12/4/20XX
Akita buried her face in her bed. "That was beyond dumb..." She curled up in her blanket, contemplating for a while on what to say next. She quickly unrolled herself out and opened her phone.
[Akita]
Sorry
Too far
?
[Ryuji]
Too far dude
[Akita]
Sorry
What did you want to ask about the nav app?
[Ryuji]
It just was
just there
didn't even install the thing
[Akita]
Creepy
[Ryuji]
Ikr
But you used it to enter the palace
?
[Akita]
y
[Ryuji]
So now I can too
[Akita]
Yay
Don't leave me all alone
T-T
[Ryuji]
No way hz
Wer in this until the end
[Akita]
Gn
[Ryuji]
gn
"That was nice..." Akita began changing into her nightwear. "Avoided– fixed an awkward moment and chatted." Akita got into bed, feeling exhausted by the Metaverse. Akita closed her eyes and let sleep take her away.
The clinging on chains...
Akita woke up in the cell with blue walls, she sat up to see Igor and the twins. "Welcome to the Velvet Room. I thought about continuing our previous conversation tonight", Igor explained as Akita stood up and walked towards the bars. "That is why I have summoned you. What are your thoughts? Have you gotten accustomed to this place."
"Pretty much..."
Igor sounded pleased with himself. "Glad to hear it. It seems you have nerves of steel." Igor spoke of rehabilitation, of stopping ruin and of how Akita was do so with help. He spoke of her encounter with Ryuji, of how a partnership was formed with someone with similar power. A foundation for recovery and redemption are connections, those that are not superficial to be precise. Only those of who she is connected with by morals and faith, those were the ones she should strive for.
"And Personas are the strength of the heart, differing from the bonds of faith and morals", Justine expunged. "So the stronger your bonds, the stronger the personas."
"There must be countless talented people in the city with someone like you lacks." Akita would like to punt that small child that calls itself Caroline. "So rack that noggin of yours and get them to your side. We'll handle the rest."
"Indeed, you should be ready to use even myself, or ruin may soon await you."
I AM THOU...
Akita felt the birth of something.
"Well, you will understand soon enough. Continue devoting yourself to your rehabilitation." Igor chuckled.
Caroline glared at Akita. "Now this conversation is over. Get lost, Inmate!"
13/4/20XX
Akita is making her way to school, listening to the complaints of a few first years. They talk about the students being pitted against the teachers and the unfairness of it, though one of them fawns over Kamoshida's skills.
Akita groans slightly, taking the attention of two students behind her. The students call to her, they're Takamaki and Shiho. Takamaki's the first to say anything. "Hey, you", she grabs Akita's attention. "Yeah." Akita slows down a fair bit to catch-up the two behind her. "Did you also hear about the volleyball rally?"
"Yes, I'm the transfer student, so..."
"Oh, I get it", Ann says. "Fair warning though..." Ann whispers to Akita. "Try to not be noticed by Kamoshida, just stay on his side of the court and you should be fine."
"Thanks...", Akita understood the message. She went ahead to Kawakami's class and waited for how the day would continue, it was to go change amd to go to the gymnasium. While changing, some of the other female students began to move away from Akita, whispering about violent behavior. Some even began to speculate about cheating and other 'romantic' subjects.
Eventually though, Akita made it to the gymnasium and met-up with Ryuji. "Man, this sucks. It'll just be us watching Kamoshida bust apart a bunch of students while girls fawn over him..."
"Well it's honestly better than sitting around and having you lose your mind over him", Akita patted Ryuji on the back. "Better get mad and not be in a classroom."
"How's that even supposed to work, I'd be mad either way."
"You wouldn't get into as much trouble. Kamoshida's too full of himself to care about what you're doing."
"Good point, let's just go sit along the sides."
Akita approved. "Yeah, Ann told me to stay on his side of the court to prevent drawing attention."
"... Yeah, I mean sure. Let's try that, doesn't mean I'll cheer for him."
"I don't she'd cheer either." Akita and Ryuji made their way to the gymnasium, but when they tried to go they were forced to sit against a wall. Akita did notice that most of the girls that Kamoshida looked at were at the front side, where Ann was.
"Still sticking out... hasn't changed a bit." Ryuji moans about their current situation of just watching as Kamoshida beats the student team. "Pretty boring, huh?" Eventually though, one student gets spiked in the face by the man himself. "Man..."
"He'll pay, soon enough...", Akita reminds Ryuji.
"Yeah..." After the game continues for a while more, the two are eventually allowed to roam. They end-up sitting at a bench in the court-yard. "Man, that guys still acting like the king of the castle. 'Let's get to know each-other', never head bigger bullshit. He just wants to stroke his own ego."
Akita sat on a bench smiling while Ryuji went off on complaining about Kamoshida.
"–And then he acts like all kind and shit when he hit Mishima in the face. What an abusive d-bag."
"Language...", Akita chimed in.
"What, was it the shit, bastard or bullshit..."
"D-bag."
"Seriously?"
"It's a very violent word."
Ryuji sighed and sat next to her. "Well, anyway..." Ryuji went on to explain the plan. They'd look for the people represented by slaves and get someone to spill the beans. Sadly they didn't have much luck, despite Akita's basic attempts at seduction and Ryuji's attempts at normal conversation. They eventually decided to split, letting Akita go off on her own investigations. It would be quite hard to differentiate if it was going better or worse, as those who knew of her record and those who didn't would often stay away from her despite what they knew.
"–transfer student in your class, Ann..." Akita slowed down to listen to the source of conversation.
"– know. I hate rumors already, but they're honestly getting more and more complex as time goes on." Akita recognised the voice as belonging to Ann Takamaki. She decided to stay close, noticing them behind the corner.
"I wonder if she's alright. I can't decide who makes worse rumors, the guys or the girls. I hope she's not letting them get to her."
Ann sighed. "That's so like you, always worrying about others. Just like you did for me." Akita was relieved to find Ann happy, the sight of her during the game was honestly worrying.
She kept walking around to maybe find the dirt. She heard some hurt people mention cleaning after practice and decided to approach them. "What do you want?"
"How'd you get hurt", she asked, making sure to zip down her collar a bit.
"It's from practice–" the student was interrupted by his friend.
"That's the transfer student, I heard she's a spy for Kamoshida or something...", after talking the two decided to run away. Akita continued to search.
DING
[R]
How's it going?
[A]
Not well
He refused to talk
Maybe I should have zipped open the jacket...
[R]
are you ntus?
anyway
Him too?
Everyone's so scared of Kamoshida
!
But I got a lead
at least
its a first year
he's new so maybe Kamoshida hasn't gotten to him
[A]
K
tnx
Akita continued on her search, running into students and them running away. The girls were especially nasty to her after hearing that she was spotted getting attention from Kamoshida. Thankfully she did eventually get to find the student Ryuji mentioned and after pressuring him, got a name, but then the announcement rang.
"Atention, the vollleyball rally is ending, please be ready to head home."
DING
[R]
Weve run out of time
got any leads?
[A] someone called mishima
[R]
rly?
meet at courtyard
Akita made her way to the courtyard quickly to save time, but when she got there she was greeted by Ann while trying to get a drink. "Can I talk with you a sec?" Akita had no reason to not oblige.
"What is it? If it's about me sitting with Sakamoto, there wasn't any more room on the sides."
"It's not that, I'll be quick." Ann made a serious face. "Anyway. What's with you? Like with you being late the other being a lie and all? ... and that weird rumor–"
"What do you want with her", Ryuji forced a pause as he arrived.
Ann turned to look. "Right back at you. You're not even in the same class."
Ryuji looked down. "We just... happen to know each-other."
"Didn't you buy me food and ask for my number", Akita cheekly asked, leading to Ryuji blushing. Sorry, trying to stear the conversation away!
"Ignoring her. What are you two planning on doing to mr. Kamoshida?"
Ryuji sounded surprised. "Oh... gotcha." Ryuji made a serious face. "You're buddy buddy with him after all."
Akita felt like she should say something, but decided to instead hold her tongue. She felt she had no place between these two, they seemed to have some history.
"This has nothing to do with you, Sakamoto."
"If you knew what he was doing behind his back, you'd dumb him right away."
"Behind my back?" Ann got angry. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Ryuji looked to Akita. "You wouldn't get it..."
"Argh... anyway, people are talking about you two. Just because she has a record, doesn't mean you should be bending over backwards for her."
"Excusewhat?" Akita nearly bit her tongue hearing that, she expected her to talk about no-one wanting to help her and Sakamoto, but this was new.
"People saw Ryuji's bag drop in an alley right before peeking you and him panting like a pair of dogs. People talk."
"Ookay. That's not what happened, we were handling something related to Kamoshida", Akita tried to pull a full stop to the topic of encounters in alleys.
Ann blushed before frustratingly clearing her face. "Oh, well I guess I should say that most people won't help. Just a warning. Bye", she made a quick escape.
"What was THAT about?" Ryuji asked.
"I don't know. Let's not talk about it."
"Agreed, we got bigger fish to fry", Ryuji went to sit down with Akita, who pulled out a can of soda. "Thanks. So you mentioned Mishima? Let's make this quick."
"Yeah, something about him getting 'special coaching'", Akita took a sip of her own drink. It was a bit too fizzy.
"Special coaching, huh..." Ryuji contemplated for a moment. "Yeah, he's always covered in bruises. Let's go talk to him before he leaves", Ryuji was starting to sound angry.
Akita placed her drink to his head. "Cool down... We're just going to talk, we don't need more rumors."
Ryuji blushed as she had gotten her head closer to place the cold drink to his skin. "Y-yeah..." He got up and Akita followed.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, I am shipping the two, how could you tell?