ペルソナ5 ザ・ロイヤル/ Persona 5 (The) Royal- Dual-Sided

Chapter 4- Intruding the King's Castle

Ren didn't have that strange dream like he did the night before. He dragged himself out of the bed, feeling a dull, fuzzy feeling in his head. Sighing, he faintly realized that he definitely did not get enough sleep last night. He had to have been up until at least 11:00.

He put on his school clothes once again, but grabbed his school bag this time, as he was officially starting school today. He was about to head out of his room but suddenly stopped. He checked his phone quickly, and, when he saw that there was nothing new, Ren ran down the stairs, had a quick breakfast, and basically barreled out the door.

Sojiro watched him silently from the counter. "Hmph. This kid... he sure is strange for a troublemaker. I think it'll be best if I keep an eye on him... just to see that he doesn't start up anything..." He sighed quietly and continued to clean the counter.

Meanwhile, Ren dashed on the sidewalk towards the station. As usual these days, it was crowded with people waiting for their train to get on. He shook slightly at the large group of people there. "It's still backed up?" he said quietly as he waited amongst the crowd. When the train finally arrived, he, along with tons of other people, walked inside the train. The car quickly became stuffy and overcrowded with people, and Ren considered himself lucky to even nag a seat in the cramped car.

A few minutes into the ride, he noticed that the sky had turned into a dreary gray. It took him a second to comprehend what that meant.

"...!" Ren realized that he had no umbrella as he continued to look at the overcast sky. 

 As the train started to slow down, people started to get up and walk towards the train doors, making a narrow put passable passageway for Ren to slip through, and eventually managed to get out of the subway. While he was walking towards the entrance of the station, he saw a couple of students wearing the same uniform as him running on the sidewalk in the now pouring down rain.

"This sucks!" one student complained loudly.

Ren, not having an umbrella, hung out in the overhang by the station. He took out his phone and was surprised to see the strange red and black themed app yet again. He tapped on it, but nothing happened this time. Tapping the screen a few times more but to no avail, Ren soon gave up on it.

That's when he noticed her. She was walking to where he was and stood next to him. The girl took off her hood, revealing blond pigtails, which were an uncommon sight there. She was wearing a Shujin Academy uniform, and her hood had a small green four-leaf clover on it. Her eyes were a nice turquoise blue. Ren couldn't help but stare at her, and he didn't even realize he was starting until she turned to look at him.

"Hm?" the girl inquired. Ren realized what he was doing and awkwardly glanced away. "N-nothing..." he said, just audible enough for the girl to hear. She looked at him for a moment longer, then suddenly extended out a hand towards his head. Ren automatically stiffened and clenched his fists to the point where they were starting to turn white.

The girl's hand grabbed something in his hair and retracted her arm back to her side. In her hand was a small pink cherry blossom petal. Ren stared at it and slowly started to relax, his fists unclenching, letting the blood flow to them once again.

"It's just a cherry blossom petal. No need to be so tense." the girl said, flashing a small smile at Ren. He glanced away again, feeling stupid that he got tensed up like that. "I... I'm sorry... I just got really nervous, that's all. Sorry..."

"It's fine. Hey, what's your name, -" she was cut off by a car pulling up in front of them. The front window rolled down, revealing a man with short curly hair with a white shirt. 

"Hey, Takamaki! You need a ride?" he offered with a smile on his face. The girl, Takamaki, darkened all of a sudden. "Um... Yeah. Thanks."

She opened the door and got inside, but she didn't look too happy about it. Ren automatically knew something was wrong because of how Takamaki was acting when the man showed up.

"You need a ride, too, transfer?" the man asked Ren. "Um, no thank you!" he responded back politely as he waved his hand in dismissal. The front window of the car rolled up and the car drove off.

A pair of running footsteps could be heard as a blonde male ran after the car. When the car was out of reach, he slowed to a stop. 

"Argh! Dammit... screw that pervy teacher!" he growled.

"Pervy... teacher?" Ren questioned, confused. The male turned to him. "Hm?" he said, turning around to where the inquiry was voiced. 

His expression turned from confusion to annoyance. "What, you gonna rat me out to Kamoshida?" Ren still looked confused. 

"Huh?" he said, not getting it. The other boy's anger seemed to dissolve. "I-in that car just now, that was Kamoshida. He acts like the king of a goddamn castle, right? ...Do you even know who he is...?"

" Why would he know, Sakamoto-kun? He's a transfer," a voice said, coming up behind the raven-haired boy. It was none other than...

"Yui...?" 

She smiled softly. "The one and only, Amamiya-kun. Nice to see you again." Sakamoto looked even more confused than before. "Wha... you two know each other!? How in the hell..."

Ren started to open his mouth, but Yui beat him to it. "We've known each other since fifth grade." She looked up at him. "You're pretty nice... aren't you, Ren?"

The male scratched the back of his neck shyly. "Yeah... I guess I am pretty nice, aren't I?" Sakamoto looked at the time on his phone. "Shit, we're gonna be late! I'd love to stay around chitchatting, but unless you wanna be late on your first day, then move your ass!"

Yui looked at Ren. "He's got a point. Let's go," she said. As the three of them began walking, a sharp, stabbing pain suddenly overtook the three of them. They all stopped and winced, with Ren's glasses reflecting the light just enough to not be able to see his eyes, which would have shown the pain that he felt.

"Dammit... my head hurts... I just wanna go home already..." Sakamoto whined as he continued to walk. They took a left turn into an alleyway, where there were puddles from the rain just a couple of minutes ago. As Ren stepped in one of the puddles, however, the water rose and curved unnaturally. Yui and Ren turned back, and the former looked at the puddle in suspicion. 

"Wha- what the hell!?" Sakamoto yelled from up ahead. Yui ran ahead of Ren to see what was up. "What is it, Ry- huh?!" she said as she stared upwards. Ren gasped as the scenery unfolded before him. 

"Wha...?" Ren murmurred softly as he gazed up at the school... or rather, what was supposed to be the school. In its place was a gigantic, medieval-themed castle. "This... should be the place, right!? I went the same way I usually do, so..." Sakamoto walked towards the entrance of the castle. 

"Yeah. It says Shujin Academy right here, so this must be it. But why is there a castle of all things? Is this some kinda prank!?" Yui only stared at the castle with her mouth slightly agape. 

'Something... isn't right,' she thought as she walked forward. "Well, I guess all we can do is go look and see, right?" she said and walked towards the entrance of the castle.

Ren and Sakamoto walked towards the entrance as well, not knowing what to expect out of this. The whole thing seemed bizarre, but there had to be some sort of logical explanation behind this... right?

Or not.