Masayoshi Shido couldn't believe this…

All he did was help one defenceless woman being assaulted & what did he get as a result? An entire year's probation away from home. All because the man doing the assaulting happened to be a powerful politician. What was his name? Ren Amamiya? Anyways, what's done is done and now Shido would have to get through the year without getting into trouble or else his life was over.

That didn't mean Shido had to be happy about this. He HATED that his life was no longer in his control. Not to mention how this would limit any long-term ambitions he could possibly have.

Ren Amamiya was feeling good.

The Shadow Operatives were being held back from acting on the Metaverse by reams upon reams of red tape. Allowing him to do whatever he wanted with Tokyo and maneuver his way into achieving his end goal: Become Prime Minister & purge the government of its corruption. Kill its ties to outdated ideas & move Japan forward into a new, prosperous & advanced future. Who needs the Emperor anyway? And Article 9? Needs to be torn up and tossed away if Japan is to become a global superpower once more.

There was still one problem though… Goro Akechi…

Akechi had approached Ren about 2 years ago. Talked about how he agreed with his ideals and beliefs about how backwards and behind the times Japan was. He revealed the existence of a hidden alternate world known as the Metaverse where everyone (except him) had a separate "shadow self" that could be manipulated to in turn influence their real-world counterparts… up to and including killing one to kill the other. And after Akechi succeeded in killing one Wakaba Ishiki without any indication of it being a homicide… Ren couldn't help but believe him.

But Ren also couldn't help but suspect a hidden agenda for Akechi's support. Eventually he figured it out. Akechi's mother had been a sex worker Ren had paid to have sex with him years ago in a moment of guilt-ridden drunkenness. He'd forgotten about her until now. But remembering her & seeing that she was Akechi's mother caused everything to fall into place in Ren's mind.

Akechi likely wanted revenge. That woman, Skye if he wasn't mistaken, must have had to raise him alone and didn't want to alert him to Goro's existence to avoid causing any trouble… A politician like him having a bastard son would be cause for scandal after all, especially with how the Koseki registration system works. It was too late for Ren to make amends with Skye though… she'd committed suicide ages ago. All Ren could do is tell Akechi that he knows and try to go from there. Better to have Akechi on his side than not. It'll keep the potential scandal from leaking out. Either way he could probably throw some money at the papers to keep them from exposing him.

This… wasn't how Shido thought his first day would go.

He met Ryuji Sakamoto, a fellow student, and after watching a woman named Ann get in a car with what Ryuji described as a "pervy teacher", the two of them found themselves in a castle of some sort. The denizens seemed to worship Kamoshida. Declaring him their King. It creeped Shido out. But eventually they were caught.

The guards threw them into a prison cell & eventually, Kamoshida walked in. But instead of a shirt & pants, he was wearing a thong & pink cape.

"Now what do we have here?" Kamoshida(?) asked.

"Intruders, sir. We found them by the entrance to the Castle," one of the guards said.

"Hm… What do you think you're doing Sakamoto?" Kamoshida said as he turned his gaze to Ryuji.

"YOU BAST-" Ryuji started before being cut off by the guards beating him pushing him & Shido up on the walls.

"Kill them both. Start with Sakamoto," Kamoshida said.

But as he did so, Shido saw a familiar-looking butterfly come into view.

"This is truly an unjust game… Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you…" the butterfly said.

And in the moment, Shido flashed back to the night of the assault.

It was supposed to be a quiet night. Shido had went to get some last minute groceries for his parents, but on his way to the store he saw a guy he didn't recognize dragging a woman to a car. From a distance it looked like the woman was being forced into it. Shido, not seeing anyone in the area, decided to rush in to help. He dragged the man away from the woman, but realized too late that he punched the man in the process.

"YOU FOOL OF A CHILD! Do you realize what you have done?!" the man said.

When Shido stood there in silence, the man continued.

"Did you think I was trying to kidnap that woman or something?! She was drunk! I'm trying to bring her to the hospital so she can be saved! I'm bringing you to the station. You're lucky that I need to save this woman first," the man said.

And thus, did Shido's life as he knew it end. He later found out that the man he punched was one Ren Amamiya, a politician in the Diet that was in the current government's cabinet. And that the woman Shido thought he was saving, an American named Jane Castle, was indeed simply unconscious due to drinking. Shido had just made a massive mistake…

Or did he?

Author's Notes:

`"27. roleswap p5, shido's the trickster, protag is the corrupt politician, and such"`

This was written as a submission for Cipherian/Pepper's first Phantom Dumbasses Discord Prompt challenge (or whatever the hell these end up being called) on AO3. I was fortunate enough to get something more substantial to work with this time, so I'm glad for that (although part of me does wonder what I would have done with the Fortnite prompt inviernainvicta got stuck with…).

It took me a bit to figure out what I wanted to change & how I wanted to approach them, but eventually, I landed on the idea of altering things to suit who those characters were in canon while also befitting the role swap angle. Hence Ren became a politician more concerned about progress at any cost & sort of throwing the baby out with the bathwater while Shido is a bit more guilty of his charges than Ren was in canon.

Also, yes, I decided to loosely tie this into my Skye-Verse that I'm setting up. Because why not? It's my multiverse & my one-shot after all.

Anyways, here's the link to the Discord if you want to join: /hY46FJG2x

Next prompt from me will be posted as a separate one-shot when it's done.