A Thief Fights A King

Ren was keeping himself as quiet as possible while sneaking through the halls. Sticking mostly to the outer perimeters where security was most lax, yet his mind kept wandering back to what led him here.

The orgasm with Naomi should have tipped him off that Kamoshida was too powerful. Ren had found this other world alone, but could not believe that the 'King' had control over reality to this extent. Having access to some strange ability to convince every male in the school to wear a chastity belt and convince them that it was the right thing to do. Far beyond any usual Gym Teacher’s job description, King of the school was a fitting title, even if it did sting to acknowledge it.

This castle of Kamoshida’s making was a curse to traverse. Halls of wailing students, shadowy creatures on every corner, Ren was only making it by clinging to the shadows and waiting almost whole hours before continuing inside. Kamoshida had spent so many years with the horrible belief that he could do anything he wanted in that school, and that had turned into a cognitive palace, the home of twisted desires, and something that had begun to leak over into the real world.

Two blue girls had appeared to him when he first entered this other world and had explained all about palaces, cognition, personas, and everything they could. The pair were rather rude about the whole event, but it was an attitude that Ren had grown used to this last week of Shujin.

As he waited for the latest guards to move on Ren's mind went back to what happened after the nurse. Maybe his encounter with Naomi had tipped Kamoshida off that something was amiss with Ren’s presence. Because after that, things had taken a massive turn for the worse.

Kamoshida’s shadow ran everything. No one could even argue with him…

And if they did, they were instantly expelled.

Ren had no idea it would be so quick and decisive. Just a simple altercation to protect someone and Kamoshida had pulled strings to get the juvenile expelled. Kamoshida’s mental hold on the blonde delinquent that he was protecting meant even he quickly fell in line, practically begging the man to keep him in school so he could keep his sports scholarship. Kamoshida agreed, all with that sick grin on his face, knowing that no one could stop him.

The ringing of that phone when he came back to Café Lebanc will haunt Ren’s memories forever. Sojiro looked very disappointed, but not surprised, telling him that the police would be there soon to take him back to the detention centre before heading to jail. He was eighteen now after all, this was his last chance to become a good member of society… and he knew that Shido would do what he could to keep him in jail forever.

But he wasn’t going to let that happen.

He’d managed to sneak into the deepest part of the dungeon, the treasure room. Hypothetically this was where the ‘treasure’ of the man’s heart should reside, but they never had a chance to send the calling card. So now it was just a pile of fake cognitive gold.

Ren suspected it was probably booby trapped.

He kicked the largest piece of gold rubbish he could to make it topple over with a large crash.

VWRAAAAARR VWAAAAARRRR

He’d avoided every shadow and puzzle that led up to this place. Running gauntlets and crawling through vents, all to get here and set off the crazy loud alarms on purpose. It was the one place that Kamoshida didn’t think he could reach, and getting here could give Ren a slight cognitive advantage to what was about to happen.

Large iron vault doors were ripped open. A monstrous version of Kamoshida with a huge crown and huger tongue screeched before him. But Ren was not shaken, nor did he even flinch at the sight, glaring pure venomous daggers at the creature.

“Ehhh? A little rat got in!” Shadow Kamoshida mockingly roared, his voice deafeningly loud, “Didn’t I already banish you? I’ll be sure to get the exterminators in next t-!”

BANG!

Ren’s gun wasn’t strong enough to damage it, but the sudden impact of bullet onto eye was at least enough to startle the creature. Stumbling back into his throne room with a roar as the thief’s mask began to dissolve away into fire, showing a red tuxedoed persona behind him.

“Shut the fuck up. Let’s do this, King Smalldick.”

He lunged at the shadow beast like a wild animal.

The world had betrayed him over and over. Adults. Students. Teachers. Everyone had either abandoned him or treated Ren like trash. His blows were fierce, rabid, and uncaring of his own health. The man’s back was against the wall and he had literally nothing else to lose.

Shadow Kamoshida and Ren were taking chunks out of each other for what felt like hours. Neither giving the other an inch, just chipping away at their health while attacking with all their might. Arsene slashing and blasting the monster over and over, Ren shooting and stabbing as many important looking body parts as he could reach, and Kamoshida slamming his full weight down onto the boy whenever he stood still long enough to hit.

But in the end, as they stood bloody messes, there was one man stood above the other.

Ren cocked his gun in Shadow Kamoshida’s face.

“Grrr, y-you’re going to kill me?!” He half growled, half whimpered. Fearing his life yet trying to look somewhat kingly in his final moments, “At least I’ll die knowing you’ll be behind bars for years to come! Gahahahaha!”

The thief tightened his grip. He wanted to kill him, to crumble this king's monarchy and free the peasants of the school. But the peasants had rejected him, made him bitter, and if Kamoshida died they would definitely blame him for his ****. Even if they still hoped it to come true, even if they desired Kamoshida's **** with all their hearts, the masses wouldn't let Ren the murderous newcomer live in peace after this. He would come out of this world and be turned into the police instantly for his crimes. Things had escalated too far for him to be able to escape his fate… no one would ever listen to him…

No one would ever listen to him.

"...but they’ll listen to you.”

“Heh?! What was that? GcK!!”

His foot was pressing harder down on the shadow’s windpipe, looking a little more worried as Ren’s face grew colder. “You know, I have a theory after what happened to Naomi.” He growled, keeping his gun locked on the shadow beast’s forehead, “What kind of King needs everyone to wear a chastity belt? An insecure one, that’s who. A fool who needs to lock the whole school down, and banish those who might have bigger dicks than he.”

“No one’s b-bigger than me!” It choked, “I am a King! A ruler of the beasts! A-!”

His pants were already damaged from the fight, so it took no effort for Ren to rip them off in one clean motion with his free hand.

Instantly the mood switched. The long shaft slapping against his leg was more than intimidating, more than emasculating, it was reality shifting in its length. Suddenly the palace’s air felt different, and the shadow beneath Ren began to shrink.

“Y-you… that’s…”

“Mrow!” Purred a voice from the side, Cognitive Ann Takamaki crawling out in her sexy bikini next to her Cognitive friend Bunny Shiho. Both looking rather turned on by the sexy “Look at the size of him! He beat the King and has a bigger thing? Maybe the new guy is superior.”

It was all the words Kamoshida was saying to himself, when you think about it. And as more shadows poured in, all representing the students or members of faculty, they all began to throw jeers at the pair. Claims of Ren’s dominance and Kamoshida’s inferiority swirled around the room.

And then the calls for **** appeared.

“Kill him!” “Kill Kamoshida!” “You’re better!” “Destroy him!”

Shadow Kamoshida was frantic, and tiny. Returning to his human-like form and babbling pleas for his life under his breath. Both to Ren and the crowd as his world fell apart around him.

“**** is a scary thing, isn’t it? The endless nothing. The finality of it all. You can barely even comprehend the idea without thinking of yourself inside a black void, but its much worse than that. You just… stop. Forever.”

The shadow was hissing in both rage and fear, “W-what are you saying?! Y-you want me scared?! I’m scared, okay! The King is at your mercy!”

Ren's foot pressed deeper into his neck, enjoying the power over the creep that had ruined his life for no reason at all, “You are. My mercy." Ren let the moment hang, pressing the gun into the villain's forehead hard enough to make it a mark, "I'm going to negotiate a deal with you. You are a shadow, and I can use your power for my own. So join me or find out which religion was right.” He growled in anger, and once more pulled the safety off his pistol. The shadow gulped, “Make your choice in three, two, o-”

The scared shaggy haired shadow with barely any clothes on looked more like a wimp about to piss his pants instead of a king in his throneroom, “I’ll do it! I’ll join you! Please don’t kill meeeee!!!!”

Silence in the room was thick. Every shadow and cognition heard the man’s announcement, and began to kneel at their new king.

“The contract is made.” said Ren, putting his gun down while the shadow once more began burning away into blue fire. His mask was all that was left of the old king, and it was quickly recovered and added to Ren’s list of personas.

He was gone. Kamoshida was now his to command.

The blue girls who had explained this to him had said that the palace could be destroyed as soon as the owner either fell or had his 'treasure stolen'. But neither happened, the palace was stable, not falling or crumbling, and all the shadows remained kneeling towards Ren.

Those that were going to send him to jail for life, now knelt around him. His own desires twisting to the corrupt world that tried to chew him up. Strong clearly dominated the weak here, and now Ren was the strongest in the whole school.

With a certain level of swagger, Ren did two things. First, he picked up the one item that Shadow Kamoshida had left behind, a shiny gold crowd that quickly sat upon the thief's head. And second... he sat in a cavalier way on the king's throne.

It was less a defeat of the old guard and more… under new management.

Ren selected the new shadow as his primary persona.

"What is this? Where am I?” Snarked the voice in his brain, "Is this what you put your shadows through? I should be treated better, for I am-!”

Ren replied in his own mind, “A loser. A fool. Nothing compared to me.”

"Y-yes… sir.”

“Say it. Tell me what you are.”

“A loser… a fool… nothing compared to you.”

“Now keep saying it until you 100% believe it, but also listen to what I have to say. I need you to give some instructions to your original mind, got it?”

“You’re adopting him, Kamoshida?!”

The police had tracked Ren down to the house of the man who had accused him of ****, fearing he’d be there for some extra ****; but they were very surprised to hear Kamoshida’s side of the story.

“I believe I was too harsh on the boy. He is simply a troublemaker in need of guidance, something his old guardian was not giving him.” The old olympian explained, “No, there’s potential in him that I wish to nurture. I am dropping the charges on him, reinstating his enrolment, and letting him live with me for the foreseeable future.”

They were confused, but the amount of power that Kamoshida held also influenced people in his house as well. They weren’t going to be wearing chastity belts but they were certainly swayed by his words. The level of power that Ren could now control through him, telling Shadow Kamoshida what to say and having it be parroted back to the police with pinpoint accuracy.

As Kamoshida left the house to sort out all the paperwork with the police, Ren waltzed over and sat on the large white couch in front of the even larger TV. Kamoshida's bachelor pad was very nice, with lots of space to walk around in and a lovely bedroom that Ren now owned. Flipping on an anime and eating a slice of Kamoshida’s pizza, relaxing on his new throne.