43 Boys (1/2)

Seeing no point in gather names and details as the students seemed to be fighting in their own way, the small group continued forward.

Because they just wanted to leave, they spent most of the time avoiding the shadows. Ryuji, being Ryuji, once again stopped and started cursing at Kamoshida for putting these students through this kinda of torture.

This seemed to be the last straw for Morgana as he said, ”Urgh, can you listen for once! These guys aren't real people! They're just the cognition of how Kamoshida sees the students! And from how the students seem to mock him at every available moment, you can clearly see that the students in reality are rebelling against him!”

Ryuji didn't seem to understand but it was a different story with Akira and Axel. Akira fell into deep thought as he was still trying to understand everything while Axel only smiled as he said, ”Morgana is basically saying these projections are created and act how Kamoshida sees them. That's to say that in reality, Kamoshida gives the volleyball team hard practice and training yet everyone would band together to complete the training with a smile. Kamoshida would in turn feel that the students are quietly mocking him for resorting to intense training just because he's shown his true petty nature.”

If Ryuji didn't understand before, his eyes were now spinning as he couldn't keep up. Akira, however, had a light of understanding in his eyes as he nodded. Morgana actually smiled with a friendly light in his eyes as he happily said, ”You understand!?!”

Axel merely smiled yet this was enough as Morgana seemed satisfied. Morgana gave Ryuji a glance as he sighed and said, ”When Axel explained it so accurately, how can you not understand?”

Ryuji wanted to defend himself but he also understood that what Axel said must have made sense yet no matter how he wrapped his head around it, it just didn't stick.

Axel saw that Ryuji started feeling glum so he decided to help out.

”Morgana, you shouldn't be so hard on Ryuji. To be able to understand something like this, you'd need prior knowledge on the subject. And it's understandable that Ryuji, as a highschool student, doesn't fully understand.”

”But you understand!”

”That's because I have knowledge about cognition and how it works.”

Ryuji actually shot Axel a look of appreciation. Akira remained silent as he seemed to understand at least 50% of the conversation.

Morgana scoffed as he suddenly said, ”And where would you learn about that kind of stuff? Don't even think about saying that you learnt it at school because if you did, why do those two look like they barely understand?”

Axel remained calm as he replied, ”My hobby is reading fantasy novels and stuff. When you read as many fantasy stories as I have, you pick up a thing or two.”

Everyone gave Axel an exasperated look yet couldn't really say anything in retort. Everyone's had moments where something they've read from stories or learned through video games and anime actually helps them to understand something.

Axel even remembers when he read a short article online back in his old world where a class that was lost on a school trip in Italy actually managed to find their way back when one of the students took the lead. When asked how he knew the way to the church where they were supposed to meet the other classes, the boy replied, ”I've played Assassin's creed 2 before. The area started to resemble the game so I just followed what I remembered from the game and BAM!, we made it.”

Morgana smiled wryly and had no choice but to accept his explanation. The group continued forward yet there was a sudtle change. Akira and Ryuji seemed more friendly than before while Morgana actually seemed to have fun with the small group.

As they continued sneaking around, Axel and the group noticed the layout begin to change. The dungeon like layout, at some point, had changed and become a gaudy looking room.

The group continued down a long hall until they came across a weird door. The door seemed to switch between a gaudy white door and a grey school door.

Before Akira and Ryuji could ask, Morgana said, ”That right there, is a safe room.”

”A safe room? What's that?”

Clearing his throat, Morgana smugly said, ”A safe room is a room where the distortion is at its weakest. Because of this, the armoured suits, or the shadows, can't get in.”

Ryuji just became even more confused as he asked, ”What's a shadow?”

”A Shadow is the true self that is suppressed—a side of one's personality they don't want to see. They manifest and occupy an open palace.”

It was a vague answer but managed to get the point across. Inside the room, the fancy room changed and became a classroom on the first floor.

Just as they sat down to rest, Axel suddnly blurted out, ”Won't we be able to get outside if we climb out that vent?”

His words seemed to have lit a fire under Akira and Ryuji as they quickly sprung into action. Axel just sat back and watched as the two boys slowly started removing the vent.