives at the faculty office and finds his homeroom teacher sitting at her desk, looking as defeated as he did when he first woke up. He politely announces himself to her, and when she turns to him, he sees there's exhaustion within her eyes. She mutters "unbelievable" under her breath and turns to him. She is already going on about him being half a day late and like every other teacher asks him where he has been.
"I have a good feeling if I say anything about the castle, she's gonna throw me out the window," he thinks to himself, judging from her eyes. He plays the "I got lost" card and apologizes for causing any disturbances. Unlike Kamoshida, Kawakami relaxed and just tells him she understands he did just move here, so at least she could leave him off with a small warning about behaving himself. Then she brings up "Sakamoto", and upon asking more about him, she just tells him not to get involved with him.
He's just trouble, and unless it was him, she urges gently to avoid him. Even after calling him a troublemaker, she softens her annoyed look into one that is remorseful and sad, recalling he used to be so different when he was on the track team.
"Umm…I, don't know if it's supposed to be an off-limits conversation but Kamoshida said something like that at the entrance and Ryuji was pretty mad about it. What exactly happened?" Ren asks. Kawakami gave him a raised brow, and he justifies this question by insisting he was only curious about the bad blood between him and Kamoshida. She just responds with a "don't get involved" and says she'll introduce him to the class just as the break ends.
It also turns out classes will end in the fifth period due to the subway accident. Hearing that Ren inquires about, not hearing anything about it until now. Kawakami explains that yesterday, the conductor just went mad and sped up the subway train so much he crashes and derailed the thing. Almost collapsed the entire tunnel, got dozens hurt, and of course, got himself killed. So because of that, students will be forced to use other tunnels and subways to find their ways back home, to not cause too much hassle they'd be allowed to go home early.
She then takes him to the classroom, all the while both of them sharing the same thought.
"Can this day get any worse for me?".
Elsewhere, Neku and Beat managed to reach their next class before break ended and after Neku covers for them again, they settled down in their seats just as class starts up again. Neku heaves a sigh of relief when he finds out his teacher today was a substitute who was as interested in the lessons as he is and allows his student to just finish any homework they had left. So with this, students began to work away in silence while Neku, who already had he done during his breaks at his job, starts to doodle in his sketchbook.
BZZT!
BZZT!
BZZT!
Neku uses his books to cover his desk before plucking out his phone beneath his desk and sees he received a text from the girls.
Misses Mew: "Where the heck have you two been!? Our social studies teacher was going off about you two for literally half the entire class!".
Neku glanced up from the phone and spots Shiki by her desk, books covering her little table with a worried look on her face. He didn't consider what she or the other girls would be thinking while they were fighting for their lives. Part of him wished he'd texted them as soon as they escaped from wherever they came from and reassured them they were still on their way.
Edge lord: "We'll tell you girls later, trust me".
He gave her a sorry smile as she reads his texts to her and with a pout, she nodded reluctantly and resumes whatever homework she forgot to do. Unless it was maths, she never forgets to do it. She just puts it off if she can before academics require her to do them for the sake of passing school. Going back to his doodling, he had already filled out the notebook with dozens of his graffiti ideas mixed with those dreams he had a while back.
Filled with sketch work with plenty of shading and unique designs that were inspired by CAT with a touch of the strange dreams, a little world of his own to create and remake in his vision. Then as he opens a new page, he starts to draw his other outfit self and Sanada Yukimura in the process, his hand freely sketching away with ease and skill as his imagination began to run wild like a free soul.
He lifts his head for a second and suddenly for a split second, he sees the castle again. Neku lets a sharp gasp out and clutches his head, disorientated and a slight panic stirs inside his heart. He takes a shallow breath and when he lowers his hand, he sees he was still in the classroom, just with a headache. Looking at his sketchbook and sees half the drawing complete, Neku places his pencil down and hummed.
"Kamoshida didn't say jack about the castle, about nearly killing us or anything…didn't even recognize Ren…and the castle just vanished…" he thinks. "But was it just a dream? Maybe we were just…no, that doesn't add up".
He sighed in his seat and leaned back to look out the window in thought…
*Later…*
"The first day of school, judgment: I hate it".
That was the conclusion Ren had come to the moment he walked out of the classroom. Of course, the moment he entered, all eyes had been set on him like he was the prime suspect in a murder case, everyone having a horrible opinion on him the moment he introduced himself. Not even Kawakami's words keep everyone from making this already thin icing situation of his anymore risky for him. Already he was missing home and just wished he could have gone ANYWHERE else that wasn't Shujin.
That girl though, the one with the wavy hair was sharing his class so at least he knew someone. To a degree. Not only that, but their short interaction had already sent the school students on a gossiping spree. She was Kamoshida's girlfriend and by talking to him, she was cheating. The fact she was DATING that filthy man made him sick but then again, maybe that was just high school rumors at their worst for the moment.
He had no doubt it's only going to get worse from here…
But as he leaves the room, staring down the hallway, suddenly for a brief second, the place turned back into the castle hallway. He shakes his head, rubbing his temples.
"Hey, are you okay?", Kawakami asks, noticing him. "Sorry if that was tough on you. I…".
"N-No, it's fine," Ren sighed, "I guess I'm just a little overwhelmed by everyone knowing about me".
"Looks like they're already talking about you…and no, I didn't say a word about you," promised the teacher. She sighed and asked again herself why she was the one to deal with this ordeal. Ren rolled his eyes when his face wasn't directed at her. Like she was having a rough time, she's not the one suffering under the eyes of every single gossiping idiot. Then to add more to his order of a bad day, Kawakami reveals Sakura-San (Sojiro) was contacted about him and…didn't sound happy.
"Just what I needed…upset the guy providing food and a roof over my head…" he thinks bitterly.
"Oh, and about Sakamoto-Kun. Don't get involved with-
Just as she was warning him, said Sakamoto appears from the hallway and approached the two. "Speak of the devil…heard you were having trouble with the police, something about cutting class," she says tiredly.
"It was nothin'", Ryuji says, brushing it off.
"And you haven't dyed your hair back to black yet either…" she says, gesturing his hair.
He gives a short and quick apology before he approached Ren. Quietly he says he and the others will be waiting for him on the rooftop and then leaves Ren. Once he was out of earshot, Kawakami resumes her warning about the boy. Yet Ren turns to her with a look that stops her tirade. He shrugged and thanked her for her warnings but says: "Ya know…he was the one who helped me get here as best as we could, and even helped me. Doesn't sound like a bad guy to me".
As he walks off, he coldly warns her it'd be best to learn who the person is before you assume they're a bad apple. But unbeknownst to Ren, those words cut into the teacher's heart far deeper than he would ever know.
Before he heads up, as he hides behind the wall, he overhears two voices. Laying his back against the wall, he peers over it to see Kamoshida and principal Kobayakawa. The coach was already displaying his disdain for Ren's arrival and the fact he was transferred here, but he seemed more concerned with how it was going to affect his efforts to maintain the school's reputable state. All the while it seemed the principal was just moaning about how difficult his life had gotten but he was mostly just kissing Kamoshida's ass during their talk.
Nothing but praises and expectations that somehow glorified the coach, it seemed to Ren that despite his terrible personality, it seemed Kamoshida being here has benefited the school greatly. But that principal…call the raven a pessimist but something in his gut is telling him that this fat potato was more concerned with more personal goals than the school, and if his lack of faith in people was accurate, he had a bad feeling there was more about that pervy teacher that hasn't concerned the principal greatly.
He sighed as they split, he had other things to focus on.
He reached the rooftop of the school and find Neku and Beat with Ryuji, all three sitting around. "Took your time," Ryuji commented as Ren rests against one of the spare desks. "Sorry for callin' you all up here," he apologizes, "I bet you Kawakami already told you to "not get involved with him" huh?".
"Yeah but…ya know, troublemaker student. Comes with not listening to my teachers…so…" Ren said casually, "But how'd you know that?".
"Cause she says that about anybody who doesn't follow da rules," Beat informs with a huff, "That teach always has a stick up her ass!".
"That…and probably because we look and act like troublemakers," Neku points out. "But hey, think we're all in the same boat, in a way". He looks at Ren and says: "We heard about that criminal record of yours. Whole freaking school's talking about it".
"No wonder you're gutsy," Ryuji joked.
"Gutsy…no. Stupid and desperate not to die? Pretty much the most accurate description," Ren sighed as he runs his hand through his hair. "Speaking of which…".
All four boys pondered the world they visited, trying to make sense out of all of it. Without a doubt it wasn't a dream, Neku had shown everyone his back. There is a faint scar that ran down from his left shoulder to his right hip, but it looked so old and faded it could have been there for most of his life for anyone knows. Not to mention each of them could recollect everything that's happened in that place, yet when they tried to figure out how and why they were able to go there, nobody had an answer.
Neku also pointed out Kamoshida didn't mention anything about what happened and knowing how he acted in there, there was no chance he wouldn't seek retribution for them humiliating him and killing his guards. Yet nothing, he didn't even remember Ren until he brought up the station. So if the coach doesn't remember what happened, they couldn't prove Neku's wound was from his soldiers, then what else could there be?
"Yo…ya think maybe it was just a freaky accident? Like man, we just, I dunno, walked in?" Beat asked scratching his head, "Mean shit…we don't even know how we got there".
"Yeah…" agreed Neku.
Ryuji hummed and turned to Ren. "Well, dream or not, you still saved me from Kamoshida…so…thanks, Ren," he says, grateful but awkward. With a smirk, Ren shrugged it off and claimed it was nothing. Ryuji smirked back but then frowns. He goes on about how different Kamoshida in that castle was compared to the one here, and the other two agreed there was a massive change.
"You guys know this guy pretty well…what exactly is it about him that ticks you off?" Ren asks.
"Apart from him being a dick?" Neku asked with a shrug, "The guy acts like he's the king of a castle here. And nobody says a thing against him because he's a medallist who took the volleyball team to the nationals".
"And that fat ass principal is constantly lettin' him get away with the shit cause of that! And anyone who goes up against him, pfft, they don't get a chance," Beat growled, "Guess that's why he acted like an e-ffing king of that castle!".
"…wonder if we could go back," Ryuji mumbles to himself. Then he huffed and gets off his chair, deciding it was probably just some freak accident and that it'd be best to just get over it. The other trio agreed in unison, that was enough craziness for a lifetime. "Anyways, sorry for dragging you all up here. That's all I had to say, anyways" Ryuji confesses. Then he smiled. "Ya know, as weird as this is gonna sound, we're pretty similar. Think we'll get along as "troublemakers".
"You and Beat sure well…" Neku groaned, "I dunno which one of you is louder…or dumber".
"BWAA!? What'cha say Phone!?" cried Beat, glaring at him.
"…maybe Beat's JUST a smidge ahead…" Neku clarifies.
After a small chuckle is shared between the four, they start to part ways after everybody properly introduces themselves to each other and head off. Though Ren urges everyone that, even if they would chuck it up to a dream or a freak accident, they'd keep it to themselves. Ryuji just laughed.
Who'd believe such a story anyway?
*WildKat: Afterschool*
"A talking humanoid cat?" Shiki asked gobsmacked.
"Personas? Monsters?" Rhyme questioned with wide eyes.
"Kamoshida wearing NOTHING but pink undies!?" Eri nearly shrieks.
"Yes, yes, yes and tragically, yes," Neku groaned as he sipped his coffee.
Settled in their favorite café in Shibuya before they returned home, the gang of five Shujin students gathered up after meeting at the school gate where Neku explains to the group what happened to cause himself and Beat to miss half a day. After they made sure they weren't going to be overheard by some random customer and had a few cups and treats, Neku started from the beginning about how they entered that castle and how they escaped.
While Rhyme and Shiki had an easier time accepting this story, Eri was the one who probably had checked her caffeine and pinched herself more times than not to ensure she wasn't dreaming. After they returned from the UG, Shiki had confessed to the girl about her death and how she came back to life. Of course where it anyone else there'd never would have been a need to reveal this adventure to anyone, but the four had realized that keeping such a thing from Eri would have been impossible.
"And you guys are SURE you weren't on anything?" Eri asked.
"Didn't ya see the freaking scar on Phone's back!?" Beat says with a light slam on the table, "Dude sure as freak didn't do it himself!".
"T-That's…" Eri starts but Shiki stops her.
"Beat's right, Eri. Neku didn't have anything like that before today," she says confidently.
"And you know that how?" interrogates Eri.
Shiki turns pink at the implication of her confidence and stammers a meek response; all the while Rhyme looks at the two. More questions came from her about the Persona aspect and Neku explained what Morgana said about "masks within people" and how he was only awakened by his rebel spirit. Though Rhyme questioned why he was someone like Sanada Yukimura, who by all accounts, didn't "rebel" like someone like Arséne.
"And Kamoshida didn't say anything to you guys? Nothing regarding…the castle?" she asks.
"Nothin'. Maybe he doesn't remember or somethin'," Beat huffed, "Don't care anyway. We got off from him reporting to fatso".
"But you two still don't know how you got there? Like, did anything tip you off?" she persists.
"Nope. We just followed Ryuji to the school but then bam, a castle," Neku sighed.
"Sheesh…sounds like a more messed up UG or something…least you don't have to, ya know, die to get there," Eri sighed.
Truth be told Neku wasn't sure which was worse at that point. All he does as his friends shift the conversation into something neutral was stir his coffee and ponder. "Rhyme had a point about Sanada…maybe there's something about him I could read on," he thinks to himself. He pulls out his phone and downloads an app that focuses on the Sengoku era of Japan.
Then just before he closed his phone, he spots an app that he didn't download.
An app a certain Trickster has on his phone…
A/N:
Another one done~
So our heroes have escaped from pervy-shido, who knows what comes next?
Response:
First, yes after a lot of people pointing out, I have changed the tags to World Ends with You. Still have the idea in mind.
Mangareader13: Oh he will, just much later.
carlsbad1315: Thank you, will do!
KaisakiTokura: I think everyone will enjoy that~
jikker jack: I do have plans to use WEWY's mechanics along with new ideas. Personas do empower Neku's group like the other Phantom Thieves but they will be using more of their older powers with some unique techniques.
Trald1994: While Sanda did not "rebel" like many other Personas, I'm going with his beliefs. He died as the last true samurai at the end of the Sengoku Era, living and dying his way. Neku is not much as rebellion against society as he is living his way of life in his own world.
SnowTrue: Not as much bonding with them yet, more on Ren with Neku. As for Eri and Shiki, the latter will be getting hers sooner. Thanks again for the advice on my writing and thanks for the support.
KingJGamer: I can't give away too much, but as you see in this chapter, Neku's powers along with his Persona work much differently than the usual Phantom Thief. This is gonna have a lot of the Royal story, and I do plan on bringing more TWEWY characters.
My questions:
Q1: What Persona do you think Beat should get? I'm trying to figure one out for him and Rhyme.
Q2: Neku's abilities?
Q3: Who should I pair Ren off with?
As always everyone, thanks so much for the support and reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!