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

Chapter 5- Captured

The three of them entered the castle. The inside was exactly as you would imagine it; medieval-like decor and such. "Sooo... where do we go now?" Sakamoto asked. Both Ren and Yui shrugged their shoulders in an almost comical way. 

"I dunno, let's just stomp around, while attracting as much attention as possible, and find out why the heck the school's turned into a castle in the first place?" Yui said sarcastically, looking at the blonde male with the one eye that wasn't covered by her hair. Ren let out a soft chuckle to that, at which Sakamoto glared at him pointedly. He was about to let out a smart remark when a group of guards surrounded them.

"State your purpose here," one of them said. The trio shared confused looks with each other. State our purpose? Ren thought as he internally counted how many guards were there. "We just got lost and we're looking for-"

"You are all trespassing. Leave at once, or suffer the repercussions," the same guard said. The three of them took a small step back. "Umm... Repercussions? Uhh... what kind of repercussions...? Actually, I don't think I wanna know," Yui said with the smallest hint of fear creeping up into her voice.

Suddenly, one of the other guards took a step forward and hit Sakamoto in the face with its shield, causing him to stagger back. "Wh-what the hell was that for!?" Sakamoto said angrily. There was no response as the guards started to close in. "U-um guys," Yui said, starting to shake. "I don't think these guys are messing around..." Ren and Sakamoto stepped in front of the girl as the guards continued to close in on them.

The guard hit the blonde male once again, this time even harder, and he went down. "Sakamoto-kun!" Yui said, concerned. She wrapped her hands around Ren's waist and made a small, whimpering noise. Ren tensed, ready to fight. Before he got the chance to even move though, he felt something metal and painful collide with his chest, and the last thing he heard before losing consciousness was "Take them away."

*****

"Hey man. Are you there?" a familiar voice asked. Ren groaned and slowly sat up, wincing at the sharp pain in his chest. 'Y-yeah," he groaned. He looked at his surroundings. 

It's certainly bigger than that Velvet Room place, he thought as he glanced around some more. However, it looked more... gruesome... than the Velvet Room. There were chains on the wall, and the plank Ren was laying on was beginning to rot. 

"Hey," Ren said softly, "Where's... Yui?" Sakamoto looked over at him with what seemed like a saddened look. "I... dunno. They must have put her in another cell away from us. Dammit!" he suddenly yelled, slamming his fist on the wall, "We gotta find her! If one of those effing guards so much as laid a hand on her..." 

Ren clenched his fists as he remembered the conversation that he had with Yui right before he left. "Yeah..." he said, his tone dark. "We gotta find her." The blonde male looked over at Ren, concerned. He's only known this guy for a few minutes, yet Sakamoto felt that he must really care for her if his tone got dark like that. It actually scared him a little bit to see the raven-haired boy like this.

Suddenly, the loud echoing of footsteps could be heard marching in unison towards the cell that Ren and Sakamoto were in. "What's that!?" Sakamoto said, panic creeping into his voice. "Probably the guards from earlier," Ren speculated, his tone lightening up a little bit, but still angry. 

Sure enough, he was right, and a group of three guards came to a stop in front of their cell door. Sakamoto went to the bars and shook them violently. "Hey! Let us out of here!" he yelled. None of the guards responded to him. 

"You should be grateful that your punishment has already been decided. Your crime is trespassing, so your punishment is death." Sakamoto gasped. "Death!? What the hell is this?!" Ren was equally as surprised, but didn't show it nearly as much as his blonde counterpart.

"Huh, to think it would be the transfer and Sakamoto, of all people. What a surprise." Sakamoto could recognize that voice from anywhere.

"Kamoshida!?" he said, the shock prominent in his voice. "What's with that weird-ass outfit?!" He was wearing some sort of cape with hearts of different hues of red, a gold crown that was sitting on top of his head. But the worst part of his attire is that other than the cape, he wore nothing except for a repulsive pink pair of underwear.

The only thing different about Kamoshida other than the questionable clothes was that his voice was a little bit distorted and his eyes were a glowing yellow that shone with hatred. "Let me in," he commanded. One of the guards unlocked the door and came into the cell. Sakamoto and Ren stepped back in alarm as they drew their weapons.

Kamoshida smiled maliciously. "Hmph. You really are pathetic, Sakamoto. Scum like you deserves to die like this." He suddenly kicked the blonde male in the gut, causing him to get knocked back into the wall. 

"Sakamoto!" Ren said, concerned. His body was paralyzed into place with fear, so as much as he wanted to help him, he couldn't. "What's wrong?" Kamoshida mocked, aiming his words at the raven-haired. "Too scared to do anything? Some kind of friend you've got, Sakamoto." The male managed to get back on his feet. "He... ngh... He ain't a friend," he managed to get out. Kamoshida's smile didn't falter. "Well, that's not surprising."

He grabbed Sakamoto by the collar of his school uniform and punched him repeatedly. Ren watched in horror as Kamoshida ruthlessly beat Sakamoto. 

"Arrgh! *cough cough* s-stop!" Sakamoto pleaded as he got punched in the gut yet again. Ren finally found the courage to do something. As Kamoshida went to punch the boy again, Ren caught his fist. "Stop it! Why are you doing this?!" Kamoshida turned to face him. "That look in your eyes is just like the one Sakamoto has... That irritates me...!"

He kicked the raven-haired boy in the chest, knocking him back into another wall. "Trash like you should just watch! There's nothing you can do, anyway." Ren wrapped his arms around his gut and winced in pain. Damn it... is there really nothing I can do to help him? he thought as Sakamoto continued to get beaten up.

After a little while, Kamoshida stopped. "I think that's enough fun for me. Execute him!" The three guards in the room suddenly closed in around Sakamoto, swords drawn. They backed him into the wall opposite of the one that Ren was leaning against.

Ren slowly started to get up, using the wall as support, otherwise, he would've fallen down again. Two of the guards saw him and each grabbed one of his shoulders. He struggled to break free but to no avail. Suddenly, what looked like a blue butterfly flapped right in front of his eyes.

"This truly is an unjust game. Your chances of winning are almost none." Ren weakly looked at the butterfly, unable to question where the voice had come from. 

"But if my voice is somehow reaching you, there may yet be a small possibility that is open to you."

That voice... it somehow sounded familiar to Ren. He knew that voice from somewhere, yet he couldn't seem to pinpoint it.

But he knew one thing: he had to find a way to get him and Sakamoto out of this mess. He can't leave him for dead, especially not with this crazy Kamoshida and his guards around.

No matter what, Ren will do something about the mess that they're in.