Phantom Opera: White Soliloquy

"Two orders of premium beef bowl, coming up!" The server answered with a smile.

"Can we get them to go, please?" The smell of seared beef and rice graced my nose. Followed by the hints of garlic and ginger as garnish to the multiple meals being enjoyed by the customers sat beside us.

"No problem, kid! Should be ready in a few minutes." Rapidly he raced towards the rear of the kitchenette no doubt to check on the myriads of other meals still being cooked for the nearly full house.

"So, are you sure about what you said, Ayanokouji? Like, it really wasn't real?" Really? You think this is the time for this?

"You'll get your evidence in a minute let me get something to eat first." This would be one of the stupidest places to start.

"Why don't we just sit in?" Knowing this guy, it'd be more prudent to take this conversation to a more private corner. I don't want any weird looks or the possibility of this coming back to bite me down the line. Probation is bad enough, getting caught up with whatever holy crusade he has planned against his teacher wouldn't do me any favours either.

"There's somewhere I want to eat today. Just humour me." Take a hint!

"Haaah… Fine." His eyes wandered around as we stood by the service desk of the beef bowl shop. The chef currently slaving away at the 10+ orders was managing fairly well, despite being the only staff currently working in the kitchen. And he does this for hours? Life's tough.

"Shifting the conversation then, how come you ended up coming to our school?" That's another annoying topic, at least better than the last.

"It wasn't really my choice… Or more like I didn't really care where I ended up, this is just what ended up happening." The place didn't really matter, I'd run into the same fundamental issues regardless.

"Still, crazy. I can't believe it, that story was running for months in the news. I mean can you-!" His voice gradually built up once again disrupting the nearby customers.

"Let's talk about this later, we're disturbing other people's meals right now." The businessman beside us and elderly couple opposite him glared daggers at us whilst we stood in the centre of the shop. Hey, it was him not me. Honest.

"My bad! My bad!" The three of them retracted their relentless bloodlust and continued to eat in abject silence. That's the worker nation of Japan for you. Not much patience for trouble causers. Although, that label of his would come in useful in just a moment.

"Here you are! Two orders of premium beef bowl, please enjoy!" The server with his ever-relentless smile handed the food to us.

"Thanks." I replied whilst handing over the money in exchange. Enough to cover Sakamoto's portion as well… Oh, you think that I'm actually that kind and generous? No, the guy just didn't have the money to cover his own portion, and I got dragged into this… I should give one of those fliers a call at some point. I'm running low enough on funds as it is.

The two of us exited the shop with food in hand. The bustling hubbub of central street overwhelming for my constitution.

"Where was this place you wanted to eat?" He said looking over at me with visible confusion.

"This way." I led Sakamoto to a small back alley not far away from the beef bowl place with a few steps and the like for us to sit. Beside us a small grungy shop lay away from the hustle and bustle of the main street.

"…This is where you wanted to eat?" This guy wouldn't understand subtlety if it hit him in the face with a hammer.

"Yeah, now take a seat and I'll explain what you wanted to know…"

"Alright, so…" His sentence punctuated by a silence.

"Start asking the question you want to know, that'll make this much easier…" If I explained all of my hypotheses or conjectures, we could be here the entire day without progressing much further. For example, deconstructing what would be the 'id' and other aspects of Jungian psychology wouldn't prove much use to someone like Sakamoto. He was more of a see and believe type of guy. Similar to Sudou and his trio during the first year. The more I stuck to simple facts the quicker this would be over, and I could go to bed. I was feeling rather tired, strangely enough. That and I had a lot to think about…

"Okay, um… Right! Right, why do you think they weren't real?" That was a much better question than I was expecting, it meant I could get the gist of this out of the way.

"First, I mentioned it in the cage. They were clearly different counterparts to the people we were familiar with; the time doesn't add up and realistically it would be impossible for someone even of significant influence to have captured all those students."

"Time?"

"Those students were already in uniform and acted as if everything was commonplace. That would only happen if they were in that state for a long time. I'm guessing you had seen some of them the same day, no? In which case it would be impossible for them to adapt that quickly. Either they experience time differently in that space or they are different entities entirely."

"True."

"Second. The behaviour of Kamoshida and Takamaki are completely reversed inside that world."

"Hang on, do you even know Ann?" I definitely wouldn't say I know her in the way you mean… But enough to draw some lines.

"I've talked to her once or twice, but it's clear she doesn't have much… chemistry so to speak with Kamoshida. She purposely didn't attend the match we had on the first day, she was also silent in the car ride. Whereas the other version was actively seeking him out and following his directives." It's possible that they were simply putting on an act whilst I was in their presence, but I doubted it.

"…"

"Kamoshida's behaviour as well. He wasn't overtly flirtatious or anything with the female students during our match. If anything he gave the impression of a good, kind-hearted teacher that got along with other students." First impressions anyway…

"AS IF! He's anything but that!" This was going to take long if he'd react this aggressively every time his name is even brought up…

"I understand your anger but keep it down. We don't need to draw attention." The few passersby that did come by quickly turned away and continued down the road. That was one positive aspect of Sakamoto's appearance. To most others we would simply look like two delinquents passing time. Meaning we wouldn't be bothered for the time being.

"…That guy's seriously nothing like that." Judging by the fact he even sought me out, I assumed something was off.

"Granted I've only been here a day, that doesn't look like the general consensus." If we looked at just the surface level behaviour, then Kamoshida was possibly one of the most positive influences on the school and its students. If I had to draw a parallel, he would essentially be like Mashima-sensei of my prior school.

"I'm telling you! He isn't like that!"

"…Let's do this instead. You clearly have some sort of reason to think as such besides what we experienced earlier. Tell me what happened." His eyes dropped down towards the floor, leg twitching impatiently.

"I don't really want to talk about that…" But asking me about my own situation is, okay?

"You aren't giving me much to work with. Who knows, I may even be able to help you with this… If I were to know a bit more, that is."

"'MAY' be able to help me? I thought you were going to help me save the rest of them?" If lives needed saving that is. Which in this situation isn't the case, at least in that alternate world.

"I already told you there's no need for that. It wasn't real, there's plenty of evidence to prove it as well."

"Still sounds like you're pulling my leg. There's no way everything could've felt that real and it was all an illusion."

"Do you remember the double image that formed in the grand hall?" The rest of this conversation hinged on whether he could connect these thoughts and form the correct image in his mind.

"…I remember you saying something like that. Honestly, my blood was boiling so much I didn't really pay attention." His grip tightened slightly around the takeout box.

"If you did, you'd notice that the reception of our own school was superimposed on the hall."

"Superimposed?"

"Imagine the images were put on top of each other, in a simpler way it's like the blueprint for both that castle and school is the same or at least similar."

"…So, you think other rooms in the school also relate to places in the castle?" Gradually he was coming to understand.

"Yes, that's the case."

"But the space of each isn't the same, the castle was clearly larger!" That's a good detail to pick up on, it means he's at least paying attention.

"It isn't a one-to-one replica, but they clearly have some sort of relationship."

"Okay, I'll give you the castle. But what about all the students?"

"Other than what happened in the cell did you notice anything strange about the students you interacted with?"

"I mean it'd be harder to point out what wasn't weird in that situation…" That was certainly true.

"When I tried to make contact or speak with the students, they were completely inoperable. They had very limited reactions and they were more active when Kamoshida appeared."

"Your point?" He didn't seem too impressed.

"It was almost like programming. Robots with limited abilities outside of a specified function, in this case reacting to his torment and serving him." It's possible others were more receptive outside of the cell, Eligor included. But it wasn't worth mentioning at this stage.

"True enough but isn't that just because they've been there so long. Like you said earlier?"

"That would work if the time truly did work differently in that space, a simple look at your phone would dismiss that possibility. That and finally, the easiest proof. Watch the street." Seeing is believing after all, I just needed to drag it out long enough.

"…What?... Hey, is that?... How's this possible?" Students with the same uniform were seen walking down the central street using the amenities and generally enjoying their time. It was only an hour or so after school, some people with clubs would've just finished for the day. One or two faces present in that same cage could be seen mingling with friends and the like along the road.

Sakamoto begun to stand up and intended to run over to the students currently attracting his attention. Without taking my eyes off the beef bowl in front of me I grab his sleeve and drag him back into his seat. Aww man, the beef is going to turn cold soon enough.

"What the hell man!?" He exclaimed as his rear made a dull thud onto the step he was using as a seat.

"What do you think you're doing? Are you going to ask them if they were in a castle an hour ago? They'll think you're on acid or something, just sit and eat." I didn't give him a second for rebuttal. I'm getting tired of these interruptions. Reaching the chopsticks to gather a large helping of rice and the beef sitting atop it. God damnit, I was speaking for too long… Still tastes pretty good.

"…Dude how can you just eat like that?" The blonde delinquent looked at me sceptically whilst holding the container of his food with both hands. Clearly having lost his appetite.

"Because I'm hungry?" What a nonsensical question.

"I mean those guys are probably going through that torture even now… and here we are eating beef bowl acting as if they don't exist…" Well, you haven't touched yours yet.

I understood his perspective from an emotional standpoint. But rationally those things were more like NPCs in a video game. Their suffering was the equivalent of ones and zeros in a binary system. So long as that castle existed so would their torture. In fact, it relied upon it.

"…You've already had your proof. If you need more… Do you have Takamaki's phone number?" If that was the friend, he was referring to then it was a safe bet.

"…An old number from years ago, it's probably changed by now. We haven't exactly been on speaking terms for a while." It doesn't rule it out, odd though.

"In that case wait until tomorrow. You'll have your answers then."

"As if I can just go to sleep whilst that shit is going on!" This guy really needed a volume button.

"You'll see that all the students look the exact same as always when we attend school tomorrow. There's no possible way that everyone of them will be able to hide their expression if the castle incident really happened. Think. We exited that castle, and it suddenly disappeared. Try explaining that to me."

"…Even… E-Even if they aren't the same classmates we know, does that mean we should just leave them? They're still people, aren't they? Shouldn't we be doing something?!"He's getting too caught up in his own head to see things rationally.

"Trust me, you're better off leaving this be. That castle existed long before we came and will continue to exist long after."

"I can't do that."

"You're biting off more than you can chew. You aren't even solving the problem you originally came to me for… You should refocus your priorities."

"But I can't just sit down whilst that fucker plays about with lives down there!"

"By placing all your efforts on this new problem, you effectively throw everyone else away you know?"

"…"

"You're running from the issue. You are attempting to flee to that world where you have some semblance of power, thinking that you will make some difference to their suffering. It's mere fantasy." I needed him to understand the gravity of this situation.

"The fuck did you say?!" He motioned to grab me by the collar, but I was getting a bit sick of this attention. I grabbed the hand that came towards me and started to increase the strength of my grip. Not bothering to look into his eyes as he slowly retracted from me.

"Seriously, the fuck is wrong with you. God, I can barely feel my hand…" He quietened down a bit as he sat once again. He could've run; I wouldn't have stopped him. But then he truly would be alone, there are no other allies he could hope for.

A brief silence watched over us as I continued eating and his eyes stared disinterestedly at the cobbled floor.

"…What is that place?"

"Why do you assume I know?"

"You're acting way too casual about this… Even if you don't know for certain, you have some sort of guess… Well, what is it?" Personally, I just thought he was too high-strung. At least this attitude was something I could work with.

"I'll tell you now, just so you don't ask again in the future. I haven't visited a place like that before, nor do I have any prior knowledge of such a place actually existing… That being said I imagine it's essentially a different realm."

"No shit." He was still pissy I held his hand a bit too tightly.

"I wasn't finished. There are some studies that talk about the collective unconscious and the like in psychology. If I had to explain it in laymen's terms it's basically a dream realm, or cognitive world if you would."

"'Laymen'… Really?" Ignoring his dislike for the apt description I continued.

"It is essentially Kamoshida's dream world. What his ideal version of society looks like." It was a bit more complicated than that, but this would do for an explanation.

"…In his head he sees everyone as servants or slaves. He sees… Ann… AS THAT!?" His face immediately scrunched up in anger. Fist balling up as his body begun shaking, spilling a bit of the rice in his delivery box. What a waste. It was clear some feelings were present between them, or at least one sided. What those feelings were… I wasn't concerned with that for now.

"Just because it exists in that cognitive world doesn't mean those exact circumstances are mirrored in this world. Remember, Ann's behaviour is completely opposite in the real world." I can't have him wreaking havoc right now.

"No… But it shows how he thinks, doesn't that mean he would be doing similar stuff to those thoughts?" His view on students, female students in particular is a bit worrying. It's highly unlikely you could view people as mere objects without that behaviour being exhibited in day-to-day life. Honestly what an asshole, who would think of people like that?

"Normally I'd say not necessarily but given that you already had your suspicions it makes things a bit more doubtful." I wonder if there are others in the school with the same doubts. I can't imagine that Sakamoto is the only one that's caught on to his behaviour.

"What if we were to free the students in the other world, would that not change things?" It isn't a bad idea, well if the behaviour of the students wasn't being accounted for.

"You've got the right idea, but the wrong way around."

"What do you mean?"

"Even if we had the firepower to pull that off, they would simply be put behind bars the next day. That place is like a closed ecosystem, it'll remain in equilibrium even if we interfere. Besides that, they want to remain under his rule that's just how his thought process works."

"There's no way they would!" Even in the real world you could find examples of that. Stockholm syndrome, implanting a sense of affection in your captive by being their only source of reliability.

"You're treating this like a normal situation, in the real world it isn't likely. True. But that place works off of his own understanding of the world and his common sense." Frankly, the better you could understand Kamoshida's worldview the better chance you had on influencing anything.

"…Are you saying that everything we do in that world would amount to nothing?" I can see why he was worried. Imagine being powerless to change anything, watching as the people around you are corrupted over time. Helpless to stop it. Suddenly gaining powers which make you akin to a god in that world. And finding it didn't change a damn thing. I could reassure him, whisper empty words that would placate him for the time being. That isn't the best way to go about things, though. Empty words, that's exactly what they'd be. Without any intervention the current state of affairs will continue to run rampant, unchecked in the school. If I implanted the idea that things would work out, then nothing would change. To remove his misgivings, you'd need to completely tear the system asunder. It was much more convenient to break it apart and build anew.

"That's not exactly true either." If there was one thing I needed; it was allies. A common enemy is one of the best presences for unification.

"But you said nothing would change. So, how?" He couldn't see it. He was blinded by his fear of loss.

"We may not cause any lasting changes by interfering in the other world. But we can certainly gather information pertaining to this one. Just by entering once we already learned this much."

"But what can we do past that? We don't have any power here, that's the reason we're in this mess…" He was still looking down to the floor.

"That's where you're wrong. You have a good opportunity, the question is; are you going to take it?" His eyes slowly looked up towards me once again, before tracing the cobbled path beneath us.

"The hell's good about this situation? My brain is frying man…" He clutched his head in anguish.

"If you want to go about this, then you need a plan. Hitting the problem won't work no matter how hard you try."

"Yeah, I know… I hate to ask you, honestly because your kind of an asshole. Help me. Please." Contrasting his usual behaviour, he bowed sincerely whilst making that request. I would be a monster to turn him down…

"No thanks."

"HAAAH?!" He practically doubled over after hearing me.

"Kidding. I'll lend you a hand. However, you follow my plan to the letter. Otherwise, I'll ditch you immediately." I don't need unreliable allies; I'd sooner blunder them off the board.

"Tch. Should've known it'd be something like that… Fine, you got a deal. I have a feeling you'll probably have a better idea than me of how to go about this." This was a good start.

"…What's our first move then?" Sakamoto asked after a second of silence. He was eager to work, that's good. He'd have plenty to keep himself busy with soon enough.

"Your first role will be the villain. Are you ready to be the bad guy if it means saving them?" He looked unsteadily towards me, approaching my idea with a trace of scepticism. But, assured that he had no other reliable options.

"Yeah… I'll do anything." Good.