I really need to find a way to get these chapters out faster…


The cheery attitude from the previous morning was noticeably missing while Akira got ready for school. He didn't say a word to his roommates beyond a quick 'Good morning.'

Sumire tried to ask him what was wrong, but was only met with an 'It's nothing.'

Trying to lighten Akira's mood, Morgana asked him about something he thought he would be willing to answer. He climbed over to the desk to get at least close to eye level with him. "So uh… you ready to send out the calling card?" He tilted his head, and there were a few seconds of silence before Akira just responded with "Maybe after school", not even looking at Morgana as continued his morning.

There was a strange silence in Sumire and Morgana, as neither of them had ever seen Akira this distant towards them before. His morning routine was much slower than usual; taking a moment between putting on each piece of clothing when he got dressed, and eating breakfast even slower. If Sumire wasn't checking the clock while Akira ate, he probably wouldn't have even gotten on the subway in time.

When he got to his desk at school, Akira tried to look at the girl sitting at the desk in front of him, though his eyes darted around the room trying to turn his focus to anything else, making him fidget all day. His hands wrapped around his head as it laid down on the desk. His glasses pushed up against his nose, even almost nodding off at times during class. This prompted Sumire to help him more often than usual. Every time he got confused on a question, Sumire would fly around the room to find the answer, to the point where she eventually decided it was best for her to stay at the teacher's podium and tell him the answers from there.

At lunch, he almost always sat with his fellow team members, but today was the first day in a while where he sat alone. Sumire and Morgana tried to get him to bring up anything for conversation. Whether that be what to write in the Calling Card or what his upcoming schedule was going to be like, but all they could get from him after he was done eating were simple responses like "Yeah.", "I don't know.", or "Maybe." before going back to watching other students hang out with their friends from the corner of the cafeteria.

The school day was almost over; one more period, and Akira could do…something. Anything that got him out of the building would be fine. Sumire floated over Akira and "laid down" on his back as his chin lay on his desk. Despite her looking upside down at his face, Akira hadn't even noticed his friend's attempt to comfort him, even when she let out a tiny laugh after her glasses fell off somehow. Before he knew it, the final bell had already rung, and right as Akira was getting up, with Sumire pushing herself back up to get her glasses, he felt his phone vibrate. Checking to see what it was, it was a text from Ryuji.

Ryuji:

-Hey man, I saw you at lunch. You ok?

Akira:

-Yeah, just needed some time to myself.

Ryuji:

-Guessing that's a no on the CC?

Akira:

-I know we don't have that much time left. I just need a break from superhero stuff from time to time. Is that ok with you? I promise we'll try to set it up tomorrow.

Ryuji:

-I get it. If you're looking for something to do on your break, I've been meaning to try to get my muscles fresh ever since we first started doing this whole palace operation. Could always use a partner.

His eyes lit up with the first generally positive emotion he felt that day. "Huh, Ryuji wants to train with me?" Akira repeated to himself, right, he almost forgot that there was still some student that wanted to be with him.

Sliding his phone into his pocket, Akira tried to get up, when Sumire flew in front of him. Immediately looking to the side, his eyes darted around to avoid eye contact when she turned her head to follow.

Sumire floated a few inches off the ground to align with his eye level as he instinctively looked at her. She put her hands above his shoulders and waited for Akira to calm down before speaking to him. "Come on, Akira. I get that you haven't been in the best mood lately, but I think it would be nice if we hung out with Ryuji for a bit. What do you say?"

Like a second parent encouraging what the other was saying, Morgana chimed in.

"He went through the trouble of inviting you, so why not listen to what he has to say?"

Akira opened his mouth to say something, but he stopped himself. Both of them were right, even if he wanted to take a break today, that didn't mean he shouldn't try to turn his mood around. He could make this work, and it might get him to stop focusing on what happened last evening so much. Pulling his phone out, Akira slung his bag over his shoulder, walking out of the classroom as he quickly fired off a text.

Akira:

-Eh, got nothing better to do. I'll come.

Ryuji:

-sweet. meet me at the courtyard in your gym uniform

With a quick nod to himself, Akira was about to put his phone away when another text came from someone else. Looking at the sender, Akira didn't even want to read what it was when he saw who it came from. He immediately put his phone back in his pocket without hesitation and walked faster, leaving a message from Ann unread.


While waiting for Akira to change, Sumire and Morgana sat next to each other outside the changing room door. Both of them figured it could be a good time for a game of charades.

"You're worried about him too, aren't you?" Morgana started. Sumire answered by floating up and down to try to simulate nodding her head.

"I think it's about what happened with Lady Ann."

"Good thing he picked up on that." Sumire thought. She was relieved she wouldn't have to try to tell Morgana that. But the mention of Ann reminded her that she was just as confused about her actions as Akira was. What were girls her age even like? If there was ever a time she wanted to recall a memory of her school life, it was now.

"She's been through a lot. I kinda understand why he decided to do that. I have noticed she was pretty close to him lately before all of that happened." Morgana interrupted her thought process.

His more miffed frown was a dead giveaway that he may or may not be jealous about that. Even if that crush was way too obvious, Sumire could still tell Morgana cared about Ann as a person.

"I wish you could hear me, because I'd want to tell you that we're going to make sure to help Akira understand what's going on!" She tried floating up to the changing room door and bouncing intensely to show her confidence.

"Yeah, he'll be out soon, and when he does, I think I know what we should do." Morgana seemed to reply. Sumire could only hope he at least got the gist of it.

As if on cue, Akira came out of the changing room, dressed in his tracksuit and ready to hang out with Ryuji. But before he went, Morgana asked an important question.

"Do you want us to just leave it to you and Ryuji for now?"

Akira paused for a few seconds before he answered. "That would be nice. Thanks, guys."

As Morgana and Sumire parted ways with Akira once they left the building, Morgana looked towards Sumire and asked something from her. "Keep an eye on him, alright?" Sumire nodded. It wouldn't be easy, but this was for Akira.

Staying a safe distance behind him, she watched him meet up with Ryuji at the schoolyard. She picked a vantage point from the roof of the passageway, where Akira would hopefully not look. It gave her a good view of the two jogging together. She noticed Akira wipe some sweat off of his forehead with his sleeve, no thanks to his jacket combining with the late spring heat to make for an uncomfortably hot run. Conversely, Ryuji didn't even bother to touch it. When they finally stopped to rest, Akira was sitting against the wall, almost lying down as Ryuji stretched.

"Ya know, this place used to be my secret training spot back when I was on the track team." Ryuji remembered. "Though after I was kicked off, I mostly just come here to get my mind off of whatever was bothering me on some days."

Watching his friend relaxing on the floor, he told him, "If you want, you can come with me next time that happens. I won't judge." It looked like Sumire found herself a new place to think about her afterlife.

Even while he was staring off into space, Akira gave Ryuji a thumbs up, and with his brief reminder of the upcoming calling card. "Considering what we're about to do, we'll probably be doing that a lot," he said, head still facing up as he fumbled around for his water bottle.

"Yeah," Ryuji said, finding Akira's and tossing it toward him, taking a drink from his own. "That reminds me, ever since I got my Persona, my motivation to try running again has done a complete 180. Like, I'm fighting random monsters trying to save this entire school from an evil teacher! I can't keep putting off getting back on a proper workout schedule after that bombshell! Superheroes like that are supposed to be crazy muscular, right?" Ryuji asked, flexing his arms as if to show off his own muscles. "Plus, aren't lightning powers usually associated with people who can, you know, go fast?"

"I guess." Akira replied without much thought, as his attention was elsewhere. He thought he heard someone giggling, and looked around the area to see who was there. After seeing nothing, he turned his attention back to Ryuji, "You use brute force more than anything. If you can bulk up, that would definitely help."

"That's what I'm saying!" Ryuji shouted, making Akira flinch at his enthusiasm. "I'm this team's powerhouse. I gotta start doing my part there! And you do too, don't start slacking on your whole 'Jack of all trades' thing you got goin' on."

"Right." Akira's mind went to the others as well. Morgana was their healer, Sumire was the unseen supporter, and…

"Hey, remember how Morgana said that what we wear affects how hard we hurt in the Metaverse?"

"Yeah?"

"You think these tracksuits would make us faster? If we get in our heads, we might be stronger too!"

While that was a good idea in theory, Akira had to shoot it down. "Our outfits change in there anyway, I don't think it matters."

Ryuji turned his head downward as he kicked up some dirt. "Dang it, you're right."

But Sumire was always wearing a tracksuit. "Am I faster in the Metaverse?" Sure, she was pretty agile in combat, but even when she twirled in the air in the real world, her movements were just as fluid. Maybe the joy she got from floating was a remnant of her time as an athlete?

After that time she spent zoning out, Akira and Ryuji were close to finishing their second lap. Akira's jog had pretty much become a slow walk at that point. Judging from Ryuji's expression, it didn't look like he minded.

"Damn, I forgot how good it felt to actually do a run that wasn't way beyond my skill limit! Once we get rid of Kamoshida, his replacement better be a whole lot nicer!"

Akira realized that, due to the pile of other things about Kamoshida that either he did or they needed to do to him, the supposed leader of the operation hadn't even considered what was going to happen to their PE classes once that slimy being (hopefully) got arrested. "Oh yeah, wonder who that'll be."

"Whoever it is will have some big shoes to fill." Ryuji thought out loud. "Before everything went to shit, Shujin was practically known for their track team! Then Kamoshida got our old coach fired and well, you saw what it looked like in there."

The image of the grinders flashed towards Sumire as she remembered what she had seen in the Palace. Why did she get close to them? The looks on the athletes faces, despite them not being the real ones, were still fresh in her mind. She had been so consumed by her thoughts that she was almost on the ground before she looked to see that Akira was below her, and she flailed her arms and legs to float back up before he could catch a glimpse of her.

Ryuji continued, "You know, you're not the only one who sees me as the brute force type. Every class always has that one student who's the…whatever the opposite of a teacher's pet is," he said, his tone hinting at where his thoughts were going. "And take a wild guess who that guy was on the track team once you-know-who took over." His leg was bouncing incessantly at the memory.

Akira sighed, whether it was from fatigue or sympathy was anyone's guess. "That's rough. I never had a teacher that bad at my old school." Akira ruffled his hand through his hair. "Most that would happen to me is that a teacher would yell at me a bit more often than most of the other students, and then my mom would scold them in an angry phone call until they treated me fairly."

"You're lucky both of your parents were nice to you about the whole probation situation. I wouldn't be caught dead if that happened to me."

Akira turned towards Ryuji, looking into his eyes. It was clear that he had something to say, but hesitated. Akira didn't mind, he was more than willing to wait. Or at least he wanted to.

With how long the boys were silent for, Sumire was starting to get bored. She turned around to leave and find Morgana when Ryuji spoke up.

"You know what? I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. But promise me you won't tell anyone else about this, okay? I'm trusting you."

Sumire couldn't resist. She'd already invaded Akira's secret conversations before, what's one more going to do?

Noticing Ryuji's lowered eyebrows, Akira figured that he didn't want to bottle up whatever those thoughts were.

"I promise."

Ryuji took a deep breath. "Okay, so back then, if my time even went a little under the average, Kamoshida would admit to the whole team that my uh…a big secret of mine. I don't like to talk about it." Maybe he was doing a bit of sugarcoating, but Akira nodded his head in understanding.

"I don't even know how he found out about that crap!" Ryuji continued, his voice beginning to raise in volume. "And you probably figured this out from my little light show at that statue, but my temper isn't exactly the best, so what do I do? I go up and deck the guy!" He yelled, throwing his arms up. "And I think we both know where that led me."

"Do you want to call it for today?" Akira felt the need to ask before any potential after-school program students heard his rant.

Ryuji put his arms down and let out a deep sigh. "Yeah, I'm pooped anyway."

While the boys were sitting in front of the fence, Sumire laid on the other side, feeling the spring leaves around her on the ground. She started sinking into the floor (quite literally) when Ryuji continued his rant, albeit in a calmer tone.

"I really used to like that team, y'know. But after that incident, I overheard some of their newer members treating me like some kind of boogeyman."

"Well-" Akira began, but he stopped in the middle of his speech when he saw a peculiar-looking pile of what looked like dirt collapse into the floor. "Sorry, I thought I saw someone. Anyway, look on the bright side, if you didn't do that, you probably never would've met me or have been able to get your revenge."

Ryuji's eyebrows raised as he started to smile. "Yeah, we're getting our sweet revenge on that jerk." With that burst of enthusiasm, Ryuji catapulted himself up and brought out his hand to pick Akira up. Sumire's face beamed as she watched the boys do a handshake. Just like with Ann a few days ago, a second burst of cheeriness flowed in her non-beating heart from Ryuji's enthusiasm and confidence.

"For you, me, and Ann!" Ryuji said with pride. "Up top!" But when he held his hand up for a high five, Akira put his hands in his pockets. The light that was in his eyes a minute ago had faded.

Putting his hand down, Ryuji needed to make sure. "Hey, you okay, man? You've been pretty quiet lately."

At first, Akira stayed silent. He couldn't tell Ann's closest team member about what happened yesterday if he still didn't know why things had happened as they did. That was when it hit him, if anyone could figure out why she got mad at him, it would be Ryuji.

Akira put his head down as he began to explain. "So yesterday, when you left after the restaurant, I tried to give Ann a hug goodbye, but she pushed me away and stormed off. You know her pretty well, I was wondering if you could help me figure out how to sort things out with her. Sorry if that's bothering you."

Ryuji struggled to find the words to say to Akira, but he saw Akira's face get a more worried expression the longer he took. Once he pieced together the whole story in his head, he spoke to Akira softly for the first time. "Look, man, I get what you were goin' for, but some people just aren't into that kinda stuff. You do remember why she's fighting with us, right?"

Akira thought long and hard before giving his answer. "Right, for Shiho's sake. She's the only friend she's had since middle school, I can see why she would be distrusting of newer friends."

Pausing at the answer, Ryuji thought about how he should respond. While Akira was correct in his judgement, that was not the reason why she reacted as she did. "It's not just her. Don't forget how she even got into this mess in the first place."

Trying to think what that was, Akira thought back to his first conversation with Ann. The first time she told him about Shiho.

"About Mr. Kamoshida. Everyone says we're getting it on, but that's so not true. That was him on the other line… I avoided giving him my number for the longest time… He told me to go to his place after this. You know what that means."

Opening his mouth without a sound, Akira looked off in shock as everything finally clicked to him. Ann was still a few days away from being completely safe from her biggest threat, why wouldn't she still be cautious around him? They had only known each other for a little over a week after all.

"Oh…oh god that makes way too much sense." Akira plopped down onto the floor to think. His chin rested in his palms, and his fingers on his ears.

It opened a slew of questions to him about how he'd been as a leader. Was he relying too much on Sumire to keep track of things, Morgana was the one teaching everyone, why wasn't he the leader?

All of those thoughts were interrupted by the faint sound of Ryuji's voice.

"Hey, it's not your fault. It took me years to understand that girl."

Looking above the frames of his glasses, Akira saw Ryuji was squatting down in front of him, holding a hand out to help him back up.

"Just talk to her about it. We've gotten too far at this point for her to give up on you now."

Seeing Ryuji's smile was all Akira needed to get a confidence boost.

"I think I know what to do. I'll see you tomorrow."

Walking over to the school's entrance, Akira spotted Sumire waiting for him.

"Were you waiting here the entire time?" he asked, making Sumire jump in surprise."Of course not!" she said, slowly floating down as she thought of a lie. "I get bored easily! I was uh…well you see, Morgana just…" She paused for less than a second before catching herself. "…and I just finished our walk, and he's at home right now, so he sent me to check up on you!" By the time she was finished speaking, her body was halfway under the sidewalk.

Akira couldn't help but laugh at Sumire's obvious lie, and as they were walking home, she was happy to see that at least some determined light had returned to his eyes.


It was so dark, Akira almost couldn't see the black-furred Morgana and transparent Sumire sleeping when he was pulling out his phone. Turning it on, it's extreme brightness flashed in his eyes, causing him to lower the setting while his free hand covered his face. Checking his text messages, there of course was the one he had ignored from Ann.

Ann:

-Hey, sorry about what happened last night. I kind of overreacted there.

Akira had a headache, most likely from staying up so late, he thought. But he couldn't leave Ann hanging any longer, so he started typing away.

Akira:

-I think I'm the one who needs to apologize. I've never exactly been the best at knowing someone's limits.

He put his phone into sleep mode, hoping to see Ann's response the next morning. He then placed it upright on the shelf, plugged into it's charger. Akira closed his eyes before seeing a bright light next to him. His head turned like an owl's at the light coming from his phone. Picking it up, there it was. Ann's response.

Ann:

-That's fine. We just need to figure some things out.

Akira had never been more happy to see those three dots signifying she was still in the process of texting him.

Ann:

-I'll admit, I might've been relying on you as a shield too much these past few days. You're kinda saving me and my best friend's life here, so that's probably why.

Akira:

-Don't mention it. It's nice having a girl to talk to that isn't any kind of girlfriend or crush or whatever.

Ann:

-Oh, that would explain it. I've been getting startled by things behind me a lot more recently. It can be pretty scary at times.

-Can you keep that in mind, please?

Akira's eyes started to droop, but the gentle smile on his face just wouldn't go away.

Akira:

-Of course.

Ann:

-Thanks. Hopefully I'll get less worried about it after all this superhero stuff.

-But next time, if you want to

Akira opened his mouth for a silent yawn. He needed to end this conversation for now.

Akira:

-Got it. It's getting late, I'll see you tomorrow.

Ann:

-Oh wow, I lost track of time. Sorry if I kept you up too late. Good night!

Akira:

-Good night.

He barely had enough energy to put his phone back on the shelf before drifting off with his roommates.


When Sumire rubbed her eyes awake, she was greeted with the sight of Akira speeding through his morning routine. She was just in time to see Akira almost pick up the wrong pair of glasses before they phased through his hand. His plate was licked clean within minutes (much to Sojiro's dismay), and there was a skip in his walk to the subway. It was just how a Friday morning should be.

"Well you sure are excited today, aren't you?" She told her friend.

"Yup!" Akira responded, cheery as ever. "I've settled on it. We're planning the Calling Card today! I've already texted the team about it."

"Would it kill you to slow down?" Morgana asked sickly, "I'm gonna lose my breakfast if you keep shaking this thing!"

Akira was surprisingly alert at school that day. Sumire barely needed to help to the point where she almost fell asleep waiting for Akira to ask for it. Whenever Akira had free time, he was speedily texting the group chat about his ideas for their big show.

Ryuji:

-save the juicy stuff for the rooftop man im not reading all that

Ann:

-Akira do you want me to explain it to him?

"No." Akira answered verbally. He turned his head towards Ann right as she did the same to him.


Akira's troupe had several minutes after the bell rang before the others came to the rooftop. A hypothetical sweat rolled down Sumire's forehead when Akira was repeating his ideas to himself.

"'Sincerely, your worst nightmare.' No, that's too vague. 'you know who we are', not vague enough…" He pondered while pacing around the roof.

"You were excited about this the moment Morgana brought it up, didn't you?" Sumire asked, assuming that was the case.

"Yup!" Akira answered before quickly repeating the prior statements, adding on, "Sounds good on paper though…"

"I knew you'd love this part," Morgana said with a stretch, grinning as he watched Akira's enthusiasm

Seeing Ann come in, Akira paused his monologue to give her a high five. When Ryuji came in not long after, his mouth was already running as the door swung open.

"So I noticed a little plot hole in this part of the plan. Why didn't we do this in the first place?"

"That treasure isn't gonna stay physical forever (Morgana explained while looking at his paw like a watch). From my understanding, we'll have about 24 hours before it disappears."

"And there go my weekend plans…"

Ann got up from her seat with a stomp. "I dunno about you, but I think this is going to be the greatest weekend of my entire life."

Watching the rest of the team banter in anticipation, Sumire flew over to Akira's ear and asked "Are ya gonna tell them your idea for the message or…?"

Akira shook his head rapidly and focused himself. "Right, okay guys, as for what we're going to put on the card, I figured-"

"DIBS! I call dibs on writing the card!" Ryuji interrupted, making Akira jump from his loud volume before his head drooped.

"That fast?!" Sumire wailed.

Looking towards Ryuji, Ann grinned and gave a cheeky smile. "Come on, I wanna be involved too! You do remember why I'm fighting with you, right?"

"Uh…" Ryuji took a step back, caught by his own words.

While Ryuji and Ann were playfully arguing, Sumire pondered to herself, and once she figured it out…

"Why don't we just all write it together?"

Ryuji and Ann stared at Akira in confusion once he repeated the question to them.

"Well if we did that, then we…" He hesitated, feeling their gazes lock on onto him. To them, it looked like a simple pause in Akira's thoughts, but if they looked at what was next to him, they would've seen Morgana's smile.

"We'd make it harder to figure out who wrote it!" Akira said confidently, quickly glancing over to Sumire, who smiled at her friend and gave a thumbs up.

"Akira's right." Morgana continued, picking up where Akira left off. "If we went through the palace together, then we're finishing it that way too."

Ann proceeded to dig through her bag to pull out some red poster sheets.

"By the way, while you two were out jogging, I managed to snag these from an arts and crafts store. Would these work?" She asked.

Morgana clapped his paws together and pointed at her. "Yes, that's perfect! Our battle begins tomorrow!"

"I can't wait!" Sumire cheered.

Ryuji scratched the back of his head while his eyes looked away from the others. "I'll be honest, I could probably use the help writing this thing anyway. There's so much I want to say and I'll need you all to narrow it down."

As Ann spread the poster sheet down, everyone got to work on the messages, Ryuji put down some little doodles to add to the "shock factor" before Morgana dismissed some to make it seem realistic. Sumire even pitched in with writing that none of them would have come up with before.

The group was back together, closer than ever before. Shujin Academy was in for a big surprise the next day.


I'm sure this was an interesting deviation from what you expect from this fic, but I felt like it was an important topic to explore. I kinda wrote this as a way to understand why I handle certain friendships in the way that I do. It was hard to write, but I hope it was worth the wait for you guys.

-Mush