Author's Note: Alright so I'm gonna say this now. This story is just a novelization of Persona 5, with of course the Protag having more talks, but when I started writing more and more I started to treat this as my own personal story. Right now, and for chapter 2, it will just be the character's dialog from the game copy and pasted as I am a very unoriginal person. If you want an original story, I recommend reading Crimson by Dowdz. My all time favorite P5 story because of how well it was written. So I hope you all stick with me as the first few chapters are posted, and I will see you all later. Rookie out...

Ruin… it is something that awaits us all… some faster than others… and some can not avoid it… however, there are some that are able to avoid ruin, and can bring peace upon the world. They were at one time called tricksters… and our story, starts with a young man… and this is a very long story indeed…

Japan...a place of diverse culture, home to several million people. But right now we're not looking at Japan as a whole, instead… we're looking at something completely different. A casino, home to its rich bright colors, and to those who wish to test their luck. Inside many people were talking amongst themselves as noises rung out throughout it. However it wasn't noises of people winning. The alarms were going off, people were scared, looking around wondering what the hell is going on. While this is happening a lone figure jumps from platform to platform above them, carrying a briefcase. Multiple people in black suits walk from entrances all around the insides of the casino. The figure finally stops and stands up holding onto a wire keeping the platform he was standing on in the air. He looks out upon the crowd and smirks, holding a briefcase in his armpit. The men in black suits looked up to see the figure and one got on his comms.

"Hey up there!" A man calls out pointing to the figure.

"He's here, move in immediately." One of the men in black said. The figure just smiles and jumps from where he was onto another platform. He landed and looked ahead.

"Joker? Can you hear me?" A female voice says over the comms.

"Loud and clear Oracle." Joker says in response.

"Good, now get running!" A boyish voice said over the young man's own radio systems.

"This is our only chance!" Another voice said, this time it was a boy's voice.

"Stay calm, you can get away now." Oracle said over the comms.

"Don't worry, I'll get out of this." Joker responds as he continues to jump from platform to platform.

"You know she won't like you hearing that right?" Oracle says unamused.

"I know." He says before landing on another level of the Hotel. "She'll forgive me." He turns around and looks down at the people below.

"We'll retrieve the briefcase on our end." Another feminine voice says.

"... Suspects… not… confirmed… hold… your… positions…" A voice came over comms.

"What was that?" Joker asks.

"Don't worry about us, just concentrate on getting out." The boyish voice says.

"Alright, stay safe you all." He says. He jumps from where he was on a balcony to more of the overhanging platforms that rested above the main floor. He jumped from platform to platform.

"But I have to say, showing yourself above that crowd earlier was an excellent move." The boyish voice says. "Nice work as always Joker."

"I'm sure Skull wouldn't pull it off that smoothly." Another female voice says. Joker smirks and lands on a platform and turns to his right to see more guards.

"There he is!" One of them shouts. Joker smirks and jumps from the platform he was on, to another.

"OK, the enemy's focus is on him. Looks like the rest of us can slip away." The boyish voice says. Joker manages to make it to another balcony and looks over the entire casino floor. He smirks and turns around and starts running only for two guards to appear on stairs ahead of him. Suddenly they change and now have masks on their face, as one then drops down from behind him. He looks back at the one behind him and gives a smirk.

"Take 'em down Joker!" Shouts a woman. Joker jumps up into the air and does a spin before landing on the back of the guard, who now has a mask. He puts his hand under the mask and starts to pull off the mask, and when he does he flips off the guard as it then starts to transform. Once the transformation was complete a giant dog like animal was towering over the young man, and all he did in response was smile.

"Comparing power levels… No threat. Get 'em Joker." Oracle tells him.

"Persona!" He shouts taking off the mask that was covering the top part of his face. A giant transparent figure appeared behind him afterwards laughing. Joker pointed at the giant beast in front of him before the figure then slashed the beast and Joker slid under it cutting open the bottom part of it with a dagger that was in his hand, before turning back around and jumping up onto it plunging his dagger into the head of it and jumping off back to the spot where he originally was.

"OK, pull out before backup gets here." Oracle informs him.

"Good now-" The boyish voice says before getting cut off.

"What? More of them!? Be careful!" Oracle shouts. More of those guards suddenly appeared out of the ground in front of Joker. One of them jumps up, ready to attack when Joker backflips out of the way of the attack. He looks up smirking before jumping backwards doing another backflip and landing on a podium, and jumping again, this time landing on a different level than the guards. "Joker, behind you, go through that door!" Joker looks behind him as the girl says this to see an open doorway.

"Right." Joker simply responds as he gets into a sprint through the door. Joker continues running through door after door until he finds a guard looking away from him touching his ear. Joker quickly reacts and hides behind a box, swiftly moving up until he's behind a box by the guard.

"... Hey, are you sure he came in this way?" The guard asks through his comm systems. He then gets a response and turns around. "Understood, I'll continue the search." The guard then runs off to where Joker had just come in from. Joker gets out from behind the box and runs up the flight of stairs. He stealthily moves past several checkpoints and walks by the security station.

"Find them, and kill them all!" Shouts a man holding a phone.

"Good luck with that." Joker says quietly as he runs past the security station. He then finds a set of stairs and begins the climb up, hearing more footsteps below him. He speeds up and reaches the top of the stairs and exits through a door to see that he was still in the casino, but high up.

"Something wrong?" Oracle asks. "The exit should be up ahead." She tells him. Joker looks up to see a giant stained glass window.

"Through there?" Joker asks. The girl grunts in frustration.

"That's just how it is." She tells him. Joker sighs as he knows that's his only means of escape right now. "After the commotion the bottom floor is… completely closed off. Hey, can you still make it?" She asks. Joker smirks and looks at the window.

"Yeah, just don't worry about me, make sure you and the others get out of here." Joker responds.

"Hey! Over there!" He turns around to see three men in black suits holding out handguns, pointing them at Joker. Again he smirks and stands on top of the railing and starts running across it stunning the three men. They run out and take aim at him, only to find that he was crouching on the railing in front of the window.

"See ya." He says giving a two finger salute before jumping at the window smashing it.

"What a showoff." A voice says.

"You're so reckless, you know that?" A female voice says as Joker lands on the ground.

"Yeah, but you love me for it don't ya?" He asks smugly. However the smug grin on his face quickly disappeared as several flood lights were turned on behind revealing what was basically an army. He shielded his eyes from the bright lights and got a look at them, they were well armed, and had a look on their faces as if they were out for blood.

"These readings! It can't be!" Oracle shouts.

"Joker get out of there now!" A boy's voice shouts over the comms.

"Capture him!" Said one of the officers holding a megaphone. This caused the whole mob to start running at Joker, whereas he was already making a break for it. The floodlights followed him the whole time blinding him, though he was still able to see. He jumped up catching a ladder and starts to climb up. He looks down at the police officers below him and gives a grin before continuing to climb back up, before stopping when he realizes that there were more on the catwalk above him, pointing their rifles down at Joker. One of the officers takes their rifle and brings it down upon Joker's face knocking him off of the ladder and into the giant shark tank of police officers below him. He hits the ground and all of the officers start to swarm around him and eventually manage to put cuffs on him. They start to clear out as the head of the police force starts to make his way towards Joker. Joker was now pinned to the ground by the various men that were around him. A man who by the looks of it was the high ranking person there. He walks up to Joker and grabs his hair and forces him to look up.

"Didn't expect to find some kid." The man said. "You have your teammate to thank for this. You were sold out." He said dropping Joker's head back onto the ground. Joker was shocked, why was he sold out, how could this have happened? Though it didn't matter anymore, he was arrested, and he was in serious trouble.

Now in an interrogation room all by himself, Joker was sat in a chair, his arms at the back cuffed together.

"Guess the drugs were too strong." A voice says. There were two people inside the interrogation room with Joker, and layed out across the floors were syringes with a bit of green liquid in it. "Wake him up." The same guy said. Soon water was splashed onto him from a bucket. Joker soon wakes up and starts looking around. He was bruised, he was physically tired, and several cuts covered his body. Joker's eyes finally landed onto the men in front of him. "No dozing off," The man in front of him said. Joker remembered the kind of situation that he was in and tried to get free of the restraints.

"Where are they?" Joker asks.

"You don't get it do you?" He asks. The man in front of him grits his teeth. "Give it up." The man then kicks Joker and he gets knocked out of the seat and falls onto the ground winded. The man walks over and puts a foot on Joker's head. "Come on, cooperate. Or what? You want another shot?"

"To be able to punch you? Then gladly." Joker tells him.

"Still got your fight in ya huh?" The man asks as he looks down on Joker. He traces Joker's eyes to see that he was looking at the camera. "Huh? What about the camera?" The man asks. He thinks for a second before laughing. "Are you thinking that it can be used as video evidence?" The man crouches down and pulls up Joker's head to make him look at the man. Joker stays silent, and in response the man shoves his head into the ground. "Didn't hear my question? Answer!" The man stands up and kicks Joker's stomach, causing him cough and wheeze.

"Come on. That the best you got?" Joker asks, looking up and smirking, some blood coming out of the corner of his mouth. The man shakes his head and walks over to the other man holding a clipboard and starts reading off it.

"Obstruction of Justice, blackmail, defamation, possession of weapons…" He starts. "Manslaughter too, yeah? Talk about the works." Joker looks up at him while gritting his teeth. "To think all those crimes were led by a punk like this. And you seemed to be enjoying every second of it… huh?" Joker looked up in confusion.

"I was… enjoying it?" Joker asks inside his head. "Everything's hazy I… can't remember." The man took the clipboard, and put in front of Joker.

"Sign here." He told him. "It's a confession under your name."

"I understand." Joker says. He takes the clipboard and the man takes out a pen and shows it for Joker. He grabs the pen and the man pulls him close.

"Don't expect to walk out in one piece." He tell him. Joker rolls his eyes and slowly starts to write out a name, letter by letter, until a full name is shown. Akira Kurusu… A few minutes had passed and Joker was now sitting in a chair holding his head as it was painful to even think a single word, when a woman much taller than him came through the door of the interrogation room and sits down in the chair across from him. Akiralooks up just as the woman sits down.

"I didn't expect it'd be you." The woman said to him.

"Well… I'm just full of surprises now aren't I?" He asks smugly.

"Doesn't matter, now you'll be answering my questions this time." She tells him. She looks down to the ground and sees the several syringes "Those bastards." She said to herself. She leaned to Akira. "Can you hear me? It seems you've been through a lot." She says.

"Heh, you don't know the half of it." Akira says to the woman. The woman sighs and shakes her head and looks back to the young man.

"Almost anything can happen here… and I can't stop them." Akira looks up to the woman, knowing that she was right, given their brutality from earlier. "That's why I need you to answer honestly. I don't have much time here either." She tells him. "What was your objective? Why did you cause such a major incident?" She questions. Akira says nothing and continues to look down at the table. "I didn't think it was a prank from the get-go, but I couldn't assemble a case for prosecution. It's because I couldn't figure out the method behind it." She says. She was about to open her mouth to talk when,

"Of course you couldn't." Akira said. She laughed a bit and nodded.

""True." She said. "There's no way I could be convinced of such a… 'world' just by reading the reports. It seems you're coherent." She says now leaning back in the chair with both her arms crossed. "When and where did you find out about the other world?" She begins to question. "How is it even possible to steal another's heart? Now, tell me your account of everything." She says to him. "... Start from the very beginning."

"The… beginning." Akira says. He puts his hand to his head and begins to think. Suddenly everything around him began to disappear, the room became black and the only things that were there, were the table, him, and a strange blue butterfly that suddenly appeared in front of him.

"You are held captive." Came a voice. "A prisoner of fate to a future that has been sealed in advance. This is truly and unjust game… Your chances of winning are almost none." The voice continued. "But if my voice reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you…" The strange butterfly then starts moving across the table in front of him. "It all began that day… when the game was started over half a year ago… For the sake of your world's future… as well as your own… you must remember…"

"Remember…" Akira repeats…

Several Months Earlier…

I woke up with a gasp, and looked ahead of me. I saw people, they were on their phones, not giving a care in the world to what was going around them. Not like there was much to look at anyway.

"We will be arriving in Shibuya shortly." Came a voice. I look around and see more people. I forgot, I was on a train traveling to Shibuya… and I remember it vividly.

A Few Weeks Earlier

I remember it… A woman crying out for help. I couldn't just stand around and let someone do this. I walk up to the man and grab his shoulder twisting him around. He loses his balance and falls down, with me and the woman wide eyed. I looked down at my hands, how I had that much strength I'm still not sure. The man got up and looked at me, covering a bloody scar that went down his face vertically.

"Damn brat… I'll sue!" He shouts at me. Next thing I knew the police showed up and started to put me in their car. I squint my eyes and squeeze my fists at the thought.

"What? Are you for real? A mental shutdown?" I hear a voice say. I turn to my right and see two girls in uniforms with one on their phone.

"It's the truth!" Says the other.

"To a person though? That's gotta be a joke." The first one says. "You really love all that occult stuff, don't you?"

"A mental shutdown?" I ask myself. The Train continues to zoom towards our destination, until we finally arrived at my stop. I exit the train and start walking around the lively city. However as I was walking I felt something strange. That feeling was suddenly interrupted from a noise caused by my phone, and I look down to see a weird app. It suddenly enlarges and covers almost the entirety of the screen. I tap it a few times to see what would happen, only to get my answer a few seconds later when everyone around me stopped walking. I look around in confusion. What is going on, why did everyone freeze? I think. I look around only to see the same thing for as far as I can see. As I was looking around a giant tornado of blue fire caught my eye, and I was entranced looking at it, it was like I had no more control over my body, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop looking at it. Later the giant fire started to take form, that looked rather humanoid. I suddenly gained a serious look as I saw the fire rage on ever more. However, an evil grin, along with eyes had manifested within itself, however just looking like normal fire. I then suddenly saw myself, with the same grin and look on my face, my eyes glowing orange with fire in them, as if all the rage in the world had suddenly gone to that version of me. Then a flash of white hit my eyes, and as I looked around again I saw that everything was back to normal.

"That hell was that?" I ask myself. I shake off the feeling afterwards and slide the mysterious app down to the bottom of my phone's screen and put it in the garbage can, deleting it from my phone entirely. I continue on with my day and make it to the address? Then I reminded myself as to why I was here, today Sojiro Sakura will be taking care of me. His house should be in the backstreets of the alley. I thought to myself. I walked down the alley, my hands in my pant pockets while looking around the area. I saw a police officer ahead of me and I walk up to him, asking for directions.

"Yeah, it's in an alley a bit further back." He says, "Take a right after that apartment with the stairs."

"Thanks." I say before walking off, fixing my glasses. I walk down the street using the directions of the house. I eventually found myself standing in front of the house and take a second to look at it.

"The name says Sojiro Sakura so it looks like this is his house." I say to myself. I go and ring the doorbell to see if anyone would come and answer. No one did however and I was confused as to why.

"Looks like no one's home." Said a voice to my right. I look over to see a postman holding a box by a truck. "Oh, yeah… Sakura-san's usually at his cafe around this time." He says to himself.

"Cafe?" I ask him.

"Yeah, he runs a cafe called LeBlanc just down the alley from where you came from. I should probably make my other deliveries first then." He tells me.

"Thanks." I say as I start walking backwards before spinning around and walking forward. Sooner or later I found the place and stopped at the door frame. "LeBlanc huh?" I say to myself as I open the door and enter. As I walk inside I see the inside of the cafe, it was bland, boring, and calm, peaceful, how a cafe should be at times. I also see that a man on a stool holding a pencil and a newspaper, while there were two elderly people there as well.

"A public transit bus was driven down an opposing lane with its customers still in it!" Came a voice. I look to the T.V. that was set up in the cafe and see a news broadcast being played on it. "The citizens can't live in peace if this keeps up." The news broadcast says again.

"Keeps up?" I ask myself.

"How frightening." The old man says.

"What could be going on?" The old woman asks. "Didn't something similar happen just the other day?"

"Vertical is… hmmm." Says the man. I look to get a view of him and see that he was the manager, he could be Sojiro. "The name of a shellfish used for farming pearls." He says.

"Oysters." I say. The manager looks at me then back at the paper and writes down the word.

"Huh, looks like it fits." He says. "Thanks kid." He tells me. He then looks at me again, this time looking me up and down. "... Oh, right. They did say that was today." He says getting up and putting the newspaper on the counter.

"We'll be going now." The old man says as he and the woman get up. "The payment's on the table."

"Thanks for coming." The manager says.

"This place is in the back alley, so there's no worries of a car crashing in here." He tells him.

"A what now?" The manager asks confused. Guess he doesn't really pay attention to the news, not that I'm one to talk.

"There's been a string of those rampage accidents, you know." The old man explains. "I just hope that none happen around here."

"It's none of my concern." The manager says. The old man chuckles a bit.

"We'll see you next time." He says as the man and the woman make their way to the entrance. I move out of the way for them and return to my original position when they walk past me and exit the Cafe.

"Four hours for just a cup of joe." He says. "So, you're Akira?" He asks me.

"Yeah, are you Sakura-san?" I ask him.

"...Yeah. I'm Sojiro Sakura. You'll be in my custody over the next year." He tells me. "I was wondering what kind of unruly kid would show up, but you're the one, huh?"

"Yeah, but listen-"

"I don't need to hear it right now." He says cutting me off. "Have you been told? A customer of mine and your parents know each other and-" He starts before stopping himself mid sentence. "Well not that that matters… Follow me." He says walking back. I follow him up a flight of stairs and see the room he's showing me. "This is your room. I'll at least give you sheets for your bed." He tells me. I look around the room, amazed that I was getting quite a bit of space for myself. "You look like you wanna say something." He says.

"It's big, I didn't expect to get a room like this," I say.

"Yeah well, It's on you to clean up the rest." He tells me. "I'll be leaving after I lock up each day so you'll be here alone at night. So don't do anything stupid, I'll throw you out if you cause any trouble." He adds.

"I won't. You have my word." I tell him.

"Yeah well I need to see it in order to believe that. Now, I got the gist of your situation." He says. I tense up at this wondering what he had been told. "You protected some woman from a man forcing himself on her, he got injured, then sued you, right?" I nod in response and he just sighs and walks off and starts to clear off some stuff from a cabinet. "That's what you get for sticking your nose in a matter between two adults."

"Nobody else was around, if I wasn't gonna try and help, then nobody was." I tell him in an attempt to defend myself.

"You still injured him, yeah?" He says. I knew I was defeated, but I still tried to come up with something more to defend myself . "Look, I know where you're coming from, trust me I do, still, you've been expelled and now you have a criminal record, and the courts ordered you to move out here… to which your parents approved." He says.

"In other words, they got rid of me for being a pain in the ass." I say, leaning against a table. He sighs and looks at me.

"It's best you not talk about anything unnecessary. I am in a restaurant business you know." I chuckle at this and he laughs. "Behave yourself for the year. If nothing happens, your probation will be lifted."

"Forgot about that." I say.

"We'll be going to Shujin tomorrow."

"That's the school I'm gonna be going to now right?" I ask.

"Yeah, anyway your 'luggage' arrived earlier; I left them over there." He says pointing to a box. He then walks down the stairs leaving me to my mess of a room.

"Might as well clean up." I say. For the rest of the day I spent it cleaning, sweeping for dust, mopping up the stuff on the floor. I take the box and put it in a little space in a dresser and clean off my bed. When I stop I look around at the once dirty room. I hear a noise behind me and see that it was Sojiro.

"What the heck? I heard you making all sorts of noise up here but I didn't think you were cleaning."

"I'm just full of surprises huh?" I say.

"Yeah, the place doesn't look too bad actually." I nod in approval and thank him. "I'm going to close up shop and get out of here myself. I won't be the one looking after you if you get sick from staying up too late got it?" I nod my head. He then nods and exits the room. I head to my bed and get changed, and not long after I hear the cafe door close, now leaving me here by myself all night. I lay down in my bed and start to think… Arrest… Trial… the criminal record. I had flashes just then, of the man, of the police officers arresting me. Still I couldn't just let that go…

Several Weeks Earlier…

That day… I had to go home early… I remember it all… I was walking home, my home neighborhood was the same as always, there was rarely anything going on anyway… until now.

"Just get in the car!" I heard a voice say. It was a man's voice, I would have just kept walking if I didn't hear the next voice.

"Stop it!" A woman's voice cries out. That's when something inside me just kicked in, I wanted to go help the woman, who I can only tell was being harassed by the guy. That's when I started to run, whatever feeling inside me was only telling me to run… and run I did.

"How dare you cross me!" The man says.

"Stop it! Let me go!" THe woman cries out. I picked up more speed and that's when I saw them. "No…!" The woman cries out again.

"Don't give me that shit…" The man threatens. The man looked drunk, but still I couldn't just ignore it… I had to save her, and so I tried.

"Tch… what a waste of time." The man says as I walk up. "You think you're worth causing me trouble? Huh?" He says to the woman.

"I-I'll call the police!" The woman threatens.

"Heh, call them if you want!" He says in response. "The police are my bitches. They're not gonna take you seriously." He tells her, The woman continuously cries out and eventually police sirens could be heard. He complains and then gives notice to me. "...What're you looking at? Get outta my face!" He shouts at me. At that point I just stopped trying to me remember…

Present Time…

I close my eyes and wince at the memory. And as I try to fall asleep my phones buzzes and beeps. I pick it up and open it to see the app I deleted from before. However before I could do anything my eyes suddenly became heavy, I felt tired. I couldn't stop myself as I then suddenly fell asleep. I woke up with a gasp, just like the train. I look above me, expecting to see the roof that I fell asleep under, it wasn't. Chains were hanging from the ceiling. I get up out of the bed to see that my arms were chained together, and that I was wearing an old prison outfit. I hear chuckling to my left and see a little girl walk in front of my cell wearing a strange outfit. I questioned what I was seeing as I got up walking to the bars that were in front of me but I tripped. I looked behind me to see that my foot was chained to a metal ball. I look ahead to see the girl step to the side, only for another to appear from out of nowhere standing beside the other. I walk up the bars for the girls to turn around on opposite sides. I look to see ahead to see a man sitting at a desk. He looks up to me and raises a hand.

"Trickster… Welcome to my Velvet Room…"

To be Continued…