[24th May, Shujin's 2-D classroom]
"Even more transfer?" Akira furrowed his brow, leaning back to his chair at Mishima's news. "There are even more surprises than I thought."
"I know, right!" Mishima nodded eagerly, turning to Ren next to him. "Don't you curious about the new transfers too?"
"Actually, no." Ren plainly stated, shrugging and pushing up his glasses. "I have something else to focus on."
"Phantom Thief business?" The other two jokingly said in unison, smirking faintly.
Ren deadpanned. "No, it's... something else else."
Narrowing his eyes, Akira leaned closer to him, his smirk still on his face. "Let me guess... that 'something else else' is about a girl."
The fuzzy-haired boy nodded unintentionally, taking a few seconds before realizing what he has done. "H-Huh?! No!" He exclaimed, a faint blush appeared in his face.
"Judging from the small blush on your face, it's definitely about a girl." Mishima commented, giving Akira a small wink. "Tell us, who stole your heart?"
"I'm curious too." Akira added, his smirk widened. "After all, stealing heart is your specialty."
"I-It's..." Ren stammered, internally thanked for Ann to not be here. "I don't really remember the name of her... But I think it's... Makoto?"
And the air froze, colder than absolute zero.
"No effin' way." Akira murmured to shock, taking a few steps away from him. "This is not real..."
"From every single girl close to you, you choose the hardest one..." Mishima trailed off, sighing and giving him a pat of sympathy. "But as a friend, I'll wholeheartedly support you."
In response, Ren only sweatdropped from their reaction. "Uh... She's not that bad."
"Maybe, but super hard to get." Taking a few moments to recollect himself, Akira walked back next to him, crossing his arms. "Do you know who is her sister? A public prosecutor."
"Yeah!" The admin of Phan-Site nodded in agreement. "And I heard that her sister is extremely serious and professional, and have a high standard for boyfriends, especially Nijima-Senpai's."
"So in all and all, you just pick merciless difficulty." Akira sighed, facepalming to his friend's poor decision. "Good luck, my friend."
On the other hand, Ann and Shiho were walking down the hallway to the courtyard, chatting about what happened Le Fool over these times. However, their topic quickly changed to something more... girly.
"So Shiho," Ann suddenly stopped in tracks, turning around to face her long-time friend. "When are you going to confess your feelings to Akira?"
Shiho instantly blushed in response, coughing for multiple times before answering her. "W-what?! What do you mean by that?"
"Don't play stupid to me." The model pushed further, leaning closer in the process. "Your crush is very obvious to everyone."
"R-really?" The volleyball player stammered, her blushes deepened. "U-um... I don't know, he's too dense."
"Yes, Akira can be a little dense on the relationship side." Ann agreed, pondering while looking elsewhere. "But if he's this dense, be more obvious about it! Just show him that you care about him!"
"I tried." Shiho deadpanned. "Remember that husband comment I made last night? I was intentional about that."
"And you broke his brain." Ann smirked in response, trying her best to hold her laughter. "Sometimes, talking to his Persona is a better choice."
Shiho sweatdropped in response. "Talking to Moriarty?" She said uncertainly.
"Yeah, why not?"
"That'll be suspicious!"
"Then let your Persona talks to him." Ann suggested, crossing her arms. "He won't suspect a thing."
"I'm skeptical." Jeanne suddenly said, appearing behind her. "How can I call him without getting attention from Akira?"
"I can come with you." Carmen suggested, crossing her arms. "We can just say that 'we have a Persona-only meeting' or something like that."
Taking a few moments to consider that option, Jeanne nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's go."
With that said, the two Persona flew to 2-D classroom, leaving the two friends alone. "Let's see what Jeanne can get from Moriarty." Ann shrugged.
Shiho only nodded silently, her heart pounding lightly.
But then, the voice of a young girl caught their attention. "Um... Excuse me, senpai?"
"Hmm?" Turning around, Ann saw a certain redhead who had a crimson hairclip- Asuka in front of her, looking embarrassed for asking her. "Oh, how can I help you?"
The redhead coughed for a few times, glancing back to Shinji not far from them. "Um... That baka and I just transferred to Shujin and... do you know is there a music club in here?"
"Music club?" Ann repeated, exchanging a confused look with Shiho before turning back to the younger redhead, giving her an apologetic smile. "Um... Sorry, but I don't think there's one in Shujin."
Asuka looked down in disappointment for a moment. "Oh..." She murmured to herself, before bowing politely to Ann and Shiho. "Thank you, Senpai."
"It's no problem." The two older Shujin students waved with a faint smile, and Asuka nodded and quickly walked back to Shinji's side.
"So... Asuka." Shinji hesitantly said. "Is there one?"
"Nah, no luck." Asuka sighed, giving the young boy an unimpressive look. "But... Baka-Shinji, I think we really need to have more friends outside of just... us."
"Hmm?" The young boy raised an eyebrow in surprise, taking a few moments to recollect his composure. "That... was unexpected."
"Unexpected?" Asuka deadpanned, nudging his shoulder. "Come on, it's me you're talking about."
"But... It's just that..." Shinji pondered for a short while, trying to find the right word to reply. "You've changed a lot."
"Yeah, we've changed a lot." She nodded.
"Unironically, I kind of miss the old you, Asuka."
The redhead widened her eyes in surprise. "Oh, so you want me to be my old self?" She smirked.
"N-No!" Shinji exclaimed, holding up his hand in defense. "I just..."
"Just what?"
"I just..." He looked down with a faint blush, avoiding her gaze. "I just miss you. That mean, but sometimes nice and cute Asuka..."
Asuka only blushed hard in response, widening her eyes in awe.
"I-I don't mean that you should be like back then, I also like what you like now." Shinji quickly added, internally praying for her to not get the wrong idea. "Now that you're more open with your feeling, and a lot nicer and cute-"
"O-ok, that's enough!" The redhead stammered, interrupting him. "I-I... I need to go to the restroom! D-don't follow me baka!"
With that said, Asuka bolted away from her old roommate, leaving Shinji standing in the middle of the hallway.
Shinji sighed. "It's going to be awkward... What have you done, Shinji Ikari?"
Ann sweatdropped. "Um... so she and the boy are the new transfers." She commented, giving Shiho a small glance. "The girl looks like a mixed-blood too."
"Yeah. And they kinda remind me of you and Ryuji-" The volleyball player agreed with a nod, but jumped in shock as she suddenly felt someone touched her shoulder. "AH!"
"Oh! I'm sorry!" It was Jeanne, giving her an awkwardly laugh. "I just don't know when to tell you that I'm here..."
Shiho glared at her Persona. "You can just tell me."
"Sorry..." Jeanne looked down for a moment, remembering what is her purpose for talking to Moriarty. "Oh! I got something interesting from Moriarty!"
"Something interesting?" Ann raised an eyebrow, smirking devilishly toward Shiho.
"He was advising Akira to have a dat-" The crystal woman was interrupted as Carmen suddenly rushed to her, covering her mouth before she can finish.
"Jeanne! Moriarty told us to not tell Shiho about that!"
Jeanne blinked, awkwardly laughed again as she remembered. "...Oh, I forgot about that."
"Moriarty told you to not tell me?" Shiho sweatdropped, feeling curious and a bit nervous of what Akira was planning to her. "W-well, that's fine."
"Come on, have a bit more faith in him." Ann nudged her on the shoulder, furrowing her brow. "Did he ever disappointed you in any way?"
"Kind of." She plainly nodded, tapping her chin as she recalled the past. "Remember our picnic day back in middle school?"
"Oh, that one." The model winced at those memories. "He tried to be a hero to get some coal for us... but got stumbled by a stone and fell down with face-first..."
Shiho cleared her throat, pulling Ann's ear closer. "Actually, he was trying to impress me back then..." She whispered.
"Oh, that's why." Ann's nodded, gazing toward somewhere else and narrowed her eyes. "Wait... is that..."
"Hmm?" Tilting her head in confusion, Shiho turned around and followed her gaze to the stairs. "Wait, Keigo, Okumura-Senpai?"
It was Keigo, holding a bag of fertilizer and walking down with Haru.
"Um... Keigo-Kun." Haru suddenly said, causing the Half-French to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "I think I'm free this Sunday..."
"This Sunday?" Keigo pondered, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I got no plan for this Sunday too."
"Really?" She beamed at his answer. "That's splendid! Maybe you can take me to more fun places!"
"To be honest, I was considering that option too." The half-French smiled. "Maybe Kichijoji? I want to visit there for a while now."
"Kichijoji?" Haru pondered, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "I've never been there too!"
Keigo widened his smile. "Well, it's settled then."
"Yep." She beamed, giving him the biggest smile she has ever had.
"Now that's out of the way..." The half-French trailed off, shifting the bag of fertilizer on his shoulder. "I think we've been standing in the hallway for far too long."
Haru blinked. "Oh!" She gasped, clinging to Keigo's arms and dragged him to the front yard.
[Afterschool.]
Once the bell rang, signaling the end of school. Akira's phone buzzed at the same time. Pulling the phone out from his pocket, he noticed that it's from the Le Fool group chat.
Hifumi: Um... Everyone, are we going to meet up today?
Hifumi: I know it is a bit too rushed and too much for all of you, but I am too concern about mother...
Akira: It's OK Hifumi, but are we going to call Ren 'bout that?
Shiho: Maybe.
Shiho: We really need to make a big group chat with everyone involved.
Keigo: Shiho, you can just give our number to Ann and let her added us into that group chat.
Akira: More specifically, only yours and Hifumi's.
Keigo: I know.
Keigo: You don't need to step out and comment on that.
Akira: Oh come on, I am the leader after all.
Keigo: That doesn't give you any special treatment.
Akira: Fine... Anyway,
Akira: Hifumi, we're going today.
Shiho: Aren't we going to tell Ren about that?
Akira: Oh. I'll tell them.
Akira: Let's meet up at the hideout, they lend it to us after all.
Hifumi: OK.
Keigo: Got 'cha.
Shiho: I'll walk with you over there.
Akira: Huh? Why?
Shiho: I just want to.
With that said, Akira pocketed the phone and turned to Ren, who was also packing their stuff. "Hey Ren, we're going to the palace." He said.
"Hmm?" The wildcard perked up at his words, tilting his head in confusion. "Ain't that we just finished Madarame's palace yesterday?"
"I know, but Hifumi wants to finish this one ASAP." The persudo-detective explained. "After all, it's her mother we're talking about."
"I can understand that." Ren nodded, pulling out his phone and sent a message to the group chat. Informing them about the meet up.
"There's one more thing." Akira said, causing the fuzzy-haired boy to stop in mid-texting. "Can you add us to the group chat as well?"
"Of course." He nodded.
"Thanks man." The persudo-detective thanked, taking a few steps toward the door. "Shiho said she wants to walk with me... So see you at the hideout."
[A little while later, the Phantom Thieves' hideout]
"I didn't expect us to be the first to be here." Hifumi sighed, leaning to the railing and turned to Yusuke next to her. "Yusuke-Kun, what are you going to do after Madarame?"
"To be honest, I don't know." Yusuke sighed. "But your mother's situation is more important now, I'll think about that later."
Giggling, Hifumi gave him a soft smile. "Thank you, Yusuke-Kun."
"After all, you are the only Phantom Thief other than me in Kosei, Hifumi-san." The young artist smiled as well, looking out to the street of Shibuya.
After a while, Ryuji approached them with a huge grin. "Yo, Yusuke, Hifumi!"
"Ryuji, why are you all along to here?" Hifumi questioned, noticing the lack of the others beside him.
"Ann was comin' with Renren." The ex-runner explained. "As for Shiho and Akira, I don't really know what's up with them."
Yusuke narrowed his eyes. "You're fine with Ren coming with Ann?"
"Of course, why would I be bothered with them?"
"Um... nothing." He casually dismissed, spotting Ann, Ren, and Keigo not far away.
"Hey guys." Keigo greeted them, taking a sip from the coffee he just bought. "Kept you waiting?"
"Not for that long." Ryuji shrugged, noting the absence of Akira and Shiho. "Wait, where's Akira and Shiho? I thought that they're with you."
"Nah, Shiho wants to come with Akira." The half-French answered. "She explicitly said that on the group chat."
"I think she just took my advice, and a bit too literally." Ann sighed. "Let's hope that they won't take too long to come over here."
"Yeah... Unlikely." Ren plainly commented, shrugging his bag to wake Morgana up.
"Ugh... We're here?" Morgana groaned in a muffled voice from the bag. "I'm tired..."
"But we have a palace to handle today."
"Huh? Ain't that we already finished Madarame-" The feline interrupted himself mid-sentence, realizing what he's talking about. "Oh, Mitsuyo's palace." With that said, he quickly came out from the bag, standing on the railing and yawned.
"You looked tired Mona." Hifumi remarked, patting its head.
"Nothing, Hifumi." Morgana shrugged. "I just let Ren stayed up for too long last night."
The shogi player glanced at Ren with a confused look, but Ren just shrugged in response. "Anyway, can someone call Akira or Shiho?"
[In the meanwhile, on the train to Shibuya station]
The evening train of Tokyo was no joke, especially at the rush hour. Akira and Shiho were forced to cuddle together in the middle of the coach, avoid each other's glance with a huge blush on their face.
'This is awkward...' Akira thought to himself, mentally sighed. "Come on train... everyone is waiting for us..."
"What can we do now?" Shiho whispered, burying her face to his chest. "At least I don't need to worry for perv here... especially with you."
"E-especially with me?" The persudo-detective repeated, gulping as his blush worsen. "T-thanks... I guess."
"What kind of response is 'thanks'?" The volleyball player giggled, wrapping her arms around him. "But actually... I kinda want to stay like this... even for a little longer."
"H-huh?" Akira stammered. "I-I... You're serious about that? You're not just playing with me, right?"
"Why would I play something like this with you?" Shiho deadpanned, looking up to him.
"N-nothing... just..." He trailed off, sighing as he remembered something. "Remember Kimiko?"
"Kimiko?" It took basically no time for her to figure out who's Akira talking about. "Oh, her..."
"Um... Remember back like one or two years ago when we were like... very close?"
"Yeah, Ann even teased you for having a crush on her..."
"Well... I thought she has a crush on me." Seeing her eyes widened in surprise, Akira mentally cursed himself as he started to remember more detail. "And I decided to ask her about that... You can guess where it has gone to."
"So you're scared to the fact that I may just be playing with you..." Shiho trailed off, deciding whether to tell him the truth or not. In the end, she decided to tell him.
"Akira, I never played your feeling." She whispered, loud enough for Akira to hear. "I... I did those things because I'm-"
Before she can finish her word, the train suddenly halted, and the train's announcement snapped them from each other.
"This is Shibuya... This is Shibuya..."
The two nodded to each other, walking to the hideout in silence, hands involuntarily intertwined.
Once they had come near the hideout, Ryuji noticed them coming and waved. "Yo! Akira, Shiho!" He called out.
"Hey, Ryuji-" Akira greeted back but paused as he noted the weird glances from others. "Uh... What happened?"
"Um... Guys?" Shiho asked, tilting her head in confusion. "What's with that look?"
"Ugh... Shiho..." Ann trailed off, glancing at their intertwined hands. "You really did listen to my advice..."
"Huh?"
"You two didn't notice that?" Ren suddenly joined, pointing at their hands.
"What-" The two paused in mid-sentence, noting their hands. With a huge blush on their faces, they quickly shrugged off their hands.
"Uh... We just unintentionally held our hands..." Akira trailed off, frantically waving his hands in front. "Ne-nevermind! Let's go to the palace!"
The group awkwardly laughed and Ren tapped his phone, sending everyone to Mitsuyo's palace.
[Mitsuyo's palace, entrance.]
Once the sick feeling of entering the Metaverse, the five members of The Phantom looked at the massive palace with awe. "That's huge!" Skull exclaimed.
Fox framed the palace with his hands. "From an architect standpoint, it is an absolute beauty..." He trailed off, resting his hands down with a sigh. "But it looks too luxurious, this is just a mask for something else..."
"A mask for grief and hatred, right?" Joker remarked.
"Yeah." Majesty nodded, nudging Jester with her elbow. "Jester, can you send us to that saferoom?"
"Of course." Jester, now recovered to his usual composure, quickly tapped his phone and teleport everyone to the saferoom.
[7th floor]
Hopping from cover to cover, the thieves were making processes at a quicker pace. However, they noticed the lack of shadow in their way.
"Oichi! Agilao!" Finishing the last shadow they saw on the whole floor, Majesty sighed in faint exhaustion and holding on her knees as support. "I think it is all of them..."
"Majesty, you don't need to stretch yourself like this..." Roi furrowed his brow, supporting her to stand up straight.
"I know how it feels..." Skull murmured, shivering at the thought of having to change his mother's heart. "But we're a team, you can't just goin' out like this..."
"For once in my life, I agree with Skull." Mona deadpanned, crossing his arms. "And that's a rare thing."
"You don't need to carry all the burden on yourself. We're on your side..." Jester said with a faint frown, taking a few steps ahead of everyone. "From that map, there are only two more floors before reaching the treasure."
"Yeah, and we got the key from the captain we killed earlier." Swan took out a key with a Shogi as the top part, tossing it to him. "Let's not wait any further."
With a nod from everyone, they jogged to the door leading to the stairs. Inserting the key into the keyhole and pushing it in, opening the door. With a quickly to each other, the thieves dashed through the stairs, entering the 8th floor.
[8th floor]
Once the thieves entered the next floor, they were greeted by a hall similar to a museum, with multiple Shogi chessboards that had different arrangements of chess on them contained in glasses.
They split up and examined the chessboards. "What do those arrangements mean..." Joker muttered to himself, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"Anyone know what it means?" Jester asked out loud, noting that Majesty stared at a particular chessboard silently. "Majesty? You OK?"
"I'm fine... But they looked familiar..." She whispered, eyes widening as she remembered those patterns. "Wait, I remember them!"
"You got any clue?" Fox asked, walking to her side to observe that one chessboard. "But it just looked like those other chessboards..."
"No, those patterns..." She trailed off, leaning closer to the glass container. "Those are endgames situation created by father!"
"Endgame situation?" Panther tilted her head in confusion, glancing at Skull for an answer.
Skull just shrugged in response.
"Back when father was alive... He always play Shogi with mother and me, and noted down the endgames we made in his notebook." Majesty explained, still keeping her gaze at the chess. "He used them to document out process..."
"That notebook must mean a lot for both of you..." Fox muttered, glancing at her somber face. "Just like how 'Sayuri' means to me..."
"But mother burnt it after father's funeral." Majesty sudden;y added, causing the others to widen their eyes in shock. "She said she wants to forget the past..."
Roi looked around to the other chessboards. "From the looks of it, it seems she's lying about forgetting the past."
"It must be hard for both of you to live through it." Joker said.
"It is, and that's why we need to save her as soon as possible."
The other thieves opened their mouth to respond, but a slightly distorted voice suddenly rang out from not far away, interrupting them and captured their attention.
"Saving me? Stop kidding." Mitsuyo's shadow appeared near the stairs, slowly walking to the other side of the floor. "There's nothing that can 'save' me, especially YOU, princess."
"Jester, are we going to face any shadow?" Joker whispered to the other leader, gripping his knife in his tailcoat.
"I think not." He replied, holding his revolver in his trench coat. "Last time we met with her, she let us out for some reason."
"M-mother, Please don't say anything like this..." Majesty trailed off, avoiding her mother's gaze. "You're not like that..."
"I know what I'm like. And you don't any say in it."
"But..."
"There's no 'but'." Mitsuyo grimly said, noting the other thieves around. "Even with all of you, there's nothing you can do anymore."
"With what we've seen, that's not the case." Fox commented, taking a step toward the shadow. "You still hold on to the past."
"So?" The shadow said irritatedly, shifting her focus from Majesty. "So what? You can't do anything."
"It is." He nodded, glancing back at his teammates before turning back at her. "But with all of us, it's not that impossible."
Mitsuyo only laughed in response. "With all of you? Stop telling me jokes!"
Seeing no response from them, she covered the lower half of her face with her fan, making sure that no one saw the portrait on the other side. "Petty thieves... If you want to 'save me' this bad, then do it. I'll be waiting for you at the top."
With that said, the shadow disappeared in White light, leaving the thieves alone,
"O...K." Jester sweatdropped, giving everyone a hesitant gaze. "So what are we going to do now?"
"She is challenging us to change her heart," Joker said, sheathing his knife. "But we can't just abandon this palace, let's see what the ninth floor had installed for us."
With a nod from everyone, they dashed to the door toward the next floor, noting that the door was opened already. Even though they were suspicious about why the door was opened, the thieves decided to leave the question aside and continued their infiltration.
However, Mitsuyo's shadow was observing the thieves from somewhere else, fighting the urge to smile. "Hifumi... now that you have real friends now..." She whispered, closing her eyes to calm herself. "The real me had suppressed her mother nature to you... because of the past..."
"But her grief was effecting me too..." She trailed off, clutching her head as pain suddenly built up. "Please..."
"Save me..."
With that, chapter 21 of P5: Another Thief ended! Thank you for reading!
First, let me apologize for the late update of this chapter, I was stuck in a bit of writer's block while this chapter and did a few rewrites. But the next chapter will be posted on time :)
Akira: Are you sure about that?
Of course I am!
Akira: Let's hope that you really did it on time...
Um... Akira, why did you not bring anyone here this time?
Akira: Umm? Oh, I just want to ask you about something.
Akira: About me and Shiho.
Oh... Oh~
Akira: Stop it, please.
(Cough)
Akira: A-anyway... What did you plan for us?
What did I plan?
Umm... (Took out a notebook)
Let's see... a date, a dinner, a parent meeting, a sleepover-
Akira: Wait, a sleepover?!
A sleepover with everyone involved. I have some more idea but it's about lemon scene...
Akira: (cough) It's not T rated, right?
Yeah, this fic is M rated... But I never did a lemon scene before... And I think I'll be suck at it.
Akira: Well... Um... Thanks.
You don't sound like it.
Akira: I need some time to think about it, OK?
(Walked back to the fic's world.)
(Sweatdropped) Um... What should I do?
A-anyway, I hope you guys like the story so far, reviews are welcome!
