Chapter Two
It had to be a dream, there was no other possibilities, and no other outcome that could explain what had just unfolded. Akira watched the demons, for that was the only word that seem apt to describe them, turn to dust under the power of—his power. The one Arsene, and that voice, had bestowed upon him. The fact that he was able to speak, let alone yell, was a dead giveaway to the fact that what was happening before him, the sweat trickling down his forehead, the undeniable euphoria that came with the notion of murdering Kamoshida right now, was all a work of fantasy. It was all in his head. Akira could not talk, violence did not turn him on, and he could be sweating, but that would be from his blanket being too thick. He was still at Leblanc, in the attic, he just knew it. Blob—Sakamato was a work of a fiction, a bystander he could have seen years ago and just happened to be remembered by his unconscious. Of course, it was a very detailed dream, or nightmare, and his sense of self was still intact, though he could not ever recall having the desire to purchase and equip a leather trench coat and gloves the color of blood. That wasn't even to mention the thing that had spawned behind him when his contract was formed.
Arsene was, aesthetically speaking, very beautiful. In a strange way. Ancient, definitely. Magnificent. Truly so. The entity emitted waves of something intoxicating. This aroma of power, something Akira knew he lacked. There was confidence there as well, another concept he was completely unaligned with. Not even to mention the ability to speak. His other self. His ideal self. He wanted to be like Arsene; to become Arsene. But first...
Sakamato wasted no time in recovering from Akira's distraction. The blond swept to his feet, though not without some stumbling, and grabbed a ring of keys that had, most likely, fallen from the clutches of the, now disintegrated, guards. Akira knew instantly what the other boy was up to, and didn't hesitate to get himself out of harm's way as Sakamato locked Kamoshida, or whoever it was, inside of the cell they'd previously occupied. Arsene's form, that of a vengeful angel, hovered above the both of them, his face, though made of shadow and flame, looking pleased. Though, he supposed, since Arsene had come out of him, he'd more acclimated to his emotions; if he had emotions, that is. Akira brought himself back to the present once he heard a sigh of relief from Sakamato.
"What… What was that? Just now?" The blond said, looking between him and the man they'd just locked in a cell. Hopefully they wouldn't get detention from this, or expelled, in his case.
Akira looked at Arsene.
Arsene looked back at him, then cleared his throat before he began speaking in a voice that should have been too deep to sound as elegant as it did.
"I am the rebel's soul that resides within you. This odeal," Arsene lifted one of his incredibly long arms and pointed a crooked finger at Kamoshida, "Caused me to awaken." Disappointment flooded him. Arsene's voice was the same that he thought he was using, the voice he thought he'd spoken with.
"Who the hell are you?" A voice rang out, drawing Akira from yet another stupor. Kamoshida seemed to have finally recovered and was standing at the bars of his new cell, the cape-clad man was glaring at each of them with sinister yellow eyes.
Arsene laughed. The sound caused Sakamato to squeak from beside him.
"Me?" Arsene questioned loftily, sounded offended as he was smug, the figure placed a hand to his chest, his black wings expanding like the plumage of an egotistical bird. "I am Arsene! The Pillager of Twilight." Each word was punctuated and Akira took a moment to grind the words over in his brain.
My other me… is The Pillager of Twilight?
That didn't make any sense, nothing about this dream did.
"Then… explain the clothes!" Sakamato said, taking a step away from all of them while pointing an accusatory finger at Akira. Again, he glanced down at his red-clad hands, the same color as Arsene's overcoat, further connecting them. He offered nothing but a shrug to the other boy, Arsene also remained silent, still hovering and still on fire. Sakamato scratched his head, the gears in his head clearly overworked by all of the information Akira's dream had presented to him.
"Woah-!" Sakamato exclaimed, pulled out of his silence as Akira, once again, erupted in flame, revealing his Shujin uniform. "It… went back to normal."
"Let's… get of here," Sakamato said, winding his arm back to throw the keys in his hand towards an unknown destination. "Before anything else catches on fire."
Akira watched the glittering as the object sank into the rushing river that divided the prison in half. He then looked to Arsene, the thing that was… also him, was still watching Kamoshida as the speedo-clad man thrashed about, looking for all intents like a wild beast.
"If you need me," Arsene said, still watching the trapped man-beast, "Call upon me." With that, the winged figure vanished, causing Sakamato to make another strange noise.
"Let's go, dude." The blond said, quickly recovering, once again, from this strange situation. Akira turned towards the stranger and nodded, letting Sakamato lead them away from a prison that was, most definitely, not Shujin Academy.
They snaked past the guards with minimal difficulty, a surprising feat considering how hard both of them were breathing and how much noise Akira's heart was making all of a sudden. He never was one for running, or violence, typically. He also supposed that it could have to do with the number of other high school students that were stuck behind iron bars, just like he and Sakamato were several minutes ago.
Unfortunately, their path had just reached its end when they stumbled upon a wall of wooden planks, such a wall was supposed to be lying flat, allowing them to cross, but that was not the case.
Maybe… he shouldn't have thrown those keys… Akira thought, rather put off, but not blaming Sakamato, for he'd probably do something similar. Then another voice rang out, one too high in pitch to be Arsene, Sakamato, or even Kamoshida. There was also a distinct lack of clanking that would indicate one of the prison's guards.
"Hey!" The voice said, again, "Blondie! Frizzy hair! Look over here!" The voice squeaked. Akira twitched, his hair was not frizzy, it was fluffy. Fluffy! Sighing, Akira walked towards the source of the voice, which was, unsurprisingly, from the confines of one of the cells. He couldn't help but wonder why none of the other inmates were calling out to them, besides this one. When he finally got to the cell, where he thought he'd heard the noise, he gazed around the stone confines only to find four blank walls.
Then he looked down.
Another demon? He couldn't help but wonder, crouching down to look at the thing that resembled a cat. One with a very large head.
Sakamato uttered another noise, one of disbelief, "Wh-What is this thing?" He shrieked, expressing Akira's thoughts perfectly.
"You're not guards here, right? Get me out of here!" The cat-thing said, looking pitiful and pleading with its enormous eyes.
"Look!" It said, pointing its, Akira was hesitant to call it a paw, appendage towards the nearby wall, where another set of keys was hanging. "The key is right there!"
"We're trying to get the hell out of here!" Sakamato exploded, not even having made an attempt at freeing the thing, "You look like one of those things, too!" He supposed it was a fair argument, there was something strange about a cat with a head this big. A big head that called his hair frizzy, of all things.
"I'm locked up here, so how can I be your enemy?" Again, a fair point, it did look harmless enough, then Akira remembered Kamoshida was a number of cells away, also locked up and also an enemy. He hesitated.
"Help meowt!"The thing cried, sounding like a child.
Metallic clanking shied into Akira's sense, and presumably Sakamato's as well since the boy tensed up from ankle to neck and was looking very similar to the wall of planks that prevented their escape.
The thing seemed to sense he was getting nowhere with Sakamato and turned to him instead, it grinned before speaking, "You guys wanna know where the exit is?" Akira instantly recognized the statement for what it was, bargaining. He glanced at Sakamato, who was looking down the long passage they'd come from, guards were now littering it and were headed towards them. Seeming to sense his stare, the blond twisted his neck; they made real eye contact for the first time sense meeting, Akira could see a plethora of emotions, all negative and fear-induced, he hoped his own gaze was devoid of those things, despite how frightened he was feeling on the inside. In sync, or close enough, they turned towards the thing in the cell.
"You better not be lying." Sakamato said, pushing his hands into his pockets in a gesture that should have been casual, but looked incredibly anxious. Akira nodded, doing his best at a stern gaze at the beast.
"If you guys think you can escape on your own, then be my guest." The thing replied. Akira noticed that it hadn't stepped back from the cell, if anything it leaned forward. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to be calling each other's bluffs. Swiftly, he grabbed the heavy keys from where they were hanging and unlocked the cell.
"Dude!" Sakamato screeched, looking ready to put the cat-beast as it triumphantly swaggered out of its cell. Akira, once again, had nothing to offer but a shrug, even if Sakamato knew JSL, he doubt his hands would cooperate, he'd barely managed to get his arms to work to release the cat.
"Now where's the exit, you monster cat?" Sakamato ordered, glaring at the now free beast.
Instantly, the thing's face turned sour, "Don't call me a cat! I am Morgana!" It yelled, not even attempting to lower its voice in the face of impending doom.
"Just get us out of here." Sakamato said, sounding equally as sour, but, thankfully, keeping his voice low.
"A-Alright, sheesh." The thing, Morgana, stammered out, before sauntering away from the two of them, "Just follow me and stay quiet." Akira rolled his eyes at the irony.
Sakamato turned to him, irritation now clouding the fear that had been embedded into his expression, "Guess we just gotta follow it." He said, running after the beast.
Morgana stopped in front of the wall of planks that should be making a bridge, he and Sakamato also stopped.
"It seems," Morgana began, ears twitching wildly, "That this statue somehow lowers the bridge." The cat-thing turned around, facing the two of them, "Well? Do you want to be caught by the guards?" Morgana snapped rudely, "Get to work!"
Akira stared at the statue of Kamoshida before them, unsettled by its likeness to the real thing. Its eyes glowed yellow, presumably with some type of gem. Might as well, he thought, jabbing his finger into one of the statue's eye sockets, then the other, then both, only to be met with stony resistance.
Sakamato tried the nose, yanking it either which way, then stuck his fingers inside the nostrils. Also to no avail.
Morgana, being the shortest of them all, examined the base of the statue, circling around it and blindly feeling with its furry appendages.
Akira went to the mouth, attempting to twist the lips, then poking at Kamoshida's stony smile. The jaw twitched, then rose back up a millimeter to its original position. Akira grinned smugly, how could he not. Wiggling his fingers between Kamoshida's teeth only proved his theory.
With a swift downwards yank, Akira dislodged the statue's jaw, as well as the bridge. The planks were lowered by a pulley and slapped noisily onto the stone path on the other side of the river, allowing them passage.
"Woah!" Exclaimed Sakamato, stepping away to examine the now prone bridge. "How were we supposed to know to do that?" He asked, eyes widening as if something wonderful had just happened. Which it did, Akira just wasn't one to question their fortune at the moment.
Morgana snorted from below them, "Amateurs." Then continued with, "Let's keep going." With little other option, he and Sakamato followed Morgana across the bridge.
Unfortunately, as they were about to head towards what was presumably the exit, another guard burst through it and immediately its attention was on them.
"Shit!" Sakamato said, stumbling backwards, "It's another one of them!"
With another insult, Morgana leapt forward confidently, standing as a very small shield between the set of armor and Sakamato. "You can fight, right?" It said, looking over at him with its enormous eyes. Akira nodded, also stepping forward.
"Alright then!" Morgana said, taking another step towards the guard.
"Come!" He yelled, "Zorro!"
To his, rather slight, amusement, and actual awe, Morgana also erupted into a pillar of blue flames, spawning a burlesque, floating entity. It gave off a feeling very similar to Arsene's, though it affected him much less.
"Y-You got one of those things, too?" Sakamato asked, still on the floor behind them.
Morgana's actions, or perhaps Sakamato's words, though he doubted it, caused the guard to shed its armor and reveal their true form.
Akira stepped forward, standing beside his new companion and tried his best to also erupt in flame, only to find that his clothes changed and nothing else. Why isn't it working? He questioned, staring towards Morgana, who was flinging off spells while also managing to goad him in between.
He tried concentrating.
He tried meditating.
He tried reciting Arsene's contract, what he remembered of it, inside his own head. Anything to call him forth.
Akira swallowed, he'd be pretty useless without Arsene right now. Sure he could strike at them with his newly-acquired knife, but he wasn't very strong. He needed Arsene. He needed his other self.
My other self…
It clicked, then.
Arsene was just another part of him, he didn't meditate to use his legs, didn't recite contracts to take a piss, he just did those things! He could do this, as well.
With that, Akira took another step forward, towards their adversaries, the ones trying to kill him. Their gazes narrowed at him and he cocked his hand forward, taking a moment to admire the quality of his gloves, then snapped.
Instantly, Arsene's presence flooded the battlefield. Gigantic wings hovered over him, making wind whip at his hair and clothes. Arsene snapped as well, and instantly one of the enemies before them was ensnared in black something, fire, presumably, by the way it caused the thing to crumble into nothing.
Morgana gaped from beside him, Akira noticed, the cat was no longer flinging spells for the both of them. Though, it was no longer needed as Akira, with the aid of his other self, instantly annihilated the monsters before them.
"You have a persona, also?" Morgana asked, leaving Akira completely complexed.
Persona? The word, foreign though familiar. He felt that was a rather apt description for what Arsene was. Persona, he thought again, feeling quite giddy at finally naming the other part of him.
Akira nodded, Zorro and Arsene seemed to have spawned from them, and Morgana seemed to know more about Personas than he did. He didn't decide to question it; not that a cat could possibly know JSL anyway.
"It's pretty powerful!" Morgana complimented, a toothy grin taking up most of its face now.
"…Persona?" Sakamato asked, finally back on his feet. "You mean the things that come out of you guys all dramatic-like?" Akira sniffed, now that he thought about it, an elegant looking thing spawning from a lot of fire could be considered dramatic to some people.
Morgana turned towards the blond, Akira kept his ears open, also eager for the information.
"Yes! You saw how Frizzy Hair," Akira twitched, "here ripped off his mask when he summoned it, right?" Sakamato nodded, still looking thoroughly confused.
"Well, everyone wears a mask deep within their heart. By removing that…" Suddenly, and yet again, Akira was enveloped in bursts of blue fire, removing his crimson gloves with them.
"Oh..." Morgana said, stopping himself from his previous explanation, "It doesn't look like you have full control over your transformation, yet." If anything, the cat sounded disappointed. Akira shrugged in response, there wasn't really anything he could do about that.
"This shit doesn't make any sense." Sakamato said, impatient once more.
Morgana's huge eyes rolled in their sockets, "Will you just listen, Blondie." Akira watched as Sakamato twitched in response.
"My name ain't Blondie. It's Ryuji."
Akira blinked, Ryuji could be a family name also. So was Kamoshida lying? Or is it Sakamato Ryuji? He couldn't help but wonder why he'd offer his given name to a stranger, if that was the case. It was odd.
Everything about this is odd, he amended.
"It's not much further to the exit." Morgana said suddenly, dissolving the previous conflict.
Morgana guided them back to the familiar entrance hall that they'd entered from, only to find the front door locked when Ryuji rammed his shoulder against it.
"Dammit!"
Morgana looked less than impressed, gesturing with its furry appendage towards a nearby duct. "That's your exit." It said flatly. "It leads straight outside." It tacked on a moment later.
Ryuji nodded, ripped the cover off and climbed inside of it before turning back to Morgana. "Ain't you comin?" He asked. Akira walked towards the shaft, then glanced towards Morgana, who shook its giant head.
"I've got other things to check out here." It said cryptically. "We're going our separate ways."
Uncomfortably, Akira turned towards Morgana and straightened to his full height, then bowed respectfully to the beast. Morgana laughed, then shooed him off with a wave of his appendage.
The tunnel wasn't that long of a crawl, but it was cold and dusty. Sakamato/Ryuji, having crawled first and thus gotten the worst of it, sneezed at least five times before they finally managed to find the end of the shaft.
Once they were both on the ground, they ran away from the castle without further heckling or trouble from anything. Sakamato lead them across the giant drawbridge, through the alleyways that they'd come through and found themselves in the middle of a sidewalk in Tokyo. The gloom that seemed into every particle in the castle was no longer weighing him down, additionally, the sun was also a thing again, casting bright beams upon them as they finally allowed themselves to stop running.
"You've returned to the real world. Welcome back." A robotic voice echoed from the confines of Akira's pocket.
"Returned?" Sakamato questioned from beside him. The blond boy was still panting, holding his hands to his thighs and bent forward. "Does that mean we got away?" He added, turning his head to look up at Akira. He, as part of a regrettably forming habit, shrugged.
Real world… He wondered. Real would imply that there was a fake world of some sort. One where it was dark during the day. One where beasts and monsters appeared where there shouldn't be. It was very strange, he was certain that it had been a dream, yet he remained conscious. He glanced around the still busy streets of Tokyo, all the noise made him anxious but other than that, it seemed rather mundane, aside from the sheer number of people, obviously. Akira tugged his brain past his anxieties of the real world and tried to focus on the not-real world. Unfortunately, too many theories were possible and with no information to prove it, he was left with nothing substantial outside of wild speculation.
His phone offered some interesting evidence, however. The ominous red eye was taking up half of his screen, options lingered below it. Return? Was at the top.
No thank you. Akira thought, closing the app, hopefully for the last time, and removing the eye from his screen.
"Cutting classes are we?" A smug voice toned, pulling him out of his thoughts and filling his stomach with dread.
Not good, not good, not good!
Sakamato had them covered as far as a response went, which was a good start for preventing him from getting expelled on his first day.
I didn't even make it to the school… maybe I really am a delinquent.
"N-no, we were trying to go to school, but then we ended up at this weird castle!" Akira flinched. To any normal person – normal being defined as someone who has lived in Tokyo long enough to know that there were no cursed alleyways and that there were no castles between said alleyways, they were sure to sound crazy.
"…What?" The person responded, Akira took this moment to get a look at who exactly had approached them.
Police, unfortunately.
The officer sighed, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else than… wherever they were. "Hand over your bags. You better not being doing any drugs."
Akira sighed, wishing his companion had gone for a more believable, albeit false, excuse, but judging from the pinkness in Sakamato's cheeks, the other boy wasn't very good at being put on the spot. He had to give it to Sakamato though, for the other boy could actually respond verbally, and Akira couldn't. He let the straps of his bag slide down his arm and into the folds of his fingers; he could only comply.
The other officer, the one that wasn't yelling at them, took Akira's bag and unzipped it quickly. Akira watched while listing off the contents of the bag in his head, unfortunately, he'd forgotten one thing.
"A dry-erase board?" The less-aggressive officer asked, casting his wary gaze onto him, as if owning a dry-erase board was a crime of some sort. He really hoped it wasn't. He nodded, attempting to look meek or innocent. The officer scrubbed his chin with his hand.
"Why do you need this?" He asked, slowly, as if in the span of his previous question, the boy before him had lost over 100 IQ points.
Unfortunately, it wasn't really a question that could be answered with a simple shake of his head or his now frequent shrug. He gulped, suddenly uncertain, and glanced at Sakamato, who was busy glaring at the other officer as he tipped his schoolbag over onto the sidewalk.
Quickly as he could, he used his hands to communicate, his primary method, something that was banned in a place of learning, and unpractical in his new home.
"I am mute." His hands indicated in place of his mouth. Something in the cop's demeanor changed, as if he were suddenly the one to lose 100 IQ points. Akira swallowed again, unsure of what he should be doing while waiting for a response. His last, and only, run in with the police had landed him in an over-sized cell.
"Uh…" The man uttered, jaw agape after the syllable had ended, then the officer's brain came alive again and he shoved the dry-erase board at him, then continued digging through the bag until a marker was removed as well, that too was shoved in his actions seemed to have drawn the other officer's attention, and subsequently, Sakamato's, as they were both staring at him and his dry-erase board as if it were an alien artifact.
"Dude…" Sakamato said, in awe but also very confused.
"Quiet!" The more aggressive of the two officers shouted before turning to his partner. "Why'd ya give him that?" He questioned, loud and obviously irritated at the supposed slight of his dominance.
It wasn't often that Akira was embarrassed at his inability to verbally communicate, but when the nicer of the two officers said, "I think the kid's deaf." He couldn't help the burning in his neck and cheeks, especially when his companion began to gape at him with wide-eyes and an open mouth.
Fortunately, the oversight was something he could use to his advantage, as he wasn't lying to the officers by neither denying or confirming, technically. He'd play along with their suspicions, for now.
Akira uncapped the marker and began writing.
Can you know the way to Shujin Academy? We are lost.
The two officers stared at the dry-erase board, then at Akira. The aggressive one growled, but kept his mouth shut, knowing that yelling at him would fall upon, speculated, deaf ears. The polite officer nodded, began to say something, then closed his mouth.
The two officers looked at each other, then at him. The pity in their stares was unmistakable and Akira settled for staring at the concrete between their feet instead, it was easier that way.
They guided him and Sakamato back to Shujin Academy, two blocks away from where they'd escaped from Shujin Castle. He, the two officers, and a silent Sakamato were outside the gates to Shujin in less than fifteen minutes. They stood there awkwardly, the officers anyway, Akira stood there silently, and Sakamato was still staring at him.
The more polite officer turned to Sakamato then, and gave something of a smile, as if wanting to apologize after making fun of him.
"It was nice of you to offer to show," The officer glanced at him, as if to make sure he was, in fact, not listening, "Someone like him, to school, but, " His grin grew wider, "Make sure you know the way first." Then a laugh, the other officer laughed, Sakamato tried to laugh. He remained quiet, a silent observer to affair he wasn't supposed to hear.
Akira, despite everything, put on an obnoxiously wide smile for the two officers, then bowed several times, as if showing how grateful someone like him truly was for their amazing help. He only, to his surprise, grinded his teeth a little bit before the two officers laughed again, then strode away from the gates of Shujin.
If he hadn't been a fan of officers beforehand, he really wasn't one now.
Someone like him. Akira glared at the steps of Shujin as he walked up them, striding past Sakamato, who still remained silent.
It was between classes when he finally made it to the second floor of the school and his homeroom teacher was in the hallway, looking less than impressed that he had showed up.
Kawakami let out a big sigh when he finally approached her, "Unbelievable…" She uttered, something he figured that wasn't supposed to be heard by his ears. "Come with me." She said lowly, already walking past him. Akira complied to authority, as usual. He really, really hoped he wouldn't be expelled.
The faculty office was almost empty, save for two other teachers who were chatting between taking sips from their matching coffee cups. Kawakami lead him to what was presumably her desk, she took a seat and took a moment to stare at him.
"Why were you late?" She demanded simply.
He hesitated, only for a moment, before tugging out the dry-erase board the school had so graciously gave him, and began writing how he'd gotten lost.
"But you came here yesterday." She accused, looking only half suspicious around her apparent boredom.
Akira explained that it was his first time riding on the train system, and that Sakamato was helping him find his way to the school.
Something in Kawakami's expression turned bitter at the mention of the blond boy, but she kept asking him question and he did his best to fabricate his story to something believable.
The conversation was slow on his part, as he wasn't used to writing with a marker as his primary method of communication, but it seemed Kawakami, either through excessive boredom or his believable story, believed him enough not to expel him instantly.
Thank goodness.
He regretted lying to a teacher, but with his future on the mind, Akira found that it didn't weigh too heavily on his conscious.
Kawakami signed something with his name at the top, then stood back up and exited the room, he followed, certain that he'd be expelled instantly for being in the faculty office without good reason.
"Just… don't interrupt class, please." She said right before the entrance to class, "I'll introduce you to the class, then you'll take your seat. Got it?" Akira nodded. "And… one more thing," She began, turning her voice lower, "Don't get involved with Sakamato-kun, alright? He's nothing but trouble." Again, Akira found himself nodded, even as he was questioning the statement in his head.
Was it Sakamato that caused that castle to appear? The possibility seemed slim, but then he couldn't help but wonder what trouble Sakamato could cause if not for that.
Kawakami guided him into the class and he took his place at the front of the room, trying his best to look as normal as possible. Immediately the room was filled with loud whispering, all concerning him, the criminal delinquent. Apparently he killed someone with his own hands, according to the two girls in the front.
"Settle down…" Kawakami somehow managed to sound bored, even when yelling, "This is a transfer student, Kurusu-kun, he is late because… he wasn't feeling well. Additionally, Kurusu-kun cannot speak, so his responses will be written… if you have any question for him."
Akira bowed to the class, showing that he had at least one manner, before turning back to Kawakami, who was looking around the classroom. "Your seat will be… over there." The teacher pointed towards the back part of the room, next to the window.
Following the teacher's instructions, he scampered towards his assigned seat quickly, more unsettled by the stares of his peers than he thought he'd be. On his way to said seat, however, he noticed another shock of blonde.
Takamaki, formerly known as Blob-1!
He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that at least one familiar face was in his class.
She gaped at him as he walked past he desk, wearing a very similar face to that of Sakamato when he… found out.
Was it really that strange? He wondered, surely Tokyo had at least one other mute person for these people to have met before.
School was dismissed after that class, due to the trouble with the trains, or something. He really wished Tokyo was small enough to walk from destination to destination, he wasn't partial to the thought of dying in a cramped, high-speed death wagon.
Kawakami stopped him as he was about to make his exit from the class with a bored call of his name. Instantly, he turned around and approached her desk.
"Please do not make this a habit, Kurusu-kun, you're lucky you weren't expelled instantly after the police called about two students being lost on the streets. It also seems that the class already knows about your record, but I'm not the one who told them." She looked a little uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as he felt with that information just being spread around, though, not that he thought about it, the principal probably had an entire assembly geared around a delinquent transferring to Shujin and to not make friends with him. Kawakami continued speaking, "Also, you should probably head straight home after this, Sakura-san did not sound happy when I called him." He wondered when the teacher even had time to call his temporary guardian, but nodded, feeling nervous at the thought of provoking the already irritable man.
Akira nodded, making to heed her advice when she stopped him another time.
"And, about earlier, really, do not get involved with Sakamato-kun, he's nothing but trouble." She glanced at him, then sighed again. "It'll just cause more trouble for everyone; anyway, you're dismissed."
He nodded once more, then finally exited the classroom, only to bump into Sakamato guarding the stairwell. He thought about ignoring his previous companion, considering Kawakami's warning, but the blond boy had noticed him already, and lunged forward, grabbing onto the sleeve of his uniform and began dragging him up the stairs of Shujin.
The roof wasn't exactly the most impressive place he'd ever been, which made him wonder why the other boy had dragged him up here anyway. He kind of hoped it was to finally put him out of his misery. That clearly wasn't the case when Sakamato whirled around and shoved a folded piece of paper in his hand.
The hand writing was awful, but it wasn't the first thing he noticed. It was the crossed out words at the top of the page that drew his attention, then the rest of the note.
Dude,
Sorry about earlier.
I didn't know you were deaf.
Don't be mad or hate me or anything
-Ryuji.
Akira wasn't sure how to respond to that, exactly. He'd responded to Sakamato's verbal queues in that castle enough times for the boy to surely have been aware that he was, in fact, not deaf. Still, he pulled out his own writing tools and began writing.
I'm not deaf.
I just can't talk.
Sakamato's face went through a variety of emotions then finally landed on acceptance.
"So you can hear me?" Akira shook his head, grinning.
Sakamato rolled his eyes at him, "Come on, dude. Anyway, I didn't come up here just to apologize, or whatever, I wanted to talk about that castle thing, and how we almost died!" He nodded, also curious.
"You remember it too?" He asked loudly, taking a seat on a vacant desk on the other side of the roof.
He nodded, confirming that they'd both remembered something that shouldn't have been real.
"So it wasn't a dream…" Sakamato muttered, chewing on his thumb in thought.
"Which means… You saved me from Kamoshida." Sakamato grinned then, rubbing at his blond hair with an idle hand, "So, thanks I guess, I mean, if it was real, that is."
"There's rumors about him, ya know?" The blond began, leaning forward and lowering his voice, "Well, about you too. Is it true though? That you have a criminal record?"
Akira nodded, feeling uncomfortable for confirming any rumors, but knowing they'd spread regardless of what he did or didn't say. To his surprise, Sakamato laughed, "No wonder you were so ballsy!" He jaunted, as if Akira's one charge was actually a long life of crime that had left him devoid of fear, which couldn't be further from the truth.
"Anyways, back to Kamoshida," Even the mention of the name caused Sakamato's face to scrunch up in irritation, "The way he was king of that castle, it almost felt real, like it was the actual Kamoshida… with the way he acts around school, they're pretty much the same. Asshole."
"D'you think we can get back to that castle?" Sakamato asked suddenly, making Akira's head spin.
He wants to go back? The question was incredulous, the request was nothing but a death wish, if it wasn't for that cat-thing they'd be, quite likely, mounted on Kamoshida's walls right now.
"N-nevermind, that's stupid." Sakamato sighed, standing up."Anyways, that's all I gotta say, besides, I think we're gonna get along just fine as two troublemakers."
"I'm Sakamato Ryuji, by the way. You can call me Ryuji" Ryuji smiled at him brightly as he introduced himself. Akira couldn't fight the rush of heat that swam in his cheeks; he'd never been one for given-name basis, as he didn't have many close friends, and for Sakamato to just give him permission to do so… it was, to say the least, a bit overwhelming.
Akira wrote his name down for… Ryuji, on the white board, reluctantly offering the option for the other boy to refer to him as his given name as well.
"…Akira." Ryuji read aloud. Akira twitched, nobody but his parents called him that and it was surprisingly intimate and infinitely embarrassing, but Ryuji didn't seem to notice.
The other boy walked towards the door they'd come through, then threw up a hand in a lazy wave. "I'll chat with you some other time, don't ignore me, 'kay?" There was no time for a response, assuming Akira could actually give one, before Ryuji was heading down the stairs and out of sight.
He was grateful for the moment alone, as well as the dull breeze that smelled like rain, for it aided his burning cheeks until they were back to normal
As far as first days go, this wasn't too bad…
