"You seek power, correct? Then let us form a pact.
Since your name has been disgraced already, why not hoist the flag and wreak havoc...?"
///
4 / 11 / 2016
I get Sakamoto and Yoshizawa in a nearby alleyway before anyone can spot us.
This Kamoshida person thought of the school as his "castle" or whatever. It stood to reason that getting out of range would've allowed us an escape.
Nothing on our faces. But my torso's killing me. Got a splitting headache and my left hand won't stop shaking. Yoshizawa's hair's all frazzled and she's sweating all over, and I can assume at least something in Sakamoto's broken.
"You okay?"
"I-I'm fine...," she says before she slumps against the wall and sits herself down. "I'm just so exhausted..."
I walk over to Sakamoto and smack him across the face. "Hey."
"Don't hit him--"
He makes a wuurgh sound, "I'm up, I'm up...!" before shaking his head and groaning, "A-are we dead?"
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
He blinks, "Two."
"We're not dead."
"Thank God--AAGH!" he keels over, clutching at his ribs, "Everything on me hurts..."
"Me, too...," groans Yoshizawa, "I'm more tired than anything else, though..."
"Hole up in the nurse's office, once we get there."
"School...! What time is it?"
I pull up my phone. "Half past noon."
"No...!" Sakamoto instantly gets to his feet and charges out the alleyway. "Can't afford no attendance--"
I let out a hand to Yoshizawa, and she takes it, struggling to get to her feet.
Of course the instant we step out we find Sakamoto's run into two cops. He gestures to us, of course, while trying to explain himself "W-we were trynna get to school, and we ended up at this weird castle!"
"Hand over your bags," says one of them. "You better not be doing any drugs."
"Wh-why would you think that!?"
The other cop turns to me and Yoshizawa, "You two his friends?"
I say I've "Never met him," while Yoshizawa just shakes her head.
"Well...," he clears his throat, "in any case, you three should head to school."
"Like I'm trynna say, I don't know what's going on either!"
First cop says, "We passed by Shujin on our way here. All this castlenonsense isn't helping your case."
Sakamoto turns to me, "C'mon, say something!"
I just turn away and begin walking to school. Yoshizawa, far too exhausted to pitch in, just follows me.
"F-fine! I'm goin'!"
.
.
.
When we three return to the school grounds with me, we all are of course scolded for our behavior. After all, we've missed four classes.
"We received a call from the police. Where were you three?"
There is a man at the top of the stairs of Shujin's entrance. He is wearing a suit and he is glaring at the three of us, though he seems particularly concerned towards Yoshizawa. Before either she or I can respond, Sakamoto blurts out the stupidest answer possible: "A-a castle...?"
And our glares burrow into him like spears. The man in the suit shakes his head, talks about how we've no intention of giving him an honest answer, but then we all hear a voice that's too familiar.
"What's this about a castle?"
He's as tall as he was in the Palace. There's a friendly glint in his eyes, a neutral line on his mouth. He's wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, two whistles hanging from his neck; yet at the same time I see nothing but a vile king wearing nothing but a cape, some underwear, and a crown. He looks impassive, looks even a little friendly.
"K-Kamoshida...," grunts Sakamoto. I eye him carefully then, hoping he won't end up doing something else stupid out of impulse.
"You seem so carefree, Sakamoto," Kamoshida continues. "Quite a difference from when you did morning practice for the track team."
"Shut up!" Sakamoto screeches, "It's your fault that —!"
The man in the suit then growl, "How dare you speak to Mr. Kamoshida that way! And Yoshizawa-san, just what are you even doing with—!?"
"Now, now. I should've been more considerate, too," Kamoshida says through gritted teeth, and a smile too wide to be believable. "Let's say we were both to blame."
Man in suit shakes his head again and sighs. "In any case," then he focuses in on Yoshizawa, "you'll all have to come with me. It's undeniable that you're all extremely late, and you all look dishevelled, what even—?"
And Yoshizawa suddenly collapses to her knees on the spot.
"Yoshizawa...!" the man in the suit approaches her, but Kamoshida remains where he is.
"Th-they helped me...!" she cries out. "I was being harassed! I-I've been feeling lethargic since this morning...some m-men approached me, demanded I come with them. These two saved me!"
The man in the suit just eyes both myself and Sakamoto. I crouch down and hoist her arm over my shoulder, helping her up. "I'll take her to the nurse's."
Man in the suit just nods apprehensively, "I'll guide you there. Follow me."
"By the way...," Kamoshida says to me, stopping me before I can follow Sakamoto and Yoshizawa up the stairs. "You're that new transfer student, correct?"
I nod in silence.
It's then that he looks at me quizzically, almost half-disturbed, as he asks, "Have we met somewhere...?"
"No, sir," I reply then.
"Well, I'll overlook this just for today." Then, he draws closer to me. I can feel his breath on me as he cautions, "I'm sure you've heard from the principal. Cause any trouble, and you're gone. Understand?"
I hear a voice in my head telling me that his neck is completely exposed. "Yes, sir."
"At any rate, hurry up. I'm sure Ms. Kawakami's tired of waiting." He smiles that plastic smile of his once more, and he says, "Good luck trying to enjoy your new school life."
.
.
.
"Being over half a day late on your first day? Care to explain yourself?"
When Kawakami's eyes meet mine, I feel the disgust in her nerves.
Can't say I was jumped. First inclination would've been to go to a hospital, not to school. "I'm sorry."
"You could've walked here from your place and gotten here past second period."
"I know."
"And you were found with Sakamoto, of all people."
"I'll keep my distance."
"You should. You were given fair warning about what'd happenif you — "
"I understand."
"You said you understood yesterday."
Bitch, everything on me hurts right now. Why do you look like your time's being wasted here? "It couldn't be helped."
Suddenly she gets up from her chair, "What's wrong?"
I realize too late my arm's wrapped 'round my torso. "I-I'm fine."
"Are you hurt somewhere, or — ?"
"No," I say as my ribs scream at me, "I'm fine."
"D-did Sakamoto...?"
"I'm alright. Past injury acting up. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
My voice is harsh, my eyes are harsher.
She just shakes her head. "Break's almost over. I'll have you introduce yourself once class resumes. But if you feel anything, you head to the nurse's office, you understand?"
"Yes," I say through gritted teeth.
When I enter the classroom, I realize I'm getting ahead of myself.
Super late on his first day?
Guy's crazy, obviously...
Don't look 'im in the eye! He'll slug you.
Everyone's eyes are on me and I mumble out words before realizing my voice is too low for anybody to hear.
Looks normal, though. Sure it's him?
Positive. Guy apparently has a knife, watch out.
Teacher introduces me and I say my name while my skull splits in two and the bones in my chest throb.
Suspicious of me, they watch silently as I make my way over to my seat. In the chair in front of me, there is a girl dispassionately looking out the window. The same girl whom Kamoshida had taken into his car, just a few hours ago.
The day continues on like this, as it should. A whole lot of nothing happens. I think about Maruki-san, and how disappointed he'll be with me when I return to the apartment. My body begs me to let it lie down and die but purely out of spite I make myself stay awake.
Kana appears throughout each class, often just standing in a corner. Sometimes her eyes are green.
By the end of it all I feel dizzy and my left hand still won't stop shaking. My chest tightens the second I manage my way out the room. Soon enough I feel an arm on my shoulder and I brush myself away before my vision clears. Kawakami's looking at me with an air of concern.
"Are you sure you're okay...?"
"I'm fine."
"You really should head to the nurse's office, if you aren't feeling well."
What, and let all of 'em pity me now?
"Pity you?"
I said that out loud. "It's nothing."
"Maruki-san was concerned when we called him, earlier. You should head home as quickly as you can. And about Sakamoto-kun—"
Speak of the devil. A blonde guy walks towards us in an awkward kinda bow-legged way, and Kawakami's about to protest, but he leans in close to me and whispers, "Meet me in the nurse's."
Then he just walks off like nothing.
"That's why you shouldn't get involved. Understood?"
I nod absentmindedly. Sick of me, she leaves to do whatever the hell teachers do when they're done for the day.
.
.
.
"Sorry for callin' you down here like this."
"It's fine."
"Bet Kawakami already told you somethin' like, Don't get involved with him, or whatever."
"You or Kamoshida. Taking my chances with you."
He just grins at me. "Nurse is out buyin' meds. So we'll have to be brief."
"Won't the door be locked?"
"Nah. Door's been like this forever," he slides it open calmly. "Principal couldn't give a crap. Why do you think the nurse goes out to buy her own supplies?"
"Whole goddamn school's a piece of work..."
"Tell me about it."
We enter. Room's a tad dusty. But overall it's got everything it needs to be a nurse's office; cupboards filled with expired medicine, yellowed body charts hanging on the walls.
We pull open the curtain surrounding her bed and Sakamoto says, "Yo."
"S-senpai...?"
Yoshizawa looks like she's got the life drained outta her. I ask, "Are you alright?"
"No wounds. Not even that much pain, but...I'm just very tired. That's all."
"Your lie was flimsy at best," I cut in suddenly. "We're lucky that teacher decided not to press the matter further."
"I know," she chuckles. "I had to think of something, though. I couldn't just let him point fingers at you two."
"Well, you saved my ass," Sakamoto smiles. "Least for now, anyway..."
I tell her, "You'll be back to normal by tomorrow. It only lasts a day."
Yoshizawa's eyes turn firm as she sits up in bed, "How much about all this do you know...?" and Sakamoto's eyes turn stern, too.
"Yeah. Been wondering that, too."
"I've been where you are. That's all you need to know."
Yoshizawa continues on, "That cat person, you seemed to know him, too. You also had a Persona — "
"If you wanna spare yourselves a lifetime of nightmares, forget this day ever happened."
"Like hell," exclaims Sakamoto. "How do you know about all this?"
"Don't ask."
"I have to ask. That place, that castle—"
"Get rid of any feeling like you've gotta confronts omething. Whatever you think you can do with the castle, it won't work out the way you want."
"Wait, senpai—"
"You don't understand," Sakamoto grunts out. "Kamoshida's a grade-A asshole. I was in the track team! The kinda stuff he put us through—!"
"I don't care what you've been through, forget today ever happened."
Sakamoto grabs me by my collar, "Stop talking like you know goddamn everything!"
Yoshizawa cries, "Stop it, stop—!"
"Nobody's willin' to say anything against him!" Sakamoto shouts. "He's some effin' medalist who took the track team to finals! I knowthat place has somethin' to do with—"
"You don't know a thing," I grab his arms and push him away from me.
"Senpai..."
I glare at Sakamoto, then shake my head at him. "Put it all behind you. Before you ruin your lives."
Then I leave the nurse's office.
.
.
.
"I got a call from your teacher today."
Maruki-san doesn't look happy, and he has every right not to. But it's not like I can tell him about Palaces.
"I'm sorry."
He sighs then, walking over to me. "Look. Just be careful. I've heard from your teachers as well that...some students are talking about you."
Lucky me, because if hearing rumors could kill, I'd be dead a thousand times over.
"It's odd, though...," Maruki says. "Throughout this area of Tokyo, the news reports kept you anonymous. The school even made efforts to keep your past under wraps," he says. "Your father told me he spoke to the principal about making sure what happened..."
"Guess somebody squealed," I shrug.
He grunts, "Your father told me to take care of you."
"You're doing a fine job. I'm serious. I'm very grateful that you're willing to have me here. But...," I go to my room, and I feel the bones in my knees pop as I mutter, "this was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm just happy to get it over with."
"You're sure you're fine with this?" he asks somewhat gruffly, following me.
"Course not. Will you tell my father about today?"
"I will if this happens again."
"It won't."
He doesn't answer me then.
I fall into my bed a few seconds after I shut the door behind me and all the pain I suppressed comes at me in full force. Kana hangs over me, her hairs dangling over my face. Vacant, her eyes stare at me as her wrists pour out blood.
"You'd hate what I've done with my life," I tell her, closing my own eyes.
.
.
.
4 / 12 / 2016
My torso aches and creaks all goddamn day. Soon as classes end I see a tall and burly man harassing my classmate in the hall. Blonde-haired girl with twintails and blue eyes again.
He's blocking the staircase down to the first floor.
"Hey there, Takamaki. Things've been pretty dangerous lately with all those accidents..."
"S-sorry, I have a photoshoot today," the girl, Takamaki, winces, "For the special summer issue. Can't afford to miss it…"
Anyone with eyes can see the girl can't stand to be in the same hallway as him.
So Kamoshida's either blind or stupid.
"Hey, now… Being a model's fine and dandy, but don't work your pretty little self to the bone. You mentioned you weren't feeling well, right?"
"Yeah... I keep planning to go to the hospital, but I've been too busy. Sorry to worry you."
"You must be lonely too. I feel bad for keeping your best friend at practice so often. Oh, and you'd better watch yourself 'round that transfer student. Rumor has it he's got a bit of a screw loose," he raises his hand up, almost as if to stroke her cheek-- "If something ever happened to you..."
"Thanks," she pulls herself away and practically hisses the next few words out. "I'll look out for him. I've gotta go."
Guy looks like he's gonna say more but she pushes herself past him, to the other staircase near the end of the hall. Before he can even catch wind of me I sidle behind him and head down the staircase he's too irritated to care about blocking anymore.
I tell myself to head home. Forget everything that's happened.
But I think of the Manikins stuck in those cages. I think of the girl he's harassing and how she couldn't be the first, nor would she be the last. I think of his Shadow, strangling me the second I threw his narcissistic crap back in his face. I think of leaving him alive.
Every now and again, since January, I'd see her somewhere. Hovering over me, her hairs brushing up against my neck. In the corners of whatever room I'm in. I close my eyes and I see her staring back up at me. Sometimes she only appears for a half-second, before I register her presence and she disappears. Other times it lasts far too long for my own good, and I stay stuck gazing at her vacant eyes for what feels like hours.
I've been stuck in that rabbit hole since yesterday. So my head's somewhere else when I exit the gates and Sakamoto calls out, "Yo."
He and Yoshizawa were waiting for me, it seemed. Nothing if not persistent.
"Who are you again?"
"I know you know who we are. We need to go back in that castle."
I just try to make my way past them, but Yoshizawa grabs ahold of my arm, "We can't just pretend what we saw then didn't happen."
"I tried tellin' myself it was all just a dream!" Sakamoto runs in front of me and blocks passage with outstretched arms. "I couldn't do it! It's all connected to that bastard Kamoshida! I wanna find out what's up with that place, no matter what!"
"Same here--" Yoshizawa grunts as I pull my arm away from her. "Can you really just cover your ears and close your eyes in the face of something like that?"
"Sure you can."
"Maybe you can, but we can't. I don't know what happened to you, I don't know how you know what you know, but—if you want to wash your hands of everything, fine. But at least tell us what's going on! Please! Help us understand! Senpai!"
Oh to hell with it. "Get out your phones."
"O-our phones?"
"Do it."
Sakamoto's first. "Okay...what about my phone?"
I look over at his screen. "You don't have it."
"Don't have what?"
"Yoshizawa. Yours."
She pulls out her phone. Screen's cracked. A little glitchy. But I see a bloated red eye in the center.
"What is it?" she asks.
"That app."
"Oh, that one? I saw it last night. I thought I deleted it..."
"That's what you use to get back in the castle."
"Y-you for real!?" cries Sakamoto, leaning in to check her phone. "You're not messin' with us, right?"
I tap her screen.
The letter appear in a white, bold and thick Serif font that says plainly 「VORTEX WORLD NAVIGATOR」. Then they cut abruptly to a screen that tells us:
Humanity's hearts are bound by misery, torment, and the truth of meaninglessness…
→Welcome to the Vortex World! Call me Nyarly! The human heart's a very confusing and scary place at times, but never fear! If you've got any questions, I'll always be here to answer 'em! Just click on the little squid on the upper-left hand corner, and I'll be right there in a jiffy!
Palace Ruler:
Palace Location:
Palace Distortion:
"What the hell...?"
I scroll down her screen and find PALACE LOG. Sure enough.
「 PALACE LOG 」
I. 4 / 11 / 2016 - PR: Suguru Kamoshida | PL: Shujin Academy | PD: Castle
"Go nuts," I say as I move past them.
"W-wait, this is it?" Sakamoto exclaims. "This is all it takes?"
"Yes. Now leave me alone."
"Are you sure?" Yoshizawa asks, eyes firm.
"Do whatever the hell you people want. I'm not gonna be dragged down along with you."
Sakamoto just glares at me; Yoshizawa looks a little sad. Then they get to deliberating with each other what the hell to do next. Once I'm a considerable distance I turn around and find they've gone.
Good riddance.
I turn to head into the city, ready to feel like I wanna drown myself for the rest of my life.
But I remember how Kamoshida's eyes were, when he gazed upon Yoshizawa in that deep and dark dungeon.
.
.
.
At the front of the castle. Massive wooden gates blocking the way through the inner halls. Drawbridge is down, though. So there's at least safe passage into the front courtyard.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Sakamoto's wearing his uniform while Yoshizawa's got her Vortex World attire on, big shoulder pads and all.
I grit my teeth. "I changed my mind."
Yoshizawa actually looks a little pleased at this, "You mean you're going to help us investigate?"
"Insofar as investigate means keeping you both alive until you realize you've gotten in over your head."
"Also, that's your getup?" Sakamoto asks.
I'm dressed in exactly what I wore in Kana's Palace; black longcoat, red gloves, white mask.
"I've done this before," I tell them. "It didn't end pretty. That's all you've gotta know. This place is called a Palace. Kamoshida believes that the whole school's his castle. He has a deep, unconscious desire buried within himself that compels him to view Shujin in this way. The app we activated enables us to breach our reality and go into this mental world of his."
"Well," Yoshizawa scratches the back of her head, "I suppose that explains some things..."
"I knew it!" Sakamoto shouts, before smashing an arm against the front door.
"S-Sakamoto-senpai?"
"All this time...I knew everythin' about him, all this time! I was effin' right about him—!"
I cover his mouth. "You keep shouting, Kamoshida'll send his knights after us."
I unhand him and he just nods, "S-sorry..."
"From what we could tell yesterday, Kamoshida didn't seem to know what was going on here, did he...?" asks Yoshizawa.
"No. This place is all founded on his unconscious mind. Meaning for as much as he really thinks of the school as his castle, and himself a king, he still refuses to own up to it."
"That's horrible...," she shudders.
"To think you three would have the gall to come back here, after leaving me behind..."
Familiar voice begets a familiar face. We all turn to see the cartoon cat-thing emerging from out the shadows, its golden saucer eyes kinda glaring at us. I'd think it was cute, if not for the nigh-overwhelming urge I have to pancake its goddamn bobblehead.
"It was sheer luck I was able to get out of there, in all the commotion. Been a long time, Kazuya."
"After what happened all those months ago...you're just prancing around in another Palace. Like it never even happened."
Cat narrows its eyes at me. "I know what I want. I can't just stop."
"So you do know each other...," mutters Yoshizawa.
"Wish I didn't."
Cat folds its arms, "I worked with him on a pretty big mission back in the beginning of the year. But...well. Things went sour. We went our separate ways not long after."
I start laughing, really loudly, so suddenly that it startles the other two, "Things went sour? That's all you took away from—?"
Then we hear screams, bellowing out from inside the Palace. Sounds like someone's getting skinned alive.
"Wh-what the hell!?" cries Sakamoto. "What was that!?"
"Prolly the slaves held captive here," Cat licks its paw. "After you guys broke outta your cell, Kamoshida's been pretty pissed."
"We saw people stuck in cells yesterday...I'm pretty sure they're from our school."
"They're Manikins. Don't pay any attention to them."
"Mannequins?" Yoshizawa repeats.
"No. Manikins," says the cat. "They're not real people."
Sakamoto's confused. "What's that supposed to mean? They're real, I-I saw 'em, stuck in those cages...!"
"Remember, this place is a mental world. Everything here that we see takes place deep in Kamoshida's unconscious mind. He thinks the school is his castle, so it is. He seems to think that the students of your school are just... prisoners he can torment, whenever he wants."
Sakamoto chuckles a little, "Figures. Heh. I just thought he was an asshole, but...as it turns out, asshole's the nicest thing you could call him. Hey, Cat-thing!"
"My name is Morgana—"
"Do ya know where those voices're coming from!?"
"They're back where we were."
"If what Kamoshida does to the people here is similar to stuff he does in reality, I might be able to do something! I-I might recognize some of their faces! If I see 'em in the real world I might be able to talk to them about what's happening!"
Not exactly unintelligent of him. But. "We'll be going back down to those dungeons. Meaning we'll be faced with the guards again. Are you ready?"
"I can't just let him keep goin' on like this...!"
"You didn't answer my question."
"Hell yeah I'm ready!"
I turn to Yoshizawa, "You too?"
"I've already come this far. If all this is true, then I can't just turn away now."
Damn the both of you, then. "The second there's any danger, we leave. Understand?"
They both nod at me.
"Look at you, Team Dad," Cat sneers. "Come on. There's a ventilation shaft I came through. Big enough for you all to fit, I think."
.
.
.
We worm our way through the vent and manage to return to the dark and damp dungeons. Banners hang along the walls, featuring Kamoshida's stupid grinning face. The weirdest thing, though? We get to the cells we'd passed by a day ago. Completely empty now.
"What the hell...? Since when did they all just...?"
I shake my head, "Probably transferred to another place, for more elaborate tortures."
"What the hell's happening!?"
"Hold on," Cat says, "y'hear that?"
Shuffling of steel leggings. We'd heard that just yesterday, when the knights came at us and tried to stick us on their blades—
"Quick!" Cat shouts, pointing to a nearby wooden door. "There! Hurry! We should be able to hide 'til they leave!"
We follow it inside, and I hear a ping noise in my phone—the room itself is pretty small. A storage space, more or less; boxes and wooden planks litter the whole place and lean against filthy brick walls.
"The Shadows likely won't come in here," says the cat.
"How can you tell...?" mutters Sakamoto.
Place suddenly shifts and shudders and we see brief glimpses of a classroom, desks and all, before everything fades back to normal.
"What...!?" Yoshizawa cries.
"This place is a Safe Room," says the cat. "His cognitive grip on the school is limited here. So the Shadows can't reach this place in particular."
"S-so, he...God, he's deluded," Sakamoto laughs. "I think it took me a while before it actually sank in... that son of a bitch."
Yoshizawa puts a hand on his shoulder, "What happened between you and him?"
He winces. "It was when I was still in track and field. He was our coach, and...well, he started a little rough around the edges. But we got it, y'know? We thought hey, he's the medalist here. He's putting us through this so we can become better athletes. But y'stay with him long enough, barkin' orders at you, and you realize he doesn't actually give a crap about makin' us athletes. He just gets off on seeing us squirm. One day I had it with him. People were tired. People were angry. I told him I wasn't gonna let him tire us out anymore. Things got heated, so heated he...," he shakes his head, "I lost it, right then and there. And now...," he clutches his left leg, "now I can't even run anymore, and the track team's disbanded."
Cat looks sad, but doesn't say anything. Yoshizawa speaks herself, "A-and no one spoke out against him?"
"He called it self-defense. And everyone believed him. Didn't care what I had to say. And why would they choose my word over the guy who helped put Shujin on the map, huh?"
"Did he really?" asks Yoshizawa. "To be honest, this place is a little obscure...I didn't even know it existed until my Dad told me I'd be going here."
"To be fair, our only claim to fame really is Kamoshida," Sakamoto shrugs. "Guy took the volleyball team to nationals once. Once an asshole, always an asshole."
Cat lets out a Mwehehe, "Y'stay here long enough, you just might eat those words."
"What do you mean?"
"I'll let you know later on. Right now, your biggest concern's finding the Manikins and seeing if you recognize any of them, right?"
He nods, "Yeah."
I pull open the door just a crack. No guards. Present or approaching.
"Anyone there?" asks Yoshizawa.
"Hold on." I check my phone. I find a new message, and something I longed to see yesterday:
LOCATION ACQUIRED: Dungeon Hall, Left Wing
Do you wish to exit the Palace through Entryway?
Y /N
I want nothing more than to hit Y. But we're not done here. "If you're gonna do this, we do it now."
Sakamoto nods again, "Yeah. Yeah. I'm good."
.
.
.
After ten minutes of shuffling around and following the screams.
Kamoshida's Training Hall of Love is the sign that appears above the doorway. Written in gold-plate, too.
The cells are large and wide enough to be gymnasiums unto themselves, and the bars that separate them from us are much like those you'd see in zoos. First one contains students getting their bare backs whipped into shape by guards with batons. Second one's got ten students, running along treadmill tracks towards a single bottle of water; at their backs is a meat grinder. Third one's just got students hanging from the ceiling like hogs, getting pelted with volleyballs straight from a cannon. At the end of this hall is another staircase, leading upward.
Twenty-seven more cells, lined up against one another, each featuring just as gruesome and unnecessary torture. Most of the students don't scream. The ones who do sound like they're dying. But they're all covered in grievous injuries; bloated black eyes, legs bent with bone sticking out their shins. Arms being stretched thin, dislocated beyond all reason.
"My God...," mutters Sakamoto. "I-if this is what he thinks o' the students, then...!"
"I can't imagine what he must be putting them through in real life," mutters Yoshizawa.
Narcs get their kicks off bolstering their ego. "You recognize any of 'em?"
"I recognize all of them." Tears well up in his eyes, as he grips the bars of the first cell.
"Sakamoto..."
"Some of 'em...they're my friends. Or at least they were. I effed everything up and they still gotta deal with all this—"
I tell him, "Hurry it up."
"What?"
"More we delay, more chance knights'll show up. You know their names and faces?"
"Yeah, yeah I do, j-just—" he does a once over to the first cell, mumbling out a few names, "—Nishiki, Takeishi, Masaru, Matsumoto—okay. Okay. Let's go."
We check every cell. One by one by one. All thirty of them. Sakamoto keeps track of the people he recognizes; says their names twice over before going to the next cell. Some people he doesn't recognize. Some are freshmen. Some are people who hated his guts. Others have already graduated from the school. None of them are girls. Which is strange.
But then we reach the final cell, after about fifteen minutes of this.
"What the hell."
There're seemingly no torture devices. No flailing, suffering students. The room's just dark and filthy, no windows or light. Grey, asbestos-laden walls, covered in feces and piss. In the center of the room is a massive gorilla, about thrice the size of a man. It's got yellow fur, almost a shade of gold, but its hands and feet are browned. It's covered in red, bloody splotches and is missing its left leg, which has been shoddily wrapped in aged bandages. The creature breathes like it doesn't know how, its eyes are empty and soulless and defeated, and it has a spiked collar wrapped around its neck.
At the top of the cell lies a wooden plaque with hastily carved kanji:
RYUJI SAKAMOTO, THE VULGAR APE
Sakamoto just glares at the ape, glares at it like he hates it more than he hates even Kamoshida, and as he does his hands on the bars tighten and I hear a popping noise as he grits his teeth—
And just as I'm about to tell him We Have to Go, the Ape stares right at us all, its eyes lightening up the instant it spots us.
"Uh-oh."
frrrr
"What—"
REEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL
It lunges at the bars and we all rear backwards and it would bite into our faces if it could, it yells and cries and thrashes madly, slobbering spit out its mouth and pissing all over itself as it slobbers. But then the bars flash blue—and blinding white and black lights flare and flame as we cover our eyes and the beast lets out one more terrible scream, before it's left huffing and groaning and crying on the floor, a smoking, jittery mess.
Sakamoto's too shaken to be able to process what's happened, and who the hell could blame him.
"Y'know, apes are some of the most intelligent creatures in the animal kingdom. Or at least they should be, right? After all, we evolved from them. Potential had to come from somewhere."
A naked man comes down from the staircase, two guards in golden armor sets following close behind him. He wears only a cape and a crown, and an eyepatch where I'd stabbed him last. His remaining eye blazes a brighter gold than ever before, and he carries a small green button in his right hand. I whirl around to try and see what's behind us, but we're too late even then. Guards have already burst in through from where we'd come; another set of knights all dressed in gold plating.
So we're trapped.
And for all his bluster and all his hatred of the man, Sakamoto looks far too drained to even process what's happening.
"I come down here from my throne room every now and again, to watch over the proceedings and see how far my little slaves are making it. See which ones are wheat and which ones are chaff. Thanks to you, though...they've all started lookin' like chaff to me. Lucky I started coming down when I did, no?"
"You think you can get away with this...? Hurting all these people and laughing at them!?" shouts Yoshizawa, as the Cat brandishes his cutlass.
"I've memorized their faces real good! You're going down!" Sakamoto cries.
"Seems it's true when they say barking dogs seldom bite. Or rather, apes, in this case..."
I interrupt, because I just can't resist. "Cyclops."
"You...I'll deal with you later. You're surrounded by some of my best men. Unlikely you're to survive. But for now, I just wanna talk to him. The Track Traitor who acted out in violence. Ending his teammates' dreams. Oh, I can only imagine the pain of the others who were dragged into your selfish act."
Sakamoto rages, "You started it, you piece of —!"
"You know, you were my favorite one."
"You put me through the training worse than anyone else, and everyone else had it real bad already—!"
"That's 'cause I saw in you a lot of potential. Really. I saw your record when I was assigned to you guys. Saw how much effort you put in, both on and off the field. You inspired your teammates, though they'd never tell you. They looked up to you a lot. Least until you blew it."
Sakamoto glares at him, as the knights encroach upon us from all sides.
"Stop it...," he pleads, slumping to the floor helplessly. "Please, just stop..."
"You were stronger than you'd any right to be. Determined. Bold. A little reckless, but hey, aren't we all? I pushed you to become a champion. And what do you do? You try to hit me square in the face while I rile you up."
"You didn't give a damn about me or anyone else! You just wanted to boost your goddamned ego!"
"That's what I'm talking about—so emotional! Though it was only temporary, have you forgotten my kindness in supervising track practice?"
"Wasn't no practice—" cries out Sakamoto, slowly rising from the floor, "—it was physical abuse! You just didn't like our team...!"
"It was nothing but an eyesore! The only one who needs to achieve results is me! The coach who got fired was hopeless, too...I'd have only settled it with breaking his star athlete's leg, but he just kept pushing."
"You sick bastard...!"
"Want me to break your other leg, too? School'll call it self-defense anyway! Just sit there and watch, like the scum you are."
"W-watch what?"
Suddenly, in a motion far too quick for us to have determined on the spot, the bars to the Ape's cage retract.
Two knights push myself and Yoshizawa in the open cage—
And then the bars come back up.
"Y-you bastard...!"
"Kazuya!" Cat yells from out the cage.
I glare at Kamoshida, from the bars, as Yoshizawa's eyes widen and she grips the bars herself, "Senpai...!"
Kamoshida glares right back at me. "There's a Beast in all of us. Don't you know? Every single last one of us. You can't get by on good intentions and spirit alone. Goes by many names; money, strength, power, love, fame, affection. It's a Beast so monstrous and all consuming it needs to feed and be fed. Think it doesn't exist or you don't have it...well. You're an idiot who won't last long."
"Stop it, please, God, I'm begging you, let 'em go...!"
"God wishes He were me, and why wouldn't He?" He laughs at Sakamoto, grabbing him by his blonde locks. "You raged at me, had the nerve to oppose me, even when nobody else did. I always kinda liked that about you, you know? Only one who wouldn't avert his eyes in the face of a King. Bet you regret it now, don'tcha? Because now...today's the day, I feed the Beast."
"Oh my God..."
I turn around and I see the Ape suffer from a seizure. It huffs and it heaves and its voice grows deeper, blacker, more furious. Its muscles practically explode to ten times their size. The Ape grows considerably larger, large enough to almost reach the ceiling as its bones crack and snap and make thunderous noises to help it expand. Its dull and dead eyes suddenly flare a blazing red and its snout grows longer, almost like a canine's; its massive hands grow even larger and develop claws as its feet cause craters in the ground.
The Ape is twenty-five feet tall. With its massive hands, skull-sized teeth, and overall size and weight, it could kill the both of us in thousands of different ways that'd make us flat-out unrecognizable.
"Ya should've killed me when you had the chance, transfer student! You should've stabbed my brains, even in the middle of the hall you just stood there, listening to me, instead of doing somethin'! And now you're gonna die wearing that stupid coat!"
"I...I...I'm sorry...!" Sakamoto cries out. "I dragged you all into this, and I...!"
"No tears," Cat smiles at him. "It's a waste of perfectly good suffering."
"What...?"
"What?"
"Kazuya's got this."
"He ain't got anything, cat, not while—!"
"Remember the Matador, Kazuya? This thing ain't even close!"
Good to know. "Persona."
And Satanael blasts the Ape's face open, carves him up and tears out his insides. Blood splashes everywhere, floods the floors, rises up into the seams of my boots as Sakamoto and Yoshizawa watch, as my Persona turns the Ape inside out and back again seven times over.
Yoshizawa's shaking. Kamoshida's just staring at me, mouth agape. The knights do nothing.
And Sakamoto's still looking at me, like he's dumb and deaf and blind.
"Sakamoto!" I shout at him. "He took everything you loved from you! And now you're gonna let him take even more!?"
At that, Sakamoto stays silent for a long time. Then he looks at the King, dead in the eyes.
He's rising up from the ground as he says, "You're calling me scum...after everything you did...!?" then he walks forward, the King still grinning that mad grin of his as Sakamoto proclaims, "No...that's...that's what you are. All you think about is using people. You're the real scumbag, Kamoshida!"
It's at this point Kamoshida rears back, ordering the Knights at his sides, "Silence him at once! He can't talk to a king that way!"
"You're no king!" cries out Sakamoto, giving Kamoshida the pointer finger. "You were an Olympic medalist who failed so hard at life he ended up becoming a school teacher! So you can shut up and stop looking down on me with that stupid smile on your face!"
And then Sakamoto starts hearing voices of his own.
"You made me wait quite a while."
Sakamoto's eyes blare open as he clutches at his head and begins to scream; there's a thousand needles penetrating his skull and his knees feel like lead weights are pulling them down to the ground.
"You seek power, correct? Then let us form a pact.
Since your name has been disgraced already, why not hoist the flag and wreak havoc...?"
His jaw is hanging and his eyes are twitching and he's making noises like he's entering cardiac arrest. He's hurting on every single part of his body, but the pain makes him want to move, to live, to do everything he couldn't do out of his fear.
"The other you who exists within desires it thus.
If you accept my bargain, then you will walk down a path of no return!"
It is at this point Sakamoto laughs somewhat, through the overwhelming agony coursing through his cranium.
"Very well! The skull of rebellion is your flag henceforth!
Thou art I, and I am thou!"
Something black and steel forms along the upper half of his face, and he grips it with both hands. As if his arms command him to. He feels the skin around his eyes tear and rip; he keeps on screaming, but it's less out of pain and more out of ecstasy. He feels the steel clamp around the skin over his temples, and he doesn't care if the resulting pull makes him die of blood loss.
"From the sea of thy soul, I cometh!"
Yoshizawa watches the scene unfold, finding the courage and the strength to stand on her own two burnt and withered feet. The King and his knights can't help but watch. Half of his knights don't know what to do, the other half of his knights are too afraid to try anything. The King is both ignorant and afraid, and all he and I can do is watch as Sakamoto with one last baleful scream tears the steel from his face and unleashes himself upon the world.
His Persona is a skeleton with bronze bones, dressed in black leather garments and ragged pants. On each of his fingers he bears a golden bejewelled ring. He wears a captain's hat with a stereotypical skull and crossbones, and along the lines of his jaw bone hang strings of black pearls held together by tiny chains. Like some skateboarder, he rides upon a wooden ship that's about twice his size; the ship bears a bowsprit made of steel, with a manic grin painted along its hull.
"I am Blackbeard, Dread Pirate of the Seven Seas!"
It's at this point Sakamoto begins to change.
Something bright and blue engulfs his form, and when the blue fades I see his clothes have transformed. He's wearing a coat now, one with steel running along his spinal cord. The overalls hanging from his waist have turned into bandoliers, and there's a red scarf hanging from his neck. His plaid pants have turned stark black, kneepads wrapping 'round his knees and boots encasing his feet. He laughs now, glaring and grinning at the King before us all—and I see another man who's condemned himself to the same fate as I have.
"Kamoshida! You think I'm an ape, fine! I'll smash up the halls o' your castle one brick at a time! You ain't gonna take nothing else from me! Let's go, Blackbeard!"
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NoRoleModelz Chapter Notes: Changed Ryuji's Persona cuz
A) Blackbeard's a cool name lemme tell you what for
B) Doing some research (and by that i mean a quick stroll on Wikipedia) showed me that Blackbeard was more prone to using the *image* of a feared pirate to intimidate people, and seldom used violence to get what he wanted. Thought that fit Ryuji a little better, as while Ryuji can be pretty rough and tumble, he's at heart a good guy. His awakening enabled him to channel all that intimidating energy into power that he can use to actually help people this time around.
C) Does Captain Kidd count as a 'Dread Pirate'? Cuz that's an awesome epithet and I thought it fit Blackbeard better