CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of sexual and physical abuse. While not graphic, this content still may be difficult or upsetting to read, so please take breaks or skip sections as needed. Stay safe.
4/11 – Monday
Morning
?
"–buddy, come on. You're still breathing, so I know you're not dead, come on, man."
Ren opened his eyes. Wooden beams, a stone ceiling. Chains.
He shoved himself upright, and his vision immediately swam with a violent lurch of nausea. "Fuck!" the familiar voice yelped, and a vague blur of motion shot away from him. "Dude, holy shit. You're gonna give me a heart attack."
Ren blinked away the wobble in his gaze, glancing over at the startled-looking boy in his yellow t-shirt. "Sorry," he managed. He shifted, swinging his legs over the side of...huh. Apparently he'd been laying on a plank of wood stuck into the wall of...a cell. Stone floor, iron bars, chains hanging from the ceiling.
Great. And now he was in a cell with this guy he barely knew. At the very least, this wasn't his dream place. Velvet Room, whatever. For one, it wasn't blue. For two...it wasn't quiet. There were distant echoing screams, wails of pain and distress. Okay. Never mind, he'd gladly take the two scary little girls over wherever the hell this was.
Ren shook his head, holding back another wince. "What happened?"
Ryuji seemed to steady himself, shoving his hands in his pockets. "A bunch of weird dudes in, like, old freaky armor knocked your ass out and dragged us down here."
"Old freaky armor?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, knights. I guess." Ryuji shrugged. "I don't fucking know. This shit is twisted ten ways from–"
Footsteps. Hollow and heavy. Ren and Ryuji flinched in unison, both of them focusing on the cell door. On the procession that was quickly approaching it. True to Ryuji's description, the imposing figures wore old-fashioned armor, medieval in design, though their helmets all bore masks rather than proper face-guards. Masks that looked like empty, eerie human faces.
The knights stalled as they reached the door, parting like a metal tide, one producing a key and working to open the door. But Ren's gaze was on the gap between them, on the man now strolling towards the cell. A man with bright yellow eyes, a golden crown on a shaggy mop of dark hair, and a royal mantle that barely covered his bare skin, naked but for an unflattering speedo. He was dressed like the world's shittiest gimmick bodybuilder. And...he looked horrifyingly familiar.
"Kamoshida!?" Ryuji spluttered. " You're behind this!?"
"Ah, Sakamoto," the man said. No, not a man, scratch that. The yellow eyes were one thing, but his voice...it was twisted, marred. Distinctly monstrous. Whatever this thing was, Kamoshida or not, he was definitely not human. "Here I thought I'd already punished you enough. But it looks like you just can't keep from doing what you're not supposed to." The Kamoshida-thing's condescending smile twisted into abject, predatory glee. "And it was just getting boring around here without someone new to torture. Lucky me." The cell door swung open.
Ren's gut lurched, and he stumbled backwards. They needed a way out of there. Somewhere, something! There had to be a way out of this! He couldn't...he shouldn't have been here. He shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place. This was all a fucking mistake, it–
Ren's frantic gaze found Ryuji. He found the fear gleaming in those warm eyes. His own heart steeled. Okay. Maybe they couldn't both get out of this. Maybe they couldn't both survive.
But one of them could.
Breath in, breath out. And Ren shoved off the tiles, lowering head and shoulder, slamming into the frontmost knight with everything he had. The metal-wrapped form lurched backwards, toppling against others, a mumbled chorus of surprise and distress.
"Ryuji!" he shouted, still shoving against the knight, pushing it back into the others. "Run! Get out of–!" He couldn't finish his sentence.
A firm hand closed around the back collar of his uniform and Ren was yanked backwards, his feet momentarily leaving the ground. He stumbled, trying to right himself; a blur at each side, a weight on his shoulders, slamming him back against the nearest wall. A sharp crack, a pulse of pain through the back of his skull. He pushed through it, gritting his teeth, struggling against his captors. No luck. Both of the knights kept him pinned, unable to take even a single step.
The Kamoshida-thing laughed, twisted and deep. "Look at you! Scrawny little freak, I didn't even see you." He took slow, mocking step after slow, mocking step, making his steady and carefree way in front of Ren. "You probably could have gotten off easy, you know. Sakamoto here," he gestured with his head to the boy, who flinched in place, "has already earned his fair share of pain. But you?" The Kamoshida-thing leaned in, eyes curling in an ugly grin. "You're nothing. Like a bug. Easy enough to... squash. " He snapped his fingers.
The gauntlets on either shoulder tightened their grip. Like a vice slowly screwing shut. Ren's breath contorted in pain, half a pathetic whimper leaving him, and then the pressure lifted. Fuck .
Another laugh, filled to the brim with demented glee. "Good! You're a quick learner." The Kamoshida-thing turned his attention to Ryuji, and Ren's heart froze in his chest. "Now, just sit right there and watch. I've got a slave to break in." The boy backed away as the monster advanced. Step by step. A horrifying dance.
It was just like back then. Just like the night that Ren had thrown away the rest of his life on a whim. He'd been unable to save her that night. He couldn't save anyone. He couldn't do a damn thing!
Have you resigned yourself to simply watch? A hollow voice. Like a flickering laughter, a far-off flame. Something nowhere, yet everywhere, hollow and full, an impossible call. Death awaits him if you do nothing. You know this.
The headache from the earlier impact sent pulses of throbbing pain through Ren's skull. No, not from the impact. It was from his own chest, spiraling out through every nerve, white-hot agony stealing his voice, setting fire to his blood.
Was your decision then a mistake too? The distant wail of a siren. Flashing red and blue lights. The slurred smirk of a man, blood dripping down to his chin.
Ren grit his teeth, forced out breath from where none should be. "It...wasn't. It wasn't a mistake." Future or not. Felon or not. Alive or not. It wasn't a mistake. It wouldn't ever be a mistake!
An ethereal laugh. Very well. I have taken heed of your resolve. Now... vow to me!
Another pulse. And this time, his skin did not hold the pain in. It swept out of him, roiling through the air like a shockwave, a whip's crack. Both of the knights recoiled as if struck. Ryuji's back was against the wall. The Kamoshida-thing was less than a foot away from him now. And both of their gazes had turned towards Ren, equally wide and equally surprised.
"Tell me." Ren tasted blood, and he swallowed it down. Brimstone was boiling in his veins. He could feel it in every synapse. The power, the pain. "Do whatever you have to. Just tell me how to save him!"
Oh, how simple an answer it is.
Ren's vision melted into gold.
Achieve thine own justice through any and all sacrilege.
His skin boiled. A scream tore its way out of him. Ren could feel himself writhing against the stone wall from a thousand miles away, digging his nails into his skull, drowning in a sea of flame, a sea of pitch and furor.
I am thou. Thou art I.
Every breath was an inferno. Every heartbeat an ember.
Show the strength of thy will to pillage truth, though thou be chained to hell itself!
Blue wiped away the gold. Flame flickering at the edges of his visions. Coagulating. Calcifying. A mask, resting on his face.
Now, call upon my name, and release thine rage!
It was second nature. It was so, so simple. Ren raised a shuddering hand, and wrapped his fingers around the edge of the mask. He couldn't feel where his skin ended and the thing began. But it didn't matter much. Other hand up, other fingers on the other edge.
"Come to me." Ren grit his teeth and pulled against the mask, pulled as his skin tore and blood spurted onto the white porcelain. "Persona!" And he pulled the mask free.
Ren's heart screamed. A single note, like a whetstone drawn against a knife, a shriek of pain and fury and unrepentant freedom. Blue flame erupted from his veins, azure fire melting the air around him, swirling and spiraling. It sounded like laughter. And then it was laughter. Red eyes, a wide smile, imposed across the swirling ocean of blue.
Shall we take their hearts, oh Trickster mine?
A grin pulled at the corners of Ren's lips. Wild and hungry. No other answer was needed. He was going to tear them apart.
The flame pulled back, lifting like a veil. The air was warm but so very light, every ounce of horrid pressure having been burned away. There was nothing weighing him down. Nothing to stop him from taking what was owed.
A single footstep, and Ren's gaze whirled towards its source; one of those twisted knights had apparently regained its senses. The azure inferno still raged out of the corner of his eye, and he saw...something in it. Something very solid. Ren reached out, into the flame, and his fingers closed around a hilt. He pulled it, watching blue melt into silver, into a two-sided knife blade, simple and wickedly sharp. Perfect.
He shoved off the tiles again. Pressureless, the air melted around him, not an ounce of resistance as he took a flying leap into the knight, burying the blade in its chest. A gout of blood – no, something more like dust, black and indistinct.
Ren shifted, pulling his leg back and then planting a kick into the knight's center of mass, sending the hulking figure stumbling backwards, dripping dark ichor from the gash in its armor and the blade of Ren's freed knife.
Keep sharp. This one won't go down without a fight.
Ren flipped the knife between his fingers – the last vestige of logic in his buzzing head questioned when he learned how to do that – and tensed, readying himself. Watching the sword, waiting for the blow. Waiting for...huh.
The armor pitched and wobbled, twisting, distorting. And then the knight popped , bursting in a flare of red and black fluid, melting into a grinning pumpkin-headed monster with a wide-brimmed hat and a single hand holding a flaming lantern and no body to speak of. Okay. Rolling with the punches.
No need to dirty your blade on such a foe. Allow me.
That voice again. This time, it seemed a lot closer. Ren glanced over his shoulder, almost jumping out of his skin at the demon that grinned down at him. Long horns, a flaming orange smile and eyes of a similar pitch, long black wings sprouting from its lower back. A red suit, white cravat and black talons. "Who–" Ren managed, his own voice sounding hoarse in his ears.
The demon laughed. Come now. Haven't you been listening? A spark of ruinous pitch swam between his talons. We are of the same ilk, you and I. Thieves alike thieves. But as for my name... He brought his hand up, then swept it across the air. A jagged gash in reality, and the pumpkin-headed monster screeched as shadows scored across its form. I am the gentleman thief of hearts, the pillager of twilight. Arsene!
Another pulse of ethereal flame. Arsene, huh? The name had a nice ring to it. Ren turned to face the other knights, their forms twisting and distorting as well. His name didn't really matter though, did it? This thing's power... that was something else. Something very worth making use of. Ren cracked his neck. "Alright, Arsene." He grinned. "Let's show them what we can do."
Six knights had entered the shared cell. And only Ren and Ryuji had left it; the latter leading the way, since Ren had been unconscious on the way there.
"What happened to that Kamoshida-thing?" Ren asked as they jogged through the dungeon.
"He booked it as soon as you started kicking ass," Ryuji called back. "But, hey, okay, what the fuck was up with that demon guy? And where the hell did he go!?"
"No idea," Ren said. Arsene had faded back into nothing as soon as the threat had been eliminated, and that odd white mask had formed back on Ren's face again. On, and not in, the way it had seemed before. He could remove it easily now, if he needed to.
"It looked like he knew you," he said, almost a protest.
Ren just shrugged. "Maybe he did. I don't know him. I'm really in the dark here too."
Ryuji let out a sharp and frustrated sigh. "Okay, then what's with that outfit?"
"Outfit?" Ren glanced down and stifled a yelp. Okay. That was new. He was dressed in nearly all black, from his shoes to his vest to the long coat that hung from his shoulders. The only hint of color beyond the gold buttons on the vest and the wrists of that coat were a pair of crimson gloves that fit his hands beyond snugly. "Woah."
" Yeah , woah!" Ryuji spluttered, pausing for a moment to gesture at nothing with both arms. "Dude, Ren! You look like a fucking...I don't even know! Like the world's sickest burglar or something!"
Ren found himself smiling. "Oh. Thanks." He threw a glance ahead of them, past Ryuji. "That looks like a dead end."
Ryuji blinked and spun around, letting out a groan. "Uuuugh, dude. Dammit. I could have...I mean, I really thought...fuck, man."
"It's okay." Ren turned back the way they'd come. This whole dungeon was like a maze, with more tunnels and pathways than he could count. They were cut off from another path across the way by a deep trench of rapidly-moving water. He could see a raised drawbridge back the way they'd come, but no apparent means of lowering it. "Did they take us across a bridge? When I was passed out, I mean."
"Oh! Yeah, they totally did! Good find, Ren." Ryuji hummed at a thought. "Shit. I don't remember how they got it down. Maybe there's somewhere we could jump across, or–"
"Hey! Blondie, Frizzy-Hair! Look over here!" A light, unfamiliar voice that bordered on shrill. Ren followed the source all the way to...uh.
"Is that a fucking cat!? " Ryuji asked, gawking at the creature that had just accosted them. It definitely looked like a cat, with pointed ears and black and white fur and a long tail and little paws. Except...it was standing on its hind legs. And glaring at them, with blue eyes the approximate size of two baseballs. Cats usually didn't have yellow bandanas around their necks or black masks covering their faces either. The creature was currently standing at the far end of an open cell, its tiny front paws held up against the wall with baby-sized shackles – Ren could only assume they'd been custom-made.
"I'm not a cat!" the creature yowled back. "I'm a Phantom Thief. My name is Morgana!"
Ren blinked at the...Morgana. "Okay. Uh. Why are you..." He pointed to the shackles.
"Isn't it obvious!?" The creature shook at his bindings. "I was investigating this Palace and got captured, same as you." Capital-p Palace. Why did Ren know that? "If you can free me, I'll show you the way out of here!"
"Dude," Ryuji said, shaking his head incredulously. "Okay, yeah, no." He turned back towards the path. "Come on, Ren. We've had enough monsters for one day."
"Hey!" Morgana yelped. "Don't leave me here!" A flash of fear in those blue eyes.
Ren sighed. He really needed to stop sticking his neck out for strange people and also monster not-cats. Hm. 'Call upon my name,' wasn't it? And back in the cell, he'd...Ren reached up and took hold of his mask. "Morgana, hold still." Concentrate. Here goes nothing. "Arsene!"
Ren's mask shattered in a burst of azure flame. Half the span of a breath later, black talons scored through the air and Morgana's shackles splintered into a dozen pieces, falling to the floor.
"You're fucking crazy, man," Ryuji said, as the ethereal thief faded back into nothing once again, as Ren's mask reformed on his face. "For real. Crazy ."
"Finally!" Morgana mewled, pausing to stretch out his tiny arms before scrambling over towards the side of the cell, grabbing a discarded section of black material – a toolbelt of some sort – and slipping it on. "Very impressive, by the way, Frizzy-Hair. That's a pretty powerful Persona you've got there."
Persona. His other self. "Do you know what it means?" Ren asked. "I mean, what my...what Arsene is? Because I'm pretty much clueless."
Morgana nodded so firmly that Ren was almost worried he'd topple over. "Places like this, Palaces like this, are filled with distortion, with Shadows. Dark thoughts, trained by the Ruler to attack anything they see as a threat to their twisted view of the world. It's a self-fulfilling narrative, fueling whatever they already assumed to be the truth. A subconscious echo-chamber.
"A Persona is the manifestation of your innermost rebellion. And, it's the polar opposite of a Shadow. While a Shadow is the part of humanity or humans they want to hide from, the intrusive ideas that lurk under the surface, a Persona represents your true inner self, a mask worn proudly. Basically, it's your heart's way of protecting you against that distortion." He seemed genuinely proud of himself, no doubt assuming his explanation was anything more than utterly perplexing.
Multiple seconds of silence passed. "Uh," Ryuji said. "Ren, do you...is this cat making any sense to you?"
"I told you!" Morgana growled. "I'm not a cat! What are you, an idiot, Blondie?"
Ren forced a sigh back down his throat. "His name's Ryuji," he said, before Ryuji himself could reply in kind. "And I'm Ren. Not...look, Morgana, please, just...you said you were going to help us find our way out, right? Please...do that."
Morgana threw him a long, silent look that was almost a glare. Then he reached into one of the pockets of his tool belt and pulled out a small handful of white strips, taking a few waddling steps forward and shoving them towards Ren. "Here. You've got a cut on your cheek." Oh! Adhesive bandages! Right, okay.
Ren reached up; sure enough, right under the edge of his mask, the skin stung to the touch. Probably from the battle earlier. "Thank you." He knelt down and took the bandages from Morgana, unwrapping one of them and pressing it against his cheek.
It felt sort of warm there, almost like a hot compress, and the sensation sent a little pleasant shiver down his spine. He glanced at the bandages still in his hand. They looked totally normal. Weird.
"Come on," Morgana continued, bounding out of the cell, past Ren and over towards the drawbridge. "This way!"
Ryuji let out a long frustrated sigh next to him. "Well, I guess there's nothing else to do but follow him. Uh, but..." He threw a glance towards Ren. "I know I should have said it before, but...thanks. For saving my life back there and all."
Ren smiled. "Of course. I'd do it again."
"Yeah, well," Ryuji chuckled. "You've got a crazy-powerful demon guy now. Not nearly as brave when you're just siccing him on the next thing that tries to kill me." He winked, and then headed down the path after Morgana. An odd-stuttered jog. Huh.
Now that Ren noticed it, Ryuji had a bit of a limp, didn't he? A catch in his right leg, like it was harder to bend that limb. Did his leg get hurt when the guards dragged them here, or...had Ren just never thought to notice? The thought sent an inexplicable pang through him, and he had to swallow the sudden knot in his throat.
Ren followed after them, but slower, shifting his coat out of the way and feeling around this outfit's pants for a pocket or something to stuff these bandages in. Okay, good, it had one. He could feel his phone there too, nice to know that hadn't burnt up with his bag and all of his books.
Wait, no, scratch that. His bag was still there. Kind of. It was more of a long pocket now, nestled against the inside of his coat. He hadn't even felt it earlier, it definitely lacked the weight of his actual bag, but even a glance confirmed the contents. A handful of school books he hadn't yet opened, a pencil case, a few loose sheets of paper, and...what was that?
Ren froze in place. Something cold and metal at the bottom, half-sticking out beneath a notebook, catching the light from the lamp hanging above him. Ren reached into his bag, or pocket or whatever, and fished the thing out.
It was a knife. Its silver blade was polished to a mirror sheen, while its hilt and off-edge were a darker, duller metal, the guard decorated with a carving of a skull. Ren adjusted his grip and swung it a few times, testing the weight. It felt good in his hand, even more fitting than the knife currently tucked into a sheath hanging at his belt, the blade he'd yanked out of that blue fire earlier.
The wind in the dungeon caressed Ren's back, cutting through the coat, and he shuddered. For a moment, it sounded almost like a whisper. "Sa...el."
Ren took a deep breath and shook his head. This world was starting to get to him. He pulled the other knife from its sheath, slipped it into his bag, and then tried the new knife in the sheath. It was definitely a stupid idea, but the blade fit snugly, despite the disparate shape of the two blades.
Alright. One more mystery. Ren bit the inside of his cheek. Focus. Eyes forward, one foot in front of the other, as the wind once more whistled through the dungeon, once more whispered in his ear.
"Sa...el. Sa...el. Sa...el.
4/11 – Monday
Noon
Aoyama-Itchome
Reality pitched to the right.
Ren's breath pounded in his ears as he stumbled into the alleyway. The air wasn't clear or fresh, but it was real. It was so wonderfully, gloriously real. His glasses were skewed on his face – he had glasses again! No weird freaky demon mask or magic eyes, actual glasses! Ren had never been happier to have crappy eyesight in his life. He adjusted his glasses, reveling in the feeling, and turned to look for his compatriot.
He didn't have to look far. Ryuji was currently bent over and wheezing a few feet behind him, one hand on the nearby wall on support, another on his own thigh. Ren started in place, concern rising into his throat like hot bile. "Are you okay?" he asked.
Ryuji waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah man, I'm...shit, just...out of shape. For real." He didn't look out of shape, but Ren chose not to point that out. "But, hey! You're back to normal, yeah?"
"I think so," Ren said. He reached up to twist a strand of hair between two fingers. "I don't feel any different, I think." Hm. He threw a glance towards the ground in their general vicinity. "Where's Morgana?"
"Fuck if I know," Ryuji replied, finally starting to catch his breath. He straightened up, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Little weirdo probably...I dunno, ditched us or something."
Ren couldn't say that was a particularly satisfying outcome, but he supposed he didn't have any choice but to let sleeping dogs lie. Or cats. Or...Morganas. "So, um, what's...where do we go from here?"
Ryuji silently considered the question, his gaze wandering across the alley. Then, it locked on something behind Ren, and he pursed his lips and nodded towards it. "We deal with them, I think." Ren followed the indication, turning around. His stomach immediately started to sink.
Apparently, this alleyway let out right in front of Shujin. Real Shujin, not the weird empty castle thing they'd run into early. Students milling about, class clearly in session through the windows. And two very familiar-looking faculty members currently standing on the steps. A shiny bald head, and a mop of unkempt dark hair. Principal Kobayakawa, the portly man Ren had met the day before. And...Kamoshida. Even from afar, Ren could clearly see that his eyes were not the yellow they had been in that place. He was dressed normally too, in a loose shirt and exercise shorts, a whistle around his neck. And both men were currently staring right at them.
Ren sighed and made his way out of the alley, Ryuji's footsteps right behind him. He held tight to the strap of his bag, keeping his eyes low. Penitent.
"You're late," Kobayakawa said. 'Stern' was a frank understatement. His booming voice reminded Ren unfavorably of Igor, of that grinning mockery of humanity, and Ren had to lock his jaw to keep from bolting. "First period began ten minutes ago. I hope you boys have an explanation for your tardiness."
Wait...only ten minutes? They'd been five minutes late when Ren had gotten knocked out, had they really only been down in that dungeon for another five? He could have sworn it had been longer.
"Now now, Kobayakawa," Kamoshida said, his tone amicable. "It was raining cats and dogs earlier, you saw it. In fact, I saw you spending an extra five minutes in your car while it cleared up, don't think I didn't notice." A warm chuckle that the principal sheepishly echoed. "I'm sure Sakamoto and..." Almost a prompt. Close enough.
"Amamiya," Ren said.
"Amamiya here, thank you, were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Kamoshida hummed out another laugh. "Besides, if I'm not mistaken, Amamiya just moved here a few days ago. Isn't that right?"
And how did he know that, exactly? "Yeah," Ren said. "Sorry. I got lost."
"Wrong place," Ryuji echoed, his tone as tense as Ren felt. "Wrong time."
"See!" Kamoshida reached out and clapped Kobayakawa on the back, a gesture that made both Ren and Ryuji jolt in place; neither man apparently noticed, or cared. "Besides, let's not burden these two with detention on their first day. Whatever happened to the three strike policy?"
"I'm fairly certain Sakamoto has already used up all three of his strikes," Kobayawaka replied, talking about the boy as if he wasn't there at all. Ren grit his teeth. "And then some!"
Kamoshida raised his hands in playful surrender. "Alright, alright. But let's still take it easy on Amamiya. What do you say, Watabe? Give the kid a break."
Kobayakawa took a long breath, pulling out a handkerchief and dotting at his forehead. "Well, I suppose that's alright." His focus shifted towards Ren, who found his breath stalling in his throat. "Get to class. I won't accept this behavior from here on out. You're lucky Mister Kamoshida here has taken a liking to you."
Taken a liking. The phrase made Ren feel like vomiting. He just nodded, unable to form a single other word.
Kobayakawa sent what was no doubt a seething glare at Ryuji. "Sakamoto, my office. Come with me." The man turned on a dime and stomped up the steps, heading inside.
Ryuji, near limply, followed. "Meet me on the roof after school," he whispered as he passed Ren, not even pausing in his steady trudge after the man. Even though Kamoshida's broad frame took up half the steps, Ryuji still gave him a wide berth before vanishing from sight at the top of the stairs.
Ren made to follow, but Kamoshida held up a hand, stopping him in place. "Now, Amamiya," he said, voice full of that same sickly sweet venom as it had in that dungeon. "I'm not sure if you've had a refresher on city manners, but the polite thing to do after someone sticks their neck out for you like I just did is to say 'thank you?' Think you can manage that?"
"Thank you," Ren said, forcing the spite out of his tone and back down his throat. "Sir."
Kamoshida chuckled, fiddling with the whistle around his neck. "Looks like you do have a brain in there after all."
"Good! You're a quick learner. Now, just sit right there and watch. I've got a slave to break in."
Maybe Kamoshida didn't remember. Maybe the man and monster were nothing but dopplegangers, nothing but an unflattering reflection. Maybe there was something more. But in that moment, Ren could almost hear the twisted distortion echoing through his voice.
A flicker of fire behind his eyes. He raised his gaze, locking eyes with Kamoshida, straightening his back and setting his brow. "I'm a quick learner, sir."
Kamoshida stared at him. A long few seconds of terse silence. "Get the fuck to class," he finally snapped.
"Yes sir," Ren said. He lowered his head again, and stepped around the man, holding his breath until he made it past the top of the stairs, inside the building, until he was sure. And even then, he kept a bit of breath saved, tucked in the bottom of his lungs. Just in case he needed it. Just in case he needed the fire of that demon thief's name. Just in case he needed Arsene.
Ren had never taken theater before. He knew his way around anxiety, but stage fright was a relatively new prospect. And now, standing in front of a classroom, with a few dozen intermittently curious and judgemental gazes all trained on him, he felt fairly certain that prospect was coming to pass.
"This is Ren Amamiya," Kawakami said, her tone bored and matter-of-fact. "He'll be joining us as a second-year student, transferring from Yamanashi." A cascade of whispers followed that. Ren didn't need to hear them to know what they were probably saying. Middle of nowhere, farm kid, that sort of thing. He bit back the fiftieth sigh of the day.
"Hello," he said, forcing his voice up towards at least an audible level. Ugh, he sounded shrill. High pitched. Gross. "I'm...it's nice to meet you all." He bowed his head once, firm. Messy, but he'd stuck the landing, probably.
Kawakami hummed and then motioned vaguely towards the right side of the classroom – or, well, left side when facing her, but...never mind. "There's an open seat near Mishima." At the name, a boy in one of the far rows started in his seat, blinking fast. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked a second away from passing out in his...were those bruises? A discolored patch of skin on his shoulder, just under his shirt, and another on the side of his cheek, barely hidden under an adhesive bandage. What the fuck?
"Amamiya." A single ounce of sharpness in Kawakami's tone, sending a pulse of panic through him.
"Sorry ma'am," Ren managed, lowering his head and shoving his feet forwards, squeezing his way between a few desks and making his way towards the open window seat. The students around him seemed to recoil, leaning away from his approach as if he were dirty or sick or something. All except one.
A girl with blonde hair and a hoodie, her chin propped on her hand, staring out the window. Ren couldn't help but stall, stare at her. Takamaki. She was in the seat in front of him? Was that serendipity, or...
"Keep walking, new kid," she said. "I'm not thanking you again."
Ren felt his face warm even further, and he just dumbly nodded, making his way to his seat.
"What was that?"
"Do you think there's something between them?"
"I know Takamaki's a freak, but a convict?"
"Besides, she's Kamoshida's girl, everyone knows that."
This time, the whispering students weren't even trying to keep their gossip imperceptible. Ren focused on slipping his notebook out of his bag, trying to bite back further feelings of nausea. 'Kamoshida's girl.' Disgusting. Ren had already had a pretty ugly picture painted firsthand of Shujin's faculty, but Takamaki had absolutely been right. This place was an outcast's hell.
His hand collided with something cold and sharp, and Ren's motion stalled. He glanced down into his bag. Fuck.
There it was. A two-sided knife with a black handle. The weapon he'd pulled from Arsene's flame in that dungeon earlier.
Ren carefully, delicately, slipped the knife into a side pocket where the prying eyes of his classmates wouldn't see it over his shoulder or something. Another mystery for later. One more bit of insanity for the rapidly growing docket.
It took Ren roughly fifteen minutes of wandering around Shujin before he found the single staircase that went all the way to the roof. He caught his breath at the top and pushed open the door.
A fresh breeze smacked him in the face. Faintly earthy, no doubt from the empty planters and large bags of fertilizer off to the far end of the roof. A club using it for storage? It was sort of far off the beaten path for that. Regardless, he couldn't focus too much on the planters, considering the young man currently kicking his feet up on a spare table surrounded by equally spare chairs.
Ryuji threw a hand up, lowering the soda he'd been sipping when Ren entered. "Yo! Glad you made it, dude. I was about to call in a search party." Then he gestured towards the table, which held a carbonated flavored water of some sort. "I, uh, I mean I wanted to get you something, cause...well, I mean, just cause. But I don't know what you like, so, yeah, I hope this is good."
"It's good," Ren said. He closed the door behind him and stepped farther onto the roof, his gaze wandering off towards the edge closest to the rest of the school.
There was another matching rooftop on the other side of campus, which looked a whole hell of a lot more ramshackle than this one. This roof had a wire grate fence to keep the objects – and people, probably – from taking a tumble over the edge, but the roof across the way either didn't have a matching fence or had a broken one. It was hard to make it out from a distance, but Ren could clearly see bundles of junk, trashed electronics and sports equipment through only a single sheet of grating.
"I'm not picky," he continued, forcing his gaze back towards Ryuji. "So, thanks." He took the drink and sat in one of the other chairs, popping the cap and taking a long sip. Good flavor. Raspberry. Weird texture though. Not bad, just weird. "What's up?"
"Come on, man," Ryuji said, shifting his legs off the table and facing Ren directly, slouching up a storm. "We got sucked into a freaky fucking castle and you saved my life with a demon dude. Like...we have to talk about that, yeah!?"
Ren shrugged. "I mean, yes, I...It's crazy. I just...don't know what to say."
Ryuji let out a sharp sigh and leaned back in his seat. "Shit, dude. I mean, it's still hard to like...like, it did happen, right? We didn't just get like, gas leaked or whatever and dream the whole thing up?"
Ren silently reached into his bag and pulled out the two-sided knife, placing it on the table. "It happened."
"Fuck." Ryuji stared at the knife with wide eyes. "It really was real. For real."
"For real," Ren echoed. He pursed his lips, scraping the toe of his shoe against nothing. "I don't think Kamoshida remembers, I mean, if that even was him in the first place."
"Who the hell else would it be?" Ryuji asked.
"No idea." Ren sighed. "I'm...really not sure what to do from here. I don't know if there's anything we even can do."
"Boy, you two really are dumb." A light, almost shrill voice. Distinctly familiar, too. "Isn't it obvious?" Ren followed the sound, turning in his chair back towards the door. There was a black cat sitting on his hindquarters, staring up at them. A black cat with a yellow scarf and bright blue eyes. The cat opened its mouth, eyes twisting into what was almost a smile. "You go back into the Palace and change Kamoshida's heart."
Neither Ren nor Ryuji said a word or moved an inch. Not for a long few seconds. Then, Ryuji picked up a bottle cap and chucked it gently at the feline.
"Hey!" the cat yelped – oh, yeah, that was definitely the cat speaking – as it dodged out of the way. "Watch it, Blondie!" Blondie. Holy fuck.
" Morgana? " Ren asked, incredulous.
"Duh," the cat said, settling back on his hindquarters and licking at the back of his paw. "Do you know anyone else as amazing and magical and handsome as me?" He ran a paw back across his head in what was probably an attempt to look cool, but just came off as adorable.
"I...you said you weren't a fucking cat!" Ryuji finally spluttered.
"I'm not!" Morgana snapped back. "I just look like one in this world, okay? I'm...cursed!"
Ryuji snorted. "Cursed to look like a talking cat?"
Morgana rolled his eyes. "Only you two can hear me talking. Everyone else...well, I just sound like a cat. It's...cognition stuff. You both know I can talk, but normal people would just tune me out."
"And that's part of the curse," Ren concluded.
"Probably, yeah!" Morgana said.
"You don't sound very confident," Ren said.
The feline wilted. "I am, though! I'm really a human, I just lost my normal body, and...um, all of my memories."
Ryuji blinked at him. "Okay," he said, slowly. "You're cursed. No memories. But you know all that stuff about the, uh...the castle place."
"Palace," Morgana corrected. "And yep! I think I used to explore Palaces when I was human." He began to pace back and forth, tail flicking to and fro as he talked. "And I know a lot about the Metaverse. Palaces, Shadows, Personas, Treasures. The whole nine yards. So, I was definitely a Phantom Thief then too." At Ren and Ryuji's silence, he rolled his eyes. "Come on. A Phantom Thief. Like, a gentleman burglar?" Another bout of silence, and Morgana growled at nothing. "Someone who takes their bounty before their target can even realize it's gone!" The feline rumbled with a purring sort of giggle. "Except instead of stealing jewels or money, I steal distorted desires from Palaces like the one you found me in last night."
Ren held his hands up, feeling his temples begin to pulse with what was no doubt an oncoming headache. "Could you start from the beginning, please? Uh, like, 101. Basics. Starting with what that dungeon was, and that thing that looked like Kamoshida but with yellow eyes."
Morgana sighed, plopping back down onto his hindquarters. "That world is called the Metaverse. It's a place formed from the collective unconscious." He hummed, tilting his head back and forth in thought. "Every human has a subconscious mind, the thoughts and ideas they take for granted. The Metaverse is built out of those thoughts, out of shared concepts and lost dreams."
"Dreamland, gotcha," Ryuji said.
Morgana sent him a glare, but continued. "Most Shadows are just that. The small fry are all just stray thoughts, concepts shared by lots of people. The Metaverse turns those thoughts into monsters. But then, there are the strong Shadows, like Kamoshida's. They're the inner self of their owners, a manifestation of their base desires and worldview. The more distorted that worldview, the more they hide from themselves, the stronger that Shadow becomes.
"Most of the time, Shadows like that just wander around the Metaverse. It's only when someone has a really strong distortion that they split off from the rest of the Metaverse, and a Palace forms around them. Any weak Shadows nearby get pulled in too, and follow whatever that Palace Ruler says." Distortion. Hadn't Igor said something about that? Ridding the world of its distortion...
"And we found you in Kamoshida's Palace," Ren concluded.
Morgana nodded. "Yep. That's the world inside his heart. It's how he sees this school, and all the people inside it."
"Shit." Ryuji ran a hand back through his hair. "And he saw us as...what, slaves or something?" He grit his teeth. "That bastard."
"Seems like it," Morgana said. And that little kitty face twisted into what seemed like a smirk. "But you do realize what it means for you to be there, don't you?"
Logic clicked into place. "If that world is in Kamoshida's heart," Ren said, slowly. "Then, if we change something there, does that mean it changes the way he sees the school?"
"That's absolutely right!" Morgana chirped, purring between his words. "But there's more than just that." His little blue eyes gleamed with excitement. "The Palace represents what Kamoshida is trying not to think about. He's shoved all his guilt into there, keeping it locked up deep in his subconscious. If you can find where he's hiding it, then you can make him face that part of himself, make him remember all the bad he's done and how awful it was."
Ryuji's eyes widened. "You're telling me that we could make Kamoshida..." He trailed off, opening and closing his mouth at nothing. Lost for words.
"He'll stop, won't he?" Ren asked. "If he can't hide behind his justifications, then he'll stop doing awful things, right?"
"Right again, Frizzy-Hair." Morgana tilted his head, smiling up a storm in his own feline way. "It's called a Change of Heart. Do that, and the Palace will crumble." He adjusted, idly scratching at his ear with a back paw. "Kamoshida will probably confess his crimes, too. People usually get pretty desperate when they feel that guilty."
Ryuji coughed out an amazed sort of laugh. Ren turned to see the boy staring off at nothing, blinking quickly. "Will he know?" he asked. "I mean, will Kamoshida know it was us? If we did that, would he know?"
Morgana shook his head. "He won't. He might blame you subconsciously, but he won't be able to know for sure. Rulers in reality don't know what happens in their Palaces. It's all a dream to them."
"Gotcha." Ryuji looked...was that relief, or disappointment? It was impossible for Ren to tell. The boy took a long, unsteady breath in. "Okay. Morgana. How do we get back into that place?"
Morgana replied with a full body shrug. "I don't know."
Silence. Both of them stared at the feline.
"What do you mean you don't know!?" Ryuji said.
Morgana shrugged again. "You got into the Palace once already. How should I know how you did that?"
" We don't know how we did that!" Ryuji snapped.
"Then figure it out!" Morgana yowled back. "I'm not your babysitter, Blondie!" The not-a-cat shook himself off. "I'm going back to the Palace tomorrow. I found my own way in, but..." Was that another smirk? "I don't think either of you will fit. You're both too big. Especially Blondie."
"Ryuji," Ryuji corrected, sounding almost defeated. "Come on, dude. You know my name."
"If you find your way there again," Morgana continued, heading back towards the other end of the roof, "then I'll happily give you a crash course on how to use your Persona. Or, well, I'll teach Frizzy...Ren."
"At least he got yours right," Ryuji grumbled, and Ren had to bite his cheek to stifle a laugh.
"Otherwise, this is goodbye." Morgana sent a little smile over his tiny shoulder. "See you around. Or not. Whichever you decide." With that, the not-a-cat scrambled onto a nearby air conditioning unit, up onto the entrance awning and out of sight.
