April 11th, 20XX
My stomach rumbled as I slowly made my way down the stairs. Sakura-san hadn't mentioned anything about food, so perhaps I was expected to buy something on my way?
That thought died when I entered the café proper. Sakura-san was standing behind the bar, a plate of curry in front of him.
"Glad to see you're up." He smiled at me. "Here, this is yours. Just finish quickly, all right? I don't want the customers seeing someone get a free meal."
"Thank you very much, Sakura-san." I bowed and began eating. Curry for breakfast wasn't something I had ever considered in the past, but it was delicious… if still not something that I really wanted to have as a regular breakfast. It was a bit too heavy for that. "This is wonderful, Sakura-san." I gave him a small smile.
"I should hope so," he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "Now hurry up. You don't want to be late."
I nodded. "Goodbye!"
"Yeah, yeah. Make sure the sign's flipped to open on your way out, would you?"
Even with my phone's GPS, I had a hard time finding my way. Tokyo was so much larger than I was used to, and so packed with people! I squeezed up against the wall of the first subway on the trip, feeling horribly claustrophobic.
I was only too happy to get off when the train arrived at the Shibuya platform… up until I began searching for the Ginza line, anyway. My phone could tell me which trains to take, but not how to find them in the station. The kindness of the station attendants saved me.
Unluckily, it was pouring rain when I got outside at the last stop. I sighed and let my finger tap the icon to start the GPS again as I glanced around. A girl nearby caught my eye — she had pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. A foreigner? She caught me looking and gave me a little smile, then faced forward into the rain.
A car pulled up, and the man inside rolled down the window. "Good morning! You want a ride to school?" The question was clearly directed at the blonde.
"…Sure, thank you." Her smile was uneasy, but she agreed. Was the man a teacher? I couldn't think of any other reason for her to trust him.
"Do you need a lift, too?" He raised an eyebrow at me.
"Oh, um…" I found myself pulling back. "No, thank you! I'll… I'll be fine." Agreeing might have saved time, but there was no guarantee that they were going to Shujin — maybe there was another school nearby. That, and… something about his smile scared me. My gut was telling me that the less contact I had with him, the better. It wasn't very kind of me to distrust a stranger, but I was cowardly enough to let my fear override my politeness.
He glared at me and drove away. That… well, I wasn't sure how to feel about that. I hadn't been trying to be rude…
A splashing behind me heralded the arrival of another blond — a boy this time. "Crap! Screw that pervy teacher."
"Pervy teacher…?"
He turned to face me. "What do you want? You plannin' on rattin' me out to Kamoshida?"
"…I-I'm sorry, but who is Kamoshida?" I shrank in on myself. My phone let out a little chime, but I ignored it. It was probably just a belated alert about the rain, with my luck.
"Uh, the guy in that car just now? You know, Kamoshida? The school coach? Does whatever he wants, thinks he's the king of a castle?"
"…The king of a castle?" I was so lost. At least I knew who the man had been. The blonde girl was probably fine.
"No, I mean…" The boy sighed, crossing his arms. "…Wait, you really don't know him? You are from Shujin, right? You're wearin' the uniform."
"This is my first day." I shuffled my feet. "I'm a transfer student, in my third year."
"That'd explain it, I guess. No wonder you don't know him, Senpai." He looked out into the street. "Well, the rain ain't too bad. We better hurry up, or we'll be late."
I nodded and moved to follow him, but stopped when my head erupted in pain. The boy — my junior, apparently — clutched at his temples as well.
"It's raining, my head hurts… I just wanna go home." He groaned.
I gave him a sympathetic smile. If I had a home to return to, I would probably have been feeling the same way.
"What?" The blond boy, who had been walking ahead of me, let out a strangled cry.
I hurried up next to him. Rather than the school from yesterday, a European-style castle loomed in front of us — it did have the school's sign on the wall, though.
"We didn't come the wrong way…" He muttered, looking back.
I glanced down at my phone. The GPS seemed to be showing that we were in the right place. "…D-Do they remodel a lot?" I offered weakly.
"Nah," he replied, still looking around. "I guess we'll just have to go and ask where we are."
I nodded and followed him up the drawbridge and into the castle. The inside was almost disgustingly opulent.
"Where's the school?" He turned wildly as he stared around.
"D-Did we make a wrong turn after all?"
"No! We definitely came the right way!" He paused and winced. "Or… I think we did… It's not that hard, and I'd definitely know about a place like this if it were in the area…"
He checked his phone. "What the heck? 'Out of service'?" He shoved it back into his pocket. "I wasn't imagining the sign outside, was I, Senpai?"
"I-I saw it, too," I agreed. "It was the same sign that I saw yesterday when I came to finalize my transfer."
Heavy metallic footsteps echoed in the hall beyond the boy. He spun around, and we stared at an enormous armored man carrying a sword.
"Oh, wow." He clutched at his chest. "Man, you freaked me out, dude. You a student? That costume's impressive."
The armored man didn't respond.
"…Say somethin'!"
Another armored man arrived. The boy took a step back, angling himself to cover me.
"What's goin' on?"
"I don't know…" I whispered.
The men moved closer.
"We gotta run!"
"O-Okay!"
We darted for the door, but another pair of armored men blocked our path. One of them slammed the boy with his shield, knocking him to the ground.
"Ouch! What the hell do you think you're—"
He was cut off when another of the men kicked him in the side.
I found myself being grabbed by a pair of gauntlet-covered hands, but didn't resist. What could I do?
The pair of us were taken to a cell. It was properly medieval, with manacles hanging from the walls. The men seemed content just to lock us in, which was honestly something of a relief. Those manacles looked really uncomfortable…
"…You all right?"
"Y-Yes." I tried to hide how much I was shaking. "What about you? They hit you…"
"I'll be fine." He grimaced. "The hell's going on here?" He kicked at the ground, then ran and slammed himself against the door. It shook, but didn't budge from its place. "Let us out!" He yelled. Nobody responded, and his shoulders slumped. "Where the hell are we?"
A pained scream ripped through the air, and I threw myself back against the wall, eyes wide. My shaking was obvious now.
"The heck was that…?" The boy seemed just as shocked, but more in control of his body than I was.
"W-We… are in a dungeon," I whispered, eyes straying again to those manacles. "I-It's probably torture."
"This is just a nightmare, right?" He looked at me pleadingly. "Come on, Senpai — places like this don't exist anymore!"
I could only shrug. The fact that we were here suggested otherwise, but saying so probably wouldn't be helpful.
The sound of armored feet rang out again. A pair of the armored guards leered at us from outside of our cell.
"Be glad that your punishment has been decided upon. Your charge is 'unlawful entry'. Thus, you will be sentenced to death."
"What?" The boy demanded.
I just nodded silently. Really, a quick death was a mercy compared to other things they could do. It's not like I really had a future with my record hanging over me, anyway — why fight it? I just hoped that Sakura-san wouldn't get in trouble if my body was never found. I had been seen at the station, so it should be clear that my disappearance had nothing to do with him…
"No one's allowed to do as they please in my castle," a voice declared. Another man strode up, but this one I recognized — the coach from the car, wearing a crown and dressed in a bizarre cape covered in hearts. His eyes weren't the same, though — they glowed a golden color that might have actually been pretty if they weren't set into his scowling face.
"Is that you, Kamoshida?" The blond boy demanded, wrapping his hands around the bars of the cell door.
"Oh? To think I'd find you here, Sakamoto… Haven't you learned your lesson about disobeying me?" Kamoshida-sensei leered. "And you even brought a friend this time! Can't you do anything on your own? Or maybe you just wanted an audience while I beat you down again. That's a little sad, you know…?"
"You monster!" Sakamoto-san snarled.
"Is that how you speak to a king?" Kamoshida-sensei scowled at him. "You sneak into my castle and then insult me? The punishment for that is death."
I really didn't see how that differed from the situation before Sakamoto-san insulted him, but I kept quiet. I didn't want to know what he would do if I pointed that out.
"It's time for an execution! Take him out!" Kamoshida-sensei swept his arm out, and I snapped my eyes shut — he was only wearing an extremely tight pair of pink briefs underneath the cape, and the sight made me want to vomit.
"Stop it!" Sakamoto-san begged, but he was ignored. The guards flooded into our cell and surrounded him, pressing me up against a wall behind them to make space. He let out a cry and charged into one of them, knocking the armored man onto the ground. "C'mon, let's go!"
Another guard slammed his fist into Sakamoto-san's gut, and he crumpled with a whimper. "Just get outta here!" He begged me.
"Running away? What a heartless friend." Kamoshida-sensei's laugh sent chills down my spine.
"She ain't my friend," Sakamoto-san growled. "She just got caught up in this." He turned his head back toward me. "Go!"
My legs wouldn't move. Even if I wanted to run (and I did, so shamefully much), Kamoshida-sensei was filling the doorway — there was no way I could get past him.
The teacher stalked over and spat on Sakamoto-san, but one of the guards shifted to cover the entrance. "Ready to die, Sakamoto?"
Something inside of me snapped. "Stop it!" I begged.
Kamoshida-sensei froze, then slowly pivoted to face me. "Don't you dare tell me you don't know who I am. You were listening, right…? I'm the king. I make the rules!" He kicked me in the stomach.
I fell to the ground, tears in my eyes as I retched. "She dies next," he told his guards. Two of them held me down, one placing a hand on each of my shoulders.
A strange anger filled me. My body burned with fire, as if my blood had turned to magma within my veins. This situation was unacceptable. Would I simply lie here and watch as Sakamoto-san was killed? But then… was there anything that I could do?
Across from me, a guard lifted Sakamoto-san into the air and placed a large sword at his throat.
My head exploded with pain. Tears streamed out of my eyes and I screamed, thrashing. The burning was growing hotter and hotter, and it felt like I was going to be utterly consumed. Like everything that I was, body and soul, would be devoured by the hungry flame.
The pain stopped abruptly, though the heat remained. My fear, my indecision — they were gone.
"Execute him!" Kamoshida-sensei snarled. His back was still to me, his finger pointing straight at Sakamoto-san.
"I will stop you."
"…What was that?" Kamoshida-sensei turned around. The guard holding Sakamoto-san dropped him to the ground.
"I said that I will stop you!"
A wind blasted from my body, throwing back the guards who had been holding me down. A mask covered my eyes, and I felt an overbearing urge to tear it off. I struggled with it, wincing at the pain — it seemed fused to my flesh, and blood sprayed forth as I finally managed to peel it away. I screamed again, but it was as much in triumph as in pain — it was as if some long-hidden part of me had finally been freed.
I smiled. My eyes felt strange, the darkness of the room seeming less oppressive than it had only moments earlier. Blue fire covered my body, and I felt an odd sensation on my skin. Had my clothing transformed? It felt like I was wearing shorts, and there was a heaviness behind me that seemed like I was wearing a long coat. I felt more than saw the figure forming behind me.
"What the…?" Sakamoto-san stared up in awe.
"Who the hell are you?" Kamoshida-sensei demanded, eyes wide as he gazed at the figure floating beside me. "Guards! Kill them!"
The guards transformed, becoming strange floating pumpkin creatures. A wild smile crawled onto my face, almost painful in the way that it contorted my muscles. I thrust my hand forward, and I felt power flow through me as the figure behind me mimicked the action. A ball of darkness slammed into the creature, which narrowly missed me with a retaliatory strike. I capitalized on the motion to finish it with the knife that had appeared in my hand.
My heart was gleeful. The second pumpkin creature managed to scratch me, but I brushed off the damage and slew it as easily as the first. When I refocused, Kamoshida-sensei was looming over me, but Sakamoto-san crashed into him. He snatched the cell keys from the ground and we ran out, Sakamoto-san stopping to lock the insane teacher inside.
"What… What was that just now, Senpai?" Sakamoto-san whispered.
"I don't know." My clothes abruptly changed back into my school uniform, and my strange confidence vanished.
"What the heck?" Sakamoto-san stared.
"Damn you!" Kamoshida-sensei snarled, rattling the bars of the cell. "Guards! After them!"
"We don't have time for this. Let's run!"
I nodded, and we took off. We had to be able to escape now, right…?