Hey guys, Flipkicks here, and today I bring you is a new chapter for "Persona 5: A Bleached Royal", thank you guys for checking out the story and what you all thought of the previous chapter.
Who has been playing P5 Strikers? I got the game a couple months back and I have already beaten the game. I honestly like the story and how they were able to connect with each of their targets. Sophia became one of my new favorite characters in that game with her innocence and wonder about the Human Heart as for her character development.
I may do a sequel story following this one with Ichigo and his friends going on a country trip.
I do not own either series.
A better first Day
Present Time,
Interrogation Room
"You can't be possibly serious about that?!" Sae still finds it hard to believe that Shujin Academy mordaciously turned into a Castle in some other world. He could be possibly lying about it since his record comes to mind. 'Maybe using drugs? No he's always been a clean guy from what his father stated to us. Maybe the side effects of the amount of drugs in his system? Possible but his eyes...'
She has been hearing to what Ichigo has been telling her and the look in his eyes tell her everything. While groggy at times, he is still able to make clear and coherent sentences about his arrival at Shujin. Sae will still need to hear everything about this whole incident.
"I am Niijima." He makes out while still trying to make fight the effects, "I'm pretty sure that...I know what happened." He shakes his head.
"But still, a talking cat?"
"Your cognition won't be able to hear him. To you, he meows like a normal cat but most of us thieves who's cognition has changed and awaken to the Persona ability are able to hear Mona." Ichigo stated to her, "It's still strange to talk to a cat and have him actually reply back but at this point, I'm used to it and all the shit I've been through."
"Seems you are still in the clear mind." She then proceeds to advanced to the next step, "The one to receive a 'Calling Card' from the Phantom Thieves was an Olympic gold medalist, an alumnus of Shujin Academy and former PE Teacher, Suguru Kamoshida." She brings out a photo/mug shot of the former PE teacher from her brief case, "It all came out everything after his confession and arrest. He was guilty, the abuse, the violations, but there shouldn't be any connections between the two of you since you recently transferred. Why did you targeted him?"
"I will tell you in a bit and it will make sense..." Ichigo tries his hardest to stay awake as Sae could tell but she needs to know now.
LeBlanc Café
"Better get to the train station..." Ichigo mutters to himself as he get dressed, fixing the tie on his neck, 'Or else I'm getting I'll get into more trouble.'
He already knows that some of the teachers are a bit frustrated that both Tatsuki and himself are late on the first day of school. Of course, they know that it wasn't their fault with them finding themselves in the other world. Hell, they don't even know how they entered it.
"Yo Tatsuki, you ready?" Ichigo asks her as he takes a sip of his coffee.
"Coming down." She answers him, walking down the stairs while fixing her hair.
"Eat up before you both go." Sojiro stated to both of them, "Your teachers informed me about what happened so they're gonna let it slide, so don't make it a habit."
"Its not like we wanted to be late. We are still new to the area." He doesn't know whenever or not Sojiro would believe a tale of them going to a distorted version of their world.
"Again, just don't make it a habit or else your going to jail." Sojiro warns him as the two would eat their breakfast and the two would leave the café and flip the sign from 'closed' to 'open'.
Couple of minutes later, the duo would run into Makoto waiting for them both by the train station.
"Good, you both arrived." She mutters to herself.
"Uh...who're you?" Tatsuki asks her.
"She's Makoto Niijima, the student council president and our senpai." Ichigo recalls what happened and how she's here. "I'm sure that the two of you will get along."
"Its nice to meet you Arisawa." Makoto greets her, "I hope we do get along."
"Same here."
"Anyway, shall we get going?" Ichigo asks both girls and both nod with Makoto leading them both to the platform.
Couple of minutes later
Ichigo stood in the tightly packed train flipping through his phone on his way to school with the girls both found seats. The train car was filled to the brim with students and office workers on their morning commute. Despite being from a smaller town, he really didn't mind trains too much. Mostly because people always made sure to give him as much room as possible from fear of being mugged; one of the few benefits of people thinking he was a delinquent. Even if it was irritating.
Ichigo flipped through his phone, scrolling through the web since he hasn't gotten a text message from his dad or his sisters or even Kisuke. As he put his phone into his pocket, the movement of something red in the corner of his eye caught his attention.
Next to him, a girl in a Shujin school uniform rose from her seat. She was tall and slender, with porcelain skin and vibrant red eyes. Her hair was a long, silky, ponytail of velvet red tied in a scarlet bow. Her uniform was standard except for her bright red 'mary jane' shoes to match her bow and black pantyhose.
"Please," the girl said politely to an older woman in front of her. "Take my seat."
The older woman chuckled in surprise at the kind gesture, Ichigo just smiled at the action before going back to minding his own business, only to see a middle aged man slide behind the red haired girl, taking the seat she had just given up.
"Oh wow," the girl muttered to herself before shaking her head, "Um, I mean excuse me. That seat was for this lady." She finished politely with a smile as she gestured to the elderly woman next to her. Instead of moving, the man simply looked at the red haired girl with a bored expression before adjusting himself further into the seat and closing his eyes to nap, clearly indicating that he had no intention of moving. Ichigo's eyes glow gold as he felt his arms mysteriously drag the man out of the seat.
The girl took on a disappointed look and turned to the elderly woman to apologize, only to be cut short by a sudden orange movement in the corner of her eye. She turned to see that the man who had taken the seat was now gone, an empty seat in his place. She looked around for where the man went, only to see that he was now being held in the air by the collar of his shirt in someone's hand, a terrified look on his face. Owner of said hand was a tall, irritated looking teen with bright orange hair and an annoyed scowl.
"There you go, ma'am." The orange haired teen said politely as he gestured to the now empty seat. "Sorry about the trouble." He finished sending a glare to the man in his hand who turned away in a mix of fear and shame as he sees Ichigo's eyes, putting the fear of god into him.
The elderly woman looked at the teen with a moment of shock before smiling and taking her seat. "Why thank you, young man."
The teen stated it was no problem before putting the man in his hand down, who quickly ran away from the teen in fear, pushing his way through the crowded train car. Ichigo gave a final polite bow to the woman before going back to his phone. All the while, unaware of the slightly awed look the red haired girl was giving him.
'Who is he?' She asks herself.
Couple of minutes later, the group exited the train and started their walk towards the school entrance while Tatsuki and Makoto hitting it off as they were talking about their respective martial arts, to which Ichigo smiles a bit.
'Glad that they're becoming fast friends.' He noted to himself from seeing both ladies in their deep conversation of Martial Arts.
"Excuse me!" Ichigo halted and turned as a voice called out to him, only to see the girl with the ribbon jogging towards him. He raised an eyebrow as she stopped in front of him. "Thank you so much for stepping in earlier." She said, giving a deep bow.
Ichigo waved her off, not having put much thought into the action. "Don't worry about it. Anyone would have done it."
The girl straightened herself, shaking her head with a smile. "I don't believe so." She said before changing the subject. "You go to Shujin as well, right? Would you like to walk together?"
Ichigo was slightly surprised at the request, especially given his appearance and already infamous reputation. "Are you sure?"
"Of course," the girl said, giving an enthusiastic nod. "You're a second year, correct?" To which Ichigo nodded in affirmation. The girl smiled again, slightly tilting her head and giggling. "I'm a first year myself, and I can't allow myself to be rude to my senpai. Let us go before we're late." She said before beginning her walk through the station, clearly expecting Ichigo to follow her.
Ichigo simply watched her for a moment before giving a sigh and following the bubbly girl.
"Senpai, huh?" he thought to himself out loud as he caught up to the girl. 'That's a first.' He isn't used to being called 'Senpai' since most of his friends would address him by either his first name or his last name back in Karakura High.
The two teens walked through the rain under their respective umbrellas towards the academy, making idle chatter about the weather, and how much they both hated the rain. All the while Ichigo was aware of the strange looks the two were getting from the other students as they walked by, but as always he ignored them. Rumors were annoying to deal with, so Ichigo usually just let people think what they wanted.
"Thank you for accompanying me," The girl said with another curt bow as the two made it to the school entrance.
"Don't worry about it, my friend seems to be caught up" Ichigo said, his scowl turning into a small smile as he points out to Tatsuki with Makoto, "I appreciated the company."
The red haired girl looked at her phone to check the time before giving him another bow. "I wish I could stay but I have something to attend to before class starts, so I'll be taking my leave. Excuse me." And with that she headed into the building.
Ichigo gave her a friendly smile as she left before going back to scowling as he looked at the school before him thoughtfully.
'I somehow made it with any weird shit happening this time.' The orange haired teen thought to himself as he made his way into the school building. There were students clearing their way as they don't want to mess with him as they all heard of his record. Some of the students are already intimated by him. Once both him and Tatsuki are in their homeroom, they each went to their specific seats and class has started.
Period by period, Ichigo and Tatsuki were learning their teachers names and what they all teach, but Ichigo didn't mind since he was trying to figure out as to what really happened yesterday.
'What was that yesterday?' Ichigo stared out the window of his class, half heartedly paying attention to the lesson. Ichigo normally would have paid more attention, but his mind continued to wander to the events of the day before, and what his plans were going forward. He still is trying to figure out what Tatsuki, Sakamoto and himself all faced.
"Oi, Kurosaki."
Ichigo turned from the window to see his older social studies teacher, Ushimaru-sensei, gazing at him with a stern and inquisitive look. The teacher was tall and broad shouldered, with brown hair cut into a respectable style. He wore a white button up shirt with a blue tie along with black suspenders that connected to his black work pants. His usual stern expression had changed into one of annoyance, most likely due to the fact that Ichigo hadn't been paying too much attention to his lecture.
"Since you seem so bored with the material," The teacher stated with a stern sneer, "perhaps you can tell me what the Devil's Dictionary defined as the chief factor in the progress of the human race?"
The class snickered at the blank expression on Ichigo's face at the question, clearly reveling in the hazing that the teacher was partaking in. Sitting in front of him, he could see Ann giving him a sympathetic look, but offering no help. Ichigo looked at the teacher silently with a bored expression for a moment, face blank but eyes calculating as if weighing options, before resting his chin on his hand and giving a bored response.
"Villains, or "malefactors."" The teen responded, much to the surprise of the teacher, though he tried his best not to show it.
"Hmph," The teacher regarded dismissively, "that's correct." He then turned back to the chalkboard and continued his lecture, leaving the shocked class gossiping at the situation.
"Wow, how did he get that?"
"Maybe he guessed? Or cheated?"
"I didn't even know the answer."
Ichigo paid the other students no mind as he went back to gazing out the window while half paying attention to the lecture. Kisuke had a lot of random books filled with random information at his shitty shop, and Ichigo had certainly spent enough time to read some of the books there, he was just lucky that one of the books happened to be the Devil's Dictionary. Hell, whenever he's bored he would look up some weird facts or study other things around him just to go with the time.
'Wonder what the guys are doing...' His thoughts were on his friends and family back in Karakura High.
Lunch Time
Ichigo made his way up the stairs towards the rooftop for lunch. Back at Karakura High, he would often eat lunch on the roof of the school with his friends, and while he didn't really have any friends at the school yet besides Tatsuki and presumably Ryuji, he definitely didn't want to eat in the cafeteria, he already is having the school's eyes on him and doesn't want that much attention to him already.
As he opened the door rooftop, sandwich in hand he stopped for a moment as he saw a girl standing on the roof, gazing down at the schoolyard through the fence. Ichigo watched the girl stand there for a minute, as she silently gazed off the roof, her hand gripping the fence, trembling slightly. Ichigo watched the girl for a moment before sighing and walking onto the roof, closing the door behind him and alerting her of his presence. The girl turned towards Ichigo in surprise, allowing him to get a better look at her.
She was tall, with a very athletic build, long toned legs with a thin waist. She wore her uniform without the black jacket, wearing a beige turtleneck sweater rolled up to her elbows, with the standard plaid skirt. On her right leg was a black knee brace, indicating that she most likely did indeed do sports of some kind. Her red and white shoes were actually off, haphazardly laying beside the girl. She had beautiful brown eyes, though they were red and puffy from what Ichigo had assumed to be crying, and black hair tied in a ponytail, held in place with a pink elastic band.
The girl looked at him in shock before dawning a look that was hard for the orange haired teen to interpret. A mixture of disappointment and relief, but definitely one full of sadness and pain. Almost empty.
"I guess today is just not my day," the girl muttered to herself, just loud enough for Ichigo to hear, her voice soft and somber. The girl with the ponytail then put her shoes back on, gave a slight bow towards Ichigo, and exited the roof, disappearing down the stairs. As she left, Ichigo could just barely notice the various bandages and bruises on the girl's body.
'Wonder what's her trouble...' He mutters in his head.
Ichigo watched the girl go down the stairs until she was fully gone from his vision, a deep scowl etched on to his face, before turning back towards the rooftop, filing away the interaction for later. He evaluated the rooftop once again, moldy desks, tables, and various other schoolyard equipment were left scattered across the tile, worn from being outside for what he assumed to be months if not years. Ichigo made a mental note to try to see if he could somehow clear the rooftop of the debris.
The teen took a look up at the clouds that had been pouring rain earlier that day, now just looming drearily over the school, blanketing the sky in a grey depression.
"I guess the rain has stopped for now." The teen said, before taking a bite out of his sandwich. 'I forgot...' He takes out his cellphone and brings up the text message app, iD: Urahara.
{Hat and Clogs}
{Ah, Kurosaki-kun, what do I owe the pleasure?}
{What can you tell me about Persona. Ran into something here and thought u might know something.}
After School
'At least the day was better.' Throughout the day, Ichigo maintained a good record for today by showing up each of his classes and answering the questions that came his way and everyone continues on being surprised by him getting it right, apparently word had gotten around with the other teachers the he had "stumped the great Ushimaru-sensei," which was apparently enough to ward off the other teachers for now.
"At least they didn't picked on you." Tatsuki chuckles, still getting the images of Ichigo one-uping each of his teachers.
"Just glad today's over." He mutters out loud as the two were about to head downstairs and exit the school until,
"Hey there, Takamaki."
They both stopped for a moment before leaving the classroom at the greeting. The slithery, slimy voice sending shivers down her spine. The teens ducked back into the room, before peering around the corner, only to see the supposed "pervy teacher," as Ryuji had stated the day before, Kamoshida, approaching Ann with a wide grin. A face that their blonde haired classmate, certainly did not match.
"Do you need a ride home today?" The teacher questioned with a shining smile, "All these accidents have made things pretty dangerous lately."
Ichigo scowled deeply at the uncomfortable fake smile Takamaki gave back at the teacher while Tatsuki clutched her fists tightly.
"Sorry," the girl said with clear insincerity, "I have a photoshoot today. It's for the special summer issue, so I can't afford to miss it." She quickly stated before attempting to go down the stairs, only for Kamoshida to take a step in her way.
"Hey, now..." Kamoshida interjected, his hands on his hips with a look of fake concern etched onto his face. " Being a model's all fine and dandy, but don't work your pretty little self to the bone." He stated with a wink, almost causing the eavesdropping Ichigo to audibly gag.
"You mentioned you weren't feeling well right?" The teacher continued, "Something about appendicitis?"
"Yes," The girl continued to poorly lie, "I keep planning on seeing a doctor, but I've been too busy. Sorry to worry you."
The teacher then put his hand on the teen's shoulder, causing the blonde haired girl to jump slightly. "You must be lonely too," The teacher said, somewhat lecherously, "I feel bad for keeping your best friend at practice all the time." He then leaned in and muttered something Ichigo couldn't quite make out, but it caused Ann's eyes to widen and quickly remove herself from the man's touch.
Ichigo couldn't stand for it and walks up to the two of them.
"Hey Takamaki," They both look at Ichigo, who is approaching them, "Mind helping me out? There are still a couple of things that the teachers forgot to mention about yesterday so I figure I ask you."
"Uh," She didn't expect him to help her out but she got the idea quickly and pretended, "Oh yeah, Kawakami-sensei told me somethings." She turns to Kamoshida, "Please excuse me." The girl said, and with that she gave the teacher a quick bow and made they both way down the stairs. Leaving Kamoshida to give a disgruntled grunt, before storming off somewhere. "Thanks for the save." She says gratefully.
"Don't mention it. Figure you might of needed a hand." He stated, "If you need help with him or anything else, I can always lend a hand."
She didn't expect that from the new transfer student and there was something different about him compare to everyone here. There was this warmth aura around him and she doesn't know why but she felt safe.
"Thanks Ichigo, I'll see you later." She says gratefully and waves goodbye, leaving the school.
"Takamaki and the new guy?!" Some of the remaining students were all in surprised that the school 'whore' of Shujin Academy was with the delinquent new transfer student.
"She'll drop her panties for anyone. Hell, I'm surprised that its with the new guy instead of Kamoshida."
"How much you wanna bet that he's doin' it for a favor?"
'You're all lucky that I don't knock you idiots out.' He mutters in his head in annoyance by the student body. Ichigo has been hearing all of the crazy things that the student body has been wondering and stating and all of them are making him more and more pissed off. He knows that his record is over his head and how he will go to jail if he doesn't passed a year without getting into trouble, he doesn't need more people on his case on stupid things like this.
Soon enough, he spots Tatsuki and the two would leave the school building and they both spot Ryuji waiting for them by the front gate.
"Yo," Ryuji greeted, before looking Ichigo up and down and gaining a somewhat concerned look. "You good, dude? You look, like, angrier than usual."
Ichigo simply shook his head and relaxed his body. "I'm fine, so what's the plan for today?"
Ryuji hesitated for a moment before moving on. "Right, so I think the first thing we should try retracing our steps from yesterday, if a castle like that really exists, we should definitely see it. Kay'?"
Ichigo looked at Ryuji doubtfully after hearing the teen's plan. Ichigo had walked the exact same way to school this morning as he had yesterday, and nothing was out of the ordinary. Plus, if there was a huge castle just located somewhere randomly within walking distance, there was no way they wouldn't already know where it was. If anything they would have probably been able to see it from the school itself.
'Well, it's not like I have any better ideas.' The former soul reaper thought to himself, before agreeing with his blonde friend.
"Nice! Glad to see we're on the same page." The teen said with a bright smile before turning towards the exit. "You came from the station, right? Let's start there. Let me know if you see any weird buildings along the way."
Ichigo simply gave the boy a slight look of disbelief at his dumb enthusiasm, before slightly smiling to himself as he followed the teen.
Ichigo was no longer smiling and neither was Tatsuki and Ryuji.
Over an hour had passed since the three students had initially left the school building. Since then, the three of them had walked to the station, back to the school, then back to the station, then BACK to the school and still nothing had changed. By now the school was pretty much empty, even a lot of the after school clubs had left the campus at this point. And honestly, Ichigo was now 90 percent sure that Ryuji was, in fact, an idiot.
"Did we make a wrong turn somewhere?" The aforementioned idiot thought out loud. "Or maybe it's smaller than we thought?" Ryuji then turned to the exasperated Ichigo with a look of genuine curiosity that brought the 90 percent up to a 95. "What do you think?"
Ichigo took a deep breath and tried not to yell at his new friend.
"Ryuji," Ichigo started calmly, "don't you think that if a giant castle existed near the school, you'd be able to, I don't know, look it up on your phone or something?" A question to which Ryuji just gave a disappointed sigh.
"I already tried that." Ryuji looked to the ground frustrated, kicking a rock away before a look of realization dawned on him. "Wait a minute...didn't you have some weird navigation app on at the time?"
"What?" Ichigo questioned indignantly, not knowing what the teen was talking about for a moment as he took out his phone. "What app are you-Hey!"
Ichigo was interrupted by his friend snatching his phone out of his hand and scrolling through the apps.
"I'm sure I heard your phone say, "returned to the real world" or something like that." The blonde-haired teen thought out loud, ignoring the annoyed look from Ichigo at having his phone snatched from his hand.
"Ryuji, you can't just-"
"I found it!" The blonde teen interrupted again. "It's this weird, eye-ball looking thing." Ryuji said, showing the phone screen to Ichigo. The mysterious app that had shown up opening on his smartphone.
"Ryuji I don't think-"
"Aww man, I'm so effin' smart!" Ryuji bolstered, at this point pissing off Ichigo at the constant interruptions. "It even has your search history. Let's see here..."
Ichigo watched for a moment as Ryuji fiddled with his phone.
"Damnit Ryuji, don't mess with-" Suddenly an automated voice emitted from the phone.
{Beginning navigation}