The school day was done and Akira was tired both physically and mentally. Outside of the trying experience school was going to be hard with his arrest out in the open, but he was feeling an abnormal amount of exhaustion that he had since this morning. He was halfway out the door when he lost his footing and nearly fell but caught himself. Through blurred vision the school's hallway changed to that of a castle for a split second, his head throbbing from a headache.

Ms. Usami who had exited after him noticed that he wasn't feeling well and rushed to his side after she saw him trip. "Are you alright?" She moved to support him if he needed it.

"Is this a school?" The words came but Akira did not seem to be all there which worried Usami.

"Seriously, are you alright?" She asked again.

This time Akira straightened up looking at her as if nothing happened causing Usami to frown when life returned to his eyes, it was safe to say that she did not believe his next words. "No, I-I am alright."

She narrowed her eyes at him but decided not to press the issue further. "You should head straight home without stopping by anywhere." She spoke, getting a nod from him, but before she could continue the conversation a student with blonde hair entered her vision and came to a stop in front of her and Akira, her patience wearing thin, She addressed his intrusion. "Do you need something? I heard that you got caught up with the police on your way to school."

The blonde Sakamoto grunted in return as he only looked at Akira, which annoyed Usami to no end. "It was nothing." He began, moving closer to Akira. "I will be waiting on the roof." He finished before walking away.

Usami's blood boiled before she let out a heavy sigh to calm herself before turning to Akira. "You should really head home without stopping anywhere. This is for your own sake and as well as Sakura-san's peace of mind, he did sound angry over the phone after all." She paused before giving him a smirk, patting his back in the process. "I will call him to tell him that you made it in one piece and weren't feeling well, not that it is a lie now." She finished.

"Thank you. I will do just that." Akira said without thinking, silently throwing Sakamoto another apology before leaving the school.

(...)

Getting back to Cafe Leblanc which would be his home for the next year he ran into his guardian for the same period Sakura Sojiro, a middle-aged man who seems not too pleased with Akira's perceived antics manning the bar in the small establishment. "Hey, I got an interesting call from your school today." He said angrily before continuing. "It's only your first day and you're already showing up hours late?" He finished.

Using the excuse that Ms. Usami made up for him Akira responded. "I started to feel under the weather so I stopped by the station until I was ready to go to school." Akira answered not being fully convincing but most of it was not a lie, to say the least, and Sojiro took his word at face value.

"Look, just behave yourself." Sojiro said with a serious face. "Your life's forfeit if anything happens. You understand the meaning of probation, right?" He continued.

"I do." Akira said, nodding.

Sojiro sighed before responding. "OK then." As soon as he said that a ringtone sounded in the empty cafe, Sojiro promptly answered the phone in his pants pocket.

"Hey, what's up?"

...

"Yeah, I just closed up shop. I'll be there in half an hour."

Putting down the cell with the call still going he turned to Akira with the grin that was on his face leaving him like it was never there to begin with. "Hey, what're you standing around for? Go hurry on up to bed." Returning to his call he assured the person on the other end of Akira's presence. "...No. I just hired a part-timer." Thinking that it was best to do as his guardian said, Akira began heading for the stairs at the other end of the cafe, only to be stopped by Sojiro's voice. "Don't Forget to lock the door and turn all the lights off, OK?" Sojiro asked, before returning to his call. "...Yup, I'm Leaving now. I told you, he's a part-timer." Without another thing being shared between the two Akira left the room.

(...)

"There seems to be a new player in our little game... They may pose a problem, Justine... Caroline... I want you to investigate if this becomes a cause of concern for us."

(...)

Having gone to sleep, Akira was woken up in a sparsely decorated prison cell dressed in a tattered uniform. If he had not visited this place before he would be confused but having experienced what the warden called the velvet room Akira was surprisingly neutral about the fair. His blurred vision corrected itself to look down at a pair of twins that looked to be around ten with guard uniforms on from his bedside like this was a normal occurrence. "About time you've come to." The one if he remembered correctly was Caroline with the twin buns and eyepatch over her right eye said aggressively on his right. "On your feet inmate."

In the middle of the order which Akira followed just get it over with the twin to his left with her platinum hair in a single French braid and an eyepatch over her left eye whom he recalled as Justine spoke calmly to him as he got up. "Our master wishes to speak with you. It's for your own sake that you take his words to heart." Justine said as he made contact with the bars of his jail cell.

If he remembered correctly their master was the elderly warden of the velvet room Igor who had his desk in front of Akira's cell right in the middle of a circle of cells. "First off, Let us celebrate our reunion." Igor said, getting a good look at him. "Oh...? You've awakened to your powers. And a special one at that. Your rehabilitation can finally begin."

"Rehabilitation?" The teen asked, confused.

"There is no need to understand it all for the time being. You will be training the power of Persona, which you have awakened to. Personas are, in other words, a 'mask'... An armor of the heart when confronting worldly matters. I have high expectations for you."

Still confused, Akira went ahead and voiced his concerns. "What do you mean?"

"There is no need to worry. You will learn when the time comes. By the by... Have you come to appreciate the Metaverse Navigator?"

Akira processed the man's words and thought back to the GPS app on his phone that he kept deleting with mild shock under a mask of indifference. 'Oh, that's what that was.' He thought to himself with Igor continuing his speech.

"Using it will allow you to come and go between reality and Palaces."

"Palaces?" Akira spoke audibly without thinking.

Igor however seemed unconcerned with the question and continued where he left off. "I bestowed it to you as a means to train you as a thief."

"The Metaverse Navigator is a gift from our master! You better take care in using it, Inmate!" The aggressive Caroline comments as Igor finishes talking about the Navigator.

Justine picks up where her sister left off and continues the thought in her usual demeanor. "Devote yourself to your training so you become a fine thief."

"It must be disheartening to make use of the Metaverse Navigator alone. Should there be others who would prove beneficial to you. I will grant it to them as well." For some reason as soon as Igor said that the blonde he had met was at the forefront of Akira's mind, shaking the thought off he returned to what Igor was saying. "This is all for you to grow as a most excellent thief..." Igor seemed to notice something in Akira but said nothing of it.

"Hmph, it's time. Go back and enjoy whatever rest you might have..." Caroline spoke, noticing the same thing.

(...)

4/12

Akira woke up the next morning feeling like and remembering the weird dream he had last night, pushing it aside he got ready for school and went downstairs. After having a curry breakfast he bid Sojiro farewell, the man passing an umbrella that he had forgotten to give Akira the day before, reminding the boy to flip the sign at the door from closed to open when Akira opened it. After flipping the sign he was off this time determined to make it to school on time. When he got to the train he listened to the chatter around him.

"What was the conductor thinking, charging into the station at top speed like that?"

"Didn't you hear? The guy totally lost it. It's been happening a lot lately."

"All these accidents are because people are suddenly losing their minds, right?"

"Well, between the economy sucking and how depressing the news always is, it's not all that surprising."

The station close to his school was in the middle of his fellow students' conversation and he got off. 'The train accident from the other day was still a topic of conversation.' He thought about getting off his train and embarking on his short walk to school from the station in the rain.

The first full day of school was surprisingly more pleasant than the day before, which was hard for him to believe. In the morning Mr. Ushimaru, the attending teacher for Social Studies, called on him to answer a question about the three parts that the Greek philosopher Plato divided the human soul into. Akira had gotten the answer right by guessing logic after his sensei gave the first two of appetite and spirit. The class seemed to be surprised at the fact that the delinquent was getting the answer right after what they had thought of him previously and Takamaki gave him a reassuring smile before he relaxed into his seat ignoring the words of his classmates around him.

(...)

After school, as he was leaving his class he almost ran into Kamoshida who had caught up with Takamaki who was just ahead of him, Akira decided after yesterday to hang back and see if she needed him to intervene. "Hey Takamaki, You looking for a ride home? Things have been pretty dangerous lately with all the accidents." Akira cringed at the teacher saying that.

"Sorry, I have a photoshoot today. It's for the special summer issue, so I can't afford to miss it..." She pauses mid-sentence.

Akira thought back to what she said yesterday. 'So she is a model for a magazine, eh? Is that what she meant by me recognizing her?' he was brought back looking at the subtle frown on her face, one would miss it if they were not paying enough attention, which was clear that Kamoshida was not.

"Hey, now... Being a model's fine and Dandy, but don't work your pretty little self to the bone." Akira could not discern if that comment was made out of genuine concern or not and it bothered him. "You mentioned you weren't feeling well, right? Something about appendicitis?" Akira nearly choked as he suppressed a cough at the audacity of his new female acquaintance. This or yesterday morning was not the first time the teacher accosted his female student, apparently, and Akira was starting to feel bad about the comments that their classmates had made about her the day prior during his introduction to the class.

"Yes. I keep planning to go to the hospital, but I've been too busy... Sorry to worry you."

'Not something that you can afford to ignore but... Ok.' Akira thought as he continued to watch the scene play out.

"You must be lonely too. I feel bad for keeping your best friend at practice so often." Kamoshida responded with a neutral expression. He had obviously forgotten or chosen to ignore that Akira had a relationship that required them to be on a first-name basis without the use of honorifics, but that was neither here nor there. "That's why I asked you out in the first place. Oh, and... Be careful around that transfer student." Akira raised an eyebrow at his mention. "I don't know exactly what your relationship with him is but he's still got a criminal record, after all. If something happened to you."

Akira did not miss Takamaki clicking her tongue at that before her frown turned into a small smile, all the while looking down. "You don't have to worry about Akira... But thank you." Her smile returned to a frown as she thanked him for something that wasn't necessary in either teen's eyes. "Please excuse me." Takamaki made her quick exit to the disappointment of Kamoshida who headed in the opposite direction.

(...)

Leaving the school Akira was ambushed by Sakamoto who was waiting for him by the gates of the school. "Yo." Sakamoto began.

"You waiting to ambush me?" Akira jokes, his face remaining neutral.

Sakamoto looked taken aback at that, a small frown showing. "Ambush...? C'mon. Don't say that shit like that. Anyways..." He continued speaking his smile returning to his face. "I wanna talk about the castle from yesterday." Speaking of something that Akira was pretending wasn't real before his dream last night put everything in perspective, somewhat. "I tried tellin' myself it was all just a dream... But I couldn't do it." Sakamoto said, his face more serious. "I can't act like nothing happened. It's all connected to that Kamoshida bastard, after all."

'Obviously.'

"I wanna find out what's up with that place, no matter what." He continued speaking without Akira not uttering a single word. "And y'know, you're the only person I can rely on for this stuff. So, you in?"

Akira nodded a couple of times before looking Sakamoto in the eye, completely deadpan. "I'm out." He replied.

"Don't be like that, You've gotta be wonderin' what the deal with that place was too." Sakamoto looked almost angry but the tone of his voice was mostly disappointed.

"Dude, I was joking. So, what's the plan." Akira reassured him with a slight smile.

With his mood improving Sakamoto launched into his plan of attack. "I was thinking we should just try and retrace our steps from yesterday. In the meantime, you're walkin' to the station, right? Let's go together."

From what he remembered the Metaverse Nav went off when Sakamoto was talking to Kamoshida, but before he could say anything about it the other boy had already started walking away. Akira had no choice but to follow.

"Lemme know if you notice any other weird buildings on the way." Sakamoto spoke as Akira fell into step with him. To Akira, Sakamoto did not seem like a bad guy so he wanted to humor him for a bit.

After retracing their steps they were back at school again with Sakamoto asking Akira if he saw anything out of the ordinary. "There wasn't anything out of place along the way, right? I didn't see any castles either... We must have made a wrong turn somewhere." He spoke more to convince himself that that was true. "Let's try again."

'I want to go home.' Akira thought as the pair began their fruitless journey again.

Sakamoto, noticing Akira's sour mood, commented to motivate Akira not to give up halfway, though Akira had figured out what they had to do. "C'mon, you gotta stick with me to the end." Sakamoto said as the two walked.

Again the two arrived at the school gates, Sakamoto sighing as they did. "Is it smaller than we think it is?"

Akira wanted to tell him but kept what he knew to himself but watched as Sakamoto tried to work it out himself. It was when he asked Akira what he thought when the teen brought up his phone. Taking it out he shared his theory, well he sold it as a theory about the navigation app on it. "When we were talking about Kamoshida yesterday this app on my phone went off." Akira said, presenting the phone to his partner-in-crime.

Examining the phone he lit up and told Akira to press the begin navigation option in the menu. The phone audibly went through the keywords in his recent searches. [Kamoshida... Shujin Academy... Pervert... Castle...] The two had not had to wait as reality seemed to causally twist around them as they found them in front of a castle. To be exact the one they stumbled into yesterday.