Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

December 24th, 2016

It hurt so much.

Every fibre of Akira’s body was burning. Evaporating. Electrifying and turning to dust.

He couldn’t stop it. He could never stop it. He didn’t have any more ideas. How many times had he failed? Failed to win, failed to save his friends? Were they even really his friends anymore? He’d known them all far longer than they’d known him. He hadn’t reached out to them as much this time, and it was starting to show. 

Through the mind-splintering whine that filled his head, Akira could just barely make out his friends splayed on the ground around him, crying out their final questions: Why them? 

A few moments later, he followed them into the dark, enveloping abyss.

April 9th, 2016

Akira shot up like a stick of bamboo, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He was alive. How many times was that now? How many failures? Six? Seven? He wasn’t quite sure anymore.

The weight all crashed down on him at once. The pain; The loss. The sheer inadequacy he felt at not being able to do anything! He had learnt so much more than the first time he lived the year, had become so much stronger! Why couldn’t he just save them?! Before he realised what he was doing, his fist landed squarely in the wall of the train carriage. Akira barely registered the pain, but it had made a dent. The strength he built up both in the real world and the metaverse had been maintained every time he… died. He still didn’t like thinking about it. The searing pain was still fresh in his head.

Akira bent forward in his seat, head in his hands and tears in his eyes. Then, a thought drifted into his mind. If he couldn’t save the Phantom Thieves, then he’d just have to stop them from ever risking themselves in the first place. He tried everything else that he could think of already - missing palaces, doing different ones, picking a different order - none of it worked: They always ended up at the bottom of mementos, and on that crossing in Shibuya. It was the only way to keep his friends safe. A sobering thought.

“Um, I’m sorry, but are you alright?” A small voice asked from in front of him, shaking Akira out of his reverie.

He hadn’t noticed, but a redheaded girl who looked about his age was standing in front of where he was sitting, a look of concern on her face. She must have noticed his outburst. Glancing around, there weren’t many other passengers on the train, so he was probably safe when it came to property damage. He could afford it, obviously, but getting arrested on the day he arrived wouldn’t be conducive to helping his friends.

“Y-yes, I’m fine - thank you.” He assured the girl, trying to surreptitiously wipe his eyes from behind his glasses. He failed.

“Well, would you like some company anyway?” The girl asked, evidently ignoring Akira’s somewhat pathetic attempt to tell her everything was fine.

Well, it wasn’t like he’d see her again, anyway.

“Sure, why not?” Akira said, offering the girl the seat next to him. “My name’s Akira Kurusu, nice to meet you.”

“Kasumi Yoshizawa.” The girl said with a smile bright enough to give Ann a run for her money, sitting beside him.

Akira chatted with her for a short while - they were only a few minutes away from the station - but found her company surprisingly amenable. He’d been beginning to have trouble forming connections with people he wasn’t already familiar with, finding their actions too odd and unpredictable, but Kasumi was… refreshing.

* * *

“Alright kid, this is your room.” Sojiro said, leaving the teenager to look around. He didn’t expect much of a response, really. The kid had greeted him with bright eyes when he met him at the station, but once he’d started laying down some of the ground rules, he’d grown almost… despondent. Oddly, the kid had also called him ‘Boss’ without Sojiro saying anything, but maybe he’d already heard about his preferred title from his parents when he got shipped off.

“...Thanks, boss.” Akira murmured after a moment. Sojiro wasn’t sure if the kid was contemplating, or just spaced out. He’d been expecting a sullen delinquent, but Kurusu didn’t give him that energy. It was like he’d… resigned himself to his fate. To be honest, Sojiro hadn’t really thought about it, but the kid had come from a pretty rural background, where something like a criminal record spread pretty damn fast, especially when about a kid. The boy had probably been ostracised for weeks before his parents decided to boot him out here to the city for a year. Still, it didn’t mean that the kid hadn’t done anything wrong.

* * *

“Oh, hello there Akira!” Kasumi’s cheerful voice shook Akira out of his stupor. Sojiro had taken him to Shujin to introduce himself, as usual, and Akira had mostly daydreamed through it, visions of what had been sprawling through his mind.

The girl from the train was standing in the hallway, wearing a gym outfit. “Oh, Kasumi, I didn’t see you there. Do… you go to Shujin?” He was certain that he would have noticed her before if she had been going to the same school as him. Then again, he didn’t really spend much time there outside of lessons.

“Yes, actually!” Kasumi replied, “I’m a first-year transfer starting tomorrow. Wait… does that mean you’re also a transfer student here, Akira?”

Well, damn. That was unexpected.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Wow, then I suppose that makes you my senpai, right?” Kasumi smiled.

“Heh, yeah. I guess it does.” Akira chuckled back. He didn’t miss the ‘Hoo Boy’ that Boss muttered under his breath. He reminded Akira that they needed to get back to the cafe, given how bad the traffic was, and that he could see his ‘friend’ later at school. Akira also didn’t miss the emphasis Sojiro put on ‘friend’. He knew the old man considered himself a bit of a womaniser in his youth, but surely he didn’t think… oh. He did think that.

* * * * *

Akira woke up on a hard slab of stone to a familiar melancholy tune. He had been soundly asleep moments ago, but already felt wide awake. The velvet room. Akira had wondered when Igor would contact him.

He rose from the ‘bed’ and trudged over to the cell bars, mindful of the ball chained to his ankle. He looked up at the old man, and the two little girls dressed in blue on either side of the door. They didn’t seem to remember him, but Akira was certain that Igor did. There was something in his eyes, his smile, that changed after the first time, and never came back. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe Igor was the one bringing him back. He did agree to play his game every time, after all. Maybe this was one of its endings.

“Welcome,” Igor began, “to my velvet room.”

Then, Akira made a choice. It was one that he might regret later. But it was his choice.

Akira interrupted Igor and the twins before they could continue, “I do not require the services of your velvet room at this time.” He spoke slowly, looking Igor straight in the eye. He knew exactly what he was doing by declining persona fusions and the compendium. He could work his way up on his own.

"What?!" Caroline cried from the other side of the door. Even Justine looked truly shocked.

Igor seemed… nearly unfazed, though Akira was sure he saw a glimmer of interest spark in his eyes that was reminiscent of the way he looked at Akira the first time he went through his 'game'.

“Are you… certain?” He asked.

“Yes.” There was no hesitation.

“Very well then.” Igor said with a wave of his hand, musing to himself, “This will be quite an interesting game after all…”

With a soul-wrenching tear, Akira was forced from the velvet room, and was immediately met with the distinct feeling that he wouldn’t be able to access it again under normal circumstances. Good riddance.

* * * * *

April 11th

Akira’s alarm woke him up early. Well, not early, but early in the morning. He wasn’t used to being woken up by an alarm though. Morgana was always there to force him to sleep and wake up on time. The not-a-cat’s absence was palpable in the empty attic. Instinctively he tried to activate his third eye to help with the dark, but naturally found it missing. Akira dressed and went downstairs to Leblanc, greeting Sojiro with a nod - not daring to say anything more.

Sojiro warned him not to get lost on his way to school. Akira remembered the first time he got lost in Shibuya, sort of. He didn’t remember which line he was looking for, but he had trouble finding it and ended up wandering around for so long that he nearly ended up late to school, bumped into Ryuji, and the rest was well… no longer history.

Akira sat in one of the empty seats on the train and opened a book. He’d made a habit of reading up on various interesting places across Tokyo whenever he could. There wasn’t much else left for him to read about, after all. A coffee shop caught his eye - Chagall Cafe. He doubted it had anything on Boss’ skills, but it might be interesting to try anyway.

He transferred lines as usual in Shibuya, and stepped onto the train loaded with other Shujin students. He didn’t see anyone he recognised, thankfully, although he did catch a glimpse of what he thought was Mishima’s hair from another carriage. He didn’t see him, though, so there weren’t any problems.

Akira trudged up the stairs and was met with the first few raindrops that signalled an oncoming shower. Shit. He always forgot to bring an umbrella the first day. Stuffing his hands in his pockets and lowering his head, Akira sighed and started the walk to Shujin, ignoring his fellow students running for cover around him. Before long, he found himself alone on the street, behind those who had run ahead, and having long outpaced the people waiting for the rain to let up. He didn’t think much of it until a delivery van hit a pothole on the road beside him, and the axle holding the door came undone, dropping a small package on the floor just ahead of him. Akira was going to ignore it but there was something… strange about it. He felt drawn to it somehow. There still wasn’t anybody to watch, so he knelt down beside the package. It wasn’t large - it could probably just about hold Morgana. There was a label on top, though, in addition to the delivery details. It read,

Property of the Kirijo Group.

Warning: Contains Hazardous Materials

Do not open without proper authority.

Well, whoever put that on there hadn’t anticipated their parcel being dropped in front of Akira Kurusu, had they? He couldn’t just leave it now, could he? The warning was probably just to keep people away. With another quick glance around to check that a truancy officer wasn’t about to tap him on the shoulder, he opened the small box. 

There was a set of what looked to be earpieces, and a gun inside.

Akira had just opened a box that had a gun inside. In broad daylight, on his way to school.

Thankfully, before he began to freak out, he realised that it didn’t look quite like a real gun. He’d spent enough time with Iwai to know what made something just a really good replica. But still - this was a really good replica. In addition to the ‘gun’, there was a note enclosed, which Akira read.

Kirijo-san,

Our team has made significant progress in repurposing some of your original equipment so as not to require a plume of dusk. We haven’t been able to test it fully, of course, but it should function well in all environments, as requested. Please let us know about any imperfections that you notice. Some of our other prototypes are attached.

Huh. Akira had no clue what to make of that. He gingerly removed the model gun from its packaging, and noticed that it had an engraving on it - ‘S.E.E.S’ - in thin letters along one side. They glinted in the morning sunlight. It was light - lighter than he’d expected, given his experiences with model guns inside and outside the metaverse.

For a moment, Akira considered leaving everything where he’d found it and walking away, but now that he’d picked it up, there was something… familiar about the thing. He felt like he knew its purpose, but it was just out of reach in his mind. He shook his head and put that thought aside for later, choosing instead to place the model gun and the other items in his bag and leave the note and the rest of the package where they were, and set off again to Shujin.

*

Apparently that little stop had completely thrown awry Akira’s plans to avoid coming across any familiar faces this morning, he thought bitterly to himself as he saw Ann get into Kamoshida’s car, and heard Ryuji’s telltale footsteps running from behind. He should really be more careful in the rain - he might slip.

“Ah! Damn that pervy teacher!” Ryuji cried as he ran past Akira, shaking his fist like an old man at the shrinking car. “That guy thinks he’s a king of a castle or something… grr!”

Ryuji kicked a pebble at a nearby wall.

Akira braced himself for Ryuji to notice him, and inevitably drag him to school, which would make his promise to himself to not engage with any of his friends until he was certain they’d be safe a lot more difficult. Instead though, Ryuji glanced at his watch, and jumped.

“For real?! Is that the time? I gotta go! See ya!” He shouted back over his shoulder as he dashed off towards the school.

Akira sighed as he trotted off after Ryuji. He didn’t really care about being late at the moment; He knew it would annoy Kawakami, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk to school any faster. The weight of his plan was beginning to wear on him already. He just needed to get the phantom thieves going without them, and then he’d be able to rest easier.

It was still raining. Getting wet was pretty low down on the list of things that Akira wasn’t happy about, but it was still on there.

“Oh! Senpai!” A familiar voice declared from behind him. Akira turned and saw Kasumi running up behind him, umbrella in hand. She stopped beside him and held up the umbrella to shelter them both. “I didn’t expect to see you here!” She chuckled, “I got held up buying an umbrella for the rain - I forgot to pack one, you see.”

“Ah, well. I just thought it’d be easier to keep walking, but it seems I’m still running late.”

“You were out in the rain all this time?” Kasumi looked affronted, holding her free hand to her mouth, “Senpai, you’ll catch a cold!”

Akira chuckled. He’d found out that spending so long in the metaverse had some positive effects on his body - one of which was how resistant he was to disease. The value of having built up a tolerance to all those status effects, he supposed.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine. And don’t worry about the ‘senpai’ stuff, you can call me Akira.”

“Oh, ok sen-Akira.” Kasumi corrected herself. “What was that boy talking about earlier? He seemed quite angry, shouting about someone called… Kamoshida?”

“Oh, him? I don’t think it’ll be a problem. I think he was just complaining about a teacher.” Akira replied.

“Ah, I see.” Kasumi said. “Um… I really don’t think we should be late for our first day, so do you think we should run there?” She asked timidly.

Akira thought about it for a moment. He’d just decided not to run because he really didn’t care, but he had the feeling that Kasumi would choose to walk with him and stop him from getting wet rather than get to school on time.

“Sure,” He said, a joker-like grin slipping onto his face, “race you?”

Kasumi quickly matched his smile, a competitive spirit flaring behind her eyes. “You’re on!” She said, before taking off along with the umbrella. For a girl as short as she was, she was fast. Akira sprinted after her, but she outpaced him the whole way there. Maybe Kasumi was a track runner? Akira caught up to where Kasumi was waiting in front of the school, trying to catch his breath, bent double with his hands on his knees.

“Damn you’re quick.” He wheezed. In hindsight, maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to sprint the whole way, but he had just been trying to catch up.

“Um… Akira? This is the way to the school, right?”

…What?

Akira looked up, and rather than the familiar steps up to Shujin’s front doors, there were instead a series of rough-hewn stone blocks that formed a staircase leading to an imposing set of wooden doors that would look just as at home behind a drawbridge. Above them was an impossible structure of wood and brick that rose up in various towers where the school should have been. It was a castle. Kamoshida’s castle.

Shit.

Akira froze. How could this have possibly happened? He hadn’t done anything with the nav– Except he had. After Ryuji had provided almost all the codewords when he ran after Kamoshida’s car, as he always did, and Kasumi had filled in the last one - his name - when she asked him about the commotion. And the nav had run with it, taking him and Kasumi straight into the metaverse. This was bad. Really, really bad. He knew he could awaken to Arsène, but that would leave Kasumi with knowledge of things that she really, really would be better off not knowing about. Paralyzed, he didn’t even react when four guards opened the door and spotted them.

“Uh… Akira, please tell me you have some idea about what’s happening.” Kasumi asked nervously. Akira tried to reach out to her and shield her from the guards, but they were already upon them, and a sharp blow to the head plunged him into darkness.

* * *

Kasumi woke up in what could only be described as a jail cell. She seemed to have been tossed in there, and was lying next to Akira on a small pile of rags. She let out a small ‘eep’ at the close proximity of the two, which caused Akira to blearily open his own eyes, and scrambled to her feet.

Akira sat up, clutching his head and groaning slightly. Before either of them could say anything, the thumping of heavy metal boots echoed from the other side of the bars. Moments later, three of those armoured knights that had grabbed them outside the school…castle…thing appeared, with a person in the centre. He was wearing a crown and cape and… very little else. Kasumi quickly looked away.

He declared, “Guards, seize them!” before adding more quietly, “A new one? I can’t wait.”

Even from the corner of her eye, Kasumi could tell that he was looking straight at her when he said that.

The three knights stormed in, their hulking armour dwarfing Kasumi and Akira. Their helmets had crude faces painted on, but they didn’t move, unsurprisingly. Unfortunately, the effect only added to their disturbing nature. One tried to grab her wrists, but Akira dived in front of her and tried to smack its hand away, shouting, “Get away from her!”.

His fist hit the metal with a dull, painful-sounding thud, and Kasumi heard him cry out in pain. One of the other knights responded by backhanding Akira so hard that he fell to the ground.

The man in the crown spoke again, “Change of plans. You,” He pointed to one of the guards, “hold her back whilst we show her what’ll happen if she disobeys me.” The knight in question grabbed Kasumi by the neck and shoved her up against the wall. She struggled, but to no avail; The knight’s grip was too strong for her to wrest out of it.

From where she was pinned, she could just about see Akira, collapsed on the floor, being beaten by both of the knights. He was muttering something under his breath. This couldn’t get any worse.

“Are you simply going to stand by and allow others to be hurt? Are you going to accept your life in cinders around you?” A voice spoke in Kasumi’s head.

“Will you watch, helpless? Or will you rebel against the chains that this world has placed on you? Will you fight?”

And then Kasumi realised that she would. Whatever it took, she would fight. She wouldn’t stand on the sidelines and let people get hurt ever again!

A heavy weight dropped onto her face, and she suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to get rid of it. Her hands were free, so she grabbed the sides of what felt like a mask, and ripped away the covering. It felt like she was ripping away her own skin. Kasumi felt the blood run down her forehead from where she had removed it. But it didn’t feel painful. It felt freeing.

With a forceful shout, Kasumi bellowed, “Come, Cendrillon!”

In a flash, the knight released its grip on her, and her feet touched the floor again. There was something else in the room, however. Like a crystalline ballerina, she was hovering in the air in front of Kasumi. Cendrillon - her persona. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she was certain of it nonetheless.

“Cendrillon: Makougaon!” The words came to her like she had memorised them, long ago.

With a spin, Cendrillon brought forth a blinding light that vaporised the knights and sent the man in the crown running.

Akira was still on the floor. Kasumi ran straight over, kneeling beside him. He hadn’t moved, and there was blood all over him.

“A-Akira? What do I do?” Kasumi scrambled for an option. Something else floated into her mind. She whispered it, unsure, “Diarahan.”

From behind her, Cendrillon knelt down and laid a hand on Akira’s chest. A green light covered his body, and most of the cuts and bruises that covered Akira’s face and hands healed themselves. Kasumi felt some energy drain from her. Had she… done that? Healed him? Beside her, Cendrillon disappeared, and the mask she had been wearing earlier settled itself back onto her head, more comfortably this time. Looking down, she also realised her clothes had changed. Rather than her school uniform, she was wearing what appeared to be a black gymnastics leotard and long jacket, along with a pair of gloves.

Akira’s eyes shot open and he wheezed, coughing up a small bit of blood. But he was alive, at least.

“Akira!” Kasumi shouted in relief.

Akira coughed again a few times, before looking up at her. “What’s happening?” He asked weakly.

“U-um, I don’t know, but I’m going to get you out of here, alright?”

Akira nodded wearily, then closed his eyes. Kasumi felt that it would probably be better if he kept his eyes open, but maybe he needed the rest. She picked him up - which was easier than she expected - and ran out of the cell.

Kasumi didn’t quite know where she was going, but they seemed to be in a dungeon of some kind, so she found a set of stairs and went up. The river had been a bit difficult to get over, as she couldn’t figure out how to lower the drawbridge, but luckily she had been able to jump the whole thing. She didn’t know why she was able to do so much more than she thought she should be able to, but she was thankful.

She managed to avoid the guards on her way out - they all appeared to be congregating in a main hall of some kind, and she managed to slip out through a back door and make her way back around to the front. As she was walking out, Akira woke up again, startling in her arms. He seemed quite dazed, but kept muttering ‘phone’ at her. She set him down against a wall opposite the castle and checked his breathing and pulse. He was alive, and that was what was important, but she was still worried. At his insistence, she looked at her phone, and was surprised to see a giant red eye filling the screen, with a big button below labelled ‘End Navigation’. She pressed it, and the world shifted around them. Before her eyes, the castle changed back to the school she had walked through just a day before, and there was no trace anything had ever been wrong. 

On the steps to the school, Kasumi immediately recognised the man with the crown who had been commanding the knights. He was dressed appropriately now, with no crown in sight, and when she saw the whistle around his neck, she realised that she remembered him - he was the school's volleyball teacher, who had not-so-subtly encouraged her to drop gymnastics and take up volleyball instead yesterday. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten him.

He didn’t seem to have noticed her or Akira yet, as he was busy yelling at the second-year in a yellow t-shirt that Kasumi had seen run off ahead of her. While she was looking at him, Akira managed to get up and put his hand on Kasumi’s shoulder.

“Sorry, but would you mind helping me in? I’m still a little weak.”

“Of course!” She replied, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and lifting him slightly as they continued on towards the base of the steps. They didn’t get very far before the teacher - Kamoshida? - noticed them.

“Hey, you two–!” He started, before cutting himself off as he saw the state that Akira was in. Most of the bruises had faded, but some persisted. “What the hell happened? Why are you so late?”

“I’m very sorry, sir. Someone was following my friend here, and they didn’t like it when I told them to leave her alone. It won’t happen again.” Akira lied convincingly. Kasumi was surprised how easily that excuse came to him, and wasn’t quite sure what to think about the fact that her new friend’s first excuse for why he had so many bruises was that he was defending her from someone on the street. Though, she supposed, that wasn’t far from the truth.

“Fine, just get inside.” The teacher said, before returning to berating the boy in the yellow t-shirt for being late, despite him being earlier than they were.

* * *

Akira’s head finally cleared properly as Kasumi helped him sit down on one of the beds in the nurse’s office, concern painted on her features. She waited while the school nurse examined him, despite his protests about not making her be even later to her first day. Unsurprisingly, the nurse quickly concluded that there wasn’t anything wrong with him beyond some bruising and exhaustion. He was pretty sure Kasumi had healed him in the metaverse, and injuries on one side tended to be less severe on the other anyway.

Eventually, he was discharged with some painkillers, and he walked with Kasumi to the faculty office. The lunch bell rang just as they entered, which meant they managed to avoid the crowds that would fill the halls soon after. That probably wasn’t important to Kasumi, but Akira would rather not have rumours circulate about her before she even knew where her classroom was. No matter how many times he lived it, the murmurs about the ‘delinquent transfer’ pervaded his every moment at school.

Kawakami was unimpressed with his arrival time, as expected, though she stopped short of actually getting annoyed at him when he said that he had defended Kasumi, which also preempted her question of ‘Why does your face look like it’s been used as a punching bag?’ To be honest, his ribcage was far sorer than his face, but nobody could see the web of bruises that had formed there. Kawakami didn’t say or do anything else unexpected, so Akira mostly tuned out until the first lesson of the afternoon began and he had to introduce himself. He didn’t really put any enthusiasm in it, and avoided Ann’s eyes from the back of the classroom. The whispers were audible as he walked back to his seat.

“He’s the delinquent, right?”

“I heard he carries a knife everywhere he goes.”

“Look at his face! Think he got into a fight already?”

Akira ignored them and just sat down. Kawakami brought the class to attention and started her lesson shortly after. Akira couldn’t tell how many times he’d heard this one before, but he practically had his teacher’s words memorised. He didn’t fall asleep in the lecture, per se, but he definitely drifted away a little. 

He was shaken out of his stupor a while later when the bell rang to signal the end of the day. Akira grabbed his bag, which he quickly remembered had a replica gun in it, momentarily mistaking the weight for Morgana. He felt terrible, and was mostly just planning to go home and rest when Kasumi caught up to him outside the gates.

“Oh, Akira, there you are!” This drew a few heads, and Akira could hear whispers starting already about the two transfer students already being on first-name terms. He didn’t want to get her involved in that, but he supposed there wasn’t anything to do about it now.

As she got closer to him, she leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “Should we talk about what happened?”

Oh, right. He’d forgotten that Kasumi would have no clue as to what was going on.

“Yeah, but… not today, sorry.” Akira apologised, “I’m still feeling pretty beat-up.”

“Oh, of course!” Kasumi said, “If I’m completely honest, I feel exhausted. I can’t imagine how you must feel.”

Akira winced slightly. He was a fair amount sorer than he would have been tired if he’d awakened to Arsène like he normally did. He still didn’t know what had happened. There just… hadn’t been a call for him to answer. Had he done something wrong?

“In that case, I insist that I accompany you home to make sure you get there safely.” Kasumi said confidently, interrupting his train of thoughts.

“That won’t be necessary, really - I can get home on my own.” Akira said.

Kasumi pouted frustratedly, “You might be concussed, Akira. I know the nurse looked you over, but she didn’t do anything to check for lasting damage. You shouldn’t be left on your own.”

From the lecture and the fire in Kasumi’s eyes, Akira quickly understood that he would be fighting a losing battle if he continued to protest, so he allowed Kasumi to escort him back to the station, at least.

* * *

It had not been a good day for Ryuji so far. First, he hadn’t been able to stop Kamoshida from dragging Ann into his car; Then, he’d still somehow been late to school and had been shouted at for nearly half an hour by Kamoshida, who then let the kid he saw (Ryuji thought he must have been the new transfer, given his second-year uniform) on the street straight through along with a first-year girl.

He’d managed to distract Kamoshida from bothering Ann and her friend Shiho after school though, even if it had taken him receiving another verbal beatdown in the middle of the hallway, but it was more than worth it to make sure he didn’t get a chance to put his hands on them, or anyone else. He was just leaving school when he spotted the distinctive red hair of the girl who’d arrived late with the transfer. She appeared to be with him again, as they disappeared round a corner. Maybe they knew each other beforehand? If not, he sure made friends fast.

“Ryuji!” Ann’s cry from behind distracted him for a moment as he turned around to see her and Shiho coming down the steps behind her. As Ann got closer, she continued more quietly, “Thanks for earlier, seriously. Kamoshida’s been getting more… forward lately and it’s been difficult to get away.”

“It’s no prob.” Ryuji said honestly. It wasn’t - Kamoshida had already done pretty much the worst thing he could to Ryuji, and he knew it. All he had left was empty words and posturing. Ryuji was happy to put himself in Kamoshida’s wake if it meant pushing someone who might get hurt out of the way. The rumours all talked about how Ann was dating Kamoshida, but Ryuji wasn’t that stupid. Even if he didn’t already know Ann, it was obvious that she hated being around the guy. Who didn’t, besides his leagues of brainwashed adoring fans?

“Thank you, really.” Shiho said beside Ann. Her voice was… quiet. Worryingly quiet. Ryuji knew he was loud - his mother complained about his lack of an ‘inside voice’ often enough, but he knew when someone was speaking too quietly. It was the way his mother used to speak to his dad when he’d come home late sometimes. Ann rubbed Shiho’s shoulders comfortingly.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea - why don’t the three of us go out for crepes!” Ann exclaimed, a smile on her face. Ryuji hadn’t really spoken to her in a while, but she was still exactly like he remembered - always perking up at the first mention of sweets. A small smile grew on Shiho’s face, like a flower pushing through a crack in the pavement to blossom despite the adversity.

Seeing the collective agreement, Ann continued, taking out her phone, “Here Ryuji, let me send you the place.”

Ryuji got his own out, but instead of his screen, there was an app already open, some red eye thing, with three boxes labelled ‘Kamoshida’, ‘Castle’, and ‘Shujin’, with a button below ‘Begin navigation’. In hindsight, Ryuji should probably not have pressed that button, but he did, so here they were. When he pressed it, the world around them changed, and the school suddenly morphed into a castle, and everyone except the three of them disappeared into thin air.

“Uh, guys…” Ryuji trailed off. “What the eff is going on?”

* * *

It had not been a good day for Shiho so far. Though really, could any of her days be described as ‘good’ anymore? Kamoshida had ramped up practice to pretty much every day since the start of the year, and his ‘training’ was only getting harsher. Shiho hadn’t missed the fact that since the start of her time at Shujin, many of the female volleyball players had ‘dropped out’ or transferred to another school not long after Kamoshida took an interest in them. And recently, Kamoshida had been making it very clear that his ‘interest’ was firmly focused on her and Ann.

There was nothing she could do but take the abuse - nobody who wasn’t already covering it up would believe her if she tried to accuse Kamoshida. Ann was trying to distract her by trying to get them to go out somewhere, but Shiho wasn’t really sure that it would help much at the moment.

And then Ann’s friend Ryuji had pointed out that they were suddenly alone on the steps, and the school had been replaced by a giant castle.

It didn’t take Ann long to blame it on Ryuji, but after a minute or so, they decided that the best way to try and get out would be to see what was inside the strange castle. That had turned out to be a very poor idea.

Inside, they found a bunch of people dressed up as giant western medieval knights. They were in some kind of grand entrance hall, with chandeliers and ornate doors lining the walls. At the back of the room there was a giant painting of Kamoshida’s face. Shiho felt a small bit of bile rise at the back of her throat. In front of the painting stood Kamoshida himself, dressed in pink underwear and a king-like cape that did nothing to cover him up. What did he think he was doing? As they walked in, he was ranting about something or other to the people in the armour, and though they were standing at attention, Shiho had the distinct feeling that they wouldn’t give any reaction to anything he said as part of his speech.

Soon after they entered, however, Kamoshida noticed them and his demeanour instantly changed.

He shouted from his perch, “There! Capture the intruders! Bring them here!” The animosity in his voice was evident. Shiho had only heard him speak like that once before, when a third-year girl had stood up to him and the mask he wore had cracked for a moment. He’d broken the girl’s arm, and less than a week later, she was gone. Nobody had said anything.

With a storm of heavy footfall, a large group of knights were upon them before they could so much as turn their heads to leave. Shiho and Ann were tossed in front of Kamoshida, with Ryuji kept subdued behind, struggling loudly.

“Well, well. What do we have here?” Kamoshida smirked as he looked down at them, licking his lips. “New toys, it looks like.”

“What the hell!? Let us go, perv!” Ann shouted at him from beside Shiho.

“Oh?” Kamoshida sneered. “I don’t think I will. Let me show you what you’ll be when I’m done.” He snapped his fingers and from behind him walked two girls dressed even more provocatively than he was, but were wearing the faces of Ann and Shiho. Now, Shiho was really starting to think that this was all a stress-induced dream. And if it was a dream, well, then she was going to give Kamoshida the beating of his lifetime.

“Have you chosen to tread the path of strife?” A voice thundered in Shiho’s head, accompanied by a sharp pain.

“Will you pass by opportunity, or risk it all to take what you deserve? Show him your strength! Build an empire from your suffering, and stand proud atop it! You don’t need another to tell you your worth - claim it yourself!”

There was something itching on Shiho’s face, covering her eyes. She had to get rid of it. Grabbing the angular edges of the object that had latched itself onto her face, she pulled.

It was painful - like ripping off the skin of her own face. But a cool strength flowed through her to match it.

“Come, François!” Shiho shouted as the mask tore from her face. Suddenly, her heart felt like it had been uplifted, as if it had been broken, and now reforged. With a fearful cry that sounded suspiciously like ‘Not again!’ from Kamoshida. He and his knights quickly fled the scene, leaving Shiho, Ann, and Ryuji alone in the large room.

With the mask still in her hands, Shiho could see some kind of spectre floating in front of her. He was dressed sharply, though with a very dated style. He looked like a victorian, or possibly from somewhere even earlier than that. He was dressed in a white tuxedo with deep purple trimmings and a golden monocle. It was certainly striking, and though Shiho usually left Ann to think about fashion for both of them, she couldn't deny that the striking look helped to distract from the fact that a ten-foot tall ghost had just scared off her abusive PE teacher who was nearly naked in the middle of a castle that had appeared in place of the school. All things considered, she probably should have been panicking a lot more.

Turning to check on them, she saw that Ann and Ryuji were holding masks of their own in their hands, and that all three of their school uniforms had changed into something very different. She was now dressed in a smart suit with a golden rose pinned to one of the pockets, Ryuji was wearing a punk outfit, and Ann seemed to be wearing a particularly form-hugging red leather outfit that had far too many zips. She was even carrying a whip. Where had that appeared from? Shiho was about to declare the entire experience a hallucination, but the certainty she felt in her heart made her sure that what she had just done was real. Kamoshida had tried to grab her, and she’d fought back. It wasn’t a complicated thing, but it felt so… freeing. Shiho felt exhausted, though at the same time, she felt like she could run laps of the school.

* * *

It had not been a good day for Morgana so far. He’d wandered into this palace hoping to find some hint of his identity, or better yet - how to return to being human - and instead he’d been captured. How unbecoming of a phantom thief! Unfortunately, he didn’t have any lockpicks on him, and his claws weren’t long enough to work on the cast-iron padlock to his cell, so Morgana was forced to sit and wait until he heard voices. There was some commotion on the other side of the dungeon, and when he eventually managed to glimpse someone in a black outfit, he didn’t manage to get their attention before they jumped over the river that ran through the centre of the room.

To his surprise, however, voices greeted him a second time in one day. Two female, one male. The two girls didn’t say much, but he was pretty sure he heard two of them conversing at one point. The boy was much louder. Much louder. He was also repeatedly exclaiming about the conditions of the other ‘prisoners’. Morgana had seen them when he was dropped in here. The only other prisoners were cognitions - why would someone care how they were treated here?

After an agonising few minutes, the group managed to finally solve the simple puzzle of lowering the bridge. Seriously? It had taken them that long? Morgana had been able to figure out that the mechanism was hidden in the head next to the bridge even when being dragged through the room upside-down by a shadow!

Eventually, they crossed and Morgana made his presence known, drawing them over.

“It’s some kind of uh… monster cat?” The boy, who was wearing a thug-like outfit and skull mask, said.

“I’m not a cat!” Morgana shouted. How could they not see that he wasn’t a cat? It was obvious!

“Are you sure you’re not a cat? You definitely look like one.” One of the girls said. She was dressed fully in a red leather suit, adorned with a number of zippers that looked quite uncomfortable. Morgana was on the verge of calling her beautiful, until she said that.

“Argh, no! Can’t you tell? I’m an honest-to-god human!” Morgana practically screamed at them.

“Well, he does seem certain about it…” The last girl muttered. She was wearing a crisp black tuxedo that made her look like she’d just wandered straight out of a spy film. Her mask was a dark crimson, with gold traces around the edge matching the metallic rose pinned to her lapel. It was certainly the most expensive-looking of the outfits.

“Look, I just need you to get me out of here. The guard left the key right next to my cell on that barrel there.” Morgana pleaded with the three strangers, but mostly the perceptive girl who’d been intelligent enough to recognise that he wasn’t a cat.

The three conferred for a moment, which annoyed Morgana a bit, but they did at least finally free him. It turned out that they were all completely new to phantom thievery - They’d each awoken to their personas less than an hour ago! Of course, that just meant that it was up to Morgana to take these wandering thieves under his wing and educate them on the metaverse. They were good students, he had to admit. The blonde one - Ryuji - less so, but the girls learnt fast. The black-haired girl even had some skills that had a chance to instantly kill enemies, which even Morgana had to admit was impressive. They didn’t do much in the way of battling though, just enough for Morgana to show them the ropes, as he could see that they were all pretty beat up from awakening to their personas earlier.

They managed to escape through a vent in the side of the castle and from there, exit the metaverse and return to the real world. Morgana did have to stop them from just reappearing in broad daylight in the middle of the street, though. They showed promise, but they obviously needed his guidance to direct them. That would just mean that he would have to take them under his wing.

* * *

Shiho watched as the last shadow melted away. Some of the initial fatigue of her persona’s awakening had worn off, replaced by adrenaline, but she could feel it catching up to her, and she saw it in Ryuji and Ann, too. They probably had one more battle left in them. According to Morgana, they were close to the entrance though, so they should manage. So far, he’d been leading them out and explaining how things in the ‘palace’ worked along the way. Morgana had a persona of his own, so he’d been leading them in battle so far, although Shiho had been giving some suggestions to Ryuji and Ann when she could see a good move for them to make. After each battle, she could feel her persona growing stronger, the spot François occupied in her heart becoming more secure. She had even learnt a new move! It was just like one of her existing ones, but according to Morgana, worked better on a different kind of enemy. Shiho could see what he meant, sort of. It had a different… flavour to it. Whilst Ann used fire, Ryuji used lightning, and Morgana used wind, Shiho had a small complement of skills that hit more rarely, but instantly took down an enemy, no matter how much health they had left. 

They also each had weapons - one close ranged and one long. Apparently the guns worked because the shadows believed they were real guns, so they worked as if they were real in the ‘metaverse’ as Morgana called it. Hers was a little different, though: Whilst the others’ ammunition refilled at the beginning of each battle, apparently because the shadows always assumed that they would be attacked by fully-loaded guns, Shiho’s gun never ran out of bullet, until it missed, at which point it jammed for the rest of the fight. She had to admit, it was quite thrilling unloading round after round into pixies from the hidden weapon in the palm of her hand. Morgana said that it was something to do with the gun being hidden in her sleeve, so the shadows didn’t know when it would stop.

“Hey, why don’t you take point on the next battle. We’re pretty close to an exit, so this’ll probably be our last one.” Morgana piped up from beside her.

“Oh, really?” She asked tentatively. 

A day ago, she wouldn’t have even considered leading her friends around - and she did feel like Ryuji and Morgana were sort of her friends now already, given what they’d gone through together - but since awakening and using her persona, she felt so much more able to grasp what she wanted, rather than accept what the adults around her forced her into. “Alright, why not?”

Morgana let Ann and Ryuji know that she would be directing them this time, and as they rounded a corner, blending into the shadows like Morgana had taught them. Shiho peered round, and saw another Shadow slowly approaching the corner. She waited for it to get close, before leaping out from the wall with the extra strength and agility she got from her persona to stand on the shadow’s shoulder’s and rip off its helmet.

“Reveal yourself!” She shouted as she did so. It just… felt right. And it sounded cool - that was a plus.

Shiho and her friends dropped into battle positions. A Bicorn, a Jack-O-Lantern, and two Pixies, Shiho was pretty sure. She still wasn’t great at remembering who was weak to what, but she’d picked up the names quickly enough. The shadow’s true forms had various weird and wacky shapes that were all pretty different. It was like being inside a video game.

“Ryuji - Hit the Bicorn with a Zio!” Shiho called.

Ryuji obliged, sending the shadow collapsing with a crackle of lightning and granting Ryuji an extra attack.

“Perfect! Now, get it while it’s down!”

“With pleasure.” Ryuji smirked as he ran up to the horse-like shadow and smacked it round the head with his baseball bat. 

“Nice job, that one’s nearly down!” Morgana informed them.

“Persona!” Shiho called, summoning Astalon to hit one of the pixies with Mudo, the new skill she’d learnt, which she remembered that the pixie would be weak to. It was engulfed in the vermillion smoke that poured down on it, and when it cleared, the shadow had been vaporised. Perfect.

Then, Shiho slid her gun out from where it was hidden in her costume’s sleeve and began firing at the second pixie. It was weak to gun attacks, and she managed to hit it half a dozen times before she missed a shot and her gun jammed. She was getting much better at aiming the thing. It had taken her three tries to hit even once with it. Shiho finished off her turn by unsheathing her scimitar and dashing into the pixie she’d downed, finishing it off in one clean strike.

“Awesome, two down!” Morgana said from behind.

“Morgana, hit the Jack-O-Lantern with a Garu!” Shiho said as she returned to where the rest of them were standing after her attack.

A sharp wind current knocked the floating pumpkin to the ground, and with that each of the remaining shadows were down, allowing the group to deliver a devastating all-out-attack. After that, the shadows were done for, and a spray of fire from Ann sealed their fate. Shiho was surprised at how… rewarding leading her friends to victory had been. Morgana came up to her, congratulatory.

“Hey, that was awesome - you’re a natural. I’m more of a navigator, so I’ll let you take charge in battles now, if that’s alright, then I can focus my skills on helping out in other ways.”

“R-really?” Shiho asked.

“Really. You did great there.” Morgana assured her.

“Well, alright then. I think we’re a little too tired for much more battling though.”

“Yeah, I can see that the three of you are pretty run down. And I’m not in tip-top shape either - being stuck in a dungeon for days takes its toll, even in the metaverse. Don’t worry, the exit should be just around the next corner, and I don’t sense any more shadows.”

Ryuji and Ann let Shiho know that they each thought her leadership was effective, and Ryuji failed to whisper that he thought Morgana was too big-headed to lead properly. It was nice to be relied on, and for Shiho to know that the faith they were putting in her wasn’t misplaced.

*

“We can exit the metaverse safely from here.” Morgana told them as the four stood in an alleyway opposite the school, mostly hidden from view. Shiho couldn’t really see the castle from where they were, and other than the outfits, she wouldn’t have been able to tell that they weren’t in reality.

“And uhh… how do we do, exactly?” Ryuji asked.
“Well, I just walk in and out. How did you guys get in?” Morgana asked.

“Lemme think… hmm - we were talking about getting crepes, and I got my phone out, and then– Oh!” Ryuji exclaimed, taking his phone out. “Yeah, I pressed a button on this weird app. Here, I’ll try it again.”

Before any of them could stop him, he pressed the button again and instantly their outfits changed back to the school uniforms they had been wearing before they awakened to their personas. A calm woman’s voice spoke from Ryuji’s phone in the tone of a pre-recorded message.

“Navigation Ended. Now returning to the real world.”

Also, Morgana had changed into a cat. Like, a real cat. Once Ann had smacked Ryuji around the head for acting without thinking, which was exactly what got them into this mess in the first place, the two realised that Morgana was no longer standing opposite them.

“Hey, where’d Morgana go?” Ann asked.

“I’m down here!” Morgana said, from the mouth of a cat. It was quite a strange thing to see. Ann and Ryuji quickly sourced the noise, and both had similar reactions to first meeting the not-cat.

“Okay dude, are you sure you’re not a cat?”

“You really do look like one, maybe you just forgot?”

“I AM NOT A CAT!” Morgana shouted at the two of them. “See?” He asked, jumping onto Shiho’s shoulder. “She understands, why can’t you.”

Instinctively, Shiho scratched Morgana on the chin, and he purred lightly. She chuckled at his reaction. Even if he wasn’t a cat, he was one really.

“H-hey wait! I’m not a cat!” He sputtered, but didn’t move from Shiho’s shoulder, continuing to perch there.

“Morgana, didn’t you say that there was more you were going to tell us about the metaverse when we got out of the castle and somewhere safe?” Shiho asked, drawing attention away from Morgana’s very cat-like behaviour.

“Right,” He said, “but this probably isn’t the place. We should go somewhere we’re less likely to be overheard.”

“Hey, how about we go out for crepes for real this time?” Ann asked, turning straight to sweets. Shiho smiled fondly at her friend.

“Always predictable, huh Ann?”

“W-what? No, I just– Urgh, fine! Yes, I got all excited about this new crepe place earlier in Shibuya and then Ryuji,” Ann tried to smack him around the head again, but he ducked under the blow, “went and pulled us into Kamoshida’s fantasy land!”

“Hey, I’m sorry!”

“Well, you can apologise by buying me a crepe.” Ann sniffed, looking away dramatically.

“Fine, fine. I’ll buy you a crepe.” Ryuji sighed, “Nothing expensive though, alright?”

“Wait, really?” Ann’s eyes went wide.

*

As always, Ann had a sixth sense for finding places that sold great desserts. As the three of them demolished the delicious crepes that Ryuji had paid for in penance, making sure to share some with Morgana, he began to explain the details that he’d left out in his initial rundown of the metaverse in Kamoshida’ castle.

It seemed that if they found a way to Kamoshida’s treasure and informed the real Kamoshida that they would steal his desires, then they could actually take away what made him such a cruel, terrible person, forcing him to repent for his crimes. But… there was a risk that beating his shadow and stealing his desires would cause Kamoshida to break down, or even die outright. That was… not comforting. But, with unanimous agreement, the four agreed to work together to steal Kamoshida’s heart, no matter what it took.

* * *

Akira’s day could probably have gone worse, all things considered. After seeing off Kasumi at Yongen-Jaya station, Akira made his way to Takemi’s. He didn’t usually come to her this early, but his healing items didn’t carry over. His cash did though, and Akira had built up a significant fund from all of the shadows he’d dispatched over literally hundreds of mementos runs. He still hadn’t worked out why shadows dropped money, but it was a helpful detail, so he wasn’t going to argue with the universe on that one.

The familiar lights of Takemi’s clinic greeted him as he made his way up the stairs and faced the blue-haired doctor on the other side of the counter.

“Yes?” She asked.

“I could do with a checkup. I took a blow to the head earlier and my friend insisted I go to a doctor, so here I am. Plus I could do with stocking up on some medicines, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, please head to the examination room.” Takemi motioned with her hand, though it wasn’t like Akira needed to be told where it was.

Takemi examined him for a few minutes, testing his focus and reaction to bright light and such, and determining that, “Yep, you’re definitely concussed. Plus, your body seems to think that it’s been broken apart and put back together. You were in a fight?” She said, looking at the bruises that were still evident on his face. He really needed to get some cream to cover those up. 

“Uh… of a sort…” Akira trailed off.

Takemi wasn’t particularly pleased with his response, pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes at him. Still, it wasn’t the most egregious he’d ever been on a first-time meeting with her. Once, he’d stumbled in half-dead after getting slightly too cocky with soloing a fight with the reaper and having to hightail it out of mementos and to Takemi’s for the first time that go around, which in his blood-loss-addled state, he had forgotten. Takemi had not been pleased when he woke up.

Afterward, she gave him some medication for his head with a strict instruction to not get involved in anything strenuous for a week, minimum, which Akira pretended to listen to. He convinced her the usual way to open her stocks for him, and picked up a round of the usual. Healing, revives, anti-ailments, the whole bunch. It set him back a few hundred thousand yen, but that was a drop in the bucket. Takemi didn’t comment on the fact that the concussed high school student who had just strolled into her clinic and convinced her to sell him behind-the-counter meds was now paying for them with giant stacks of yen, but Akira could tell she was holding herself back from asking, so he thanked her and left before the situation became awkward.

*

“What the hell happened to you?” Sojiro demanded almost the moment he walked in. Akira hadn’t considered that.

“Oh, uh, well I made a friend on the way to school, but some guy kept getting in her way and wouldn’t leave, and it sort of escalated a bit… Nobody got hurt, though.” Akira quickly reassured his guardian.

Sojiro’s stare of disbelief made it quite clear that he didn’t believe a word of that excuse.

“Look, have you at least been to a doctor or–” Sojiro started, putting a hand on his head.

“Yes, I went to the doctor in Yongen, just around the corner. She cleared me. It’s all fine.” Akira interrupted, neglecting to mention that everything technically wasn’t fine, and that there was a set of concussion meds in amongst the bag of other shopping that he was carrying.

Sojiro got a call from whom Akira could only assume was Futaba, and had to run out. The cafe was empty, so Sojiro asked him to lock up. He did, and then quickly fell asleep the moment he dropped into bed.

* * * * *

April 12th

Akira got through school without much of a problem. He didn’t see anyone other than Ann sitting in front of him before or during classes, so it wasn’t as difficult as it could have been. She seemed fidgety, more so than normal, and Akira remembered what she was going through at the moment with Shiho. He knew he’d made a promise to Kasumi to explain what was going on, but when the last bell of the day rang, Akira instead made for the P.E. faculty office, where he found Kamoshida sitting alone.

“What the hell do you want?” He sneered. As usual - the moment he was alone, he defaulted straight to his true nature. Akira already knew that, though. That was why he was here.

He’d brought the non-gun gun with him today. He knew what it was for now. Maybe it had taken seeing Kasumi awaken to a persona for him to realise. Akira carefully took it from his bag, and took no small pleasure in watching Kamoshida’s face contort in fear as he saw the transfer student whose record he’d had leaked draw a gun.

“W-whoa, what the fu- We can talk about this!” Kamoshida stuttered, but trailed off when he saw Akira move the gun. But not towards him.

Akira slowly brought the barrel to his forehead, staring down Kamoshida all the while. A voice rang out in his head.

“So, you have chosen to rebel not only against the society that has shunned you, but also the very story crafted to fit you? An admirable spirit indeed.”

Akira’s finger brushed the trigger.

“Then call me, and claim your new fate, whatever it may bring.”

The familiar call came to him unbidden.

“Per… so… na.”

Akira pulled the trigger and felt the world shatter around him like glass. Power flooded through him, and he felt the familiar weight of Arsène settle into his heart. Wait, no. It wasn’t Arsène that answered his call.

“I am Raoul. Your will of rebellion has reached new heights and awoken me. Now, we walk your chosen path. Let no chain bind us.”

Raoul was floating in front of him. He looked like Arsène, but with metal wings and a more modern appearance. Except… they were in the real world. Akira had summoned a persona in the middle of the P.E. office. Kamoshida was quietly cowering in the corner in the face of the apparition like the coward he truly was. Akira worked out that the gun was a way of summoning his persona, but honestly he had expected it to bring him into the metaverse to do it. And by bringing Kamoshida in with him, he would have been able to deal with his shadow at the same time as teaching the bastard a lesson. Two snivelling birds, one magic stone. It seems that plan wouldn’t be working out, however.

An idea floated into his head, much like how Raoul was floating next to Kamoshida.

“Eigaon” Akira whispered, letting the power of the word carry itself.

Raoul complied, sending a billowing column of crimson curse waves over Kamoshida. He screamed in pain and Akira heard the sizzling at the same time he smelt the flesh char. It was a smell that matched the man in front of him. Once Raoul was done, Akira dismissed him, and stowed the summoner gun away. It was certainly a useful tool, but Akira felt he would rather keep the magic to the metaverse. He could see Raoul had some restorative skills, but that single attack had still been incredibly draining. Akira felt like he’d just run through half of mementos in a single evening.

When the attack subsided, Kamoshida was left whimpering in the corner, his face blistered, and he looked at Akira with a wild fear in his eyes. He wouldn’t be a problem anymore, Akira was certain of that. He would probably still change his heart anyway, or at least give his shadow a proper example of what would happen if he didn’t change his ways, but that could come later. With one last steel glare at the shuddering mess to remind him exactly who would come knocking if he dared to do anything like what he planned to with Ann or Shiho ever again, Akira left, slamming the door behind him. There wouldn’t be anyone in the practice building nearby, as they would all be, well, practising.

He almost ran straight into the face of Shiho.

“Oh, Suzui, I didn’t see you there.” He quickly apologised. Akira remembered Shiho being withdrawn, closed off every time he came across her this early, but she seemed much more present this time.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get in the way.” She said, “Was that a scream I just heard? Kamoshida’s scream?”

Well, that wasn’t good. “Nope.” Akira lied. “I didn’t hear anything. Haven’t even seen Kamoshida.”

“You didn’t hear the scream that sounded like a cat being put through a shredder, and you didn’t see Kamoshida in the same place he always is at the end of the day?” Shiho asked sceptically.

Okay, this was really starting to throw Akira. Was he out of the loop on something? Not that it was a bad thing that Shiho was doing well, though it would be bad if she found the gun and saw the state Kamoshida was in, but he didn’t understand the one-eighty from what he was used to seeing from her at this point.

“Nope, not at all.” Akira doubled down. “And besides, if Kamoshida was in there screaming about something, you wouldn’t really want to be alone with him, would you?” He added, hoping she would finally get his hint. Something flashed behind Shiho’s eyes and for a moment Akira saw the hunched-over bruised girl he normally saw in April, before she returned with a determined gaze.

“Fine, you win. I hope you haven’t done anything stupid, Kurusu. For your own sake. I don’t believe the rumours about you, but that doesn’t mean that I’m naive.” Shiho walked off without another word.

That was… very weird. But right now it was more important that he get away from where he had technically just assaulted a teacher. He doubted Kamoshida would believe much of what had happened, and he knew nobody else would, so Akira figured he was pretty safe, but there was still a fake gun in his bag. Once he got outside, he saw Kasumi waiting for him.

“Ah, Akira, are you feeling better?” She asked as he approached.

“Yes, thank you. What about you?” He replied.

“Much better too. A good night’s rest worked wonders.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“So, about yesterday…” Kasumi asked.

Here it comes. Akira was planning to let her believe that entering Kamoshida’s palace was a fluke and that he knew nothing about it, but clear it out with random luck anyway (And he was pretty sure that from what he could tell, Kasumi’s persona was about as strong as Raoul, who was leagues above what Kamoshida had to throw at them.) and then never enter the metaverse again. If she didn’t know about keywords, and didn’t know about mementos, then she wouldn’t have to worry about anything to do with it, and she’d be perfectly safe.

But… he wasn’t sure he wanted to do that anymore. He didn’t want to do it all alone. He planned to bring Akechi onboard when he had the time to explain things, but that might take a little while, and Kasumi already knew.

“You should tell her.” Raoul’s voice echoed in his mind.

Well, obviously he was going to tell her a little, but the question was how much–

“All of it. The truth. The whole truth.”

Akira sighed internally. He’d tried that the first time he’d been sent back. And the second. His friends hadn’t really believed him, no matter how much he’d tried to convince them otherwise. When they discovered that there was another culprit on his third attempt, they even accused him of being Akechi. He didn’t really have the heart to keep trying after that. Telling Kasumi, who he’d basically just met? Out of the question, surely.

“Are we to cut our own path, or follow the riverbed lain for us?”

Well, maybe Raoul had a point…

Akira realised he’d been standing looking at Kasumi like an idiot for nearly a minute.

“Um, Akira, are you sure you’re okay? Did the doctor say anything?” Kasumi was beginning to get worried.

“No, no, it’s fine. I just spaced out for a bit there.”

Kasumi still looked worried.

“Here, we should go somewhere we won’t be overheard.” Akira said, leading Kasumi along to the alleyway that the Thieves entered the castle from. He selected the destination and the two slipped out of reality and into the metaverse. Neither noticed the man in glasses and a long coat who watched as his most successful patient evaporated into thin air a dozen metres away.

* * *

Kasumi wasn’t sure what Akira meant by ‘somewhere they wouldn’t be overheard’ until she saw that the castle had replaced the school once more, taking with it the various students who had been milling about the area.

Not only that, but their clothes had changed as well. Kasumi’s uniform had changed into the black leotard and coat once again, but Akira’s uniform had undergone a very similar transformation. He looked like some sort of old-fashioned butler, with bright red gloves and a gleaming white mask.

“Your clothes!” She said, surprised.

Akira looked down, but didn’t seem nearly as surprised as she was. “Huh, guess that tracks.” He murmured to himself.

“Um, Akira,” Kasumi asked, “How did we get back here? Where actually is here?”

Akira bit his lip.

“Okay, Kasumi. I’m not going to lie - the truth here is needlessly complicated and even I don’t understand all of what’s going on. But, if you’re willing to trust me, I’ll try and explain.”

Kasumi thought for a moment. She didn’t quite understand what Akira was getting at, though she could guess that whatever was causing their clothes to change, allowing her to do magic, and turning their school into a castle was complicated. Kasumi trusted Akira though. She nodded, “I trust you, whatever this is.”

Akira looked like a small weight was lifted off his shoulders, but there was still something else pressing down.

He began his explanation. “This is the metaverse. A world that exists because of humanity’s cognition. It warps and changes to fit the minds of the public and of individuals. This castle is the pocket where Kamoshida’s distorted desires have taken over, creating the castle and the shadows within. It’s called a palace. There are others, too. The power you awoke to in the cell is called a persona - a manifestation of your self and your will of rebellion. In the metaverse, it can be used to defend yourself from shadows, as you saw. That’s the easy part.” Akira sighed.

That made… some sense. Kasumi could understand most of what Akira was saying. It was made easier by the fact she had experienced some of it, and a few puzzle pieces were missing in her head, but she could somewhat imagine the threads that tied the rest together. She let Akira continue.

“To put it simply - I’m a time traveller. I’ve been living this year over and over. Every time, just when we think we’ve won, and beaten back the evil that started all this - me and my friends all die, and I’m sent back to the train where you met me, and nobody remembers anything. And this time, I’ve decided the only way to save my friends is not to let them discover this world in the first place. And then you came along.” Akira looked up at Kasumi with a pained smile. “You waltzed straight into the palace and saved my life. And I don’t think I can bring myself to tell you that this is all a lie now that you’ve already seen it, so… here we are. I wasn’t going to tell you, nobody ever believes me but I just… don’t want to be alone this time.” He finished. Kasumi could hear the pain in his voice, and though his eyes are obscured by his mask, Kasumi can tell Akira is close to tears. Regardless of whether or not what he’s saying is true, he needs a friend, and Kasumi can’t walk away.

Without saying anything, she walked over to Akira and pulled him into a tight hug. It didn’t work as well as she might’ve liked as Akira was quite a bit taller than her, but it was enough. Akira tentatively returned her gesture, whispering a grateful ‘Thank you’ in her ear. She stayed comforting him for a moment, before breaking away.

“Why don’t we go back and do something distracting for a bit, hm?” She asked.

Akira nodded, “Yes, that would be nice.”

Just like before, she opened her phone to the strange red eye and pressed ‘End Navigation’. The calm voice welcomed them back to the real world. Without the mask, Kasumi could clearly see the red mist in Akira’s eyes.

* * *

“...How did you eat that so fast?” Akira asked. He was barely halfway through his bowl, and Kasumi had just polished off her second.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Kasumi chirped, “I burn off the calories in training anyway.”

He was glad she’d suggested that they go somewhere and do something. He still wasn’t sure what to think that she hadn’t immediately rejected him after he told her what he really was.

“Do you… want to talk about it?” Kasumi asked. Obviously she had noticed the downturn in his demeanour. “It might help.”

Well, he supposed there was no harm in trying. He could always stop if the memories became too painful. So, he began to regale Kasumi with the tales of the phantom thieves, across their many different iterations. She oohed and gasped in all the right places, and Akira began to feel like a storyteller. As the evening passed, he realised how much he did miss his friends, but he also realised that no matter how much he tried, they would never be quite like he remembered them. They would never know all the in-jokes they’d come up with together, all the pointless conversations that had been had in the back of Mona travelling down Mementos. They would never know what it was like to see the rest of them burst into ashes around them.

But, despite all that, Akira didn’t feel terrible. Maybe it was because he was telling Kasumi a story, rather than mulling over everything he had lost in his own mind, but it didn’t hit quite so hard anymore. It seemed Kasumi had been right - talking about it had helped. Maybe… maybe this would be the one.

Well?

What?

What exactly do you think to accomplish, sticking your pathetic nose where it doesn't belong?

Now now, no need for childishness, is there?

I think you know why I'm here.

I do not.

Oh? That is concerning.

The master's not happy with your progress.

I am in charge here.

Everything is proceeding as I plan.

Is it now?

That display earlier showed a shocking lack of, well... control.

Do not mock me.

Nevertheless, I have been assigned to assist.

You've played with your food enough.

This is the last of your little indulgences.

You have nothing to offer me.

Return to your little den and I will finish what I began.

Much as I might love to do nothing and still recieve the credit,

I've already made a few soft pushes myself.

What?

You're welcome, by the way.

Enough!

My work is flawless.

Interfere all you wish.

Your feeble sabotage could not hope to topple my design.

Your permission is as appreciated as it is unecessary.