"Blast him apart, Captain Kidd!" The skull-faced Persona blasted the guards with thunder as Ryuji attacked them with a steel pipe he pulled off the carpet. "Kamoshida ain't shit!" The shadows burst apart, their bodies getting fried by the lightning.

"So he had the potential too..." Morgana stared in awe.

Ryuji stepped forward, closing in on Kamoshida's shadow. "Come here, asshole. Even if you beg for forgiveness now, I ain't forgivin' ya!"

The ruler gave small laugh. "I thought I told you, this is MY castle." He signalled someone to come to him, Akita saw from the corner of her eye a blond girl in a leopard pattern bikini.

"Wha– Takamaki!?" Ryuji almost bit his own tongue in surprise.

Morgana began fawning over the girl, forcing Akita to signal him with her foot. "Calm down..." Akita personally wanted to barf, the sight of Kamoshida getting anything close to the female student made her blood boil.

"What the hell's going on..." Ryuji wound-up staring in disbelief. "Why's she even here..." Kamoshida's fingers reached up to hold the girl by the chin, who then looked up at him with lustful eyes.

"I hate everything about this..." Akita nearly threw her knife at Kamoshida.

"I thought I told you: this is MY castle, where I can do whatever I want and be loved by whoever I desire!"

It clicked for Akita. "I think it's like those slaves in the dungeons. She isn't real... Doesn't help much though."

Kamoshida looked at Akita. "Jealous? You could still join me, I could even give you the splash spot for a few days. You aren't seriously going to stay with the punk?"

"Oh shut up..."

"How dare you. Guards!" More shadows crawled up, their bodies morphing into guards. "Clean them up this instant!"

"We're surrounded", Morgana was getting ready to run.

"We can't just run away!"

"But we do need to stay alive", Akita said while grabbing Ryuji by the shoulder. She looked him in the eyes with reassurance. "We'll get him next time."

"Thank god someone has a level head..."

Ryuji relaxed and groaned. "Fine..." The three began to escape. "Just you wait, we're taking you down for good!"

"Come at me whenever you want!" The shadow ruler laughed. "I was getting bored with torturing the ones here!" That was the last of what the three managed to hear as they burst through the window after Akita fired her gun at it a few times. Falling to the ground, they were lucky that there was a platform right under them. They followed the rooftops down before reaching the courtyard.

Akita and Ryuji panted after all of the jumping and running, with the girl squatting down and Ryuji staying up to talk. "Hwoo... Anyways." He began stretching his arms. "I don't exactly remember changing into this."

"Neither did I, but gotta admit." Akita looked up at Ryuji. "The tie makes you look really good."

Ryuji coughed, trying to cover his embarrassed voice. "Yeah, you... look good too." He turned away from looking at the girl bellow him, all the while Kamoshida's voice can be heard howling for the guards to find them.

"Quiet..." Morgana tried to hush the two, after more yelling the trio decided to move elsewhere.

"Alright, I'm guessing the real Kamoshida won't remember anything? Just like with the execution attempt", Akita happily asked as the thieves ran farther away from their landing point.

"Yes, a shadow is a version of the person they don't see."

"Awesome", Ryuji stopped at a corner just before the exit from the castle-grounds. "Now that we know all that, all we gotta do is–"

Morgana stopped the blonde, beginning to beg them to help him out since he taught them everything. "You're just going to up and leave me?! Even though you're already part of my master-plan?! Is it because I'm a cat? Is that why you're making a fool of me!?"

"We're just busy...", Ruji pointed out. "Thanks for everything, cat. You've got guts, being a cat and all!" Ryuji began walking away, with Akita rushing to his side. "See ya."

"Thanks for everything, Mo-chan!"

"Hey, you two!" Morgana yelled towards them, despite neither looking to listen. "Seriously?! Why're you wrapping this up like everything's honky-dory!? Get back here!"

A bit of running later...

"You have returned to the real world", the app rang as everything returned to normal, with Akita and Ryuji finding themselves in the back-alley in-front of the school.

"Thank god, we're back..." Ryuji panted heavily after everything. "I dragged you along a lot, huh? Sorry..." The two took a second to adjust themselves. "I'm dead tired... How are you holding up?"

"I'm beat... and my bra's in a weird position...", Akita sighed as she adjusted her shoulder.

"O-oh... well uhh..." Ryuji scratched his neck. "Sorry about that? Uh... I guess you don't show up tired..." Ryuji coughed the awkwardness away. "But damn, if what we saw for real, this is gonna get good. I remember the faces of the guys Kamoshida's been abusing. Now we just gotta get them to fess' up to the physical violence and the bastard's done for!"

"Yeah, let's get this done."

"Wait, won't this just be worse for you? You already got a record and everyone knows about it..."

"How did that happen?"

"What do you think? Kamoshida's the one who opened his damn mouth, doesn't matter if it's a student or a club: he'll wreck it for his own amusement."

"Just like he did with you?"

"Exactly. But if those rumors of his abuse get proven, we can finally take him down. And if what we saw was real, then there's no way I can just sit back..."

"I agree", Akita leaned against a wall with her hands crossed. "Let's do this."

"Hell yeah, I'm counting on you! Don't worry – I'll make sure no-one messes with you!"

Back in present day...

"There are benefits to working alone as a phantom thief...", Sae explained. "... especially when it comes to being efficient. However, you did not. There ARE merits to having associates. That's what you think as well, right?"

"..." Akita looked away.

"Am I wrong?" Sae leaned over the table.

Meanwhile, in our timeline...

Ryuji's stomach growls, making Akita giggle. "Oh right, I haven't eaten in a while. Wanna grab a bite to eat?"

"That would be nice, sure", Akita stood on her feet. "Where to?"

Ryuji walked to the main street. "Just follow me. Tell me about your past there, would be nice to hear your story."

The two made their way to a ramen restaurant, where despite the waiter offering a couple's offer, Akita and Ryuji refused. After getting to eat, the two started talking, Akita told about her arrest.

"–the hell!? That 'effin sucks!"

Akita took a bit of her food, moving her hair out of the way. "Calm down, it's in the past."

"But that was so much bullshit!?" Ryuji took a look at Akita. "You're a cute girl, why would the cops believe any of what he was saying!?" Akita ignored the first part for Ryuji's sake. "And after that– gulp-gulp –you left your home town, and– gulp-gulp-gulp –you're living here now."

"Eat before you speak..." Akita took another bite.

"Yeah, yeah..." Ryuji and her ate a bit more until he put his bowl down. "We might just be more alike than I thought."

"I can see it that", by taking her time eating, Akita managed to almost finish before Ryuji.

"I guess it's how we've been treated. I lost just about everything after Kamoshida came around and you... well got framed", Ryuji took a bit to eat. "And then get treated like a pain in the ass by everyone around us, like we don't belong. I did something stupid at school before too..." Ryuji quickly finished eating his bowl and placed it down. "You're living in Yongen now, right?"

"Yup", Akita watched Ryuji reach a piece of spice onto her food.

"What are you doing?"

"Well you gotta finish. Just adding some spice into your life. Let me thank you for helping. Let's have each-other's backs from tomorrow onward."

"At least you got me food first", Akita faintly smirked.

"C'mon don't tease me like that..."

"But it's fun..."

"Well as long as get Kamoshida taken down, I'll take it", Ryuji had a flash of inspiration. "Oh, tell me your number. Chat ID too."

"Sure", the two exchanged numbers as Akita tried finishing her food. The face she made when first tasting the spice made Ryuji laugh.

"So tomorrow, I'm thinking we hit-up some of those guys I saw at Kamoshida's castle", he took a glance at his phone. "Oh shit, tomorrow's the volleyball rally. It's recommended by Kamoshida too, makes me want to gag. But hey, we shouldn't have any classes thanks to that. We won't be bothered for just walking around", he took a glance at Akita's bowl. "Well we can work out the rest tomorrow..."

Akita ate a bit of food. "What?"

"C'mon, you gotta eat some more. There's ton of ginger here!" Ryuji tried to reach for more spice.

"No, you have some, you made it too spicy!" Akita grabbed a bunch of stuff from her soup and placed it in Ryuji's mouth. Ryuji almost cried from the spice. "Take that."

"No fair, dude!" He tried to feed her some in turn, to which she responded with the same. Eventually the two's mouths were burned from the dish, but they at least managed to feed each-other enough to finish. They then got outside. "So about this plan to take out Kamoshida", Ryuji tried to speak with his burning tongue.

"Don't be so loud", Akita tried to calm him down as she was sweating bullets and panting.

"Ah, right...!" He tried to stop himself from being too loud, their little competition seemed to have been a very poor idea.

After walking around a bit more, the two eventually parted ways and Akita made her way back to Leblanc. She found Sojiro reading a newspaper "... You're home."

"Yup", she began walking tiredly back upstairs.

"I take it you actually went to school today?"

"Of course..." She tried to keep the conversation short to not collapse on the ground from sweating.

"I guess you learned your lesson from yesterday. As long as you aren't getting into trouble, but why are you so sweaty?"

"It's nothing..."

DING

Akita checked her phone, Ryuji sent a text.

[Ryuji]

Hey

I decided to message you to check

can you see this?

Akita checked Sojiro, he was suspicious.

[Akita]

Yep

[Ryuji]

Awesome

Ill be counting on you tmrw

OK?

[Akita]

About what...?

[Ryuji]

...

C'mon

Don't play dumb

Weve got this far

stick with me until the end

"Who is it", Sojiro asked, prompting Akita to flinch.

"Ah, just a friend."

"Were you even listening..." He sighed. "Texting a guy...", Sojiro glared. "Stay away from bad influences, you got it?"

"Yeah, yeah...", Akita began walking up.

"Hey", Sojiro stopped her for a moment. "I'm gonna head home for the night. I'll lock up, don't go wandering out with your guy friend."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Akita sighed, waved the man goodnight and went up. She took a look at her diary and decided to write something.

Tuesday 12/4/20XX

Went to school by train.

Met up with Ryuji, hung out.

He's fun.

Ate some food, he's fun.

Walked around a while, talking about a teacher with Ryuji.

Got home to sleep.

Akita looked around her room for a bit, it was still messy despite her effort on the first day. I should clean when I get the chance...

DING

"What now...", she saw the message was from Ryuji and decided to lay on the bed to answer.

[Ryuji]

Hey

that app on your phone

it was a red eye thingy?

[Akita]

Yup

I don't have any red eye though

so don't lose hope yet

[Ryuji]

dude

wtf