Chapter 6: Transfer Student
After returning home from the Kurosaki household, Enzo took the day and the next (Sunday) to rest and recover for Monday, a.k.a. his unfortunate second week of school as a 2nd Year.
"Uwahhh..." With a yawn, Enzo headed to school by himself. Ryuji hadn't responded to his morning messages, so he figured he overslept which caused him to go to school without the guy. He initially thought about bunking the day, but he already bunked Saturday and doesn't want his school attendance to get low - it won't look good for Universities, whether or not he was going to apply later down the line.
When arriving at school, Enzo sat in homeroom when Ryuji finally responded to his messages, telling him that, unsurprisingly, he was running late and he'll get to school soon.
With a sigh, Enzo placed his phone on the desk and napped through homeroom as the class was quite irrelevant... probably. He wasn't really sure as he dozed off after not understanding the first 5 minutes of the lesson.
During homeroom, Enzo heard Miss Kawakami mumble something about a "Transfer student being late on his first day..." but deemed it unimportant to himself.
*Ring ring ring!* "Oh, homeroom's over, class" Kawakami announced, a small smile on her face as she secretly thanked the bell for ringing as she now had a long break due to not having a lesson to teach next period, "Your break's began. 10 minutes, remember" She reminded, leaving the classroom in a rush.
Enzo left the class and began messaging Ryuji, who didn't respond during the 10 minute break, 'Odd...' he raised his brow in slight confusion and suspicion, but shrugged as he figured nothing too important or dangerous happened to Ryuji as he would've messaged him by now.
After History class ended, and it now being lunch time, Enzo's worry and suspicion shot through the roof as he spammed Ryuji with messages asking where he is and why he's so late to school.
Over half an hour passed, still no response.
Sitting on the rooftop, Enzo looked at his phone with a frown as he kept waiting and waiting and waiting for a response for Ryuji when, at the end of lunch finally, he got a response.
[Ryuji: Yo man, I need to speak with u ASAP! Wya?] Breathing a sigh of relief for his friend's safety, Enzo then sent a message.
[Enzo: Rooftop, as usual. Hurry ur ass up here]
With that, it took Ryuji about 5 minutes to arrive at the rooftop, his uniform drenched in sweat as he breathed heavily.
"Shit... I shouldn't have run, my leg hurts like hell, man..." Ryuji groaned, dragging himself to his usual chair and plopping in his seat, manspreading in the process.
"..." The two looked at each other momentarily, before Enzo stated "Explain, then"
"You won't believe it, bro!" Ryuji sat up like a gamer locking in, full of energy as he answered, "So, as you know, I was late, yeah?" Enzo nodded, "Right. So I ran to school when I saw Kamoshida drive Takamaki to school in his car - that's when I saw the transfer student, and we decided to walk to school. But, when we arrived at school, it was a bloody castle! Insane, right?! But that's not the crazy part! We entered the castle and there were these knights who knocked us out and placed us in cells. We woke up and there stood Kamoshida in this weird outfit, I'd rather not explain it and paint the image in my head again... Anyway, he stood there and got his guards to attack me and the transfer student, Ren Amamiya is his name by the way. After we got attacked, Ren transformed into this cool outfit with a mask and unlocked this thing called a 'persona'. To be honest, I'm jealous as hell, but don't tell him that. Then, we broke out of the cell and ran from Kamoshida and his guards. We then ran into this monster cat who called himself 'Morgana', he also had a persona. And then blah blah, we eventually escaped the castle and arrived back in the real world, and now we're here" Ryuji explained in a singular, massive dump with an innocent smile on his face
"..."
"..."
Enzo looked at the smiling Ryuji with a deadpan expression, the silence staying for about a minute or so
"So..." Finally, Enzo decided to speak up after clearing his throat, "Instead of getting to school on time, you decided to do drugs? Weed? Coke? What'd you do?" He asked, causing Ryuji to fall out of his seat comically before groaning in complaint
"I didn't do any drugs, man! Why's everybody saying that when I tell them what happened!?" Ryuji shouted in complaint, causing Enzo to look at him as if he was a diabolical idiot... oh wait, he is!
"You walked to school, but it ended up being a castle. You entered the 'castle' and got beat up by these knights and jailed by Kamoshida, before getting some fantasy-like power ups before meeting a talking cat with superpowers and escaping the castle" Enzo repeated in a mocking/sarcastic tone, "Do you know how retarded you sound, Ryuji? The answer is: more than usual, respectfully"
"Whatever, man. I'll show you that what we saw is real! I told the transfer student to come up here on the rooftop, so you'll be meeting him soon and then we'll prove to you that I'm not crazy" Ryuji argued, pointing at Enzo confidently.
"Whatever you say" He scoffed in response, rolling his eyes in the process, "Anyway, let's go back to class. The bell rang during your spoken essay, so let's not be late" Enzo added, heading to the door of the rooftop to head downstairs back to his class.
"As if I could get any later than I already am..." Ryuji muttered under his breath, following Enzo back down to class.
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.
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With afternoon classes beginning, Enzo headed back down to his class for his Japanese Language lesson.
He opened the door and enter the class to see a tall young man wearing glasses with unkempt, wavy black hair that falls over his grey eyes standing at the front of class beside Miss Kawakami who turned her head at the door to see Enzo entering her class.
"You're late, Akamatsu. But I'll allow it this one time, just go to your seat please" Kawakami instructed, earning a nod from Enzo who walked over to his seat and looked at the black-haired transfer student
'That must be the guy Renji spoke about. Ren Amamiya, was it?' Enzo thought, looking at the boy who looked around the class with an expressionless face.
"Settle down!" Kawakami instructed the class who murmured in remarks of the crazy rumours regarding the transfer student, and the fact he was super late on his first day, even though she was unsure herself on how they already got this information.
After they stayed quiet, she carried on, "...Well, I'd like to introduce a transfer student: Ren Amamiya. Today we... had him attending from the afternoon on as he wasn't feeling well" She lied, "All right... please say something to the class" She told him, urging him to take a step forward and speak.
"I'm Ren Amamiya... nice to meet you" He quietly said, giving a small bow after he spoke. The students began gossiping some more, but he simply ignored it as he couldn't care less about what was being said about him - after all, what's been said isn't true in the slightest.
"Your seat will be... hmm..." Kawakami looked around the class, before setting her eyes on the empty set in front of Enzo and behind Ann Takamaki, "Over there. Please, will the students near him share their textbooks?"
Ren walked over to his newly assigned seat and placed his belongings under his desk, ignoring a small "Lies" from Ann, who he saw this morning. He looked around to see the students in his class pull out their textbooks and start taking notes on the lesson as Kawakami began teaching.
"Yo" Enzo's voice entered Ren, urging him to turn around.
"Uh oh... has Akamatsu set his eyes on the transfer student?" A boy mumbled to his deskmates.
"I mean, that's not all bad, is it? 2 negatives make a positive, y'know? I learned that in maths" A girl commented, giggling after her statement.
"Don't mention maths in my presence, swine" A boy with glasses spat in reply.
Shaking his head in annoyance, Enzo leant forward a little to begin a private conversation with Ren
"You met Ryuji this morning, right? Delinquent-looking kid with blonde hair?" Enzo asked, earning a silent nod from the boy, "Okay okay..." Enzo nodded his head, glad this was most definitely the boy Ryuji entered a 'castle' with, "Is it true you and him entered some castle and met a talking cat and Kamoshida wearing weird clothes?" He asked, causing Ren's eyes to widen in surprise
"Yeah... why?" He asked suspiciously, wondering how this intimidating guy got hold of that information.
"I'm Ryuji's best mate, so he told me all about it. I still think he smoked stuff this morning, but he told me you'll be joining us on the rooftop today, is that right?" Enzo sat back and asked with a smile, causing Ren to lower his guard a little.
"Oh. Yeah" Ren nodded, turned his chair around slightly, "You mind if I share your textbook with you...?" He asked, looking at the unopened textbook on Enzo's desk.
"Sure, here ya go" Enzo answered by throwing his textbook smoothly onto Ren's desk, "It doesn't help me anyway, you can keep it if ya want" He offered, earning a nod and smile from Ren.
"Thanks" He said, turning to himself back to his desk with the new, free textbook before thinking to himself, 'He must be very smart if the textbook doesn't help him at all... I'll be just like that once I get my knowledge up'
After misunderstanding Enzo's situation, Ren decided to focus on the lesson and intake all the knowledge into his ever-growing brain.
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.
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It was now a free period for Enzo and the others. This allowed him to head up to the rooftop by himself after leaving Ren to speak with Kawakami about whatever they needed to after class ended.
Enzo was the first to arrive at the rooftop, sitting in his usual seat before Ryuji shortly arrived. After a minute passed, the new arrival: Ren Amamiya, finally arrived and sat in the final, third seat.
"There you are!" Ryuji said at his arrival, "What'cha think bout our spot, huh?" He asked with a grin, nudging Ren.
"It's nice... quiet too" He replied, looking around at the not-so-empty rooftop full of plants and stuff.
"Of course, that's why we chose it" Enzo stated, "Anyway. The whole 'castle' and 'persona' stuff, care to explain some more?" He asked Ren, as he figured a new student who he knew nothing about was more trustworthy than the words of his own best friend.
"We entered a castle, which Ryuji said was the school... Then we got thrown in jail by 'Kamoshida'...? I unlocked my 'persona' called Arsene, we broke out of jail, and bumped into Morgana. Eventually, we escaped the castle and arrived in the real world" Ren answered with a straight face.
"...I don't know if you guys are gaslighting me together, or if something that crazy actually happened" Enzo sighed, wondering what to think about the situation.
Part of him thought Ryuji might've threatened the new kid to get him to say all this stuff and make him look like an idiot if he believed it. Another part of him believed them and thought this 'Persona' stuff might be real... and, honestly, really interesting and cool by the sounds of things.
"So... I'm guessing Kawakami must've told you some stuff about us, ay?" Ryuji asked Ren, his hands placed on the back of his head.
"She said you were a troublemaker" He replied, looking at Ryuji before turning to Enzo, "And that you're a 'Good guy who just needs to be steered on the right path, and stay there'"
"Hah!" Enzo snickered, finding Kawakami's brief explanation of him hilarious, "I am on the right path. Let me tell you this, Ren. I know we don't know much about each other, but you seem like an alright dude. Don't believe and listen to everything you're told, got it?" He said, earning an all-too-familiar silent nod from Ren.
"I know" He added, analysing Enzo and Ryuji silently as they began chatting, 'These guys... they're pretty similar to me, aren't they?' He thought, unconsciously producing a soft smile.
"Oi, Ren! Is it milk or cereal first! Tell him it's milk first!" Ryuji said with a raised voice, slamming the desk passionately.
"Are you stupid?! It's cereal first! Isn't that right?" Enzo looked at Ren, who alternated between Ryuji and Enzo who looked at him with scary, serious expressions.
"Uhh... I'm not really a cereal guy, so I don't know?" Ren chuckled awkwardly, feeling as if his school life might not be so bad with the right people as his friends.
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