What We Need Here/Is A Little Bit Of Panic (Persona 5 Genderbent Protagonist)

Darkenning · Feb 10, 2023

Morgana led the two young students through the maze of twisty corridors, all alike, claiming to have plotted out the map of the area before his capture. Ann wanted to doubt that, but the maybe-not-a-cat never seemed to be at a loss for which way to go next, which suggested that he was either truthful and/or overconfident. Nevertheless, he successfully guided them past several potential encounters with the castle guards.

Worryingly, in Ann's view, Kurusu kept staring at the guards that they evaded with the same expression of homicidal intent that she'd worn while confronting Kamoshida. Even Morgana picked up on it, for the -- cartoon character, Ann decided abruptly -- eventually started giving Kurusu gestures that seemed to be saying, "Not yet." Ann would have preferred "Not at all," but under the circumstances she would take what she could get.

When they could speak more freely, Morgana continued to exposit about the nature of their environment. "Everything in here is shaped by the will of the Palace's owner," he was saying. "Those guards aren't people; they're Shadows that have been transformed to look like people. Only those who have the spirit of rebellion within them, like the two of us, can avoid that."

"Umm, there are three of us," Ann objected, frowning.

Morgana gave her an annoyed glance. "Indeed so. Perhaps you, too, have the spirit of rebellion within you."

"Well, that would be --"

"No one ever said you couldn't have it and still be an airhead," he added as he returned his gaze to what was before them.

Ann closed her mouth and glared scorchingly at the back of the cartoon cat's head. However, any retort she might have wanted to make was lost as she also saw a banner over the top of the corridor that they were about to enter, proclaiming it to be "King Kamoshida's Tender Loving Chambers of Torture."

"Oooookay," she said loudly. "I'm thinking that it might be time to reconsider our route!"

Morgana let out a noise somewhere between a mew and a sigh of frustration. "This is the quickest path to the egress!"

"I don't wanna see any bird displays, I wanna get out of here!"

"Egress means exit," Kurusu explained while Morgana just gaped in stupefaction.

"Correct, madame!" said Morgana, quickly recovering his elan. "Look, I don't really want to go through this place, either, and it's worse for me, because I've been through there before and you haven't. But I swear, with this hand on this heart --" He suited the gesture to the words. "-- that this is the fastest way to the exit from the palace."

Ann stared at him for a moment, before looking to Kurusu. "Is his heart really on that side?" she asked quietly.

Kurusu shrugged. "It would be if he were a cat, but he says that he's not, so --"

"It's the same for all the mammals, all right?!" Morgana interjected testily. "Look, just keep following me and try not to think too much about what you see or hear, all right? These aren't people, they're just Shadows shaped into looking like people. Not people."

That didn't help as much as Morgana probably -- hopefully -- intended. Even hurrying along behind him gave Ann several glimpses of what looked like people being beaten and branded, and the faces of the victims were those that she vaguely recognized. At least she could take comfort that the only ones there were the boys' team, not the girls' team, and definitely not one face out of them all. But thinking that made her stomach twist in disgust, and then a horrible thought came to her.

"Hey," she called out to Morgana. "This is all just stuff that he fantasizes about doing to people, right? Not things that he's done in, uh, real reality!"

"Yes and no," Morgana called back. "If he's abusing them like this in his palace, then he probably is being comparably cruel in the conscious world as well, so -- gack!"

Ann's face had gone incredibly pale at the cat's first response, and once she had head his elaboration, she dashed forward, passing a slightly startled looking Kurusu and catching up to Morgana, whom she promptly grabbed with both hands and brought up to her face. "Tell me that you haven't seen girls in volleyball uniforms getting treated like this," she snarled. "And you really want me to believe it!"

"I-I-I haven't!" Morgana cried, voice gone rather high. "I swear!"

She didn't really want to be convinced, but the panic the whatever was clearly feeling didn't sound like guilt to her ears, so she tossed him in Kurusu's direction. "Right. Which way to the egret? I mean egress. I mean -- ahhhh, screw it! Let's get out of here so I can get Shiho to quit volleyball!"

"So scary!" Morgana muttered as Ann ran off. A brief pause. "What are you doing?"

"Petting you," said Kurusu, who was. "Do you want me to stop?"

"… I don't recall having said so."

NooneImportant · Feb 10, 2023

Darkenning said:
When they could speak more freely, Morgana continued to exposit about the nature of their environment. "Everything in here is shaped by the will of the Palace's owner," he was saying. "Those guards aren't people; they're Shadows that have been transformed to look like people. Only those who have the spirit of rebellion within them, like the two of us, can avoid that."

"Umm, there are three of us," Ann objected, frowning.

Morgana gave her an annoyed glance. "Indeed so. Perhaps you, too, have the spirit of rebellion within you."

"Well, that would be --"

"No one ever said you couldn't have it and still be an airhead," he added as he returned his gaze to what was before them.

Ann closed her mouth and glared scorchingly at the back of the cartoon cat's head.

Sheesh I was and am not prepared for the Ann vs. Morgana catfight dynamic.

Darkenning said:
"So scary!" Morgana muttered as Ann ran off. A brief pause. "What are you doing?"

"Petting you," said Kurusu, who was. "Do you want me to stop?"

"… I don't recall having said so."

I get that Mona is basically the spirit of hope manifest shoved into the shape of a cat (in vanilla anyway), But he really acts like a cat shoved into the form of a human-shoved-into-the-form-of-a-cat sometimes.

~~What is your opinion on my idea that Morgana was originally going to be created to be Lavenza's pet cat before everything went to shit?~~

Darkenning · Feb 11, 2023

NooneImportant said:
I get that Mona is basically the spirit of hope manifest shoved into the shape of a cat (in vanilla anyway), But he really acts like a cat shoved into the form of a human-shoved-into-the-form-of-a-cat sometimes.

I have to admit that I find it difficult to imagine the spirit of hope manifest getting as excited about tuna as he does.

NooneImportant said:
~~What is your opinion on my idea that Morgana was originally going to be created to be Lavenza's pet cat before everything went to shit?~~

But I also find it difficult to imagine the denizens of the Velvet Room doing anything as normal as having a pet ... on the other hand, we know that they eat, so, maybe?

Mr.unlucky · Feb 12, 2023

Darkenning said:
... I genuinely don't know what you mean by that, and Google is not my friend in this matter.

EDIT: Oh, do you mean Velvet Room?

no. i meant she reminds me of velvet crowe from tales of berseria

Darkenning · Feb 12, 2023

Mr.unlucky said:
no. i meant she reminds me of velvet crowe from tales of berseria

Ah, okay!

Yes, I can see where you're coming from.

Darkenning · Feb 13, 2023

Somehow, despite a last-minute ambush by the King of the Castle, the two dirty rascals made their escape, with Morgana going his own way just before they emerged to find themselves exiting from the alley that they had entered to begin this bewildering experience. Which would have been a great ending for this episode, had they not promptly been seized upon by police officers who noted their truancy. That never happened in any adventure stories that Ann had read, not that she read a lot in the first place.

What was especially weird about the finale was the way that Kurusu -- who, not five minutes earlier, had been regarding the guards chasing after them with an expression better suited to the contemplation of a fine meal and had to be, once again, dragged away from the fight -- had been utterly petrified when the police had arrived, silently staring at them. Ann had been left to stammer out an explanation that she thought they bought about being asked by a teacher to go do an errand in the area, and then pulled Kurusu along with her back down the main street to the school.

"So what's this nonsense about being asked to do errands?" asked the guidance counsellor who was standing in front of the entryway, glaring down at the two of them as they arrived.

Clearly, whether or not the officer had believed her admittedly unconvincing narrative, he had decided to confirm it by calling the school. Ann supposed that this could be taken as proof that lying created more problems than it solved, but since she was sure that the truth about what had happened would have created just as many, that was less than helpful. Nevertheless, she struggled to find the words that would get them out of this, since Kurusu would probably be no help here, either.

"Kamoshida," said Kurusu, soft-voiced but audible. "I mean, Kamoshida-sensei. Asked us."

"Well, that sounds very plausible," replied the guidance counsellor, sarcastically.

"Good!" said Kamoshida, standing behind him. "Then we should probably let these kids get back to class, then!" His smile didn't look as much like a sneer as the expression on the face of the one in the Palace, but this version of Kamoshida still managed to seem fairly sinister.

"Ah?" said the counsellor, whirling around to look at him. "Uh, I-I mean, uh, you did send these students out to do an errand in the neighborhood?"

"Yes," he answered, offering only that.

"… why?" asked the counsellor.

Kamoshida's smile pulled back further to show his teeth. "Because," he answered.

The counsellor had clearly not been prepared for such an answer, and perhaps found it difficult to imagine a single-word retort of his own. Giving up the effort, if that was what his hemming and hawing had been covering, he led with, "I'm not sure that I understand why you would --"

"Maybe we should talk about it with the principal?" Kamoshida suggested mildly, teeth still quite in evidence.

The counsellor coughed. "No, no, that won't be necessary," he said quickly. Glancing over at his shoulder at the two students, he snapped out a brusque, "Get to class!" And then hurried quickly through the doors himself.

"Yes, you should get to class," agreed Kamoshida, who had not bothered to watch the counsellor's departure. "And you should both try to avoid making any more trouble for yourselves. Especially you, Kurusu-kun. I would hate to see you have to leave so soon. Right, Takamaki?"

"Oh, yeah," Ann replied. She had no idea what was going on right then, but the situation demanded agreement so that was what it got. With that, she and Kurusu -- who, she noted, kept Ann's body between herself and Kamoshida at all times -- headed up the stairs and in through the school doors.

"Does he remember what happened back there?" Ann asked of Kurusu once they were out of earshot.

"No," Kurusu replied. "But -- just like the Kamoshida in the palace, he wants to … hurt … us, and he can't do that if someone else gets us expelled. So, he is keeping us here. In this dungeon." The other girl's voice was just as quiet as it had been, but there was something there that had only been there in her furious outbursts before. A sign of an open wound.

Ann swallowed. "Well. I guess we're going to have to show him that we can escape again and again, then," she said, just to have something to say.

She wasn't at all prepared for Kurusu to clearly take a moment to think about that remark, and then nod once. "Deal," she said, and smiled for the first time in their brief acquaintance.

END PART ONE

Darkenning · Jul 18, 2023

PART TWO

The door jingled and Sojiro let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "And you're back," he said to the girl. "Came straight home, I hope?"

"Yessir," she answered, without looking at him.

He wasn't sure why he'd asked the question. He'd kept an eye on the clock the whole time after the school was supposed to let out; there hadn't been nearly enough time for her to go anywhere. Shaking his head, he let out a grunt as he saw her walking past him while carrying the umbrella. "Put that in the rack by the door," he said.

She paused in front of him. There was, again, the slightest hint of hesitation, or maybe of defiance, before she turned and headed to do just as he'd said.

"So, no troubles at school?" he asked her back.

"Did they call you?" she asked the window.

Despite having found her softly voiced statements to be somewhat disconcerting at times, Sojiro found that he didn't enjoy getting a question as an answer to his question. "Why would they call me?" he asked, voice getting a bit sharper.

"If there was trouble, they would call you," she said, still seemingly focused on her umbrella.

"Then a straightforward yes or no would have done just fine, right?"

There was a moment more of pause before she turned to look at him. "Yessir. There was no trouble."

There had been trouble; that pause had had the character of a deep breath being taken. He considered pressing on the matter, but something took precedence. "Enough with the sir," he bit out. "If you want to call me something, call me Boss."

She stood there, as though parsing that straightforward request took an enormous amount of her brain's processing power. Just as he was about to tell her to forget it, though, she spoke again. "Yes boss," she said, with a nod.

It didn't feel like any sort of victory, but before he could move on to other matters of importance, his phone rang. Pulling it up out of his apron pocket, he gestured for the girl to head on up the stairs. For a wonder, she did so and was out of earshot by the time he answered the call. "Hey, what's up?" he said to the person on the other end.

"About time you've come to," groused Caroline as the inmate awoke in her cell and sat up on the bunk. "On your feet!" she snapped when this failed to be followed by the next step in the process.

"Our master wishes to speak with you," supplied Justine. "For your own sake, you would do well to listen better than you have heretofore."

For a wonder, that got through to the inmate, who rose from the bunk and approached the cell door. This time, though, she failed to so much as touch the bars, much less grip them in the correct manner. Caroline briefly considered the worth of instructing the inmate in the proper procedure, but the sound of the master's voice prevented that.

"First," he said, "let us celebrate our reunion."

Caroline could have sworn she heard a noise from the inmate at that point, but no one could possibly be so contemptible as to snort in answer to such a dignified request, not even the inmate. Telling herself that was all that stopped her from killing the girl where she stood, so she kept doing it.

"And I see you have awakened to your most remarkable powers," the master continued. "Your rehabilitation may now in truth commence."

"Rehabilitation?" repeated the inmate, only barely making it a question.

"We will address that further at a future date. For now, know that you are the power of Persona, to which you have awakened. Personas may be thought of as a mask, or perhaps as armor for your heart."

"Or a weapon," interrupted the inmate.

Caroline started to reconsider the worth of self-control in this specific instance.

"Or a weapon," agreed her master. "On to other matters. Have you come to appreciate the Metaverse Navigator which I have bestowed on you? It is the only way through which you will be able to travel into the Palaces into which you must steal." He permitted himself a chuckle. "Without it you will never be able to become the splendid thief that I know you can become."

"You have been granted a great --" Caroline began to summarize.

"This is nonsensical," interrupted the inmate again.

"What was that?" asked Justine while Caroline choked down a much more vituperative inquiry.

"I am pursuing rehabilitation ... by becoming a thief?" asked the ingrate.

"That is a better, nobler pursuit than what brought you here to begin with!" retorted Caroline.

"What was that?"

How odd. Why had she just taken a step back from the cell door, so that Justine was now in her field of vision as well and looking back at her with an expression of startlement almost as novel as the furious glare that the inmate was now directing towards her? What a ridiculous thing for her to have done. She would have to strive to do better.

"Control yourself or be controlled," said Justine, after a moment, turning back to look at the inmate. She was surely only addressing her, and not directing that message to any other individual who might be listening at the moment.

Another of those snorty sounds, and this time Caroline was almost sure that it had come from the resident of the cell, who stepped back to the bunk and collapsed onto it before she could utter any of the terrifying threats that she would think of any moment now.

Saberofblue · Jul 18, 2023

Holy crap it's alive! Man, I'm gonna need to give this a re-read this again. But it's nice to see our favorite wallflower again. Granted it was only a small chapter, but content nonetheless. I forget, but is this just normal P5 or are you including P5Royal too?

Darkenning · Jul 18, 2023

Saberofblue said:
Holy crap it's alive! Man, I'm gonna need to give this a re-read this again. But it's nice to see our favorite wallflower again. Granted it was only a small chapter, but content nonetheless. I forget, but is this just normal P5 or are you including P5Royal too?

You haven't forgotten, I haven't said one way or the other yet.

Let's just say that the next segment introduces a new viewpoint and leave it at that.

Saberofblue · Jul 18, 2023

Darkenning said:
You haven't forgotten, I haven't said one way or the other yet. Let's just say that the next segment introduces a new viewpoint and leave it at that.

Oooh, can't wait then!

Darkenning · Jul 18, 2023

What a lovely day it was!

Well, no, it wasn't really a lovely day at all, as the sky was filled with heavy clouds and lots of rain. But that was every bit as necessary for a healthy world as days of sunshine were, and everyone wanted a healthy world, right? Of course they did. So even though KASUMI YOSHIZAWA would personally have preferred sunshine, she would accept the rain, nonetheless. Besides, she had an umbrella for when she had to get off this train and walk the rest of the way to school, so the rain wouldn't bother her then, anyway. And right now, she had a sufficiently comfortable seat on the train --

Her eyes snapped open as she heard a soft grunt in front of her. Yes, standing before her was an elderly lady who could surely use this seat more than she could. Thus, KASUMI YOSHIZAWA promptly stood up. "Please, take my seat," she said. "My stop is coming right up."

"Are you sure?" asked the lady. "Well then --"

Before she could step forward and sit down, however, another gentleman pushed past her and claimed the seat. KASUMI YOSHIZAWA found herself privately impressed by the speed that he had just demonstrated. However, KASUMI YOSHIZAWA would never be so gauche as to openly admire such behavior. "Excuse me," she said, in tones of sweet reason. "That seat was for this lady and --"

He had fallen asleep as she spoke. How vexing.

"He's faking sleep, you know," said a soft voice not far away.

She glanced over at the person who had just spoke. Of course, KASUMI YOSHIZAWA immediately recognized that the young woman standing before her was wearing a school uniform just like the one that she herself was wearing. That was less interesting than the way that this woman was staring at the gen-- male individual who was snoring loudly and possibly falsely in front of her. Behind those glasses, there was an obvious hostility directed towards this person. It was a bit scary, really, though of course KASUMI YOSHIZAWA had no fear of any harm coming to anyone.

"Well, I'm sure that he has his reasons," she said. "Um, anyway, ma'am, I'm sorry. Please let me carry your luggage, at least."

"Thank you so much, dear," said the old lady as she passed over the bag she was holding. "It's not too heavy, is it?"

"Not at all!" replied KASUMI YOSHIZAWA, as she felt her left arm stretching further than it probably should. "I've, I've trained a lot, you see."

A few minutes later, she was able to hand -- had to hand the bag back to the old lady, when the train came to her stop. Rotating her shoulder a bit, KASUMI YOSHIZAWA saw the other girl in the Shujin uniform walking away towards the exit and hurried up to catch her. "Pardon me!" she said, and controlled the urge to flinch as that gaze was turned on her. It wasn't quite so intense at the moment, though, which was good. The older girl seemed more confused than anything else. "I just wanted to thank you for before," she explained.

"... for what?" she asked.

"For what you did on the train. With the older lady, and the g-gentleman," explained KASUMI YOSHIZAWA.

"... I didn't do anything, though."

"Well, uh, I-I-I suppose that you could look at it that way, but, anyway, I can tell that you're a second year at Shujin. I'm a first year there, myself, and I should really thank my senpai." She started to bow.

"... for what?" her senpai asked again, a bit more loudly.

KASUMI YOSHIZAWA froze. This ... this was not going the way that it was supposed to go. She was supposed to thank her senpai who would then graciously accept her thanks and then they would part ways with the sure knowledge that how things were supposed to go had been how things went and everything was right with the world and and and and --

"Okay, you're welcome," said her senpai. The voice had gotten quiet again, and the eyes behind that mas-- those glasses were regarding her not with suspicion and hostility but something else that had to be acceptance and not concern at all.

"Pardon me, then," said KASUMI YOSHIZAWA, feeling something that had to be happiness at being accepted and not relief at all, as she bowed politely and walked quickly away, not at all aware of any eyes gazing at her back as she did so.

Ann had wanted to talk to Shiho as soon as she got out of that -- for lack of a better term -- Palace yesterday. She had wanted it all through the school day that followed. She had wanted it when school ended. She had wanted it that night. Life kept not giving her what she wanted, which didn't come as much of a surprise since she had wanted all this weirdness to be a bad dream. If that wasn't going to happen, weird fate preventing her from talking to her best friend until right before classes were about to start was just moderately unfair.

"We need to talk," she shushed at Shiho as they met in the nook where the two of them usually hung out together.

"Yes, I got from your forty-two messages," Shiho replied. "What --"

"Why didn't you answer --"

"I was asleep," Shiho said. "And then it was morning. And now we're here. What's. Wrong?"

And now the real problem began. "What would you say if I asked you to quit volleyball?"

Shiho stared at her. "Uh ... I need more context if I'm going to give you a good answer."

"Yeah, that tracks. Okay, um ... let's just say that I've realized that Kamoshida-s- sen- ... gluck ... ahem ... your coach is doing some really bad things, and I don't want you to be anywhere near him. No matter what."

Shiho kept right on staring. "No matter what?" she repeated. "This is ... not ... hypothetical, is it?" she asked.

Ann wanted to say something reassuring. Nothing came to mind, so she just said, "Um."

Shiho nodded. "Well, then ... I guess I would say 'okay'."

Ann opened her mouth to engage in some special pleading, closed it as the full meaning of that response came to her, and stammered, "R-really? You'd give it up just like that?"

"You're asking me," Shiho said, a tiny frown suddenly on her face. "Why are you surprised that I say yes when you ask me something?"

"I, well, I mean -- I don't know what I mean!" She hugged her suddenly. "Thank you! Thank you! I know it must suck giving up something you're so good at --"

"I'm not that good," Shiho muttered into the embrace. "And I was only -- um, never mind, now."

"Okay, fine," said Ann, letting go, breathing heavily. "Just ... try to stay out of his way for a while, okay? I'll explain everything --" She paused to consider. "-- mostly, eventually."

"Right," said Shiho, whom Ann suspected was probably concluding that Ann was having some sort of breakdown. Well, that was probably closer to the truth than anything else.

Saberofblue · Jul 19, 2023

So Royal IS apart of things! I wonder how that may changes things up more, especially with Akechi's more prominent role. We get to see 'Sumi doing 'Sumi things at the start, and then Ann flips the script and gets Shiho hopefully out of Kamoshida's targets. I wonder if he'll be targeting Akira now, especially given he's now a she without his usual target for Shiho. Keep it up! Can't wait to read more.

Darkenning · Jul 19, 2023

Saberofblue said:
So Royal IS apart of things! I wonder how that may changes things up more, especially with Akechi's more prominent role.

I'm not sure if Akechi will be as interested in f!Akira, for a number of reasons beyond the obvious.

Darkenning · Jul 19, 2023

It was kind of amazing how even with his head roughly parallel to the top of his desk, thanks to the cover provided by the ramrod straight back of the transfer student sitting in the seat ahead of him, he could somehow sense that Ushimaru was giving the whole class a look which declared, without even saying it --

"Hmph ... you all look like you've been spoiled growing up. Can't wait to see who disappoints me the most this year."

And then he was nice enough actually say what he was thinking. Such a dear kindly old man.

"That reminds me of something," the teacher went on. "There's a certain dictionary that defines a year as 'a period of 365 disappointments'. This is from what was first published as 'A Cynic's Dictionary', later known as 'The Devil's Dictionary', by the American author Ambrose Bierce." A slight pause. "Hey, new girl. Tell me what the Devil's Dictionary defines as the chief factor in the progress of the human race."

Well come on, now, that just plain sucked, how was some girl from the sticks supposed to know --

"Villains," she answered in the same quiet voice with which she'd introduced herself yesterday.

Errrr?

"Correct," said Ushimaru. He didn't sound all that surprised, though of course any sort of emotion other than contempt was utterly foreign to his usual tone of voice. "He actually used the word 'malefactors', but it usually gets translated as 'villains' in Japanese. We have a well-read student in our midst. Isn't that special. Now, before you all go getting excited," he added, raising his voice over the murmurs that this had provoked from much of the class, "you need to understand that this is from a book of sardonic witticisms. Uncritically accepting it as the truth is every bit as moronic as uncritically dismissing it as a lie.

"When you look into history, you may well find yourself thinking that a lot of the people who seem to have influenced history by moving it forward weren't really admirable. A lot of them were murderers, a lot of them were thieves, and an awful lot of them were sexual perverts of one stripe or another. But all that is a judgement that we can make because we live in a better world than they did, and it ignores that many of these people were not influencing history, but just the products of it. What I'm trying to say is, acting like a villain because someone you read about in history did something villainous is every bit as inane as acting like a villain because you saw one doing something 'cool' on TV. You don't live in history, you live in the present, and right now we don't need any more villains. Got it?"

Just as he'd been able to tell that Ushimaru was making air quotes with his hands when he'd said "cool", he was also able to sense that the 'got it' was being directed at the new kid. The crook, or so everyone was saying. Huh. Smarter than he would have thought. A bit interesting, really. But who was he kidding, there was no way that a girl like that would ever cross paths with --

A piece of chalk slammed into the top of his head, making him jerk back into a more upright posture.

"No sleeping in class!" Ushimaru snapped. Make that any emotion other than contempt and irritation.

Ryuji grimaced but remained upright.

"Okay," said Ann as soon as she saw Kurusu descending the stairs out of the school and stepped up beside her. "So, I told Shiho she needed to get out of the volleyball club and she said that she would and I also managed to stay out of the way of Kamoshida the whole day and now I want to go back there no matter how scary it is because I've got to know what the heck is up there."

"Hello," replied Kurusu.

"Right, yeah, hello. Sorry for ambushing you like this, but you're the only person I can talk to about these things." A momentary pause. "Well, really you're one of maybe two people I can actually talk to at all, everybody else here pretty much hates me."

Kurusu nodded. "Yes," she said. "I-I mean, I heard some people talking about you on my way to school this morning."

"And what were they saying?" asked Ann, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

There was maybe an eyeblink of hesitation before she answered. "I think you know."

"Yeah, I know. But I mean it, I want to --"

"Okay," Kurusu said with another nod. "We made a deal. And I think I know how to get back to that place." She fished her phone out of one of her blazer pockets. "There's this app on my phone --"

"Hey, yeah," Ann interrupted right back. "When we got out yesterday, there was this voice coming from your phone, saying, um, ah -- forget it, it probably doesn't matter. Look, can I take a look at this thing?"

Unhesitatingly, the other girl handed over the phone. Ann looked it over, noting that it was almost scarily void of functions -- just the actual phone, text, search engine and camera, plus one other spooky looking thing, an eye with a star in it. (Hadn't there been an idol, a while back, who wore a contact lens or something like that?) Thus, she forbore from asking which app, but simply opened it up. "Heeere we go," she said. "It's even got a search history, so we can --"

"Kamoshida-Shujin Academy-pervert-castle -- beginning navigation," announced the soft voice that she'd heard yesterday.

"Okay, so then we gotta -- uh --"

To Ann, it was a bit like the one time she had dropped her guard a bit and been roofied. (Fortunately, someone at the same party had recognized the symptoms and gotten her away from the would-be predator. She deeply regretted having next to no clear memories of either person involved.) The disorientation lasted only a moment, but when it lifted, everything looked the slightest bit off. Then she turned to look up at the castle gate that had replaced the school entrance and revised that "slightest bit" upwards.

"Well, we're back," she said.

"Yes," said Kurusu, not nearly as softly as she'd been speaking all this while.

Ann looked back at her and almost jumped back. "And you're dressed up again!"

"Yes," Kurusu said again, lifting up the knife she was holding to examine it carefully. "My arm is once more whole."

"Ooooookay then."

Darkenning · Jul 20, 2023

From somewhere nearby, there issued a rather frustrated sigh. "I hoped it might be just the noisy one, but I can see that you're both here." Morgana poked his head out from around the corner. "I can't believe the two of you came back after the narrow escape you had last time. Wait, no. I can't believe that I'm surprised that you two came back --"

"Zip it, all right," Ann said, privately relieved to have someone to talk to who didn't seem to be on the verge of flipping out at all times. "Look, Mogen --

"Morgana," the cat corrected.

"Morgana," Ann repeated through clenched teeth. "We need your help."

"You don't say," he drawled.

Biting back a retort, Ann pressed onward. "Can you get us to a place where we can take pictures of the students that are being tortured here? That way, we can identify who they are in the real world, and get them to admit what's going on to someone who can do something about Kamoshida!"

"I don't think that will work," said Kurusu, who had taken out her phone and was looking at it.

"What -- why not?" Ann asked.

Kurusu turned the display of the phone towards Ann, so that she could see that the screen was filled with a much larger version of the spooky starred eye design. "It's only running that app right now. When I try to switch to open another app, nothing happens."

Frantically, Ann pulled out her own phone and recoiled a bit when she saw that the creepy image was also being displayed. "What the what? It's on my phone too, now!"

"Maybe we could go there and memorize their faces?" Kurusu suggested, a bit hesitantly.

The fact that she was normally disturbingly confident when she was wearing that coat and mask told Ann that her associate was trying to salvage the plan she'd come up with. Normally, that would have been a sweet gesture, but under the circumstances -- Ann shook her head. "It wouldn't work. I've got next to no memory for guys' faces, they all sort of blur together for me."

"Seriously?" asked Morgana, tilting his head to the side.

"Unless someone wants to be called a cat with every sentence, someone should probably not make fun of other people's foibles!"

"Morgana," said Kurusu, forestalling the cat's no doubt pointed retort.

"Yes, Lady Akira?" replied Morgana with exquisite courtesy.

"'Lady Akira'?" repeated Ann, incredulously.

"You said that you had infiltrated this Palace when you were captured and put in that cell. You must have had some reason for doing that. Do you have a ... clever plan for dealing with this place and the one who made it?"

Morgana's face grew a smirk. "Indeedy-do! And while my efforts, embarked upon alone and without help, may have been somewhat inadequate for the task at hand --"

"'somewhat inadequate'?" repeated Ann, increduously.

"-- if I had competent assistance from someone whom I carefully trained in the Noble Arts of Phantom Thievery™, I am confident that victory would be well within our grasp! Will you make a deal with me, Lady Akira?" Morgana held out his paw, to be either shook or perhaps kissed. It was not clear which.

"Phantom Thievery," Kurusu murmured. "This must be what he was talking about."

Morgana blinked audibly. "What who was talking about?" he asked, sounding much less grandiloquent.

"A man with a big nose," she answered.

"... I don't get out much, so I'm not altogether certain how much that narrows down the field," said the noseless creature.

"Uh, 'scuse me," interrupted Ann, utterly bewildered by the turns this conversation had taken. "Shouldn't you be asking both of us about this?"

Morgana coughed into one of his paws. "Yes. Well. As I said earlier, it may well be that you possess the spirit of rebellion, despite everything."

"'despite ev--'" Ann started to repeat, more angrily than incredulously.

"But if so, then 'tis presently fast asleep. Nay, perhaps comatose, instead. You would do better to return to the material world, and leave this to those already prepared for it." He gestured towards the alleyway behind them.

"Oh really," said Ann, infuriated by this point. "Well, up your nose, pal!" With that, she stomped over to the main gates of the castle and began pounding on its timbers and occasionally yanking at the large handles on it. "Kamoshida, you lecherous freak!" she shouted at one point. "Open up this door so we can kick your ass!"

"... she cannot seriously imagine that we should go in through the front door, can she?" asked Morgana, beholding this despite clearly disbelieving the evidence of his senses. "Even someone completely untrained in thievery should know that you never go in through the front door! This is the basic of basic basics! Everyone knows that!"

"If everyone knows it, doesn't that mean that people who are watching out for thieves know it, too, and so will be paying more attention to alternative points of entry?" asked Kurusu. "Meaning that going in through the front would be the last thing they'd expect?"

Mogana attempted to answer that a few times, before slumping. "Just ... go get her and then follow me, will you?"

Darkenning · Jul 21, 2023

There then followed an extended period where Morgana led the two of them -- well, as he put it, led Kurusu and graciously permitted Ann to trail along behind the two of them -- through the twisting corners of the Palace, in the process teaching them about the need to ambush their opponents while also minimizing the chances that they might call for reinforcements. They were shown how Morgana could call upon his own Persona, a masked swordsman whom he called Zorro. (Ann was disappointed that said gigantic hologram or whatever it was didn't look like Antonio Banderas. She was also a bit surprised that Morgana didn't have Puss in Boots as a Persona, which could also have brought Antonio Banderas into the situation.)

During a rest stop in one of the rooms in the palace where Kamoshida's influence over the area was comparatively weak -- bits of the actual school room kept flickering in and out alongside bits of the dank dungeon -- the cat also explained his theory about how they could put an end to all this. "Deep in the heart of the Palace, there is an object -- a precious object, a treasure -- that is central to this Kamoshida's delusions about himself. If we were to steal it and take it away from here, his identity would collapse, and he would no longer be able to sustain the palace. Why, I daresay that, without his distorted desires to drive him onward, he might even completely reform and strive to live a virtuous life thereafter! Wouldn't that be just lovely?"

"Uh-huh," said Ann, regarding the cat with a dubious expression as he stood, declaiming all this, from the top a table, flickering between being covered with discarded mugs and dirty dishes or some kind of arts project. "And it's really just that simple? Sneak in, steal the sparkly, then saunter off whistling?"

"Wwwwwellll," said Morgana, tapping his forepaws together in the manner of someone twiddling their fingers.

"I knew it," Ann muttered, looking down in annoyance.

"What else, Morgana?" Kurusu pressed. She sounded patient, but as always there was something that was anything but tranquil in her eyes and the lines of her face.

"I was going to reveal it at the proper time, really," he assured them in a somewhat less-than-reassuring way. "Right now, the treasure only exists as an idea, not something we can cart away in our pockets. In order for that to change, we would have to alert the version of Kamoshida who exists in the material world to the idea that something will be stolen from him. The Kamoshida here knows everything that the Kamoshida there knows, you see. Which in turn means that the Kamoshida here would know to set up traps and, um, well, probably ambush us."

"So, that means you end up fighting him, anyway," Ann groaned, glancing briefly at Kurusu, and then flinching a bit.

"I'm not seeing a problem, here," Kurusu replied. "Morgana, what happens if the Kamoshida here should ... not survive ... the fight that he starts?"

Morgana looked extremely uncomfortable to be asked. "Well, ah, I guess he would probably die in the real world, too. But, I mean, we should probably try to avoid that, because we're thieves, not murderers."

"Oh," she said, without blinking once.

Despite everything, they decided to head into the dungeon to see whether either of them could try to recognize the faces of any of the students being tortured there. Unfortunately, Ann proved to be just as incapable of doing this as she'd predicted, and Kurusu had no better luck. Perhaps, if either of them had been more artistically gifted, or even devoted manga readers, things might have been different. But Ann was only a subject of art, and the only arts that Kurusu currently cared about were martial.

Resignedly, then, they decided to head out of the palace for today, at least. "So through here," said Morgana, leading them into the palace's foyer, "we can get back to the way we came in, and --"

"Well, well, what have we here, again?" said a familiar voice.

"Awwww, come on!" Ann groaned as she once more watched her doppleganger flip over the balcony to land before them.

"Wow!" said Morgana, eyes wide. "You were right! She doesn't look a thing like you!"

"Thank --"

"She's much sexier!"

"Awwww," said the cognitive version of Ann, blowing a kiss in Morgana's direction before sticking out her tongue at the infuriated material girl.

"I swear, once we get out of here, I'm going to make a pair of catskin gloves out of --"

"Yeah, yeah, save it," said cognitive Ann, as she -- again -- snapped her fingers. And, once again, castle guards seemed to materialize behind the three explorers and grab them. This time, though, Morgana and Kurusu were able to struggle free of their grip and pull away. Ann, of course, was in no position to do that.

"Let her go," said Kurusu, glaring at the false Ann.

"Hm, no, don't think so," replied that Ann, with a shake of her head. "But ... y'know, I've heard that thieves are all about making deals, right? Why not make a deal with me? I will let the two of you go, pretend to King Kamoshida that I never even saw you, and you can go your merry way." She seemed to saunter over to where Ann was being held above the ground, mouth firmly covered by the guards' hands. "I bet I could become much more like the real Takamaki if I tore her apart and incorporated parts of her into this mask that I'm wearing," she said, softy, as she reached up to run one gloved finger down the real Ann's cheek.

"I will never --" Kurusu started to say.

The cognitive Ann wheeled to glare at her. "Then I guess I'll sound the alarm instead, and countless guards will converge on this position to beat the shit out of you until you either flee or die. I get what I want either way. And what's the point of fighting for this one, anyway? She doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about anyone but herself! Her best friend has been aching to quit volleyball, and only staying on the team because she was scared that something would happen to her, but did she even notice? It's not that this girl doesn't love Kamoshida-sama, which I could vaguely understand, because not everybody will get the appeal. She just doesn't love anyone!"

"That's not true," Kurusu said.

Or did she say that? All of a sudden, it was hard for Ann to hear or even see what was going on around her. A roaring noise was filling her mind, and it hurt so much and --

Of course this pale imitation is never going to get it. It's not that you don't love, it's that you love who you love, not who loves you and feels entitled to be loved in return. And those whom you love should be on guard. Are you ready to show them how much love hurts?

I am thou, thou art I. Thou who wilt lure the fools to their doom and make them crave it. Call upon my name and unleash thy wrath!

Remembering, she forced her mouth opened and bit into the flesh of the hand that was holding her. With a muffled yelp, the hands around her face let go. With only one of the guards still restraining her, it was easy to get free -- as she dropped down and reached up to tear the mask she was wearing off her face.

"CARMEN!" she shrieked. There was a whip in her hand, now, and the false Ann was staring at her in shock as she slashed her across the face with it.

That face, nothing like her own, distorted further. Quite suddenly, there was a tiny, red-haired woman with wings in a blue dress in place of the false Ann. "Y'know, it's almost worth it to see something this beautiful?" said the Pixy in the moment before Ann slashed her once again.

Darkenning · Jul 22, 2023

Shiho had hoped that, after they were all through with classes and able to sit around and shoot the shit like they usually did, Ann might explain why she had gone from constantly encouraging her to stick with volleyball through thick and thin to all but begging her to quit. It had been sort of funny to watch, in the way that not-really-funny-things often were. But Ann had failed to materialize for their session, and now she was completely at a loss for what she should do with herself. The obvious solution, now that she had joined the 'go home early club', would be to go home early, but something was holding her here.

She even had a fairly good idea where Ann might be right now. Being her friend had ensured that she was almost as much of an outcast as Ann was, but she had heard the rumors about Ann showing up at school, yesterday, in the company of the new transfer student who everyone was describing as some sort of criminal mastermind. (The other part of the rumors, that the two of them had been dispatched on some mysterious errand by Kamoshida, was something that Shiho discounted reflexively.)

She had actually seen the transfer student yesterday. She had been putting away some sports equipment, and one of the bolls had slipped out of her hands and rolled across the hallway as the girl with messy hair and glasses had walked down the other side of it. She had caught the ball and handed it to Shiho, all without even slowing down, much less stopping long enough to accept any thanks. She walked on her way, like someone who was ... what was the word? Casing. That was what they called it when someone studied a place to prepare for a crime there, right?

Shiho let out a sad chuckle. She was doing it. The exact same thing all those people did when they talked about Ann, the exact same thing that everyone did about the transfer student -- putting the worst possible spin on what was probably something completely innocent. Of course, someone who was new in a school would try to explore it in order to get used to the place. And of course, someone who had only really had the chance to get to know one person in a school would spend time with them.

Even if that person had only one other friend there. Even if that left that other friend completely alone. Even if ... Shiho stopped the course of her thoughts, hugging herself to make the shaking stop as well. She really, really should go home, now.

"Uh, Suzui?"

Jerked out of her contemplations, Shiho blinked as she looked up to see that Mishima had managed to walk up to her without her realizing it. "Yes?" she answered his address hoping that her voice didn't sound frightened. She had no reason to be afraid of Mishima after all. Only of what might come with him.

And, indeed, after a moment of hesitation, he showed that her reason was right. "Kamoshida-sensei told me to go get you."

"Oh. Did he say what he wanted?" she asked.

"No," Mishima said. "He didn't say."

She wondered if that was true. She wondered if that mattered. Shiho took a deep breath. "I'm quitting volleyball," she told him.

Mishima blinked. Confusion suited him a lot better than dread, she thought. "Oh. Uh ... that's too bad?" he said, making it a question.

She nodded since there was nothing to say to that.

"Have you, have you told sensei, yet?" he asked then.

"No," she admitted.

"I guess that's not what this is about, then. Um. Well, you can probably tell him when you see him," he told her, nodding himself.

No. "Mishima ... did he tell you to go get me, or to go find me and tell me that I should go to his office?" she asked. This could never work. This couldn't possibly work. This was the only thing she could think of, so it had to work.

"Uh, he t-told me to go find you, but I think --"

"Did he tell you what to do if you couldn't find me?" she asked, speaking just a bit faster than she had been until now.

"No, but, I mean, I did find you, so --"

"But what if you didn't? What if you just ... didn't find me?" Shiho asked. Before he could offer the obvious answer and turn this into even more of an endless loop, she pushed on. "I'd be really grateful, Mishima. Really."

He stared at her, and his mouth worked a bit without any noise coming out. "Okay," he finally said. "I'll go do that, then. Um. See you ... later?" he concluded, making it another question.

She nodded since there was nothing to say to that, either, and she didn't trust herself to speak.

He turned and walked back the way that he had, she guessed, come up to her. She found herself grateful that he didn't look back towards her as he went. She was still sitting there when he moved out of sight, but not for much more than a second.

It wasn't until she was out of the school gates and halfway to Shibuya that it occurred to her what Kamoshida might do to the person who gave him that sort of bad news. She paused, then, and looked back towards the school.

But not for much more than a second.

NooneImportant · Jul 22, 2023

Ah crap, rip Mishima?

Darkenning · Jul 22, 2023

NooneImportant said:
Ah crap, rip Mishima?

We shall see.

Darkenning · Jul 22, 2023

Somewhere in the depths of Shibuya, there was a burger joint where Ann and Shiho had hung out in the times before Kamoshida had messed up the universe. When they had done that, they had cheerfully chattered to each other about everything and nothing, in hindsight probably annoying the other patrons. If those patrons were currently present -- not likely but not impossible -- they were probably relieved that Ann was not engaged in her usual stream-of-consciousness monologue, but rather slumped facedown over on top of the table across from Kurusu, who was sipping from her drink in her usual laconic reserve.

Eventually, though, Ann managed to recover enough of her vim and vigor to raise her head and gaze blearily across the table at Kurusu. "So, I wasn't imagining that, right? They were talking to each other while we were fighting the rest of the guards?"

Kurusu started to nod, hesitated, then said, slowly and precisely, "They were talking to each other. The other part, whether you were imagining that, is ... kind of complicated."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," replied Ann, slumping once more. She didn't look up as she continued talking. "I didn't understand what they were saying."

"It was in French."

That got her to look up. "You speak French?"

"Non," Kurusu replied shortly. "But I can recognize it."

"Why French, though?"

"Well, yours is a character from a French novel and opera, and mine is a character from an English story who had a background of having lived and sang in the opera in France, so it makes sense that they would have a connection like that and --"

"How do you know this stuff?" Ann asked plaintively.

The momentary animation that Kurusu had shown just then vanished like the glow from a lightbulb when the switch was turned off. "I just know stuff," she answered without meeting Ann's eyes.

Ann let out a long, weary sigh, and forced herself to sit up. Sort of, anyway; she was still slumped, but now she was leaning against the back of her chair and managing to hold her neck up so that she looked across the table at her ... co-conspirator? "Whatever," she said, both to herself and to Kurusu. "Seriously, forget all that. There's other stuff we gotta talk about. Look ... I get that you probably don't want to talk about how you ended up here."

Kurusu looked bewildered and opened her mouth to reply.

"Not here-here, Shujin-here," Ann pre-empted that remark. "Transfer-to-another-school-under-a-cloud-here. But ... I think maybe we gotta talk about it."

"Okay," Kurusu breathed after a moment. Before Ann could reply to that, she pushed on, still not looking up from the table. "If I try to talk about what happened to me, I'm just going to end up repeating all the things I learned to say to make them stop asking questions. So, instead, I'm going to tell you a story. And it's up to you to decide whether or not to believe it."

One deep breath. "There was a girl. A girl who lived in what she thought was a really boring town. There was nothing there for her. And that is funny, because as soon as things became such that she could never, ever go back there, everything about it seemed to gleam in her memories. But that's getting ahead of things.

"The girl had a bad habit. At night, she would sneak out of the house where she lived with her parents and go into town to have fun. She would sing, and dance, and play games ... and one night there was someone at the place where she was having fun who was interested in a different kind of fun. And she said no. And he didn't want to hear that. So, he dragged her out of that place, and to his car not far away, and --"

"O. M. G," said Ann, horrified.

"-- and that is when the story takes a turn," she said, affecting to have not heard the interruption. "Because someone came to help her. Someone stopped him. A hero came along." She let out a long, shuddering sigh. "And now both this girl and the hero were in trouble, because he was a big man. And he told her that if she didn't say that the hero had attacked him for no reason, he would make her pay for it." The monotone she had been telling all this abruptly shifted to what could only be described as a quiet howl. "But she was just so angry." Just as abruptly, the monotone came back. "So, she told him that she would never ever ever turn her back on someone who had helped her."

Kurusu stopped talking then.

Ann did not want to do what she did next. But she was used to doing things she did not want to do. She still hesitated, before asking, "And then what happened to them?"

"They put them both in jail. Two different jails. In hers, she was hurt. In his, he was killed." Delivered like bullet points on an agenda.

Much much too late, Ann's hands came up to cover her mouth.

"Eventually, she learned to say what they wanted to hear. Because it was her first offense, they gave her probation. And she was sent far, far away. And that was the end of the story." She punctuated it by sipping her drink. Or rather, by trying to suck up the dregs of what was in the glass through her straw.

"What was his name? The hero, I mean." Ann wasn't sure why she asked that, wasn't sure what difference it made. Was, as usual, not really sure of anything.

"I never learned it. He was just --" She broke off. "I guess you believe that story?" she asked, after a moment.

"Yes," said Ann, reaching out to touch the hand that was resting on the table. "I believe you."

She wasn't really prepared for the way that made Kurusu jolt back. "What?" she asked, hoarsely.

"Is it that crazy that I'd believe you?"

"No, no, I --" She looked around, confusedly. "Didn't you hear that?"

"I heard a really sad and grim story, yes, but I mean, I don't agree that it's over, yet," she said.

"That's not what I --" Now Kurusu slumped. "Never mind."

"So, I guess it makes sense that you'd want to ... really, really hurt someone who hurts people who've helped you," said Ann, abruptly conscious as she spoke that there might just possibly be people listening in on this conversation, who would become alarmed at the repeated, casual use of the word "kill". "But as the person in question, I would be upset if someone I cared about ... really, really hurt someone. So, maybe ... not?" she finished, a bit weakly.

But the message was received, even if response was just as weak. "Okay," Kurusu answered without looking at her. "But ... you know, now, that caring about me can be risky, right?"

"You are not some kind of a jinx," Ann retorted.

"Jinx," repeated Akira. "Hm."

NooneImportant · Jul 22, 2023

F in the chat for this story's Ren Amamiya, who went out as a chad/alpha/badass/man of strong moral values. o7

Darkenning · Jul 22, 2023

NooneImportant said:
F in the chat for this story's Ren Amamiya, who went out as a chad/alpha/badass/man of strong moral values. o7

While I'm not going to go into too much detail about the person who helped f!Akira -- yet -- I will state that he was not Ren or any variation on him. Just as our protagonist is quite a bit younger than Shido's canon victim, so was her rescuer a bit older than the high school boy you're thinking about.

Darkenning · Jul 23, 2023

Muß es sein?

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," said their extraordinarily patient master to the menace who was glaring through the bars at him. Bad enough that she did that, but she utterly ignored the scowls that the two of them -- yes, Justine was scowling, even if it people who weren't Caroline might not have been able to tell that she was -- were directing up at her. "Let us now resume our earlier conversation. Tell me, are you growing accustomed to this place?"

"What's one more cell?" said the inmate, and let out a rather inappropriate chuckle.

Their master tilted his head. "That demonstrates a somewhat admirable stoicism, which you may need if ruin is to be prevented. Yet that alone --indeed, you alone -- cannot stop it. But today you have entered into a partnership with another who has awakened to the power of Persona, correct?"

"Ann," said the inmate, continuing to glare.

"Involving yourself with others is an important step in your rehabilitation," explained the master. "I am of course not speaking of casual or superficial relationships. Your associates must be those who have, like you, been robbed of their proper places --"

But -- beyond belief, if not wholly unexpected by this point -- the wretch before the two of them dared interrupt. "My rehabilitation is not only becoming a thief, but dragging other people into becoming my accomplices? Other people who have suffered like I have? Are you out of your --"

"Personas are the strength of one's heart," interrupted Justine. "The stronger the bonds that surround you, the more power your Personas will gain."

"I don't care about power!" the inmate snapped, glaring down at her.

With calm that she had clearly learned from the good example that Caroline had given her, Justine glared back. "Your opponent does. That is indeed all that he cares about. You must be both better and stronger than him if you are to prevent ruin -- and so save many, as once you were saved."

The inmate jolted at that, and Caroline seized the opportunity. "There are countless people in this city who have talents that a weakling like you --"

"Shut up," said the inmate without looking at her. That was the worst part, the way that her eyes kept boring down at poor Justine, who was hiding the anxiety it must be causing her so admirably. Caroline decided to start slamming her truncheon against the bars no matter what Justine had said about doing so, to draw his attention away from her dear sister, for Justine's benefit of course and not because she wanted it on her or anything.

Before she could, however, the master spoke. "While harsh, she speaks the truth. You may well require a bond with her, or even myself, if you are to achieve your goals."

That at least got her attention off Justine. "You want to be my accomplice, too?" said the inmate, glaring at him, now. "Isn't ours a 'superficial relationship'?"

"It is if you make it so," replied the master. "Have we a deal?"

The inmate kept staring. At length, she finally spoke. "All right."

I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh the chains of thy captivity. With the birth of the Fool Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and power ...

The voice sounded achingly familiar to her, and yet she did not recognize it. She wanted to ask Justine if she did, but doubtless the answer would be the same. So frustrating. "This conversation is over!" she decreed. "Get lost, inmate!"

Still without even glancing in her direction -- ggggghhhh -- the inmate turned and collapsed back onto the cot.

"I actually had a few things more to say," said the master, in tones of mild reproach.

Caroline froze.

"He's angry," said Kurusu, sitting beside Ann and watching the teachers, led by Kamoshida, crushing the boys' volleyball team in a display of dominance almost as violent as what the cognitive versions of them were subjected to in the palace.

"He's always angry," Ann replied, eyes on where the girls' team were sitting, waiting for their turn in the barrel. "But yeah, more than usual. I think it's because Shiho must have told him that she was quitting the team right before this thing started. She was smart, waited until there were a lot of other people around to do it, and he still almost blew his top at her. Gawd, I hope I did the right thing by telling her to get out," she moaned. "What if he still hurts her and --"

"Where is she?" Kurusu asked.

"Over there, third from the right in the back row. Wearing a knee brace. Thanks to him, I bet," she added, angry now instead of fearful.

Kurusu didn't answer, looking where Ann had been looking. "Where did I --" she murmured, then shook her head. "None of them will help us, will they?" she asked.

"No," replied Ann. "Frustrating as hell, but they're all too scared of him. If only there was someone who was as mad at him, but not ... so ... scared ..." She trailed off as slowly she turned to look at the line of boys sitting on the ground watching the "game." "Ryuji's in your class, right?" she asked.

"Who?"

"That guy, there. With the bleached hair."

"Oh. Yes. He sits behind me."

"Maybe ..." Ann said, slowly. "Just maybe ..."

It wasn't that she wanted to watch the volleyball match with everyone else. Frankly, she thought it was a dumb display of dominance. But walking through the hallways with the rest of the student council, looking for those who were avoiding it, was not exactly her idea of an interesting morning, either. Still, it was something that had to be done -- or so she had been told -- and so she was doing it, because she always followed the rules and acted as an example for others and --

-- what?

For a moment, she thought she had to be imagining it. But she wasn't, and that was a moment she could never get back as she started running for the rooftop access, leaving the others behind in their confusion, finding the doors unsurprisingly open and getting out as she tried desperately to remember the name.

In the end, she had to guess. "Mishima!" she shouted. "Don't --"

On the other side of the fence, he turned to look back at her, and she froze at the look of terror and despair on that face. "I'm sorry," he said. "He was just too strong, he was just --"

And with those words, he bent forward at the waist and dived off the side of the building.

She stood like a statue for a moment, then dashed forward to the side of the roof to look down. Fumbling at her pocket, she pulled out her phone, dialling emergency services.

"Shujin Academy, student council president, Niijima Makoto. Please send the police," she said dazedly to the dispatcher.

No point in asking for an ambulance, she thought with a mind every bit as numb as her voice, staring at what was lying on the ground below. Not who. Not anymore.

Es muß sein.

END PART TWO

NooneImportant · Jul 23, 2023

Ah yes, early Makoto trauma.

~~Can't think of anything else to add, maybe a speedrunning joke.~~

IT HAS TO BE.
Someone really wants to railroad *cough* Yaldy Boldy *cough*

Well, I guess we're 'back on track' now.
~~It's funny because Mementos is the subway.~~

Darkenning · Jul 24, 2023

Preview of certain events that may or may not happen:

"... so anyways, there we were, making out in the confessional booth and things were really going well, when suddenly the door opened up and, would you believe it, it was the priest! Who would've expected him to show up in a church of all places! So naturally we dragged him in there with us, and Hifumi-chan started working on getting his belt undone -- Did you know that those guys wear pants under their robes just like anybody else? I sure as hell didn't! It was a complete shock! -- while I was sucking on his tongue and --"

"For pity's sake!" shrieked Sae as she pounded her head against the tabletop. "How the hell did any of this help you to come up with strategies for your operations?"

"Aw, sweety, I gotta give this whole thing its context, y'know?" said Kurusu, grinning wildly and eyes dilated to a disturbing degree. "Good goddamn, though, these drugs you've got me on are way better than the shit I got from Tae-chan after I did that heist on the supertanker, but I already told you that one, right? Oh, wait, no, I didn't, either -- well you see it was like this, all right, the guy with the big nose told me --"

"STOOOOOOOP!"

Darkenning · Jun 10, 2024

PART THREE

It was a simple plan, and Shiho was sure that nothing could possibly go wrong with it. She had already gotten through what should be the hardest part of it, telling him that she was quitting the team. He hadn't been able to do anything about it, just yell at her and make insinuations about what he would do. Time was, that would have been enough to make her back down. But though she was still frightened, there was something past the fear that kept her going. A light at the end of the tunnel.

So now, all that she had to do was wait until the girls turn on the court and then play her last volleyball game. (At least, her last one here. Shiho had hopes for a more enjoyable college volleyball experience.) Then she could and would leave, not bothering to change out of her jersey. That might get her in some trouble, but nothing that she couldn't handle. It should be smooth --

And then the principal showed up in the gym, looking even whiter than he usually did, and scuttled up to where Kamoshida was engaged in humiliating the boys' team. The principal started talking quietly to Kamoshida, saying something that Shiho couldn't hear despite the hush that had descended once the game had been interrupted.

Whatever it was, Kamoshida looked startled for a moment ... before slowly turning to glare at Shiho for what felt like an even longer moment.

When that interval ended, the coach looked away and started to address the whole room. "Okay. I'm afraid that today's rally has to come to a premature end, people. One of your classmates -- Mishima Yuuki -- has apparently had some sort of serious accident."

The principal got even whiter and reached out towards Kamoshida while shaking his head. Without even glancing at him, Kamoshida slapped the hand away.

"So everybody needs to go straight home," the coach continued. "Do not linger in the courtyard, do not gawk, just go get changed and then return to your homes. We'll tell you more tomorrow, when we know more." With that, he proceeded to slam the volleyball he was holding in one hand into the ball cart, as though to physically punctuate his remarks with one last display of talent.

Shiho was no longer really paying attention. From the moment that the name had been uttered, a terrible frozen feeling had descended on her brain, leaving her incapable of any sort of real thought, as the way that Kamoshida had looked at her before delivering this news played on the movie screen of her mind over and over again, with each review making it clear that he hadn't just been glaring at her. He'd been glaring accusatorily at her.

Someone -- Shiho couldn't tell who it was -- asked her if she was all right. She also made her answer in a physical gesture by practically jumping out of her chair and dashing out of the gym. She had no idea where she was going, but wherever it was, it was somewhere other than this place and that would be enough.

When Shiho regained awareness of her surroundings, she found herself in one of the obscure corners of the school building, curled up between a collection of unused lockers and some spare desks, along with a collection of umbrellas and, strangely, a shinai. There was also a vending machine with a cat on top of it, staring down at her.

Shiho blinked and did a double take. Yes, there was a cat. Why was there a cat? Why was a cat staring at her? These would all have been good questions to ask someone if there was anyone present other than a cat.

"Shiho!" shouted a familiar voice.

Well, here was some irony for you. Now there was someone to ask about the cat, and it was even someone whom Shiho would normally have wanted to have present so as to talk about everything and anything but really nothing, and whom she had even found herself missing a bunch lately. Under the circumstances, though, Ann was just about the last person she wanted anywhere near her. Irony. That had to be irony, right?

Before Shiho could start running again, though, she found herself cornered by Ann and the transfer student. As from some considerable distance, she watched the transfer student glance up at the cat and noted the conspicuous absence of any perplexity concerning the cat on her face. How strange! Was it her cat, perhaps? Before Shiho could follow her other impulse and ask about this, though, Ann was up in her face.

"What happened?" Ann asked, crouching in front of Shiho. "Why'd you run off like that? What did Kamoshida --"

"It was me," said Shiho. "I did it."

Ann stared at her in stupefaction. "Right," she said slowly. "B-but why, I asked. Why did you --"

"No," Shiho interrupted. "I did this to Mishima."

Ann's stupefaction endured. "Huh?" she asked.

The words came tumbling out. What had happened when Kamoshida got her alone. Why she had put up with it. Why, when Ann told her to stop putting up with it, she had not known how to do that. How she had asked Mishima to go in her place. How she had realized what was going to happen to him and then decided not to care about it. How the accident had to be --

"Stop, stop," interrupted Ann, pulling down the hand that had covered her mouth midway through all this. "No, no, this is not on you, this is on Mishima and it's definitely on Kamoshida, but it's not on you --"

There came the sound of something slamming into metal, and a yowl from the throat of a cat. Ann half-turned and Shiho looked up, both of them to see what it was.

The transfer student had slammed her clenched fist into the blue door of one of the lockers, and it was still resting there. That was not nearly as scary as the look on the face behind her mask. Wait, no, those were glasses, not a mask. Why had Shiho thought it was a mask?

"Hey, Akira," said Ann, sounding a bit frightened. "Remember what I said before?"

"I'm not going to take his life," said the transfer student. "But I'm going to take everything else."

Darkenning · Jun 11, 2024

Unless he was not only a total bastard, but the biggest dumbass to have ever walked the streets of Tokyo -- which Ryuji had to admit was possible -- Kamoshida had to have known that telling the kids not to linger in the courtyard or gawk was going to ensure that a whole swath of them were going to do just that. It was kind of disgusting, really, but Ryuji knew that he had no room to talk since he was right there in the lingering, gawking crowd.

The police or somebody had taped off the actual area where the body had come down. (Nobody had said anything more about what had happened, but falling from a great height was the only thing that made any sense for the so-called accident.) Before doing so, they had taken the body away but there was still a blood stain where it had landed. On some level, Ryuji found himself a bit surprised that there was no tape markings on the ground to indicate the precise location of the body like there would have been on TV; on another level, he was cussing himself out for having expected that.

Thinking like that made him just like all these other lingering gawkers, where he wanted to think of his decision to stick around as a principled refusal to do anything that bastard Kamoshida told him to do. Like them, or even worse, he thought with a glance upward to where the most elevated lingering gawker was standing, pressed up against the fence that ran along the edge of the roof and staring down. He couldn't make out her features, but the special student uniform reserved for the prez was fairly recognizable, so there was only one person that could possibly be. Probably really annoyed that this had happened during her term in office, she. No better than any of the lousy teachers.

Ryuji actually found himself a bit surprised that none of said lousy teachers had shown up to shoo away the lingering gawkers. Well, thinking like that was probably tempting fate, so he decided that he had seen enough and it was time to go. One last glance at the stain on the ground, one last shake of his head, and he turned to go.

His going was halted when he realized that someone was standing right behind him, gazing at him with a really seriously intense gaze. (Not a science fiction fan, Ryuji didn't know from lasers.) It was so weird to see someone staring at him that it took Ryuji a moment to recognize the transfer student who sat in front of him in class, Kurusu something or other. "Uh, hi?" he said.

"Hello," said Kurusu, the first word she had ever spoken to him. The next words would turn out to be far more memorable, such that in subsequent retellings the first word would be entirely forgotten. "I'm given to understand that you hate Kamoshida. How would you like to help to really fuck him up?"

"Ohhhhhhkay?" Ryuji answered like a suave man of the world.

"Now, I hope you understand that I'm not doubting any the shit you just told me," said Ryuji a few moments later as he followed along behind Kurusu down an alley. It seemed really important -- for the sake of his own health and well-being -- that she believed that she was not being doubted.

"Okay," replied Kurusu without a backwards glance.

"I mean, sure it's an effing crazy story! But hey, I'm an effing crazy guy!" he continued.

That got Kurusu to come to a sudden halt, and then sloooowly turn to look back at Ryuji. Her face was, of course, still unreadable.

"What?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from going too high.

"Why is it that you can say 'shit' but refuse to say 'fuck'?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Not even remotely something he had ever expected to be asked, but whatevs. "Well, I mean, there's a lady present," he answered.

"... where?" asked the lady. Before Ryuji could answer, Kurusu blinked. "Oh. Never mind. Give me your phone. Unlocked. Please." That last was an obvious afterthought.

"Ohhhhhhhkkay," Ryuji answered like someone who got asked to give up his phone on a regular basis. He nevertheless did so after fishing it out of his pants pocket.

Kurusu took a moment to fiddle with the screen, then nodded sharply before turning the phone so that its screen, prominently displaying some weird red eye logo, was facing him. "Seen this before?"

"I don't do a lot of messing with the thing you know?" Ryuji answered. "I just use it to get calls from my m-- people. And not a lot of people."

Without seeming to have listened to him, Kurusu handed him back the phone while fishing in her own pockets to produce a card. She handed it to him. "Say the words on there. Please."

"Uhhh ..." This time, Ryuji didn't even get to the implicit agreement before he took a deep breath. "Kamoshida-Shujin-Pervert-Castle," he recited. "Owww!" he said a moment later. "What the eff just hapennnn --" He trailed off as the sight of what was now at the end of the alleyway impinged itself on his field of vision.

"For real?" he asked after a moment.

Darkenning · Jun 12, 2024

"I'm not sure how to answer that question," Kurusu answered, following Ryuji's gaze towards the palace.

"Hah?" asked Ryuji as he turned his wide-eyed gape on the person who had brought him here.

"'For real?'" she repeated. "I'm not sure how to answer that."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess that was a question," Ryuji said a bit dazedly. "Ah, so, then, inside that thing ..." He trailed off as he turned to look at the facade of the palace.

"Somewhere in there, there is a treasure. Something that Kamoshida views as --" Kurusu paused to look for the right word, nodding slightly and (to Ryuji's eyes, at least) smiling a bit right before she continued. "-- precious, and the excuse for all that he has done. If we take it away from this place, then we will take everything from him."

Ryuji couldn't help but flinch a bit at the not-all-that-well-hidden fury in Kurusu's tone during that last declaration. But, really, taking everything from that bastard sounded like a blast. "But first we gotta find the thing, right?"

Kurusu nodded.

Ryuji squared his shoulders. "Okay, then. Let's get going!" With that, he began marching towards the castle gates.

"Ah?" Kurusu said, watching him walk. Shaking her head violently, she dashed up in front of him. "No, th-that would be really dangerous. I don't think we should go in there without at least two more people."

Ryuji stared at here. "But you said that you and Takamaki went in there together."

"Yes, but that was an accident and we didn't know --"

"Okay, but who's the third guy?"

Kurusu looked away. "I think it would be better if he introduced himself," she muttered.

With a straight line like that, Ryuji was half-expecting for this person -- whom he envisioned as some kind of James Bond type -- to show up right then and there. But that was yet another expectation that was cruelly dashed. Ah well. "Okay, but you also said that going in there will give me some kind of power-up."

Kurusu was still looking away, but she nodded. "You have the spirit of rebellion, obviously."

Ryuji ran his hand through his dyed hair, smirking a bit. "Well, I guess you could say that I don't let people boss me around --"

She turned back to look at him a bit confusedly. "I was talking about the app on your phone."

"Right. Of course you were."

"But it's asleep. Your spirit of rebellion, I mean. Waking it up, the way that Takamaki and I did, is really painful. I don't ... I don't think I'd be able to get you safely out of the palace, afterwards, by myself."

"Okay, I get it," said Ryuji, who wasn't really sure that he did.

"Tomorrow," said Kurusu. "We'll all meet after school tomorrow, me, you, Takamaki and ... and go in together then."

"Deal," said Ryuji, reaching out to pat his new associate on the shoulder.

He was wholly unprepared for her to back away as an expression of mortal terror abruptly grew on that face. Before he could say anything, Kurusu was looking around the alleyway, seeming more confused than Ryuji himself did right then. The performance came to an end when she shook her head and looked right at him. "Don't. Touch me. Please." That time it was even more of an afterthought.

"Got it, got it," Ryuji quickly confirmed, holding up his hands at his shoulders in a hopefully-universal gesture of surrender.

Apparently, it was effective, for after a moment Kurusu nodded. "We go out this way," she said, and walked back the way that they came.

Bold as anything, the girl walked in through the door as though oblivious to the glare that Sojiro was giving her.

"This time I did get a call from your school," he declared before she could announce her arrival.

She froze in space at that remark.

"A boy in your year killed himself. Right?" he asked, tensely.

"I had nothing to do with it," she answered just a little too quickly, given how long she had previously taken to process answers to his questions.

"Why would you even need to prepare an answer like --" Sojiro started to demand.

"I mean, I didn't know him," she pressed on. "We'd never met."

For a wonder, that didn't trip the bullshit detector. "Fine," he said heavily. "That wasn't even -- your homeroom teacher called to let me know that they let you out of school early because of it. But here you are, returning as though you had gotten out of class at the same time as always. There's kind of a blank space in the timeline of your activities, wouldn't you say?"

This time, the answer took the usual delay. "I made some friends. We talked a bit."

And this time, there was a disturbing level of bullshit to be detected. "Uh huh," Sojiro replied, not giving any sign of his readings. "Good friends or bad friends?"

Another long pause. "I'm not really sure I can tell that just yet," she answered.

What he wanted to do was sit down, open the lockable refrigerator behind the bar, pull out one of the bottles within and start getting seriously drunk. What he did instead was to shake his head. "Whatever. Just remember, step out of line and you're out of here. All right, get to your room."

She started walking so as to heed his instructions.

"Wait," he added abruptly.

She paused without a glance in his direction.

"Are you hungry?"

A moment or so later, she answered, "Not really."

"Why did that take so much consideration?" Sojiro asked, voicing a bit of the frustration he was convinced he had managed to hide. "Never mind. Get."

She headed up the stairs and out of sight.

A moment later, Sojiro sat down and glared accusingly at the lockable refrigerator. "Two of them," he muttered. "What the hell was I thinking?"

Darkenning · Jun 13, 2024

"So where the eff is she?" Ryuji asked. As the first words he'd spoken in her presence since middle school, they probably lacked something. But Ann had to admit they were an improvement on the oppressive silence that had been between the two of them since they arrived at the school rooftop to find that they were the only ones there, with their third teammate nowhere to be seen.

On the other hand, they also demanded an answer, which was annoying. "I dunno. She said she'd be here when we talked at -- hey, she's in your class so wouldn't you have seen her more recently than that?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't -- and you've known her longer than I have!" replied Ryuji, as if to demonstrate that he too could abruptly change directions in mid-statement.

"What does that have to do with -- you know what, never mind," said Ann, letting out a sigh. "This is going to be so awkward, isn't it?"

"It doesn't have to be."

She shook her head. "No, I think it does. Well, there's a way to get rid of the awkwardness. I didn't really want to go there, but if this is the only way to handle it, then I guess I have no choice. All right then." She took a deep breath, then fixed him with a glare. "I want my money, Ryuji."

He stared at her. "What money?"

"The money I loaned you in middle school. The money you never repaid." She made a beckoning gesture with one hand.

"For real?" Ryuji asked, less amazed than faintly revolted. "You been holding on to a grudge about that for three years? Unbelievable." He shook his head as he started fishing in his pants pockets. "Y'know what, though, fine. Even though you probably make more from one photo shoot than I get in allowance for a whole effing year, I'll give you back the five hundred yen you lent me."

"Plus interest," Ann reminded him.

He froze in mid-fishing. "Interest?" Ryuji asked in a strangled tone. "What, are you the First International Bank of Takamaki, now? You don't get to change interest for a five hundred yen loan!"

"Well, then, maybe I should look into confiscating what was purchased with my money!" Ann nearly snarled.

"Hey, no, not funny!" Ryuji snapped. "My mom loves that stupid dolphin!"

They glared at each other for a moment, before silently turning away from each other. "Fine," said Ann. "Your mom has it hard enough already."

"Thanks," said Ryuji, voice dripping with sarcasm. "So both of you are gonna be hating me after this."

Ann nodded sharply, but the reproof she was preparing about how that was entirely his own fault died unspoken. "Wait, both of us?" she asked, turning back to look at him. "You think Kurusu hates you?"

He didn't return her gaze. "Well, when she showed me all this shit yesterday, she ended up by freaking out at me, so yeah, I think she probably hates me. And all I did was try and pat her shoulder."

Smack went Ann's hand against her face. "Oh, Ryuji you nitwit," she groaned. "No, she doesn't hate you. She's afraid of you. I'm surprised that she went anywhere with you alone."

This got him to look at her, confusion obvious on his face. Before he could say anything, though, the rooftop door rattled and then opened, revealing the third member of their jolly pirate gang, slumped a bit under the weight of her bag. "I'm late," said Kurusu as she walked up to the pair of them. "Sry." It was too briefly voiced to be an actual "sorry".

"That's okay," said Ann.

"What gives?" said Ryuji. Both of them in about the same moment.

"First, Kawakami-sensei wanted to have a word with me about her conversation with S- my guardian, yesterday," Kurusu replied as she got the bag off of her back and started to set it down on the ground before. "And then I went looking for someone, and that took a while longer." With that, she unzipped the bag.

From within its central compartment, a black cat poked its head out.

"Uhhhokay," said Ryuji, staring down at said cat.

Ann also stared, but seemed unable to find her voice for a moment. And then she did. "OMG," she said. "I knew it! I effing well knew it! You are a cat!"

The cat hissed. "No, I damn well am not!" he snapped.

"... so ... did that not-a-cat just talk?" asked Ryuji, faintly.

Saberofblue · Jun 13, 2024

It's good to see this is back! I'm gonna need to reread it but otherwise I'm excited to see you posting chapters again. Keep up the good work!

What We Need Here/Is A Little Bit Of Panic (Persona 5 Genderbent Protagonist)

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Know what you're doing yet? Because I don't!

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Getting out there.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Slave to the Plot Bunnies

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Slave to the Plot Bunnies

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Slave to the Plot Bunnies

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Know what you're doing yet? Because I don't!

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Know what you're doing yet? Because I don't!

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Know what you're doing yet? Because I don't!

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Pervert. Also, possible world-destroying monster.

Slave to the Plot Bunnies

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