Persona 5: Shots Through the Heart

Shot 2: Ann and Shiho

Basic list of all the insane crap Akira's gone through recently:

- Meet fellow wrongly labeled troublemaker Shujin student, Ryuji Sakamoto

- Wandered into a creepy castle that was supposed to be Shujin Academy

- Almost killed by a demon "king" that's supposed to the true nature of Shujin's Gold Medalist PE teacher, Suguru Kamoshida

- Awakened to the power of Persona to kill Shadows

- Met Morgana, a weird cat creature that says it's not a cat

- Escaped weird castle, but ended up getting yelled at by Sojiro for being half a day late to school

- Ridiculed by other students for his criminal record that they somehow found out about and given the nickname, "Kira (Killer) Akira"

- Investigated the weird castle with Ryuji and Morgana to discover that Kamoshida's a physically abusive, sexual harassing asshole who thinks of the school as his castle where he can do whatever he wants, which is why the school turns into a castle in the cognitive world of the Metaverse

- Witnessed Ryuji awaken to his Persona

- Began crusade to expose Kamoshida's crimes

… And he was supposed to stay out of trouble.

xxx

Even with all the effort they put into gathering evidence, Akira and Ryuji couldn't secure anything good to use against Kamoshida. Mainly because the other students were reluctant to even look at them because of their labels.

That's when Morgana, who was ticked off at them for ditching him the last time that were in Kamoshida's Castle, put a solution on the table: Sneak into the world of his desires, a.k.a. his Palace, and steal his Treasure, the core of his distorted thoughts. If they steal it, his desires will vanish, Kamoshida's heart will change, and the weight of his crimes will be so overwhelming, he'll have no choice but to confess it all to everyone. Plus, no one will even know what they did.

However, there's a big risk. If they steal the core of his desires, there's a chance his mind will shut down, which can potentiality lead to his death. The two "troublemakers" are hesitant since none of the crimes he's committed are worthy of death and actually killing someone is way too big of a deal.

After Morgana leaves to give them time to think, Akira decides to head straight home before Sojiro reads him Riot Act again.

xxx

As Akira walks through Shibuya Station Square to transfer lines…

"Would you give it a rest?! I-I told you I'm not feeling up to it!" Akira stops and sees Ann Takamaki, the girl he met on his first day of school, arguing with someone on the phone.

Ann's eyes widen in surprise.

"What?! That's not what you promised!" she shouts. "And you call yourself a teacher?!" Akira obviously knew who she was talking to.

"This has nothing to do with Shiho! Ah…!" Ann freezes up at the sound of other line being cut off. Her face floods with despair as she curls up into a ball on the ground.

"... Shiho's… starting position…" Seeing the sight of her in pain, Akira follows his mantra without hesitation: When you see people suffering, you step in. He walks up to her and kneels down.

"Um… E-Excuse me..." Ann turns her head and jumps back up when she sees him.

"Huh?! Wait, were you listening?!" she asks. Akira jumps up.

"Wha- N-No! I-I mean, not on purpose! I-I was just walking by and I heard-" Ann glares at him.

"Haven't you ever heard privacy?!" Akira scratches his head.

"Uh… my bad…" Ann looks down and shakes her head.

"No. I was out of line… Sorry…" Ann rubs her eyes, then looks at him.

"S-So… how much did you hear?" she asks. Akira scratches his cheek with his finger.

"Just um… something about a friend?" Ann looks down again.

"Shiho…" Akira leans in to see her face, but she shakes her head again.

"I-It's nothing at all… N-nothing…" She wipes her tears away and runs off.

Time seems to slow as Akira watches her dash into the Underground Walkway, thinking of Kamoshida's cognition of her: Slutty and all over him like some puppy dog, much like the rumors at school say she is. Then he remembers her frown from when she got in his car. She's obviously being used, she's being labeled for it, and it's Kamoshida's doing. Not only could this be a potential lead… but he can't leave just leave her alone.

Akira nods to himself and dashes after her.

"Hey, Takamaki! Wait up!"

xxx

Ann stops at the bottom of the stairs to rub her eyes and breathe to keep herself from breaking. But…

"Takamaki?!" Ann turns back and sees Akira chasing her down. She starts making a break for stairs going down. Akira reaches out to her, rushing through the crowd.

"Hey, wait!" He reaches the stairs and sees Ann running to the right, but with the sea of people flooding the walkway, he'll eventually lose her. He quickly jumps on top of the escalator, slides down to the bottom, and jumps off, sticking the landing. Considering what he's been doing recently, such simple parkour was child's play to him.

His rushes to the right, only to be met by another sea of people. He refuses to panic and just starts scanning the area.

She sticks out like a thousand fireworks going off at once at night, he thinks. Even in crowd like this, she can't… There!

Akira spots her standing near a support beam with her back to him and the rushing crowd subsides on cue to let him through. He walks over to her and stops just a few feet away from her.

"Y'know," he calls out to her. "You kinda stand out too much to be able to hide." She just stands there for a moment, then Akira's instincts tell him to get ready to dodge. That's how he was able to avoid the eraser and pencil she angrily threw at him. He waves his hands at her.

"Hey! Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Calm down!"

"Stop following me!" she shouts. "Just leave me alone!" The way she was glaring at him would drive almost anyone away. Not him, though. He just put on his determined face.

"Sorry, but I can't do that!" Ann starts backing away from him as he cautiously walks towards her. Pressing her for answers this way didn't seem like the best idea to him, but it's all he could think of. After all, he practiced a little with Shadows that he backed into a corner. This was similar, in a way.

Okay. Right now if she was a Shadow, her nature would be irritable. So, the best course of action should be to show aggression. But only a little. I'm not turning to turn her into a Persona… Alright, let's try setting it up first.

"Are you okay?" he asks. "You look upset."

"Probably cuz you're stalking me, you creep!"

Now for the aggression.

"You know that's not what I meant!" Akira barks with a serious look on his face as if he were bad cop. "The damn phone call. What was it about?" Ann finds herself with her back to a wall. She looks away from him, feeling herself about crumble.

"I-I told you! I-It's nothing!"

Don't go full force all at once or she might attack you. Increase the pressure at a slow and steady pace.

Akira starts taking it one step at a time.

"That's not what your body said when it curled up into a ball," he points out.

"N-No…" He takes another step.

"That's not what your voice said when it trembled."

"S-Stop it…" Another step.

"That's not what your eyes said when they leaked." Ann covers her heart and tries to calm her breathing as he takes one more step. Any closer would be dangerous.

Defenses are almost down. Now, full power final shot!

"There's no point hiding something so obvious. I know something's wrong." A quiet moment passes as Ann's lips begin to quiver.

"W-Why?" she stutters. "Why do… keep worrying about me?" It was at that point that the dam finally broke. She slides down the wall and starts bawling a river. Akira stands there for a moment to give her some breathing room, which is the right move considering how hard he pushed her.

Crap… Maybe my offense was a little too rough.

After about a minute or two, he kneels down and offers her a tissue. She takes it and cleans her face.

"I just want to talk," he says. "Let's go somewhere safe." Ann looks at him and sighs.

"What the heck? I really don't get you." Akira smirks at her, then grabs her bag and her wrist.

"You don't have to."

xxx

Akira basically dragged Ann to Big Bang Burger. He requested a table and asked for water for the both of them. He sat across from her and waited for her to calm down.

After a few minutes of silence, all she does is shoot a dirty look at him and turn her head.

"I don't have anything to talk about with you," she says in a cold tone. "It was just an argument…"

"... With Kamoshida?" Akira added as if he was finishing her sentence. She glances at him, sighs, rests her head on her left arm, and makes zigzags on her napkin with her index finger.

"You've heard the rumors, haven't you?" she starts. "About me and Mr. Kamoshida? Everyone says we're "getting it on"... But… that's so not true…" Akira figured as much. Having had one forced upon him recently, he knows a false brand when he sees one.

"That was him on the other line…" She continued. "When he first got to Shujin, I thought he was just messing around... but he just got more and more pushy... I avoided giving him my number for the longest time…" She angrily grabs her napkin.

"He was telling me to go to his place tonight… You know what it means…" Akira grunts in disgust, knowing exactly she's talking about.

"If I turn him down, he said he'd take my friend as a regular on the team… I've been telling myself I've doing this for Shiho's sake… But I can't take it anymore…"

So that's the story behind his cognition of her, Akira thinks. In exchange for securing Suzui's spot on his female volleyball team, Takamaki has to become... his trophy.

"I've had enough of this! I hate him!" Ann's cries recaptured Akira's attention.

"But still, Shiho's my best friend… She's all I have left in that sorry excuse for a school! Tell me… what should I do?" Not only could he not give her a clear answer, but the sound of her sobs made Akira's stomach turn. All he did was look away and grip his pants in frustration.

Ann wipes her tears away.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have asked…" she sobs. "It's not your problem…" Akira looks back at her with a determined look on his face.

Maybe it is, he thinks. Ann takes a sip of her water and sighs.

"What… What am I saying?" she sniffs. "I barely even talked to you before." Akira rubs the back of his neck in guilt.

"Sorry… for butting in…" Ann shakes her head.

"No… it's all my fault." She rubs her eyes again and chuckles a little.

"You're so weird," she says. "Usually everyone just ignores me." She looks at him and slightly tilts her head.

"Are you really a bad person as the rumor says? ... You just don't seem like it." Akira couldn't help but smirk at her. Looks like he's found another person who doesn't believe the Kira Akira lie swarming around him.

"Trust me. I'm bad to the bone," he chuckles. Ann snickers a little.

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" she asks.

"Well seeing that it worked… Yeah." Ann smiles at him in sympathy.

"Kinda had a feeling those were all exaggerations… You seemed lonely… Like you you didn't belong anywhere…" Ann closes her eyes.

"We're the same in that regard… Maybe that's why it was so easy for me to talk to you…" Ann looks down at her glass and grips it with both hands.

"Is there really no way for me to help Shiho?" she grimaces. "I wish he'd just change his mind… Like forget about me and… everything…" Akira pondered her words.

Change his mind? he thought. No… How about his heart?

Ann lays back on the booth.

"As if something like that could ever happen," she laughs. Akira takes a deep breath and smiles at her.

"Not true. It could happen." Ann looks at him, surprised by his answer, then chuckles.

"I wasn't asking for serious response." Ann takes a deep breath.

"But, I do feel a little better now. I'm gonna head home." Ann grabs her bag and her water and stands up.

"Don't tell anyone what I told you, okay? I'll find a way to convince Mr. Kamoshida." Ann looks away for a second, then looks back at him.

"Hey… Kurusu-kun, right?" Akira nods.

"Don't wear it out," he says.

"Well… thanks." Before she leaves, Akira calls out to her.

"Uh, hey!" Ann stops and turns to him.

"Um… since we're in the same boat and all…" Akira pushes up his glasses before continuing.

"If you ever need someone to talk to… my door's always open. I mean besides Ryuji, I got no one else to talk to, so..." Ann giggles and nods.

"Y'know… I think I'll take you up on that, someday. See ya!" Ann proceeds to exit the restaurant with a slightly better mood.

All alone at the table, Akira looks down at his glass in thought.

"A change in him can happen, huh?" he says to himself. He takes a deep breath and nods, knowing what he has to do.

"No… To hell with the risks… It won't happen... unless I make it happen."

Target: Hit