The backstory for this nonsense is that sometimes when I'm trying to sleep, I get dumb ideas. Also, I've been on tvtropes too long again and the City of Adventure page spoke to me and I couldn't resist.

Akira, being new to the city, shall be my Designated POV Character.

And uh, yeah, I'm aware of Megatokyo having a similar thing happening in the background but I didn't remember about Megatokyo until I was almost done with this chapter whoops.

Disclaimer: Don't own Persona 5 or any references to franchises that may appear later on. I'm just some nerd with a laptop and a lot of boredom.

Life In The Big City

By Bilbo-sama

Chapter 1: It Begins

Akira had been in Tokyo for nine days when everyone's phones in class chimed. Curious, he reached into his bag and pulled out his own.

'Scheduled invasion in Shinjuku at 5 PM. Please avoid area until all clear.'

He looked around the room and noticed his classmates and the teacher calmly put their phones away.

"Ugh, dad's going to be late again," someone whispered.

"I hope this wont cause train delays again," another said quietly.

"Look at the transfer student's face! He doesn't know..."

Startled, Akira placed his phone away as the teacher called for order.

He hesitated on asking for clarification about the mass text and the rational part of his mind kicked in. It's just a prank. It's a prank that everybody is in on except him. He'll talk to Ryuji and Ann about it later.

After class, he picked up his now Morgana filled school bag and found himself surrounded by Ann, Mishima, and Ryuji.

"So, uh, we've been thinkin'," said Ryuji, looking at him in a mixture of amusement and concern, "that you probably didn't get the brochure before you got here."

"Brochure?"

"About adjusting to certain aspects of Tokyo," added Mishima, "like monster attacks."

Akira stared at the three of them in disbelief before he uttered, "What the fuck?"

The train station turned out to have a set of pamphlets that Akira and Morgana hadn't noticed before because certain other priorities took more brain power to deal with that tourist trap map guides became background noise.

The short version, according to the pamphlet, was that large cities like Tokyo attract strange phenomena. Fifteen years ago, Tokyo decided that if events such as monster attacks are going to happen, then it might as well control when and where that happened. It has been mostly successful. Since then, there has been less property damage and casualties.

Ann and Ryuji were reluctant to go to the Metaverse on a Scheduled Event Day and so Akira returned to Leblanc.

Sakura-san looked up as the bell rang and found Akira entering the cafe, "Glad you made it back before the last minute evacuation rush."

Akira gaped at him, "you're in on it too?"

"In on what?" the older man raised an eyebrow at his charge who exasperatedly held up a pamphlet.

"This is a joke, right?"

"...Oh yeah," Sakura-san rubbed against the back of his neck, "I had a feeling I forgot to tell you something important."

Akira sputtered and raised his arms in the air, "That's it, I'm done with today. I'll be upstairs." He petulantly went upstairs to the attic.

Sakura-san came up later that night and said, "Dinner's ready."

His charge looked up from his desk where he was doing homework and looked like he was going to lash out and yell before he sighed.

It was the most expressive he has ever been since he arrived.

"It's not joke, isn't it?" Akira looked resigned. Morgana seemed to look at him in concern and meowed. Akira absently bent down in his seat and scratched behind the cat's ears.

"It's not," Sakura-san confirmed as all three walked went downstairs, "Sorry for not giving you the heads up sooner."

There was a pause before the teen behind him asked "How can people here live with this?"

"It used to be a lot worse," said Sakura-san as he went to the curry pot to scoop out leftover curry onto a plate for Akira. Akira, meanwhile, had picked up Morgana's bowl and did his best to reach the counter without tripping over an excited cat.

"Yeah?"

"Without the scheduling and a warning, there was more people killed in attacks. It was treated like a part of living in Tokyo but when you survive three days of everything exploding around you, it gets to you, you know? That's why people are so worried about the mental shutdowns and the breakdowns happening lately. They weren't announced ahead of time and so there's more injuries and chaos as a result." Sakura-san placed Akira's dinner plate on the other end of the counter so it wouldn't be contaminated by cat food.

"So if the person or people behind that went to city hall and said "I am going to break somebody's brain today," it'll be fine?"

Sakura-san shugged, "Probably."

Akira frowned as he put down the food bowl, "This place is nuts."

"Kid, you don't know how nuts it can get."

-A couple of weeks later-

"So if we send a calling card, the treasure may appear!" Mona concluded.

"But...don't we need to give a bigger heads up first or something?" asked Joker.

"What do you mean?" asked Panther.

"Y'know...like get it scheduled?"

"Oh," Skull huffed and shook his head, "Nah, this is good enough for the pencil pushers."

"As long as we give a warning, it's fine," added Panther.

Joker blinked in confusion before shaking his head, "Well, alright then."

For a group of thieves whose powers were sparked by rebellion, they are ironically still abiding the law.

Maybe that would curry to their favor someday.

I meant this to be a stupid crackfic but it kinda got serious orz.

There's no set schedule to this fic. It'll be updated whenever I get around to it.