It's that time again, another idea. So, I've been doing some thinking about new ideas and sort of got stuck on one while I was grinding out experience in Azur Lane for Cheshire (since there's a pre-event running right now for a 20% exp. increase on certain characters and dorm exp. can be stacked for another 20% totaling a 40% increase in base exp. before other modifiers. Ah, glorious balance that all should take part in. Spiff and Reanu Keaves would be proud). The only thing that would make it more balanced is if they set the boosts on characters that give boosts already as a skill. This idea was what if there was a male OC adult character who was an English teacher at Shujin Academy during the events of Persona 5? What if he and Kawakami hit it off?
That was the first thing that I thought of, the second is how I would create the character's backstory. I decided that he should be a Navy brat in a family of military servicemen. Then, after some point in his life, he decided that being an English teacher abroad was a better job prospect rather than remaining Stateside. Then I needed to figure out just how much interaction this person will have with the P5 cast, outside of Kawakami and other adults. He will have to interact on a professional level with Ryuji, Makoto, Ann, and Ren just from having to teach the class but outside of that is sort of an unknown. I did toy with the idea of him being aware of Sojiro's coffee shop and being a frequent patron of it; this could open dialogue between the two "outsiders" and wisdom of the older character and possibly insight traded between the two as Ren continues his "rehabilitation".
Summary: James Robertson is an English teacher abroad in Japan working at the prestigious Shujin Academy. What starts as an unassuming spring semester spirals out of control with unexpected events all started with the arrival of a new transfer student with a black spot on his record. The laying bare of deep Shujin secrets to the public brings him closer to his colleague Sadayo Kawakami.
Rating: M eventually.
Pairing: m!OC x Sadayo Kawakami, Ren x unknown (debating between Ann and Makoto)
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my copy of MS Word and my desktop. Persona 5 belongs to ATLUS, I only own my OC and the concept of the idea's original plot points. See the forward for the full disclaimer.
XxXxXxX
Spring is a wonderful time of year for most countries. The snow is melting, social interaction resumes with more outdoor activities and sports, and in certain parts of the world, teachers are preparing for the new school year. Guess which one applies to me? Who am I? My name is James Robertson and I'm a high school instructor in Japan teaching English. Who better to teach it than a native who can speak both languages fluently? Currently, I was back in my homeland, specifically northern Wisconsin visiting my mother.
"Why can't you stay in the US?" my mother asked. Well, more-so complained. While I loved her, questions like this did grate on me.
"Because my tenure was renewed and I accepted, mom," I replied as I worked on the Dodge Demon currently being paid off. "Plus, this job pays for my car."
"Yes, but couldn't you get a job here?"
"I could, but the pay is too good to say no." Before she could say anything else, I added, "I've told you before that this is a choice that I made. I'll move back, eventually."
She sighed in annoyance before leaving the garage. This had been a constant conversation between the two of us ever since I came back home to visit. A lot of my non-transferrable possessions, such as the aforementioned car, had been left on my parents' large property's guest house they had built for their children to visit with their children eventually when they came to visit, but I was using it as a storage space. And it's not like they're going to have any grandkids visiting any soon, considering me being single and my two younger siblings in the same way.
I was leaving tomorrow night and I wanted to make sure everything was squared away in terms of property as well as anything I could need on my return trip. All of my firearms, both rifle and pistols were cleaned and locked up in the main house itself with the rest of my father's firearms. Yes, I own firearms, one-part 'Murica, one-part defense, and one-part sport and hunting.
Mom lived here alone, after all, dad was on a long-term assignment and wouldn't be back any time soon. They talked via video chat nightly, but this didn't help her. I understood why she didn't want me to go overseas for work, but I was my own person.
XxXxXxX
The plane ride from Mitchell, to O'Hare, to LAX, to Tokyo was always rough. You were essentially losing two days, one for actual travel and one for time zones. I landed on April 5th despite technically leaving on April 3rd at late at night. One taxi and I was back at the rental property technically owned by the school. I didn't unpack almost anything except the gaming laptop in my carry-on that got stuck on the charger and my phone which got the same treatment and I passed out on the western-style bed without missing a beat. What felt like minutes passed as an alarm I had set while in the taxi blared at 5 am local time. Preparing for the day, I started an initial cup of coffee on the Keurig machine that I had ordered with the specific blend I had gotten imported well before I had left on my vacation called 'Blackbeard's Delight'.
I downed the bean 'tea' in record time as I attempted to keep my normal schedule of a morning workout. Taking an hour of combined cardio and basic weight lifting via dumbbells, I finished getting ready (shower, eat, more coffee) and left. The trip was uneventful, it was the usual for me and many others, that being a crowded subway car. Of course, the property couldn't be just one train stop away, but several crossing a subway line or two. I walked up to the entrance which had the school's insignia and school name, 'Shujin Academy'. There wasn't anyone due to it still being the Spring break before the next semester started in around two weeks. The only people I expected to be here were teachers still working on their lesson plans for the next few months, the principal (who I liked to call 'retired Mr. Clean' behind his back), and the student council.
I walked into the staff room and logged into my work PC, making sure to change my password again because the IT Administrator decided to have it change now rather than before I left or after the school year began. I'm going to have to find a way to get a remote access tool installed on this thing so I can work from home before the school year begins.
"Welcome back, Robertson-sensei," Mokoto, the student council president, greeted as she walked into the room on her own business. "Was your trip enjoyable?"
"For the most part, Mokoto-san," I reply. "Visited family and old friends as well as taking care of some personal business as well."
"Personal business? I won't pry then."
"Is there anyone you're looking for? I know that I'm kind of the only person here at the moment."
"I did need to speak with you. There was a staff meeting yesterday regarding a new transfer student and I was there to record notes for it," she explained as she handed over a small spiral notebook, conveniently translated into English. This caused me to raise an eyebrow regardless, a transfer student causing a staff meeting? This was abnormal. There had been others in the past and they would be briefed a few days before that there was going to be a new transfer student, who they were, and their test scores.
I took it and started to speed read over it, there was quite a lot. "A new kid? I may be missing something, but what would cause an entire staff meeting almost two weeks before the new school year starts?" I pry for information.
"The young man in question has been convicted of assault on an individual and was transferred by request of his parents from his suburban neighborhood school," she explained as she handed over his school file from his previous school.
I looked it over. Nothing stood out. I wasn't an investigator by trade or by osmosis, but I knew when something was off. The kid, Ren Kurusu, had a perfect record. No disciplinary action outside of some late assignment warnings. He was one of the members of his first year's class's student council, was a member of the kendo club, and had an interest in model building. Apparently, he also had an internship lined up with his local police department before his altercation with the law happened. He appeared to be an upcoming, upstanding member of society. "Assault and battery?" I ask, Mokoto nodded. "Seems abnormal if you ask me."
"What do you mean?"
"Did you look at his academic record? Borderline spotless."
"So, what do you mean, exactly?"
"Either something happened to spur on a sense of justice in his actions, or something's being misconstrued." I sigh as Mokoto had her own sense of justice, after all, she wanted to be just like her sister: the state attorney. Her college applications that she had been submitting were all in the criminal justice field. "Listen, I know it won't mean much and I can't speak for everyone else; but I'm just going to treat him like any other student until I see otherwise."
She nodded and left the room, leaving me to my thoughts. The rest of the day passed without anything of note. I pressed on in creating my general outline of a lesson plan and went home for the day. The rest of the instructors and I had idle chit-chat, but during the entire time either I missed seeing or Kawakami wasn't there at all. Everyone on staff knew that she moonlighted doing something after school hours, but no one knew what it was. I guess we'll have to catch up some other time.
XxXxXxX
The next two weeks passed with little of note. I came into work, did some preparation, and went home. Finally, the Sunday before the school year arrived. During the last two weeks, I had been trying to convince the staff to join in on a 'beginning of the school year' staff party. And for once, everyone had agreed, all but the principal. He had said that he had other things to do but appreciated the offer. Then came getting all of the required components of a party. And so, weeks ago I had put out feelers to friends I had in 'import-export' to get the good liquor. I made it sound like my friends were in something dirty. No, they were in the military and could get things moved if asked nicely. So, I asked if they could get some good American beer and various hard liquors brought into the country. Included in this was a very good bottle of Irish whiskey. It was nice to have a taste again of my homeland as well as my ancestors' homeland as well. Or, whatever you want to call it.
I got my hands on disposable cups, plates, etc. and got the other faculty members to chip in and bring in food and other snacks. We set up in one of the unused classrooms rather than the faculty room, too much stuff to move around and paperwork to potentially lose. When it was all set up and done, all that was left to do was wait for nightfall and everyone else to arrive. And arrive they did, bringing various snack foods. Someone even brought a charcoal grill and put it up on the roof to grill various things. After the initial party started, the liquor came out. And come out in force it did. All of us saw different sides of each other that night.
Many of the female staffers (as well as the men) saw just how lecherous Kamoshida was, but since he didn't actually do anything no one did anything outside of giving him dirty looks. I always knew that there was something about him that always nudged me the wrong way. I learned who the bad drunks were as well as the ones who got way too touchy-feely when drunk. Then came the drinking challenge. Kamoshida was talking shit about me, so I challenged him to a drinking challenge. And not just any drinking challenge, a whiskey-drinking challenge. And yes, the good Irish whiskey got taken out. The last thing that I remember being said was, "My Irish ancestors are smiling happily down upon me!"
Yes, it was cringy and I didn't care. For all the talk that Kamoshida had, he was all talk. I drank him under the table in less than seven shots. Admittedly, this stuff was more than likely stronger than what he was used to but it didn't matter as he collapsed on the table not even able to take the next shot. Being the drunken idiot with abnormally high alcohol tolerance, I drank both his and my shots and continued to party the night away. Then I blacked out.
The next morning was extremely awkward, to say the least. I woke up to a naked Kawakami in a just as naked state. The sheets were all messed up hinting that wholesome 'Christian handholding™' didn't take place but a meeting with the beast with two backs. Somehow, we managed to leave at different times and get to school before a mass majority of the students arrived and no one was the wiser, or at least that's what we assumed. However, some of the staff may have thought otherwise but didn't say anything to us as we went about the day.
I walked into the staff room, got my prepared materials, and went to my room. Looking at my phone it appeared that there had been a few missed calls, something that I'd have to return during lunch. As I plotted that, a text came in from Kawakami. 'We need to talk, meet me on the roof during lunch.' I replied in the affirmative.
School started for the day and everything went well. I reintroduced myself to the classes, gave them the expected syllabus for reference which also contained this year's reading list, my expectations of what the class was to accomplish and what status that I hoped we'd be at by the end of the year, and then I started the planned lesson. Nothing out of the ordinary stood out until I got to the class the new male transfer student was in. I repeated the same script.
"Good morning class, my name is Robertson-sensei, but you may also refer to me as Mister Robertson should you wish to during class time," I introduced myself as I started to hand out the syllabus, written up in both Japanese and English. "This is this year's syllabus of the expected learning curriculum content as well as what I hope that we get to cover this year. The list of books included on this list will be provided by the school at the time that we get to them." Looking over the crowd, I saw no questions being raised. "Included are forms of contact that I can be reached by outside of school hours in case you need to get a hold of me. If there are no questions, let's get right into my mother tongue, English."
The lesson proceeded as expected and nothing out of the ordinary happened. I kept my eye on the transfer student but he didn't seem to be the type to stir up shit. He kept quiet and his head down. He even avoided making eye contact altogether. He got into something and someone put the fear of God into him in telling him to lay low. I filed this away for later and further research. The bell for lunch went off and I made my way to the roof. Opening the door with the key that only teachers had, I saw Kawakami leaning against the guard fence.
"So," she said, announcing her noticing my arrival.
"So," I echoed back. It was clear that this was awkward and was going to continue to be awkward.
[End scene.]
XxXxXxX
Ok, so this next section requires a bit of a note intro. I intended for some time to pass, roughly around the time of year when schools do school trips stereotyped in anime around the summer season roughly thereabouts. At this point in time of this story, should it continue from the last section's leaving off point to this section, Kawakami and James would be involved enough that both of their parents would be well aware of their relationship; to the point of which James's father would reveal himself to the pair and invite them to dinner while on the school trip. And due to how James has never mentioned his father before to anyone, a very odd encounter at the hotel with a man dressed in US Navy BDU's piques the interest of the Phantom Thieves on the trip.
XxXxXxX
It was vacation season, a season in which students in Japan elected in their elected schools or classes (depending on the scale of the venue) on where to go for a weeklong trip. The students of Shujin Academy elected to go to Hawaii. For the teachers, it was a mad dash to get student permission slips signed and returned, then the checking of passports to make sure they were valid. I knew that mine was due to traveling no less than six months ago. The more interesting one was for Ren; he had gotten permission from his parents on behalf of Sojiro Sakura as well as the police chief of the local precinct. The owner of the coffee shop was expected, after all, he was listed as an authorized guardian, but the local police chief was definitely odd. I knew Ren got into some trouble, but this went high up.
It took about three weeks to get all of the preparations complete. Luckily at least for me, I wasn't the trip organizer. Unfortunately for me, Kawakami was involved. So many late nights were spent on helping on that, also so many nights of back rubs, borderline overdoses of caffeine, and falling asleep next to each other in what onlookers would clearly deem an anime trope. But eventually, everything came together and the day of the trip came. Each of the teachers was assigned to a group of students, however, on the plane people got mixed around so a lot of the students had to keep themselves in line. As for me? I put on an audiobook, Metro 2033, and just let the extremely long flight play out. At some point, I did pass out, but eventually, we were informed by the plane's captain that we'd be landing shortly. The plane circled the 'big island' as they waited for clearance to land.
"Woah, look at that!" a student cried out as he looked out of the airplane's starboard window. "That's a Gerald R. Ford-class carrier!"
This grabbed my attention as I had a vested interest in this information. Looking out the window, seeing that I was also on that side as well, I saw the carrier and her escort crew docked in the Naval base's harbor on the neighboring island. While it was far away, there was no way that you could miss the very distinctive outline of the ship. I couldn't quite see the designation number on the hull or island tower, but I had a feeling which one it was.
"Is something wrong, sensei?" Mokoto asked from across the aisle, she seemed interested in my reaction. It also seemed like the group she had been associating herself with, Ren's group, were also listening in as well.
"No, nothing's wrong. I'm a fan of naval shipbuilding," I lie through my teeth as easy as I breathed. Well, it technically wasn't a lie. Growing up, I always loved naval ships. My personal favorites were the Yamato from a size perspective, the Bismarck for the aesthetic, and the Iowa and Fletchers because they were American. I even had a few models lying around. "Interesting that they're currently docked though, I could have sworn that they'd be at sea a while longer," I mutter. And it didn't go unnoticed. I could see in Ren's eyes some kind of gears turning based on previous conversations we had at the café that he worked and lived in when I came in on Sunday for my coffee and breakfast, but he didn't say anything.
The plane landed, we all disembarked and collected our luggage. A bus came around to pick up the students and teachers which all took us to the port to be transferred to Oahu. Once there, another bus was there and took us to the hotel. They all waited on the bus while the teachers went inside to get the room keys and room assignments. Once obtained, they all came inside and got settled in their rooms. The plan for day one was to end up at a luau. I came to the decision that a vacation needed to be started with a bang and I found myself wandering towards the hotel's lounge. Before I could step inside, someone got my attention.
"Mister James Robertson?" a male voice called out in English. He wasn't one of my students, he also sounded older, so there was also that. I turned around to see a US Naval officer dressed in his BDUs.
"Yes?" I tentatively asked. "How can I help you…" I searched for his rank designation and found it, "Lieutenant?" I didn't notice it at the time but did in hindsight. He pulled out a letter and handed it to me. "This better not be a 'your father is dead' letter."
"It's not, sir. It's an invitation to come aboard tomorrow afternoon. All of the details are in the letter." He proceeded to salute and left.
I opened the letter and skimmed it. Inside was a proper invite, it appears that my father, the admiral, wanted to meet the woman that I had been involving myself with. I wasn't really a person that used social media often enough to make things 'official' or anything like that. This could only mean that he heard from my mother that I was dating someone, specifically someone that wasn't American. My mother was the gossipy type, despite her meaning well. Inside were also passes onto the base for me and one other person, ID was required, obviously.
"Robertson-sensei, who was that?" a male voice asked in Japanese behind me. I turned around to see Ren and his motley crew. Specifically, Ann, Ryuji, and Ren himself. Ryuji had been the one who asked. "He looked like he was military or something."
"He was," I answer simply.
"Do you know him?" Ann asked.
"No."
"What was he asking about?"
I sigh, more in annoyance. The kids meant well, but they were butting into things that didn't involve them. "Personal business and don't pay any mind to it," I say with finality. There weren't any other questions posed. "Now, have you all decided what you'll be doing?"
XxXxXxX
"Robertson-sensei is acting really strange," Ryuji stated the obvious as he sat down on the bed next to Ann, bouncing on it like a child would in testing the mattress.
"No, really? What set that thought off?" Ann sarcastically asked in turn.
Ryuji held up his hands in self-defense. "No need to get hostile. But seriously, that was US Navy camouflage. How does Robertson-sensei know someone in the Navy."
"Maybe they went to school together?" Mokoto suggested. She wasn't there as she had been tending to Student Council related duties for the trip.
"No, it looked way more like a business encounter, not something friendly."
"Ren, I know that he stops at the café a lot, has he mentioned anything that may explain this?"
Ren thought over all of the encounters that he had with the English teacher. There was one, but he wasn't quite sure what to think of it; Robertson-sensei kept a lot of personal things close. "There is one thing, maybe. He mentioned in our chats that both he and his father were quite distant both emotionally and it seems in contact as well. He made an interesting statement on the plane in observing the carrier at the Naval base. He mentioned that he thought that they would be at sea and was surprised when they were docked."
"Why would he be interested in that?" Ann asked.
"A vested interest, perhaps?" Mokoto suggested.
"He also mentioned that when he was growing up that he moved around a lot, a lot more than any normal kid would. Specifically, that he wouldn't be in place for more than a few years." He paused for a moment before revealing his thoughts. "He's a Navy Brat."
"A what?" Ryuji asked, he had never heard that term before.
"Navy Brat," Mokoto replied. "A term referring to the children of naval officers."
"So why was the Navy guy there?"
"He did appear to have two rectangles on his collar," Ren recalled.
"Those would be a lieutenant's rank," Ann clarified. This got her a few interesting looks. "What? I have a friend in America who had a family member in the military."
"That aside," Makoto continued, "wouldn't it be abnormal that a fairly high-ranking officer away from the continental US playing the role of courier?"
"That it would unless it was it is something extremely sensitive."
"Sensitive?" Ryuji asked. "Like what?"
"Like the death of a family member, but from what I remember those that would do that would be in dress uniform and not their work duty uniform." They trusted Ann with this information, she was very fashion savvy. "That or extremely privileged information that cannot be trusted to the rank and file."
"Not only that but the timing was impeccable. Mere hours after we land, he just finds him at the hotel he just checked in at?"
This thought lingered in their minds well after. During the planned luau dinner Robertson-sensei was observed inviting Kawakami-sensei to lunch the following day. It was decided that they would follow the pair, as it was the worst-kept secret in Shujin that the two teachers had been hooking up secretly and were a thing. Interestingly, both Hifumi and Yusuke were routed from their Los Angeles trip to Hawaii. The duo had left at 11:30 am local time in a town car that rolled up to the hotel. They had to take a taxi to follow them. The car rolled up to the Naval base and entered after the driver was checked and the identification papers of both Robertson-sensei and Kawakami-sensei and went inside. Seeing that there was a pier nearby, the Phantom Thieves set up camp there. On the pier, there were quarter fed binoculars which had the coincidentally perfect angle to see Kawakami-sensei and Robertson-sensei walk up to the boarding ramp where a man waited for them.
"Ann, what uniform is all white with gold trimming, a white and black hat, and an insignia of a star and several bars?" Ren asked.
"An Admiral's uniform, I think," she replied, not entirely sure herself but it sounded right.
"The two do look genetically similar from appearances," Yusuke observed. He did have an eye for these things. "Father and son?"
"Wait, Robertson-sensei's father is an admiral?" Ryuji asked.
"It certainly would explain why he would know the deployment schedule for a fleet despite being a civilian," Mokoto mused aloud. "But why would he be worried about that? Wouldn't you think that he would be happy to see his father?"
XxXxXxX
The town car rolled up to the entrance to the Naval Yard and the guard provided the IDs that Kawakami and myself gave to him as well as the invitation letter and passes. The car pulled forward and the window lowered, the passes were handed back and the guard explained that they needed to keep the passes visible at all times. The car then proceeded at residential speeds towards the carrier.
"You look nervous," Kawakami observed.
"I'm not nervous," I lie, and not very convincingly.
"Yes, you are. What are you worried about?" she asked as she placed a hand on mine. I paused for a moment, trying to distract myself in watching the servicemen go about their daily routines. "I've talked to your mother; she has had nothing but good things to say about him."
"He's…" I trail, trying to find the right words, "opinionated."
"Do you think he'd hate me?"
"No, it's not that. It's…" again I trail in an attempt to find the right words.
She grips my hand in a way that would be synonymous with a comforting grasp. "No matter what happens, I know you have my back."
The car pulls up to the curb and standing at the ramp is a man in white and gold duty uniform wearing an admiral's hat. Neither of us says anything as we leave the relative privacy of the car and walk towards the loading ramp. We walked up to him and he acknowledged us by removing his hat and extending his hand towards Kawakami.
"Dad," I greet him.
"James," he replied. Kawakami took his hand and shook it firmly. "Good afternoon, ma'am. I am Admiral Terrance Robertson, captain of this fine vessel," he said stoically, but with the slight grin that he was known for in the family.
"Permission to come aboard?" she asked.
"Permission granted. Please, follow me."
To be continued…?
XxXxXxX
That's all I have for this idea for now. As you can see, I did flip between a first and third perspective for this idea. The story, after all, is going to focus on that male OC, but there are times when outside perspectives are required and therefore that will be focused on via a third-person perspective. I wanted to skip a little further in the story in order to establish this scene. There was one other scene I was tempted to write up, but that would have involved the maxed-out confidant ranking criteria to be met. I'll sit on that idea for now and maybe I'll either write up a separate scene on that for the repository or wait until I actually go through this idea in full from the beginning and run with it and only then reveal it. But that's something for future me to figure out. For now, though, I'm going to leave it at this.
What did you guys think of it? Think it has merit or is it something I should drop entirely? Let me know in all the normal places. And until next time in whatever I do next.