Arashi woke the next morning to his old phone vibrating beneath his pillow. He took off the mask and rubbed his eyes, the light creeping in through the dusty, decrepit windows. It was a little chilly, but nothing worse than he’d faced in the mountainous winters that he lived through for years on end. Maybe he could ask Sakrua for some extra blankets. There was only one light one… The man had a house, so he probably had some extra blankets laying around it that he could bring here.

  He got ready for school, hating the damn skirt he was in. He had leggings underneath, trying to hide as much skin as possible. But, in the effort, it really did show off just how skinny he was underneath the school-issued blazer and shirt. He hated all of this, but he needed to keep his head down so he could fill his probation requirements. He hoped and prayed nothing would happen and he could just live out a quiet student life. That was the top of his wishlist: to just be a normal kid for once.

  However, Igor’s warning of ‘ruin’ and talk of ‘rehabilitation’ echoed in his mind. That had been the most realistic dream he’d ever had.

  Shaking it off, he went downstairs and was greeted by Sakura. A bento sat on the counter, already prepared. He felt a knot rise in his throat but he swallowed it as he sat down. “You didn’t have to do that for me. I was just going to finish my meal from the other night,” he said to Sakura.

  Sakura shook his head. “I’m not letting you go to school without fresh food. I made it last night and put it in the fridge. You’re my charge now and I’m going to make sure that you get all the food you need and all your basic necessities met.” He smiled. “You need anything?”

  “Um, actually… It was a bit chilly up there… Would you happen to have anymore blankets?”

  “I can bring some from home. If it’s cold up there now, it’s probably going to get hot up there in the summer.” He sighed. “Sorry. I know it’s not ideal, but it’s the best I can do.” There was something behind that statement, more that Sakura wasn’t telling him. It wasn’t a lie; there was just something he didn’t want to talk about. It wasn’t like it was Arashi’s place to ask. So he ate the plate that Sakura sat in front of him without complaining. At this point, he was just happy to get food. He spent so long without it… He really didn’t want to complain about any food whatsoever when he had gone without for so much of his life.

  “It’s fine. I’ve dealt with worse.” He slept on the ground and even on concrete much of his life without a blanket. He slid the plate back across the counter. “But a few more blankets would be nice…”

  “I’ll get them here this evening after I close the café.” Sakura smiled. “Shouldn’t you probably be leaving about now?”

  Arashi sighed. “Yeah.” He frowned. “But I don’t have any train fare.”

  Sakura got into his wallet and pulled out a card. “Here. It’s a pre-paid fare card for the subway. When you start to get low on funds, just let me know and I’ll refill it.” Arashi felt another knot form in his throat but he swallowed it down. What was this man’s endgame? Why was he doing so much for Arashi? He was just some juevenile delinquent, a stranger to Sakura. Why was he going to the ends of the earth for him? None of this made any sense…

  “Thank you.” What else could he say? “I’ll be back when school’s done.”

  “All right. Though feel free to check out clubs and stuff. So if you’re home late, don’t worry.”

  Arashi nodded and headed out the door. He clicked his phone and and saw a strange eyeball app. What? He hadn’t installed that…Shaking his head, he put it out of his mind and opened his GPS to get directions to the subway. He’d been so blind coming here on Saturday that he hadn’t been able to memorise the route.

  Thankfully, he found his way through the subway just fine, but it was hard to get over the feeling of claustrophobia. The car was absolutely packed with people with barely any breathing room. He had to cling to his backpack tightly to make sure he didn’t ose it. And this was his life for the next year… He already hated the subway system. He could barely breathe at all. He just wanted off this damn train.

  By time he came topside again, it was raining. Of course. Just his luck. He hadn’t watched the weather before coming… He’d gotten a small umbrella that could fit in his bag, but he hadn’t packed it. Great… Just fucking great. He hated the rain. It soaked him through to the bone and would get his nice school uniform sodden. He didn’t like the uniform, but they were expensive and he didn’t want it to get ruined. Sakura had spent a lot of money on them so he could be properly uniformed for Shujin…

  He ran over to a building with an overhang, shivering a bit from the rain. A few moments later, a girl came up behind him and pulled her hood down, revealing blonde hair and blue eyes. He blinked at her. He’d never run into anybody with blonde hair before. How unusual.

  She blinked and looked at him. “Hey, who’re you? I don’t think I’ve seen you around Shujin before… But you’re wearing one of our uniforms.”

  Arashi looked down and squeezed his hands together. “Kurusu Honoka.” There was no way of getting around it… He hated his deadname, but it was just so much safer to keep his head down like this. It especially got empathy from women because he was so tiny and demure. He didn’t have any real strength to speak of. He’d only tried to get that man off that woman and he’d fallen to the ground. He did not have the strength to actually be able to hurt anybody.

  “Kurusu…” The girl thought for several minutes until she blinked again. “Wait, you’re that juevnile delinquent the whole school’s been talking about?”

  Arashi froze and looked at the girl, wide eyed. “Wait… You know about that? But the school wasn’t supposed to say anything about it!” Again, not that he’d hurt anybody but the courts had said it was confidential information. The school was supposed to protect that information and not disseminate it to the student body. The teachers would know, but it wasn’t supposed to be given to the students.

  He smelled a rat already. Something was foul in this school and he didn’t like it.

  The girl got in her pocket and took out her phone, showing a website that had all of the information on it including his school photo. She frowned. “You really don’t look like someone that’d be a juvenile delinquent capable of harming somebody… Honestly, you don’t even look capable of harming somebody.”

  He shook his head. “I’m really not… All I did was try to save a woman from being assaulted… The man who pressed charges just fell to the ground.” He wasn’t sure if this girl would believe him or not. It was his word against the courts and his record. But it was the truth. He didn’t want to be honest, but this was really the only way to handle things. He had to be honest here. He hadn’t hurt anybody… Well, he had in the past, but it had been purely self-defense. It was that or he allowed himself to be sexually assaulted. Nope. He wasn’t going to stand for that. Not one bit.

  The girl nodded. “You really don’t seem like the type to hurt somebody…” There was something unsaid there and he could guess it had something to do with his physique. Yeah, he didn’t weigh very much. He couldn’t hurt someone like a foot taller than him and much heavier. It was just gravity that had done the work for him…

  He sighed. “I mean… Drunk men attempted to assault me before and I gave them a kick to the nuts…” The girl winced and looked away. He’d clearly struck a nerve with her somehow.

  It was then that a car with an older man rolled up. He had puffy, curly, black hair and he smiled. “Hey, Takamaki, want a ride to school? You’ll get soaked if you don’t get in.” The tone he used sent a chill up Arashi’s spine. That saccharine tone that someone used when they were trying to get someone to agree to something they did not want to do. He saw the blonde girl look down, her eyes closing a bit. She hunched over a bit and got into the car obediently. The window rolled up and it was then that a blond boy came up. The man drove away and the boy glared.

  “Damn that Kamoshida! Who does he think he is, the king of the castle?!” The boy stared at the car, then turned around to look at Arashi. “What? Aren’t you going to go with him and be his little pet just like Takamaki?”

  Arashi shook his head. “This is my first day. I don’t know who that man is.” But he didn’t like the man immediately. Kamoshida, huh? The way the girl had looked… She did not want to go with him, but she clearly had no choice in the matter. That man was a manipulator of some sort. He recognised that tone all too well. The man wanted more out of her—Takamaki, apparently—and he was putting pressure on her to get her to sleep with him.

  Disgusting.

  He just recognised the tone from the drunken men that had attempted to assault him in the past.

  “Wait… This is your first day?” The boy gasped. “Are you that juvenile delinquent girl?”

  Arashi sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I am…” He couldn’t believe that had been leaked so quickly. He hadn’t even been to school yet and people were already recognising him. “Kurusu Honoka…”

  “Sakamoto Ryuji. Honestly, you don’t look like you could hurt a fly.” Sakamoto glanced around. “C’mon, the rain’s letting up and I know a shortcut. If you wanna get there on time, you should follow me.” Arashi was not willing to trust him, but at the same time, he could not afford to be late on his first day. Being alone with a much taller, and no doubt much stronger born male wasn’t something he wanted to do… But something about Sakamoto seemed…honest. He only saw legitimate concern in Sakamoto’s brown eyes.

  Nodding reluctantly, he followed Sakamoto into an alleyway. The walked along and Sakamoto looked at him. “So what made you choose Shujin of all places to transfer to?”

  “It was the only place that would accept me… But I’ve already gotten the feeling that it’s rotting from the inside out.” The fact that two people knew about his history…something that only the teachers should know about… Yeah, someone had leaked the information. He wasn’t sure who, but someone already had a vendetta against him. There was a rat among the teachers. He wasn’t sure if it was Kawakami-sensei or Principal Kobayakawa or somebody else… Somebody clearly didn’t want him to have a normal student life at Shujin. He had done nothing wrong to the school, but somebody didn’t want him there based solely off his record… Why were adults so fucking awful? He already hated it here…but if he played hooky or anything, there would be consequences from his parole officer.

  “You sure as hell got that right…” Sakamoto growled. His shoulders were tense and Arashi got behind him a bit more, also putting a tad more distance between them. Sakamoto was much taller than him and would no doubt be able to overpower him. Sakamoto looked lanky, but Arashi had no combat training or anything like that. The most he could do was a kick to the groin… Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, but he would keep it in mind. “Kamoshida’s been rottin’ it inside out since the day he came to Shujin.”

  “Who…is Kamoshida?” Arashi had no idea who this man was, but he clearly caused a lot of grief for Sakamoto and Takamaki. He was twisting Takamaki into a situation she didn’t want to be in and he had done something to Sakamoto. Kamoshida wasn’t a good person; that much was apparent.

  “Rat bastard’s the volleyball coach. There’s all sorts of rumors goin’ around the school, but nobody’s ratted him out or anything. It’s all just rumors right now, but if I know him half as well as I do, then they aren’t completely unfounded.” Sakamoto contintued to growl and Arashi gripped the straps to his backpack tightly. This was turning ugly fast. If Sakamoto wanted to take his anger out on somebody, it’d be far too easy for him to hurt Arashi. Arashi was so tiny and lacked any power. He could run far and fast, but if Sakamoto made the first move, Arashi wouldn’t be able to get away. There were only about two yards between them which wasn’t a wide area to cover in just a few steps…

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “I see.” This wasn’t his situation, so he wasn’t exactly certain how to handle things or what to say. He hoped he wouldn’t get involved with it; the last thing he needed to do was get on a vindictive teacher’s bad side. He had no intentions of crossing paths with this Kamoshida character, but who knew what fate would have in store for him. Fate never seemed to be kind to him unfortunately. He would never tell anybody about how he identified again. The one time he’d done it, he’d been thrown out. His parents had thrown him out entirely because they wanted a daughter, not a freak.

  She shook himself mentally and bumped into Sakamoto. “Yo, man, the hell is this?” Arashi blinked and followed his line of sight. What…? What was a castle doing there? “This is where the school should be, not a freaky castle! What’s going on here?!” He looked at Arashi. “C’mon, let’s go back.” Arashi nodded a bit and they went back and forth several ties, the castle not disappearing. “Aw, hell man. This ain’t good… We need to get to school.” He looked at Arashi. “I assume you can’t afford to miss anything?”

  Arashi shook his head. “No… I’m on a pretty short leash.” Principal Jabba had made that pretty apparent as well as Kawakami. He could not afford to miss school. He was trying to lay low, but fate had other designs for him apparently… This place definitely wasn’t normal. It was a European-style castle, not even a Japanese one. As far as he was aware, there were no European-style castles in Japan. He could be wrong, though, as he hadn’t exactly gotten a consistent education nor had it been quality, being out in the boondocks like he’d been until the other day.

  Sakamoto sighed and looked at his phone. “No signal… Maybe they’ll know inside.”

  Arashi shook his head. “Are you stupid? This clearly isn’t normal or even natural. A castle shouldn’t be in the middle of Tokyo like this!” He didn’t want to get involved with any of this. He needed to get to school and check in with the teachers. He was already late as was and he couldn’t afford anything else. He would already get sent to the guidance office for being late! He hoped this wouldn’t be marked on his permanent record or anything… Urgh… He should’t have followed Sakamoto and just gone the long route.

  “What else do you suggest we do, then? We already went back the way we came.” Arashi sighed, his shoulders slumping.

  “I guess you have a point.” They couldn’t afford to double back entirely and retrace their steps. They were already as was.

  Sakamoto started into the castle and Arashi looked around, having a very bad feeling about this.

  And his suspicions proved true when some sort of armed guard with a sword and massive shield came running up. “Hey, where’s the school?”

  “What are you doing in King Kamoshida’s castle? The king didn’t say there would be any visitors today!”

  “Huh? What do you mean, Kamoshida’s castle? This should be Shujin,” Sakamoto said.

  Several other guards came up and surrounded them. Arashi gripped his backpack straps and backed up. “We need to get out of here. Now,” he hissed at Sakamoto. “Get ready to run.” Clearly that struck a nerve of some sort, but Arashi gripped his backpack and got low. If there was one good thing, it was his size. He was small and difficult to capture. Sakamoto wouldn’t have that advantage though.

  Unfortunately, that secondary stopping was enough for the guards to close in and both of them got knocked upside the head. Arashi tumbled into darkness, his head throbbing.

  ?

  Arashi awoke to his head pounding and he looked around. It looked like they were in some sort of jail cell. He was honestly glad that he hadn’t worn glasses yet… They would’ve been smashed in the guards bashing their heads in. He would’ve had a lot of explaining to do to Sakura if his glasses were broken the day after he got them. Thankfully, it would take 7 to 10 business days to come in. So he didn’t have to worry about them getting smashed while they were in here.

  Small mercies, he supposed.

  He sat up on the bed and looked at Sakamoto. “Where are we…? What happened…?”

  “Dunno. When I woke up, we were in here. Guess they plan on keeping us in here for a while.” Sakamoto sighed. “I guess all that castle nonsense is real…unless this is a very weird dream.”

  “We’d have to be sharing the same dream and that seems unlikely.” He got off the bed that reminded him all too well of the Velvet Room dream he’d had several nights ago. His head still pounded but he could function now. He leaned against the wall for support and went to the door where several guards stood on duty. He gripped the bars and shook the door. “Let us out of here! We didn’t do anything wrong!” Damn it, just more fucking injustice in the world. More wrongful imprisonment. He hated all of this so fucking much.

  The guard pounded the pommel of its sword on the door. “Quiet down, prisoner! The king will see you soon and dispense punishment.”

  “We didn’t do anything wrong!” He gripped the bars tighter and he felt something flicker within him. He felt a power surge through him, but as soon as it came, it stopped. “Let us out!” He was so fucking sick and tired of being treated like he was nothing but a nuisance. He knew he wasn’t a good person deep down, but he still didn’t deserve to be treated like the scum of the earth just for having a gender identity that didn’t align with how he’d been born. Why was the world so cruel to people like him? He didn’t deserve anything that he’d been handed…

  “Quiet, inmate!” The guard slammed the pommel against the bars again and he instinctively flinched back toward Sakamoto. He hadn’t been hurt, but anger and negativity still had a major impact on him.

  He sat back down on the bed and sighed. “It’s all right, man. We’re in this together, right?” Sakamoto asked.

  Arashi sighed. “I suppose…” However, a blood-curdling scream made Arashi’s hair stand on end. “What in the hell was that?!”

  “I don’t know man, but it sure ain’t good!” Sakamoto shook his head. “This entire place is so freaky!”

  “Yeah, no shit!” He glared at Sakamoto. “I told you we shouldn’t have come in here!” He had lost his patience. He could normally hold his mask on pretty well, but right now was too stressful. He couldn’t be a sweet, demure little girl anymore. The storm that raged inside him was surfacing and, when unleashed, it had nowhere to go. Right now, the target was the only other person in the cell.

  Sakamoto sighed and shook his head. “Yeah, you’re right; it was stupid to come in here! But what else were we supposed to do?!” There was an edge to Sakamoto’s voice, but it wasn’t anger; it was worry and trepidation. The lack of anger forced Arashi to calm down somewhat. No, this wasn’t the time to play the blame game. Well. It was Sakamoto’s fault in the first place, but they were in this together now. They had to try to put their heads together and come up with a plan to get out.

  “I don’t know. We’re locked in here and there are guards in front of us… I know how to run pretty well, but that doesn’t mean shit when there’s nowhere to run.” He pulled out a small roll that had quite a few long, thin tools with angled heads on them. “…Don’t ask how or why but I know how to pick locks. But I’m not sure if that’ll work here or not.” He looked at the door which had a cartoonish lock on it with a giant key.

  “Woah, man, that’s honestly super cool…though a little scary.” Sakamoto looked at him. “Why would you need to know that?” Arashi remained silent, not wanting to talk about it. “Okay, fair. But the guards are there… They’ll pick up on you in an instant.”

  Arashi sighed and put the picking kit away. “You’re right… If only we could distract them.”

  Unfortunately, it was about then that another guard came up. “Your punishment has been decided upon. The charge is unlawful entry and the punishment is death.”

  “What in the hell?!” Sakamoto yelled.

  A man with a pink cape covered in hearts and a cartoonishly large crown walked up the cell. However, his eyes had an unnaturally eerie, golden glow to them. “Nobody’s allowed to do as they like in my castle. You won’t be allowed to escape here.” The man squinted and looked closer. “Sakamoto? I thought it was some petty thief, but I thought you’d learned your lesson last year.” The man scoffed. “Well, at least I’ll finally be rid of you. Guards!” The guards opened the cell door and cut off Arashi from Sakamoto. There were far, far more than anything Arashi could do about. Even though he didn’t trust Sakamoto, nobody deserved the fate he was about to get. The blond boy had wide eyes and looked around wildly, unable to do anything to get out of the situation.

  At least until he charged one of the guards and knocked it over. He looked at Arashi. “C’mon! Let’s get out of here!” Then one kicked Sakamoto in the gut and he fell to the ground, groaning.

  So much for that singular ray of hope.

  Arashi gritted his teeth and threw what little body weight he had into one of the guards. “Let him go!” Once again, the storm started brewing and he felt the power rise in him again. However, it didn’t go away this time. He threw his weight into the guard again and managed to move it close to Sakamoto. “Get…out…of…here!” He gripped the guard and moved it back several feet toward another guard.

  “Ugh, we’re going to have to deal with her first,” the king said. “Guards!”

  Of course the guards slammed him against the wall and held him while the king approached Sakamoto. “Hm, she’s feisty. She isn’t much to look at, but she should provide an amusement for a little while.” That made Arashi’s skin crawl and he shuddered.

  Will you let this defiler of innocents truly walk free? Will you let him use that power you so despise against yourself and Sakamoto? Arashi glanced at Sakamoto, teeth gritting. He was sick of this. So sick of this bullshit. Adults were the reason this planet was such a hellhole. Especially Japan.

  Did you make a mistake by trying to stop the other defiler? To save that woman from her fate with that man? Arashi bowed his head and gripped his hand into a fist. No. Nobody deserved to feel like that, feel so unsafe, have to capitulate to those in power over them.

  My power is yours whenever you require it. But take heed—you may not like the results should you lose sight of yourself. He didn’t care. He just wanted to see this sick, twisted bastard get the comeuppance he deserved.

  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 the inner demon! You shall attain all you seek on your own even though you shall be chained within the storms of hell itself!

  “Knock it off, you sick bastard!” As the one guard raised its sword, a gust startled everyone and he reached up, tearing the mask off.

  His outfit changed in a hail of blue fire and a presence hovered behind him—Arsene. Everything in the room got knocked back and he turned to the king. His voice mixed with Arsene’s, his eyes the same eerie yellow as Kamoshida’s. It created a bone-chilling sound that made even Kamoshida look around helplessly. “Unsanctimonious defiler of innocents, loathsome false king, thou shall be punished for thy sins against those thine were sworn to care for and protect.” Arsene’s colors inverted and the Persona attacked Kamoshida, earning blood-curdling screams from the ‘man.’

  It took every bit of self-control he had to pull back Arsene to not have the being outright kill the king. It snapped back and returned to the mask. Arashi wanted to collapse right then and there, but that would accomplish nothing. The guards and king were scrambling. He looked at Sakamoto. “Let’s go! Now!”

  “R-Right!” Sakamoto grabbed their bags from the bed and they started through what was clearly the castle’s dungeon. The screams from deeper in were their music as they ran, causing Arashi’s skin to crawl. He could see that Sakamoto wanted to go check them out, but he didn’t say anything about it. Right now, they just needed to get out of there because they were in so much danger. Arashi still wasn’t sure what Arsene was, but it had protected him. He was not going to complain about being able to fight for himself… But this outfit was definitely weird.

  However, it didn’t take long for them to meet a weird, bobble-headed cat thing, also locked in a cell. Sakamoto stopped. “What in the world is this thing?”

  “I don’t know, but we shouldn’t linger.”

  “I’m not a thing; my name is Morgana!” it hissed, then gave them the most pathetic look. “Come on, guys; it looks like we’re all trying to get out of here. Do a guy a favor, will you?” Its voice was quiet and it gripped the bars. Wow, talk about pathetic. “Please? I can get you out of here and maybe even teach you about Personas.”

  “Per…what?” Sakamoto asked.

  “Not right now. Actions now, questions later.” Arashi got his pick set out and easily undid the lock, putting the set away.

  “Thank you,” Morgana said.

  “No problem. Just get us out of here,” Arashi said.

  “Can do,” Morgana said. With that, they started creeping out of the castle, meeting battles along the way. More than once, Arsene inverted its colors and just completely mauled the Shadows in front of them by a fair margin. However, each time Arsene did that, Arashi felt more and more weight on him. He couldn’t afford to pass out here, so his sheer stubbornness let him continue on. He already didn’t have much energy to begin with, considering how little he could eat, so that didn’t help matters either.

  Eventually, they got to the front of the castle. “There. Now don’t come back!” Morgana said. “It’s too dangerous here for you!”

  Arashi looked at his phone to see what time it was and some sort of app closed quickly.

  All of a sudden, he collapsed in a ragdoll with his eyes closed. He could feel Sakamoto pull him up off the ground and heard him say something, but he couldn’t make out what it was. He heard some other voices but they quickly faded as blackness overtook him, oblivion welcoming him.