Chapter 9: Blue

TW: Suggestive language, Kamoshida

They long for your embrace! (They're warm like mittens!)

They'll curl up on your face! (And purr like kittens!)

You make my balls so blue!

Just look at them glow…

They're beggin' you!

Don't make my balls so blue!

Getting back down to the gross sewer dungeons was easy; keeping up with Akira-chan and Morgana was the hard part.

Ann watches as the strange new girl in her life twirls a dagger between her fingers and kicks Shadows to the ground in a dress skirt and heels. She can only see Akira-chan's smile when she takes off her mask to summon Judith, and she's always smiling, but just watching the way the 'awakened rebel' or whatever moved was like seeing a predator on the prowl. Every step is calculated, every strike aims true.

She is beautiful, powerful, and confident. Ann looks at her and sees all the things she's tried to be, but better.

Ann lucked her way into a modeling career because of her parents. She stages every ounce of stage presence she puts on for the cameras. If not for Shiho, sweet, eccentric, wonderful Shiho, Ann would just be an awkward, friendless outcast wearing the glitter of fame.

What good is beauty that makes you a target for others?

What's the point in fame when all it does is set you apart?

And then there's Akira.

Who's just pulled out a freaking gun and is shooting real bullets at a little fairy girl!?

"HAH! I knew that would work!" Akira-chan spins the pistol on her finger and sheathes it in the holster on her exposed leg. "Mona-chan," she looks down, batting her eyelashes at their self-proclaimed not-a-feline companion, "can you explain how a model gun can fire real bullets?"

Ann can only watch in horror. "Y-You brought a gun to school!? Oh my god you brought a gun to school…"

"It's quite simple, actually!" Morgana hops and waves all cute-like. "This is a cognitive world, so a gun that looks real, is real! In a sense that is. And because the enemies expect you to come at them with a full clip, you don't have to worry about running out of ammo unless you're really really surrounded."

"Good to know," Akira-chan says with a nod.

It's already crazy watching a girl and her cat summon superheroes to fight a bunch of small monsters, but it was the cognition talk that was seriously making Ann's head spin. Inner rebels, cognitive whatsits, model guns shoot real bullets?

Hopefully it'll all be over soon. Just as soon as they find out what Kamoshida's doing with his prisoners in here.

She has to know.

"That explains the lack of recoil," Akira-chan notes, twirling her gun around like a cowboy. "People watch way too many movies."

Morgana just gives her a smug little smile. "Now, I've got a special move to try out, since you've gotten the hang of combat."

Ann's stopped trying to keep up with the banter between the two fighters in the group. She knows, logically, that she's the one who wanted to come back in the first place, but it's hard not to feel like the odd one out when those two have superpowers and she's just here to learn the truth.

To admit to what's been staring her in the face for… weeks? Months? God, has it really been months?

Shiho…

"Now! All-Out Attack!"

"Let's show them a good time, shall we?"

Ann's attention is drawn back to the fighting when Akira-chan and Morgana have been rendered into a literal dust cloud where, presumably, they're beating the snot out of the couple of Shadows that had been in front of them. It's cartoony and ridiculous and—

Turning away from the Shadows, Akira-chan tosses her curls over one shoulder, dexterously pulling down her face mask and pressing two fingers to her lips in a single motion. Everything stops for a moment as the monsters are silhouetted against a decadent background, gold and purple displaying a cornucopia, a veritable feast of bread and wine, with a banner overhead reading 'PAY UP'. Akira-chan looks over her shoulder, blowing the kiss from her flicked out fingers with the most nonchalant smile. "Sweet dreams~"

Ann blinks, and blinks again. After half a moment, she asks, "What just happened?"

"If you can knock all the enemies down, that's your chance to land an All-Out Attack! Think of it like a big super finishing move!" Morgana explains, perhaps a bit too eager in the wake of his and Akira-chan's path of destruction.

Akira giggles, "The more I learn the more I'm convinced this whole place was just designed as some kinda video game or anime."

Morgana shrugs. "I don't make the cognition, I just adapt to it."

"We're lucky to have you as our guide, then!" Ann can hear the smile in Akira's voice. Ann had to admit, there was just a bit of whiplash seeing Akira-chan as lively as she is now... At school she was cold as ice, harsh and bitter to all their sneering classmates. Severe, intimidating. Now she's like… a little girl having fun. Playing around with superpowers and just having a blast.

She looks so much more her age than she did when she was telling off Kamoshida, or shutting the class up this morning.

"Kamoshida was pretty upset that you got away yesterday. All the prisoners got moved in here." Morgana directs them into a passageway to the side, a barred gate opening up with the pull of some sort of lever. A few hallways and doors later, they're greeted by a dingy entrance hall with a gaudy banner draped above the door.

"'Kamoshida's Training Hall of Love'? Oh, god." Ann shivered as revulsion built like bile at the back of her mouth.

"Can't be any worse than the cross room from last time, right?" Akira shrugs and pushes the door open. She says it so easily Ann is convinced she's right. Those faceless dolls were terrifying. She still sees them sometimes when she lets her mind wander.

The first thing that hits Ann as they enter the self-proclaimed 'Training Hall' is the crying. Not sobs, but desperate, gasping cries echoing from every corner of the room. Cut with screams and groans from every cell containing a unique torture chamber.

Tangled into the volleyball nets while knights spank them with the butts of their spears. Racing on a treadmill towards a dangling kettle of water as a spiked roller threatens behind them. One poor soul dangling upside down as a cannon fires volleyballs at him. The sight is enough to make Ann's stomach twist into knots.

"This is…" the words catch in Ann's throat, barely more than a whisper, "so messed up."

Akira and Morgana stand quiet behind her for a moment, before the clunk of Akira's heels comes up to meet her.

"Not find what you're looking for?" she asks, her voice low, but not accusing.

Ann shuffles her shoulders where she grips the bars and steps back, shaking her head. "I mean… This confirms all those rumors about abuse, doesn't it? All the… the bruises, and the bandages."

Morgana trots forward. "If this is what Kamoshida's cognition of the volleyball team looks like, then similar treatment must be happening in the real world, too. In short, Kamoshida is treating his team in reality as disposable punching bags, all for his amusement."

Ann rubs her bicep. "That's all we need, isn't it?"

Akira crosses her arms and raises a single eyebrow. "So what are you really looking for, Ann-kun?"

Ann sighs. "You're too good at this, Akira-chan." She looks back at the cell where the boys of the volleyball team are being tormented, wincing as another volleyball harshly connected to a boy's jaw, an audible snap echoing throughout the torture hall. "...Where are the girls?"

"Hm?" Akira cocks her head.

Ann turns to look back at her. "I said, where are the girls? There are only boys here. Shujin has a guys' and a girls' team."

Akira nods. "Let's keep looking, then."

A particularly pained and bloodcurdling scream turns the girls head to a door at the end of the hall of torture chambers. With a silent agreement, they open the door, revealing another room of wet and mossy stone, but with a floor covered in sand. In the center of the sand, a wooden stake stands driven into the ground, another volleyball player tied to it with chains.

"Hold on, isn't that—?"

"Mishima," Ann whispers.

More volleyball members, these ones wearing grotesque iron helmets, lift up and spike a seemingly endless supply of volleyballs at Mishima-kun, who just sits there, helpless and sobbing from pain. His blue hair is matted with blood where a ball bashed his head.

"Shit, no wonder the kid looks like hell," Akira mumbles.

"Let's just go. I've… I've seen enough." Ann takes Akira by the wrist and pulls her back towards the exit. Akira-chan follows her, her movement not as stiff as yesterday, but she does pull her hand out from Ann's grip. She pulls ahead of her and takes point with Morgana once more.

The guards are apparently on high alert from their traipsing through the dungeon, but the girls and Morgana manage to slip back into the castle proper easily. Maybe it helped that Ann was too busy with her own thoughts to make any noise. A chilling thought creeps its way down Ann's spine.

If this was what the boys were being subjected to, then what were the girls being forced to endure? What was Shiho being forced to endure?

They aren't even halfway through the entrance hall, in all its ugly-pretty glory, when with a disgusting chuckle, the other Kamoshida descends from the stairs. He walks forward with that same hunched saunter as before, his cape fluttering as he moves, occasionally showing off his hairy legs and tiny speedo. He's flanked by more knights, one in shiny gold armor.

"Well well, hello again, ladies." He grins lasciviously. "It's so like you to always come crawling back, Takamaki."

She snarls, "What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" She throws an arm out to her side, clenching her other fist. "This school isn't your castle! You don't get to just abuse your students like this!"

Kamoshida cocks his head, looking genuinely confused. "Is that a fact? Then who's going to stop me? The volleyball teams I coach have the drive to become winners! That's why they refuse to quit. Their parents don't speak a word as long as their kids live out their dreams for them. And the faculty love me for the results I bring. It's like a well-oiled system in which everyone stands to benefit! I am the inexorable king of this castle!"

Ann flinches back. "Their parents…? So what, nobody cares that you're hurting them!?"

He grins. "Exactly. I do this all for the glory of my castle. And everyone heeds the word of their king."

Akira charges him, her dagger catching on the sword of the golden knight. "Not everyone, dick!"

Kamoshida watches her for a brief second, as Morgana leaps in to cut at the knight's arm. "I suppose it's a tragedy then, that you won't be given another choice." The gray knights shiver and convulse, turning into beautiful green women in flowing orange dresses. "Dispose of the rabble. Their protests are grating on my ears."

"Ann-kun, stay back!" Akira growls as the women surround her and Mona.

One of the women sways in place. "Such disrespect towards our king must be met with swift punishment. Don't worry, he'll take good care of you soon."

"Zorro!"

"Judith!"

Their powers protecting them, Ann and Mona enter an all-out brawl with the monsters, leaving Ann to watch helplessly. It isn't fair!

Akira unloads a full clip of her pistol into one of them, while Zorro fires off a blade of wind, but the beautiful creature still holds on. "Just die already!"

"This isn't good," Mona mutters as the air drops in temperature.

Blasts of cold attack from all sides, sending the cat to the ground. Akira lowers her dagger to charge again, but trips as her heels are encased in ice. "D-dammit!"

Ann drops to her knees as she realizes her friends aren't strong enough to make it out of this.

Kamoshida steps up and presses his foot down on Akira-chan's back. "Y-you bastard...!" The gold knight steps up to pin Morgana in kind.

Kamoshida cranes his neck at Ann again. "Lemme guess; you came here because of Suzui and ended up like this. Isn't that right?"

Her breath catches on her tongue. "I-I—"

He shakes his head. "Ah ah ah, no lying, Takamaki. You know, you sure like to lead a guy on. Always pulling away until I mention her. It's awfully rude to spend time with me while only thinking about her, wouldn't you say?"

Anger flares inside her chest. "This has nothing to do with Shiho!"

"Doesn't it? Such a little tease, you are. But always coming back. I really don't mind, you know. As long as you're with me, I can do whatever I want."

Ann watches in horror as some kind of funhouse mirror trick walks out of the shadows. It's… it looks just like her, dressed in nothing but a pink fur-patterned bikini, and kitty ears! But, her bust is too big, and her waist isn't that thin.

Kamoshida wraps his arms around the doppelganger's shoulders. "My princess will always do what I say, right, Takamaki?"

Gazing through half-lidded eyes, the double drawls, "Talking back is, like, soooo forbidden."

It's disgusting. It's every dumb stereotype that's ever been thrown at her for years had been bundled up and merged into one being. It's—

"Is that what you think of me?"

"You're always so coquettish… You sure know how to make me feel blue, Takamaki. Maybe I should have you and Suzui get together, and I can watch and enjoy the show." Every word is like a punch to the gut, dragging Ann down. She feels helpless and furious at once. She shoots back a desperate, murderous glare at Kamoshida.

"That's-That's so sick! You're… disgusting…" When did she end up on all fours? She feels like she's being crushed. "What… What am I supposed to do? Shiho…!"

"Get up!"

It's loud. It's clear. It's always so easy with Akira.

Ann lifts her head, the tears stinging her eyes as she sees her friend snarling under Kamoshida's boot. "Don't just lie there and take it! Fight back! Show him what he gets for pushing you around!"

"That's a good look on your face, Takamaki. You should look like that more—"

"Shut up." It comes out like a hiss.

"What was that?"

Something burns in her gut. It doesn't feel like anger; it feels like something more.

"Letting this piece of shit toy with me… What the hell was I thinking!?" She pushes herself to her feet, the weight on her shoulders burning away to nothing. "I've had enough of this… YOU'VE PISSED ME OFF, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

My… it's taken far too long.

"Urgh!" Ann gasps, desperate for air as pressure builds in her skull. It feels like she can't breathe, the pain is so great.

Tell me… how long are you willing to suffer?

She grasps at her twintails, pulling on them in some desperate bid for relief.

Kindness is wasted on the cruel. Tolerance of the intolerable is a weight that can be beared no longer!

Ann's legs quake underneath, but she still stands up, gasping for air. She can feel it, something close.

Such is the scream of the other you that dwells within…

She screams, her chest heaving as she throws her arms back, before all the air rushes out of her.

I am thou, thou art I… We can finally forge a contract.

Her head hangs low. Her mind feels so dizzy, but so clear at the same time. More clear than Ann has felt in years. "I hear you… Carmen."

Her vision goes black as a weight settles onto her face. "You're right! No more holding back."

Nothing can be solved by restraining yourself. Understand?

She grabs the corner of the mask on her face.

Then I'll gladly lend you my strength.

With one decisive yank, she pulls off the mask. A horrible scream rips out of her throat as her whole face goes with it.

And then she feels warm. She feels hot. Like she's on fire, but the fire burns within.

Carmen stands behind her, decked in black and red. Chained to her are the poor heart-masked men she's snared as she lifts her skirt high.

"I'm not some cheap doll you can toy with, you scumbag!" With a wave of her arm and a flick of her wrist, she grabs the replica of herself, tying its wrists with the length of her whip and pulling her forward.

"Let me go, bitch!"

Kamoshida steps back, giving Akira a chance to leap forward. Ann shoves the bimbo away, releasing her whip and sending her and the gold knight she crashes into off of Mona, who comes to her side.

"If you thought you were blue before, I'll leave you black and blue now!"

The fake with her face stumbles forward. "You are, like, so going down!" The Shadows around her coalesce, the entourage of green women from before flanking her as the doppelganger herself turns into a gray-skinned girl in white, black wings fluttering behind her the same color as her hair.

"Let us show this pig and his dolls how we dance, shall we?" Carmen beckons her, and Ann feels her fire burn brighter.

"DANCE, CARMEN!"

An explosion, a wall of flame shoots out from her, the women in green crumbling to the ground. The floating monster that was her double still stands, and Ann snarls as she sends another wave of heat out, dusting the add-ons and leaving the other fairly scorched.

"You, like, totally need to chill!"

The demon girl retaliates with an ice ball, but Akira-chan jumps in the way, catching it on her arms. "Hah! The cold doesn't bother me, bitch!"

"Zorro!" Mona calls out, and a green light suffuses Akira's body, and she breathes a little easier.

"Thanks, Mona-chan!"

Ann snaps at the demon with her whip, who bets it away with her legs. "King Kamoshida just, like, wants to love us! Quit being selfish!" Its voice still hasn't lost that insufferable upward inflection.

"He's a manipulative scumbag using my best friend as leverage and abusing the people he's supposed to be caring for! Don't give me that 'love' bullshit!" She drops into a crouch and pulls off her mask once more, just like Akira had. "Let's go, Carmen!"

This time, the fireball hits her double square in the chest, knocking her to the ground.

Now, just like Mona and Akira:

"Let's do it with style!"

Ann and the others jump into a dogpile for an All-Out Attack, and it feels amazing to beat up on this ugly mockery of herself. In the end, with a spin and a flourish, Ann throws up a peace sign and thrusts out her hip. "This beautiful rose has thorns!"

With the battle over, all the fire goes out of her, though, and Ann is left panting hands over knees. Her body feels as if she ran ten marathons in one day, but she looks up and glares at Kamoshida regardless. "What do you think of me now… you bastard…?"

"So Lady Ann had the potential too…?" Mona remarks quietly.

Kamoshida sneers. "You don't think my toys break that easily, do you?" A burst of shadow lurches beside him, and that ugly copy is back at his side.

"But I—!"

"It's just Kamoshida's cognition of you, Lady Ann. It can't really be destroyed as long as he still thinks about you!"

"Clean up this troublesome garbage this instant!" A wave of new guards flood the room.

"We have to leave before we get surrounded!" Morgana cries.

"Come on, Ann-kun." Akira grabs her by the wrist.

She can't help but snarl. "We're just letting him get away and run like cowards!?"

"You can barely stand!" Akira points out, rightly.

Ann swallows thickly, and glares back at Kamoshida. "We're going to expose you for everything you've done, Kamoshida. You hear me!?"

Instead of cowed, the king looks overjoyed. "Come at me whenever you want, if you don't care about your lives!"

His mad cackling follows them all the way out.

No guards come pouring out the front doors once the trio are outside. Ann still can't quite catch her breath, but it does give her the chance to look over herself. Her skintight, red leather-clad self.

"W-When the heck did I change into this?" She turns around to look at her back, seeing an adorable tail hanging above her butt. "I look great!"

"Damn right," Akira says with a grin. She tosses her tousled hair over her shoulder. "I look better though."

"Shhhh, be quiet!" Mona hushes them as the sounds of guards echo out from behind the walls and windows. After a moment, he continues. "I said it before, but that's your will of rebellion. By opposing a Palace ruler or becoming a threat to them, your outfit changes when you accept your inner self. You summon a Persona by removing your mask, the shield that you face the world with. That being said, awakening to your Persona is a stressful event."

Ann nods, and lets herself drop to the floor. "Yeah, I'm pooped."

Mona looks away shyly. "Accepting one's own rebellion isn't always easy, especially if the mask you wear is incongruous with your true feelings. The deeper the disparity, the harder the ordeal."

Ann sighs. "The inner self… is that what King Kamoshida is? And why aren't you looking at me?"

"I-It's impolite to stare!" Mona stutters. "And, that's quite sharp of you, Lady Ann. The Kamoshida you see in the castle is the real Kamoshida's Shadow. A Shadow is the true self that is suppressed—a side of one's personality they don't want to see. That's why nothing that happens on this side is remembered in reality."

"Meaning John has no idea we're traipsing about in his head," Akira says with a nod.

Mona twists his arms back and forth nervously. "Now, fairest lady thieves, in exchange for my help, it would… be most gracious if you could cooperate with me in turn."

Akira taps her heel into the ground. "I'd love to help, Mona-chan, but I don't think Ann's in any state to."

Ann lets her head roll back. "I feel like I'm dyiiiiing."

Morgana's already wide eyes go even wider as he began to protest. "B-But I need to erase the distortion from my body so I can regain my real form!"

"Mona, we just barely got away with our lives. I don't think we're ready for another big mission!"

Ann lets her head fall to her knees. "Sorry, Morgana…"

"I, b-but…" The adorable cat-human looks utterly stricken. "You're… not going to repay the hospitality I showed you? Lady Ann, Dame Akira?"

"I'm sorry, Mona-chan—"

"Is it because I'm not human? Because I look like a cat?"

"It's not like that, Mona-chan!" Akira sweeps him up in her arms once more. "I promise, we'll do whatever we can to help you, just as soon as we're ready, okay?"

"Ack! Um, that's not what I, please—!"

"Let him go, Akira-chan," Ann says, chastising her friend like they're in middle school, the nostalgia of the feeling washing over her.

Akira pouts and drops him. "You were very brave, Mona-chan. We couldn't have gotten away without you."

Morgana continues to mumble to himself as the girls walk away, though Ann only catches something that sounds like "Don't leave me behind…"

Ann still looks like she ran a marathon by the time they get back to the real world. Akira slips her phone back into her pocket and offers the girl her arm. It must have been exhausting having to fight with so much anger.

She gets it, she really does. She can remember a few names, if not a few faces, she'd blow up at, given the chance.

Ann groans, "Ugh, you were nothing like this yesterday."

Akira shrugs in response, "I guess my rebellion just isn't so different from how I usually am."

"'Kindness to the cruel', 'tolerating the intolerable'..." Ann mumbles to herself. Must be some of what Carmen had said to her when awakening. "I really have been holding myself back so much. It felt like I was finally able to cut loose when I had Carmen with me."

Akira grins, a kinship budding in her chest. "I felt the same way about Judith. But then, I never held myself back much before, so, there you go."

Ann thinks for a moment, not looking to be in any hurry to get moving again. Akira can hardly blame her if she feels as tired as she looks. "The volleyball rally is tomorrow," she says, causing Akira to blink. "And all the volleyball team members are being abused by Kamoshida." She looks up at Akira, staring into her eyes. "You'll talk to them with me, won't you?"

Akira cocks her head and considers it for a moment. It sounds like an idea Ann would come up with. "You think they need our help, huh?"

"I know they do. They may not be speaking out now, but maybe, if they know we have their back…" Ann looks away again.

"You said Shiho was on the team too, right?"

Ann bites her lip, and nods. "She… She hasn't said anything to me about this. That's why I was so worried about finding any of the girls in his castle, but—"

"But the only girl we saw was you. And how he sees you hanging off his arm as long as he can threaten Shiho's place on the team."

Ann's face twists into a scowl. "That dirtbag's going to pay for this."

Akira tentatively rests a hand on Ann's shoulder. "I've got your back. Pretty sure John's the one who leaked my record anyways."

Ann blinks up at her. "You really think he did that?"

Akira shrugs. "It would make sense. He wants something from me, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what. Ostracize me from the other students and he can offer himself up as a 'helping hand' to a 'disadvantaged youth'." Akira snarls, "I'd be shocked if it takes him a week to try and make a move on me. Maybe even offer to pay, as if his ugly ass is worth violating my probation."

"Your probation…" Ann stands up a little straighter. "Akira-chan… I've got your back too. I know what it's like to have everyone leaving you out because of rumors and stuff. And besides, we're both girls everyone wants something from. Birds of a feather, right?"

Akira smiles, something like trust building in between them. "Birds of a father, Ann-kun."

I am thou, thou art I, thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall become the sound of rebellion that heraldeth thy age of salvation.

With the birth of the Lovers Arcana, I have obtained the song of blessing that shall sing of freedom and new power…

Time resumes, and Ann sighs, "I still feel like I'm about to keel over. I need something sweet, like yesterday."

Akira laughs. It's so small and simple to just go for a snack after exerting themselves. "Sure. I could go for something chocolatey."

"Oooh, I want crêpes!"

A/N: Ann gets her own chapter, and we see Kamoshida's Training Hall of Love, with a minor addition.

I hope people like my take on Ann's awakening in this new context. Don't worry, things are still getting spicier as we go.

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