Persona 5: Daywatch
Sunday, 19 June 2016
Afternoon
Yongen, Leblanc Loft
Akira's mechanical pencil scratched away at next week's homework. With everything out of the way for civics and history, he was running out of excuses to read the rest of the awful poetry Kawakami assigned or the even worse math Usami inflicted on him. His phone buzzed from the charger on the workbench.
Morgana set down the half-finished rake pick and brushed his paw against the phone screen to bring it out of sleep mode. "It's that class representative and Reaper." A hollow click played. "And now Nightrider."
Akira clicked his pen and pushed the graphite back in the narrow metal tip. He was caught up enough on homework to get the blood pumping with some group sprinting. Ryuji'd be up for it, and Makoto could keep up if her performance at the bank was any indication. Akira stood up and trotted to the workbench to unlock his phone.
Mishima sent a couple names for Phansite requests, with the others already having consensus on all but the last name, Nakanohara Natsuhiko.
Ryuji texted, [Stalking is always the first step for creepers. How's he even finding the girlfriend if she moved three times?]
Mishima replied, [She doesn't know, he just always starts showing up a few days after the move. She even quit and got a new job and he's still harassing her.]
Makoto sent, [UNFORGIVABLE. AND THE POLICE WON'T DO ANYTHING UNLESS SHE PROVES SHE'S IN DANGER?]
[Check your settings, Senpai.] Ann texted, [And I hear about that all the time. If you're not a famous girl, police are super slow investigating stalking or harassment cases that don't have hospital reports. One of the models I subbed for hurt herself so the hospital would have something to document because one of her stalkers followed her to her apartment.]
[You want to change her stalker's heart?] Ryuji sent.
[Police already acted with that one. But if I get the name of the flower stalker, I'll definitely submit that one.]
Akira tapped away. [Flower stalker?]
Three dots danced next to Ryuji's name for a moment. [Wow, Akira's up on Sunday. I thought you slept in.]
[I attend Mass, Ryuji. I'm always up in the morning.] Akira thought back to the nervous energy speeding up Hifumi's pace and his teeth clenched together.
Ann responded, [The flower stalker is this guy who's been stalking a couple models from my agency. He never approached, or talked to them, but he found out exactly where they lived and delivered live flowers to their doors.]
Akira raised an eyebrow. [Giving a girl flowers isn't romantic?]
[Giving flowers isn't the problem. They never told him where they lived.]
Morgana leaned to peer in on the screen. "That makes sense. Want to go?"
"Mm-hm." Akira typed, [Two ready here.]
[Big Sis already left for work,] Makoto texted. [So I'm ready, too.]
[Count me in,] Ann sent.
Ryuji replied with remarkable speed, [No leaving me out of this.]
Mementos, Nakanohara's Distortion
Black gushed like compressed smoke out of a balloon, the Shadow shrinking until the only thing left was Nakanohara in a bland business suit and glowing yellow eyes. He coughed and held himself up on all fours before looking back up at the Phantom Thieves. "It's not fair. First my art, then my girlfriend. They're all taking everything from me. Why can't the world leave me anything?"
Ryuji held his rifle steady on the Shadow and scoffed. "You're whinin' about someone takin' stuff away, so you go all creepo on your girlfriend? Workin' at her credit card company is no excuse for stealin' her address 'n stuff."
Akira lowered his sub-machine gun. "Hang on a second, guys. This sounds familiar." He stepped closer and lowered to one knee to look the Shadow eye-to-eye. "You said they took your art. You were blacklisted?"
Nakanohara nodded.
"Do you know who blocked you?"
The Shadow let out a breath and the transfer student would've sworn he shrank even more. "Madarame."
Morgana flipped the bayonet attachment of his crossbow back. "I don't understand."
Nakanohara turned its dimmer glowing eyes to the floor and sighed. "Madarame Ichiryusai. He took me in when I was still in middle school, fed us nothing but glorious art. Then took it all away."
Makoto let go of her shotgun with one hand to shake the arm out. "I don't understand how one man could possibly close off an entire sector of industry. Arts and entertainment are probably the biggest industry in Japan."
Akira lowered his sub-machine gun and stepped closer. "After all the effort you spent with your ex, I'm sure you tracked down the guy who blacklisted you. It'd have to be somebody with considerable pull in art and advertising."
Nakanohara's eyes narrowed and his fingernails scratched along the obsidian. "Kuraya Eisuke. Sensei never let us put our name on our paintings, so I didn't have any pull to fight against the deputy curator of the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art."
Makoto nodded and slung her shotgun. "That certainly sounds like a big target."
Ann switched her pistol to her other hand, its gun-light casting white on the floor. "You can't get anywhere in life thinking only of yourself. That's how you end up alone."
Nakanohara slumped. In his position on all fours, he looked like a beaten dog. "You're right. I need to think of the other people in my life or they'll all leave me like she did." He faded away, leaving a tiny, dark lump of rock.
Morgana picked it up and sighed. "Another one of those stupid black rocks. Come on, everyone. Let's go see if Kuraya Eisuke's here or has his own palace." He handed the lump to Akira like all the others they found before.
They departed the small pocket of Mementos for the twisting tunnels, but following Morgana down towards Kuraya came to a stop at one of those stone gates that refused to yield. The team leader turned to the thieves. "Sorry, everyone. It looks like we'd have to do something to change the public consciousness in order to get further down."
Ryuji threw a fist in the air. "Eff, man. Didn' you say the only things that could make that happen was all that reportin' when we changed a palace?"
Morgana nodded. "I'm positive all that fuss after changing Kamoshida's heart is what opened that first one when I introduced you to Mementos. And that next one didn't open until after we changed Kaneshiro's heart."
Makoto tugged at the strap over her shoulder holding on to her shotgun. "Nothing else to do, then. We'll keep looking in the real world. Maybe Yuuki-kun will be able to connect Kuraya with someone else."
Monday, 20 June 2016
After School
Shujin, Newspaper Club
Akira tapped away at his computer, trying another modifier to reduce the tens of thousands of results in a search of Yusuke and Madarame. So far, not a single article focused on the apprentice Mishima was so concerned about last week. From the tight looks on their faces, Makoto and Ryuji weren't having any better luck despite the list of almost a dozen apprentices Mishima found over the weekend. Akira watched Ryuji scroll down through the interview they witnessed at last weekend's opening of his art exhibition.
Ryuji cleared his throat and tapped the class representative with his elbow. "Ueda Hiroshi. OD'd on sleepin' pills."
"Not even an article for Utada Yano." Makoto brushed back the bangs from her eyes. "Just an obituary that says he was an impressionist painter 'taken too soon'."
They fell back into the relative silence of clicks and key presses. A couple minutes later, Ryuji let out a chuff. "'Nother dude hanged himself in his bedspace apartment." His eyes squinted. "Man, if I was crammed into a dump like that for years, I think I'd seriously consider offin' myself too."
Makoto elbowed him. "Ryuji-kun, that's horrible!"
Akira swallowed at his article. "I found Tokunaga Rin. She was a senior at Kosei when a classmate found her in the bathroom with her wrists slit by a razor." He looked to his side to see his class representative gritting his teeth. He tapped the boy's shoulder. "Hey, I thought I had a trademark on tooth grinding. What is it?"
Mishima let out a frustrated huff. "Takashita Jinpachi. No obituary, no public death report, no employment record. It's like he just dropped off the face of the Earth shortly after 2010. Even with all the techniques Ohya-san taught me last week, I'm still running into dead ends."
Ryuji made a disgusted face. "I think I'd rather have one'a those than more'a these cutters."
Mishima leaned to read the runner's screen. "Which one?"
"Oh." Ryuji scrolled back up on the article, complete with pictures. "Misora Kotani. Wrists in the bath."
Akira waited for the representative to write a cause of death down next to that name before he pointed out his own latest discovery. "At least there's no picture for Kondo Akari. Though I guess they wouldn't for a smear across the pavement."
Makoto dropped her head into her hands. "Akira-kun, don't say things like that. You're too far away for me to smack."
Mishima cleared his throat. "What was her cause of death?"
"Suicide by truck. Witnesses say she ran out into traffic, the truck driver even hit another car but couldn't avoid her." Akira closed that tab, then lowered his voice. "I know we started this investigation into Kitagawa, but there's too many bodies in Madarame's wake."
"For real," Ryuji whispered.
Mishima nodded, his face grim. "And yet every article not in a trash tabloid is praise. It's too good to be true." The others nodded.
Makoto cleared her throat. "Even so, there have to be signs in the real world if we just know what to look for. Or maybe who to look for. We at least know this apprentice is still alive and nearby, even if Kosei is a little ways away."
Morgana poked his head up out of Akira's school satchel, his blue eyes on the class representative sitting next to him. "Was there anything about a shack and mistreatment on the Phansite?"
"Good point. Check the Phansite for something about Madarame mistreating his students. Not sure what a shack has to do with that. Hm. Kosei…" Akira tapped his fingers on the tabletop. "Kosei…" He searched until bringing back up Tokunaga's article, and the stock yearbook photo of her. The same blue over-shirt with a star in a laurel wreath. "I know that uniform. And someone who goes there." He pulled out his phone and navigated to his texting app to get a hold of Hifumi. [Do you have a moment? We need help with any rumors about Madarame at Kosei.]
To his surprise, Ryuji found the post before his class representative. "Yeah, somebody posted just today. 'Madarame keeps his students in a run-down shack, without enough food to be healthy. It is unbearably hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. He treats them like dogs, and makes them paint pieces he takes as his own."
His phone buzzed and he looked down at Hifumi's response. [I'm stuck in wardrobe and makeup for the next hour. As long as mother isn't in I don't think anyone will mind my texting. Why the sudden interest?]
Akira scratched his neck. "Crap, I didn't have a reason on standby. I don't think she'd buy the plagiarism accusations. What do I say we're trying to ask about?"
Mishima and Makoto whispered to each other, keeping an eye on Ishikawa, before he leaned back to the transfer student. "Well, technically you did just learn about a lot of Madarame's ex-students. We're concerned for his health?"
Akira tapped away. [I just heard about Tokunaga. I'm concerned if Kitagawa is okay. Anything you know about Madarame? I know he's had students there, people must talk.]
[Oh, definitely. Kosei was always proud of its fine arts program, but Madarame sending pupils here has been a big point of prestige.]
[What do the people say about Madarame? Besides being a good painter.]
Three dots danced next to her ID for a moment. [Most of it is just that. And that he is a demanding task master. I suppose you don't get that good without an eye for detail. Maybe that goes with being a perfectionist like Jackie Chan.]
Noticing Mishima giving him the side-eye, he explained, "Well, word in Kosei is Madarame's demanding." He looked back to his phone. [So anything else? Is anybody nominating him for favorite boss of the year?]
[Definitely not after Tokunaga. She died the year before I started Kosei.]
[Was there anything special about her?]
[Not as far as I know,] she replied. [When Kitagawa and Sawamura were both here last year, they always seemed to be off on their own. The rumor mongers made it sound like they thought they were better than everyone else, but they just seemed aloof to me. Maybe that's just what artists are like when art is the axis mundi of your world. It's not so different with me.]
Akira looked up and scratched his head. "Uh, what's an axis mundi?"
Mishima shrugged, but Makoto's eyes screwed up and her face tensed in thought. "A religious or mythological core, or something like that. My art teacher last year called the Ganges River an axis mundi for Hindus."
Ryuji scrolled up and down the post. "You think Ann's stalker wrote this?" His eyes shot wide. "Oh, or maybe it was Nakanohara!"
Ishikawa held her finger up to her lips. "Shh!"
"Sorry!" Ryuji replied at a volume still better suited to the outside.
Makoto leaned closer to whisper across Mishima, "You think we might learn something from the apprentice's Shadow?"
Mishima scratched his scalp. "Or maybe we just talk to him."
"Not without Ann," Ryuji said. "Dunno if he'd go for Makoto, but he def' didn't have time for none of us guys."
Akira rolled his eyes and returned focus to his phone. [Any unpleasant rumors about Kitagawa?]
[I'm not in his class, but I don't think so. He spends long hours at the art studio and doesn't seem to have friends. Not that I'm one to talk.]
[He's not hostile or on edge?]
[Not from what I've noticed. He misses classes occasionally, but I believe that is helping Madarame.]
[Nice guy?]
[Well, nothing about him seems mean. He doesn't glare over his sketch pad at people, but he also doesn't talk often. Some days he will sit on a stump in the corner of the courtyard and just sketch all lunch long.]
Akira straightened his glasses and glanced at the others. "She isn't in his class, but it seems like he's just a loner." [Would you mind keeping an eye out? I just feel nervous after finding out his last two compatriots died recently.]
[You're a considerate soul, Akira-kun. Of course I'll help.]
The chat closed and he swallowed. "I feel like I need a shower. I just lied to a fellow parishioner to get her to spy on one of our target candidates."
Ryuji leaned over to get a better view of Akira from the far side of Makoto. "Her?" His grin stretched wide. "She cute?"
Makoto swatted him across the back of the head.
Monday, 20 June 2016
Evening
Shibuya, Cafe
A cup of cold coffee sat at the edge of the table, most of the rest of it covered with Akira's history and language arts studies. The retreat from Shujin's hostile halls used to mean some peace and studious quiet, but texting Hifumi today reminded him about the photo spread she mentioned in CM Now. Akira's mind kept circling back to it, wondering what kept her busy for so much of the week.
He wondered if it was her idea, her mother's, or some corporate producer's idea to put her in a backless dress the color of red wine. The material spilled down from the clasp at her neck, showing off her smooth skin and sensuous curves. Her poise retained that defiant grace she held in every moment, but a faux-contemplative look in her face couldn't hide the antipathy in her eyes, a soul-crushing darkness in deep green orbs meant to hold the bright spark when they played shogi together.
Akira jumped in his seat when his phone rumbled in his hand.
He brought up the text app to see a message from Mishima. [Could I ask for your help?]
Morgana stretched from his position on the booth's other tiny bench seat. "What's up?"
Still a little hot under the collar from the photos, and concerned for Hifumi at the same time, Akira sent out a snarky text. [I believe you just did.]
A beat passed before the class rep responded. [Ohya-san asked for a meet today. I've been giving her info so she can get more positive articles out there about the 'Phantom Thief'. But that investigation we started on those suicided pupils has me worried. I got an interview with a new guy, but can't make it if I see Ohya-san. Could you gave her the scoop?]
Akira checked his other texts, but the one he sent Hifumi asking for tutoring sat there, unread. He let out a long sigh and swiped back to the chat app. [Fine. Where do I need to meet her?]
[Crossroads.]
Akira sent a quick confirmation to the class rep, then slipped his phone into his pocket. "Mishima needs us to meet that journalist while he's checking out a lead elsewhere." He finished a fill-in-the-blank worksheet so he wouldn't be stuck waiting in foot traffic in Shinjuku, then packed up and headed to the bar.
Having been there several times before, Akira pushed his way through the crowds and reached the bar. Once inside and he didn't have to worry about the constant presence of multiple people behind him, he let out a relieved breath. He muttered to himself, "I wonder if it's pathetic to be proud of just getting down the street."
Morgana popped his head out of the transfer student's satchel. "Even the small successes are successes, Joker. So where's the drunkard?"
Akira shot him a sour look. "Good thing nobody else can understand you." Seeing a familiar bartender in a blue kimono with a koi fish pattern today, he waited until after she served a trio of businessmen beer before approaching the bar packed with patrons. "Is Ohya-san already here?"
Lala squinted at him for a moment before the flash of recognition. "Oh, you're that brooding boy." She waggled her finger at him. "No friend with you tonight?"
Smirking, Akira used a hand to pull open his satchel so she could see the team leader. "He's my friend."
Lala let out a raspy laugh, then pointed to the stairs at the back. "Go on up, kid. She's at her usual box."
Akira slipped up to the private booths looking down on what might have been a dance floor before the place turned into a salary man's watering hole. Ohya stretched out on a chaise lounge sofa, three empty beer bottles on the tiny nearby table. He gave her a nod and stepped in.
Quirking an eyebrow, the reporter sat up on the short sofa. "Where's Junior?"
Akira slid the booth door closed behind him. "Junior?"
Ohya reached for a half-empty beer. "That kid from your school who looks like he's stuck in a cringe. He'll make a half-decent investigative journalist if he'd decide to come out of his shell." She stretched out across the lounge sofa, her dark shirt lifting enough to expose some of her smooth midriff. Then she shot him a knowing smirk.
Swallowing, Akira set down his satchel and sat down in one of the stuffed chairs to lessen the tension in his pants. She looked way too much like Shiho on that circular bed.
"Geez, kid. Loosen up," she said, sitting up and pausing for a sip of beer. "Ya don' hafta look sick at a lil' flirting. A girl needs ta let loose a bit when big…boss man sticks her on tha goddamn ennertainment column." She took a deeper swig. "I'm a real germ…journalist, ya know. I di'n' ask to get shafted with some dumb schoolkid fantasy."
As she paused to take another swig, Akira reveled in the indignant anger at this washed-up loser calling him, calling all the Phantom Thieves a fantasy. Heroes only appeared when the world was screwed up, but at least they did something. "The Phantom Thief took down a rapist and yakuza boss, and you think it's still just some rumor?"
Ohya slammed the bottle down on the table, a drop splashing up out the narrow neck. "I read 'bout cards showin' up in Shibuya, but Ha…" She hiccuped. "Hashimoto knows his stuff. I've seen all sorts'a shitbags go after criminals 'cause yer average Joe's gonna look the other way. I betcha one heard 'bout that coach who beat up his kids an' pulled a copycat act."
Akira slammed his fists onto the padded arms of his chair. "So what about all the drug dealers and pimps who turned themselves in? The Kaneshiro Yakuza disintegrated. Must've been dozens of thugs who had a change of heart after all those requests on the Phansite."
Her drunken smile widened, but a sharpness entered her eyes at odds with her slurred speech. "Phansite, huh?" Ohya set down her beer. "So what's your connection with the Phantom Thief? Why come all the way out here to talk to me?"
Akira sat back. "Who says Mishima's not the Phantom Thief, and I'm his biggest fan?"
Ohya burst out laughing. Her breath stank of beer.
The two discussed the Phantom Thieves' work on the Kaneshiro yakuza for a while longer before the reporter opined, "Sounds like the Phantom Thief can get anyone."
Akira's mood dampened as he thought of Shiho. Then Tosa Kotomi. "Even the Phantom Thief can't save everyone."
His phone buzzed. Queen Togo's ID blazed up at him in the text app. [Sorry about being away from my phone for a while. Mother had me scheduled. It's too late to go out tonight, but maybe Wednesday?]
Akira typed in, [Consider it a date,] then realized that might be misconstrued. Instead, he sent, [I'll be there.] That finished, he realized he'd need to get to the train soon. He stood and looked down at the reporter finishing off her fifth beer. "Write something good, okay?"
She shot him a dirty glare. "Who'd'you think yer talkin' to?"
He tucked his phone in his pocket. "I need to get going before curfew officers come out of the woodwork."
Ohya curled her thumb and index finger into a circle and held it up to her eye. "Be seeing you."