Author's Notes:

Also crossed posted on A03.

Written for the Persona 5 Big Bang event on tumblr!

Team:
Writer: cobaltcandi
Planning/Editing: limeandlen on tumblr

Artist: Angelicbot on tumblr

Artist: LiteralBasil on twitter

Artist: Angelicbot

Prologue

In the metaverse the Phantom Thieves were doing a mission like always. Only this time everything was different. Fox hit Ren's back with a cold bufudyne attack. Futaba charged up everyone's, except Ren's, attack power. Skull smacked him with his spike rod. Ren healed himself again, his HP regaining health. Until Haru shot him with psiodyne, giving him a small headache as the strong psychic power ranged loudly in his head.

Ren fell to the ground with a hard thud. He was low Hp and low SP, meaning he won't be able to attack …or heal anymore for that matter.
Ren suddenly found himself on the wrong end of an all out attack formation, with all guns aiming at him.

Arsene, a red and black ghost like figure appeared in front of him and said
"You are against all odds. Will you escape this predicament? Although all hope is lost, there is one more thing you can do...Think further than he could and you may be able to win your friends back."

The red and black figure faded away as quickly as he appeared. Leaving Ren all alone to figure out his next move.

Act 1 Ain't nobody got time for that

Present time.
Everyday. Everyday there appeared to be no time for anything; especially for Ren Amamiya. Ren was tall and lean, with curly midnight black hair, and wore black rounded squared glasses. His hair was so curly; people have described it as more of a frizzy mess on top of his head. He was currently a second year transfer student, due to probation, in Shujin high school. Instead of joining clubs like the average student he had a secret club. He joined a club where they help people by stealing their hearts; he was the leader of the Phantom Thieves.

The thieves were very busy. Balancing two different life style. Low profile high school student in the day, a phantom thief by night. There was certainly no free time. Even if it was available, it would only be for anything that would move the mission forward. Gathering information from confidants, maintaining the relationship and status of each team member and secret supporters. All spent preparing for the next mission.

If Ren goes to the café to drink coffee to increase his guts then time will pass and he only has enough energy to do one more thing at home in the evening before his cat yell at him to go to sleep. If Ren decide to go train in the metaverse, he would be able to level up his whole team; however, he'd be giving up his chance to work at his shift at the flowershop. Which then leaves him less money earned to buy to weapons, tools, medicine, and armor for his team.

Yet there is another problem: Ren is still in high school. Meaning that somehow he had to find ways to do homework and study for exams. All on top of Phantom Thieves' missions late into the evening. At least the foul villains always left him alone during exam week or midterm week for some reason. If only there was someone to stop time. Or at least help him manage his time more efficiently. He didn't even have time to think of a way to help himself.

In the morning he woke up, put on his school uniform, go downstairs and eat the curry with coffee breakfast that Sojiro kindly makes for him. Then he takes the train to school. If he can find a seat he reads his book that he barely remembers having. Then after the train he arrives at school and goes through the whole day listening to boring lectures but still paying attention because failing school would look even worse for a delinquent like him. Then after school he either go hang out with a confidant, a fellow member of the thieves, or go to the mementos and complete the never ending requests to change hearts.

Monday morning.
Yusuke saw him at train lines in the morning.

"Good morning Ren. Are we going to the metaverse today?", he asked.

"No, not today Yusuke", Ren told him. It was too early in the morning to think.

"Hmm.. ok. For our change of heart mission's timing we'll leave it up to you leader. See yah".

He got on his train to his art high school. Ren went on his.

Monday after school.
Ren at his part-time job at the flower shop in the underground mall was figuring out how to arrange a flower bouquet.

Now which one is considered "I want to tell love" flowers? He looked at the Small Bell Run and Gingko Run. But he could barely tell the difference.

Why can't the flower shop run itself? he thought to himself.

He silently sighed as he opened up his employee handbook and tried to find the pages that will reveal to him the right flower combination.

Monday evening.
On Shibuya central street there was a cheap diner where anyone can come and eat and relax in the small yet cozy place.

It was time to hang out with the moon confidant Mishima, a fellow classmate who was in charge of the Phantom Thieves' publicity. Mishima had short blue hair and was a small meek looking nerd but friendly to talk to. He doesn't wear the black Shujin blazer, just the white turtle neck shirt inside and the Shujin-patterned pants.

Ren planned to hang out with Mishima but he was starting to fall asleep in the diner. His friend wasn't boring. Not at all. It's just that Ren's been working all day.

"Ren! Hey Ren!" The blue haired friend tried to get his attention. He waved a hand in front of Ren.

"Huh?!", He sleepily opened his eyes and stopped resting his head on his hand.

"You fell asleep. Are you sure you can take on more request?", Mishima asked, looking concerned.

"Oh, yeah, yeah I'm fine. The Phantom Thieves can handle anything", Ren reassured him.

"Well if you say so…so anyways, this guy said that he saw someone suspicious….".

Ren thought to himself, phew I'll just add this. He then began to write down the long string of information about his target as he rubbed his eyes.

Tuesday after school.
In Mementos they've got ambushed. A shadow had rushed the Mona bus from the sides. Ren in his Joker outfit was in a panicking state.

"Guys?! Hey! H-How do I summon Arsene?!"

He has been hit with a forgot spell by the enemy. Now he is left vulnerable without his persona. In his panicking state he even forgot that he still had his gun and dagger.

"Joker watch out!", Haru shouted but the warning came too late.

Joker lost his final HP and fainted. He fell to the ground.

"Joker nooo!" Futaba screamed.

Quickly his team retreated and dragged him back to the subway chairs safe spot to heal him.

"Sorry guess we were a little under level for this floor. I hope that person requesting this can hold on a little longer…", Joker sat up and apologized for his mistake.

Skull put his hand on Joker's shoulder.

"Don't worry we'll be ready next time", he comforted him as he flashed a smile to his leader.

Wednesday evening.
When he got home, he changed into his pajamas and checked his phone and saw the mess of all the confidant messages he didn't reply to.
Ren plopped down onto his bed and gave out a long sigh.

"Hey, isn't time to go to bed?", his cute yet annoying black cat with a white muzzle, and white fur on each of his paws, looking like small socks on him, Morgana asked.
His big blue eyes staring right at him. Ren groans, put his phone down with the charger plugged in, and placed his blanket over his head.

"Sigh, there's no time for anything. Wish I could do something about it…", he murmured as he drifted off to sleep.

"Good night Morgana".

"Good night", Morgana said as the cat curled up next to him.

As he fell into deeper slumber a deep blue background surrounded by chains appeared in his mind. It enveloped him and soon he hear the mysterious song with a lady vocalizing with a piano in the background. As soon as he opened his eyes he saw a different roof then the café attic. Instead of dreaming tonight he found himself in the velvet room. Looking down at himself he noticed that he changed into his black and white prison uniform.

Ren stood up from the bed and moved closer to the bars in his cell, walking towards the twin wardens and their Master. Both twins were wearing a blue suit with black shorts. Their master was Igor, a human like being in a black suit with a long nose that Ren tried not to stare at to avoid being rude to the one who's supposedly helping him with his rehabilitation.

"Well, at least I can fuse persona in my sleep", Ren figured.

"Quit chatting and start chopping! Inmate!", the angry little one with two hair buns yelled.

"Please select which fusion to perform", asked the other little one with a pony tail, politely but with a cold tone to her voice. Both were so serious in helping him perform fusions.

Then why don't they do it for me while I sleep? No need to summon me here, he thought to himself.

Ren chose to fuse Arsene with Jack Frost to get Mokoi. He should be working on the twins' request for Shiisa but he would have to find a new mask in the metaverse. And who knows where and when he'll find that specific persona?

The twin wardens stuffed the two personas into blue bags and wrapped them with chains, then proceeded to put them into the guillotine. As they pulled the lever the blade came rushing down, but without warning it stopped in the middle. The twins had to pull out the chainsaw and manually cut the personas. But the Fusion went wrong!

"Huh?! W-what the-?! Justine what's happening?", Caroline shouted.

"How can this be?", was all Justine could utter.

Ren grabbed the prison bars, leaned forward to see what the commotion was about.

"Wait, what's going on?".

There was a flash of white light and suddenly Ren feel sleepy and was quickly pulled out of the velvet room.

The following morning, Thursday.

"Ren! Ren! Wake up!".

Ren woke up in his room to his cat pawing at him.

"What is it Morga-".

He sees five teenage guys standing in his room. They were all…Ren? Himself? He gets up quickly to make sure he's not in a dream. One of the clones started talking.

"Don't worry we're real".

Ren and Morgana were shocked.

"He talks!", Morgana squeaked.

A different clone spoke up, "And he's hot! Hahaha".

Some other Rens joined in on laughing.

"Wait, so you're all…me?", Ren asked carefully.

"Yep! We're all Ren, each representing your social stats, I'm Kindness, he pointed to respective clone, "He's Guts, Proficiency, Charm, and Knowledge".

Knowledge holding his hands to his chin and thinking out loud, "This must be because of last night when we fused Arsene, it went horribly wrong and now this happened."

Proficiency Ren replied quietly, "Aw, don't be like that man".

Morgana turned to look at the real Ren, "So what are we going to do about this?".

Ren pondered for a minute. Then a cocky little grin found its way on to his lips.

"Heh heh, I've got an idea!", he pointed at the clones, "Knowledge, you go to school. Kindness you take the part time job at the flower shop. Proficiency, make lockpicks for the metaverse. Charmy you hang out and help our confidants. And Guts you work on mementos requests and training the rest of the team".

Guts Ren squealed in delight, "Yes!".

He did a joyful fist pump.

Morgana interrupted, "Wait, we should give all your clones nicknames. That way we can tell who's who. Let's see…Ren can be Ren Prime, since he's the original….Guts is G, Kindness is Kind, Proficiency is Prof, Charm is Charmy, and last but not least….Knowledge…is Knowledge!".

Knowledge, feeling left out, "What? I don't get a nickname?".

"Nothing else would make sense. Ledge or Knowl just doesn't sound right".

"Hhpmh", he crossed his arm, "and where are we going to sleep?", he asked, clearly getting annoyed.

"There should be a hotel near by the café. That way Sojiro and his customers wouldn't see multiple of us", Kind suggested.

Ren Prime was next to speak, "Good idea. Oh man!", he looked at the time on his phone, then looking at the Knowledge Ren, "you better get to school or you'll be late".

"Where's the uniform?".

"Oh I forgot about that. I only have one so you can wear it, since you're going to school in your place. Uh, I mean my place".

He digged around in his box of clothes his parents sent him.

"Let's see. The rest of you clones come here and get your clothes". Ren waved them over.

Minutes later everyone has their set of clothes suited to their task.
Knowledge will be wearing the black school uniform blazer with the Shujin color pants. Proficiency will wear the white summer school uniform, hopefully no one will notice that it's not even summer. Guts will be sporting the grey hoodie. He won't need any flashy clothes since he was actually taking the role of Joker in the metaverse. The black tail coat suit was already flashy enough as it is. Charmy meanwhile will adorn what appeared to be a dancing outfit. On the outside it looks like the black blazer school uniform. Underneath It had a black t-shirt that said "dance" on it and the outfit also came with red gloves and shoes, black and red headphones, and a red scarf tied to the hip. Kind gets a white jacket and jeans. As well as the green apron for the flower shop job. The original Ren decided to wear his Sunday clothes: a simple black jacket with jeans.

Ren looking at all of them, "We all meet here in the café in the evening. Kay, everyone got the plan?".

All clones agreed.

Ren pushed up his glasses, "Okay, Mission start!".