Persona 5: Daywatch
Monday, 30 May 2016
After School
Kaneshiro's Bank
The steady, carpet-softened footfalls of the Shadow guard faded around the corner. Akira let out a breath and followed Morgana's dash to the hallway intersection. Muted tones of beige and pale green stretched all three directions. The team leader leaned around the corner, peered for a moment, then dashed across the intersection and nodded.
Akira burst into a sprint at the Shadow, by now almost five meters into the hall bisecting the bank's basement floor. The distance closed, but two meters away it stood straight, its head turning.
Akira leaped, left hand reaching for its faceplate—
The guard smacked Akira with its baton, knocking him breathless to the wall where he collapsed like a sack of potatoes.
"Joker!" Makoto cried before her face twisted in rage and she leaned forward, her motorbike of fire forming from underneath her. Too late to stop the Shadow from distending, its surface turning black, then bursting like a bloody pustule.
Where it stood floated a half-meter-tall humanoid wearing a glistening breastplate, translucent wings jutting from its back. Two red-furred creatures flanked it, their heads and legs like those of a horse.
Makoto revved the engine and surged forward, flames gushed from vents on the front as she crashed into the whinnying horse demon on the right.
The other Orobas charged Akira, still struggling to his feet with the help of the wall. Its hooved feet stamped, lips peeled back to bare crooked, yellowed teeth. It raised a fist, but a spiked whip lashed around the limb, a rime of frost spreading from the contact.
Ann snarled, "Get away from my friend."
Carmen flicked her whip, a snow-flurry rushing from her hand down its length into the demon.
Zorro's eyes blazed as it psychokinetically picked up the ice-encrusted Orobas before a pulse of concussive wind slammed into the group, throwing the burly Persona into the wall. Morgana tumbled to the floor.
High Pixie swung an arm like a dismissive wave. Cutting winds swirled around Makoto, scattering flames and drawing a cry of pain before her Persona vanished in a puff of fire.
"Andras!" Akira shouted. The muscled form of a man with an owl for his head appeared in a blip of light, swinging both wings and releasing bolts of ice from each. The magic struck Makoto's equine enemy, knocking it stumbling.
With Carmen already evading the other Orobas, Zorro flitted through the hall, impaling the horse demon down to the hilt until the Shadow collapsed into dissolving black goo.
The remaining Orobas leaped, slamming a fist into Andras and driving the owl-headed figure back. A burst of slicing winds followed up the slam, and Akira fell back against the wall, coughing.
Zorro swung its rapier at High Pixie, but the armored fairy fluttered up, raised a single hand, and snapped its fingers at the black-clad Persona. Zorro and Morgana both came to a stop, eyes closed. The Persona's head nodded down and catboy snored.
A thorned whip lashed through the hall at High Pixie, but it dodged to one side, then another before it swatted a hand at Carmen despite the meters between them. A wind burst slammed Carmen into the wall.
Blood still dribbling down his face, Akira whipped up his sub-machine gun and fired a burst at the remaining Orobas. "Byakko, wake up!" He fired again as the horse demon left a crumpled Makoto to stamp the dancer Persona.
Morgana snoozed, steadier on his feet than right for a sleeping person.
Makoto gunned down the wide hall, flames sputtering from her Persona as she fled the center of the continuing storm of cutting winds. No wonder that skeleton riding that freakish horse slowed down so much when Ryuji awakened in Kamoshida's castle.
Orobas danced out of the way, delivering a vicious back kick as she passed by, sending Makoto tumbling, her Persona vanishing in a puff of flames.
Akira growled and tried to line up a shot at the armored fairy, but the still-expanding wind stung his eyes.
High Pixie swatted its other hand at Ann, a hurricane gale smashing Carmen into the wall and knocking the girl herself off her feet.
"Panther!" Akira shouted.
Makoto leaped, her Persona forming underneath her moments before crashing against the nimble horse demon and plowing straight over it with Johanna's flame wheels. She locked eyes with High Pixie and gunned the engine.
The fairy snapped its fingers.
Johana went silent, its flames fading and Makoto slumping on her Persona.
Orobas leaped at Carmen, kicking her into the wall and drawing a pained shriek from Ann.
Eyes full of tears and still stinging from the tearing winds, Akira roared and reached down inside for something – anything – to protect them. Anything stronger than himself. Hifumi's cackling bubbled up in his mind, the unashamed joy of clashing against all competition.
"Ananta Shesha! Mafrei!" tore from his throat.
Andras vanished into a cloud of silvery motes of light which re-gathered into an enormous serpent longer than a car. Akira could swear its scales showed a brilliant celestial-scape like the Eagle Nebula. It wore a shiny gold collar, with five hooded cobra heads branching out above the collar. All of which flared, though a sound like distant song emanated from its mouths.
A burst exploded from the starscape-skinned Persona, striking Orobas and High Pixie. The stinging wind storm vanished as the armored fairy collapsed and Orobas swayed on its hooved feet.
Makoto snatched up her shotgun and blasted it square in the chest, dissolving it.
Morgana shook his head, his Persona absent but his crossbow in hand as he shared a glance with Akira. The boy in the longcoat dismissed his Persona and advanced on the armored fairy.
High Pixie took in gulps of air, its legs splayed behind it and one arm holding it off the floor. It looked up at the pair of Phantom Thieves, its chin still held high. "This sucks," it groused.
"Be glad," Akira said, a smirk on his face. "If the world didn't suck, we'd all fly off."
High Pixie and Makoto both choked back laughter. The Shadow's shoulders slouched. "You're not just strong, you're pretty clever. We'd make a great team." Akira nodded and lowered his sub-machine gun. The armored fairy fluttered back up off the ground, closed its eyes, then burst into black streaks flinging into his mask. Ann caught him as he swayed, but Akira righted himself after a moment.
Morgana folded his crossbow. "That was pretty impressive, Joker. Why didn't you tell us about that celestial serpent Persona?"
Akira shook his head to try to cast off a sense of cobwebs. "I don't think I had it until just now."
Stowing his crossbow in the pouch slung on his back, Morgana gave a smirk so wide, Ryuji would've been proud. "So you've already started fusing Personas. She must be workin' pretty quick. I really know how to pick 'em."
Makoto came to a stop next to Ann. "She?"
Morgana blinked, his ears perking straight up and eyes widening. "I remembered something!" The other Phantom Thieves waited with bated breath for several seconds before he let out a puff of air. "No, sorry. It slipped away."
With Morgana feeling refreshed from the fight and everybody else grumbling but ready to go, the diminutive guide led them through the halls and air vents until they came to a plexiglass door in sub-level one.
Kaneshiro's Bank, Basement Security Control Room
Akira dove into a roll underneath a wake of wind solid enough to smash a monitor on the wall next to him. At least the security control room was big enough for all of them to maneuver in, despite half a dozen Shadows waiting to counter the Phantom Thieves' ambush with one of their own. "Agathion!"
His cavalry Persona disappeared in a burst of silvery motes of light drawing in as if sucked by a powerful gravity affecting nothing else. A green imp in a gold vase took its place. Mezuki leaped, coming down in front of the new arrival, the horse-faced demon powering its forward-curving sword through the space Agathion was in an instant earlier.
With Kin-Ki distracted trying to chop up Carmen with its double-sided sword, Akira took a risk. Instead of countering Mezuki, the captain of the group and easily the buffest monster that came out of the black mass, he directed his persona to shoot a lightning bolt into the gold-clad oni. The blast sent it into dissolving goop just before it slammed its sword into Carmen's neck.
"Thanks!" Ann shouted, popping shots from her pistol into the remaining Sui-Ki nearby.
The purple oni threw a ball of ice at Makoto, zipping through the control room wider than Leblanc's whole building. Thanks to Ann's pistol fire, its aim went wide. Makoto swung her motorbike-Persona's armored rear end around, crashing into and crumpling the Fuu-Ki before she pointed at Mezuki and lobbed a ball of fire at the horse demon wearing a green gi.
The ball struck and exploded, flames washing over it and sending it tumbling to the ground with a whinny of pain and frustration. Akira shot a burst into it with his sub-machine gun before she swing close, blasting it with her shotgun and trying to swipe it with her armored Persona.
The horse-headed monster hopped out of the way, his sword glancing across the back of Johana's armored end.
"Orthrus!" Akira shouted, his imp-in-a-vase dissipating into motes which re-gathered into a canine the size of a warhorse. Its twin heads growled at the captain of the Shadow defenders before the muscle-bound canine leaped for the throat.
Like before, Mezuki danced out of the way. Orthrus' left head yawned open, a bolt of fire blasting from its toothy maw.
Mezuki stumbled, backpedaling to catch its footing.
A ball of ice slammed into the horse demon wearing green, leaving it crusted in ice. Cracks started to form around its mouth and nostrils, but an instant later, Johanna smashed through it, scattering dissolving chunks of black goo to the floor.
Breathing hard, Makoto dismissed her Persona, caught her footing, and paced back to Akira. "You okay? It looks like you're bleeding again."
"I'm fine," he said. He checked three pockets for his now-bloodied handkerchief. Glancing at it after dabbing below his nose, he decided it wasn't worth stopping for. He'd had worse nose bleeds from summer allergies. "Everyone okay?"
Morgana folded up his crossbow, then pressed a hand against his back. "I think I prefer one big Shadow to a whole bunch of them."
"The smaller ones are a lot more satisfying to run over," Makoto said with a gleam in her eyes. She knelt down where the largest chunk of Mezuki dissolved. "Looks like you were right, Byakko. They were guarding more keys." She passed it to him and he turned the odd key with a square cross-section over in his hands.
Hopping onto the wide control bank, Morgana inserted the keycard they stole from the surveillance office. Green and yellow lights all across the board blinked, then blazed yellow or red. Morgana scanned the board, then screens. He hopped about a foot over, scanned the board, then pressed a few buttons which turned red, and looked up to the screens. "Eeexcelent. The laser trip-sensors have been disabled."
Akira paced to the control bank. "About damn time. Now we don't have to dance over every God-damn corner, intersection, and door." He took his sub-machine gun in his off hand to shake out his right. "I really hope the next asshole's Palace we infiltrate isn't as security-obsessed as this paranoid psychopath's."
Morgana stowed his collapsed crossbow, then held a fist to his chin. "Well, the vault door is still closed. But between the key you picked up and the one Rider still has, I suspect that's all that we need to get inside that vault there." He pointed to a screen showing a large, circular bank vault door. He glanced up at Akira and the kerchief held to his nose. "Should we fall back and take care of the Treasure later?"
"No!" Akira folded the kerchief and jammed it back in a pocket. "We should press on."
Morgana glanced to Ann, then back at Akira. "You're unusually insistent. Why?"
"I was shadowing Masa…" The others gave him blank looks. "One of Kaneshiro's henchmen. He picked up a flunkie and tried to brain Doctor Takemi. If I hadn't scared him off with this and its dot projector, he might've killed her. If I needed to shoot, we'd have been fucked." He paused when Makoto twitched at his cursing, and took a deep breath. "That's for one of their suppliers. I don't even want to imagine what people who owe them money may have to look forward to."
Makoto rubbed her arm and looked away. "I can't hold back this time, either. Twelve students have come to the student council for help." Her arm fell to her side. "I can't let them go the way of Kiriko-san."
Ann tottered between Morgana and the two Phantom Thieves garbed in black. She let out a brief breath. "I… guess I can make it for a little longer."
Morgana's brows cinched in worry. "Okay, but don't strain yourself, Panther."
Akira rolled his eyes at the leader's hopeless, gushy infatuation. The oni and nekomata they ran into along the way made for little more than a speed bump, but at last they came to what looked like a large assembly room. Dominating one wall was a vault door even bigger in person than on the monitors.
Ann gazed up at it. "This thing is gigantic. How are we gonna get it open?"
Akira scratched his face next to his mask. "Well, some semtex along the edge should do it."
The leader shot him a hooded gaze. Ann blinked and tilted her head. "What's that?"
Makoto rolled her eyes, but stood back with a hand on her hip, scanning the vault wall. "Based on the security before, we probably have to use both keys at the exact same time."
Ann flipped one key around her fingers. "Ready."
Akira looked her up and down, trying not to let his eyes linger on her suit's cleavage window. "Where were you keeping that?"
Ann stuck her tongue out at him.
Drawing out their new diamond-cross-section key, he headed for the lock on the left and she to the one on the right. Makoto counted down, and on one they both rotated the keys counter-clockwise.
His refused to budge. Black blobs extended from the ceiling like some viscous liquid soaking through a paper.
Makoto readied her shotgun. "Oh, come on! What happened?"
"Mine turned!" Ann protested.
Akira braced his sub-machine gun's wire stock against his shoulder as black blobs fell from the ceiling and swelled. He opened fire, the suppressed weapon thudding. "Mine didn't! What's wrong with this bank? Righty tighty, lefty—"
The first blob fell over and dissipated. Ann took aim at the one closest to her and blasted it, knocking it into a dissolving mass as well, but causing rotating red lights in the ceiling to blaze and a warbling sound filled the air. The first wave of them burst into an array of red, white, purple, and gold oni. The model in red leather swore.
"Orthrus!" Akira called, silvery motes of light gathering into the twin-headed canine. It lunged at the nearest Fuu-Ki. Flames blasted around Makoto as she raced around the assembly room on Johanna.
His Fuu-Ki retreated, leaving an opening to bellow fire at it. Carmen and Zorro tag-teamed an oni while he and Makoto distracted the majority of the oni busy. Once their immediate threat went down, Carmen started slinging ice bolts at the rest. Remembering the maneuver Morgana tried to get him to do with Makoto, he called to Ann, "Take this and hit 'em all! Andras!"
His twin-headed Persona collapsed in on itself, motes of light scattering for only a moment before they collected back into an owl-headed sorcerer. His Persona brought both hands together and hurled a glistening ball of ice at Carmen. The dancer caught it and the ball burst, but instead of a fast-vanishing explosion, icy chunks swirled around her, growing larger and faster until she flicked her hand, blasting ice in a wide arc.
Four red-skinned oni collapsed in dissolving goo, a Kin-Ki falling with. The remaining Kin-Ki and Fuu-Ki fell under the combined power of Morgana and Makoto's Personas. They followed the leader's stealthy way back to the security control room, shut off the alarm, and reset the door.
Akira wiped his forehead with the back of his gloved hand. "Whew. The vault should be a piece of cake compared to the basement here."
Morgana shot a narrow glare at the transfer student currently in a three-piece suit. "Joker, we just fought two big ambushes. Nightrider's been adapting to her Persona very well, but Panther is spent and even you can't hide your exhaustion. Your pace has been getting irregular since that last oni ambush." He folded up his crossbow and stowed it in the small black bag slung over his shoulder. "Any injuries that need doctor attention?"
Ann and Makoto both look at him. Akira backs up with his hands raised. "Hey, I'm fine."
Makoto shot him a disapproving, arched eyebrow. "At least wash up before you go anywhere." She gestured below her nose.
Letting out long breath, Morgana adjusted the tight black hood he wore over his cartoonishly big head. "Time to go home." He led them to a safe space across the hall, a ventilation and maintenance room with a shaft to the top level, and then back to Shibuya. "Stay safe, everyone."
Monday, 30 May 2016
Evening
Yongen-Jaya Station
Purple skies darkened above them as the Phantom Thieves dispersed across the real Tokyo. Hoping not to have to deal with a lecture from Sojiro, a yawn forced its way out of his mouth as he stepped out of the surprisingly vacant train car. One passenger glanced at Akira, his eyes drifting down a bit before making a disgusted sound and scurrying off. Akira raised his hands to his lips and felt wetness. Red dirtied his fingertips when he pulled his hand away. Checking his coat revealed blood splattered across his lapels. "Shit."
Hurrying to Leblanc, Akira counted himself fortunate the store was already closed and locked, though the sign still said Open. He unlocked it, fixed the sign with his clean hand, washed, gathered his laundry, and went to the coin-op laundromat next to the public bath.
A hand-written note warned the tap-pay machine was out of order, and sure enough it refused to acknowledge his smart phone or start a load. The rest of them looked almost as old as the Second World War, and when he turned on his smart phone's flashlight what labels remained were faded beyond the point of legibility.
Morgana hopped up and squinted. "Sorry, I can't make it out either."
Akira turned the flashlight off. "Fuck my life. I thought my luck was changing when my face stayed clean long enough to find a homeless artist in Shibuya to do a better version of the Phantom Thief logo."
Morgana sat, ears turning back against his skull. "Too bad you can't call someone else to do your laundry for you." When the transfer student tensed, the team leader flicked an ear. "What?"
Scrolling through his call history, Akira found the number for Victoria. A small voice in the back of his mind pointed out how sad it was how few people he'd called since. "I can." When the guide made a questioning sound, he explained, "Ryuji found a maid service that day you went off with Ann. We can trust this one to stay quiet because if anybody found out about her other job, she'd lose both."
A nasally female voice answered with a grating level of cheer, "Victoria's Housekeeping. Do you have any particular requests?" The false enthusiasm made him imagine a guard holding the operator at gunpoint.
"Becky," Akira answered.
"Specific request fee brings that to five thousand yen."
"Fine," he said, finishing the payment from the same sanitized account as before.
He nodded off and Morgana scratched him to wake him when Kawakami arrived at the door to Leblanc. Akira stepped out of the alley onto Leblanc's small side road. "Hey," he said, waving her to the laundromat.
When she stepped inside the narrow room, Morgana stood up and sniffed. "There's something familiar about the girl in a French maid outfit."
Kawakami placed a hand on her hip. "That meow sounds familiar."
Akira yawned into his fist, then picked up his school jacket. "You know how to get blood out of clothes?"
His homeroom teacher straightened. "Why?"
He glared. "It's mine, not that it makes any difference to you or anyone else."
She took the jacket and examined it. "This has been drying for a while. I don't think these clunky machines have enough power to get blood out. Do you have a first aid kit with hydrogen peroxide?"
He nodded, went to the kit under the sink in Leblanc's bathroom, and returned with the bottle, a bowl, and box of plastic gloves.
"You think ahead. Thanks." Kawakami donned a pair of gloves, stretched the dirty portion of the jacket over the wide bowl, and poured hydrogen peroxide on it. The liquid bubbled and she rubbed with her gloved thumbs, poured, and repeated until it looked wet but not bloody.
Akira sat on the uneven stool against the laundromat's wall. "These are too old to read the instructions, and the only other pay-machines I used at the Inaba Cleanliness Center were new so I just had to tap my phone to pay."
She looked askance at him. "You wash your own laundry? I thought everyone's mother did that."
Akira snorted, then clapped his hand over his nose. "Ow. Anyway, it's not like mother ever had time for me even that one year she took me from my old bastard. I've had to take care of myself my whole life."
Kawakami nodded. "Well, if your room was any indication, you take extreme care of your environment. I've seen dedicated cleaning services that wouldn't get a house that good." She focused on the laundry machine and scrutinized it for a few moments before slipping a few yen coins into it, turning two of the unlabeled knobs, then pushing the middle one in. It rumbled to life and she looked back to her student. "Thanks for vouching for me when the police interviewed you. I was really worried when Chouno was fired, but it looks like they're wrapping up the staff purges."
He shrugged and glanced to the team leader trapped in cat form. "Sometimes justice actually does prevail." He leaned back against the wall.
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Early Morning
Yongen, Leblanc Loft
Akira smacked his lips. Not just dry, his mouth felt like an army marched barefoot across it. He levered himself up on one elbow, and sat up, pulling his sheet off. Akira stood and checked the time.
A flutter of ears preceded Morgana stretching on his pillow on the bottom of the book shelf next to the bed. "So, you're awake."
Akira reached for the water bottle he kept on the windowsill. A quarter bottle was better than nothing, so he drained it and stretched his stiff, achy joints. "Here in body if not in spirit." He paused. "Am I sick? I don't remember going to bed."
Morgana stepped off the circular pillow, stretching out his hind legs. "Technically, you fell asleep in the laundromat, Joker." He looked to the basket with Akira's dark clothing stacked in sloppy folds, the school uniform on top. "Your homeroom teacher carried you up, but you never quite woke up. You should've said the bank tired you out."
Akira pulled on his uniform, made the bed, and re-folded his clothes. He pulled his wallet off the windowsill and checked it, but found all sixteen hundred and eighty yen he had yesterday. Then he slid the small boxes out from underneath the work bench to check the gold nameplates they found in the bank earlier.
Morgana jumped up to the corner of the work bench, his tail wrapping around his feet. "Do you really expect everybody to be after you?"
"I was falsely convicted of assault and my old bastard exiled me to the city." Akira straightened his uniform jacket, then strode downstairs to make himself an omelet for breakfast.
Just as he flipped it into the half-circle shape he liked, the bell rang and Sojiro trotted in. His eyebrows shot up when he spotted the transfer student. "I didn't think teenagers got up this early."
Akira tapped a foot, waiting for the omelet to finish cooking. "We kind of have to get up for school and it's not like this is unusual for me. I don't know anyone who wakes up later anyway. Day waits for no man."
"Whoo, boy." Sojiro scratched his scalp and leaned against the counter. "I didn't expect a teenager to care about wasting daylight. I thought they stayed up all night, perched on a chair in front of the computer, munching on junk food no matter what's offered on the table."
Eyebrow arching, Akira turned to the middle-aged restaurateur. "That was suspiciously specific. Got a problem child in mind? I figured you for the type to never settle or get chained down to kids."
Sojiro groaned as if mortally wounded. "Jeez. Everybody gets old."
Akira looked the restaurateur over for tells, but only got strong defensive signals now. "You sure you aren't thinking of one in particular?"
Sojiro gestured to the range. "Don't forget to eat your breakfast."
Akira let out a long breath at the most obvious redirect in conversation history. He forced a shrug, figuring Sojiro must've been stuck on some neighbor's kid while partying through his young adult years. He slid the omelet onto a plate and sat down at the bar, folding his hands for a brief prayer before eating.
Tuesday, 31 May by Daywatch
Lunchtime
Shujin, Student Council Office
A knocking at the door broke Makoto's concentration. The class president set her pencil down on the calligraphy club requisition forms and raised her voice to be heard through the door. "Yes?"
The voluminous blonde pigtails surprised her. Ann slipped inside and closed the door behind herself. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
"Oh, it's okay." Makoto straightened the middle stack. "I've already delegated some of the responsibilities I'd been handling to other members of the student council. And once we change Kaneshiro's heart, that will ease the burden on everyone."
After taking a few steps further into the room, Ann grasped the fingers of her left hand with her right. "I, uh… I wanted to apologize, Senpai. To be honest, I've been wanting to for a while, but realized after we split last night that I hadn't done it and didn't want another day to go by. So…" She bowed at the waist. "I'm really sorry. Even more for not doing this earlier."
Makoto drew back in her seat. "What are you apologizing for, Takamaki-san?"
Ann stood, but her eyes drifted away and her right hand slipped up to twirl at the end of a pigtail. "About blaming you for Kamoshida's sexual harassment. Even lashing out about you not doing anything about Shiho." The model bit her lip. "Truth is… she was calling out for me and I wasn't there for her. I lashed out at you because I didn't want to admit I was just as guilty." Her lips twisted, but the smile didn't look real.
Makoto gestured to the seat on the other side of the small table. "Why don't you take a seat? Please don't feel you need to be tense on my account. The way I see it after this past week, I think we're pretty similar, Takamaki-san." The president rubbed at a burr on the corner of one of her fingernails as the model sat. "Pushing blame on you was just my own way of avoiding admission of my own worthlessness. I think that was why I treated you all as badly as I did. I tried to tell myself that Suzui-san was a surprise I couldn't do anything about because I was just following orders, but there were other warning flags. Kiriko-san, for example. To try to displace my own fears, I treated you all badly." She bowed what little she could in her seat. "So I'm sorry, too, Takamaki-san."
Ann waved her down. "S-stop that, Senpai! Call it even. I'm pretty sure even Akira was the same way with how you two butted heads. You got us into the bank, after all. And you don't have to call me san when we've been risking our necks together to take Kaneshiro down."
Makoto's throat tightened a little. She even used 'san' with Sae. Now that the class junior brought it up, everyone since papa had been filed into a senior to obey for hope of a favor or a junior to placate so she could refocus on seniors. Sae did it so naturally… Makoto tried to think about when she adopted that transactional behavior. She shook her head. "Are you sure that's okay, Takamaki-s… Takamaki?"
Ann beamed a smile that warmed the room, yet somehow took nothing away from her sense of presence. "Just Ann. We're comrades in arms, right Makoto?"
The class president swallowed against a sudden lump in her throat. "You really are the heart of the Phantom Thieves. T… Ann." She fidgeted. "Sorry. I guess I'm not always the quickest on the uptake."
Ann gave a little giggle and clapped her hands together. "Oh, I know what we should do! Since Morgana's making us all take the day off to rest and relax, let's you and I go somewhere after school. There's a place we can get crepes at Central Street that totally stuffs theirs with deliciousness!"
Makoto felt a smile spread over her own face at the junior's enthusiasm. "S-sure. Maybe it will even help me think of how to approach Big Sis about the next names."
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Early Evening
Shujin, Library
Akira's pencil scratched across the blanks on his history homework. Despite his knack at remembering the stories, the topic was one of his least favorite. His fellow students either hated history and wanted nothing to do with it, or knew far more than him and disdained him for not being on the same level. He'd already sent Hifumi a text, she was very constructive with math and would probably find a way to help him here, but the message sat unread in his outbox. He sighed and tried to block out the irrelevant chatter.
His phone buzzed and the transfer student scrambled for it. Alas, instead of his beautiful rival, Ryuji's ID sat at the top of a new text to the group chat. [You, dudes.] A beat passed. [I mean hi. You guys got time? We need to change gears so we can hit the bank fresh tomorrow. Especially Senpai and Akira. You two are intense.]
Morgana peered at the screen, then whispered, "Find out what he wants."
[If it's anything to do with food, count me out,] Makoto sent.
Ryuji replied, [I won free tickets to a darts lounge. They'll expire next week if I don't use them, so why not come?]
He started typing in an excuse when Makoto sent, [Something focused and physical sounds like a good diversion. This might even hone our technique for the Metaverse. Excellent work, Sakamoto.]
Hoping for backup, the transfer student turned the phone so Morgana could read from within the shelter of his school satchel. Morgana nodded. "She's right. Let's go."
Sighing, Akira texted for directions and packed up to catch the Inogami Line.
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Early Evening
Kichijoji Station
Makoto adjusted the strap on her purse, then turned around to walk back along the subway. The sun sinking below Suginami-ku cast long, deep shadows even if it wasn't true twilight yet for over an hour. When Sae texted that she'd be staying at work tonight, the upperclassman wondered if she'd be able to keep her nerves under control until they struck Kaneshiro's bank tomorrow. It wasn't like she new many diversions, herself. Were it not for that million yen hanging over them, she might have asked her new compatriots what other people did, but Sakamoto gave her an opportunity to find out at least a bit without having to embarrass herself.
Of course, that was if one of them would show up. Just when she was about to start calling, she spotted the transfer student come up the steps, his phone in hand and a deep frown on his face.
She waved to get his attention. "Kur—Akira?"
"Senpai," he said with a shallow nod. "Ryuji message you that he arrived yet?"
She shook her head. "Kept on texting about the places around here. Ann's last was that she expected to be five or six minutes."
Morgana peered out from the transfer student's school satchel. "The atmosphere is different here. We'll want to be careful."
Akira shot an irritating smirk at her. "I was just thinking, if circumstances were just a bit different, I could imagine you stalking me all the way here."
She jabbed him with an elbow and got a satisfying Oof. "I thought we agreed never to bring that up. I was only doing that because Principal Kobayakawa was threatening me. And I'm not even working for him anymore!"
Somebody coming out of the subway station bumped him and Akira bumped back. He glared at the crowd around them, then adjusted his eyes up at the lit business signs. "Wait for them in one of the shops?"
Guessing he was still nervous about the bank, she nodded and walked with him down to a high-end stationary store. "Well, besides the bars, it doesn't look so different from Shibuya." Few of the bars were open yet, but plenty of the evening businesses were rolling up the shutters and getting ready.
He looked over the fountain pens on display by the counter. He muttered, "I wonder if she'd like anything."
Makoto adjusted her braid headband. "Hm?"
Akira crossed his arms and swallowed, a twinge to his eyes that she couldn't explain. "I was just thinking about consumerism. The traditional gifts are chocolates or cookies or boxed crap like that, always sold well above their value at stores. But what kinds of things are actually good gifts?" He pointed a hand at the display of cheap pens beside the cash register. "Functional gifts anyone could get anywhere, use, but cheap enough that the receiver wouldn't worry about losing something small?"
Morgana hopped up onto the transfer student's shoulder. "I can tell you that a lot of the things in this fine establishment suit the refined taste of yours truly."
Their phones buzzed and the upperclassman checked to see Ann's note of arrival at the station. Makoto sent her the name of the stationary shop they browsed in. Still no word from Ryuji.
The model's cheery, "Hiii!" sprang from behind them. "So, browsing the promenade while waiting for that slowpoke to get here?"
Makoto turned and bit her tongue at the twinge of jealousy. Not a hair of ashen blonde hair stood out of place and even the standard Shujin blouse looked flattering on her in a way it never felt on Makoto. Instead, the upperclassman gave a nod.
Ann let loose a bright smile. "Well, let's check out the other places!"
Akira only managed, "Wait, I came for darts!" before the girls dragged him from imported grocer's to outdoor and sporting goods.
While the model pressed a waterproof jacket over herself to check for size, Makoto crossed her arms. "I knew there were a lot of businesses catered to sports, but never heard of one catering to ladies preferring the outdoors."
Akira rubbed his arm. "That isn't common?" He rubbed the back of his head in a cute way she was disappointed only lasted a second. "I thought that was kinda default."
Makoto stifled a laugh. "Right, because you came from a smaller town. You'd have to go for a ways to get to a serious camping spot in Tokyo. Clearly Ann likes it, but most girls aren't so inclined."
Akira shrugged and drew his phone. "Well, we've been at this for twenty minutes, I'm going to text him." He tapped away and sent a message into the group chat.
A moment later, Ryuji replied, [I've been waiting for you guys!]
Akira shot back, [Where? You never sent the directions to that dart place. We don't even know the name.]
A beat passed. [Oh. I'll come out and get you,] the track star replied. After getting the name of their current shop – Echo and Wave – a minute later the dyed blond waved from just outside. He gave them a sheepish smile as they closed on him. "Sorry 'bout that. I just got all excited ta do somethin' together."
Makoto held her hand to her forehead. "In the future, Sakamoto, you might want to give us the specifics of when and where."
Ryuji pointed them to a set of set of stairs just a few meters away. "There it is. Penguin Sniper. Funny name, eh? I mean, why'd you give on'a those doofy birds a gun?"
Akira pushed up his glasses. "It's easier than throwing them and trying to avoid the explosion?"
"Now you're making Disgaea references?" Ann made a face before she rallied the troops. "Let's go before he starts trying to add 'dude' to the end of every sentence."
The Phantom Thieves entered, but it turned out Ryuji also failed to tell them he only one two tickets. With neither of the boys having a stable source of disposable income – only Akira had a good reason for not having a job yet – Ann and Makoto paid for their own fare.
Akira hung back as the others followed the directions to the dart lanes, his steel grey gaze locking on the billiard tables. "What's that?"
"I'm afraid that's a separate event, sir," the man at the register said. "Billiards. Very popular game that tests the mind and body of its players."
He allowed the runner to pull him along to the dart lanes, as Ryuji's bruised ribs hadn't finished healing yet, but the transfer student's gaze lingered on the green tables until they started a game. Akira allowed the runner to explain the rules, and even motioned for the runner and upperclassman to go first. Then Akira tossed the darts from hand to hand a few times, lifted one in his left and let it fly with what looked like a casual flick to Makoto.
It landed on the triple twenty.
The model gave a cheer almost as enthusiastic as Ryuji's.
Akira bounced the darts in each hand a few times, before he lifted one in his right hand and let it sail with the same deliberate ease. It flitted into the twenty less than a centimeter above the triple ring. He tossed his third dart and sent it into the twenty just millimeters from the triple ring and snapped his fingers. "Sorry, guys. I'd like to say it's the lighter darts, but I can never seem to get all three into the triple."
Makoto straightened. "You've played?"
He rubbed the back of his neck. "When I couldn't steal Mother's credit card, darts was how I got most of my money in middle school."
Ryuji's perfect grin could have blinded. "Dude, why didncha say you played?"
Despite his impressive showing, Akira's gaze fell to the floor. "I don't like it. I used it 'cause it paid for food, but… Darts just ended up another thing people hated me for. Some of the old-timers at Luckless had been practicing for longer than I've been alive. Then I waltz in and zero the first game money's on the table for." He shrugged, but his gaze didn't quite rise to theirs. "It wasn't even fun, it was easy. There's no strategy in it, just reflexes. Unlike go or shogi, where you only do well if you're skilled."
Morgana's tail flicked back and forth from the satchel resting on the drink table near the end of the dart lane. "There's natural talent to mental games, as well. Just because those old farts were all poor sports doesn't mean you can't be both gifted and well-practiced."
Ryuji gave a vigorous nod. "Eff yeah! Gettin' you here an' findin' out you're like, some kinda pro. It's like a strike of good luck! We outta do this again some time."
Ann slapped her hand to her forehead. "Oh my God, Ryuji. It's stroke of good luck. And I haven't even gone yet!" She stood, lined up, and tossed, but her third dart threw a bust. She held a cringe as she turned back to the others. "Sorry, everyone."
Morgana almost jumped in the satchel on the narrow table. "Don't be hard on yourself, Lady Ann. This is a game of precision and coordination where syncing with your teammates is just as important as how well you can score, yourself." He gave a smile. "You know what? This might not reflect as directly as Gun About, but I bet this could help improve the Phantom Thieves' performance in the Metaverse as well."
Makoto nodded. "Agreed. We should do this again."
Ryuji perked up. "Another round? Lesse if Akira can hit the triple twenty all three—"
"It's late," the upperclassman said with practiced firmness. To her relief, Ryuji reacted just like her fellow students did to her firm tone of authority. "We need to be well-rested for our next foray into the bank. And aren't you second years coming up on the social studies trip? If any of you have demerits or poor grades, you'll be dropped from the trip for remedial lessons. And I know not one of you would let that happen."
Ryuji shot straight. "Y-yes, ma'am!"
AN: Akira's sudden formation of a new Persona draws from P4 The Animation, where most of Yu's new Personas are either fused off-screen or pop out at a moment his friends are in danger. Many of the investigators' awakenings in The Animation are also delayed until their battle with Ame-no-Sagiri when it's them pulling out all the stops to save him. It's also reflected in Persona 3 when Junpei has THE most badass persona evolution in the series and kicks Streiga's ass when they dare tell him Chidori's death was meaningless.
Makoto's a difficult character to write, she's extremely popular but also has a strong hatedom because she starts off looking like a prissy nose-in-the-air jerk who just wants personal benefit. The game does a bit of disservice because the pressure she's facing from all sides is shown to the audience rather than to any of the characters, which denies a lot of character bonding and growth from overcoming those bad impressions. That is one of the many things I hope to fix in Daywatch, where her fear of becoming a hollow, transactional person and harsh treatment of the Phantom Thieves has to be dealt with. It always sat wrong to me that Makoto threatens the same fate of a criminal record already forced on Akira, but to the only people in his life that have been good to him. The game completely blows that off, but Daywatch will not.