Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.
I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy
Chapter 58: - Trip to the TV Station
"… and that's why we recruit sponsors to help make TV shows," The tour guide explained. All of us who had chosen the TV station for our social studies trip were gathered within a set that looked to be used for a talk show or news station. "I'm sure you know about commercial breaks? Well, those are actually sponsor-related product placements. To sum things up, ratings are vitally important for a station's production funding and-," She added on. But a quieter voice closer to my ears overrode her next words.
"Huh…," Ryūji sounded. However, it didn't sound like he was actually interested in the words that the guide was coming out with; honestly I wasn't all that interested either, the trips hadn't really had much available that had seemed stimulating but I'd chosen the TV station simply because out of the limited options, it had seemed to be the most interesting one that was present, I was now regretting the choice I'd made.
"I thought everyone knew that," Ren commented. While I couldn't state that I did know this fact, I figured it was probably something to do with gaining part of their revenue, I swear my feet were starting to hurt from how much I'd been standing around doing nothing; it was really difficult not to fidget in place just to find some way to relieve the pressure being exerted upon the soles of my extremities.
"This has been more boring than I actually expected it to be," I admitted. So far, all we'd done since arriving is be guided to this location and listened to this woman jabber on about things that seemed like common sense or topics that were easily worked out with just the smallest amount of focus and thinking it through.
"For example, soap opera re-runs are shown in the day, whereas alluring newswomen are broadcasted at night. Thus, the scheduling department is where we decide what time, we broadcast which program. I suppose you could say it's the place where the scheduling is determined," The tour guide explained. That last part was unnecessary, since it was obvious from her prior words that was exactly what the scheduling department would do.
"Could this get any more obvious?" Ann wondered. A fair point, the tour guide seemed to be floundering about what to tell us since she was saying such unnecessary words; I had to wonder if anyone had actually prepared the guide before we'd shown up today given how much she seemed to be struggling with what she was trying to tell us.
"No argument from me, Ann," Ren agreed. Ann proceeded to yawn quite loudly as she expressed how sleepy she was, the blonde haired model did seem slightly tired ever since we met up with each other but it was likely that the sheer boredom we were being afflicted with was exacerbating her already present drowsiness.
"So, the best parts are taken from the footage in order to cut down the program to the desired length. The place where this filmed footage is edited would be the editing room," The tour guide spoke. I wonder if it was possible for boredom to induce a headache because it certainly felt like I was going to end up with one at this rate.
"Hey, how much longer does this go?" Morgana asked. If even the seemingly ever-patience Morgana was starting to lose it, then we were probably right to be wary of how this whole thing was dragging like a stone across a swamp that was more mud than water; maybe Ryūji was right in his suggestion of just skipping… which is a scary thought in of itself.
"I swear, I'm not gonna last…," Ryūji admitted. He then also yawned, someone suddenly barged passed Ren so hard that he spun around which spooked Morgana, I quickly looked over and saw that it was an older man dressed in a white suit; I didn't like the look that was on his face as if he was looking down on us just for being here, plus the fact that he had purposely smacked into Ren with significant force wasn't a good sign either.
"What's going on? I can't stand all this noise!" The man snapped. Ryūji surged forward and was about to insult him when Ann quickly grabbed him and pulled him back which also managed to silence our Electricity wielder, it would definitely just get us in trouble if we allowed Ryūji to rage as he wanted, no matter how much the rude man probably deserved to have someone tear into him for his lack of manners.
"Apologises, I'll have them leave right away," The tour guide capitulated. It was rather pathetic how quickly she had folded just because of one man yelling at her, but if that was her boss then I couldn't blame her for doing what was necessary to keep her job, the white suit wearing man proceeded to storm off. "Now then, it's time for a bit of hands-on experience!" The tour guide encouraged. Well, at least that sounded like something that was a little bit more interesting than standing around and doing nothing.
"Dammit… who does that jerk think he is?!" Ryūji demanded. Probably someone high up in the company's hierarchy or it could be a celebrity that thought that he was entitled to boss people around as they wanted; it was really bad to see just how horrible some people acted when they thought they were better than others just because of their job or position in some organisation.
"Hey there. You wanna be on TV?" A male voice asked. We looked over at the source and saw a man standing there with his eyes on Ann, a look that was all too familiar. "You've got a slammin' bod, after all. Hehehe," The man commented. Revulsion rose up within me and I moved closer so that I could tug Ann behind me so that she could at least take shelter from this perverse individual.
"Excuse us, but we're here on a school trip," I spoke up. This caused the man's attention to turn to me and I was glad of that… for all of three second; because after those three seconds passed, his eyes took on that same disgusting look they had when looking at Ann and I felt myself take a slight step backwards despite Ann being behind me, just because I wanted to create more distance between me and this man.
"Damn… you're not too bad looking yourself. You two make quite the image," The man commented. He proceeded to reach into his pocket and pulled out two objects, which he pretty much forced into mine and Ann's hands by grabbing them; I think my skin might have tried to crawl off my hand the moment he touched me. "Just gimme a call if you're interested. I'd greatly welcome a message from you, day or night," The man offered.
"Greatly welcome, my ass. It's obvious what he's after," Ryūji commented. My friend was quite right, he obviously had no intention of doing anything helpful for me or Ann. "Do these rotten adults care about anything other than looks!?" Ryūji questioned. Probably not given how they had been acting, I deeply wanted to stick my hand under hot water to get rid of the nasty feeling that man's skin had given me. "I'll yank-," Ryūji began to threaten. Thankfully Ren covered the boy's mouth and prevented him from saying anything damning.
"Will you quiet down!? You're supposed to be acting like good students today!" Morgana snapped. Frankly, I think Ryūji had done remarkably well today since it had only been the presence of a rude man and this repulsive individual that had set the blonde off; before now he hadn't been acting that much differently to the rest of us, although all of us tensed up slightly when Kawakami-sensei walked over.
"I understand you're bored, but please don't cause any trouble. Okay?" Kawakami-sensei requested. She had an annoyed look on her face but she still seemed to be rather exhausted by the deeper bags under her eyes and her face seemed a little sunken in; I felt my stomach sink slightly as I worried about what could possibly be causing Kawakami-sensei to end up like this.
"Well then, uuhh, let's have you see what it's like to be an AC. Oh, that stands for assistant camera. When we're moving cameras, we need people who can keep the cables from getting tangled up. The blonde will do. He seems like he's got energy to spare anyway. Guy next to him, you can come too if you're feeling lonely. C'mon, hurry up and grab the cables!" The man insisted. He then proceeded to walk away from us.
"Dammit… this sucks!" Ryūji hissed. I couldn't entirely blame him for feeling that way given that this whole trip had been quite the let down so far.
*Persona 5 Royal*
After being separated from Ryūji and Ren, Ann and I focused on doing whatever we could to avoid that creep, or any others like him. The moment we found some peace, me and Ann darted into the bathroom and scrubbed our hands clean after tearing up the cards that we'd been given and dumped the fragments into the bin. Upon leaving the bathroom, we heard Ryūji's voice angrily complaining and proceeded to move over to him.
"Quiet down, will you!?" Ann demanded. This caused the blonde punk and Ren to look over at us as we proceeded to move to stand with them. "I get how you feel though… that sucked for the both of us," Ann agreed. Both me and Ren nodded our heads, after all this trip had proven to be somewhat of a disappointment which I had not been expecting it to be, perhaps it was wrong to think we'd see something exciting, but I'd hoped it might be more interesting.
"We gotta do more of this tomorrow too?" Ryūji complained. I couldn't say that I was looking forward to going through more of this mind-numbing boredom tomorrow, it was certainly something I'd prefer to avoid; likely sensing the path that Ryūji's thoughts were tiptoeing down, Morgana proceeded to pop out of the bag and levelled an intense look at our Electricity wielder.
"No flaking out, Ryūji," Morgana chastised. Yeah, we couldn't have someone up and vanishing after showing up on the first day, if he hadn't been here then nobody would bother with batting an eyelash at it but to vanish after having attended would certainly get some kind of reaction from most people and I could only imagine that bringing Niijima-senpai's full focus upon us even if it might not be for her investigative reasoning.
"I know, I know. I gotta be a 'good boy' right?" Ryūji claimed. He was slumped down as he said those words, he clearly wasn't enjoying having Morgana constantly on his back about behaving himself while at school; but we really didn't need any additional attention being shot at us by the teachers. "Bein' Phantom Thieves ain't easy," Ryūji whined.
"Ryūji!" All of us snapped. He was really starting to do my head in with his inability to develop a brain-to-mouth filter about our activities, I quickly snapped my head about in order to check to see if anyone had heard; thankfully no one else seemed to be around which caused me to breathe a sigh of relief… but one day Ryūji was going to get us in trouble with his blunt honesty.
"Anyway, we get to go home straight from here today," Ann revealed. It was relief that we wouldn't have to go back to school only to leave in order to go home. "We don't spend much time in this area, so why don't we relax and check out some shops beforehand?" Ann suggested. That actually seemed like a nice idea, a way for us to spend time together – even if we were lacking Yusuke – in an area we might not have much of an opportunity to visit.
"Ooh, I know a place! I wanna go to that huge pancake-looking place we passed on the way here!" Morgana exclaimed. All of us proceeded to look at the human turned cat with confusion on our faces… what could he be talking about? A pancake looking place, I hadn't seen anything like that. "It looked delicious! What was that?" Morgana wondered. Suddenly realisation came upon Ryūji.
"Ohhh… you mean Dome Town?" Ryūji revealed. Understanding came to me then, it did kind of look pancake-ish the portion that Morgana had been referring to. "The round part is a baseball stadium, then along the outside they've got an amusement park," Ryūji explained. It was exactly the kind of place where they would be able to spend time together while enjoying themselves.
"It's right in the middle of a business area, but they have some pretty hardcore rides there too," Ann added on. I hadn't ever visited the place, but hearing the mention of 'hardcore rides' caused my stomach to roll a bit, I'd never been fond of roller coasters or the like, they didn't look anywhere near safe enough for people to be strapped in by something that looked so terribly flimsy and then sent shooting around at high speeds and different angles.
"Alright… let's go! I'll show you just how courageous I am!" Morgana declared. I don't think it was a good idea for Morgana to be going on such rides, at least not until he regained his human form, there was no way any of the restraints would be able to keep his lithe cat form secured to the cart… I do not want to lose our best healer and primary Wind wielder, plus essentially our navigator, to something like that.
"Going on a scary ride doesn't really prove any kind of courage," Ann claimed. She had a strained look on her face, but I couldn't tell what she must have been thinking about at the moment, still at least she said something that would be likely to dissuade Morgana from attempting to get on such a ride given the dangers that were attached to going on one.
"Not like cats can get on anyways," Ryūji commented. Morgana seemed surprised by this as he asked 'Really?' after hearing that, it really shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. "Really. You might be able to sneak in if you stay in the bag, but you'd totally puke if you did that," Ryūji added on. Ren didn't seem fond of that idea if the pinched expression on his face was anything to go by. "But uh… let's just go to Dome Town! I'm really feelin' it now!" Ryūji insisted.
"Me too! My stomach's ready for roller coasters!" Ann happily declared. She seemed particularly energetic about going to the roller coasters, I was definitely not looking forward to going anywhere near such rides, I could already feel my stomach threatening a revolt at the mere thought of getting on those particular rides.
"Uhhh… I think I'll pass on the puke rides," Morgana admitted. I nodded my head in agreement to the healer's words; it was quite unsettling to even think about going on them, at least this way if Ren did go on the rides, then someone else would be there to keep Morgana company, and prevent him from being catnapped like what had almost happened with Aino.
"Excuse me," A gentle voice called. All of us jerked around to see who had spoken, behind us was a boy who was probably close to Niijima-senpai and Haru-senpai in age, he had shaggy, neck length brown hair with a fringe that rested to the sides of his face and reddish-brown eyes. He wore a tan pea coat with black buttons, striped black and white tie, black pants, black gloves and black loafers "I couldn't help but notice your uniforms. Are you students of Shūjin Academy?" He asked.
"Yeah, whaddya want?" Ryūji asked. However, I was more focused on his Will of Rebellion, or rather the absolute lack of one, I'd never seen anyone completely lacking a Will before unless they happened to have a Persona; most people at least had something they were completely against in their lives so most people had flickering candles instead of the inferno required for Awakening a Persona. This was my first time running across such an unusual individual.
"I happened to be passing by, so it seemed polite to greet you. We'll be filming together, after all," The boy admitted. There was something about the boy that seemed slightly familiar, but I couldn't exactly place where I had heard or seen him before. "Ah, where are my manners? My name is Akechi Goro," The boy introduced. At that, I finally realised who this person was since I'd heard him a few times when the TV had been on at LeBlanc.
"As in the second Detective Prince, that Akechi Goro?" I asked. Akechi turned to look at me and a smile came onto his face as his eyes closed, however something about that smile immediately set me on edge; there was nothing malicious behind it, but I just had the sudden sensation that the smile he was showing was utterly, horribly, fake.
"Yes. That's me," Akechi confirmed. Even his voice had changed now, before it had been normal, neutral if enquiring but now it sounded almost… like… I guess plastic-y was the best way to describe it. "My apologises, I truly was just passing by. I must be going. There's a briefing for tomorrow's recording that I have to attend," Akechi admitted. The boy had opened his eyes and stopped smiling by now, but his voice was the same and I took a step back as if to put more distance between me and his horrible voice. "So, you're going to go have cake now?" Akechi suddenly asked. Despite his freaky voice, I couldn't help but listen to that as all of us exchanged confused looks. "I missed lunch today, so I'm quite hungry myself," Akechi added on.
"Huh? Cake? What're you talkin' about?" Ryūji asked. It was a bit baffling since I don't recall any of us mentioning anything about cake, not even the sweet monster known as Ann had said anything, I have no idea where the boy could have possibly got a hold of such an idea and from the looks of the others, even they were confused.
"Oh, am I mistaken? I thought I heard something about delicious pancakes," Akechi admitted. If possible, I think the hair on the back of my neck shot straight up hearing those words as my mind stumbled about trying to understand this comment. "No matter. Well, see you tomorrow," Akechi stated. He then proceeded to walk away from us and off down the hallway, we waited a moment for the clicking of his shoes to completely fade before looking at each other.
"So, is that guy some kind of start up entertainer or something?" Ryūji asked. That was what he focused on? I was more concerned by what he had said since it didn't make any sense no matter how I might try to think about it. "He's never gonna get popular with that kinda hair though," Ryūji claimed. It was clear to me that Ryūji didn't have a clue who that boy had actually been.
"Ryūji," I spoked. I reached up and rubbed the bridge of my nose as I tried to think about what to say but honestly my brain just felt like mush at this moment. "You know what, if you don't know then never mind, I'm too tired to explain at the moment and if he's right, you'll learn tomorrow," I decided. I raised my hands into the air to indicate my surrender before dropping them back down.
"Then it can wait for tomorrow. In the meantime, Dome Town! I've never actually been on a rollercoaster before, so this'll be fun," Ren encouraged. He seemed slightly chipper, but perhaps the idea of going on something he couldn't before had perked him up; Ryūji on the other hand proceeded to gape at Ren with clear shock on his expression at those words.
"Dude! How have you never been on a rollercoaster?!" Ryūji exclaimed. It might seem surprising to people from the city that someone couldn't have gone on a rollercoaster before, since there was so many of them around Tokyo; but it seems that there was one thing that Ryūji was forgetting as Ren turned to give him a deadpan look.
"My hometown is tiny!" Ren defended. The two boys proceeded to start walking away and I could still hear them loudly discussing something, but the words weren't really making any sense to my brain as I slumped against the wall I happened to be standing near while massaging my temples to try and clear up whatever was wrong with my mind.
"You okay Natsu-chan?" Ann asked. My friend had reached over to press her hand against my shoulder as she gave me a worried look, I couldn't even force my lips into a strained smile and instead simply shut my eyes in an effort to help clear up my mind; after a few minutes it finally did and I felt that I could actually breathe a little easier, as if something had been removed from pressing on my mind.
"Fine, just fine," I admitted. Ann still looked worried, not that I blame her since I still felt wobbly, but at least I could actually think now instead of struggling to focus; as me and Ann moved to catch up to the boys who seemed oblivious to us being delayed, I thought back to the conversation we just had with Akechi, his lack of a Will or Persona was certainly weird but that wasn't what caught my attention at all.
After all, the weirdest bit about that conversation, had been that the only person who mentioned pancakes was Morgana.
*Persona 5 Royal*
It was the next day and we were all gathered in the live audience seats of the show they were recording, our trip to Dome Town yesterday had been rather fun especially since Ryūji had wanted to be sick after going on a rollercoaster, while Ann seemed made of steel since she was fine. Ren had been enjoying himself a fair amount while Morgana had appreciated my company when he'd been left behind to avoid the dangers of rollercoasters.
"Akechi-san's coming on!" An announcer claimed. The boy walked onto the stage and almost immediately, girls started to squeal and gush which hurt my ears quite a bit and surprised Ryūji from his face, but I could barely hear his words over the offensive sounds. "Cutting back from commercial. Seven, six, five seconds till start, four, three…," The announcer warned. They must have started showing the program on TVs as I noticed the hosts' attitudes change suddenly.
"And now, onto the 'Hottest Meet-and-Greet' segment of our show," The female presenter announced. They seemed eager to get on with this part of the show but if the girls' reaction was any sign, then Akechi must have been more popular than I realised. "After his last appearance was so well-received, we decided to bring back this fine gentleman today. It's the high school detective, Akechi Goro!" The presenter declared. The boy proceeded to greet the two announcers and those of us watching the show.
"Thank you for taking the time to join us today, Akechi-kun. Your popularity is stunning," The male presenter stated. That was saying something, I certainly hadn't expected my ears to be so violently assaulted all of a sudden by the girls' squealing and who knows how many people at their homes or where this show was being seen were most likely reacting to the boy's presence.
"Even I've found it to be quite a surprise. It is a bit embarrassing though…," Akechi claimed. I dearly wanted to clamp my hands over my ears at hearing his voice again, I don't know what had happened but the pleasant natural tone he'd spoken with yesterday had completely vanished and that horrible plastic sounding voice was there instead, it was already starting to grate against my ears.
"Moving along, we've been told there's a case on your mind right now. Care to share, detective?" The female announcer asked. A chill ran down my spine when I heard those words, I didn't like the sound of that as there was a high probably that he may very well be talking about the case that happened to involve us and if this boy was anywhere near as intelligent enough as everything kept making him out to be, then we were in severe trouble.
"Ah, yes. That would be the scandal involving the master artist Madarame," Akechi admitted. Well, we were in trouble, Ren had to quickly grab Ryūji arm so that he didn't overtly react, but the tension could be felt rolling off the blonde punk; Ann had gone extremely pale with wide eyes, so I reached over to grab her hand in order to reassure her. None of us could be seen panicking about this being brought up.
"There it is! All of this phantom thief excitement has caught your attention too, Akechi-kun!" The male announcer claimed. I'm not entirely sure that it was the 'excitement' that had caught the attention of this boy. "Allow me to be blunt for just a second. What do you think of these justice-oriented Phantom Thieves?" The announcer asked. All of us went tense when we heard those words, it was like we were waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"If they truly are heroes of justice, I sincerely hope they exist," Akechi claimed. The male announcer seemed surprised that Akechi even entertained the possibility of us being real, I was more surprised that he seemed to welcome our existence. "I may not seem like it, but I sometimes wish that Santa Claus actually existed. Although if he did, I'd have to arrest him for breaking and entering," Akechi admitted. For some reason, those words caused a sinking feeling to erupt in my stomach. "But, hypothetically speaking, if these Phantom Thieves are real… I believe they should be tried in a court of law," Akechi revealed. Ah, there be the reason.
"That's quite the statement. Are they committing crimes?" The male announcer asked. Well… I suppose we were, from a certain point of view, but when backed into the type of corner we had ended up, what else were we supposed to do? Walk away, allow horrible tragedies to keep happening. I think I'd be sick if I did that, if not worse; not to mention how the other three would feel. "Some people even say that the Thieves are actually helping their victims abandon their evil ways," The man added on.
"What the artist Madarame did truly was an unforgivable crime. However, they are taking the law into their own hands by judging him. It is far from justice. More importantly, you should never forcefully change a person's heart," Akechi spoke. When the law does nothing to help the real victims, sometimes taking the law into one's hands is the best way; I'd at least prefer to act towards moral justice over abiding by lawful ignorance. Also, what other choice did we have? These people would have never changed and never been charged with their crimes.
"You have a point. These people are calling themselves the Phantom Thieves, after all," The male host agreed. That was because it's how we were acting, stealing their twisted desires and never getting caught by our targets. "Amazing as always, Akechi-kun! I could listen to you for days! You have the most radiant charisma!" The man pandered. I barely held back a gag at the man's words, Ann scrunched up her face as if she had smelled something foul.
"I have to say though, I would be embarrassed if it turns out these Phantoms don't exist. If that were the case, I'd summarise it into a report as a school project," Akechi claimed. I'd like it if he dismissed us as not existing even if we kept up with our actions; but I didn't like how his last set of words seemed to diminish our actions to a school project, I felt a little insulted by his words.
"Now then, let's try asking some students the same age as Akechi-kun about the phantom thieves!" The female announcer claimed. Oh boy, this would be interesting to see how a chunk of the second years viewed us. "First, please press your button now if you think the Phantoms exist!" The woman requested. Well, that was an easy enough answer for us to make.
"Of course they do!" Ryūji snapped. I jabbed my elbow into his side for saying such a thing, if anyone heard him then he'd get pressured and that was a whole other mess no one needed to deal with; I pressed the button and watched as the number counter ran through some different numbers before coming to a stop on seventeen, since I knew the other three had also pressed it, that meant thirteen other people believed we existed.
"About thirty percent or so? What are your thoughts, Akechi-kun?" The male announcer questioned. Thirty-ish percent, considering that this was from a source of Shūjin students, I was rather surprised that it wasn't much higher than that; I wonder if they were truly blind to how Kamoshida had actually been acting or if the results were actually incorrect since some people weren't taking it seriously. Not everyone was on the Phan-site but some people were from the comments.
"I'm a bit surprised. That's higher than I was expecting," Akechi admitted. Well, no surprise since he was leaning towards us not existing instead of the other way. "I'd love to hear some more detailed opinions on the phantom thieves' actions," Akechi requested. The female host stood up and walked into the crowd before stopping in front of Ren, that immediately set off my own alarm bells.
"Alright, let's try asking this student here," The woman decided. I grabbed Ryūji in Ren's place as Ann started to cut off the blood circulation in the hand she already had a hold of. "Hypothetically speaking, what are your thoughts on these Phantom Thieves, if they were real?" The woman asked. I leaned around Ryūji to look at Ren and saw he was moving his jaw, yet no sound came out of his lips.
"They're justice," Ren answered. His tone was soft, cool and steady, but thanks to the microphone his words reverberated through the room and I sensed people shifting in their seats as they probably wanted to see who had spoken those words; but my eyes focused on Akechi whose gaze narrowed ever so slightly and the faint spark of something entered his previously empty looking red-brown eyes.
"Justice, you say," Akechi commented. Shockingly enough, the plastic quality of his voice had vanished, the male host commented how Ren's opinion completely opposed to Akechi's own belief. "Indeed. It's rather intriguing to hear such a strong acknowledgement," Akechi claimed. The plastic sounded like it was trying to creep back in, but something in Akechi was keeping it away. "In that case, there's one more question I'd like to ask. If someone close to you, for example, your friend next to you, if his heart suddenly changed… wouldn't you think it was the work of the phantom thieves?" Akechi wondered.
"Not at all, it's become apparent that they only target criminals. And truly heinous ones at that, those that possession no regret or guilt over their actions before the Change of Heart, my friend is nothing of the sort," Ren answered. I sensed Ryūji's massive grin without even looking at him, though Ren's answer was no surprise to any of us, Ryūji's heart didn't need changing, nor could it be.
"Well, that's certainly an interesting perspective. But there is a large problem in your reasoning," Akechi claimed. This caused my eyebrows to furrow as the boy leaned forward to clasp his hands together. "Whether the thieves' actions are good or not, I feel there is a more important issue at hand," Akechi stated. That horrible plastic was back in his voice again, the female announcer returned to her seat while the man asked for clarification. "The matter of how they change people's hearts," Akechi stated. He looked down while crossing his legs and gripping his chin, I felt a tension appear in my body as I wondered in how much trouble we were in. "If they honestly possess that ability… it could be used for more than extracting confessions. It could be that what seem to be ordinary crimes are actually being perpetrated by these methods," Akechi theorised.
"You know, you're absolutely right," The male host claimed. He was starting to sound like a kiss ass and this caused Akechi to look up at him, we knew that Akechi was wrong with what he was saying but there was a high chance that ordinary people might believe in his words more than they would a mysterious group that never showed their faces and took action in a rather obscure method.
"Oh, please don't misunderstand. This is all purely hypothetical. It is only if people who can use such a power truly exist. Either way though, this cannot be ignored. The existence of the Phantoms would be nothing but a threat to our everyday lives. To be honest, I'm already working alongside the police to help sort out this matter," Akechi admitted. Ice might as well have replaced my blood when I heard him say those words.
The show proceeded to wrap up and all of us set about collecting our stuff, I could feel a tense atmosphere lingering over us because of what had been discussion. Thought while the tension from Ryūji was definitely of the angry variety, Ann seemed to be a little bit more morose than I had expected, not that I was feeling particular chipper myself.
"It kinda seemed like what he was saying might be right," Ann suddenly spoke up. We had moved to one side of the room in order to leave when Ann came to a sudden stop; there might have been a kernel of truth – at least – to what Akechi had been saying especially since his words had instantly made me think of the strange incidents that had been happening across Tokyo in the last two years.
"He made it sound like we're the baddies. I don't like it," Ryūji stated. That was hardly a shock, Ryūji had become rather gung-ho about our social activities and always seemed eager to jump into them, obviously he would take offence to being labelled the villain, perhaps more so than any of us given his previous labelling at the hands of Kamoshida.
"But that stuff about the police… do you think it's for real?" Ann asked. We couldn't tell for certain if it was or wasn't, none of us had any contacts inside the police to be able to ascertain whether this was truth or not, but we certainly couldn't ignore the possibility that they would end up getting involved at some point or another.
"He can say whatever he wants. The justice of it all is something we can decide for ourselves," Morgana insisted. Good advice, justice was much like beauty, it lay in a person's own judgment as to what could truly be beautiful, which meant it was up to each individual to see if the justice they were witnessing was something they agreed with or were opposed to.
"Oh sorry, I gotta go take a leak. Can you guys wait here? I'll be right back," Ryūji spoke. He then took off before anyone could respond, I shook my head at the way he had turned what had actually been a serious conversation on its' head; a small groan escaped the blonde model to my left and I couldn't blame her in the least.
"Oh my god… I'm gonna keep going, okay?" Ann commented. Ren and I nodded our heads and the girl proceeded to walk off, I might as well stick around to keep Ren company while we waited for Ryūji to get back to us; I turned to the boy and was about to suggest a topic to get us talking when a set of footsteps echoed towards us.
"Oh, it's you," Akechi's voice suddenly came. I quickly pressed myself back against the wall, his voice was so plastic-y, I really wanted to avoid his talking as much as possible. "I'm glad I found you. I wanted to thank you in person," Akechi admitted. Well, he actually sounded like a normal person now, if he talked more like this then I could actually stand being around him more. "To paraphrase Hegel, advancement cannot occur without both thesis and antithesis," Akechi stated.
"But only truth can be found in a synthesis that combines the two," Ren responded. I looked at him surprised by what he had just said, since I hadn't expected him to give the answer he had, from Akechi's silence he seemed to feel the same way. "That's the final part of the quote, paraphrased a little true, but mostly the same," Ren commented. Suddenly, a laugh escape from Akechi, it was a short and sharp bark of sound but laughter none the less.
"Yes, you're right. What I meant is that our discussion was quite meaningful. Few people around me are so willing to speak their minds as freely as you did earlier," Akechi admitted. Well, that must not have been pleasant, having to deal with people perhaps acting like the male host all the time. "Adults are only interested in using the young, while they simply do as the adults say. There are too many irresponsible people in these modern times. I can understand why you'd support the Phantoms," Akechi commented. Oi, sounds like he had his own issues to deal with… still weird that he had no Will of Rebellion if he though this way. "It's possible that this group is just as you believe and they are truly acting with good intentions. Since they have special talents, I assume their hearts must be burning with a sense of justice and duty. But that justice is merely a façade, concealing their lack of true strength," Akechi commented. I felt a pulse of annoyance rush through me and Phantom howled darkly deep within my soul. "That's why I believe, if a truly powerful opponent were to corner them, they would flee without a second thought," Akechi insisted.
"You seem so certain of that, but perhaps they wouldn't run. Perhaps they'd fight until the bitter end because their very real justice compels them to do so," Ren argued. I was calmed by my leader's defence of us, but it didn't ease the violently song within my heart at the accusation that had been slung at me and my friends, along with my other self.
"Oh?" Akechi sounded. He certainly seemed surprised by Ren's belief in us, I hope it didn't cause Ren to be put under suspicion of being connected to us since that would be troublesome. "You really are intriguing. I bet you'd make a worthwhile debate partner on the subject. If it's alright with you, would you continue sharing your thoughts with me?" Akechi requested. He held out his left hand to Ren.
"Yeah, that's fine by me," Ren agreed. I hoped Ren would be able to withstand the plastic sound of his voice more than I could, it was rather strange that it seemed to keep coming and going whenever Akechi spoke; Ren reached his hand out and they proceeded to shake their clasped hands, hopefully this could be useful for us.
"Thank you, that's great news. I sense something in you that's quite different from other people. I guess you can call it my detective's intuition? Haha, kidding, of course," Akechi stated. Just then I felt something, it was the firm yet capable of growing sensation that had appeared several times before now; just like with Mishima and Maruki-sensei, the moment I sensed this one, I realised that Akechi linked to Angel and Archangel. They exchanged contact information and then the older boy proceeded to walk away and Ren immediately spun to look at me.
"Okay, how did you do that?" Ren asked. I could only guess that he was referring to how Akechi hadn't even seemed to react to my presence, sure it would have been difficult to see me since I was flat against the wall and Ren had been stood in front of me, but Ren hadn't been stationary during the conversation, occasionally moving which should have exposed me but there had been nothing from the boy to indicate that he'd even realised I was present.
"Too much practice acting as if I'm a ghost for the last three years," I admitted. Ren scrunched up his nose, clearly not liking me reference my time before befriending him and the rest of the Phantoms, but it apparently had some uses. "Be careful around him. I don't know why but… he unnerves me," I added on. Ren's expression went stony, but his grey eyes gleamed with worry.
"What do you see?" Ren asked. That would be easy to explain but I still couldn't wrap my head around the way his words and Will were completely opposed to each other; my head didn't have that same stuffed feeling as before, but it didn't make me feel any better about being around him given the fake tone he seemed fond of using.
"Nothing, not even a spark. As if he has no will to rebel at all, yet his words don't make sense then," I explained. Ren's expression furrowed as even he seemed confused by the fact that Akechi seemed to have a slight unhappiness to how society worked which meant he should at least be willing to rebel and yet he didn't have the slightest inclination to do so if my eyes were to be trusted.
"Even so, I don't think we can underestimate a detective's intuition," Morgana warned. That was very true, for him to be so famous for solving cases then we needed to be careful about interacting with him. "On the other hand, there's an awful lot we could learn from him. If he contacts you, try hanging out with him," Morgana suggested. It certainly was something rather worthwhile for us to consider.
"Agreed, we absolutely have to be on guard when talking to him," Ren commented. That was something we needed to do as if we weren't careful then there was every possibility that he would start to get suspicious of Ren and if those suspicious spurred the boy to start investigating Ren, that could lead him to getting closer to the activities we were all engaged in.
"Just not too obvious, if you're too defensive, he'll read that and become suspicious," I warned. We definitely couldn't afford to put Akechi on high alert as that would only make him investigating Ren more likely thus putting us in more danger; this would certainly be a difficult connection to maintain, certainly more than the others that Ren had managed to craft with those outside our group.
"Like dancing on a tightrope then… fun," Ren sarcastically commented. Yeah, that certainly described the situation that Ren had ended up in, I patted his arm in an attempt to reassure him and his lips pulled into a small smile; at that moment Ryūji proceeded to run up to us, apparently back from the break he needed to take.
"Sorry for takin' so long! Wait, was that Akechi?" Ryūji asked. The both of us nodded our heads to show that he was right and, in that instant, the blonde's expression turned dark and angry. "I can't stand that high an' mighty attitude! Just breathin' the same air as him makes me sick," Ryūji complained. It seemed that Ryūji had found someone else to start hating that wasn't a target for us.
"He's entitled to an opinion Ryūji. Even if it's one you don't like," I chastised. With those words, I turned around and began to walk out of the stage, I heard the boys following after me hopefully with no more incidents happened to delay us leaving.
*Persona 5 Royal*
I was back at home and resting after the draining day that had happened at the TV station, I was enjoying a book when my phone started to blow up. I could already tell that Ryūji was probably complaining about what had happened with Akechi, a small groan escaped me, so I bookmarked my place and reached over to grab the object to see what was happening in the Chat.
Ryūji: That Akechi bastard… thinking about what he said is just pissing me off again.
Ann: He clearly tried to discredit everything we're doing.
Ren: He certainly has an intensely negative viewpoint of us.
Natsumi: And he's allowed, freedom of thought is a basic human right.
Natsumi: Do we really all want to think the same thing?
Ryūji: But we're obviously the good guys. And he dissed us
Ryūji: On live TV too!
Ren: You're both right.
Ren: We can't all be the same otherwise we're not people.
Ren: But we're also doing something good for people who can't.
Yusuke: Don't be so sour, Ryūji.
Yusuke: There are without a doubt, people we have saved.
Yusuke: Those people could not have been saved if not for the heroics of the Phantoms.
Yusuke: I am living proof of that.
Ryūji: Awww, what a nice thing to say!
Ann: Still… was what Akechi-kun said actually wrong?
Ann: I feel like he had a point.
Ryūji: Why you gotta bring that up now!
Natsumi: From a certain point of view… no.
Natsumi: We are technically committing vigilantism which is a crime.
Natsumi: And some could argue the Change of Heart is brainwashing.
Ren: I'm sensing a but here Natsumi.
Natsumi: Applause to you leader.
Natsumi: But I still believe in what we're doing.
Natsumi: We did save people. Not just Yusuke but Nakanohara's ex too.
Natsumi: You guys and Mishima, Shiho, everyone who ever made a request.
Ren: True.
Ann: But, is it really okay to be doing this to people just because they're criminals?
Ann: Doesn't it seem a little selfish?
Ren: That's why we play this by ear and all agree on a target.
Ren: Ignoring the requests for a moment, do you regret going after Madarame?
Ren: Or Kamoshida?
Ann: No.
Yusuke: I doubt everyone would forgive us for what we did to Madarame.
Yusuke: Yet I still decided that it was a necessary act.
Ryūji: Kamoshida too. We weren't gonna do shit to through any kinda normal methods.
Natsumi: Ouvrard was my nightmare.
Natsumi: I think that give me more say than anyone in how she was dealt with.
Ann: I just gotta know Ren, are we being selfish?
Ren: Perhaps a little.
Ren: But being selfish isn't always bad when it's small
Ren: Any way you look at it though we HELPED people.
Ann: Yeah, you're right.
Yusuke: I believe our best path forward is sticking to our justice, not that of the law.
Yusuke: Shouldn't that be enough?
Yusuke: And with the unanimous decision rule in place, I doubt we'll lose our way.
Ann: Sorry for bringing this up.
Ann: And don't worry, I'm not thinking about quitting the Phantoms or anything.
Ryūji: Just you watch Akechi.
Ryūji: Someday, you're totally gonna see who was right!
Ann: Okay, let's stop talking about this now.
I set my phone down on the bedside table, it seems that Akechi had certainly caused some major issues within our group and I'm certain his words would have some effect on the public's opinion of us. I dropped my hands onto my face to cover it with a small groan escaping my lips.
'Urgh, as if we need more issues.' I complained.