Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.
I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.
Chapter 10: - Just a Dream?
Emerging back into the physical world, I was practically wheezing from all the exertion and the fact that I felt mentally drained; no surprise since I'd used my Persona and had to deal with more complications than I normally had to endure. I looked over at the two boys who I'd escaped Kamoshida's Palace with and found that Sakamoto was hunched over and breathing deeply, no doubt in pain from his leg whilst Amamiya was stood up, but his chest and shoulders fell and rose rapidly.
"Did we make it?" Sakamoto asked. A quick look around proved we were back in the physical world, I couldn't sense the ominous energy that permeated the atmosphere of the Metaverse plus the people here were walking around as if nothing was amiss and I didn't typically see this many people even as cognitions in the Metaverse, plus with no deformities added to them it further backed up the possibilities we had successfully returned. Amamiya suddenly pulled out his phone which caused me to raise an eyebrow at it.
You have returned to the real world. Welcome back. I blinked owlishly at those mechanical words, they'd definitely emanated from the phone, but how did the phone know we had even moved into another world and then come back; Sakamoto had a perplexed expression on his face whilst Amamiya seemed baffled by the insanity his phone was currently spitting out at the three of us.
"Huh? Returned? Does that mean we got away?" Sakamoto asked. I'd never had anything like this happen to me during my two months of experience but the sensation of exiting the Metaverse had enveloped us so I could only guess that we had been able to return to the physical world; every other piece of physical stimuli helped to support that thought as well.
"Probably," Amamiya whispered. His voice had lost all of its' authority, its' confidence, actually his posture had changed as well to the point where it almost looked like he was curling in on himself; I frowned slightly at this since it almost made me think of a hermit crab, Amamiya curling up inside of a shell to protect himself, I didn't know why he had seemed so strong and confident in the Metaverse only to become so shy and withdrawn here? Was it a product of his cognition? Or something else?
"I dunno what to think anymore," Sakamoto lamented. Amamiya tucked his phone away as Sakamoto perked up. "What was all that anyways? That castle, and Kamoshida and that weird cat! The hell's goin' on!?" Sakamoto exclaimed. Very, very loudly at that, I felt a wave of fear rush over me at how loud the false blonde was being about what we had just gone through in the physical world.
"Shhhh! Sakamoto-san! Be quiet!" I pleaded. My tone had gone back to the normal that Sakamoto was used to, causing both boys to look at me with wide eyes, likely at my softer cadence that the steely one I'd been using before, but right now I was worried; worried that Sakamoto would draw unwanted attention to us and his words could run the risk of someone getting nosey if he wasn't careful.
"What's with the yelling? Are you students of Shūjin?" A voice demanded. I looked over and saw two police officers walking over to us – argh! These were the worst people to have drawn the attention of! – one of them was pushing a bike and seemed placid whilst the other had an aggressive expression to his face, meaning he had likely been the one to call out to us. "Cutting classes, are we?" The officer demanded.
"Huh? No!" Sakamoto answered. I looked at Sakamoto, wondering what he was going to say in response to the officer's accusation. "We were tryin' to get to school, and we ended up a-," Sakamoto began to explain. Realising he was going for the truth, I subtly moved over and stamped on his foot, causing the boy to fall quiet as pain lanced through his appendage especially as I rubbed my foot from side to side slightly to ensure Sakamoto stayed quiet.
"My apologises officer," I calmly spoke. I bowed slightly to the two men which cause them both to look at me as I released Sakamoto's foot from my assault on it, mentally apologising to the blonde. "We're actually late because of the new transfer student beside me," I lied… sort of. I gestured towards Amamiya who I could feel was giving me a panicked look. "He's new to Tokyo and I fear that exposure to our chaotic lifestyle had made him unwell, he was rather pale and sickly earlier so me and my classmate here who happened to be passing by took him to rest. Honestly, the new student really should have headed home but he insisted he felt well enough to go to school so the two of us were escorting him there, just to make sure he wasn't hurt," I lied. Thankfully, awakening a Persona was draining business so Amamiya did look exhausted enough that most people would believe he was ill.
"I see, that's very kind of the both of you. Although it's basically fourth period now I believe, but if it is this young man's first day, I can understand his determination to get there at least for a brief time. You three should hurry to your school now," The placid officer encouraged. He had a gentle smile on his face that caused a flash of a memory to scorch my mind, but I maintained my composure as I gave the man a kind smile.
"Thank you, officer," I chimed. Turning around, I gripped both boys by the hand, being extra firm with Sakamoto. "Come along you two, it's time for us to head to school," I insisted. With that, I dragged the two of them away, Sakamoto limping and stumbling whilst Amamiya trailed but easily kept moving; I heard the two officers talking behind me but I didn't pay attention to their words and instead kept us moving along the same path we had taken to reach Kamoshida's Palace.
"Chiba! Why'd you lie like that? Why not tell them about the castle?" Sakamoto demanded. I didn't answer the question, choosing to instead focus on getting them to school, we emerged from the little alleyway and I heard sounds of shock escape the two boys who I had dragged here as they looked at the sight in front of them.
"What castle, Sakamoto-san?" I asked. We had reached the front of Shūjin which – since we were in the physical world – had its' true appearance displayed to us; I turned to look at the duo and I saw both of them were openly gaping at the sight with Amamiya even pulling his glasses off and rubbing his eyes, I briefly saw him peak out between his hands before hiding his eyes and putting the glasses back on, but the rapid blinking proved that nothing had changed.
"Is this for real? You brought us the same way, I'm sure of it Chiba… what's goin' on here?" Sakamoto asked. There wasn't much I could tell them in such an exposed place and even though Sakamoto had gone inside the Metaverse, I didn't want to tell him anything that might make him liable to try and find a new way in, without a Persona he was vulnerable. It didn't matter that before Amamiya he had the strongest blue flames hovering behind him, the Persona had not been awakened which meant he couldn't truly fight, weapons only did a small amount of damage compared to the devastation a Persona's spell or skills could conjure.
"That's exactly what I wanted to ask you," A voice called. I turned around to see a teacher… um… oh boy, it was one I saw so rarely that I'd forgotten his name. "We received a call from the police," The teacher admitted. Sakamoto complained about being snitched on with a kick to the ground in frustration. "It's rare not to see you alone. But why are you with him Chiba-san?" The teacher asked. His expression of indignant rage had shifted to one of perplexed concern as he look at me, which was no surprise since Sakamoto had a delinquent reputation whilst I was basically an honours student.
"If the police already called you Sensei, then you should be aware of the situation. Amamiya-san fell ill and I was near him when it happened, I convinced Sakamoto-san to help me take care of Amamiya-san. My apologises for not contacting the school, I had asked Sakamoto-san to do it but it appears he might not have heard me," I lied. Honestly, I didn't like doing this, lying so much left me with a vile taste in my mouth but the secret of the Metaverse was too dangerous to go swinging around without control, especially if someone were to believe it.
"Always trying to help others, aren't we Chiba-san," A vile voice called. I fought to keep my expression under control but that did nothing to stop the tight curling of the hand around my bag's straps; Sakamoto squawked Kamoshida's name in surprise whilst I heard a shocked gasp escape from Amamiya, thankfully neither of them said anything else.
"Yes," I answered. My steely bite coming back as I fought not to narrow my eyes into a glare at the sight of this depraved beast. "I will not stand idly by whilst others are suffering, no matter who's toes I may step on to do so," I stated. Kamoshida's eyes flashed, ever since seeing him about to hurt poor Mishima, I'd been pretty passive-aggressive to him which caused him to not like me, but for some reason he hadn't attempted to do anything to me… small favours, I guess.
"As for you Sakamoto, you seem so carefree," Kamoshida stated. I didn't like where this was going, he was likely going to say something to rile up Sakamoto. "Quite a difference from when you did morning practice for the track team," Kamoshida stated. Oh seriously?! Salt in the wound much! I could sense Sakamoto getting riled up just by those words, a quick look showed a tense and black expression settling over his face as he dropped into a stance.
"Shuddup! It's your fault that-," Sakamoto began to snarl. I quickly moved over, stepping in front of Kamoshida to block Sakamoto's view of him and I gripped his shoulders in a firm manner but not one to cause pain. "Chiba?" Sakamoto asked. I shook my head in a slow and methodical manner, whilst keeping my grip steady; I didn't want Sakamoto to get harmed in any way by Kamoshida, simply because Kamoshida simply wasn't worth it.
"How dare you speak that way to Kamoshida-san! There's not much leeway left for you; you know?" The teacher spoke. I moved to the side to allow them to see Sakamoto who kept trembling with barely contained rage, I saw Amamiya looking on worriedly, his mouth was open, but it was almost like someone had stolen his voice from him just as his earlier confidence had also vanished like smoke.
"He's the one who provoked me!" Sakamoto protested. The teacher threatened to expel Sakamoto which caused my mouth to open slightly in shock, just how much damn control did Kamoshida have over the other teachers? The teacher added on that Sakamoto would have to explain himself. "What!? This is bullshit!" Sakamoto protested. Kamoshida put on that disgustingly fake smile that charmed so many other as he looked at the teacher.
"Come now, I should have been more considerate, let's just say we're both to blame," Kamoshida insisted. I wanted to say so many things right there and then about how only Kamoshida was to blame since it was his fault for dissolving the track team but going beyond my passive-aggressive motions and into an actual confrontation would just cause trouble for my infiltration later on down the line.
"Well, if you say so…," The teacher agreed. He then turned back around to look at me with calmer eyes than he had been practically glaring at Sakamoto with before. "Chiba-san, since it's you… I'll overlook this one event, but please don't get too involved," The teacher said. I pressed my lips together as I simply inclined my head for an answer. "Sakamoto, you're coming with me. It's undeniable that you're extremely late," The teacher insisted.
"Fine," Sakamoto complied. A scowling pout on his lips and his posture back into the slouch he typically had; I moved up the steps and into the building, already feeling more drained than normal but that was a result of the Metaverse before coming to school, I could only hope things would be easier for the rest of the day.
'I'll need to deal with Sakamoto and Amamiya, they somehow made their own way into the Metaverse and one of them awakened a Persona. The question is what, do I ask Amamiya for help in stealing the Treasure? Or should I just leave him alone? There's also Morgana to contend with, I'll likely see him again when I go in there next time, but what could that odd little creature be up to?' I thought. Entering into my classroom, I settled into my chair – second from the left as you faced the front and second from the back – and promptly splayed myself out over the top of it, feeling too exhausted to focus on anything.
"Chiba-san, are you okay?" A soft voice asked. I lifted my head up and saw Mishima hovering beside me, a worried look on his bruised face, which caused sorrow to fill my eyes, he didn't need to be suffering like this and then worrying about others; he had a good heart though, that was one of the reasons I wanted to stop Kamoshida so much, because someone as kind as Mishima didn't deserve to suffer just like someone as vibrant as Suzui didn't deserve to be degraded.
"Alright class, settle down," Kawakami-sensei's voice chimed. I looked up seeing my homeroom and Japanese teacher step inside; Kawakami Sadayo-sensei was a youthful-looking woman of medium height with a slender build, she had dark brown hair that was rather unkempt, dark brown eyes and consistently had a somewhat long and sleepy face which made me worry about if she was taking care of herself. Kawakami-sensei wore a yellow long-sleeved shirt striped with white and red horizontal lines, a blue denim skirt and white kitten heel pumps. She took her place at the desk in front of the class, but following after her was Amamiya!
'My… class. Of all the classes to put him in, it's this one?! Igor, if this is that gravity-fate thing you mentioned, this is taking it a little too far.' I thought. I calmed my mind after that and focused on Amamiya who was pulling into himself even more now, his grey eyes warily darting over the silent students who were scrutinising him heavily; Kawakami-sensei introduced Amamiya to us and claimed he not been present earlier in the day due to being unwell… I wonder if Kawakami-sensei had made that up or if Amamiya had kept to my lie.
"Nice to meet you," Amamiya spoke. His voice was barely above that of a mumbled whisper but the silence let everyone hear it; however people immediately started to talk about his criminal record which caused Amamiya's eyes to widened as his mouth opened slightly and his skin seem to rush paler than it already was… it seemed Sakamoto hadn't warned him about the leakage and so he'd been completely unprepared for the cruel judgment people would now be throwing at him.
"Uuh, so…," Kawakami-sensei spoke. The poor woman looked like she was floundering for a lifeline. "Your seat will be… hmm…," Kawakami-sensei spoke. Her eyes darting around the room, likely looking for where the new student could sit even though there was only a single open seat available for him to occupy.
"The seat next to me is open Kawakami-sensei, Amamiya-san can sit there," I offered. Kawakami-sensei brightened instantly whilst Amamiya's eyes locked on me and widened slightly; murmured whispers started up, but I paid no attention to them, instead I kept myself calm and composed as Amamiya's grey eyes practically burned into my form with unspoken questions.
"Thank you, Chiba-san. Amamiya-kun please sit beside Chiba-san, can you please share your textbooks with him?" Kawakami-sensei asked. I nodded my head, Amamiya looked fretful as he stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets and hunched himself over, he began to walk towards his seat with his head down and I felt my heart start to ache because he looked so afraid at that moment as if someone was going to attack him; verbally or physically, it didn't matter.
"Lies," A female voice hissed. I lifted an eyebrow at that sound, I looked over and saw that Amamiya had frozen in his movements right beside Takamaki's desk who was right in front of him; I noticed the surprised glimmer in Amamiya's grey eyes but there was a hint of recognition in them, implying the two had met yet I couldn't imagine when that had happened.
"Huh? You're that girl…," Amamiya whispered. His tone was soft and airy but I'm certain that the other students around the duo would have been able to hear him given that I had; Takamaki said no more as she turned her face away from Amamiya, the messy ravenette moved away from the desk and slid into his own seat but just as I wrapped my hands around my textbook to hand it to Amamiya the whispers started.
"Did you catch that? Do those two know each other?" One female voice whispered. I furrowed my eyebrows at those words as my grip suddenly tightened, poor Takamai was already suffering because of whatever Kamoshida was doing to her, but now this ridiculous rumour was spiralling around school about the two of them dating; I wanted to hurl whenever I heard that thing. "Eww… does that mean he hit on her before transferring here?" The same student accused.
"That mean's she's cheating on him with Kamoshida-sensei. Then again, this is Takamaki-san we're talking about," Another female voice accused. I handed the textbook over with a rigid expression upon my face as I stared dead ahead, trying to hold myself back from snapping at the arrogant duo of girls; they judged Takamaki based upon her appearance, I might not speak to Takamaki much but she had never been anything but polite and mature towards me.
"For real. That side of the room is totally awful," The first girl stated. Ever since awakening Phantom and refusing to blind myself to the wrongs I used to, I ended up hearing and seeing more cruelty and that caused the anger that used to be solely directed at my accursed uncle to flare whenever those showed up; thankfully Kawakami-sensei drew attention back to her before she started the last lesson of the day – the train crash yesterday had shortened the school day – so I focused my attention there.
"Oh, right! The volleyball rally's in two days… everyone just changed classes, so make sure you use that time to get to know each other. Well then, let's get class started. Who's on duty today?" Kawakami-sensei spoke. The volleyball rally, a student thing that was just to allow Kamoshida to stroke his overly inflated ego; Mishima stood up and started the lesson by calling us to rise.
*Persona 5 Royal*
Class ended and with it school, I was still exhausted but thankful to finally be able to go home and rest up. A soft thud came and I looked up to see my loaned textbook was back on my desk, it had been easy to get through the lesson without it so Amamiya had kept it all to himself. I kept myself from looking at him as I took the book back.
A heavy silence pressed upon me as I felt Amamiya's eyes boring into me, but I didn't want to run the risk of him trying to ask about the Palace in this place. I stalwartly ignored him – despite how cruel that was and I mentally kicked myself a few time – until he finally moved away. I lifted my head and saw him leave the room, packing my stuff I stood up and made to leave as well but kept my head down as I moved.
"Hm? What's wrong?" Kawakami-sensei suddenly asked. I looked up and saw the woman was stood in front of me but her back was turned to me which meant I wasn't the one she was speaking to; I moved myself around and I saw that the person she was talking to was Amamiya who had his right hand pressed to his forehead as if he had a headache of some kind.
"Is this… a castle?" Amamiya asked. That must have meant that his brain had superimposed the image of the castle over the school, my eyes would occasionally slip the details in after I realised what was happening in the other world, although why would such a thing be happening to someone without such an ability like mine? Amamiya dropped his hand and started to turn towards our teacher, so I ducked behind the door in order to not be seen.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Kawakami-sensei sighed. The woman seemed exhausted, more so than she regularly did which caused my lips to pull into a frown. "Also… it seems like people are already talking about you, but I'm not the one who told them. I can't even catch a break… why do I have to deal with this?" Kawakami-sensei complained. This must have been stressful for her to deal with. "You should head straight home without stopping by anywhere. Sakura-san sounded pretty angry," Kawakami-sensei stated. Why would Sōjirō be angry at Amamiya? Was it because of his probation? "Oh, and about Sakamoto-kun. Don't get involved-," Kawakami-sensei began to warn. But cut herself off suddenly. "Speak of the devil… what do you want? I heard the police caught you cutting classes today," Kawakami-sensei muttered. Ah, Sakamoto had shown up.
"Ugh… it was nothin'," Sakamoto stated. Well at least he wasn't trying to tell anyone about the Palace, Kawakami-sensei brought up that Sakamoto still had blonde hair instead of his natural black. "Sorry 'bout that," Sakamoto commented. He didn't sound particularly sorry when he said those words, silence followed and so I poked my head out slightly and saw Sakamoto had moved closer to Amamiya and whispering something to him; Sakamoto pulled away so I ducked back behind the door before he could see me.
"See? That's why I don't want you getting involved. Understood?" Kawakami-sensei insisted. With that, she proceeded to walk away from the doorway, peeking out I saw Amamiya was staring at something slightly ahead; stepping out so that I was behind the boy and couldn't be seen in his peripheral vision I saw that the people he was starting at happened to be Kamoshida and our worthless principal Kobayakawa, an overweight and bald middle-aged man with dark eyes, he wore a beige suit with a white undershirt and a red bow tie.
"Why did you allow a student like him to transfer here? He's already started associating with Sakamoto. And from what I saw, he's being a bad influence on Chiba," Kamoshida commented. My mouth unhinged at those words, how dare he! How dare that vile scumbag claim such a lie! I'd only known Amamiya for a few… hours – I think – so how could he be 'influencing' me!? Kamoshida had no qualms about attempting to ruin peoples' lives even when they had done nothing. "A student with a criminal record and the culprit of an assault case. At this rate, it'd be pointless how much I contribute to the school," Kamoshida commented.
"Now don't be like that… this school counts on you, Kamoshida-kun. You are our star. Still, a steady build-up is necessary behind such brilliance as well," Kobayakawa commented. That man seemed to only care about the reputation of the school, not the actual people who came here; Kamoshida claimed Kobayakawa's troubles never seemed to end before vowing to answer the 'expectations' Kobayakawa had of him and with that the two of them walked off in separate directions.
Amamiya also began to move, with him heading towards the stairs but he went up instead of down, frowning slightly out of worry that this could be due to what they experienced, I proceeded to follow after the boy. My tailing of Amamiya led me all the way to the rooftop, which we weren't normally allowed onto and it was typically locked but now it was unlocked and Amamiya slipped through the door; I walked up to it and opened the door a tiny fraction so that I could hear what was being said without being seen.
"There you are. Sorry for callin' you up here like this. I bet Kawakami already told you stuff like, 'don't get involved with him' huh?" Sakamoto commented. He was right on the money for that claim since that had been exactly what was said before Sakamoto had shown up; with only a small crack I couldn't see either of them thus couldn't try and read their expressions and body language to try and figure out what they might have been feeling.
"She said you're trouble. How did you know?" Amamiya asked. His voice was soft but a bit louder, firmer… stronger than the shy one he'd been speaking with since we had got out of the Palace; I wonder if this was some sort of traumatic response to the fact that he was arrested on what I was becoming convinced were false charges.
"Figured as much. Then again, we're in the same boat. I heard you got a criminal record. Everyone's talkin' about it. No wonder you were so gutsy," Sakamoto complimented. Of course, the delinquent wasn't averse to the fact that someone had a criminal record – true or not – and would act so collected, a slight creaking reached my ears before the others continued talking. "What was all that, that happened? You know, how we almost got killed at a castle… it wasn't a dream… right? You remember it too, yeah?" Sakamoto asked. I felt my breath catch at his words, if they could dismiss it as a dream then they wouldn't try to return to the Metaverse and both of them would be safe from further harm.
"Yeah… I remember. But that girl… Chiba-san, I think you called her. Wouldn't it be better to ask her, she seemed to know more about that castle than either of us," Amamiya spoke up. I perked up hearing those words, if they did try to ask me then I was going to have to avoid them in order to keep them safe which would make an attempted infiltration even harder than it normally would be.
"Chiba… yeah, askin' her would probably be best but the thing is she's not exactly the most open individual. I don't know if she'd even answer us. Besides, I'm a delinquent and you're the transfer student with a criminal record, if either of us try talkin' to the Yamato Nadeshiko of school… well, rumours and trouble would start circlin'," Sakamoto answered. I really hated that title; I don't know why people started to use it as it wasn't like I asked them to.
"What should we do then?" Amamiya asked. If they weren't going to approach me, that was for the best as they'd be less likely to accidentally stumble upon the Metaverse again if they stayed away from me without me having to start running away from them; of course, that would be entirely upon to them and I wouldn't manipulate them just to protect them as much a physically possible.
"Just 'cause we both remember it doesn't mean much though. But, even if it was a dream, you saved me from Kamoshida. So yeah… thanks Amamiya," Sakamoto stated. A smile twitched the corners of my lips, for all the troublesome rumours and foul language that Sakamoto spewed on occasion, he was a good person; this act proved that there was something very kind about him that he rarely allowed other people to see.
"It was nothing," Amamiya responded. There was a shy note to his voice, but I think if I had been looking, I'm sure there would have been a smile stretching across his face, he now knew there was at least one person who wouldn't judge him by the criminal record; that would be important for Amamiya's survival of the foul rumours currently spinning around the school.
"But man, that Kamoshida we saw there…," Sakamoto stated. I wouldn't be surprised if he gave a slight shudder in response to those words. "You prolly don't know about it, but there are some rumours about him," Sakamoto revealed. Amamiya repeated the name that had been spoken. "You know, the guy we met at the school gates. The ripped one. That asshole who was all full of himself at the castle. No one says anything against him 'cause he's some medallist who took the volleyball team to nationals and he acts all friendly. The way Kamoshida was king of that castle felt crazy real 'cause of that… I wonder if we can go back to that castle again," Sakamoto explained. This wasn't good... or so I thought until Sakamoto let out an annoyed groan. "Forget it! Must've all been a dream! It has to be!" Sakamoto declared. More creaking sounded along with a slight echo of foot falls. "Sorry to drag you out here like this. That's all I had to say. You know, we might be pretty similar. I feel like we're gonna get along just fine as 'troublemakers'. I'm Sakamoto Ryūji. I'll come talk if I see you around, don't ignore me, all right?" Sakamoto stated.
"Okay, I'm Amamiya Ren," Amamiya responded. Smiling with relief that they would stay away from the Metaverse of their own will, I closed the door and moved away down the steps; my impromptu visit to the Metaverse had drained me so I'd skip going this afternoon and just go home for now.
Tomorrow the work would continue.
