Kamen Rider: Phantom Joker

by Shadow.00.Exia

What does it take to change ones fate? Those born into this world are forever bounded by the chains fate, never truly free to choose there own path... but what if you could break free? What would you do with such freedom? Ren Amamiya's path before him will be rife with challenges and tribulations, but he will break those chains and change the world's fate! Go Phantom Rider Joker!

2. Episode 2: Royal Awakening!

Episode Two: ROYAL AWAKENING!

Date ?: Unknown Location

A yellow realm surrounded him with fog dense enough cut through. He walks forward, the shifting of his red and black suit feeling natural around him, his horned helmet glinting from an unknown lightsource. From the fog he sees a figure emerge from it, a boy about his height. He too was also dressed in a red suit, though his suit had a long red and white coat with a white bandana wrapping around his helmet with the twin straps hanging down to his waist.

Ren felt familiarity from the man, as if he was a player on a team who he expected to go further than him. He raised his hand up and and slowly he wound it back, getting it ready for a high five that he knew was about to come. The other person mimicked his action and now was ready to send his own high five.

As they drew closer to each, the two red suit warriors launched their hands forward, the energy and excitement heightening the moment. As the hands were about to collide, the white headband warrior vanished, leaving the anticipated exchange unfulfilled.

The horned red suit warrior looked at the vacant spot that was previous, a feeling of dread began to fill him. Soon pieces of his suit began to fall off and shatter on the ground below him. Piece by piece, he began to break down, until he was left as a blank shadowed being. The world around him is no longer yellow, and the fog vanishes without a trace. Leaving behind a cruel red world with a singular obsidian pedestal that he now stood on with red miasma rolling on the obsidian floor.

It was then he felt a tap on his, causing him to turn around and face the person who tried to gain his attention. Before him was a new being, a man in a light magenta suit and a helmet that seemed to have been designed to look like a barcode that held bright green lenses.

The magenta suited man raised his hand, looking straight in the void-like face of the shadowed person before him.

The shadow looked at the raised hand for a moment, tilting his head in slight confusion. The magenta suited man slowly nodded, silently communicating with the being before him.

The shadow then raised his hand up and positioned it like the man before him, mimicking his posterior. The shadow tried to swing forward, but he hesitated, a lingering fear that the magenta man would also disappear before he could connect.

The magenta colored man lowered his hand and clutched the shadow's shoulder, giving the shadow an anchor to focus on.

"Don't worry, I'm not just passing through."

The shadow, feeling emboldened by that simple phrase, flexed his hand before stepping back, allowing the magenta man to let go of stared forward, no eyes or mouth to communicate, but his message got through.

They once again positioned themselves back into place, hands raised and reeled back. Then, in a quickflash, they launched their hands together, connecting with one another.

A white flash and a loud echo reverberate throughout the red realm, blinding any outside being from witnessing what was happening at the epicenter.

The light shone brightly for a few moments before it began to die down, shrinking back to where it originated from.

As the light completely dispelled, the magenta suited warrior was now staring into fiery red-orange lenses burning behind a white and black visor that was shaped like a mask. The suit, while still red in color, no longer had a uniform look to it. Its look became more unique in comparison to what was worn before.

"Yeah, I think this suits you well. Good luck Joker." The magenta warrior gave a pat on the newly formed red warriors shoulder and as he walked away a wall of grey fog appeared before him. He turned on last time, giving a simple wave goodbye before walking into the wall of grey fog and vanishing from sight.

The red warrior was now left alone atop the obsidian pedestal. A faint chuckle began to escape the helmet, as a glowing red-orange smile began to form on the bottom half. The chuckle quickly turned into a maniacal laughter as wings began to form and spread out from the back of the suit. The wings began to flap furiously, lifting the red warrior up into the air. He calmed himself down before looking out into the vast red world before him. He slowly nodded his head then, like a bolt of lightning, he flew off into the distance, leaving a trail of black feathers in his wake.

---

Date 4/09: Train Car (Morning)

In a train cart is a young man dozing off in his sleep, this person had wavy black hair that had a tousled look, from his slightly closed eyes a glimpse of his grey colored eyes can be seen while being covered by big black framed glasses. His pale complexion slightly glowing from the sunlight hitting him. He wore what looked like a school uniform, which consisted of a red-buttoned black blazer with a school emblem on the pocket, a white turtleneck shirt with chevron detailing on the collar and slim black pants with a red plaid pattern. The boy sleeping in this booth is called Ren Amamiya. Ren was sleeping in a booth resting on a table that was in between his and another booth across from him, he was slightly but intensely breathing. His brow and eye lids scrunching tightly together as he then suddenly jumped in his seat, his vision blurred slightly as his eyes began to adjust to the sights around him. He felt the beat of his resonating from his chest and up to his throat, almost threatening to burst itself. He looked around him and saw that the train he was in was still moving.

The train itself was headed from his small town and going towards Tokyo, more precisely Shibuya, where he was condemned to stay for an entire year. A speaker came to life as he began to adjust his fake prescription glasses.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for riding with us on the DenLiner. The latest and PREMIER bullet train in operation. We will be arriving at the Shibuya train station in just a short while, this will be the last stop of the line. So, to our remaining passengers, when we arrive, please transfer from here for all other subway lines. Until then please be seated until we come to a complete stop and exit carefully, and once again thank you for choosing to ride the DenLiner today and we wish you luck on your journey."

A sigh escaped from the young man as he settled back into his booth, his heart now settling down to a more comfortable pace. His arms rested on the table, as he tried to gather his thoughts. The memory of what first brought him into this predicament in the first place began to surface. A sad regretful look crossed his eyes.

---

Date ?

The sun had set a few hours ago, the stars above providing some illumination along with the streetlamps populating the sidewalks in this town. This town wasn't quite the size of any of the major metropolitan cities, but it was still sizable as it had a little bit of everything to keep the residents busy. "Damn it!" he whispered harshly, his hand clenched tightly into a fist slamming the side of it into a nearby concrete wall.

He had recently left his house after having a tiring argument with his father. The argument still left a fresh wound in his pride and tarnished his trust for the man. He wanted to lash out so badly, to just vent these feelings onto something and make it the target of all his negative emotions. Though he knew that wouldn't be right, in truth he was feeling anger towards himself most of all. His mother didn't deserve to see him like that, and his father, for as crooked as he had now become in his mind, sounded sincere when he said he loved him as Ren stormed out of the house.

As his mind was still jumbling with all the thoughts of what transpired, a concerning sound broke the silent night, catching his attention.

He sped up a bit, curiosity and worry taking over as he went closer to the source of the noise. It was then he came across a scene that brought back a bit of his anger. Before him was a man talking harshly and forcefully tugging on a woman's arm towards a parked car. He heard her scream, telling the man that she didn't want to go with him. Even with all that had previously transpired, Ren couldn't turn his back on this. Not when somebody clearly needed help, and he was the only one that could reach out.

"Shut up you BITCH! The last thing I need is for you to make more noise. Now get the car!" Said the man as he made his way to the car, his face flushed from overindulging in alcohol, then he felt a hand on his shoulder, its grip firm.

"Hey, she said she doesn't want to go with you."

The man let the woman go as he abruptly spun around to face the person who would dare touch him and tell him what to do. It was then that the effects of all the alcohol he consumed showed itself. His footing became messy, tripping over himself he fell face first onto the pavement leaving a large gash across his forehead.

Ren looked down at the man and made a move forward to see how badly injured he was, but he was shoved away as the drunkard wobbled back up.

The wounded man clutched his head feeling the blood run down freely over his face. "You, you did this to me! You brat! I'll make sure to sue you for everything you're worth!"

"What are you talking about! You did this on your own, I had nothing to do with the injury You got all on your own!"

"Shut up! Like a nosy little brat like you have any idea what is right and wrong. I'm the one with the power here, and I'll make sure you pay."

"Look, I know what I saw. When the police get here, I'll…"

"Hah! Police! Those pigs are nothing but my bitches and you'll see soon enough."

---

In the end the man proved himself right, as soon as they arrived on the scene Ren couldn't get his side of the story as the drunk ordered them to arrest him without question. "Even though the trial was nothing but a mockup, the judge didn't even try to look like he was paying attention to my defense lawyer." Ren placed his head into the palm of his hand as he looked out the window. The aftershock of the trial playing through his mind, how almost everyone he had ever known distanced themselves from him. Teachers, the manager at the stores he worked at, his "friends", they all turned on him.

A frustrated tear finally broke through, "Except them… after how I treated them, how I questioned them." Throughout the entire trial, Ren's father was turning over every little piece of evidence he could get testimonials as well on how Ren was a model citizen and student. Using any connection, he could reach in time to help in any way, all the while keeping a cool and calm exterior. Even his mother exhausted all she could to help, even as the writing was on the wall she still stood by her son and comforted him.

He considered himself lucky that this is the extent of his punishment, his parents wouldn't elaborate further, but they managed some sort of deal where he would be put on a yearlong probation. They had somebody help them set up a deal with a man called Sojiro Sakura to be his acting guardian for the duration of his stay. With the caveat being that they wouldn't be able to have contact with him during his entire stay.

He was soon brought out of his musings as he felt the train beginning to slow down, indicating that they were just about to arrive at the last stop. Then a door that led to another train car opened and out strode an old gentleman, wearing a brown pinstripe suit with a red ornate tie tucked under his jacket, with a large gold button at the center of his collar.

The closer he got Ren noticed he was holding a plate of flan with a flag posted at the top center of it. The old man slowed down as he neared Ren and sat across from him in the other booth seat. Placing the plate with the flan on it down onto the table, then slowly he slid it Ren and once he got it over to the young man's side, he brought out a gold spoon and placed it next to the plate.

Ren looked at him, confusion written all over his face. "Um… as appreciative as I am, I have to say, who are you and why the flan?"

The old man chuckled as he responded to Ren's quizzical look. "Oh sorry, where are my manners, I am the owner of the DenLiner, my portrait is even hanging up over there on the wall that's behind you."

Ren with a surprised look turned around, and sure enough behind a booth was a large portrait of the man he was seated across from. Turning back and taking back his seat, he made himself sit upright and took up a more presentable pose. "Sorry, I didn't notice the portrait before you pointed it out to me Mr.…" Ren paused, hoping that the old man would introduce himself.

"No need for formalities here my boy, anyone who is a passenger on this train often refers to me as Owner. As for the flan, you looked like you needed something to pick your spirits up."

Ren Sweat dropped at that, 'Owner, huh definitely not the weirdest name I heard people being referred to, but for it to be the only thing you expect to be called might be a little bit out there.' He thought as picked up the spoon that was placed in front of him and started to eat the flan in front of him.

"So , I noticed that this train is fairly new. I've never once seen a train like this coming in and out from where I live." Ren questioned, trying to make small talk while he slowly ate his way through the flan. Childishly making it a goal for himself to not disturb the small flag placed in the middle.

The Owner, with a light in his eyes as he saw the boy eat the flan he had given him, responded, "Well for you it may seem brand new, but this Liner has seen its fair share of passengers and stops. It is only recently the DenLiner is capable of traveling here."

Ren paused mid-bite as he listened to the Owner of the Denliner talk about the train he was on and how recent it was for it to make a new route for itself from his home town to Tokyo. "Really, that's kind of odd? Why would a train like this need to travel to a place like my home town? In case you haven't noticed it's not all that big, and the people who would probably use it wouldn't be enough to fill two train cars."

The old sharply dressed man nodded his head, as if agreeing that the situation was odd, but his smile did not falter, instead it seemed to grow slightly wider. "You are a sharp person . So much like that man…" The Owner looked off into the distance as he stared out the window. "One would wonder if your fate is like his, are you a destroyer, a perseverer, or something else entirely. I can't wait to see how your journey goes."

Ren with a puzzled look on his face tried to ask the old train owner what he ment with his statement, but then the train then stopped suddenly, with the only door within the train car opening."Ah, it seems we arrived exactly on time. I wish you luck on your journey, Ren Amamiya." He got up and left the booth. "Wait, you didn't answer any of my questions?!" Ren made a move to grab the man's arm, but as he moved forward, he found himself stumbling out of the train and crashing into his luggage that was set out.

Ren quickly got up and turned around, only to find that the Denliner inexplicably disappeared from the train station, in its place was another train that was different in design. "What, but it was there just a second ago, and how did my luggage get out here, also how did I fall out the door? I wasn't anywhere near it."

After a bit of mulling, Ren decided to move on. Leaving that interaction for him to turn over later, he made his way through the station and transferred over to the next station that would take him to Yongen-Jaya next.

As Ren took his first steps outside the station, he immediately became overwhelmed by the sheer size of the area around him. "Phew, I guess I will need to use that GPS app after all."

Taking out his phone he searched for the train station that was routed for Yongen-Jaya. After a few minutes he found himself at one of the Shibuya crossing lights. As the light turned signaling for his group to start walking Ren's phone began to act up. Ren while looking at his phone heard it beep, afterwards the GPS collapsed back into the map icon and there staring at Ren was a new app icon.

The background for it was a bright red, with a black eye as its symbol, the pupil shaped like a star. The icon then began to expand filling the entirety of Ren's phone. Leaving it with the eye turned to the side to further stretch out.

"What the hell? I just got this phone right before I left." Ren tried tapping his screen to see if the app would respond. As the app was being non-responsive Ren made a move to force his phone to shut down. Before he could do that, though, he noticed an odd phenomenon happening around him. The people around him began to slow down, then the cars, trains, birds, and even planes, all slowed down until it became still. "Huh! Did… did time just stop?" His panic grew as he looked around him to find any type of clue or answer to this predicament. "God… I really hope this isn't an isekai phenomenon that I'm trapped in." Ren joked as he tried to calm himself down and gather his wits.

It was then his eyes caught something moving that wasn't a part of him, a pillar of blue flames that erupted from the very center of the crossing section. "What the hell is this?" Ren looked closer into the flames and saw that it began to take shape. From the flame burst out two black angel-like wings from the back of it. Finally, a face began to form with orange eyes and a mouth that shifted like flames themselves. The flame then began to die down and as Ren peered through the flames, he caught a glimpse of someone in the flames. He saw himself standing in the middle of the flames, though he was dressed drastically differently.

This Ren was dressed in an all-black combat suit with grey torso armor that seemed to be designed to look like a high-necked waistcoat with gold accent chains, and over the top of this outfit was a black ankle-length tailcoat with black metal pauldrons, and red gauntlets on his arms. The last thing Ren noticed as he looked at his doppelganger was the color of his eyes, they went from his usual grey coloring to an intense bright yellow, almost making them seem like they were glowing. The clone stared back at Ren, a wide grin showing on his face before raising his covered hand and snapping, which doing so made the world around Ren move once more. Though he hardly noticed as he was transfixed by the space that the flames were just in.

It wasn't until he felt someone shaking him and then dragging him from the spot that he became fully aware of the world once more. As he looked on and saw everyone walking like nothing happened, he saw that he was being led to the other end of the crosswalk section he was walking in.

"Hey, do you mind letting me go?" the man turned around and replied, "So long as you promise not to stand in the middle of the crosswalk for sure." He let go of Ren's arm as they had reached the other side safely. The man that led Ren to the other side had brown colored hair and dark brown eyes that seemed closer to black. He was dressed in a black suit jacket and pants, wearing a magenta dress shirt, brown leather boots, and a twin lensed camera that was an odd shade of magnet that most people would think was pink.

Ren looked at the man closely, he felt something strange being near him, like a weird sense of familiarity. He shook his head to try and clear his thoughts, before speaking to the man "Sorry, I know I probably sounded rude there. Thank you, I kind of zoned out for a moment and I forgot that I was standing in the middle of the crossing."

The man gave a short laugh as he examined the boy, a lazy smile formed on his face before he responded. "Don't think too much about it, it wouldn't have done my conscious any favor if I just let you out there by yourself." The man made a move to turn and walked away, but before he could take a step Ren spoke up. "Hey, before you go, do you mind if I get your name?"

Ren didn't know why he said that, he should have honestly let him go and continued onward to his destination. After all there was no chance in a city this big with this many people in it, he would ever bump into the man again throughout the rest of the year he was here but here he was though, for some reason, curious about the man in front of him.

He turned back around, he started the process of saying something before he stopped himself, shaking his head amusingly. He walked up to Ren and extended his hand to Ren, "Tsukasa Kadoya, I'm just a passing through photographer." Ren took his hand and shook it.

"Ren Amamiya, I guess you can say for this year I'll be a student who is also just passing through here."

"Ren Amamiya…" Tsukasa let Ren's hand go with a slight smile showing on his face. "Huh, I think I get the gist of this." that last part he whispered to himself as he turned away. As he began to walk away his hand shot up, waving. "Good luck with the school year Amamiya. Something tells me you're going to need it." With that cryptic warning given out Tsukasa blended into the sea of people and vanished from sight. Ren gave a puzzled look, but oddly enough he felt a sense of relief for the first time ever since the whole situation he found himself in had happened, then he pulled out his phone to bring back his direction. As the home screen popped up his eyes instantly went over and looked at the mystery app on his phone.

"Nope, not dealing with your bullshit." He promptly moved the app to a trash bin icon and deleted it from his phone. He then brought up his map and made his way to the train line that was headed to Yongen-Jaya.

---

Date 4/09: Yongen-Jaya (Afternoon)

Once the train stopped and announced that he made it to Yongen-Jaya Ren stepped off and made his way up the stairs to above ground. As he emerged from the underground, he found himself walking into a residential area. At first glance it seemed small but with closer inspection had quite a few amenities, a convenience store down the road, a secondhand store that was close by to Ren and even batting cages to name a few things he noticed. As he moved forward, he barely missed walking into a woman with dark blue hair and wore a lab coat, who turned a corner after giving a quick glance towards him.

"Alright, let's see here. I need to find a Sojiro Sakura. It would have been easier if I had got the address with me. Oh well, hopefully this is all close together somebody here should know where to find him."

He made his way forward but paused almost immediately when he spotted a police officer at a corner. The memory of his last interaction he had with law enforcement made him feel skittish around the uniformed officer. 'Damn it, I'm still this hesitant around them. Come on Ren, out of anyone around here he is probably your best choice in finding out where Sojiro Sakura lives. After all, I can't be like this for the rest of my life.' With that final thought he moved forward and caught the officer's attention.

"Excuse me." The officer turned and looked at Ren with a jovial smile. "Why hello there, is there something you need assistance with."

"Yes, I'm new to this area and I need help finding the Sakura residence."

The police man rubbed his chin as he began to think, "Hmm, the Sakura Residence? Yes, I believe I do know where that is." The officer moved from his spot and faced down the alley. "You will want to go down this alley and as you pass that apartment building right there you will make a right turn and head down that alley. Then It should be the place to the left that's near the road."

Ren nodded along absorbing the information, "Alright, thank you." He gave a curt nod as he hurriedly departed from the officer. 'Huh, that went better than expected.' He thought as he followed the path the officer laid out to him. By no means had Ren felt better about talking to the officer, but that interaction did at least help calm his nerves a little. 'After all, when you're faced with the ugly truth that even those who are charged to protect the public could be easily swayed then even the few nice ones have the potential to become as dangerous as rabid dogs.'

Soon enough he found himself in front of the building at the back alley that the officer told him was Sojiro Sakura's place of residency, which was easily identified by a plaque with his last name on. After ringing the doorbell, he stepped back waiting for anybody to respond to the doorbell ringing. After four minutes of waiting, he rang the bell again, and once three minutes passed a voice spoke up from next to him.

"Huh, I guess there isn't anyone home at the moment." The man next to Ren was a mailman who was holding a package that was tucked under his arm. Ren was about to speak up before the mailman turned around and began to talk to himself. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot, Sakura-San should be at his cafe at this time of day. Well Leblanc is in that back alleyway that's across from the secondhand shop. It would probably be better that I take care of the other deliveries around here first, then either go there at the end of my delivery route or…"

The mailman's voice began to fade as he made his way over to his vehicle to continue with his routes. 'Welp, I guess that take's care of all my questions.' Ren moved out from the alley he was in and made it to the main alleyway. 'Alright he said that Sakura-San's Cafe is in the back alleyway that's across from the secondhand shop.'

After walking for a few minutes, he retraced his steps back to the secondhand shop that he spotted when he first walked into the main alleyway. Spotting the back alley across from it he walked down and almost immediately spotted it. After walking by two garage doors, he found the store front for Leblanc, he paused in front of the store to take in its view and as well to familiarize himself with the location. He noted the large window to the left of him and the potted plants that sat in front of it. Next to that was a small chalkboard sign that had some names of coffee and certain curries on it. The wooden door that had multiple glass windows that went from bottom to top had a green welcome mat by the foot of the door, and above it a red and white awning that had 'Coffee & Curry' in small lettering printed on it, with the name of the store in bigger and bolder lettering underneath it.

A bell rang as he entered the shop through the door, he took a quick glance around the shop. He spotted three booths that lined one side of the wall that had an elderly couple sitting at the farthest booth. On the other side he saw five stools pushed up against an 'L' shaped bar table with a middle-aged man who has slicked-back dark hair that showed signs of a receding hairline, relaxed but stern gray eyes, a chinstrap beard with a goatee that flared out and a pair of thin black framed glasses. The outfit he wore consists of a pale pink dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, pale khakis held up with a white leather belt and white loafers. He wears a black apron with a white pinstripe design on it. He was standing behind the bar looking at a built-in wall shelf that held multiple glass jars of coffee beans. Beyond all of this was a singular door, leading to the only bathroom in this place, and stairs that led further up the building.

'Huh… it feels pretty cozy here.' a small smile found its way onto his face as the smell of coffee and lack of intrusive noise lulled him into a feeling of calm. That feeling was soon broken as a TV that was placed against a back wall near the bar began to run an important news bulletin.

"Just in, we have received news that a runaway public transit bus with approximately 50 passengers boarded had driven along the opposite side of the road. Crashing into several cars and injuring a total of 10 pedestrians who were driving and 30 of the passengers within the public transit bus. It is believed that this was caused by the bus driver experiencing a mental shut down. As this epidemic seems to become more rampant and causing the safety of the public to come into question, we ask you loyal viewers to stay alert and to remain calm."

"Oh my, that is really horrifying." commented the old man who was sitting at the furthest back booth.

"I know, it's terrible. Didn't something similar like this happen yesterday also? Oh, my it just seems like the world is going crazy." the old woman replied as she took a sip from her cup of coffee.

"What do you make of all this Sakura-San?" questioned the old lady as she looked towards the man behind the bar.

"Hmm? Oh, I don't really give this mental shutdown thing any thought really. Just doesn't seem to concern me." comment the man, now identified as Sojiro Sakura, who turned his head and caught sight of Ren standing by the doorway. His eyes slightly widened as he seemed to take in the young man's appearance and recognized him. "Ah you must be the kid. It almost slipped my mind that you were supposed to come today."

The old couple then got up from their seats, turning to look at the owner, "We best be going now, we put the payment on the table like always Sakura-San."

The middle-aged man switched his attention to the couple with an easy-going smile showing on his face. "Thanks for coming again you two."

"Oh, it's no problem, Sakura-San. Besides, this place is in a back alley, so we feel safer coming here. At least there isn't the threat of a car crashing through here. Well, we will see you again next time we come around for another cup of your wonderful coffee." the old man said as he took his arm and hooked it around his wife's arm. Ren shuffled backwards and opened the door, holding it as he waited for the elderly couple to shuffle out.

"Why thank your young man, aren't you such a gentleman." said the old woman, smiling warmly towards him. Ren just nodded and smiled back, and as they finally moved away, he slipped back into the building.

He found that Sojiro had moved from behind the bar to the middle of the hallway, picking up the two cups of coffee and looked dejected. "... Hmm, four hours for just a single cup of coffee for each of them." Letting out a sigh he picked up the money and placed the cups on top of the bar counter, then he turned to finally give Ren his full attention. "I guess you are Ren Amamiya, the kid who I'm supposed to look after."

"Yes, I am, thank you for taking me into your care Sakura-San." Ren said as he gave a bow to Sojiro to show his appreciation for the man in taking him in.

Sojiro scratching the back of his head, uncomfortable after being shown such respect, spoke up. "Whoa their kid, first off none of this Sakura-San. You can call me Sojiro, I'm not too big on the whole formality thing being shown to me."

"Even though you obviously know the reason why you're here, just to make sure I will reiterate. Due to a close and trusted associate/customer who has close ties to both your parents and I, vouched for you. So I decided to take you into my custody for the entirety of your second year."

"Speaking of which, I was hoping you can shed some light into that? I'm curious about who this person that vouched for me is. As far as I know none of my parents' associates even know who I am, much less able to vouch for me?" questioned Ren as he inquired on who this close friend his parents made a passing note of. Acting as if someone was capable of setting this up wasn't worth telling him.

"Yeah look kid I do want to tell you, really I do, but the man is an enigma wrapped in a veil of secrecy. That is to say that he did all of this on the condition that we, being your parents, the lawyers and I, don't bring him up and that he keeps his anonymity." Sojiro explained as he took a seat on one of the bar stools. Ren sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off the incoming headache he felt was about to arrive.

Sojiro, sensing the young man's frustration, sighed as he walked up to Ren and placed a hand over his shoulder, noticing the boy was only an inch or so shorter than him. "I got the entire run down; I know why you're here and I understand that you feel like the world is doing everything it can to frustrate you. I may have never gone through what you are going through, but that doesn't mean I didn't go through my own messed up stuff that had me thinking why nothing is going how I wanted it to." Sojiro looked to the side, his eyes looking downward and becoming more distant.

Ren began to shake, his eyes misting over as tears threatened to break through. He placed his free hand over his eyes, trying to prevent the stream from breaking through. "It's just why? Why is all of this happening?" He removed his hand and caught Sojiro's attention, a stream of tears now began to flow freely. "Was I wrong?" It was barely a whisper, soft enough that Sojiro barely caught it.

Sojiro shook his head as he saw the plight on display, "No, I personally believe that you did the right thing. Hell in your position I would have done the same, so just because you were scolded by just about everyone around you, you did what you could. It's only by sheer bad luck that you got a batch of bad cops and a man who can scrub his identity from your case and cause you all this grief." Sojiro stole a glance at Ren's face and saw that the boy was calming down little by little.

"Trust me, I may just be a humble coffee shop owner, but you don't get this far in my profession without learning how to read people and get a glimpse of who they are underneath. Aside from the personal vouch, just this interaction confirms to me that at the end of it, you're a good kid who stands on your own morals, you have so much passion within you that you would go into a confrontation blindly to protect a random woman from being accosted by a random man. I know there may be more to this, but honestly, I won't pry. So here… dry your eyes and let's try to make the best of this situation." Sojiro pulled out a hand towel from his apron, holding it in front of Ren waiting for him to take it with a comforting smile on his face.

Ren tiredly smiled and took the hand towel appreciatively, taking off his glasses he wiped his face dry of his tears. He felt strange, a sense of physical tiredness and relief settled over him as he handed back the hand towel to Sojiro. "Thank you, I… I really needed that." Sojiro chuckled slowly at the boy in front of him as he turned around to face the stairs that lead to the next floor of the coffee shop they were in.

"Well, if you're ready I should show you where you're going to be actually staying for the duration of your time here." Sojiro moved forward and began to head up the stairs, Ren nodded his head following closely behind the older man.

As he reached the top of the staircase that led to the attic of the shop Ren placed his bag on top of a dresser and took stock of the room in front of him. The first thing that sprung up in his mind was the amount of dust that covered everything. Trash bags littered the floor with cobwebs interconnecting them. The only object up here that he would consider to be clean was a large brown cardboard box that sat in the middle of the room. Letting out a small whistle he began to slowly stroke his chin in contemplation.

"Well, I guess I got some deep cleaning to do."

Sojiro softly laughed looking back from the boy to the room overall, "Yeah, I guess it is a large mess. To be fair, there wasn't that much time between me accepting to take you in and you coming over. Plus, I have a store to run so that's even more reason why I had to let you clean up." Even without looking at his face Ren could tell that the man before him was smiling at the situation. "I do feel bad though. I unfortunately have some private reasons as to why I can't take you into my own home, I can't really go into detail but at least with this set up you will get more of a sense of freedom." He paused for a moment and then turned around sharply.

"Now while you will be staying here there are of course some rules that I need to lay down." Ren perked up as his Sojiro commanded his focus. "Every night, once I finish up my work downstairs, I will be locking the shop. So, when the shop is closed, I expect everything to be in the place I left it in. Even though you have been vouched for to heaven and back, and even I can tell you're a decent kid, I'm still leaving my establishment with you in it. So do not think that I won't kick you out if you cause me any trouble. Do I make myself clear?" Ren nodded his head. "If you keep your nose clean, I will be more lenient in your stay here. Now I'm not saying that you will have a full run of the place, but I just might let you close and allow you to have more say as to how you spend your night… deal?"

"Yes, I can agree to that."

"Good, now I have to go back down and look after my shop. Good luck with the cleaning kid, I'll come back up later to check up on you." Sojiro then walked past Ren and descended the stairs to return to his coffee shop. Ren now left alone and to his own devices sighed tiredly, his gaze shifting towards the only item in the room that was the least covered in dust. A large brown cardboard box sat in the middle of the room, in it held some of Ren's clothing and personal belongings. Opening the box and digging through it he quickly found a duster, mask, rubber gloves and a bandana that he immediately wrapped around his head covering his hair. "Alright… it's show time." Ren had readied himself, his duster in hand and so began his deep cleaning of the entire attic room.

The day flew by quickly as morning turned into evening, Ren was heavily panting resting on top of the now dust free bed and sheets. The couch that he had discovered was up here was now debris free and usable for anyone to sit on. The dust that caked every inch of the room had become a victim to his mass extinction level event against the stubborn dirt and grim he had fought against. The only reminder that it had even been in the room to begin with was the trash bags that held all the junk that Ren was planning on throwing out.

The sound of footsteps can then be heard ascending the stairs, Ren begrudgingly lifted himself up and stood at attention. Soon enough Sojiro's head could be seen, his eyes half lidded only focusing on the stair steps. As he finally reached the top, the older man paused as he finally noticed the state of his once dust covered attic, the furniture was dusted and polished, the old trinkets and junk he had left up here now gone and more than likely in the trash bags he seen pushed up against one of the walls.

"Oh wow! I knew I heard a lot of movement coming up here, but to think that you were able to do this much is impressive. Good job kid" The surprise was noticeable on his face as he continued to look around the room while simultaneously walking towards his young ward. "Thanks, I had to pull out all the stops to even get it this clean." Ren jokingly said as he met Sojiro halfway.

"Well, I suppose it's only natural to want to tidy up the place you're going to be staying at. It's not that late, but I suggest you should get to sleep soon. Tomorrow I'll be swinging by up here and then taking you over to Shujin academy, the school you'll be enrolling in, and get everything taken care of for your transfer."

"Right, I almost forgot about that." said the young man as he stretched and let out an audible yawn. "I guess I'll take you up on that suggestion then." Sojiro chuckled, nodding in agreement. He turned and began to make his way back downstairs to close his shop, as he began to descend Ren spoke up to say one more thing before the old man left him. "Hey Sojiro, I just want to say… Thank you. I really do appreciate you even doing this for me."

Sojiro without turning around cooly smirked and responded, "Think nothing of it kid, like I said you've already been vouched for." He then continued to walk down, his steps fading into the background until it vanished completely.

'Man, I'm tired.' Ren thought, as he walked towards his brown box that he placed on the lower shelf of a shelving unit near the stairs of the step. Digging through his belongings once again he pulled out his usual sleeping attire, a black long-sleeved shirt and faded green pajama pants. He quickly undressed himself from the attire he wore for most of the day and easily slipped into his simpler and cozier clothing. Once dressed he walked over to the wooden three-tiered shelving unit that was near his bed and placed his glasses on the middle shelf. Then he turned to face his new bed and proceeded to flop on top of it. With as much effort as he can muster, he forced the rest of his body to get on the bed and wriggle underneath the blankets. Now underneath a blanket Ren looked at a light switch that was placed near him and with one final push expanding the last of energy he flicked the light switch causing darkness to blanket the everything, with only moonlight seeping through the windows that was right next to him.

As he began to settle in and slip into dreamland, he noticed his phone light up, "God damn." He groaned in slight frustration as he turned himself over so that he was now facing the ceiling and picked up his phone. "What could it be now?" He opened his phone and then immediately noticed something strange. "Huh, it's that weird app I deleted" The events that had transpired earlier in the day were still fresh in his mind, the hallucination he witnessed after noticing the app the first time now replaying in his head. Ren shook his head then once more he tapped and placed his finger on top of the icon and dragged it to the trash bin icon on his phone. With it gone once more the last of his strength left him, his phone still in his hand landing on his chest. Ren's eyes lost focus as his tired heavy eyelids finally closed over, his chest slowly began to rise and fall with a soft snore being the only sound that can be heard in his room.

---

Date 4/09: Location Unknown (Night)

Ren felt uncomfortable, his back felt stiff and sore while the pillow seemed to have lost its fluff. He began to toss and turn until he suddenly woke up, finding himself blurry eyed from his adjusting vision. When his vision corrected itself, he found that he was no longer under the wooden planks of the coffee shop, he instead saw a blue brick ceiling. In a quick jolt he sprung up from his bed finding that he was no longer in the attic room, he now saw that he was in a jail cell that was entirely blue. The clothing he wore to bed now changed to look like classic prisoner garb with horizontal black and white stripes, with the addition of his wrists chained together in large iron cuffs.

His mind began to race, asking questions left and right. 'Where the hell am I? Is this dream, it must be? But I can feel everything clearly, the cold stone floor, the chafing and weight of the iron cuffs.' He was then brought out of his thoughts as he heard someone clear their throat intentionally trying to grab his attention. He had to blink his eyes a couple times, trying to test if he was seeing what was in front of him. Walking towards the cell door he finally felt the chains and iron ball that were attached to him, making the short walk a bit more tedious for him. When he finally reached the bars, he got confirmation that he indeed was seeing things correctly.

In front of Ren are two identical looking young girls, twins he guessed. They both have platinum blonde hair and yellow eyes. They both wore a black eye patch with the letter "V" over one of their eyes and a blue prison guard outfit with brassards on their left arms and matching black ties. The main differences Ren spotted was that one of the girls have their hair done in a long braid and a hat with the letters "O-Y-O-O" carrying a clipboard, while the other has hair buns and a hat with the letters "X-M-R-N" and wielding an electric shock baton.

"So, you've finally come too, huh inmate!" the girl with hair buns said, as she swished her baton in a downward diagonal slash.

"Inmate?" Ren said, slightly taken aback by the bun haired girl's strict and authoritative attitude towards him, as well questioning why she called him that.

"Puzzled are we, inmate?" said the ponytailed girl, though in a slightly softer and calmer tone than the tone her double used. "Allow me to help clarify the situation. Your physical body is still sleeping in your room as we speak, while your cognitive self is here."

"Huh, what are you talking about, this… this can't be real you two are just figments of my tired brain making up a crazy dream." proclaimed Ren, though deep down he doubted his own words.

"Silence inmate! I will have no such belly aching in front of our master! So, stand up straight and behave yourself." yelled out the girl with hair buns, raising her baton with electricity coursing through it and slamming it against the metal cell bars. The connection led to a strong electrical current coursing through the bars and forcing Ren away from the bars in shocked surprise.

He listened and fixed his posture, though his hands were still shaking from the electrical shock that they endured. He then noticed the third occupant that was in the room on the other side of his cell. A bit further behind the girls behind a desk sat an old man with a long nose, pointed ears and bulging, bloodshot eyes. He is wearing a black suit with white gloves, black socks and black shoes. His left hand seemed to be held against his head as he wore a look of amusement, while his right hand laid on top of the desk lightly drumming his fingers on it. Ren could also see that the old man was sitting crossed legged.

"Ah Trickster, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Igor, and I welcome you to my velvet room." said the old man who proclaimed himself to be Igor in front of Ren. The voice of the old man was deep and held a slight menacing tone within it that set the boy on edge. Igor continued to speak.

"This room exists in between dream and reality, mind and matter. Only those who have entered into a contract with me are allowed to enter this room. I am the master of this room, something that you should try your best to remember." The thinly veiled threat in that last part didn't escape Ren. "But I should get to the matter at hand, I have summoned you here to speak about the inevitable fate of the world. Your world will be subject to a coming ruin that will endanger all in it and cause it to fall into oblivion."

"Wait 'Ruin'?" Ren said, flabbergasted at the news that was brought to him. "What are you talking about? Are you saying that we're all going to die?" Ren surprisingly was not scared of the idea, at the very least it wasn't the prominent emotion he was feeling. Instead, a fire was lit within him, something that told him to reject the news.

Igor chuckled deeply at the young man before him, amused at his antics. "Indeed, this is the fate that is destined for your world, with you being its prisoner. With such a fate it is no surprise that the room has taken shape as a prison" A look of surprise crossed Ren's face. "Fate's prisoner? That doesn't make any sense, why am I it's prisoner?"

"Simple my young Trickster, within you holds the potential to oppose such a disaster from coming to fruition. You must undergo "rehabilitation" which will allow you to seek the freedom and power to change the world's fate. So, allow me to ask you Trickster… will you accept my help and change your status from being a mere prisoner of fate?" Igor turned over his right hand, raising it up almost in an act of reaching out towards Ren.

Ren was silent, his head was bowed causing his hair to cover his eyes from the three people that were on the other side of the bars. Moving forward he gripped the iron bars with both his hands, his posture telling them that even in this situation he was calm. Finally, he spoke "Alright, I think I get the basic gist of this." Raising his head his hair parted enough for his eyes to be seen clearly. For a moment both young girls, with slight concern, instinctively took a step back from their "inmate" before schooling their features and reading themselves in case something was to happen. Before them stood not the timid young man that was scared and confused in the beginning of their meeting, instead within Ren Amamiya now burned a calm and cool confidence.

"Very well, I accept your proposal Igor." Igor's grin widened a bit further at Ren's response, his hand lowering back to its previous place, continuing its drumming from before. "Very well, with this the contract between you and I have been sealed. Now allow me to introduce to you the two girls who will be overseeing your rehabilitation. To the right of you is Caroline," he gestured to the girl with the hair buns. "And to the left is her sister Justine." he said, with his hand directed towards the girl with the ponytail. "These two shall serve as your wardens for as long as you are a guest of my room."

"Don't go thinking that just because we look like this, we'll go easy on you inmate." Caroline said, her smirk towards Ren coming off cockier than anything else.

"As your wardens, not only are we here to serve as inspectors on your path to rehabilitation, but as well we are your collaborators." said Justine as she looked over her clipboard. Before Ren could say anything more a sudden alarm began to ring, echoing throughout the walls of the room.

"Our conversation is going to be cut short I see. We will pick up this conversation at another time. Farwell Trickster, until we meet again." As Igor finished, Ren felt a strong tug on his back. He began to fall backwards, and instead of feeling the hard ground he felt weightless and an odd sense of falling but not, going further into a velvet blue void.

---

Date 4/10: Leblanc ( Early Morning)

Ren abruptly woke up, sweat dripping down the left side of his face as his heart beating rapidly that it threatened to burst out of his chest. Taking deep breaths, he placed his hand over his chest where his heart was located. "That dream." Flashes of the night's events that transpired within his dreams flashed before him, but the images were hazy, the words blurred and mumbled. He sat in his bed for a few more minutes, trying to organize his thoughts, and recollect what his dream was about.

Sighing tiredly, he gave up and began to get out of his bed and begin the process of getting himself ready for the day's events. Digging through his box he found one of his spare uniforms and began to dress himself. "Man, it was not a smart idea to clean this room last night with a uniform on. I should be thankful that I had the foresight to shell out for two more sets of the winter school uniform." As he finished getting himself dressed, he went over to the couch he cleaned off and sat down waiting for Sojiro's arrival.

—

Sojiro woke up around 5 O'clock, grumbling. He got out of his bed and made his way over to his dresser to pick out his outfit for the day. He decided to go for his usual look, this time with the addition of a white two button blazer and a white trilby hat with a red-white-and-blue striped band. Placing his clothing on his bed he turned and headed into his own shower that was connected next to his bedroom. After a quick shower, went to work on grooming his facial hair by clipping stray strands and using a special beard wax to help shape his goatee. Once he finished, he took a moment to look into his mirror, turning his head left and right a couple of times to make sure he was pleased with his overall profile. "Heh, well don't I look as handsome as ever." Admiring his work and feeling pleased with himself he left the shower room and began to dress himself.

As he exited his room, he went down his hallway and paused in front of another door that led to a bedroom. He made a move to gently knock on it but stopped himself. He continued to move forward and ended up in his kitchen. Setting his coffee machine up with his house blend that he created himself he began to wait for it to finish.

After having his coffee and making final adjustments to his outfit Sojiro moved to leave his home. As he reached his door, he stopped himself midway before looking back at the main hallway. Bringing out his phone he opened his messaging app and typed something out quickly before departing his home.

The day was still early as the sun itself was barely awake as well, Sojiro took a moment to soak in the silence enjoying the peace that early morning brought with it. Taking his regular path to his coffee shop he found himself in front of its doors in a matter of minutes. "Man, it's going to be such a hassle to open up this shop at a later time." Entering Leblanc, he went behind his bar counter and brought out his eraser and chalk and went back out to write a message on his sign to let his customer know that the shop would be opening later than usual. After finishing writing his message, he reentered his shop and made his way up to the attic.

---

Ren was scrolling through his phone as he heard someone climb up the stairs that led to his room. He stood up and waited in the middle of the room. As Ren expected Sojiro to make his arrival, he took notice of the white blazer and hat. 'Huh, a bit much but honestly it actually worked for him.'

"Well color me surprised. You're up and ready to go, I was certain that I had to drag you out of bed." Sojiro said teasingly as he looked at Ren to make sure the uniform he was wearing was presentable enough for the meeting they were about to attend.

"Well, you seem ready, it's best that we get a move on then. In a city like this you never know how traffic will be." Ren nodded in agreement, remembering how shell shocked he was by the size of Shibuya alone. As they began to walk downstairs Sojiro began to speak to Ren again. "Just to remind you in case you forgot, Shujin is in the Aoyama district. While I will be driving you over today, starting tomorrow you will be taking the train to get to school."

"Why is that?" questioned Ren as he stopped in front of a luxurious condor yellow Porsche 356.

"Simple, I don't usually allow men to sit in my passenger seat." Sojiro said, a wide smirk present on his face as he entered his car.

Rolling his eyes Ren followed suit and entered the Porsche, "You gotta be kidding me. How often do you have women sitting in your car with you?" he asked the older man, doubting the coffee shop owner in his self-proclamation of being a debonair man.

"Hmm, oh Yee of little faith. You would be surprised by my skills in handling women. Who knows, if you play your cards right, I might just teach you a thing or two." Though Ren felt that Sojiro was pulling his chain a bit, he couldn't shake the feeling that there might have been some truth to what he was saying. 'I mean I can't really say no to dating advice. God knows my father got lucky to somehow wind-up with mom, so he won't be much help. And I know I won't ever discuss this topic with mom either to save myself from embarrassment.'

It roughly took thirty minutes of driving for Ren and Sojiro to arrive at Shujin academy. As Ren walked up towards the building, he took the time to get a good look at it. The building itself is white in color, with it being three stories tall. In front of the building was a decently sized wall with several posters and signs on it, and then he spotted an ornate black Iron gate, serving as the initial gateway to the building. Right next to the gate was a large black colored plaque with white kanji that said "Shujin Academy" on it.

Walking next together, the pair made their way into the building and walked toward the principal's office. Following the map that Sojiro was given beforehand, the duo made it to the second floor of the school and found the principal's office. Entering the office Ren was met with two others within the room, the one sitting at a desk with a name plate that simply said 'Principal Kobayakawa' on it is an overweight and bald middle-aged man wearing a beige suit, white undershirt and red bow tie. Standing next to the overweight man is a woman of medium height and a slender build. She has dark brown unkempt hair, dark brown eyes and a tired look on her face. She wears a yellow long-sleeved shirt striped with white and red horizontal lines, a blue denim skirt and white kitten heel pumps.

"Welcome you must be Ren Amamiya and his guardian Sojiro Sakura." Proclaimed the fat man as he opened a drawer to the right of him and brought out a small stack of papers. "Before we discuss anything I wish to get through the paperwork first so that we get the most tedious part of this meeting out of the way." Grunting in agreement, both Sojiro and Ren sat down on chairs that were placed in front of the desk.

For Ren, the paperwork wasn't as bad for himself, just a few signatures to verify information and one that basically stated that he acknowledges that he read the rules and guidelines of the academy and will follow them. Looking to the left of him he saw Sojiro grumble and stroke his goatee as he filled out his portion of the paperwork. Once they were both done the principal looked through the paperwork to make sure everything was filled out correctly.

"Everything seems to be in order. You are now officially a proud student of Shujin academy." stated principal Kobayakawa, as he stamped the top paper with a literal seal of approval, signaling Ren's successful transfer. "Now with that over with, I just wish to reiterate some things. Just as you no doubt saw in the paperwork you have done, if you at all cause any problems for the school you will be immediately expelled. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Ren responded as he bowed his head towards the principal

"While I was hesitant to accept someone like you with your record to attend our prestigious school there were circumstances on our side that ultimately had us accept you. While you may have been able to get away with doing all manner of things in your old hometown, you will behave yourself here because if you get thrown out there will be no other school that will be willing to take you in."

As the Principle was talking, Ren nodded along and responded with a "Yes sir." to show he was following along. Kobayakawa taking out a handkerchief dabbed his bald head as he began to perspire. "Good, glad we are on the same page. Now the teacher beside me will oversee your Homeroom." the principle said while gesturing towards the woman who had been standing throughout the entire time.

"Hello, I'm Sadayo Kawakami." said the woman as she introduced herself with a slightly tired voice that didn't show any emotion in it. She moved to place a few items on the principal's desk, "This here is your student I.D, try not to misplace it if you can." Ren moved to grab the I.D when he noticed a pink piece of folded up paper underneath it.

"Huh?" The confusion was clear on his face, but he moved to pick up both items until Kawakami perked up. "Wa-wait, that's not for you!" She quickly Grabbed the pink sheet of paper in a flash, clutching it close to her chest.

Everyone present looked at her for a second before shrugging off her action, with Ren finally getting his student I.D and tucking it into his jacket's left breast pocket. Now looking livelier Kawakami spoke up once more. "Make sure that you revise and thoroughly acquaint yourself with the school rules. Any violations you may incur will send you straight to the principal's office and should you cause any problems I will not be able to protect you from any of the consequences." She paused before turning to the principal, "That is the deal here, right principal Kobayakawa?"

Wiping the top of his head, the principal responded directly. "Yes, that is correct, he alone will be responsible for all of his actions."

She settled down with that confirmation, but the disappointment was still clear on her face. "But seriously, why did it have to be me? Wasn't there anyone else that could do this?"

"Truly, I am sorry for pushing this on you, but your class is the only one with an opening that could accommodate a sudden transfer. Besides it shouldn't be all bad, his public record aside his academic record shows that he is at least studious." Explained the rotund principal as he began to stand up and shifted his attention to Sojiro. "Now Sakura-San I ask that you keep a close eye on him, it wouldn't do well for us or him if he was caught causing trouble outside these walls either."

Sojiro nodded along at the portly man, "You have nothing to worry about principal, I'll make sure to give him a thorough talk about his situation." he replied with a serious tone as he leveled his gaze at Ren.

"One more thing before you go, when you arrive at school tomorrow, I want you to report to the faculty office. From there I will show you to your homeroom." explained Kawakami to her newest student.

Ren replied with a nod, letting her know that he understood what she said. With that the duo stood up and bid the two faculty members goodbye and exited the office. As they descended the stairs and found themselves nearing the front entrance Sojiro looked to his left and spoke to Ren, "How are you doing? They were really going at you in there."

Ren stopped, causing Sojiro to walk ahead a few steps before stopping and turning around to face his ward. "It's frustrating, though it's not like I wasn't expecting something like this to happen. But to go through it and the consistent hammering of my record and how they are expecting me to fail at keeping out of trouble it's just… a lot."

"Well then try to prove them wrong." It was simple advice that Ren heard, but it was enough to help drag his mood back up. "They may see you as a delinquent now, but if you really apply yourself to your schoolwork and show that you are an invaluable student then who knows. They may or may not acknowledge it, but in the end, you would have shown them that they were wrong about you." A smug smirk was present on Sojiro's face while he gave Ren his advice. Turning back around he began to move out of the building. "Now come on I got a shop to open, and I can't afford to allow it to stay closed for much longer." Ren looking at the shrinking form of Sojiro as the older man was walking away, he felt the weight that was in the pit of his stomach lift itself feeling relief once more. He jogged forward, slowing down to a calm walking pace as he found himself next to Sojiro once again.

As the two entered the car the relief of going back to the cafe quickly vanished as they found themselves trapped in traffic. Ten minutes of waiting and slowly inching up was enough for both the men as Sojiro decided to turn on the radio. "I swear the traffic today is just horrible." After the radio sprung to life a news bulletin began to play.

"Now back to the emergency traffic report. We got reports that a subway train had derailed earlier today at the Shibuya train station, causing mass build up in traffic causing everything to come to a slow crawl."

"Well at least that explains the traffic… Oh yeah I almost forgot to give you this." Sojiro dug into his pants pocket and fished out a train pass. "Here, you'll be needing this to help you get to and from school."

"Oh, thank you. I appreciate it." replied Ren as he took the train pass.

"Eh, think nothing of it." With that response the two sat back, making ideal chatter and listening to the radio.

---

Date 4/10: Leblanc (Evening)

By the time the pair arrived at the coffee shop the sun was beginning to set. Ren was sitting at the long island bar watching Sojiro lamenting the lost day. "Man, I can't believe that I had to close my shop for the entire day. That's lost profit that I will never make back." Letting out a tired sigh, Sojiro went over to where his cash register was and picked up a small black book, laying it in front of Ren. "Now this should be the last thing that I need to give you. While you have no restrictions per say as to how you spend your probation, I am still obligated to report on you, which is why I want you to write in this book frequently. Think you can do that for me?"

Ren took the book and pocketed, "Yeah it shouldn't be any problem for me."

It was then Sojiro's cell phone rang, after giving it a quick glance a small genuine smile appeared on his face as he answered. "Hey, I'm surprised you called up, how's everything going?" Ren couldn't really make out the voice on the other end of the call, "Yeah it was a mess out there, so that's why I wasn't around in the shop today… Yeah there's no point in me staying here, so I'm going to leave soon so I'll be over there in no time."

After hanging up Ren's curiosity finally peaked, "Was that a girlfriend of yours?"

"No, it wasn't," Sojiro responded sharply before settling down. "I'm going to be heading off now, I'll be locking up the place tonight so as long as you don't mess with anything you're free for the rest of the night."

"No problem, I'll just probably settle down and make a light meal for myself before heading off to bed." Ren replied as he saw Sojiro off.

"Alright, but just to make sure, this here is a list of ingredients that I need to make tomorrow's curry, so try to avoid any of these things on the list." Sojiro handed off a list detailing the ingredients to Ren before turning and leaving the shop with a soft click following close behind signaling that he locked up Lablanc.

Ren, deciding that he wanted to change out of his clothing, climbed up the stairs that led to his room and changed into more comfortable casual clothing. As he finished redressing himself, he heard the distinct noise of a telephone ringing. Pausing for a second, he could then tell that the ringing was coming from downstairs. Walking back down he saw that his guess was right, the yellow phone that was placed on the counter of the bar was ringing profusely. Ren cautiously walked up and picked up the call. Hesitantly he answered, "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me." Ren mentally paused as he fully comprehended the voice on the other side of the call. He tentatively answered back "Sojiro, is that you?"

"Heh, yeah I bet this came as a surprise." said Sojiro as he confirmed it was him on the other side. "Anyway, I called you to do me a quick favor, you see I kinda forgot to flip the sign to CLOSED and honestly it would be too much of a hassle for me to go back for something as simple as that. So do you mind doing it for me?"

"Yeah, I was about to go down the stairs anyway and make something quick. Why didn't you call my phone by the way? Don't you have my number?"

"Yeah, I have it written somewhere, it's just that I try not to save any guy's phone numbers on my cell phone. You understand right."

Ren, hearing the slight smugness in the man's voice, took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose in slight irritation. "No, I don't but I'll just go along with it anyways."

A chuckle is heard before Sojiro continued "Glad we're on the same page kid. Before you go out and flip the sign grab the spare key I have hidden underneath the cash register. Use that to lock the shop back up."

"Alright no problem." Ren then hung up the phone and went over to the cash register and grabbed the spare key. Stepping out into the nighttime alley he took a moment to give a quick glance around to make sure there were no imminent dangers around him. After seeing that it was all clear he flipped the sign over as Sojiro asked and went back inside, locking the door once more.

After re-entering Lablanc Ren went to work and made up a quick meal for himself, a small plate of pan seared mackerel that was seasoned with lemon pepper and paprika, with white rice on the side. Clapping his hands together and bowing his head, he said a quick "Itadakimasu." and began to dig into his meal. After finishing his meal and cleaning his dishes he went upstairs and got ready to go to sleep. Once he was settled in his bed, he heard a ping coming from his phone, clicking the power button he instantly noticed the notification on his phone came from the app he had deleted twice now. A slight tug began to pull at the back of his mind, fuzzy memories playing in his head of a blue jail cell and an old man with two short guards and the word "Ruin" being thrown out. Shaking his head his mind began to clear, looking at the app he decided to delete it for the third time, "And stay gone." Sighing, he placed his phone back on the shelf next to him and rested his head back onto his pillow, slowly slipping into a dreamless sleep.

---

Date 4/11: Leblanc (Morning)

As the sun began to rise Ren followed suit, getting out of his bed he started to stretch himself out. Getting his blood flowing and helping him wake up faster than he normally would. Once he felt satisfied, he dressed himself and walking down he grabbed his sling shoulder bag and walked downstairs. Once he neared the bottom of Lablanc the delicious smell of curry and coffee greeted him. Following the enticing scent, he found Sojiro in front of a plate of curry with a cup of coffee to the side of it.

"Well look who decided to show up." A satisfied smile was plastered on Sojiro's face as he saw Ren take a seat in front of the plate. "Well don't wait for me, eat up you're going to need all the energy you can get for your first day."

"Kind of strange, I never had curry for breakfast before." Ren took the spoon that was placed with the plate and took his first bite of the curry. Sojiro looked on in interest, his smile still present on his face as Ren finished his first bite. "Well…"

"It's… amazing." Ren then began to eat the curry faster, not shoveling it down per say, but at a pace that showed Sojiro that the boy did indeed enjoy the taste of his famous dish. "You know the dish goes really well with a cup of coffee." He hinted as he nodded gently towards the cup of coffee that Ren had yet to touch.

Taking his advice Ren took a sip of coffee, and with the taste of curry still in his mouth being washed down by the freshly brewed cup caused a combination of flavors that amazed Ren even further. "Wow, this pairs so well with each other." he praised as he continued to polish off his breakfast with Sojiro going off to the corner where his kitchen was at and began to wash up his dishes, chuckling knowingly at Ren's enthusiasm in eating his curry.

As he finished Ren turned to Sojiro again and thanked him once more, "Thank you Sojiro, that was great."

"Think nothing of it, now you better get going, wouldn't want you to be late for your first day."

Ren nodded, grabbing his bag and walking out of Lablance he made his way to the train station. As he entered the train cart, he found himself crammed in with a multitude of other people causing him to feel like a sardine in a can.

"We are now stopping at Shibuya station." As the doors opened Ren almost fell to the ground as he squeezed himself out of the jam-packed train car. He was barely saved from kissing the pavement by an outstretched hand that grabbed the back of his jacket. Once he was pulled up and he had his bearings he noticed the person who saved him. In front of Ren was Tsukasa Kadoya, the man who helped him safely cross the Shibuya crossing after he had a strange vision of him engulfed in blue flames.

"Hey now, I thought after the last time we met you would be more careful from here on out." Tsukasa asked with his hands in his suit jacket and a carefree look on his face.

Recognizing him immediately, Ren gave a slight bow to the man "Tsukasa, thanks again I guess."

The brown-haired man gave Ren a slight chuckle before he raised up his camera and took a photo of the schoolboy. Ren, seeing this, questioned Tsukasa on his actions, "Why did you just take a picture of me? Also why are you here in the first place?"

Tsukasa took his camera off and, while he waited for the picture he just took to be dispensed, answered back. "Well, I am a freelance photographer, so I picked up a job for a local tabloid and came down here to do some digging around on the incident from yesterday with the derailed train." He answered while a picture appeared from his camera. "You know, I'll probably be around the area for the foreseeable future. How do you feel about making a deal? I'll look out for you so that you don't embarrass or get yourself into too much trouble and in return you work on yourself so that you don't need me to look out for you." Tsukasa said as he finally looked at the photo in his hand gave a surprised look before giving a smirk and outstretching the photo towards Ren with it turned upside down.

Ren before he gently grabbed the photo smirked at the photographer, "Sure I think I can manage that." and so he took the photo and turned it around, his eyes landed on the photo. Then the flow of time stopped around him as a soft voice began to speak from every direction. "I am thou, thou art I… Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity. With the birth of the Fool Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…" His features looked confused as he stared at the photo. While his form in the picture was clear as day and you could make out the little details in his uniform, the odd thing that confused him was the blurred and shifting background of the photo. Looking up he tried to question Tsukasa, but as he did, he was met with air and a busy train station. His brows furrowed as he took the picture, and he tucked it into his blazer's breast pocket. Confused by both the state of the photo and the sudden voice that just spoke to him.

After getting lost for a moment and asking for directions Ren finally made it to the Ginza line that would then take him to Aoyama, where Shujin was at. Once he arrived and made it above the underground train line Ren was met with a torrent of rain that was coming down hard. Using his bag as an impromptu umbrella he held iit above his head. Ren looking around for shelter found a building with a large awning to help cover him from the sudden rainstorm. He quickly ran towards it and took shelter underneath it.

Taking a moment and bringing out his phone he checked to see how much further he had left until he made it to school. It was then he was met with another surprise of the day, the app was once again on his screen. "What is up with this thing? Man, I can't have this happening to my phone." As he motioned to repeat the motion of deleting the app again, he was distracted as he heard soft but hurried footsteps approaching his direction.

It was then that a person wearing a modified version of the Shujin girls uniform appeared next to him under the awning with their hood up obscuring their face. The outfit consisted of the standard black blazer over a white varsity-like hooded sweatshirt, that was long enough to cover most of her short plaid skirt. Her sweatshirt has a red stripe between two blue stripes at the bottom, an S symbol near the front bottom on one side and a green four-leaf-clover symbol on the back of the hood. With red tights and brown boots with yellow laces tying it all together.

It was then the girl turned around and fling her hood down revealing her looks to an unprepared Ren. Before him time seemed to slow down for Ren, giving him an ample amount of time to fully noticed the stunning girl before him who had wavy platinum blonde hair that is styled in bushy pigtails with parted side bangs on the right side of her face as she wore a single yellow hair clip above her ear as well as small circular earrings on both ears and bright vibrant blue eyes.

He found himself entranced by her, his voice no longer operable. The girl, while wringing her hair to get any excess moisture out, finally noticed Ren was under the same awning and gave him a kind smile. Seeing her smile sent an immediate signal to Ren's fried brain and it quickly went to work on a response.

"Hey there, my name is Ren Amamiya and I'm a new transfer to Shujin!" he blurted out, a feeling of embarrassment rolling over him. The girl in front of him giggled and continued to smile at him, "Well nice to meet you Ren, I'm Ann Takamaki."

Ren let out a sigh that he didn't know he was holding in, he wanted to continue the conversation with Ann, but it was then a car rolled up parking near the sidewalk. The windows rolled down showing an adult man with long black unkempt hair that flared out and thick eyebrows. His most defining feature being his jawline which was broad and squared. From where Ren stood, he could make out that the man wore a white T-shirt and black track pants with a whistle and timer hanging around his neck.

The man sticking his head out of the window talked directly to Ann, "Hey morning, it seems like you could use a ride to school. You don't want to be late, do you?"

"Uhm, yeah sure." Ren noticed the tone in her voice had now become reluctant, he mauled it over if he wanted to say something but then the man spoke up once more. "Hey, how about you? Do you want a ride also?"

Ren noticed that Ann was now in the passenger seat of the car, feeling that he didn't want to burden the man further he declined the man's offer. "No, thank you. I can make my way over."

The guy, after hearing Ren's response, wasted no time as he drove off with Ann having a look of disappointment. As he saw the car drive off, he heard a guy yelling from behind him, his voice growing closer. He then saw another student with short spiky blond hair, wearing the standard Shujin black blazer with red buttons which was unbuttoned to reveal a yellow T-shirt with a colorful green and magenta comic style star symbol and the word "ZOMG!" He wore has black pants, with a red plaid pattern, rolled up to reveal his ankles and part of his shins, with his black suspenders hanging down instead of being worn on his shoulders and a white canvas belt and white and red low top Converse-like sneakers that have a rising sun flag design.

After the blonde-haired boy lost sight of the car, he began to grumble to himself. "Dammit… Fuck that pervy teacher"

"Pervy teacher?" Ren parroted with slight confusion in his voice.

Ren's response caught the boy's attention, causing him to turn around and walk up to Ren getting up into his personal space.

"What are you looking at? What, you plannin' on ratting me out to that dick bag Kamoshida."

Unknown to Ren his phone began to act up the moment Renji said "Kamoshida" causing the app icon to expand and fully encompass the screen.

"No…? I don't even know who this Kamoshida you're talking about is."

"The car just now, the person in it was Kamoshida." the blonde clarified while turning around and kicking a loose piece of debris. "That asshole does whatever he wants. Who does he even think he is? The king of the castle or something? You agree with me, right?"

Again, Ren's phone shifted as input the words Kamoshida and Castle into a search bar that popped up. "Huh, king of the castle? What castle are you talking about?" Ren replied, clearly lost in the conversation that just popped up out of nowhere.

"Uh, you do know I'm not actually talking about a real castle, right? But wait, wait, wait, wait. You're not joking right… about not knowing who Kamoshida is? You do go to Shujin right?" the punk dressed boy inquired as his facial features softened.

"Yeah no, I literally just transferred over to this school. Just signed the paperwork yesterday." he said bluntly now that the situation of the conversation seemed to wind down.

"For real? Man, no wonder I don't recognize you. Look I'm sorry let's start over; I'm Ryuji Sakamoto. Nice to meet ya." the boy now identified as Ryuji said as he stretched out his hand for a handshake.

Ren smiled and reached out for Ryuji's hand and shook it, "Ren Amamiya, good to meet you."

As they shook hands a strange wave of lightheadedness washed over the pair, causing them to clutch their heads with their eyes shut tight. As their eyes closed the world began to be covered over with a shade of purple.

"Damn, what the hell was that just now." Ryuji said as he recovered from the mental attack on his mind. In his daze Ryuji took out his phone and saw the time, which caused the fuzziness to clear away, "Awe man, we gotta book it man! Come on, I know a shortcut that leads to school." Nodding his head, Ren began to follow Ryuji's lead as he sorted out the still incoming memories of the dream he had two nights ago that had just begun to flood his mind.

"What the!? What the hell is this!?" Before Ren and Ryuji was a large European style medieval castle.

"That plate right there… it says this is Shujin right." Ren asked as he stood there perplexed.

"Yeah… and the way we came here should have taken us straight to Shujin." Ryuji answered as he was dealing with his own confusion about the situation. "Man, what's goin on here?"

"Maybe we should walk in and see what's going on, it would be better than just staying out here." Ren suggested as he began to walk across the drawn bridge that led to the castle.

As they crossed the bridge and entered the castle, the boys stopped in the immaculate interior. They found themselves in the foyer and briefly they noticed the white marble pillars, with candles hanging off them, that acted as supports for the roof of the room. A twin set of stairs that merge halfway up and then split into separate stairs that went up to second story hallways and hanging where the midway floor that connect the four set of stairs was a large painting that depicted Kamoshida in pristine golden armor with him wielding a sword that was out of frame and a ray of sunlight hitting the back of the man giving him a golden aura.

"Damn this is so weird, where the hell is everybody?" questioned Ryuji as he was looking around the room.

Ren pulled his phone to give another check if they were indeed at Shujin but as he tapped into his GPS the address for the school he was met with a "No Connection" message that popped up.

"Hey Ryuji, I'm not getting any connection on my phone. Can you get anything?"

Pulling out his own phone Ryuji checked to see if he could get any detection but found none. "Nah, got zilch on my end."

Before anything more could be done, the clinking of metal was heard by the two as it quickly approached them. From a hallway appeared a man wearing a blue mask and a suit of armor, the height of which was easily two feet taller than the schoolboys. Ren was immediately put on alert as he noticed that the sword the armored man was carrying was sharpened to a fine edge. Unfortunately, as he turned to tell Ryuji that they should leave he saw the blonde-haired boy walking calmly towards the large knight with a wide smile on his face.

"Wow, your costume is so rad man." Ryuji was calm as he inspected the knight before him. "Man, is this armor for real? I'm totally jealous."

"Ryuji, I don't think it's smart to be anywhere near the guy." Ren said as he took a step towards Ryuji. "Hmm, whatcha talkin about man, this is just some guy dressed up." Ryuji said as he elbowed the armored man's stomach. "Hey, come on man, don't just stand there, say somethin."

While Ryuji tried to get the overly large knight to talk, a second knight appeared and stood next to the original knight as it took an aggressive stance.

"Wha-what the? What the hell is goin on?!" Ryuji yelled out as he backpedaled next to Ren.

"I think we should run." Ren said as he gripped the back of Ryuji's blazer and began to turn both around and make a run for the entrance.

"Ye-yea, I think you got the right call here." As both boys turned to make their escape, another set of two knights appeared out of nowhere, cornering the duo and forcing them back.

"Argh, what the hell's with you guys!" Ryuji shouted trying to get some kind of answer out of their captures. In response he was hit in the back of his head with a bash from one of the knight's shields, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Ryu-!" Soon Ren was also met with a hit to the back of his head, knocking him out cold. Ryuji, with what little strength he had in him tried to remain defiant, but he was soon swarmed, and darkness overwhelmed his sight. The last thing he heard was a distorted voice coming from one of the knights. "Take these intruders away to the dungeon! The King will want to personally sentence these two."

---

Date 4/11: Location Unknown (?)

Ren didn't know how long he was out as his head was still pounding from the sneak attack he received from one of the knights. Slowly he began to slowly hear again, a muffled worried voice meeting his ears. Concentrating on that voice he immediately recognized who was speaking to him and what they were trying to say.

"Hey…Hey wake up man!" Ryuji was over top of Ren, having recently woken up himself, and was trying to wake the other boy up from his unconscious state. Slowly Ren's eyes fluttered open causing Ryuji to step back and let Ren adjust himself to his surroundings. Letting out a soft groan as he sat up from the wooden plank he was laying on, Ren took in his surroundings and saw that yet again he was in another cell. The design of the cell was more medieval in design, with chained cuffs hanging on the walls and multiple wooden barrels tucked at the corners of the cell. 'I really hope this doesn't become a recurring thing.' Ren thought as he stood up and made his way towards Ryuji.

"You doin alright man?" Ryuji asked, concern clear on his face as he looked over Ren.

"Ye-yeah, still a bit rattled but I'm as ok as one can be from getting hit over the head with a shield." Ren said, a slight joking tone in his voice as he tried to liven the situation a bit."

"Yeah, you can say that again." Ryuji responded, now calmer in the fact that Ren seemed to be fine.

"Do you know how long we've been here?" Ren asked while he moved around the room to give it a closer inspection.

"Naw, I woke up not that long before you did and when I did, I wanted to make sure you were good." Ryuji answered as he kept his gaze on Ren seeing the new student tugging on the chains that were on the wall.

"Damn, no give… Well thanks for looking after me, I appreciate it." Ren responded as moved toward the barrels.

"Yea, no prob. Uh hey whatcha doin?" Ryuji asked as Ren was now looking inside the barrels.

"I'm trying to see if there's a way for us to get out of here. So far, the chains are out of sense they wouldn't budge, there's only water in the barrels so nothing we can use right now to help us escape."

Ryuji deflated after he heard Ren's assessment of the situation, they were mumbling to himself a bit. "Man, we are so done for."

Ren tried to reach out and lend a comforting hand to the boy, but he stopped when he heard the familiar sound of metal footsteps outside the cell. Grabbing Ryuji, he pulled the blonde away from the metal bars. Soon enough the cell door swung open and revealed three knights marching in with weapons drawn. Then the lead knight pointed his sword at the two boys and spoke to them. "You two! Rejoice for your punishment has been passed down by the king himself!"

"Wa-wait, punishment!? What the hell did we do!?" Ryuji asked as he was backed up further to the one of the walls of the cell.

"You are charged with the unlawful entry of the king's castle! As such your punishment shall be an immediate execution!" The knight bellowed out as he advanced towards the boys.

"Hey wait! This is not fair! Who the hell decided this bullshit!" Ryuji yelled as he struggled against the guards and tried to keep away from their grasps.

"Silence, those who even dare to think they are free to do as they please in my castle don't deserve any leniency!" The boys stopped there struggling as both boys shifted their gaze towards the entrance of the cell. Before the boys was the familiar face of Kamoshida, his eyes now glowing a bright luminescent yellow, the attire he wore when Ren first met him early in the morning now was drastically different. Atop his head now sat a golden crown that was tilted slightly to the left side of his head, around his shoulders now rested a regal red cape with hearts printed on it and white puffy trim that went around the cape and puffed out more around his neck giving him a collar. The last notable thing the duo noticed about the man was that he now wore a bright pink speedo and red silk slippers, he wore nothing else leaving the rest of his body exposed for all to see.

"Wha… is that really Kamoshida?" Ryuji voiced, though it wasn't a question directed at anybody but more that it was him voicing his disbelief in the sudden appearance of the gym teacher who was now dressed perversely.

"Ah Sakamoto it's just you; I thought it was some thief trying to steal my treasure." Kamoshida said as he began to walk towards Ryuji menacingly, with a sinister grin on his face. "Tsk, tsk, Sakamoto I thought the lesson I gave you after the last time you disobeyed me would have taught you to not meddle in my kingdom." Kamoshida's gaze then shifted to Ren for a moment before he looked back at Ryuji. "And it looks like you brought a friend with you also, so it wasn't enough that you had to take the others down with you, but this poor unfortunate soul as well."

"Shut up you Asshole! He has nothing to do with me!" Ryuji yelled out as he aggressively moved forward towards Kamoshida. He was met with a knight blocking his way causing Ryuji to back up and then launch himself forward to tackle the knight to the ground. He tried to quickly get up and swing a punch at Kamoshida, who instinctively stepped back and flinched. Before Ryuji could get his proper footing secured, a second knight wounded his arm back and hit the blonde's back with the hilt of his sword causing the boy to crash down to the floor.

"Ryuji!" Ren yelled out, moving to help his fellow student. He was stopped abruptly as the third knight of the group pointed his sword at Ren's chest almost pressing into the boy's body.

"Hold him right there, I want to take my time with THIS one's execution." commanded Kamoshida as he kicked Ryuji's side, causing the boy to yell out in pain as he curled into himself while still on the ground. "You two, pick this piece of trash up and hold him up against the wall!" The other two knights did as they were told and hoisted up Ryuji and pinned him against the wall. Kamoshida's face then contorted into a twisted grin as he began to lay into Ryuji. "You piece of trash!" The man landed a right hook across Ryuji's face, causing the blonde to yell out in pain. This act caused Kamoshida an immense amount of joy as his twisted grin grew perverse, "Oh yeah, that's what I like to hear. Yell for me Ryuji! Yell for me!" Kamoshida then threw a flurry of punches at Ryuji, hitting the boy's ribs and stomach and face, every now and again throwing a kick to throw in some variety. All the while Ren was watching this happen, the fear that he had felt before was now replaced with anger.

"Stop it! You're nothing but a coward who can't handle his own business!" Ren yelled out, stepping forward and causing the tip of the sword to dig into his chest, but not pierce his clothing. Kamoshida stopped his assault on Sakamoto, causing the boy's head to limp forward as he tried to catch his breath. "Hmm… a coward you say! You insolent brat! I am the king around here! You would dare talk back to me like this! Fine, after I had my fun with Sakamoto I'll make sure your execution is longer and more excruciating than his. You there! Go and make sure the glasses kid doesn't do anything to interrupt me." ordered Kamoshida to one of the knights holding up Ryuji. The knight to Kamoshida's right nodded to companion, waiting for his ally to grab hold of Ryuji's neck and have him firmly pressed against the wall. Then the second knight lumbered forward and drew his sword and with the third knight crossed their blades and forced Ren against the wall. The first knight who is now holding Ryuji up by the throat, then drew his sword and slowly cocked his arm back and aimed the blade upward ready to pierce the blonde all the while Kamoshida was cackling his heart out.

Ren was struggling against the crossed blades, but the other two knights had him firmly pressed against the wall. Unable to bear witness to Ryuji's impending doom, Ren yelled out to Kamoshida with all his heart. "STOP IT!" It was then the atmosphere of the room changed, time had seemed to stand still with the world around him darkening only stopping when a blue spotlight shone over him. Then out of the corner of his eye a blue luminescent butterfly fluttered around him and as it did, he then heard a familiar woman's voice. "This is truly an unjust game… Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there might be a possibility open to you."

After the soft feminine voice stopped talking the world returned to its normal state as time began to slowly move again, then another voice began to speak, this one eerily familiar. This voice sounded almost like Ren's, but it was deeper and sounded more confident. "What's the matter...? Are you simply going to watch? Are you forsaking him to save yourself? Death awaits him if you do nothing. Was your previous decision a mistake then?"

Flashes of the events that led Ren to this moment began to play through his head, his fight or flight instincts back then demanded him that he needed to help the woman regardless of how he felt in the moment. He felt the shame in him blaming the world and damning everything around him and his self-pity. No, Ren knew what he did, and he blinded himself to the truth after facing judgment from almost everyone.

He knew his answer and yelled it out to the entity that spoke to him. "No that wasn't a mistake, the mistake I truly made was not confronting the world when it confronted me! I refuse to be a coward too scared to face the world and I refuse to be a prisoner of fate!"

The entity in his head laughed jovially at Ren's answer before responding. "Very well... I have heeded your resolve. Vow to me. I am thou, thou art I... Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name, and release thy rage! Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!" Throughout the vow Ren" body convulsed causing him anguish and pain from within. As the vow was finished Ren's body calmed down.

Kamoshida, not paying attention to what was happening behind him with Ren, looked directly at Ryuji and as he raised his finger and pointed at the blonde, he gave out his order to his knight. "I think it's time I put an end to this. Guard EXECUTE HIM!"

"That's far enough!" Ren called out, causing both Kamoshida and the knight to stop short of ending Ryuji's life.

"What was that…?" Kamoshida asked, his temper flaring. "You desire to be killed that much…? Fine!" The mad king then nodded at the knight who was holding Ryuji up, it released Ryuji causing the boy to fall on his feet and slump against the wall. The knight proceeded to walk towards Ren, then as it got close, he raised up his shield and smacked the raven-haired boy across the face causing his glasses to fly off his face and skid on the ground. Ryuji tried to move forward and help Ren, but his body was to beat up causing him to slide down onto the ground, with his upper body being supported by the wall behind him.

Kamoshida began to laugh again, his amusement in harming Ryuji lightening his spirits, the knight that had just assaulted the blonde boy raised his sword up high aiming for an overhead slash to kill the student before him. A strong heartbeat then reverberated around the room, making Kamoshida pause from his laughter. Then another beat was heard, this time coming from Ren himself. A third and final audible beat blew a strong gust of wind that pushed away the three knights from Ren and caused Kamoshida to shield his face.

Lowering his arm and slowly opening his eyes Kamoshida saw Ren holding out his phone for a split second before it was engulfed in blue flames. It only lasted for a second and as the flames dissipated as a new device was in Ren's hand. It was a rectangular box with the case being a deep black with two handles on either side of the short ends. The face of the device has an iron cell door that was wrapped up in iron chains. Ren, panting heavily, quickly slammed the device onto his waist long ways and as he did so an iron chain burst from one of the devices sides and wrapped itself around Ren's waist, turning itself into a belt.

A loud voice echoed throughout the cell. "Phantom Driver!" Ren then placed both his hands on either side of the device and pressed in the handles. "Change Your Fate!" chains that covered the iron door dissipated allowing the door to swing down exposing the internals of the Driver, all the while blue flames and black chains erupting from the ground surrounding Ren and keeping everyone else at bay all the while his grey eyes becoming bright yellow in color. From his blazer's breast pocket, the photo he was given from Tsukasa began to glow a bright white, causing the photo to fly out of his pocket and float in front of Ren causing him to grab it. The light died off and now in his hand was a black cylindrical tube with a white mask design on it.

Acting on instinct, Ren inserted the foreign object into a port that was at the right-hand side of the Driver. "Rider Shell-Set! Joker!" Cried out the Driver, with it following up with another line. "It's Show Time!" A musical jingle then began to play for all the occupants to hear, an orchestral fanfare that emanated excitement and danger.

Ren exhaled and yelled out "Henshin!" before tugging on both the handles of the Driver causing the door to swing back up and lock up the shells into it. "Lock In Your Fate!" the Driver announced, finishing with one final line. "Break through the chains of fate and steal your future! You are Phantom Rider- JOKER!"

The blue flames then engulfed the schoolboy completely, dissipating into a fiery show revealing to everyone else in the room the new entity that manifested itself. The person before them was no longer Ren Amamiya, now he has become Phantom Rider Joker. Joker now wore an all-black combat suit with grey upper-body armor that seemed to be designed to look like a high-necked waistcoat with gold accent chains, and over the top of this outfit was a black ankle-length tailcoat with black metal pauldrons with red gauntlets shown protruding from the sleeves. The belt around his waist now held a sheathed knife on his right side. Finally covering his head is a black helmet with a white, birdlike domino mask with black designs around the eyes reminiscent of full eyeliner and sharp lashes replacing the visor, with blank grey lenses behind the eye holes of the mask and a small but noticeable red gem on the forehead of his helmet.

Behind Joker an entity began to materialize, forming an entity that had a very tall top hat, a black long-horned mask for its face, a cropped red eighteenth century-esque suit worn open with the collar popped, stitched heart designs on the shoulders, a white ruffle tie, a black, tailed corset running down its torso; large, black, feathery wings starting at around the small of its back; claws; red coverings on its legs resembling pants and boots with blade-like heels. "I am the pillager of twilight- Arsene!" It cried out as it curled its wings in and immediately extended them, causing a flurry of sharp wind to run wild in the cell.

Ryuji, looking astonished, could only gape as he just continued to look at Joker and Arsene.

Appearing beside the Rider, Arsen directed its next line to him saying. "I am the rebel's soul that resides inside you. If you so desire, I shall consider granting you the power to break through this crisis." Without looking at him and only keeping his gaze at the now cowering Kamoshida, Joker responded. "Give me your power."

"Hmph, very well." Replied Arsene, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Still shaken at the turn of events Kamoshida stood up and with fear laced in his voice asked, "Wh-who are you…!?" Underneath his helmet Ren smirked before stating plainly to Kamoshida who he was, "Tōrisugari no Phantom Raidā da, oboeteoke!" Saying this while turning, showing the left side of his body to Kamoshida and extending his left arm and forming a finger gun out his hand, pretending to shoot at Kamoshida.

"Guards!" snarled Kamoshida, "Kill that one first!"

The knights picking themselves up began to shake and spasm until they exploded in a shower of black and red viscus goo. From this puddle appeared two floating pumpkins, both carved with Jack-o'-Lantern faces as they appeared wearing dark teal wizard's hats with a white band going around the base of both, navy-blue capes with white puff ball drawstrings and holding lanterns with both having a singular white glove.

"Detest the enemies before you! Change that animosity into power… and unleash it!" Cried out Arsene as he began to glow blue and dematerialize.

Joker, outstretching his hand, forced the blue light to coalesce into his palm. With Arsene completely gone and all the light he transformed into, in Joker's hand a new object took shape. A red and black shell that resembled the one Ren used to transform himself into Joker was now in his hand. Acting instantly, the young Rider proceeded to press in the two handles on his Driver once again.

"Change Your Fate!"

Joker quickly followed up by locking the shell into the port that was at the left-hand side of his driver. "Persona Shell-Set! Arsene!" Then he slammed the door closed, sealing in the Shell. "Lock In Your Fate!"

"Break through the chains of fate and steal your future! You are Phantom Rider- Joker! Type- Arsene!"

"I am the pillager of twilight!"

An orb of black-red light covered Joker, energy crackling as his suit changed. Once the light cleared the enemy as well, Ryuji bore witness to the newly modified suit. The helmet now had long black horns with red energy coursing through them, with the lenses behind the visor now burning a bright red-orange as the bottom half of his helmet had a vicious red-orange smile. The color of his tailcoat and legs now a bright red with blades sticking out his calves and the pauldrons on his shoulders turning silver with hearts carved into them, with a white scarf draped around his neck and hanging behind him and the tip of the fingers of his gauntlets now sharpened into talons.

The voice of Arsene echoed once more to Joker. "This power of mine is yours! Kill them however you want. Run wild to your heart's content!"

With a gleaming resolve, Joker stood poised, feeling the power of Arsene coursing through him. Kamoshida, watching from a distance, frowned as he commanded the two floating pumpkins, "What are you waiting for, get Him! Show no mercy!"

The floating Jack-o'-Lanterns moved forward, their menacing grins flickering with the light of their hellish flames. They surrounded Joker, their lanterns glowing brighter as the candle's flames grew hotter.

"Alright, you wanna dance? Then let's dance!" Joker shouted, not showing any fear in front of his enemies.

"Agi!" cried out one of the floating pumpkins, launching a ball of fire toward Joker. The other pumpkin creature, taking advantage of the attack his partner launched, rushed forward and charged at Joker with flames billowing out of its mouth.

Joker stood as both these creatures began their assault on him, then instantly he side-stepped the charging enemy. As it passed by him, Joker gripped it by the back of its head and moved it in front of him blocking the ball of fire that was about to hit him. "You're both too slow." he stated, his heart racing.

"Hey, let me Hee-go!" The creature held in Joker's hand cried out as it squirmed in his grip. "Very well, I'll oblige your request."

Joker tossed the pumpkin monster up into the air, then a glint of silver flashed in the air as he unsheathed the knife from his belt. Dashing up towards the enemy Joker closed in, then swiftly he struck it in its carved face, digging his knife deep into it. "Take this! Cleave!" he cried out, following through with his attack and slashing through the body of the pumpkin as a large visible slash wave appeared in the air.

"Damn you, Hee-Hoo!" yelled out the other monster, as it witnessed its ally being eviscerated in front of it. It charged up the flame within its lantern and launched another ball of fire toward Joker. "AGI!"

The burning flames shot forth, and landed its mark as Joker was struck in his chest engulfing him in the inferno. The surviving Jack-o'-Lantern laughed as he watched Joker get caught in his flames unaware of the flames dissipating, revealing Joker who now had black feathered wings that was keeping him from falling.

"Let us give this welp a taste of his own medicine Joker!"

"Right… Pillage them-Arsene! Eiha!" Joker shouted, raising his hand in a swift motion manifesting a dark ball of wispy energy at the tip of his fingers. With a snap of his fingers the ball of dark energy shot forward, allowing Ren to move forward behind his own attack with his knife drawn to the side.

The attack was too fast for the Jack-o'-Lantern to dodge, the Eiha slammed into the small creature causing a swirling vortex of black-red tendrils to lash out. Joker then quickly followed up behind his own attack, his blade gleaming from the attack that was about to come forth.

The Jack-o'-Lantern in desperation launched a last-ditch attack to try and take Joker down with it. A final Agi was unleashed, almost stumbling forward toward Joker in a desperate bid for victory. Joker gave a pitiful look behind his mask before putting the monster out of its misery. "Cleave!" he shouted out, slashing through the ball of Agi as if it were paper, as a wave of energy launched forward from the slice and cleanly cut through the Jack-o'-Lantern.

With his enemies defeated, Joker landed on the ground and stood up straight, turning to Kamoshida, who was visibly shaking from both fear and anger. "It's over Kamoshida. You underestimated me." Joker said, his voice steady and powerful.

Kamoshida sneered, "You think you are better than me! That you can defeat me! You're nothing but a mere nuisance!" Enraged, Kamoshida charged forward, his skin slowly turning pink in color. Joker remained unfazed as he stared at the mad King running towards him.

Ren jumped up high, spreading his wings, steading himself mid-air, "It's time to end this! Phantom Rider Kick!" Joker called out, launching himself directly at Kamoshida with the blades extending from his calves and settling on his heels. A veil of black-red tendrils surrounding the Rider as rings of black and red appeared while he descended. The impact of the collision echoed throughout the jail cell as both fighters crossed each other with Joker grinding to a halt in front of Ryuji.

A large explosion erupted behind Joker that originated from Kamoshida, causing debris to fall from the roof of the cell. From the dust cloud Kamoshida's unconscious form was found face first on the ground. Letting out a sigh of relief, Joker's transformation gave out, returning him to his normal self. "This is what happens when you abuse your power," he said, glaring down at Kamoshida as he stood up, his breath ragged.

"Ryuji… Are you ok?" Joker questioned as he extended an arm out to the blonde boy.

"AM I OK… Dude what about you!? What was all that about!?" Ryuji fired off questions towards Joker, but the Rider's gaze was caught by a small glint of metal. Walking away he crouched down and picked up a large key ring with three keys on it.

"Ryuji, catch." Said Joker, tossing the keys towards Ryuji. "I think it's time we get out of here. We'll talk later about this when we are far away from here."

Ryuji sighed before nodding, "Yeah you're right, we should try to split."

The boys turned around and opened the door to their cell and ran out, with Ryuji quickly turning around and locking Kamoshida in then chucking the keys away. "Have a nice long nap, Kamoshida." Ryuji taunted as he turned around and fled.

Author Notes

Just saying this now, don't expect every chapter to be this long. I planned for Ren to get to his first Henshin and get a quick fight in. Anyways I'll see you all later, hopefully in a shorter time frame… if not then it's probably another long one coming… maybe. For any questions you have on this chapter I'll probably answer them on my profile, though I'll probably save them until the next chapter. The rest of the Author Notes is going to be me explaining some things, so feel free to go, mainly I'll discuss my decision on make Sojiro a bit more open with Ren in terms of him putting his best foot forward.

Now, to clear the air immediately with Sojiro, aside from him being one of my favorite side characters, the reason why he is more chill with Ren in this story is that it kind of bugged me a bit that the guy was automatically hostile towards Ren at the very beginning. I get that Ren is an unknown to him and that he needs to be cautious because his primary concern is Futaba and her safety, but at the same time while not fully going to the level I went towards, he did soften up a bit to a less hostile state. Now with this being mostly a Persona 5 story with elements and easter eggs from the Kamen Rider Series, and some other things, I also thought about what roles each one of the characters will be filling in. Sojiro being Ren's caretaker as well later on having him work for him opened it up for me to make him just a bit more sympathetic this go around because usually, and I'm not saying this happens all time, the Main-main caretaker for whichever rider, be they the main/secondary/other rider, usually are more open with there riders. They seem to be a person that the rider that is being cared for leans on and takes advice from them and is somewhat essential to the rider's growth, be it either power/character wise.

Now, it's not like they are automatically going to be buddy-buddy, but at least there is a more stable foundation and a slightly better reason for Ren to build the relationship on. Some things will change but mostly it's to dive deeper into Sojiro's past and through that make a solid connection.

Anyways, the next chapter is mostly going to be them meeting Morgana. Having him explain some of the Rider mechanics while both he and Ren fight together and escape Kamoshida's castle.

Well… see you next chapter.