Chapter Text
~~??? ?? 2016~~
“2016!!!” Yelled Kotone.
“What’s so important about twenty sixteens?” asked a confused and surprised Theo.
“It’s the year Theo, more importantly, I’ve been gone for 6 years”
“Is that a long time?”
“Yes, it is.”
“On the bright side, you have not aged in that long.”
“But everyone else has.”
“Is that a problem for your friendships?”
“I-“ she paused to think for a moment “I don’t see why it would be.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“I’m just surprised I guess?”
Theo resummoned the Limo “shall we continue then?”
After some more time driving around, they came across another portal, much like the one they entered earlier
“I believe this one will take us out of Momentos.” Observed Theo. “Although I imagined the exit would be higher up.”
“Momentos?” Questioned Kotone
“Yes, the shared cognition of a human settlement in the real world.”
“Like a city or something? It would explain the subway tunnels.”
“I don’t actually know, I’ve never been there. Shall we find out.”
The two of them exited the limo, which vanished behind them as they stepped through the portal. Arriving in front of an intimidating castle, that seemed almost impossibly large, it’s towers reaching into the purple sky above it. A sign near the door reading “Shujin Academy”. All the buildings around it seemed like normal apartment buildings or shops, making this impossible castle stand out even more.
“Are you sure we are back in the real-world Theo?” Asked Kotone. “Wait, what time is it?”
“I promise you we are not in the Dark Hour.” Replied Theo. “You and my sister’s guest ended that when you sealed Nyx.”
“Makoto.” Mumbled Kotone, her smile fading from her face
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing, shall we see what this castle is about?”
“If you wish, lead the way”
The two approached the large doors of the castle, entered into a large entrance hall, and were met by a giant portrait of some kind of knight rising a sword above his head. Kotone recognised the knight as the Olympic Gold Medallist from the newspaper that girl had left behind.
“INTRUDERS!” Yelled a distorted voice. As a small army knights appeared out of seemingly nowhere surrounding the pair.
“We don’t want any trouble, we’re just lost.” said a slightly panicking Kotone.
“They’re shadows.” Explained Theo Quickly.
“Oh, in that case.” Kotone smiled as she pulled the mask off her face again “I summon you!”
Orpheus appeared, swinging her lyre at a group of knights, knocking them back, and causing a couple to burst into puddles of black goo, that seemed to rise and form into a much larger red knight, atop a black horse wielding a spear.
“Eligor?” Muttered Kotone before she turned to Theo. “Since when can shadows use Personas?”
“Is this an appropriate time for such questions?” Replied Theo.
Kotone tuned back just in time to block a swing from the Eligor’s spear. “Guess not.”
She summoned Orpheus again, who played her lyre, causing an explosion under the Eligor’s horse. However, when the smoke cleared, the Eligor seemed unfazed.
“Oh, right, fire resistance.” Kotone mentally kicked herself for forgetting. Dismissing Orpheus, she charged forwards with her naginata, swinging for the horse’s legs. Only to be met with a charge from the Eligor, it’s spear colliding with her armour. Luckily the armour prevented any permanent injury, but it still hurt like hell.
Recovering from the strike, and turning back to her enemy, Kotone was quickly reminded that there were multiple enemies, as a sword from one of the knight-shadows missed her face by mere centimetres. She was quick to respond, slicing that enemy in twain, before quickly blocking a strike from another one.
“Look out.” She heard Theo cry before feeling a pain in the back of her head, and blacking out as she fell to the floor.
“You must awaken, my dearest.”
In the black void of unconsciousness, Kotone could hear a voice.
“They will be here soon, and they will need your help.”
‘My head huts, I don’t want to get up today.’ She thought to herself
“And you need theirs.”
‘Who’s voice is that? It sounds familiar.’
She opened her eyes, and for the briefest of moments, saw a young boy looking over her. Unfortunately he wasn’t around long enough for Kotone to recognise him, as he vanished as soon as she blinked. His face being replaced by a worried Theo’s.
“Are you ok?” He asked
“My head hurts.” Kotone replied. “How long was I out?”
“A few hours, luckily there are no signs of permanent physical injury.”
Kotone took a second to look around the room, they were in some kind of cell. It certainly looked like it fit the castle they were in earlier, worn stone brick walls, chains on the wall, even had the classic iron bars facing out to the rest of the dungeon.
“They told us to wait, and that their king would be with us soon.” Explained Theo
“The shadows have a king?”
“These ones do, likely a human with distorted desires.”
“Like the girl we saved?”
“Yes, if we had left her, her desires would have eventually formed their own shadow nest, like this castle.”
“So their king is the person who made the castle?”
“Yes, he is the king to these shadows, because that is how he sees himself.”
Kotone leaned on the bars, looking into the rest of the dungeon. Seeing a couple of knights a few cells along, she was reminded of what they could do. “So if these shadows come from a human, is that why they can use personas?”
“No, these shadows do not come from this nest, they were attracted here by the desires that formed it. They only appear like that because that is how this king views them. The persona are their true forms.”
“So these shadows really look like personas?”
“No, they really are personas, but they likely don’t remember that.”
The two’s discussion was interrupted by screaming from down the hall. Kotone was horrified by what she could only assume was the sound of someone being tortured.
A gust of wind came from a corner down the corridor. Kotone struggled to see what was going on. When she pushed her face against the bars, she could see a flickering blue light around the corner, as a loud crashing sound was made. Kotone could only smile, knowing exactly what that blue light could mean.
~~~
Ren was having the weirdest first day at his new school. Firstly that weird app he deleted reappeared on his phone. Then the school seemingly turned into a castle overnight. After that he and his new friend were captured by knights. And then they were visited and threatened by a teacher wearing nothing but underpants and an overly large cloak. And to top it all of he had just summoned some kinda demon thing calling itself “The Pillager of Twilight” and had just used it to kill 2 floating pumpkins in witch hats.
He’d think he was dreaming if hearing the demons voice in his head hadn’t hurt so much a few seconds ago.
“What, what was that just now.” said the Sakamoto boy in disbelief. As Ren looks over his new costume. He loved it, the long black coat, the waistcoat with gold accents and the boots that made him feel taller, he needed to see it properly, but it made him feel badass.
“You little…” snarled Kamoshida, right before he was shoved to the ground by Sakamoto.
“You like that you don’t of a bitch!?” He yelled triumphantly.
“The key!” Instructed Ren.
“You mean this?” Sakamoto said as he picked up the keys one of the knights dropped after Ren dealt with them.
Running out of the cell, he locked it before Kamoshida could even react. Trapping the almost naked teacher inside.
“Damn you!” Kamoshida yelled in frustration.
Ignoring him Sakamoto turned to Ren. “Hey! What was that just now?And, your clothes…”
Seemingly responding to being mentioned, Ren’s clothes burst back into a blue flame, returning him to his Shujin uniform, leaving Ren a bit disappointed.
“Woah, it went back to normal!?” Commented Sakamoto.
“YOU BASTARDS!” Yelled Kamoshida, making the boys jump.
“God, this is effin’ nuts! Anyways, let’s scram! You lead the way!”
Ren simply nodded at his new friend, still unsure what to say in this situation. He turned and started running down the corridor.
The pair could hear Kamoshida yell “After them! Don’t let them escape!” Behind them as they ran.
After coming across several locked doors, crawling through a hole in the wall of an open cell, and narrowly avoiding some guards. The pair looked down another corridor of cells in this seemingly endless dungeon, except a lot of these cells had people in them, seemingly other Shujin students.
“So, we ain’t the only ones who got captured.” Said Sakamoto
Continuing down this corridor only revealed more cells with students in them, and a raised drawbridge over a river in the middle of the corridor.
“Another dead end.” Sais Sakamoto.
“This place is like a maze.” Replied Ren.
“Hey you two.” Came a girls voice from a nearby cell. “Over here.”
Ren looked to the cell, and saw a masked girl in some kind of armour. Even with the mask, Ren could tell that she was very cute. Accompanying the girl was a man in some kind of velvet blue butler’s uniform?
“Are you the ones who just awoke?” Said the girl.
“Awoke?” Questioned Ren.
“Yeah, to your persona.”
“Per-what now?” Said Sakamoto.
“I guess your still new to this, huh. Did one of you hear a voice in your head, then kinda feel a ‘whoosh’, explode into blue fire and summon a monster that was all like ‘I’m thou, thou is me’ and beat up other monsters for you?” She explained.
“That is certainly one way to describe it.” Said the man in blue.
“I dunno about the voices, but this guy did burst into blue and summoned some kinda demon.” Commented Sakamoto as he pointed his thumb at Ren.
“It said its name was Arsène.” Added Ren.
The girl immediately lit up upon hearing that Ren could summon a persona.
“So you are a persona-user. I’ll make you a deal, let us out, and I’ll teach you how to use it. Then we can both use our personas to escape.” She offered.
“What about these other students? We can’t leave them.” Questioned Sakamoto.
“I would not worry about them.” Said the man in blue. “They are only figments of the king of this castle’s imagination.”
“They look pretty real to me.” Said Ren.
“That is because this world is created from the kings mind, this is how he truly sees these people, and this place.” Continued the man in blue.
“How he sees them?” Said a stunned Sakamoto, before punching one of the bars on the cell. “That bastard just sees us all as his prisoners!”
“At the moment we actually are his prisoners, so can we continue this outside?” Asked the girl.
“Oh, right, sorry.” said Sakamoto as he used the keys he picked up earlier to unlock the cell.
“Don’t worry about it too much.” Said the girl, “I’m assuming today has been pretty weird for you.”
“Understatement of the decade.” commented Ren.
“Trust me, no matter how weird today is for you, I’ve somehow had weirder.” Replied the girl.
“So, do either of you actually know how to get out?” asked Sakamoto.
“Allow me” Said the man in blue.
“You sure about that Theo?” said the girl. “Following your directions is what got us here in the first place.”
“I assure you I have learned from my mistake.” Said the man in blue, that Ren now knew was named Theo. As he walked over to a statue of Kamoshida, next to the nearby drawbridge, and opened its mouth. Causing the bridge to lower.
“How did you know to do that?” asked Sakamoto.
“I observed a guard cross this bridge earlier.” Replied Theo “Shall we go?”
The group ran across the bridge and down a corridor until they ran into a guard.
“Aah! Shit, it’s them!” Yelled Sakamoto as he fell to the floor. Behind him, Ren’s clothes changed back into the outfit he was wearing earlier.
“Theo, look after him.” Commanded the girl “New guy, watch and learn.” She reached up to her mask as a naginata seemed to appear in her hand. “Come, Orpheus!”
A large, robotic, goth bard appeared behind the girl, playing its instrument, and launching a fireball at the knight, which exploded into black goo, forming into one of those Pumpkin things, and some kind of imp.
“Damn, fire resistant again!” the girl turned to Ren “Guess you should show me what you and Arsène can do.”
Ren responded with a simple “Right!” as he ripped off his mask, causing the winged thief to appear again “Ravage them Arsene!” causing pools of darkness to appear below the shadows, before briefly engulfing them in it. When the darkness subsided, they both looked pretty hurt.
The girl used this opportunity to get close and cut the imp down with her weapon. Before rolling out of the way of a fire blast from the pumpkin monster. Ren used that as his chance to get close and slice at it with his knife, finishing it off.
“Not bad.” Said the girl, “You definitely have potential.”
After more running, Theo led the group out of the dungeon, and to a side room in the main part of the castle.
“Where are you leading us?” asked Sakamoto.
“Outside.” Replied Theo.
“But this is a dead end.” Said the girl.
“No, it’s an exit.”
Ren looked around the room, something above the bookshelf catching his eye. “The ventilation shaft.” He pointed out.
“Exactly, we should be able to climb through there and get out.” Said Theo.
“In that case, I’ll make myself useful.” Said Sakamoto, as he climbed the bookshelf and grabbed the mesh covering it. “And a one, and a- Woah!“ With a loud crash, he and the mesh were on the floor. “Ow. Crap! They didn’t hear us, did they?”
“We better hurry, just in case.” Said the girl.
“I believe it is polite to let the lady go first.” said Theo.
“Not in this skirt.” Responded the girl.
“I don’t see why your attire would stop us being polite.” said Theo, before Sakamoto leaned over and whispered something in his ear, turning his face bright red. “Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean-”
“I know you didn’t Theo, just get through the vent already.” she interrupted while Ren was already helping Sakamoto up the bookcase.
~~~
After getting outside, and running around the corner, the group stopped.
“Did we make it?” Asked the blonde boy.
“You have returned to the real world. Welcome back.” Said a voice from the boy with the glasses pocket.
“Guess so.” he said pulling some device out of his pocket and looking at the screen.
“Is that a phone?” Asked Kotone. “Where are the buttons?”
The boys looked at her like she was mad. “It’s a touchscreen.” Said the one with glasses.
“What, you not seen a phone in, like 5 years or somethin’?” Asked the blonde one.
“Something like that.”
“Where you been all that time?” he asked again.
Realising that there were now normal people around them on the street, Kotone lowered her voice. “I died 6 years ago.”
“Today just gets weirder and weirder.” Said the boy in glasses.
“Yeah, what was all that anyways? That castle, and Kamoshida and those things you summoned!” Asked the blonde one. “THE HELL’S GOIN’ ON!?”
“Quiet down.” Glasses boy and Kotone said, almost in unison.
“What’s with the yelling? Are you students of Shujin?” said an approaching police officer. “Cutting classes, are we?”
“Huh? No!” Said the blond kid “We were tryin’ to get to school, and we ended up at this weird castle!”
Kotone put her hand on the blond kid’s shoulder. “Sorry about our friend officer, he likes to get lost in his own world, we’ll make sure they get to school.”
“Make sure you do” Responded the officer.
“Let’s go.” said glasses boy, turning the direction of the school.
“Come on.” Kotone pulled the blonde boy’s arm, and when the officers were out of earshot said. “They wouldn’t believe you anyway, don’t waste your time.”
“Guess you’re right.” Said the blonde boy, defeated. “Oh yeah, Thanks for helpin’ us back there.”
“You’re the one who let us out, we should be thanking you.”
“It was a group effort.” Said glasses boy.
“Oh yeah, I never got your names. Mine’s Kotone, and this is Theo.”
“Ren.” Said glasses boy
“Ryuji.” Said the blonde boy
“A pleasure to meet you both.” Said Theo.