A/N: Welcome to my next long-term fanfic that I'll be working on in between chapters of Superb Song of the Fate Defying Valkyrie! That being said, I do not expect to be posting chapters at the same rate I have with the other fanfic at first, mostly for the sake of not wanting to overwork myself.

Before the story starts, I want to get the disclaimers out of the way.

For starters, I highly recommend watching the Persona 5 anime as well as playing Persona 5 royal as there will be spoilers in regards to story elements present in both within this fanfiction. I also recommend watching Symphogear just to understand various references present in this story as well.

Lastly, Persona 5 and Symphogear belong to Atlus and Akifumi Kaneko respectively.

With that out of the way, Enjoy the first chapter of Symphogear R!

11/19/20XX
Saturday: Evening
Shadow ?'s Palace

In a fancy casino, burglar alarms were going off, which made the crowd below panic, it especially didn't help that the sound of footsteps could be heard on the decorations above them.

Eventually, one of the civilians looked up and noticed a girl in a pure black trench coat with a white mask and purple gloves holding a briefcase and standing on one of the light fixtures. "Up there!" A civilian called out.

"She's here. Move in immediately!" A nearby agent said into his earpiece. Upon seeing that she caught the attention of the agents, the mysterious girl leapt to another hanging platform and started running.

"Good. Now get outta there dess!" Imp called out over the girl's earpiece.

"We only have one shot at this. Do not fail!" Alchemist shouted.

"I will say though, that was a really good idea getting the crowd's attention like you did." Seer complimented. "Now then, there should be an area you can escape through on the other end of the room you're in. Hurry Echo!"

"I'm on it. Thank you Seer." The woman named Echo replies, running across the tethered platforms to where Seer told her to go.

As she reached the other side, several agents blocked her path, but suddenly, their appearances altered and became slightly bulkier with strange masks over their faces. "You've got this Echo!" Maiden said.

With a grin on her face, Echo jumped into the air and landed on one of the distorted agents, ripping his mask off as she did. Once the mask was gone, the agent transformed into a giant monster that would terrify any normal human, but Echo wasn't even fazed. "Persona!" She shouts as she rips off her own mask to reveal a giant woman wearing black robe holding a massive reflective shield and a staff.

Echo simply pointed at the shadow and the woman charged an attack in her staff and fired a laser that erased the monster in seconds. With the job done, the mysterious woman disappeared and Echo's mask reappeared on her face. "Nice work Echo!" Skull applauded over the earpiece.

"Huh? I'm detecting more shadows approaching your area. Get out of there!" Seer reported, and soon after multiple "Shadows" appeared, forcing Echo to jump to higher ground. "There's a door behind you Echo, go through it!" Without another word, Echo runs for the door Seer mentioned and ended up in the maintenance hallways away from the civilians of the casino.

"She can still hear us right, Seer?" Samurai asked.

"I'm still picking up everyone's comms, so it should be good." Seer answered. "Hang on. I'm picking up a strange reading heading towards you Echo. Get out of there!"

"I'll keep an eye out if I see anyone suspicious." Echo says.

With Seer's warning, Echo hurries through the maintenance hallways, doing her best to not be detected by anyone in any way she can, until a sudden shadow ambush halts her progress. "Even this many is too much for you to handle alone..." Seer said with fear in her voice, before an alert caught her attention. "Echo! That strange reading is closing in on you too!"

"Looks like you're in quite the bind, eh?" A tomboyish-sounding voice called out from the shadows. Echo looked around for the source of the voice and eventually saw a woman with wild brown hair and a similar black outfit to her own, only a bit shorter and looser than hers, with a black mask that covered most of her face except her eyes and her cheeky grin.

"Echo! It's her!" Seer reported. "She's the strange reading it was picking up!"

"Now how about we even the playing field?" Suddenly, the woman throws a large spear at one of the shadows which destroys it instantly. With her target destroyed, the woman taunted the other shadows. "Who's next?"

The shadows charge at the woman, but she was ready for them, taking out shadow after shadow with her fists and a gun that looked like a .357 Magnum she kept on her person. When she was done, only three shadows remained which all transformed into various monsters. "There. That's more like it!" She said as she dusted off her hands and blew the smoke off her gun.

"Thank you, Kanade-Senpai." Echo says to the woman.

"C'mon, what kind of Senpai would I be if I just left you in a situation like that?" Kanade jokingly remarked. "Now let's deal with the rest of these freaks together!"

Echo nodded as both herself and Kanade grabbed their masks and shouted "Persona!" summoning the woman from before as well as red demon with many arms and scimitars. Together, the Personas let out blasts of red and white light that knocked down the monsters.

"Time to end this!" Kanade shouted as they both jumped into the air, let out a flurry of blows with their spear and dagger, and landed behind the monsters, striking poses as they did.

"The Show is over!/And stay dead!"

"Heh. That went well." Kanade said, satisfied with the fight.

"I don't know what happened, but I guess you're okay?" Seer asked, before another reading showed up. "Bad news! Enemy reinforcements are on their way to your location! Get out of there, right now!"

"I'm gonna distract them as much as I can, so you get outta here and reunite with your friends." Kanade said. "You've still got some Phantom Thief stuff to do, yeah?"

"Yes." Echo replies.

"Then I'm not gonna stop you. To be fair, I can't really stop you since I'm not a member of the Phantom Thieves anyway." Kanade replied.

"Spot's still open if you reconsider." Echo said.

"Nah. Not really my thing, y'know?" Kanade answered, before walking way. "By the way, I haven't forgotten about that promise you made me a while ago, so don't go gettin' yourself killed."

"I won't." Echo said.

With Kanade gone, Echo continues down the path Seer guided her in, narrowly avoiding guards every step of the way.

"Okay, the exit should be right in front of you." Seer reported.

Echo looked all over the room, looking for any form of exit she could, only to see a giant stained-glass window. "Through there?"

"That's just how it is I'm afraid." Seer replied.

"The ground floor is completely closed off." Ace added.

"You'll be okay, right?" Warrior asked.

"Freeze!" A voice called out from behind Echo, belonging to one of three armed agents. "There's nowhere left to run!"

Echo stayed silent for a moment, before smirking. "I'm afraid you're wrong about that." Before the agent could ask what she meant, Echo leapt onto the railing and ran across it over to the stained-glass window. "See ya!"

Without warning, Echo dove right into the stained glass window and stylishly landed on the ground outside. "Heh. Showoff." Gunslinger scoffed.

"That's our leader for you." Warrior said.

"I'll regroup with you all outside of the pala-" Echo was cut off by several lights flashing in her face, revealing several armed and heavily armored riot squad officers.

"What's going on?" Ace asked.

"An ambush?!" Seer realized. "Get out of there Echo!"

Echo ran as fast as she could away from the officers, but more were waiting around every corner. Out of options, she spotted a ladder above her and quickly jumped for it, successfully grabbing it and climbing to safety, or so she thought.

Unfortunately for her, more officers were waiting above her, one of which knocked her off the ladder with the stock of their gun and into the swarm of officers below. "Echo!" Warrior screamed in fear for her teammate.

"Everyone get out of here while you still can!" Echo orders while she tries to fight off the officers to no avail and is eventually restrained.

"Suspect secure!" The officer holding Echo on the ground with her arms pinned to her back reported.

"To think all of this was done by some kid." A man in a suit said as he approached the restrained Phantom Thief. "You have your teammate to thank for all of this, you know." The man grabbed Echo by the hair to look her in the eyes. "You were sold out." The man let go of Echo and nodded to the soldiers to arrest her.

11/20/20XX
Sunday: Daytime
?

A woman with long pink hair in a black suit walked down a very secure corridor where several men in suits were standing outside of a guarded room. "Hold it ma'am. I'm afraid I cannot allow anyone else to go in that room." One of the men said.

"I am Maria from the Public Prosecutor's office." The woman says. "I'm here on urgent business. Let me speak with the suspect."

"Maria-san?" The other man in the corridor said. "You have a call from the director." Maria took the phone the man handed her.

"I thought I ordered you to stand by, Maria." The director said.

"I was put in charge of this case, yet I'm not allowed an interrogation?!" Maria retorts. "I'm not leaving until I can confirm it for myself."

"I figured as much, so I already cleared it for you." The director said with a sigh. "Good luck. I'm not expecting much though..." The call ends and Maria returns the phone to the man before heading towards the door.

"One last thing prosecutor." The man with the phone said. "Your time with the suspect will be cut short for your own safety. Her methods are unknown and we're unsure that speaking with her is even safe."

"Thank you, officer." Maria says before being lead into the room by the guard, and is surprised by who she saw at the table. "So it really was you, Miku Kohinata."

Compared to how she looked before being arrested, Miku was covered in bruises and her eyes were a faded gray color. "The others... Are they safe...?" Miku asked.

"To my knowledge, you were the only one arrested. Your friends are safe." Maria answers.

"Good..." Miku let out a sigh of relief.

Maria sat down at the interrogation table and noticed various used syringes scattered across the floor. "Bastards... On a woman no less... Listen to me very carefully. Anything can happen to you here and I can't stop it. If you want to get out of here safely, you must answer me honestly." Maria said, to which Miku faintly nodded.

"What was your objective? Why did you cause such a major incident? Where did you find out about the existence of that 'world'? How is it even possible to steal another person's heart?" Maria asked in quick succession.

"I... I-I can't..." Miku grabbed her head in pain, struggling to remember the events that lead to her being here, which started to stress her out.

"Easy now. I'm sure what they used on you is affecting your memories temporarily" Maria says in a calmer tone. "Let's start from the beginning, back when you first arrived in Shibuya in April, and go from there. Tell me everything you can remember."

Miku took a moment to breathe before she answered. "I'll tell you... Everything..."

4/9/20XX
Saturday: Afternoon
Subway to Shibuya

Miku sat quietly in the train car, still shaken up about what had happened. While she may not have been there for it, the phone call telling her that her parents were killed in a major accident would be horrifying for anyone to hear. "Carol-san is so amazing!" A girl's voice said, knocking Miku out of her funk for the moment as she turned to see two girls looking at a phone with a woman with long blonde hair and a confident smile on her face. "A famous detective, and she only recently started college! It's like she's living in her own world!"

"Yeah!" The other girl added. "Not to mention, I hear her partner is very handsome."

Her interest being piqued, Miku decides to listen in to the report on the girl's phone. "Carol Malus Dienheim solves another case, following Naoto Shirogane, being billed as 'the second coming of the Detective Prince,' and-" The report stops which causes Miku to notice the girls were looking right at her.

"S-Sorry..." She apologizes, turning away to look out the window as they approached the station in Shibuya. Once they reached the station, Miku walked outside and took in the sites for a moment. "I'll be able to look around better when I'm with Hibiki." She thought. "I should probably let her know I arri-" Miku stopped herself upon noticing a strange app she never saw before. "That's odd... When did that get installed on my phone?"

She clicked on the app to try and find any information on it, but when she did, the sky turned red and everyone stood still. "What's going on?" She thought, before spotting a blue flame among the crowd that erupted into a pillar of fire before forming into the silhouette of what appeared to be a hooded woman with glowing eyes and a glowing smile. Before she could even react, the flame died down and revealed... herself with a sinister grin and glowing yellow eyes? Suddenly, the sky turned back to normal and time resumed for everyone around Miku. "I'm just gonna get rid of that app to be safe." She said, doing just that.

Afterwards, Miku called to tell Hibiki she made it safely to Shibuya, which the girl over the phone was overjoyed to hear and got to her location as soon as she could. "Miku!" Hibiki shouted, pulling her best friend in for a hug.

"It's great to see you too, Hibiki." Miku replied, returning the hug. With greetings out of the way, Hibiki and Miku got into the former's mother's car and returned home.

Saturday: Evening
Tachibana Residence

"Thanks again for letting me stay here, Tachibana-san." Miku said, bowing respectfully.

"You're welcome, Miku-chan." Hibiki's mother replied. "Your parents were great friends. I know deep down they'd do the same for my Hibiki if she was in your shoes. But enough about that, I'm sure you're tired from the long trip here. How about we get you settled into your new room?" With that said, the Tachibanas lead Miku to her new room in their house, which was also Hibiki's room, much to her request. It wasn't much, but it was enough for her. "I'll leave you two be for the night. Just make sure to get plenty of rest since Hibiki's going to show you around Shujin tomorrow."

"Thank you again, Tachibana-san." Miku said.

"Don't be afraid to ask for anything dear. Goodnight." Hibiki's mom said before closing the door.

"I'm so happy we can hang out again in person, Miku!" Hibiki said cheerfully.

"Me too..." Miku said, tears starting to form in her eyes. "I just wish... It was for a better reason..." Finally being practically alone, Miku let out all of the tears she did her best to hide from the world. Hibiki didn't hesitate to console her best friend, remembering when she was consoled by Miku years ago for a similar reason. Miku cried for what felt like an hour, but Hibiki knew that she needed this. Eventually, Miku lifted her face from her friend's embrace and dried her eyes. "Thank you, Hibiki."

"No problem, Miku." Hibiki replied with a warm smile. "I may not know how you truly feel, but I promise you I'll do the best I can to be there for you."

Miku chuckled softly, "And I'll do the same for you, Hibiki." Suddenly, Miku started to yawn. "Well, we should go to bed now. I'll worry about unpacking when we get back from Shujin tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me!" Hibiki said, leading her friend to their bunk bed.

"You never got rid of it, huh?" Miku commented.

"Why would I? There's a lot of great memories that were made with this bunk bed." Hibiki said. "Speaking of great memories, you want to share the top bunk like old times?"

Miku started to blush when Hibiki offered this, but was too tired to come up with a reason to decline her offer. "I'd be happy to."

"Yay!" Hibiki cheered. It took a moment to get used to, but the girls were comfortable just like when they were kids during various sleepovers. "Goodnight, Miku."

"Goodnight, Hibiki." Miku said, but Hibiki was already fast asleep, a sight which Miku couldn't help but feel nostalgic looking at. "Just like when we were kids." Before Miku went to sleep, she heard a ping on her phone, surprised to see the mysterious app from before was on her phone again. "I could've sworn I deleted this earlier..." Suddenly, Miku started to have trouble staying awake and eventually passed out with her phone still in her hand as she passed out.

?

Not long after falling asleep, Miku woke up in a strange room. "Hibiki?" She called out, not seeing her friend anywhere. Upon a closer look at her surroundings, she noticed several monitors and various computers, of which all of them were being operated by faceless people in suits. Aside from that, there were two computers closer to where she woke up and a strangely out of place wooden desk in the middle of the room where a woman with long blonde hair sat.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room." The woman at the desk said. "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. I am Finé, and I serve as the master here. It would be wise for you to remember that."

"Where am I? Where's Hibiki?" Miku asks.

"Silence!" One of the two women operating the closer computers barked.

"The you in reality is currently fast asleep." The woman working on the other closer computed said. "You are experiencing this as a dream."

"Now listen to our mistress!" The first woman said.

"I summoned you here to discuss important matters." Finé said. "Matters that involve your life as you know it."

"Important matters?" Miku wonders. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the inevitable ruin that awaits your world." Finé answered, which shocks Miku. "However, there exists a means to avoid such ruin."

"There is? Please tell me, what do I need to do to save the wor... ld..." Miku suddenly became very sleepy as she asked for Finé to elaborate.

"We shall meet again." Finé said. "But for now, you must return to the world you came from."

4/10/20XX
Sunday: Morning
Shujin Academy

After her confusing dream, Miku woke up the next morning and went with Hibiki and her mother to meet with the principal of Shujin Academy and see where her new classes before school started the next day. "I must admit, it was a surprise to hear about you joining our school, considering how well your grades look according to your previous school's records, Kohinata-chan." The Principal complimented. "However, I must give my condolences after hearing as to why you came to Shujin first and foremost."

"Thank you, sir." Miku replied.

"I'm sure you want to find out where you need to go for your classes, but first, I'd like you to meet your homeroom teacher." The Principal said, giving the floor to the woman next to his desk.

"I'm Sadayo Kawakami. Here's your student ID." The woman said, introducing herself and handing Miku her ID while simultaneously dropping an odd flier that she quickly picked up and hid in her pocket. "Seeing that you live with Tachibana-chan, I'll leave it to her to show you to your classroom tomorrow seeing she's also in your homeroom. Who knows, you may be just what she needs to help raise her grades." Hibiki was flustered by that jest pointed towards her.

"Now then, I'll let you go about getting used to our school." The Principal said. "Welcome to Shujin, Kohinata-chan."

"I have some errands that I need to run. Just call me when you need a ride home." Hibiki's mom said once they left the Principal's office. "I'll see you two later."

"See you later Mom!" Hibiki replied, waving goodbye as her mother left the school grounds. After that, she showed Miku around the school, ending her tour with the place she spends the most time aside from the cafeteria, "And lastly, we have the boxing club!" The room in question, while clean for the most part, seemed a bit dated. "The school mostly puts their sports funding towards the volleyball team, but we make do with what we have here. It was a lot worse before, but Kanade-Senpai was able to convince the school to give us more up-to-date equipment."

"Kanade-Senpai?" Miku asked.

"She's the president of the boxing club, and one of the best in the club too. Not to mention just how cool she is in general." Hibiki explained. "She makes even pros look like chumps with how strong she is."

"Now, now, Hibiki-chan." A voice called out from a nearby room. "There's no need to hype me up to newcomers." Upon closer look, the voice belonged to a woman who was dressed in an orange sweater with blue jeans with wild brown hair that went down to her shoulders.

"Kanade-Senpai!" Hibiki cheered. "Oh, she isn't a newcomer. She's my best friend I was telling you about the other day. She just transferred to Shujin."

Kanade smirked. "So you're the legendary Miku Kohinata that Hibiki's talked about so much. I'm Kanade Amou. It's nice to finally meet ya." She extended her hand out for a handshake.

"It's nice to meet you too, Kanade-Senpai." Miku said as she shook Kanade's hand.

"Welp, Imma get outta your hair now, Hibiki-chan. I was just finishing up some personal training and I'm pretty exhausted." Kanade said, playfully ruffling Hibiki's hair before looking at Miku. "Oh, and welcome to Shujin, Miku-chan. I'll surely see you around school if you're with Hibiki."

"Bye, Kanade-Senpai!" Hibiki waved as her senpai left the room. "See? Isn't she the coolest?"

"I take it she played a big part in building your confidence compared to when we were children?" Miku joked, which made Hibiki blush again.

"W-Well, that's all I really needed to show ya." Hibiki said, trying to change the topic. "Ready to head home?" Miku nodded. With that, Hibiki called her mother to come pick them up. They would use the subways to get to school tomorrow.

Sunday: Afternoon
The drive home from Shujin

"Goodness, traffic sure is busy today." Hibiki's mom commented.

"Again, due to the subway accident, the schedule for all trains has been affected-" A reporter said over the car's radio, before Hibiki's mom turned it off.

"Another accident? There's been a lot around here lately." She said, surprised by the report. "Well, that at least explains why traffic is as busy as it is. But enough about that, were you able to get a good look around Shujin, Miku-chan?"

"Yes. Hibiki showed me where my classes were as well as many other notable places around the school." Miku replied. "I imagine I'll still need to get used to it all, but I'll be okay."

"That's good to hear." Hibiki's mom said. "One last thing I should tell you though. On the weekdays, I'll be out late at work. So I won't be home until the evening, so feel free to do whatever you want before curfew. Just make sure you don't do anything illegal of course."

"Yes ma'am." Miku replied.

"Aside from that, just make sure not to miss the train to Aoyama Itchome in the mornings." Hibiki's mom said. "I'm sure you'll do fine though, Miku-chan."

11/20/20XX
Interrogation Room

With Miku's recollection of her first few days in Shibuya discussed, Maria pulled out a photo from the subway accident. "The subway accident that day... Yes, I remember it as well." She said. "I assume you're aware of the uproar the public refers to as the 'psychotic breakdown incidents.'"

"That does sound familiar." Miku said, memory still hazy on the term in question.

"It was all over the news, and one of the victims was a teacher at your high school." Maria stated. "On that day, were you still an 'ordinary' student?" Miku stayed quiet, not sure how to answer. "Let me rephrase the question: You transferred to Shujin Academy, correct?"

"Yes." Miku replied.

"An ordinary high school you'd find all over the city. Or at least, that should've been the case." As Maria said this, she pulled out a red card with a threatening message written on it. "At the time, people saw this as just some prank, but that wasn't the case. This was the Phantom Thieves' first 'calling card.' The target in question was an Olympic medalist and an alumnus of the academy. Suguru Kamoshida, the gym teacher." Maria pulled out a photo of the man in question. "What happened then? Tell me the whole truth."

A/N: And with that, this seems like a good place to leave off the first chapter.

Now to address something about the story. This is more than just a simple "Replace characters in one game/anime with characters from another" story. I plan to include, or at the very least reference, characters from Persona 5 as much as I can. Of course, most of those characters will not be going down the same routes that they did in the original Persona 5/Royal timelines.

Anyway, thank you for reading this chapter, and I shall see you all in the next one!