Hello, my name is Bradley and welcome to my first Fanfic. I've been highly addicted to Persona 5 lately so I was inspired to make this. I haven't done Futaba's route in the game yet cause I had no idea what I was doing or what to expect, lol. But I hope you enjoy anyway.
The name of the Protagonist will be my name since in Persona 5, The Protagonist is whatever name you want him to be
It was around September when Bradley was still on probation and Sojiro had tasked him to be Futaba's conversation partner. Bradley was told to be there for Futaba to help her get out of her shut-in state after she had a change of heart and be more interactive with the outside world. In the past Bradley and Futaba had been going to places, completing Futaba's promise list and talking about her love for computers and technology.
Slowly, Futaba was getting used to the outside world. With each step she takes, Bradley felt their bond grow stronger. However, Bradley decided that Futaba needed a different environment. One without games and technology encompassing her. Therefore the most logical place was a place without, more specifically a park, Inokashira Park. So in the afternoon Bradley decided to do some fun activities and then he decided to work in the evening.
Then the next day he texted Futaba asking her if she wanted to go to Inokashira Park and she replied, "Sure! That sounds nice. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully there isn't many people around there."
Bradley reassured her that it'll be just them so she didn't need to worry about being nervous or anything. For the remainder of the day he did a bit of work at the Flower Store, in order to earn some more yen. At night he ended up working with Sojiro for a while until it was much later. Once everything was all done, Bradley headed home and went to bed.
The next day Bradley woke up, got dressed and Sojiro yelled out to him. "Bradley! Futaba is here!"
He went down the stairs and Futaba excitedly approached him. "Good moooorning! I'm ready to begin our exploration quest!" She said, referencing an RPG or an MMO like she always did.
Before Bradley headed, out Sojiro smiled as he said, "Be careful out there and have fun you two."
As Bradley walked with Futaba to the station he asked her about what was in the bag that she was carrying. "I brought us some tech mags so in case we get bored when we have nothing to talk about, I have plan B, mwehehehehe," She replied and laughed in the usual way she does, feeling proud of herself.
As they were on the train, there were a lot of people as usual. Futaba, still a little nervous of social interaction, sat close to Bradley. He noticed her change in mood, and he slowly put his arm around Futaba, hoping to give her a bit of safety comfort
"Huh?" Futaba asked as she felt and arm around her. She looked up at Bradley to see him He then chuckled happily which caused Futaba to smile in return and blushed a little as she thanked him.
When they arrived at their stop, they waited for the many people to start leaving before them so they wouldn't get caught in the wave. After a minute they finally got up and left the train and they headed to Inokashira Park. They sat down at the usual spot where Bradley usually sat at with Ann and the others.
"Whew! That was quite the train ride! Sorry about what happened on the train, not used to being around that many people yet, but I'm getting there! I promised I'd improve and I am slowly gaining EXP to level up my stats!" Futaba said enthusiastically while referencing an MMO or RPG again.
"You're doing well Futaba, I'm proud of you," Bradley said commenting on her enthusiasm.
"Thank you, I always appreciate your support in my party," Futaba replied. After a pause she then decided to ask a question. "So, about Morgana... When did you two meet?"
Bradley explained to her about his first day at school when he first met Ryuji Sakamoto and somehow ended up at a castle instead of school. All of that had happened because of the navigation app that mysteriously appeared on his phone that day.
"I see, that's quite the first day at school and the teachers didn't believe you?" Futaba asked. Bradley shook his head slightly in response. "Well I can see why, they don't know about the metaverse so they would think that was all a fairytale," said Futaba replying with a valid point.
Then changing the subject, Futaba said happily, "Okay, so about what kind of magazines are in my bag right?" She pulled out the mags revealing a computer and tech stuff on the covers "Da dada daaaa! We're going to look for the parts for the custom PC you promised to build with me! Isn't that great?!"
Bradley smiled and replied, "That sounds awesome!"
Futaba smiled. "The perfect response. Just what I expected from you, let's get to it! We'll start with the case. It's gotta be a big one and all fancy looking but not too expensive." Futaba handed Bradley a magazine as they both begun to flip through the pages, looking for a PC case in the section it was in. They were all in different colors, red, blue, green, yellow, even two colors were combined. It was hard for Bradley to choose but he had finally chosen one that Futaba might like. It was a medium sized tower that was green and red, two colors that Bradley had seen before in her room. The green coding on the screen and the red chair that she would sit on. Since he was done looking for his choice, he showed the image of the case to Futaba,
She looked up from her magazine as she said, "Huh? You've chosen one? Lemme see." She quickly took the magazine out of his hand."I'll have you know, I'm quite picky about my choice." Futaba examined the PC case carefully. After a couple of minutes she handed the magazine back to Bradley then replied to him. "That's perfect!" I had a feeling you'd make a good choice, but I honestly thought I would find the right one but you are pretty smart Bradley."
"Thank you, I'm glad I could help," Bradley replied.
"And I always appreciate your help, even if I decided to push you all away like that time with my palace when you wanted to help change my heart but I kept on refusing, I'm sorry. I didn't think anyone would knock me out of my slump after what happened with my mom, but Sojiro has been doing his best to take care of me and you know damn well I'm not going back to my uncle. But let's not think sappy crap, we found the PC case! So now, it'll be up to you to buy it" Futaba then pointed at Bradley once she finished her words.
"Why me?" Bradley questioned.
"Why? Because I don't work like you do, plus I'm sure you've got slightly more money than me. So please? You'd be doing me a HUGE favor here. Plus you decided you wanted to do this too right?" Futaba replied in a more serious tone.
Accepting Futaba's valid point once again, Bradley agreed to the responsibility of buying the PC case and possibly the other parts in the future. To show her that he agreed, he nodded at Futaba and replied with a simple 'yes'.
Futaba jumped up with excitement."Excellent! This is gonna be great! I can't wait to improve our skills!" Futaba said happily as she jumped up and down for a few seconds.
Once she finally calmed down she face Bradley again to reply once more to him. This time when she spoke, she used her serious tone again. "Don't worry, I'm a big part of this as well. Once you buy the case and the other parts in time, bring them over and we'll find a place to store them. Then when we're ready, we can begin building. We can gather it all up and start putting it together."
"In the meantime, I'll do some research and studying so I know how these parts work so we don't get shocked when we assemble the computer," Futaba said, adding onto the plan.
Bradley was confused about something and decided to ask, "Don't the parts not have any power to begin with?"
"True," Futaba replied, agreeing with his question then added on to the statement with another valid point. "But it's good to take necessary precautions for the unexpected, just like in the palaces. You never know what kind of enemies we will face, so it's always good to be prepared, right?"
Agreeing with Futaba once again, Bradley nodded."Yes, you're right"
"Then it's settled! Work hard to achieve our goal and you'll help me improve my usefulness to the Phantom Thieves. I think that's a good deal." Bradley nodded in agreement as he stood up, ready to go. Futaba stretched for a moment before she continued. "Phew! That was exciting, I really enjoyed our time together. Thank you Bradley."
"I enjoyed our date," Bradley replied in a slight joking manner.
"Ehh?!" Futaba exclaimed her cheeks beginning to redden slightly. "D-date? I mean if you put it that way we have been spending quite a bit of time together but… A-anyway, let's go home!" Futaba said as she quickly regained her composure. They then walked together to the train station to head home.
As Bradley dropped Futaba off at Sojiro's house, Futaba yelled and waved as he walked off to LeBlanc. "Cya!"
As Bradley entered Leblanc he was greeted with the same response from Sojiro everytime he walked in. "Ah, you're back." Then as Bradley approached Sojiro he asked him something. "How was your day with Futaba? Everything went well I hope and no trouble was caused."
"I had a great day," Bradley replied
"That's good, I appreciate you being there for Futaba and keeping her company. You know how it is with the coffee shop, trust me I would spend some time with her if I could." Sojiro finished his work as he continued to talk to Bradley. "So what did you do?"
"We talked about building a computer," Bradley said in response to Sojiro's question.
Sojiro's eyes widened a little in surprise. "Woah, that's waaaay out of my league there kid. I'm not much of a tech user like Futaba but it must be fun. Just don't blow up the house or anything, ha ha ha," Sojiro jokingly said but then he spoke with a serious tone."Seriously though, don't blow up my house, I know you have a criminal record and all that, but you don't look like the guy to blow stuff up. But I wanna make sure you don't do that you know."
"Don't worry, I won't," Bradley replied to Sojiro in reassurance.
"Good, keep up the good work with helping me here and Futaba out there. You're lifting a slight weight off my shoulders here kid. Anyway, I'm off, lock up for me will ya?" Sojiro gave a slight wave as he left the Cafe "Good night." After Sojiro left, Bradley checked the shop to make sure everything was clean and in order. Once he had checked over everything, he flipped the sign to Closed, locked up the cafe, and went upstairs.
Bradley relaxed in his room, which was in the attic. He decided to play a bit of video games before heading to bed for the next day of school. Bradley sat on the bed as he thought about the good time he spent with Futaba. Slowly a smile formed across his face as he recalled the memories.
Morgana, Bradley's pet cat who he saw before going to bed, smiled as well as he spoke. "Well someone's in a good mood, but save some of that positive energy for tomorrow." After hearing Morgana say that, Bradley got into bed and fell asleep.