Disclaimer: Persona 5 Characters except Fujin Katsuo belongs to Atlus, this fanfic has no commercial purpose.


Ryuji: Today's the fireworks festival! Let's meet at Shibuya at 5!
Katsuo: No promises if I get lost with so many people on my way.
Ann: Hey, Makoto. Are you going to wear a yukata?
Makoto: I'm planning on it.
Yusuke: Yukatas are a great part of the summer tradition… They truly heighten a woman's beauty.
Katsuo: That sounds like an exaggeration.
Yusuke: I think I will wear mine as well.
Ryuji: You've got one, Yusuke…? How about you two?
Katsuo: Nah.
Akira: I don't have a yukata either.
Ann: Hey, I know! Why don't you come without your glasses?
Katsuo: But don't you think he needs them to see?
Akira: Those aren't prescription. I don't need them at all in actuality.
Katsuo: Really? I didn't know that.
Makoto: In any case. What's the point in that?
Ann: I dunno, you don't get to see fireworks every day, so it'd be sad, just wearing normal clothes!
Ann: I just thought he might want to go for a change of pace.
Ryuji: That sounds great! You should totally come without glasses!
Katsuo: I don't see the difference, but whatever.
Ryuji: Welp, you guys better not be late!

That was the message from that morning. I wasn't really sure about hanging out. Then again, it's not like I had anything better to do that day. Lala-chan wouldn't let me work that night anyway. The other thing that motivated me to go was that it would be the first time I ever watched the fireworks festival in a group. Never thought or cared about going by myself at some point in my life.

"Be on time!" he said, "see you at the station!" he said.

After finally arriving at the Shibuya station, it was ridiculous to move between the crowd. I felt claustrophobic for how many people were literally breathing at my neck while traveling on the train. I started looking for them, with hopes that I wouldn't get lost along the way.

"Please, don't do this to me now..." I heard a girl's sophisticated voice nearby. I looked at her, struggling with a vending machine. Her bright-color curly hair and pink yukata were what caught my attention. I walked toward the girl to see the issue.

"Got problems with that machine?" I asked her.

"Yes, I'm trying to get my green tea, but it got stuck." She said, distressed.

"I know this one. This vending machine always has stuck drinks all the time. Why nobody fixed this thing yet?"

"I should ask someone around and…"

"No need for that. I know a little trick to drop it." I interrupted her.

"Really? How?" She said with a curious tone.

"Watch it…" I gave a little hit with the elbow on the sides, which released the green tea bottle and my favorite apple juice soda. Alternative solutions were mostly viable for me, but I didn't expect to work at that moment, too. "There you go."

"Wow! That was incredible! It's almost like magic!" Hearing her praises felt odd, yet warm.

"Not really. Just something I learned after spending too much time moving between stations." I checked my phone for the hour; I was getting behind the appointed time. "Well, I better get going. Enjoy the fireworks festival." I kept walking while she stayed behind. I'll be honest, she seemed cute, but she was probably waiting for her friends too. Didn't want to distract her anymore.

I spent a couple more minutes wandering around the station. I thought of two possibilities: either I came too early, or they are too late. I couldn't find them anywhere that maybe they had a change of plans where to see them. I looked at my phone for any new messages, but nothing so far.

Too early to give up. When I was about to send a text, I found Ann, wearing a blue yukata with colorful circles, and by herself. "There you are," she looked at me while waiting. "You came earlier than the other boys."

"You think? I thought I came late because there are a lot of people here."

"Nah, Makoto and I came here not long. Have you seen the others yet?"

"Nope, I don't know where they are right now. I hope they are not doing something stupid yet."

"They are fine as long Akira and Morgana are keeping an eye for them." She said, relaxed as she was right that those two wouldn't cause any ruckus than Kitgawa or that punk.

"Speaking of which, where is Makoto now?"

"She needed to adjust her yukata at the restroom; I think it won't take too much time. How do I look, by the way?" She started to spin around while showing me her yukata.

"You look good." My opinion was rather too simplistic.

"Just good, or I look pretty?" She kept asking me about her looks.

"I mean, it really remarks with your blond hair. I would say it is a nice contrast."

"Mhhh, I see…" She kind of looked disappointed, but she didn't mind. I would assume that it took her by surprise that a man wouldn't complement in that way like I did. We did a small talk about yesterday's festival that the guys were. Funnily enough, Takamaki did mention that some of her classmates talked about Sakamoto's dumb comments on TV when she walked through here. She could do nothing but groan every time the blond girl heard them. It became worst because the punk still hadn't noticed it yet. Well, maybe during or after summer vacation, he would, someday.

"Sorry for the wait!" We heard Makoto's voice on our left. She wore a white yukata with a pattern of red flowers. She didn't seem bad either, somewhat appealing despite that I never thought of being exceptional. I only complemented the same way as Takamaki's, but she seemed okay with that. "Should we start looking for the others?" Makoto asked.

"Sure, let's go," I said as we started to walk around. If those guys already arrived, I would be so pissed with Sakamoto if he got late after telling us of being punctual every damn time. Just when we finally found them, they were accompanied by two girls. Kitagawa, who was the only guy wearing a blue yukata in the group, talked to the girls. In contrast, Sakamoto and Kurusu spoke to each other for whatever reason.

"There they are, but it seems they are busy already," Makoto commented.

"I will go with them and tell them about…" I was about to go with the guys until the blond girl stopped me by grabbing me from the sleeve.

"Wait!"

"What is it now?"

"I want to see how this is going." Takamaki did a mischievous smile as she looked at the scene. I was curious about how things would go for them.

"That's enough! You're disgracing your yukata. You should be more aware of your womanhood." Of course, Kitagawa being himself, made those two girls go away without saying a word. That was pathetic for the guys.

"How could you!?" Sakamoto was undoubtedly disappointed.

"Why don't you go after them then?" Takamaki said as we approached them.

"So those are the kinds of girls you like, Ryuji," Makoto commented.

"Uh, well… That's…" the punk tried to excuse himself.

"You royally screwed up, you know that?" I shook my head. "Kitagawa was lucky that he didn't get slapped or something for that."

"…You know, Yusuke's such a pretty boy, but he is really missing out because of what he says," Takamaki added.

"I guess, but he's more likable since he stays true to his ideals. Definitely more than somebody I know." Everyone began to glare at Sakamoto, which he tried to avoid eye-contact with us due to shame.

"I heard that Ryuji's pretty much failed his exams," Morgana said as he poked his head out of Kurusu's bag.

"Oh."

"Really?"

Makoto and I gave them the same upset response at the punk. But let's be honest, that was very uncalled by that cat despite that I was outraged by the fact that my efforts to help them with studying just went down the drain. How childish those two had to be?

"Mona, you little…" Sakamoto retorted, looking annoyed at Morgana.

"Hey, it's gonna get crowded if we don't get going," Takamaki told everyone.

"Agreed," Kitagawa replied. We moved outside before the fireworks began. Sakamoto stayed behind while talking to himself, and he didn't notice that we already left.

"But man, you both look amazin' in yukata! Talk about Japanese beauty…"

"Hey! Are you moving or not!?" I yelled at him the farther we got.

We took our places among the crowd, with the firework in the sky; it was hard for us to see it between the people and the tall building, not letting us watch the show. I would say that was an odd experience seeing many people in the street, more so than when I worked in the morning. We could only see a handful of fireworks where we were at. Already started, and we were missing out on the fun. Not the best place as Takamaki did hop a little to see more. Morgana asked Kurusu to lift him to get a better view, but that didn't help much. Sakamoto asked me to lift him for the same reason, but I said to him that I would throw him out in the river if he ever tried that. It was a bummer, and things got worse: It started to rain.

"Why now…" Makoto commented while the raindrops kept falling.

There were thunders and rain wouldn't stop anytime soon. Some police officers asked us to move out of the streets. I could only hear their annoying whistles as the people scattered across the area.

The safest place we found was right in front of the convenience store. It was the worst time when I forgot to bring my umbrella that night. Kitagawa used his traditional fan to cover him from the rain; not that was helpful, though. Kurusu tried to take out some water from his left ear while Morgana was shaking his fur. Sakamoto and Takamaki were squeezing their clothes.

I took out my handkerchief from my left pocket to wipe my face, but Makoto had nothing with her to the same thing.

"Take this. You are going to catch a cold if you don't wipe your hair off soon." I offered her my handkerchief.

"Thanks..." She grabbed it and tried to dry up her hair from the rainwater. We looked at the guys trying to look away while Ann squeezed her yukata, exposing her legs. "Ann."

"Yeah?"

We looked at the guys with nervous reactions. Sakamoto wasn't subtle enough.

"Come on!" Takamaki yelled at him because he was next to her.

"Look like you need help…" He made mocking monotone. That made the blond girl upset.

"Then why don't you go buy me a towel already, huh!? At least Katsuo is a gentleman with Makoto. What about you?" Seeing Sakamoto being grabbed from his collar and being shaken was enough for Makoto and me to sigh in exasperation.

Teenagers...

We heard the announcer around Shibuya, "Due to the sudden change in weather, a heavy rain and a flood warning has been issued nearby." Those were the words we hear from the speaker. "Since the festival cannot proceed in this weather, we truly apologize for canceling today's fireworks festival."

As the announcer kept talking, Makoto, Kurusu, and I looked at a limousine with two adults escorting a teenager to get inside the car. That girl was the same I saw earlier with the vending machine. Was she a celebrity or something? It didn't matter for us, though, as everyone decided to get inside the store before the weather could get worse. More people were already taking refuge in the same store as well.

"Ack… We're just tryin' to get outta the rain, but look how crowded it is…" Sakamoto said. He wasn't exaggerating as the limit of people in the store seemed to exceed.

"I guess everyone had the same idea…" the blond girl added while looking at Makoto, who was lost in thought. "What's up?"

"Mh, I think I just saw someone I know…" she said. Was that girl a classmate or something? Friends? Who knows. I didn't say anything about that matter.

"You mean the girl in the black car?" Takamaki asked.

"Well, she's got a ride… Time to show your skills, Mona! We need you as a car!" the punk shouted.

"It's not possible in this world!" Morgana corrected him.

"My feet hurt… It's cold… The festival's been canceled… This sucks…" Takamaki said. The disappointment was mutual for the rest of the group. I wasn't excited about the festival anyway.

"We made such a commotion with the public, and this is what we get? Laaame. Aren't heroes that lurk in the shadows boring?"

"I like the shade," Kurusu commented. Sakamoto reacted in a confused manner as the leader's odd words came out of his mouth.

"What are you, moss!? I wanna change the world with a loud bang, like a huge firework!"

"Good luck with that," I snorted.

"...Then again, we aren't gonna find someone bigger than Kaneshiro that easily."

"The rain is letting up. Though it's regrettable, we should go our separate ways for today." Kitagawa told this while the rain stopped.

"Yeah. Let's go home." Like Morgana said, we left the store, and everyone went to the train. I hate the smell inside the train every time it rained. With nothing else to do for the rest of the day, I decided to go back home and stretch my limbs. I managed to get home safe and sound. Once inside my apartment, I took off my wet clothes and changed them with more comfortable ones. I turned on my small TV to watch the local news as always, nothing different than the usual psychotic breakdowns incident around town. That was until something caught my interest.

"Onto other news… The international hacktivist group Medjed has released a statement to the Phantom Thieves." I didn't like how it sounded as the TV Reporter kept talking about that. "… These are the details of the message that are posted on Medjed's website. 'To the Phantom Thieves causing uproar in Japan: Do not speak of your false justice. We do not need the spread of such falsehood. We are the true executors of justice.'"

What a bunch of phonies.

"However, we are magnanimous. We will give you an opportunity to repent your ways. If you agree to a change of heart, we will accept you as our own. If you reject our offer, the hammer of justice will find you."

Why they couldn't stop using the word "justice" in every damn sentence? It just made me even more suspicious every time I heard them using that meaningless word. That sounded like one of those automatic invoices that you may listen to on the phone. Very repetitive and dull in such a robotic manner.

"We are Medjed. We are unseen. We will eliminate evil. Akechi-san, why do you think this announcement was made at this time?" The TV Report stopped reading the message and started to ask the detective about that.

"I don't know the details, but there's no doubt that they were provoked by the Phantom Thieves. Whether it's a sense of rivalry or a simple attention grab given the recent trends. I cannot say… Regardless, it's quite a nuisance."

"A nuisance?" The reporter asked Akechi.

"Both Medjed and the Phantom Thieves are nothing more than groups that uphold an egoistic justice. More people like these may continue to appear due to their influence. In that respect, the Phantom Thieves face a severe crime."

Well, at least the detective wasn't stupid about how shallow Medjed was. It was too convenient that those guys had the authority to plea us right now when we just became famous. In the end, he didn't like Medjed or us because we were doing stuff outside of the law. And boy, no one would be quiet about it.

Ryuji: We gotta talk about Medjed.
Katsuo: Just the thing I wanted to avoid talking.
Ann: You mean those guys people online are going nuts over?
Yusuke: Medjed…
Yusuke: That name seems to come from one of the obscure gods from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Makoto: I saw the news too.
Makoto: For some reason, they think we speak of false justice…
Katsuo: Unbelievable...
Katsuo: They been quiet for who-knows-what for so long, and they declare war out of the blue.
Yusuke: Now then, what exactly did you want to speak of regarding Medjed?
Ryuji: Welllllll, why don't we go after them as our next target?
Yusuke: What a sudden suggestion.
Katsuo: What a stupid suggestion.
Ryuji: Why not? I mean, they're like, bad hackers or something, right?
Makoto: Technically, they're crackers.
Makoto: Those who use the internet to illegally access and alter data.
Makoto: Medjed is an organized group of such people recognized by the larger international community.
Yusuke: So they operate on a global scale?
Ann: That makes them even bigger than Kaneshiro!
Ryuji: Right!?
Ryuji: Then it's settled. Our next target's gonna be Medjed.
Ryuji: I wonder if the Nav'll get a hit if we put Medjed in.
Ann: Oh, right!
Akira: Let's try it out.
Katsuo: Are you guys nuts!? This is terrible news!
Ann: Why are you saying that?
Makoto: Because that would be impossible. It has to be a pseudonym. We don't even how many people Medjed is.
Ann: Oh…
Ryuji: Wouldn't we get at least one member's info if we try and look into it, though?
Katsuo: And do you know exactly how are we supposed to do that?
Ryuji: No…
Katsuo: That's what I thought.
Makoto: Even if we did, how would we discover their location?
Makoto: The only confirmed presence of Medjed had been online.
Yusuke: This is a more significant problem than merely finding their keywords.
Yusuke: Unless you have any more ideas, Ryuji?

Ann: Hellooo?
Yusuke: …It seems he had suggested this without putting much thought into it.
Ryuji: C'mon, we can't back down now! People are all excited about it!
Ryuji: Our reputation's gonna plummet if we don't face this shit.
Katsuo: That doesn't matter. We should not bother with them at this moment.
Yusuke: But Ryuji is right. If we remain silent, people would believe we simply chose to run away from the matter.
Katsuo: I don't care; we should not get involved.
Makoto: Medjed has taunted us publicity, after all…
Katsuo: So?
Yusuke: If they are criminals, we cannot just let them be.
Ann: Yeah.
Ann: And we don't have any other targets right now either.
Katsuo: You are going to keep insisting on me, aren't you? Fine...
Ann: I'm glad that you agreed with us.
Katsuo: How are we going to get information about them? Unless you know someone...
Ryuji: Hey Akira. Let's talk to Mishima tomorrow. This is more his thing.
Akira: Let's do that.
Katsuo: Who is Mishima?
Ann: He is in the same class as Akira and me.
Ann: He created and administrates the Phan-Site.
Katsuo: Oh, so he is the guy.
Ryuji: Also, Makoto. Try seeing if your sister has any info on 'em.
Makoto: It's improbable but sure.

We finished talking about Medjed, and I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to confront them without the possibility of finding someone from them. It seems that I had to do my homework about gather info while I work at delivery for tomorrow. I made cynic comments, but that was overwhelmingly targeting a bigger fish than Kaneshiro was.


On the next day, July 19th, I tried to gather info around Tokyo, and most of them were useless. I was hoping if Kurusu and Sakamoto got something out of this Mishima guy. The results were disappointing.

Katsuo: So, did you learn anything useful?
Ryuji: Mishima was pretty useless. You guys get anything?
Makoto: I tried asking my sister, but it seemed as though she didn't know very much about them.
Makoto: She doesn't specialize in cybercrime, after all.
Katsuo: Nothing came out of the underworld net.
Katsuo: Besides the fact they operate under 30 different countries worldwide, the info was nothing but junk.
Ann: I tried looking into them too, but I didn't come up with anything.
Ann: There are really just no leads.
Yusuke: Hm, our opponent is indeed elusive.
Katsuo: I told you guys this was a bad idea.

We interrupted the conversation because of classes, so I had to wait until we get the chance to continue talking about this urgent matter.

Ryuji: How're we gonna find Medjed?
Ann: I'm not so sure. No matter how hard I look online, all I find are just unreliable rumors.
Yusuke: They have carried out corporate terrorism, yet they still manage to elude arrest somehow.
Katsuo: I'm absolutely not thrilled that people like them are now on our backs.
Yusuke: Kaneshiro was a lot of trouble, but this is turning out to be a much greater ordeal.
Ryuji: Did we bite off more than we can chew?
Akira: They're too big.
Makoto: Yeah…
Makoto: We don't even know whether it's a single individual or a large conglomerate of people.
Katsuo: So we are stuck on the fence, huh?
Makoto: And even if we manage to get a lead, what do we do from there?
Ryuji: Damn, this stuff's really not going so good…
Katsuo: Tell me about it.
Ryuji: That's prolly why my exams're going to shit too.
Ann: You know those are two separate things, right?

Well, that was pointless. Now that we were no longer had to deal with Medjed, we decided to continue with our lives until things changed otherwise. From how things went, I decided to take my time and talk with Kurusu about what to do next. Maybe it was better to see him after school and discuss this disagreement.

Katsuo: Do you have time today? I need to free my mind from all this madness right now.
Akira: I have the spare time right now.
Akira: Just tell me where I need to go.
Katsuo: Alright, wait for me at the Shibuya station.
Katsuo: I know a place.

After finishing work, I had to wait at the Shibuya station before going to our destination. I wouldn't have to take a long trip when I'm done hanging out with Kurusu and heading to my other job.

After half an hour, I saw Kurusu walking from the station. "Hey, where are we going?" he asked.

"Follow me," I said as we headed towards the line that would take us to Shinjuku station and then to Ichigaya. There was a fishing pond near that station.

I'll be honest, it's been a long while since I went there. I couldn't recall how many years, but somehow, I wanted to avoid it until now.

I asked the guy with glasses if he ever tried fishing before, but he told me that he went once with Sakamoto days ago. I guess I wouldn't have to explain how fishing worked in that place.

When we finally arrived, the man in charge of the pond asked us a fee to use two rods and take a spot to cast the bait. From there, we took our place and began patiently to catch something. As you could tell, the fishing pond was mostly for elderly and lonely citizens that had nothing better in their lives. Yeah, I wasn't precisely exempt from that.

We spent an hour there, quiet as we tried to focus on catch fishes. Kurusu had better luck than myself as he could get mostly goldfishes since the bait the man gave us was too basic. I, on the other hand, caught jackshit. Somehow the fishes swam away from my cast, and every time I tried a different spot, they moved away from it. I couldn't understand why.

"Don't worry, you will get something," Kurusu tried to cheer me up, but I didn't pay attention as my mind was not into that. Almost asleep with open eyes.

"Uh? Oh, sorry, I'm not used to fishing since I was 14," I said.

"You came here often?" Kurusu asked.

"Yeah, I think it was when my old man took me here on Sundays. Or even Saturdays when he was done working on the docks."

"That sounds like a nice memory," the guy's comment almost me feel embarrassed. That didn't bother me, though.

"You think so? Maybe..." I looked at the pond to the point I could barely look at my reflection. "Sorry if this is a tedious activity. I just wanted some peace for once."

"I don't mind it. I like fishing."

"Really? Well, that's... That's good to hear," I said, relieved that my place of choice wasn't a failure. "You know, sometimes I wonder if you ever wanted to be away from the city problems. Because I always do."

"Is something troubling you?"

"I wouldn't say that, but I remember when you told me that I should be more open about myself. I don't know if that's a good idea," I rubbed my eyes, trying to get a straightforward way to explain Kurusu. "I don't know where to start. You already know that I lived in hiding for six years. Even changing names until that stopped being necessary during High School. Even then, I couldn't connect with anyone since I was always afraid that knowing too much of me could bring nothing but trouble."

"I don't think that's true."

"What if it was?" I interrupted Kurusu. "Sorry, but I can't help myself from thinking that everywhere I go, trouble asks me. What do you say about that?"

"Maybe you should get a little more confidence in yourself."

"Should I? Maybe..." I began to wander in my thoughts as his words could pierce a lot in my head. How confident was he on everything? Even when I remembered the crappy life he was dealing with in Shujin and other places, not a single thing could waver him. I mean, come on, he was two years younger than me, and I acted like a bumbling jackass. I wasn't the best example for him or anyone else, in fact. "Yeah, I will think about it."

"Good, don't forget that you can always count on us," Kurusu said, in the proper fashion of a leader. Just when I thought to call for the day, my rod began to move. I reacted quickly by grabbing it before it could fall.

Something took the bait, and it was intense!

Kurusu offered me a hand, but I had all under control. He told me to pull it in the opposite direction, and I followed his advice. I kept pulling until I could see the fish getting closer to the pond's edge. Splashes everywhere until it stopped swimming. Alas, I finally caught something for the day, but it was another goldfish, much smaller than the ones Kurusu got. Not the most impressive thing, but that was something at least.

"Nice going. Want to try it again?" Kurusu asked. However, I saw the sky slowly getting dark. All the fishing made me lose track of time.

"Sorry, but I should go to work. You better go home safe, too." I said as we returned the rods to the man in charge.

We took the train back to Shinjuku, which I would say goodbye to him there. Before heading to work, I couldn't stop thinking about what the guys with glasses said about gaining confidence. Like an idiot I was, I forgot to ask him more details of how I would do that. I tried to call me since that would be much faster than sending a text. It took me a couple of minutes until he finally picked it up.

"Hey, it's me," I said through the phone. "I wanted to ask something that you said before. How exactly can you get more confidence? I know that sounds vague, but I just need to understand how."

"You could start by not overthinking everything."

"Just like that? Huh..." Kurusu's response was logical. Whenever I tried to analyze things, everything went rampant in my head until losing the original idea. "Alright, I guess that's a start. Thanks."

"No problem," Kurusu hung up the call.

Once I entered Crossroads, I continued with the usual routine: washing dishes, sweeping and mopping the floor, making sure Ohya-san didn't do any of her antics, you know. My mind tried to be blank of not thinking about Medjed or else. I could feel at peace a little since work helped me to be focused. Hey, if things kept going like that, all our problems would be over by the weekend.

During my break, I got another message from the group; Kitagawa was the first to speak.

Yusuke: So, I looked into Medjed.
Ann: Did you find anything?
Yusuke: As you know, Medjed is a god that appears in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Ann: Huh?
Yusuke: Its name apparently means "the smiter."
Yusuke: It seems nobody is actually sure that Medjed is a real name.
Yusuke: On top of that, almost everything else, he is unknown.
Yusuke: Even his form is unattainable.
Yusuke: An unseen god that flies through the sky and shoots from his eyes…
Yusuke: He truly is an elusive being.
Ryuji: Dude.
Yusuke: Everything about his existence is shrouded in mystery.
Ryuji: Wait.
Yusuke: Fundamentally speaking, ancient Egyptian art always depicted gods drawn in a side profile.
Yusuke: However, Medjed is facing straight ahead in all depictions of him.
Katsuo: Did you copy that from an article or something?
Yusuke: Taking all of this into account, he seems to be quite the alien being.
Akira: Well done.
Ryuji: Hey, there's nothing to be impressed about.
Yusuke: I hope that information was at least somewhat useful.
Makoto: Indeed it was.
Yusuke: Should I look into it more?
Makoto: That's enough, thank you.
Katsuo: This is going to be a long week, isn't it?

You know what Kurusu said about not overthinking everything? Yeah, I never thought that would be easy anyway.


Katsuo Rank 3

Confidant Ability: Follow Up.