Day 1.1: April 11 20XX
"Oh you're up, good." Ren adjusted her school uniform blazer as she stood before Sojiro who looked already aggravated by the thought of having to deal with her, well 'him', for the rest of the year. She was sure she had done nothing to aggravate the man within the forty two hours she was living with him, but some people just wouldn't see past a criminal record. She realized this after being introduced to her teacher and principle the day before.
"I'm heading to school now." She said as she adjusted her glasses, she would have to remember to buy a repair kit when she could and tighten them. They had been loose long enough to become an annoyance to her in her day to day life.
"Remember to take the Ginza line." He said idly as he fixed a cup of coffee for a customer. She gave him a firm nod to let him know she heard him and made her way out of the cafe. The bright morning sun caused her to cover her eyes in order for the harsh light not to glare off of her glasses and blind her. She adjusted her school bag on her back and turned down the alley to make her way to the train station. The air hung thick around her as she walked, perhaps the dread of hiding her gender for a year was finally hitting her after a good night's sleep.
The train switch was difficult due to the direct way to the Ginza line being blocked, but she soon found her way to the correct train and made it to the station nearest her new school. That was when she ran into a problem. Rain came down suddenly on her, causing her to hide under a overhang in front of a small bookstore rather than getting soaked through. She checked the time on her phone and winced at how soon school would start for the day. She couldn't stand there forever.
A flash of blonde caught her attention as the girl who stopped beside her lowered her hood. Ren glanced over just in time for the girl to notice her as well and shoot her an angry look. She fought against herself as she felt her throat tighten, did the blonde think she was some pervert or something? The girl scoffed and turned away from her to hold her hand out to the rain as the thought crossed her mind. Ren took the moment to look down at her phone and turn more towards the road so the other girl would not assume she was staring at her. She had to keep Akira's image up after all, and it was rude to stare anyway.
"Hey, need a ride? You're going to be late." her attention was pulled to the buff man sporting a short afro and a tight white shirt who was leaning over the passenger side of his car to call out to them. Ren was off put by the man's sudden appearance and was about to turn him away when the blonde walked past her to take a seat beside the man in the car. "You need a ride to?" the man asked as he turned his attention on Ren. She stiffened and focused on making her features a manly as possible with just the look on her face while remaining a unreadable as possible.
"Nah…" was all she trusted herself to say, less the man pick up that her voice was a bit too feminine for her appearance. He shrugged at her before turning his attention on the road. Then the window beside the blonde was rolled up, blocking her from them before they drove away. She glanced down at her phone again as they blended in with the traffic of the early morning and furrowed her brow as the same app that she swore she deleted the night before opened itself. She didn't want to add anything to Akira's phone, it wasn't hers and she had every intention of giving it back to him when she returned home.
"No, no, no, no. Shit! Kamoshida." The voice that drew closer to her with each word had her pausing in her attempts to delete it once again. She looked up to see a lanky boy with bleached blonde hair wearing a yellow tee shirt under what looked like her own uniform blazer. She felt her head tilt slightly as he turned to face her and his warm chocolate brown eyes broke the vision of a delinquent that he put off.
"Kamo-shida?" she muttered as she glanced back the way the car went.
"What- you don't know Kamoshida? You go to Shujin right?" The blonde boy asked as he turned to face her and shoved his hands in his pockets. "That damn pervy teacher." he muttered as his eyes broke away from her own to look off slightly to the right.
"Shujin." she hummed as she toyed with her short bangs. Shujin was her schools name now, right? She couldn't remember, it was early and already so much had happened.
"You do go to Shujin, I mean there aren't any other schools with uniforms like this." He leaned in close to her and she tensed, her mind going to her chest bindings and worry filling her as he eyed her lapel. "A second year, like me. Never seen you before though." He stated as he leaned away, she let out a small sigh of relief.
"I'm new." She said plainly.
"New? Oh you that transfer student. Guess you wouldn't know about Kamoshida then. That perverted teacher treats Shujin like his own castle." The guy scoffed at the thought of his own words as he turned to look the way that the car had gone.
"Castle?" Ren was very confused now, how could a teacher run an entire school to the point that their students spoke about them like that?
"Rain's letting up, lets go or we'll be late." The boy was saying then, bringing her out of her thoughts. She nodded at his words and took a step to follow him, only for them both to pause as a sudden rush of lightheadedness washed through them. "Woah, my head hurts. I wanna go home..." she heard him mumble before he was heading off and she was idly following him, the app forgotten as they made their way down a few alleys, she assumed it to be a shortcut to the school.
What she didn't expect was to see a large castle, complete with a drawbridge, waiting for them when they exited the alleyways.
"We didn't come the wrong way." The boy said as he turned to look back the way they had come. Ren glanced at the sign set into the stone wall alongside the road and frowned as the name of their school met her eye. "Might as well go in and ask…" She felt her eyes widen slightly as he began to walk across the drawbridge. With only a moment of hesitation she followed after him, slipping the phone she held into her pocket as she did so.
Ren's head hurt, that was the first thing she noticed when she came into consciousness. She hissed softly and reached up to touch a growing welt on the top of her head as she pushed herself up into a somewhat sitting position. Her head throbbed, and her back was stiff due to the harsh bed she had been laying on. Memories of odd soldiers encircling her and the blonde boy swam back into her mind as she let out a soft groan.
"Oh, hey. You're awake. Are you alright?" She cut her eyes at the blonde before letting out a long sigh and sitting up fully on the table she had assumed was a bed.
"Fine, you okay?" She asked as she rubbed her head slowly, feeling the welt that was still growing there.
"Yeah, just…" The boy allowed his voice to drift away as he rubbed the side of his neck, "What is this place?" He asked after a moment, "Some kind of movie set or somethin'?"
"I'm not sure…" She stood on uneasy legs and wandered around the small cell they found themselves locked in, he hung by the door, obviously done with searching their surroundings and on edge wondering what was to happen to them now.
"I saw those, thought they looked like they were used for torture or something." He called out as she studied a wall of chains and shackles. She turned to cast him a questioning glance as her fingers found their way to cup her chin. How did they end up here when they were on their way to school just… however long ago. She couldn't be sure how long either of them were knocked out. If the pain in her head was any indication it could have very well been for hours, if not a day.
What kind of movie set is this? Where's the school? She thought to herself as she moved to study the barrels nearby the door. Nothing was in them, something he pointed out to her before grasping the bars and screaming for help of any kind. She could tell this boy was freaked out by their situation, probably more than she was. If his screaming wasn't a dead enough give away his right leg twitching and jumping would have been.
"You have been charged with unlawful entry," She chanced a glance through the bars to see four of the soldiers from before walking up to them. "The punishment for your crime is death." The guard nearest them was the one speaking, though she couldn't be sure as their mouths did not move.
"Bullshit!" The blonde beside her shouted at the guard through the bars, "I ain't dying here!"
"I thought it was some petty thief, to think it was you Sakamoto." Ren felt her eyes widen at the sight of the man from the car approaching them in what looked like a king's cape and nothing else. She quickly averted her eyes from him as her skin crawled with repulsion. What the hell was going on?
"Kamoshida." The boy, Sakamoto, spat as he glared daggers at the man. She recalled him calling him a pervy teacher as she shivered against the urge to vomit. This wasn't good at all. The door swung open and the guards pushed Sakamoto aside easily as they made their way into the small cell. It wasn't but a second later that Sakamoto was rushing at them and knocking one to the ground.
"Come on, we gotta run!" He called out to her, snapping her out of her shocked still state. She gave him a quick nod and prepared herself to rush out of the cell behind the blonde, ready to just get out of the strange place they had found themselves.
Instead she found herself shoved against the wall while the guards moved in on Sakamoto. The rough stone scratched at her back and pulled her bindings up into an uncomfortable mass by her spine. She winced and looked up just in time to see the guy, Kamoshida, kicking Sakamoto as he spat insults at the boy. She rushed to grab a guard who was moving in on them, intent on stopping the execution that they kept threatening over and over again.
"Just run, get out of here!" Sakamoto panted against the pain he was going through and she felt her heart sink, how could she just leave him when he was trying to save her? She shook her head fervently at his words, she wasn't going anywhere, not without him as well.
"Oh? You're going to run and leave your friend here?" Kamoshida's attention was on her now, she had to swallow back the bile that his bloodshot orange eyes brought up her throat.
"NO!" She snapped as she struggled to hang on to the guard. She turned to Sakamoto and leveled a determined line across her brow.
"He ain't a friend!" Sakamoto insisted loudly then, causing her to take a step back in shock as Kamoshida turned to look down at him once again. Ren felt her lips pull into a frown a split second before she was shoved by a shield, hitting the wall once again.
"Keep him there, I'll deal with him after I kill this peasant." Kamoshida didn't even spare her a second glance before turning his attention on Sakamoto once again. She grabbed her head as she steadied herself on the wall behind her. Her vision was swimming as she watched the pseudo king lash out with his sandaled foot and slam it into the blonde's stomach.
"Stop!" She shouted, a pike was pressed against her throat in response and she grabbed it as she gnashed her teeth and emminated a warning growl.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch?" Her eyes widened as the voice filled her mind. "Was your sacrifice for you're brother also a mistake?"
"It wasn't… a mistake." She struggled to say as the wooden rod of the pike was pressed into her throat.
"What was that?" Kamoshida snarled as he turned to face Ren.
"Arsene…" She was slammed against the wall by the shield again, this time the edge caught her face causing her glasses to fly off. Her head fell forward as another pike was pressed against her neck, crossing over the first and holding her against the wall firmly. "Give me your power!" she commanded.
A flash of blue fire proceeded a shockwave that sent the guards flying backwards. She stumbled once as she moved from the wall, an evil smirk crossing her lips as she glanced up at the small crowd that stood frozen watching her. An animal impulse took over her as she rightened herself. Her hands moving to grasp at a mask that had appeared as the blue flames died away from her skin. She struggled for a moment, clawing at the mask, before finally managing to pull it away and feeling the warm blood dripping down her cheeks and neck as she lifted her head once again, the smirk turning into a full blown grin as she did so.
"Execute him!" Kamoshida commanded as he backed towards the open door. She turned her gaze on the guards who burst into shadows before morphing into beings she had never seen before. Her right hand moved to pull the dagger from its spot at her hip, as if it was something she had done many times before.
With Arsene on her side the fight was easier than she could have ever fathomed. The shadow creatures fell under his abilities and her blade. Before she had time to fully take in what happened she was left standing in the cell with Kamoshida cowering in one corner and Sakamoto staring at her in awe from another. She took a step back as she looked down at herself, a strange outfit was covering her body, a deep grey vest covered in a long black trench coat that was absolutely not the school uniform she was wearing when she woke up in the small cell.
As she was studying herself, her eyes caught a glint of silver and honed in on a set of keys laying on the ground. She jerked her head up to meet the blonde's eyes as her mind zeroed in on a plan.
"The keys." she said as she motioned to them.
"Yeah!" Sakamoto was quick to move, grabbing the keys and following her out of the cell before locking Kamoshida inside and tossing the keyring off far into the dark hallway they found themselves in. "Let's go we gotta get out of here!" He seemed to be focusing on escape before anything else, something she could relate to as the oddities were beginning to cause a headache to form around the spot she had been originally hit on the head. She gave him a firm nod in response and they rushed quickly down the only open path they could see.
How far they ran, they really couldn't say. Jail cells blended together along the walls while water rushed constantly just a few feet from where they rushed down the moldy floor. Ren was feeling a stitch growing on her side and could hear her companion panting for breath and cursing softly whenever they stopped to take a turn. Ren was sure that they would die from over exhaustion in this place when her body tried to seize from the amount of cramps hitting her at once, she was no runner that much was obvious now more than ever.
"Hey! Hey over here!" They both jumped at the sound of the voice and turned to see what could only be described as a small black and white cat mascot waving at them from a cell a few down from where they stood catching their breath. Sakamoto gave her a small shrug when she shot him a questioning glance and together they walked up to the things cell.
"Is it like those other guys?" Sakamoto asked as they studied the thing.
"I'm not! Look I'm captured to! Help me out and I'll get you out of here." the cat thing insisted as it leaned against the bars of the cell to get a better look at Ren, the outfit she had found herself in seemed to weigh a ton under the cat things stare.
"So what, you expect us to trust you demon cat?" Sakamoto asked.
"I am not a demon cat! I'm a human like you! Look, see those keys over there?" Ren glanced at the wall where a ring of keys hung from a hook, "just get them and help me out and I will get you out of this place, okay?"
"What do you think?" Ren shrugged at the blonde's question and pulled on her bangs as she studied the creature behind the bars. At the sound of soldiers coming down the hall she rushed to grab the keys and let it out. After a quick conversation where they learned the thing called itself Morgana, they followed it back down the hallway that they had come from. Morgana stopped beside an odd bust of Kamoshida and turned to them a moment after concerns of their path were beginning to settle in Ren's mind.
There was another confusing moment in which Morgana tried to explain the reason behind stopping to Sakamoto, then suggested Ren take a look at the statue. When she studied it closer the poorly hidden hinge on the jaw caught her attention. She reached out, wrapping her fingers over the things lower teeth, and pulled down. A low rumbling surrounded them as the drawbridge beside Sakamoto lowered itself. Morgana lead the way across that bridge, down another hallway, and across yet another smaller bridge before they stood face to face with another soldier.
"You can fight right?" he asked as he turned his attention on Ren.
"I uh, yeah?" she mumbled as she looked down at the dagger on her hip. That was all Morgana needed to hear before he rushed forward, swiping at the soldier with his sword. Much like before the soldier burst into a fountain of shadows before morphing into a monster. Ren fought alongside Morgana and was relieved to see that the small not-cat also had something much like Arsene on his side. Sakamoto was surprised by this development and Morgana seemed pleased as he explained some things to them about what exactly was going on, the main point Ren picked up on being the fact that Arsene was a persona and apparently was inside her all along.
"Woah what happened to your outfit dude?" Ren raised her eyebrow at Sakamoto's comment and glanced down to see she was once again in her school uniform. She felt along her sides and sighed in relief when she felt her bindings now back in place instead of being rolled up and possibly loosened.
"That's strange, usually the transformation doesn't just dissipate like that." Morgana noted, then shook his head and motioned down the hall, "We don't have time, they will be looking for you and you need to get out of here. I will show you the way then you can help me out as well." He didn't wait for them to reply before rushing ahead. They followed after him quickly, their journey taking them through the dungeon and up a winding flight of stairs that opened into the same room they found themselves in before they were knocked out by the guards. The thick red carpet hid their steps as they rushed across the room behind Morgana and into a better lit grander hallway than before.
...
*whistle noise* Well that obviously doesn't mean the same thing it means in the game, I mean that would be absolutely silly right?
Thank you for reading, chapter three will be here within the next few days to forty years (based on the usual standards for when 'the next few days' means the death of the story. As this one is just beginning I would definitely lean more towards the next few days than the forty years side.)
Much Love:
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