Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 5!
Please do note that while some parts will be full of random jokes, there will also be certain serious parts, such as this chapter.
WARNING: There will be certain sensitive issues mentioned here such as bullying, racial issues and such, especially since this is the beginning of Ann's arc. If you are sensitive to these types of topics, it is not recommended for you to read this chapter. Hence, proceed with caution. However, just in case you guys want to know, the beginning of this chapter mentions nothing about these sensitive issues, thus you should be able to safely read the first part until you see the next line separating the different segments of this chapter.
If you would like to tell me that I have made a mistake, or if you do not agree with the way I portray certain issues and would like to voice out your opinion, please private message me instead of using the review box, okay?
WARNING: Slight spoiler alert for the 5th Palace.
With that, enjoy the story!
"You've got to be shitting me, right?!" Yusuke breathed out in horror as he flipped through his script. "What kind of art weirdo am I acting as?!"
"Lady-like and all, huh, this Queen character? And she's the student council president too?" Makoto murmured as she skimmed through her own before she snorted in amusement, "I'm not any of those, as much as I know."
Ann nodded. "Well, mine isn't too bad, though... I can actually empathise with Panther."
Haru frowned slightly. "Poor Noir, though... I can't imagine how life would be like if my father's dead..."
Meanwhile, Akira was sniggering at a couple of his lines. "'Honey, I'm home' to Crow? 'There are too many dudes' to Fox? I'm going to enjoy this so much..."
In response, Yusuke turned to the black-haired boy and grinned while trying to hide his irritation as he ripped a bag of marshmallows open, "Do you want me to dress as a woman then, Akira Kurusu?"
"Yeah. A sexy blue dress and some heels would be nice!"
A marshmallow flew in the air, and Akira quickly caught it in his mouth. He started clapping his hands together and barking like a sea lion, causing the rest to burst out in hysterical laughter.
Futaba was giggling madly as she wiped tears away from her eyes. "Oh my goodness, Akira-Senpai!"
Kawakami laughed for a moment before she added, "By the way, feel free to edit the script as you like, but they still have to adhere to the personalities of your characters. Understand?"
They all nodded, except for Yusuke who shoved three marshmallows into his mouth. Ann stared at him in shock. "Haven't you already eaten a box of pocky? Why do you still have a bag of marshmallows?"
"Why not?"
Ryuji winced at the amount of sugar there was. "That's... really unhealthy, you know. I know you have a great metabolism and all, but you shouldn't be working your pancreas so much that your insulin just gives up on you..."
Yusuke bobbed his head from side to side. "Blah, blah, yada yada. I don't even know what kind of Science crap you're talkin' about, Sakamoto."
Futaba had a sad pout on her face. "Yusuke-Senpai, Ryuji-Senpai was just being worried about you…"
However, Makoto suddenly walked straight up to him and grinned before snatching the bag away from him.
"Oi-!"
"What did I tell you about the candy? This sweetie gonna give you diabetes! No!"
Yusuke groaned and flopped himself against the back of his chair once more. "Why can't I be Skull instead, man?! That type of character's someone I can relate to!"
Ryuji added softly, "Well, I'd prefer to be Fox too... he seems much more similar to me compared to Skull."
Ann began to burst into a fit of giggles. "You don't mind asking Joker if you have to dress as a woman?"
"Honestly, I don't really mind."
Makoto squinted at him. "... Oh god, you really are a weird dude."
"Hey, no changing of scripts, okay? There is a reason as to why you guys have received these roles."
Haru looked at the script on the table. "So the person who isn't here yet is Crow. Where is he?"
Ms Kawakami replied, "LoA. Our little VIP is taking a Leave of Absence since he's out to get an award again."
"I see... I wonder who's acting as Crow, though. Probably one of the better students here."
However, their teacher simply placed a finger to her own lips and replied with a smile, "You'll see..."
Makoto's lips curled into a comical frown. "Aw, come on! Can't you at least tell us what course he takes, Kawakami-Sensei?"
"I'm sorry, but it's confidential."
"Hey, now that I think about it," Ann suddenly quipped in, "We don't really know the courses that each of us are taking! How about we introduce what we major in? I major in modelling and acting!"
"I'm pretty sure you guys know that I major in Clothing Design," Haru smiled softly at them.
"I major in Research Studies, though I told you all about it already," Ryuji added with a small shrug.
"I'm in acting and martial arts! I'm working to act as a strong heroine in a movie!" Makoto grinned as she pumped her fist into the air.
"W-well," Futaba wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead as she replied, "I'm in the Music Course. Specifically, composing..."
Akira simply chuckled as he replied, "I'm in the Joker Course!"
Yusuke groaned while the others sniggered. "Please, no more puns..."
"Well, we all know for a fact that it's the Comedy course, so..." Ann then turned to Yusuke. "Well, how about you, Yusuke? I'm interested to know what you major in!"
His delinquent demeanour suddenly seemed to vanish for a moment as he stuttered. "Um... well... I..."
Suddenly, Kawakami stood up again. "Oh. I almost forgot! Okumura, Sakamoto, Sakura, can you three please hand in your designs, research and scores for the game to me now?"
The three of them nodded as they pulled out their stacks of papers. Meanwhile, she turned back to the rest of them and said, "Also, you guys can leave now. I don't think there's anything else we have to discuss. The schedules for acting and meetings are all inside your script files. Alright then, see you guys in a few days time!"
"Ho, yes, it's finally over!" Yusuke stretched in relief before he grabbed his bag from the floor and began walking out. However, as he stepped out of the room and the rest of the students began packing up their things, Kawakami placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You owe me one this time, okay?"
"Hey, that wasn't so bad! The meeting was actually pretty fun!" Ann remarked happily as the group began to go on their separate ways. She, Akira and Ryuji were heading the same way since they take the same train line back home.
"I still can't believe I have to act as a delinquent," Ryuji sighed. "This is going to be difficult..."
"I got to admit, Hifumi did make your hair look a lot better, though! Your hair colour earlier on was pretty uneven."
"Hifumi-Senpai does specialise in hairstyling, after all..."
"I guess you can say that she's got some 'style'!"
"... Akira, that's just a bad pun. Stop," Ann muttered as she rolled her eyes. However, she suddenly paused and gasped. "Oh, crude! I forgot to take my Literature book that I need for my homework! You guys go on ahead first. I'll see you at the train station!"
Quickly, she sped away towards the other direction, leaving Akira and Ryuji behind.
Ryuji shook his head. "Hey, I think we should just wait for her. We can't let Ann go to the train station on her own just in case something happens."
Akira nodded as the two of them quickly went down the direction that she did. Following Ann, the two turned down a corner when they suddenly saw the blond-haired girl searching through her locker before she pulled out a book and slammed the metal door shut. Ryuji was about to call out to her when suddenly, someone else had already caught her attention.
"Hey, Ann-chan!"
Surprised, the blue-eyed girl turned to the opposite corner of where the two guys were standing, and saw a group of girls standing there. "O-Oh. What is it, Suzui-san?"
Akira was mildly surprised. "Huh? Isn't that Shiho Suzui from my class?"
Ryuji sweat-dropped. "Um... do you not know your classmate, Akira?"
"Well, hey! I've been here for only two weeks, you know!"
The girl named Shiho replied, "Do you want to hang out with us? We're going out to get some crepes! There's a new store next to the train station, so maybe we can just head there before you go home?"
They saw Ann's eyes widening in surprise before they turned a little sad. "Ah, it's okay, I've made plans already."
Shiho looked saddened for a moment before she smiled again, "Aw... that's too bad... Well, see you tomorrow, then!"
As she and the rest of the girls left, Akira and Ryuji walked towards her. Ryuji began, "You know, if you wanted to follow them, you can just go along with them. Don't you always love desserts?"
Akira nodded, "Suzui-san seems like a nice girl too..."
She sighed as she pushed her hair back. "It's okay. It's just... maybe I'm being too paranoid..."
This time, Akira was curious. "Hm? What happened?"
Ryuji glanced at Akira before he moved closer to him and whispered, "I'll tell you later. It's kind of a... sensitive issue to her."
After saying goodbye to Ann when she left the train, Akira turned to Ryuji with a concerned look on his face. "So what happened to her?"
Somehow, the train was not as crowded as it used to be, probably because it was after peak hours and most of the people were at home.
Ryuji looked around before he asked, "Um, well... you know that some people call Ann names in school because of her looks, right?"
"Yes, I know that. What about it?"
He took a deep breath as he pushed up his glasses. "It was a lot worse back in middle school."
Akira suddenly felt himself tense up, but he wasn't sure why. "And...?"
"Back then, Ann was always bullied by the other students. Specifically, it was the girls who always hung out together in tight cliques. There was one time when they pretended to become friends with her and did really horrible things behind her back, but she only realised what was happening when they finally made her a scapegoat." Ryuji sighed with a small hint of sorrow and pity.
"A... scapegoat?"
He nodded. "Apparently, they framed her for theft. Even though Ann's innocence was later proven through some investigation, that incident was burned at the back of her mind. That's why she doesn't really get into a close relationship with anyone. She's scared that someone would betray her all over again."
Akira brought a hand to his mouth. "Wait, let me get this right. The students hate her just because she's half-Caucasian, and so they framed her for theft just to bully her? But that's just..."
Ryuji shook his head. "No, I doubt that it's only about this social stigma in Japan. Bullying comes from other factors too, such as jealousy, or simply just because you are different in one way or another. I'm pretty sure it was a combination of a couple of factors, but let's get back to Ann's story. That incident wasn't the end of it. Afterwards, everyone else seemed to act nice to her, but Ann was still being ill-treated. No one ever knew who the rest of the culprits were, since she was bullied through the spreading of rumours, pranks and such..."
Akira bit his lip as he felt a strange feeling in him began to grow.
"I wish I could help her back then, since we were in the same school, but I was too much of a coward to do anything..." he sighed as he turned to look out of the window even though it was pitch black. "If only I had done something... then maybe this wouldn't have happen."
"You can't blame yourself - others probably feel the same way as you do."
"I know, it's just..." Ryuji turned to lean against the wall of the subway as a tired look streaked past his face. "I just wish I could've done something to help her. It... It just isn't fair for something like this to happen just because one's different, y-you know?"
However, before Akira could say anything, Ryuji looked back at him and smiled, "But anyways, you're actually really good at lending a listening ear. Thanks for listening to me rant. For some reason, I'm pretty glad that you're not always joking about things."
Akira chuckled, "Hey, I do know when to take things seriously, you know. By the way, you seem to really care about her, Ryuji."
The blond-haired boy nodded. "Of course I do. She's my friend, just like you."
The clacking of Ann's boots could be heard as she walked down the dimly-lit road towards her home. As she moved further away from the train station, everything that just happened back in school came flooding into her mind like a tidal wave.
"Do you want to hang out with us?"
The words kept ringing in her head like a resounding bell that made Ann's heart race faster every time it repeated. Her heart slowly begun to ache with a strange feeling of sorrow as her legs started to speed up. Shiho's expression at that moment kept appearing in her head, but it slowly became more and more distorted until…
"Wanna hang out with us, Takamaki-san?"
The image of a girl with a red flower hairlip suddenly flashed in her mind, causing Ann to gasp and pause all motion. Ann began panting heavily before she slowly calmed down and started to walk once again.
Why did she have to remember Aiko Nakamura, the girl who became her friend back in middle school and betrayed her afterwards?
Everything started to crash onto her as the road slowly seemed to darken in front of her.
"I swear, that girl's probably one of the teacher's bitches."
A desk full of taunts and insults scribbled onto it sat in front of her.
"What a slut."
A sharp pain seemed to push itself into her head as someone 'accidentally' tugged at her long hair.
"I heard she's a thief! Can you believe it?"
A feeling of coldness surrounded her as water dripped down her clothes and wet hair.
"Why not? That girl's a Devil Woman, after all…"
A group of students stood at the side as they whispered to each other while staring at her. She knew that they were talking about her, but she couldn't care less anymore.
Grunting in frustration, Ann shook her head. However, something fell out of her bag, and she picked it up. It was her script. She had been reading it on the train just to get her mind off what just happened, but…
Ann's pace began to slow down as questions began flooding into her brain. Why did Atlus choose her, the only blond-haired and blue-eyed girl in the school, to act as Panther, who was also a half-blood? Why did they accept Haru's design of Panther in the skin-tight and revealing red outfit, but not her preferred design of a more conservative one with the dark-coloured cape and fully covered clothing? Why was Panther's personality sometimes that of a stereotypical person from the West? It was just a stereotype, that doesn't mean it's true! Why was she specifically chosen to be Panther, who was viewed by those who do not really know her as flirtatious or, in a negative vibe, a bitch?
Could it be that…
She could not take it anymore. Panther's predicament and everything that happened to her was too similar to Ann's life. The only difference was probably the sexual harassment and the fact that Panther was a quarter-Caucasian while Ann herself was half-Caucasian. Ann stopped once more as she looked down onto the ground, closed her eyes and gripped her head as laughter began echoing in her ears and darkness seemed to engulf her.
"This feeling… It's like an earthquake."