Persona 5: Daywatch
Monday, 2 May 2016
After School
Shujin, Class 2-D
Matsuko, the student council secretary, scrambled in. Even after coming to a stop next to his desk, her not-in-regulation purple shirt shook from her nervous twitching. She glanced at the transfer student scratching away at today's homework and leaned closer to the class representative to whisper, "Is it true?"
Yuuki blinked. "Is what true?"
"Principal Kobayakawa's gonna be fired!" He sat up in his chair and she waved him down to try to avoid notice from the small handful of other students eating lunch in 2-D. "Think about it. The vice principal's been in his office every day. Detectives have been interviewing teachers and asking specifically about the principal."
Yuuki nodded. Detectives had stopped at his house to interview him specifically about Kobayakawa. "I guess Shujin made enough headlines that more faculty are facing criminal charges. Makes me wonder what might have gone different if Kamoshida confessed a day earlier, or later. If some of those calls to the police caught the wrong guy in public security."
Monday, 2 May 2016
After School
Shujin, Stairwell near Class 2-D
Leaning against the stairwell wall, Ryuji scrolled through his phone. "The rating's going down, but there's more postings on the Phansite."
Reading through one post, Akira made sure to push a heavy monotone droll into his voice, "Make my friend apologize for not returning the book I lent him."
Ryuji's shoulders drew up. "I didn't say they were solid gold hits." He backed out one step and continued scrolling. After a moment, he let out a brief sigh. "But yeah, lots of 'em are like that."
A pair of girls trotted out of Class 2-D and Akira watched them out of the corner of his eye. The longer-haired one took in a deep breath. "The atmosphere's so different here. You wonder if that rumor about that Phantom Thief stealing Kamoshida's heart is true?"
The shorter, more curly-haired girl snorted with laughter. "What a riot! That's like sewer alligators."
"But Kamoshida was bawling up there on that stage. Who'd have ever thought such a serious teacher would do that?"
Short and Stupid flipped out her phone and browsed. "Please. He prolly couldn't keep hiding it after that girl jumped off the roof. You know they take it easier on people who turn themselves in." She looked up at her classmate. "I really don't care about those thief rumors, I just hate that now our school's gonna have a reputation."
Her friend nodded as if the other said something wise. "Oh, yeah. I hope it doesn't make our college entrances harder."
Akira's hand clenched over his phone as he abandoned the stairwell to spit fire at the two stupid girls. His fingers trembled, begging him to lash out to avenge their disregard. "That girl was Suzui Shiho—"
Ryuji stepped up next to him, planting his hands on his hips. "Dude," he said at the girls, "that is somethin' messed up. She was my class rep, and she wasn't even the first victim!"
Akira bared his teeth, focusing on Short and Stupid. "What the hell is wrong with you? An innocent person," he whipped around and pointed at the other girl, hoping she'd get at least some of the message, "one of your schoolmates almost died," he shouted, voice rising, "and your only concern is whether people might think of it when you apply for college more than a year from now?"
Ryuji blinked as a girl with a braided headband approached. Focusing on the transfer student, Ryuji put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back. "Dude, I get it, but miss principal's pet is gonna get inta this."
The red-eyed senior stepped right up to the four clashing students.
The two girls snapped to attention, Short and Stupid hiding her phone behind her back. "Madam President!"
"Madam," Akira spat with a roll of his eyes.
The student council president turned a glare to him. The two girls took the distraction to scurry away. He tensed his legs to give chase, but the red-eyed girl drew to her full height. She was still shorter, but set her jaw and held her glare. "Is there a problem?"
Ryuji waved her off with the hand not clamped on Akira's arm. "Nah, we don't need no teacher's pet."
Her ruby gaze shot to the dyed blond for a moment before drifting to the transfer student.
Akira remained tense against the track star's grip for several long seconds further, glaring back at the red-eyed student. He recognized her from when she introduced herself as the president of the student council in the library. And talked down to him but not the other students talking in the library. Nobody got to that position without having powerful friends and kissing ass, so he grimaced and clamped down on his urge to run through her after the two sociopathic girls. "No," he ground out before turning on his heel and jerking out of Ryuji's grip. He paced down the stairs, but by the time he reached the ground floor his control frayed out and he punched the concrete wall.
The pain released endorphins countering his adrenaline and he pressed his forehead against the cool wall.
Keeping an eye out for other students giving them a wide berth for the moment, Ryuji came to a stop next to Akira. "I know it ain't right, but that's prolly how most of 'em are gonna be for a while. Not a lotta people believe in the Phantom Thieves." He jabbed Akira in the arm, and forced a grin and leaned in closer to whisper. "All we gotta do is take down more big shots. If we get famous, no one's gonna talk down about stuff like this, right?"
Akira turned around, drew in a long breath, and leaned against the wall. "Think miss hoity-toity would count?"
Ryuji snorted, a hesitant grin creeping across his face. "Principal Kobayakawa sure does set out the red carpet for her, but that's on account of her big-shot family. Prez's just Shujin's narc."
Akira turned around closed his eyes and cycled through another long breath. "We can't even find a target."
Ryuji fidgeted. "Man, I'm usually the impatient one. Don't make me be the voice of reason." He shifted his weight from foot to foot. "We just gotta keep our eyes up and lookin' for a lead, right?"
Akira let out a huff, then stood up and nodded. "Nothing else to do." He drew his phone and brought up an online game. Maybe trouncing somebody in shogi would make him feel better for a few minutes.
Ryuji brought out his phone too. "I'll see what I can find online. You got luck like nothin' else, so you keep an ear out when you're on the streets, right?"
Akira grimaced, but Ryuji had a point. The former track star lacked Akira's problem with crowds but stuck out when he wasn't trying. He was also better with search engines, or just getting lucky online, so Akira pushed off the wall and headed to Shibuya.
Monday, 2 May 2016
Evening
Yongen, Leblanc
The little bell rang as he trudged into the little coffee cafe, still beating himself up over his colossal failure to handle the student council girl. Even a few hours of wandering around didn't loosen the bitter, twisted feeling in his stomach of a clash without resolution. No sign of Morgana at the base of the stairs probably meant he hadn't found anything in his own wandering through Shibuya, either.
"You're back early," Sojiro called from behind a newspaper. "What happened?"
"Huh?" Akira said through a yawn. He shook himself and paced inside. "Slow day at the convenience store and the beef bowl already had two college kids on the roster tonight."
Sojiro shrugged. "Well, the store's empty tonight." He cleared his throat. "If you're up for it, I can teach you about how to make coffee before we have a regular in."
After a whole day of dealing with impatient customers and wandering around a neighborhood that reminded him too much of a literal rat race, some studying to wind down and a long sleep called out to him. Still, the lack of progress in his investigation of Shibuya left tension running through him. "Clean hands, empty belly?"
Sojiro gave a superior smile. "Something like that."
"I'll go put things down first." Trotting upstairs, Akira found Morgana sprawled over the bed. He sighed and dropped his school satchel to the floor with enough force to startle the cat awake. "I bought you a pillow so you'd have your own comfortable place to sit, why do you have to get hairs on my lumpy mattress?"
Morgana sat, curling his tail around his legs. He didn't leave the bed. "You always complain about this or that not being neat. If it wasn't for Lady Ann's father, I'd let her take care of me." He closed his eyes and purred at the thought.
Akira rolled his eyes. "You spent most of the day out and about in Shibuya. Find anything?"
Morgana's ears dipped. "There's definitely something shady going on at the day lockers at the train station and Protein Lovers Gym, but nobody's naming names. For the most part it's just high school students."
Akira's lips pressed into a thin line and he changed out of his school uniform. "I've got some work to do with Sakura-san."
Morgana hopped down in front of the little poster of Mary holding the body of Jesus on the wall beside the bed. "I think I'll know where to find you."
Akira trotted back downstairs, behind the bar, put on an apron, then took a few minutes to scrub his hands.
Sojiro gave a polite smile. "Since you'll be working here, we need to make sure you have the basics down." He crossed his arms, looking Akira in the eye. "You know what I mean?"
Akira put his fist to chin in thought. "Let's see. My first day here you said men usually weren't allowed in your passenger seat. Then you called the public phone because you only want women's numbers in your phone." He snapped his fingers and pointed to Sojiro, widening his eyes to complete the effect. "Hitting on girls!"
Sojiro slapped a palm over his face. "You are way too early for those lessons."
Akira gave a cheeky grin. "Preparation beats make-up, right?"
Sighing, Sojiro pulled down a jar of coffee beans. "I'm real particular about what we brew here." He shot a pointed glare with no room for humor. "You serve a bad cup, and I'll have you on the street so fast it'll make your head spin."
Akira snapped straight and gave him the British salute. "Understood, sir."
Sojiro measured out some beans, shrugging off Akira's irreverence. "I've been doing this so long I can measure out the beans by feel, but you'll need to use the cup and scale. I'll go over that next time when I explain mixes later. Coffee's flavor is determined by three things. Grind, which I'm doing here. Then heat," he pointed to the burners, "there, and time in the siphons." He lifted the bowl, dumped the beans into a grinder, then set the bowl in front of the spout and flipped the switch.
Akira wrinkled his nose, his last memory of coffee being some underpaid intern burning it. "Why is that set to medium-fine? Isn't it more flavor the finer it is?"
"There's more surface area for the water to interact with, but different siphons work better with certain grinds. These take medium-fine." The middle-aged man smiled. "But it's good to see you noticed. That means you're paying attention."
Akira yawned. "So it's just a set portion of beans for a set grind, then a pot of water over those burners for however long that mix takes?" When Sojiro nodded, the boy stretched out his neck. "Not exactly rocket engineering."
The bell on the door rang, and a woman in a red business coat and a gaudy necklace walked in. "Good evening, So-chan."
He gave her a stiff show smile. "The usual, then?"
"As if I could resist?" She sat down at a booth close to the end of the counter and flashed a flirty smile that made Akira's skin crawl. It reminded him way too much of his mother's shameless flirting.
While Sojiro prepared the curry, Akira worked on the coffee. After accepting the meal, she ate and flirted, making Akira's hackles rise. He tried to pretend he wasn't there until his phone rang, giving him excuse to flee for the register. He opened the incoming chat conversation from Mishima.
[Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I know Nishiyama's a second year, but he's not in our class. He hangs out around Iida sometimes, but he and I don't seem to cross paths much so I can't say where he is most of the time. Golden Week's starting tomorrow, so I might not be able to find anything. I'll keep an eye on the chat rooms.]
Akira frowned, but refrained from growling with the other adults so close. [Don't worry about detecting over the holidays. I'll be up in Kanda on Thursday anyway.]
[Some special Children's Day thing going on up there?]
Akira smirked, but the Catholic calendar was new to him too. [Day of Ascension at church. It's one of the big Catholic holy days.]
[You're Catholic?]
[Yes. Maybe not a GOOD Catholic, but I'm trying. Almost ten percent of Japan is Catholic.]
Dots indicating another participant composing a message blinked for a few moments. [That's true, I just never met one before. So what's that day like?]
Akira glanced over at the flirty woman and shivered. [Not sure I could really say. I've only been Catholic for six months.]
[Is it hard being Catholic?]
[Not as hard as being a teenager. Father Motoori always listened to me, gave me advice. His little church was the first place on Earth I felt safe. Of course, he had a troubled past just like me, got in trouble with the law, and was in prison for a long time.]
Mishima's reply came uncomfortably fast. [That doesn't sound like a safe person.]
Akira paused, looking up at his last message and wondering why he wrote so much. [Sometimes when you're dirty, what you need isn't a person who's never been dirty. It's somebody who's been dirty themselves, someone who knows how to get the dirt out.]
[Sounds like something mom would say. She likes laundry metaphors.]
Akira frowned. On the surface the remark seemed so mundane, but something about it seemed so alien to him and knowing that it shouldn't be just spelled out how far removed from 'normal' people he was.
He put away his phone just as the customer in red pulled the door open, then turned around to wiggle her fingers at Sojiro. "Ta ta," she said in a husky tone before stepping out.
Akira shivered. That kind of clear flirtation sounded like his mother, and sent his hackles up again.
Sojiro chuckled. "What's wrong with you, girl phobia?"
Exhausted from the day, Akira closed the chat and rubbed his arm. "Let's just say that experience taught me to be on guard when a girl gets flirty. They never do something unless they want something."
"That much is true." Sojiro chuckled, but before he could say anything, his phone rang. His eyebrow twitched in the manner of unrecognition at the caller ID, but he answered with the same professional tone as usual. "Hello?"
A moment passed before the middle-aged man turned away from Akira, body snapping straight. "How'd you get this number?" He listened for a couple seconds, shoulders tense. "Now? Where?" After several long second, his shoulders slouched. "Fine." Hanging up, Sojiro jammed the phone in his pocket. "I'll have to finish your lessons later."
After all the stupid decisions he made that day, Akira leaped at the chance to try to curry favor. "I'll finish the dishes. You want me to leave the stove on?"
Sojiro glanced at the time on the TV. "No, go ahead and close up."
Constitution Day. Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Evening
Yongen, Leblanc
Akira toweled off his hands, feet throbbing in his shoes and back aching. At least the daily elderly couple were the only remaining customers, their silence a blissful reprieve from the day's hubbub.
Sojiro took out the coffee filters. "Whew! I've had busy days, but we've never been packed for so long." He banged the filters against a black bin with 'compost' painted against the side. "We could use a few more days like that, though. Helps during the rainy season."
Akira set the towel against the bar beside the sink. "I have a couple things to do. Mind if I cut out?"
A corner of Sojiro's mouth quirked up. "You kept up all day, I think I can close up."
Akira rushed upstairs.
Morgana joined him at the table set up in front of the couch. "Whew. Boss worked us hard today, huh?"
Akira changed into a nondescript, long-sleeved shirt. "Worked us? All you did was poke your head out from the base of the stairs a couple of times."
Morgana's ears pressed back. "It's not like I chose to be turned into something small and weak. Just think about how hard it would be for you to wake up in a body without the opposable thumbs you know you were born with."
Akira let out a long sigh. "I know. I'm just…" He sat on the couch and lifted his glasses to clean the lenses. "We've got a really dangerous target somewhere in Shibuya, but the best place to get intel I can't go to because I either freeze up or get unreasonably violent." Setting his glasses on the table, he ran his hands through his hair. "If we could just get into this coward's Palace I'm sure we could take him down, but trying to get information… I'm worse than useless. I'm a liability."
Morgana took a single step closer. "Sometimes you just have to sit back and trust in the ability of others."
Akira grumbled, but got up and opened a drawer under the workbench and withdrew a bag of koban coins and crumpled paper to keep them from clinking. Stuffing them in his satchel, he paused to let Morgana hop in before heading to Shibuya's Central Street. While starting to get used to the terrain, the unruly mass of humanity pressed against him and it felt like the air was too thin to breathe by the time he got to the first available side alley. Akira sucked in air.
Morgana popped his head out of the bag. "Hey, Joker. You okay?"
Akira hunched, unable to drive away the sound of millions of feet and voices. "There's…" He sucked in a breath, bracing against the brick. "…too many."
Morgana patted the human's shoulder with his paw. "It doesn't sound like those scam artists are picking up kids right now. Might as well see if we can sell those coins."
Nodding, Akira shoved his way the remaining distance to Untouchable. Shaking off his limbs to cast off residual tension, despite the air conditioner being full blast the steady, muffled sounds of machines provided him a sense of comfort.
Iwai looked up from a sporting goods magazine with some kind of foreign lettering on the front. "Well, if it isn't the prankster. What can I do you for?"
Akira smirked, standing straight and confident as he paced to the window in the wielded grating. "A little of this, a little of that." He knelt so Morgana could hop out of the bag and watch from out of the way, then pulled out the bag of muffled coins, removing the sheet of crumpled paper from the top and set it down. "Genbu-era koban. Probably not real, but they seem like near-period counterfeits."
Iwai looked over them without a word, then slid all but one of them into a pile in the corner of the counter. Straighting one, he took another from the pile and flipped it heads-up next to the first, then put a ballpoint pen above both. That setup finished, he held his smartphone over them and snapped a photo. "You seem to know a lot about them." His thumbs tapped over the virtual keyboard.
Akira shrugged. "Somebody near where I live happens to be an enthusiast. Not interested in buying, though. That reminds me," he dug into his satchel, slipping a hand under the flap in the bottom and pulling out his sub-machine gun. "I need a…" his eyes squinted up in thought, "Ryuji called it a folding shoulder stock."
Iwai took the sub-machine gun. "Gotcha." He set his magazine over the kobans and headed to the back. After a few moments a heavy metal machine whirred to life, then metallic grinding rang through the building. An electric power motor buzzed a few times.
Morgana looked into the narrow hall behind the counter to the back room. "This guy sounds like quite the craftsman."
"Nobody gets good at something without doing it a lot," Akira said.
Iwai returned to the front with something shrouded by a threadbare brown towel. Setting on the counter, he flipped the towel off the SMG with what looked like a thick wire bent into a brace extending out of the back.
Akira picked it up and held it up like he saw other players do in Gun About with the rifle controller. The aiming sights down the top looked clear and it fit just right against the pocket of his shoulder.
Iwai smirked. "It folds just like a real one. Just press there to unlock the stock and…" A metallic click sounded and it rotated around. "Looks like you got it."
Akira folded the stock on the sub-machine gun, leaving it no bigger than it was without. "Nice. I see why he said folding instead of just a stock."
Iwai's phone buzzed. Picking it up, he read, then sat back down behind the register. Counting the coins, he typed something else in, scraped them into a beat-up cardboard box-top of printer paper and slipped them underneath the counter. Those stowed, he opened the register, counted out quite a bit of cash, then set it in the window. "Always a pleasure."
Akira slipped the model weapon back into the bottom of his bag, then picked up the money. "Damn, I could pay off our first trip to the doc with this." Yawning into his fist, he distributed his cash into a couple pockets.
"Hey," Iwai said, switching the lolipop stick to the other side of his mouth as he stared through the grating. "You're not using those guns to hold up a bank or anything, are you?"
Akira snorted. "I don't even like banks. They're full of legalized thieves." He lifted his other hand in leaving. "See you later."
Iwai tipped his baseball cap and Akira stepped out.
Nature Day. Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Late Afternoon
Shibuya, Central Street
The sound of thousands of people walking and talking made for an effective blanket of white noise, but the forceful press of bodies and constant motion made Akira feel like a rat in a kicked ball. The crowd was thin at this time of day, with most people being on vacation in the more exotic locales of Japan, but the foot traffic's lack of order grated on his nerves. Still trying to keep an eye out for a yakuza scouter picking up people for whatever operation they had running, he noticed somebody with dark hair tailing him.
He rolled his eyes and his urge for violence shifted from the crowd around him in general to the girl hiding behind a manga. The game of cat and mouse sent a thrill through him back at Inuri High, but a game of skill only counted if the opponent had some ability. This one was clumsy and wouldn't fool a five-year-old child.
Akira wondered if this was how Togo-san felt when she steamrolled him at shogi.
Shaking his head, he made wide motions in turning onto a small side street lined with lockers. A gym and a couple hiding points lay beyond. Akira slipped into a gap between two units of lockers and waited.
The stalker paced down the alley, at least having enough sense to check an immediate horizontal sweep. Seeing nobody, she picked up her pace to a light jog and peeked over her manga to check the entrance to the gym.
In one fluid motion, Akira slipped out behind her and snatched her manga.
He came to a full stop when he realized it was the latest volume of Fairy Tail. "Wait, you read Fairy Tail? No way!"
The red-eyed girl ripped it back out of his hands, some emotion flickering through her eyes too fast for him to identify. "Why not?"
He glanced back at the student council president of Shujin, but his mouth ran ahead of his brain. "Fairy Tail's awesome, and you're a tool!"
She cringed, but straightened with furrowed brow. "You wouldn't happen to be off to some clandestine meeting, would you?"
Akira bristled. "I'm guessing they don't teach subtlety at those ritzy cram schools you go to, Madam President." He slipped his hands into his pockets. "Though I guess you won't need to be subtle when you're walking over us little people's throats when you're councilor or whatever position you inherit."
Miss President gaped, hurt flashing through her eyes before clenching her fists. She rocked back onto her heels for a moment.
"I'm not gonna pretend that I haven't given people reason in the past," Akira said, "but why are you so up in my case that you're even following me around Shibuya on the holidays? I got business with the shit-heads makin' trouble here, it ain't your scene. Offense intended, shouldn't you be browsing for designer clothes up in Takenoko?"
Her fists trembled for a moment, but contrary to his expectations, she straightened and held her narrowed gaze on him. "My name is Niijima Makoto. Consider my position as the student council president of Shujin Academy."
Akira threw himself to one knee, arms up as if to defend himself from an enormous assailant. "Oh no, not the chief boot licker of prison school! What ever will Sukeban have someone else do to me?"
Niijima bristled, her fists clenching and a twitch at her upper lip. "Do not call me that. I have enough to do without dealing with your horseplay. I keep the peace in Shujin and I fulfill my duties to my family."
Akira spat on the ground. "Don't give me that horse shit. Tribe and family honor is all just a front that people hide their own vain ambitions behind." He took a step and jabbed a finger at her. "You think you're hot shit because you're prince – not king – of a graveyard where dreams go to die?"
Niijima's fists tightened and rose, one foot sliding back and to the side. "Shujin is a great, prestigious school."
Akira hopped to his feet so he could make sure she had to stare up at him. "Great school? It hid a rapist for years. Then your oh-so-benevolent principal lays out just how eager he is to give me the left foot of fellowship." He paused to hold up his hands in feigned defense. "Oh, then… mysteriously… on day one someone lets slip that I got a record."
Taking a shallow step back, Niijima blinked. "I had nothing to do with the leak."
Akira snorted. "Right. And when people all over that shitty school started talking about the 'shifty and malevolent' Kurusu," he paused to spit, "I'm sure Sukeban set the record straight." Her firm stance faltered and her eyes drifted down for a heartbeat before snapping back up to his. Her mouth drifted open, but by that point he felt on a roll and couldn't stop the venom from his voice. "But I'm just some transfer with a record. At least you did everything you could for Suzui."
Niijima wavered on her feet, her face twisting as if he gut-punched her. He knew it was a low blow, more than she probably deserved even if the rumors about her being a toffee-nosed snitch were true, but the words hung in the air and he couldn't take them back.
His throat closing, and his damned pride pounded down the urge to say 'I didn't mean it'. Stomach twisting, he turned on his heel and marched into the narrow streets until the roar of traffic drowned out his heartbeat in his ears. Out of breath, he came to a stop next to a brick wall and slumped against it. He took off his glasses and felt the hard edges of the brick press back against his skin. "Great job, shit-head. Way to build bridges. No wonder everyone who meets you wants you dead."
AN: Daywatch isn't the only story where the very public outing of Kamoshida has strong enough consequences for Kamoshida to go, but also ask "why doesn't anybody else get investigated and fired?" I always assumed that the first call to the police in Kamoshida's confession hit somebody in the Conspiracy so they would've started efforts to bury it and allow their pawn Kobayakawa to continue working without having to take public heat. However, would that same stroke of luck have happened if the confession happened just one day earlier or later? Not in Daywatch. Here, multiple people call the police and news so it can't be buried. That doesn't mean that Kobayakawa is completely out of the Conspiracy's notice or reach, however. But they won't bother to do anything to him when he's being shoved into prison as a scapegoat for all the parents of abused children at Shujin. The game implied he was targeted when he had second thoughts and threatened to turn on the Conspiracy. He lacked that time and opportunity to turn in others to save himself, but he's not safe.