Here we go, the next chapter where we cover the next bit of Lovers.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this
Persona 5 Royal Fanmake Crimson Arc Chapter 8
Alexis' Rival
The next day, Sunday the twelfth of June, we come to J attending a university for a lecture. Vrak and Metal Alice were also their and approach her. The alien detective said "You're Windblade's younger sister, correct?"
"Her appearance does match what we were told" Alice said nodding looking at J. "Master Vrak wishes to talk for a moment?"
"Is it about the Phantom Thieves….Vrak?" J asked turning to them.
Vrak chuckles and said "…You're quite perceptive. I was wondering if there were any points in common between Gaston's and Lysandre's cases. There have been victims, after all. The Phantom Thieves need to be pursued."
"You criticize the Phantom Thieves, yet you don't doubt their actual existence." J said arms folded.
"Ah, she must have saw that show on TV." Alice said to Vrak who nods. "But regardless we have learned common sense can get in the way at times when pursuing the truth."
"Correct, many details become logical if I think on the premise that they do exist." Vrak said with a nod.
"Is this…because my sister told you to do so?" J asked them.
"It was just a coincidence." Vrak said to her.
"Why do I get the feeling that you're enjoying this?" J said looking at them suspiciously
"…You may be right." Alice said chuckling
"Huh?" J said confused.
"Phantom thieves that use calling cards and succeed in their crime…As the so-called 'Charimatic Prince Detective' it'd be hard for me not to see them as my rivals." Vrak said with a smile
"You have such high self-esteem." J said to him. "So the Phantom Thieves are evil, and you are just?"
"Compared to people who manipulate others' hearts as they see fit, I and master believe we're on the side of justice." Metal Alice said with a nod.
"Besides, I'm only using my natural-born talent for the sake of serving the world." Vrak adds to that. "Don't you think the same about yourself too?"
"I…" J said to that looking away and grips her arm
Vrak notices and said "...Oh, that's surprising. I guess you're just the good-girl type of pushover.
"…Looks like it's starting soon." Metal Alice said checking the time.
Vrak nods and looks to J "See you later. Give Windblade our regards" She and Alice leave.
"Why does everyone get on my case?" J said upset as she grips her arm.
We come to LeBlanc where we see Zane up sitting at the counter enjoying a coffee that Vito served him. His luggage was by his seat
"It's such a delight to enjoy coffee of this quality." Zane said after finishing a sip.
"You could stay until you find a place, you know." Vito said to Zane smiling "I can't promise it'd be comfortable here though."
"Thank you, but I'll return to the dorms." Zane said shaking his head "I realized something after talking with everyone last night. Perhaps it's due to my upbringing, but I don't know anything of the world, let along other people. If I'm to depict people in my art, I need to learn more about them; I must interact with them more. I'll return to the dorms…and start over by talking with the people closest to me."
"I see. Good on you for realizing that yourself." Vito said with a nod and smile.
"There's no need to exaggerate." Zane said to him "May I come again sometime to enjoy your coffee?"
"My doors are always open." Vito said with a smile.
"Aqua's been through a lot too, from what I've heard…" Zane said looking down then back up to Vito "Are you related to her?"
"Huh? Oh…How would I describe it…We're just acquantances. Not family or anything." Vito said shaking his head. "My old mentor and regular customer is an old friend to her parents."
"I may be overstepping my bounds, but why did you decide to take her in?" Zane asked him.
"My reason huh…" Vito said and thinks on it and smiles "Probably because…. she reminds me of my old self personality wise I mean."
"That's all?" Zane said surprised.
"You know how it is. Sympathy makes you do stupid things sometimes." Vito said with a smile "Your art instructor-Um, 'former' art instructor…He must've felt something for you too, besides just stealing your talents."
"Truth be told…I cannot hate him from the depths of my heart either." Zane said looking down. "I should probably get going…"
Vito looks to the wall near the entrance where hanging on the blank space was Julian, the painting Zane's father painted. Concerned he asked "Hey, you sure about this? The painting, I mean. It'd be a waste to keep here."
"Even if I kept it at the dorms, it'd only be met with scepticism. I doubt it would want that." Zane explained. "Adding a hint of colour to an otherwise ordinary day…I'm sure my father would've done the same."
"…I see. I'll hold on to it for you then." Vito said nodding.
"Thank you for the coffee." Zane said to him. He gets up and grabs his luggage "…I'll come again." He then leaves.
Aqua gets out of bed stretching and rubs her eyes. She sees Zane is gone and sees Gatomon on the floor looking up at her. Gatomon then said "…You're finally awake."
"Where's Zane?" Aqua asked him.
"He wasn't around when I woke up. He must be downstairs." Gatomon said thinking.
Aqua nods and heads downstairs and sees Vito and approaches him.
Vito seeing her said "…You're finally up. You know it's past noon."
"Sorry was up late, I was wondering where Zane is." Aqua said rubbing her head.
"That robot kid ended up going back to his dorms." Vito explained then looks to Julian which Aqua sees as well "He left this painting before he took off, though. Supposedly to thank us for taking care of him."
"'Julian'…" Aqua said under her breath looking at this painting.
"It's rare to see a kid acting so grateful these days." Vito said with a smile. "And this painting is amazing. Not only is the father amazing, but the expression on his face…The regulars will probably freak out when they see it in here. Still…I feel like I've seen it somewhere. It's a bit different from how I remember it, though…"
"It might be inspired by another painting" J said thinking.
"Well…if you're up for the day, go on and get dressed." Vito said to her. "I opened shop hours ago, so go take the cat out somewhere.
"Sure." Aqua said and heads back upstairs to get dressed.
Aqua was now in her regular everyday clothes and was sitting on her bed when her phone messier dings. She checks it to see it was a message from Zane.
"Thank you again for letting me stay the night." Zane said in the message. "Apologise for leaving so quietly but your rest seemed peaceful. After a great deal of inner struggle, I have decided to return to the dormitorian. Furthermore, I've entrusted the 'Juilian' to your protector, Vito. That painting should no longer exist in reality…. but it is truly what my father painted. I am simply satisfied that we were able to obtain it. And it was all become of you guys I cannot thank you enough. PS, I still believe porridge is the best way to end a hot pot."
Aqua chuckles as she closes the messenger and looks to Gatomon who smiles and said "So, Zane went home, huh? Oh well, I guess that's best."
Aqua nods and gets another messge ping and see it's from Penny who said "This isn't actually a request from the Phan-Site, but a personal one…The truth is, a younger student came to consult me about something the other day. It sounds like he's getting blackmailed at his job…By the store manager."
"This is inexcusable." Aqua messages on that.
"Right?!" Penny messages and adds "From what he told me, money went missing from the register he was supposed to be in charge of. As such, he's been falsely accused of stealing money from the store. And now the manager's making him pay back the full amount. It's 50,000 Credits."
"This seems odd." Aqua messages to that.
"Yeah, this guy is like the most honest person I know." Penny messages adding "There's no way he'd steal all that money. And well, I did some research into the store online…According to some rumors, the manager might be the one stealing the money…He's the only person who checks the registers, after all…On toip of that, some other staff members saw him taking cash out when he was calculating totals. Anyway, the guy's name seems to be Wario. I found it out when I looked into the store. Please, you got to help this student!"
Aqua nods and was about to close the phone when the Dragon Gems group chat gets alerted. Uzi messaged saying "Hey, I just checked the Phan-Site. There's some kind of thread on there looking for info about burglars using the Phantom Thieves name. Seems pretty lame to me."
"Oh, I saw that too. They target restaurants, right?" Alexis said to that. "I actually found a really interesting part on there. 'My brother has suddenly started acting violent towards everyone. I might end up getting killed at this rate…I wonder if it's because he got caught up with all those weird people in Beacon.'"
"You think he means these burglars when he's talking about them 'werid people'?" Uzi asked.
"It may be too soon to assume that." Zane points out.
"The post said he started spending a bunch of money lately, too…isn't that kind of suspicious?" Alexis said to that. "I wonder how many burglar groups there even are in Beacon…"
"Damn, things are really starting to get serious." Uzi said to that.
"Let's look into it." Aqua said to that.
"I thought you'd say that." Alexis messages.
"Although how exactly will we go about investigating?" Zane asked.
"We'll go to Beacon in the middle of the night and catch them all red-handed!" Alexis said to that.
"No way. The police troopers totally nab us if we were out that late." Uzi said shutting that down.
"Plus it would be bad if the chief knew you were out in the meddle of the night." Gatomon said to Aqua as he watches the messages.
"Hm, if they target resterants…" Zane messages "Aha! What if we draw them to Leblanc?"
"What?!" Uzi messages to that
"There's no way…Who would go after a shop like this?" Gatomon said to that.
"Wouldn't that cause a lot of trouble for boss?" Alexis points out.
"'Leblanc Targeted!' It seems like a viable plan to me…" Zane said to that.
"That's a horrible idea." Aqua messages to that.
"Yup." Uzi messages in agreement. "I mean you'd get kicked out of Leblanc if we failed."
"Oh, I suppose I left the 'Julian' there as well I had forgotten." Zane said to that.
"How'd you forget something that important?!" Uzi messages to that.
"Either way…I don't really want more thieves to be posing as us in the future." Alexis messages to that. "I wish there was some way we could make an example of these ones…"
"At the moment, our lack of info means we will just have to wait." Zane messages. "We can continue searching for more information whenever possible, though."
"Yeah." Alexis said to that..
"I'm going to try looking for stuff too!" Uzi said and the message ends.
Aqua goes down the stairs after grabbing her bag Gatomon was in. She sees Leo Galinte sitting at his booth enjoying a coffee. "Hey Leo." Aqua said smiling.
"Oh hello Aqua." Leo said smiling "I just thinking it's piiable how a man lauded by society as a great artist has fallen from grace. This just shows that many fail to truly understand what is art. Did you see past Lysandre's lies?"
"Did you see past them?" Aqua asked curious.
"Natually. Thanks to my line of work I knew it all along." Leo admits to her "I merely took pity on him for a while. Like me he's an old man, after all. That said, there is no depth to Lysandre's work. It is cheap and base, like instant coffee. Don't fret if these concepts are difficult to grasp. Art is deep and complex…like this coffee."
"I will remember that" Aqua said smiling and decides to head out for the day. "Okay I am heading out Vito."
"One sec, doesn't that that robot kid go to a different school? Where'd you get to know him?" Vito asked.
"From another friend." Aqua said to him nodding.
"Huh…I guess you never know how you're going to end up meeting people in this crazy world." Vito said thinking
Aqua nods and heads for the train station.
She arrives in Beacon and first buys a Vitality Aojiru to improve her proficiency, then she went to the underground mall and bought from the sports store some Imported Protein, she just felt a need to get it somehow.
Aqua then sees Alexis and goes to her "Hey Alexis."
"Oh Aqua! Are you here to shop today too?" Alexis said smiling "Um, I've been thinking of going to see Hina in the hospital…Do you think we could maybe spend some time together before I go?"
"Sure we can hang out" Aqua said smiling.
"It will be nice time to hang out" Ame-no-Uzume said to Aqua.
"Thanks!" Alexis said smiling. "Hm, what should I get for Hina…? It's hard deciding by myself."
They walk the cross street and Alexis gasp looking at the crepe stand. She then looks to Aqua and said "Hey, I have some big news…! The double cream from that famous crepe shop is half off right now!"
"I…I see…" Aqua said sweat dropping
"Oh, but I probably can't take a crepe into the hospital, huh…" Alexis said to that. "I…really want one though…Do you think maybe Hina would want one too?"
"Come on. Give it up." Aqua said to her.
"It is pointless right now" Ame-no-Uzume said nodding.
"R-Right…" Alexis said looking down. "it might be half off…but I should try to control myself…Hina might have rehab today too. They probably wouldn't even let her eat it." She smiles "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Hina started her physical rehab. She pushed it up ahead of schedule. I think it's because I told her about how I want to get stronger. She said she was going to start working hard too…I haven't actually sene any of her rehab sessions yet though…"
Just then Alexis phone dings and she said "Oh, hold on." She checks her phone and goes wide eyed "What? Now?! Uhhhh, that's not good!"
"What is it?" Aqua asked.
"Sorry, something just came up! That was from my agency." Alexis said to her. "One of the models didn't show for a magazine shoot they're doing. They're looking to wrap soon, so I'm going to head over now to fill in…It's pretty close though. Want to come with? Actually, let's just go! I'll race you there!"
"Ah!" Aqua said as Alexis takes off as she goes after and they soon arrive at the meeting spot. There was two people no doubt working for the magazine and also another model going through a pre-shoot briefing.
The other model was a white teenaged girl with long black hair, she was wearing a red tubetop brown shorts and sandels. She sees Alexis and smiles approaching her "Alexis! I'm sooo pumped to get to work with you today! After I saw you in last year's show, I just…" She sniffs a bit like she was moved to tears "Oh, I think I'm going to cry…"
"U-Um, it really wasn't a big deal…That fashion show was tiny…" Alexis said a bit taken aback.
"By the way, I'm Heather. And please, no honorifics." The girl said smiling. "I might be a bit older, but you have loas more experience, Alexis."
"All right, H-Heather…Haha, it feels a little weird saying it like that…" Alexis admits. "A-Anyway, uh…it's nice to meet you?"
"Likewise, Alexis. You're so nice." Heather said giggling. Alexis sweat drops "Hey, can you teach me how to be a better model? You know, your everyday routines, stretches…"
"Routines? You mean like…sorting my dual monster cards…?" Alexis said thinking. Aqua sweat drops at that.
"O-Oh, is that all you do…?" Heather said the smile fading from her face "Then, what kind of stuff do you eat? I've been looking all over for a place to import some organic green almonds…Plus I'm getting suuuper tired of eating quinoa. Do I need to like, boil it in hard water or something?"
"Um, almonds? I only ever eat those when they're covered in chocolate…" Alexis said thinking. "And hard water? Isn't it kind of tough to boil ice…?" Aqua sweat drops again.
Heather stares blankly at Alexis and said "Do you weigh yourself?"
"Oh, of course! Once a year for the health examination at school." Alexis said smiling. Aqua sweat drops a third time.
Heather looks a bit annoyed and said "So…you're going to keep it all a secret from me, huh? I get it, I guess it's hard trusting someone you just met…"
"Th-That's not it! I just don't really think about that stuff…!" Alexis said in surprise "It has nothing to do with not trusting you. It's more that modelling is like a hobby for me."
"…What?" Heather said looking at her then she said loudly. "Alexis, that's so horrible…! What do you mean you don't care about modelling for these guys?!"
This got the two magazine people's attention and the assistant said "…You said that, Alexis?"
"W-Wait, I…" Alexis said in shock.
"I love this magazine!" Heather said. "Everyone tries so hard to make sure their product is the best…!"
"Heather, just calm down." The Cameraman said "Don't worry, we all know that you're giving it your all here."
Heather turns to them putting on a sad act as she said "But…you guys work so much harder than me…and I'm still the one getting comforted…"
"H-Hold on…" Alexis said to that.
"Alexis, the truth is, we had both you and Heather come down as substitutes for our missing model." The Assistant said arms folded. "We wanted both of you on the cover, but if you're not really interested…"
"H-Hey, I didn't…" Alexis tries to say.
"Don't worry, I…I can do it alone!" Heather said cutting Alexis off "I read the concept docs on my way here…" She then looks to Alexis and gives her a mocking smirk "…Heh."
"You faker…!" Alexis said shocked as she and Aqua both noticed it.
Heather puts on the act again and said "Y-You're so mean, Alexis…! Do you really hate me that much?!"
"Keep it civil you two." The Assistant said to them "Anyway, you good to go, Heather? Sorry about all this, Alexis. We won't be needing you today. We'll reimburse your transportation expenses though, and even throw in a little extra for your trouble."
"But…" Alexis said sadly but watches as Heather and the Magazine staff leave for the photoshoot. "I really screwed that up…"
"She's amazing, huh…" Aqua said arms folded
"She definitely knew what to say to get what she wanted." Ame-no-Uzume said with a nod.
"Yeah…" Alexis said sighing "But maybe it's because deep down, I'm not actually that invested in modelling…She sees straight though that. Anyway, I totally ruined the shoot…" She then thinks and smiles "But still, wasn't Heather's fake crying pretty incredible?"
"Yeah, it had grace" Aqua said nodding smiling.
"If I could, I would give her an reward for it." Ame said thinking.
"Oh, maybe that's what I'm missing…!" Alexis said surprised "I-I don't know though; I think I'm pretty good at fake crying myself. I know the perfect technique."
"So how do you do it?" Aqua asked her.
"I am curious on this too." Ame-no-Uzume said to that.
"Listen carefully…" Alexis told her and said "The key is…you don't actually cry?"
"I figured that much." Aqua said to that sweat dropping.
"Yeah, it's kind of obvious." Ame-no-Uzume added.
"Either way, I think I'll be able to use that ability to our advantage in the Metaverse!" Alexis said with a smile. "I'll turn my failure today into positive energy going forward!"
Aqua nods and senses a heightened motivation from Alexis and sees the Lovers card go up to five stars and it comes with a new ability Crocodile Tears which results in a chance to force enemies to ask for less during negotiations.
"Speaking of the Metaverse…I'm going to try super hard in my work with the Phantom Thieves too!" Alexis said smiling "But for now, I should go stop by and see Hina at the hospital. Thanks for today!"
"Sure" Aqua said smiling.
Soon she begins heading back to Leblanc.
After Aqua enters the Leblanc the Phantom Thieves group chat dings with Uzi sending a message saying "So, what do you wanna do about our next big target?"
"Well that's sudden." Zane said to that.
"Well, after what that guy said, sitting around doing nothing just annoys me!" Uzi messages.
"You're talking about Vrak right? I know how you feel." Alexis messages.
"Ah, that alien high school detective." Zane said to that.
"He have to shut up if we changed another person's heart." Uzi points out
"Perhaps." Aqua messages.
"Definatly!" Uzi said back.
"But he did mention that the police troopers are starting to mobolize…" Alexis points out. "Either way, I don't think we should leave Vrak be."
"This is the perfect time to meet and discuss what our strategy should be going forward." Zane suggests. "Let us gather at the hideout tomorrow.
Aqua nods and puts her phone away and after resting a bit in the café she heads back out.
Well Aqua and Alexis met a rival for Alexis but what else could Heather be scheming, next time we will continue the Sunday events.
Please Read, Review and Suggest. Thank you.
