Persona 5 Strikers – From Light and Dark
By Tayla Drago
(Note: Hi! I'm Tayla Drago – Anime lover and supporter of all voice actors who enjoys playing video games, some Persona games like Persona 5. Keiko, Morgana, and Akechi visit Yongen-Jaya to Cafe Leblanc to see their friends again – Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, and Haru. Same with Sojiro and Sae. And some other people like Lavenza or Lava 'who was once Caroline and Justine of two becoming one' with some new ones to stop another threat to be causing trouble all over Japan. During Summer break too! Well, they use their powers once again as Team Drago of the Phantom Thief of Hearts making a comeback and to save the world while also solving the weirdest events to be going on. This takes place after the first original game from it, OK? From new friends aiding the group, others to meet with, and new enemies to stop. Some newer and older Personas as well. Sweet! Anyway, please enjoy my story.)
Episode #1 – Joker's painting it Black
It happened one night outside of the empty and creepy Shibuya Station area...A beautiful night, things to be shown on the big screen TV of random thing, and no one else around for some strange reason with the cloud all cleared but for something, or rather...someone to be jumping around in the shadows from one building to another being...Wait! Keiko Amamiya/Joker?! She's back!? Meaning that Keiko Amamiya herself is on to something for her to be searching around and to beware of her surroundings in the Shibuya spot where she's at right now. Like what though? Well, we all get to see her as Joker again from Team Drago of the Phantom Thief of Hearts aka The Phantom Thieves again along with the familiar voice to help guide her. Being Futaba Sakura/Oracle herself. Cool!
[Futaba: Careful, Joker! We got one comin' up!]
Whoa! Showing flying around Keiko to trapping her was a helicopter type of Shadow, which is something new compared to some of the Shadows in people's Palaces of the Metaverse and Mementos a while back. Open fire at Keiko, she tries out running the Shadow 'while still firing at her' all the way down from the building to avoid getting shot at and then jumping on top of it. What does Keiko do next? Well, removing the Shadow's mask of course.
Keiko: Gotcha!
Losing power because the mask has been removed, Keiko jumps down to safety before it bows up completely. With one down, other policemen type of Shadow army show up to not look so normal at all, there must be more Shadows walking towards Keiko 'in a zombie type of way'. Showing their masks as well, Keiko gets out her dagger to be ready to fight them all from cops, other helicopters, and machines for some transform into other familiar Shadows. From Jack O'Lantern(s) and Pixies too. Good times...For next time Keiko was good old Morgana/Mona to tell his partner and leader what she has to do to fight with these Shadows both old and new ones.
[Morgana: Alright, let's begin the operation!]
Both him and Futaba talk things through to aid Keiko in this battle.
[Futaba: That was one hell of an entrance, Joker! They're all riled up! Just keep at it! Go ham until you've drawn every last bit of attention!]
Here we go, Keiko battles all the way to get through so many Shadows...From kicking, punching, using her dagger, the powers of darkness she has, and her gun to fire off as many rounds as she could. Same with using random powers of Personas again besides Arsene, such as the gravity skills from Unicorn too. 'I'll say who the other ones are later on'.
Keiko: (OK, I can do this.) Here I am, Shadows! Come and get me...If you can.
They don't know who they were messing with. During Keiko's battle as she hears Futaba to go through the plan of hers. What type of plan was it?
[Futaba: Everyone else, proceed as planned! Joker's got diversion covered, so now's your time to shine!]
Hearing a lot of other group members as well to take care of the other Shadows elsewhere in town to be aiding their leader too. One to be Ryuji Sakamoto/Skull is Captain Kidd.
[Ryuji: Gotcha. Leave the searchlights to us!]
Same with Yusuke Kitagawa/Fox with his Persona Goemon.
[Yusuke: And we're to support Oracle as she hacks the terminals?]
Along with Makoto Niijima/Queen with her Persona Johanna.
[Makoto: Right. Let's secure the area in front of the gate first.]
Let's not forget Futaba's Persona known as Necronomicon...As she cheers on Keiko to be her best friend/sister to her.
[Futaba: Yes, yes! Slice 'em and dice 'em! Joker's got the enemy BIG time mad! Awesome job-just a bit longer!]
Same with Morgana's Persona name Zorro...
[Morgana: She's doing it all by herself, too...Now that's our beautiful Joker!]
The other member was also Ann Takamaki/Panther with her Persona Carmen.
[Ann: I bet Skull wouldn't pull it off that smoothly.]
[Ryuji: The hell's with this deja vu?]
[Futaba: Mweheheh, the enemy's starting to swarm Joker...Teach 'em a lesson!]
And last was Haru Okumura/Noir with her Persona Milady who too was cheering on.
[Haru: Do your best.]
And with all of the Shadows following Keiko, she makes a move to jump to using her mask and using another one of her special moves.
Keiko: Arsene, do it!
Using the powers of her mask to use Arsene's powerful dark type of fire to push all the Shadows down to blowing up. A direct hit!
*SHOW'S OVER!*
But wait! It wasn't over yet, more Shadows were summoned! But Keiko wasn't alone...With the power of light type of arrows appears another Phantom Thief member with new looks of 'his' own Black Crow Mask or Black Crow armor being none other than Goro Akechi/Crow/Black Crow Mask himself. Wow! With his Persona to be Robin Hood and sort of Loki 'for more on that later on to be explained'.
Akechi: You mess with our town, then you mess with us. The Phantom Thieves!
And then everything goes completely white. From seeing two beings with dark powers to watch over them – to look like twins with other Shadow armies by their side; as well as two other ones to be women of Personas to look the same thing too, so who was good and evil?
Tayla: And now, here's something we hope you'll really like...
For we need to go back from the very beginning to see how this whole mess got started with, you know? So we might as well get through the opening first. From Keiko singing from Lyn - You Are Stronger for this special Summer Vacation.
Keiko 'singing': Over time they
erode and destroy hearts of good souls
in the dark
filled with dismay
played along and faked too much
all the way through
'til good crumbled into shatter, down they go
don't let them do it like that
You are stronger than all things that made you weak
so wake up from long sleep
don't refuse to be free
let go
toughest prison to break out is in your mind
take my hand
join the team
gotta let the dead leaves fall down
hey it's time to rise up
Egocentric
they made us believe so things would play in
their favors
lost and broken
afraid of changing the way of life
in midst of blurred view
good ones stumbled to their knees and down they go
don't let them do it like that
You are stronger than all things that made you weak
so wake up from long sleep
don't refuse to be free
let go
toughest prison to break out is in your mind
take my hand
join the team
gotta let the dead leaves fall down
hey it's time to rise up
Waiting around won't do
you need to stand up for your sake
do not stay comfortable with their lies
remember that
we got you
You are stronger than all things that made you weak
so wake up from long sleep
don't refuse to be free
let go
toughest prison to break out is in your mind
take my hand
join the team
gotta let the dead leaves fall down
hey it's time to rise up
It all started about six months after Keiko, Akechi, and Morgana went back home to be living a new apartment together to be married soon and to work 'while also finishing up with their school at long last', Summer vacation was starting up for Keiko to go back to Yongen-Jaya, Japan to stay over at Sojiro Sakura's working restaurant – Cafe Leblanc for some Summer fun to start off. For some of Keiko and Akechi's things to arrive while taking the train there again; for they group texted each other to see how Keiko was doing, as Akechi takes off first to do a meeting of police work for something to come up down at the police station but he'll be around with the others. As for Keiko and Morgana continuing on 'to be seeing Akechi later', the others text each other to see what was up. Soon enough, the SNS Group - Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Haru, and Futaba...
[Ryuji: Hey, been a while!]
[Ann: It only feels like that because you always forget to reply to our texts.]
[Ryuji: Wait, really...? I mean, I've just got a lot of stuff to do!]
[Haru: I suppose it's been a little while for me too, hasn't it?]
[Yusuke: For me as well...I had no money, so I lost service.]
And for Keiko to text back...
[Keiko: Have you all been well? Long time, no see. Also, Akechi-Cun said hi, he had to run to work for a bit, but he'll be around later on with all of us. Besides being with me the most...]
They all know about Keiko and Akechi getting married soon.
[Makoto: Yes. It's been a long time since we last saw each other. It's good to hear Akechi-san's been doing well too, Keiko-Chan. Thanks for the upset. It's quite late though. Shouldn't you all be studying for finals?]
[Futaba: Nah, I'm fine Unlike Ryuji.]
[Ryuji: Stop, stop! I'm already dead! Anyway! Here's what I really wanted to say...Since it's almost summer vacation, why don't we get together?]
[Makoto: Not a bad idea.]
[Ann: Yeah! You guys want to go on a trip?]
[Haru: That sounds like fun!]
[Yusuke: Perhaps Kyoto? That would be a nice place for a vacation.]
[Futaba: No way! Kyoto trips are for high schoolers!]
[Ryuji: Sweet! We should get together somewhere and plan this out!]
[Ann: Where at?]
[Futaba: Where else?!]
What was the answer for their plans...?
[Keiko: Yeah! Let's meet at the hideout.]
Sounds like a very good plan there.
[Ryuji: Roger that, leader babe!]
[Ann: Ryuji!]
[Ryuji: I meant it in a friendly way, Ann, geeze.]
Making an emoji funny face, I think Ann gets it for Ann and Ryuji are a good couple. Like Futaba and Yuuki Mishima are, Haru and Sugimura, and Makoto and Yusuke. Besides Morgana and Lava and Keiko and Akechi too. Calling a night for Keiko to be there soon to spend at a hotel first for Akechi, Keiko, and Morgana did that first, then took a train, to then Akechi going to work, and the other two making their way there first...
7 – July/23rd/Sunday
A certain police department
Meeting room
Elsewhere during the time - a certain police station of the confrere room. Inside had a group of officers, detectives 'like Akechi to be listening in' to another group of business people, and lawyers to hear about some strange events going on lately in Japan. Far more than the one time mental showdowns.
Organizer: ...Next on the agenda is the series of incidents involving unusual people in public.
During the meeting, a man in a black suit listens very well 'for he too is an important character to this game'.
Man with facial hair: ...
His name is Zenkichi Hasegawa.
Organizer: First, we have the Vice-Minister of Finance. As you're all aware, he had some sort of episode during a Diet session Q&A and abruptly confessed to document tampering.
As well as a very busy woman was paying attention as well to be very quiet while working who goes by Miyako Kaburagi.
Miyako: ...
Organizer: Soon after that, three Sapporo Central councilmen confessed to bribery and publicly resigned. Next, the well-known author, Mr. S. He held a press conference and announced he was retiring from writing, returning his books' awards, and deeming his body of work garbage. Then, a newscaster suddenly got down on one knee, confessed his love for his co-anchor on live TV, proposed to her...and got shot down. Lastly...the Director-General of Criminal Affairs unexpectedly stripped off his clothing and ran around HQ successfully detained.
This has Zen 'who I'm calling him from the short name' just made it laughed to cough it off to be a big fake.
Zen: Bah-Hm...
It's not good to distrust a meeting like this one...
Miyako: Something amusing to you, Inspector Hasegawa?
Zen: Ah, no-Excuse me...
Well that shut him up. Continuing on...
Organizer: *ahem* The vast majority of these cases have been interpreted as nothing more than bizarre outbursts...But, time and again, every instance involves a sudden change in personality. Furthermore, none of the individuals involved had any known psychological issues before their incidents. Therefore, we can surmise that these cases are the result of an external influence.
Huh...? Something was up to have everyone else questioning it all over the room.
Akechi: (Another mental showdown case...? No wait, this one's far different from the last event I've dealt with.)
Officer #1: Aren't these just coincidences? Are you really implying someone out there's using mind control?
Answering that part of the question next.
Organizer: The cases I listed are only a small sample of this behavior, which appears to be happening across the entire nation.
Then Zen says something in the room out of nowhere next to take a wild guess.
Zen: Hmmm...Sounds like the Phantom Thieves to me.
Akechi: Excuse me...? (How does he know about them?!)
Shocking to everyone else to hear their names and the same with Akechi, Miyako quiets everyone back down again.
Miyako: I want silence. Proceed with the report.
Quieting down again.
Organizer: Thank you, Commissioner Kaburagi. As you're realized-or, at least as one of you realized-tease cases are very reminiscent of last year's Change of Heart epidemic. The top brass have concluded that this is indeed the work of the Phantom Thieves.
Another shocker there.
Akechi: (I knew they would bring this up.)
Officer #1: Wha...
Zen: ...
Looks like Zen was already aware of all of this.
Officer #2: B-But what evidence is there?! No one's even established a pattern!
Officer #3: And we don't have any sort of motive! So far, doing it for kicks is the only thing that'd explain it.
Miyako: You will investigate each of these incidents yourselves-as quickly as possible. What I expect from each of you are two things...One, to assemble enough evidence for a successful case. Two, to do so as quickly as humanly possible. The higher-ups are hellbent on closing this case. I do not know why; it does not matter. All that matters is producing results. Your suspect is the leader of the Phantom Thieves.
No! It was showing a photo on the big screen being Keiko Amamiya herself!
Akechi: (Keiko! No, even after all we've done, she's still being hunted down!)
Miyako: Show me a thorough investigation on her entire life.
Seems like Akechi was lucky to show up to try to do something about it and fast, but not alone. Same with Zen himself to have something on his mind too from seeing Keiko's profile photo.
Zen: ...So, the Phantom Thieves rise again...
This was really bad, so now what?
Akechi: Excuse me. (I have to keep my eyes open from these guys, I better let Keiko and the others know and fast.)
From happening yesterday to hopefully telling Keiko and the other Phantom Thieves about it somehow while there was still time left, as the next day...Summer vacation finally starts! And whatever was happening right now, was only the beginning of it all. I wanted to add Akechi in this one and some familiar faces too later on in my version, for this will be fun to read.