New Opening Note (6/05/2017): This fic is reposted from AO3, where I sense it starting to run out of steam. I am bored and sleepy and people have given me a lot of praise for this but since chapter fourteen I feel like there's just a lot of fatigue goin' on. At least I feel fatigued. But then again I felt fatigued near the end of my first time playing P5, so maybe it's just me.

There are some different things on AO3, like formatting differences and links, and an extra chapter (long story there) that you can go there to see if you like this enough. I lazily copy-pastied this so sorry if there are errors. Without further ado -


Akira felt dizzy. Very dizzy.

He was disoriented, confused, and he had a sickening, horrifying feeling in his stomach. He sensed that he was in much trouble, and his instincts told him to run far far away, before he encountered this danger - but he could not move. It was as if he was glued to his chair.

Akira was in Leblanc. Sojiro was behind the counter, making coffee and curry as usual. It all looked rather normal, simple. But something was very very wrong. He was in grave danger… but why? He vaguely recalled urgent texts from Ryuji and Ann… his cat, Morgana… Morgana could talk? but Morgana had been talking, as crazy as it seemed. He had been urging Akira, about "time running out," "expulsion," "Kamoshida…" They had all said something about a Palace… something important.

"Hey," Sojiro said, barely snapping Akira out of his confusion. "Coffee good for you?" Akira nodded slowly. Coffee, huh? Something was terribly, terribly wrong. A bell rang, and the door swung open. A policeman and a detective-like fellow entered, and Akira turned his head to meet their cold, unhelpful eyes.

"Kurusu Akira - that is your name, yes?" said the detective-like man. Akira was dumbfounded. What was going on? What had he done? What - what - "What do you want?" he inquired, finally finding the courage to speak.

"My thoughts exactly," chimed in a bewildered Sojiro, "what's this all about? Did you do something?" The officers ignored him. Akira's heartbeat sped up by about fifteen percent. The two men were unmistakably businesslike, and no solace, no hope for rescue from the impending danger, could be found. Were police officers not supposed to help people?

"Charges have been filed against you. The person who raised these allegations is Kamoshida Suguru. I assume you know him?"

Did Akira know a Kamoshida Suguru? Oh right… All his memories came flooding back to him.

He had set out to correct a horrible wrong, to save someone important… from this man. He had… had… "had that been it," continued the man, "we wouldn't be here right now. However, your prior criminal assault means you are currently on probation, correct?"

No… no… no! Akira had to say something, he had to go back to Shujin and… he had to run, he had to gather Morgana and Ryuji and Ann, and they were supposed to help him… help him save Ann and Shiho and Mishima… make Kamoshida confess all his crimes…

"I did nothing wrong," Akira declared, with weak conviction in his deflated voice. He knew as soon as the words left his mouth that they would do him no good.

"Didn't I tell you to behave yourself?!" Sojiro said, sounding furious.

"Well then, you're coming with us. I'm sorry, but it has to be now."

The look in Sojiro's eyes was truly disheartening. He started to say something -


Akira woke, and bolted upright in his bed, breathing hard, harder than he had in awhile… it was not often that he had bad dreams… He checked the time on his phone.

4/30/2016, 1:32 AM

It was a simple nightmare. Ryuji had written the calling card. It would be delivered today, when school started. Kamoshida was going to see it, the Treasure would appear, and the team would act quickly and take away his distorted desires, just as Morgana had told them. Thus changing his heart and saving himself, Ryuji, and Mishima from expulsion. And Ann from Kamoshida's lust. It was going to work. Or, well, Morgana thought. But the nightmare had felt so real...

He looked over at Morgana, who was lying upon his stomach, sound asleep. Was everything truly okay?
He opened the group chat on his phone, and began typing a message.

Akira: Is anyone awake?
Ryuji: I was studying.
Akira: Oh, sorry to bother… good night.
Ryuji: Well, no, I was, but I got tired of it. But I can't sleep, so I'm just playing video games now. What's up?
Akira: Oh… alright, in that case… I had a bad dream.
Ryuji: Really? Were you naked in front of the class or something?
Akira: No! It was about Kamoshida.
Ryuji: Was Kamoshida - like...
Ryuji is typing...
Akira: Whatever stupid thing you're about to say, it probably didn't happen. He wasn't even in the dream.
Ryuji: What?
Ann: Why are you two making my phone beep at this hour? What's this about a dream?
Akira: A police officer and some pretentious asshole in a suit came over to arrest me because of something Kamoshida did.
Ann: WHAT?!
Ryuji: Seriously? Holy shit! What the fuck, man! What else happened?
Akira: I wanted to run, but I couldn't move. I was stuck to the chair, somehow. And then they told me I had to come with them. Then I woke up.
Ryuji is typing…
Ann is typing…
Akira: It felt so real. I was horrified.
Ryuji is typing…
Ryuji: Well, whatever, dude, don't worry about it. We're going to take away that bastard's pervy heart and everything's going to be just fine. Thanks for talking about what happened though. Don't sweat it.
Ann: Yeah, it's all going to be fine in the morning. That sounds super intense though. Good thing it didn't really happen…
Akira: Yeah… it very well might have if we had screwed up.
Ryuji: Well, tomorrow we're taking the Treasure, so it's probably a good idea to get a good night's rest.
Ann: Says the guy who stays up at one in the morning playing video games.
Ryuji: Well… !

Akira laughed out loud, and smiled.

Akira: Do as you say, not as you do, I suppose. Heh. Well, good night!

Akira put away his phone and did his best to go back to sleep. Still, something bothered him about that dream… But he didn't dwell on it long - Ryuji and Ann had done a good job cheering him up. He hadn't known them very long, but they were his first friends in Tokyo, and he knew he could count on them. Soon enough, Akira had just about forgotten the vivid, awful nightmare - and was slumbering soundly.


Original End Note (published on AO3 5/18/2017): So, basically I was thinking about all the horrifying bad endings in Persona 5 which occur if you fail to complete one of the dungeons. In the game, most of them are explained by the MC being on drugs during his interrogation, so if you fail to complete a dungeon, you fail to tell Sae the whole truth, meaning you fail to follow through with the escape plan and get killed by (spoilers) Akechi. I was wondering, where the hell did this come from? Probably from Akira being afraid of failing, and his imagination running wild as to what might happen if he and the Phantom Thieves didn't succeed. I thought it would be interesting to explore what exactly was running through his mind while all of it played out, and how it might play into the possible false recollections.

I know this isn't much, but I mostly wanted to introduce the concept and get it started. I'll probably go more into some other areas besides Akira's room, so every single chapter doesn't begin and end like this. Don't want it to get boring, of course. Not sure what I'll introduce into the story, though. If anything NSFW comes of it I'll update the description.

Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this thus far!