Chapter 8: Throwing Around
Akira palms the thermos filled with coffee, rolling it in between her hands as she waits on the train platform in Shibuya. Constant transfers from one line to the next are starting to get on her nerves. Idly, she misses the day of hopping on a bus to the station and only needing to get off at Shinjuku.
Why is Nakai Station in Shinjuku when Nakai itself is over an hour away?
Meaningless whispers about a girl reach Akira's ears, her eyes flicking up and immediately catching sight of the redhead with the ponytail. A red ribbon too. Someone who knows her aesthetic, apparently.
She doesn't think much of her, until she finds herself standing over her on the train, who snagged a seat somehow, despite the whole car being packed.
It's not even two moments before she's standing up, though, meeting an old grandmother's eyes. "Please, take my seat. My station's coming up."
"Are ya sure?" With a laugh and a nod, she says, "Then…"
No sooner had the girl stepped out of the way that some salaryman brushes past Akira's shoulder and steals the seat. Oh wow, what a dick!
"Oh wow, what speed!" The girl whispers. Akira steals a glance at her. She's wearing a Shujin uniform, she only just notices. Really though? Impressed by his speed and not pissed at his asshole behavior?
"I mean—" she catches herself, adopting a pleasant and pleading expression, "Excuse me, that seat was for this lady…"
The man has the audacity to look up at her, duck his head, and pretend to nod off. You're not fooling anyone dude.
"Oh…" The girl really does look heartbroken to be faced with such brazen rudeness, enough to make Akira take pity on her poor soul. The guy's deserved a bit of discomfort anyways, as Akira's heel finds his foot.
"Want me to 'wake him up?'" She asks, relishing in the man's poorly concealed 'sleeping' shuffling, trying to get out from under her.
The redhead simply nods. "It's alright. I can understand his position as well."
Seriously? "Oh." She takes her foot off, and the jerk lets out a sigh of relief. "Alright then."
The girl narrows her eyes for a second, before offering to take the old woman's bags to the next station for her, in return for having failed to give her a seat.
"Here, I'll help," Akira offers.
"No, no, it's fine. I train plenty." The girl, at least ten centimeters shorter than Akira, assures her.
"Then we can both help her with her bags and head to school together?"
"Alright, but really, I don't need the help."
The girl is oddly insistent, but Akira gets away with helping the old lady with a large handbag, at least.
On their way out of the station, she still stops her, however. "Pardon me. I just wanted to say thank you for your help?"
Akira palms the strap of her shoulder bag. "Even though you didn't need it?" she asks with a raised brow.
"It's the thought that counts." Her eyes shoot down to Akira's chest and back up again. "You're a second-year at Shujin, correct? I'm a first-year, myself."
"I noticed."
"I forgot to thank you while we were helping that nice lady to her transfer, and I didn't want to be rude to my senpai."
Akira shrugs. "It was nothing, really. Felt like I was getting in your way, actually."
"I did have one question though." She shuffles awkwardly in place. "Did you… mean to step on that man's foot?"
Akira lets her teeth show a little with a grin. "Not in any way he could prove." The girl's eyes go wide. "Don't worry, I let up after you said something."
"I see…" She sounds uncertain, and Akira steps back with a nod to give her an out. "Please, excuse me." She bows, and heads on her way.
It's only watching the girl's bright ponytail retreat that Akira realized they never even bothered to exchange names.
She scratches at the back of her head. "I keep forgetting that…"
"I saw Takamaki with that whore transfer student."
"They were all dirty and roughed up, you think they were doing it in the alleys?"
"Kamoshida's gonna flip when he finds out what his girl's been doing…"
Akira's walk to the Faculty Office is enough to put her in the stormiest of moods. The rumor mill is truly a self-sustaining ecosystem of lies and venom.
Kawakami still looks tired when Akira sees her at her desk. She can't help but stare at the stacks of papers and books nearly dangling over the edge of the desk. Before she can stop herself, she starts lining up the books and stacks in a more stable and organized fashion.
"Um…" Kawakami blinks up at her new student fiddling with her papers. "Thank you? You didn't have to do that, Kurusu-san."
Akira lets go after getting all the books into order. "Sorry, I just… it looked like it was going to fall."
Kawakami shakes her head. "Well, alright then. After yesterday, we'll have to introduce you at the start of class today. I'd ask that you be serious about it… but, everyone's already talking about you and Takamaki-san."
A thumbnail catches itself on Akira's bottom teeth. "They'd better stop, then," she mutters darkly.
"Try not to say anything unnecessary, okay?"
Akira stops gnawing away at the corner of her thumb and sighs, "I promise to try."
However, even before they've made it to the classroom, Akira can already overhear:
"You think that's her?"
"The one from the rumors!?"
What a lovely way to start her new school life.
She doesn't even make it to the front of the class before her new classmates join in on the fun.
"I can't believe she played hooky on her first day of school. She really is insane…"
"She looks normal though…"
"Probably because she's not on the clock, hehe…"
"Everyone, quiet down," Kawakami says, silencing the chatter. "I'd like to introduce our new transfer student: Kurusu Akira." She pauses, casting Akira a glance. "She had to miss her first day of class due to being injured on her way to school yesterday." She nods. "Please say something to the class."
The sympathy in Kawakami's voice is almost enough to stop Akira. Almost.
Akira squares her feet, hands on her hips, tilts her chin up and stares down her classmates. "Ann-kun and I were attacked on our way to school yesterday. We were abducted, and we only barely escaped with our lives." The class goes dead silent. "The police sent us to the school, and the nurse treated our injuries. We were just a little shaken up, so neither of us was really in a good way to start classes for the day." She tilts her head down, letting a loose fringe of curls dangle in front of her eyes. "Say whatever the hell you want about me; I don't care. But don't go throwing around rumors about Takamaki just because she got caught in the middle. Got it!?"
"...Uhh, so…" Kawakami stumbles over how to respond to Akira's declaration.
"Holy shit," one guy in the middle of the room whispers, though everyone can hear it.
"A-Alright, Kurusu-san, uh, you'll be sitting behind Takamaki-san!" Kawakami claps her hands, trying to clear the tension in the air. "You already have your textbooks, correct? Good." Kawakami looks relieved when Akira nods to her.
A little bit of life comes back to the class as Akira heads to her new window seat. She'll be grateful for the distraction. She pauses, for just a second, in front of Ann. The blonde glances up, with big blue eyes, and mutters, "Th-Thanks…"
Akira smiles, and sits down as the students start chattering again.
"What was that all about?"
"That chick is ice cold…"
"She and Takamaki know each other, huh?"
"Is she cheating on Kamoshida-sensei? I mean, this is Takamaki-san we're talking about."
"For real. That side of the room is totally awful."
Kawakami breathes a sigh. "The volleyball rally is tomorrow, and everyone's still adjusting to their new classes. Please take some time to get to know each other. Let's begin today's classes. Mishima-kun?"
A haggard-looking kid with blue hair speaks with the softest projected voice Akira's ever heard, "Everyone, please rise…"
"For those of you who don't already know," the portly man with salt-and-pepper hair says pointedly, "I'm the social studies teacher, Ushimaru-sensei. I'll be teaching you the rules of society this year."
Akira stares out the window, idly fiddling with the pens in her hands. Two notebooks out in front of her, she lets the teacher drone on, ignoring the way he seems to be throwing his words at her specifically.
"A certain dictionary defines a year as 'a period of 365 disappointments.' This book's title is about as cynically satirical as the rest of it. It's 'The Devil's Dictionary,' by Ambrose Bierce."
Akira sighs when he calls her out, "Hey, new kid." She glances at him out of the corner of her eye. "Tell me what the Devil's Dictionary defined as the chief factor in the progress of the human race."
Akira raises an eyebrow, before turning her eyes back to the window. "Sensei, the textbook cited Ambrose Bierce's 'The Devil's Dictionary' as an example of satire, but it didn't mention any of the actual contents." She twirls a pen between her fingers. "Will this question be on the test?"
"Look me in the eyes when speaking!" She catches a glimpse of him winding up, and drops her pen. The air whistles as a piece of chalk lands squarely in her raised palm.
She begins twirling it in place of her pen. "You want this back, or can I keep it?" Ushimaru doesn't respond, and she turns back to the window. "The answer is 'malefactors', by the way. Villains, in layman's terms. Do you usually throw chalk around the classroom?"
Ushimaru grunts, before affirming to the class that she's correct. He turns back to the board, ignoring her questions completely.
She pops the chalk into her mouth, rolling it between her teeth.
"She actually got that right?"
"What a nasty attitude."
"Did she just eat the chalk?"
A loud CRACK silences their whispers, and powder fills Akira's mouth. It tastes nasty.
After classes have ended for the day, Ann looks at Akira and nods towards the windows. Ignoring all the hissing that's been following her since yesterday, Akira meets her outside by the school gate.
"I know I already said it, but…" Ann shuffles her feet. "Thanks again for what you said in class. I didn't think school could get any worse, and yet…"
Akira shrugs. "Life, uh, finds a way." She grins, "To fail to meet even the lowest expectations."
Ann grins. "I think I've seen that movie! So, uh-"
"I figured out how we got in in the first place," Akira takes out her phone, unlocking the screen.
"Really!?" Ann gawks. "I've been racking my brain trying to figure it out for like, 24 hours."
Akira snorts, "I hope you've been getting sleep, Ann-kun." She opens the red-eye app and checks her search history. "There it is. 'Kamoshida Suguru'. 'Shujin'. 'Pervert'. Aaaaand 'Castle.'"
The world begins to warp, pressure building behind Akira's eyes, but nearly so disorienting as last time.
"Whoa, that's still a headrush." Ann clutches at her skull. "I remember feeling like that yesterday under the awning."
Akira holds up her smartphone. "This app kept opening itself up on me since I got to Tokyo. It also wired me money I apparently earned beating the crap out of those monsters."
Ann snorts. "That's like some kind of video game, Akira-chan!"
"Ain't it though?" Akira joins in on the laughter.
"Lady Ann, Dame Akira!" Morgana jumps up onto a crate from the shadows. "You two came back! Why?"
"Hey, Morgana," Ann waves.
Akira grins, her stormy spirits already lifting. "Mona-chan!"
Mona tucks his arms in shyly. "Y-yeah. Um, you shouldn't be here! The Palace is still too dangerous if you don't have a Persona!"
"You know, you still haven't quite explained what Personas are," Akira says idly. Her hand falls to her hip, where she can feel the bulge of her Tkachev in its holster. She wasn't sure where her bag went, but its contents seemed to have found their way onto her person in her new outfit.
"I know this place is dangerous, Morgana, but we had to come back!" Ann throws a fist out to her side. "If this is really Kamoshida's head, then there are questions I need answered. And those answers are down in that sewer with all the screaming."
Morgana hums for a moment, considering the situation. "...I can guide you through Kamoshida's Palace, but it's not going to be easy."
Akira grins behind her mask. "Never stopped me before."
Ann nods. "I'm not turning back. Not till I get what I came here for."
The cat-burglar shakes his head. "Alright. But I can't promise you'll like what you find."
A/N: Apologies for the long and unexpected wait for this chapter. I promise, I'm not making this a habit.
See you all next chapter for the Second Infiltration!
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