Chapter 1

Remember

11/?/20XX

A young man sighed in a cafe, trying to distract himself and brew some coffee to pass the time. He recalled his first few days on the job, trying to make some food and refreshments, and he realized that he had gotten much better at it since first arriving at Leblanc. It was somewhat of a soothing hobby that developed thanks to the cafe and it's owner. Despite this though, the adolescent couldn't keep his thoughts in check. His group had well under a week left to pull off their gambit. It wasn't necessarily too difficult to accomplish, however, Sae had already trusted him. Would it be detrimental to the plan? For all he knew, having her see him in custody might just make it harder to regain her trust. Whatever the case, the boy decided that it'd be best not to dwell on it too much. He had an important goal: Ensure that Sae can have a change of heart without stealing the treasure, and make sure that she was able to take his phone and show it to the traitor. Nothing too difficult, but not something that easy either. The most difficult part was all the planning and research done to reduce risks. The group had spent hours and hours planning this out. Ren thought about all the planning that went into developing the plan. Two members of the group had spent much time and effort into reducing all risks, Futaba and Makoto. He couldn't imagine how much work those two put in compared to the rest of them.

A notification went off from his phone. Speak of the devil...

Futaba: Rennnnnnn :o

Mona and I are hungryyyyyy :(((

Buy us snacks pls!

Ren: There's a grocery store like a few steps outside your house.

Futaba: But you're like 25 steps closer so its fair ;)

Mona asked for tuna btw

He shook his head and silenced his phone to stop her from bothering him. The phone rang loudly even though the settings had just been changed. Futaba's hacker skills impressed him every time, even if it did annoy him. He continued ignoring the messages and hoped that she would just stop. His phone stopped ringing eventually, but the big old fashioned yellow telephone in the front of Leblanc began to go off instead. 5 minutes of ringing later, and the ringing stops once more, exactly as he had predicted. He began to think of what to do if she decides to call once more. I could always just disconnect the telephone line from that yellow phone over there. As for mine, there's always just removing the SIM card... nah. She already did something to it so even if I did that, it probably wouldn't do anything to stop her. He thought to himself.

A bell rang from the entrance of the cafe. "Did Sojiro forget to flip the sign?" He started to think.

"Oh, sorry to intrude. The cafe isn't closed right? The sign outside says that it's still open." A voice said as it came from the cafe's entrance. Makoto slowly entered with a smile as she flipped over the sign behind her. She was wearing a black turtleneck sweater with a teal blue coat, along with her signature braided headband.

Ren smiled upon seeing her enter. "Boss really is getting old. He can't even remember to flip the sign anymore." He said with a chuckle. "Come on in. Coffee's nearly ready."

"Thank you, Ren." She calmly walked towards a booth in front of where he was making the drinks and sat down. "Did Boss make you work all day today?"

"Yeah, pretty much. It was a pain, but he did promise to give me the shop to myself a bit earlier, so I'd say it was worth it." He said. The entirety of the day was taking orders left and right from his boss.

"I see. I was wondering if I might've arrived too early." She said.

"I'd say your timing was perfect." Ren replied.

Makoto looked at Ren with a confused look "You think so?" She said, staring at his apron. "It looks like you're still setting everything up."

"Oh... I honestly forgot I was still wearing this thing." Ren laughed.

Makoto giggled at him.

"Huh? What are you laughing at? You're telling me you don't like my attire? 'Cause I'm rocking this thing!" He said as he twirled around and showed it off.

"Perhaps you should wear it when we go to Dome Town." Makoto continued laughing. It had been a while since the two had been with one another just being themselves. The fun little banter the couple had was something she missed. Still, it seemed like something was off here. She began to look around the cafe for something.

Ren stopped laughing and looked at Makoto with intrigue. "Huh? Is there something wrong?" He asked.

"No, nothing's wrong. It's just strangely quiet. Is Morgana not here?" Makoto asked curiously. It was strange not seeing the cat roam around and try taunting the two. Leblanc was the cat's home too after all.

"Nope. He and Futaba said they were gonna go watch a movie airing tonight. Would you have preferred them to be here? I could call them over if you'd like." Ren said, trying to bait her for a response.

"N-no, this is fine!" Makoto said out loud. She noticed her tone of voice and looked away in embarrassment. "I mean, I have nothing against the two, but what I'm trying to say is um... I'm glad that it's just the two of us." She said as she smiled towards him, showing a light blush.

Ren smiled once more. "I'm glad too. It's been a while since our last date." He said as he sat down next to her with two cups of coffee.

"With the situation we're in, it's nearly impossible." Makoto frowned.

"Yeah, we've been so busy with the palace and keeping the traitor at bay that we haven't had any time to just relax." He said, taking a sip from his drink.

"Trying to relax even now is difficult. I keep on thinking and thinking about it all the time. He always acted so high and mighty about what justice really is, but all of that was a load of nonsense. He... was planning on killing you." Makoto said, a slight tone of anger in her voice. The traitor's plan had disgusted her. They had set their group up to purposefully increase their popularity, then while at the top, blame the Thieves for the death of the CEO of Okumura foods. The traitor then had to work with them to "redeem" the group. It was all done to kill Ren, and everyone else.

"That's not gonna happen though." Ren said confidently. "We've got our plan ready to show him what justice truly is."

Makoto showed a light smile. "Yes, you're right. We'll show that ass what the Phantom Thieves are truly capable of." She said enthusiastically.

"Woah, I didn't know the Student Council President had such vulgar vocabulary." He replied back with a playful tone.

Makoto glanced at him. "Considering what he was planning to do, I think he deserves to be called much, much worse."

"You could say that again." Ren said with a grin.

Makoto looked at the boy, thinking about the risks that their plan had. "But still, just... make sure you succeed. I know we went over this before, but I want you to stay safe."

"I know. I'll be doing my best to pull this off. The last thing I want is to leave you and the group behind. There's too much unfinished business left for me to take care of. It'll be alright, okay?"

She was worried for him. Everybody in the group was. There were two major jobs to accomplish in order to succeed. One was to be able to fool the traitor for long enough in order to make sure that he doesn't suspect our plan. From what they could tell, he didn't suspect a thing. The second was completely out of the group's control. Makoto's sister, Sae, was going to be in charge of the interrogation. If she could not be convinced that the Phantom Thieves were in the right, then the odds of her helping him escape the interrogation room dropped to a near 0%. But if he could convince her, then it would be smooth sailing from there. No, there was no IF. Ren knew that he was definitely going to convince her.

"Right, I'm sorry for bringing that up. It's just been on my mind ever since."

"It's fine, it's been on my mind too. Truth be told, I'm actually kind of nervous." Ren said with a weak laugh. "But that doesn't mean that I'll fail. I promise you, the day after the heist, you'll see me and Sae-san walking into Leblanc with smiles." He said, his eyes flaming with determination.

Makoto smiled upon seeing him and hearing his claim. "I can tell you mean it, so I'll be counting on you to keep your promise, alright?"

"You've got it."

A bit of silence followed, but she then bashfully looked towards the ground. "Hey, mind if you close your eyes for a bit?"

Ren gave her a confused glance, but complied anyways. The silence in the air remained, and he awaited for something to happen. Makoto looked at him nervously. She wasn't used to taking the initiative, but she was determined to get her feelings across to him. She calmed down, and leaned in towards the boy in front of her. The feeling of their lips softly touching. She hadn't gotten used to the feeling at all, but there was always something mystifying about it. Ren's face slowly got warmer and he opened his eyes. She backed off after just a small peck, and showed him a genuine smile. "Hmm? Seems that even you're vulnerable to getting flustered." She said with a grin.

"You did some research, didn't you?" Ren said with a cheeky smile.

"I took some advice from a friend, yes but... I simply thought it'd be best for me to take the lead more often." She said as she happily leaned on his shoulder. He placed his arm around her and embraced the moment. The entirety of the month had been so stressful with very little time for the two to be with one another. Even when they were together, it was usually just Phantom Thief business. Not only that, but with the traitor joining, any trace of their relationship had to be hidden. The last thing the group needed was for him to find out and take advantage of it.

Regardless, all he knew was that there wasn't any way he could die. Not after what he had been through with everybody. He had to live for their sake. For hers. "I love you, Makoto."

Makoto felt glad. They had very little time to relax, but whenever they did have the time, she cherished every moment. She had to do her best to ensure Ren's safety. For their group's leader. Her lover. "I love you too, Ren."

Ren began to close his eyes as the two continued to lean on one another. A sudden headache began to develop. The feeling of falling is all that can be felt. He tried to open his eyes back open again, but it wasn't any use. Eventually however, his eyes did open, but it's just darkness. Eyes open or not, it was no different. A desperate cry for help was made to the person he was talking to... who was he talking to? His head ached badly and everything that had just happened a few minutes ago, felt like it never did.

?/?/20XX

A criminal awakened in a dark room. He tried to recall what had happened the day before, but simply couldn't. It was hard enough for him to just keep his eyes open. He felt pain all around his body and face, but for what reason? A few seconds later, he felt a sensation of water hit him. He started to choke and cough from the sudden lack of air. A headache struck him. He could barely recall what had happened just a few hours ago.

"It's time to wake up." A guard said as he stared at the teen menacingly.

The delinquent stared back and remembered vaguely that he was same guard that gave him all these bruises. He struggled to reply back, but nothing but a whisper came out. "Go... to hell."

The guard continued staring and said nothing, but suddenly lunged at him, aiming his hand at his throat. "Listen you piece of shit. You've got an interrogation going on in 5 minutes. I advise you to keep quiet before I make sure that nothing comes out of that mouth for the rest of your life."

Fear followed the teen's eyes. A quick flash of memories entered through his mind as he remembered the abuse he had just suffered a few hours ago. They'd just finished beating him to near death and they didn't care if anything life threatening happened to him whatsoever. More thoughts continued to overflow within his mind once more. What the hell did I do to warrant me this much abuse? The guard then pushed him backward as the teen began to cough and gasp for air once more.

The kid tried to remember anything of how he had gotten there, but only a very vague recollection of what occurred appeared in his head. I was trying to rob a casino? I ended up getting ambushed by a bunch of police officers in my getaway. And I was dragged in here while I was unconscious. Who else was there with me? He remembered a few voices on a radio giving him instructions on where to go and what to do, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't figure out who the voices belonged to. Along with this, there was one thing that gravely bothered the criminal. An officer at the arrest had made a remark, saying that his group had been sold out. Sold out...

The door in front of him caught his interest. Voices could be heard from outside and he began to wonder if the people outside were here for the interrogation the guard was talking about. Before the guard left, he took one good glance at the teen. "Try talking yourself out of this one, Phantom Thief."

The delinquent remained quiet, and he tried to recall what he had meant by that. A Phantom Thief? He tried to remember if that rang any bells, but there was nothing. Nothing made any sense to him. The door in front began to open as a bright light from outside shined in. He began to look around the room once more and it's as was expected. It's an interrogation room alright.

"Good luck, Ms. Niijima." A voice said from outside the door.

Niijima...

The boy looked in front of himself and noticed a woman in a suit walking towards him. He looked at her face and saw a stare of disapproval directly aimed right at him. The door behind closed, and she sat down in a chair with a table separating the two. She sighed. "I was hoping that it wouldn't be you behind this. I wanted to believe that somebody else was truly responsible for these actions and that I was wrong. Sadly, it seems that I was right all along."

He couldn't do much but stare at her with a tired expression. No response able to form itself from him.

"Not only that, but they tried to force the truth out of you as well." The women said as she noticed all the bruises on his face. She began to look around the room and noticed something. Multiple syringes scattered across the floor.

"Those damned monst-"

Suddenly, the teen's headache grew even worse. He could no longer keep his eyelids open, and everything surrounding him became black. He was barely keeping his head from slamming onto the table with his arm, but the longer he held onto his head, the more exhausted he became.

The woman quickly caught on to what was happening to him. "Hey, stay awake! Don't you dare pass out!" She said as she tried to keep him conscious.

The teen's eyes were closed and he started to pass out, but suddenly, the darkness he was in had a small ray of hope within it. A completely dark room with a shining bright blue butterfly flying upwards. A voice began to speak to the boy.

"...You are held captive. A prisoner of fate to a future that has been sealed in advance. This is truly an unjust game..."

He continued looking at the bright blue butterfly flying upwards. There was no reason for it, but it felt strangely familiar to him.

"Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you.. I beg you. Please overcome this game... and save the world..."

The teen continued to look at the butterfly as it flew across the room. It didn't really make any sense, but it all felt eerily familiar. A game to save the world...

"The key to victory lies within the memories of your bonds—the truth that you and your friends grasped. It all began that day... when the game was started half a year ago... For the sake of your world's future... as well as your own and those you love... you must remember..."

Remember... Right. The butterfly above continued on heading upwards until it was no longer visible. The dark void that he was just in, faded away and the interrogation room was once again in his sight.

For some reason, the teen noticed that he was feeling less tired than before. That wasn't saying too much though, considering that his body still ached real bad and his mind was still very fuzzy, but there was some hope. The void he was in, and the voice he had just listened to had both seemed too familiar for him to simply forget.

"Oh good. You're still conscious." The woman said in relief, unaware of what had just happened to him. "Alright, listen to me. My time here is getting cut short. Not only that, but the method of how you were able to perform the 'change of hearts' still doesn't make any sense. This applies to the mental shutdowns too. If you want a decent chance of not facing a life sentence, then I need you to answer my questions truthfully."

He continued to stare at her. "I'll... try. Memory isn't very clear."

"What can you recall?" She asked impatiently.

"My arrest at the casino. But its still just a blur." He responded.

"Are you certain that the location you were in was an actual casino?" She continued to question.

The teen tried to think, and quickly recalled many oddities. Like the fact that there wasn't a casino that big in Tokyo and the strange shadow looking figures he had seen within the area. "N-no. Not really." He said in confusion. There's something here that I can't recall...

"Those drugs couldn't have made things even worse." The woman said angrily.

He couldn't agree more. The incident in the casino had just happened hours ago, yet he couldn't recall a single thing that occurred there.

She sighed. "Do you remember any of your teammates or others that assisted you?"

"Teammates? I don't remember there being other people." He said. He suddenly remembered the voices on the radio. The voices that were giving him orders on where to go. "No wait, there was." The casino definitely had much more going for it.

"Do you remember who they were?!" She yelled out.

"N-no sorry. I can't really remember anything too clearly." He said, disappointed in himself.

She shook her head in disbelief, but continued on. "Think carefully. I'm going to read the names of the people that your group had targeted. Kunizaku Okumura, the hacker group Medjed, Junya Kaneshiro, Ichiryusai Madarame, Suguru Kamoshida and recently, Sae Niijima."

Niijima... something about that last name... As if it was somebody that I had known. There was something really important that I had forgotten.

"None of these names bring up any memories?"

He shook his head. There was much familiarity to everything he was being told, but it still didn't make sense.

"So this means you don't even know who I am." She sighed once more. A binder filled with documents was brought out from her briefcase. "Let's start from the beginning then. Your name is Ren Amamiya. You injured a man back in your hometown and later you were charged with assault. Your parents were essentially given one choice by the court, and that was to send you to Tokyo in order for you to 'rehabilitate' and continue your education at Shujin Academy. You were to live with your probation officer, Sojiro Sakura at Yongen-Jaya. You managed to go a few days of a normal life until somehow, you had gotten into trouble with Kamoshida. You and your group had managed to threaten Kamoshida to the point of him confessing his crimes. Is that what happened?"

Ren took one good look at her. The fog in his mind was slowly clearing up. "There's more to this." He managed to say.

"More? Are you remembering?" She said, surprised.

The kid nodded. Slowly but surely, the memories he had were returning to him. The life he had back then was slowly becoming more and more clear. The day he had arrived to Tokyo. Nothing but strange things one after another had happened. Most people would've wished that this had never happened to them, but Ren had no regrets.

Suguru Kamoshida... A disgusting demon hiding within a human's body. He physically and sexually abused students, blackmailed those that opposed him, and ruined the futures of his own students for his own pleasure.

Ryuji... Ann... Mishima... Shiho...

A/N: So here I am. To those from the P5 fanbase, sup. I really just write for fun but I try to improve as much as I can too, so if something could be improved, review! The few people from the Fire Emblem side, this is what I've been working on. I just finished a 100% playthrough of P5 and man was it a amazing game. First playthrough made me SO close to tearing up at the credits but you know what, there's always PQ2 and Persona 5 Arena (ArcSys pls)

Why Makoto you ask? Before I chose Makoto, I was planning to pick Futaba or Haru but I thought it'd be great if I got together with the interrogator's sister. I was seriously hoping to get some sort of reaction in the interrogation room, but there was nothing. It did show me the way to best girl though. (We all have different opinions please don't crucify me)

Anyways update schedule may vary, hopefully bi-weekly but it may take longer or if I'm really feeling it, less. Enough ranting though, go follow, favorite and review blahblah you know the deal. Til next chapter, have a good one!

Edit: Fixed issues with grammar and past-present tense.