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Persona 5 Royal Fanmake Gaston Arc Chapter 3
A Strange Castle
Aqua woke the next day which was Monday. Today was the first day of school so she had to do her best to make a good first impression. She got dressed into her unform and hoped she won't get lost.
"I should head out now" Aqua said grabbing her bag and heads downstairs and sees Vito there behind the counter. "Morning Vito"
"Hey, so I take it you're actually going to school today?" Vito said to her and placed a plate with food and a cup of coffee on the counter "Here, I'll feed you. Just make sure you finish it before the customers start coming it."
Aqua looks at the food on the plate and it was a odd choice for breakfast and asked "Is this…curry?"
"What's that reaction for? Just eat it." Vito told her
"R-Right." Aqua said and takes a seat and begins to eat and her eyes widen, she taste the complex flavours and bold spiciness. It was good that she finishes the plate.
"It's time for you to go." Vito said to her as she stands up.
"That was delicious. Thank you for it." Aqua said smiling
"Thanks." Vito said with a smile. "Now hurry up to school. You'll end up late if you get lost on the way."
"Right understood" Aqua said and goes to the exit.
"Oh yeah and flip the sign outside to Open for me." Vito told her.
"Okay, you got it." Aqua said to him nodding.
"Don't forget to do that for me, all right?" Vito said to her. "Now you better hurry on out. You're gonna be late if you get lost, country girl."
"Got it, see you later." Aqua said as she exits the café and flips the sign.
She then sees a Late middle-aged man who seeing her said "What is it? Can I help you?"
"No just good morning" Aqua said waving.
"Ah, you must be the girl who's lving with Boss now. I was wondering who you were." The man said "You're a high school student, aren't you? You can't loiter if you want to make it to school. You best hurry on. I hear the trains are running late because of the accident yesterday. It was terrible, just terrible. Just what is going on with the world?"
Aqua nods and begins to head the route of the station. She sees a scout trooper, despite all looking the same she could tell this was a different one from the day she arrived but why there was a trooper here this early concerned her.
"Huh? Is something the matter?" The Scout trooper asked kindly.
"Sorry, was wondering is something happening?" Aqua asked
"Oh, don't worry, it's nothing major. I'm just on patrol." The Kindly trooper said "Patrols are a good idea after an accident like that. A lot of residents have been worried."
"Oh okay. Also do you know the way to the station, I'm still new here and haven't fully memorized the route." Aqua asked.
"Sure just go down the main road to the right of me and you'll should spot it." The Scout trooper said, "Better hurry or you'll miss the train."
"Right, thank you." Aqua said and hurries to the station and luckily was able the catch the train just as it arrived in the station.
She was now on the train but was crammed in with a lot of other people. She had to hold onto her bag as she was in the tiny car. Seems like the rumours she heard about the subway in the country were true…
She looks up on the LCD screen and saw they were showing the news and there were lingering effects on the accident yesterday.
Soon the train pulls into the Vale central station hub for the subway. She disembarks and heads up the stairs to see people crowding and talking with an exhausted station attendant Patrol trooper. Aqua feels bad. She gets through the ticket gate and over hears and conversation between another station attendant trooper and a brown anthro bird in a black shirt and blue jeans who seemed to be a reporter as she had a camera.
"Repeated psychotic episodes terrorize the city?" The bird woman with a camera said smiling "What are your thoughts on all of this sir? Some people are saying it's the result of an oppressive work environment. Do you have any comments on that?"
"I-I'm terribly sorry, I don't know anything!" The unreliable station patrol trooper said "We'll uh, make an official statement at a later time…"
Aqua continues on her way and over hears a tired station trooper call out that for the JL and Beacon lines to take Exit 8. Aqua heads for that exit. Heading up she sees a couple of men protesting and a reporter and her camera man filing but otherhears another station trooper say that the Beacon Line is up the stairs of the Teikyu building.
Once up the stairs she sees a serious looking Patrol station trooper and approaches him. He sees her "Yes, how may I help you?"
"Yes I need to get to Citadel Academy, where is the Beacon line?" Aqua asked
"Oh, the Beacon like? It's this way through the ticket gate next to me." The Trooper told her.
"Thank you." Aqua said smiling and goes through the ticket gate and waits for the train and soon it arrives, and she boards it.
Meanwhile at Leblanc's Vito was with a customer as the watched the news, the customer then said after looking outside, "Oh man…Did it say it was going to rain today?"
Vito who was working looks up surprised "Huh? It's raining outside?"
"It just started all of a sudden…This is why I hate the early spring." The customer said sighing.
"That reminds me…did she take an umbrella?" Vito said thinking about Aqua.
"Hm? Who are you talking about?" The customer asked.
"Oh, don't mind me sir." Vito said to him "So what'll you have?"
"One house blend, please." The customer ordered and looked to the TV. Vito nods and gets to work.
"The effects of yesterday's subway accident continues on today as various lines suffer delays and-" Tom Tucker reports on TV.
"There's been a lot of nasty accidents lately." The customer said to Vito "You know, I mean the subway accident that the news is talking about…My co-worker got caught up in it and is in the hospital now…" He looks down and ads "But that aside, it's kind of creepy. The people who caused these accidents supposedly went crazy all of a sudden."
"I heard that some of them suffered from nervous breakdowns during interrogation." The customer continued.
"Huh…" Vito said as he finishes making the drink
We come back to Aqua who arrives at the station that leads to Citadel Academy. It took a while but she finally made it. She makes her way out the station but sees it was raining.
'Dammit, I forgot to pack an umbrella' Aqua through as she hurries over to under a cover of a building nearby to avoid getting soaked.
She sees some more Citadel students who got umbrellas run out. One girl said to another "This sucks, I left early today too."
Aqua sighs as he rested against the wall and looks at her map app of the phone but eyes widen as again the weird red and black occult eye app was back again and enlarges again like it did the fist time. 'Seriously?! What is with this app?' She thought.
Just before she did anything, she notices a figure come and stand next to her. She was wearing a blue hoodie jacket with the Citadel Academy emblem, blue skirt, black tights, blue shoes and gloves. She removes her hood to reveal long blond hair and brown eyes. Aqua looks at her and can't deny she did look pretty.
The blond-haired girl notices Aqua looking at her and smiles at her before looking out at the street. Aqua does the same and all of a sudden, a silver car stops in front of them.
The passenger window goes down to reveal Gaston who said to the blond-haired girl smiling "Good morning. You want me to give you a ride to school? You're gonna be late."
"Um sure. Thank you." The girl said and goes to get in the car.
"Do you need a lift too?" Gaston asked looking at Aqua.
"Oh, no thank you, I will wait a bit longer to see if the rain clears up." Aqua said smiling to him.
"Suit yourself." Gaston said and motions to bring the window back up. Aqua only caught a glimpse but the blond girl didn't look happy to be in the car. But didn't question it.
As the car drives off, Aqua hears running and sees what looked to be a silver Worker drone girl with purple LED eyes and hair wearing a long sleeve black Citadel Academy jacket with a red skirt like Aqua's own, a black beanie hat and black boots. She didn't look happy and seemed like a robotic delinquent.
"Ahhhh dammit…Screw that pervy teacher!" The purple haired drone said in annoyance.
"…Pervy teacher?" Aqua asked confused unaware the mystery app on her phone picked up on that and logged it.
The purpled haired worker drone heard Aqua said and looks at her confused. She then steps up to her glaring and asked "…What do you want? Are you planning to rat me out to Gaston?"
"Err…Gaston?" Aqua asked confused.
"Huh? In that car just now. It was Gaston." The purple haired drone said confused by that. Aqua figured she meant the guy driving. The drone gets angry and rants "He does whatever the heck he wants. Bite me who do he think he is the king of a castle? Do you agree with me?"
"Wait what…the king of a castle?" Aqua said more confused, she got that drone had a problem with the guy driving but that was it.
"No what I mean is…" The drone said and then looks at Aqua's confused face "Hang on…you don't know Gaston? Are you serious? You are from Citadel, right?"
"Oh, so you go to Citadel too?" Aqua asked
"What?! No other school nearby has a uniform like this" The drone explained to her. She looks at the emblem on Aqua's jacket "Huh, you're a second-year I see. That means we're in the same grade and yes I am same age of you no comments on my height."
Okay then…" Aqua said
"Huh…I have no memory of ever seeing you in the school." The girl said thinking and gets it "Oh, you're a transfer student right?"
"That is right, just transferred in fact." Aqua said with a nod.
"Then no wonder you don't know him." The purple haired drone said nodding and looks to the rain "This rain isn't too bad. We should hurry or we'll be late."
"Got it" Aqua said and ready to follow.
Just then a purple flash passes over the two and they both clutch their heads. "Nah…" The purple haired drone said feeling it. Aqua feels her head was light for some reason.
"Uungh, my head hurts…" The purple haired drone groans "Bite me….I just wanna go home…"
Aqua follows her keeping her phone out just in case.
We then flash forward to present day with Aqua in the interrogation room holding her head while Windblade, Jess and Jacob talk to her.
"…There was a terrible subway accident that day." Windblade said thinking "You remember it, don't you?"
"Also being aware of the uproar the public calls the 'psychoic breakdown incidents.'" Jess added with a nod.
"I believe I might have head some of that" Aqua said groaning her head still hurt due to the Truth Serum drugs.
"Heh, she's saying that like it's none of her business." Jacob said leaning by the door.
"It was all over the news, and one of the victims included a teacher at your high school." Windblade said to Aqua "I've no doubt you heard about it. On that day…were you still an 'ordinary' student."
"What do you mean by that?" Aqua asked.
"Let's change the question." Windblade said "You transferred to Citadel Academy, correct?"
Aqua nods and Jess said looking at her pad "This was an ordinary prep school that could be found in any city…Or that is what it should have been."
"Agreed, what happened around that time." Windblade asked Aqua. "Tell us everything truthfully."
Aqua nods and begins to think back and recount.
We flashback to Aqua's first day of school where we see her walking with the purple haired drone. But we see on her phone it loading something up via that eye app.
The two take a de-tour, down an alley way. As Aqua steps in a puddle she feels an odd sensation and looks behind her but nothing.
"What?!" The Purple haired drone girl said in shock.
Aqua heads out the alley to see what's up and is surprised when she sees in front of them a large medieval castle under a red sky.
"We didn't …come the wrong way through…" The purple haired drone girl said "Yeah this should be right…" Indeed the sign out front by the draw bridge read 'Citadel Academy' "What's going on here?"
"I have no idea, so your guess is as good as mine." Aqua admits.
"I guess we have to go in and ask." The drone girl said shrugging.
Aqua nods and the two walk in, through as they entered the castle Aqua felt like she was entering into another world altogether. Proven more when they enter the main hall and it briefly flashes showing the entryway of the school before returning to the castle like appearance.
"Th-That's weird…Where's the school?" The drone girl asked confused.
"Did we make a wrong turn somewhere?" Aqua asked
"N-No! This has to be it!" The drone girl said to her "I mean, it…should be…" She gets out her phone and looks "Out of service? Where'd we end up?" She puts her phone away and asked, "The sign was for the school, right?"
"Yeah, it did say Citadel Academy." Aqua said nodding.
"Right? You saw it too!" The drone girl said nodding.
Suddenly the sound the sound of armour gets there attention, they see a figure with black pant, brown boots and gloves and where wearing black and white checkered chest armour and a silver helmet, he wore a yellow silver on his back and carried a lance.
"Geez, you freaked me out…" The drone girl said sighing in relief. "Who are you anyway? You a student?" She gets closer "Got to admit that cosplay is impressive, is that real armour as an Anime fan much respect."
The armoured figure remained silent starting at them.
"C'mon, don't just that there. Say something." The drone girl said to the figure. Just then a second similar armoured figure approaches them "…H-Hey, what's happening?"
"I-Is that one school staff?" Aqua asked nervous.
"Dammit I don't know!" The drone girl said to her and just then the first armoured chess knight moves forward to her "…I think this is real." The second one moves, and she steps back "H-hey calm down! Time out!" She looks to Aqua "Screw this! We got to run!"
"Agreed!" Aqua said panicked.
"Stop standing around and run!" The drone girl said and the two ran only for two more armoured chess themed knights to intercept them and the four surround them "Sweet robot god, what's with these guys?!" One of them gets it's shield and it to knock her down hitting her in the back "Gah!"
"Are you okay?!" Aqua said concerned.
The drone girl was on her hands and knees "Oww…. Y-You're gonna break my circuits dammit! The robot hell you think you're-Aagh" She cried out clutching her leg a bit.
The armoured chess themed knights move it to grab onto them. Aqua sees three similar ones the armoured knights but their helmets and the white matches of the checkered Armor were golden. One of them ordered "Take them away!"
Aqua didn't have time to react as she grabbed and knocked unconscious.
Oh no, Aqua and her new friend have been captured in a mysterious castle by werid chess themed like knights.
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