Kamoshida's Training Hall of Love

We listened in on the knights outside.

"Hm, I thought I just heard something move over there. I guess it my imagination."

"And what of the slaves?"

"They're all in the training hall. I'd assume they're screaming in pain by now."

"Very well. By the way, I heard we may have intruders around. Stay on your guard."

The knights all went their separate ways.

"Did you hear that?" asked Morgana.

"They said training hall, right?" asked Ryuji.

"I think that's just a little further ahead. Let's go!"

We found another guard at the bottom of the guards.

"Ugh, there's a guard on duty here." said Morgana. "The way to the training hall should be just beyond those bars."

"So, what're you gonna do?" asked Ryuji. "Do we gotta fight it?"

"Seems like it. Just don't let it notice you beforehand. If it does, the Palace's security level will rise."

"And what do we do if that happens? Run away?"

"Well, the security level will go back down if we can beat more enemies without getting noticed."

"They sounds uh... complicated."

"Fine, I'll put together some info about the security level. This crucial to successful Palace infiltration, so make sure you actually read it, okay?"

I got behind the guy and ripped his mask off, making him transformation into a couple of mandrakes that Morgana and I defeated before we went through the gate.

"The training hall's up ahead, right?" asked Ryuji.

"Yeah, its a little further," said Morgana. "Make sure you watch out for any guards along the way."

Down the stairs, we saw some guards talking and hid behind a corner.

"Hey, have you seen anyone who looks like an intruder?" asked one of them.

"No, nobody yet."

"Shoot, I had a feeling they're be a lot of enemies," said Morgana. "It'd be impossible to dodge all of them."

"Then, what do we do?" asked Ryuji. "Should we try and take 'em down like before?"

"It's not that simple. We still have a long way to go, so we should be conserving energy."

"I see, sorry. Dammit, I wish I could fight, I'd at least be able to help out a little bit, but all I got is this toy from earlier. I'm such a loser."

"Huh? Do you mean that gun?"

"Yeah, it looks real n' all but it doesn't shoot anything."

One of the guards had gone on ahead.

"I see, well, there is a way," said Morgana. "Okay, we'll use that to take down the enemies!"

"What!?" asked Ryuji. "Were you listening to me? It don't even shoot pellets."

"Yeah, I'm with Ryuji on this one. Are you sure it will work?" I whispered, looking down at the fake pistol.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll work," said Morgana. "Attack away, Frizzy Hair!"

"Leave it to me." I said.

"Dude, I keep saying, it's not gonna fire anything!" said Ryuji.

Zorro appeared from atop the barrels and punched the guard, causing him to transformation into a pumpkin demon and a what looked like a humanoid plant monster, respectively.

"Alright! Now point it at the Shadows and fire!" Morgana ordered.

I leapt out of my hiding spot and continuously shot at the pumpkin demon, a flurry of bullets coming out of the pistol and striking the monster.

"How about that!?" said Morgana. "Surprised? There are plenty of instances where rapid fire's going to be more useful than swinging your knife. Of course, you can run out of ammo but using it all up does more good than letting it collect dust! Alright, I'll show you my weapon too!"

Morgana pulled out a large slingshot and rapidly fired pellets at the plant creature, killing it. The moment both enemies were defeated, Ryuji rushed towards us and stared at me in surprise while I myself was looking at the toy gun in my hand with shock.

"Whoa! Did that toy gun just shoot real freaking BULLETS!?" Ryuji exclaimed in surprise.

"This is a cognitive world," said Morgana proudly, "As long as our opponent sees them as real, it becomes such. It's a good thing it's realistic looking."

"I don't get it," Ryuji muttered while shaking his head.

"Because they recognise it as a gun, your ammo capacity is limited in battle but your enemies are expecting you to come at them with guns loaded, so your ammo's replenished in every new fight."

The other guard came back, "What's the commotion over here? Wha...!? Why, you bastards!"

"Get ready, here comes another one!" said Morgana. "Take 'em down!"

I punched the guard, making him transform into another plant creature.

"Our ammo's replenished!" said Morgana. "Go on, dump it into the enemy!"

We shot the mandrake to ****.

"Just like I thought, all our ammo returned for that fight." said Morgana.

"I wasn't sure whether or not to bring it at first but I'm sure glad I did." said Ryuji.

"We're definitely lucky to have the additional firearm in our arsenal. I may say, well down, even if it was just dumb luck that it worked here."

"Did you really have to put it like that?"

"Quite griping, Blondie, you're still getting praised."

We continued on to find another guard blocking our path.

"A guard." said Morgana. "I'm pretty sure that's where we need to be going, too."

"You guys gonna take it down again?" asked Ryuji.

"I guess that's our only choice! An all out attack!"

I punched the guard, causing it to transform into a pixie.

"Eiha!" I said.

Arsene killed the pixie with an energy ball.

"Mm, that went off really well! You're definitely fit for this."

"Yeah, that was over quick!" said Ryuji.

We walked a doorway to see one more room that led to where we needed to be, this one housing a strange banner that made all of us uneasy at the sight of it.

"Alright, this it it!" said Morgana.

"Kamoshida's Training Hall of Love. What kinda bullshit is this!?" Ryuji asked after reading the sign.

"It's safe to assume this is the room we're looking for, right?" I asked Morgana, who nodded in response.

We went through the door.

"This voice, where's it coming from?" asked Ryuji. "Oh, it is coming from over there!?"

Despite our mental preparedness, neither of us were ready to experience what we were about to witness.

The moment we looked through the first cell, only one word could aptly describe what we saw. ****.

Pure, unadulterated **** that seemed to have no end in sight.

"What the hell?" I muttered as I saw a multitude of guards whipping a bunch of students in gym clothes that looked to be our age.

"Dammit! This is bullshit!" Ryuji exclaimed, looking as if he was ready to explode in anger.

"How many times we I have to tell you to keep your voice down!?" Morgana hissed as he sat on a barrel, unfazed by the horror before him.

"But this is beyond messed up!" Ryuji stressed while gesturing to the scene in front of us. "How do I open this!?"

"Let me try. I think Arsene might be able to bust down something like this," I growled.

"Stop it!" a faint beaten voice up from behind the bars, causing us to freeze as a young man our age that was covered in bandages slowly approached us. "Leave us alone. It's useless."

"Huh!?" said Ryuji.

"If we stay obedient, we won't be executed like you guys!" he said, the statement infuriating Ryuji as he gripped the bars tightly.

"You telling me you wanna stay in a place like this!?" the vulgar teen sounded angry.

"Wait a minute. Were you planning on taking these guys out of here?" Morgana questioned as he looked at us oddly.

"We can't just leave 'em here!" Ryuji exclaimed while gesturing to the cell.

"How stupid can you be?" Morgana shook his head, which only served to anger Ryuji even more.

"What!?" Ryuji shouted.

"They're not real, are they?" I said softy, my gloved hand clenching into a fist as the others turned to me.

Morgana nodded, solemnly.

"Frizzy's right. These are only humans in Kamoshida's cognition. They aren't real humans that have entered from reality. They're different from you two."

"Cognition?" asked Ryuji.

"It means there's no point in saving them! They're different from the real ones in the real world. You could say that these are extremely similar looking dolls," Morgana explained.

I growled in frustration. So all this was for nothing?

"The hell!? Why's it gotta be so complicated!?" Ryuji complained, confused as he tried to put everything together, "So the school's a castle and the students are slaves. It's so on point that it makes me laugh. This really is the inside of that asshole's head!"

I spoke up in worry. "These people are supposed to represent what Kamoshida sees them as in the real world, correct? If this is what we're seeing, then does that mean that in the real world...?"

"You've caught on, huh?" Morgana said calmly, picking up where I trailed off. "It must mean he treats them as slaves in the real world too."

"In the real world too? Wait, I know these guys, they're members of the volleyball team, the one Kamoshida coaches for!" Ryuji exclaimed in realisation while Morgana continued to look at them sadly.

"They must be physically abused everyday. There's no way they'd be so beat up normally," he pointed out while shaking his head.

"Don't tell me... They're going through similar shit in reality!?" Ryuji growled once more.

"Most likely. I mean, this proves that Kamoshida thinks of them as slaves."

"So it might be for real. I heard that Kamoshida's using physical punishment. They're just rumours but..."

Wait, doesn't Kawakami also uses physical punishment? I mean what was that with Ann?

"If they're true, wouldn't this be something to report to the police? I'll use these guys as evidence. If it all goes well, we can take down that asshole Kamoshida!" Ryuji assured as he pulled out his phone until he noticed his camera app wasn't responding. "Huh? It's not working!? We can use the navigation app but the camera's a no go!?"

"Navigation app?" Morgana repeated.

"That's what we used to come here," Ryuji explained. "What about your's?"

I found my camera app wouldn't open either.

"Whatever you do is fine but we're gonna get caught if we stand around like this," Morgana spoke up sternly. "We need to head back!"

"Hang on a sec!" said Ryuji. "There's no other way. I'll just memorise their faces before going home!"

"Good idea," I said.

"Mkay, let's check the cells round there."

In the next cell, we saw a set of students running for their lives on a treadmill, trying desperately not to get crushed by the spinning spiked mechanism behind them while begging for the jug of water that was dangling above them.

"Urgh, please, no more."

"Not giving athletes water even for tough training is a common thing in the real world too," said Ryuji. "That sack of shit! I'm gonna try and memorise all these guy's faces before we go back. Mkay, I'm done. Let's check and see if there's anymore!"

In the next cell, we watched one lone student hanging upside down by his feet to a rope, constantly being at shot by a cannon that was firing what appeared to be volleyballs to his face.

"It hurts!" he cried.

"The hell?" said Ryuji. "This ain't training at all. It's just ****! This means he's doing something similar in reality too, right? Damn, that bastard!"

"Hurry it up!" I said.

"I know, I know, just gimme a sec. I'll memorise 'em quick."

"Hey, are you done yet!?" asked Morgana. "We're cutting it close here!"

"Don't freak me out like that, you goddamn moron! Anyways, I got all of 'em!"

"Then, let's stop wasting time! We need to scram!"

We exited the training hall and got back to where the boys were being kept the last time we were here.

"Alright, we're back," said Ryuji. "We gotta get outta here, quick!"

"The watch post near the training hall has ceased reporting!" we heard a guard say. "Chances of intruder activity are extremely high! All personnel, increase security measures!"

We hid behind some crates.

"We've stayed here too long," Morgana muttered with a long glance, ducking when a knight ran past them. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

We got out the dungeon.

"The exit's this way!" said Morgana. "Let's hurry!"

We reached the entrance hall to find Kamoshida and a group of his knights waiting for us, one of them wearing golden armour.

"You knaves again? To think you'd make the same mistake again. You're hopeless!" Kamoshida scowled as he stared at us in contempt.

"We were just bored and wanted to kick some ass and you're the first person on our list, King Douchebag!" I stated.

"The school ain't your castle! I've memorised their faces real good. You're going down!" Ryuji exclaimed.

"It seems it's true when they say "barking dogs seldom bite". How far the star runner of the track team has fallen." Kamoshida taunted with a big smirk on his face.

"What the hell are you getting at!?" Ryuji yelled, defensively.

"I speak of the Track Traitor who acted in ****, ending his teammates' dreams." Kamoshida stated. "Oh, I can only imagine the pain of the others who were dragged under with your selfish act."

"Track Traitor?" I couldn't help but ask.

"What a surprise. So you're accompanying him without knowing anything at all? He betrayed his teammates and crushed their hopes, yet he still carries on as carefree as ever."

"That's not true!" Ryuji denied.

"What a tragedy, you blindly trusted this fool and he's led you right to your ****. Hurry up and dispose of them. I can't stand their stench."

Three of the knights transformed into very large dark horses with horns akin to a lamb and white manes, looking ready to end our lives right then and there.

"Goddammit," Ryuji grumbled .

"Ryuji, move!" Morgana exclaimed as he jumped in front of him, summoning Zorro and launching a a gust of weak at the horses.

Unfortunately, they didn't seem to react to the **** and charged right at Zorro, landing a solid strike that caused Zorro to disperse and the cat thing wince in pain.

"We're surrounded!" Morgana exclaimed.

"I'll kill you!" said one of the horses. "I'll kill you cause King Kamoshida told us! I'll kill cause that's what he wants!"

"Damn, they've tough," I growled as I summoned Arsene.

Morgana jumped high to avoid getting struck by the horns of one horse but leaving himself defenceless against a kick from another beast, sending him flying into the stairway. The horse stomped on Morgana's back, pinning him to the floor. Another one hit my back with it's hind legs, knocking me to the floor. The creature pinned him down next to Morgana.