Sunday, 14/47
Ren emerged from classroom 2-D with the rest of the crowd. The ringing of the bell spurred the rush to leave or get to club meetings, but Ren had a different idea of what his Saturday afternoon would be spent on. He walked against the traffic of the crowd, hoping to see the bright blonde hair of his friend from another class.
Soon enough, the sea of black parted to show Ren the gold. He nudged past several faceless students to reach his friend, who followed the crowd and was quickly walking towards Ren, not noticing him because he was lost in conversation with someone next to him. Ren looked to Ryuji's companion.
Who's that?
Ren had never seen the person before, but it seemed like Ryuji knew the person his whole life with how big his grin was. They must've been friends.
Finally, Ren reached Ryuji in the crowd. "Hey, man. What're you up to tonight?"
Ryuji's grin vanished as he noticed Ren. His eyes darkened as he turned to his friend. "You head on out. I'll meet up with you later." The friend nodded and followed the orders, vanishing into the crowd. Ryuji and Ren stood there as their fellow students naturally parted around them. "Ren, why're you still talking to me?"
Ren laughed. "The hell are you talking about? We're in the same club? Gardeners Raging Against Ve-"
"Yeah, yeah, who cares," Ryuji muttered, waving his hand in Ren's face. "I told you to fuck off with that stuff months ago. What brings you crawling back to me now?"
"What do you mean? We're friends, aren't we?"
"Friends? Dude, you hung me out to dry. The people who were there for me after what you did, the track team, those are my friends."
"But… what the fuck?" Something was wrong. Couldn't Ryuji remember what they'd gotten up to during the summer? Or in Hawaii? Or whatever else they did during autumn and winter?
Speaking of, what did I do during fall and winter? I… what did I do after getting back from Hawaii?
Everything after an assembly in early September was left blank in Ren's memory. Apparently, Ryuji was right to call Ren out for being a bad friend if he couldn't even remember what they'd done together the past few months.
Now that I think about it, everything's a little fuzzy… how did I get to school today? What'd we do in class? Why are there still people walking past?
Within the several minutes that went by since Ren first left the classroom, hundreds upon hundreds of students went past. That simply wasn't possible, given the division of the school and its low number of students.
Wait a minute…
"Ryuji, have you seen Yusuke anywhere nearby?" Ren asked. His question was meant to test the waters and to test the validity of those very waters. "He might have been wearing an afro-wig."
"Just fuck off, Ren. I don't want to talk to you anymore."
Ryuji didn't even look Ren in the eye as he stepped back into the flow of the crowd, quickly getting whisked away into the mob. Students continued to circle around past Ren, doing a surprisingly good job at not bumping into him.
"Amamiya-kun?" a deep, gravel-like voice bellowed from Ren's right. Through the crowd, Ushimaru's imposing stance focused on Ren from the door to classroom 2-A. "May I speak to you in private?"
If I'm right about all of this, then I could punch Ushimaru in the face with no consequences.
A path opened up through the ever-moving crowd to the door. With no other destination on his mind, Ren walked to Ushimaru, following his teacher into the classroom. The door shut on its own behind the pair, but neither paid any mind. Naturally, Ushimaru took a seat at his desk and Ren stood before the teacher.
With the lack of speaking, Ren tried to tell his teacher to get to the point. "Yes?"
"Well, Amamiya-kun…" Ushimaru stood up, stared directly at Ren, then brought a hand to the top of his head. He curled his fingers through his gelled black hair, grabbing a handful and then yanking. Ushimaru's face peeled away as part of a mask, revealing a much more youthful face beneath.
Oh… fuck. I'm definitely right. Tae, you've done it again. I didn't even realize I was tripping this time. So… why did I go to Tae's? I had a goal, didn't I? Shit…
Akechi, wearing Ushimaru's formal shirt, tie, and suspenders, stood before Ren. "Long time no see, Ren."
Akechi's new to these hallucinations. Do I take advantage of this not being real and slap him in the face, or do I hear whatever bullshit my brain has thought up for Akechi to say?
"Could I check something?" Ren asked. Akechi raised an eyebrow but nodded. Ren closed the gap between the two so that he was perfectly at arm's length from the detective, then proceeded to wind his arm back and throw it into the side of Akechi's face.
The moment was so satisfying, so perfect, that Ren brought his arm back to do it again, but Akechi rolled his eyes and took a step back. "Bufudyne!" he suddenly yelled, bringing a burst of blue flame behind him. Out of the flames came a humanoid figure draped in black, hovering above the two teens.
Ren nearly got his obscenities out before his slapping arm suddenly felt much, much heavier. He glanced down his shoulder at his arm, only to find a block of ice encasing his limb. Ren's eyes went wide, but he hadn't even reached the worst part. It was Akechi's turn to close the gap. The black figure vanished in a burst of blue flames, and Akechi swung his arm directly into where the ice stopped going up Ren's arm. Like shattering glass, Ren's arm painlessly detached, dropping to the ground with a loud chunk.
My arm… is on the floor.
Worse things had happened in the hallucinations, but processing limb loss didn't come easy. At least it was painless. Ren finally looked to Akechi, now fearful and amazed. The hallucination had been the most puzzling one yet so far, and Akechi's arrival made things even stranger.
"Did you pop into existence as Ushimaru just to cut my arm off?"
Akechi shook his head. "I'm here to help you in all that ails you this afternoon, considering that it will be the last."
"What? This is the last trip?"
"So I'd assume," Akechi murmured, glancing around the room. "The details are recreated perfectly… who knew some back-alley woman possessed such power."
Ren grew worried. "Hold the fuck up, why is this the last one?!" If Akechi hadn't lied, then Ren wouldn't be able to use the hallucinations for foresight. Perhaps Bob Ross Yusuke expected Ren and planned a grand finale for him. No matter what it was, Ren got no answers on what made this trip so special that it had to be the last one.
Akechi refocused on Ren, now scowling. "You don't know why it's the last? Can't you read, you filthy imbecile?"
"Well, excuse me Detective Dickwad, but not all of us are experts in the psychedelic arts. Fuck off if you're not going to help me."
"Unfortunately for you, I'll be accompanying you for the rest of the afternoon. I'd like to see what is to be shown to you."
"There's more and I have to go through it with you?" Ren didn't really care, he just wanted to insult the fake version of Akechi as much as possible. "I'd rather have both my eardrums expl-"
Like thunder, something clapped in both Ren's ears, sending him cowering to the ground in pain. Ringing overtook in place of the thunderclap, but the pain didn't reside. Ren couldn't tell if he was screaming or wailing in agony because he couldn't hear. He looked up at Akechi, now his torturer instead of pretentious detective semi-friend. The torturer smirked as he looked down on Ren before mouthing indiscernible words.
Green light washed over Ren. His body felt momentarily wet like he'd just gotten out of a pool, but the feeling was gone as quick as it came, and brought changes with it. The ambiance of the room and Ren's own breathing faded back in as his hearing returned. More noticeably, he felt a weight on his right side once again. Ren checked and saw that his arm returned in its entirety.
"Perhaps you are ready now?" Akechi asked, his impatience coming through in his aggravated tone.
"Uh…" Ren was not ready, but that didn't mean he wasn't eager to get some answers. "Yeah, sure. Where are we going?"
"Cliff diving."
Festerday, 1/92
"What do you mean cliff di-" Ren paused as he noticed the ground beneath him change from the polished floors of Shujin to moss-covered rocks overlooking a horizon of water. "Oh. You can teleport?"
"This was not my doing."
"Then who brought us here?"
"Who do you think?"
"Bob Ross Yusuke?"
"That's not the name that I would use…" Akechi looked out over the water. "But it'll do. This Bob Ross Yusuke… how do you summon him?"
"I don't. He just shows up when I least want him to."
"Ah, I see." Akechi glanced over at Ren, then fully turned so that his back faced the cliff. It occurred to Ren that he never checked what was behind them, and Akechi's eyes widening at the sight of something finally spurred him to do so. "It seems our guests have arrived."
Is that Shiho? Well damn, it is. It's nice to see her again, even if it's not real.
Ann waved when she made contact with Ren. "Hey, Ren! Ready to get pushed off the cliff?" she called to him as they walked up to the cliff.
"You're going to push me off the cliff?" It may have been a two on one, assuming Akechi wouldn't involve himself, but Ann didn't seem to have any physical prowess. It was harder to tell for Shiho, considering her physical talent for volleyball, but she didn't appear to be able to outmuscle Ren.
I guess I'll just have to find out.
"Yeah, I've wanted to do it ever since I met you!" Ann's cheerful grin starkly contrasted her brutal words, which Ren couldn't care less about anymore. Now that he knew he was in a hallucination, he'd put himself on a relaxed autopilot until something important decided to show up, like Haru trying to kill him or Yusuke speaking in riddles. "I hate your fucking guts!" Ann's smile persisted. It soon became creepy for Ren with how she insisted on the kind expression but hateful words.
"That's good to know," Ren responded. "I think you're a bit of an airhead, just so we're on the same page."
Ann giggled, bringing her hands to either side of her head and mimicking an explosion. "Boom!"
I know that Ann's not stupid, but sometimes… she definitely pushes the boundary. Still, she's a good friend. Probably the most normal person in my life, weirdly.
"I can't wait to see you hit the rocks, Ren," Shiho remarked. "Then, I can spike your head like a volleyball to celebrate your death!"
"We wish you never came to Shujin!" Ann added. "You were too much of a pussy to do anything about Kamoshida, and you let us suffer!"
Ann's off-putting demeanor continued with Shiho, who smiled through horrible, crushing words. "Yeah, seriously. You were offered the greatest power in the world on the condition that you always rebel in the name of justice, blah blah blah, and you said no! How stupid are you?!"
Pretty fucking stupid, considering what's happening with Makoto… wait, that's it! I went to Tae so I could talk to Bob Ross Yusuke about Makoto's death being a lie. But how do I get to Yusuke? Akechi said we're going bungee jumping, and we're at the cliff, so maybe I just have to bungee jump?
"Would either of you care to join me in jumping off this cliff? It'll be fun, I promise."
"You can go fuck yourself." Shiho walked past Ren, smacking the side of his head in the process, and simply jumped over the edge with no hesitation. Ren tried listening to the breeze, instead hearing Shiho yelling as she fell. "Robeeert!"
"That was quite anti-climactic." Akechi, unamused by something that should've been sickly entertaining, turned to Ann. "Would you like to die up here or take your chances with the fall?"
"Up here, please."
Akechi nodded at the request. With his hand, he motioned for Ren to step away from the blonde girl. Raising his right arm in the air, Akechi yelled just as he had back in Shujin. "Agidyne!" A dark shadow was cast over the landscape from behind Ren. He no longer felt the wind on his neck or the heat of the false sun.
Just as Ren began to spin around to see the demon, the landscape was enveloped in a tsunami wave of fire. On the spot, Ann was incinerated to the point where she just vanished into the flames with no trace. The wave continued down the landscape, speeding out of view but leaving blackness and ruin in its wake.
The shadow that stood over Ren vanished before he could see its owner. In disappointment, Ren turned to Akechi. "You're a summoner or some shit?"
"I'm a hand reaching into the sea of souls."
"That's the corniest possible way to answer."
"I could have a dog twice your size eat you and not think twice about it."
"I could tell you that I fucked your mom, but who cares?" Ren stumbled over to the edge. His uncaring disposition towards everyone he met in the trip, aside from Yusuke, showed no sign of going away and he planned to keep it like that. "What's it matter anyway? This isn't reality."
"Your perception of this 'reality' is flawed."
Ren just shrugged at Akechi because, as he said, it didn't really matter. Shifting his weight, Ren fell backward off the cliff and let his body cut through the air.
Wow… falling is way worse in dreams. I just feel like I'm floating dow-
Humpday, 90/09
Ren sat forward in his chair and rubbed the back of his head. An exploding pain remained, but he couldn't remember what had hit his head, but he didn't really care. All that mattered was that he was still aware of the hallucination and that he knew he needed to find Bob Ross Yusuke.
"Ren-kun?" Haru asked from across the coffee table. "Is everything alright?"
Oh yeah. Haru invited me to coffee. That's nice of her. She's been the only kind member of GRAVY on this trip if that's worth anything.
"Yeah, just a bit of a headache." Ren looked around the spacious coffee shop. Its interior could be called a polar opposite of Leblanc; modernist designs and a focus on sleek minimalism defined the store. Ren quite liked it, but he would never admit it. Leblanc captured just enough pride in his work from Ren for him to hold it above all competitors. "Did we order already?"
"I ordered for both of us before you arrived," Haru said. Her wide smile showed her love of coffee, which Ren previously hadn't known. He passed it off as a figment of his imagination rather than a truthful prediction. "It's French, I believe. I can't pronounce it."
A moment later, a barista set down two cups of coffee on the table. "Careful, they're very hot," he said in a high, slightly raspy voice before walking away.
Haru smiled at Ren. "First sip together?" she proposed. Ren nodded. Both of them took their cups, delicately holding them with their fingertips because of the heat while savoring the rather bitter scent of coffee. Ren brought the cup to his lips, took a sip of the searing drink, and set his cup down.
Damn… that tastes awful.
Haru cleared her throat to regain Ren's attention. "Now that I have your undivided attention," she said as she reached down to the side of her chair into a purse. Haru pulled out several papers and set them on the table in front of Ren. "My lawyers and I will be in contact."
Ren pulled the papers towards him. The assumably legal speech that he figured would be on the papers was instead replaced with pure shifting gibberish as if Ren had dyslexia on an unbelievable scale.
Unamused, Ren set the papers down. This couldn't be the worst that the hallucination could throw at him, right? "And just what exactly are your grounds?"
"The grounds that you suck." Haru stood up, taking the papers back and putting them in her purse. "By the way, the coffee you drank is made of beans sourced from elephant dung."
"Uh… didn't you drink it too?"
"Yes, but I like drinking elephant shit, Ren-kun, whereas you are more opposed to the concept of ingesting fecal matter."
That is the last thing I ever wanted to hear Haru say. I'd rather have her chop my head off at this point, but I still need answers. I have to keep going.
Haru walked away from her seat and the table, which found a new occupant just as easily as it lost the previous one. The barista who served the duo their coffee sat across from Ren, taking off his corporate logo hat to reveal-
Holy shit! He's everywhere!
Once again, Akechi snuck his way into Ren's hallucination. "Does the heiress actually enjoy drinking elephant shit, or would that be your contribution to the hallucination?"
"Hopefully, mine. You're still following me?"
"As I have said, and will not repeat any more, I am to accompany you for the duration of your vision." Ren had more questions, but Akechi clearly didn't want to answer. The detective moved on quickly. "What is Haru to you?"
"How do you mean?"
Akechi smirked. "Everyone in our lives serves a purpose to us in some way or another. That is why I am here with you, and why you cannot avoid me. Now, apply just an ounce of critical thinking to your own life."
And determine what purpose Haru serves to me?
"She doesn't serve a purpose," Ren immediately answered before thinking it through. He had a simplification ready a moment later. "Well, maybe you could consider companionship the reason I keep her in my life. She's a friend."
Akechi didn't like the answer. His already sour expression went even more downhill as he glared across the coffee table at Ren, which was difficult to take seriously due to Akechi's barista uniform reading "A cup of joe a day leads the salmon roe astray." Ren didn't know what the slogan meant, but it did take the piss out of Akechi's constant mean-mugging.
"Then you are using her wrong. Her fortune offers you lim-"
"Who cares, man? She's a friend, not a bank account."
"The world is cruel and unjust. Use her, or she will use you some way or another. They all will in the end."
"Yeah? Where'd you hear that?"
"I didn't. I just know it."
Ren chuckled. Akechi's pretentiousness wasn't new, but the detective's clear lack of decency showed through more than ever. Perhaps the hallucination exaggerated Akechi's more dislikable traits. He'd been genuinely mean to Ren; an abnormality for someone with manners so perfect they brought mothers to tears and dramatically higher ratings to morning shows.
"The average elephant shit enjoyer makes for better conversation than you."
Akechi retorted so aggressively that Ren just sat back and continuously reread the barista uniform. "And you are a simple, thick-headed tool being used knowingly and unknowingly. Your stupidity has detracted from my will to live on multiple occasions and every time I speak with you I want to drop a meteor on your head. Yet somehow, no matter my opinions of you, a god deemed you important." With his tirade concluded, Akechi breathed deeply before showing off his TV grin. "But I mean no offense, of course."
"None taken. You're only as real as I want you to be."
"That may be your first intelligent thought all afternoon."
"It's from the elephant shit."
Akechi didn't laugh. He looked around the coffee shop from their table. Customers had been circulating around the shop the entire time but did very little to convince Ren of their realness compared to Shujin. Most just stood perfectly stiff and still as they waited for coffee before walking out the door into a generic cityscape.
If Futaba were here, she'd be making endless NPC jokes.
"It is time for your next meeting. Would you like to be executed, or simply tele-"
Eternity, 7/77
Just for a millisecond, everything around Ren went black before he blinked and found himself in a familiar place. The entrapping hallway of the Sakura home remained as imposing as ever, and Futaba's door closed itself just as it had for months before.
Futaba's turn to be mean to me. This'll be fun.
Instincts from the summer kicked in and Ren soon knocked on Futaba's door. By the first moment his knuckle hit the wood, Futaba responded. "Hey, Ren! Come on in!" The door opened on its own, inviting Ren into the solid recreation of Futaba's room. Most of the details seemed right, but Ren wouldn't have been able to tell if they were wrong. After all, this was his recreation.
However, one new thing stood out in Futaba's room. In the corner closest to the door, a leather armchair formed out of nowhere. It looked exceedingly out of place in Futaba's pop culture museum of a room. Despite its strangeness, Ren just shrugged and looked over to Futaba hunched over in her gaming chair at her desk.
"Maruki's better than you."
So that's the angle we're taking? That I wasn't good enough to help Futaba? Fine, bring it.
"I certainly hope so. He went to school for this stuff. I was here to talk about video games."
"I really wish you never tried to help me, Ren," Futaba said, not even blinking behind her glasses. Futaba's robot-like behavior proved to be the most questionable of any of his friends in the hallucination thus far. Her real-life energy and erraticism were gone, poorly swapped for coming off as unfeeling and stone-faced. "Both our lives would be better if you never tried to get through that door."
"Good lie."
"Thank you, I came up with it myself," Futaba said. "But now, because of you, I think I'm going to die."
Ah, just like how Makoto was going to die? I'm sure.
"More lies, huh?"
"Whatever, Ren." Futaba spun her chair around to face her computer, showing Ren her back. "Fuck off, I need to go kill Chaos."
The one to fuck off would not be Ren. In a swirl of motion and a flash of light, Ren watched as the leftmost computer display sucked Futaba into its digital world. He got closer to see if Futaba was on screen.
Hey, there she is!
The speck of red hair turned around and flipped Ren off. Surprisingly, this was the first thing to legitimately offend Ren. Some insults, ones which he never expected, got through to him even if they were lazy. "Fuck you too," Ren muttered to the computer screen as he turned away.
Being alone in Futaba's room was a strange feeling. So many items that meant the world to some people littered the shelves, yet meant absolutely nothing to Ren. Perhaps that made him out of touch.
As if I care.
Ren sat down in the gaming chair, enjoying the moment of rest from the breakneck pace of the hallucination. The conversation with Futaba was far easier than expected, with little to no surprises. She hadn't even made him drink elephant shit.
Twiddling his fingers, Ren rested his foot on his knee and glanced across the room at the leather chair. It seemed… larger. Its presence began to loom over Ren without him even realizing it. For the first time since arriving at Futaba's room, Ren felt uneasy.
A point rose from the chair cushions. Ren raised an eyebrow as the leather around the point broke for the blade of a kitchen knife to emerge, widening the hole as it twisted and pushed through the leather. The knife pulled back once the hole reached the size of a baseball and something new poked through.
An open hand reached through the hole, grabbing the leather of the chair and pulling upward. Like a magician with a tablecloth, the hand whipped the leather cleanly off the chair to reveal its insides, which were-
"Oh. I was wondering when you'd pop in."
Akehci brushed off his peacoat and black pants "Stupid, antisocial little shit…" he mumbled to himself before realizing that Ren sat in front of him. "Is she so consumed by her own loneliness that there was no possible way for me to be here other than stowing away inside a chair?"
Ren shook his head. "You're the one who was in the chair. You know the answer."
"That is a good point," Akechi conceded as he walked over to the desk where Ren still sat. He glanced behind Ren at the monitor. "How did she go in the computer?"
"Who knows, and who cares?" Ren spun the chair around and kicked his feet up on the desk. He'd gotten to the point where he was just waiting for the next segment of the hallucination to start, as conversations with Akechi were never enjoyable. The riddles and nonsense that the detective wished for Ren to sort through never properly landed.
"These conversations with your friends… do you feel this way about them? That they hate you?" Akechi asked.
"Maybe. I don't know. They're just insecurities creeping up from behind, just like you."
"I'm impressed you're able to oversimplify the very answers you search for. This girl," Akechi pointed at the monitor, which now displayed Futaba fighting some dragon, "is my favorite."
"Really? The most annoying one is your favorite?"
"Of those we've met this afternoon, I mean. She didn't overdo her hatred of you, as the others have. Takamaki descended into utter nonsense and death wishes. Okumura attempted to sue you. Sakura simply told you that her life would be better without you."
"You sound like you have a strong opinion on that. Care to share with the class?"
Akechi scowled at Ren from above him. "If you cannot arrive at the same conclusion I have, then perhaps we do deserve ruin." Ren shook his head at Akechi's usual riddles before surprise entered his consciousness when the detective opened his mouth with far less bile to spit in Ren's face. "But, I do pity you, so I'll warn you of this. When you are with Sakura, question everything. You must."
"If I don't?"
"You will. I've just made sure of it. You've made an unfortunate habit of listening to whatever us hallucinations tell you."
"Well, you are part of me, right?"
"Believe what you will. It is time for your next meeting."
"What are you? My secretary?"
Akechi legitimately considered the sarcastic retort. "No."
"Yeah, no shit. Lighten up a li-"
Fire exploded from Akechi's hand and enveloped Ren. Just like before, brief moments of indescribable scalding pain took over his body until it all vanished.
Renday, 1/1/1/1/1/1/1
But… where had Futaba's room gone? Ren remained in the gaming chair, but in an abyss of blackness. No Akechi, no desk setup, no Futaba killing Chaos… nothing.
"Hello? Anyone here?" Ren called into the darkness. The lack of an echo reinforced the abyssal blackness. He stood up from the chair on no definitive surface, floating amid the void. "Guess not."
Seeing no other option, Ren walked forward in the empty space. Each footstep hit nothing but brought no stumbling, like a walk of faith being fulfilled. For the hallucinations, Ren no longer wondered how. Instead, his curiosity demanded the nonsense and the helpful bits to be more clearly defined.
As if that'll ever happen. Akechi tells me he's helping me, but can I trust him? Can I trust anything that's shown to me in these anymore? I'm literally here to ask so-called Yusuke if he lied to me, which I hope he did. I wouldn't be surprised if Akechi's presence was only brought on to confuse me, as his cryptic shit in real life has translated pretty well into here.
At some point, Ren would have to settle for whatever answers he could get, even if they weren't the ones he searched for. He could accept that. What he couldn't accept, however, was empty-handedness.
The void proved to be the worst segment of the hallucination yet. With no clear goal in sight, Ren walked and walked.
Shit, if my consciousness was a game designer, it would be absolutely terrible. There's no direction, no clues, no environmental hints. Not even my own free will ta- oh never mind.
A figure emerged from the blackness. Tall, lanky, and blue of hair, Bob Ross Yusuke came out of the shadows and approached Ren head-on. Unfortunately, it seemed that the wig would be left off. Even if Ren hated it whenever Bob Ross Yusuke popped in for attempted conversation, the wig began to grow on him because of its sheer absurdity. Why did Ren's consciousness feel the need to give Yusuke an afro wig? Why did he always wear it? Why did the wig seem more like real hair than Yusuke's actual hair? The questions would never be answered, but Ren could smile to himself over them.
"Have you enjoyed the festivities?"
"Oh, I absolutely loved them," Ren said with enough sarcastic delight to insult any reasonable person. "Elephant shit, my friend getting burned alive, and you! What's not to love?"
"You. You are not to love."
"Great timing. I just got broken up with."
"That is why I said it." Yusuke waved his hand into the void. A wooden desk with chairs on both sides of it materialized in between Yusuke and Ren. The former took a seat immediately, gesturing for Ren to do the same as well. Folding his hands and resting them atop the desk, Yusuke smiled at Ren. "I am aware that you have some questions, but I request that they wait until our business is concluded."
"What business is that?"
Yusuke flicked his hand again, bringing a surge of blue flames into his palm. The flames quickly burned out, leaving a document in Yusuke's hand. "You signed a contract." Delicately, the contract was placed before Ren so he could read it. Yusuke's bony finger rested atop a certain paragraph. "Section Two, Article Three: 'the signee may never, under any circumstance, use the insight gained within a hallucination to influence the real world. If the signee does so, the contract is nullified and any further hallucinations will be prevented.'"
Uh… what?!
Yusuke removed his finger and expectantly looked at Ren, who continued to reread the passage over and over to make sure he wasn't tripping too hard. "You're telling me that I was meant to just be told about the future, and not do anything about it?! That's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard!"
Yusuke shrugged. "You chose not to read the contract, and you chose to sign it. The blame lies with no one else but you, Ren."
"No, fuck that and fuck you!" Ren stood up so fast that his chair fell backward. He heard it pop out of existence behind him as he continued to give Yusuke an earful. "Why the fuck would you be showing me these things just for me to do nothing with them?!"
In silence, Yusuke looked up at Ren, his face showing no sign of slipping into any emotion. "You showed me the person I love being brutally murdered, and though I would do nothing about it?! What kind of sick fuck are you?!"
Yusuke raised both his hands off the table to feign innocence. "I'm but a humble being in your conscience. Don't give me more power than that."
"Bullshit. Every damn time I do one of these, you're here telling me riddles about the future, about what I need to do, about ruin. All that talk, and it was supposed to be meaningless?!"
"I was funneling you down the right path."
"Yeah? The path where I get someone killed and my girlfriend breaks up with me?"
"The path that benefits the world the most."
"How the hell does this benefit anyone?!"
For a moment, just a moment, Yusuke's lips slipped into a frown and his eyes narrowed at Ren. "You are too naive for that answer, Ren, and you know it. You know that you are unable to comprehend anything emerging from this plane of existence. I've watched it happen all afternoon. Answers are presented to you, yet you throw them away with your own arrogance. I allowed you plenty of opportunities to make something of yourself with your visions, yet you only choose to do so after agreeing to not."
"You're fucking with me."
"Perhaps just a little."
Ren was about ready to flip the table in Yusuke's face before attempting to strangle the "hallucination," if that was even true. "Then… you were lying to me. Yoshiro wasn't going to kill Makoto."
"Takata was not someone I could read and infiltrate. I will not pretend to understand what choices he would or wouldn't make."
"You did lie to me, I knew it!"
"Is that all you care about?" Yusuke calmly asked. "I'm revoking the very thing that you thought would save yourself. Further attempts at insight will yield no results, except catching up on all your lost sleep."
"Fuck you."
"Ah, so you do care. That is surprising. I thought your lethargy and sloth had gotten the better of you since you arrived in Tokyo."
"What do you care?"
"I've spent this whole time telling you why I care. You do not pay attention." Yusuke stood up from his chair, turning his back to Ren. "Whatever potential you may have shown, it is wasted. You are inconsequential to this world, to its people, and to me. Have a good day, Ren Amamiya." With that, Yusuke began to dematerialize until Ren heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. Yusuke stiffened, then fell over, his motionless body lying atop the void of darkness.
"Yeah, that's what you get! Suck my fucking ba-"
"My god, just shut up already!" Akechi roared from behind Ren, who spun around to see the detective holding a smoking handgun. "On and on you went, when he's already told you everything you need to know!"
"Hey, he tri-"
"I don't care. No one does. Save your celebration for when you dig yourself out the hole you dug for everyone else and you actually accomplish something," Akechi spat, walking past Ren and to the corpse of Yusuke. He pointed the gun to Yusuke's head and fired off two more shots before lowering the gun.
"He's not actually dead, is he?"
"Of course not. Even if he was just a figment of your imagination, he would still be alive in your head."
So he wasn't something I came up with?
"Wait… I'm right that he isn't part of my consciousness?" Ren asked, getting a quick nod from Akechi. "Then what the hell is he?"
"A god. A chess master. A puppeteer. The one who so cleverly intertwined our lives together, only for you to subvert it all because of a level of uncaring that not even a literal god could predict."
"You're telling me that a god has been fucking with me?"
"Leading you astray, yes, though I cannot say for sure why. I've also received visions like yours, but they're much more distant. I've come to the conclusion that he," Akechi said, pointing down at Yusuke's corpse, "believes you would've killed him if you weren't such a waste of human life."
"Thanks."
"Oh, it is an insult to me as well. His lack of faith in my ability to kill him will be his downfall."
"You're gonna kill a god?"
"When he shows his hand, yes."
"How're you going to go about that?"
"When are you going to stop asking stupid questions?"
"When my perception of the world stops imploding."
"That is fair," Akechi conceded, his expression softening. "Now that you've concluded your business with the god, you will help me."
Sure… totally.
"I will?"
"You will because I've ensured that you're in a position to not make demands," Akechi said. "Now, before you say inevitably say something mind-numbingly idiotic, allow me to outline the next several months. You will sit tight and go about your business until I tell you otherwise. No matter what happens among your group of outcasts, do not intervene. The opportunity to be a hero has passed you by."
"That's it? I sit on my fucking ass while a god tries to…" It occurred to Ren that Akechi hadn't mentioned the god's intentions.
"End the world."
"Oh. What fun."
"Do nothing until I tell you otherwise. Maybe even enjoy yourself a little. If you don't… these next few months may all be our last. I will come to you when I know what you must do."
Ren couldn't do anything else besides ask questions. Everything he knew about his life just blew up in his face, and he couldn't process it quickly enough to catch up with Akechi. "And just how will you know?"
"As I said, I receive visions. I do not know why, as our god could easily do what he just did to you to me, yet he doesn't. Perhaps he is taunting me—challenging me to defeat him."
"Why are you telling me all of this if you don't want me to intervene?"
"Clearly, critical thinking isn't your strong suit. I needed to be blunt." Akechi turned his back on Ren, starting to walk, but beckoning for Ren to follow at his side. "And if you didn't know what was to come, you would try to put yourself in the thick of things."
"Sounds like you know the future."
"Bits and pieces. The visions are selective and distant."
"Yeah? Prove it."
Akechi stopped walking, looking upwards to think for a moment. "Do not let Sakamoto give Takamaki a birthday present."
"What?! You're telling me that the world depends on-"
"No. It holds no significance in the grand scheme of things, but I am right. It will save you much suffering if you make sure that Sakamoto doesn't do such a thing."
I don't even know when Ann's birthday is.
"Fine," Ren said as the pair kept walking. "And I'll do nothing until… whenever you figure it out. I'm guessing this means that you're the real Goro Akechi?"
"You're correct."
"How'd you get in here?"
"Your shadow is quite vulnerable when you do these trials, Ren."
"I don't know what that means, but okay."
"I'm glad you didn't ask me another damn question."
"No problem."
"Now… your business with our favorite god blew up and he wasn't able to bring you to a meeting that you should have. I will do so for him."
Oh, great. One more of these. I wonder who it's gonna be. I've already done Ryuji, Haru, Ann, and Futaba. Do I count Yusuke? He was different from the rest, so I won't count it. That leaves actual Yusuke or Makoto as the only possibilities for the meeting. Shit…
The other conversations had been easy to get through because Ren could pass them all off as nonsense stemming from his mind. With the revelations that Yusuke and Akechi just brought along with the fresh breakup that marinated in Ren's head all day, aconversation with Makoto where she would belittle, insult, and attack Ren was probably the last thing he needed.
"Great. Who is it? Yusuke or Makoto?"
"Neither."
"Oh, so it's Teddy the Bear?"
"Shut up, Ren."
"Got it."
"Would you rather teleport or die?"
"That's an easy choice, isn't it?"
"Death it is," Akechi said, raising his glowing hand directly to Ren's face. Ren could feel the heat emanating, yet he didn't even flinch.
I've died enough times in these that I'm used to it.
Ren closed his eyes as the heat grew more and more. He would've started to sweat if the heat hadn't burst fo-
Tomorrow, 1234/5678
That was easy. Quick and painless.
Ren opened his eyes to find a completely new setting around him. Illuminated halls of white and gray surrounded him, a stark contrast to the pitch black of Yusuke's abyss. Ren looked down the hall in both directions. On one side, a team of nurses hurried toward him at a breakneck pace. On the other, Ren could see the makings of a reception desk with a nurse behind it.
A hospital?
Ren backed out of the way of the nurses, who soon passed him and ducked into the room just in front of him. He craned his head to sneak a glance inside, but his attempt proved fruitless. Leaning back against the wall, Ren sighed and closed his eyes. The afternoon hadn't gone as expected, but he did get what he wanted.
The hallucination did lie to him, and he fell right into its trap. Whatever purpose that served for Yusuke, the god, Ren didn't know. He didn't need to know. He'd gotten far more than he ever bargained for or wanted from Akechi. Ren wouldn't have been surprised to wake up and realize he'd imagined all of it, not from the hallucination, but through a legitimate dream.
Plus, this is supposedly the real Akechi talking to me. That means that real people can get into my visions, however that works. That's a scary implication. The god he told me about could've planned every last one of my hallucinations to get me here, and I would have never realized it until the incident with Yoshiro. At this point, I can accept that I'm an idiot. I've heard it from enough people.
More and more of Akechi's words popped into Ren's head, albeit in bits and pieces.
Did he say that my shadow's vulnerable? Shadows… huh. I vaguely remember that from the first few days in Tokyo. I had that dream of the old guy with a big nose. He mentioned shadows. When I went to that castle with Ryuji, Morgana talked about shadows. So… what the fuck's a shadow?
Ren now had a new question to prioritize for when the next harbinger of truth would appear, or for whenever Akechi would unveil his disguise in this part of the hallucination.
Strange. I feel like Akechi wouldn't waste this much time to get things moving.
Ren glanced around the hallway yet again, searching for objects of interest or anything that stood out to the naked eye. Things that weren't present when he initially appeared in the bright hall revealed themselves to Ren; a tall fern plant a few meters to his left, a toilet hanging by a string from the ceiling, and the grand piano in the direction of the receptionist's desk playing itself.
Hey, I know that song. That's… what was it called?
Ren blanked on anything that could have been considered a reasonable guess. Instead, he decided to enjoy the music and continue investigating the strange hallway from his stationary position in the middle.
Next to the door the nurses went into, a painting popped into existence. In fact, Ren knew this painting, and he knew it well. The Sayuri, replicated perfectly down to the last detail, cast a shadow over the entire hallway with its sheer brilliance. Just as he had when Madarame's copy collection was discovered, Ren appreciated a great painting when he saw it. He got so caught up in its glory that it took a second for a major mistake to become clear.
Wait… isn't the baby supposed to have black hair?
All babies had short hair, yet the baby in the painting possessed a tremendous mane of shaggy, dark brown hair that went past its shoulders, extending below the frame of the painting. Confused, Ren walked across the hall and reached his hand towards the hair. Upon touching it, he immediately realized its validity as actual human hair, not just part of the painting.
"Uh…" Ren's audible confusion turned into youthful, naive curiosity. Gripping the hair, he yanked, pulling the baby out of the painting and into the hospital hallway. During the motion, the baby's hair yanked back as the weight Ren had to hold dramatically increased far beyond a normal baby's weight. Ren let go and took a step back as the baby, silent on the floor, began to grow in size.
Its legs extended, locking after a few feet. Its torso became more defined with its muscles and its width increased. Arms reached out, clawing up the wall as they got longer and longer. The baby's head grew a few inches in every direction and aged forward until-
Oh. That's his best yet. Bravo, Akechi.
Akechi stood up, wearing nothing but the baby's swaddle as a loincloth. "There's no way you did that on purpose," Ren said, hinting toward Akechi's newfound habit of taking himself so very seriously.
"Shut up." Akechi closed his eyes for a second, and his usual peacoat, shoes, and black gloves materialized onto him.
"Or would it be my fault?" Ren asked. "Given that this is my dream and shit."
"No. It lies with me completely." Akechi looked both ways down the hall and then back to Ren. "This is my creation, not yours."
"Uh… this is my hallucination."
"I've built this within your dream. Think of it as you loaning me land to build upon."
"So then this is your hallucination within mine?"
"Not quite. We are currently in what is a real place, experiencing an assumption of real events." Akechi glared at Ren for having a confused look on his face, but he offered further explanation anyway. "This is what I think happened roughly half a year ago." Ren didn't verbally respond, choosing to look down the hall at the ceiling toilet and the grand piano instead. "With a few of your additions, of course," Akechi added.
Satisfied with the where, Ren questioned the why. "Who are we meeting here?" Akechi simply gestured towards the door that the nurses went into. Ren narrowed his eyes but went to the door. Opening it, he saw a standard treatment room. Vital monitors, lots of wires and medical equipment, and the nurses from earlier. There was even a patient in the bed.
A patient with crimson hair.
From behind him, Akechi pushed Ren through the door and into the room. Ren stumbled, nearly tripping and falling into the wall, but Akechi caught him by the back of his shirt, pulling him back into a standing position. Ren followed Akechi's lead, leaning against the wall facing the patient, giving him a chance to inspect the sleeping body of Kasumi Yoshizawa.
Akechi reached his thin arm out, weightlessly flicking it outward. The nurses all dissipated in an instant, leaving Ren and Akechi alone with Kasumi. "I told you to do nothing this semester. That was incorrect," he said as they both watched Kasumi sleep. "Look into Yoshizawa. She's not who she says she is."
"She doesn't say much at all, mainly 'cause I don't talk to her enough."
"Be careful about it. If my hunch is wrong, then, well, I better not be wrong."
"What's your hunch?"
"I cannot tell you. Knowing you, your stupidity, and your impulsivity, you will surely act on what I would tell you and give up my advantage."
"Even if I promise not to?"
Akechi didn't even answer, telling Ren that it didn't matter how much he pushed to be told. Instead, Akechi wormed his way into a new tangent after a momentary silence. "Lies are Tokyo's foundation. Everything this city stands for is a lie. You see it every day at Shujin, I see it every day at the precinct, and all of us see it on the news every evening. Someone decided for our society that lies are more crucial to our success than anything resembling the truth, and we never looked back." Akechi leaned forward from the wall, stepping closer to Kasumi. "If I'm right, Yoshizawa is telling herself a special kind of lie, and someone's making her tell it."
"Akechi, I'm telling you now, I wouldn't be worth shit investig-"
"If you don't learn anything, it doesn't hinder me. If you do learn something, it simply settles a personal bet. You understand?" Upon Ren nodding, Akechi went back to looking at Kasumi. He stepped around her patient bed until he stood right next to her. "Some people are so lost in their own delusions that the lies they tell themselves become their reality. Any small thought can grow, can manifest into something horrid. It is how honest men become politicians, how honorable men turn into dogs on the hunt for the next consumer to scam."
He makes a lot of sense, but there's too much conviction in his voice for this to just be an observation. Plus, and don't you forget, Ren, Akechi's right about you as well. You lie to yourself, to Makoto, and to your friends. You've left everyone out of the loop for too long. Don't delay any longer. Give yourself a deadline and meet it. How about... by your birthday? Fuck it, do it on your birthday. Start the rest of your life off right.
Ren figured his personal promise would go over like a midnight thought of turning one's life around. Hopefully, it went the other way, but he couldn't be sure.
"A lie can be how one slows the world down to their speed, how they get the pain to stop." Akechi, slowly and gently, extended a hand down to Kasumi's cheek, caressing it with the back of his hand. "But it does nothing. No words can bring a loved one back. No words can process a change like that. No words make it all just stop. " Ren would've thought Akechi had romantic affection for the girl if he lingered any longer. The detective turned to face Ren. His continuous harshness from all afternoon vanished, replaced with somber dejectedness. His eyes faded behind a glassy surface. "I ask nothing of you but empathy."
Ren nodded. He could feel the void of any abrasive emotion in the room, sucking it all away for one moment of peace between the two. Ren knew he didn't understand Akechi, and that he never would, but that moment made Ren regret every rude remark.
"This is the end of our chat." Akechi looked back down at Kasumi. "Please, don't intervene, Ren." Reaching into his side pocket, Akechi pulled out a pistol, pointing it directly at Ren. His gaze remained on Kasumi as his unflinching hand threatened Ren.
Ren closed his eyes.
I know. I wo-
A/N: Kudos to AgentOfStars and Geo for providing the idea of Akechi disguising himself and popping up in random places.
This won't be the end of clinical trials, even though it may seem like it. There will be a bit of a gap between now and the next trial, but they will come back eventually. For the time being, I was getting a bit burnt out on writing them. There comes a point where it's difficult to come up with stuff for it because literally anything could happen. I really like the hallucinations that happen in the real world, though, because there are actual stakes to them, like if Ren didn't keep his shit together during dinner with the Niijima's, things would've gone very poorly. When clinical trials are back, I'll have a new twist on them that should make them fun to write, hopefully.
Hope you guys had a good week. Thanks for reading, have a great Easter!