After school

School ended and I stepped out the classroom to see a face that instantly made me freeze up.

"Hey there, Takamaki," Kamoshida cheerfully walked up to Ann who in turn, looked uncomfortable in his presence. "Things have been pretty dangerous with all those accidents."

I felt my blood boil as the man wore a pleasant smile was somehow more unpleasant than any other of his face expressions.

"Sorry, I have a photoshop today. It's for the special summer issue, so I can't afford to miss it." Ann responded, tiredly.

"Hey now, being a model's fine and dandy but don't work your pretty little self to the bone," the gym teacher lectured.

Oh, that's why she looked so familiar. Ann Takamaki is that model I've jerked off to a few times. I didn't think an actual model attended this school.

"You mentioned you weren't feeling well, right? Something about appendicitis?" Kamoshida continued on.

"Yes, I keep planning to go to the hospital but I've been too busy. Sorry to worry you," the apparent model apologised.

"You must be lonely too. I feel bad for keeping your best friend at practice so often," Kamoshida said with a hint of faux-guilt in his voice. "Oh, and I know you've been fucking that transfer student."

"Oh." said Ann, surprised.

"He's got a criminal record, after all. If something were to happen to you."

So he's the one who's been spreading my record to everyone. That explains why the school knew about it so quickly. Why is he sharing sensitive information like that so readily? Did me being late piss him off that much? Or is it because I fucked Ann? It took all of my willpower and then some to not take a swing at Kamoshida. I didn't know why he had it out for me but for now there was nothing I could do about it.

"Thank you. Please excuse me," I heard Ann say.

Ann walked off and Kamoshida glared with a scoff before going up tot he third floor. Looked like Ryuji was right, he was an asshole. All I did was show up late once and he spreads my info to everyone in the school. I stepped outside the school to be called out by a familiar face.

"Yo," Ryuji said as he approached me.

"What's up?" I responded.

"I wanna talk about that castle from yesterday," Ryuji said, getting straight to the point, something I had to admire, "I tried telling myself it was all just a dream but I couldn't do it. I can't act like nothing happened. It's all connected to that bastard, Kamoshida, after all."

"Yeah, he's a bastard, alright." I agreed with a nod.

"I wanna find out what's up with that place, no matter what and y'know, you're the only person I can rely on for this stuff. So, you in?"

On one hand, I really didn't want to get involved with that castle again. We barely made it out alive last time and there was no telling what would happen if we went back into that place. On the other hand, I wanted to learn more about my powers and Igor did mention that "ruin" was coming and I'm supposed to stop it. I still wasn't sure what any of it truly meant but if going back to that godforsaken castle would give me the answers, then I really didn't have much of a choice.

"Sure, what's next?" I said.

"Nice!" said Ryuji, pumping his fist. "Okay, glad we're in this together. I think we should just try and retrace our steps from yesterday. In the meantime, you're walking to the station, right? Let's go together. Lemme know if you notice any other weird buildings on the way."

Ryuji didn't seem like a bad guy. I figured I should probably go along with this.

"If a huge castle like that really exists, I'm sure we'll find it in no time," said Ryuji. "When'd they build something like that though? We walked that way from here, right?"

"Maybe." I said.

"When you put it that way, I'm not so sure anymore. Alright, this way. Lemme know if you notice something."

We found ourselves back at the school.

"Huh?" said Ryuji. "We're at school. There wasn't anything out of place along the way, right? I didn't see no castle either. We must've made a wrong turn somewhere. Let's try again."

"I want to go home." I said.

"C'mon, you gotta stick with me to the end. Let's go."

Our next attempt led to the same result.

"For real? Is it smaller than we think it is? What do you think?" Ryuji questioned.

"Check on your phone." I said.

"I already did that. I didn't see anything like it around here. Huh? Phone? Hey, that reminds me, didn't you have a navigation app thingy on, back then?"

"Navigation app?"

"I dunno if it was or not but I heard that sounded like one coming from your phone. Y'know, didn't it say stuff like "returned to the real world" or something like that? Lemme see your phone for a bit."

I handed my phone to Ryuji.

"What's this eyeball looking thing?" he asked.

"I can't delete it." I said.

"Wait, what? What a weird app. Oh wait, this is it! I knew it, it IS a navigation app! There's even your search history! Oh man, I'm such a genius! Let's try using it."

"I dunno about this."

"Why? All we're doing is starting an app."

[Kamoshida... Shujin Academy... Pervert... Castle... Beginning navigation.]

"There we go!" said Ryuji. "Then we went in a certain direction and-"

I noticed the world begin to shift.

"Hey, what're you-" said Ryuji before noticing what was happening. "Huh? What the hell!?"