Archive of Our Own

Work Text

"And that's the match! This year's Vanguard Nationals was won by Miyaji Academy's Cardfight Club!"After the announcement was given in quite the crowd packed stadium, a roaring loud cheer was heard from the audience surrounding the five individuals that stood on the podium dedicated to their victory. At the front, a boy with blue hair that had a long section jutting down in front of his face and eyes of the exact same colour smiled warmly at the achievement that he and his friends were able to achieve together on this day. It had been long and gruelling to reach this point, given the trials and tribulations all of them had gone through because of Vanguard, but now, it seemed like almost a dream come true to them. The five of them now stood victorious as champions of the year's National Tournament.He turned around to each of his teammates, comprised of a girl with lilac pink hair and darker blue eyes in contrast to his own, a orangish brown haired boy who held up a clenched fist and arm to his chest, proud to have given it his all throughout the tournament to help his friend reach where they were now, a shorter boy with red eyes and a pair of glasses to match with brownish coloured hair and finally, a taller student with smart black hair and greyish coloured eyes."Each of their fights was hard-fought, but when the dust settled, each member won their match against last year's champions, Fukuhara High!"As more cheers sounded throughout the stadium, the blue haired boy turned around to each of his teammates, feeling as happy as he could ever be."Naoki-kun, Shingo,-kun, Misaki-san, Itsuki-kun..." he said, closing his eyes shortly afterwards "Thank you for all of your support!"The four remaining members of the Miyaji Academy Cardfight Club nodded back in response to say that they were welcome for his support and kind words in return."We did it Aichi!" Naoki cheered "All of us made it!""I had my doubts at first, but I commend us all for a job well done," Shingo replied.Before anyone else could say anything, the crowd went silent as three seemingly familiar people entered the stadium grounds and walked towards them. The shortest one with blue eyes and orange hair swirling into pigtails of some kind was the first among them to speak."Miyaji Academy's Cardfight Club, congrats on your victory!" she called.Everyone in the group save for Itsuki suddenly widened their eyes as they soon realized these people were far more familiar to them than they recognized. Though they knew the girl who spoke to them, along with the taller woman with turqoise hair and purple eyes that carried a flag in both of her hands, the blonde girl was one they had never thought to had seen again, after circumstances prior to this moment of victory."Kou... rin..." Misaki breathed."Sendou-kun, a fabulous fight following your Asia Circuit performance," she spoke, handing the trophy to him."T.. Thank you," Aichi replied, stuttering a little at first in surprise. So she didn't lose her memories of the awards ceremony at the Asia Circuit?"I've had my eye on your group, for whatever reason," Kourin continued "I think you're a great Cardfight Club."As a silence briefly fell over the awards ceremony, Naoki was soon quick to speak up, as if he recalled something nostalgic from a previous encounter between them."Hey, miss idol!" he called "If you want to join us, there's a catch! You have to beat one of us! Your first opponent will be me, Ishida Naoki!""W... Who do you think you're talking to!" Shingo exclaimed "You do realize she's an idol!""Guys..." Aichi breathed as he sweat-dropped a little in exasperation.The argument was soon broken up however by a light chuckle from Kourin. Despite finding amusement from the debacle at first however, there was almost something familiar about the scenario to her, but she didn't know what."Very well then," she said keeping her smile "I'm pretty strong!""Then let's begin our Vanguard!" Aichi announced as both Naoki and Kourin went to one of the fight tables that were still active in the stadium.He watched on in happiness, feeling like that there was nothing in this moment now or that future could bring that could seemingly take away the overall joy and happiness all of them felt when they were together, as a group and as cardfighters themselves."Stand Up, Vanguard!" Or at least, that was what he thought.
Several months later...
Aichi suddenly awoke from his slumber, almost stumbling in the carriage that he stood within as he quickly regained his balance. Despite it being the middle of the day on the loud and busy train that he sat in, his eyelids still felt rather heavy as he winced and blinked a few times to regain his line of sight. It seemed like it was almost days ago after that event from the happy memory that he had relived, despite having the knowledge about how long it had actually been since then. And now, whatever joy and happiness he had from that day going forward was all but nearly destroyed. All because of one thing that he got caught up within, all that he had known and cared about as well as the life he once had... was all gone. And it all happened with four words, that immediately rang once again in the back of his head as if they were there only minutes ago.
"Damned brat...! I'll sue!"
"If I had just been more careful in trying to save her..." he murmured sadly in his thoughts, thinking back to the moment those words were spoken.His inner mutter was interrupted when the train carriage came to a stop, bringing his attention back to the doors opening up and the people leaving in front of him. Gazing through a gap to a sign hanging above the platform in front of him, he could immediately tell from what was written that this was his destination; Yogen-Jaya. Quickly coming out of the doors, not wanting to let his earlier tiredness cause any more trouble for him, he stepped onto the platform and began walking over towards the stairs that led out to the last portion of his journey. Exiting the subway station and crossing over a not so busy road, Aichi soon found himself into the backstreets of this portion of Tokyo and gazed around. Although he was familiar with a little bit of the city, having lived in a different section before coming to Yogen-Jaya, there still quite a large portion that was not known to him personally.Bringing out a small paper note from his pocket, he re-read the note to find two lines written down on the small piece of paper. One being a name, Sakura Sojiro and the other mentioning the backstreets of Yogen-Jaya, much to his relief as this confirmed that he was thankfully in the right place."Now to find Sakura-san..." he murmured to himself, beginning his search up the small street in front of him.Several shops had surrounded him, leaving him to narrow down some of his options as walked down the backstreets in search of the individual mentioned on the note. As he scanned across the buildings that he had passed, most of them being shops or other places of interest to common-folk, by the time he had reached the other end of the backstreets, he soon realized the small dilemma that he was currently in. Despite knowing that Sakura Sojiro resided within the backstreets of Yogen-Jaya, he had no idea of his exact address, having not been even told that from the very beginning.Looking back down to where he had previously began his search, Aichi could see many people were walking around the side of the path he had taken, including a policeman who was standing beside a lamppost, close to where he had began walking in from the road nearby. From what he could see of him, the demeanour didn't appear to look friendly at all and he was already feeling nervous from just looking at him, knowing what had happened to get himself into the situation he was in earlier up to this point. Taking a deep breath and deciding to be brave, believing that he might have the answer to his problem, Aichi slowly walked back down the backstreets towards the officer, trying to keep as calm as he could. When he was eventually close enough to him, he slowly began to speak."Um..." he began, before seeing that the policeman's stern gaze had turned upon him, raising some his nerves a little "E... Excuse me, officer.""What business do you have?" he replied, his tone being rather harsh and showing a hint of impatience."I was hoping to look for Sakura Sojiro..." Aichi answered nervously as he handed the note to the officer "I was told by my mother I could find him in this area... but I wasn't given an address...""I see..." the officer replied, gazing over the note before handing it back to the boy in front of him and pointing back to near the end of the backstreets "See the white bricked wall near the end of the street? Go to the far end of it and turn right. You should see a house to your left with Sakura's name on the front wall." Shortly afterwards, he turned his stern gaze back upon Aichi. "What kind of business do you have with him?" "My mother arranged for him to look after me..." he spoke before bowing "I'm sorry to bother you."All he was given as a final answer was a small grunt, prompting him to leave the man alone and back to his duties as quickly as he could. Walking back to the white bricked wall that he had seen earlier, he turned right this time and saw that what the policeman had said to him just a minute ago was indeed true. A small white house stood behind a brick wall and gate and next to the postbox was a small plate with Sojiro's last name written in large kanji."Here I am at last..." Aichi murmured as he pressed the button to the doorbell, ringing it off.After a few long seconds however, nothing happened. No sound or answer had greeted him in response to the doorbell. Deciding to try one more time, he pressed the button only to be greeted by silence once again."Is he not present at the house?" he pondered "Then... should I look around the streets for a little longer until he gets...?""So you're looking for him too?"Aichi looked to his right to see a man standing next to a delivery truck on the road beside Sojiro's house, holding a parcel in one of his hands. Thankfully, he didn't seem as unfriendly as the officer that he had spoken to a little earlier."Sakura-san's normally around his cafe at this time, as I've just now remembered," he muttered, before then seeing that the boy in front of him had no clue about the cafe he had just mentioned "If you go back into the backstreets, look for a sign that says LeBlanc with Coffee & Curry above the name. You should find him there.""T... Thank you very much, sir," said Aichi, smiling as kindly as he could in response to appreciate the answer he had been given.Tracing his earlier footsteps down the street one more time, when he almost made it back to the road where the station lay across from, he looked to the alley going to his left and finally found his destination. LeBlanc had several plants littered outside of the closed front window to the left of the single doorway that led inside and had an white and orange coloured overhang with the name of the cafe and the words 'Coffee & Curry' above it. Looking to the doorway, knowing now that he was bound to find Sojiro and undergo what was the ordeal behind his circumstances, Aichi hesitated for a moment as his hand suddenly stopped a little before the door handle, his nerves beginning to get the better of him once more, but quickly shook his head and took a deep breath."I got myself into this mess..." he said to himself, calming himself down slowly "I can't cause anymore trouble for anyone else if I'm going to get out."And with his resolve settled, he turned the door handle and entered the shop, a bell ringing above him as he walked inside.Aichi had no idea what to expect when he had entered the interior of Cafe LeBlanc, but for the most part, it seemed almost like the kind of place he imagined a coffee shop to be like. To his right was a bar like area with several wooden chairs seated at it and as for his left, he saw three sets of medium sized tables, each with two couchs assigned to either side of him. He noticed seated at the second table were an elderly man and woman who were watching the small television at the far end and that on one of the seats beside the bar like area, a tall man was busy reading the newspaper that he was holding in front of him. He was wearing a pink shirt and beige coloured trousers with a black apron over them and hard short black hair. He also wore a pair of glasses in addition over his grey coloured eyes.Before Aichi could ask any of the three if they knew about Sojiro Sakura, or if anyone in the room happened to be the person in question he was seeking out, the voice from the television at the far end of the cafe caught his attention."A public transit bus was driven down an opposing lane with customers still in it!" a male voice yelled from what was shown on the screen "The citizens of Japan cannot keeping living in peace in such times of chaos!"As this was happening, the boy saw a particularly frightening image of the incident in question displayed on the screen, showing a filled bus driving down the wrong lane of a road with traffic in its path trying desperately to swerve out of its way to avoid collision of any kind and from what little the image showed behind the vehicle, he knew that some were not so lucky to avoid what had befallen them.How horrible... he murmured in his thoughts, his stomach suddenly feeling rather sick at the thought of what could have happened out there."What in the world could be going on?" the elderly woman pondered in concern "Didn't a similar incident like this one occur the other day?""They did say that is was today," the man with the glasses replied as he moved his newspaper and a pen that he was holding over to the bar like area behind him."We'll be going then," the elderly man said as he and his companion arose from the table "The payment is on the table. With the place in these backstreets, at least there is no concern for cars or other vehicles crashing through. I just hope that rampage incidents such as those do not occur in this part of the city.""It's none of my concern," he sighed.The old man chuckled softly in response, understanding the mood that was currently present in the room."Well then, I'll see you next time," he said as he and the elderly woman moved to the door.Aichi upon seeing that he was in their way, quickly moved to the side to allow them through. The elderly couple walked out through the door, smiling kindly at him for his initiative before exiting out onto the side streets, the bell above the door ringing as this happened. This now left him alone with the man that was now in front of him and only one assumption before him."Four hours for a cup of joe..." he muttered to himself before looking up and seeing the boy in front of him. Then upon studying him a little more, he spoke once more. "So you're Sendou Aichi?""Yes," he said, trying to hide his earlier depressed mood from his tone "I... It's nice to meet you. Are you... Sakura-san?" "That is correct," the man replied to him, confirming his identity "As you have no doubt already been told, you will be in my custody for the next year. I was wondering what kind of unruly kid would show up in my care, but I didn't think it would be someone like you."Aichi could only nod once in sympathy for Sojiro, feeling that the man must have been rather annoyed when he heard of the role that he now had. If anyone had extensive knowledge of the very large trouble that he was currently in, he could not blame them for not being as trusting towards that person, even if that person was indeed himself."E... Emi-san said that mother knows about you through a friend of her's," he said "You... already know the trouble I'm in.""Indeed," the man sighed irritably before sighing and turning back to him "Well, not that it matters for this very second. Follow me upstairs."Complying with the request, or rather the order that had been given to him, Aichi followed Sojiro up the stairs towards the attic of LeBlanc, wondering what it was that he had wanted to show him right now. When they reached the only floor that was above the cafe itself, he could see that it was littered in several black disposable bags, dust and a series of cobwebs. From what he could gather, much had been done to reduce any waste that was in the attic, but it had not been cleaned out properly as of lately. Amongst the clutter before him, he could see a couch to one side as well as a desk and chair and beside the window was a small, but seemingly manageable bed."I'll at least give you sheets for the bed," Sojiro spoke, breaking him out of his stupor."I see..." Aichi murmured as he looked around the room "So... I will be staying here above LeBlanc?""You catch on quickly," he replied before noticing the boy bit his lip a few moments afterwards. His gaze became stern as he glanced towards Aichi who became a little more nervous than he already was. "You look like you wanna say something.""I gu..." Aichi began before shaking his head and deciding to reword his answer "I know I'll have to clean it up.""Good to see we're on the same page then," Sojiro spoke, smiling a little, but only for a brief second "You'll be on your own at night. Do not do anything stupid or I will throw you out without hesitation. Is that clear?""Yes Sakura-san."The man simply sighed at Aichi's somewhat willing, yet dejected tone as if it felt like the boy was being forced to comply with his words for one reason or another. They both knew that reason of course, but it was one he was willing to question him on in the hope of getting a somewhat better understanding of what happened."If I have got this completely straight, you protected some woman from a man, he got injured, then sued you, right?" Sojiro began."Yes..." Aichi replied, trying to keep his spirits up a little."Even if you 'were' a good kid," he sighed "You shouldn't go sticking around your nose into other people's problems, especially between two adults. You did injure him, right?""I...  I didn't mean to," he answered, his voice raising slightly as he gave his reasoning before reverting back to his earlier tone "But it is true.""And now that you're a criminal, you've been expelled from your previous school," Sojiro continued "The courts ordered you to transfer and move here; made it forbidden for you to touch that card game you have as a hobby and contact your family or any friends you made up to the day your sentence was given for the duration of my care over you. In other words, they discarded you for being a pain in the ass after what you did." Aichi briefly flinched at the harshness of the cafe owner's perspective on the separation as a part of him wished to respond immediately, but bit his lip immediately to keep his mouth shut, not wanting to cause any more trouble for himself than he was already in. Once he had calmed down, the man in front of him decided to continue on with his explanation to the circumstances. His face then became somewhat cross as he continued to say what he had to say to the boy that was now under his custody."As I am the restaurant business, do not talk about anything unnecessary," he said in a harsher tone than earlier "You are aware of what probation is, right?""Y... Yes," Aichi replied sadly "If I cause too much trouble from now... then I'm immediately transferred to juvenile prison. The sentence of which... may become years or worse, life.""I suppose it is assuring that you are already more than aware," Sojiro muttered, shaking his head slightly before resuming his attention "Tomorrow, we will be going to Shujin.""Shujin..." he murmured, recalling hearing that name before he came to Yogen-Jaya on his own "That's the school Emi said I would be transferred to after I got expelled from Miyaji Academy.""We'll introduce ourselves to the staff there properly before your first day begins this coming Monday. You should feel fortunate there is even an institute willing to accept you given the situation you are in now," the cafe owner replied before sighing heavily "What a waste of my Sunday..."He then walked past Aichi and started to climb down the stairs leading back to the cafe itself before stopping halfway down."Your luggage is in the box your mother and Emi sent the day before," he said "It's in the cardboard box in the middle of the attic.""T... Thank you, Sakura-san!" Aichi called as Sojiro reached the ground floor "I... I appreciate your kindness."Despite not getting a reply, he had expected the owner of the cafe to not respond back to him as he stared around the attic. There was still the task of having to clean up his new room and that unpacking his own things would have to wait. Luckily for him, the disposable bags did not seem as large or heavy as he had initially feared, meaning that gathering them into a single corner was easy enough for him. Then seeing the duster that was provided in addition to a mop and bucket, he turned his attention towards the dust and cobwebs in the attic room. As Aichi worked late into the early evening clearing out dust and cobwebs whenever he could see them, once he had gotten halfway, he coughed loudly as dust flew across the room, a bit landing in his mouth from a mistimed sweep."Hey, you alright up there?!" Sojiro's voice called."I... I'm alright!" Aichi coughed "Just... *cough*... a bit of dust!"He waited to see if the cafe owner was going to question him once again, but after a minute had passed, it seemed like he was carrying on downstairs with business as usual. After a few minutes had passed, Aichi eventually stopped coughing and finished the rest of the dusting, deciding to shield his mouth with his left arm as he did so to avoid running into the problem again. Once he had brushed away the last cobweb and clearing the dust off his desk, he placed the dust on the surface and turned his attention to the mop and bucket beside his single mattress.Realizing that the bottom of the cardboard box containing his things would be soaked if he began, he shifted the heavy load to the mat where several plants stood and formerly some of the disposable bags. Then once he was sure his belongings were out of range, he began the long task of cleaning the dirty and sometimes grimy floorboards of the attic. He panted as the long clean of his room overall began to tire him, but he knew that he had to keep going if he was going to have a room to sleep in and give Sojiro a better first impression of his current state. Once the sky outside had turned dark, he had finally finished his cleanup and fell back onto the mattress to rest his tired limbs and catch his breath back.A few minutes later, Sojiro came up into the attic to see him, only to be slightly surprised at the much cleaner room that was now standing before his eyes."What the heck?" he gasped "I knew I heard noises, but I didn't think you'd be cleaning up right away. That and it does explain your coughing earlier.""Yes," Aichi replied as he got up onto his feet "I accidentally inhaled some dust when cleaning out a tight corner. I should have been more careful there.""Well, at least you got it done," Sojiro replied, smiling a little "Come to think of it, you actually didn't do that bad of a job.""T... Thank you Sakura-san," he said, finally smiling genuinely back at him for the first time in the day."You look exhausted," the cafe owner murmured "Why don't you sort out your belongings and go to bed? You don't look like you have anything better to do and it's closing time for me. I'll take care of the disposable bags now."Aichi nodded in compliance, deciding that he had least gone through the effort to clean up and make himself feel at home. As he stepped forward to try and assist Sojiro, he held out a hand to reassure him that we would be fine in dealing with the remaining disposable bags."I won't be the one looking after you if you get sick from staying up too late," he said "So please handle your own health as much as you can, alright?""I understand."Soon, the cafe owner descended down the stairs with the bags and headed outside of the door as the lights in the cafe itself went out and the bell to the door rang. Now that Sojiro was on his way back to his residence, Aichi turned his attention back to his belongings and saw the address for LeBlanc itself was written on the label for the package. Carefully removing the tape covering the flaps, he opened it up to find some of his clothes at the top, including a black blazed with a badge on it sealed in some plastic wrapping. He had assumed that his mother must had acquired the Shujin uniform for him whilst he was preparing to leave for Yogen-Jaya, but the thing that had caught his attention was a small envelope at the very top of the pile with his name written on it.Curiously, he opened it up to find a small letter within there and gasped as to the other object inside. It was one of his cards, something that he should not have even had due to the harsh restrictions of his probation. It depicted a white armoured swordsman with green eyes wielding a mystic blade in its right arm as it pointed directly to the ground. Believing there had to be a reason he had it now, he looked to the letter and read it.
Aichi

I couldn't risk sneaking through your entire deck in case mother got suspicious or if it would tempt you into accidentally breaking the terms of your probation.

But I know how much Blaster Blade means to you, to the point it helped you to overcome your boundaries once before.

Whilst I know it cannot help you in the situation you're in this time, I know it will help you to keep a reminder of what you're going through now to get back.

Just promise me and everyone else back home that... you'll be safe and far outside of trouble.

From Emi
"Emi-san..."It was strange to him. He should have been happy or overjoyed that his sister was successfully able to sneak Blaster Blade and her message into the things that she and their mother had packed into the single large box for him. But for whatever reason, he could not muster up the strength to make even a single smile as small tears ran down his cheeks as he quietly sobbed to himself. Aichi suspected that the depression he carried over since the day his sentence was given was mostly the reason why he hadn't been able to have a genuine smile with the exception of Sojiro's praise for cleaning the attic that was now his room, no matter how much he tried.Pressing onwards, he hid the card in one of the drawers of his desk, changed into his nightwear and laid down on his bed once more, facing the ceiling as he was deep in thought."Arrest... trial... criminal..." he pondered as he thought back to the night of the incident "I still can't believe it..."
Several days ago...
Aichi was walking back on his own through the night, knowing that he was rather late in returning back to his home for dinner and for the eventual explanation he would have to give to Emi for being out that late in the first place. As he was looking down at his phone, exiting the messages section, he suddenly saw an unfamiliar icon on the screen alongside any other applications it had. It appeared to be an black coloured eye with large and wild lashes and a star in the place of an iris."Did my phone catch a virus...?" he pondered "Kai-kun was always an expert when it came to those."He then held his finger down down on the strange application, hoping to move it to the bin icon immediately. But when he tried to do so, it suddenly enlarged as a strange and painful sensation struck through his head. Unbeknownst to him, his eyes were also glowing a bright rainbow aura from them. Struggling against the pain, he eventually managed to delete the application as his phone returned to normal, the pain and glow from his eyes also subsiding as he breathed heavily."Just what was that...?" he gasped, regaining his breath slowly.Before he had time to process any of what he had witnessed and experienced at the same time, a loud scream from nearby immediately caught his attention. It belonged to a woman and that had sent panic down his spine."Stop it!"Now hearing the direction it came from properly, Aichi turned away from his original path going homeward and decided to aid whoever it was that was in trouble at this very moment. He wasn't sure what was going on, but whoever it was that the voice came from was not only sounded like she was in distress, she was also frightened. When he turned around a corner, he was on the same street as the victim. A woman with black hair was struggling to escape the clutches of a bald man who was trying to keep his grip on her, no matter what."Stop it! Let me go!" she screamed."Don't give me that shit," the man replied in a slightly grumbled state.His movements and tone seemed almost erratic to Aichi, which only worried him even further as he slowly got closer to try and not grab his attention too quickly.The way he's speaking and moving... he pondered in his thoughts Is he drunk...?"Don't waste my time...!" the man growled, his tone still seeming somewhat unnatural."Stop...!" the woman cried "I'll... I'll call the police!""Heh! Call them if you want...!" he smirked "The police, every law enforcement in this country, every last one of them are my bitches! They'll never take someone like you seriously!"No sooner had he said that, the sound of sirens filled the street, causing everyone, including Aichi to stop what they were doing for a brief moment. The drunk bald man hissed as he glared at the woman who was in his thrall."Someone called the cops, huh?" he muttered "Incompetent fools like you need to shut your mouths and follow where I steer this country!"Soon, he had also realized Aichi's presence in the street was almost close to him as he turned his head towards him, startling the former who had not hoped to have been spotted by him already."What are you looking at?!" the man snarled "Get out of my face!""Let her go!" he demanded "Can't you see you're...!""This ain't a show kid! Get lost!" He then looked to the woman in his captivity and grabbed her by the hair. "Get in the car!""Please, help!" she screamed.Aichi at first remained still, unable to think at the moment as the sounds of sirens wailing in the distance and the struggle in front of him. A part of him wanted to wait it out and try and see if the police would get to him in time. But then, something from earlier rang in the back of his mind and it was what the man had said to his victim earlier, that all of law enforcement in Japan in a manner of speaking was right beneath his heel and that they would take his side of the story by default. Taking a deep breath and looking at his hands, he made a decision."I said, let go!" he declared as he moved forward towards the pair with hands in front of him and shoved the drunk man in the chest.But to his eventual horror however, the shove he intended to use as a distraction had ended up being more powerful than he anticipated as the man was flung straight into the nearby lampost headfirst and landed on the pavement in front of him. As the woman and Aichi looked on in worry, the police eventually arrived and came to either side of him as they stared down at the man, who had a small trickle of blood running down his head as he glared towards them with his burning eyes through his orange tinted glasses, one lenses cracked from the impact."Damned brat...!" he yelled "I'll sue!"And suddenly, without a moment's hesitation, both of the officers unexpectedly grabbed Aichi by the arms and dragged him towards their car across the street as the woman could only watch in panic and confusion."W... Wait!" he cried "That man...! He...!""Save it for the judge brat!" one of the officers replied as they shoved him into the back of the car."But that woman...!" Aichi replied "She's in...!"His answer was cut off however when the other struck him in the head with his baton, making his entire vision go black and himself fall unconscious, until he was finally detained in their custody up to the day of the trial that resulted in what should not have been a guilty verdict.Now that he had been thinking back over the night that had changed his life for the worst, Aichi could only sigh as sleep was finally starting to overtake him. After he turned out the attic lights, before he could close his eyes however, a noise was heard from his pocket. He reached inside to pull out a silver coloured smartphone, different from the blue coloured one that the authorities had confiscated from him after he was put on probation. To his surprise and shock, the app he had previously deleted on his true phone on the night of the incident was somehow now on the new one he had been provided with."How is that possible...?" he pondered "First my real phone, now this one..."Feeling far too tired to sort out the problem for himself, he placed it on the small ledge beside the attic window and went unhappily to sleep....It wasn't long before the sound of dripping that had immediately caused Aichi to seemingly wake up from his own slumber as he slowly stirred until he was fully awake. But to his shock, it wasn't the attic of LeBlanc he was in, but a strange small room. The first thing he saw was a blue fabric roof shaped like a large cushion along with a black coloured chain dangling from the ceiling. That was when had noticed that there was a cold sensation that almost felt like the chill of..."Steel?" he pondered before looking down to his hands, gasping in shock to see them chained in handcuffs in addition to the black and white striped outfit he was now dressed in. "W... What is this?!"In a sudden jerk of movement from the surprise of it all, he fell to the right off of the small bed he had seemingly been laying in for the entire time, or at least, that was what he had assumed. Sensing a similar feeling on his right leg as he stood back up, he saw it was also cuffed to a chain that was weighed down by some kind of large metal ball."What is this place...?" he murmured to himself before shuddering at the assumption that entered his mind "Is this... a nightmare of being in an actual prison?"Aichi then suddenly heard an amused chuckle from behind him as he turned to the barred and locked door that was now in front of him. As he struggled over to the bars, he saw that in front of them, stood two small girls, dressed in blue uniforms who appeared to be almost identical to one another. Each one had an eyepatch with the letter V engraved on it that covered over for a different eye and the initials on their hats. One hat had the letters 'O Y O O' and the other being 'X M R N'. In addition, each twin bore a different expression on their faces with one seeming happy and the other one having a lack of general emotion to speak for herself."Um..." Aichi began "I'm Sendou Aichi... Do you know...?"Rather than answering him however, the twins stepped to one side to reveal the host to this very room that he was now seemingly standing within. He wasn't sure how to describe the man... if he was sure he could call him one that was seated at the table there. He had pointy ears, a long point nose, grey coloured hair with a bald spot on the top of his head, small irises for eyes and black eyebrows. He looked up towards the criminalized cardfighter who was currently held captive in the cell that was currently his room for the time being."Trickster..." he spoke, his voice being rather deep and calm as he opened up a white gloved hand "Welcome to my Velvet Room.""That's what this place is called?" asked Aichi "And... why did you call me Trickster?""So you've come to inmate," one of the twins spoke, her voice being somewhat blunt and direct, even ignoring his question."The you in reality is currently asleep," the other interjected calmly, clearing up some of the mystery for his curiosity "You are experiencing this is a dream.""So this prison cell and my appearance..." he murmured "This isn't a nightmare?""You're in the presence of our master!" the serious twin snapped, startling Aichi for a moment "Stand up straight!""R.. right..."Quickly, he did so as much as he could, hoping that it would at least calm her down for the time being as he looked to the host of the Velvet Room who still sat calmly from the comfort of his chair at the desk."Welcome Sendou," he greeted in the same tone as before "I am delighted to make you acquaintance. The Velvet Room itself is a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter.""What do you mean?" asked Aichi."It is a room that only those who are bound by a contract of sorts may enter at all," the host answered in a calm manner "I am Igor, the master of this place. Remember it well. I summoned you to this place to speak of matters of great importance. Matters that may affect your life from this point forward.""Is something wrong?" he asked once again.Rather than receiving an answer to his new question unlike before, Igor gazed around the Velvet Room with intrigue, staring at each of the individual empty prison cells until his narrowed irises gazed upon the inhabited cell once more."Still, this is a surprise," he pondered "The state of this Velvet Room reflects that of your own heart. To think a prison would appear as such."Aichi gazed down at the bars reaching the bottom of the door. So much of what Igor was saying to him at first was seemingly making very little sense to him. However, once he mentioned that the prison he was in currently was a reflection of his own heart currently, it also made sense at the same time. A part of him ever since he began his probation was always fearing the possibility of imprisonment if he were to fail to overcome and serve the sentence that had been laid out for him and that had been gnawing away at him ever since."You truly are a prisoner of fate," the room's host commented "In the near future, there is no mistaking one important fact at this point. Ruin will await you.""R... Ruin?!" he gasped."I speak about the end of everything," Igor continued, leaving him feeling even more uneasier "However, there is a means to oppose such fate and that will be the only way to avoid the ruin that threatens you. You must be rehabilitated. Rehabilitated towards freedom itself. Do you have the resolve to challenge the distortion of the world?"Aichi felt worried, unsure of how to respond after everything that he had just been told straight to him by the mysterious new host that had come before him in the reflection of his own heart. Right now, he wasn't sure how was going to overcome the ruin that Igor had mentioned that was supposedly destined for him, let alone the sentence he was currently serving for his probation."I... I don't know if I understand what is going on or if I can overcome what I'm currently going through," he murmured to himself, causing the more serious twin to gaze at him closely before he stood up straight again "But if you believe I can find a way to avoid ruin... I'll try.""Ah, pardon me for not introducing them earlier," Igor replied as both twins stood in front of Aichi's cell door directly "To your right is Caroline. To your left is Justine. They serve as wardens in this room.""I see..." Aichi said as he looked down to them, trying to smile as meekly as he could at them "It's nice to meet...""Hmph! Try and struggle as much as you like inmate!" Caroline interrupted rudely, briefly taking him aback."The duty of wardens is to protect inmates," Justine calmly explained "We are also your collaborators. That is... if you remain obedient.""I... understand Justine," he said "T... Thank you for explaining.""I shall explain the roles of the two when the occasion presents itself," Igor spoke as they turned back to him "Now then... the night is waning. It is almost time. Take your time to slowly understand this place. We will surely meet again... eventually."Without warning afterwards, an alarm bell suddenly rang across the room as Aichi was immediately forced onto his knees with his hands covering his ears to shield himself from the loud volume."Time's up!" Caroline announced in her usual tone "Hurry up and go back to sleep!"Before Aichi could reply back in response or ask another question to either of the twins or Igor, everything immediately went pitch black.Then before he knew it or could even think of anything else, he was immediately awake in his room back at LeBlanc, with the night now replaced by morning light. To Aichi's surprise, he didn't feel the least bit tired, nor did he yawn at all. What felt like only a few minutes in the Velvet Room was apparently a few dozen hours back in the real world or so he assumed."What was that all about...?" he pondered to himself "Velvet Room? Igor? Ruin? What does it all mean? And why now?"As he looked over to his desk, he was about to walk over and pull out Blaster Blade's card from the drawer he had hidden it within, only to turn his attention to the stairs as he heard footsteps coming towards him. Soon enough, he saw it was Sojiro who had come up to see him in the morning now. Unlike yesterday, he was dressed in all white and wearing a hat of that colour with a bow attached that had white, red and blue colours flowing in straight lines across the fabric."Oh, you've just awoken Sendou," he murmured "Let's go to Shujin and get ourselves introduced to the staff there.""Yes, Sakura-san," Aichi replied "And... good morning."As he was left alone to get dressed, shortly afterwards, he walked down the stairs to meet back up with his new carer to travel to the school that he would now be attending as a result of his probation, the thoughts of what happened in the Velvet Room during his dream were still lingering within his mind. Why did he travel there? Why was he supposedly destined for ruin unless he could oppose it somehow? Aichi didn't know what to expect as the first official day of his probation was now underway, but right now, he knew that there was much on his mind to think about and although it was no longer about his sentence as much, he wasn't sure whether or not to consider a blessing... or a curse.Meanwhile, on the far side of Tokyo from where the cardfighter had originally come from, a light brown haired boy with jade green eyes was making his own use of the Sunday at hand as he wandered around a lonely street to himself. Much was on his mind since the day that Aichi's sentence had been given out along with the terms and conditions that had to be followed. He ran the few words they had exchanged briefly when they had to seperate on the day he went to Yogen-Jaya to carry out his punishment again in his thoughts, that being the reason for his resolve now.
"Promise me you'll take care of yourself and the others whilst I'm gone, Kai-kun."

"This isn't like the Aichi I know. Are you willing to give up on yourself that easily?"

"Please Kai-kun... Don't make this any harder for me than it already is. Everyone... goodbye!"
"Aichi..." he murmured to himself as he resisted the urge to clench a fist "No matter what happens between us or our comrades now... none of us are giving up on you."Looking up to the dark clouds that was gathering above the whole of Tokyo in the once blue sky, he knew more than anyone else that running blindly into where Aichi was now would only result in more trouble for the criminalized cardfighter than he had already landed himself in. He believed more than most common people that his friend was innocent from the beginning because he knew what Aichi was like, how he would behave and as a result was bothered as to the exact cause behind his guilty verdict. He didn't know why for the time being he seemed to have his own suspicions, but something from the bottom of his gut told him that there had to be higher powers in play that none of them knew about.But without a single clue to follow on since the trial had its conclusion, he knew that for the time being, unless a possible lead could present an opportunity to him and his companions, he was powerless to help his friend, like everyone else.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Aichi, now dressed in the uniform composed of the blazer and trousers that his mother had provided to him in addition to the white shirt he wore, remained completely silent as he watched Sojiro writing through the last of the paperwork to have him assigned into Shujin Academy. After the two had arrived at Shujin Academy and made their way to the office they were standing in now, aside from briefly introducing himself to the two members of staff in front, he had not said another word since the coffee shop owner had parked his car.At the other side of the desk was a bald and rather fat man dressed in a brown suit and white shirt with a red bowtie at the neck collar. He served as the principal of Shujin and the criminalized cardfighter knew that throughout the duration of his stay at the school, he would most certainly have the majority of his attention upon him. To his right was one of the teachers, who held a similarly despondent expression as everyone else in the room and Aichi had a feeling that he knew the reason why, that being obvious to the four of them. She had somewhat messy dark brown hair with eyes of the same colour and wore a long-sleeved shirt with horizontal stripes consisting of multiple shades of yellow in addition to a denim blue skirt. At last, Sojiro had signed the last of the paperwork and stepped back to be alongside the boy.“To reiterate, just so we are perfectly clear,” the principal spoke in a stern tone “You will be immediately expelled if you cause any serious problems. Honestly, I was hesitant in expecting someone like you, given your apparent fall from grace within Miyaji. But there were some circumstances on our side that convinced me to enrol you here. If you are thrown out from Shujin, then there will be no place for you to go. Remember that well, Sendou.”Aichi only nodded once in response, not wanting to accidentally speak out of line given the very thin line that he was well already walking on since that day. A part of him could only worry about Naoki, Shingo and Misaki back at Miyaji Academy, knowing that word of his expulsion and criminal record there was bound to cause controversy about the Cardfight Club he had worked to set up in his first year there and the fact that they had tried their best to defend him during the trial that led to his sentence. He then saw the teacher to the right of the principal hand out a small card to him.“Here’s your student ID,” she said “Be sure to read the school rules and any violations you commit will send you straight to the guidance office. I won’t be able to protect you at all if there are any problems.”“I… understand Kawakami-sensei,” he replied, doing his best to hide his nervous and despondent tone from everyone in the room and putting his new student ID in his pocket “And thank you.”Kawakami simply let out a quiet sigh in response to his answer and turned to the principal beside her.“That IS your promise, yes Principal Kobayakawa?” she asked.“He is responsible for his actions,” Kobayakawa answered resolutely in a calmer tone.“But why me though?” she huffed quietly “There should have been better candidates to handle Aichi.”“It was a sudden transfer,” he explained, his expression seemingly pained in sympathy for her “Your class was the only one available for a space to house him for the year.”Aichi could only feel somewhat sympathetic for his new homeroom teacher for the year, much like he was when had first met Sojiro the previous day. He was thankful that the two had agreed not to make any word of his criminal record known to any of his potential classmates unless he really would cause enough trouble for them to make such a notification public.“If you’re done explaining things,” the coffee shop owner interrupted with a sigh “Do you mind if Aichi and I get going? I have a store to get back to.”“Sakura-san, please keep an eye on him,” Kobayakawa spoke, his stern tone returning back to his voice “Do not let him cause any trouble for you outside.”“He appears to be understanding of the situation he’s in,” Sojiro replied “But I’ll have a serious talk just to be certain about it.”After a brief moment of silence had passed, Kawakami then turned her attention back towards Aichi.“Come to the faculty office when you arrive at school tomorrow,” she said “I’ll show you to your classroom.”He nodded back to her to show he understood her request and followed Sojiro out of the office and down the stairway until they reached the ground floor together. Before the two of them could exit the school premises, the coffee shop owner stopped abruptly in his footsteps, briefly confusing Aichi before the former then turned his attention towards him.“Not even the first day and they’re already treating you like some kind of nuisance,” he muttered “I guess that’s what it means to have a criminal record. Turns out your past follows you wherever you go.”“I can’t blame them for thinking that way about me,” Aichi replied “Anyone with those circumstances would be on thin ice with the people looking out for them.”“By the way,” Sojiro continued, the harshness in his tone almost causing the boy to flinch “If you’re expelled from here, I will immediately kick you out onto the streets. Got it?”“Y… Yes, Sakura-san.”The coffee shop owner could only sigh a little, slightly irritated by the seemingly forced compliance that was in Aichi’s tone as he had answered nervously back to him. Deciding to ponder about it later, he led the boy out through the front gates of Shujin Academy back to his car so the two of them could return back to LeBlanc.Later that afternoon, Kawakami was wandering around the wooden walkway outside of the back of Shujin Academy, feeling very tired and somewhat depressed inside. The last thing she wanted was to accept a last-minute transfer of a student with a criminal record on his back into Shujin Academy itself, let alone into the empty spot of her own homeroom class. Despite noting during the conversation at Kobayakawa’s office earlier that Aichi was trying to keep both his nerves and his words in check with her and the others as honestly as he could, she still felt the need to convince herself that he was still a danger to both her and everyone around the school, no matter how honest he may had appeared to her.She was far too exhausted to even be angry at either her situation or rant to herself about even keeping an eye on the criminalized cardfighter she was now to watch over. Kawakami then stopped in her tracks as she heard the sound of footsteps coming from in front of her towards where she was now standing on the walkway. She looked up to see a much taller teacher wearing a white sports jersey and a pair of dark blue coloured tracksuit pants with two white lines running down the far side of each leg. Much like Kawakami herself, he had dark brown hair and eyes in addition to large eyebrows of that colour along with a large chin and nose to make up the physique of his face.“Good grief. What a troublesome situation we have,” he muttered under the smile he had tried to keep earlier.“I can’t believe they pushed someone with a criminal record onto me,” she huffed “A male teacher would be more suited to this situation. Wouldn’t you agree?”“Perhaps,” the teacher replied “But what I’m curious about is why in the world would Kobayakawa of all people even agree to admitting someone of his status here. What was his name again…?”“Sendou Aichi,” Kawakami answered, correcting him on their new student’s name “I wish I knew why he was even admitted under the principal’s word, but he apparently mentioned that it was for the school’s reputation.”The male teacher simply shook his head in partial disbelief before hanging his head down slightly, as if he felt that this situation wasn’t good for any of the staff or students on Shujin’s premises, even themselves.“I would have thought my volleyball team would have been enough to cover him,” he murmured before pulling his head back up to look down at Kawakami “Tell me of that criminal student’s character.”“Well, he complied with what the principal and I had to say without any resistance,” she said, pondering back to the earlier conversation “Aichi did seem a bit nervous and shaken, but with a record such as his, I have my doubts on his behaviour.”“Crocodile tears. Typical of his type,” the teacher muttered “Just be careful around him when he comes to your class. Then again, if anything serious were to happen, I wouldn’t hesitate to kick him out in a heartbeat. I hear he’s already hanging by a thread.”“I just keep wishing Aichi would just end up not coming to school,” Kawakami sighed “Then again… I shouldn’t be saying that as one of his teachers.” Her eyes then briefly widened as if she had just remembered about something regarding the presence of the teacher in front of her. “That reminds me, the tournament is coming up, isn’t it?”“Heh, having such high expectations placed on you by others is quite a problem in itself,” he chuckled “We’ll have to make up for the track team too after their… unfortunate circumstances.”“Yes, that’s true.”After she sighed upon saying those words, the teacher went back into the main building of Shujin Academy leaving her outside on her own once again."What did I do to deserve this...?" she muttered to herself “And why did it have to be my class?” “GRR! Traffic’s not moving at ALL!”Aichi did his best not to react in fright outwardly as he could only watch in concern from his seat as Sojiro yelled out in frustration at the situation the two of them were now caught within. The moment they had left Shujin Academy and started going back towards LeBlanc, the road they had taken was filled to the brim with halted traffic in their side alone and the worst part was, moments after they had entered, they were blocked in from behind, meaning it was impossible for the coffee shop owner to turn the car around and find another route back to Yogen-Jaya’s backstreets.“You’re taking the train, starting tomorrow,” he huffed, still feeling in a foul mood “Just be thankful the authorities gave back at least some of your allowance so that you have enough to maintain the fees and something decent to eat throughout the entire year I’m keeping an eye on you.”“So I go from Yogen-Jaya to Shibuya, then transfer from there to Aoyama-Itchome… right?” Aichi asked, still feeling a little nervous from the coffee shop owner’s earlier outburst.“Yes, you’ve got that down to a T,” he muttered before looking over to him “So how was it? The school I mean. You think you can handle it?” “… I won’t lie in saying that I’m… a little scared,” he answered, resisting the urge to gulp slightly “But, I’m hoping that I can at least do well there without too many issues.”Sojiro simply sighed in response, resuming his attention back to the traffic in front of him which moved forwards, but only slightly as did the car that he was driving.“Now listen up Sendou. Don’t even think of doing anything stupid, even if you don’t appear to be the type to do that,” he stated in a harsh manner “You were already expelled from Miyaji after the trial didn’t go your way. To think you’d re-enroll at a different school. With circumstances such as yours, it’s no wonder anyone isn’t going to be sympathetic unless you manage to behave yourself in the long run.”As the traffic in front of them continued to remain still without a single sign of the cars before them moving ahead, he simply gazed on ahead as he continued muttering to himself out aloud.“If that’s what it’s gonna be like for him over there, people might say stuff about me in the future too. What a troublesome kid I’ve taken in.”Aichi much like the coffee shop owner beside him could do nothing more but wait and see if the traffic ahead of them would move anytime soon into the late afternoon. Having overheard the words of the driver next to him just now, a brewing thought had made its way into his head and it was a question that he was curious to know the answer to. Seeing that the traffic was not moving ahead for the time being, he looked over to Sojiro who simply gazed back towards him."Sakura-san... why did you agree to have me in your custody?" he asked "I thought there wouldn't be anyone to care for a... criminal." “I was asked to do it…! And I happened to agree to it,” he answered in an irritated tone “I’ve already been paid for it too after all.”“I see…” Aichi murmured “S… Sorry for prying.” Before the coffee shop owner could reply back to his apology, a male voice echoed out from the car’s radio to signal a broadcast making it over to the two of them. The criminalized cardfighter gazed at the radio in curiosity, wondering what kind of news was on the air at this very moment.“Again, a subway has derailed at Shibuya Station, greatly affecting the timetable across the…”“Another accident…?” Sojiro groaned as he abruptly switched off the radio before gazing at the traffic in front of them “So that’s why it’s so crowded across the roads these days. There’s been a lot of these lately.”“Yeah…” Aichi breathed “Just hearing about these kinds of incidents since the National Tournament ended still gives me a horrible feeling inside.”Sojiro simply watched his passenger look down at his knees, knowing that even the boy he was looking after would feel this way after hearing about a rather gruesome incident. Believing that he was trying to get the thought out of his head for the time being, he resumed his attention back to the road in front of his car, the traffic moving another few inches since their conversation. On a television screen within a single room apartment, a newscaster was also reporting on the same incident that had been brought up in the radio of Sojiro’s car a few hours earlier. In the top right corner of the broadcast was an image shown of several passenger carriages in the subway station of Shibuya wrecked and piled on top of and against one another in twisted heaps of metal. The only thing that made the horrifying image tame as if someone could even describe it was the lack of bodies strew across the broken windows and doorways of the wrecked train.“According to the police, the engineer’s life was not in danger despite his injuries,” she spoke “After questioning, even he could not explain his high speed when approaching the station. No further comments were made.”“Good grief,” a voice murmured as he switched off the television before looking over to Kai “Who would have thought those incidents would still be ongoing.”The brown-haired cardfighter didn’t not make a sound in reply as he turned to face his friend who had brought the room back to silence after his comment. The friend that had joined him in his single apartment room had blond hair and greyish blue eyes and was dressed in a light red hoodie and a pair of dark blue trousers. His usual cheerful demeanour in any given situation however had been replaced by concern and Kai knew that it was rare of this friend of his to be like that for such a long period of time, especially as of recently.“I know that you are worried about Aichi, Miwa,” he spoke in his usual tone “I won’t pretend that even I have my concerns about his situation now.”“Of course, I’m worried,” Miwa replied as he sat down on the bed beside him “Now that he’s got a criminal record, no one is even going to trust him if word gets out. At least Takuto was able to stop it from going public outside of Miyaji Academy or the Association, but…”“You suspect otherwise,” Kai concluded.The blonde’s reaction could only confirm his closest friend’s suspicions, as he could only stare down at the floor. To Miwa, it still felt like only yesterday since Aichi had been charged with assault, convicted for a crime he didn’t commit and forced to separate from his friends and family thanks to the sentence that he now had to serve or face more dire consequences all at once.“It just bugs me Kai,” he said, unable to keep much of his frustration back for much longer “You know Aichi personally better than I do and we both know he isn’t the kind of person who would even commit assault. Even Ishida and Kamui have been riled up more than usual over that fact lately.”“That’s not all,” Kai continued “In addition to the terms he has to deal with, he has to not touch or even see Vanguard for the duration of his sentence. Vanguard opened up all of the possibilities he couldn’t grasped when he was still at the lowest point of his lift before now. But without it…”He paused in his sentence, knowing that even Miwa could tell that he was hesitant to speak of the possible fate that could befall their Aichi now that he no longer had Vanguard, friends or family to guide him through his greatest challenge before him; probation. He remembered back to a long while ago, when he ordered Aichi to throw away his cards and run away from the game, not wanting him to be caught up in the position he used to be in during Foo Fighter’s reign over card shops across the country, only for him to refuse out of fear of returning to his scared self. Now that it had been forcefully taken away from him, who knew what could happen to him next.“By the way,” the blonde spoke “You said when the police let you speak to Aichi whilst in their custody that he told you that something happened to him before he got involved in that incident.“That’s correct,” he replied “He said that a strange application depicting a black eye appeared on his now confiscated phone before he deleted it and heard the woman screaming for help. When he struggled to eventually delete it, a strange pain emanated through his head and he also mentioned that his PSY Qualia had been activated briefly as well.”“That is strange…” Miwa pondered “Then again, if he mentioned that in court, it could have ended our attempted defence sooner due to the jury believing that his perception of the incident got warped. That and who would believe us about his PSY Qualia anyway?”“In addition, not only did the man in question from the incident not show up at the court that day, but he remained anonymous,” Kai replied “He wouldn’t be able to do it that easily without any kind of high powers in place.”Miwa could only frown at the fact that his closest friend had brought up, that being the very thing bothered not just him, but all of Aichi’s closest friends on the day that they and he had tried and failed to defend him from his fate. It was one thing for Aichi to have somehow gotten tangled up with powers beyond their understanding, the PSY Qualia Zombie incident being a reminder that it wasn’t the first time he was caught up in a greater struggle. But now, he was having to face the full force of the law itself and powerful figures that were seemingly out of everyone’s public reach all alone.“If the man in question is really that powerful,” he pondered “Just what can we do?”“For now, we can do nothing for Aichi nor can we overturn his year long sentence by force,” Kai replied “But, with such power being at play at this instance… I believe I have an idea on where to start.”“What do you have in mind?” Miwa asked.Kai let out a small sigh as he stood up from his bed and looked back at the blonde to give his answer and the latter could tell that the Kagero clan user was feeling somewhat reluctant to make his suggestion on his next move.“It isn’t a decision I am thrilled to make,” he spoke “But… I have to talk with ‘them’.”By the time Aichi and Sojiro had eventually fought their way through the long queue of traffic to get back to Yogen-Jaya, it was already night-time much to the latter’s frustration. Once he had parked the car on the pavement, the two began walking back to LeBlanc through the nearest entrance to the backstreets past the coffee shop owner’s residence. As Aichi was following along from behind, he suddenly stopped in his footsteps as he noticed a faint light emitting from one of the top windows below a mostly closed curtain from inside. Squinting for a moment as he gazed at it, he could see two small circles, as if they were representing eyes, present in the small exposed portion for a brief few seconds as a result of the glow’s reflection before the lights suddenly went out, darkening the room it came from once more as the curtain went fully down.“Who was that…?” he pondered to himself “Is that the reason Sakura-san is keeping me at…”“Hey Sendou! What’s keeping you?!”“Aa… Sorry Sakura-san!” Aichi called as he hurried to where Sojiro was “I… I was just seeing things, that’s all!”“Good grief,” he muttered as the two continued walking through the backstreets of Yogen-Jaya.Eventually, the two had made it back to LeBlanc as they walked in through the front door, the bell ringing above them as they entered into the coffee shop itself. They were both tired from the struggle to make it back through all of the packed traffic and it was already very late into the night by the time they had eventually arrived back safely.“Damn, to think there would be so much traffic,” Sojiro huffed “What a waste of time. I wasn’t even able to open the café today.”“Sorry about that…” Aichi murmured.“Look, don’t be,” he muttered as he merely shook his head “Now come on up to your room. There’s something I need to give to you.”Complying with his request, the criminalized cardfighter went up the stairs to the attic that was his room, followed shortly afterwards by the coffee shop owner who joined in there shortly afterwards, holding a small book with a black cover.“Talk about quite the gruesome accident,” he murmured, recalling the incident’s report that he now listened to in full from the radio for the remainder of their wait through the traffic “About eighty people were involved.”He then handed over the book to Aichi who stared at it in slight bewilderment, confused as to why he was giving him something like this. He opened it up to find that there was nothing written or typed on the pages, save for several dates of the year as well as the following one much to his confusion.“It’s a diary,” Sojiro explained “Make sure you write in it. You may be under probation, but you’re under no limitations on what you do in particular. Aside from following the law, not making any contact with your old friends or family and not touching that hobby you’ve had for a long while.”“I see…” the boy breathed as he finally understood why the pages inside were indeed blank.“However,” he continued “I am obligated to report on you which is why I’m having you record your daily activities.”Moments after the coffee shop owner finished his sentence, a ringtone immediately sounded off in his pocket as he took out a black smartphone before immediately answering the call.“Hello, what’s up?” he asked before listening in to what the caller had to say. Once he did, he smiled warmly. “I’m about to leave right now. Don’t worry, I’ll be there in time. … Uh-huh, I’ll see you there soon.”After finishing the call and placing the phone back inside his trousers’ left pocket, he turned back to Aichi who had seemingly not reacted in the slightest since it had begun.“Well, I’m off,” he spoke “I’ll lock up the place, so do whatever you want for the rest of the night. But whatever you do, don’t mess up my store downstairs. If I find so much as something tampered with to even a small extent, I’ll hand you straight over to the cops. And I’m sure you know the rest.”Aichi nodded once in a different mood compared to the previous times he had responded to Sojiro, this time not in one that seemed like he felt like he was being forced to comply for any reason.“You have school tomorrow, so you better head off to bed, alright?” he asked.“Yes Sakura-san,” the boy replied.The coffee shop owner then went down the stairs and switched out the lights for the café downstairs before exiting through the door as the bell above it rang off. Seeing that he was now alone once more, Aichi looked at the diary he now held, feeling like he should at least make a start by recording the events of the day regarding his transfer into Shujin Academy. Writing out just that on the page’s date in just a few short notes, he closed the book and placed it beside his new bag for the school before heading over to the desk and pulling out a certain drawer there. Taking out Blaster Blade’s card from inside, he went over to his bed and sat on the mattress, gazing down at the card itself.“Blaster Blade…” he breathed “I’m glad to have you with me again, but… I don’t see how you can help me this time.”As he lay down on the bed, still holding onto the card with his left hand, all he could do was relive through memories of better days in the past as well as all of the struggles he went through to be as happy as he was then. And in the end, it seemed it was all for naught now that he was slapped with a criminal record for trying to do what he believed was right. Before he could contemplate any further however, he heard a ringing noise from downstairs as he immediately jumped to his feet and hid Blaster Blade’s card back inside the drawer before hurrying down to the darkened café to find that the noise was coming from a large yellow telephone at the end of the bar.Although the warning of Sojiro still echoed in the back of his mind, Aichi felt that at least discovering if the call was anything worth replying to was couldn’t hurt in the slightest. Or that was what he believed at least as he picked up the phone itself and held it to his right ear.“H… Hello?” he asked nervously.“Yo, it’s me Sendou,” a familiar voice replied.“Sakura-san?” Aichi breathed in confusion “… Is something wrong?”“Ah… forgive me for calling you like this, but…” Sojiro replied “I forgot to change the sign to say that the store was closed. It’s too much of a hassle for me to go back now, so could you change it for me?”“I can do that,” he answered.“Thank you very much,” the coffee shop owner replied, his tone seeming less vexed than usual, much like how he complimented the boy on cleaning most of the attic on the previous night “Have a good night then.”After the call had ended there, Aichi went to the door and unlocked it from the small knob above the handle. Once that was done, he pushed the door open and immediately flipped the sign to say that LeBlanc was ‘Closed’ and relocked the door shortly afterwards. Feeling that he was finally done for the evening and that pondering over his worries with Blaster Blade by his side in a sense was out of the way, he returned back to the attic to get ready to go back to sleep. But all whilst he was changing into his nightwear, he couldn’t help but wonder when exactly it was that Igor had planned for them along with Justine and Caroline to next meet at the Velvet Room within the confines of his dreams.…When he eventually woke up the next morning, Aichi soon found out that it was not to be for the time being as he had slept through the night without so much of a hint of the Velvet Room in his dreams. Looking out to the morning sky from the window of the attic, he decided now wasn’t the time to dwell on it for any longer and worry about making a good first impression of himself when he would it make it to Shujin. Getting dressed into his school uniform like the day before, he took ahold out of his school bag via its grey coloured straps and hoisted it onto his shoulder before stepping downstairs. As he entered the café area of LeBlanc, he saw Sojiro at the bar area.“Good morning Sakura-san,” he greeted.“Morning to you Sendou,” the coffee shop owner greeted back before noting what the boy was wearing “Oh, you’re actually going to school. Good on you then.”“Thank you,” Aichi replied as he began walking over to the door.“Wait a minute,” Sojiro interrupted, bringing his attention back to him “Here, I’ll feed you. Just make sure you finish it up before starting off.”The criminalized cardfighter although confused eventually decided to comply with his request, heading over to the bar area and taking a seat in front of the plate that was cooked for him. Much to his further surprise though, it was not what he was expecting as he could tell by the brown substance covering over small portions of meat and herbs.“Curry…?” he pondered.“Yeah. Is something wrong?” Sojiro asked.“N… not at all,” Aichi replied “I just never thought I’d have it for breakfast, that’s all.”Deciding not to say anything more, he decided to dig into his breakfast for the day and eat the curry that the coffee shop owner had prepared for him. A part of him felt foolish for forgetting about the curry part of the café’s logo outside the first time he had come to the place. Though he wanted to hurry through at first, not wanting to hold back Sojiro when it came to customers or his schedule to get to school on time, he began eating at a slower pace once the spiciness had caused him to reconsider his initial action.“It’s actually delicious,” he pondered in his thoughts with a smile “Something about the flavour really compliments the spiciness of this curry. I wonder if that one Indian fighter I’ve heard of has a good taste in it as well?” Meanwhile on the far side of Tokyo, Misaki, Naoki and Shingo had been walking together to try and get the events of Aichi’s sentence and separation from them out of their minds as they made their way towards Miyaji Academy. But no matter how much they tried, it always seemed to come back to bite them as they heard whispers flying around the other students passing them by, some glancing away from them in a slight panic whilst others seemingly glared suspiciously towards them.“Hey, did you hear?” a male student spoke “They tried to defend that criminal in his ill-fated trial.”“Well, it’s their loss,” his friend replied “A criminal scum will always have partners in crime to flock to and the other way around.”Whilst the lilac haired clerk of Card Capital managed to just about keep her composure, despite the sad expression on her face, that somewhat wavered when she heard the sound of a fist and a pair of teeth being clenched beside her.“Hey, you think that he set up that club just to order a hit job?” a female student whispered to her friend teasingly “Who knows if there’s more like him to bust not too long from now.”“Yeah,” she snickered “That boss lady and those two subordinates of hers seem like the perfect candidates.”“What was that…?”Everyone stopped to see that Naoki, who had asked that very question in a dark tone, was now on the breaking point of losing his entire temper at anyone that stood before him, the constant belittling of both Aichi and his two friends beside him having managed to get directly under his skin.“Careful,” one of the male students said to his companion “We might have another expulsion not too far from now.”“I’ll show YOU expulsion!” the Narukami clan user snapped as he reeled back his arm, only for Shingo to immediately restrain it in an instant.“Ishida!” he cried “Calm down! Are you trying to get us all in trouble?!”“But…!” Naoki replied as he closed his eyes in frustration “It’s one thing to hear them badmouthing Aichi, but you guys too!”“Ishida, Shingo is right,” Misaki interrupted as she came in front of him “All of us feel as frustrated as you, but lashing out at people who had nothing to do with the case won’t solve anything for us, nor will it even help anything for Aichi.”Naoki could only stare at the ground, all traces of anger slowly fading from his head whilst only the frustration of it all remained as rain began to pour from the clouds above their heads. The students that were watching the three began to hurry towards the academy itself in the hopes of not getting too wet from the sudden change in weather. Eventually, when he could sense that his friend was calm enough, Shingo let go of his right arm and looked up at Misaki.“Sorry guys,” Naoki muttered “This just really bites…!”“We’ll talk about it later when we meet up for the club,” Misaki replied “Right now, we can’t let our anger over Aichi’s situation or what anyone else thinks about it get the better of us.”And with grim resolve, the three cardfighters and close friends of Aichi continued through the rain towards Miyaji Academy, each of them praying for him as he was now to deal with his first day of school. “Why didn’t I take an umbrella?!”Aichi could only repeat that question in his mind as he hurried under the shelter outside of a nearby shop to avoid getting completely drenched by the rain, now heavier over where he was. The moment he had exited the station of Aoyama-Itchome, he was greeted by the sheer downpour and forced to go to where he stood now to avoid being completely drenched. He noticed two girls wearing the same blazer that was a part of his uniform hurry past where he was standing with an umbrella each, making him feel rather foolish for not asking Sojiro about the weather for the day ahead of time. Looking out to his phone to check the time of day, he was relieved that he was making good on his journey to Shujin Academy so far with the rain being the only obstacle ahead of him.He then looked to the strange application that was on the screen, still pondering about why it had made its way onto this one, let alone the one that the authorities had confiscated after the trial, knowing that on both devices, he had tried to delete it without success. Whilst Aichi was contemplating over the minor matter that was at hand before him, a small sigh to his left had caught his attention towards a girl who was a little taller than him standing to his left. She was wearing the same blazer as he did, indicating that she was also headed to Shujin just like him, over a white coloured hoodie with red and blue stripes going across the neck collar and bottom of it and she also wore a skirt in addition to a pair of long red tights.The girl brushed off some rainwater that had ended up on her shoulders before pulling down the hood that bore a four leaf clover as a singular design to reveal her face. Aichi simply glanced in partial curiosity, now seeing that she had blonde hair with a pigtail tied up on each side of her head, red lipstick on her lips, a small white earring in each of her ears and jade green eyes much like his closest friend Kai, only they were in a much lighter shade. Once she noticed that the boy was looking at her, she glanced back in similar curiosity as well, wondering about him as well. When both were unable to say a word to each other, they simply looked out to the street in front of them, wondering when the rain would eventually clear up.Seeing that it was possible that it would be a while before then and that she was in the same school as he was, Aichi decided to look back to the girl in the hope of getting a good first impression to one of the students."H... hello," he spoke, doing his best to shake off his earlier mood from the rain "I'm Sendou Aichi. It's nice to meet you."Before the girl could speak a word to him however, despite looking and smiling back at him in response, the sound of a car stopping at the pavement in front of them caught their attention. It was white and had greyish windows that were nearly impossible to see through due to the rainy weather and dark clouds brewing above them. The window of the passenger seat lowered down to reveal that the driver was the teacher that was previously talking to Kawakami, now dressed in a blue tracksuit."Good morning," he said in a seemingly kind tone, glancing towards the girl "You want me to give a ride to school? You're gonna be late."“Um… sure, thank you,” she replied as she walked over to the door, much to Aichi’s brief confusion.“Do they know each other that well?” he pondered curiously.“Hey,” the teacher spoke, snapping him back to reality and bringing his attention to him "Do you need a lift too?""N... No thank you," he replied, trying to smile back "But thanks for asking.""Well then, suit yourself."As the passenger door closed, the girl settled herself inside before bringing the window back up for them to resume their journey over to Shujin Academy. Before it fully sealed up and obscured them from the reflection, Aichi’s expression turned to concern as he saw that her mood had suddenly gone down before the car drove off up the road. Now he was beginning to question his earlier thoughts as he looked down to the screen of his phone, before gazing back down the road ahead."Why did she look like that just now...?" he pondered out aloud “Should I have… said something?”Looking back down to the screen of his phone and the mysterious application on it, he decided to make a decision to try and delete it again before he resumed his journey, not noticing at first the loud footsteps that splashed across a small puddle to his left, followed by panting for a few seconds."Dammit!" a voice groaned as he cursed to himself "Screw that pervy teacher!"Before Aichi was able to delete the application from the phone he held, he slid it into his pocket immediately, not noticing or being aware of the fact that his thumb in the midst of his hurry to put it away had pressed down on the icon of the mysterious application itself, opening it up onto the screen. He looked up ahead to see a yellow haired boy slightly taller than him and wearing the Shujin Academy uniform much like himself muttering to himself."Pervy... teacher...?" he pondered in confusion aloud, grabbing the boy's attention back to him.Now that Aichi could see the boy front on, he could see that an annoyed frown was his present expression as evidenced by his brownish eyes as well as the fact he wore a yellow shirt beneath the black coloured blazer with a black circle that had a green outline along with a star with a red outline imposed over it, followed by the letters 'OMG' beneath it from his view. He narrowed his gaze at the criminalized cardfighter, as if he wanted to accuse him over what he heard and asked aloud just now.“What do you want?” he questioned in a somewhat vulgar tone “You planning on rattin’ me out to Kamoshida?”“K… Kamoshida?” Aichi stuttered nervously, confused by why he was being questioned like this.“Huh? In that car that stopped in front of you a few seconds ago, that was Kamoshida!” the boy replied before gazing to one side “He does whatever the hell he wants. Who does he think he is, the king of a castle?”“W… Well,” he pondered, trying to think of a possible reason as to why the person in front of him would make that comparison with little success.“… Wait a minute,” the boy pondered, now noticing the genuine confusion in Aichi’s eyes “You don’t even know Kamoshida? For real now?”“N… Not at all,” he answered “I mean… it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him in my life.”The yellow haired boy now felt foolish for interrogating the criminalized cardfighter over his lack of knowledge in regards to Kamoshida. But felt as if he wasn’t done asking any questions that now popped up about him.“You do go to Shujin, right?” he asked “I mean, you have the uniform and everything.”“I… I’ve only just transferred today to the second year,” Aichi answered before a question popped up in his mind “Are you saying that… Kamoshida is one of the teachers there?”“Yeah,” the boy replied “I guess it does make sense you wouldn’t know about him before you got there. Sorry for harpin’ on you there.”“Don’t be,” he said, smiling a little in relief and feeling much better that he managed to clear up the tensions between them.Soon, the two noticed that the rain out on the streets around them had lessened by half of the downpour before they looked to each other once again.“So you’re in the same year as me then,” the boy said before smiling back “C’mon. We should be able to make it now that the rain has dropped by a lot or we’ll be late.”“Yeah,” Aichi agreed happily.As the two of them started going down the street that went towards the premises of Shujin Academy, a bright flash from the criminalized cardfigher’s left pocket had suddenly blinded the two for a brief instance as a familiar hint of pain surged through their heads, stopping them in their footsteps for an instance as they clutched them together. A pink haze started to grow in the environment around the two, though they were too busy trying to recover to even notice.“A… Are you okay…?!” Aichi cried as he was the first to eventually do so.“Ugh…! My head hurts!” the yellow haired boy replied “Dammit… I wanna go home…”Resuming their journey, the former followed the latter down a corner that led to a dark alleyway littered with several ventilation devices littered at the base of the walls around them. The pink haze that they didn’t notice earlier began to spread all across the city around them and although the rain continued to pour around them, the sounds of traffic and people began to fade all too suddenly. Aichi was the first to soon realize this as he noticed that the sky above them had suddenly turned into a dark scarlet red, much to his sudden shock.“W… What Is this…?” he breathed in utter bewilderment, believing that something abnormal was amiss all around them.“Um… You might wanna look at this…!”Upon hearing the boy’s voice call out in equal confusion, Aichi hurried down the rest of the alleyway to join him, only for his expression of confusion to change into shock. To the left and right of what they now stared towards, were all familiar buildings that he recalled seeing when he first arrived to the front gates of Shujin Academy with Sojiro the previous day. Only now, what they saw in the place of the school buildings and the premises itself, save for the giant nameplate that was easily recognizable, was a giant medieval castle comprised of multiple large structures and a tall tower at the very top in the distance.“W… We didn’t come through the wrong way, did we?” the boy pondered as they turned back to the alleyway.“I’ll go and check around the corner to the right…!” Aichi replied.Unsure of how to feel, he dashed off to the right to find the corner that rejoined the street where they chose the alleyway to take as a shortcut in an effort to get through to the school on time. By the time he had, he quickly ran back to reunite with his companion as he panted to catch his breath.“… Something’s not right…!” he gasped, catching his breath slowly “I thought we were just out of earshot when we went the way we did… but the entire street seems completely deserted!”“Even so…” the boy pondered, looking back to the nameplate of Shujin Academy “This should be the right place.”“Do you think we should go inside and see if anyone’s around?” Aichi asked “They might know what’s going on.”“Well… after you then,” he replied as they looked to the drawbridge that replaced the steps to the building.The two of them then steeled themselves and walked across the drawbridge and through the raised steel gate towards the large front doors that led right into the entrance of the castle itself. Before Aichi opened in the doors, he looked up at the scarlet stained sky, noting that it seemed to be a much brighter white in the clouds above the castle itself. He pushed them wide open and then entered into the room before them, the two now bewildered at what they were seeing.A grand double staircase that led to a further two lay before them behind two pairs of pillars, each adorned with a pair of candles held by a gold regal candlestick of some kind. Two red tapestries were strung between the pillars and a giant chandelier was hung from the ceiling above their heads. Doors to the far left and right of the hall around them were present leaving only confusion amongst them. Aichi, having known a little bit of the school he was now supposed to be attending, knew that the inside through the front doors should have looked nothing like what he and his companion were seeing now.“Th… That’s weird,” the yellow haired boy murmured “Where’s the school?”“This should be the main corridor coming through the doors,” Aichi pondered as he squinted his eyesight towards the double staircase “Just what could be going on here?”“Your guess is as good as mine,” he replied.The boy then pulled out his own phone to check, soon realizing that things were far more amiss than they realized. “Out of service? Where did we end up?”“The sign was definitely the same as before and so was that street you went to check out,” he pondered “Even if it was… you know, deserted.”Their conversation was soon brought to a halt by the sound of metal clanking as the two gazed up at a large figure resembling that of a knight. It was much larger than either of them and was coating in silver armour as well as wielding a large sword and a giant shield in each of its arms. Within the helmet was a turquoise coloured face with narrow slits for eyes, a nose and a creepy looking pair of lips.“H… Hey…” the yellow-haired boy gasped “What’s goin’ on?!”“This can’t be one of the students or staff… can it?” Aichi breathed in confusion, feeling a sense of dread just looking at the figure in front of them.“Hey dude,” he spoke to the knight “Say something.”Rather than receiving a response, it stepped forward menacingly before an identical knight soon joined it, this time focusing its gaze upon the criminalized cardfighter, making him feel even more uncertain. They then advanced forward once again by another step, getting a little closer towards them.“Hey, calm down dude, time out man!” the boy replied, now feeling a little frightened before noticing a gleam off of one of the swords. “We’d gotta run! I don’t think those swords are props!”“Y… yeah!” Aichi gasped in agreement.But as they turned around, they soon found their path back to the doors they came through was blocked by yet additional two knights before they were immediately boxed together by all four with no means of escape.“Ugh! What’s with these guys!” the boy exclaimed before suddenly being knocked to the ground by one of them bashing their shield into him “Ow! Y… You’re gonna break my bones dammit!”“W… Wait a minute!” Aichi cried as one of them came towards him “We’re not here to f…!”His request was denied by the knight bashing the shield into the back of his head, knocking him unconscious right away, followed shortly by his other companion.“Take them away!” a male voice sounded out from one of the four knights as the other three dropped their weapons and began hauling the pair they had captured deeper into the castle.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

..."Hey man! Wake up...!"Aichi winced in pain as he woke up to see the boy he met with earlier was looking over him in worry. As he struggled to stand up onto his feet, he cringed as he felt a sharp stinging sensation from the back of his head. The boy looked around and dropped his expression into one of shock, seeing a red stain on the cloth that was atop the wooden bed before noticing that the criminalized cardfighter now had a noticeable vertical cut down the back of his head, with some of the blue hair having split off as a result and portions of it having blood stained there."Damn..." he muttered "The metal edge on that shield really did a number on the back of your head."“That does explain a bit…” Aichi groaned as he regained his line of sight “Are you alright?”“Yeah, more or less,” the boy sighed “Looks like this castle ain’t no dream for either of us though.”Aichi could only nod in agreement as they gazed all over the new small space that the two of them were now trapped in. From what he could gather, they were in a different area of the castle they had entered and judging from the empty shackles that were chained to the walls surrounding them, he could only assume that they must have been imprisoned inside of a dungeon jail cell as evidenced what they saw and the narrow door before them. The yellow haired boy ran up to it and tried to bash it open, having little success as it was locked.“Hey, let us out!” he yelled, bashing the locked door loudly as he did so “I know there’s someone out there.”He then stormed over back to his companion, frustrated at the turn of events that had befallen them ever since they had approached the castle’s front doors.“Dammit it! Where the hell are we?!” he huffed “Is this like some kind of TV set?”“I don’t know…” Aichi pondered as he put one hand to his chin “From what little I’ve seen, Shujin doesn’t have a basement floor of any kind and the structure of the castle’s entrance hall is vastly different to the inside from the school’s front doors. There’s no way those knights, or whoever is commanding them could have reconstructed the school that easily without weeks at least.”“You do have a point there,” the boy muttered “Then again, the sky was also playing up when we came up there.”Before they could converse about their predicament any further, a loud male scream from their left caught their attention. Their eyes widened in horror as they hurried to the locked door and barred gaps beside it. They gazed down the dungeon corridor, blocking the sound of the river in the middle of it out of their ears as they heard the source of the voice crying in despair, leaving the two mortified on what could happen to them next. They were so caught up in their thoughts however that neither of them heard the sound of clanking footsteps across from where they were as they turned back to one another.“You’re shittin’ me, right…?” the boy murmured nervously “This is bad, real bad man!”“We need to find a way out of here before what happened to him… happens to us,” Aichi gulped “Did you see anything we could use to get out of this cell?”“Well, I noticed a few barrels before you woke up,” he replied “But I don’t think hidin’ in them would work like in the movies or something…”His ponder was interrupted when the sound of clanking footsteps got louder and louder as the two turned back to the cell door to see a knight identical to the ones who had ambushed them earlier outside, gazing menacingly at the pair. Two more trailed him as they waited behind him for the command given to them.“Be glad your punishment has been decided upon you insolents,” he spoke in a distorted voice “Your charge is “unlawful entry”. Thus, you will be sentenced to death.”That final sentence was enough for both Aichi and the boy beside him to drop their jaws in horror, realizing that everything around them up to this point was very much real.“D… Death?!” the criminalized cardfighter gasped.“Say what?!” the boy interjected.“No one’s allowed to do what they please in my castle.”The familiar voice to the two of them had only surprised them even further. It was distorted in tone, much like the knights they had encountered, but it was one the two of them had definitely recognized. The three knights stepped aside as the new acquaintance revealed itself to be the teacher Aichi had encountered in the car that picked up the girl he had met, only he was wearing a plain golden crown, had golden yellow eyes and was seemingly dressed in a red bathrobe with white fir and plastered in hearts of pink and red colours. The yellow haired boy was the first to react whilst the criminalized cardfighter could only stare at what was before him.“Huh? Wait a minute…” he pondered before suddenly realizing the face he was now in front of “Kamoshida? Is that you?”“I thought it was some petty thief, but I didn’t think that I’d be someone like you,” he murmured before curling his lips into an unnerving smile “Sakamoto.”Aichi briefly glanced to Sakamoto who cringed for a brief instance, now having knowledge of at least part of his full name. He felt rather guilty for not introducing himself proper earlier before the two entered the castle, but felt as if he could make up on that note once they found a way out of the ordeal before them. Or so he was currently hoping for.“Are you trying to disobey me again troublemaker?” Kamoshida continued in a taunting tone “It looks like you haven’t learnt your lesson at all.”He then glanced upon Sakamoto’s companion, making him feel even more unnerved than he already was.“And look, you brought along a friend this time… because you can’t do anything for yourself.”“This ain’t funny you asshole!” the yellow haired boy snapped back “And leave him out of this!”“Oh? Is that how you speak to a king?” the teacher replied in a harsh tone “It seems you and your friend don’t understand the situation you two are in. Not only did you sneak into MY castle, you committed the crime of insulting me, the king!”“K… King?” Aichi breathed in confusion.Rather than receiving an answer to his question, the knights immediately drew their weapons as Kamoshida unlocked the cell door and entered inside.“It’s time for an execution, take them out!” he commanded.Then the moment he stepped aside, the knights immediately surrounded Sakamoto to box him into a corner, the second knight rudely knocking Aichi to the other side of the cell as he did so.“Godammit!” he hissed, now trapped with seemingly nowhere to go.With one burst of strength, he rammed forward into the first knight that was in front of him and knocked him to the ground. He soon fell too, cringing in pain from his right knee briefly.“I ain’t down for this shit!” he demanded before turning to Aichi “C’mon! We’re outta…!”Before he could complete his sentence, the third knight struck him from behind effortlessly with a single punch, knocking him down to the ground.“Sakamoto-kun!” cried Aichi as he advanced forward, only to stop when Sakamoto raised a hand.“Go! Get out of here!” he replied “These guys are serious!”“But…!”“Defiant to the end for him, aren’t we?” Kamoshida chuckled darkly “You’re really not as heartless as I pegged you.”“He’s no friend!” Sakamoto replied before looking back to a hesitant Aichi “Just run!”But the criminalized cardfighter was frozen on the spot, unsure of what to say or do. He didn’t want to leave Ryuji behind to die, but he didn’t know what to do in this situation. If he wasn’t careful, the knights would attack him as well and there would be nothing left to do but watch his new companion get executed in front of his eyes before he would follow that fate shortly afterwards. Before he could decide, Kamoshida knocked down Sakamoto flat onto the ground before spitting on the ground a few inches from his face, much to the former’s disgust.“Hmph, where did your energy from earlier go?” he snorted “A peasant like you isn’t worth beating. I’ll kill you right away.”“Let him go!”The teacher stopped in his movements before turning his harsh gaze back upon Aichi who gulped nervously, hoping he was making the right decision for Sakamoto’s fate.“What?” he spat before advancing toward the criminalized cardfighter “Don’t you dare tell me you don’t know who I am, boy.”“From what I’ve seen now, you’re someone who only abuses his authority around others,” Aichi replied, trying to keep his brave face mustered with his composure failing by the second “If you’re really the same Kamoshida who teaches at the ‘real’ Shujin, then you would know better than to execute two of your own students blindly.”“That brave and defiant look in your eyes irritates me,” Kamoshida replied, sneering right into his prey’s face before kicking him straight to the ground “Hold him there. After the peasant Sakamoto, it’s his turn to die…”As Aichi tried to move forward, he was immediately pushed against the wall by the strong grips of the two knights that had now surrounded him whilst the third advanced forward to execute Sakamoto. Kamoshida chuckled maniacally whilst the criminalized cardfighter could only panic with sweat dropping down his head and cheeks, realizing that his companion was about to die no matter what he said and that there was seemingly nothing he could do to stop it or his own impending demise.“Sakamoto-kun…!” he cried as he looked on forwards.But rather than anything else happening, the world around him suddenly began to turn dark as time began to seemingly slow to a crawl. He still could not break free of the knights’ grips, but now, he could feel a familiar presence activating from his eyes themselves. It was his PSYqualia and rather than receiving an image of any kind as he would normally expect, he heard an unfamiliar voice.“This is truly an unjust game…” she spoke out “Your chances of winning are almost none.”“W… Who are you?” Aichi asked as his eyes continued to glow a bright pink.The answer soon came to him in the form of a white glowing butterfly that flew in front of him in his darkened surroundings. Luckily, none of the occupants could hear or react towards him as the female voice continued to speak.“But if my voice is reaching you… there may be possibility open to you…”“W… Wait a minute…!” he cried as the butterfly disappeared “What do you mean?!”Time however had returned back to normal as everything before him continued to move and the third knight was beginning to raise up his blade slowly to execute Sakamoto, who closed his eyes to prepare for the worst. Aichi clenched his fists as the glow in his eyes disappeared, thinking hard about what he had just heard.“Think Aichi! What did that voice mean about a possibility?!”“What’s the matter?” a voice heard only by his ears echoed in a booming tone “Are you simply going to watch your friend die before your own eyes?”“Who was that…?” he breathed quietly, turning his head side to side to try and find the source of the new presence he was hearing.
“Are you forsaking him just to save your own skin?”
“I…”Aichi wanted to make his objection to the new voice’s question quite clear, but he didn’t want to say anything that would only make Kamoshida speed up Sakamoto’s execution.“Death awaits him if you do nothing,” the voice continued “Tell me, do you still believe that the decision you made then was a mistake?”Images of the attempt that the criminalized cardfighter made to save the woman that resulted in his probation flashed before him briefly as he hung his head down, contemplating what was happening since the mess he and his companion had gotten themselves into.“I’ve always thought about how I could have approached it differently… so I wouldn’t be forced to separate from my family and my comrades…” he murmured quietly to the voice, hoping he would respond to him “But… I don’t regret what I did!”For a moment, he received no answer as he could only watch as the knight that was going to execute Sakamoto hoist him up to the wall by the neck using its free hand.
“Very well then. I will heed your resolve!”
Suddenly, a sharp pain rang through Aichi’s head as he cried out aloud, struggling to fight back against the sensation that was causing said pain. As this happened, the same glow that his eyes had shown since the first voice he had heard earlier had appeared once again. The two knights gazed down at the condition he was in, but chose to ignore it and keep him pinned to the wall.“Vow to me!” the voice declared “I am thou. Thou art I. Thou art I willing to commit all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name and unleash thy rage!”At last, the pain stopped as Aichi’s head drooped once more, though the innate power that was still within his eyes continued to glow away. He was still very much conscious as he continued to listen to the voice that was speaking to him.
“Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!”
Kamoshida who had been very much amused ever since the knight had hurt Sakamoto and now had him poised on the verge of a very brutal and swift death at his own hands, decided that he had waited around long enough and it was time to give his ‘retribution’ to the ‘petty thief’ who had entered his castle along with his companion.“Execute him!” he commanded, the knight pulling back on its sword slowly.“Leave him alone…!”Upon hearing Aichi’s defiant cry to stand up for Sakamoto, Kamoshida’ eyes widened for a second as he slowly turned around to face the criminalized cardfighter who had now been glaring towards him, the glow in his eyes remaining as it was. Even Sakamoto himself couldn’t help but notice this, despite being partially choked by the knight’s grip on his throat. Eventually, he felt air returning to him as he dropped to the floor before seeing his capturers advancing towards his companion.“What was that?” Kamoshida questioned sternly.“You heard me!” Aichi replied back, now unable to hold back his anger any longer “Leave my friend alone!”“F… friend…?” Sakamoto breathed quietly in confusion.“You desire to be killed that much…? Fine!” the ‘king’ of the castle snapped.The remaining two knights then let go of Aichi who dropped back to the ground on his feet before being knocked over by a bash from one of the shield that the one to his left wielded. He soon felt the poles of the spears they wielded right against his neck, his head drooping in turn as the third knight in front of him raised up his blade, preparing to swing it down upon the seemingly helpless boy. Then, he opened his normal eyes as a sudden gust of wind roared throughout the dungeon cell, forcing everyone but him to shield their faces from the force. Once it subsided, the criminalized cardfighter could feel that there was something new upon the top half of his face.To everyone else, it was a mask of some kind with black patterns adorning the eyeholes leaving them utterly bewildered. As Aichi tried to remove it from his face, he suddenly cringed in pain as it felt like that it was fused to his skin somehow and stopped immediately.“Don’t hesitate!” the voice echoed as if it had sensed his sudden doubt after what pain he had just experienced “Press on through the pain and awaken to your new potential!”“I… I understand…!” he replied, his hands now back on the edges of the mask.Pulling away at it, he screamed in pain with a part of him wanting to stop echoing throughout his head, but he pressed on as best as he could. Eventually, he had ripped it right off his face as blood splattered from the now skinless top half of his face. As quickly as that had happened, the pain had also faded away instantaneously, allowing him to raise up his head back at Kamoshida with yellow eyes now adorned. His earlier glare had not changed, as his intent on saving Sakamoto and escaping the castle did not either.Suddenly, the blood on his face quickly evaporated as blue coloured flames enveloped his entire body without even scorching or burning him in the slightest. A dark chuckle suddenly echoed as orange coloured flames then formed a pair of eyes and a rather sinister smile, the figure then separating from Aichi whose attire had changed rather dramatically. He now wore a short sleeved black coloured jacket with several red gems embedded onto the back of the collar and the top of the armholes where his shoulders were. He also now had several black plated metal armours covering the lower halves of his sleeves and trousers with neon blue lines running across and down them. In addition, the mask he had pulled from his face earlier had returned back to it.The figure that separated from him however possessed the same sinister like smile along with a similar glint in his eyes. He wore a large top hat and a dark red jacket with long sleeves and matching coloured trousers in addition to a black shirt that had a white collar also. Chains rattled nosily and blue flames roared around him as a brief but huge gust of wind knocked the knights onto their back, causing Kamoshida to cowardly crawl away from the scene with a brief whimper.“W… What the…?” gasped Sakamoto as he was unsure of whether or not to be amazed or terrified by that spectacle.Aichi now noticing the reaction of his colleague gazed to his own hands and gasped at the red gloves that had now materialized on them.“I am the pillage of twilight, Arsene!” the figure announced in a booming voice, causing him to turn around “I am the rebel’s soul that has resided within you. If you so desire, I shall grant you the power to break through this crisis.”“Arsene…” the criminalized cardfighter breathed as he stared in awe at Arsene “If you can help us get out of here… then I’ll accept your power!”s”“Hmph. Very well.”“Guards!”All three of them turned towards Kamoshida who was now just inches away from the cell door, now shaken up by the sudden turn of events. He then pointed an accusing finger towards Aichi.“Who the hell are you?!” the teacher snapped.“My name is Sendou Aichi!” he replied “And I won’t let you get away with hurting my friend!”“Friend…?” Sakamoto thought in confusion “Wait a sec… haven’t I heard…?”“GUARDS!” Kamoshida declared as two of the knights stood up “Kill Sendou and… that thing first!”The knights then suddenly hovered a little into the air and shuddered before bursting into black and red ooze and landing on the ground to the surprise of the ‘king’s’ captives. Then in a mere instant, the ooze began to take shape and disappeared immediately to reveal two strange and identical creatures that now stood before a startled Aichi. They were small figures riding tiny broomsticks and wearing purple robes and hats with orange pumpkins for heads. The one to his left immediately charged at him, forcing to jump to the side upon seeing he was the target in mind.“Sakamoto-kun, take cover!” he cried.“W… Whatever you say dude!” Sakamoto replied.Still in a little bit of a state of shock, he nonetheless complied with the request and jumped behind a table at the far end of the prison cell to avoid getting mixed up in the fight as the criminalized cardfighter jumped out of the way of the other creature that had swung its orange hot lantern at him. Arsene sighed a little at the defensiveness and somewhat hesitant actions his master was taking.“Detest the enemies before you!” he demanded “Change that animosity into power and unleash it!”“B… But how do I…?!” cried Aichi before being interrupted by one of the creatures burning his right arm with its lantern and singing a portion of his armour.Upon cringing in pain, something suddenly sparked in his head as if he knew it already, yet only knew about it for himself for the very first time. Turning towards one of the creatures coming back towards him, he faced it head on with newfound conviction.“Eiha!” he declared, hoping his sudden new intuition would not let him down.Then in an instant, Arsene came in front of him and with a wave of its right claw, a series of red and black sparks erupted from beneath the creature, incinerating it, but not to the point of defeating it. Then before Aichi knew it, he felt a new object materializing in his right hand. Holding it up, he could now see what appeared to be a black curved dagger held in his hand. A red gem was above the hilt and there was a neon blue line running across both curves of the blade. The only thing that surprised him more than the weapon he was suddenly holding was how very familiar it had looked to him.“This almost looks exactly like…” he breathed quietly “The Blaster Dagger?!”“Swing your weapon!” Arsene boomed, snapping the criminalized cardfighter out of his stupor in time to barely dodge another attack from their adversaries “Kill them to your heart’s content!”“Kill…?!” he exclaimed.“They’re nothing more than mere shadows!” the being replied back in a somewhat harsh manner “These enemies mean nothing to the world from whence you came!”“I… If you say so…!” Aichi replied reluctantly as he disarmed one of the creatures of its lanterns before turning his attention back to the one he had attacked previously.With one mighty slash, he had defeated it in an instant as it turned back into black and red ooze that dropped to the ground before disappearing for good. Upon hearing Kamoshida drop his jaw in utter disbelief, he turned his attention back to the remaining one and ran towards it. Leaning to his right to avoid the swing of the creature’s lantern, he slashed across it, causing it to screech in pain before turning around and pointing towards it.“Arsene, Eiha again!” he called.Arsene once again summoned another vortex that sent out multiple black and red streams into the creature one last time before it met the same fate as its companion, falling to the floor in a pile of red and black ooze and disappearing shortly afterwards. Aichi then fell to one knee to catch his breath whilst Kamoshida fell on his back in disbelief that two of his soldiers had been defeated. Arsene then faded out into a shimmering blue flame before soaring into the criminalized cardfighter’s mask and disappearing into there. Sakamoto then finally got up from behind the table and came over to join his fortunate companion.“Whoa…” he breathed “What was that just now?”“I wish I knew,” Aichi replied, still bewildered on what he had just accomplished.“You little…!”The two of them turned their heads to see Kamoshida was advancing towards the criminalized cardfighter, having no intention on simply letting him escape even after defeating his knights. He was so fixated on him however that he failed to notice what was coming towards him… until it was far too late. With one might burst of effort, Sakamoto slammed himself right into the king of the castle, knocking the latter right to the floor and to the disturbed surprise of Aichi, it seemed that the only clothing he wore beneath his regal bathrobe was a pair of pink boxers.“Ha! You like that you son of a bitch!” Sakamoto taunted in his triumph.He then looked back to the criminalized cardfighter who had picked up a set of keys that had been dropped on the ground during the battle. Smirking at him for the initiative, the two hurried out of the cell door before slamming it shut and locking it tight with the keys. By the time Kamoshida had managed to get up from the ground, he was already too late to get out of his own predicament now, the pair now throwing the keys into the moat in the hope it would buy them some time to escape both the dungeon and his wrath.“Hey! What was that just now…?!” Sakamoto exclaimed as he looked to Aichi “And your clothes…!”Moments after he had said that however, a flash of blue flames enveloped the latter as he was suddenly back into his normal appearance, even holding his school bag that he had previously believed that he had lost in the confusion of the chaos. Before he had time to properly react to the sudden change in circumstances, Kamoshida grappled the bars of the cell and snarled at him.“You bastards!” he roared in fury.“God this is effin’ nuts!” cried Sakamoto as he looked to Aichi “Let’s scram before any more of those freaky knights show up!”“Right…!” the criminalized cardfighter replied in agreement before the two of them ran to the nearest gate of the dungeon.“Goddamn thieves…!” Kamoshida hissed before looking up to the path opposite the flowing river “Guards! Don’t let those two brats escape and get me out of here!”Shortly after the rant had passed over, Aichi had eventually fallen back upon trying and failing to pry open the gate with as much force as he could. But no matter how much he and his companion attempted to push or pull it, the iron barricade refused to budge, leaving the pair far more uneasy than they had previously been. Sakamoto then looked to the right and saw that what appeared to be a broken bridge standing above the flowing river and on the other side was a gap they could use to escape the dungeon. The gap didn’t seem that large, but the remaining wooden boards were old and rotting.“Hey dude!” he called to his companion “Follow me!”He then took a deep breath and lept onto the wooden boards on the other side, relieved that his somewhat rough landing had not juddered it loose or so he had hoped. After jumping across to the opposite path, Aichi then leapt onto the other side’s wooden boards. Upon landing however, the ledge snapped slightly beneath his feet, causing him to wobble and slowly loose his balance.“Aaah!” he cried as he struggled to keep his footing.“Hang on!” called Ryuji as he reached out to grab him “I got you!”Taking his hand, the criminalized cardfighter jumped from the cage and safely onto the opposite path, just as the wooden ledge toppled over and went down the river towards the end of the dungeon they had started from. He panted to regain his breath as he eventually stood back up from the near miss he had just experienced in the midst of their attempted escape.“T… Thank you Sakamoto,” Aichi breathed in relief, happier to be back on stable ground.“We’re not out of it yet,” Sakamoto replied “And by the way, my name’s Ryuji. Sakamoto Ryuji. Thanks for busting out those sweet moves earlier Aichi.”“I only wish I knew how…” he muttered “We need to keep moving. More knights could be looking for us.”His companion nodded in agreement as the two of them wasted no time in wandering across the corridors of the dungeon, crossing the river whilst using cages as stepping stones to cross the river when needed, these ones thankfully being more stable and firmer in the riverbed much to both of their respective reliefs.“All of that execution shit he said just now…” Ryuji muttered “He can’t be serious, right?”“After those creatures attacked me just now, I don’t know what to believe,” Aichi pondered “But we need to get out of here before we can think about it.”Their luck however had seemingly come to a halt as they came across another set of iron bars that could not be moved in any way shape or form and the other side of the river this time had no gap they could go through. As Ryuji groaned in frustration, Aichi backed up slowly and soon saw something noticeable in the cell next to the bars. That being a small but somewhat effective hole in the wall.“Ryuji-kun, look!” he called as his companion soon saw the tunnel.“Okay, you go in first!” Ryuji replied.Aichi immediately dove into the hole and began crawling through with his companion following shortly after. By the time the criminalized cardfighter had made it to the other side of the tunnel and saw the cell door was open to his relief, he could hear a frustrated groan from back inside.“Ryuji-kun, are you alright?!” he cried.“Urgh, my bag’s stuck!” his companion moaned “Don’t worry, just gimme a sec!”A few seconds later, Ryuji eventually emerged from the tunnel with his bag intact, prompting the two of them to continue searching for a way out. Crossing a drawbridge that spanned the river, easing their relief a little, their nerves returned as they heard the sound of clattering metal from the way they came.“Crap, we gotta hide!” he cried.After being shushed by Aichi, the two of them ducked for cover behind a pile of crates and barrels as they watched two more knights hurry across the path, but to their returned relief, they were going the wrong way. Deciding it was safe to continue, they came to the entrance of a spiral staircase made out of stone and wasted no time in powering up the tall ascent.“Alright!” cheered Ryuji “Surely we gotta be on the ground level again, right?!”But his celebration had only proven to have become very premature. When they reached the top, they could only cringe upon seeing that they were not of the dungeon yet and that the only success they had was escaping from what seemed to be the very bottom of it. Continuing along the path by following the river’s flow, they stopped immediately upon a rather morbid sight.“No way…” breathed Aichi, seeing that hanging from the ceiling above the river was a boy dressed in black and having purple hair locked in a cage.“So those screams we heard were real…” Ryuji silently gasped.As the two continued slowly down the stone path, they passed the raised drawbridge that seemingly prevented their only means of escape and looked into the empty cells before noticing that there was a volleyball inside one of them. This made Ryuji feel a little uneasy as Aichi turned to him, wondering if he had seen something familiar about what his companion was viewing. He didn’t have a chance to answer as the pair stopped in front of a wall, meaning only one thing to them.“Dammit!” Ryuji snapped “Another dead end! How are we supposed to get out now?!”“There’s only way out…” Aichi murmured “But it’s currently blocked.”“Psst! Hey you there!”Upon hearing the new voice in their vicinity, the pair turned to the final cell that was on left down the path they had travelled and were rather shocked to see what they had now found. Trapped behind the bars before them was a small anthropomorphic black cat with large blue eyes, a bit of white fur on its belly and wearing both a black mask over the top half of its head, a pair of yellow buttons near its hind legs and a yellow scarf.“Gah!” cried Ryuji “What the hell is that thing?!”“You’re not soldiers of the castle, right?” the cat replied back nervously “Please get me out of here! The key is right on that wall!”“We’re trying to get out of here!” he snapped back “I mean, you obviously look like those pumpkin-like things my pal fought back there!”“I’m locked up here, so how can I be your enemy?!” the cat exclaimed “Please help me out. You don’t want to be executed and find the exit, right?”“I’m coming!” Aichi called as he took the key from the wall and began to unlock the door.“Hey, how can you be sure we can trust this guy?” Ryuji questioned.“He doesn’t have that ominous feeling the other creatures had,” the criminalized cardfighter answered “And right now, we don’t have a choice.”His companion simply blinked in confusion before a click sounded from the lock as Aichi eventually opened the cell door and allowed the cat-like creature to step out onto the path. To try and shake it off, he just looked back at his phone which still had no bars to indicate any kind of signal, much to his frustration. Hearing a yawn that more like a meow, he looked back to the strange creature.“Ahhh… freedom tastes so great,” he sighed delightfully.“Alright, so where’s the exit you monster cat?!” Ryuji demanded.“Don’t call me a cat!” the creature snapped back “I am Morgana!”Right after he said that though, he immediately went into a trance as Aichi curiously began stroking his head gently like he would do with a normal cat. Despite finding a tiny bit of amusement from the scenario, Ryuji eventually brought everyone’s attention back to the problem they had at hand with a clap. The two of them followed Morgana to the drawbridge and watched him pull the tongue of a rather hideous looking statue of Kamoshida’s head, the drawbridge then lowered itself to the ground, allowing the trio safe passage to cross the river.“How the heck were we supposed to know the statue would do that, let alone pull the tongue?!” Ryuji exclaimed in utter disbelief.The three of them made a dash to the other side, praying that it would lead them to the way out of the castle. But when they did, a knight suddenly appeared from out of a door to their right and turned its gaze upon them, causing Aichi and Ryuji to nearly scream in panic.“Aaah! Shit! Shit! Shit!” he cried as he fell onto his back “It’s them!”“Tch!” muttered Morgana as he took a fighting stance “You amateur!”As he did so, a series of blue flames enveloped Aichi as he was suddenly back into the attire he had when he had previously awakened to Arsene, including the mask that was on his face.“Hey you!” the cat-like creature called to him “You can fight, right? Let’s go!”“W…Wait a minute!” Aichi cried, unsure of how he was going to call to Arsene to assist him this time.“Come, Zorro!”A blinding blue flash enveloped Morgana for several seconds as a new figure arose from him, like the one that emerged from the criminalized cardfighter, only it was much different from his own. The one that the cat-like creature had called Zorro had slim legs, a bulky upper body and a mask displaying only two yellows from within it. He was dressed in black, had a similarly coloured cape flowing behind his back and had a belt buckle with the letter Z in the middle.“Amazing…” breathed Aichi.“Y… You got one of those things too?!” cried Ryuji.“Hmph,” Morgana retorted “We will promptly shut them up.”As he said those words, the knight transformed into red and black ooze that splashed onto the stone floor before manifesting itself into two creatures. One was the same creature that Aichi had previously fought in the prison cell and the other was brand new to him. The other was a completely pale purplish winged demon with its tail tipped a bloody dark red. The pair then immediately charged towards Aichi and Morgana who jumped out of the way.“Damn Shadows!” the ‘cat’ huffed “They’re pretty quick off the mark!”“Arsene?!” cried Aichi “Where are you?!”“Call my name and pull off your mask!” the figure’s voice boomed.“Right then! Stand up, my new avatar! Arsene!”Upon pulling off the mask from his face, Arsene emerged in a burst of blue coloured flames before gazing at the creature that was most familiar to his master in the long run of things.“Eiha!” Aichi commanded.Arsene then summoned a black vortex that sent several black and red streams through the pumpkin like creature that damaged it, but not by very much. Morgana chuckled a little, finding a tiny bit of amusement within the predicament that the criminalized cardfighter was now in.“Heh, I knew you were an amateur,” he teased “Zorro, show him how they’re meant to fight! Garu!”With a wave of his long and thin sword, Zorro sent a whirlwind that cut right through the Pumpkin creature with much more ease than the attack that Arsene had dealt earlier, defeating it in an instant as it turned into a pool of red and black ooze that vanished.“Strike at an enemy’s elemental weakness to knock them down much more easily,” Morgana continued “That is the most basic of basics when fighting a shadow.”Before Aichi had time to register his information, he was struck from behind by complete surprise as the winged demon’s tail stabbed right into his back, causing him to scream in pain.“Aichi my man!” cried Ryuji.“Tsk! Keep your guard up!” Morgana muttered as he hopped onto Aichi’s back and leaped off to swing his sword at the shadow, wounding it slightly.Eventually recovering from the immense pain that he had suffered from, the criminalized cardfighter swung around and pointed at the shadow that had attacked him earlier.“Eiha again!” he commanded.Arsene then opened up a vortex beneath the winged demon that struck it with multiple energy streams, weakening it a little more. Seeing his opportunity open to him, Aichi grabbed ahold of his dagger and charged towards his target, slashing across it once and hoping his effort was enough. The shadow turned around and tried to charge back at him, only to fall to the ground with a frustrated “Really?!” and disappear into the floor in a pile of red and black ooze that vanished shortly afterwards.“Hmph,” Morgana pondered “Not the best of first impressions, but we’ve pulled through. Good on you.”“Thank you, Morgana-san,” Aichi panted as Arsene and Zorro disappeared.“Hey Aichi, look!” called Ryuji as he got back up onto his feet.Looking ahead where the shadows had first emerged to battle them, Aichi could see something shimmering on the ground a little in front of him. There before him was what appeared to be several coins and they looked very familiar to him, realizing that was indeed a fact once he picked them up.“Whoa dude…” his companion gasped “Is that?”“Yen?” Aichi pondered “But… is it even?”Before they had time to debate on the legitimacy of the yen coins that had been picked up from the ground, Morgana jumped up to grab the criminalized cardfighter’s attention.“Not bad,” he said “You’ve got a pretty powerful Persona. Aichi was it?”“Yeah,” he replied “Sorry for not introducing myself.”“Hold on a sec… Persona. Was it those like dramatic like guys that pop out of you and Aichi?” asked Ryuji.“Correct,” the cat-like creature answered “You saw how Aichi took off his mask to summon Arsene, right? Well, everyone has a deep armour surrounding their heart that they wear. By removing that…”His explanation was abruptly stopped when Aichi returned back into his school uniform with his bag over his shoulder once again in an unexpected burst of blue flames.“Huh? How did he turn back to normal?” his companion asked.“Looks like he doesn’t have complete control yet,” Morgana replied “I mean… his transformation shouldn’t just disappear like that.”“So you’re saying it’s unstable?” Aichi asked in concern.“Who knows.”Ryuji groaned as he was struggling to understand the very concepts that had been playing out ever since he and Aichi had been captured by the soldiers followed by the ensuing battles the latter had to go through to ensure that they were all still alive.“Rrgh!”  he groaned “This crap doesn’t make enough sense!”“Can’t you just sit still and listen for once blondie?!” Morgana snapped back in a slight hush.“Don’t call me blondie!” huffed Ryuji “My name is Ryuji!”“Quiet!” said Aichi, doing his best to hush to urgent tone in his voice “If we don’t move on, more knights will appear! Can you show us the way Morgana?”“Sounds like your friend actually has some common sense,” the ‘cat’ muttered “Follow me!”He then threw three tiny boxes to the criminalized cardfighter who inspected them carefully before recognizing what they were. They were some kind of medicine that Morgana had somehow scrounged up from his time in the castle and from what it appeared, they had to have been important to ensure he was still in fighting shape. Putting it away in his bag, he hurried after the creature with Ryuji in turn and went through a dimly lit corridor with several torches hanging from the ceiling in the form of purple coloured flames. As they approached another closed drawbridge with the switch to activate it, Ryuji suddenly stopped and gasped as he looked into a cell to his left.“Hey Aichi, look at this!” he gasped.Aichi then turned towards the cell and gasped at the person inside. It was not necessarily the person that had caught his attention, but the bright red uniform that he was wearing.“Is that… Shujin Academy’s Sports Uniform?!” he exclaimed in shock.“I think you’ve got that nailed…” his companion interjected before shaking his head “Dammit! I’m too flustered! I know I’ve seen this guy, but I can’t remember his name now!”“Come on! Let’s go!” Morgana huffed as he went over to the statue to lower the drawbridge.“Hold on dammit!” Ryuji called “If that guy’s really from our school, then we gotta bust him out!”“Ryuji-kun has a point!” Aichi interjected “If we leave him behind, we’ll be no better than the one who captured us.”“Do you two really have the time to worry about other people?!” the cat-like creature snapped “We’re running out of time here! Besides, they’re…!”He was interrupted by the sound of cranking as they looked to see the drawbridge lowering down as a knight immediately ran across towards where they were.“Dammit, you should have listened to me!” Morgana huffed as Zorro manifested behind him.At the same time, Aichi returned back to the attire he wore before as he pulled off his mask to summon Arsene to his aid for the third time in the dungeon. The knight then transformed in the same way as before, this time revealing the shadow itself as a winged fairy like creature. She was dressed in purple and had brownish hair and eyes. Upon seeing the criminalized cardfighter, she immediately charged in flight towards him. This time however, he was ready for the battle ahead.“Arsene, use Eiha!” he declared.Performing the same attack as it had always done so before in the previous conflicts, Arsene summoned the black vortex and the energy streams struck the fairy, causing it to wither around as was now stumbling around.“Your attack is very effective against this shadow, finish her off!” cheered Morgana.“Eiha, one more time!” Aichi announced.And with quick succession, Arsene used the same attack to annihilate the fairy like shadow completely as it turned into black ooze that vanished upon hitting the floor, leaving behind only a few yen coins that Aichi had picked up. Before they could escape from their position in the dungeon, they saw that Ryuji was still gazing at the prisoner in the cell beside the drawbridge.“Ryuji-kun has a point,” the criminalized cardfighter spoke “We can’t just leave him here if he’s from the same school as us.”“You really don’t get it do you?” Morgana huffed “There’s no time to explain why, I’ve got to get you two out of here!”“Tsk! Fine!” Ryuji huffed as the three of them departed from the cell “But you better speak up sooner or later!”Upon following the short flight of stairs that were on the other side of the drawbridge, leading back to the entrance hall where he and Aichi had first entered the castle. As the pair were about to head over to it, Morgana made a quiet yelp had caught their attention on the far side.“Use this way!” he called as quietly as he could “You’ll make more noise to the shadows if you use the front door!”Uncertain of what to do, they followed the cat-like creature to the far side of the entrance into a small corridor that led to a dead end. However, there were two more doors to choose from, leaving the pair more hopeful that they were finally close to escaping now that they had left the dungeon.“Finally, we’re saved!” Ryuji huffed in relief before immediately heading to the door on his right and attempting to push it open to no avail “Dammit!” He then turned to Morgana “Did you trick us jerk?!”“Um… I think he meant this way…” Aichi replied as he had gotten the other door open in the midst of the previous attempt.The three of them then entered the room, closing the door behind them to ensure that the knights could not see their attempt to escape. Seeing the lack of what appeared to be an opening they could use, Ryuji simply huffed in frustration.“How are we supposed to get out!” he groaned “I don’t see a window or a hole we could use!”“Urgh, amateur,” Morgana muttered “This is the most basic of basics.”“Basics? What do you mean?” Aichi asked in confusion. He soon found his answer when he gazed atop the bookcase “Wait, you’re not saying that air vent, right?”“That’s right Aichi,” he replied with a smile “You’re a slow one, but you at least seem to pick up on all of this. The vent should take you all the way to the outside of the castle.”“Alright then,” Ryuji spoke as he climbed up to the top of the bookcase “Aichi, can you gimme a hand with this grate?”The criminalized cardfighter then climbed up the bookcase with a bit of his companion’s help and soon the two of them began to pull back on the ventilation shaft’s grate. With a mighty heave, a clank sounded as the grate came off the vent along with them as they fell back onto the floor. Aichi quickly caught the grate before it hit the ground, leaving them only to pray that the knights didn’t hear them at all from outside of the tiny room. Climbing back up, they were about to leave when they saw Morgana wasn’t moving at all.“You should celebrate when you make it safely outside,” the ‘cat’ spoke “Now get going.”“But… what about you?” asked Ryuji, wondering why their aid was not joining them in their escape.“There’s something I still need to do,” he replied “We’ll be going our separate ways. For now.”“Then we wish you the best of luck Morgana-san,” said Aichi.“You best be careful too Aichi,” Morgana replied happily “See ya around.”And with the final goodbye exchanged, Aichi was the first to crawl through the ventilation shaft with Ryuji following shortly after. After a short while, Morgana heard them celebrate upon reaching the outside of the castle and to safety, leaving the cat-like creature much to think about after his rescue from Kamoshida’s hands.“These two seem useful…” he pondered to himself “Especially that one. There was something definitely coming from his eyes…”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

As the sudden flash of red and black subsided, Aichi and Ryuji were now standing within the street that was only a short walk away from Shujin Academy. Whilst the yellow haired boy panted to catch his breath, the criminalized cardfighter noticed that there were people walking around them and that the colour of the sky above them as well as the atmosphere around them had finally returned to normal. He was unsure of why this was now the case, but the stinging sensation from the large cut on the back of his head had now returned as he cringed in pain.Before either he or his companion could take in any of this information fully, he felt a vibration from his pocket go off. He picked out his phone and saw there was now a black and red message box that appeared over the screen.“You have now returned to the real world,” a female voice spoke before the message box disappeared.“D… Does that mean we got away…?” Ryuji panted as he got up from his current position.“The atmosphere around us is different,” Aichi pondered “But I don’t know what to say.”He then cringed from moving his head, causing his companion to hurry over to him.“Whoa dude!” he cried “Your head still isn’t in great shape! We should hurry you over to the infirmary when we get to Shujin!”“I almost forgot about it when I was fighting those shadows…” the criminalized cardfighter replied.“True…” the boy replied “Still, what was that all about just now? The castle, Kamoshida and that cat…! What the hell is going on?!”His frustration at their previous situation had proven to be rather loud even to Aichi’s ears. But just when they believed things could not get any worse aside from a late arrival to Shujin Academy…“What’s with the yelling?” a loud voice questioned gruffly.Both of them gazed down the street to find to their sudden displeasure that a pair of police officers had approached them very swiftly and one of them seemed very displeased to the fact they were now in front of a pair of students late for school. And neither of them knew as to the understandable circumstances of why."Are you students of Shujin?"“Y… Yes officers,” Aichi replied abruptly, having been startled by their sudden approach.“Cutting classes aren’t we?” the same officer continued in a rough and rather dry tone.“Huh… no!” Ryuji replied “We were trying to get to school and we showed up at…!”He was stopped when Aichi immediately held out a hand in front of him, much to his sudden confusion and frustration.“It was my fault we were late,” he spoke “I… tried to take a shortcut out of the rain earlier today and I was knocked out for a while until Ryuji-kun went out of his way to find me. We were just heading back to Shujin when you found us.”“Aichi…?!” the boy quietly exclaimed through his teeth, quietly enough so only his friend would hear and not the officers “What about the castle…?!”“And why do you think we should believe you?” the officer questioned, gazing harshly towards the criminalized cardfighter.In response, the criminalized cardfighter after nervously gulping back at him slowly turned around until we his back was now facing the two officers, now displaying the large cut from one of the knights’ shields had created on the back of his head when that knight had used it to knock him out. Though blood was barely trickling out, it was still enough to make the pair understand he had been through a lot.“I see… that is a rather nasty wound,” the second officer replied, his tone being strict but much less aggressive compared to his partner “And you say you got this when going down an alley towards Shujin. What was your assailant like?”“I… I don’t know,” Aichi stuttered in response “The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Shujin Academy at the very end.”“Very well then,” the same officer spoke “I suggest you hurry onto Shujin then. Even if your friend came to ‘save’ you, you two are still very late. And do not use that alley if it will get you into trouble again.”“T… Thank you officers,” he replied, bowing in respect for them once “Let’s go Ryuji-kun.”“R… Right,” Ryuji said, dropping his initial frustration and following his friend shortly afterwards.As the two continued down the street towards Shujin Academy, both of them wondering if the castle would appear again at any point, the yellow haired boy glanced over to his companion, a hint of the earlier frustration still within his mind after he had been interrupted earlier.“Aichi… I appreciate you bailing us out, but why didn’t you let me say anything about the castle?” he huffed “Seriously though, I wanna know what the eff is going on and you know… they should be in on it, right?”“Do you remember what my phone said when we got onto the streets?” the criminalized cardfighter replied “If that message was true just now, there’s no way those officers would have believed us.”“I guess you have a point…” the boy sighed as they eventually came to the front gate of the Academy.Upon standing there for a short while, they could see that it was indeed the normal school building and that nothing had changed, or that it wasn’t indeed changing at all, they began to question what had just happened to them in the last few hours of the day. The castle they had entered and had to escape, the cat-like creature Morgana, the alternate Kamoshida, his knights and the beings that Morgana had called Personas. When they had returned back to the world they knew, Aichi could no longer sense Arsene and began to wonder about his supposed existence and what they accomplished together in the escape.“Is this for real…?” Ryuji breathed in disbelief “Aside from not going down that alley thanks to your bailing skills, this is more or less the same way around the corner.”“That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you.”Another gruff voice was heard as a man exited the front doors and came to the top of the steps that led to the entrance. He was dressed in grey clothes and had a very stern expression on his face.“We received a call from the police,” he continued.“Tsk! That damn cop must have snitched on us…!” the boy growled.“Wait a minute Ryuji-kun…!” Aichi stuttered.“Hmm… It’s not rare to see you alone,” the man pondered as his gaze fell upon the criminalized cardfighter “Where were you roaming about all this time?”“I… tried to take a shortcut out of the rain in the alley behind us and got knocked out,” he answered “Ryuji-kun… as bad as it was for him to skip class, found me and brought me back here.”“And why should I believe that Sakamoto here was not this culprit you imply?”“B… because he would need to have a motive!” Aichi replied, slightly raising the volume in his voice unintentionally "If he wanted to harm me, he would have kept me away from school the entire day...!"Although Ryuji was initially shocked by the accusation of the man that he would be Aichi’s supposed attacker, he was even more surprised that the criminalized cardfighter was willing to stand up for him, no matter the situation they were in now.“Yeah, what he said!” the boy interjected as he came alongside and gently turned him around “If that cut he got isn’t proof enough he got hurt, what else then?!”Whilst the man at the top of the stairs still remained sceptical to both of the boys’ claims, he did however find believability in the massive cut on the back of Aichi’s head and how he claimed to have gotten it. When the latter turned back around, the two boys in slight shock suddenly saw Kamoshida exit from the front doors. Only he didn’t look like the arrogant and self-proclaimed king of the castle they had been in the unwelcome courtesy of an hour ago.“K… Kamoshida?!” Ryuji exclaimed.“You seem so carefree Sakamoto,” the teacher replied “Quite a difference from when you did morning practice for the track team.”“Shaddup!” he snapped back in response “It’s your fault that…!”“How dare you speak that way to Kamoshida-sensei!” the other man bellowed.Before Ryuji could say anything more, Aichi grabbed his shoulder to calm him down and shook his head when the former looked to him, knowing the two were already in enough trouble as it was. A cough from the man caught their attention back to him and to Kamoshida.“In any case, even if you did ‘save’ your friend here, you still arrived very late and insulted Kamoshida-sensei,” he spoke sternly.“Come now,” Kamoshida replied in a seemingly overly friendly tone “I was being far too considerate for Sakamoto. Let’s just say we were both to blame.”“Well, if you say so…” the man sighed before he looked to Ryuji “Follow me.”“Fine,” the boy huffed “Just make sure you guys help Aichi’s head get patched up.”Ryuji then walked up the steps towards the front doors that his 'counselor' went through, but not before briefly giving a hostile glance towards Kamoshida who whilst unaware of the notion, was keeping a not quite noticeable sneer that only the boy and Aichi had seen. The latter seemed to feel even more unnerved than he was back at the castle, the fact that the teacher and self-proclaimed king of the castle was acting somewhat more friendlier compared to what he and his companion saw earlier in the day and that they were almost executed had it not been for Arsene and Morgana. Kamoshida then turned back to face the criminalized cardfighter as if he had something more to say before his eyes suddenly widened in realization."Have we met before...?" he pondered in confusion."Y... Yes," Aichi replied, stuttering in confusion from the lack of aggressiveness, or even knowledge from what little he could tell "We met a little before I went down that alley. I guess this could have been avoided if I took an umbrella or your offer earlier."He resisted the urge to bite his tongue at the end of his sentence, knowing that lying through his teeth was something he hated doing even if he was certain that nobody would believe him about the castle that he and Ryuji were trapped in. Luckily for him, Kamoshida did not notice his uneasiness and scratched his head, finally recognizing him from earlier in the day when the girl beside the boy had taken up his offer of a ride to school to avoid the rain."That's right, I remember now..." he muttered "Well, as long as you don't take that dangerous route or show up late again from tomorrow onwards, I'll be willing to overlook this."A waver of relief caused Aichi to release his stiffness as he walked up to the steps and passed the teacher slowly, doing his utmost best to not let his earlier uneasiness to get the better of him. He stopped briefly to say something to Kamoshida to throw him off any possible scent of his nerves from what happened in the castle and its ruler to get under his skin."I'll head to Kawakami-sensei now..." he muttered "She's bound to not be happy.""I'm sure you've already heard from the principal, but if you cause any trouble, you will be expelled," the teacher replied in a harsh manner before sighing "You best hurry up if you don't want to keep her waiting."The criminalized cardfighter nodded in agreement and hurried through the doors to find his homeroom teacher to register himself into the school formally and to endure her wrath at him for arriving late even if it was beyond his control. As he entered the main hall, he could see some students gaze upon him and suddenly grow nervous of his presence, immediately backing away from him out of fear for whatever reason. Aichi was utterly confused by this notion, but he knew he didn't have time to stand still in the front entrance and went through the corridors to find Kawakami. The fact the students had not chosen to approach him had made the journey somewhat easier than expected, but all the way, he could hear whispers running around some of them as he passed by.He didn't have time to register any of them as they were not what were currently on his mind as he climbed the stairs to Floor 2B. Eventually he made it to the door of the Faculty Office where he could feel a sense of dread hang over him. But he knew he had to press on. He knocked on the door and took a deep breath to await his fate on his disasterous first day of school."At least things can't get any worse from here..." he mumbled to himself, praying that he wasn't setting himself up for the whorls of karma."So let me get this straight according to what you told the police. You went down a dark alley whose exit was opposite to the front of the school, got wounded on the back of your head by an assailant you didn't see and you only made it back safely because Sakamoto-kun woke you up and took you back?"What Aichi was now hearing was the very frustrated tone of Kawakami who was inquiring him about the events that had led to him being late on his first day of Shujin Academy. Although a part of him was thankful she was not angry with him as he had initially believed he would get from a reaction, he knew he wasn't out of the woods just yet and that it wasn't just him that was in trouble today."Yes Kawakami-sensei," he replied, unable to hide the dejected tone in his voice."... Unbelievable," she huffed as she turned around in her chair to face him "I was thinking you'd show up late on your first day, given your circumstances prior, but why this of all things?""I... wish I knew," Aichi spoke "I... shouldn't have thought about how a few drops of rain could ruin my uniform.""Just pull yourself together," Kawakami muttered in a stern tone "As much as we should be thankful you were even saved, you did arrive here with Sakamoto-kun."The criminalized cardfighter although having understood her final warning to him loud and clear, was confused about why her tone had briefly turned venomous when she had mentioned the name of his companion and that had only led him to be more curious about him. He didn't think Ryuji was harmful in any way considering their time together so far and he felt now it was his turn to do a quick inquiry."Is... there a reason you're not happy about Ryuji-kun?" he asked nervously.The homeroom teacher upon hearing both his confusion and intrigue into her distaste about the boy merely shook her head, a hint of disappointment showing up on her face."Just stay away from him," she replied, hissing slightly "He's nothing but trouble, even if he did bring you here safely. But he wasn't like that though when he was still on the track team..."The homeroom teacher then got up from her seat and prompted Aichi to do the same as he did shortly afterwards. Her mood finally became more mellow as she led him out of the faculty office to explain what was going to happen next."Classes will end on fifth period today, as we don't want anyone running afoul of the subway incident today" Kawakami explained "Let's go and bandage the back of your head of that nasty wound and I'll introduce you to the class.""Thank you Kawakami-sensei," he replied bowing once in respect for her "I promise this won't happen again."She said nothing back to him, unsure of whether to believe his apology to her and the rest of the staff for his trouble was truly sincere given the criminal record that he had been slapped with. The two of them continued on to the medical facility to help tend to the wound that the metal edge of the shield had caused on the back of his head to hopefully stop it from getting any worse than it already was.By the time the two of them had made it to the classroom, a portion of Aichi's head was covered in bandages to help him recover from the wound to his head and prevent it from getting infected from the long duration it had been like it for. Murmurs were flying around about his presence as the transfer student with some of the words concerning him greatly. Some said that he held dangerous weapons and other sorts of items in his bag, others that his genuine outlook to the outside world was merely a front for a more sinister person that lay beneath. When he and his homeroom teacher entered the classroom, the other students immediately fell silent save for one by the window who was already quiet by herself and it was one familiar to the criminalized cardfighter."Everyone, I'd like to introduce a transfer student," Kawakami began "This is Sendou Aichi and he will be with you in your classes.""I... It's nice to meet you all," he spoke, stuttering a little "Sorry I'm late."The only thing that had succeeded in doing was getting strange looks from a majority of the other students in the classroom. Some of them seemed distrusting, few of them looking rather nervous from him being on their presence and fewer still were snickering to themselves, believing him to be some kind of troublemaker like they had rumoured across one another before he had entered."Due to a... incident that accounted for the injury to his head that you'll see," she continued "He was rather late." She then turned to Aichi. "Your seat is the empty one that's beside the window."Deciding not to say anything back in response, Aichi walked over towards the seat he had been assigned to, passing by the various students across the rows before seeing that the girl who had gotten into the car with Kamoshida before his incident at the castle was seated at the desk in front of him. As he passed her by, she hissed quietly underneath her teeth at him, startling the criminalized cardfighter for a brief instant."Lies..." she muttered.Not wanting to risk agitating her any longer for his tardiness in arriving at class late, he immediately moved to his desk in a hurry and sat down to face Kawakami who remained at the front desk, resting his bag in the space allocated there."For those nearby, could you please share your textbooks?" the homeroom teacher requested "His copies won't be arriving until tomorrow morning."Sighing for an instance, one of the male students next to him on the same row tossed him his textbook quickly. As Aichi caught him, he noticed a frightened expression on his face as he hurriedly turned his attention back to Kawakami. As she turned her back to the students to set up her class for the day, he heard quiet but noticable gossip from some of the back row and one other column of his classmates and from what it sounded, it was about him."Did you catch that earlier?" a female student pondered "It looks like those two know each other.""Oooh," her companion pondered "Does that mean he hit on her before transferring here."Although he knew that none of what they were saying about him and the girl on the desk in front of him were completely true in the slightest, he chose to remain silent and ignore them as best he could, knowing he was in more than enough trouble for one day."That means she's cheating on him with Kamoshida-sensei," a rather prim student replied "Then again, this is Takamaki-san we're talking about.""For real," her companion replied in a bored tone "That side of the room is totally awful."Their gossip was interrupted when Kawakami suddenly remembered something that was due to happen within the school semester from this point forward."Oh, that's right," she pondered "The volleyball ralley is in two days. Everyone's just changed classes so make sure you use that time to get to know each other well. With that done, let's get class started. Who's on duty today?"As she finished her question, a boy with dark blue hair and eyes, dressed in only a white shirt with a pair of two black arrows pointing upwards on his collar and a pair of black trousers rose from his chair."Everyone, please rise," he said in a less than enthusiastic mood.Aichi and the remainder of the class then stood up as the lesson for the day with Kawakami had now begun. Eventually, after learning everyone else's names from his time throughout the lecture and managing to make it through whilst blocking out as much noise as possible from the gossip behind his back, the class dispersed and left the room itself. As he was getting his bag out from under his desk, he saw the girl that sat in front of him was now by the door about to leave. She turned around to see him for a brief instance before leaving immediately in a very, but quietly annoyed manner. Though disappointment set in for the criminalized cardfighter, he chose to not let this down-hearten him as he too left the classroom shortly afterwards.But as he went into the corridor, his head suddenly felt pain course through it as his vision began to blur. Cringing throughout it, his sight changed to show a corridor of a regal building for a few seconds before it reverted back to the school building as it was. As he held his head to press on through the remainder of the pain, his eyes had widened slighty as he pondered over the experience he had just had."That's strange..." he pondered "That almost looked like... one of that castle's corridors...""Are you alright?"He turned around to see Kawakami approach him, having a genuine look of concern towards him for the first time today since he had met her in the faculty office."S... Sorry I worried you..." he replied "I... I was just seeing things, that's all. My head must have been hit harder than I thought...""If you say so," she muttered in response "Either way, it seems like people are already talking about you regarding... you know what I mean. But I'm not the one who told them, just so you know.""Wait... you mean," he breathed in shock, now understanding where she was coming from."It seems so," she replied "Anyway, you should head straight home. Sakura-san sounded pretty angry about what happened." "I can't say I can blame him..." Aichi pondered."Regarding Sakamoto-kun, don't get involv..."Their conversation was brought to a halt when they saw Ryuji approach the pair, not seeming very pleased when he had overheard her description of him towards the person in truth had saved him that day."And speak of the devil," she sighed before turning to him "What do you want? Even though you did bring Aichi here, the police said you were cutting classes to do so.""Ugh... it was nothin'," he scoffed."You haven't dyed your hair to black either," Kawakami continued "And if you're wondering why he is an exception, he has his family genetics to be a reason for that.""Sorry 'bout that."He then turned to Aichi and walked over to him."I'll meet you on the rooftop," he whispered quietly as he left the two alone and went up the nearest staircase.The homeroom teacher, despite not hearing what had just been said to the criminalized cardfighter could only quietly moan to herself. This was proving to be a very taxing day for her at Shujin like most others and Aichi could tell her distrust in Ryuji was very much real."See?" she huffed "That's why you shouldn't be involved regardless? Understood?""If he is trouble like you say he is, I promise I will let you know," he replied "But right now, he saved my life today and I owe him for it."Seeing that reasoning with the boy in front of him was impossible for now and that she would have to rely on his word to see if he wouldn't cause trouble with Ryuji, Kawakami said nothing more and walked away from him to the faculty office to think about this more. Before Aichi could go and make his way towards the rooftop of the school, he watched both Kamoshida and the principal Kobayakawa arrive on the current floor to discuss something between them."Why did you allow a student like him to transfer?" the teacher asked in slight frustration "He's already starting to associate with Sakamoto."Seeing that was a closed conversation between them regarding his status of the criminal record and his previous association with Ryuji, he went back to the classroom door and went around the corner to overhear what was going on, now that no one was in there."He's a student with a criminal record and a culprit of assault," Kamoshida complained "At this rate, it will be pointless with how much I contribute to this school."Now don't be like that," Kobayakawa replied "This school counts on you Kamoshida-kun. You are our star. Still, a build-up is necessary behind brilliance as well.""Your troubles never seem to end, do they Principal Kobayakawa?" he muttered before giving a smile "All right then. I'll continue to do my best to answer your expectations."With the conversation ending and them leaving their separate ways, Aichi felt it was safe to exit from the doorway of the empty classroom behind him and continue on his way to where Ryuji was waiting for him. Taking the next two flight of stairs that was going upwards past the third floor, he eventually came across the door that lead out onto the roof where his companion was waiting. He saw a sign on the door that said "Off-Limits", but from what he could see through the window, Ryuji was indeed there which meant the door had to have been unlocked. Turning the doorknob, the criminalized cardfighter stepped out onto the roof, seeing that the edge was covered with tall fencing to prevent anyone from falling off if the winds were great that day.He then walked over to a table where his companion was rocking back and forth gently on it before he noticed him approach, causing him to stop and put his legs gently on the ground."There you are Aichi," he spoke "Sorry for callin' you up like this.""It's alright," Aichi replied as he sat down on another chair "Did the consolers give you any trouble?""Nothin' I can't handle, that's for sure," Ryuji answered "But thanks for askin'."He then gazed down at the ground, thinking all about what had been happening during the day, particularly to minutes earlier when he had saw his companion and his homeroom teacher conversing about him."I bet Kawakami already said stuff like 'Don't get involved with him' or somethin', right?" he asked."I don't know what I can believe from her about you," the criminalized cardfighter answered "But from the time we've spent together, even in the castle, you don't look like someone who would start any trouble."That was a small piece of relief for Ryuji as he was glad that Aichi's trust in him had not wavered since the turbulent struggle they went through together hours ago."I heard you got a criminal record too," the boy commented "No wonder you looked somewhat gutsy back then.""So Kawakami's warning to me was true..." he sighed "I'm guessing you found out from the rumours too.""Hey, don't be so down," Ryuji replied "What you did for me was anythin' but criminal. And I'm totally grateful for what you did anyway."That compliment had made Aichi feel a little better as he smiled back slightly in response as the two of them sat in the silence of the rooftop to ponder about the day that had just transpired. The two boys had been through a close call with death with their first experience together and they couldn't help but ponder more about what was really going on and why they were seemingly the only two people to know about it."... But what was all that about?" Ryuji pondered "Endin' up at a spooky castle, having some close brushes with death and that Arsene dude you busted out to fight those knights.""I wish I knew..." said Aichi."Either way, I owe you for saving me from Kamoshida and bailing us both out of a worse punishment for being late," he continued before smiling "Thanks again."The criminalized cardfighter smiled back in response as a sign of saying he appreciated the thanks in getting the two of them out of the castle with Morgana's help. He still couldn't help but ponder about Arsene who he still had no idea of where he was at this point. The long silence had then caused Ryuji's expression to grow rather grim."But man, that Kamoshida we both saw there..." the boy spoke before glancing up at Aichi "You prolly don't know since you just transferred, but there's been some rumours about him. That asshole at the castle seemed like he matched the description almost perfectly. Nobody says anything against him because he's a medalist that apparently took the volleyball team to nationals.""And you believe the Kamoshida in the real Shujin still has resemblance to the one in that castle," Aichi pondered "It could have just been my nerves from when we saw that other one then, but something about the way he was speaking after you left with the consoler was making me feel rather uneasy about him.""You and me both pal," Ryuji replied as he sat back further in his chair "I just wonder if... it might be possible to go back there.""There were still other prisoners in the dungeon when Morgana forced us to run for our lives," Aichi interjected "If we can go back there, if it's not already too late, we might be able to save them as well."Suddenly remembering about the other prisoners they had abandoned back in their jail cells within the castle dungeon, his companion nodded in agreement having felt a little bitter towards the cat-like creature for forcing them to flee from the dank and dangerous place so they could return back to the real Shujin Academy. With the sun beginning to set over the horizon, they knew they had to leave the school to avoid the risk of any further accidents along the train line. Before Aichi could stand up, Ryuji suddenly glanced towards him as if he had remembered something that he wished to ask him."Say... Aren't you the same Sendou Aichi I heard about on one of those building sized plasma TVs near the end of last year?" he asked "You know... the one that plays a card game or somethin'?""I... I am," the criminalized cardfighter replied, surprised that his companion had heard of his time at the National Championships "Then... you know about Vanguard too then?""Eh... not exactly..." the boy replied, scratching his head briefly "I did catch the end of your last match with that other guy as I was passin' by that screen. I didn't think much about what I watched then, but I'm real happy that I got to meet you in the end."He then got up from his seat as did Aichi as they walked over to the door that led to the roof and exited through it, closing it behind them as they did so and went down the stairs to the third floor, both of them feeling a little relieved that no one had noticed them leave where they came from. As the criminalized cardfighter was about to go down the stairs, he turned to Ryuji who waved to him."I'll see you around!" he called."Ryuji-kun," Aichi replied with a smile "Thank you... for being my first friend here. I'll see you tomorrow!"For the first time in a long time, Ryuji nodded back to say he was welcome as he watched his new friend descend down the stairs to make his way back to the train station and back to LeBlanc where he was bound to confront an angry Sojiro. The boy then remained where he was, pondering more about Aichi and what the two of them had been through earlier in the day. But the fact that he had even been called a friend for the first time in a very long time, that had put something positive on his mind to cheer him up from the deluge and struggle had been through this day together."Friend huh?" he pondered "I could get used to this."Later that night, Aichi was sat at a stool in the bar area of LeBlanc, facing a less than pleased Sojiro who kept his stern gaze upon him. After the criminalized cardfighter had returned, the coffee shop owner had immediately asked him to sit down and face him to explain about the call he had received from Kawakami during the time his head was being bandaged up. A small red stain was noticeable at the spot where the bandages had covered the back of his wounded head which only made his carer even more annoyed by what had apparently happened to him as the boy had told the school."So if what your teachers were saying was true," he began sternly "You tried to take a shortcut out of the rain today, got knocked out by an assailant you didn't see which caused the wound on the back of your head and you only got to school safely because a local troublemaker got you there whilst he was cutting class?""Yes Sakura-san..." Aichi replied, nodding once as he did so."And here I thought I could count on you to not screw up your first day," Sojiro grumbled "You didn't come prepared for the weather in advance and as a result of your hasty actions, this has now happened."He then walked around to the other side of the bar and went towards Aichi who bit his tongue to avoid flinching in either fright or surprise as he took a seat in front of him."Haven't you already learned not to wander into dark places on your own?" he continued, holding back his temper the best he could "You never know what you might come across, even if they appear harmless.""I... I've learned a valuable lesson today from all of this," the criminalized cardfighter replied nervously, causing the cafe shop owner to back away from him slightly."Go on then," he spoke, his tone still being rather harsh."I shouldn't take any shortcuts in life," the boy continued, suppressing a gulp as he did so and still keeping his gaze on the man in front of him "I didn't think about what would happen and I paid the price for my error. But it won't happen again."Registering in the information that Aichi had given him, Sojiro kept his gaze upon him for a few moments before standing up and walking back to the counter behind the bar area, feeling that he had said most of what he wanted to say and that the criminalized cardfighter was seemingly being honest in both his apology and the lesson that he had seemingly learnt from his experience today."Your life is forfeit if trouble such as this occurs too many more times. Before I finish with you, I will ask you one more time," the coffee shop owner said sternly "You are aware of what probation is, right Sendou Aichi?""It isn't just a sentence for me to serve," he replied "It is a single chance for me to prove that I have the capability of reforming myself and overcoming past misdeeds that led to my criminal record in the first place."With that answer in mind, Sojiro felt that hopefully Aichi would have understood what he had said to him and would use the remainder of his sentence to make up for his disastrous first day at Shujin Academy and use what he had learned to better himself as a person if he had any chance for society to accept him as anyone else other than a criminal. He let out a small sigh and slightly softened his expression as he returned his gaze to the criminalized cardfighter."Very well then," he said "Just write down what happened today in your diary and lock up after I leave before going to bed, alright?""Yes Sakura-san," Aichi replied with a little relief that the pains he faced from today were finally over "And thank you for listening. I'll see you tomorrow morning."And with that, he went upstairs to his room to leave the coffee shop owner at the bar all alone by himself as he merely shook his head once, his faith in the boy having diminished a little by the day's events. He didn't have time to contemplate on this however as he felt a buzz go off in his pocket as he brought out his phone and held it to his right ear to answer whoever it was that was calling him."Hello?" He then listened carefully. "Yes, it's me. I've closed up shop and I'll be there in half an hour."  He then smiled. "Don't worry about him, he's just a part-timer. I'll see you a bit later."Upon finishing the call, he placed his phone back into his pocket and left through the store door, flipping the sign to "Closed" as he did so and left the store with Aichi in it alone. After the latter had heard the bell ring as the door opened and closed, he walked downstairs from his room and locked the door before switching off the lights and returning upstairs to his bed before changing into his nightwear and lying down on the mattress. His mind felt heavy and his expression was rather upset that his first day had gone terribly wrong because of events beyond his and Ryuji's control and having several close brushes with death in a castle that the two of them were unsure of how they even arrived there in the first place.Before he could ponder more about their time in the castle and the fights against the shadows that he and the cat-like creature Morgana had engaged in to escape, his eyes suddenly lit up in a familiar pink glow."Can you hear my voice?""Arsene?!" gasped Aichi, as he sat up from the mattress suddenly "Where are you?!""Within the confines of your heart," Arsene's voice boomed "It appears that I can communicate with you outside of that ghastly world through the power that your eyes already possessed.""Then... you're talking to me through my PSY Qualia," he breathed.He wasn't quite sure about how to react to this situation, having wondered about why Arsene wasn't been able to be sensed since he and Ryuji escaped from the castle and back into the real world they knew all too well."You said... ghastly world..." the criminalized cardfighter continued "Are you saying... the castle Ryuji-kun and I went to was in a completely different world?""You are certainly observant," Arsene replied "That castle we fought our way through and escaped from is from a parallel world. What information there is about it, I do not know. The only memory I have is that I am an armour that protects your heart there to fight against the many shadows that infest that castle's halls.""I see..." Aichi pondered "Then... thank you for helping us escape from the dungeons.""Fighting is something you do not seem entirely familiar with," the Persona commented "But I have faith you will come to know your potential in combat in time soon enough. The night wanes and I advise your sleep soon to regain your strength. For we will need it.""Thank you for talking with me Arsene," he spoke "I hope to speak with you another time."And with that, his eyes returned to their normal bluish colour as he turned out the lights on the top floor and went as best as he could to sleep. Much was on his mind since the start of the day and as for what tomorrow could bring, he had no idea if all of the questions brewing within his mind would be answered, if any at all.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Hello everyone.As you can already see, unfortunately due to time constraints along with other aspects that made me unhappy with the way this fic was going during its hiatus (especially given my lack of fight choreography which hampered down my experience in writing Metaverse battle drafts), I have decided to cancel The Vanguard's Rehabilitation for the foreseeable future.However, that does not mean I plan to leave readers who were wanting more out of this fic empty handed. Although I couldn't find it within myself to finish everything, I did finish several chapters and mini-arcs within my drafts from different points of where the story was going to go (including near the endgame). In addition, as the confidant routes are one of the most important aspects of a Persona game (not just for worldbuilding), I did have plans for those who had a particular ship they wanted to see happen within the story itself. The original plan was to keep Aichi's confidant relationships platonic at the minimum within the main story so that a separate fic depicting the romance versions of Rank 8-10 confidant routes (including a few other events) could have readers pick and choose which one they could use to visualize in the main story without derailing the narrative. So with that out of the way, here's what's going to happen:1. As The Vanguard's Rehabilitation is no longer ongoing officially, if someone wishes to write their own fanfiction using what I've already published and what I'm about to mention below as a template for their own, that is completely fine. You have my complete permission to do so and credit will not be a requirement.2. The chapters/mini-arcs I did complete will be posted in a separate fic called "The Vanguard's Rehabilitation: The Lost Stories". Context behind the setting of each chapter/mini-arc I was able to complete will be provided in notes at both the beginning and end of each page in that fic and I'm happy to answer questions over what could have been over there.3. Although it is being published with a different purpose from what was intended (that being to show what could have been instead of what readers could have inserted into the main story as they wished), the Rank 8-10 romance confidant routes separate fic will be published in the same series as point 2 (That series folder being titled "The Lost Stories").Other than that, if there's any questions people wish to ask me on this whole front, I will answer to the best of my ability. Otherwise I thank you for having taken your time to read what little I was able to accomplish and I look forward to hearing from you again.With kind regards,Stardustdragon123~