Some Whore's Uprising
Chapter 1: Harlot
"Akira has a natural charisma; she could be a politician someday!"
Mom always had high hopes for her. It couldn't be easy being a single mother in Nakai. They were living in the ass-end of the Tokyo suburbs, and Akira knew it.
"There goes Ice Cold Aki-chan! Don't tell anyone I said this, but I heard from my bro, she'll let anyone take a ride for enough-"
Life didn't care about circumstances. High hopes are just dreams to be let down.
"The girl started screamin' about money, and her sick mom, or cat, or whatever. Put her away, and make sure you keep my name off the books, got it?!"
'YONGEN-JAYA. THIS IS YONGEN-JAYA.'
Kurusu Akira blinks, and settles back into her spot on the train, waiting for the doors to open. What a mess she'd gotten into, but it wasn't any worse than she deserved. With a stride of subdued confidence mastered first for image and second out of necessity, she walks off the train and out the station to a different burb on a different ass-end of Tokyo. Parole obviously didn't give a shit as long as she was taken as far away from home as possible. It makes her want to roll her eyes, but meh, not worth the effort.
"Sakura, Sakura…" Pretty common family name, but with the address, all Akira has to do is follow the streets. Colorful little place, almost reminds her of home, really. Cozy. Not cluttered by too many people. She brushes away a spot of wistfulness and stops at the gates to the Sakura residence.
"Looks like he's not in," a nearby mailman muses to himself. "Should be at the cafe right about now, just gotta head over there and keep moving."
Good point, Mailman-san. Cafe in walking distance, sounds like an ideal commute.
Leblanc Coffee and Curry is the definition of hole-in-the-wall, but just the exterior rocks that decor. Akira steps in with measured steps to see the mostly empty joint and it's elderly patrons.
"Fifteen across… Six letter word for the 'world's oldest profession'..." Mutters the man in the apron leaning against the bar taps his pencil against the newspaper crossword. The word immediately jumps to Akira's mind, but… well, tasteless would be an understatement.
The old couple stand up and leave their money on the table, exchanging pleasantries with the barista. "Four hours for a single cup o' joe. Typical," he mutters to himself when they can't hear him.
"Sakura-san?" Akira calls out, voice low and careful.
The man predictably sighs, nearly throwing down his newspaper on the counter. "So, you're Kurusu Akira."
She bows at the waist good and proper. "Thank you for having me."
"Well, you got my last name, but in case you didn't care to remember the rest, I'm Sakura Sojiro." He looks her up and down, and Akira can't help the involuntary shuffle she makes under his gaze. Her clothes are perfectly nondescript, and she'd done her hair up in a small bun. Good thing her ties are tight and sturdy, or her curls would snap the poor thing on her head now like pocky. Her ponytail days were over, and she'd cut everything below the neck off anyways. New life, new look.
"I was wondering what the unruly kid would look like, but this is you, eh?"
"I… gave myself a bit of a makeover. Cut my hair."
"Heh, smart. I almost couldn't tell by looking at you that your past was so colorful." The old man Sakura has some wit. She could appreciate a tongue that cut. "I'll be taking custody of you for the next year."
Akira bows again. "And thank you, again."
He harrumphs, but doesn't say anything as she raises the bow.
"A customer I'd say I like knows your mom, and—"
"I can't thank you enough for doing this for her."
That catches him off-guard. "Well, at least you're mindful. You'll need to be if you don't want your ass out on the streets." Harsh, but… fair. She doesn't have to like it though.
His tone is stern as he keeps going, but if he's trying to sound intimidating he's mostly coming off as fatherly. Or as best as Akira could guess. "I got the gist of your situation. Compensated dating was easy money, and it started a slippery slope. Some guy didn't pay you enough and you ended up assaulting him. When the cops came you weren't exactly feeling cooperative either."
Same story everyone keeps repeating. None of it being true. Nothing about what she'd done was easy. "That's how the court case shook out."
He snarls, and the way his face wrinkles up genuinely puts some goosebumps on her skin. If she didn't feel so detached from the situation right now she'd probably break out in a nervous sweat. "Don't get smart with me, brat. He got injured, no talking your way out of that." He was a drunken attempted rapist, but sure, she 'pushed' him by pulling his would-be victim away from his slimy— "If you know what's best for you, you won't bring that sort of behavior here. I run a business, and you're going to school. Shujin's the only place that'll take you, God only knows why. Keep your tail out of trouble for a year and your probation will be lifted. Cause problems—"
"And it's straight to Juvie. Please allow me to say, Sakura-san," always open with the pleasantries, adults like that even if they won't admit it, "Juvie isn't what I'm afraid of. All I'd like is to get back home and continue supporting my mother."
"Well, you sure did a job of supporting her by getting in this mess." Preaching to the choir. "She's in good hands, no thanks to you." The one silver lining. "Worry about your own damn self while you're here."
He takes her up to show her her room, although calling it a room is a bit generous. It's huge, but it's the dirtiest, mustiest place she's ever seen, and clients weren't always neat freaks.
"This is your place. Clean up, throw away whatever garbage you find. Anything that's up here isn't worth keeping." And giving the place to her meant oh so much. "I don't mind, as long as you keep it quiet during business hours." He levels a glare at her, though she can't fathom why. "We're going to Shujin tomorrow."
She nods.
"No questions? Done your research then." She nods again. "I'll say again, it's the only school that'll take you." He runs a hand through his hair. "Talk about a waste of my Sunday."
"I'm sorry you can't send me on my own," she says softly. She knows he wouldn't let her out of his sight on the first day out of the house—cafe, that is.
"Yeah, but not like I'm giving you my signature, or sending you out for anything but school—" called it, "—until you prove yourself at least halfway reliable. Not that I'll be holding my breath." He points her to her 'luggage'—even she hesitated to call it that much—and heads back down to run his mostly empty store.
Time to get to work, as she cracks her knuckles and neck.
When Sojiro comes back up to check on her at the end of his work day, Akira admits to feeling a flush of pride at the shocked look on his face. So much fucking junk to move, enough dusting to start a farm for the bunnies, and a laundry loadful of rags irreparably dirtied wiping everything down, all worth it for the way his head does a slow turn to take it all in.
"I heard you making noise up here, but I didn't think—"
"I like breathing without losing a lung, and once I started…"
Sojiro huffs. "Productive, I'll give you that." He nods to the larger trash. "Make sure you take care of that after we get back tomorrow. I want you in bed, got it?" Wow, bedtime already? And without supper? Perish the thought.
He levels one final glare before he leaves. "I just want you to know… if you think playing nice for now means I'm gonna go easy on you, you'd best start rethinking. I've got my eyes on you, and I may look old, but I'm not stupid."
"I understand sir." She nods, and flashes him a smile. "I don't think you're stupid at all, Sakura-san."
His eyes predictably narrow, but he heads out without preamble.
…
Shit, she forgot to ask if she could use the kitchen ingredients to cook for herself. And the bell rings, signaling his exit from the shop.
Akira sighs. What was one more night hungry? She pokes at her stomach, and she's still mostly firm. Underweight for a girl of her height? Probably, almost certainly, but she is healthy enough to make it through the days.
She lays down on her bed and stares up at the rafters of the ceiling.
Mom is okay. She has support now that they didn't have before. That no one would give them before.
Maybe this is for the best.
…
Bullshit. She had to get arrested for crimes she wasn't even doing that time, just for her family to finally get the help they'd needed for almost two years?! Akira isn't some genius, she's just good with people, but she is smart enough to recognize that Japan is fucked. Single moms get shafted every which way, and the stress on Kurusu Hibiki was visibly affecting the poor woman's health.
So Akira did everything she could for her mother. That meant learning what made adults happy, how not to cause problems for her classmates…
It meant having to learn how to survive when you're 14 and your world is falling apart.
Suffering unimaginable scorn and pain to keep food on the table.
Learning to smile when you can't mean it and walk with confidence you don't feel.
How to walk the streets at night and come home richer for it, losing a little something every time.
…
Those days are over.
New life, new look, new Kurusu Akira.
Mom doesn't need her anymore. There are others to help take care of her now. The only good thing to come out of this shitty, rotten situation.
Her eyes flutter shut, and sleep pulls her in before she could even count to-
Her clothes are stiff and scratchy.
Her bed creaks as her weight shifts on it.
She opens her eyes and all she sees is blue.
"Welcome, Trickster…"
And whose baritone ass voice is that?!
A/N: Welcome to Some Whore's Uprising, my fresh and new Sex Worker Akira AU! A female protagonist with a colorful history. This fic follows the events of canon Persona 5 Royal, but through the lens of a far more experienced and nuanced protagonist. Kurusu Akira of SWU is similar but very different from Akiras you might be used to.
This fic is Mature for explicit discussion of sex and sex work. Currently, no explicit scenes are planned, but they will be referenced at length due to the nature of the AU.
To all of my readers and followers, this does NOT mean that my Fire Emblem fics are being cancelled. Heavy is the Head and Madly in Love will be going on hiatus OFFICIALLY so that I can get back into the groove of writing.
Obviously 2020 was a rough year for all of us. I only managed to write a single 6k word one shot in the whole year.
But once my good friend Sushion introduced me to genderneutralnoun, they and I started talking about their p5 fic Darkness of Desire, and I was inspired to create Some Whore's Uprising as a result. Credit to Flamy (gnn) for inspiring the title when they called it 'Sex Workers United AU'. When they did, I knew I had to make the fic's title match the SWU acronym.
I'm very excited to tell this story, and I hope you are too!