— –Shiho Suzui– —
She'd been called to Kamoshida's office for a "special lesson" today after practice. Something, or someone had made him angry. Angry enough that she had been terrified as to what might have happened when she went to his office. So she had skipped practice.
She knew she shouldn't have. She knew it would only make things worse. But she was tired of it. She wasn't sure just how much more she could handle. Not anymore.
Every single time Kamoshida would touch her body under the pretense of "fixing her posture." Every single time he would spike a volleyball at them for messing up. Every single time he would stare them down. She was tired of it.
Hell, even the guilt of having her friend date the creep. Something Ann was only doing to try to protect her, to help her keep her spot on the team. Her friend was putting herself in the sights of the worst man she'd ever known, and she was just letting it happen.
She really was the worst friend, wasn't she… Perhaps things would be better if…
That line of thought got interrupted however, as another student she'd never seen before sat next to her and gave her a soda. He had messy black hair and glasses, but he looked a bit tense as he spoke.
Well, not quite spoke, but rather began to complain about the very person she had been running from. Out of nowhere. For no real reason. For a moment, she'd worried that she had accidentally gotten a concussion and was currently hallucinating him. But no, that probably wasn't it.
Or maybe it was.
[Beginning navigation]
The moment she heard that voice, the world around her began to change. One second, she had been sitting on the school bench, and the next she found herself in the middle of a massive courtyard. With what appeared to be a castle surrounding her on all sides.
The bright blue sky turned a crimson shade. And…. were those statues of Kamoshida? Yeah, those were definitely statues of Kamoshida. He was wearing nothing but underwear and a cape, along with a massive crown on his head.
"Ah shit…" Shiho whispered as she fell to her knees. Yeah, she'd lost it. She had officially gone crazy. "God I should've jumped off earlier… Oh god, ah shit, I must have missed a concussion. I lost it."
Yeah, she was spiraling a little. But who could blame her. She'd really spent her last few sane minutes planning to jump off from a roof, and now here she was. Yet, before she could lose it even more, she felt a hand grab her shoulder.
As she turned around, she saw the same student that had sat next to her.
"It's ok, you're not crazy. I can see it too." He said, a slight grin appearing on his face as he looked around at the courtyard they found themselves in. He looked somewhat excited as he helped her to her feet. "Or well, if we did lose it, then at least we lost it together, eh?"
Having someone so calm next to her really helped her calm down a little, and she finally managed to take a few deep breaths to try to see if this was all just a strange dream. But the next time she opened her eyes, nothing had changed. She was still in this strange castle.
"Well, I guess we are in this together. Welcome to the play." The man next to her said with an excited chuckle as he looked at her. "My name is Ren Amamiya, nice to meet ya." He added, making a silly rhyme that almost made her chuckle were it not for the absurdity of the situation.
Wait, wasn't he the transfer student?
"Shiho Suzui." She answered, hesitating for a few moments before asking. "You… you aren't freaking out?"
"Hakuna Matata, I guess." He answered with a shrug.
For a moment, she simply gave him an incredulous look. Yet in the end, she burst out laughing. She wasn't sure why, but when she stood next to him, someone who didn't appear the slightest bit bothered, she felt calmer.
Yet, that laughter quickly spiraled into tears. She tried to hold them back, but she couldn't. She'd been so tense for weeks, and when she'd finally let go and burst into laughter, all the other emotions that she'd been suppressing came along too.
"Oh? Uh…" She heard Amamiya mutter next to her as she tried to calm herself. She was probably making him uncomfortable. Yet, in the end, she felt him wrap his arms around her in an awkward hug. "There, there… Just.. uh... Let it all out."
Really she shouldn't have laughed. But he was clearly so uncomfortable, she couldn't help it. And in the end, even if it was awkward the hug did help her get her bearings a bit quicker.
— –Ren Amamiya– —
Scratch what he was thinking before. This was going to be one hell of a play.
Still, as he tried to comfort the girl in front of him, he heard heavy footsteps approaching them. And well, judging by the fact that they were now in a castle that appeared to worship Kamoshida, that was probably a bad sign. After all, he hadn't left the best of impressions during their first meeting.
"Actually, hold it for now." Ren muttered to Suzui as she wiped her tears. "We have some company."
Just as soon as he finished saying those words, he saw two strange knights holding swords and wearing what appeared to be medieval armor approaching them. Their swords were in their hands, and they looked ready for a fight, so Ren stepped forward, raising his arms to the air in surrender as he gave them the brightest, friendliest smile he could.
"Howdy, fellas—" Whoops, wrong type of friendly. "Pardon me, sir knights. We appear to have found ourselves lost in this castle. We promise we meant no harm, and we are simply looking for our way out. Would you, erm, perchance mind showing us the way out?"
If there is one lesson he'd learned, it was that words could take you quite far. Play nice with the right person, and you could find yourself out of trouble in the blink of an eye. But it appeared that wouldn't work with the two people in front of him.
"It's the blasphemer and the bunny." One of the knights shouted as he aimed his weapon in Ren's direction.
"The blasphemer must have been trying to take advantage of our king's bunny. We must eliminate him and return her to our king. He was seeking some relief, so she can atone for sneaking away by serving him." The other knight added, stepping closer.
"Clearly you must be mistaken." Ren tried to pivot, taking a step back. "If anything, we are royal envoys, preparing a gift for the great king Kamoshida. It was meant to be an offering unlike any he's seen before. So if you could escort us to the entrance, we'll simply—"
Yeah perhaps that had been a bit optimistic. The closest knight rushed at him before he could finish his words, tackling him to the ground as the other quickly ran to Suzui, grabbing her by the arm.
Crashing into the ground, Ren felt the heavy metal foot of the knight step on his chest as he raised his sword, ready to cut him down.
"Wait, you'd take the honor of killing the blasphemer from the king?" Ren shouted, causing the knight on top of him to hesitate. "Clearly, the king would want to take my life with his own hands wouldn't he?"
That gained him some time, but that still didn't solve the situation he found himself in. He'd been too excited at finding out that there was more to the "play" than he'd thought, that he hadn't prepared himself for the castle he found himself in.
He should have hidden himself the first chance he'd gotten. But it was too late to regret that.
Still, as he saw the knight in front of him debating whether or not he should kill him, Ren heard a voice inside his mind. The voice spoke in an almost poetic manner.
'Soft, the hour strikes. My patience hath run its course.'
The voice had no clear gender, no clear tone. It changed from a man's voice to a woman's voice with every word. From a young kid to an old person with every sentence. Soft to rough, deep to high pitched.
'What mockery is this, that rogues in such threadbare disguises dare attempt our slaughter?' The voice spoke, using an almost Shakespearean tone before changing once more. 'Will you allow the mask we have worn upon our face to be stripped so quickly? By those who know not the mask upon them?'
"No." Ren answered instinctively, hearing a delighted chuckle inside of his mind at the answer.
'Good. Then let the show begin.'
At their voice, a burst of wind shot out around Ren, causing the knight on top of him to stumble backwards and fall to the ground. It was then that Ren reached instinctively for his face, feeling what appeared to be a mask. A pure white theater mask without any real features.
Standing up from the ground, Ren's fingers gripped the edges of the mask and through the pain, he began to pull it instinctively.
'Let us enact upon this world a spectacle to beguile the very gods themselves with delight.' The voice spoke once more, changing the way it spoke with every sentence. 'I am thou, and thou art I. I am Tartuffe, the impostor, the hypocrite. We are they whose very vizards are their only true visage.'
It was then that the white, featureless theater mask on Ren's face began to change, it was engulfed by blueish flames as it grew smaller, turning into a birdlike domino mask with black designs around the eyes reminiscent of full eyeliner and sharp lashes.
'We are they who hold no true face, so let's begin by donning our second mask. For now, I shall assume the mantle of The Pillager of Twilight.' Tartuffe spoke, the delighted chuckle growing even more. 'Let us then, fool the world once more.'
With a scream that tore through his throat, Ren finally managed to rip the mask from his face. Blood splattered and blue flames erupted, the heat searing the air as a pitch-black, unstable figure materialized behind him. It was a humanoid shape, but it refused to hold still, its form shifting.
A shapeless arm reached out, snatching a handful of the blue flames drifting in the air. The fire solidified in its grip, forming a sharp domino mask. Without hesitation, the entity known as Tartuffe raised the mask to its face and pressed it into place.
The moment the mask locked on, the creature's instability vanished. Huge, black wings burst from its back, scattering feathers across the air. In an instant, the shadow hardened into a massive, imposing figure clad in a crimson, eighteenth-century aristocrat's suit, complete with a tall top hat cradled between two jagged horns.
Strangely, as the creature finished taking shape behind him, a name appeared in Ren's mind. A name he called out.
"Arsene!"
As if the name were the trigger, the towering figure behind Ren surged into action. It moved with frightening speed, tackling the knight that had been seconds away from executing him. In an almost animalistic display of violence, the elegant monster dug its claws into the knight's helmet, ripping the metal mask off by force.
Tartuffe didn't stop there. He leaped toward the second knight, the one still clutching a terrified Suzui, and tore the mask from that one's face just as effortlessly.
The two knights began to convulse violently. Their armor melted away into black goo before exploding outward, revealing their true forms: two floating, cloak-wearing wizards holding lanterns, with grinning pumpkins for heads.
Ren didn't give the strange monsters a chance to breathe. Using the strange connection he now felt to the entity in front of him, he commanded Tartuffe to attack.
For his part, Tartuffe simply raised a gloved hand and snapped his fingers.
A wave of crimson and black energy, looking like cursed fire, erupted from the ground beneath the floating magicians. The blast knocked them off balance, sending them reeling in the air. Seeing the opening, Tartuffe charged forward again, his heels clicking against the floor before he lunged, tackling the two magicians to the ground.
Before they could recover, Tartuffe dug his clawed hands into the faces of the monsters once more. He ripped away the pumpkin's faces, dragging them toward his own face. The moment the broken fragments drew close, the pumpkins burst into fire, swirling into a vortex that was instantly absorbed into Tartuffe's own face.
Just like that, the battle was over. And with the battle complete, Tartuffe burst into a wave of blue flames once more, flames that flew into Ren's face, transforming into the strange domino mask once more before burning away, leaving him just as he had been when they'd appeared in the castle.
It was then that Ren collapsed to his knees, taking in deep breaths as a wave of nausea and exhaustion struck him. He felt so incredibly sleepy he had to slap his face a few times to stay up.
"Amamiya!" Suzui called out, running to his side as she helped support him. "What—what was that? There was a monster, and then— then the knights, they—" She began, stumbling over her words before going quiet as she looked at him.
"I don't know." Ren answered honestly, pushing himself to his feet with Suzui's help. She looked somewhat incredulous at him, like she didn't believe him, but he simply repeated himself. "I honestly have no clue. This is all new to me too. But we should probably move away from here, we made a bit of a commotion, so more knights are bound to come check what happened."
"I—" She began, closing her mouth as she looked at where the knights had come from before nodding. "Ok, let's get out of here."
She clearly still had a lot on her mind, but she also had enough sense to know that now was not the time, so with her help, the two of them began to try to find a way to escape.