Hello! And welcome back! Well, this chapter is a bit of a down time before the shitshow that's happen next, so bear with me, okay? XD

WARNING: Slice of life, Makoto (The Door) being caffeine-addict, and the chance meeting.


Chapter Five: Glimpse

"Hey."

Amamiya says as soon as Ryoji opens the door. He greets him with a small nod and throws his legs over the edge of the bed, sitting a bit hunched (he still can't fix his posture. Welp, whatever, he guesses) and resting his cheek on his hand. "Hey. Thanks for helping me."

"No problem. You look a lot better, that's good," Amamiya comments, sitting on a chair Ryoji provides. The cat shifts and pops its head out of the bag, but the boy pays it little mind. "How're you feeling now?"

"Less like dying and more like catching a cold," He states. As if on cue, he sneezes. "…Sorry."

The other laughs and lifts up a hand, signalling that he doesn't really mind, then turns to Ryoji. "Oh yeah, you said he's good enough to move around now, right?"

"Yeah," Ryoji confirms, hands behind his head in a carefree posture. "Should be good now, so after this we plan to take a little tour around to Tokyo and get in touch with the school a bit, just to straighten the papers out."

"Want me to show you around?" Amamiya offers.

Makoto sees no harm in that, so he nods at Ryoji then says. "If it's not too much of a trouble."

"I plan on hanging out with my friends today, so I'll tell them you're coming," He states, quickly tapping away at his phone. "They'll be delighted to hear you're better now."

"I'm still angry at you just casually putting me on speaker phone, you know," Ryoji comments off-handedly, and that got Amamiya to stop cold in his tracks for almost a minute.

"Um. Sorry."

"Apology accepted," Ryoji says with a laugh, waving his hands. The cat meows, and Makoto makes a confused face. Didn't he say this cat can talk? "So, meet you at the school? Gotta get the paperwork done soon so there's that."

"Sure thing," He says with a nod. "What'd you like to eat?"

"Anything, I suppose. But a few cups of coffee and a few plates of dessert would be nice," Makoto says, shrugging his shoulders. "But I warn you, I can drink and eat a lot."

"Can confirm, he could probably eat more than one of those Big Bang Burgers if he's hungry enough."

"Is that a challenge?" Amamiya says with a grin, and Makoto just throws Ryoji a dirty glare. The other pretends he doesn't see it. Seeing their exchanges, the frizzly-haired laughs. "Alright, alright. Then see you in two hours at the café near the school gate? I'm gonna go get some of my friends first."

"Sure," Ryoji confirms, giving Amamiya a thumbs up.

.

Once Amamiya is gone, Ryoji throws at him a more formal attire, a neck tie, and —

"Did you just buy me earphones?" He says, laughing merrily. He immediately plugs it in and throws the thing over his neck. "A bit small, but it feels good to have one of these around my neck again. Thanks."

"No problem," Ryoji says with a grin. "Now, now, get dressed, we're gonna go and be done with all this transfer thing. They will make us take a short test so be prepared."

That's when they both realize one thing.

Shit.

They haven't even looked at the answers yet!


"Hey there, Renren!"

He turns at his nickname. True enough, his friends are already gathered at a café near Shujin. Takamaki is busy eating the waffles with the girls while Ryuji and Kitagawa just sit there, having a disjointed conversation. He waves before joining them at the big table.

He sets Morgana down on Makoto's lap. "Hey. How's yesterday going?"

"Fun," Futaba says. "Called Shirogane. Been fun messing around with their phones. Aside from that, they got the same things as us; weird guns, ten million to the group's "detective prince", and cryptic messages."

"How did you even coerce them to spill that much anyway?" Ren says with a slight frown. And they are Persona-users, too?

"It's a hard decision, but I decided to say, with Alibaba's name of course, that we're Phantom Thieves and fellow Persona users."

He does a spit take into Ryuji's face (sorry) and has to sneeze the coke out of his nose. "You what!?"

"Dude!" Ryuji protests, but Ren ignores him.

"It's necessary!" She defends, pouting. The girls give him their own glares, so he just hides his eyes under the lights his glasses reflect. "But I got them to open up a little. I set a date for you to meet their leader later, Joker. You okay with that, right?"

And Futaba doesn't even give him a choice.

He sighs then nods. Not like he's going to get any more information without meeting them in person anyway. He sits straight up and orders coffee. "Tell Akechi and Yoshizawa, too. And tell the former I'm dragging his ass to this meeting whether he likes it or not."

"Roger that!" Futaba salutes.

"So," Takamaki starts, chewing on the strawberry. "You said he's coming, right? That Yuuki guy."

"Yeah. He said he needed to take some tests first so he'll be a bit late," He says, remembering the boys looking absolutely frantic when they ran past him. He snorts at the memories. "He looks a lot better, so I think this Shadow-related illness thing is resolved. For now."

"Is it possible that he might be a Persona-User?" Takamaki asks, waving her fork around. "I mean, you can't really get attacked by a Shadow without entering the Metaverse, right?"

"It's a possibility," He nods, sipping on the slightly stale coffee. I can do better than this, he notes. "But I doubt it. I asked Mochizuki a few times, probing around and such. They didn't seem to have ever gone into the Metaverse before."

"But he's not Yuuki. Can't one enter the Metaverse without the other?" She scoffs.

"I mean he can, but I don't think he would. They're practically attached," Ren says, recounting the scarfed boy taking care of Yuuki. That ain't something that just best friends would do for each other. It's a bit more than that. Brothers? Lovers?

He coughs at the last idea. But hey, it's still feasible.

"I have to agree with him," Makoto says. "They're inseparable. They are on a higher level than just being best friends, and if a way to enter the Metaverse appears for them, I have little doubt they'll share it before going in."

And they have to listen to that. Even Queen thinks so. Who wouldn't?

"And that means one thing," Morgana pokes his head over the table. "That, somehow, the Shadows are affecting the real world, right?"

"That could be a problem," Haru adds, her usually soft expression replaced by a frown. "But we'll have to wait and take a look at the Mementos to be certain."

"True," Ren nods.

"By the way, I did some more thinking," Takamaki begins, waving her fork around a little bit. Ryuji looks like he's about to say something, but he suddenly yelps. Must've been kicked, Ren notes. "Is it possible that what this Artemisia does is, say, trying to provoke us to act on our own?

"It's highly likely," He agrees, taking a few more sips. "The guns and the cryptic message aren't a hint. I think it's possible that they know something is wrong, but not what. Maybe they're goading us into acting. Who knows?"

"It still doesn't change the fact that we have to investigate," Kitagawa says, arms crossed. "The guns are only there to make us make a move faster, that fact is undeniable. Still, it also means that they seem to realize something is happening, and that they know we can and will get involve."

"In other words," Futaba says. "We're spied on, and led by the nose."

"That's just great," He bites out. "Well, we can talk about this later. This whole thing is killing my already low motivation, so let's change the subject for now."

Unsurprisingly, they all agree.

They chat a bit more about both work-related stuffs and other trivial things, mostly for the sake of killing time. It takes only around ten or so minutes afterwards before the doorbell chimes, and the two he is waiting for walk in.

Mochizuki is talking quite energetically, a hand on Yuuki's shoulder, while the other simply smile and listened. When they see them, Mochizuki waves and jogs over while Yuuki slowly follow suit.

"Hey there! Sorry to keep you waiting," He bows slightly, then he eyes the girls, winking. "Good afternoon to you, ladies."

They seem a bit taken aback, and Ren must say that this man's charm is just through the roof, because even his Makoto is blushing.

Yuuki yawns. "Stop that, Ryoji. You're being creepy."

Mochizuki feigns being hurt. "Am not! You wound me, Makoto!"

Ryuji leans on Ren and grins. "Hey there! You guys gonna be at Shujin this year, right? I'm Renren's pal, Sakamoto Ryuji! Nice meeting ya!"

"Mochizuki Ryoji," The taller boy says, smiling, then slaps Yuuki's shoulder lightly. "This here is Yuuki Makoto! He's a bit shy, but please take care of him!"

"I'm not shy," Yuuki hisses, slapping his arm off before he addresses them with a small bow. "Nice meeting you."

They exchange rounds of greetings and introductions before the Thieves scoot over, Yuuki sitting at the girl's side while Mochizuki got stuck between Kitagawa and Ryuji.

"Makoto, whyyy,"

"Because I know you're going to make lots of shameless comments. Can it."

Ryuji laughs and throws his arm around Mochizuki's neck, jabbing his side. "Are you that bad a womanizer that your pal had to call you out so nonchalantly, mate?"

"I'm not, he's just being mean," Mochizuki pouts. Ren turns to see Yuuki just rolling his eyes as he bows his head slightly in apology to the girls. That bring a snicker out of the Trickster, alright.

Takamaki leans over and looks Yuuki up and down before commenting with a grin, pointing at the boy with her fork. "Hey, you look kinda cute. Yuuki, right?"

The boy is obviously not used to that, because he coughs and spills some coffee out of his nose. He quickly looks away, wipes himself clean, before clearing his throat. "Uh… yeah. Thanks for the... compliment?"

"Aw, your reaction's adorable, too!" Takamaki squeals.

Haru beams at the boy and leans a bit over, so that Takamaki's head won't obscure her vision. Yuuki is still blushing by the time Haru talks. "Nice meeting you, Yuuki-kun. I and Mako-chan here are graduates, so feel free to ask us anything!"

"'Kay," He says meekly, attention going back to his coffee. He then looks up a little. "Thanks for having us. You sure we're not bothering you?"

"Of course not," Ren offers with a smile. He then looks over at Mochizuki. "How was the test?"

The boys say in unison. "We're dead."

He laughs. "Is it that hard?"

"No, we just nearly missed the time to send it over. Not enough time to write answers down, rather," Mochizuki explains, taking a bite out of a honey toast. "Teaches kept piling one paper after the other, I thought I'm gonna die!"

"But we did pass with flying colours, so there's that," Yuuki adds. "Fingers are numb though."

"Totally,"

"I heard those kinda tests are hard, right? Means you two are super smart then!" Ryuji says with a grin while Kitagawa nods along.

"I must agree. Shujin's exams are rumoured to be quite tough, after all. I'm glad the two of you did okay," The Fox says, arms crossed and nodding his approvals.

"By the way," Makoto begins. "I'm glad you're up and about. You looked like death a few days ago."

Yuuki nods a little and takes another sip of his coffee. Wait a sec, how many cups is that now!? "Thanks for helping, too."

.

They spend some more time chatting and learning more about the two boys. A shameless question from Ryuji (damnit dude, don't be so straight) about them being lovers have them spit their respective drinks then laugh for about a straight minute.

They do indeed know they're being abnormally close – they even finish each other's sentences during this – but they both fervently deny being more than close friends.

After Makoto punishes the blonde (by pulling him outside by the ear and doing god knows what) and returns to her seat, Yuuki had already started on his eleventh cup, and Mochizuki is eating an ice cream resting on top of a pile of plates. Ren look at them in surprise.

"Just how big are your appetites?" Kitagawa asks, face half horrified. Ren would have to agree; they're eating a bit… much. Like they're ravenously hungry or something.

Mochizuki forks a banana slice and eats it before pointing at Yuuki. "You haven't seen the worst of it yet. And trust me when I say you probably don't wanna."

Yuuki takes one long sip then places the cup back on the table, clapping his hands together and bow slightly. "Thanks for the drinks."

"So, where're we going next?" Mochizuki inquires, a smile on his lips. He pulls out his wallet and throws it at Yuuki, who catches it without really looking. "You guys have a place in mind, right?"

"Places," Ren emphasizes on the plurality of the word. "No way in hell we're welcoming you with just a few minutes' walk. And welcome to Shujin. Hope we get along."

The scarfed boy grins back. "Thanks a bunch. We'll be in your care."


They day is over before they realize it.

Makoto and Ryoji had fun, if he has to say, aside from the dull, aching pain he still feels all over his body (thank you for fucking nothing, Erebus). These people's company reminds him much of his old friends. Makoto briefly wonders what and how they're doing now.

After they settle down back in the room, Ryoji nudges him and takes one earbud from his neck and puts it inside his ear. With another nudge, he points at Makoto's phone. "I saw you listening to music all the time during the tour. C'mon, give me something good."

He finds himself chuckling. "Alright, alright."

His fingers work their way to navigating the playlists (he's still not used to these new stuffs), and finally settle on one Ryoji would like. He reduced the volume a little (and he still can't fix his habit of ramping the volume up to the max) and press play. Self Redemption, the first song's called.

Ryoji's brows quirk a little, but he soon bobs his head along. "This song is pretty good. I like it."

"I know you would," Makoto says.

They spend their time listening through the playlist, with Ryoji's occasional comments or just them talking about random stuff that happened during the day. Makoto finds himself relaxing quite a lot, all the burden of the world briefly forgotten. Even with his body arching and hurting, they're not that detrimental. And frankly? He thinks he could get used to it.

It feels nice, to be a teenager with a close — no, the closest — friend.

After a while, the playlist ends, and he yawns. Ryoji just laughs at him and pushes his pajamas in his arms. Pulling the earbud off and handing it to him, the other stands up. "I'mma take a shower after you, so go ahead."

"I'm surprised you even need to shower," He quips, uncharacteristic grin on his face. "Aren't you a Persona?"

"I'm also living and breathing!" Ryoji whines, then pouts at him. "You're so mean, Makoto."

"Sorry," He says, unapologetically so.

"Meanie."

"Shuddup," He says, shoving Ryoji lightly before grabbing his things and walking into the shower.

He lets water smash into his head and cascade down his body. It's been so long since he has had the chance to enjoy everyday life. After his return, he's been assaulted with pain and episodes of waking up multiple times (thank-fucking-you, again, Erebus). Only when all of those shit show slow down did he had the chance to enjoy life, and when he does, he finds it quite relaxing.

Then again, if he had been returned to life, then life is going to throw some shit back at him.

The lights and the water suddenly stop running, and he curses at them before grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his waist. He steps out to find Ryoji, wide-eyed, staring at the sky. Makoto then notice the room — it's in a green-yellow tint.

The moon is bright in the sky, its yellow light shining through their windows. Sounds of some unearthly roars fill the background, instead of the car passing and horn blowing.

And the next second, everything returns to normal.

The sound of shower in the background can't drown out his thoughts as they spin, the water dropping from his skin and the AC that would normally make him chilly and running back into the shower fare no better.

His pale gray eyes lock with sapphire, and they speak in unison and terror.

"The Dark Hour."

.

He takes his shower faster than he'd ever had, and as soon as he's done, he slams the door open to see that the world is, indeed, normal.

"What the fuck was that?" He asks, knowing full well that there's no mistaking the Dark Hour. But it's too damn short.

"It's way too brief, but I can feel it; that's the Dark Hour," Ryoji confirms his suspicion, face dark as he presses his lips into a thin line. "What the hell? Is this because Erebus has descended?"

"We need to get working on navigating the Metaverse," Makoto says.

"Yeah," Ryoji agrees. "We really need to."


Yu yawns as he sits on the same bench he did last time, Shirogane standing not too far off from him, her face stern and arms crossed.

The Phantom Thieves, or so they claimed to be, want to meet them today. So Yu, being the leader, decides to come here by himself, at first. However, Shirogane insists on helping him negotiate and, should things get worse, cause distractions.

He hopes it doesn't come to that.

A black cat then appears behind them, and with it two young men; one wearing a T-shirt and a black jacket, unkempt hair and a pair of glasses. The other, following suit with a much more annoyed look, brown hair and that coat and gloves in the spring, nods briefly at them.

"Hello, Narukami-san. Shirogane-san," The boy in black greets them with a small bow. The cat hops from the ground onto the bench and sits beside him. Yu blinks.

"It's rude to not introduce yourselves, you know," Shirogane says, one hand discreetly holding onto her revolver.

"Sorry," The other boy says. "We're with Alibaba, and while I'm not part of the Phantom Thieves, I'm also involved in the matter. Akechi Goro."

"Amamiya Ren," The black-haired introduces himself. "And that's Morgana."

The cat meows— no, it says, "Hello."

They fall silent for a couple of minutes.

Yu breaks it by saying monotonously. "Why can you talk?"

"See? Told you this'll work out," Morgana says, licking his paw. "I might look like this, but I'm also a Persona-User! And no, I'm not a cat."

"Sure you aren't," The boy, Amamiya, interjects. He nods at them both again before continuing, taking off his glasses to reveal a rather piercing pair of black eyes. "Sorry for all the lies, but we have to be sure you guys are also Persona Users."

"At least you give us your names," Shirogane says with a heavy sigh. "I guess we can trust you to some extent. So? You received them too? The guns and the cryptic message?"

"Indeed, we did," Akechi says, arms crossed. "But after some discussions, it seems like we can agree on the fact that they sent us all of these not to confuse us or hint us of something… but to encourage us to start investigating."

"That irks me, too," Yu says. "I mean… most Persona Users have the same or similar motives, because that's kind of a requirement to even have a Persona. While it's true some are not good people, we are both pretty large groups… and if they know who we are, then it's safe to assume they should know what we're like, at least on the surface… which brings us to the main question –"

"Why the secrecy," Akechi finishes for him. "That, we do not know."

"We'll need to talk of this in further details with all of our respective members," Amamiya states, brows furrow slightly as he continues. "It's also just a single case, but I'm sure this is the start of something big. One of my friends was nearly dead, and Morgana says he smelt like Shadows had attacked him."

"Is he—?"

"He's not a Persona User, as far as we can tell," Amamiya replies instantly.

Yu sighs and lets himself relax on the bench. "It seems both of us are getting involved in some deep trouble, and whoever this Artemisia is knows about it."

"Likely," Amamiya nods along. "We might have to meet them in due time. But before that, I'd like to make a proposal."

"What kind of proposal?" Shirogane asks, tilting her head.

"There is a place, a Metaverse that reflect our world. We call it Mementos," Amamiya begins. "It's like a place created from the distortion of people's hearts. Last we checked it's as normal as it looks, but—"

A reflection of people's hearts. And Shadows are negative emotions made manifest, which means…

"If anything's changing, that'd be the first place to feel the distortion," Yu summarizes. "And you want us to help you investigate."

"Yes."

He exchanges a look with Shirogane, who makes a face torn between convinced and distrust. She decides to go for the former and nods at him with a heavy expression on her face.

Yu nods. "Very well. When and how do we enter this place?"

"If it works with you, in a few days? We need to make some preparations first."

"Alright."

Well.

This is definitely interesting.


Trust me, this is the Calm before the Storm

The next chapter won't start or end in a happy note, you've been warned!

Well, see you then folks! Be prepared for the trigger to be pulled!