Persona 5: Daywatch

Thursday, 28 April 2016
Late Evening
Yongen-Jaya Station

The announcer blared another update about the train schedule from the loudspeakers. Already at his last stop for the day, Akira ignored it and stepped out of the train with the rare sensation of having enough room to breathe. He paced through the faded tile to the street. The sun already fallen behind the towers and mountains, the sky above darkened to a black with the brightest stars fighting for visibility through Tokyo's light pollution.

His phone rang before he even got out to the street proper. Grimacing, he stepped into a nook with a utility pole to get away from the flow of people. Opening the call without checking who it was, he threw out his usual gag opening. "Faye Kinnit's taxidermy emporium, your one-stop shop for cliché villains."

After snorting in amusement, Ann's excited voice floated out of the speaker against his ear. "Hi, Akira-kun. Have you seen the news?"

Frown fading, he slumped against the concrete pole. "To be honest, I don't tend to watch the TV news. They tend to be several days behind."

Ann shot back with a snappy disapproval. "That's no reason not to be informed. Lots of stations have been playing stories about Kamoshida. Lots of people have come out about him. It's… a lot bigger than I thought."

Akira's eyes fell to the street, Mishima's bruised face conjuring in his mind's eye. "Yeah. I had tunnel vision."

A beat passed before she spoke again, concern and empathy in her voice. He could imagine her reaching out for him if she was on the street next to him. "I think we helped those people speak out. It's amazing, isn't it?"

Wondering what Shiho would have thought, if she would have smiled or been disappointed, Akira's shoulders fell. "Sure."

As if she could see his melancholy, Ann's tone picked up a chipper quality he couldn't determine as real or faked. "I'd say we earned a celebration. You pawn off the medal?"

"I just finished. Got your text about the address and prices, too."

When she spoke next, the pleased tone sounded genuine. "Great! See you in front of Shibuya Station at noon."

Morgana popped out of his school satchel as Akira put the phone away. "Hey, we're about to celebrate. No grousing."

Showa Day. Friday, 29 April 2016
Afternoon
Wilton Hotel Buffet

Akira slipped in to the sofa near the middle of the dining area of the buffet. The pleasant, just-brighter-than-mood-lighting made it easy to take in the foods. Each of them looked well-prepared, and smelled even better. As much as he didn't like the glitzy ambiance of the place and its staff, the taste and texture were every bit as good as Ann promised.

After cutting a piece of white fish and setting it on a coffee saucer for Morgana, Akira pulled out his phone and ate with one hand while managing his continuing shogi game with the other. "There's tons of rumors out there about Kamoshida, but nothing about the drug trade going on here in Shibuya. I'm starting to think I'd be better off following one of those shady guys offering 'easy' jobs."

Ryuji looked up from a hunk of roast beef. "Man, ya gotta leave the business at the door. This is a victory party!" He leaned in for another bite and moaned in pleasure at the meat. "Oh, it melts in my mouth."

Morgana snapped at a piece of fish threatening to fall from the corner of his mouth. "Indeed. After all the trials we've been through, this little band I pulled together deserves some rest and relaxation."

Beaming, Ann swallowed a big bite of some fancy chocolate cream pie. "Did I choose good or did I choose good?"

Akira gave a one-shouldered shrug, head still abuzz. "It's a good place. I'm still a little worried about Kamoshida. Police started interviewing people at school. It looks more thorough than cursory questioning of the teachers. Mishima even said he got called up after school."

"But everyone's pumped up!" Ryuji protested, a sliver of meat stuck between his front teeth. "We got guys talkin' about how the Phantom Thief stole his heart." His smile widened. "It's so awesome!" Diving in for a piece of roast beef, he took a big bite and pulled out his phone, saying something through a full mouth.

Ann recoiled. "Ugh, Ryuji! That's disgusting."

Ryuji hurried to chew and swallow, navigated to a site, then held out his phone. "We've gotta be big shots, we even got our own website!"

Alarm bells buzzing, Akira took the phone and closed his shogi game to bring it up on his own browser app. "The Phantom Aficionado Website?" Finding it, he handed back Ryuji's phone and read the first comments up. "'Thank you for giving us hope,' 'I thought I was trapped and nobody could help me. Thank you for stopping him.'" He handed his phone to Ann so she could browse. His shoulders felt even heavier. "I can't believe I was so selfish. I thought I was different than my parents."

"I was in the same place, Akira-kun," Ann consoled. "I wanted to deal with my own problems so much, I didn't even see how bad things were getting for everyone else."

Ryuji swallowed and held a hand in the air. "Guys, this is a party! Kamoshida confessed an' it's like some evil presence was taken away from the school. Now I know what those soldiers felt like in all those videos in history class with people wavin' flags all up an' down the road. Sure, not everyone believes it, but so many of 'em are grateful." He let out a rumbling belch, then clutched his stomach. "Oh, gotta hit the bathroom."

Akira slapped his palm to his face, trying not to count the fourteen people who looked in their direction. Desperate for some distraction, he looked to the part-time model. "Do you mind if I ask how Shiho was?"

Ann's fork slowed its work carving up her pie. "She's still in a coma, but the doctors said that she's healing very well." Her eyes fell to Akira's phone and the Phansite on it, then she set it back on the table and slid it over to him. "I just have to hold on to hope that she'll wake up." Her eyes swung back up to him. "What about Mishima? I saw you follow him out after Kamoshida confessed."

Akira swallowed a bite of spiced rice. "He was about to jump, too. Blamed himself for Shiho's suicide attempt. I managed to talk him out of it. Has he been up to visit Shiho?"

Ann shook her head, then lifted a new bite of chocolate cream. "It's strange. He was head over heels for her. When I used to stop by Shiho's, sometimes he'd be there. They'd just sit there, arm in arm, playing with each other's hair." Her shoulders drew up and stress lines wrote over her face. "To be honest, I was jealous. Most boys are intimidated by me, so I've never had a boyfriend. I know plenty of guys ogle me, but sometimes it's hard to imagine just sitting next to a boyfriend of my own just playing around with my hair."

Morgana looked up from the picked-over fish bones on his plate. "Hey, hey! No heavy stuff at a victory party. This is a celebration of changing Kamoshida's heart. We went in to the unknown, and succeeded beyond all expectations!"

Ann forced a smile. "You're right. After all, who knows when I'll be able to enjoy the Wilton Hotel cake buffet again?" With that, she dug in to the remainder of her chocolate-cream pie.

Akira finished his rice and added it to the stack. "Well, I'm on to the next plate."

Ann swallowed a large helping of chocolate. "You know you can actually fill a plate, right?"

He flashed her a smile. "And let the food touch?" His smile took the sharpness of a smirk. "I would never do such a dirty thing." He stood and proceeded to the rice and meat tables at the buffet.

While picking over the last morsel of meat to add, an overweight, greying man in a mild blue suit laughed at his assistant. "The Phantom Thief? Phaha! Just rumors made up by school kids. Still, it gets website hits and that means advertising revenue, so who cares if it's true?"

Akira returned, set Morgana's old saucer on a stack, then set some meat down for him on a new saucer. As the transfer student ate, he pulled out his phone to read more comments on the phantom-aficionado site.

'Now I can keep going, too.'

'The rumors made me scared for my girlfriend, but now she's finally talking to me and it looks like everything will be all right.'

Akira swallowed his bite of ham. "I can't believe so many people posted here. How long was the shadow cast by Kamoshida?"

Ann looked up from her cheesecake, the wreckage remaining of her chocolate pie on another plate pushed to the side.

Akira felt his lips quirk. "You're not worried about calories?"

Ann's brows furrowed but her cheeks tinged an adorable pink. "When am I ever going to have the chance to do this again?" She resumed digging into her cheesecake and the two ate in silence for a while. Finishing it, she shoved her latest plate aside and hopped up to weave her way through the crowd to the dessert buffet.

Another woman backed up from the meat table to the desserts, chatting with another woman next to her. Keeping her eyes on her friend, she laughed and turned, arm holding her plate going wide and hitting Ann. A gasp rang out, letting go of her plate on noticing Ann. The jostled plate hit the floor with a shattering of ceramic. "Stupid girl! Look what you did!"

Ann gasped, the surprise visible even from her distance. "You're the one who walked into me."

The short-haired woman next to her sneered at Ann. "This is why they shouldn't allow children into classy establishments." She and the woman responsible power-walked off.

Ann sighed and flicked flecks of food off her jacket and glanced around. Her eyes met several cold, reproving looks before she paced around the spilt food and an employee with a broom and sweep-bin closed on the mess. Returning, she plopped into her chair, her posture heavier than before.

Akira lowered the hand holding his phone. "Ignore her. That bint ran into you. You didn't do anything wrong."

She took a deep breath in, then out, but relaxed a little on the breath out. She cut into her carrot cake with far more force than the slice required. "But… did you see the way all of those restaurant workers looked at me?"

Akira paused with his fork halfway through a slab of ham. "Sycophants and simpering cowards. You don't need their approval. They should be asking yours."

Ann gave an awkward smile, but it faded in moments. She stared down at her two slices of cake. "Do you think we're out of place?"

"Honestly?" Akira swallowed, going silent and setting his phone down on the table. "Ann-san, I feel out of place wherever I go. When I'm at church with people like Togo-san or Father Sugiyama, I feel like some Viking barbarian surrounded by enlightened monks untouched by the dirty underside of life. I felt like a clumsy nerd at basketball club in Inuri, but a stupid jock in math class. And in Ushimaru's class I feel like a college student stuck in remedial civics."

She chuckled and swallowed another bite of carrot cake. "I think he does that to all of us. I heard he loved repeating the point back in my first year at Shujin."

He stabbed another bite of ham. "But we still earned our seats here. We have the same right to enjoy this buffet that they do."

The transfer student recognized the blond head and angry stomping even before Ryuji made it back and threw himself into his overstuffed chair. "Goddamn assholes!"

"Ryuji," Akira sighed, "calm down. What happened?"

"I was comin' back from the bathrooms and this big-shot dickhead surrounded by suits had his puppets shove me out of the way and he waltzed into my elevator. He didn' apologize or nothin'. Talked about me like I was some little kid in a daycare." He took a fork and stabbed onto his plate of meat, causing a metallic squeal. "I wish that selfish shithead had a Palace."

Morgana looked up from licking off his saucer. "He might."

Ann's eyes widened, then locked onto their compatriot locked in cat form. "You said something like that earlier. You're sure Kamoshida wasn't the only one with a castle?"

"Anyone with a strong, distorted desire could have a Palace."

Ryuji straightened. "Wait, you think they'd have a crown and would change if we stole it?"

Morgana shot him a hooded gaze. "Ryuji, each person's Treasure would be different." His eyes narrowed in thought, ears twisting one way, then another. "But… if it worked with Kamoshida, it should work the same with anybody else."

Akira took his phone back in hand. "Was it the treasure, or convincing the Shadow that made him have the change of heart?"

Ann swallowed a bite of cheesecake. "Huh, that's true. We didn't just steal Kamoshida's treasure. We defeated the Shadow and convinced him to change." She brought up the phansite on her phone, then looked up to Morgana. "All those people who had no choice but to deal with Kamoshida are thanking us."

"Yeah, yeah!" Ryuji agreed. "So I was thinkin'."

Akira paused, shredded beef halfway to his mouth. "Dangerous words."

Ryuji glared. "Dude, shut up. Anyway, why stop here? If there's this many people we helped out with Kamoshida, just think…" He looked around, his eyes roving over the room for long seconds before stopping on Akira. He spoke, voice low, "…like, how many people we'd have goin' 'go Phantom Thief' if we took out this drug ring you're lookin' for?"

Ann looked up from her creamy cheesecake. "I get what you're saying… but you really think we should go after a drug gang?"

Akira looked up from the page of comments on the Phansite. "Wait, after all those times we barely made it through Kamoshida's castle, you guys want to go after the drug kingpin?" He gestured the hand with his smartphone in it at Morgana. "He and I are at it because he's still trying to restore his human form and I need to pay him back. You guys already dealt with Kamoshida, you don't need to jump back into danger."

Ann gave him a narrowed glance. "Well, Kamoshida didn't remember anything about what we did in the Palace. Wouldn't the same thing apply to the next palace?"

Morgana smiled. "Lady Ann's right. The Palace and a Shadow self might be connected to the person's conscious self, but it isn't directly the consciousness. They shouldn't be aware of anything we do in the Palace."

Ryuji sat back in his chair. "Sounds like no downside to me. I say we do it. Let's take down more of these shitty adults."

Ann swallowed another bite from her cake. "If I just sat back and did nothing but take care of myself, I'd fall back into the same me who let those bad things happen. I don't want that to happen."

Morgana licked his lips and smiled. "Well, you may be fledglings, but if you're all on board I think I can lend you my brilliance. We'll just need to collect some intelligence and practice so we're ready for the next palace."

Ryuji threw a fist into the air. "All right, we'll take the world by surprise!"

Ann carved a big chunk out of her remainder of carrot cake, but paused to look at Akira. "Well, going after the drug ring was your idea. You want to be the leader?"

Ryuji slouched against his seat and jabbed for another bite of beef. "Sounds good to me. Responsibility's not my thing."

Akira held up a palm. "No."

Ryuji's eyes widened. "What? Why not?"

"Every choice I made in the castle was the wrong one. I tried to charge on when we were spent. Twice." He glanced to Morgana. "I moved on to the Training Hall of Love when we knew you should've checked in." Akira sighed, his shoulders slumping, his tone and volume down. "I didn't even go after Kamoshida to change his heart, I wanted to kill him." He peered up at Ann. "You were right. I was wrong."

Ann's mood took a similar turn for the crestfallen. "I was only able to do any of that because you were already out there. You stood up against that knight before you even had a Persona. And you're even doing stuff outside the Metaverse, like finding us that doctor. I want to help all I can, but sometimes I think I'm overwhelmed just trying to keep up at the agency and school."

"Yeah, man," Ryuji added, already spearing fork to meat. "I mean, who else would be our fearless leader? Morgana? He'd be out as soon as the Shadows threw catnip."

Morgana growled. "I am not a cat!" He looked up at Akira. "But Lady Ann is right. You're not just tenacious, you're almost as clever as me and you not only found that doctor, you found a fence that we can do business with again."

Akira rubbed his shoulder and picked his fork back up from his plate. "Those were just luck. I'm sure Ryuji would've done the same thing."

Ryuji smirked. "Hey, I may not be stupid, but a man's gotta know his limits. Even while you're up front, you're thinkin' and watchin'. When that Shadow transformed into monster-shida, you were on it before it even finished. I'd rather have a fearless leader than fish-chaser."

"Hey!"

Akira swirled a piece of ham around his plate. "There's another word for a person without fear: stupid."

Ann's shoulders squared. "Don't be so hard on yourself. All the rest of us look up to you, and you're really reliable."

Akira picked up the bite, but stared at the cut of ham. "I'm not reliable." His eyes slid to their guide trapped in a cat's body. "But I can think of someone who is."

Muffled sounds and a fleck of sauce sailed at Akira from Ryuji's open mouth. The track star's words may have been obliterated by roast beef, but his intentions were not.

"Ryuji, finish chewing and think about this with a little perspective." Akira set down his fork. "He is our team expert on the Metaverse."

Swallowing, the athlete stabbed his fork into a mound of meat on his plate. "He said himself he don't remember everything! An' don't forget about how he went all catnip-weird when we found the Treasure."

Morgana and Ann both grimaced.

Akira sat further forward on the couch next to Morgana, his glasses magnifying his narrowed gaze. "He led us out of the castle safely every time. Hell, he's the only one who can sense the Treasure. He knew what to do to get the Treasure to manifest. He helped us write a sensible calling card. In every fight we had he kept his wits and was the only one who figured out to cut the crown off Kamoshida's head. He had the right strategy and brought us up to speed when he could've left us to walk into our own deaths in that castle. He went out of his way to help us." Taking a moment to reign in his breathing, the transfer student sat back on the couch and straightened. "Shiho would be ashamed of me, and for good reason. I vote for Morgana as leader. It's the only right vote."

Ann looked back and forth between Ryuji and Akira before swallowing a mouthful of cake. "Hard to argue with that. Make my vote for Morgana."

Ryuji fumed. "Man. It's a mistake to be takin' orders from a mascot."

Morgana's ears curled back, but he took a moment to collect himself. "I'm not some ignorant sports team mascot, Ryuji. Don't forget this isn't my real form. The same thing that's twisting people like Kamoshida distorted my body. Investigating the Metaverse is going to cure me and fix society. As long as I can do those things, I'll never stop fighting forward. And if you fledglings are with me, there's nothing that can stop us."

Ryuji grumped for a moment, then picked up his fork and jammed a heaping helping of roast beef into his mouth.

Ann looked between the others. "So what do we call ourselves?"

Eyes narrowing, Akira scooped up some of his jasmine rice. "I think Ryuji already decided that when he picked The Phantom Thief of Hearts."

Morgana's ears curled back against his head. "I know you have a thing against thieves, but it's stylish. Besides, if we changed our name we'd have to start over with our reputation and everyone would wonder what happened to The Phantom Thief who stole Kamoshida's heart."

Akira's mouth twisted into a frown and he swallowed. "I hate it when you have a point I can't argue."

"Who cares?" Ryuji said through a big smile, eyes already back on his food. "I'm sure we'll make big headlines if we can catch the ring here in Shibuya. Even the cops haven't been able to find the boss."

Morgana swallowed a bite of his beef, then straightened. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Kamoshida dropped into our laps. We knew where he was, what he was doing, and his distortion was obvious as well. We need to find out all of those things as well as the name of the next target. We'd even need to decide which person in their heirarchy to take down, there might be more than one with a palace and the higher up, the greater the risk of a gross distortion. Today, we celebrate a job well done. Tomorrow we can begin our quest for the next heart to change."

Ann sat up in her chair, turning to Akira. "If helping out Kamoshida's victims had the impact we did on Shujin, just think how many people will find courage if we take on a kingpin." She checked the time on her phone. "Only a few minutes left until the buffet runs out."

Akira stood, took another selection of food, and returned.

Morgana smiled up at him as the transfer student sat. "The Phantom Thieves came to our first decision. Once we find a target, we need to agree on it unanimously."

Akira shrugged. "Fine. The only name I wanted to go after doesn't have a Palace."

Ryuji glanced up from his plate, a drip of sauce running down his chin. "Whozzat?"

Akira shook his head, cutting into his beef. "Don't worry about it." He closed the Phansite and opened a new online shogi game.