The Phantom Thieves of New Game+
a collection of Persona 5 one-shots
Chapter Ten
"Hope"
Ten loops.
He had gone through ten loops so far.
As he spent the evening working in Leblanc, he tried not to really think about what that meant. He tried not to think about how he should be in his mid to late twenties right now. He tried not to think about how he couldn't even remember what his parents looked like or sounded like, seeing as they never contacted him nor answered his calls. He tried not to think about his inability to save the lives of those whom have had them destroyed.
In all honesty, he just tried not to think, having grown numb to everything that has happened. The rest of the Phantom Thieves thought he was a power-house. He would enter a new Palace and complete the thing in one day. He would one-shot the most powerful of Shadows, save the Palace Rulers. Once done, he would then simply exist. He never did anything of note, save run through a new Palace.
The bell of jingling as the door opened pulled him from his inner thoughts and back into reality.
"Good evening. Welcome to Leblanc." he said, giving a soft smile as Sojiro has instructed all those loops ago.
"Good evening." the customer said, walking over to the bar and sitting down. "I'll have a Blue Mountain, black."
"Right away." Akira said, nodding his head once before turning to get the beans from behind him.
"This is a nice place." the customer said, looking around the cafe. "Very quiet. Kind of out the way as well."
"That it is." he replied, starting to grind the coffee beans.
"I should try and convince my wife to come." the customer continued, turning back to Akira. "Granted, I'm sure as soon as it came out she was here, this place would be swamped with customers."
"I'm sure the owner would like that." Akira said, moving over to start pouring the coffee. "At least, I think he would like that. I'm still not fully convinced that he doesn't enjoy the quiet and emptiness sometimes."
"A lot of people would take away from the aesthetics of the place." the customer said, picking up the cup of coffee after Akira sat it down. He blew on it softly before taking a sip. "Much better than instant."
"The first thing the owner said to me after allowing me to make coffee for the customers was to kick anyone who said instant was better out." Akira said, causing the customer to let out a small laugh.
"My best friend and his fiancée would probably be two of those who would say that." the customer said, setting the coffee back down. "I'll make sure they try and keep their mouths shut should I bring my friend group here one day."
The customer sat, silently drinking his coffee after that. Akira stayed behind the bar, doing the work Sojiro requested be done by the end of the night. He felt something was...different...about this customer, but he couldn't figure out what it could be. After a few minutes, he noticed the customer stand up, leaving a thousand yen next to the cup. Akira picked it up and went to make change, only for the customer to wave him off.
"You can keep the change." he said, getting Akira to nod. "I'll need to bring my wife back here sometime after the new year." he continued, looking Akira in the eyes. "Sometime after you get past March 20th."
"What?" Akira asked, looking into the man's eyes, as grey as his hair in an old bowl cut.
"I know it's hard." the man said, nodding at him. "I know you may feel like giving up. I did as well, a long time ago. But you'll find a way out of it."
"Who are you?" he asked, trying to keep his breathing under control. "How do you know all this?"
"You can call me Yu." he said, giving him a small smile. He turned and started to walk out of the coffee shop.
"Wait!" Akira yelled, running out from behind the counter. "What do you mean you've been through this before!? How do I get out of it!?"
The man, Yu, opened the door and turned to look at him.
"Just know that we always supported you, and always will, Mr. Phantom Thief. Even when everyone else turned against you, we still supported you." Yu said, getting another look of shock to spread across Akira's face. "I'll see you around, Wild Card."
With that, Yu walked out of Leblanc, the door closing behind him.
(A/N: The original idea I had for a time-loop one-shot was based on Persona 4. The idea for the fic was very dark and followed a mentally unstable Yu, who had gone through so many loops that the thought of killing a teammate in order to reset the loop back a week doesn't faze him. He would have been given a journal from Igor to allow him to keep track of each loop. He end up going down a path he knew would lead to the loop being reset? Run a member of the Investigation Team thru with a sword and go back a week to try a different option.
Anyways, the Yu in this fic is more mentally stable. He knows what Akira has been through, he knows time is being reset, and has a way to mark each reset without remembering the year that passed. His only goal here it to offer something to the current Wild Card that no one could offer him: hope.
Also, as a PSA: The next chapter will contain MASSIVE ENDGAME SPOILERS for P5R. If you have not yet beat the game and somehow managed to avoid spoilers, give the next chapter a skip until you have finished it.)