Persona 5: Daywatch

Monday, 9 May 2016
Early Evening
Shujin Library

Akira jotted down the list of names of Meiji Era leaders, adding who served for who. Throbbing pressure in his nose pulsed and he ripped out his handkerchief just in time to blast a sneeze into it. Tokyo's pollen season would not be fun. Not-hushed-enough conversations about him flitted back and forth among the reading tables. He glanced out for signs of the officious red-eyed girl who chewed him out for making noise in the library. Bitch.

He turned the page, only to catch a clear snippet of one of the conversations. "Can you believe that Kamoshida didn't expel him when he had the chance?"

Gathering his things, Akira stormed out. With the sun sinking behind the skyscrapers, darkness crept across the streets. Most days he would cruise through the shadows enjoying the illusion of freedom, but with exams drawing near, he couldn't catch that elusive sensation. Everything reminded him of some obligation or looming test question.

When his phone buzzed, Akira almost dropped it in his haste to grab for any distraction.

[Yo,] Ryuji texted, [You're not getting an early drop on studying for exams without me, are you?]

Akira quirked an eyebrow. Ryuji thought cramming a couple days before the midterm tests was early?

[You gotta help me!]

Despite himself, the transfer student chuckled. "I could go for a group that actually wants to study."

Morgana chuckled from the Akira's shoulder, reading in on the text app. "As if that dummy could help study."

Akira shook his shoulders, forcing his guide locked in cat form to retreat back to the school satchel. "Hey, every little bit could help." He shot out a message asking for a location to Ryuji.

As expected, it wasn't school. [Dude, there's this super cheap yaki cart on the south side of Inokashira Park. The takoyaki is delicious!]

Akira ran his tongue over his teeth. Not having worked up the nerve to ask Sojiro for permission to use the kitchen to prepare his lunches, and unable to afford buying lunch at school every day, Akira felt like he was running on empty. Overriding his concerns about getting studying done, his stomach growled. [Want to meet at the train station?]

[Sure, dude.]

Akira put away his phone and Morgana grumped the whole train ride there. Ryuji met Akira in a ragged, sleeveless T-shirt several sizes too big, matching the maroon sweatband around his head. "Yo!"

Akira looked him up and down. "I thought this was a study session, not running session."

Ryuji laughed and bounced on the balls of his feet. "Heh, I just went out to keep the ol' heart pumpin'. You know how it is, sittin' inside with video games right there…"

Akira adjusted his satchel straps. "Ryuji, midterms start on Wednesday. My student contract has me on academic probation. If I fail so much as one section, Shujin's gonna boot me. I've got nowhere else to go."

Ryuji settled down on his heels, eyes holding on Akira's for a while. "For real? They didn't even hit me with that when the King of Assholes broke my leg and stuck me with assault."

Akira's stomach grumbled again, the unpleasant bubbly sensation rising up higher in his gut, and he gestured out to the street. "So this yaki place got seating?"

Ryuji grinned. "Sure, dude. C'mon." He led him a short jog through the park to the road along the south end. Tranquil green sprawled out on his right side while high-rise buildings lined the road to his left, except for a notch of covered seating shared between two small restaurants, with a food cart against the street. The breeze picked up and the one salaryman eating there folded up his squared styrofoam container and ran off.

"Hey, Vietnamese Pad Thai." Akira slowed to read the closest restaurant's advertising, allowing Morgana the opportunity to jump out and seek shelter under another table.

Ryuji brought his jog to a halt in front of the food cart, sizzling under its wood shutters. "Meh, that place is overpriced. Here's where the good stuff's at." When the cart owner kept snoozing despite the raised volume, Ryuji kicked the owner's foot. "Yo. You got any takoyaki left?"

Moving with mechanical, practiced motions, he flipped open two wood panels before giving Ryuji a shake of his head.

"Man," the track team star whined. He snapped straighter, his grin back full force. "Crab croquettes?"

The cart owner covered his mouth with his long, white sleeve and yawned before looking into another covered container. He shifted back to the track star, giving two slow blinks. "How many?"

Ryuji pulled out his wallet, perfectly aligned pearly whites gleaming through his smile. "How many you want? I can getcha today."

Akira squirmed for a few moments, fidgeting with his black leather gloves. "Eight."

Ryuji's eyebrows vanished into his messy blond hair and he let out a brief whistle. "Your momma don't feed you?"

Taking in a deep breath, Akira struggled to hold a wooden expression, but his eyes still narrowed. "Easy not to when she's not there."

Eyes widening, Ryuji's hands clapped to his head. "Dude, I forgot about your…" His eyes flicked to the cart owner struggling to keep his eyes open, "circumstances. I'm sorry, for real." He drew his wallet and opened it to flick through the yen bills. "Uh, six for him and three for me."

Taking the money, the cart owner stood off his cushioned stool and made change from a flimsy lockbox set into the top of the cart. He fashioned flattened patties and flipped them in a bread crumb mix before flicking open a metal panel covering a metal griddle. He pulled a bottle of some kind of oil out from a door beneath the griddle and dumped some on, then dropped the patties over the sizzling liquid. The scent of real crab and toasted breadcrumbs made Akira's mouth water and stomach grumble. The cook pulled a metal spatula from its hook above and flipped them, baring succulent, golden brown. Moments later, he swiped them off the iron to paper boats and cleaned off the griddle before returning to his stool to snooze against his lockbox.

Akira joined Ryuji at one of the tables under a broad, metal umbrella, and wasted no time stuffing his face.

The runner watched Akira for a few moments before popping one of his fried patties in his mouth. Three-quarters of the way through chewing, he asked, "Your ma ever make these?"

Grimacing at the blond's open mouth, Akira chewed his fourth crab croquette and swallowed. His eyes drifted up for a moment. "I can't think of a time she ever cooked."

Ryuji's phone buzzed, and he drew it, reading from the screen before swallowing and typing and sending a response.

"Anything important?"

"Nah," Ryuji said, slipping his phone away and planting an elbow on the table. "Ma just wanted to know when I was gonna be home for dinner."

Akira opened his mouth around a fifth croquette, then set it down, a different sort of twist in his stomach. "I'm not so good about perspective with parents. You talk to her a lot?"

"Yeah." He looked up at Akira with a twist in his eyebrows. "Don't you with yours?"

Akira looked away. "My mother… taught me more what not to do than what to do. Back in middle school, when we lived in podunk nowhere… seemed like she was out at one of the parties at the Ichijou place all the time. I knew Nana Saitou better than her, and she was so old she could hardly hear." A sour note twisted his lips and stomach as he remembered the hope when they moved. "She abandoned me to my old bastard so she could go live it up. The last time I spoke with her I was trying to get her to take me away from my old bastard."

Ryuji scratched his head, incomprehension in his features. "And…?"

Shoulders drooping, he tossed another croquette in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. "She said 'Why should I give up the prime years of my life?'"

Ryuji stared at him for a while. "Day-um. I didn't think moms could even be like that." He took another croquette and bit into half of it, chewing for almost enough time to mulch his bite. "Mine was always there for me. Up early to make me breakfast, buggin' me to get my homework done so I'd pass finals, takin' me to track meets."

Akira ate his last patty, brushed his hands, and brought out some books in silence.

Ryuji took Akira's math notebook in hand and flipped through it, pausing at the numerous pages of handwritten notes stuffed here and there. "Duuude, you must be, like, top in your class."

Akira snorted. "You've never seen me scrambling to finish a quiz. You know Usami-sensei marks us down depending on how long it takes us?"

Ryuji chuckled. "Yeah, she teaches math for 2-B, too. Ma didn' believe me about her until she met her at the school festival last year. Now she thinks Usami's nuts."

"She doesn't seem so bad to me," Morgana said, hopping up on the rounded bench next to Akira. "Very strict, but also very informative."

Akira snorted. "Well, your math sense must be better than mine."

The two students sat down with Morgana watching over them as task-master and studied until the sun went down and the brightest stars struggled out.

Tuesday, 10 May 2016
After School
Shibuya, Central Street Taiheidou Bookstore

Akira counted out the last few yen coins into the tray, then slid it over to the old lady at the counter and picked up the book with Hachiko on the cover. He thanked the old shop hand before turning to the chaotic mob outside. His palm sweat against his new book and his heart thudded in his chest. He paused to blow his nose into his kerchief before turning back to the unforgiving outdoors. Checking his phone, he realized it was still early and Morgana would still be cruising Shibuya for at least an hour.

Sucking in a deep breath, he stepped out as if preparing to set foot on the moon.

The door to Scarlet flew open and a girl in blond pigtails jogged out.

Already forcing his way through people, Akira crossed the street to intercept her before she got to the subway entrance. "Hey, Ann-san."

She stumbled and almost missed him in the sea of dark-haired, dark-garbed males. "Akira!" Straightening her school satchel over a jacket he'd have sworn she plucked fresh off a designer store, she smiled. "I didn't expect to see you out here."

He huffed, then shoved back at somebody who shoulder-checked him while jogging down the sidewalk.

Ann reached out to take him by the elbow and pull him out of the crowd. "Maybe you and I should go somewhere for a while."

Akira's face heated up, before he remembered her close friend Shiho and he turned away in shame.

Her grip faltered, but she held onto his arm. After a beat, she gave a gentle tug. "Just for a bit? I could really use a study partner. I am so not looking forward to midterms tomorrow."

Guilt and a sense of duty to his friend, for Shiho's sake if not all of them, stirred inside until he gave an assenting nod.

She let out an excited sound too short to call a proper giggle and pulled him into the crowd. Pedestrians on the phone and the news helicopters above pressed down on him as the mass sucked away his air. His knees felt weak and his pace stumbled once before she pulled him up a set of stairs and several floors up to a crepe bar.

Akira let out a heavy breath he didn't remember holding in. "Isn't there a crepe shop down on street level?"

"Uh-huh," she said, adjusting her satchel on her shoulder. "But you looked like you were afraid of the crowds."

Indignity flared inside and he barked, "I'm not afraid of crowds!"

The one other patron glared at him for several seconds before she went back to daintily cutting away at something thinner than a pancake and smeared with cream.

Ann stepped up to the order register, bouncing on her feet in gleeful anticipation. "Two chocolate-cream crepes, please."

Akira switched his satchel to his other shoulder. "Oh, you don't have to get me anything."

A tinge of red touched her cheeks and she said in a faint whisper, "Those were for me." She recovered her enthusiasm in the blink of an eye. "What would you like?"

Staring up at the menu hanging above them, he realized he hadn't even looked at it and searched as fast as he could. "Uh, the strawberry whipped-cream-cheese?"

When Ann started digging around in her satchel, he pulled out his wallet and held up his other hand to stop her. "I'll get it. You did get me out of there."

She waved him down. "I invited you, and I know how tight things are with money right now." Her smile turned sharp. "Besides, you need to help me study."

He shrugged, not feeling up to the obsequious deny-three-times his mother told him was tradition. "Thanks."

Taking their orders to a small booth in a cozy corner, both scarfed down their orders before hitting the school books for a while. "I am so glad I ran into you today. Shiho and I used to study together all the time, and she was always so good with Japanese literature."

"I bet Kawakami was pleased." Akira turned a page in his textbook and jotted a quick note about Numata.

"She didn't start teaching until this year," Ann said, running her finger down one line, then pursing her lips. She braced her elbow on the table, then set her chin on her palm and sighed. "I'm worried about her."

"Miss I-Look-Like-I-Want-To-Sleep-In-Class?"

Ann perked up in confusion. "Huh? No, Shiho!" She fiddled with her wood pencil. "I should have believed in her from the start. Told Kamoshida off from day one and trusted that she'd hold her own because she earned it. Maybe she saw that I didn't trust her enough to say what was happening, so she didn't tell me about what was happening with Yuuki-kun either."

Akira clicked out another millimeter of pencil lead. "How's she doing?"

Ann sighed, her eyes staring down at her textbook. "I'm worried about her. I hope it's just being cooped up with casts and pins and everything on that hospital bed, but she's been… angry."

The image of her splayed out on the courtyard turf sent a chill down his spine. "I can see why she'd be pissed."

Ann looked Akira in the eyes, her forehead creased. "Akira, you don't understand. She's never angry."

Akira shot her a look.

"Okay," Ann rolled her eyes. "She's been annoyed before, but she never stays ticked. It's just not like her. She always had so many ways to burn off steam. Or she'd just talk to Yuuki-kun and she'd be all back to normal. I never saw her mad, she never even got that far." She set down her pencil. "But Sunday, she wouldn't even talk about Yuuki." She bit her lip. "How's he doing, anyway? You said he was about to copycat her jump, but he's been avoiding me lately. Or he's really short with me and more interested in whatever code, forum, or news is on his phone. It's not like him." She let out a melancholic sigh.

"Hey," he snapped to interrupt her descending spiral. "Shiho's in a rough spot, and being there for her is all any of us can do for her. Mishima's…" Akira ran a hand through his frizzy hair. "He feels guilty as hell about what happened, keeps talking about making up for it, but I wonder if he's really dealing with it. He knows where her hospital is, right?"

"Yeah, room number and everything," Ann said, sitting back from her books. "I texted him the first time I visited, but Shiho's mother said he's never been by." Her gaze fell. "I was kind of hoping that he'd step up and start seeing her again. Then I wouldn't have to worry about how long it's been since the last time I could get up there."

Akira scanned her face, not liking the degree of guilt trying to etch lines into somebody far too young to have such worries. "What's up? Trouble at home?"

Her phone sang and she straightened, reading whatever message came through. "Speak of the devil."

Akira tilted his head.

She glanced at him before going back to reading. "It's an email from my agency. They want me to do a shoot up in Ikebukuro." Ann's eyebrow rose. "Weird for them to ask for me to double-check time and place."

Akira readied his mechanical pencil again. "Don't most businesses just tell you where and when to show up and that's it? You're late, you're out?"

"I've been doing a lot of substitutions whenever they've got something in Shibuya. Apparently quite a few models haven't shown up for scheduled shoots."

Akira winced. "Well, they can't want to be models that much if they don't bother to show up."

She shot him a brief hooded gaze. "It's not all their fault. I heard one model crying about not being there because she received a change in schedule and thought it was another day. The crew have to do a bunch of scrambling, and substitutes aren't cheap even when they're available. And that's besides how much it throws off the staff for them to be all ready for one girl when a sub shows up."

"I bet it's no fun for the girls getting yoinked all over the city."

Ann shrugged. "It's not so bad. My first modeling gig was as a sub, after all."

Akira looked at her, trying to imagine Ann as something other than a model. His mind refused to conjure her as anything other than the tall, blonde, pigtailed friend of Shiho sitting at the table across from him. "Was somebody absent like you're getting now?"

Ann leaned forward, bracing both elbows on the table. "Not quite. We were still back in Finland at the time. Mom and dad do these super cool shows – they're both fashion designers – but they just couldn't get enough people to this one show and I was there, so they adjusted some of the dresses for me and out I went."

Akira scratched his scalp, the story sounding like plenty of other people recounting warm stories of people who actually wanted to visit their parents, and having parents who liked having them around. "Must be nice to… get to do fun stuff with your folks all the time."

Her shoulders drooped. "It is while they're around. With the way the fashion industry is, they're always jumping from country to country, so I only get to see mom and dad half the year." She sat straighter, painting a smile over her face. "But that's there." Her eyes swept over a sheet of review. "So what was the theme of In the Grove, again?"

He looked at her askance. "Even if people can convey the truth, they don't. Each person has incentive to change the narrative to suit his own ends. Even the murdered man."

"Wow, you didn't even check your notes for that one."

Akira looked away, unable to withstand her blue gaze. "It's my favorite book. And one of Japan's top novels."

Ann gave a small nod and the sense of scrutiny vanished. Then she paused and looked under the table. "Hey, where's Morgana?"

Akira flinched, then dug around in his pockets for his phone to check the time. "Crap! He's still out scouting."

AN: Thanks for reading and reviewing!