Disclaimer: All characters and events that take place within the story are fictional. Any relations to real people or events are purely coincidental. All copyrights belong to Atlus.

Art by Zengoro on Pixiv. Thanks so much!

Warning: Deviants explores psychological disorders, thoughts of suicide, attempted suicide, sexual assault, and emotional trauma both from an intrapersonal and interpersonal perspective. If you or anyone you know are suffering from any of the above, please seek professional help.

Friday, April 15

Morning

Everything happened at once. It was chaotic, confusing, and there was a strange disconnect from reality. It felt like a dream. Something that Ren simply couldn't accept. Ren could accept the existence of another world, a talking cat, and this Persona stuff. Ren thought what was happening was similar to watching a video from his phone. A distant reality. How could this have happened?

The day had started just like any other. A hot, humid Tokyo morning with trains and sidewalks packed with commuters from all stations of life. Ren had eaten his curry, drank his coffee, and left at the same time. Nothing had struck him as strange or out of place. He wouldn't have guessed that today would be one that would change the course of not just his life, but many others.

His memory was crystal clear. He'd been sitting in class like everyone else when it happened. Morgana had somehow snuck into his desk and asked him if he'd made up his mind. Ren didn't have time to answer when a classmate sitting in the front right corner stood up, staring through the classroom windows into the courtyard and wondered out loud what he was seeing. The girl behind him gasped and said someone was going to jump. Mishima said the name Suzui just loud enough for Ren to catch it. Takamaki heard it as well and leapt from her feet, dashing into the hallway. That seemed to spur everyone into action. Students rushed after her, Ren included, with Ushimaru-sensei yelling after them to return to their seats.

Ren had a clear view of Suzui Shiho standing on the edge of the roof, having climbed the fence to get there. She hadn't jumped. She simply leaned forward and plummeted. Ren wasn't sure what to expect. He had some childish assumption that she'd bounce like a ball. But her body hit the ground and it was only her extremities that showed any signs of impact. She stayed ominously still after that.

Ren could see students peering through all the courtyard-facing windows. A mass of black blazers, cameras, and flesh packed together like the trains. No one moved to Suzui Shiho. Ren dialed nine-one-one. Shujin Academy. Female student had leapt from the rooftop. Injuries unknown other than blunt trauma to the posterior side of her body. Ren riddled off the facts in a strangely calm voice. It was all he could do to hang on to rationality. He could feel the surge of emotions welling up in his chest. But for whatever reason Ren didn't embrace that yet. He couldn't explain why.

Takamaki had rushed down the stairs. At some point Ren had spotted Ryuji's dyed blonde hair amongst the crowd. Together they both hurried after Takamaki into the courtyard, pushing past students who simply stood and watched, recording the entire thing on their phones. Anger seeped through cracks in his emotional walls. He wanted to scream at them. But someone needed his help.

Suzui was still prone and didn't appear to have moved after her initial fall. Takamaki was kneeling at her side with tears streaming freely down her face. Her face was filled with anguish, fear, and hopelessness. Takamaki reached out to touch Suzui... but retracted her hand into her chest in fear of bringing further harm. Ren had to stop Ryuji from touching Suzui. She had landed on her back. Any shift in her spine could sever nerves if the trauma was bad enough. And that was likely given the height she had fallen. Ren couldn't see Suzui's chest rise and fall. He took off his glasses and held them in front of Suzui's mouth. They fogged. She was still breathing, then. Without moving her Ren placed a finger at the side of Suzui's neck. Her pulse was weak and wasn't fast or slow. That was a good sign.

The entire time no one, not even a teacher, had moved and asked about the situation. When Ren spared them a glance the teachers were preoccupied with controlling the students. Some of them looked over at the four of them and hurriedly returned their attention to whatever it was they were doing once Ren made eye contact. They obviously weren't going to take control of the situation. Ren was still on the phone, relaying as much information as he could. He could hear the sirens in the distance. It was tricky to tell how far they were with all the tall, urban buildings surrounding the school grounds. But close enough. It had only been a few minutes since he'd called.

"... Ann?"

Suzui's eyelids were fluttering. She was struggling to keep them open and focused.

"Ann… is that you?" Her voice was barely audible, thready, and weak. It was painful to hear, every heard sending needles into his heart.

"I'm here, Shiho. It's me. Oh my God, Shiho…" Ann could barely formulate a sentence. "Why would you do this?!"

"I'm sorry, Ann. I… I couldn't take it anymore. I just wanted everything to stop. I don't want to die, Ann," Suzui's chest heaved as she choked out a sob. "I don't want to die, Ann. I just wanted the pain to stop."

"You're not going to die, Shiho! Shiho? NO, SHIHO, DON'T LEAVE ME!"

They had watched in horror as Suzui's eyes shut once more and she went still.

But not before she muttered, "Kamoshida."

The ambulance pulled into the courtyard and the paramedics went to work. Ren told them what he could, and once that was done stood up and walked a few feet away, hand covering his mouth. His glasses hung limply in his other hand.

Calm finally caved and like a damn breaking Ren was flooded with complicated emotions he struggled to understand. Horror. Fear. Anger. Guilt. Denial. Regret. Too many to feel at once. It still hadn't seemed real even when he was kneeling by Suzui's side. Ren watched her being loaded into the ambulance, Takamaki hopping in, too. The ambulance doors shut. The gravity of the situation was finally setting in. The ambulance sirens blared to life as it approached the school gate. It was real now. Ren's grip tightened on his glasses.

Everything was real now.

Student Council President Niijima Makoto stood off to the side with Yamauchi-sensei. Struck to inaction by shock and the responsibility that came with action. Watching the teachers react the same way she did was a frustrating comfort.

"I'm going to the faculty office. I'd better warn everyone not to go online and talk about this, too…" Yamauchi-sensei tried to detach himself from the situation.

"What?!" Makoto couldn't be left here alone. Even now she saw the other students look to her, no doubt expecting her to take control of the situation. What was she going to do? "Um, but who's going to explain the situation to the paramedics…? And what about tending to the victim? There are more important matters that need to be addressed immediately!"

"Don't concern yourself with that. Look!" Yamauchi-sensei pointed at a trio of students who rushed to the girl's side. "They can handle it!"

Makoto saw two students who stood out no matter where they were with their blonde hair, one natural and the other not. Their name's came easily. Takamaki Ann and Sakamoto Ryuji. Makato focused on the third. But who was that? The boy was tall and skinny with stylized, messy hair. Round glasses sat on the bridge of his nose. He looked familiar. Where had she seen him before? Wait, he was on the phone.

"Yamauchi-" Makoto hadn't even realized the teacher had snuck off. She felt the heavy weight of eyes on her. What was she going to do? Makoto cleared her throat. "Don't worry, everyone, the situation is under control. Please, remain calm."

Makoto could still hear the dull impact of the girl's body on the ground. She'd been that close. She prayed- prayed!- that everything would work out. But deep down Makoto knew something was horribly wrong. She watched the paramedics load the girl into the ambulance, Takamaki-san joining her. They had it under control. She hadn't done anything useful. She swallowed in an attempt to dislodge the lump in her throat.

It didn't work.

Okumura Haru kept to herself in school, only really interacting with others when the situation demanded it. Consequently she had little to no knowledge of the various affairs within the school other than what precious little she picked up in the hallway.

This resulted in Haru evaluating the scene as an outside party, so to speak. While still filled with horror, grief, and the looming question of why, Haru saw more clearly than most. She saw the teachers reacting, not acting, to the situation. Surely Shujin had a protocol for when these types of situations arose. That certainty was dashed when Haru saw Niijima-san, the Student Council President, proceed to be a bystander of the situation. No one in a station of power and responsibility was taking action. And no one was stepping up, either.

Three students dashed out to the girl's side, undeterred by the attention of the entire student body and the situation as a whole. Two of them would have caught the attention of Haru just from walking in the street with how much they stood out. The third was rather… ordinary. They quickly seemed to meld naturally into the scene and display the most compassion here. The blonde girl was grieving, talking in hushed tones to the black-haired girl that had jumped. Friends, if Haru was any judge of relationships. The blonde boy was frustrated, angry, even. Haru guessed it was born from uncertainty and a lack of control. The ordinary, glasses-wearing boy was outwardly calm. He seemed to be the one taking the most control with his phone to his ear nodding occasionally.

Haru pursed her lips. This entire thing made her uncomfortable. The way the school faculty conducted themselves, how the Student Council President stood back, how the students simply watched and filmed like it had nothing to do with them.

And how students like her simply stood by and watched. Something had to change. But right now Haru was too enraptured by how evenly the three students kneeling at the girl's side brought a sense of humanity to the scene. Humans were ugly creatures, Haru knew. Creatures that acted in increasingly horrible ways the more terrible the circumstance. But right now, in this awful situation, those three were beautiful.

Haru felt a little bit of hope.

Yoshizawa Kasumi hadn't seen the girl hit the ground. Instead she had plummeted right in front of her window from the third floor. Kasumi couldn't help the gasp of surprise and horror as both hands clamped over her mouth. She didn't dare look down. She'd seen it before.

She was in the middle of the street amidst honking cars and stunned pedestrians. Kasumi saw a girl's broken body, rich red blood pooling out, taunting her with her own mortality. Her own face staring accusingly at her. She had killed herself.

Kasumi's eyes slowly trailed down to the black-haired girl's body on the ground. There was no blood. Kasumi didn't see Kasumi's face. Just like back then all the scared, lonely girl could do was watch.

A crowd was gathering in the courtyard but no one ventured those last steps to be beside the girl that had jumped. She could see from here someone forcing their way to the front. Two blondes, a guy and girl, emerged first, dashing to the girl's side. A black-haired boy jogged up behind them, phone pressed against his ear. She recognised him.

She had to press her forehead against the glass to watch him calmly assess the girl on the ground. His grey eyes without the glasses were sharp, she noticed, and seemed to take in everything. She watched him talk to the paramedics when they arrived. Saw him walk away and stand alone after they had taken the girl away.

He could help her. She knew he could.

Ann sat in the waiting room staring at the soft green, polished tiles of the floor. The strong aroma of disinfectant and what she could only describe as artificial stung her nose. There were other people here in the Emergency Room. Some sick or injured themselves, others worried friends, guardians, or parents. No matter what they were here for they all shared the same emotion. Worry.

Ann stared at the doors that Shiho had been wheeled off behind. The hospital staff didn't let her pass those doors even as she cried and pleaded for them to save Shiho. The tears flowed anew. Ann squeezed her eyes shut.

Shiho hadn't answered any of Ann's calls or responded to her texts yesterday. She had read the texts according to the app. Shiho had shut Ann out.

Ann repeated Shiho's words in her head. I don't want to die, Ann. She knew where Shiho lived, dammit! If Ann was really worried she would have visited her! Why didn't she? Because she was too busy with herself?

"Excuse me, miss?"

Ann stood as the nurse addressed her. Worry and anxiety dominated her emotions now. "Y-yes?" Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay.

"Suzui-san is going to live."

Ann cried in relief. Dammit when were these tears going to stop!

"However," the nurse continued. "We don't know when she will recover."

The tears stopped then. "What do you mean?" Ann whispered.

"Suzui-san has entered a comatose state. We don't know when, or if, she'll come out of it. I'm sorry."

The nurse continued to prattle on about the chances of recovery, the dangers, and a million other things that Ann didn't hear. A coma? Those were supposed to last anywhere between days and years, right? What about memory loss? That couldn't be so bad. Shiho would forget all about the pain and trauma that drove her to jump in the first place. It'd just cost Ann her best friend. Could Ann handle that? Being left all alone? If it meant Shiho being alive, Ann thought she could settle with that.

And if she didn't… If she didn't then they'd both be all alone. "Oh, Shiho… What do I do now?" Ann wondered.

Kamoshida.

Shiho's last word caught Ann's breath. That bastard did something. Had he followed through on his threat of removing Shiho from her starting position? Dammit, just when she was determined to fix it. She was too late. Shiho had already jumped. The fury that was kindling in her chest built to a hot rage.

Ann turned to the doors Shiho had been wheeled through, swearing, "I'm going to make him pay, Shiho. Even if it's the last thing I do." She looked at the time. She could still make it to school before it ended.

"Hey, that hurts!"

Ryuji rounded on Mishima after closing the storage room door. He wanted to be angry. For that he needed to be away from prying eyes. "Why'd you run like that? Huh?" Ryuji's foot tapped incessantly on the floor. He couldn't help it. He had to move otherwise he'd go crazy. "Why'd you fucking run?!"

"I-I didn't run!" Mishima swore, his eyes pleading. "P-please don't-"

Ryuji shut Mishima up by slamming his fist into the locker. "Suzui-san just tried to kill herself!" Ann didn't deserve this! None of them deserved this!

"Please don't hurt me," Mishima whimpered pathetically. The guy just ticked Ryuji off in all the wrong ways.

"You know something, Mishima," Ren stepped forward. He was being a lot more calm about this than Ryuji was. "This is your chance to come clean."

Ryuji felt his anger subside a bit from Ren's demeanor. Ren was right. Ryuji needed to control himself a little. "Look, Mishima," Ryuji spoke in a much less aggressive tone. "We ain't tryin' to get you busted. We won't say you talked either. But what happened, man?"

"Suzui-san…" Mishima couldn't meet their eyes. "She was called into Kamoshida-sensei's office yesterday."

Ryuji's blood ran cold. "Don't tell me…"

Mishima continued. "I've been called to the PE faculty office a number of times, too. It isn't anything unusual, everyone gets called when he's in a bad mood. He-he'd beat us. But yesterday, Kamoshida-sensei called Suzui-san out of the blue. She hadn't made any mistakes or anything at practice. But Kamoshida seemed more irritated than usual. It… It must've been worse," Mishima shivered at the thought.

"That son of a bitch!" That bastard had done it. He'd fuckin' done it.

"Ryuji, wait!"

Ryuji ignored Ren's cry and dashed out of the storage room. That fucking bastard was going to pay! For everything he's done!

Ryuji bounded up the stairs two at a time. He ignored the painful throbbing in his leg. He slipped on the last step, smashing his knee into the floor. Cursing, Ryuji continued and burst into the PE faculty office.

There he was. Just fucking sittin' there doing paperwork like nothing wrong was goin' on. "Kamoshida, you fuckin' bastard! The hell did you do to Suzui-san!"

Kamoshida barely looked over his shoulder. "What are you talking about, Sakamoto?"

This fucker! Ryuji kicked a chair over. It crashed into the floor noisily. "Don't you play dumb with me!"

Kamoshida finally stood. When he turned to face Ryuji his face was stern. "That is enough!"

Ryuji heard shoes squeaking against the floor behind him. Mishima and Ren barreled into the room.

"What you did wasn't coaching! You ordered me to call Suzui here." Mishima scanned the room, face an unreadable mask. "I can only imagine what you did to her here."

"You're going on and on about things you have no evidence of," Kamoshida huffed. "And, hypothetically speaking, even if it was true what can you three do about it? A bottom of the barrel volleyball player, a delinquent, and a criminal. Whose word do you think they're going to take? Yours or mine?"

Ren stepped forward. "We'll have Suzui-san make a statement against you."

Kamoshida was unfazed. That pissed Ryuji off more than anything else. He took a step forward and was pulled back by Ren. "Fucking let me go! Why're you stopping me?!"

"This again?" Kamoshida rolled his eyes. "Does this mean we have to do another case of 'self-defense?'"

"You son of a-"

"Calm down, Ryuji," Ren held him in an arm lock. "Now's not the time. He'll get what's coming."

Something about the way he said it gave Ryuji pause. That's right… they had another way.

"Wow," Kamoshida said admiringly. "You're stopping him? What a surprise. But don't worry, there's no need to hold back. Why not hit me? Just a little bit? Ohhhhh, right. You can't."

Kamoshida returned to his desk and sat. "Everyone present right now will be expelled for the peace and safety of the school. I'm reporting all of you at the board meeting in two weeks."

Ryuji felt Ren's arms go limp. Oh shit.

"Y-You can't do that!" Mishima seemed just as distraught as Ren did. Why was he freakin' out? It was just expulsion, not like he was going to juvie like Ren would.

"Do you seriously think the faculty would listen to you, Mishima? Just wait until I inform them that you leaked the criminal records." A wicked grin spread across Kamoshida's face. "It's all over the internet, right? How terrible of you, Mishima. How could you?"

Ren's eyes narrowed at Mishima. "It was you?" His voice was a whisper.

Mishima hugged himself, rubbing his arms. "He told me to. I didn't have a choice. You have to believe me!"

"Are we done here?" Kamoshida laughed. "You're all expelled. Your future is gone, now. Get out of my sight."

That bastard doesn't even care he drove a girl to jump off a building. Not a shred of regret or remorse. Other people's lives meant nothing to him. He wasn't even human. Ryuji felt disgusted that he had to share the same air as him.

"We're gonna make you pay, Kamoshida. Just you wait," Ryuji muttered as he slammed the door shut behind them.

After School

"I take it from you looks on your faces that you've made up your minds?" Morgana asked.

The rooftop and courtyard had been cordoned off, naturally. Ryuji, Ren, and Morgana were huddled together in an alley near school.

"Yeah, we can't waste anymore time. Not only is that bastard still walking free but if we don't do something soon we're gonna get expelled." Ryuji bit his lip. "We can't let that happen."

"Even if it means he might go brain dead?" Morgana mentioned the single point they had ruminated over.

"I hesitated," Ren admitted. Simply saying it outloud drove that shame home. "And someone else paid the price for it. Maybe we couldn't help Suzui-san, but I'm not going to sit still when there might be another. It's a risk I'm willing to take. Even though I'm at risk for expulsion this isn't just about me anymore. I'm in."

"Same here," Ryuji said with barely suppressed anger.

"Perfect," Morgana stretched his back. "Then we'll go ahead and get started."

"Whatever you two are doing to Kamoshida, I want in," a familiar voice echoed.

Takamaki Ann stood at the mouth of the alley with a hand on her canted hip. Hey eyes were red and puffy, but determined. She marched up to them.

"Whoa, who is that?" Morgana purred.

"Takamaki, I don't know what-"

"Don't lie to me, Ryuji!" Ryuji recoiled as if he'd been slapped across the face. "Shiho's in a coma and the doctors don't know if she'll ever come out of it."

"What?" Ren put his back to the wall. It was a relief to hear she was still alive but… A coma?

"Kamoshida does not get to walk away from this, away from me, without experiencing a fraction of what Shiho is going through," Takamaki bit off every word "So whatever you're up to I. Want. In."

Ren could tell she would not back down from this.

Ryuji swallowed to regain his composure. He spoke much more calmly than Ren predicted. "We seriously ain't doing anything, and even if we were, I still wouldn't let you in. You're so amped up on anger that it's gonna make you do something stupid."

"Anger?" Takamaki screamed. "You have no idea. That doesn't even begin to describe how I feel right now. Let me-"

"Ann, stop!" Ryuji grabbed her by the shoulders. "Just… trust us, okay? Believe me, I want to get back at that bastard, too. For what he did to me, the track team, the volleyball team, Suzui-san, and… to you, too. And the moment I get an idea of how we do that you'll be the first to know, okay? I promise. Come on, Ren." Ryuji released her and tapped Ren's arm.

"Hey, what gives?" Ryuji addressed the now intact exterior wall. "Didn't I blow this thing to smithereens?"

"Unless you change Kamoshida's perception from the outside any major changes like that are going to fix themselves. Small changes, like leaving a door open or moving a bookshelf, aren't significant enough for Kamoshida to notice," Morgana explained as they approached the drawbridge.

"For real? Man, that's lame," Ryuji kicked a pebble with his steel toed boot.

Ren took a moment to really examine Ryuji's rebel costume. "You look like a thug."

"What?" Ryuji's voice pitched up. "Like you're one to talk with your… magician-lookin' thing."

"Thug… that ain't bad," Morgana mused.

Ryuji leaned over, towering over Morgana. "The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Your nickname, of course," Morgana crossed his arms and huffed.

"Why are you giving me a nickname?" Ryuji straightened, all aggression gone.

"Think about it. We're sneaking in here to steal a Treasure. We're thieves, people! Phantom thieves! What kind of phantom thieves go around yelling their real name?!" Morgana seemed rather excited about this.

"Ohhhh, like codenames?" Ryuji got hyped up, too.

It made sense. Like actual criminals using code words in case there was someone eavesdropping. Plus, Ren enjoyed the idea of having an alter-ego. Like another side of him where he could be whoever he wanted to be. "All right, I like it."

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Ryuji raised his hand like he was in class. "Call me Skull!"

"You're naming yourself after your mask? That's original," Ren let sarcasm bleed hard.

"What?" Ryuji- Skull- asked innocently. "I happen to like this thing. How 'bout you, Ren? Got anything in mind?"

"Joker," Morgana answered for him. "You seemed to enjoy putting on a show when you first Awakened to your Persona."

"Joker…" Ren tried saying it. It had a nice ring to it, made him sound unpredictable. "Yeah, I like that. Call me Joker, then."

"And what about you, Morgana? Your name's honestly a bit too long to be saying all the time." Ryuji-Skull!- thought for a moment and snapped his fingers. "How about Mona?"

"A little cute for me, but it is easier to say. What do you think, Joker?" Morgana didn't seem to have any issue referring to them by code names.

"Sounds good," Joker rolled his neck. "Still think you should be called 'Thug,' Skull."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Clown," Ryuji stuck up his nose.

Joker chuckled and raised his hands in a mock surrender. "Hey, Skull, you sure that was okay? Takamaki-san, I mean."

"Huh?" Skull scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, don't worry about it, bro. She'll get over it."

"I don't think that's the right way to phrase it, man."

"Yeah, that was pretty callous of me, huh?" Skull sighed.

"No kidding," Joker scoffed. "Not to mention you were a massive hypocrite. You've been acting on anger and doing stupid things for some time now. Need I remind you of why I'm going to be expelled?"

Skull let out an even deeper sigh. "Ya know, I was hoping you wouldn't point that out. But hey, it got her off our tail, right?"

"What the hell is this?!" Takamaki shrieked behind them.

"Wha- Takamaki? How the hell did you get in here?" Skull spun and clutched his head.

"The app!" Mona hissed. "It must be able to pull in anyone else nearby. She tailed us!"

"Never mind how the hell I got 'in here.' What the hell is that thing, a costume?" Takamaki pointed at Mona. "And what's up with your clothes?"

"A costume?" Mona muttered, wounded.

"That's Morgana- I mean, Mona. And this is a manifi-whatever of our will to rebel… or something," Skull answered matter-of-factly before shaking his head. "Wait, that's not important right now. You can't be here, it ain't safe."

Joker knew Takamaki wanted to help. If anyone had a right to kick Kamoshida's ass it was her. But Skull was right. Both times they'd entered they were put into hairy situations. He wasn't about to risk putting another person's life in danger. Not after that. "Ryuji's right, Takamaki-san. You really shouldn't be here. You have to go back."

"Oh, no way. I knew you two were up to something, and that castle has to do with Kamoshida, right? Wait, castle…" Ann's eyes narrowed at Joker. "You weren't lying?"

"Of course not," Joker rolled his eyes. "I'm a terrible liar. Everyone just thought I was crazy, no big deal. You know what, no, we're not having this conversation right now. We're taking you back and you're staying back. Ryuji, help me out."

"Got it, Ren."

"Hey, just wait a moment. At least explain to me what the hell's going on. Let me go! I said let me go!"

"What the actual fu-" Ann stumbled for a few feet before catching herself, arm braced against the alley wall. "Now listen here you… two?" Ann's voice trailed off as she turned around expecting to see Ryuji and Amamiya along with that castle, but only saw Shujin students and Shujin itself out of the alleyway. Those two had some serious explaining to do.

Ann started talking to herself rapidly. "Okay, Ann. Don't worry. You're not crazy, what you saw was real. Ryuji was wearing a skull mask, Amamiya-san had a domino mask, and Morgana was a… costume? No, no, no, you're not crazy, Ann. Everything you saw was crazy. Just think. They were in the alley and Ryuji mentioned something about Kamoshida, Shujin Academy, and a castle. You heard an artificial voice say 'location found,' like a navigation app. App? Didn't that costume cat-thing mention something like that?"

Ann fumbled in her bag for her phone. "Dang it, I knew I should have taken some stuff out earlier." Her fingers finally grasped onto a familiar, flat rectangular object. Activating the fingerprint scanner was second nature. Ann frowned as a strange, creepy red and black app icon popped up on her screen. "Now what is this?" Ann tapped it, the app opening up to show what looked like any other gps map, except the streets were red and the surroundings black. She saw what looked to be the address boxes and tapped the speech input option. "Uh... Kamoshida?"

"Target confirmed."

"That's the voice!" Ann's eyes widened in surprise and glee. "Okay, next is Shujin Academy."

"Location confirmed."

"Great! Perverted teacher. Then it was… King of the castle."

"Desire confirmed. Distortion confirmed. Begin navigation?"

Ann paused. She didn't know what that castle thing had to do with Kamoshida but she'll take whatever she can get. The anger that had disappeared was swelling up in her chest once more. Shiho didn't deserve any of what Kamoshida did to her. Ann needed to atone, too. But first someone had to make Kamoshida pay for the atrocities he's committed.

"'Do something stupid?' Ha. Might be the first time Ryuji is right about something." Ann brought her phone closer to her face and bit off her next words. "Yes. Let's go get that perverted piece of shit."

That someone was going to be her.

A/N

Phew! Before I knew it we're already at chapter 5! It certainly feels like the story is going really slowly, but I do enjoy taking my time with this and trying to set as clear a picture as possible. Maybe I'm succeeding, maybe I'm not. If you peeps have a preference and want me to ditch detail and go for faster pacing let me know and I'll try to adjust. But after we get through the handheld phase of the game (Ann's Awakening, Takemi, and Iwai) I'll feel a lot less restricted by the story and begin to pull on the strings a little and not write on the day-to-day basis. Things should pick up from there.

I've thought this chapter through quite a bit so I'm confident I managed to articulate what I wanted to. At least for the time being. Not much else to say other than short(ish) chapter this week because I couldn't find another good stopping point without going on forever.

See ya'll next week!