Persona 5? Sadly, I don't own them...Literally and figuratively.
A man with curly black hair ran from something behind him, he already been at it for what's like an hour of continuous running. Though, because he's a former athlete he could do it for a while now. All of this happened because of series of events that happened few minutes ago, back at his own home. He was at his apartment, when something or rather someone came to him. He was baffled with the fact that person appeared before him so late at night, but he then let him in like a good host would. But it never occurred to him that it was the biggest mistake on his life, one that could cost him his life.
Ten minutes into relaxing tea and chill, the conversation turned subtle interrogation unnerved him to no end so he did what an alpha male would do when threatened. He tried to asserted dominance over his guest, with his authority, big body build and scary face and all so it should have worked. But his guest looked like he feared no man, not even that much terror could gotten him to flinch even for a bit on the living room sofa. Then, he did the exact same thing and the man found himself weak in the knees.
His guest, albeit younger than him was capable in projecting true horror from his eyes. A deadpan, hollow, cold and meticulous gaze from his steel grey eyes were directed at him. At first, he tried to brave it out by commenting on it but his guest only countered his comment with an amused remark. Then his guest asked him, was the man knew why his guest came to his apartment so late at night? The man was too baffled to answer because he did not and also that got him confused, but then he realized after one single thought struck his mind.
The guest question may seemingly random, but in the end, he figured it out. The man wasn't exactly innocent, he had done something terrible. But his ego had blinded him upon morality that were set upon by society so he felt like what he did, was a justified act. And for that, society disagreed hard with him and condemn for what he had done. Raping a high school girl, then proceeded to black mailed her so she won't talk to anyone was the ultimate crime someone in his post could do, a teacher.
He had thought he tied up all loose ends, even the said girl committed suicide by hanging herself on her bedroom and that leaves him with no witness that could rat him out. But he was dead wrong apparently, as somehow the young man in front of him knew about the whole ordeal and for the first time in his life, he felt his body taste primal fear like a prey that got cornered by a predator.
As a good host, he noticed that their tea had gone so he got up to make some more. Slowly, he headed into his kitchen and started whipping up a new set of tea. What the guest didn't realized was the fact that he slowly and silently took a kitchen knife, hid it between his pajama pants and then returned to the living room. The plan would had been to get close enough and then silence this guest of his to not talk about it, as he was no murderer though he didn't have the guts to actually took someone's life.
But then his guest shown him something, it's specifically something from his phone. Then horror struck his face as everything he planned went null in the presence of the item that were on the phone of his guest, he looked at his guest with a mix of confusion, disbelieve, bewilderment and anger. The man wasted no more time as he grabbed the kitchen knife he prepared, he was going to silence this little bastard. Yet the man stopped himself, not out of conscience but because something his guest held on his right hand.
It's a black item, with a big hole on front of it. His confused mind then recognized what it was, he didn't know the model but it was a fully loaded, safety's off and barrel aimed at his face handgun. His fight or flight instinct kicked in and like a good prey he was, he made a mad dash out of his own apartment. But three steps out, he was greeted by someone. The person was another someone he's familiar with and judging by his guest appearance this late at night, he automatically concluded that the person was with his guest.
The man about to shoved his way through when he noticed something the person in front of him carried, a double-barreled sawn-off shotgun. He shrieked in fear and about to head the other way when his previous guest walked slowly, menacingly and calmly approached him with his revolver handgun on his right hand. The man then jumped off the two-story apartment fence, landed on the ground and then made his getaway to anywhere. Tokyo was a bristling megapolis even at this late hour, someone will bound to noticed him, correct? He's dead wrong about that.
Back to the present, the man found himself in some alley and it was a dead end one. He's about to get out from the place when he suddenly turned toward his back and saw that the two person that were in his apartment managed to blocked his escape route. His overdriven brain then recognized the place, it's an alley on the quietest spot on Shibuya and among all place, he had to end up here. It was all according to the two individuals in front of him plan, get him cornered in this place near the river.
"S-Stay away from me!" The man said as he pointed his knife toward the two.
The two persons in front of him neither flinched from his threat, their faces equally as composed for someone who just chased and cornered their target quite the distance from his home. Both approached him and he backed away until he felt the cold, hard brick wall pressed against his back. Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, all the man could do was to beg for mercy. He wouldn't have thoughted that someone's that not police would notice his crimes, let alone someone he actually knew.
"…Why did you do it?" One of them asked.
"I-It was in the heat of the moment!" The man answered.
"Don't you dare lying to me, she killed herself because everything you did. You targeted her on purpose" The person said.
"Please, don't kill me! I'll do anything you ask! Anything! Money or even if I have to be a slave, I'll do it! Just please let me live!" The man begged for his life.
The two persons looked at each other, one of them who had a short blonde hair only shrugged his shoulder. The other one who had unkempt medium black hair only nodded his head, he then aimed the gun toward the man's leg and harshly squeezed the trigger of his handgun. The gun fired, the bullets launched and it immediately embedded into the man's left thigh. The man was too shocked and struck in terror that he could only gazed at his bleeding thigh, touched it and saw his hand completely smeared in fresh blood.
The person then unleashed another shot toward his right thigh, that before he unleashed another two shots in lightning speed toward the man's arms. That practically immobilized the man, all he could do now was to sit there while bleeding and watched what would the two persons in front of him would do next. The one with blond hair kneeled down, he smirked at the man as if to mocked him on his dying moment.
"You know what, I thought you'd ought to be a good teacher at first. But really, people put on their personas a lot. It ain't long till I saw your true nature, but that rape took it too far…You ruined her future, her dignity and even her whole life!"
"I-I-I'm sorry! I truly regret what I've did! I really do!"
"It won't be us that you need to apologize to, you know what I mean? Yes?"
Shuddering in fear, the man only able to gazed at the person with black hair as he approached closer toward him and the blonde one stood up. Both remain emotionless, their eyes conveyed nothing but calculative gaze. The one with blond hair loaded two shells onto his Sawn-Off shotgun, he twirled it on his hand once before he aimed it at the man. The one with the black hair checked his ammo and he realized that he only had two bullets remaining, it didn't matter though as he actually could kill this man with his bare hands…He just didn't want to because it's harder to clean up compared to using guns.
"You watched robocop?" The one with black hair asked.
"The latest one?" The blonde one responded.
"Nah, the old one. There's this one scene I'd like to try out sometimes" The black-haired one said.
"Oh yeah…Sucks that we don't have automatic guns at the moment" The blonde one said.
The black-haired person readied his revolver, pulled the hammer back and aimed at the man who now already had half of his blood spilled on to the pavement beneath him. His vision darkened, his mouth tensed up and his limbs were felt rock solid. He lamented his fate, his actions in the past and he was full with regret so much that his tears started spilling from his eyes like a dam broke loose.
"Aww, look at him. He looked like he regrets what he did" The blonde one said.
"Hmph, just so you know that won't work on us…Regret always come later, it'll be registration if it comes early" The black haired one snorted.
"Ah well, you'll have the time of your life in hell! Heard the demons were sexy enough for a scum like you!" The blonde one said.
"Good night, Kamoshifuck!" The black haired one declared.
Both guns fired twice and the man in front of them stopped moving, blood splattered onto the brick wall behind him and his lifeless head fell to the ground alongside his limping body. Both person in front of him sheathed their guns and walked away from the alley, the blonde one raised his fist and the black haired one replied by bumping his fist with him. The black haired one then pulled out a phone after sheathing his revolver, he selected the chosen contact and called it. It wasn't long before the dial tone stopped as the phone was picked up on the other side.
"You're finished?" The girly voice on the other line asked him.
"Pretty much. The task is complete, your orders, milady?" The black-haired person asked her.
"Nothing for now, I want you two to head back and rest for tonight. Let Alibaba handle the truth and media exposure, you both had done more than enough. Don't forget that we got a meeting tomorrow on the office"
"Understood milady, I bid you good night"
"So am I, dear Trickster"
The black-haired guy dubbed as Trickster looked at his phone with a caller ID name displaying 'Lavenza Volkova' before the screen returned to his home screen, tucking away his phone, the man then walked back home with triumphant grin on his face. The blonde one was the same as him though he pumped his fist into the air to indicated his relief that their target was no longer able to mess with anyone else, he would be sorely NOT missed.
The next day, the black-haired guy could be seen eating on a rice with curry with coffee as his drink beside a girl with orange hair inside a café with 80's themed interior. The girl was eating the same thing as him and currently talked about some new games that come out just recently, both seemed absorbed in their conversation when the news channel that were on the TV reported a murder. Both quiet down and looked at the TV in earnest.
"The victim is a Shujin Academy Physical Education teacher and a volleyball couch by the name of Kamoshida Suguru, he was founded on the back alley with multiple gunshot wounds on his body. Curiously, the victim was founded near a kitchen knife and so far, the Tokyo Police Department Forensics declared that the victim was bleeding out before the killer finished him off. Forensics declared that the kitchen knife was possibly carried by the victim as a means for self-defense against the killer, right now TPD is hunting for leads that could indicate the killer's identity but so far there has not been any significant progress. In light of this incident, Shujin Academy currently suspend their academics activity and the students are urged to remain at home until further notice"
The owner of the café, a middle-aged man with slicked back black hair and a goatee beard gazed at the TV on the corner of the café before he threw his gaze to the young man in front of him. The young man looked at the orange haired girl who only gave him an 'Okay' sign with her left hand while winking at him. The owner sighed at the two teenagers before him then he proceeded to made a fresh batch of coffee, he'll need the caffeine for this.
"So, you were working last night" The owner asked the young man.
"Not exactly, this one is kind of personal to everyone" The young man answered.
"Huh, I see. Just don't get yourself killed in the process or use my shop as a cover in firefight, got it?" The owner said with tired tone at the young man.
"Won't happen boss, I know how to handle myself and so does my team" The young man replied with smug smile.
"See that you do" The owner said then he sighed.
Before the black-haired young man able to resumed eating however, he heard his phone ringed with an incoming message tune. He looked at the IM app and a profile with picture of a girl with bushy light blonde pig tails with blue eyes messaged him something, he opened the chat and saw that she asked him to accompany her for a bit since Shujin's students were free for today. The young man smirked as he agreed and asked her the time and place to meet, after he received it, he immediately finished his meal, paid it and set out toward the meeting place.
He looked outside and gazed at the blue sky, things would be a bit harder from now on but he's confident that he'll make do somehow just like he always did before. The young man with Amamiya Ren as his name, an innocent looking, quiet, charismatic teenage high school student by day and a trained assassin, daredevil, dashing rogue and suave rebel at night. Such as the mask Ren donned every day in his life, a persona he put on to fool the unsuspecting people and the public…And he's damn good at it, Velvet Throne indeed had an eye for a talent.
Welp, just some idea that came up yesterday and I decided to make at least a one shot about it. Let me know what you guys think, should I continue this or not. It's an alternative AU where supernatural powers doesn't exist (or remain hidden) and the characters and the world took on darker path to solve their problems, killing someone was just one of the means they could use in order to achieve their goals. Yeah anyway, let me know if this is interesting enough to be developed into a series and I'll be sure to make it into one. Until next time!
- Dasmara