We flashback to see how Aqua got to where she was, let's see how it all began.
Persona 5 Royal Fanmake Gaston Arc Chapter 1
New Home, New Life
We come to several months earlier. Aqua jolts awake while on the trian, like she had some bad dream or something. She looks around and sees many of the passengers were doing their own thing on the train.
"Ladies and gentleman, thank you for riding with us today. We will be arriving in Vale shortly; this is the last stop for this line." The woman on the PA said. "Please transfer here for all subway lines."
Aqua sighs as she looks at herself, she was wearing the uniform for her new school, she also wears glasses but they were mostly for show and not actual glasses, she was changing schools due to some problems she got into back home but while she was calm she was nervous as she didn't know what to expect going forward.
She thinks back to that day…
On a night she ran in to stop a situation between two people, a male, Aqua assumes drunk, was aggressively attacking a woman.
"Please! Help!" The woman cried out at Aqua
"Let her go!" Aqua said going and pulling the male off.
The male stumbles and falls onto the ground hard while Aqua and the woman look on concerned.
The male slowly gets up holding his hand to his face and glares at Aqua as he says "Accursed Earth Monkey…I would vaporise you but I'll settle for suing you!"
We then flash forward as we then see Aqua being apprehended by two Scout Troopers being arrested, whoever this person was, they were influencal.
We come back to Aqua on the train as she looks down, how did her trying to do the right thing lead to all of these she doesn't know.
"What? Are you for real? A mental shutdown?" A schoolgirl said talking to a classmate from the same school nearby.
"It's the truth!" Her friend said smiling.
"To a person through? That's got to be a joke." The first one points out smiling "You really love all that occult stuff, don't you?"
The two girls giggle while Aqua listens. She was aware what they were talking about as it was all over the news, lately there have been a series of mysterious accidents with people having what was called a 'Mental Shutdown' no one knows the reason or cause for it.
A while later she had gotten off the train and was using her phone to navigate herself to the subway station that will take her to where her new residence will be.
She walks onto the crosswalk and looks up to see the streets of Vale's crosswalks it was crazier then her old home in the country.
"So this is what it's like to be a little fish in a big pond" Aqua said to herself and hears a beep on her phone and looks down "What the…?"
On her phone a strange icon appeared, looked almost like an Occult eye with a star as the iris coloured red and black. The symbol then enlarges to cover half the phone screen.
"Okay…I don't remember downloading this" Aqua said and taps at the icon but nothing happens. Just then she hears a guy talking but his voice slows down and then stops. She looks around and sees all the people around her were frozen in place "What is going on?"
Everyone and everything around her was frozen in time she feels like she was dreaming, then she sees something ahead of her, a blue flame in the distance, the flame then forms into a shape of a huminoid figure with wings then forms a red eye and mouth grin. The Aqua sees her flash with a similar grin before a flash happens and Aqua is taken out as she sees everyone moving again like nothing happened.
"What was that…I feel like the stress of all this is getting to me." Aqua said and looks at her phone seeing the app there and small again "No idea what you are but no thanks" She moves the app to trash and continued on her way.
A while later Aqua had disembarked the train that takes her to Metru-Nui district of Vale and exited the station and up the stairs coming out into the backstreets of Metru-Nui. She looks around the quiet street.
"Not a bad place" Aqua said and thinks 'Starting today, Vito Scaletta will be taking care of me. His house should be in the backstreets of this residential area.' She looks around and sees standing guard was a Scout Trooper and approaches him "Excuse me sir?"
"What is it?" The Scout Trooper said unfriendly like as he looks at her.
"I'm sorry, I just need directions to this address" Aqua said a bit nevous.
"So want to know how to get to there…?" The Scout trooper asked. He then points right and said "It's in an alley a bit further back. Take the right after that apartment with the stairs."
"Thank you sir." Aqua said and heads there.
Along the way she passes a mother and daughter walking their old dog and reaches the residence of Vito Scaletta. She sees the name plate say Scaletta so Aqua figured this was the home and rings the bell but no one answered.
"Oh…does that mean no one's home?" Aqua said unsure what to do now as she didn't know when Vito will be back.
"Looks like no one's home…" A voice said and Aqua looks to see a delivery droid with a parcel "Oh that's right, Mr. Scaletta is usually at his café around this time. Leblanc's in the back alley, so I better make my other deliveries first." He walks off.
"Café Leblanc…well that is where I should try next." Aqua said and leaves the area and sees the Scout Trooper again and approaches him "Excuse me, sir I don't mean to bother you again."
"Huh? Oh it's you again. What do you want this time?" The unfriendly Scout Trooper asked.
"Mr. Scaletta wasn't home but I heard where he might be. I was wondering where Leblanc is?" Aqua asked
"Leblanc…?" The Scout said "Oh, right, that café. It's in an alley pasted the tobacco shop here." He points to the alley.
"Thank you so much" Aqua said bowing and heads there. In the alley she sees a friendly old man listening to the radio and sees Leblanc "Looks like the place."
Aqua takes a deep breath to brace herself for meeting her caretaker for the first time and walks in.
Aqua walks inside a nice-looking homey café, inside there three people, two were an old couple sitting in a booth watching the corner TV which was on the news.
The other was a slightly younger older man with black short hair wearing a white, blue collar shirt, blue jeans and brown shoes. He also had on a blue apron and was sitting on a stool doing the newspaper crossword. Aqua assumes he might be the manager of the place.
"Tom Tucker here, our top story a public transit bus was driven down an opposing lane with its customers still in it!" The news host said, "The citizens can't live in peace if this keeps up."
"How frightening." The elderly male customer said in response to that news.
"What could be going on?" The elderly female customer said concerned "Didn't something similar happen just the other day?"
"And down is…the name of a shellfish used in pearl farming…what the…?" The manager said focused on the crossword.
"Erm…hello?" Aqua said.
The manager looks up and noticed Aqua and said "…Oh right. They did tell me that it was today." He puts the paper on the counter and stands up.
"We'll be going now. The payments on the table." The elderly male customer said as he and his wife stand up.
"Thanks for coming." The manager said nodding to them.
"This place is in the back alley, so there's no worries of a car crashing in here." The elderly male customer said
"A what now?" The manager asked confused.
"There's been a string of those tampage accidents you know." The elderly male customer explained "I just hope that none happen around here."
"Well stuff like that ain't really any of my concern" The manager said shrugging.
"Haha, we'll see you next time." The elderly male customer said and he and his wife leave the café.
The manager sighs and said "…Four houses just for a single cup of coffee." He the looks to Aqua "So, I believe you're name is Aqua right?"
"Yes, please take care of me Mr. Scaletta" Aqua said nodding and bowing.
"…uh-huh." The manager said nodding and smirks a bit "As you already guessed I'm Vito Scaletta. You'll be in my custody for over the next year from now on. I was mentally betting what kind of unruly kid would show up, but you're the one I see."
"Were you told the story, a long time customer and friend of mine Leo Galanti and your parents know each other and…" Vito explained but stops him self "Well, none of that is really important, come with me."
Vito leads Aqua to the back past the restrooms and up the stairs to the second floor which was an attic and was specious but also cluttered with stuff.
"This here is your room now." Vito told Aqua "I done the curtesy of providing you sheets for your bed." He noticed Aqua's face and said, "Out with it, what is it you want to say?"
"It's just so…bigger, defiantly bigger than my old room." Aqua said to him.
"I see, well it's on you to clean up the rest of the room." Vito told her "I'll be leaving after I lock up each day, that means you'll be alone during the night, but don't do anything stupid. Because if you do cause trouble, I won't think twice about throwing you out."
"U-understood Mr. Scaletta." Aqua said gulping nervous.
"Also none of the Mr. or sir nonsense, just call me Vito" Vito said and Aqua nods understanding "Now then…I got the gist of the situation you're in. You protected some woman from a man, an alien man to be exact, forcing himself onto her, he got hurt, then sued you. Correct?"
"Yeah that's the basic gist of it all." Aqua said sighing.
"Well, that's what happens when you go sticking your nose into a matter between two adults." Vito said "You did injure him, right?"
"Well, he more just fell on his own to be exact." Aqua said.
"Don't give me excuses as they didn't help you in the trial." Vito told her. "…And now that you've got a criminal record, you were expelled from your high school. The courts ordered you to transfer and move out here, which your parents also approved."
"In other words, they got rid of you for being a pain in the rear." Vito said with a smirk.
Aqua looks down and clenches her fist, she wanted to deny that, her parents knew the trial was bogus, but they couldn't do anything without making it worse, so they reached out and found someone reliable to take care of her, but really this was the best they could get, seems like he already believes the bogus charges. She will just have to prove to him she wasn't what the courts say.
"Listen, it's best you do not talk about anything unnecessary. I am in the restaurant business, you know." Vito told her "Behave yourself for the year. If nothing happens, your probation will be lifted."
"A whole year…I have to be away from my home for that long…" Aqua said sighing tearing up a bit as it all comes up to her.
"I know it's tough but remember cause any problems, and you'll be sent straight to juvie." Vito said to her softly and Aqua nods calming down "We'll be going to Citadel tomorrow."
"Wait, Citadel?" Aqua asked, she felt like she heard that name.
"Citadel Academy, the school you['ll be attending, you're even currently wearing the uniform" Vito said shaking his head and Aqua rubs her head, now she remembers. "We'll be introducing ourselves properly to the staff there. Believe me when I say there are hardly any places that'll accept someone like you, understand." He then sighs frustrated and said "What a waste of my Sunday…"
"I am sorry to be an inconvenience…" Aqua said to him.
"It's fine, my fault for agreeing to it anyway." Vito said and motions to the box sitting in the middle of the room "Your 'luggage' arrived a little while ago. I brought it up here for ya. Anyway I am going to go tend to downstairs, get settled in here." He heads down the stairs.
"So…I'll be living here from today onward…" Aqua said looking around "Let's have a look around."
The first thing she checks was the cardboard box that was sent from home, it was full of clothes and daily nessesaties. Aqua decided to change into some more comfortable clothes. She chaingles in a white shirt, blue jacket, black pants and some blue and black trainers and some black fingerless gloves.
"That's better" Aqua said smiling
She looks at the Junk-littered floor, it was filled wee unused household items lying there, no organization at all. She looks to the shelf that was full of books and some of the shelves have some rust onto them. Plus the books look difficult-looking and carelessly crammed into it.
She then looks at the messy table that was covered in dust, if she drew a line in the dust it would be really easy to see. She also saw the sofa next to the table was also covered in dust. Aqua could still use it but she have to clean it first.
She then goes to a cluttered work desk it was covered with stacks of books and covered with a see-through cover. Aqua couldn't use it with the desk like that. She then looks at her bed, it was just a mattress, this was meant to be her bed apparently.
"Well that's enough looking…I should least get this place at least dust free before anything else" Aqua said coughing a bit.
She began dusting and mopping up the area, she even cleared a spot to place the box of her things on a shelf near the table, she even sorted out the bed.
By the time she was done it was already late. The room still had a long way to go, there was still the junk-littered floor, shelf filled with books and the work desk but for now it was better then it looks
Vito came up the stairs and looks around surprised "What the heck? I heard you making all sorts of noise up here, but I had no idea you were cleaning."
"Well, it isn't complete but I basically got it least liveable, hope it looks okay." Aqua said.
"Actually, I would say the place doesn't look too bad." Vito said smiling looking around. "Through it's only natural you'd want to keep your room tidy."
"How about going to bed for tonight?" Vito suggested to her "You don't have anything better to be doing, right? I'll be closing up shop and get out of here myself. I won't be the one looking after you if you get sick from staying up too late, you understand?"
"Alright, good night, Vito." Aqua said as Vito heads back downstairs. She yawns "Yeah I better get some sleep."
She changes into her Pyjamas a black and blue sleaved set with an image of a anime cat on the front. She lies on the bed.
'Arrest…Trial…' Aqua thinks to herself 'Criminal record…'
She thinks back to that night and the alien male who sued her voice was in her head "Accursed Earth Monkey…I would vaporise you but I'll settle for suing you!"
'Even so, I could just let that go…' Aqua thinks to herself and fully recalls events of that night.
'That day…I ended up going home late…' Aqua recounts
We see Aqua of the past walking down the streets late at night. As she hears a male voice yell out "Just get in the car!"
"Stop it!" A woman's voice called out
Hearing that Aqua runs to see what the commotion was as they were up ahead on the road she was walking
"How dare you think to cross me of all beings" The male said
"Stop it! Let me go!" The woman cried out.
Aqua catches up and sees a woman in an office outfit struggle against an alien male who was white with some purple areas around him, he also had a lizard like tail.
"No…!" The woman said struggling.
"Don't give me all that, or I will vaporise you here." The alien told her.
'It seems like a drunk alien man is bothering that woman…' Past Aqua thought.
"Ow! P-Please, stop…!" The woman cried out in pain
'She's in trouble…I have to help her!' Aqua said and runs up to them.
"Tch…what a waste of my time, I normally don't do any of my own grunt work" The alien said in annoyance. "You think you're on the level of a Saiyan or higher to cause me trouble? Is that right?"
"I-I'll call the police troopers!" The woman told him scared.
"Ha! Call them if you want too!" The alien said with a laugh "The trooper corps wouldn't dare cross someone of my status and power figuratively and literally. I bet they wouldn't take your complaint seriously."
"No…Stop!" The woman said crying.
Suddenly sirens could be heard in the distance.
"So, someone called them after all I see." The alien said annoyed. "Get in the car! Useless peons like you just need to shut your mouths and follow where I'll steer this Earth country of yours!"
It was then he looks over his shoulder and the alien sees Aqua and glares "What are you looking at? Get out of my sight!" He lets the woman go and turns fully to face her "This isn't some show for you, get lost young one." He looks back at the woman "See this? It's all because you're so slow! Now get in that car!"
Aqua shakes her head as she stops herself from remembering what came next, it won't do her good to dwell on it, it was done she just have to keep her head down and get through this.
Just then her phone beeps and she pulls out and was shocked, the red occult eye app was on her phone again somehow.
"I thought I deleted you…?" Aqua said and deletes it again. "Okay…it's getting harder to stay awake, I should get some sleep."
She then closes her eyes for some hopeful for peaceful sleep.
However suddenly Aqua shot awake and sits up, she wasn't in her room, but in what appears to be a prison cell. She looks and sees her arms are shakled with a long chain and she was wearing the traditional white and black striped prisoner outfit.
Aqua sits up on the bed and holds her head "What is going on, is this a dream?"
She then hears some faint chuckling and looks to the cell door to see two figures approach it from either side, they resembled pokemon but were vastly different then how they usually look.
The one on the left was a Gardivoir but her left arm and right side of her face was cybernetic, her eye was even a digital pink one, her expression was neutral mostly. The other on the right was Gallade and his arm and face were the same only vice versa (right arm and left side of his face) his expression was a grin. Both were also wearing warden hats on their heads
Aqua stands up and looks at the two Cybernetically enhanced Pokemon who just stare at her. She tries to approach but stumbles and looks to see her left leg had a ball and chain attacked. Just what was going on?
She carefully approaches the cell door and grasps it. It was then she noticed when the Pokemon turn around to look behind them, a desk and behind it was a human man in a blue wizard robe and hat, he had a long grey beard. Seems this was the Pokemon's master.
The wizard smiles and said to Aqua "Trickster…Welcome to my Velvet Room.
"What? Velvet Room? How did I get here?" Aqua said as she struggled to get the door open.
"So, you have come to, Inmate." The Gallade said serious, oddly enough despite look male the voice almost was female but that maybe be because he was young Aqua assumed.
"Do not be alarmed. The you in reality is currently fast asleep; you are only experiencing this as a dream." Gardivoir said calmly, that least puts some of Aqua's concerns at ease but raised more questions.
"You're in the presence of a master. Stand up straight!" Gallade ordered Aqua.
"Welcome. I am delighted to make your acquaintance." The Wizard said with a smile. "This place exists between dreams and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those who are bound by a 'contract' may enter."
"You may call me Yen Sid, the master of this place. Remember it well." The Wizard said introducing himself "I summoned you to speak of important matters. It involves your life as well."
"Important matters? What do you mean?" Aqua asked confused "and room? This looks more like a prison."
"Yes this was a surprise…" Yen Sid said looking around the room. "The state of this room reflects the state of your own heart. To think a prison would appear as such. You truly are prisoner of fate."
"In the near future, there is no mistake that ruin awaits you." Yen Sid continues
"What do you mean Ruin?" Aqua asked
"I speak of the end to everything. However, there is a means to oppose such a fate" Yen Sid explained "You must be 'rehabilitated.' Rehabilitated toward freedom…That is your only means to avoid ruin…"
Yen Sid then asked Aqua looking at her "…Do you have the resolve to challenge the distortion of the world?"
"Well, I would rather avoid ruin." Aqua said, she wasn't sure why she was accepting this, but she felt like the stress of her new life is making her dream of all this.
"Allow me to observe the path of your rehabilitation." Yen Sid said nodding. Just then the Gallade and Gardivoir turn to face Aqua "Ah, pardon me for not introducing the others. To your Right is Galla the Gallade and to your left is Gardine the Gardivoir. They serve as wardens here."
"Hmph, try and struggle as hard as you like." Galla said as a pink blade emerges from his robotic arm.
"The duty of wardens is to protect inmates." Gardine said as she holds a pink holo pad "We are also your collaborators…That is if you remain obedient."
"Err…okay…" Aqua said concerned
"I shall explain the roles of these two at another occasion." Yen Sid told Aqua and the Cybernetic Pokemon turn to face their master "Now then, it seems the night is waning…It is almost time. Take your time to slowly come to understand this place. We will surely meet again, eventually…"
Aqua was about to ask a question when what sounded like an alarm clock sounds. She looks around.
"Times up." Galla said to Aqua firmly "Now hurry up and go back to sleep."
"Wait I still have questions!" Aqua said gripping the cell door but soon find sleep getting to her as she succumbs to it.
What was going on?
Well Aqua seems to have had an odd dream, but it felt so real, we will see what happens next.
Please Read, Review and Suggest. Thank you.