As I walked out of the school, the street side opening as the students were leaving for the day, I noticed a pair of boys in the alleyway just down the way from the school proper.

One was a boy with a tall lanky look, glasses on his face and a round haircut. The other I recognize as Ryuji, since besides Ann he’s the only one even close to having blonde hair.

I start walking towards them, when I hear something.

Beginning navigation.

Oh shit…

Suddenly I feel the distortion of the school spread out around me, and I’m once again in front of the castle.

My get up is on, though I never took a good look at it since I was in the moment at the time.

I have a leather hunting jacket, with chains tinged with colors of a kaleidoscope dancing off of them.

My claws are on my wrists, ready to snap out whenever I twitch them.

On my back, I feel a noticeable heft. I reach back and pull out a hunting rifle. Magazine fed from the look of her, and with a 30.06 caliber judging from the ‘ammo’ inside. She feels good in my hands, and I take a few aims with her, getting the feel of the rifle.

“W-What? Who are you?”

Ryuji’s voice is easy to spot, but Ren only stares at me with his red eyes, sizing me up I assume.

I put the rifle away, tilting my head towards the duo, now trio, since Morgana graced us with his presence.

“He’s the new recruit I was telling you guys about. Pretty impressive right?”

Morgana looks smug as hell as he introduces me.

“Well, that wolf mask looks pretty badass, but why do I feel like I’ve seen him before?”

Ryuji makes a thinking face, which prompts me to laugh.

“Come on Ryuji, we just talked today.”

I took off my mask, smiling wide as I took in the sight of Ryuji’s stunned face.

“Amawara? What the hell man, you didn’t mention anything to me?”

“Well, how was I supposed to know you were going to be here? Besides, now you do know.”

I turn to look at the new exchange student.

He’s already in his Joker outfit, and it’s amazing to see it.

All dark clothes complete with a leather jacket, jester shoes that somehow still look slick and comfy, with the signature mask on his face.

I smirk at the coolest kid I’ve ever seen.

“So, Ren, right? Figured you for a troublemaker, but it’s still nice to see you here too. Did Morgana already fill you in about this place?”

He nods.

“We’re here to figure out the details of what this place is.

I place my mask back on.

“Good, nice to know that we’re on the same page then.”

Ryuji starts walking.

“Well, no time like the present right?”

I shake my head.

“We need to plan first Sakamoto; this place is a maze if we don’t know where to look.”

He brushes his hand at me.

“We already been to this place man, no worries.”

I nodded back, “Good to know.”

Ren walks ahead of us.

“Let’s go.”

“Right on.”

I smile.

“Let’s hunt.”

…

“So, these are the students?” I spoke to the two, Ryuji getting angrier as he talks to them.

“What are you talking about? You’re seriously okay with this!?”

“No, these ones are fake, a part of how Kamoshida’s desires see them. They’re just part of this place.”

Morgana tells us the situation, letting the two of them know they aren’t real. It takes Ryuji a while to figure that out.

Meanwhile, I stare at the one that gets me the most.

Though none of the group sees him, I spot Mishima in the training courses down the hall, getting himself beaten as he tries to keep up with the torture.

Five minutes in this place and already I want to burn this place to the ground.

“We got what we came for yeah? Let’s scram!”

“Roger.”

Ren and Morgana start for the door, Ryuji behind them. I follow at a distance, trying to keep my pace but not trying to group with the rest.

Because I know what comes next needs to happen.

Soon, we’re ambushed by Kamoshida and his men.

I’m forced to the ground like the rest of them, a foot on my spine, keeping me stuck in place.

Kamoshida smiles as he steps on Morgana.

“Ugh... You piece of-”

Kamoshida interrupts him, “I bet you came here on a whim and ended up like this, isn’t that right?”

Ryuji is on his knees, “No…”

Kamoshida sneers, “What a worthless piece of trash, getting emotional so quickly. How dare you raise your hand at me!

Though it was only temporary, have you forgotten my kindness in supervising track practice?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ryuji slammed his fists on the floor, “It wasn’t no track practice, it was physical abuse! You just didn’t like our team!”

Kamoshida grimaced at that, “it was nothing but an eyesore! The only one who needs to achieve results is me!

That coach that got fired was hopeless too. Had he not opposed me with a sound argument, I would have settled it with only breaking his star’s leg!”

Ryuji seemed shattered by that statement.

“-What?”

“Do you need me to deal with your other leg too? The school will just call it self-defense anyway!”

Ryuji was in despair, his voice echoed in the room.

“Damnit… am I going to lose again?

Not only can I not run anymore… but the track team is gone because of this asshole!”

Morgana speak up in the mood, “So that’s why…”

Kamoshida steps on him to shut him up, causing him to groan.

“Once these two are dealt with, your next.”

Kamoshida begins cackling at Ryuji.

Morgana cries out to him.

“Ryuji!”

“Don’t let him win!”

Ren shouts back to his friend.

“…You’re right.

Everything that was important to me was taken by him… I’ll never get it back…”

Kamoshida presses closer, “stay there and watch. Look on as these hopeless scum die for nothing because they sided with trash like you.”

“No… that’s what you are!”

Ryuji stands on his feet.

“All you think about is using people, you’re the real scumbag Kamoshida!”

Kamoshida grinds his teeth at that, turning to his knights, “what are you doing, silence him!”

Ryuji points at him, rage on his every word.

“Stop looking down on me with that stupid smile on your face!

And that’s my queue.

Ryuji starts holding his head, as if someone is drilling holes into it. Suddenly his face bears a metal skull mask, which he then proceeds to rip off, screaming bloody hell as he bursts with power.

I smirk.

Good job Ryuji, knew you had it in you.

As he frees us with his attacks, I bare my claws and slash the knight hanging over me, jumping back to join the group.

“Wassup Persona.”

I hear part of what Ryuji is saying, there’s too much in the air for me to make out the rest.

But I do make out one last thing.

“I’m ready. Blast them away, Captain Kidd!”

I love this!

Flexing my claws, I join the others in the fight as the golden knight turns into a horseman with horns on his helm.

Ryuji’s Persona looks like something straight out of a punk pirate video, with a ship skateboard, a literal cannon for a hand, and swords on a pirate’s getup, with swords crisscrossing over his coat. The pirate has one eye, the other covered by a patch, and that one eye is glowing yellow like Ryuji’s gloves.

He basically looks like a thug, with that bat and the shotgun next to him.

I take a moment to appreciate Ren’s get up, a slick black coat with red gloves and a small but eye-catching mask.

With a blast of its arm cannon, Captain Kidd blasts the two horses next to the horned knight with lightning, stunning them both and causing them to fall to the ground.

He aims the same cannon at the knight, but while hurt, the massive thing just shrugs it off.

With a whip of his spear, he nails Morgana, causing the cat to screech for a second.

“You alright?” I call out to the monster cat

Morgana gets up, smiling as he says, “No sweat, it’ll take more than that to get me, Zoro!”

Morgana’s Persona comes out, a mustachioed man with a rapier, dressed in finery with a hat that covers his face.

“Show them our might!”

The Persona nods, slashing the air with his rapier, causing a wave of wind to smack into the horned knight.

“H-How dare you?!”

Kamoshida is watching from the sidelines, complaining and doing nothing but whimper mostly.

Ren joins the fight next, taking a stab at the horses on the ground with his dagger to finish them off. They cry out in pain as they dissolve into the shadowy murk.

My turn.

I decide to show off a little, taking my claws out. Running at the knight, I snarl as I bring the claw down on his face and side, slashing sideways and ending with a flip kick.

The knight groans as he falls back.

“Alright, all yours Ryuji!”

He smirks back at me, grabs his bat and starts running at the knight with a manic grin on his face.

I can almost see the beast start to panic as Ryuji takes the bat and conks him on the head once and bashes him in the second time.

“I… am a loyal subject… to the glorious King Kamoshida.

So why… have I lost?”

Ryuji moves up to the knight, “it just proves that Kamoshida ain’t anything special.”

Well said.

Which is immediately followed by Ryuji panting like he just ran a thousand miles in a minute.

I have to give it to him though, even tired as he is, he taunts the shadow Kamoshida while he’s at it.

Too bad the basterd doesn’t seem bothered at all as he motions for a familiar girl to come over as he examines her.

“Takamaki?”

That seemed to snap Ryuji out of his funk as he tries to piece together the reason why she was there.

I hear Morgana explain that she’s like the rest, a result of Kamoshida’s cognition and clearly not the real one, as I doubt, she would ever wear a damn bikini for the pervert.

Did I hear Ren say he was jealous?

I shake my head as the thoughts disperse, nudging Morgana as I take a look around, noticing more knights approaching us, and some popping out of the ground.

“-women aren’t drawn to problematic punks like you.”

Kamoshida smirks as Ryuji curses in futility, all the while the knights are closing in.

The knights pop out of the floor as more join them.

“Clean them up this instant!”

I grab Morgana and motion with Ren towards the exit, not waiting to hear the obvious that we need to freaking go right now!

Ryuji gets dragged as we shove the doors open, reaching just outside of the distorted castle.

I place Morgana on the ground, taking a seat myself as I listen to the conversation regarding Morgana’s need for help with his investigation. Understandably, Ryuji and Ren don’t understand a lick of it, but to be fair Morgana isn’t making a good case for himself. Heck, he already helped them figure out some things for free so why would they help? It’s not like they promised.

“I never promised.” Ren just destroys Morgana’s argument, whose starting to go into a fit as he thinks it’s because he’s basically cat shaped.

Honestly, I’m kind of feeling sorry to Morgana right now. Even if they didn’t promise, they should at least try to help the cat out.

Should I help Morgana?

I recall my own information, and wonder if I should reveal it.

The problem is that the ‘game’ that is being played right now is basically between Ren and the Phantom Thieves, versus Goro and his backer.

If I reveal too much, will that sleeping god in Mementos, the realm of the human subconscious, sit still?

Or will he decide right then and there to merge Mementos with reality, causing the end of mankind before the Thieves are ready to face him.

As much as my heart hurts seeing the monster cat rage at the two for leaving, I know I can’t use my knowledge too much to help him figure out his past.

“Cheer up Morgana, you still got me.”

Morgana rages a bit more before he sighs, sitting down next to me.

“So, you’ll help me then? Going into Mementos and… helping me with my distortion?”

Knowing that we’re essentially barred from the true Mementos, I know there isn’t any way to get Morgana his memories and ‘true’ form back. At least, not right now.

The Phantom Thieves of Hearts will be crucial to that, and only with them could we help him figure out the truth.

“I don’t know how much help I can be Morgana, but I do think that we’re going to need those two to help you.”

Morgana huffed at that, “we don’t need ungrateful people like them, we can do fine by ourselves!”

I nudge the little cat monster, “come on, don’t let that pride of yours cloud your judgement. You’re supposed to be the brains, right? You know this place better than those two, and I get a feeling they’re going to need your help. That’s when you get their promise.”

Morgana looks at me with a mix of hope and worry.

“You think they will?”

I nod.

“Just stick to that guy with the glasses, I got ‘hero in the making’ vibes from him.”

Morgana laughs at that.

“How do you feel so confident about this anyway? It was just a few days ago that you found me. You’re taking to this whole thing a lot smoother than I thought you would, even better than those two.”

I ponder at that.

I have my knowledge, and Fenrir at my side, but is that why?

I know this game almost back to front, I loved everything about it, cried at the sad moments and rooted the heroes as they gave the middle finger to a literal god.

“I got a feeling Morgana, that this is going to be a much bigger job than I thought. I just know, call it a hunch, or instinct. I guess that’s why I’m so confident that those two will be back.”

“Hunches and instinct, eh?” he smiles at that, scrunches his paw into a makeshift fist, and nods to himself.

“I got a feeling you’re right. Okay, I’m chasing after that guy. I’ll let you know when I’m ready with the next job.”

Morgana rushes out of the palace.

As he leaves, I take a moment to look at the ominous sex dungeon of a castle. The casual thoughts of Fenrir summon him into my mind.

So, we found a pack to hunt with.

That we did, I just wonder how they’ll work together.

If they cannot work together, then one must show them how.

Can I leave that to Ren though, should I take a role too?

Luke, the wolf with the most knowledge and strength leads the pack.

But I can’t reveal my secrets, not if I don’t want Him interfering

Our quarry has always been the Crow. One day that meddlesome god will be next to be prey. Caution though is not foolish if it protects the young. We should protect them like family, even if they are not true wolves.

Isn’t your sister and brother a literal world snake and the goddess of the underworld?

I did not choose my siblings, but they are still mine.

So, it’s about choice then?

Isn’t it always?

I feel the wolf flow back into my head, leaving me to my thoughts.

…