Managed to get another chapter done before the end of the month, and let's just say, you guys are in for a ride. This chapter is easily my longest one and I hope that you guys have a snack ready because it will take some time to read it. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and please leave a review for any ideas you would like to see and I will always respond to PM's if you would like questions answered quickly. Also, I would like to say thank you so much for 100 follows! Never thought I would actually make it that far so thank you guys from the bottom of my heart.
ptl: I wanted to show how angry Ren was at the moment, but of course he knows his powers and what he's capable of, so he merely gave them a static shock to knock them out. When it comes to the Imaginary District, Persona power would operate normally due to the source of his power not being of the Toaru world.
Persona-14: The Misaka x Ren ship has been seeing some traction in the reviews, but I honestly don't know who to pair him with just yet. Thank you for enjoying the fic too!
Blankow: This day will be worse indeed. Kanzaki x Ren is interesting, but it will take a while for them to meet. I like your ideas for new Personas, Zeus is far from the last one we will see.
Phantom Thief of Hearts: I really didn't want to just repeat information from the novels so I merely skimmed through events, this chapter I think is much better due to me rereading the Railgun manga and pacing the story better with my own twists. I picked the Zeus design from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux as I thought that it looked really nice. Him being used against the thugs was overkill I admit, but it was for good reason. I also am really interested in the bonds so we shall see as the story goes on.
Mustache man: Thanks! I definitely took this review to heart when writing this chapter so I hope you enjoy reading it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 5 Royal or Toaru Majutsu no Index.
"So what exactly is your ability?" Touma said with a puzzled look on his face.
Ren didn't think this moment would come so soon. He had intended to be more discrete but didn't realize how much trouble went on in the city.
It was now the second day of the Daihasei Festival and Ren felt an extreme amount of guilt for not being able to be there for Himegami when she was caught up in a conflict that he could've stopped. She was fine, better than how she was before the accident, but Ren couldn't shake off the horrendous sight that was Himegami's absolutely battered body.
Ren and Touma had met up again in the morning to head to the events together as they had to explain why they weren't in any events after the ball rolling competition. The amount of crap they would get from Fukiyose and the rest of the class would be something that neither of them wanted.
Touma decided to leave Index with Komoe in the morning so that he and Ren would be able to talk in private about what he had witnessed yesterday in order to fully understand who or what Ren actually was. They had gone to a small restaurant that was, to their surprise, not very occupied. They were seated in the far corner of the restaurant and Touma was quick to jump the gun on asking questions.
Another restaurant? Were home-cooked meals not a thing on this earth?
"It's somewhat complicated, but at the same time not really complicated," Ren responded. "I know how it works, but the way I'm going to explain it seems strange."
"Well, anything goes at this point," Touma said. "I've seen enough from Espers and Magicians that anything you throw at me probably won't even shock me."
Ren began to wonder exactly what this average-looking boy had gone through. He seemed no more ordinary than anyone you could find at a random high school, yet he seemed to have a drive and experience that came with years of fighting.
"Well, first off," Ren said. "I'm actually not a Magician or an Esper."
Touma's face looked completely different than the playful one that made the previous remark of not being shocked. His eyes were widened, his mouth agape, and he was stuttering trying to find words to reply to Ren's statement.
"Wh- wha- what do you mean you're neither of them? Are you going to tell me there is even more than just science and magic?" Touma said in a raised voice.
"I told you that it'd be strange," Ren replied.
"So if you're not a Magician or an Esper, what are you?"
"I'm a Persona-user, basically I can summon my inner will into physical manifestations that help me fight and give me a variety of abilities."
"A Persona user? ...Right, what exactly does that entail?"
"If I had to explain in simple terms, it's magic that I use that technically doesn't come from the same way the average Magician does in this world."
"...So? What do you mean by this world?"
Ren knew at this point it would be pointless to leave any information out as he was caught red-handed in what he did. He wouldn't be able to erase Touma's memory because of his right hand and that would ultimately make it pointless to erase Stiyl's memory as Touma might tell him everything that they were discussing.
"By your definition, I mean what you consider Magicians of this world," Ren explained patiently.
"Wait," Touma looked around to make sure nobody heard them. "So technically you're telling me that you're from another planet?" Touma whispered.
"Technically? I'd say that a different dimension is a more correct term. I am from Earth, and I am from Japan, just not the same Earth and Japan as this one."
"Oh, that's actually pretty cool. But that really worries me as to how and why you're here?"
Ren knew that this entire explanation would be long, but it was time for him to turn the tables and start asking Touma questions as to why he was involved with Magicians if he was from the Science side.
"I'll answer that, but now it's time for you to answer my questions if that's alright."
"Hm, I guess I do owe you some answers as to why I was with a Magician," Touma replied, scratching the back of his head.
"If you're from the Science side, then how are you getting involved with Magic side affairs? I thought that Magicians and Espers hated each other?"
Touma looked as if he was trying to pick the correct words to say. He wanted his answer to be something that was correct and that explained why he was involved in affairs he shouldn't be in.
"Well, you know about Imagine Breaker right?"
"The power in your right hand, yes."
"I've had this power ever since I was born, which means that I'm neither an Esper nor a Magician. Magicians supposedly aren't born with power, and I didn't get this from the Power Curriculum Program."
"So that makes you a sort of grey area?"
"Yeah, could also say that my rotten luck ultimately leads me to be in those situations in the first place," Touma noted with a chuckle.
"And what about Tsuchimikado?" Ren asked while holding his chin.
"What about him?" Touma asked nervously.
"I heard him speaking with you and Stiyl and it seems he knows an awful lot about Magic side affairs," Ren explained calmly. "I know it might not be in the right place to tell me, but any information I get would be extremely useful."
"Yeah, I wouldn't feel comfortable talking about someone else who trusted me to keep something secret," Touma replied while feeling a bit more relieved. "Even if you know something, I think it's best if you ask him yourself."
"Fair enough, I'm actually glad you didn't. Shows me a bit of your character." Ren chuckled.
Touma had given a crooked smile in response. The look was quickly wiped off of his face and he composed himself to continue the conversation.
"So back to how you even got here," Touma said. "It seems that you were planned to be here with how you've integrated so easily, so why are you here?"
Touma was surprisingly observant of the circumstances that surrounded Ren. He had quickly pieced together the information and came to a solid conclusion. He now asked the questions to fill in the blanks.
Ren didn't want to reveal anything about the Fall. The anxiety it would give people if they believed it would be horrible. The looks they would give him if they didn't believe it would just make them distance themselves from him.
"I was sent here by the person who gave me these powers," Ren replied. "Back on my earth, I defeated a god that was controlling humanity and then I defeated its successor, who also wanted to control everyone."
"I don't see what that has to do with what I asked?" Touma asked with a curious tone.
"Where I was going with that is that, somehow, this same entity has infiltrated this world. Which means something really bad is going to happen."
"Something bad? Can you elaborate on that?" Touma looked with a serious face.
"Ah, my bad. I mean that everyone will be a slave to this entity, and they won't even know it." Ren answered. "I've seen it before, and trust me, I wouldn't want something like that to ever happen again."
"...How bad is it?" Touma asked quietly.
"Bad enough to the point of nearly driving me crazy," Ren answered with a serious look. "Even if you find some way within you to resist the control of the false god, you'll be erased from existence. The only reason I'm still here is because of my Persona power."
Both boys looked silently at each other. This morning was beginning to turn into a sour and it still seemed as if their conversation had yet to reach an even worse turn.
"I'm assuming you were sent here to stop it?" Touma leaned back and crossed his arms. "Don't take this the wrong way, but why come from another dimension to help this earth? Do you feel responsible for this?"
Ren knew his resolve. In his year of fighting cognitions of the scum of the earth, he found a sense of clarity and purpose in his life. He wanted to use his power to save as many people as he could. Was it because being a hero was the right thing to do? Why did Ren risk his life to come here? Guilt? Heroism? Duty?
"I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do," Ren replied. "If there was someone in danger I would do anything to save them. This malevolent force came here because of me, so I'll be damn sure to protect everyone here."
Touma was taken aback by the words that were coming out of Ren. Touma resonated with the words the other average looking high school boy said. It made him remember the promise he gave his pre-memory self. He struggled to find the words to say after such a statement from Ren.
"Sorry if it sounds like I have some sort of hero-complex." Ren chuckled, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I've just seen a lot and found my purpose in life."
"No, not at all," Touma told Ren with a smile.
Touma had looked at his phone quickly and put it back in his pocket. He stood up and began to walk out of the booth.
"It's getting a bit late, I say we head out to the festival."
"Yeah," Ren stood up as well. "I'm glad that we had this talk, I just hope you can keep this between us."
"Of course, anything for a friend," Touma replied while showing an understanding smile.
Ren returned it.
After blinking, Ren noticed how he was suddenly in the Velvet Room. How was he in the Velvet Room? He wasn't asleep nor did he use the doorway to the Velvet Room.
'How the hell?' Ren thought while confused.
Ren began to walk forward from his cell and saw Igor and Lavenza, sitting and standing respectively. The Velvet Room, however, was beginning to look a bit different. Instead of all the jail cells that surrounded the center area, it was now just Ren's sole cell, with another across it.
Ren wondered why it looked different and guessed that maybe Igor summoned him to tell him about it.
"Welcome Trickster, and apologies for summoning you here so unexpectedly," Igor said.
"Welcome back, my Trickster." Lavenza greeted with a smile. "I too apologize for your summoning."
"It's ok. I'm just surprised that you guys were able to pull me out of reality and into the Velvet Room. I didn't just disappear in front of Touma though right?"
That would be really bad. But the more Ren thought about it, the more he realized how funny Touma's reaction would be if that happened.
"No of course not," Igor replied, straightening his back. "This instance is happening in your mind right now, and no time will have passed when you return to the real world."
This was similar when he entered the Velvet Room during his time in the Metaverse, was it the same way? Though back then his team said that they did notice him just staring off into space, so hopefully he didn't look like he was in a trance in the middle of a restaurant.
"That's a relief, thank you for explaining," Ren tilted his head. "But why was I summoned here?"
"There has been a slight miscalculation on our part," Igor explained while looking away. "Nothing to worry about, but we thought it was an urgent matter to discuss."
Ren didn't know the extent of Igor and Lavenza's power, but to make a mistake? For being near the level of deities, it seemed strange that something like that could slip by them.
"What did you guys miscalculate?"
"Touma Kamijou," Lavenza chimed in. "He is certainly a mysterious boy, and we have reason to believe he is much more than we initially thought."
"Is that so?" Ren said. "I haven't known him for too long, but I do know he has a good heart and a fighting spirit."
"He would make a most excellent Social Link," Igor proclaimed with a large grin. "...Which is why we found it strange when your Fortune Arcana began to change."
His Fortune Arcana was changing? Was it overriding his old one? How does that even work? Does that mean he would be able to gain new skills?
"I thought you said I couldn't develop any new Social Links?"
"That is what we thought, but Touma Kamijou has proved to be an exception to this rule," Lavenza explained with a serious look on her small face. "Try to develop your Bond with him and get to know him better even more. He might prove to be your greatest ally in the fight against Ruin."
"Thank you, for telling me." Ren smiled.
Ren was still curious about the changed Velvet Room. This curiosity got the better of him and he decided to ask the owner of the Room.
"Igor, can I ask you one more question before I go?" Ren said with a concerned look.
"Of course Trickster."
"You said that the Velvet Room reflects the state of my heart right? So why does it look different than it did before?"
"In time, you will come to understand. It comes from your heart after all. So you not knowing and being worried about it is something that may contribute to the new state of the room."
It wasn't an answer, but then again Igor was somewhat ambiguous when it came to matters regarding literally any situation.
"Now return to the real world," Igor continued. "It's always a pleasure seeing you."
"I'll cover the bill before we go," Ren said while going to the counter.
"Really?" Touma said with tears in his eyes. "I mean, ehem, you don't have to cover my part."
Ren had rolled his eyes at Touma's pathetic attempt to feign his excitement and scoffed at the remark. If Touma was really that poor, then Ren might just have to pay for his meals until the foreseeable future.
"I got it, don't worry."
Going to the counter and leaving the exact amount of money for the bill, Ren proceeded to head outside of the restaurant and Touma followed behind him.
"What's our first event for today?" Ren asked.
"I think it's the three-legged race for us, then after that is the scavenger hunt," Touma replied.
"Actually, that's right, you and I are paired up for that event right?"
"Oh crap, you're right!" Touma replied with a shocked expression.
Both the boys looked at each other and laughed as they had forgotten they were going to be competing together. It was times like these that made both of them feel like normal high school boys.
"It starts soon so I'm pretty sure that our class is waiting for us to show up right now. The event isn't too far from here, but I still recommend we take a light jog to get there with time to spare."
Ren nodded at Touma and both of the boys began to hit a light jog towards the event. After about three minutes of jogging, both of the boys arrived with the rest of the class to see Fukiyose waiting.
"Where have you two been!?" Fukiyose shouted. "I'd expect this from Kamijou, but to think that you would actually be slacking off with him Amamiya, how could you let me down like that!?"
Cold sweat began to drop from Ren's forehead, and he noticed that Touma was beginning to sweat as well. The girl was strict and firm when it came to things like this. Adding to the fact that she was a part of the Daihasei Festival Committee also didn't help Ren and Touma's case either.
"There's still a bit of time before the event starts." Fukiyose sighed. "But it's really frustrating to know where you guys were considering you vanished after the ball rolling event yesterday! Didn't we promise to make Ms. Komoe proud!?"
Ren and Touma actually winced at that statement. It was true, they had abandoned their class and teacher, and even if it was for a good reason, they still didn't keep true to their word.
"We're sorry." both black-haired boys apologized while bowing.
Fukiyose actually took a step back from the surprising display she was witnessing. Her mouth was open and her eyes were wide open with her eyebrows shooting high up.
"Well, for now, I'll accept both of your apologies. But only if you two are able to at least be in the top three in the next event." Fukiyose blushed and avoided eye contact. "This race allows abilities, and considering neither of you has one, the best chance you have is to dodge and run for your lives."
Well, that surely put them in a predicament. If there were to be two Level 0's next to each other who could somehow negate every attack that was thrown at them, then suspicion would surely arise, but hopefully, no one knew who they were and nothing about them would be explained.
"I think we'll be able to do good." Ren grinned. "Just count on us."
Fukiyose let out a small grin and went back to her serious mood.
"Very well Amamiya, I hope you don't let us down."
Ren gave her an affirming nod and looked at Touma who nodded with a grin.
"Come on, the event is about to start, let's get going." Touma seemed motivated.
"Right!" Ren confirmed.
Both Touma and Ren began to make their way to the event. They turned their bodies to wave their class goodbye. Fukiyose and the newly appeared Tsuchimikado also gave both of the boys a wave.
At the event, Ren and Touma were looking at other participants. Their stance ranged from being nervous to looking incredibly cocky.
For the participants, Ren and Touma looked unusually calm while they should be nervous going up against higher level espers. It frustrated some of the participants.
"You two are dead meat!" a boy wearing a green shirt and shorts declared. "You guys just have no chance. My ability is going to let me and my teammate win the race with ease! You guys should give up like the rest."
Ren and Touma exchanged a glance at each other, and Touma gave him a nod. Even though he didn't say anything, Ren knew exactly what Touma had meant by that.
"Oh wow! We are so scared." Ren proclaimed sarcastically. "I think he is compensating for something if he's using his ability for comfort!" Ren pretended to whisper to Touma.
"Tch," The green shirt boy clicked his tongue. "Just don't cry when you get hurt."
A bit of trash talk didn't hurt, Ren wasn't really one to usually do it, but a bit of it towards someone who wanted to hurt them gave Ren an excuse for a rebuttal.
"I say we just take Fukiyose's advice and just make a run for it. I'd like to avoid as much attention as possible, considering what both of us can do. I really doubt we could get away scot-free."
"I was thinking the same thing," Touma replied. "Let's only defend ourselves if it's an emergency."
"Right. Considering you can only use your right hand, you should probably be on the right side. I'll be on the left and cover everything there."
"That makes sense."
Both Ren and Touma walked over to get a band to bind their legs together and walked up to the starting line of the race. The race was approximately a mile long and circled around a small portion of the city and that was closed off by a small fence to make sure people on the outside wouldn't enter and that the participants wouldn't go off the track and try to cheat their way to the end.
There were eight other students at the starting line meaning that there were five schools in total competing in the event right now. It was relatively a small amount, but considering that A Certain High School was probably considered a failure shelter, it was most likely a factor in being with fewer schools.
"The three-legged race is about to begin!" a female voice from a blimp announced. "May the best students win!"
Ren and Touma were determined to win and make up for their broken promise.
Unbeknownst to Touma, a certain Electromaster was standing off watching both of the boys get ready to start their event.
"What the hell!" Misaka spoke out loud. "Why do both of them look so determined to win? Does that idiot really want to beat me, and did he ask that other idiot to help him out?"
Ren, of course, heard all of this due to Heightened Sensation and let out a chuckle.
'So I'm an idiot now too, just when I thought we had something special going," Ren thought as he internally laughed.
"On your marks!"
"Get set!"
"Go!"
The boy from before had instantly fired up his ability and aimed it at Ren, which didn't surprise Ren in the least. Ren and Touma instantly began to run and were perfectly in sync. The first shot of light from the boy missed as Ren and Touma were already off to a blasting start. Ren knew that if he had fired up that boy with the insult, he would focus more on going after him than winning. All Ren had to do was get a good head start and they would be out of range from the boy. Poor soul, Ren was playing chess while the boy was only playing checkers.
Ren and Touma clearly looked to be the fastest runners out of all the students. As the other students who got off to a running start were struggling to stay in sync with each other.
"We got off to a pretty big lead!" Touma shouted. "If this keeps up we might just be free to run normally!"
As if on cue, Touma stepped on a rock and managed to fall right on his butt. The fall made Ren tumble as well and both boys were on the ground with the other students catching up. Ren shot up as did Touma and they started to run in sync again.
"Your bad luck is extremely comical, you know that?" Ren looked irritated.
"Please, tell me something I don't know!" Touma was almost letting loose anime tears.
The boys kept up their pace and were beginning to reach the halfway mark of the race. The green shirt boy was beginning to look desperate as Ren kept turning around to glance at him. Ren hoped that his desperation wouldn't lead him to do something stupid.
Ren saw the boy ready another beam of energy at him and waited until the beam shot to change direction to avoid it. Surprisingly, the boy was completely off target and the beam shot out to the outside where there were people.
Ren and Touma both looked in horror as the ball of light kept moving towards a little girl who looked no older than six years old.
"No!" Touma shouted.
Ren's Heightened Sensation kicked in and time looked as if it came to a stop. Time, however, was not actually stopped. Ren's brain was thinking so quickly that it only seemed as if time was stopped to him. He cast a Makarakarn spell which repelled any form of energy, on the little girl and made sure to change the direction of the attack towards the air.
As time began to flow normally for Ren, the boy who shot the beam and his teammate were immediately pulled out of the race for endangering the viewers. The poor boy had a look of horror on his face as he realized he could have nearly killed a little girl.
Touma had stopped in his tracks seeing the attack and was shocked to see it just bounce off of her.
"Don't worry!" Ren explained. "I made sure she didn't get hurt, now let's keep going!"
Ren and Touma were practically home free for the rest of the race as the other students were too far behind to ever catch up to them.
The finish line was in sight and Ren and Touma easily crossed it with second place being a significant distance away. Fukiyose was already waiting for them at the finish line and had a big smile on her face.
"Nice job!" Fukiyose said. "I didn't think the running and dodging plan would work, but to think it would actually get you guys to first place!"
Behind Fukiyose was Ms. Komoe, who had a big smile on her face and looked like she was holding back tears.
"I'm so proud of you two!" Komoe got a little emotional. "You and the rest of the class are the best students a teacher could ever ask for!"
Ren and Touma gave her a smile.
"We just did our best and it happened to pay off." Ren humbly stated. "We appreciate your thanks."
The boys gave each other a high five and began to head off to where their class was.
"Are you hungry?" Touma asked. "I just realized we didn't actually get anything to eat at the restaurant and that run really made me hungry."
Touma was right, they were too busy talking to each other that they hadn't even bothered to order food.
"As long as the food is from a food stand, I could eat. Think you can cover my bill this time?" Ren teased.
"Umm," Touma began to sweat. "M-maybe we can work something out?"
After finishing their lunch, which Ren happened to pay for, the boys decided to meet up with Index who Komoe had left with other students as she had school matters to attend to.
"Crap," Touma suddenly realized. "I hope Index hasn't really bothered anyone, and I really hope she's gotten something to eat."
Touma looked extremely worried as he rightfully should be. Ren had seen first hand the absolute glutton the Sister could be, and the noises Touma made whenever she was hungry was something that was beginning to haunt even Ren.
"I really hope that's the case as well,"
After walking for a bit, the boys stumbled across the Sister with silver hair and saw the look of excitement on her face.
'Oh thank God, she's not in killer eating mode.' thought Ren.
"Touma! Ren!" Index called out. "I've been able to eat all sorts of food today and everything has been so amazing!"
"Great! ...And who paid for all that food?" Touma said with a serious tone.
"After I said that you and I were really broke, people started feeling bad and gave me enough money to go get some food!"
"Why would you say that!?" Touma screamed.
While Touma and Index bickering about, Ren felt a strange sensation as if someone was watching him from the sky. It was as if someone was tracking him using magic.
"I just forgot that I promised to meet up with someone before the next event. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Oh okay." Touma looked at Ren with a hint of suspicion. "Just be safe alright?"
"You got it."
Ren began to move toward the direction he felt the spell being cast. It was times like these that made him really appreciate what his Third Eye had to offer. He had begun to walk away from populated areas and entered a more secluded area that seemed like an abandoned place that was probably going to be used later.
"So you managed to track my spell and come to my exact location." a familiar voice said. "I don't know who you are, and to me, that makes you a threat."
The person behind the voice revealed himself to be the English red-headed priest called Stiyl.
"So, what organization do you come from?" Stiyl asked while lighting up his cigarette.
"You say that because you don't know me that I'm a threat, right?" Ren countered.
"Don't avoid the question, I'll use force if I have to."
"I'm not a Magician, mister Stiyl."
"How do you know my name?"
"Wild guess?" Ren said with a smirk.
The red-haired Magician threw what looked to be a bunch of cards on the floor and Ren felt an extraordinary sensation coming off of them.
"Ashes to ashes, burn the opponent in front of me! Innocentius!" Stiyl shouted.
The monster that began to form appeared to be made of pure fire. Due to his Third Eye, Ren saw a core within it that probably was the monster's life force. He knew that was what needed to be destroyed in order for it to stop attacking.
"Surt! To me!" Ren shouted.
The Persona from Norse mythology began to take form within Ren, and the giant with the flaming sword had appeared in the Trickster's soul.
"What the-," Stiyl was surprised.
Ren began to run towards Stiyl and Innocentius charged right to Ren.
The beast had completely consumed Ren and Stiyl stood there, somewhat in shock, seeing that the boy who seemed confident be utterly defeated in one fell swoop.
"Is this really as hot as this thing gets?" Ren questioned.
Ren was staring at the core of Innocentius and used Surt's sword to completely destroy it. Innocentius had dissipated only to reveal Ren. There stood Ren, not a burn mark on him, not even a drop of sweat from the heat.
Ren found his plan was genius. He used Innocentius' own body to cover Surt and make sure that Stiyl did not see the Persona take form.
"Hmph, not bad kid." Stiyl calmly told Ren while throwing away his cigarette. "It seems that you were able to pass my test."
"...I'm glad I did. I was worried that I might've had to knock you out, but I saw what you were trying to do."
"Is that so? Then you already know what I'm about to ask you?"
"You want me to help protect Index, right?"
Ren had felt there was some kind of connection between Stiyl and Index with his Heightened Sensation. He only thought that his senses were amplified, but it also gave him a sort of clairvoyance with people. Ren felt it the moment he had entered the abandoned warehouse and knew that Stiyl didn't have the intention to kill him. But if he did die then it really wouldn't be much of a loss considering he didn't have the strength to actually protect Index.
"It would put me at great ease to know that Kamijou isn't the sole protector of Index, and what you just showed me proved what you're capable of. I am curious about what your power truly is, but I won't question it for now."
Stiyl turned around and lit a cigarette and began to walk away from the scene of scorch marks on the ground.
"Don't think of this as me trusting you," Stiyl said with a look of frustration. "I don't, but if you have the power to help Index and are friends with Kamijou, then I just I'm right in placing a small bit of faith in you."
Ren knew that it would take a lot for Stiyl to actually come around and trust him, he felt it. Staring at the backside of the priest, Ren said one more thing before leaving.
"Tell Necessarius that they can trust me with protecting Index."
"How the-," Stiyl said, turning around.
What Stiyl didn't expect though was the boy in question was already gone and out of the warehouse. He was only speaking to the wind.
Ren who quickly slipped out with knowledge from shogi realized that the scavenger hunt had already begun and that he wouldn't be able to make it to the event.
'Shit!' Ren thought.
Sprinting to the scavenger hunt, Ren hoped that maybe the event was delayed a bit and that he would be able to participate in it. He had finally arrived at the area the event was taking place and saw Touma looking distraught as he looked at the paper of what he was supposed to get. Ren had missed the start time by mere seconds and he saw Fukiyose in the distance with a look of disappointment on her face.
"Damn it," Ren said to himself.
Ren didn't really want to go see his class and then the impending doom he would face from Fukiyose if he had shown his face right after the event had started. He would let time pass for her to calm down and explain everything to her in a way that made sense. In other words, he would lie about where he was but try to make it as believable as possible.
Ren realized that he could use the time to scout as Joker and see if there was anyone around who needed to be helped.
It was beginning to become routine for Ren to find an abandoned alley and transform into his thief outfit.
As Ren walked around and looked for alleyways that were vacant, his Heightened Sensation picked up something strange coming from about half a kilometer from his location. The power felt angel-like, but also had a sinister feeling to it. Ren knew that it could extremely dangerous and decided to go after the source.
Finding an alley, he transformed into his thief costume and began to head to the roof of the building next to it. He jumped across a couple of buildings before his Heightened Sensation told him to stop at one of the buildings.
Ren noticed that the area near this building was secluded. It would be hard to enter here even if someone were to know the layout of the area, and it would be an area people would avoid if they didn't know where they were going.
Ren hadn't really felt a sensation such as this in his time of fighting. Not even the Metaverse, which opened him to feeling knew things didn't feel like this. It was unfamiliar, which greatly disturbed Ren.
'What the hell is this?' Ren thought.
Looking through the glass roof, Ren saw a couple of people and someone sitting in a chair. The person in the chair was handcuffed to it and was blindfolded and gagged. Ren needed more information than this to understand what was going on and needed to form a strategy in order to move in. He could sense about six people in the building, not including the one in the chair.
Ren amplified his hearing and began to listen to what the people were talking about.
"Finally!" an older sounding voice said with glee. "The first step to achieving the power of God!"
"With this, the impossible is within our grasp! And to think that there was someone who was so willing to help us out with this!"
The person in the chair was most definitely not willing to go through with this, but those psychopathic scientists begged to differ.
"Who would've thought that FORMULA would be the one to overcome every obstacle in order to discover such a beautiful formula! The injection has already taken place!"
'They already injected the person!? Shit!' thought Ren.
"If we want to see if this truly can reach godhood, then we must need Mikoto Misaka and inject the formula when she is nearing the peak!"
'They want to do what with Misaka?! Those pieces of shit only care about results, they don't give a damn about people!'
Ren knew that he had to stop whatever was going on and that he would be able to try and find and destroy the research regarding this to keep Misaka safe.
"To me Alilat," Ren summoned aloud.
Before Ren was about to jump in, the one he suspected was the main scientist began to speak again.
"It's been four minutes since the injection of the formula, we must keep waiting to see the changes."
'Changes?' Ren thought.
The person in the chair who had looked frightened when Ren got there was now beginning to seize up and fell over with the chair.
The person then stopped seizing and began to glow white and yellow from head to toe. On top of them began to grow horns and they were beginning to float.
"Look at how beautiful it is!" a womanly voice said.
Suddenly there was a crash from the roof and falling towards the ground was Ren.
"Who the hell are you!?" the head scientist said.
"Don't worry about that," Joker said. "I'm just here to make sure you don't unleash the unknown into the world."
All of the scientists looked baffled. On one hand, a person before them was turning into an angel-like creature, while another person had shown up out of nowhere wanting to stop them.
"You have no idea what you're talking about boy!" the head scientist said.
"WE ARE CREATING A NEW ORDER! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND HOW HARD WE'VE WORKED FOR THIS!? WITH THIS MIKOTO MISAKA WILL BE A HUMAN WHO HAS ATTAINED THE POWER OF A DEITY! DON'T MAKE US LAUGH!"
The scientist sounded like a madman. He sounded like a Shadow in the Metaverse, but to think that he was like this in the real world. Ren felt sorry for the man.
"Go to sleep old man, you've wasted enough energy yelling," Joker said.
Ren snapped his fingers and all six of the scientists instantly hit the ground.
The Dormina spell looked like it didn't work on the person who was transforming. Ren had no idea how to reverse whatever happened, even if it was reversible. He hoped that if he attacked it enough that maybe the formula would dissipate, but Ren felt that that was too good to be true. If worse came to worse, he would have to be forced to kill.
"Kfahahak- kahakfahk-"
The angel looking person was beginning to make noise, but there was no way of knowing what any of that meant.
The angel looking person turned to Ren and immediately charged at him. Ren managed to dodge and realized that whoever that person was, is no longer with them.
"Damn!" Joker shouted. "Yoshitsune!"
The Japanese military commander had taken form and with his two swords, began to charge towards the angel.
Yoshitsune slashed both swords and the angel let out a scream, or at least, what sounded like a scream.
"Charge!" Joker shouted.
A red and yellow light began to flow through Ren's body and he went forward to attack the angel himself.
"Metatron!"
Ren had begun to hit the angel who was still screaming. The energy and light coming off of it were beginning to grow and Ren felt the power coming off of it. If he didn't take care of the angel soon, it would be able to wipe out an entire district just by existing.
As Ren did a back handspring to gain distance, Metatron had begun to encircle the angel with swords as Ren commanded him to do a Sword's Dance.
Each one hit their target and the angel still stood tall, but still continued to scream.
"I'm sorry about this," Joker apologized. "Satan! Come forth!"
Ren didn't know that the angel would grow in such power so quickly. He didn't like what he was about to do, but it would save lives so he had to do it.
As Joker stood tall, staring at the angel, he felt sorrow. This wasn't like the Metaverse. He slaughtered Shadows back then, but that was because they didn't relate to people. This angel used to be someone.
As the mask came off of Ren, Satan began to materialize behind him and Ren commanded him to use Black Viper.
An Almighty attack. It struck the soul of whoever it hit, and it would surely destroy the angel in front of him.
Below the angel appeared a giant black hole, and out of it, a serpent-like creature appeared and swallowed the angel whole.
"Dammit," Ren said sorrowfully.
It took Ren a minute to regain his senses. He composed himself once more and started to search the building for any information regarding the project. There were about four rooms to check and the first two he checked were completely empty. Going into the second to last room, Ren found a file regarding the research around the formula.
Experiment #006: Test subject [Redacted] instantly died. Will need to test a new formula soon.
There were a lot of other lines of text that were completely blacked out and were impossible to read.
Experiment #018: Test subject [Redacted] began seizing and had a faint glow around their body before dying. We're so close, I'd say that we need two more trials before finally succeeding.
'My God' Ren thought while shocked. 'All those people…"
Ren decided to stop reading and keep looking for more files. He would take this back with him and read through the rest later. He went into the final room and saw that there was another file. Ren opened that one and skimmed through the contents.
After speaking with Gensei Kihara, we have come to the conclusion that Mikoto Misaka will be the best candidate for the formula. With the Level 6 Shift Project, the transformation will give her the durability to withstand the formula and will be able to stabilize her and make her capable of reaching the level of godhood. Attempts to capture her thus far have failed and that has made the project move up a bit. The Shift will occur on September 20th and an experiment will take place with Test Subject #21 beforehand to ensure the formula is ready.
"Holy shit, that's today!" Ren shouted. "I have to get to her!"
Ren grabbed the file and instantly headed out of the building in a desperate attempt to find Misaka. The day was already growing late which meant he didn't have a lot of time to find her.
Suddenly, his Heightened Sensation spiked and showed him the direction of where to go. He felt a mass of electrical current in the air and realized that he was already too late.
Ren immediately went to the roof of the building, turned back into his school clothes, and began to head in the direction of the power as fast as he could.
After arriving where he felt the power, Ren saw that Touma and the boy from the opening ceremony were fighting against Misaka. Both of the boys seemed to be fending off attacks, but couldn't really get in close. Ren assumed that Touma needed to use his right hand on Misaka to get her back to normal, so he decided to make an opening for him.
"Kamijou!" Ren shouted. "I'm going to make an opening, so you better haul ass to her!"
Ren began to run towards Misaka, to which he was met with lightning strikes being shot at him, while also having large pieces of debris being thrown at him. Ren didn't pay any mind to the lightning bolts but made sure to avoid the debris the best he could.
"Amamiya don't!" Touma shouted.
Ren was becoming the main focus of Misaka and that was his plan. Buy time for Touma and the other boy to come up with a plan and join them after.
Suddenly, a large amount of debris was shown, and Ren knew that he would be unable to dodge it due to how big it was.
"Well... shit," Ren said as he accepted that even he couldn't dodge this. It's not like it would actually hurt him, but the amount of debris was something to just be in awe of.
"Super Amazing Punch!" the boy with the open jacket shouted.
The debris completely shattered and Ren went to meet up with Touma and the other boy.
"Well, looks like my distraction didn't really pan out," Ren said in embarrassment.
"That was a bit stupid, but I can tell that you've got some guts!" the eccentric boy said. "I'm Gunha Sogiita."
"Ren Amamiya, now how about we come up with a plan before she destroys the entire city?"
"Any ideas?" Touma asked.
"I thought that you were going to try to charge in with your right hand and try and stop this, but that won't work," Ren suggested.
"Yeah, I tried it already and she just regenerated the form." Touma shot down.
"Then how about this. Considering our abilities, Sogiita and I can make a pincer attack and keep the pressure on Misaka while you try your best to keep your right hand on her as long as you can. If worse comes to worst, I can put a reflective barrier around you, and whatever you do, do not stick your right hand out when you see it. We don't want your right hand screwing up whatever defense I can give you." Ren explained.
"Ok, it's worth a try." Touma agreed.
"I really don't know what you're capable of," Ren told Sogiita. "So I hope you're ready and ok with this."
"Of course!" Sogiita laughed. "All we need is just a lot of guts!"
"On go, we push," Ren announced. "Ready. Set. Go!"
Ren started running to the left, Gunha ran to the right, and Touma ran center. Ren and Gunha unleashed a few of their abilities to move the focus from Touma and give him space to try to neutralize the transformation.
"Zeus!" Ren shouted.
Zeus had appeared and had begun destroying and negating any attack that came from Misaka. Gunha looked as if he was destroying as much debris as he could while also making a clear path for Touma to run through.
The plan looked like it was working well and that Touma would be able to get to Misaka without a scratch on him when suddenly there began to form a mass of energy in front of Misaka. The ball looked like a massive black sphere and it was consuming anything that it touched.
"Shit! Touma get back!" Ren shouted.
Ren had sent Zeus to go pick up Touma and put him at a safe distance from the now growing mass of energy. Ren was already backing up from the energy and saw that Gunha was knocked back quite far from the battle.
"Oh shit!" Touma reacted.
"Turn back!" Ren told Touma. "I'm going to go check on Sogiita! Return to me, Zeus!"
Zeus who had carried Touma had vanished and rematerialized back to where Ren was. Touma was initially really surprised whenever a monster-like creature was summoned by Ren but realized that it must have been the Persona power Ren was talking about.
Ren ran and took great leaps to find out where Sogiita was and found him beneath some rubble. He looked pretty beat up, but the boy got up under his own power.
"Damn, that really hurt," Sogiita responded.
"What the hell hit you?" Ren asked.
"I'm not sure, but it felt... different. It broke some bones, but I should be able to reconnect them with some guts."
"Here, borrow some of my guts," Ren said with a chuckle.
A green light began to glow around Sogiita and the boy was beginning to look at Ren with awe.
"Amazing!" Sogiita said excitedly. "That got me all fired up again!"
"Let's head back, Touma can't wait forever."
Both of the boys began to head back to see Touma scanning the area trying to maybe find an opening as the huge mass of energy seemed to be blocking everything. A wall of iron sand also looked to be acting as a shield to the ball of mass and everything before them was beginning to be destroyed.
"New plan. That ball seems to be the source of whatever is going on with Misaka. If Sogiita can clear me a path, I might be able to destroy it." Ren said.
"No." Touma declined. "I know her and she seemed to be reacting to my Imagine Breaker. That and I don't want you putting yourself at risk, I'll do it."
Ren looked at Touma and gave him a smile.
"Well then Mr. Hero, Sogiita will clear a path and I'll be a defensive fallback for both of you."
Ren realized how much willpower Touma had and admired it. He did everything he could to help others and Ren was beginning to take notice.
"Alright! Time to put some guts into this!"
Sogiita took a fighting position and around him, power was beginning to surge from him and began to spread his power towards the ground. The pressure that both of the boys felt was surely something worthy of the seventh-ranked Level 5.
"Bring it on!" Sogiita shouted.
A path had been cleared in front of him and Touma had taken off running towards the mass of energy.
"Settle down!"
Blood began to pour out of the boy's arms again and Sogiita was fighting through the pain while letting out a primal yell. Ren was quick to notice.
"Ishtar!" Ren summoned.
Ishtar had come forth and had healed Gunha again while also casting a Rakukaja spell on him to increase his defenses.
"Thanks for that!" Sogiita loudly thanked Ren.
Ren had started to run behind Touma just to be sure he would reach Mikoto. Ren lamented Touma's inability to be healed by Persona magic as his right hand would negate it instantly. Ren knew there was only so much he could do to protect Touma, but he would damn sure take those limitations over not doing anything at all.
Ren's Heightened Sensation had activated again, and a voice he didn't expect to hear began to speak.
"If I compress it down small enough to cover it with my body as I detonate it, I should be able to stop it!" A voice of a girl he was familiar with spoke.
"Don't you even think of doing that Misaka!" Ren shouted.
"Amamiya?" Misaka said. "And... him?! Don't tell me you actually plan on stopping this!?"
"We will don't worry! Just hang on a bit longer!"
"NO! DON'T COME TOO CLOSE! IF YOU DO THAT THEN!"
Touma had just gotten to the ball of energy and placed his hand on it as hard as he could. It didn't look to be affected in the least but before Ren could say anything. A rather terrible sound of tearing flesh was heard and something flew through the air.
Touma was pushed back a bit with his right arm completely missing from his body.
"NO!" Misaka shouted.
"D-dammit! Kohryu! Go get Touma!" Ren shouted while desperate to save Touma.
The golden dragon had rushed to go pick up Touma. Suddenly another dragon that was not Kohryu appeared out of the severed arm of the spiky-haired boy. It headed straight for the ball of energy but it wasn't enough to dispel it.
A grunt from Touma could be heard and adding to Ren's surprise even more dragons started to come out of Touma's arm. Eight dragons in total had appeared out of his arm, all with different colors and different heads. They had gone straight for the ball of energy, to which Ren also sent Kohryu to help all of them annihilate it.
"Holy shit!" Ren said excitingly "That actually looks cool!"
All of the dragons were eating away the energy and soon the entire thing was destroyed. The dragons, however, now focussed their attention on Kohryu. They started attacking Kohryu and Ren desperately called him back.
"What... the hell?"
Soon the dragons went after Ren himself. Ren tried to run away and all of the dragons were still chasing him.
"Touma! What the hell? Why are they attacking me?" Ren shouted frustrated.
If one of those dragons hit Ren, who knows what would happen. They looked ferocious and might actually be stronger than his Persona power. It was best to just avoid them for as long as he could and hoped that Touma would somehow stop them.
"Get. Back. In!" Touma screamed.
The dragons, however, were still attacking Ren.
"Dammit!" Ren shouted. "Lucifer!"
Ren had cast a Heat Riser on himself in order to maximize his speed and defense in case he would be backed in a corner. The speed he gained gave him an edge to dodge the dragons, but dodging eight of them would prove to be a challenge.
Did Touma actually lack control over the dragons, or was it something else? Touma was a good person, so were the dragons a different entity from him? All these questions were arising in Ren's head.
Ren noticed that his Heat Riser had worn off quickly and that the dragons were now catching up with him.
"Kohryu!" Ren shouted.
The dragon had charged one of the dragons that was the closest and managed to hit it. Another dragon suddenly turned and bit a part of Kohryu's body.
"Damn!" Ren said, feeling the shared pain.
Ren recalled Kohryu and was now going to do his best to try and dodge all of them. His Heightened Sensation would see any openings and Ren would have to execute moves with pinpoint precision to get out of this unscathed.
Ren turned his body to get ready when he heard Touma screaming.
"GET. BACK. IN!"
The dragons had stopped short of Ren. Calm began to take over the area and the dragons slowly began to disappear from sight.
Touma stood there injured and with a torn sports jacket.
"I'm so sorry!" Touma apologized. "I couldn't stop them for a bit."
"It's... fine. I was just a little shocked, nothing worse than that." Ren then looked at Touma's shoulder. "Heh, look at that thought, your arm is back. I honestly don't know why I don't find that surprising. Anyway, go talk to her, I know you have something to say to her."
Touma looked like he wanted to say more, but ultimately just nodded his head and went to talk to Misaka.
Ren took the time to go back and talk to Sogiita who looked to be in decent shape after all the stress that was on his body.
"How are you feeling?" Ren asked, casting a healing spell on himself.
"Great! But to think that both of you were capable of using dragons! That must take a lot of guts!" Sogiita complimented. "If it's ok with you, I'd like to spar with you and Kamijou one day."
"I'll be looking forward to it," Ren said with a grin.
"By the way, where did all that metal come from? It wasn't there before..."
Both boys looked over to see the floor covered in a strange type of white-looking metal. Misaka and Touma were walking over it and looked like they were heading back in the direction of the festival.
"Never a dull moment is there?" Ren noted.
A couple of hours after the event that occurred. Ren and Touma decided to hit up some food stalls as there was going to be a folk dance near it and they decided to go check it out. Touma looked around and saw someone that he recognized, so Ren just decided to tag along and be courteous.
"Ah, it's you, eh… Saten right I never got to properly thank you for the good luck charm that you let me borrow for the scavenger hunt. If you'd like something to eat I can treat you to something."
Ren gave Touma a dumbfounded look. He wouldn't pay for his own meals and now wanted to treat Saten to a meal?
"Oh, Kamijou. Nah, don't worry." Saten said. "By the way, how are you Amamiya? I didn't know you two were friends."
"Oh, I'm doing fine," Ren replied politely. "It's good to see you and Uiharu. And this lady over here is also your friend?" Ren asked while looking at a pigtailed girl in a wheelchair.
"Yes I am, I'm Kuroko Shirai, it's a pleasure to meet you." The pigtailed girl introduced herself. Under her breath, Ren could hear with Heightened Sensation her saying something about him at least not being an ape.
"Likewise, I'm Ren Amamiya."
"By any chance, are you two going to the folk dance?"
"Oh no, we're just here to get some food. Besides I'm not going to dance with Ren over here." Touma responded with a smug smile.
"Ouch, am I that unappealing, Touma?" Ren jokingly countered.
Ren knew that if Saten changed her mind and wanted something to eat that Touma wouldn't actually have enough money to get her anything good. So he came up with an idea so that both parties could benefit.
"Touma," Ren whispered. "Why don't you ask Saten to dance? It'll repay your debt and you get to dance with a girl."
"What?" Touma said with a blush. "No way!"
Ren took off his glasses and gave him a sharp look.
"You. Will. Do. As. I. Say."
"...Ok," Touma said, defeated.
Touma had to work up a bit of courage before asking Saten to dance.
"Hey Saten, would you like to go to the folk dance? I know it seems like a weird repayment, but I think both of us would enjoy it."
Ren facepalmed at what Touma said. There was no way that someone who could face off against an otherworldly power was using such a lame pickup line.
"Oh, sure thing, I actually really wanted to dance!" Saten replied.
'No way that actually worked,' Ren thought, eyes off to the side.
Saten and Touma began to walk towards the dance area and that left Ren with Uiharu and Shirai.
Misaka had shown up with drinks in her hand shortly after Touma and Saten had slipped off and gone to the dance.
"Huh? Where'd Saten go?" Misaka asked.
"She went to go dance with that Ape, now Onee-sama, doesn't that show you just how unworthy he is?" Kuroko said.
"He did what?!" Misaka said.
A little spark of electricity came off of the Electromaster's bangs and went away whenever the Trickster spoke up.
"Actually, I'm glad I found you Misaka. I was wondering if you wanted to dance?"
Ren had a microexpression on his face that he was hoping Misaka would pick up. He wanted to talk to her about what had happened earlier and was hoping that she would be ok with talking to him.
"Oh," Misaka said. "Of course."
"I lied!" Kuroko shrieked. "You're also like that ap-"
Uiharu had covered Kuroko's mouth and gave both Misaka and Ren a smile.
Ren and Misaka began to walk towards the dancing area and began to dance together.
"I heard what you said earlier when you were in there," Ren started. "And I don't want you thinking anything like that again."
"It looked to be my only option then," Misaka replied. "I didn't expect both of you to come and try to save me."
"Do you have any idea how much that would destroy that 'idiot'? It's ok for you to be saved."
Ren took a deep breath and began to talk again.
"I just wanted you to know that I will do everything in my power to protect you, and everything you hold dear. It's the right thing to do, and besides, I think Touma needs a lighter workload don't you think?"
It felt strange saying this to someone he hardly knew, but he didn't lie. It was the right thing to do and he would swear by it.
Ren let out a small laugh and looked at Misaka who wanted to say something. She had stayed quiet until the dance was near its end.
"Thank you, for saving me."
"Of course."
Feel free to leave a review, comments, suggestions, or any ideas you guys have. Don't hesitate to tell me off if you don't like something.
I will do my best to update as much as I can. Please bear with me if I take the time to upload a new chapter.
Once again, thank you to HelixPenn. He rips into me and tells me how horrible my drafts are.