[28th May, early morning]

Akira woke up panicking.

He walked around in his room in a circle, biting his lips. "Crap, crap..." He murmured, repeating this single word.

Why was he like this? It's because he forgot one important thing about his date with Shiho. He was asking her on Friday. Thus today's the day.

"I'm so messed up!" Akira grunted, finally stopped walking around and curled up to a ball. "I messed up my first date!"

Moriarty appeared in the room, trying his best to reassure his owner. "Akira! It's OK! You don't need to full-on panic mode with this small mistake!"

"I-I didn't plan for anything!"

"Oh." The Persona froze but quickly recovered from the shock. "Wait, you said you would watch a movie with her and had dinner-"

"I didn't plan for anything other than the movie part!" Akira exclaimed. "What should I do? Oh god, it's going to be a nightmare..."

"Just take her to the park and confess your feeling," Moriarty suggested, only to shiver as Akira glared at him. "Don't tell me you're not going to do that."

"I need time to prepare the confession."

"You need time?!"

"I'm not emotionally prepared for a confession." The persudo-detective explained, avoiding his Persona's glance. "What if she refused-"

"She waited for three years for a date with you, why would she refuse?" Moriarty asked, tilting his head in more confusion. "Have faith in yourself."

Akira hesitantly nodded. "I'll try my best..." He trailed off, walking toward the wardrobe before his phone suddenly buzzed.

Slowly turning around in pure fear, Akira gulped before picking up his phone and checked. It was a call from Shiho. He glanced at his Persona for a split second before pressing the 'accept' button.

"H-hey Shiho, why calling now?" He awkwardly laughed, twisting his hair.

"When and where are we going to meet? We never talked about this yesterday." Shiho said through the other side of the line, and she sounded just as nervous as him.

Widening his eyes in horror, Akira quickly checked the time before answering. "M-maybe after school?" He said, trying his best to stay calm.

"U-uh... Maybe." Shiho said, pausing for a brief moment before continuing. "I need a bit more time to prepare myself too."

"O-ok." Akira awkwardly laughed again. "So after school, and we meet at the front gate... Is this fine with you?"

"Yeah," She agreed. "See you there, Aki-chan~."

"I told you not to use that name again-" Before he could finish the sentence, the call ended with a beep. Akira sighed and put the phone on the table, opening his wardrobe.

"Any suggestion, Moriarty?"

"No. I don't have one." Moriarty replied, shaking its head. "Aren't we having school for today?"

"O- You're right." Akira widened his eyes in realization, turning back to his wardrobe.

He pondered for a second and sighed, putting on his school uniform. After that, he walked into the restroom and examined himself in the mirror.

"It's fine." The persudo-detective shrugged, tiding his hair. "It's fine enough for me."

Then, he packed his phone and other valuables to his schoolbag. "I'm ready to go. Now for the planning part." He said to himself, walking to his storeroom and took out a whiteboard to the living room.

Moriarty appeared next to him, crossing his arms. "You're overacting, Akira." He deadpanned.

"I know," Akira shrugged, grabbing a black marker and drew a timeline. "But, it's necessary."

The Persona opened his mouth to say something, but stopped he said anything. "I don't think Naoto-San taught you skills for this..."

"But she doesn't know about this, just keep this as my little secret." The persudo-detective said. "OK, so it's the movie." He murmured, writing 'movie' at the start of the timeline.

"So, where should I go with her after that?" Akira asked himself, tapping the mark on the board thoughtfully. "Arcade? No, she's not as a big gamer as Ann. After all, volleyball took the majority of her free time."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Don't disturb me, please." He plainly stated, sighing and wrote 'Arcade?' on the timeline. "But, I'll consider it, thanks."

"Tsundere." Moriarty joked, giggling at Akira's glare.

"I hate you."

"But I'm your Persona. I am thou, thou art I, remember?"

"But you're not like-" Akira interrupted himself, glancing at the clock behind his Persona. "We shouldn't waste our time anymore. There's not much time left before school."

"Then stop looking at me and focus on planning the date, I'll remind you when we're late." Moriarty deadpanned, disappearing in thin air.

Taking a deep sigh, Akira turned around and continued to plan the date. He wrote a good number of ideas on the whiteboard and deleted some of them. And he repeated the process for a good while until Moriarty's voice rang out again.

"Akira, you're about to be late."

The persudo-detective raised an eyebrow in confusion, turning around to have a glance at the clock. "Wait, I've only planned for a short while-" Akira interrupted himself, widening his eyes in horror.

"Crap." He murmured to himself, before hastily taking a photo of the whiteboard and rushed out of his apartment.


On the other hand, Rei and Kensuke just came out of their apartment. Smiling and intertwined their hands as they walked to the elevator. Rei was wearing a typical Shujin uniform with a white rabbit hairclip on her hair, while Kensuke was wearing a Kosei uniform.

"I still can't believe we've been dating for a year now," Kensuke said, adjusting his glasses with his off-hand. "You're fine with a romantic comedy, Rei?"

"Sort of," Rei shrugged, placing her head at his shoulder. "And it's your pick. I'll try it out."

"You'll like it." The nerdy teen grinned. "Trust me-"

However, before Kensuke could even finish his words, the sound of terrified Akira startled him.

"EXCUSE ME!" Akira exclaimed while dashing through the couple, almost crashing with them.

"Wha- what just happened?" Kensuke questioned out loud.

"I don't know either." Rei tilted her head, and the two glanced at each other in confusion.

"Maybe he's gonna be late-" The nerd stopped himself in mid-sentence, taking his phone out from his pocket and chocked the time. "Oh shit." He murmured, widening his eyes in horror.

"We're gonna be late!" He exclaimed, taking her hand and rushed to the elevator.

Meanwhile, Akira rushed into the building's elevator and got to the ground floor. Once he reached the ground floor and the street of Jongen-Jaya, he instantly continued his dash toward the station.

As Akira passed Leblanc, Ren just came out with Morgana in his shoulder bag, waving at him. "Hey, Akir-" Before he could finish, the persudo-detective ran past him without with a gaze of wind struck him, messing up Ren's already fuzzy hair.

"Um... Kay?"

Morgana poked his head out of Ren's bag, raising an eye in pure confusion at Akira's direction. "Ren, what happened to Akira?"

"How would I know?"

"I'm just asking. He should be in Shujin by this time," Morgana shrugged, retracting his head back into the shoulder bag. "We're going to late! And that's because you didn't listen to me!"

"You just told me to sleep-" Akira stopped himself, adjusting his glasses and ran to the station.


After a mad dash toward the station, the group got to their school just in time, luckily. "Thank god..." Akira sighed, crouching down and slowly panted. "At least I can continue my planning in classes."

"Maybe, but you're going to forget it anyway."

"Shut up, Moriarty." The persudo-detective rolled his eyes, standing up and walked toward class 2-D's classroom.

And after a few more minutes, Rei, Ren, and a young girl with crimson hair tied to a ponytail also got to the school, barely on time.

"Kawakami's going to kill me..." Ren murmured, taking a deep breath and ran upstairs toward the classroom, leaving the two other girls alone.

The young girl sighed in exhaustion, turning to Rei. "Um... Hi." She greeted awkwardly. "Do you know where the teacher's office is? I'm new here."

Rei shook her head in response. "No, this is my first day in Shujin too."

"Oh, we're on the same boat then." The girl sighed again, holding her hand out. "Kasumi Yoshizawa, nice to meet you."

"I'm Rei Ayanami... Nice to meet you too," The azure-haired girl took her hand and the two shook their hands.

Rei noted a sign behind Kasumi and raised an eye. "I think the office might be there..." She said, pointing at the direction the sign was.

"There?" Kasumi asked, raising an eye before turning around. "Oh, yeah."

With a nod from each other, the two new transfers walked toward the direction of the teacher's office.

And the day continued like how it used to.


[After school]

Once the bell rang, signaling the end of today, Akira instantly got up from his seat and packed up his bag. Ready to run straight to the front gate.

Unfortunately, he was interrupted by Ann's voice. "Akira, you're going somewhere?" She asked, tilting her head in confusion. "I've never seen you in a rush like this."

"Kind of." He replied, picking his bag up and shifted his headphones around his neck. "I'm sorry, but time's running out."

Before Ann can even open her mouth to respond, he rushed toward the classroom's door and left, dashing down the stairs. "Shiho should be there by now-"

"Ichijou." Akira's monologue was interrupted as he heard someone around called him, turning his head to the direction toward the voice.

It was Makoto.

"Nijima-Senpai, what are you calling me for?" He questioned, tilting his head in confusion and walked up to her. "I have someone waiting for me."

"That 'someone' can wait for a bit, right?" Makoto asked with a raised eye, looking down for a moment and sighed. "I need your help."

"Help?" The persudo-detective asked with a raised eye, shifting his shoulder bag. "You know, we've only met for once..."

"But, I also heard that your investigation skill is better than everyone else." The president continued. "And I need those investigation skills of yours."

"For what?"

"The principal requested me to look into the 'Phantom Thief' business," Makoto answered, causing Akira to widen his eyes in shock.

Even though he's shocked at first, but Akira quickly regained his composure, clearing his throat. "Well, that's reasonable."

"After all, Kamoshida's confession did cause a ripple effect."

The president nodded in agreement. "And I have a suspect for you to look into." She said, taking her phone out and showed a photo of Ren to him. "His name is Ren Amamiya-"

"You don't need to introduce him to me. We're friends."

Makoto smiled and put the phone back to the pocket. "Well, that's better. I can save some time in the introduction."

"Can you look into him?" She requested, trying her best to sound sincere. "I cannot do this alone... And principal Kobayakawa had been pressuring me to give him a report..."

"U-uh..." Akira trailed off, hopping between accepting or not in his mind. 'This is the weirdest request I've ever got...' He thought.

"But you'll be suspicious if you refuse her," Moriarty said. "And sidenote, Shiho's waiting."

'Oh, right, Shiho!'

Remembering the fact that Shiho's waiting for him, Akira quickly nodded in acceptance. "O-OK, I'm in." He answered, shifting his bag to ready to run away. "Maybe we'll talk on Monday. Someone's waiting for me."

Seeing a nod from the president, Akira instantly dashed off the scene, running to the front gate.


[about half an hour later, Front gate]

Even though there is still some time left before noon. Shiho had already arrived at the front gate, waiting for Akira. "Where is he..." She trailed off, glancing around for the sight of him.

Seeing no sight of her old friend, the volleyball player sighed and pulled out her phone. She opened the contact list and called Akira.

But before the call could even connect, a pair of rushed footsteps and heavy panting rang behind her. "I was about to call you, Aki-Chan." She sighed, putting her phone back to her pocket.

"I-I'm sorry..." Akira breathed between panting, tiding his messed up hair. "Nijima-Senpai just asked me to help her with something..."

"You know, there's a word called 'No,' right?"

"There's no one else to help her... And I'm the only one."

Shiho just sighed in response, shaking her head with a ghost of a smile. "Typical you."

"Anyway, let's go." She said, gesturing in the direction to the station.

Akira nodded and followed her, and the duo walked toward the station in comfortable silence. The sun started to set, and it's light shined on the volleyball player, catching Akira's eyes and not letting go.

However, he quickly shook his head and looked away, but his glance always unintentionally moved to her hand. 'Should I...' He thought, hesitating on whether to hold her hand or not.

However, his glances didn't go unnoticed from Shiho. "You're staring at my hand." She said with a faint blush on her cheeks. "Is there something wrong with it?"

The persudo-detective instantly snapped his head away from her hand, eyes widening. "N-no, I'm j-just deep in thought about something." He Shuttered, avoiding her confused gaze. "Habits."

"You're a poor lier, Aki-Chan."

"We talked about the name, and you promised me not to use it again." Akira murmured, and his faint smile only suggested otherwise. "But I can make an exception if I got to call you Shi-Chan."

"No, you're not." Shiho stuck out her tongue in response. "And you can't control how I call you." She said, smirking at the sight of him being speechless.

"You got me there," Akira said after a small pause, noting that they've arrived at the cinema.

The two got into the waiting line, and Shiho took out her phone to search the name of the movie. Akira, on the other hand, was checking his wallet.

However, a tap on his shoulder captured his attention from his wallet. "Aki-Chan, I got the name of the movie." Shiho grinned, showing her phone to him.

Akira narrowed his eyes at the screen, which showed an info page of the movie. "'Spike!'... That sounds so lame." He said, widening his eyes at the list of actors involved.

"Wait, Kanami-San and Rise-San were involved in it?" The persudo-detective raised an eyebrow, rubbing his nosebridge as if he's wearing glasses. "Now, you got my attention."

"I thought they were focusing on their music career..."

"I heard that this is their first movie," Shiho explained, putting her phone back into her jacket's pocket. "And it's not like they're bad at acting."

"I don't know how good is Kanami-San's acting, but Rise-San is very good at it," Akira said.

"For real?" Her grin only grew wider at his comment, anticipation building up in her heart. "I'm already excited about this film, now with your comment..."

"The anticipation is through the roof, right?" He smirked, snapping his attention away from her as they arrived at the ticket counter. "I'll pay for us."

"Huh?" Shiho slightly widened her eyes in surprise. "You don't need to pay for me-"

"Just think this as my way to make up for being late."

Even though she wanted to refuse his offer, but Shiho decided not to reject his offer. "...OK, but I'll pay for our popcorn and drinks." She sighed after a brief pause.

Nodding, Akira turned around to the ticket counter. "We'd like to see 'Spike!' at 12:30," He said, opening his wallet and paid for the two of them. The ticket clerk nodded and took the money, giving him the tickets and the change.

They entered the theater and handed the ticket. Arriving at the snack court, Shiho chose a medium-sized popcorn and another medium soft drink. "What's yours pick, Aki-Chan?"

"I... I don't want to cost you any more money." Akira sighed, shifting his crossover bag. "I'm fine with no snacks."

The volleyball player narrowed her eyes for a second, before turning back to the counter. "Excuse me, can I have another straw?" She asked.

The staff gave another straw to her, and she stuck it to her soft drinks. "I'll share it with you." She said, giving him a wink.

"Uh... you don't need to-"

"I want to." Shiho interrupted him, walking toward the theater with him by her side.


Even though Akira had a pretty low expectation and expected nothing (aside from seeing Rise's first time acting.), but the movie was... surprisingly good. The chemistry between her and the male protagonist was interesting, and their acting was very good for an idol.

As for the film itself, it was about Rise's character- Yuri, the captain of her school's volleyball team. As a very straight to the point person, she was called 'cold beauty' by everyone in the school (And it bothered Akira a lot. After all, she's the polar opposite in person.).

But contrast from her usual impression, Yuri had a crush on her childhood friend- Kazuto. And the first two acts of the movie revolved around the attempts from Yuri to get closer to Kazuto, not knowing that he also had a crush on her.

On the other hand, Kanami played Yui, the only friend of Yuri, aside from Kazuto. She was a part-time model and the president of the news club. She had been giving advice and helping Yuri to get his attention and join them together.

Even though the similarity between the movie and Akira's situation was uncanny, but he didn't notice it at all.

Instead, he kept trying to hold his focus on the movie. Afraid of just staring at Shiho like an idiot. 'C'mon, get a hold to yourself, Ichijou.' He thought.

However, his resolve only weakened again and again by her giggle and offers. "Aki-Chan, you're OK?" She whispered, leaned closer to him. "You didn't respond."

"I-I'm OK." The persudo-detective replied with a nod. "It's just... It's weird to drink the same drink with you."

"Hmm? Why?"

"It's indirect kissing, you know." He explained. "I-it feels awkward."

"Oh..." Shiho trailed off, a deep shade of red crept onto her cheeks. "Sorry 'bout that."

"It's fine," Akira whispered, giving her a reassuring smile. "But I think...Wait, I think it is the confession scene." He said, shifting his attention back to the movie.

Shiho instantly turned back toward the movie at his word. "Oh, here it is!"

The scene was set in the final act of the film. Yuri was anxious about the finals of the nationals and called Kazuto to talk.

"Yuri, you're OK?"

"No, not really," Yuri mumbled, leaning against the railing and looked to the dying sun far away. "I'm... I don't know."

"You're nervous about the finals?" Kazuto asked, leaning beside her. "I don't know how it feels, but... You'll be fine. I trust you."

"Why?"

"Why? For what?"

"Why did you care?" Yuri asked, shifting her eyes from the sun to him. "I know we've known each other for a long while, but aren't you having a crush on Shiori?"

"I only saw her as a friend, for the whole time," Kazuto explained, his eyes meeting hers. "However, I did have a crush on someone."

Yuri's head perked up at his word. "You had one?" She asked, only loud enough for him to hear. "O-on who?"

"You."

Before she can even react to his sudden confession, Kazuto leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. The camera cut to another angle with their silhouette in the frame, with the dying sun shining over them.

Shiho was smiling brightly at the scene, imagining the two characters in the film as herself and Akira. Meanwhile, Akira also imagined the same thing, but his rational part quickly took over and pulled him out from the imagination.

'maybe I can confess my feeling like this.' He thought, unintentionally rubbing his chin. 'Asking her to recreate this scene and confess... That'll be great.'

"Will you do the kiss as well?"

'Shut up, Moriarty.' Akira retorted in his mind, glancing at Shiho to see if she noticed their conversation. 'But I'll consider that.'

"T~sun~dere~," Moriarty said in a sing-song tone, only causing his owner to roll his eyes in annoyance.

'I effin' hate you.'


After the movie ended, the two decided to go to Inokashira Park. They walked around the lake in the center and enjoyed the time with each other.

"It's better than I thought, by a long shot," Akira commented, stuffing his hands into his jacket's pocket. "Maybe I should tell Rise-San my thought on her acting."

"Yeah, she's awesome!" Shiho agreed, greeting him with a beaming smile. "I still can't believe this is her first time acting."

"Me neither." The persudo-detective nodded. "I can't believe she'd accept a role like this. It's too different for her to pull it off."

"And that confession scene was so good!"

"I know, it's great."

Shiho smiled, and the two continued their walk in comfortable silence, they reached a small lake and stopped. The two watched the lake in front of them, both looking for the right moment to confess their feeling.

The silence between slowly but surely turned from comfortable to an awkward one, time passed without their notice. But after a long while, the two started in unison.

"Actually- / Shiho, I lov-" They paused and stared at each other, before turning away and fell into silence again.

"Um... Awkward, right?" Shiho awkwardly laughed, tugging her hair around her ears.

"Y-yeah." Akira shuttered, clearing his throat before facing her. "I'll go first." He mumbled, stiffening as he knows what he's gonna say.

"Actually, I asked you on a date for a reason..." He said, tightening his grip at his crossover bag. "C-can you-" He shuttered again, sighing in disappointment toward himself.

"Akira, if you're too nervous to say it out, just kiss her."

'I- You serious?'

"Of course!"

'...Fine! I'll do it-'

"Akira?" Shiho asked with a concerned look, interrupting the argument between persudo-detective and Moriarty. "You just stopped talking for a minute."

Snapping back into reality, Akira blinked in slight confusion. "Oh, I just talked with Moriarty." He said.

"Talked with him?" Shiho only blinked, tilting her head in pure confusion. "For what?"

"Something I'm about to say." Akira took a deep breath before continuing. "Shiho, can you be my girlfriend?"

The volleyball player froze at his sudden confession, widening her eyes in surprise. "W-wait, did you just confess to me?"

"Y-yeah."

She sighed and fell into deep thought for a few seconds, before looking right into his eyes again. "I-I want to-" she interrupted herself, cupping his cheeks with her hands.

She shook her head and cleared her thought. "I love you."

Shiho leaned in and pressed her lips on Akira's, closing her eyes and just lived in the moment.

"...?!" He widened his eyes in surprise, but quickly snapped out from it and closed his eyes too. Wrapping his arms around her waist and held her close.

Time passed without them noticing, and they kept their lips connected and forgot the world around them. After like... a minute? Five? Ten? They reluctantly pulled their lips apart and kept looking at each other's eyes.

"Taste like popcorn." Akira joked, earning a giggle from her.

"Don't tell me this is why you didn't eat any popcorn."

"Kind of."

"Meanie." Shiho pouted, giving another peek on his lips.

"I know." He winked, tightening his embrace around her. "I love you too."


And with that, chapter 25 of P5: Another Thief concludes! Thank you for reading!

(Clear throat) After 25 chapters and a few teasing(Pun intended), the first couple finally got together! Yes!

On a side note, the start of this chapter was an accident. I forgot to check the calendar. And the 27th of May was a Friday... So, a happy accident?

Update: Um... Since there's a fundamental mistake of this chapter (There's school in the day it set), I've done some rewrites for certain parts of this chapter. (Mostly new scenes.)

And I decided to introduce Kasumi into this fic as well! This is becoming more of a hybrid between vanilla P5 and Royal than what I thought it originally was...

And now Akira had involved with Mokoto's investigation for Phantom Thief(In canon, she started her investigation after Kamoshida's confession), it's going to be weird for him XD.

Reviews Response:

RosyMiranto18: About Akira, he did want to be a private investigator or a detective in general. (Akira will talk about it at the hot pot scene) Other than that, he'll be at least suspicious for Akechi at their first meeting. After all, the 'pancake' was evident for someone like him.

As for the Evangelion characters, they'll be more like social link characters. A group of characters who crossed paths with PT's social lives and be friends with them. As for the German, Asuka was a mixed-blooded with a quarter Japanese with three-quarters German, so... yeah.

For the rules of the group chat... Ren probably just made one rule, and that's no PDA. After all, most of them are still single.

Now back to 'it' inside of Akira. Actually, I've decided on who it is, and I'm sorry for the confusion. I had thought about how to introduce 'it' and the aftermath of its appearance, both in Akira and the whole group.

Anyway, thank you for sticking with this fic.

And let's hope that the AN won't occupy half of this chapter.

Well, I hope you would enjoy this story so far, reviews are welcome!