Chapter 2: The Transfer Students of Shujin Academy
April 9
"This will be your living space during your time in Tokyo," Raoul said, opening the door to the apartment. It was a lavish high-rise apartment, with a full living room and kitchen, a half-bath, and two bedrooms that shared a full-sized bathroom between them. This fancy place was in the Minato District of Tokyo, which conveniently was also the same district that their school, Shujin Academy, was in, so the girls wouldn't need to take the subway to get there.
"Damn, I know you Goetia are loaded, but this place is fancy," Loona said, looking around the apartment. She went into one of the bedrooms and flopped down onto the bed face-first, letting out a content sigh as she sunk into the plush mattress. "Oh yeah, I could die right now and be happy. So much better than my bed back home."
Stolas, who was also there alongside Stella and Blitzo, produced a pair of cards and handed them to Octavia. "These are human debit cards, linked directly to the family bank account. They'll convert Hell's currency into Yen automatically, so you don't have to worry about money while you're here in the human realm."
"And here are your subway passes, fully paid off for the year," Raoul added, handing those to Octavia as well. "In case you want to visit all the sights in Tokyo."
"Thanks," Octavia said, pocketing the items for later. "Are you sure you guys want to leave us up here alone?"
"Our 'friends' in Heaven will notice if we stick around in this realm for too long," Raoul sighed. "But not to worry. If for any reason you need to return to Hell, just call your father and he can provide a portal for you to use."
"I'll be sure to send one of our servants up here to check on you," Stella added. "They can provide food and cleaning for the apartment, which you will need if the hellhound starts shedding."
"That's a gross misconception!" Loona called from her room. "Hellhounds don't shed unless they're under intense stress."
"Gee, I wonder how the princess got that idea," Blitzo said, side-eyeing Stella who returned the glare. The imp shrugged, tossing a bag over to Loona who let it drop to the floor. "Here's your weapons in case you need to cap anybody. And give me a call if you need me to off anyone for you, sweetie!"
"Whatever," Loona said.
Octavia went to her own bedroom, setting down her bag and taking it in. 'I'll need to do some decorating for sure, but this place can be a home away from home,' she thought. The owlet sat down on the bed, taking out her new phone to look at it. Raoul had said that their new phones essentially took all their previous information and moved it over from Hell-based servers to Earth-based ones, but it was still weird for Octavia to see all of her social media accounts portray her as human instead of her true form. 'Then again, I'll be lying to everyone about who I really am while I'm up here, even my cousin. God, it's still weird to think that I have one so close to my own age…'
Stella came into the room, giving a cough to get her daughter's attention. "As Duke Raoul has described it, there may be a time where you will have to fight creatures from this Collective Unconscious," the swan said. She held out her hands, summoning a staff into it. The weapon was carved out of an ice-like substance, with the top end jutting out into a curved bident with an orb of darkness floating between the prongs. "This staff is a weapon passed down through my family. Normally the direct heir would inherit it, but Andrealphlus is 'too dainty' for such a weapon. His words, not mine."
Octavia took the staff, feeling its texture to be closer to wood than it looked. 'Must be carved from some kind of tree found in Hell,' she thought.
"I want you to promise me that you will complete your duties here and you will come back in one piece," Stella said.
"Yeah, of course, Mom," Octavia said nonchalantly.
"I mean it," Stella said, a bit more serious this time that it made Octavia look her mother in the eyes. "With us having to fake your death, there will be unwanted eyes on your father and especially me. I can keep my brother from asking too many questions, but others will not be as lenient. Especially if Stolas' father hears about it…"
"Mom, Grandpa Paimon has literally never visited us, or seemed interested in Dad at all," Octavia said. "Heck, I've never even seen him in person. He's always just in that stupid mirror being carried around by his butler."
"Still, one can't be too careful if the King of the Ars Goetia gets involved," Stella said. "Paimon can be… persuasive to get what he wants." She walked out of the room before stopping at the door frame. "Your father and his imp will be back tomorrow to enroll both of you at Shujin Academy. Good Luck, Octavia."
Stella then left, leaving Octavia alone with her staff. The owlet felt the presence of magic within the weapon and was surprised when it suddenly disappeared in a puff of snow, a blue ice-like bangle appearing in her wrist. "Okay then…" Octavia vocalized. She flicked her wrist, making the staff reappear as the bangle flashed with light.
"Pretty cool staff you have there," Loona said, leaning on the doorframe. "All I got is Blitz's gun." She pulled out a gold and black flintlock pistol with a demon eye above the trigger. "Surprised he let me have this, considering it's his favorite weapon."
"Thanks for the compliment… I think. Your gun's… pretty cool too," Octavia said, unsure of how to talk to the hellhound. "Your name's Loona, right?"
"That's correct, princess," Loona nodded. "Look, I get that I'm only here because your dad asked Blitz for me to be your bodyguard, but I'm not going to hold that against you. You seem cool enough, for a rich person. Still can't believe I'm being put in high school. I never event went to school and turned out fine…"
"Aren't you my age?" Octavia asked.
"I'm twenty-two, but in human form I can easily pass for younger," Loona said. In a flash of blue fire, the hellhound took her human disguise, taking the appearance of a Caucasian woman, though she kept her silver hair and red eyes. "It's like how in human sitcoms all the high schoolers are played by adults so the producers can sexually exploit their actors."
"I prefer anime myself," Octavia admitted.
"Then luckily for you, we're in the land of anime," Loona smirked. "You've got a human disguise too, right?"
"Dad taught me how to do it before we came here, so yes," Octavia nodded, transforming into her own disguise, her head feathers turning into greyish-black hair and her beak pushing inwards to become a human face. Like Loona, Octavia kept her pinkish-red eyes. She shifted her stance a bit as she stood up. "It's weird not having a tail to balance with."
"Yeah, humans are weird like that," Loona laughed. "So, if we're going to be housing together, might as well learn to tolerate each other. Wanna get wasted while watching whatever garbage is on TV?"
"I'm seventeen, so there won't be any drinks in here," Octavia said with a raised eyebrow. "Plus we have to do school orientation in the morning, remember?"
Loona groaned. "Fine, not drinks. But we can at least roast humans doing dumb shit on TV, right?"
"Totally," Octavia nodded.
[***]
April 10
The next day, Blitzo and Stolas arrived to get Octavia and Loona admitted into Shujin Academy. The two girls waited by the vending machines outside the school where their dads would meet them. Loona tugged irritably at her uniform, the hellhound cursing under her breath. "Why the Hell do we have to wear these shitty things? I do not want to be caught dead in this."
"Most if not all school in Japan require school uniforms, so you'll just have to deal with it," Octavia shrugged. Both were wearing the Shujin Academy school uniform, which for them meant a black blazer with a white high-collar shirt underneath and black bowtie, a red and black plaid shirt. Luckily there was some options in regard to customizing the uniform, with Loona wearing black leggings with tennis shoes while Octavia kept her beanie (minus the crown) and boots but swapped her pants for black leggings.
"Fine, but that doesn't mean I'll like it," Loona grumbled.
Soon enough a portal opened on the wall next to them, with Stolas stepping out through it. The prince was in his own human disguise, which had some resemblance to Octavia's own, though there were some differences in facial structure. 'Must have gotten that from Mom,' she thought.
"Come along now, Blitzy. Our daughters are waiting for us," Stolas called through the portal. When nothing happened the prince sighed, holding out his hand and casting a spell that dragged Blitzo through the portal.
Loona had to do a double take when she saw her adopted father. Blitzo was now a human, though still the same size as his imp self. 'Huh, he's even got a full head of hair now,' she thought. "So now you can take a human disguise, Blitz?" Loona questioned.
"Not by choice," Blitzo grumbled, jabbing a thumb at Stolas. "Prince here cast some spell on me since imps don't have enough magic to create a disguise of their own."
"You look like one of those actors from Hollywood," Octavia said. "That wasn't a compliment, by the way."
"I didn't choose this look either, princess," Blitzo sighed.
"At the very least you can do your job more effectively by blending in on Earth," Stolas said with a smile. "Oh, I should do the same for your other employees as well when we get back, but for now, let's get our daughter's enrolled, shall we?"
The four headed inside the building, getting directions to the principal office. It turns out that they weren't the only ones here getting enrolled, as three other people were also in attendance. The first was a young man with dark skin (African descent, maybe?), freckles, and poofy white hair. The other two have come here together, the older man wearing a white suit jacket and hat, while the younger one had messy black hair and glasses. 'That must be my cousin, then,' Octavia thought. 'He does have some similarities to myself, if I look close enough…'
"And you must be the last of the new transfers," the principal said. He was a large overweight man in a garish yellow suit. 'What a fat-ass, literally,' Loona snarked internally.
"We seem to have a lot of those this year," sighed the woman standing next to the desk, presumably one of the teachers.
"We'll get through this quickly, Ms. Kawakami," the principal said. He pushed forward four sheets of paper. "Just sign here and we'll be all set." He gave a glance to the lone kid. "Where are your legal guardians, young man?"
"O-oh! They l-live overseas, and s-sent me here to… get in touch with my r-r-roots!" the kid sputtered. 'Yep, this kid is gonna get bullied,' Loona thought.
"Yes, your file said something about that," the principal nodded. He turned to Blitzo and Stolas. "Pardon my manners, but I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Principal Kobayakawa."
"I'm Stoyan Goetia, and this is my daughter, Octavia," Stolas introduced.
"Goetia? Like the demons?" the boy questioned.
Stolas chuckled. "Yes, it led to quite a many good jokes back in college."
"The name's Bl… Blaze Nyx, and this my daughter, Loona," Blitzo said, thinking quickly.
"Adopted daughter," Loona said, crossing her arms. She turned Blitzo around and angerly whispered. "What kind of fake-ass name was that?"
"I panicked, okay?" Blitzo shot back. "Be glad I didn't use my real last name."
"I didn't even know you had one," Loona said.
"Ugh, westerners and their weird names," the principal said. "Just sign the forms and we'll be out of here."
"Can't happen fast enough," said the man in the white suit.
Soon everyone had their paper's signed (with the young boy's name being Collin Pastor), with Octavia's cousin (whose name was Ren Amamiya) having his signed last by his legal guardian. "To reiterate, just so we're clear, you will immediately be expelled if you cause an problems," Kobayakawa said, staring directly at Ren. "In my opinion, you're nothing but a liability, but we had other circumstances to consider. Whatever you might've gotten away with in your hometown… those days are over. If you are thrown out from our school, there will be no place for you to go. Keep that in mind."
"Is there an issue here?" Stolas asked.
"Nothing concerning you, Mr. Goetia," the principal dismissed.
"Sounds like your cousin is a delinquent," Loona whispered to Octavia, who gave a hum of confusion. 'You think Raoul would have mentioned that before we got here,' the princess thought.
Kobayakawa gestured to the teacher. "This is the teacher in charge of your and Goetia-san's class."
"I'm Sadato Kawakami," Kawakami introduced herself. "Here are your student IDs." She placed two ID badges bearing Ren and Octavia's faces. Ren quirked up an eyebrow as he noticed a strange pink pamphlet that Kawakami had pulled out, but the teacher quickly noticed and grabbed the paper, shoving it in her pocket. "Be sure to read the school rules," she said. "Any violations will send you straight to the guidance office. And if by chance you cause any problems, I won't be able to protect you at all."
"That sounds like some bullshit," Blitzo whispered.
Kobayakawa gave a nod. "He is responsible for all his actions." He turned to Loona and Collin. "Ms. Nyx and Mr. Pastor, you will be joining class in the third and second year respectively, though Mr. Pastor will be in a different class. I have your IDs here, seeing as your teachers could not be here to give them to you." The principal placed them down on the desk, with the two taking their respective school badge.
"But really though, why me?" Kawakami questioned. "There should've been better candidates."
"It was a sudden transfer, all of them, and your class was the only one that had two openings," the principal cut off. "Just the luck of the draw."
Kawakami shook her head in dismay as Ren's guardian, one Sojiro Sakura, spoke up. "If you're done explaining things, mind if we get going? I got a store to get back to."
"Yes, we have places to be as well," Blitzo said, rolling his eyes.
Kobayakawa nodded, giving a firm glace to Sojiro. "Sakura-san, please keep a close eye on him. Don't let him cause any trouble outside."
"Well, I'll be sure to have a serious talk about the situation he's in," Sojiro shrugged.
Kawakami turned her attention back to Ren. "Come to the faculty office when you arrive at school tomorrow. I'll show you to your classroom. For you the rest of you, While Goetia-san will be with me, Nyx-san and Pastor-kun will be taken in by their own homeroom teachers."
With that the groups left, though Octavia did manage to meet Ren's eyes as they passed in the hall. Ren gave her a confused look as they locked eyes, with Octavia getting a tingling in the back of her neck. "It's not yet time, young one. The Wild Card is only starting his own journey, much like yourself," the voice from before said in her mind. 'And that voice is back, great,' Octavia sighed. 'What did it call Ren… Wild Card…?'
"Looks like we'll be in the same class," Ren said, catching her attention. His voice was soft, but also strangely charming.
"Yeah," Octavia nodded. "Look, whatever that stuff was with the principal, I won't hold that against you. I've seen people do worse than whatever you presumably did, trust me." Ren have a soft smile, only to return to stoicism when Sojiro gave a stern cough. The two parted ways, with the only thing left to do now being to start school tomorrow and figure out what this ordeal was alongside Ren, and probably mention the whole "I'm your cousin and a demon princess" thing. 'Easy enough,' Octavia thought.
[***]
April 11
As it turns out it would not be easy, seeing as Ren didn't turn up in class until fourth period that afternoon. Octavia wasn't sure what to make of that but considering that every other student in the class seemed to be talking about him, whatever reputation Ren had was clearly a notorious one. The classroom chatter soon came to a hush when Ms. Kawakami entered the room, Ren at her side. "Settle down," Kawakami told her class. "Well, I'd like to introduce a transfer student: Ren Amamiya."
"That's the second one here," one of the students whispered, some eyes drifting over to Octavia. She pulled at her beanie and turned away. 'It was embarrassing enough to have to talk to all these people the first time, I'd rather not be stared at now,' Octavia thought. 'Who've think I'd want to go back to being homeschooled…'
"Today we… had him attend from the afternoon on since he wasn't feeling well," Kawakami explained, though Octavia sensed that wasn't the whole truth by her tone. The teacher turned to Ren. "All right, say something to the class."
"Nice to meet you," Ren said.
Some of the girls started chattering again, leaving an awkward pause in the air. "Your seat will be the one in front of Goetia-san. You remember her from yesterday, yes?" Kawakami said, gesturing the seat in front of Octavia. "Sorry, but can the people nearby please share your textbooks with him for today?"
Some of the students grumbled about this, but Ren ignored them and went to his seat, giving a friendly nod to Octavia when she saw her. The student in front of him, a girl with blonde hair, said something under her breath, making Ren pause. "You're that girl…" he said, but the girl merely scoffed, making Ren pass by and take his seat.
"Did you catch that?" one of the students said. "Do those two know each other?"
"Ew… Does that mean he hit on her before transferring here?" her friend replied.
"That means she's cheating on him with Mr. Kamoshida," another girl added. "Then again, this is Takamaki-san we're taking about…"
"Plus the new girl seems to know him as well," one of the boys said. "Talk about a total creep, going after multiple women at once."
"For real," a girl nodded. "That side of the room is totally awful."
'I'm suddenly glad I've been homeschooled most of my life,' Octavia thought, hiding further into her beanie. 'High School really is Hell.'
"Oh right! The volleyball rally's in two days," Kawakami announced. "Everyone's just changed classes, so make sure you use that time to get to know each other. Well then, let's get class started. Who's on duty today?"
One of the boys stood up, who Octavia noted as looking a bit beat up. 'God, I'm already having regrets about this,' she thought.
[***]
Class soon ended and students took their leave. Octavia waited for Ren to head out, following close behind him. 'Maybe I can get him alone and talk about what this ordeal is…' she thought. The owlet's vision shifted, though- was that… a castle of some kind?- before turning back to normal. 'The Hell?' she groaned, not noticing that Ren was doing the same.
"Hm? What's wrong?" Kawakami asked, stepping out of her room.
"Is this… a castle?" Ren asked, his voice distance.
Kawakami sighed. "Are you sure you're okay? Also… it seems that people are already talking about you, but I'm not the one who told them."
'Not that you're doing anything to defend him,' Octavia glared.
"I can't even catch a break… Why do I have to deal with this?" Kawakami looked directly at Ren. "You should head straight home without stopping by anywhere. Sakura-san sounded pretty angry. Oh, and about Sakamato-kun, don't get involved-" Suddenly a rough-looking boy with dyed blonde hair walked up, making Kawakami scoff. "Speak of the devil… What do you want? I heard the police caught you cutting classes today."
'And now law enforcement is involved, great,' Octavia thought, rolling her eyes.
"It was nothing," Sakamoto said.
Kawakami narrowed her eyes. "And you haven't dyed your hair back to black either…"
"Sorry about that," Sakamoto scoffed. He walked over and whispered something to Ren before walking off.
Kawakami gave a frustrated grunt. "See? That's why I don't want you getting involved. Understood?" She then turned to Octavia. "I would keep my distance from him as well. You don't have a reputation, and I wouldn't want the other students thinking you're involved with them."
"And bit too late for that, teach," Octavia muttered. As the teacher walked off, Octavia made her move. "Ren, right?"
"You were here yesterday," Ren said. "Goetia."
"Goetia is my family name; please use my given name," Octavia said.
"Octavia it is," Ren nodded.
"Look, there's something I want to talk to you about," she started, only for a loud voice to start talking.
"Why did you allow a student like him to transfer here?" said the voice. Octavia turned to see a man with a square jaw wearing what looked to be a gym teacher's uniform talking to the principal. "He's already started associating with Sakamoto. A student with a criminal record, and the culprit of an assault case. At this rate, it'll be pointless how much I contribute to the school."
"Assault case…?" Octavia muttered. 'What kind of kid did you have, uncle?'
"Now, don't be like that," the principal said, trying to calm the gym teacher down. "This school counts on you, Kamoshida-kun. You are our star. Still, a steady build-up is necessary behind such brilliance as well."
"Your troubles never seem to end, do they, Principal Kobayakawa?" Kamoshida shook his head. "All right, I understand. I'll continue to do my best to answer your expectations of me."
The two walked off, leaving Octavia to process what she had overhead. "Ren, I-"
"We can talk later," Ren stated, not looking her way. "I need to see Sakamoto."
Octavia gave a hesitant sigh. "Okay, but I do need to talk to you. And again, I'm not going to hold these… accusations against you. You don't seem like the type to do something like what they say you did."
"Thank you for that," Ren replied, showing his smile once more. "We can talk tomorrow after school," he said, passing her by and going up to the stairs towards the roof.
'I'll make sure to mention that weird vision thing as well,' Octavia thought. The owlet went downstairs, meeting up with Loona outside the front gates. "How was your day?" she asked.
"Sucked, just like how I thought school would be," Loona replied. "Turns out I'm in the same class as the student body president. Just from the way she talks I can tell that she'll be a buzzkill. She even got on my case about my hair, even though this is my natural color," She scoffed, blowing some of her hair out of her face.
"Yeah well, my cousin was late to class, and I saw something weird before coming here," Octavia explained. "I think both are related to the ordeal we're supposed to help with."
"Oh yeah? What did you see?" Loona asked.
"It sounds weird, but for a moment there, the school looked like a castle of some kind," Octavia said. "And right after that I overheard the gym teacher talking crap about Ren. He got sent here due to an assault case, apparently."
"There's plenty of rumors about him the third years are saying as well," Loona nodded. She gave a grin. "I think your cousin is going to be more fun that I was expecting when we saw him yesterday. And you said something about the gym teacher, right? Rumor has it that guy, Kamo-shitta or whatever his name is, is dating one of the girls on the volleyball team. What a perv, am I right?"
"Totally, though I think his name is Kamoshida," Octavia said. A strange feeling came to the owlet, along with a buzzing on her phone.
"Beginning navigation," her phone said.
"You got a GPS app open or something?" Loona asked.
"No, I don't recognize…" Octavia's words failed as she looked behind Loona to see that he school was gone, instead replaced by a castle. "Holy shit…"
"Wait, when did you turn back into your demon form?" Loona asked, only to be more confused when she saw her own fur-covered hand. "The fuck? When did I turn back?"
Octavia looked her phone, now overcast with a weird red background and an eye symbol, then back at the castle. "Loona, I think we might have just found what the ordeal is…"
[***]
Collin couldn't help but feel like something was off, like he missed something in the letter Deerie gave him. He pulled out his letter and read it again. "Yes, I enrolled at a high school in Tokyo, and now I have to pursue Justice. Weird how that's capitalized," he muttered to himself. The angel felt a shiver down his spine, as if the world itself was shifted. Collin looked around but didn't find anything out of the ordinary. 'Although I'm pretty sure there were two girls standing over there before… Did they leave?'
He sighed. "Well, I might as well try to make some friends while I'm here, blend in with the students. And maybe I'll figure out what this Justice is by doing that." Collin felt a buzzing from his phone and pulled it out, seeing a weird app had somehow installed itself, a red eye staring back him. The angel shivered. "Creepy," he said, deleting the app. "Anyway, there was the nice girl in class- what was her name again? Oh yeah, Suzui! I can ask her to be friends!"
Author's Note
Octavia and Loona are now officially in Tokyo and living as roommates as they go to school at Shujin together. Sounds like the plot of a wacky sitcom, but when you have a prince of Hell for a father you can get away with renting an expensive apartment for a whole year. Octavia gets her main weapon, a staff, from her mother, as well as a warning about how it would be a bad thing if Paimon found out about all this. Surely not foreshadowing anything...
If you have ideas for what Octavia's staff should be named, I'm open to suggestions. Same for Blitzo's gun that Loona will be using as her firearm.
Unlike in the show, we get actual human Blitzo here! I imagine he basically just looks like the actor he was mistaken for in "Falling Stars", hence the comment Octavia made. It's here we get our first taste of Persona 5 characters, as well as the girls first encounter with Collin. For Collin's human form I've made him half African American and half Japanese, since his voice actor is African American and it makes sense that Collin would make his human form part Japanese to try to fit in.
I'm currently doing a fresh playthrough of Persona 5 Royal as I write this story, so some dialogue may be similar to what happens in the game, though I will try to make sure to have original scenes as well to accommodate for the Helluva Boss characters. We also get some dynamics here, such as Loona already being on Makoto's radar and Collin wanting to make friends with Shiho. There's a bit of Octavia and Ren interacting as well, but there seems to be more there as well since the princess caught a glimpse of the Palace there. Wonder if Joker's latent demon heritage might have something to do with that?
Next Time: After being dragged into the Metaverse, Octavia makes a new ally and awakens to her rebellious spirit!