Date: ?

"The school turned into an old castle? Soldiers that turned into pumpkin monsters?," Niijima questioned skeptically. "And you summoned a metallic monster in order to save yourself?"

The prosecutor crossed her arms and looked unimpressed and doubtful of Denki's statements.

"Are you hallucinating from an overdose?," she asked. "I won't put up with you if you're simply joking around."

"I'm telling you all that I remember," Denki replied while gripping his head in pain. "Whether you believe it or not, it's the truth."

Niijima remained silent for a few seconds, staring at the teenage criminal to see if she could see any type of doubt or uneasiness coming from him. Seeing that he didn't look like he was lying, Niijima let out a sigh and continued on with the interrogation.

"...There was a terrible subway accident that day. You remember it, don't you?"

Denki nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yeah. I remember hearing about it on the news when I got home."

"Then, I assume you know of the uproar that the public calls the 'psychotic breakdown incidents?,'" Niijima questioned.

"Uhhh. I think I do," Denki responded in uncertainty, trying his hardest to deal with the effects of being drugged.

"You say that as if it has nothing to do with you," Niijima stated as she leaned forward, trying to get her point across. "It was all over the news, and one of the victims included a teacher at your high school. Suguru Kamoshida, the king of the supposed castle you found yourself in. I have no doubt you've heard about it."

Niijima sat back in her chair and stared intensely at Denki.

"Judging from what you've told me, on that day, you were no longer an ordinary student… is that correct?"

Denki had an unsure look on his face before nodding his head in confirmation.

"I see…," Niijima noted. "I'm going to have you continue the story. Tell me everything. Truthfully."

Date: 4/11/20XX

"Manifest thy newfound bravery. This shall be the source of thy powers. Once you have done so, call upon my name!," Pimpernel instructed Denki.

Although these instructions might have confused him prior to his awakening, Denki felt he understood what the phantom hero of France meant and got ready to do what he was told.

Lifting his arm in the air, with his palm toward the sky, Denki called upon his new power.

"Pimpernel! Mazio!"

Abiding by his contractor's instructions, Pimpernel unsheathed his sword, pointed it forward, and sliced the air in front of him. This caused bolts of lightning to rain down from the sky and strike the floating jack-o-lanterns, causing three of them to transform into black ooze before dissolving.

One of the two remaining pumpkin-headed monsters came forward and swung its lantern at Denki, but luckily he was able to dodge the attack. However, the other floating jack-o-lantern came forward just as Denki had finished dodging and swung its lantern at him.

He was able to guard against the attack, but he was pushed back and sustained some damage.

"Draw your blade!," Pimpernel commanded.

"Draw my what?," Denki questioned.

Looking down towards his torso and legs, Denki noticed that around his waist was a belt that held a wakizashi that was covered by a black sheathe.

With excitement in his eyes, Denki quickly unsheathed the sword and held it up, looking at it in awe.

"Cool!," Denki marveled at the weapon.

Deciding to put the weapon to work, Denki dashed toward one of the monsters with a determined smile and sliced its head three times, causing it to meet the same fate as its three fallen comrades.

"I congratulate you, sir! You have mastered thy new abilities!," Pimpernel praised his other self. "Finish thy foe off in whatever way you see fit!"

Looking toward the last jack-o-lantern, Denki kept his gaze on it and issued one final command to Pimpernel.

"Cleave!"

Heeding his contractor's instructions, Pimpernel moved toward the monster and sliced it with his sword, causing it to suffer the same fate as its allies.

Having finished off his final foe, Pimpernel's body turned to a blue fire, similar to the one he had emerged from earlier. The fire then flew over to Denki's face and took the shape of the visors he had ripped off his face. Strangely enough, once the visor shaped flames came over Denki's eyes, they died down, revealing that the visors he had ripped off his face were once again on his face.

Breathing heavily as if he had just finished working out, the adrenaline that helped get him through the battle he had been thrown in started to fade away. He slowed down his breathing and finally took notice of the set of clothes that he currently had on.

"What the hell am I wearing!?," Denki exclaimed, looking over his entire body. "Where did my uniform go!?"

While Denki was currently having somewhat of a panic attack, Ryuji couldn't help but look at his new friend in awe.

"What the hell?," Ryuji mumbled. "What was that just now?"

While the two Shujin students were trying to figure out what just happened, Kamoshida scowled at Denki as he approached him.

"You little pest!," Kamoshida growled.

Denki quickly gripped his visors in anticipation, ready to fight Kamoshida if he dared to try and attack him. However, Ryuji ran interference, dashing towards the Shujin Academy volleyball coach, and slamming his entire body into him. This caused Kamoshida to be launched off the ground and toward a small river that divided the room into two sections.

"Argh!," Kamoshida grunted before landing in the water. As Kamoshida tried to stay afloat, he began yelling at the pair of blondes. "Damn you, you bastards!"

The sound of clanking could be heard in the opposite direction of where Denki and Ryuji were standing.

"Damn it, more of them are coming!," Ryuji cursed.

"Come on, let's get out of here!," Denki insisted, ready to book it.

"Alright! You lead the way!," Ryuji agreed, equally as ready to get out of the situation they were in.

Denki quickly ran away from where the sounds of metal clanking were coming from, with Ryuji right behind him.

"This place is huge!," Denki exclaimed, referring to the dungeon. "We've been running around here for ten minutes and we still haven't found the exit!"

"Damn it! What the hell is this place!?," Ryuji seethed.

Denki sighed in annoyance, "We should probably try to be more quiet. We wouldn't want the guards to find us."

"Right," Ryuji agreed as he continued to follow Denki through the dungeon. "But then again, even if we did run into more of those guys, you could just summon that weird robot again."

"You mean Pimpernel?," Denki asked.

"Yeah, him," Ryuji nodded. "Is he part of your Quirk or somethin' like that?"

"No. At least, I don't think so," Denki confessed.

"For real?," Ryuji questioned. "Where'd he come from then?"

"I think he came from inside of me," Denki revealed. "He's something called a Persona."

"A Persona?," Ryuji echoed, scrunching his eyebrows in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means he's a part of me," Denki explained. "Honestly, that's all I know about him."

"Seriously?," Ryuji sighed in disappointment. "Nothing today makes any sense."

Denki hummed in agreement as he continued to try and find a way out of the dungeon. However, he stopped walking once he took note of two cages that were chained to the ceiling, hanging over the river. Inside the cage were several students from Shujin Academy, who had iron masks over their faces that hid who they were.

"There are other students here!," Denki exclaimed.

"So we ain't the only ones who got captured!," Ryuji stated in shock. "We should get them out of there. Hey, try breakin' them out with Papernel."

"It's Pimpernel," Denki corrected with a tired look on his face.

"Right. Him," Ryuji waved off the correction.

Denki stepped toward the cage and got ready to summon Pimpernel, however, a flash of blue light enveloped his body for a moment before disappearing, leaving Denki in his uniform. Crouching down on one knee, Denki let out a tired sigh, causing Ryuji to quickly go over to him and try to help him up.

"Dude, are you okay!?," Ryuji asked in concern, holding onto Denki's back as he helped his friend up to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm good. I just feel really tired," Denki assured the faux blonde. He looked down at his torso and legs and saw his new set of clothes were gone. "I'm back to normal now? Seriously, how do these powers work?"

"So, what, you're saying you can't use that Persona thing now?," Ryuji questioned.

Denki groggily shook his head, "No. Looks like we'll have to find another way to get them down."

"How?," Ryuji asked. "You can't use Papernel and your Quirk ain't gonna help them down either."

"Well, what about your Quirk?," Denki asked, ignoring the fact that the faux blonde messed up Pimpernel's name again and hoping that whatever Ryuji's Quirk was, it'd be able to help them.

"I ain't got one," Ryuji admitted with no hesitation.

Denki looked at his new friend in shock. This had been the first time that he had ever met someone who was Quirkless, so to hear that Ryuji was part of the twenty percent of the population that didn't have one really threw Denki for a loop.

"So, there's nothing we can do then," Denki sadly realized, looking down in disappointment. "The only thing we can do is get out of here and find someone who can help them, like the police or a pro hero. We just gotta hope that nothing happens to them in the meantime."

This hurt Denki in a way that only a hero could understand. He had the training and the experience to save people, but faced with a situation like this, he couldn't do a thing. The feeling of uselessness he thought he shedded away once he awakened to Pimpernel had returned.

"Sorry," Ryuji apologized, snapping Denki out of his depressed stupor and confusing him as well. "Ever since we got here, you've been saving my ass left and right. Wish there was somethin' I could do to help."

Denki continued to stare at his friend in shock, not only due to the reveal of his Quirklessness, but also because he felt useless. He was the useless one. He was the former U.A. student that couldn't do a thing to save the people locked in those cages.

He hated to admit it, but he was one of the least capable, least intelligent people in his class. The only reason that he didn't let it get to him when he was attending U.A, was because he put his focus on helping his friends prosper and supporting them however he could, whether in battle or in social situations.

Never in his life did he think that there would be anyone who thought he was better than them, and yet, here Ryuji was, right in front of him.

Before Denki could try to assure him of his usefulness, a voice called out to them.

"Hey, you two!"

The pair of Shujin students looked toward where they heard that voice come from; at the end of the cell block.

"You heard that too, right?," Ryuji asked.

"Yeah," Denki confirmed, getting out of Ryuji's grasp once he felt like he could stand on his own two feet. "Let's go check it out."

Once they reached the last cell on the block, the voice that had called them over spoke to them once again.

"Blondie, Sparky, down here!"

Looking toward the bottom of the cell door, they saw something that… honestly wasn't the weirdest thing that they had seen that day.

Inside the cell was some type of bipedal cat-like monster. It had a large round and was so small that it only reached up to Denki's knee. It had black and white fur that gave it the appearance of a tuxedo cat, and wore a black mask over its face, as well as a yellow scarf around its neck and a utility belt around its waist.

"You two aren't soldiers of this castle, right? Get me out of here!," the cat pleaded.

It then pointed to something behind them, causing them to look in that direction.

"Look, the key's right there."

Sure enough, the cat was right. Behind them hung a key that looked like it could fit into the keyhole of the cell.

"Wait a minute? Who are you?," Denki questioned.

"Does that really matter right now? All I'm asking you to do is to get me out," the cat instructed.

"Of course it matters! For all we know, you can be one of those enemies too!," Ryuji argued.

"I'm locked up here, so how can I be the enemy!?," the cat countered.

"Huh. Cat's got a point," Denki conceded.

"Glad to see at least one of you has a brain," the cat snidely commented. "Also, I am not a cat."

Denki chuckled nervously in response, "My bad."

The cat couldn't help but sigh in exasperation before continuing to plead for his freedom.

"Look, just get me out of here already," the cat begged.

Suddenly, the sound of metal clanking could be heard coming from the distance.

"Ah, crap! It's them again!," Denki whimpered.

"We've gotta get out of here! Fast!," Ryuji realized.

"Hey, you two!"

The two students of Shujin turned toward the cat once again.

"You want to know where the exit is? Let me out and I'll take you there."

Denki and Ryuji seemed hesitant to help the cat out, in fear of it causing more problems than it's worth. Seeing the reluctance on their faces, the cat decided to attack their fears.

"You don't want to get caught and executed, right?"

Ryuji turned to Denki with an unsure look on his face.

"I don't know about this. This thing sounds like it's all talk."

"Well, it's not like we have much of a choice," Denki reminded. "We have no clue how to navigate this place. If we let him out, we might have a chance."

"Heh, you really are smarter than you look, Sparky," the cat commented.

"Uhhh, thanks?," Denki replied, tilting his head in confusion.

Ryuji looked hesitant before letting out a sigh of acceptance, "Alright. Let's get you out of there."

The faux blonde went and got the keys before heading to the cell door and unlocking it. Once the door was open, the cat walked out the cell and began stretching.

"Yeah! Lock me up, but you can't take my freedom!"

"Now, where's the exit, cat!?," Ryuji asked impatiently.

"Don't call me a cat! My name is Morgana!," the cat-like monster they now knew as Morgana proclaimed.

"Alright, we won't call you a cat anymore! But could you hurry up and get us out of here!?," Denki begged anxiously.

"Of course. I always keep my word," Morgana assured before taking a few steps forward. "Follow me. And stay quiet."

The blonde duo silently followed as Morgana quietly walked away from where they could hear the knights coming from.

Meanwhile, in Leblanc, Sojiro was sitting down, reading the newspaper before looking down at his watch on his wrist.

"School ended hours ago. What's taking him so long?," Sojiro wondered.

Before he could continue pondering Denki's whereabouts, the door to the cafe opened and someone came through the door. Once Sojiro got a good look at who came in, he smiled.

"Oh, it's you. Wasn't expecting you to visit so soon."

On their way out of the castle, Morgana stopped in front of a drawbridge that had a large bust of Kamoshida right next to it.

"What're you doin'?," Ryuji asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing?," Morgana snarked. "I'm lowering the bridge."

Feeling around the mouth on the bust, Morgana grabbed onto the jaw and pulled it down, causing the bridge to lower.

"Cool! That was like something out of a movie!," Denki cheered.

"How were we supposed to know to do that!?," Ryuji questioned.

"A 'thank you' would be nice," Morgana grumbled, shaking his head in disapproval. "Come on, let's keep going."

Once they ran across the bridge, they were met with an unfortunate sight: one of the guards walked right into their view. Ryuji was the first one to stop, but due to the speed he was moving at, the momentum caught up with him and caused him to fall to the floor. The guard looked down at Ryuji and raised his sword, ready to attack.

"A-ah! Shit!," Ryuji cried, crossing his arms over his face to try and lessen the damage of the incoming attack.

"You amateur!," Morgana scolded as he got ready to defend Ryuji from the attack.

Before Morgana could react, Denki fought through his exhaustion, ran in front of Ryuji, and took a defensive stance. Suddenly, a flash of blue light once again enveloped Denki's body, causing Denki's uniform to be replaced by the set of clothes he had on when he awakened Pimpernel.

"Pimpernel!," Denki called out as his visors broke down into blue flames.

The blue flames grew larger and took the shape of Pimpernel; the fire slowly died down, revealing Pimpernel in all his glory, sword in hand. Using his weapon, Pimpernel quickly blocked the incoming attack before pushing the guard back by launching a kick at him.

"So, you have a Persona too?," Morgana marveled before smirking. "I knew there was something special about you."

Denki looked at Morgana in surprise; he hadn't expected the cat-like creature to know what a Persona was, but if he was being honest with himself, after everything that had happened today, he shouldn't have been that surprised.

"Alright! Now it's my turn!," Morgana stated smugly as he looked up toward the ceiling. "Come… Zorro!"

A large beam of blue light surrounded Morgana for a split second, causing Denki and Ryuji to cover their eyes until the light disappeared. Once the light was gone, Denki and Ryuji uncovered their eyes and looked in Morgana's direction, allowing them to get a good look of what Denki assumed was Morgana's Persona.

Floating behind Morgana was his Persona, Zorro. Zorro had a rather muscular build, yet had incredibly skinny legs. His head was shaped like a black gaucho hat, the sclera of his eyes were yellow, and the iris of his eyes were blue like Morgana's. He wore all black formal attire with a short black cape tied around his neck and a gray belt with a huge belt buckle that was shaped like a letter "Z".

A sheathed rapier hung to the right side of his belt which he quickly unsheathed and cut the air in front of him in the shape of a "Z".

"Zorro? Why does that sound so familiar?," Denki wondered to himself.

"Y-You got one of those things too!?," Ryuji questioned in surprise.

Before Morgana could respond to the faux blonde, another knight arrived. The knights then popped off their masks and took on different forms: one of them took the form of one of the jack-o-lantern headed monsters Denki faced before, and the other took the form of a slender, fiend-like creature with red skin, wings, and… what Denki was hoping was a large red horn sticking out of his crotch area.

"Hmph! We will promptly shut them up!," Morgana stated confidently, folding his arms in a nonchalant manner.

"Alright, I'll take on the pumpkin monster, you take the red guy," Denki instructed, not wanting to have to deal with that creepy imp.

"Alright!," Morgana agreed, much to Denki's relief. "Make sure to fight like your life depends on it! Those Shadows are taking up intercept positions, which means they aren't aiming to capture us… they're out for blood!"

"Got it!," Denki smiled confidently. He wasn't really all that afraid of the floating jack-o-lantern considering he was able to take down five of them by himself. "Pimpernel! Psi!"

Slicing his sword in the direction of the pumpkin-headed creature, Pimpernel launched an attack that was shaped like circles and was very colorful. Although it did hurt the monster, it did not kill it, prompting Morgana to chuckle.

"Heh, I knew you were an amateur."

It lifted its paw and aimed it at the direction of the floating jack-o-lantern.

"This is how you fight!," Morgana stated. "Zorro, show your might!"

At Morgana's command, Zorro slashed his rapier in the direction of the pumpkin-headed creature, causing a gust of wind to hit it and for it to fall to the ground in a dazed state.

"How'd you do that!?," Denki inquired, referring to Morgana knocking down the enemy.

"I struck its weakness, in this case, Zorro's wind attacks," Morgana explained. "Those monsters we're fighting are called Shadows. Shadows tend to have weaknesses that can be exploited, so you'll have to try different kinds of attacks with different Shadows in order to find their weaknesses."

Different attacks, Shadows, weaknesses, all these words that would seem confusing to normal people seemed to make sense in Denki's mind.

"Once you exploit that weakness, use that chance to strike them while they're down," Morgana instructed.

"Got it!," Denki accepted as he drew his wakizashi.

He swiftly sprinted toward the pumpkin-headed Shadow and sliced at its head three times, killing it in the process.

"Exploiting a Shadow's weakness is the most basic of basics! Remember it well!," Morgana directed, prompting Denki to respond with a nod and a quick "Got it".

The blonde Persona-user looked at the fiend-like Shadow in disgust and horror as it made its way toward him and Morgana. In an attempt to attack Denki, the Shadow tried to kick him, luckily he was able to dodge the attack in time, largely due to Denki being extremely cautious with this particular Shadow so that he didn't touch it or vice versa.

"We need to get rid of that thing before I start blowing chunks!," Denki grunted, holding back the vomit he felt building up in his throat.

"Amateur," Morgana muttered under his breath before turning to Denki with a serious expression. "If you want to take it down quickly, then you should exploit its weakness to guns."

Morgana's instructions threw Denki for a loop as he stared at the cat-like creature with wide eyes.

"It's weak to what?"

"Guns," Morgana emphasized. "Judging from that look on your face, you haven't figured it out yet. Reach into all of your pockets until you find something you can pull out."

Doing as he was told, Denki reached into the right pocket of his trench coat, and sure enough, there was something inside. Once he pulled it out, he was met with a gun, more specifically, a black handgun.

"How long has that been in there!?," Denki questioned in surprise and slight panic.

"Ever since you awakened to your Persona," Morgana revealed. "Whenever someone awakens to the power of a Persona, a long ranged weapon and a close ranged weapon materializes onto their person as another means to defend themselves."

"So, this thing fires real bullets?," Denki asked.

"Why not try it out for yourself?," Morgana instructed with a smile.

Before Denki could second guess using the handgun, the imp-like Shadow tried to attack him again.

"Get the hell away from me!," Denki yelled.

Without thinking, Denki aimed the gun at the Shadow's face and shot bullet after bullet until it died. Seeing that the Shadow was no more, Denki let out a sigh of relief before putting his gun back into his trench coat pocket.

"Man, I hope we don't run into more of those guys," Denki whined. "Why'd that thing have to be so creepy?"

While Denki was recovering from the disgust he felt toward that imp-like Shadow, Morgana walked over to him with a smile.

"Not bad. Your Persona's pretty powerful."

"Yeah, Pimpernel is pretty awesome," Denki agreed, smiling while crossing his arms. The smile quickly disappeared from his face and was replaced with a look of confusion, dropping his arms to his sides and tilting his head in confusion. "Hey, you seem to know a lot about Personas? Why is that?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Morgana admitted while shrugging his arms.

"You don't know?," Ryuji questioned suspiciously, having gotten off the floor and walked towards the duo of Persona users.

"It's true," Morgana promised. "I don't know how I know this, I just do. It's like asking someone 'how did you learn how to breathe?' You don't know, it just comes naturally to you."

Before Denki or Ryuji could reply, a flash of blue enveloped Denki's body once again, leaving him in his Shujin Academy uniform, feeling exhausted. Ryuji quickly wrapped his arm around Denki's back, preventing him from kneeling down like the last time this had happened.

"You turned back to normal again," Ryuji pointed out.

"Why's this keep happening?," Denki questioned while he tried to maintain his balance.

"Hmmm," Morgana hummed to himself. "It looks like you don't have proper control over your powers yet. The transformation shouldn't normally dissolve like that."

"So how do I learn to control them?," Denki asked. "I need Pimpernel's help in order to rescue everyone here."

Morgana looked at Denki in bewilderment, baffled by what the blonde juvenile just said.

"Why would you want to do that!? They aren't real! It would be pointless trying to rescue them!"

This seemed to throw Denki and Ryuji for a loop, if the surprised looks on their faces were anything to go by.

"What do ya mean, they aren't real!?," Ryuji inquired, letting go of Denki once he saw that he could stand on his own two feet.

"Look, I don't have time to explain all this!," Morgana insisted. "We have to get out of here before more guards show up!"

Without giving either of the blondes room to argue, Morgana began running toward a staircase.

"Urgh! Damn that cat!," Ryuji grunted before chasing after Morgana.

"Hey, wait for me!," Denki called out to his two companions as he tried to catch up to them.

After making their way up the stairs and moving through the hallways on that floor, Morgana stopped in front of two sets of doors that stood parallel to each other.

"We're here," Morgana revealed.

"Finally!," Denki grunted. "I thought we'd never get out of here!"

Eager to leave, Denki went to open one of the doors, only for it to be locked. Morgana made his way to the other door and opened it with no problems.

"This way, guys!," Morgana directed Ryuji and Denki before going through the door.

"H-Hey, wait up!," Ryuji told Morgana as he and Denki made their way inside.

The area the unlikely trio now occupied had only a set of bookshelves along the end of the room, with no means of escape in sight.

"How are we supposed to get out of here!?," Denki panicked. "There aren't any doors or windows to-"

Before Denki could continue, he took note of a large ventilation shaft in the wall, above one of the bookshelves.

"Wait, is that the way out?," Denki questioned, pointing toward the air shaft.

"Come on, man," Ryuji sighed. "This ain't a movie. No way that's the way out."

"Actually, Sparky's right," Morgana confessed with a smile.

"Wait, for real!?," Ryuji exclaimed.

"You really are a natural at this, Sparky," Morgana complimented. "Once you open it and crawl through, you'll be able to get outside."

Denki couldn't help but smile smugly at his faux blonde. Granted, he had gotten that idea from a movie, but it's not like it mattered considering he was right.

"Knock it off, would'ja?," Ryuji told Denki, pushing his friend's smug face away from him. He focused his attention toward the air shaft. "Alright, so we just need to get that metallic mesh off!"

He quickly made his way toward the bookshelf below the air shaft before climbing onto it and grabbing onto the metal screen that was preventing them from crawling inside. Once he got a good grip on it, Ryuji pulled on the screen until it popped off the air shaft, causing him to fall onto the ground.

"Ow," Ryuji moaned while rubbing his lower back.

"Nice job, dude!," Denki complimented his friend as he slapped Ryuji's back in a friendly manner. "Now we can finally get out of here!"

"You should wait on celebrating until you get out," Morgana advised. "Now, get going!"

"You're not coming with us?," Denki questioned.

Morgana replied by shaking his head, "There's something that I still have to do, so we'll be going our separate ways."

"If you say so," Denki shrugged before smiling down at Morgana. "Thanks for all the help. We probably would have gotten caught if it weren't for you."

"Heh. You've got manners," Morgana chuckled. "Be careful on your way out."

"Heh, don't gotta tell me twice," Denki assured his cat-like ally before climbing up into the vent, with Ryuji following right behind him.

"Thanks for everything, cat! You've got guts, being a cat and all!," Ryuji called out to Morgana as he made his way through the vent.

"I'm not a cat!," Morgana yelled, receiving no reply. He let out a sigh of annoyance as he turned away from the air shaft.

Despite the annoyance he felt at being called a cat, Morgana couldn't help but smile in spite of that.

"Those two seem pretty useful. Especially Sparky, if my judgment's right."

Once they made it back to the real world, the pair of blondes breathed heavily as they tried to recover from their escape.

"Did we make it?," Ryuji questioned, being the first one to speak up.

Denki looked around and saw that everything looked like it was normal, and there was no castle in sight; the only difference was that, unlike earlier, before they entered the castle, the sun looked like it was about to set.

"I… think so," Denki replied as he continued to try and catch his breath.

"You have returned to the real world. Welcome back."

Hearing an artificial voice come from Denki's pocket, both him and Ryuji looked at where the voice came from.

"You heard that too, right?," Denki asked.

"Uh-huh," Ryuji responded.

Denki quickly fished his phone out of his pocket, and saw that the navigation app he deleted was open on his phone.

"This thing again!?," Denki exclaimed. "I thought I already deleted you! Why do you keep popping up on my phone!?"

"Didn't that thing say somethin' about returning to the real world?," Ryuji questioned.

"Hey, yeah, you're right!," Denki realized, staring at his phone in surprise. "Do you think this app is the reason we were brought to that weird castle!?"

"I dunno what to think anymore," Ryuji admitted with a tired sigh.

Suddenly, a ringing sound could be heard coming from the inside of Ryuji's pants pocket.

"Huh?"

Reaching into his pocket, Ryuji took out his phone and looked at his phone screen. Once he got a look at the contents of his screen, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Ah, crap! My mom called me like ten times already!," Ryuji exclaimed. "Figures that castle didn't have any service!"

The faux blonde put his phone away and looked like he was ready to leave.

"Listen, I gotta go! My mom's probably worried sick! Let's talk about this tomorrow, alright!?"

"Sounds good," Denki agreed. "I should probably head home, too."

"Seeya!," Ryuji waved goodbye as he ran home.

Denki let out a large yawn and rubbed his eyes.

"Man, I could really go for a nap right about now," Denki yawned. "Hopefully Sakura-san isn't upset about me being out so late."

Not wasting any more time, Denki made his way toward the station, hoping that he could avoid a lecture from Sojiro so that he could go straight to bed once he got back home.

*jingle* *jingle*

The sound of Leblanc's door chimes could be heard across the store as Denki made his way inside, yawning with his eyes closed.

"Hey, I'm back," Denki yawned, waiting for Sojiro to respond, hoping that the owner of Leblanc wasn't upset.

"Finally! That took forever!"

Denki quickly opened his eyes once he realized that the voice of the person who responded to him didn't belong to Sojiro. Once he got a good look at the person who replied to him, his eyes widened in his surprise.

Sitting at the bar was a young man with brown unkempt hair and brown eyes. The man wore a black v-neck t-shirt with red motifs around the collar of the shirt, a light blue unzipped hoodie over his shirt, black jeans, and gray sneakers with white soles.

"Yosuke?," Denki uttered in surprise.

"Yo! What took you so long?," the man named Yosuke greeted with a smile.

Alright, hey guys, Phoenix here, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter of "A Phantom Hero Among Rebels". I'm happy that I was finally able to finish writing the introduction to Kamoshida's Castle and Morgana so that I can move on to the rest of the story. Looking forward to diving into the rest of the Kamoshida arc and the Social Links as well. Make sure to review, give me your honest criticisms, and follow and favorite if you liked the chapter. Hope you enjoyed, and until next time, later!