Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 5!

Expect some crazy things, lots of drama and some continuation of Ann's plot.

With that, enjoy the story!

Walking into the school compound, Akira stared outwards, the words Haru had said the previous day still fresh in his mind.

"Ann doesn't really accept her role as Panther, though they may be similar in character. It's exactly because of that, that's why it reminds Ann too much about her past which she's trying so hard to forget."

Ann did not deserve that type of treatment. That's what Akira definitely knew. But what can he do to help her overcome this predicament?

"Hey, Akira!"

Surprised to hear someone call him, Akira turned to see Goro walking towards him with a huge smile on his face.

"Oh, hey, Akechi-kun. What's up?"

"Nothing, just wanted to walk to class with you, darling! And please, just call me Goro. We've known each other for quite a while, but let's just catch up on what we've missed out!"

"You're not a tomato, though?"

Goro stared at Akira for a while before he rolled his eyes, flipped his hair and sashayed away. "Alright! Then I shan't ketchup with you, you pea-brained cretin!"

"Are you thinking about swallowing me whole, Goro? Why did you call me 'gratin'?"

Goro shook his head as he waved a hand towards his friend in a snooty way. "Akira, I swear to god, I'm going to smash your face with the golden staff from Drama Club at this rate!"

Akira started guffawing. "Alright, alright!"

As his friend's laughter began to die down, the doe-eyed boy sighed and shook his head. "Don't ask me for help when you get chased by the Mob."

This time, he was curious and slightly confused. "Huh? What mob?"

Goro turned to Akira. "Hm? Don't you know? The Mob is a group of crazy fangirls in this school who will chase you down just to get their hands on you. They are only active before school hours, during breaks and after recess, which is why I'm always missing from my seat in class until homeroom is about to start..."

Akira nearly had a dry spit take. "Wait, so you only come into class just before the bell rings because you've been running away from them? How scary can they be?!"

He sighed in agony. "I'm one of their targets. I can tell you, it's not easy trying to hide from those mad plebeians... You really need some experience or they'll get their hands on you and do some... questionable things to you..."

The bespectacled boy gulped in horror. "Wh... why are you telling me such things?!"

"Because..." Goro left a dramatic pause before he continued, "Their next target is you."

"Wh... what?!"

He looked back at Akira. "Don't you get it? You're part of the Kurusu Comedians, not to mention you have bishounen-like good looks! It's pretty darn obvious that you're going to become a target someday!"

Suddenly, Goro tensed up. Stunned, Akira looked behind only to hear the loud thumping of footsteps like a stampede and a giant cloud of dust heading their way.

"GORO-CHAN, AKIRA-CHAN~!"

"Oh... OH MY GOD!" Goro gulped in fear before he grabbed Akira's hand. "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE IF YOU DON'T WANNA DIE...!"

"Wait, what the-?!" Akira couldn't get another word in when Goro immediately sped off, dragging him behind as the herd of screaming girls tagged behind them.

The classroom's door slammed open, and Ann turned to the doorway in surprise.

"... Akira? Goro? Why are you two so dusty...?"

Hacking away madly, the two of them entered the room. Akira complained sarcastically, "We were hiding from the damn Mob in the freaking vents! Such a wonderful idea, Goro!"

Goro sent a glare towards him as he swept the dust off his shoulders. "Ooh, such satire! You're yelling at me even though I helped you, you ingrate?! You ungrateful peasant!"

"I'm still shocked that they were carrying merchandise of you, though... I mean, they have a freaking body pillow of you too? How did that happen?!"

He sobbed dramatically as he collapsed to the floor. "Don't remind me of that... It's not part of the official merchandise. My eyes have been poisoned by my own self..."

Ann was shocked! "Wait a second, the Mob's targeting you now, Akira?"

Said guy groaned as he rolled his shoulders. "Now I know why Goro said that they sucked... in more ways than one."

It was a while before the realisation hit her, and she gawked at him. "I didn't know your mind was so deep in the gutter!"

Goro sighed as he shook the dust out of his hair with his hand, "But looking on the bright side, I guess we managed to get here on time. Come on, let's get back to our seats!"

Akira quickly sat down at his seat behind Ann's and stuffed his bag underneath the desk. He turned to the blue-eyed girl and asked, "Hey, are you alright after what happened yesterday?"

She looked at him with a confounded expression before her eyes brightened up. "Oh, don't worry! I was just feeling pretty down in the dumps, but I'm all better now!"

"... Is that where you get all of your dresses?"

She smacked his shoulder. "... OI! My fashion sense ain't that bad, you know!"

"Okay, my bad!" Akira chuckled before his expression grew serious again. "But do talk to us if you're having problem coping with your role, okay?"

He saw Ann flinch before she regained composure. "So you know, huh..." However, she turned back to him with a smile as she sat back down on her chair. "Oh, but don't worry, I think I can cope."

Akira smiled back in return. "That's good to hear."

"Alright, class, settle down!" Ms Kawakami's voice echoed throughout the room as she stepped into class, still donning on her usual striped shirt and blue skirt. "Before I take attendance, I would like to introduce you to a few students from Dentotekina Academy who are on an exchange programme! Shujin has brought these students over so that we can mingle with these students from a traditional school."

Akira could hear Goro mutter, "A traditional school, huh..."

"You all can come on in!"

Upon hearing Ms Kawakami's command, the door slid open once again and a group of students entered. Their teacher smiled at them as she said. "You can introduce yourselves to the class."

The tanned guy with hair which looked like it was browned from chlorine in swimming pool water and had a muscular built grinned, "I'm Kenji Fujikawa, nice to meet you all!"

The girl whose hair was kept short with a ribbon adorned muttered softly in a sweet voice, "I'm Hitomi Yukimura. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Akira turned to Ann for a moment and noticed that she had a shocked look on her face. It wasn't very loud, but he heard her mutter under her breath, "Why... why is she here...?"

At that moment, the slightly taller girl with a rather beautiful complexion and wavy hair stepped forward with an air of confidence around her as she smiled charmingly, "I'm Aiko Nakamura. It's nice to meet you!"

Akira observed Ann's movements closely, watching as she glanced at Aiko Nakamura once in a while with a slightly hurt look on her face. Looking down, he noticed her fingers brushing the can in a habit, but she wasn't really paying attention to it. He knew something was up, but what happened?

"Yo, Ann, you okay? You're deep in thought."

Ann snapped of out her trance and turned to Akira. "Oh! Um... yeah! It's just... there's a lot of things on my mind recently..."

Akira frowned as he shifted his body such that he was facing her directly. "Are you sure? Ann, I got to say this. I'm feeling pretty worried about you. Are you really alright?"

She quickly nodded as she gave him a strained smile before standing up. "Don't worry about me, Akira. I'm fine! Excuse me for a second, but I got to go to the washroom for a moment, okay?"

Akira looked on in worry as Ann walked out of the classroom. He knew that she didn't want to talk to him, but he couldn't understand why. She definitely knew Aiko Nakamura, but what could have happened between the two of them?

Suddenly, someone grabbed his arm.

Goro whispered sharply, "Akira, we need to leave before they find us!"

"What? Why?!"

"THE MOB! They are nearly here!"

"... FUDGE LET'S GO."

"... Um. Goro?"

"What is it, Akira?"

"Wh... Where the hell did you take me to?!"

Goro started chuckling at Akira's expression as he smiled, "Somewhere I hide at whenever I have to get away from those peasants~"

Akira looked around with a concerned look on his face. The place they had entered looked like some sort of greenhouse with a small garden full of flowers inside. In the middle laid a table with a few chairs and what looked like an European tea set.

"This is just weird. I didn't know you were the type who would like stuff like this."

Goro pouted and cross his arms. "How mean! After all those years, you don't know what I'm into?"

"You were never into these types of things, Goro Akechi!"

Suddenly, he chuckled a deep, smooth laugh like that of a nobleman as he sat on one of the chairs, one leg over the other. "Well, now I am, Akira Kurusu. Would you like some earl grey tea?"

Akira was totally baffled by the entire situation. How did Goro managed to get something like that ready so fast?!

"Don't worry, darlin'. This place was actually constructed for the Drama Club members as a reward for the fame that we've brought to this school, but they can bring their friends in here," the brown-haired boy told him.

"That's not what I'm concerned about... The thing is, this place looks like it's for..." Akira couldn't bring himself to continue.

His now-flamboyant friend looked at him from above his teacup. "Hm? What is it? Relax, this is just a place to hang out. Just give your honest opinion."

"Well, it honestly seems like it's for girls."

Upon hearing Akira's comment, Goro placed his cup back down on the table and wagged a finger in disapproval. "Tsk, tsk! That's a stereotype, my friend! Not all girls like this, neither do no guys like it!"

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, darlin'. It's just I feel that sometimes, it's not nice to categorise people, you know? Here, have some biscotti!"

Akira was at a loss for words.

Meanwhile...

Ann stepped back to her desk after knowing that Akira had left and sighed. She knew that her friend was just really worried about her, but sometimes, she would really prefer to keep certain things to herself...

She looked behind at Akira's desk. The mob must have been here earlier on. There was a huge pile of flowers, chocolates and other things, including... questionable items.

"Oh, my. What a small world! Fancy meeting you here, Ann-chan!"

The young model gasped as she heard the voice of the girl who had tormented her ever since middle school and made her life worse for her: Aiko Nakamura. Ann bit her lip as she watched the model from the other school sashay over to her.

"... Aiko."

The girl pouted, as if trying to act cute. "Aw, come on, Ann-chan! Is that how you talk to a friend?"

She fell silent. Aiko's voice still had that hint of malice that she could always detect ever since that incident. Aiko was indeed still as pretty as always, but what is that going to do about her personality?

Suddenly, a venomous voice snapped her back to reality. "... Ann Takamaki, are you going to answer me, or are you going to just be like how you were back when we were still in middle school together?"

She glared at Aiko with icy blue eyes, shocking her so-called friend for a moment. "Together? I wish that I had never gone to that school and met you, Aiko Nakamura."

Aiko folded her arms. "Now that's just being mean... And I thought we would work together as great as before for the model exchange programme!"

It was as if her words were bombshells dropping around Ann. "M-Model exchange programme...?!"

Aiko feigned ignorance, pretending to be surprised. "Don't you know? Us from Dentotekina are going to mingle with those of Shujin who are in the same studies as we are! As you probably still remember, I'm modelling, so it's pretty obvious where I'm going to, Ann-chan."

Ann could feel her frown crease further upon hearing Aiko call her that. Aiko then laughed like a noblewoman as she turned back to her appointed seat. "Well, I hope we have fun together, Ann-chan! See you later~!"

As she watched Aiko flounce her way back to her desk, Ann saw Aiko look back at her with scheming eyes, causing the rage in her to bubble even further.

"... Ann. Ann! Oi! Ann!"

"Wha-?!" Shocked, Ann quickly turned to her left to see Akira looking at her. "Oh, um, hey, Akira! What's up?"

"What on earth just happened to my desk?!"

"Well," she giggled lightly at Akira's shocked face. "The Mob probably came over to show their appreciation for you..."

"Appreciation?! What on Earth is this?!" Akira gawked in horror as he pulled something out of the pile, only for Goro to shriek in the most comical way possible and throw an 'R18' sticker on it, keeping the entire thing out of sight.

"Get that horrendous thing out of our faces! That thing's a huge disgrace to humanity!"

"... So what do I do with it?"

"Burn it, kill it with fire, I don't know! ... OI! I didn't mean now! Get that thing out of the place!"

Unfortunately, Akira was cackling madly as he ignited the blowtorch in his hands. "Well, may I never see you burn in hell, bitch!"

Goro quickly threw himself onto his friend. "Don't you dare burn that now and get yourself expelled, you dumb-ass!"

"Jeez! I was just kidding! Can't you take a little joke?!"

"... Pfft hahahahaha!"

Surprised by the sudden happy laugh, the two of them turn to Ann, who was giving off the most geniune laugh Akira had ever seen on her.

Giggling, she remarked, "You two are really great friends! I'm kinda envious..."

Akira gave her an exaggerated pout. "Are we not great friends of yours, Ann?"

"Whoa, that's not what I mean! It's just that the dynamics between you two are really unique. It's not something you'd see everyday."

Goro tutted at him. "Tsk, tsk, tsk! Don't put words into a lady's mouth, Kurusu~"

Akira gave him an exasperated stare. "K."

"...! AH! Where's my wallet?!"

Shocked to suddenly hear Hitomi, one of the exchange students, give a cry of despair, the entire class turned to her. Slightly worried, Kenji, the other exchange student, asked, "What happened? How did it go missing?"

"I-I don't know! I know I left it in my bag when I went to the washroom, but it disappeared!"

Akira watched Aiko bite her lip in slight concern. "This is serious... Your fortune charm is in there, right?"

Hitomi nodded. "Ugh, this is awful... Where on Earth could it have gone to?"

Everything that happened afterwards was a total blur. As their form teacher, Kawakami had to handle the situation. Stepping in front of the class, he watched her take a deep breath to calm herself down. Was she feeling stressed out...?

"Why did something like this happen?" He heard her groan before she looked back at the rest of the students and told them sternly, "Take out your bags. I need to check them just to ensure that Hitomi's wallet was just misplaced."

Akira dumped all of his contents in his bag onto the table, taking extra care not to let his teacher see the blowtorch which he had swiped from Ryuji's lab bag. It would be a pain if she had to interrogate him about lab safety and measure, after all.

"... Takamaki-san, may I know what this is?"

All eyes fell on the blond-haired girl who was staring at the green wallet Kawakami was holding with widened blue eyes. "Wh... what the?! I didn't-!"

However, she was interrupted when Hitomi exclaimed in shock, "Th... That's my wallet...!"

It didn't take a genuis to put two and two together to figure out what probably happened. Some of the students gasped in shock while others whispered to each other. Akira felt a horrible cold feeling rise in his throat as he tried to comprehend the situation, but soon found out that he was unable to speak up at all.

Kawakami's face had a shocked expression, but she masked it with a look of suspicion as she questioned, "Care to explain why an exchange student's wallet was in your bag...?"

The bespectacled boy turned to Ann, who looked as if she was about to burst into tears. "I... I don't know! I was in the washroom a couple of minutes ago before I came back! How could I have stolen her wallet?"

However, his teacher just sighed and clutched her head. "... Takamaki-san, please visit my office after school. Class, please sit down and wait for lessons to begin once again."

As all the students sat down in silence, Akira couldn't help it but feel a strange sense of horror and hurt as Ann followed Ms Kawakami's words, muttering, "This is a nightmare... why did this have to happen...?"

Ann quickly turned to glance at Aiko for a moment, and gasped before she turned back towards the front. Akira wasn't sure what was going on, but maybe Aiko's sad and hurtful glare seemed to be affecting Ann in a way.

Yet he didn't notice Goro looking at Aiko with a blank look on his face.