The cognitive world shrunk from view, masked with an eerie blackness that washed away just as quickly to reveal the real world. The darkness of the alleyways still pronounced even in the daylight. I reached down a small gap between buildings and grabbed my bag, reaching inside for the provisions I had prepared for today.
Removing the blazer and taking care to fold it, I placed it in the bag. Taking one of the bandages some sanitary wipes and my handkerchief in return.
I sighed whilst holding the handkerchief to the small cut on my arm, annoyingly the sword also damaged the uniform so that'd need sewing immediately. By myself the injury wouldn't be a problem, as it is Sakamoto was beginning to become a burden. Really, I haven't needed him in so far as the expedition has been going. No doubt he'd also be feeling that right now. Ruminating on that fact, it'll spiral in his head for days, especially considering that we won't be infiltrating again for some time. I just needed to be sure he wouldn't do something drastic in that time.
"Are you trying to get us killed?!" Sakamoto grabbed me by the shoulders and begun to shake me.
"Nursing my wound here…" He made a point of grabbing me by the injured portion of my arm and squeezing.
"Good, maybe it'll put some sense into you." His voice took on a grave tone.
"I don't see what you're so mad about."
"If we were a second slower, he would've killed us!"
"Correction; if you were faster, we would've never been caught." He didn't really think that was the fastest I could run, did he? We ran in that cell for over an hour together.
"…What?" He looked at me as if I were some strange creature.
"If you had trained properly and overcome your injury, then he wouldn't have caught up to us. Or are you saying that was the fastest you've ever run? Ever will run?" it was an unfair criticism in some ways, because it hinged on actions that he hadn't taken in the past. But it couldn't be argued that the results were his own fault. On my own this wouldn't have happened, that's what I wanted to drill into him.
"It was you that got caught… in the end…" A puzzled look crossed his face. His hands slowly lost the strength in their grip as they slid uselessly down towards his sides.
"Right you are. My mistake." I wouldn't spell it out for him any clearer. I didn't do it for thanks, or even to get his trust by putting my own body on the line. I just wanted him to see, notice his flaws. Think over them, even if they fester and create wounds. That way it would be much easier for him to be rebuilt.
"He would've never had a chance to catch us if we just left the dungeon. BUT NOOO! We have to discard empty suits of armour and alert the guards. The hell was all that for!?" He cried indignantly, voicing his frustrations with the wall as much as he voiced them to me.
"Are you done? The plans were left to me, those that don't understand simply need to follow them." I uttered fully prepared to meet his anger head on.
"I left the plans in your care, because I think you can beat him. I never said anything about mindlessly following orders. I'm not a lapdog." I know that all too well.
"Is your pride damaged by it? Before you said you were prepared to do anything if it meant saving them, was that all a lie? So easily broken by such a sense of pride, pretty ironic."
"How can I know you'll be able to save them with the shit you just pulled? Are you saying to just suck it up and trust you? No chance." I guess his pride was damaged by it, though he'll never admit it.
"No. I'm saying that I won't be explaining every single part of my plan. If you want to know, use that thing between your ears and think." Sakamoto had already proven himself to me earlier, I needed him to realise that he was an active participant in this game. I could use him like a pawn but that wouldn't sit well with Sakamoto. It's better to have him acting freely and for me to understand his actions early on rather than him acting against my plans at a random point in time.
"How can any of that matter, like you said we need to have an effect on the real world to make any lasting damage." While true it also neglected the advantage we had in the cognitive world.
"If you'll remember correctly, I said there was no point in freeing the prisoners, there are plenty other useful things we can do in the palace which have nothing to do with that." Information on the students and the King was one such reason.
"And why the hell did we get rid of the armour? We could've used those as disguises again!"
"Do you think that world resets every time we come back to the real one?" Rather than explain, I decided to pose the right questions.
"What the hell are you going on about now?"
"I'm asking if you think that the other world remains constant regardless of the actions, we take in it."
"That's what you said before isn't it?"
"That's one way of interpreting it. The wrong way." It was a surface level understanding of the metaverse, minds were constantly changing. A simple event in the real world could drastically change their outlook. Not just that, you also had to consider the possibilities of who gave us this power, this app. They clearly wanted us to do something with it, otherwise why give it us at all? No, we could have a profound effect on the outcomes with it. The extent of which we just had to find out ourselves.
"So, which is it? Does it stay the same, or does it change all the time? You aren't making much sense here."
"Like I repeated just a moment ago that was useless for the prisoners, they're here of their own free will. That's how this place works." In all honesty there might be a way to change their behaviour, but at this stage it wouldn't make much difference. There were other avenues we could pursue.
I continued. "But there's evidence that this place has changed thanks to us." The answer was right in front of him, or at least it was earlier.
"Evidence? What the hell are you… The bridge. That wasn't up last time, was it?" He probably forgot temporarily due to the high-pressure situation. Last time we simply walked out of this place.
"There's more, think back to what happened in the castle." I intentionally avoided bringing attention to the flags on the horizon.
"We went through the waterways. Come to think of it the prisoners were all shouting, wouldn't the guards upstairs have heard us?"
"The dungeons are quite a distance from the surface, plus all manners of torture happen there. You already experienced some of it yourself, no doubt they either don't hear their screams or have become accustomed to ignoring them."
"But not a single one sounded the alarm?" I was prepared to fight more, but as luck would have it the ambush meant even fewer were guarding downstairs.
"Mine and your handiwork. There were few guards remember? As if they had been siphoned off in advance. All it took was us getting rid of the excess." The dungeons also had the advantage of being ridiculously far from the main castle, communication between the two would take a long time. The only staircase between the two was a few minutes of travel alone.
"For that trap. They wanted us to enter through the vent and throw everything at us." His eyes held a glint of understanding.
"Now what business does an ambush have if they aren't expecting visitors?" The trap wasn't there last time. The only thing in our path when we escaped was Eligor.
"They remembered us from when we escaped. They have memories." Meaning both the real world and the cognitive counterparts, though linked, can learn and make informed decisions separate from the other.
"And now you have the answers to everything." Nearly every aspect of my and their plans could be figured out using that information. If they had no memory of these interactions, then all my actions would've been pointless. I wasn't a fan of exercises in futility.
"I still don't know why you got rid of those disguises or why you didn't disarm those traps, bastard." He set his angry eyes onto me, remembering the cuts and bruises he received from his foolhardy attempt to dodge them. It was a foolish thing to do, but it cemented itself as proof that he could be used. He would only attempt such a thing if he loathed and completely mistrusted me.
"What use is a disguise the enemy knows you have?" Those suits had some gilded apparel on them, on account of guarding a useful point like the secret elevator. They would be too easily noticeable. In which case it was more useful to use them for a psychological attack.
"But why make a show of it? We nearly bit it at the end because of that." If I sped up, then Sakamoto would've been the target instead. I didn't feel like having questions about where my supposed friend disappeared to, so I had to at least prevent that.
"Ask yourself; What did they see?"
"You beheaded two soldiers and kicked them into the waterways. After that can't remember much on account of running for my life." He got the most important part.
"In that moment do you think they had a good look at the armour? Do you think they'll be able to retrieve it?" They would've just barely noticed it. The guard captain was chasing us, his view would've narrowed on us prepared for combat, leaving no time for him to understand the situation.
"No… Wherever that ends up, it'll be the same as the gu… as the package that you threw in there." I gave him a sharp look before he could finish his original sentence. I finished tying the bandage around my arm and grabbed my blazer once again from my bag. Carefully unfolding and draping the fabric over myself, the svelte material a tad lighter than it was before.
"Exactly, it might as well not exist anymore."
"But how exactly does that help us?" A look of confusion escaped as he looked at the floor. His hand resting on his chin.
"The armour doesn't exist anymore, but the uncertainty of the armour remains."
"God. Enough thinking for the day. Stop speaking in riddles. Just answer the damn question!" I suppose he worked hard enough for at least this.
"What would you do if you were uncertain, you had a traitor in your midst?"
"…I'd check every soldier. Interview, possibly strip them of their armour. Anything to figure out if they were an enemy." How can you verify trust? There's no 100% guaranteed way. You could create situations that dissuade someone from taking certain actions, you could even use past events to judge the trust between you, but there was no guarantee.
"And if you still found nothing?"
"I would… I don't know, I would still be thinking about the armour." That was the crux of it.
"Pretty much. Even if you think it's the truth, even if you want to believe it's the truth. Your mind will always whisper that possibility to you. That entire castle will become a place of deceit and mistrust. They'll wonder how many intruders there are, if they're still in the castle, if they're still wearing the armour. Are they the prisoners? They could check as many times as they like, so long as there isn't 100% certainty, they won't be able to accept it. They will do our work for us." It was also convenient that the guard captain was the one that had seen us. He acted at the top of command, he wouldn't be able to trust a single person in the entire castle, eventually the memory of that moment will distort, and he'll begin to misremember the event. Was the armour like this? Like that? What was the voice that shouted at the intruders? He'll become so enamoured by the memory that it's all he thinks about, and that will give me all the time I needed.
"What if that angel guy thinks the same thing?" Even if he had the same thought, he couldn't act on it properly. He was honour-bound, duty-bound to protect the King. That meant any threat or possibility had to be snuffed out entirely.
"That's the beauty of it. It doesn't matter. I could just as easily have hoped he'd think that and make use of the lack of response. He either has the castle in chaos trying to find an intruder that doesn't exist, or he allows a spy to freely move inside the walls. I think you can tell which he would pick." Sakamoto's narrowed eyes attempted to pierce through me.
"I was right to hate you, only a freak would think of this stuff." He spat out distastefully. Apparently even my positive traits were something he disliked.
"Don't compliment me too much, I might blush." I added dryly.
"Bleh." His disgruntled face reminded me of a child being punished. Sakamoto pretended to bite back a gag and turned to me once again, in all seriousness. "Why didn't you deactivate the trap?"
"Maybe I just didn't see the switch?"
"Don't get smart with me asshole." Predictably, he was angered by my reply.
"Oh, you know… I felt like messing with you." In reality I just didn't want to risk an alarm sounding, at least before seeing the King and his treasure myself.
"One of these days I'll end up shooting you in the back." I'll have to remove shotgun privileges in the future. Noticing my gaze, Sakamoto quickly dropped the sawed-off shotgun into his opened bag. Guess I'd have to sleep with one eye open.
"When are we going in again?" This is where we'll begin to have real issues.
"You realise my plan becomes more effective as time goes by, don't you?" He nodded in response with an impatient look on his face. "It'll be some time from now, I'll contact you when that time comes. For now, we'll continue with the same routine we've had, don't draw any attention to yourself." As useless as that statement was for Sakamoto.
"No. Non-negotiable. I won't let him put his hands on more students." Unfortunately, that was idealistic. Frankly, he would have to for us to arrest him. They would need a standard of proof, that would necessitate a victim.
"He hasn't the entire time I've been in club, that'll continue." Even that can only last for so long.
"That's during school time, what about after school or weekends, who knows what he's getting up to?" Whatever he did outside of school hours was none of my concern.
"Do you think he'd risk it now?"
"Why wouldn't he? It's never stopped him before."
"That was before I joined the school and also before we became friends." Sakamoto looked at me with scrutiny. "Publicly."
"He's never been bothered about me before, what changes now?" He asked with a measure of self-pity.
"I'm on the team and I'm friends with the only student that publicly dislikes him. What do you think he imagines is happening every time we meet?" That was another important reason for the time between our infiltrations.
"…I'm telling you about all the fucked-up stuff he's done."
"He's been hidden all this time. He isn't stupid, he won't take the risk whilst that's happening." He'll be forced to hide and that will rile him up all the more.
"Ugh. That means I have to get all chummy with you again?" He spat out with visible derision.
"I don't think you hate it nearly as much as you believe you do." Sakamoto was the closest thing to a friend I had as of now. It reminded me of the younger Horikita during our first year, albeit Sakamoto was less easy on the eyes.
"You're retarded, aren't you? If you think we're friends, then you might as well be." Even now I'm reminded of her. Admittedly, I was having trouble with the sincerity in his voice.
"Mind telling me why a stranger would call me by my first name?" I knew the reason and I knew he disliked the reason. I was having a lot of fun with it.
"Because… You know what, it doesn't matter. I'll see you."
"You forgot something. Where are we now?" I gestured to the roads beyond the alleyways. Some students walking by despite the time.
"…I'll see you tomorrow, Kiyotaka." He squeezed out through gritted teeth.
"There we are. See you tomorrow, Ryuji."
"Whatever." He turned and made for the train station. My destination was the same, but I decided to let Sakamoto have his peace for today. The more distance we had the more he'd think over today and the more his frustrations would eat at him. The idea that it was quite fitting came to my mind. A dragon eating itself. Ouroboros. I suppose the only difference was that he wasn't creating himself in his own image, instead different hands would do the moulding. And at the end of it all he'd probably thank me for it… Well, even if he didn't it wouldn't matter.
I watched his back fade off in the distance before deciding to make a move myself. I was going to be cutting it close for my appointment. Gazing once again at the bandage I dressed. I suppose it gives me another reason to actually show up.
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Word count: 3014
I think the plan I had them go with makes some sense. Or at least I hope it seems that way. You'll notice that Ayanokouji is almost purposely egging on Ryuji and making him more annoyed and distrustful of him. It will serve a purpose, thought it'll be revealed later why.
I know not much has actually happened or much time has passed in this chapter, but it kind of felt necessary with the plans that have been going on under the surface and for Sakamoto's frustrations to bubble up.
I'm sure some of you can guess who'll be in the next chapter. For some reason freaky doctors keep getting introduced in my fics, I promise this is not emblematic of some problem. I hope.
As always, I hope you all enjoyed. Let me know your thoughts on the series so far.
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Until next time.