April 15th

"I can't believe Suzui missed such an important meeting. I wonder what happened."

"Mr. Kamoshida asked to see her. I've heard rumours about how the two of them stay late together."

"I wonder what's going on. You don't think they're...?"

"Nah, it couldn't be."

"Man, it's been nothing but bad news lately. I'm worried about the future."

"Oh, that reminds me. Apparently, a guest is coming to the school today. Some young guy, I think."

"Oh? Tell me more."

I went to class.

"So I assume all of you know about the separation of powers?" said Mr. Ushimaru. "There are three branches in our government. The National Diet is legislative, the Cabinet is executive and the Supreme Court is judiciary. This division of power provides checks and balances, which ensures no one branch becomes unstoppable."

The subject itself was something I was interested in, at least mildly, but the way Mr. Ushimaru was giving his lecture more or less killed it. It also didn't help that those same powers were what got me arrested and sent here in the first place. If the check and balance system actually worked, I'd been attending classes in a place that didn't have self-entitled dicks as teachers and students that didn't bother me via rumours. Although, I would not end up being friends with Ryuji, at least he's making this school a little more bearable. I looked ahead where Takamaki was staring out the window in boredom. I guess we are pretty similar.

"Have you made up your mind?"

I grunted in surprise as I heard the familiar voice. A small fuzzy head popped out from inside the desk.

"No matter how much thinking you do, there's only one option. You's be better off just listening to me," Morgana said in his usual proud self with did nothing but further raise my ire.

"Don't talk." I said.

"Hm? Did I just hear a cat just now?" Mr. Ushimaru suddenly spoke up, catching both me and Morgana by surprise as the man and some of my classmates looked around the room.

"Meow!" Morgana mewed suddenly and I had to use all my power to not facepalm at the cat's antics.

"Hm... Could that rumoured cat be somewhere nearby? Settle down! We're in the middle of an important lecture!"

I got a message on my phone from Ryuji.

[Ryuji: It's no use, I can't think of any other way.]

[John: Concentrate on class.]

[Ryuji: I can't deal with that shot right now. I mean, what're we gonna do about Kamoshida?]

[Ryuji: Do we just gotta go along with what that cat says?]

[Ryuji: Urgh, that damn fur ball.]

"If he only knew I'm reading this too." said Morgana.

I shook my head with a sigh as I pocketed my phone. I then turned my head to my teacher to see if there was anything new about the lecture, only to see one of my classmates standing up suddenly.

"Hey, what's that!?" the student said.

Me and the other students turned slowly to where the standing student was staring.

"Enough! This is a classroom!" Mr. Ushimaru ordered, though his words were ignored by us as we all focused on the window.

"Wait, she's going to jump!" one girl exclaimed, her words bringing panic as me and a few others got up from our seats.

I feeling of dread fell over me. I didn't want to believe that someone was actually willing to kill themselves at this school but it was happening now and I had no idea what to do. I couldn't even think who would actually end their life until Mishima softly spoke a name that made my blood turn cold.

"Suzui?"

"Shiho?" Takamaki questioned in shock and horror, using up from her seat as quickly as she could before rushing out the room.

"Hey!" said Mr. Ushimaru. "Stay in your seats! Do not step foot outside of this room!"

I ran out the room in a hurry, ignoring my instructor's demands as I rushed myself to the window. Out in the hall, Ann pressed herself up against a window, eyes wide agape.

To my horror, I saw Suzui, more battered and bruised than ever before, standing on the edge of the roof overlooking the courtyard, prepared to take her life. I was ready to go after her. It was then that Suzui did the one thing that would haunt me and Takamaki for the longest time. She did not jump. She simply fell forwards and took the plunge.

"No, why? Shiho!" Ann screamed.

Ann's scream continued as she tore herself away from the window and ran for the stairwell. I made to follow but felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to face Ryuji.

"Hey! What's going on!?"

"Suzui just jumped off the roof!" I said.

"We should head to the courtyard too!" Ryuji said.

We both chased downstairs and out to the courtyard. Panic. That was the only word that took describe what as happening at Shujin right now. Students were piling on windows and doors to get to the courtyard.

The doorway was practically blocked off by a large number of our peers clamouring around it, also wanting to get into the courtyard.

"The hell is this!? There's no way we're gonna get past all these goddamn people. C'mon, let's try going through the practice building!" said Ryuji.

"We have no time to lose right now!" I said.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for us to reach the practice building, though we did have to go through a few people in the process.

"What the hell!?"

"Let me through, man!" said Ryuji. "Please!"

After that, it was a fairly easy process to get to the courtyard, as there were hardly any people in the practice building as Ryuji predicted, and we managed to get outside with little issue. After getting out, we were greeted by the sight of multiple students clamouring around an ambulance that made it's way into the courtyard and Shiho laying still. Teachers were trying their hardest to keep the teens calm.

"Class is still in session!"

It was a sight that horrified us but then we heard a familiar voice and looked to see Takamaki staring at her best friend, terrified beyond belief at the state the poor girl was in.

"Shiho!"

Acting on instinct, we walked towards the to get a close look at Shiho, having to **** our way through a bunch of our peers to get to our destination. I heard the click of cameraphones and excited whispers of the students.

"What the hell's wrong with these people!?" Ryuji growled.

Both of us grimaced at the sight of Shiho and her current states, ignoring the multiple teachers begging their students to return to class. Someone must've called an ambulance because paramedics were attending to the fallen girl with immediate care when one of them walked up to the mass of students.

"We need someone to grow with her. Are there any teachers around?" the man requested, causing the students to look around for their instructors but found none that were willing to go.

"I'm not in charge of her class though." one teacher stated, looking at the scene with nervous eyes.

"We should leave this to Principal Kobayakawa." another teacher suggested.

"Dammit, how cowardly are these fucking teachers?" I hissed angrily with Ryuji nodding in agreement.

"I'll go!" Takamaki announced.

"Please hurry!" the paramedic pleaded before rushing back to the ambulance while Takamaki kneeled down to her best friend, hoping she wasn't too late.

"Shiho, why?" the girl pleaded, her voice sounding broken.

"Ann?" a quiet voice suddenly spoke, causing Takamaki to look down to Suzui, who was looking at the blonde with dim eyes.

"I'm sorry. I can't take this, anymore." Suzui mumbled softly, Takamaki barely able to hear her.

Takamaki moved her head closer in order to hear her friend better.

"Shiho?" she asked, keeping herself silent as Shiho began whispering to her. "Huh? Kamoshida!?"

Suzui finally succumbed to her fall and passed out.

"No. Shiho!?"

As the ambulance departed and the students began to talk amongst themselves, ignoring their teachers in the process, me and Ryuji simply stood where we were, wondering what we could do now.

"Volleyball team." Ryuji muttered under his breath, me barely hearing it.

"Yeah." I mumbled, my hands clenching into fists at the thought of what could have happened to Suzui to cause her to go off the deep end.

I was about to talk to Ryuji once more on what we should do when we heard the sound of someone running and turned just in time to see a dark haired teen rush by us.

"Hey, wasn't that Mishima just now?" I questioned softly.

"Yeah, that's him. Wasn't he acting weird?" Ryuji asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He knows something," I nodded, causing the punk to nod back with a determined expression on his face.

"We're gonna make him talk this time," Ryugi stated fiercely before we rushed towards the direction of where Mishima ran off to, ignoring the sound of the principal pleading to his teachers to get the students back into class.

It didn't take long for us to reach Mishima who was by his locker and before the bruised teen even realised it, he was backed into a corner.

"That hurts!" Mishima cried after Ryuji caused him to run into the lockers, looking at us in fear.

"Why'd you run like that? Huh!?" Ryuji questioned, getting straight to the point.

"I didn't run." Mishima denied weakly before jumping at the sound of Ryuji slamming his fist on one of the nearby lockers.

"She jumped and tried to kill herself!" the infuriated teen exclaimed, making the quivering boy flinch at the sound before turning to me.

"Leave me alone." he pleaded.

"Do you know something?" I asked.

"He's right! We ain't trying to get you busted. We won't say you talked either!" Ryuji stated.

"Suzui." he began, tears spilling from his eyes, "she was called out by Mr. Kamoshida!"

"What, wait!?" Ryuji exclaimed.

"Dammit, I had a feeling that was the case." I muttered softly to myself as I listened to Mishima continuing his explanation.

"I was called by him a number of times too to the teacher's room. It wasn't just me or Suzui either. He'd nominate someone when he was in a bad mood and hit them."

"So the physical punishment thing was for real." Ryuji deduced.

"But yesterday, he called Suzui out of the blue. She didn't make any mistakes or anything," Mishima went on. "Mr. Kamoshida seemed really irritated that day, so it must've been worse than usual."

Those words made my blood run cold. I had a deep suspicion as to why Kamoshida was in a bad mood and it made the dark feeling I was getting even worse. Kamoshida **** Shiho.

"He didn't...!? That son of a bitch!" Ryuji suddenly cried out, his fury at an all time high.

The infuriated teen rushed out of the hallway we were in and towards the stairs leading to the second floor.

"I bet Sakamoto's going to find Mr. Kamoshida. Mr. Kamoshida's probably in the PE faculty office on the second floor." Mishima said before ran off to where Ryuji was heading, the beaten body following close by."

It didn't take long for me to get into the PE faculty office. In fact, I managed to get there just as Ryuji entered the room.

"He went into the PE faculty office!" said Mishima. "Let's hurry, we have to go after him."

With Mishima following right behind me, I ran into the room where I was greeted by the sight of Ryuji shouting at Kamoshida, who was sat at his desk, his back to us.

"Huh?" said Kamoshida, turning round with a bored expression.

"Ryuji," I said, but Ryuji shook his head.

"You bastard! The hell did you do to that girl!?" the punk exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" the coach questioned in a dismissive tone, which only served to further infuriate Ryuji to the point of kicking down a nearby trashcan in frustration.

"Don't play dumb with me!"

"That is enough!" Kamoshida scolded the punk.

I prepared to speak when Mishima beat me to the punch.

"What you did wasn't coaching!" the beaten boy spoke up, getting everyone's attention, including Kamoshida's.

"What did you say?" the coach questioned, a fierce expression on his face as he turned to Mishima.

"You ordered me to call Suzui here. I can only imagine what you did to her!" Mishima stated, holding his head in grief.

"You're going on and on about things you any no proof of." Kamoshida growled as he stood to his full height, easily towering over us. "Basically, you're simply making these claims because you can't be a regular on the team, right?"

"That's not what this is about!" Mishima retaliated, a spark of courage that seemed to come out of the usually submissive teen, yet, Kamoshida wasn't moved in the slightest.

"Even if it is exactly as you imagine it to be, hypothetically speaking, what ca you do?" the man said as he leaned forward right in front of Ryuji's face.

"We just received a call from a hospital. Suzui's in a coma and her chances of recovery are slim. How would someone like that make a statement! There's no chance of her getting better, I hear. Oh, the poor girl." Kamoshida finished his statement, looking quite dramatic with his hand over his face as if in sorrow and his voice laced with false sympathy, which served to aggravate us while Mishima stepped back in horror, muttering softly to himself in disbelief.

"No, that can't be."

"You goddamn...!"

"This again? Does this mean we need to have yet another case of "self-defence"?" Kamoshida spoke up

"You shut your mouth, you son of a bitch!" the blonde exclaimed, his fist raised and ready to punch the smug coach in the face when I grabbed his arm firmly, causing him to turn to me in surprise. "Why are you stopping me!?"

"Don't let him let to you," I stated.

"But still!" Ryuji exclaimed as he pulled his arm away.

"Oh? You're stopping him? What a surprise. There's no need to hold back. Why not attack me?" Kamoshida taunted with a smirk on his face before getting off a laugh. "Oh, you can't. But of course you can't! Everyone present right now will be expelled. I'm reporting all of you at the next board meeting."

I remained calm despite the raging inferno that was within me.

"Wha..." said Ryuji.

"You can't make a decision like that...!" Mishima spoke up hysterically.

"Who would seriously consider what scum like you say?" Kamoshida questioned with a raised eyebrow at us. "You threatened me too, Mishima, so you're just as responsible."

"Huh?"

"To think you didn't know why I kept someone as talentless as you on the team. You act like you're a victim but you leaked his criminal records, didn't you?"

"He did what?" I questioned, turning to Mishima.

"It's all over the internet, correct? How terrible," Kamoshida continued, adding more fuel to the fire and causing Ryuji to turn his head to the now frightened teen.

"Mishima?" the blonde questioned softly in disbelief.

"He told me to do it. I had ****." Mishima stated in despair, falling to his knees as he confessed as if levering for forgiveness.

"It's alright, Mishima. I understand. It's not your fault. It's his." I said in a quiet tone.

"Now, are we finished here? You're all expelled! You're done for. Your futures are mine to take. Now get out of my sight." Kamoshida announced in finality, which served to further infuriate Ryuji.

"I can't believe this asshole's getting away with this!" he exclaimed.

"He'll eat his words," I said.

"Huh?" Ryuji questioned, looking a little confused until he saw me pull out my phone slightly, the device active and showing a familiar crimson eye and it was at this moment, he realised what I meant. "Oh right, we have that!"

"Huh? Have you lost your minds?" Kamoshida growled as he overheard our conversation but not understanding a word we meant. "You worthless kids aren't making any sense but sure, go ahead and try. After all, you'll have plenty of time to kill until expulsion."

"We'll see about that. Let's go." I muttered as he gestured to Ryuji to leave along with me, with Mishima behind looking even bleaker than usual.

We went to the courtyard.

"We can't waste any time. We gotta hurry up and go to that world and beat the shit outta that asshole!" Ryuji said while slamming his fist into the vending machine

"We're not beating him up,. We're simply stealing his distorted desires." Morgana chided the enthusiastic blonde."

"Can we beat him up in the process of stealing his desires? I really want to deck the guy in the face after everything he's done so far." I requested, my arms crossed.

"Wow, you are really fired up now. Can I assume that you're made up your mind about this? About how he might suffer a mental shutdown?" Morgana asked hid old question once more.

"I have," Ryuji muttered as he turned to Morgana. "Someone almost died because of him! I don't give a rat's ass what happens to him anymore!"

"And you?"

"I agree." I said.

"Then it's settled." Morgana said happily.

"By the way, is getting rid of a Palace hard? You've tried it before, right?" Ryuji asked.

"When did I ever say that?" Morgana asked with a curious head tilt, making us stare at him in disbelief.

"Eh? WHAT!? You were just pretending to know!?" Ryuji exclaimed what was on both of our minds at the moment.

"Is it true that you're getting expelled? Everyone's talking about it." a familiar voice called out to us, prompting us to turn to Takamaki staring at us with a dark look in her eyes.

"That asshole's at it again!" Ryuji grumbled to himself, before to Ann in annoyance. "So you came all this way to tell us that?"

Ann stood silent for a moment as if gathering her words.

It only lasted a moment but after that, she turned to us with a fierce look in her eyes. "If you're going to deal with Kamoshida, let me in on it too. I can't just sit back and do nothing after what happened to Shiho!"

"This has nothing to do with you. Don't butt your head into this." Ryuji spoke up, causing me to look at him in surprise, wondering why he was being so aggressive with the girl this time.

"But it does! Shiho's my-"

"I said don't get in our way!"

It was only a few moments later that tears of hurt filled the girl's eyes and she ran away from us.

"That was harsh." Morgana pointed out while staring at Ryuji.

"Yeah, couldn't you have been a little gentler on her? Her friend just attempted to commit suicide for crying out loud," I questioned.

"We can't take her somewhere like that." Ryuji said.

"I hope she doesn't do anything too crazy. Women can be much bolder than men at times," Morgana said, a little worried.

"We just gotta hurry and deal with Kamoshida. Let's go, already!" Ryuji ordered.

Thankfully it didn't take the three of us too long to get to our spot. There were hardly any students or other individuals nearby as far as we could tell, meaning we were safe to go to Kamoshida's Palace without anyone noticing.

"The moment we cross over, we'll treat each other like phantom thieves, so I hope you're ready." Morgana announced.

"Huh? Phantom thieves?" Ryuji parroted, looking down at Morgana curiously.

"Those who covertly sneak in and stylishly steal treasure, that is what we will become!" Morgana explained with pride.

"I see." I nodded, liking the idea the more I thought about it.

"That sounds kinda cool!" Ryuji spoke up with a grin. "So we just gotta say the school, Kamoshida's name and "castle"? Then we end up in bizarro world."

"Yup, that's pretty much how it goes," I nodded.

"How the hell's all this work? Someone make it?" Ryuji questioned.

"Of course." I said with a shrug, not entirely sure if I should explain that the Metaverse app came into existence due to the power of a long nosed clairvoyant and his twin warden cosplayers.

"That's kinda creepy but eh, seems useful enough," Ryuji shrugged, uncaring with an easy grin, causing me to chuckle a little in response. "We'll show that fucking Kamoshida!"

"Get ready everyone. It's showtime," I said as I pulled out my phone to activate the app.

"Let's go!" Morgana simply said.