Forgiveness

Akira and Haru were sitting in the latter's living room after everyone left. Akira smiles at Haru grateful for letting him stay at her house; "Thank you for letting me stay here for the night." "Yes, without your help, Akira would have slept out in the cold."

Haru smiles back; "You're welcome, I just didn't want you to sleep outside in the cold." "That means you two owe us." "Don't listen to her, I'm glad to help."

"No, she's right, I do owe you. Speaking of which, I need to talk to you Milady."

"Oh? And what does the fake criminal want with me?"

"You will stop looking down on everyone and start being more of a friend."

Milady laughs mockingly; "And what if I refused to do any of that?"

"Then you will be replaced."

Haru looks at him in shock; "You're going to replace me!?" "Why, aren't you secretly an asshole, maybe your past friends were right about you."

"I wasn't talking about you Haru; I was talking about Miss Milady."

"Oh please, you don't have the power to replace me."

"Are you sure about that? I have this little secret that no one else knows about, that even Ann or Morgana don't really know about. He and two other people can help me change personas. Not only that, he gave me a power that works outside the Metaverse." "He isn't kidding, Milady."

Milady starts laughing hysterically, "Y-You really think I'll believe that!? You really are full of surprises even stupid ones like that!" "Maybe you shouldn't test him Milady…"

"You should listen to Haru, Milady." He then activates third eye and walks behind the couch that Haru is sitting on and deactivates it. She shakes her head feeling weird but notices Akira was gone making her look around for him; "Over here..."

"Eek!" She quickly gets off the couch and looks behind her in shock; "Y-You can activate that power outside the Metaverse!?" "The hell!?"

He then gives them his trademark smirk; "Do you believe me now…Milady?"

"He even has powers outside the Metaverse, no wonder why he's the leader." "You know Kurusu, with that smirk you can make me do anything for you. So I'll abide to your rules." "Really? I'm surprised that you changed you mind so fast." "He just proved that he got the power from this 'person', no way in hell I'm testing him about changing me…" Milady whispers.

"I'm glad to hear that Milady." "I think you just scared her." Arsene whispers. "Good." He yawns again; "Oh, sorry about that. I guess I really am tired..."

"Oh! I forgot to tell you that you can sleep in one of the guest bedrooms, I'll show you." "Well that's no fun." She gets up then leads him upstairs to a seating area with a hallway on both sides of the area and double doors that had an office behind it. One hallway had two doors and the other side had four doors.

"You have a seating area up here?" "Are you sure you're not royalty, Haru?"

She sighs; "I don't know why father wanted so much space, he never has anyone stay here. They only go to his office behind the double doors." "To show off his status, of course."

He didn't mean to have her bring up her father and he put a hand on her shoulder; "I'm sorry for bringing him up but are you doing okay about your dad?"

She looks down; "A little bit…Yusuke-kun has been helping me deal with it." "That man is weird; he makes no sense at all." "But, I still don't know what to do about my shares to the company."

"You're not the new president of the company? Wouldn't you inherit from your dad?"

"No, I hoped that it was because he didn't want me to have the burden of running a company." "I'm sure it wasn't because of that."

"Really Milady?" "She does it to her as well."

"No, Milady's right, my father even tried to marry me off. What makes me think he actually cared about me…" "She's my owner; I can be rude to her without you two getting offended."

"That may be true Haru but did he ever out right said he didn't care about you?" She shakes her head; "Then believe that he didn't give you the company so it wouldn't burden you." "She's your owner that means you're supposed to be positive to her."

She smiles at him; "You're right, I just going to believe that my father didn't give me the company to burden me. Thank you, Akira-kun." "Or I'm just teaching her tough love, genius."

"You're welcome, Haru." "Or maybe because she's not only pretty but sweet unlike you." "Whoa Arsene, better not have Carmen hear you say that."

Haru blushed, "Oh, that's kind of you to say, Arsene." "You know I would be mad but now I have something to use against you and can hurt Carmen at the same time."

"You think it was a good idea to say that Arsene, now Milady has blackmail material." "About me thinking that Haru's pretty? I just said pretty, not beautiful, like Carmen." Arsene whispers. "We're talking about Carmen here though." "That's what my mouth is for." "What do you mean by…oh." He shakes his head, "Anyway, you were saying that you have shares to the company?"

"Yes, the new president wants to use my shares to open a low budget coffee shop but he wants to use cheap ingredients to earn more money…" "Sounds like a good plan to me."

"Is that what you want?" "They are your shares, Haru."

"Well, I've been looking into more information about coffee. Me and Yusuke-kun even went to this expensive coffee place where they use elephant dung to brew into coffee, I'm surprised that Yusuke didn't mind it." "Who knew feces can be drinkable and taste good."

"Well this is Yusuke we're talking about." He then realizes what she said and looks at her in disbelief; "Wait a minute, are you serious? Drinkable poop that tastes good?" "That can't be true…"

She giggles at his response; "I'm being serious, I guess they have done it with other animals but it's depends on what they eat. I was going to ask Morgana but I don't think he would do that." "Good thing that cat went on lookout for Akira about his guardian for us to talk about it."

"We're totally going to do that. I'm going to buy some beans tomorrow." "I am definitely going to enjoy this as well."

"You shouldn't force him to eat beans." "He'll be fine; he's just going to shiting his brains out."

Akira sighs remembering that he was going to talk to Sojiro tomorrow; "Speaking of coffee shops, I need to go talk to Sojiro tomorrow even if I have to skip school." "Wouldn't Sojiro be upset about that?" "Not if I ask a certain homeroom teacher to label me present. Good thing, she's my teacher tomorrow."

"I hope that he'll accept your forgiveness." "Or he'll beat your ass as payback."

"Yeah, I hope so too." "Maybe you should kiss his ass." "It's, be a kiss ass, Arsene. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow Haru. Goodnight and thank you again." "Bye, Milady."

She gets up and bows; "Goodnight, Akira-kun and you're always welcome." "Yep." "Oh! You can use either one of the two rooms on the other side of the hallway."

"Okay, thanks again." He then walks to the small hallway with the two doors and goes to the closest one then opens the door. The room was almost as big as his attic room but obviously taller. There was a black curtained window door that led to a balcony. There was also a closet and a bed under a ceiling fan that had a nightstand to the right of it; "Well/I wasn't expecting much since Haru said that her dad had no one stay here but there's a balcony in a guest room."

"It would be nice to take Ann and Carmen out there."

"Yeah, I wish I can give her this."

"But is that what Ann would want?"

"No, but I want to do something extraordinary for her."

"I'm sure Ann would just want you to walk around the house naked, and that would be extraordinary enough for her."

"Let me guess, a Carmen idea for you?"

"Did you even need to ask?"

He laughs; "Point taken. Anyway, I need to call Sadayo." He takes out his phone and notices that it was only 9pm; "Oh? I thought it was later. She should be up." He then goes to her contact and calls her.

After a few rings, Sayado picks up; "Ren? Why are you calling? I thought we weren't supposed to be talking outside of school anymore?"

"Why does she sound hopeful?" Yeah, sorry about that, I just didn't want Ann to get the wrong idea."

"Oh…" She clears her throat; "So how may I be of service?"

"I was wondering if you can do me a favor."

"I can't give you a massage Ren; I don't have the maid outfit anymore. Plus, I don't want Takamaki to hunt me down." She sighs; "That would be great in the papers; teacher gets killed by their own student for giving her boyfriend a massage."

He didn't know whether to laugh or not because she did kind of speak the truth about Ann hunting her down; "Don't worry, it's not about that. I wanted to ask if you can put that I was present at school, I need to miss because I need to talk to my guardian since he kicked me out."

"What!? Where are you!? Do you need a place to stay!?" She says sounding hopeful and worried

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm at a friend's house but thank you anyways."

"Don't scare me like that!" She sighs; "Anyway, I guess I can do that for you, you've been top of the class all year. But, only this one time, got it Ren?"

"Yes, I got it Becky."

"Good. Now I have to get back at grading papers."

"Alright, goodnight Becky."

"Well now it will be." She says quietly.

But he heard it; "Huh?"

"Nothing! Bye!" She hangs up quickly.

He puts his phone on his nightstand still thinking about what she said; "Huh, I wonder what she meant by that."

"It means you were even able to woo a teacher, nice job. So why do you guys do nicknames again?"

"Oh, because she's afraid that someone will record us and use it as blackmail, since you know teacher and student shouldn't be close as friends."

"Oh okay, yeah, you always have to be cautious."

"Yeah. Anyway, now it will give me all day to talk to Sojiro even if he doesn't want to hear it."

"Then we should still go to bed early if you want Haru to drive you there since she still needs to go to school."

"Yeah, let's do that." He then takes off his school uniform and then goes to bed

An hour later

Akira's phone starts ringing waking him up; "Who's calling at this hour?" "It's most likely, Ann." "Probably." He rolls over and grabs his phone seeing that it was indeed Ann so he answers; "Hey, Ann."

"Oh sorry, did I wake you?"

"Yeah but it's alright."

"Okay...I'm just calling to see how you were doing; I know you've been through a lot today with having to remember your past and the whole finding out about your parents…and the suicide attempt."

"Yeah, it was kinda hard but even though I lost my parents, they're both still alive unlike Yusuke's and Haru's. So I can't be all that sad. But, I feel worst about what I said to you and Sojiro."

"It's okay Akira, it was my fault for hiding it for so long."

"But like I said before, you did it because you didn't want to see me hurt, so I understand."

"Thank you."

He smiles thinking of a way to hangout; "Actually, do you want to go to Akihabara tomorrow? I promised Futaba that I would make it up to her for what I tried to do."

"Yeah! That sounds like fun! Hey! Wait a minute! Why don't I get anything!? I had to almost see you die!"

He chuckles; "Well, yeah, that is true. Well, what do you want?"

She didn't even skip a beat; "I want to spend the night with you again!"

Even though she said it easily, he could just picture her smiling and blushing; "Oh…that's something I can definitely do."

"W-Well not like sexual…well not yet…but ever since the Hawaii trip, I wanted to fall asleep in your arms again…" Carmen squeals unable to hold it in.

"Oh my god, I can't handle Ann cuteness." "I've been wanting to do that as well, Ann." "You two are too adorable."

"That's great to hear! Well, I'll see you tomorrow at school then!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I won't be going to school tomorrow. I'm going to talk to Sojiro."

"That's great! But is it really a good idea to skip school though?" "Aw...we won't get to see them...that's not fair..."

"Well I have my ways. So I'm technically not skipping school."

"Does it have something to do with Miss Kawakami and her 'give you more time to do things' technique?" "Are you sure you're not an incubus Akira? It seems you can make woman do anything."

"Yeah pretty much." He then smirks hearing what Carmen said; "That may be true Carmen but alas, I can't be one since my heart only belongs to one woman and that woman means the world to me." "Damn that's good."

"Oh…that's…Akira…" "Nice one Akira! You just made Ann excited, she's rubbing her thighs together." "Carmen!" She quickly hangs up.

He was surprised about her hanging up quickly; "Well there was no reason for her to be embarrassed about getting turned on." "Yeah, especially since she practically wanted you to feel her up and was about to do the same to you before she and everyone left." "Yeah, I don't know. She's really confusing sometimes. Anyway, let's just go back to bed." "Yeah, that sounds good."

Leblanc Café

Futaba was sitting on the counter eating curry when her phone goes off making her take it out of her pocket and notices that Akira texted her; "He's here!? Is he and dad going to talk!?" "Hopefully!"

[Hey Futaba, I'm outside. Can you and Morgana come out?]

[Yeah! Be there soon!]

She quickly finishes the curry then grabs Morgana; "Hey! Let me go!" "How dare you manhandle your mentor!"

"Quiet Mona…we're meeting Akira." She whispers "Our only mentor is Akiree and Arney!" She runs out the door shouting; "Bye Sojiro, leaving!"

Sojiro was too lost in thought to pay attention to Futaba

Outside Leblanc Café

Futaba sees Akira and runs up to him then hugs him "Are you going to talk to Sojiro?" "Please do! I can't handle you two not talking anymore!"

He laughs; "It's only been one day Necro. But yeah, I'm going to talk to him. So how has he been Morgana? Is he still mad?" "I hope not."

"I don't think so; it looks like he's been thinking a lot though." "Probably thinking about how to punish Akira properly." "Your room is still the same too, he hasn't thrown away anything."

"Yeah, he even asked how you were doing and if you found a place to stay when we got back yesterday." "You know what you big stupid cat, I will probe you."

"I guess those are good signs..." "Maybe he's trying to find a way to apologize to you as well especially since he's been worried about you." "I don't know, that doesn't sound like him though." He sighs; "Well it's time to go talk to him. Do you want to come with Futaba? You can come too Morgana, maybe you can meow him enough for him to give in and forgive me."

"Course, maybe I can help?" "Yay, we can help Akiree!"

He nods and they walk to the café door. But once he holds the doorknob, he hesitates to turn it till Futaba puts a hand on his. He mouths a thank you to her and finally turns the doorknob then pushes the door open. He then sees Sojiro standing outside of the counter with a hand on his chin clearly thinking. and that's when he cleears his throat to get his attention; "Uh, hey there."

Sojiro's head shoots up hearing him and sees him at the entrance; "Akira!? Why are you here and why aren't you in school?"

"Well I wanted to apologize to you for what happened yesterday." He then chuckles nervously; "And...well...I'm technically at school." Sojiro looks at him confused; "Don't worry about it, I have my ways."

"I wouldn't doubt it now, since you're a phantom thief." He sighs; "I can't believe I've been harboring one for this long..."

"Um..well...I'm not only one of them but I'm also the leader of them..."

"Of course you would be…"

"I'm sorry; I know I shouldn't have hid it from you."

"Well I would have kicked you out if I found out sooner. But, you were right yesterday; Futaba would still be locking herself in her room if it wasn't for you."

She lowers her head; "It's because I thought I killed my mother but Akira helped me realize that it wasn't me. It was bad people that killed her and lied to me saying that I made her kill herself…so I joined Akira and the others to find out who did it.

"You think that people had her killed? Don't be ridiculous, Futaba!"

She would usually be scared of him yelling at her but she needed him to understand; "Are you going to be like the others!? You know what happened to mom wasn't normal! Her eyes and mouth were oozing black stuff and she just fell into the car! Why can't you see that!?"

After she says that, he looks down thinking about what she had said and it made him realize that she was right. It was the same way that man died during the press conference; "I'm sorry Futaba, I knew there was something fishy about your mother's death, but what could I have done? That's why I ran away from the government because they knew I worked with her so I ended up living here in hiding. It's also why I became your guardian so I can feel less guilty about not being able to do anything and you've already suffered enough with your uncle and your mother's death. I even gave up trying to make you come out of the room…"

She walks up to him and hugs him; "It's okay Sojiro. You wouldn't have been able to help me. Akira and the others have a certain power that involves 'cognitive science' to change my heart."

"That's the confusing part." He sighs looking at Akira; "How do you guys change people's hearts anyways?"

"To be honest, you're not going to believe how we do it. But maybe it's time that I show you but you'll probably have a heart attack. So I'll just show you this first." He brings out his phone and shows him the app; "We press this and we get transported to another world."

He inspects the app closely; "This looks weird. Are you sure this isn't a virus?"

"Nope. Now are you ready to witness even more weirdness?"

"If it will help me understand all this Phantom Thief business, then go ahead."

"Alright then." He then presses the app

After he does; Sojiro hold his head feeling nauseous; "What the...? Why do I feel nauseous?" He then looks up and around seeing nothing different; "Are you and Futaba messing with me? It looks the same."

"Can you hear us?"

Sojiro looks at Akira because it sounded like him but didn't at the same time; "Did you say that?"

He coughs nervously; "No...That's my otherself." And before Sojiro asks; Arsene appears out of Akira but had to lean down since he was too tall for the café; "Hello Sojiro Sakura, I am Arsene."

He looks at Arsene with his eyes wide not believing what he was seeing; "What the hell is going on!? Who is that!?"

"Um Dad, I-I'm Futaba-chan's other-self as well, my name is N-Necro, but I can't show you myself since I'll break your shop…"

He looks at Futaba like she grew another head when he heard a voice coming out of her; "Necro? Dad? Am I reading your mind Futaba!?"

Morgana jumps on a booth next to them; "And this is my real self! Well not my real self since I'm truly human!" "I am Zorro, and I'm too buff to show you my beautiful self."

"Even the cat is talking and walking on two feet…I need to sit down…" Sojiro puts his arm behind him trying to find a seat. When he did, he stumbles backwards on it holding his head.

Akira presses the app making them go back to reality before he passes out; "So there you go, that's how we're able to change people's hearts."

Sojiro was still holding his head; "How did you even get this power?"

He shrugs; "I still don't know the whole details. But, good news! You can probably hear Morgana talk now."

"Can he?" Morgana looks at Sojiro

He looks over at Morgana; "Yeah...I can hear him now. I can't believe our cat can talk now…I really need a drink."

Futaba sits next to him; "Do you believe me now? Someone is using this world to kill people. I think that he killed mom the same way…"

He nods at her; "Well now I definitely believe you. I just don't know what to think about this other world and your 'other-selves' business."

He laughs; "Well you can just go along with it." "Wait, can Sojiro hear you guys now?" "No, like I said when we first talked in the real world, only other Persona-users can hear us here. He can only hear Morgana because he heard him talk and Morgana has a body in this world."

"Just go along with it huh? Well I can't really turn you in since I haven't caught you in the act. So I'll have to 'pretend' I don't know that you're a Phantom Thief."

Akira bows feeling grateful that he understands; "Thank you, Sojiro. I'm sorry again for putting you and Futaba in this."

"It's alright kid. Just promise me to keep Futaba safe and keep using this power for good."

"I promise. But, there's one thing though. You said that you ran away from the government. Were you a government official?"

He nods; "That was a long time ago, I was like a bridge between the country and research center where Futaba's mother worked at. So that's how we got to know each other. We went out for a drink one day, and that's when she told me that she might die in a strange way in the future. At first, I laughed at it, but now I see she wasn't lying."

Futaba looks at Sojiro in shock; "So, my mom knew that she was going to get killed this way!?"

He sighs; "It seems so, that means that you two might be going against the government. I know I should warn you about fighting them but if you're going to change Wakaba's killer's heart and it involves this otherworld then I should trust you two."

Akira smiles; "Yeah, you can count on us, Sojiro." "We'll make sure of it, Sakura." "Arsene says the same thing." Futaba and Morgana nods.

"Wait, Arsene? He's that being that came out of you right?"

"Yeah. He, Necro, and Zorro help us with the changing of the hearts."

"Didn't this 'Necro' call me Dad?"

"Maybe I should explain what personas are." He explains what Personas were and how they were the user's true self.

"So these beings that help you, are basically your other hidden personality? Well then that does make sense that this 'Necro' being calls me Dad then."

Futaba nods; "Yep, she also calls Arsene big brother, because I see Akira as a brother."

He shakes his head and laughs; "Well I guess Wakaba was right about her research and I just thought she was crazy but she didn't say anything about these Personas." He looks at Akira; "But, there's something I wanted to ask you, since you change people's hearts. Did you change Futaba's uncle's heart?"

He nods; "Yeah, I had to or he would have gotten Futaba back. I couldn't do that especially since you're the best thing for Futaba as a guardian."

He smiles; "I appreciate that."

But he rubs the back of his neck because he still wanted to apologize for what he had said yesterday; "I'm sorry for what I said yesterday...I didn't mean it. I was just upset about you and Ann hiding my disownment for so long. It didn't help hearing about my disownment in the first place."

He sighs but smiles; "Yeah, but there's a reason why I did it. I was going to show you yesterday but I was still upset about the whole Phantom Thief situation and for what you said. But, now that I seen what you guys can actually do and how it would be impossible to get caught since it involves otherworldly things, I have no reason to be upset now." He then grabs his coat and walks to the entrance then opens the door; "Come on, I got something to show you Akira. You two should come along too." He says looking at Futaba and Morgana. They were all confused on what he was going to show Akira but they follow Sojiro outside. After he locks the door, he starts walking towards his house while they continue to follow him. Once they make to the house, he unlocks the door and lead them to the hallway with the three doors on each side of the hallway but stops at the first door to the left. He opens the door to a room similar to Futaba's room but obviously empty besides a bed and a computer desk.

Akira and the other two were now completely confused and Akira looks at Sojiro; "Uh...Why are you showing me a room?"

He laughs because he understand what he was showing him; "Really Akira? Welcome to your new room."

Surprised, his eyes go wide not believing what Sojiro was saying; "A-Are you serious!?" "This truly is a great surprise!"

Futaba couldn't contain her happiness; "Akira's going to be living with us!?" "Please don't wake me up from this dream!"

"C-Can I live here as well!?" "I honestly thought he was going to punish him."

"Yeah, I'm serious Akira. Before I tell you about why I hid your disownment. I just want to say that I'm sorry that I was like a grumpy old man to you; I just know how the world works so I kept trying to make you feel bad for helping people because no matter how nice you are, this world will always treat you like crap. But, I already know that no matter what I say, you'll still do it.

He smiles still feeling the happiness of living in a room once again; "Yeah, I wouldn't."

"Now about your disownment, I'm sorry I hid it from you but the reason I did it was because I wanted to see how you would be during your probation. What would have happened if I told you about the disownment when you first got here? Even when I made a hint about it your first time here, you made the face of someone who's given up till I told you it didn't happen. You would have probably done something stupid getting yourself arrested because you would've had no reason to follow the law. So, I was going to tell you about your disownment after the probation was up and if you were good, I was going to take you in as your guardian but as part of a family instead of an obligation but I didn't expect you to find a girlfriend here. So I told Ann about it and I had a feeling she wouldn't hide something this serious from you since you would be calmer towards her telling you instead of me but I guess it took her longer than I thought to tell you. I also wasn't expecting you to meet Futaba this soon and not only that, she warmed up to you so quickly. So now that you know about your parents disownment and Futaba sees you as a big brother. Not only that, you also helped me deal with Futaba's uncle, so I think it's a good enough time to welcome you to our family."

Akira didn't know what to say. His whole time here, he thought that Sojiro hated him because he was a burden to him but he was only looking out for him. Not only that, he hid is disownment because he thought he was going to do something stupid which he was right about. And now, here he was letting him become part of a family. He could do nothing but cry; "Thank you…""Even I'm about to cry…"

"Hey...Don't start crying now; you're going to make me cry." He takes off his glasses and wipes his eyes.

Futaba starts sobbing as well and hugs both of them; "We're finally a family!" Necro starts bawling

Morgana meows happily for them. "This…isn't…supposed to be cute…for me…"

Sojiro laughs rubbing Futaba's head; "We're not a family yet, we still have to go tell Wakaba first. So, come on, let's go visit her."

Morgana jumps on the bed; "I'm going to stay here and get comfortable on my new bed."

Sojiro whispers to Akira; "Did he just say it was his new bed?"

He sighs; "You'll get used to his, narcissism." "At least he doesn't have to hear Zorro…"

Cemetery

Sojiro, Futaba, and Akira were in front of Wakaba's grave

Sojiro walks up to her tombstone and put some flowers on the ground in front of it; "Hey there, Wakaba. I know it's been a while since me and Futaba last visited but we've been going through some things this year." He then motions Akira to stand by him and he put a hand on his shoulder when he gets near; "I started looking after this young man who goes by Akira. He got in arrested for saving a woman from getting assaulted and was forced to transfer here. Not only that, his own parents disowned him. But, he's done so much for me and Futaba since he's got here that I decided that he should become part of the family. I hope you approve of it." A gentle wind blew around them making Sojiro smile at Akira; "Well I think that was a sigh that she approves of it."

He smiles back at him; "Yeah, it does seem like it." "You have a family again, Akira."

Futaba looks up at Akira; "You are now officially my brother!" "Yay, do you hear that Arney!?"

He rubs her head happy to hear that; "Yeah and I'm proud to have a smart, quirky, little sister." Arsene laughs; "Yes I did, little sis."

Sojiro smiles them; "Well, do you guys want to get some sushi? I think we should celebrate a new family member, Futaba."

"Ooooo, yeah!" "Sushi! Sushi!"

"Sounds good to me." "Sushi does sound good."

The three of them walked back to the car and go on their way to the Sushi restaurant.