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 12: - Hoist the Flag!
"Kamoshida's… Training Hall… of Love? What kinda bullshit is this?!" Sakamoto exclaimed. Not that I blamed him, Kamoshida wouldn't know what love was if someone tattooed the all the literary definitions of it over their fists and then punched him with it, repeatedly. With a small scowl on my face, I moved around the wooden table and benches that were sat outside the door and pushed open the metal door that barred our way.
The moment it opened, something reached my ears… a sound like something swinging fast through the air stirring it up and then striking something with significant force. Screams carried through the air alongside that sound and I felt my blood chill at the possibility of what was ahead, red banners hung from the cold stone walls that enveloped us, an eerie mist drifted over the floor that was lower down.
I carefully made my way to the steps, descending down them and seeing the cells surrounding the sides of this so-called training hall. The sound was getting louder and when I crossed the bridge, to reach one set of the cells, I realised the sound was coming from the cell in front of me which Sakamoto also realised. The blonde darted passed me to look through the bars before letting out a small and terrified scream whilst jumping backwards, the rest of us rushed over and the sight I saw made me feel sick.
The inside was a depressed area allowing us to look down on the scene from above, it was set up like for a volleyball match, net stretching across the centre of the wooden floors and people in the Shūjin tracksuit filled the area. But instead of playing volleyball, some of the cognitions were forced to hold onto the netting whilst Shadows swung wooden poles into their backs! I clamped a hand over my mouth in an attempt to suppress the nausea that was rising up inside of me.
"Dammit! This is bullshit!" Sakamoto protested. He looked torn between rage and tears, a glisten in his eyes at odds with the flames that also burned there; Morgana immediately ordered Sakamoto to keep his voice down, but the Shadows inside didn't even respond to the sounds and instead continued with their macabre actions. "But this is beyond messed up!" Sakamoto protested. I managed to pull my hand away from my mouth, but it was mechanical and robotic in movements as my stomach still churned with the desire to throw up. "How do I open this?" Sakamoto asked.
"Stop it!" A feeble voice cried. I looked into the cell once more, to an area that was right beside the cell bars, seeing a bruised and battered cognition walk up to us. "Leave us alone… it's useless," The Cognition protested. Sakamoto was shocked into mostly silence and this allowed another cognition to walk over and spout an agreement with the other one that basically amount to the fact that they didn't want to get executed.
"You're telling me you want to stay in a place like this?!" Sakamoto exclaimed. Oh shoot, we hadn't informed Sakamoto that the people in here outside of the four of us were just puppets, I'd been far too focused on the staying alive, protecting Sakamoto and helping Morgana to mentor Amamiya facets that I hadn't stopped to question why Sakamoto had wanted to come to this location in the first place.
"Wait a minute… were you planning on taking these guys out of here?" Morgana asked. It seems the cat creature had also just caught on to the fact Sakamoto was still oblivious to the cognitions' true nature; Sakamoto made the fine point that they couldn't just be left here… had they actually been physical people instead of an amalgamation of distorted thoughts. "How stupid can you be?" Morgana questioned.
"They aren't real Sakamoto," I spoke up. I cut across whatever angry comment Sakamoto had been about to spit out at Morgana. "We already told you how this castle is the school viewed through Kamoshida's distorted heart. Down there…," I added on. I gestured towards the cognitions, so he knew what I meant. "Are simply recreations of the actual flesh and blood people who attend Shūjin. They're called cognitions, distorted thoughts given shape and a minor amount of free will but only based upon what the Ruler believes about them. They are nothing like us," I finished up.
"So… they're people… made from how Kamoshida… views the real ones," Amamiya rationalised. I turned to look at the boy who gave a disgusted side look to the sight beside us but seemed more than happy to focus on the new information. "If they are just thought, then saving them wouldn't help at all. It's more like they're very convincing dolls," Amamiya stated.
"The hell!? Why's it gotta be so complicated!?" Sakamoto protested. He seemed to have calmed down until he realised something and an angry looked once more descended upon his face. "So, the school's a castle and the students are slaves. It's so on point that it makes me laugh. This really is the inside of that asshole's head," Sakamoto hissed. His hatred for Kamoshida laced every word he had spoken.
"Yes, and the unfortunate truth is that if this is how Kamoshida views them in here, it's how they're treated in reality," I admitted. Morgana practically wilted at that, shoulders dropping and his ears flattening to the back of his head. "I already knew the rumours of physical abuse were true… but this is vile… Kamoshida truly is a degenerate," I commented.
"Oh yeah, now I remember! These guys are on the volleyball team! The one Kamoshida coaches!" Sakamoto exclaimed. It seemed he had finally understood what the significance of this meant, his head then almost mechanically turned to me. "Wait, the rumours are true?" Sakamoto asked. I nodded my head to confirm this, "Then why didn't you-!" Sakamoto began to yell before shaking his head and cooling off. "Nah, even if it's you Chiba, no one would listen and your life would be as screwed as mine by that bastard!" Sakamoto realised. A frown curled onto my lips at those words, Sakamoto had realised it without needing to say anything, he might not be book smart but he had a lot of common sense.
"This is truly awful, I can't believe someone would treat real people like this," Morgana whispered. Amamiya had said nothing, so I glanced at him and saw a hard and cold look on his face as he glared down into the pit, his grey eyes burned with a sort of cold fury as his entire posture radiated with anger. "They must be physically abused every day. There's no way they'd be so beat up normally," Morgana admitted.
"If they're true, wouldn't this be somethin' to report to the police?" Sakamoto suggested. He then reached into his pocket and pulled his white cased phone out. "I'll use these guys as evidence," Sakamoto decided. Knowing what he was going to do I reached out and gently covered his phone, causing the blonde to look over at me in surprise.
"You think I didn't already try it; phones don't work in this world. We can't take a picture of them, otherwise I would have done so earlier and gone to the police," I revealed. Removing my hand, I allowed Sakamoto to look and he saw that the phone was indeed not functioning like it used to, a quick look at Amamiya showed he had his own silver cased phone out to check the same thing
"It really isn't workin'. We can use the navigation app but the camera's a no go!?" Sakamoto exclaimed. The words 'navigation app' got repeated by me and Morgana as I looked confusingly between the two boys, confused by what they were talking about, there was no such thing as an app that let one enter the Metaverse, after all no one without a Persona should know it exists without having been brought in. "That's what we used to come here," Sakamoto confirmed.
"I've got an idea in mind to streamline your ability to search for Palaces my dear, it'll take a bit of time, but rest assured it will come in handy," Igor's voice echoed in my mind. He had been trying to help me when I angrily muttered about the long delay of finding out the form of Kamoshida's Palace… but if this app was Igor's finished project, then why hadn't he given it to me? Oh, where had you gone?
"Whatever you do is fine but we're going to get caught if we stand around like this. We need to head back!" Morgana insisted. With that bit of encouragement and warning, Sakamoto vowed to memorise all the faces he saw in the accursed cell; I glanced around and noticed some other cells that had sounds coming out of them.
"There are others, do you want to look?" I asked. Sakamoto agreed and Amamiya followed quickly after, I guided them to the next cell and we looked inside seeing a treadmill like object running at a fast speed with three cognitions running on it, behind them was a giant spinning spiked roll that the treadmill would be dragging them back to and in front of them hanging in the air was a teapot with the spout pointing at the cognitions. "What on earth?" I asked. The previous one was horrific, but this was bizarrely so, I heard one of the cognitions beg for water.
"Not givin' athletes water even for tough trainin' is a common thing in the real world too. That sack of shit! I'm gonna try and memorise all these guys' faces before we go back," Sakamoto answered. The blonde gripped the bars of the cell tight and stared down at the cognitions' faces, desperately attempting to fulfil his self-imposed task of memorising the faces to better aid those in the physical world.
"Maybe, but that's probably done to try and help build endurance. This is straight up torture," Amamiya commented. A scowl was firmly fixed onto his lips as he glared down at the sight, Sakamoto eventually pulled back and we moved down to the final cell; only for Amamiya to jump back slightly when we saw what was inside as my nausea returned with a vengeance, Morgana's ears flicked back with a small moan slipping from him and Sakamoto practically tried to squeeze himself through the bars of the cell.
"The hell? This ain't trainin' at all… it's just violence!" Sakamoto exclaimed. Not that he could be blamed, a single cognition was hanging from the ceiling of the cell over a volleyball set up and a freaking cannon was strapped to the wall, launching volleyballs at the cognition who couldn't even try and swing to avoid them, this scene kept repeating in a vicious cycle of load, launch, strike, reload as the cognition kept screaming his pain. "This mean he's doin' something similar in reality too, right? Damn that bastard!" Sakamoto hissed.
"The harsh spikes," I realised. Sakamoto spun around to look at me as did Amamiya and Morgana. "Kamoshida has the awful habit of harshly spiking balls at students, I've seen him do it in P.E. to Mishima-san and even today on Amamiya-san," I explained. Amamiya realised what I meant as his hands curled into fists.
"Just how much of a monster is he?" Amamiya hissed. None of us had an answer for him but the scenes we'd been forced to endure would say something pretty ugly about this man. "You better hurry up Sakamoto," Amamiya insisted. Sakamoto insisted he knew and turned back to staring into the cell. "Are you okay Chiba-san?" Amamiya asked. His tone had gone soft, similar to how it was in the physical world but with a touch of sternness to it, his hand rested gently on my shoulder as he peered down at me.
"No… I most certainly am not okay Amamiya-san. I knew he was a degenerate beast, but this… this is beyond anything I'd ever considered. Kamoshida must be stopped," I answered. My hands curled into tight fists, bunching up the skirt I wore; no words escaped Amamiya, but his hand slid down the sheer covering on my shoulders to press against the area between my shoulder blades and moved in soothing rubs. "Thank you for worrying Amamiya-san," I admitted. It was kind of him to care.
"Okay! I got them! Let's book it!" Sakamoto declared. He spun around and froze when he saw me and Amamiya then walked up to me. "Chiba, you okay? You look pale," Sakamoto asked. I gave a short and sharp nod as an answer, Morgana encouraged us to escape and we all proceeded to face the pathway out of this place; our back track was quite easy as we came across no Shadows and easily came out into the dungeons where the cognitions had been imprisoned before. "Alright, we're back. We gotta get outta here, quick!" Sakamoto insisted.
"The watch post near the training hall has ceased reporting!" A voice bellowed. All of us jumped and turned to face its' direction with slightly panicked looks on our faces, seriously that was too close and too well timed. "Chances of intruder activity are extremely high! All personnel increase security measures!" The voice added on.
"And that is our cue to run like hell," I suggested. Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance as a knight showed up and we were all forced to dive behind boxes to avoid being discovered. "We can't use a shortcut with this high a security level, we're going to have to leave the way we got in," I insisted. The boys looked confused but now was no time to explain shortcuts, we were forced to stealth our way back through the dungeons and out to the entrance hall stairway that connected down to the dungeons.
"The exit's this way! Let's hurry!" Morgana insisted. We ran up the stairs and into the hallway, only to come across an immediate problem as not only did several knights cut into our path, including one clad in gold unlike the dull grey the others wore which identified it as a captain, but Shadow Kamoshida was there as well; all four of us pulled up in shock as Shadow Kamoshida glared at us with disdain in his eyes and I immediately summoned my naginata to my side.
"You knaves again? To think you'd make the same mistake again. You're hopeless!" Shadow Kamoshida spat. Sakamoto moved forward and snapped that the school wasn't Kamoshida's castle and he had successfully memorised the cognitions' faces. "It seems it's true when they say 'barking dogs seldom bite'. How far the star runner of the track team has fallen," Kamoshida mocked.
"And like you didn't have a hand in that," I accused. Venom laced each word as I snarled at the dark echo of Kamoshida's warped and twisted beliefs and desires; Shadow Kamoshida looked over at me with those disturbed gold eyes and I saw the lecherous look appear within them. "You're the kind of twisted, pathetic, lowly mongrel who'd destroy anything you have no control over if it threatened you," I snapped.
"Hah, all I'm doing is speaking of the 'Track Traitor' who acted in violence, ending his teammates' dreams," Shadow Kamoshida responded. A mocking note of sympathy within his voice as his gold eyes cut to a Sakamoto who was practically vibrating with barely contained rage. "Oh, I can imagine the pain of the others who were dragged under with your… selfish act," Shadow Kamoshida carried on.
"Violence? Track Traitor?" Amamiya-san asked. Shadow Kamoshida let out a mocking laugh as he seemed to find it funny that Amamiya was accompanying Sakamoto without knowing about Sakamoto's past; I tightened my grip around the naginata I held, wondering if I should say anything about this situation to Amamiya but it wasn't my place to speak of another's life.
"He betrayed his teammates and crushed their hopes, yet he still carries on as carefree as ever," Shadow Kamoshida lied. That was a bold-faced lie, Sakamoto wasn't carefree, he had burdened himself with the regret of what had happen to the track team and held such anger towards Kamoshida that it seemed Sakamoto had no way to find any joy with his life due to the pain he'd endured because of this scum.
"That's not true!" Sakamoto yelled. His face was twisted up in pain as he glared at Shadow Kamoshida, but the damned pervert claimed that Amamiya had blindly trusted Sakamoto and been led right to his death; with that he turned away from us and ordered his men to 'dispose' of us, I immediately spun around and slammed my hand into Sakamoto sternum.
With my normal physical strength and the enhancement of cognition, I forced Sakamoto to go sliding back from the encirclement that we'd been trapped within just as the ordinary knights transformed into Bicorns, black horses with white manes, two curled green horns, red eyes and gold capped hooves. Me, Amamiya and Morgana immediately dropped into stances as I put my back against Amamiya's and nudged Morgana so that he stood at our sides.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you 'cause King Kamoshida told us! I'll kill you 'cause that's what he wants!" A Bicorn howled. He reared up and flailed his front legs at us, he then charged and rammed into Amamiya – I felt the vibration pass through him to me – which caused Amamiya to slump over from the sensations I could feel; the other two proceeded to do the same to me and Morgana, Morgana dodged it at the last second and I managed to block it in time.
"Don't use Arsène's Curse spell! They're resistant to it!" I warned. Their weakness was electricity, which we also didn't have access to, I quickly flung a Tera at the nearest Bicorn, the bang of a gun echoed behind me as Morgana used his wind to attack a different one; but as if to make the situation worse more knights charged up to surround us.
They unleashed a collective attack as one, each ploughing into one of us several times in quick succession. I tried to block and dodge them as much as possible, but eventually I was forced to the ground, collapsing into a heap. Amamiya was already on the ground with a knight captain stomping on his chest, an ordinary knight pinned me down and Morgana was eventually knocked down only for Shadow Kamoshida to step on the cat creature and pin him down as well, Morgana tried to insult Shadow Kamoshida but couldn't finish it.
"I bet you simply came here on a whim and ended up like this. Isn't that right?" Shadow Kamoshida asked. I twisted my head around to look at Sakamoto who was slumped to the floor on his knees, a weak no escaped from him in response. "What a worthless piece of trash, getting emotional so quickly… how dare you raise your hand at me," Shadow Kamoshida mocked. A mocking smirk with the glimmer of teeth appearing at the edge of the upper lip. "Though it was only temporary, have you forgotten my kindness in supervising track practice?" Shadow Kamoshida asked.
"Wasn't no practice! It was physical abuse! You just didn't like our team!" Sakamoto yelled. He fell forward and slammed his fists into the red carpet beneath him, Shadow Kamoshida claimed that only he needed to achieve results; I lifted my arms up and started to try and push the knight's armoured foot off of me, but cognition was a powerful thing and all the things I knew about the lack of proper leverage, the implied weight of the knight and my own strength prevented me from believing I could push him off.
"That coach who got fired was hopeless too. Had he not opposed me with a sound argument, I would've settled it with only breaking his star's leg," Shadow Kamoshida admitted. That got Sakamoto's attention as he lifted his head up to look at the Shadow with surprise in wide brown eyes. "Do you need me to deal with your other leg too? The school will call it self-defence anyway!" Shadow Kamoshida declared. Are you kidding? Someone at school knew Kamoshida had broken Sakamoto's leg and just covered it up! How could they be that heartless?!
"Dammit… am I gonna lose again?" Sakamoto whispered. His eyes were downcast as his expression twisted into one of pain, tears started to bleed into his eyes. "Not only can I not run anymore… the track team is gone too 'cause of this asshole," Sakamoto admitted. Morgana realised that this was the source of Sakamoto's deep rage for Kamoshida, he had suffered perhaps more than anyone at Kamoshida's disgusting hands.
"Once these three are dealt with, you're next," Shadow Kamoshida announced. He then proceeded to start laughing in that egotistical manner that irritated my ears, we were in serious trouble if we didn't manage to escape from our predicament and escape from this Palace; if I could just reach my mask then I might be able to use Phantom to get us out of here.
"Are you going to let him talk to you like that!? You can't forgive him, right?! You have to stand up for yourself!" Amamiya yelled. Sakamoto lifted his head as he looked at Amamiya who was struggling as much as I was to try and escape from his own entrapment, if there was ever a time for Sakamoto to Awaken his Persona, it was here and now! Facing down the one that caused him so much pain, so much suffering, who took away his happiness… if we wanted to escape with any certainty, Sakamoto had to rebel!
"Rebel!" I yelled. Sakamoto looked at me, his eyes wide with surprise. "You had the potential within you all along! You only needed to rebel! Find your reason to fight back against this unfair world! And rebel!" I encouraged. The words must have finally clicked into place as Sakamoto pulled himself upright, tears fading as rage swelled.
"You're both right. Everything that was important to me was taken by him… I'll never get 'em back!" Sakamoto admitted. Shadow Kamoshida started to run his mouth but I couldn't care less about what was being said by that filth. "No… that's what you are," Sakamoto stated. An almost deadly calm surrounded the blonde as he pushed himself to his feet. "All you think about is using people, you're the real scumbag, Kamoshida!" Sakamoto snapped. He then began to approach the Ruler who ordered one of his knights to silence Sakamoto. "Stop lookin' down on me with that stupid smile on your face!" Sakamoto ordered.
It was enough. The fire surged so brightly at that moment and Sakamoto immediately began to scream in pain, his eyes became the same eerie gold as any Shadow and he reached up to grip his head. His fingers dug in tightly as he collapsed back onto his knees, his forehead pressed against the ground as he writhed back and forth across it, eventually rolling over onto his back. Sakamoto must have been listening to his Persona call to him before eventually rolling back onto his front and pushing up onto his knees.
When Sakamoto lifted his head up, a skull mask covering the entirety of his face from the top of his mouth upwards in a pale greyish-white shade was planted there. The Knight Captain was dismissive of Sakamoto and seemed prepared to cut off Amamiya's head, but as for Sakamoto he didn't need any information from us, instead Sakamoto easily raised his hands and gripped the mask's edge, quickly pulling it off and allowing blood to drip down his face briefly before the blue fire surged forward to consume him.
When the fire faded and moved back behind, Sakamoto's outfit had been transformed into his Rebel's Armour, which consisted of a black jacket with elbow pads and pants with knee pads; looped around the waist was a double-sided holster belt with ammo on each side, a red ascot was twisted around his neck, sturdy black combat boots and a pair of yellow gloves with metal plates running across the knuckles. Then the fire completely diminished and Sakamoto's Persona could finally be seen.
The Persona looked like a cartoonish caricature of classic pirates in media, with an eyepatch, prosthetic right arm and captain's hat with a skull and crossbones design. It wore a blue shirt, a pair of black pants with golden trim, white boots, and a long flowing red cape. The torso was covered by a grey harness that ended in a pair of cutlasses just below the neck with a pair of anchor ornaments on chains dangling from the harness. The face was nothing but a skull with a red-yellow eye, the frame was also extremely thin, implying that the Persona's entire body was nothing but a skeleton beneath the clothes. The left hand was covered by a yellow glove but with sharp jagged nails whilst the cannon that replaced the right hand is golden.
The flying pirate ship was barely large enough to carry the Persona, comparable in size to a surfboard. It was seemingly made of black wood and had both of its masts torn off with the rigging nets had also been torn off and flying in the wind, similar to the Persona's cape. The black sails of the ship, which would normally be on the masts, had seemingly been tied and wrapped up on the bow of the ship. The ship's hull has been decorated with a large grinning face with manic red-yellow eyes similar to the Persona's own eye, sharp white teeth and a toothy grin. Small gold cannons adorn the ship's sides. Lastly, there appears to be figurehead of a golden angelic woman adorning the bow of the ship.
"Ugh… this one as well?" Shadow Kamoshida asked. The force of the Awakening had sent the three that had been pining us down flying backwards; scrambling up to my feet I quickly moved to stand with Sakamoto as did Amamiya and Morgana. I saw that along the back of Sakamoto's jacket was what appears to be a metal vertebral column attached to it, the Rebel's Armour was certainly odd but no odder than mine or Amamiya's was.
"Right on. Wassup Persona. This effin' rocks. Now that I got this power, it's time for payback," Sakamoto commented. He had a wild grin on his face, likely running high on the adrenaline of having unleashed his Persona. "Yo, I'm ready. Bring it!" Sakamoto dared. The guard captain grew angry and crashed his sword down on the chequered floor, transforming into a massive, horned, red armoured knight with a white fur trimmed cape sat upon a massive black horse with a spear in hand, this was known as Eligor. "Blast him away… Captain Kidd!" Sakamoto commanded.
In response to the command, the Persona lifted its' cannon arm and pointed it right at Eligor, firing off a powerful buzzing energy that I realised was Electricity, unfortunately for us the damn Shadow managed to dodge the attack which was only a problem for us since this Shadow, like the Bicorn, was weak to Electricity Magic.
"What troublemakers that bother King Kamoshida with trifling matters!" Eligor snarled. I looked over at Sakamoto and saw that clutched within his hand was a steel pipe, likely meant to be his Rebel's Weapon but since a gun hadn't been brought in with him that meant he only possessed that weapon plus his Persona's methods of attack.
"Kamoshida's cognition ain't changin' right? Then I'll act like the troublemaker I am!" Sakamoto declared. I didn't blame him for feeling that way and at least now that troublemaking spirit of his was being a benefit to him and the rest of us. "Let's do this, Captain Kidd!" Sakamoto ordered. As if to make things difficult for us, Eligor thrust his spear into the air and two Bicorns surged into existence on either side of the massive horseman, looking rather pitiful by comparison.
"Yes, yes Eligor. Summon more creatures weak to Electricity," I snidely commented. With that said I proceeded to cast a glance over at the person who'd been named our leader. "We need to be careful, Eligor's resistant to Curse Spells as well," I explained. Amamiya gave me a quick side glance, but I saw understanding in his eyes as he gripped his dagger.
"But you said he's weak to Electricity!" Sakamoto declared. A wide grin on his face; without waiting for any kind of orders from Amamiya, who seemed accepting from the grin on his face, Sakamoto proceeded to blast the three Shadows with individual bolts of electricity which would only chew through his Soul Power faster but without a multi-target spell there wasn't much to do; Sakamoto didn't attack after knocking down the third animal.
"Arsène!" Amamiya called. The demonic gentleman manifested and swung out his sharp bladed heels to cut apart a Bicorn, which dissipated into smoke, I quickly summoned out Phantom and cast Makakaja on Morgana to raise his magical attack; Morgana was grinning as he unleashed an empowered Garu spell that tore through the remaining Bicorn leaving Eligor all alone as he climbed to his feet.
Eligor's horse released a high whiny as he swung out his spear, slicing through Sakamoto who went stumbling back as a result on the attack but thankfully he stayed standing up. An annoyed look appeared on Sakamoto's face as he unleashed another bolt of Electricity straight at Eligor which forced the horse to its' knees as Eligor slumped forward slightly.
"Everyone! Attack now!" Amamiya commanded. He darted out front, his dagger tightly gripped in his hand as he leapt at the downed Shadow, the three of us quickly followed after him and we hacked and slashed – or clubbed in Sakamoto's case – as fast as we could in order to deal as much damaged as possible; the moment Eligor began to move we leapt backwards as the horse shakily climbed to its' feet and the armoured man pushed himself upright.
"One more strike and that should be enough!" I called out. Amamiya passed up the opportunity and instead had Morgana head out, since he was still empowered by my support spell his magic would be much greater than anyone else's unless I cast a second Makakaja but clearly Amamiya deemed that a waste; Morgana unleashed a furious Garu that sliced through the knight's last bit of resistance.
"I am… a loyal subject… of the glorious King Kamoshida… so why… have I lost!?" Eligor protested. He was lying practically flat against the neck of his horse whose head was also bent down rather close to the floor of the entryway; Sakamoto was grinning as he slung his pipe over his shoulders, seemingly at ease and satisfied with what was happening at the moment.
"It just proves that Kamoshida ain't anything special," Sakamoto commented. And with one final bolt of Electricity magic, Eligor was reduced to smoke, at that moment Sakamoto hunched over and started to breath heavily, likely since the adrenaline rush was wearing off and he had exhausted his Soul Power a fair bit. "How… 'bout that!?" Sakamoto declared.
"Whoa… so Sakamoto had the potential too," Morgana breathed. He was likely surprised by the revelation that he'd met three people who wielded Personas in the place that he had been imprisoned; Sakamoto declared his refusal to forgive Kamoshida even if he did apologise but Shadow Kamoshida didn't seem to be even concerned by the fact that we'd been able to take out his guard captain.
"I told you that this is my castle. It seems you still don't understand," Shadow Kamoshida commented. At that moment clinking heels came and I looked over to see Takamaki walking over to Kamoshida, but she was dressed so revealing that I was positive this was a Cognition; a pink-purple animal print set of underwear with a matching cat eared headband that bore a golden tiara and pink-purple heels was all that she wore.
"Wh- Takamaki!?" Sakamoto exclaimed. His eyes had gone wide as his mouth unhinged in shock; Morgana's fur seemed to be standing on end as well from the quick glance I shot him, meanwhile Amamiya was looking down with a rather prominent red blush staining his cheeks from what I can see underneath his mask.
"Oh… wha…what a meow-velous and beautiful girl…," Morgana commented. But then, as if to add more evidence to the fact that this had to be a cognition, Takamaki proceeded to lean against Kamoshida in an intimate manner that almost caused me to gag in disgust at the sight; Sakamoto snapped out of his state and appropriately demanded to know what was going on.
"Something seems off," Amamiya stated. His blush had faded somewhat but at least he seemed to be more level headed now since the initial shock of this Cognitive Takamaki's appearance had faded now; at least even he had caught onto the fact that this Takamaki wasn't acting anything like the beautiful blonde who we shared a class with.
"Yeah, now that you mention it… but why is she even here!?" Sakamoto questioned. He clearly hadn't figured out that this was a Cognition yet, but we had far more pressing concerns when Kamoshida turned to look at Cognitive Takamaki and cupped her chin. "Hey! Let go of her, you perv!" Sakamoto snapped. This image was made even worse by the fact that Cognitive Takamaki seemed to be leaning into the touch which the real Takamaki would never do.
"How many times must I tell you until you understand?" Shadow Kamoshida questioned. He proceeded to look at us whilst still holding onto Cognitive Takamaki. "This is my castle, a place in which I can do whatever I want. Everyone wishes to be loved by me. That is, everyone besides slow-witted thieves like you," Shadow Kamoshida stated. Frankly, we were the only sane people in this entire building.
"Takamaki! Say somethin'!" Sakamoto protested. Yet his voice sounded panicky, like he seemed to be worried about what was wrong with Takamaki, not that I could blame him given how disturbingly disgusting the scene was; Morgana thankfully chose that moment to inform Sakamoto of the fact that this was a Cognitive being instead of the actual Takamaki.
"Are you jealous?" Shadow Kamoshida asked. A foul smirk curling on his lips as he looked between Amamiya and Sakamoto. "Well, I'm not surprised. Women aren't drawn to problematic punks like you," Shadow Kamoshida stated. The disgusted feeling that had been growing within me proceeded to break the proverbial dam.
"Oh, I'm going to be sick!" I snapped. This was such a disgusting sight to witness for so many reasons I didn't even bother listing them. "I'd rather be with any of these three who I barely know over a scumbag like you any day!" I snarled. The sensation of eyes pressed on me, but I ignored them as I glared at Kamoshida. "Also, Sakamoto told you to get your hands off!" I declared. Moving quickly, I knocked an arrow and loosed it right into the Cognitive Takamaki, turning her into smoke.
"My kitten! Damn you! Guards! Clean them up this instant!" Shadow Kamoshida roared. In response, a lot of Shadows manifested, easily more than ten from the quick count I managed to do of them; Morgana made the suggestion for us to run since we were vastly outnumbered and Sakamoto was exhausted.
"We're not gonna do anything and just run!?" Sakamoto protested. Amamiya grabbed a hold of Sakamoto's arm with a surprisingly tight grip and a tense expression on his face; likely he didn't want to run but then again neither did I but with the imbalance of fighters there was no way we could stay here and expect to get out of the fight safely.
"Just shut up and go! We can't die here!" Amamiya snapped. Morgana expressed a relief that Amamiya possessed a level head and Sakamoto reluctantly agreed as we proceeded to run to the entrance we used to get in, all the while Sakamoto declared we'd exposed Kamoshida's actions whilst the Shadow responded that he looked forward to torturing us and dared us to come after him.
We quickly sprinted into the room and I slammed the door closed whilst shoving the table in front of it. Once that was done, I scrambled out the vent to join the other three who were gathered at roughly the boundary of the Palace; Sakamoto was hunched over and gasping for air, Morgana was slumped on the ground whilst Amamiya stood up straight, but even he was wheezing from the exertion of running.
"Anyways!" Sakamoto declared. He pushed himself up and turned to look at the rest of us. "I don't remember changin' into this!" Sakamoto exclaimed. His gloved hands gestured to his new attire, apparently he hadn't been paying much attention to us when this fact had been explained back in the Safe Room, or he'd forgotten it completely due to everything else that had happened after that event.
"It looks good on you," Amamiya complimented. To be fair, he wasn't wrong, the aesthetics of the outfit did seem to mesh well with Sakamoto's bleached hair and his general atmosphere as an individual, in fact Sakamoto's Persona being a pirate captain also fit in with him as well just as the gentlemanly Personas of Amamiya and Morgana fit the two of them as well.
"Yeah, you look like a thug," I commented. Sakamoto had briefly gone embarrassed when Amamiya had complimented him, but now he stood up straighter and proceeded to glare and pout at me at the same time; this was not helped by the fact that Amamiya covered his mouth with a gloved hand as his shoulders jumped up and down, indicating a suppressed laugh.
"At least it's better than Amamiya's magician attire!" Sakamoto commented. Amamiya raised an eyebrow in response to that comment as I shook my head. "Although yours is pretty nice Chiba," Sakamoto commented. His eyes were trailing down my form, so I reached out and grabbed tufts of blonde head in order to yank his head up which caused him to yelp slightly at the pain.
"Mine eyes are up here, Blondie," I stated. A frown curling at my lips as I released my grip on Sakamoto's hair, he rubbed his head, but I'd hardly been holding it tight enough to hurt beyond the initial shock of pain; at that moment the voices of Shadows echoed towards us causing my muscles to tense up as Morgana finally pushed himself onto his feet.
"Quiet!" Morgana snapped. We all dropped into stances as we heard the Shadows still searching for us; we relaxed our stances and Sakamoto expressed a feeling of confusion as to what was going on. "We told you before. When a Persona-user opposes a Palace's ruler and becomes a threat to them, this happens. It's to prevent you from being affected by the distortions," Morgana explained. Sakamoto wondered if his mask was a skull as he traced his hands across it. "Your appearance reflects your inner self. It's the rebel that slumbers within you… not that you'll get it," Morgana added on.
"Nope," Sakamoto agreed. Hanging his head down slightly as his shoulders drooped forward, Morgana demanded he stop asking questions and just accept what was going on then. "Easy for you to say," Sakamoto protested. However, something seemed to startle Sakamoto as he stood up straighter and his eyes were wide behind his mask. "Wait, we're in deep shit!" Sakamoto exclaimed. Morgana immediately ordered Sakamoto to be quiet. "We might've gotten away here, but we're still screwed with Kamoshida at the real school," Sakamoto worried.
"You aren't," I calmly stated. Both boys proceeded to look at me as I moved my arms behind me to cross over. "Kamoshida won't remember any of the events that transpired here with any clarity, the most we'll get is a sensation of him not trusting us but that'll be nothing new so it shouldn't affect us as badly, I just try to avoid it as much as possible since it makes infiltrations easier," I admitted.
"So, we're okay?" Sakamoto asked. Morgana took that chance to ask if the real Kamoshida had recalled anything about the execution and Sakamoto's expression clearly gave Morgana all the answer that he needed. "Alright! Now that we know that, all we gotta do is-," Sakamoto began to say. He even started to rotate his right arm backwards, but then someone cut him off.
"Wait! I guided you as promised. It's your turn to cooperate with me," Morgana insisted. I looked down at the cat creature, curious as to what it could possibly mean by those words. "That's why I was super nice about teaching you two idiots everything," Morgana stated. However, Sakamoto seemed thoroughly confused by this mention of cooperation. "Don't you remember? I originally came here for an investigation. I need to erase the distortion from my body and regain my real form! That's why we must delve deep into Mementos and-," Morgana explained. My eyes flew wide at the mention of everyone's Palace, yet Sakamoto cut Morgana off.
"Whoa, hold up. What're you goin' on and on about?" Sakamoto asked. Amamiya looked equally baffled by the words that Morgana was speaking. "We never said anything about helping you out," Sakamoto stated. Morgana was shocked enough by this comment that he jerked backwards and almost ended up toppling over due to how fast he had moved.
"Huh? Don't tell me… are you not going to repay the hospitality I showed you?" Morgana questioned. He managed to straighten himself up and locked his eyes on Amamiya. "Especially you! You're going to up and leave, even though you're already part of my master plan!?" Morgana protested. To delve into Mementos' depths, I'd never been able to get passed the first barrier at the bottom, so it was something I was curious about, but dealing with Kamoshida was more important.
"I… um… well…," Amamiya spoke. However, he seemed flustered by the sudden things being hurled his way by Morgana as his head hung down slightly. "Please let me think about this Morgana-san," Amamiya requested. He seemed rather nervous about the possibility of being so important to the cat creature's plan and I felt my heart twist a little at seeing him dissolve into shyness again after being so bold moments ago.
"Is it because I'm not human? Because I'm like a cat? Is that why you're making a fool of me!?" Morgana exclaimed. He jumped up and down a few times with his arms moving in a rather agitated manner, I saw Amamiya shrinking further in and decided to step in; quite literally as I put myself between Amamiya and Morgana with my left hand extended back as if to curl around the ravenette behind me.
"I'm sorry Morgana, but I can't help you. Whatever your problem is, it isn't as urgent to solve as stopping Kamoshida is to me. Perhaps if I didn't have him to deal with, I'd help, but right now that's simply impossible for me to do," I explained. My face was impassive as I said those words with my voice taking on the more soothing tone that I normally reserved for the world outside of the Metaverse.
"Like Chiba said, we're busy!" Sakamoto snapped. He then moved in order to crouch down in front of Morgana. "Thanks for everything, cat. You've got guts, bein' a cat and all! See you around!" Sakamoto declared. With that, we proceeded to rush out of the Palace after I swapped my bow and bag back around.
*Persona 5 Royal*
You have returned to the real world. Welcome back. That same voice from before chimed, I lifted myself up and looked back at Amamiya to find he had his phone in hand again meaning it was likely the source of the voice, Sakamoto expressed relief that we had returned; I felt the same way since we had been dumped into a rather sticky situation before managing to get away.
"I dragged you two around a lot, huh? Sorry about that," Sakamoto apologised. I shrugged my shoulders in response since it wasn't that big of a deal. "Ugh, I'm dead tired… how you two holdin' up?" Sakamoto asked. His exhaustion was natural since the Awakening was so exhausting to experience given that I'd nearly toppled over.
"I could use a nap," Amamiya admitted. Even though he had already experienced his Awakening, the exhaustion was a common thing to endure after going into the Metaverse and fighting there; Sakamoto admitted that he was probably going to be sleeping like a rock when he finally got back to his home.
"Exhaustion will become a regular thing if you continue to fight in the Metaverse," I spoke up. Both boys turned their eyes to me as I shouldered my bag. "When we use our Personas' Spells, we expend Soul Power, spiritual energy to charge the abilities, the Skills take Life Energy instead. That translate to exhaustion both mentally and physically here in the physical world. Sleeping or good food and drinks can help us feel better, there might be other stuff but that's all I've been able to find," I explained. Thankfully both of them seemed to understand this concept so didn't press for questions.
"Still… damn, if what we saw was for real, this is gonna get good!" Sakamoto declared. A wide and happy grin spread across his face, totally different to the expression of rage from before, he looked so happy, like a burst of sunshine. "I totally remember the faces of the guys Kamoshida was treatin' like slaves. Once we make 'em fess up to any physical abuse, Kamoshida will be done," Sakamoto decided. His face then took on a serious expression as he looked between the two of us. "So… wanna help me look for these guys or any witnesses?" Sakamoto asked.
"Sure, I'll help," Amamiya agreed. He was looking a bit more confident than before, standing straighter than he had been when Morgana had been yelling at him and he seemed more sure of himself, his eyes were focused on Sakamoto who grinned and then they both turned to look at me as they waited for the answer that I was going to give.
"You two aren't going to cut me out of this. I've been going after Kamoshida for longer than you two, I'm seeing this through to the end," I decided. If possible, an even bigger grin proceeded to stretch across Sakamoto's face as a much gentler smile curved across Amamiya's own lips; I had certainly never expected to gain allies to help me combat Kamoshida but at least now I had them and I wasn't about to lose them since they could be helpful in reaching the Treasure.
"Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" Sakamoto declared. But then he suddenly lost his sunlight grin and looked down at the concrete beneath our feet. "Hey, so… if you're thinkin' of layin' low 'cause you got a record, I don't think that'll help. Everyone already knows. They totally got you pegged as a criminal," Sakamoto admitted. That would explain the loss of vibrancy, this was certainly an awkward topic to bring up.
"How'd that happen?" Amamiya questioned. He reached a hand up to rake through his thick black locks as his grey eyes practically bore holes into the ground. "How did everyone find out about that?" Amamiya questioned. My lips pulled into a frown at his words, his life could have been quiet and easy but instead now it was chaotic and messy due to someone leaking the information about his record.
"Kamoshida opened his damn mouth!" Sakamoto snapped. An angry snarl appeared on his lips as his eyes narrowed into a glare whilst he crossed his arms; I nodded my head in agreement to those words, Kamoshida was the most likely source of the leakage about the criminal record; Amamiya lifted his eyes to look between the two of us.
"Seriously? But why?!" Amamiya asked. His eyes were wide as his skin seemed to pale slightly at the implication of what Sakamoto had just revealed to him, I wished there was some way I could comfort him, but I didn't exactly know how to do that so all I was forced to do was wait silently as Amamiya processed the new information that he was unexpectedly given.
"No one else besides a teacher could've leaked it that fast! It doesn't matter if it's a student or a club; that asshole just wrecks things he doesn't agree with. Just like he did with me!" Sakamoto explained. His angry expression remained strong for a few moments before relaxing as his tension fell away from his stance. "No one'll take anything I say seriously. Still, Chiba knows the rumours about him getting' physical are real and after seein' Kamoshida's distorted heart thing in person, there's no way I can just sit back!" Sakamoto insisted.
"Of course," Amamiya stated. I gave a firm nod of my head to show my own agreement, Sakamoto got excited about this fact and went so far as to pump his fist in excitement; I felt a strength coming from Sakamoto and his excited energy, something that was strong and firm but still with room to grown… I didn't quite understand this sensation, but I don't think it was anything bad due to the sensation of energy coming of it. That was slightly ruined by the sudden rumbling I heard from Sakamoto's stomach.
"Oh… right. I haven't eaten anything since lunch," Sakamoto acknowledged. No wonder the boy was hungry, especially after having used so much energy just now. "It'd be weird splittin' off now, so why don't we grab a bite somewhere?" Sakamoto suggested. Amamiya agreed and I shrugged my shoulders since I wasn't bothered which caused Sakamoto to grin. "Just follow me. I mean, I totally gotta here about your past, Amamiya!" Sakamoto insisted.
*Persona 5 Royal*
Sakamoto guided us to a nice restaurant; we got some bowls of piping hot food and Amamiya proceeded to explain his past to us as Sakamoto ravenously dug into the meal whilst I calmly ate away at mine. Amamiya didn't really touch his food as he continued to explain what had happened to him late in the February of this year, eventually something Amamiya said caused both of us to freeze in eating.
"WHAT!? The hell, man? How much shittier can that asshole get!?" Sakamoto exclaimed. His voice was rather loud, but it wasn't like he was saying anything specifically about stuff that should be kept secret; even if I didn't use such vulgar language, I couldn't fault the words that had been spoken since they were quite aligned with my own feelings on the matter.
"Yeah… but please calm down Sakamoto-san," Amamiya insisted. His voice was calm, but I got the sense that he was rather upset about what happened, upset and angry from the way his right hand was tightly gripping the chopsticks and a cold fire seemed to burn within his grey eyes; Sakamoto went to open his mouth, but I shook my head slightly, hoping the blonde would keep quiet about whatever he wanted to say.
"It's wrong what happened to you Amamiya-san. There's no doubt about that. Whoever hurt you abused whatever power he had, that was wrong. You did the right thing, not ignoring an injustice committed in front of you," I stated. Amamiya looked at me with his grey eyes softening at my words as Sakamoto kept quiet whilst eating some of his meal; a soft whisper of words escaped Amamiay's parted lips and I could only assume he had said thank you.
"So… you left your hometown and… you're living here now, huh?" Sakamoto stated. Amamiya nodded his head and we proceeded to eat our meals in silence for a brief moment "We might be more alike than I originally thought Amamiya," Sakamoto commented. This caused Amamiya to stop as he looked at the blonde.
"How so?" Amamiya asked. He proceeded to look at Sakamoto who looked a little uncertain as he seemed to be struggling to find the words, he reached his hand back and proceeded to rub at the back of his neck as his brown eyes looked around to try and find the words that would help him to explain why he said those words as me and Amamiya remained silent.
"Uh, it's not exactly 'how' but… y'know. I guess it's how we're treated like a pain in the ass by the people around us, like we don't belong. I did something stupid at school before, too," Sakamoto acknowledged. I looked down at my meal as I continued eating, I suppose these two were alike, but I wasn't like either of them. "The place you're livin' now is in… Yongen-Jaya, right? It's rush hour on the subways. I suggest you kill some time before headin' home," Sakamoto suggested. However, he suddenly took notice of the fact that Amamiya hadn't eaten much of his food. "What the hell, man. You barely touched your food," Sakamoto stated. He then opened up a box and used some tongs to remove some ginger and put it on Amamiya's food.
"What are you doing?" Amamiya asked. He looked slightly annoyed as he stared down at his bowl, or more specifically at the ginger that had been dropped onto his meal unexpectedly, but there didn't seem to be any real intensity behind the look like when he had been speaking about the vile man who'd been responsible for the criminal record.
"Just lemme do it. I gotta thank you for helpin' me. You too Chiba," Sakamoto stated. I barely managed to snatch my bowl out the way in time to avoid Sakamoto dropping a helping of ginger onto it, Sakamoto looked annoyed at me pulling my bowl away as I gave him an unimpressed look meanwhile Amamiya proceeded to smile softly at the scene.
"No thank you, Sakamoto-san," I answered. Sakamoto pulled back and returned the ginger to its' tin, allowing me to safely put my bowl back onto the counter which I soon returned to eating; I didn't particularly like excessively spicy foods and unfortunately ginger tended to make that food rather spicy, so I didn't want Sakamoto dumping a ridiculous amount of ginger onto it.
"Anyway, I got both of your backs like both of you got mine from tomorrow on," Sakamoto insisted. He was smiling as he said that before adopting a serious expression. "As long as we do something about Kamoshida, I'm sure we'll all feel better about bein' at school," Sakamoto stated. It was sensible as Kamoshida was the cause of the trouble running amok at school. "Oh yeah!" Sakamoto suddenly exclaimed. He proceeded to pull out his phone as he looked at us. "Tell me your numbers. Chat ID too. And both of you can call me Ryūji. Okay Ren-Ren, Natsumi," Sakamoto insisted.
"I think I'll stick with Sakamoto," Amamiya stated. A 'same' came from me as I pulled out my phone with Amamiya doing the same thing, Sakamoto proceeded to call us assholes, but we still proceeded to exchange details, even though I had set up the Chat app, I hadn't really used it since I didn't have anyone to connect with. Sakamoto insisted that we start first thing the next day, he complained about the volleyball rally by saying it made him want to gag.
"As disgusting as it might be Sakamoto-san, it's only thanks to that, that we have no classes in the afternoon which we can use to walk around without anyone getting suspicious," I pointed out. Sakamoto nodded his head but it didn't erase the scowl on his face as we decided to work out the details tomorrow. "I know I'm not like the two of you, but I promise to pull my weight," I stated.
"What are you talking about?" Sakamoto asked. I looked up confused at the blonde. "I've seen how the others at school treat you. You might not be treated like a pain in the ass, but people avoid you almost like you don't belong there either. So, you're just like us, you know," Sakamoto stated. I blinked slightly in surprise at his words having not expected him to say such things towards me, or that he had watched how others treated me. "C'mon, both of you, you gotta eat more. There's tons of ginger here," Sakamoto insisted. This time I wasn't fast enough to save my meal and got an unfortunate amount of ginger piled atop my food.
Although, maybe this time around the food wasn't as spicy as it might normally have been.
*Persona 5 Royal*
I reached my home, feeling the exhaustion of being in the Metaverse make itself more apparent as it pressed upon my bones. I dragged myself up the steps to my room and dropped off my bag at the desk, my eyes were already starting to droop from the exhaustion but a faint buzzing from my phone caught my attention; I pulled the object out and saw that I had a chat notification on the lock screen, so I opened the device.
Ryūji: Hey, I decided to create a group chat for us and messaged you two.
Ryūji: Can you two see this?
Ren: Yep.
Natsumi: Yes.
Ryūji: I'm gonna be counting on you two tomorrow, okay?
Natsumi: Same to you.
Ren: Got it.
Ryūji: We've come this far, so you two gotta stick with me to the end.
Ryūji: Let's save those guys who've been getting abused. The three of us together.
I was just about to close my phone and set about getting myself sorted for bed when I noticed something eerie. There was a mysterious little app symbol that took the appearance of a red eyeball surrounded by black detailing… it reminded me eerily of Mementos and that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up; I moved to uninstall the mysterious app when a new chat message popped up.
Ryūji: Hey, Ren-Ren, that thingy on your phone was some red eyeball icon, right?
My eyes widened at this, as I realised he was probably referring to the same strange eyeball looking app that had decided to show up on my own phone. Could this be the navigation app that they had mentioned back in that disturbing training hall? The thing that Igor had been planning to use to streamline my Metaverse travelling abilities.
Ren: Right. Why do you ask?
Ryūji: Well, we ended up at that weird place when we used this nav app, right?
Ryūji: I found it on my phone. I don't remember installing it!
Natsumi: Seriously? It's on my phone too. If this app can get into the Metaverse, that's great.
Natsumi: But majorly creepy that it randomly showed up on our phones.
Natsumi: By the way Sakamoto-san, that place is called a Palace, please remember the terminology.
Ren: I'd tell the both of us to delete it, but it came back after I did that.
Ren: Twice.
Ryūji: Think it's being downloaded on its' own somehow?
Ryūji: It's dangerous to use something without knowing what it is…
Ryūji: But with it, we can go to the weird place, right?
Natsumi: That seems to be the case from what you two told me.
Natsumi: And need I repeat, it's called a Palace.
Ren: Chiba-san is right, we can enter the Palace, but it'll depend on how we use it.
Ryūji: Well first, we gotta find evidence of the beatings.
Ryūji: I'm counting on you two, alright? Don't go ditching school on me.
Natsumi: Sakamoto-san, when have you ever known me to ditch school?
Ren: Don't worry, I'll be there.
With that I closed the chat and decided to return to getting myself sorted for bed, leaving the creepy Mementos looking app alone for the time being.
