Persona 5: Daywatch
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Morning
Kanda Catholic Church
Akira sat back against the pew, pondering the day's lesson. As the other parishioners left, he muttered to himself, "I wonder if I'd believe seeing somebody I knew died days ago." He crossed his arms, thinking to the troop's misadventures in Kamoshida's castle. Even now the events in the Metaverse seemed surreal, how could he expect somebody else to believe it when they hadn't seen it?
"Oh," he heard Hifumi say from beside his pew. "Examining the paintings?"
Akira gave a nervous smile, not wanting to correct her. "I've got a lot of things on my mind." He scooted over to allow her plenty of room.
She sat with a prim posture that made him feel sloppy, then looked out at the paintings around the altar. "I've always thought of a good shogi player like an artist. Just like a master painter has a place for every stroke of the brush, a shogi player must find ideal placements for each piece to bring the strategies to life."
"Just like a chef looks for just the right combination of spices to bring a soup to the next level," he said.
She nodded with a subdued but genuine smile. "Care for a match?"
He scooted a little further so she could set her board down, finding a smile of his own forming. Another chance to prove his mettle. "Anywhere, any time."
They set up the board. As they began, Hifumi's posture and expression changed. The uncertain, demure girl was replaced by a bold, merciless queen. "Vanguard of my Togo Kingdom, trample them!"
Trying to look ahead, he winced at how many of his pieces she threatened. He moved the bishop up to back up a knight.
Her dark green eyes seemed to spark with energy deep within. "You think to protect yourself with that paltry defense?" She let out a laugh any TV villain would be proud of. "It's useless!" She picked up a silver general of her own and captured the bishop he brought out to reinforce the knight.
Akira ground his teeth, already seeing his options collapsing before him. Throwing caution to the wind, he took his knight and captured her lancer.
She only sat straighter, a pleased smile on her face. "You have only awakened the dragon! Consume them in shadowy hellfire!" She moved up her other rook and captured his rearward knight. "Can you hear the wailing of your soldiers?"
He knew that she had him out-maneuvered, but if she thought she could psych him out, she'd discover two could play at that game. He lifted a pawn. "The steel of my robot army may break under your forbidden magic, but it knows no fear! My battle droid ambushes your bishop." He took her piece and placed the pawn where it once stood.
Hifumi jerked straight. Her eyes flicked from him to the board once before a deep blush spread. She covered her face with her hands. "I-I did it again. I'm so sorry."
The sudden attitude threw him for a loop. Something bitter and heavy recoiled in his stomach at the strange change. "Huh?"
She pressed her hands over her face despite the extent of her embarrassed blush. "It's a bad habit I have." She lowered her hands but looked away, her cheeks almost purple. "W-while teaching me shogi, my father gave me image training exercises to help me remember the rules. I would look at the board like my own kingdom, and make up stories for my…" her eyes fell on her pieces, "…subjects."
Akira leaned back against the pew. Something about the bashful display struck a disharmonious chord in him, even though the logical part of his mind tried to say it wasn't embarrassment of him. Fighting the tension throughout his body, he waved a dismissive hand. "So you're like the queen of your own little kingdom. I don't see anything wrong with it. Even Clausewitz said rules were guidelines for thinking men." He swallowed, but his mouth opened again despite his brain trying to stop there. "If you're never aggressive, you're not alive."
She turned wide eyes on him, her blush fading. "Y-you don't think it's weird?"
"Pfft."
Fiddling with her fingers and looking away, the corners of her mouth still turned up. She pushed her hair back over her ear. "I know very well people make fun of me, especially on the internet." Her smile faded. "They say I'm a nerd, or crazy. I can't say they're necessarily wrong."
Akira sat up, leaning to get back into her peripheral vision. "Then I'll say it. They're wrong. Your self-confidence needs to start with you, the world will catch up. If they don't get it, they don't deserve your time."
She gave a twisted smile that sent his stomach into flips. "W-well, your positivity is a welcome surprise."
He shifted to the edge of his seat, seeing nowhere she couldn't easily counter and give herself an even stronger position. Growling, he reached for his king. No matter which flank he tried to strike, she always had a counter. No matter which move he tried, she not only had a counter to it, she welcomed the attempt. Again and again. "Teach me to be like you."
"Hm?" She tilted her head, her omamori-style knot dangling, but that didn't take away all the sting of him losing yet again.
Akira swallowed, wishing he hadn't blurted that out. "Listen, I hate being bested, but nobody's put my back against the wall and given me opportunity every time like you have. Teach me to play like you."
Hifumi straightened, contemplation behind her eyes. For a moment, he thought he just crossed the line and she was about to reject him when she covered her mouth with her hand and giggled. "You're strange, but I feel like I've already learned new things from our matches. Of course I'll continue to play." She held up a hand, with one finger extended. "On one condition."
Akira sat forward in his seat.
"Seeking to become a professional shogi player, I am often seeking to try out new moves. On frequent occasion, I will set up a certain circumstance and we shall play from there." She straightened the straps of her Sunday dress.
Akira smirked. "Like I said earlier: any where, any time."
Her eyes gleamed and her smile sharpened. "Be careful what you wish for. You may find more of a challenge than you expected." Her phone buzzed and she took it out to check a text message. "My apologies, I will have to be going." Hifumi met his eyes, a firmness in those deep green orbs. "Practice for next time."
The intensity in her gaze sent a thrill up his spine and Akira brandished his best smirk. He gave a showy bow while still seated. "If I can't match you at shogi, I'll bring in go. If I can't do it there, I'll bring stratego." His gaze sharpened. "I will bring a worthy challenge, Queen Togo."
She cracked a grin that lit the flame of competition in his chest. "I look forward to it."
Akira stood up, feeling more energized than the last time he chugged an espresso, but without the nausea and jittery muscle movements. The two packed up and headed out, his pace only increasing until he found himself running all the way to the train station. Next week couldn't come soon enough.
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Daytime
Shibuya Diner
Akira set his umbrella in the holder and took the steps two at a time to get up to the second-floor diner. Open wood framing gave the restaurant a more spacious feel.
Mishima spotted him first, waving from a booth several tables down. "Hey, Akira-san!"
Papers and the world geography textbook lay open on the table in front of the class representative, but Mishima focused on his smartphone. Akira slid in and set the bag with Morgana hiding inside at the end, then waved the cat out. "Study time, furball." As he set up, he looked at Mishima. "So what's got you so busy? Worried about the midterms next week?"
Mishima looked up, lines underneath his eyes a sign of many nights of too little sleep. At least the eyes didn't have that distant, dead look like their last rooftop rendezvous. "I've got to keep up on the Phantom Aficionado website." He finally looked up from the phone. "You're finding it useful, right?"
Akira glanced out at the restaurant, all the other patrons too absorbed in their meals or conversations to pay the high-schoolers any attention. Uncertain exactly what the class representative's tone insinuated, he prodded, "Uh… what exactly do you mean?"
Smiling, Mishima leaned over the table. Were the table not separating them, they might be forehead-to-forehead. A quirk on his lips, Mishima looked Akira in the eyes. "You and the other Phantom Thieves."
Akira sat straight, looking around for signs of observers. "Shh!"
Mishima's smile faded. "Don't worry, I can keep a secret." His shoulders drooped. "I've got so much to make up for."
Akira opened his world geography book. "Hey, Kamoshida's already down."
One side of Mishima's lips quirked up for a moment, but then down. For a heartbeat, a dulled look of despair settled over the class representative's face. Then he sat straight, a wooden smile and determined square to his shoulders. "Kamoshida was a special kind of evil, but there are so many more rotten people out there. That's why I have to manage the website to collect all these problems."
Recalling his own blinding need for vengeance, Akira nodded. Sounded like Mishima found his way of grappling with letting his girlfriend fall victim to Kamoshida. "We'll bring justice to them, Mishima-san." He looked down at his notes, with many penciled-in question marks. "But right now, I think we need to focus on passing midterms."
The two settled into studying, Akira ordering barley soup when the server passed by. The transfer student smiled at the sense of academic rivalry, though Mishima's grasp of mathematics felt only a little better than his own. After a few hours, a pair of cops sat down at the booth behind him.
A grey-speckled cop with crow's feet at the corners of his eyes sat heavy in his padded seat. "And I thought that pervert teacher raised a ruckus."
The young cop slid into his booth seat and tossed his hat to the end of the table. He brushed a hand over his hair to straighten it. "I wish they'd just give us the go-ahead. At least most of the foot-work there is done."
Curious, but sensing opportunity, Akira opened a record app on his phone.
The older cop sighed and set his hat on the seat next to him. "I don't know if they're going to lock up half the teachers at that school or let 'em off scot-free, but if just one more person comes out with suspicions of covering up abuse, someone's lookin' at jail time."
Neat Hair huffed and reached for the hot pepper shaker. "A thousand yen that gossipy bitch loses her teaching license. No way she wasn't in on the cover-up."
"No bet. That's for sure." Old Cop lifted both hands in a "whatever" gesture, and let them fall with heavy thumps. "Either way, they've got me runnin' all over the city interviewing students for those damn detectives. I wish I had your duty comin' up. Protection detail may be boring, but at least it's nice and quiet."
"I wish it was still babysitting that stuck-up artist," Neat Hair whined. "Haven't you noticed all the suits crawling over the station since that drug dealer was found in a barrel?"
Grey leaned back against the booth seat, making it creak. "I recognized one of 'em from the special prosecutor's office. What's all that about?"
"Drug ring in Shibuya," the younger one said as if the words tasted bitter. "Some dealer named Tosa Kotomi was found in a barrel. Water in her lungs and defensive wounds on her arms and legs."
Akira froze, his stomach turning in knots at the news of the death of one of his changes of hearts.
Neat Hair went on, unaware of his audience, "TV's callin' it a new wave of drug violence and the mayor's comin' down hard on every department to find a breakthrough."
Grey let out a disgusted noise. "Trust me, rookie. There ain't gonna be some easy scapegoat for this one. She sent letters of apology to her druggies with names of bunches of her druggie dealers. Dunno who blabbed to SIU, but now they think it's some big break in a yakuza case they've been stalled on for years."
Mishima opened his mouth and Akira snapped a "silence" finger to his mouth.
A waitress came to the cops' table and set down a plate of fried pork rinds.
"Ooof." Grey paused to focus on the server. "Grilled fish and rice. Doc said I gotta watch my cholesterol." He turned back to the other cop. "You better get used to havin' suits runnin' roughshod all over the precinct. Them bastards are relentless."
Neat Hair nodded. "I'm gonna be walkin' around all day for a while. Get me the steak special." Turning back to Grey, he added, "They've got me tapped for two arrests tomorrow, and I heard they pulled guys from that artist's detail. That exhibition's been pushed back a week."
"And that's if they don't get any more leads." Grey snorted. "Just as well. I only heard a hustle like this once before and it had everyone workin' overtime for weeks. At least we'll finally get to cleanin' up Shibuya."
"What's wrong with the artist?"
"You've heard of somethin' too good to be true?" Grey said. "That guy's one. You hear how much his painting of the fields north of Sapporo went for? No way is that guy a starving artist."
Akira closed his recording and paced to the bathroom, bile clawing in his throat.
Somebody just died.
One of his changes of hearts just died.
Monday, 9 May 2016
Lunchtime
Shujin, Kobayakawa's Office
Makoto finished reading the text about another student facing blackmail in Shibuya, then slipped her phone back in her pocket and knocked on the door before entering the principal's private office. Despite her tension from the number of duties waiting on her, she came to his desk and stood straight. "You asked for me, Principal Kobayakawa?"
Capping his calligraphy pen, he looked up at her with a more haggard expression than she'd ever seen on the almost always cool-and-assured principal. "Makoto-chan. How is the progress of the teacher blackmail I asked you to look into?"
That knot in her back tensed. "Well, everybody is talking about Kamoshida-sensei. Plenty are talking about the Phantom Thief, but there's so many wild rumors…"
Kobayakawa shifted his head to change the angle he looked up at her, then to the trophy case, then back to her. His chins jiggled as he yanked his chair closer, though his girth prevented him from scooting in any further. His eyes were wide and sweat glistened on his bald head. "Nothing? You have to have something! Anything!"
Makoto flinched away from the intensity of his shout. She rubbed at her forearm, staring into the texture of the carpet. "I've narrowed down a lot of the impossibilities…"
Kobayakawa slammed his hands on his desk, causing pencils to jump in their mug and rattling his nameplate. "How many students could control a teacher? The police and other teachers are both up in arms. The school board is breathing down my neck, and police are hounding my teachers. They want answers now. Was Kamoshida the first? Who's next?"
"I can't make evidence." Makoto clenched her eyes. Whispered accusations in the halls and detectives questioning Kiriko's teachers made it harder not to wonder who knew what. Swallowing, she looked back at the sweating man dabbing his forehead with a cloth. "What about you?"
The principal froze, sweat rag in hand. "Hm?"
"Shiho wasn't the only one," Makoto said, her stomach quailing. "Was Kiriko-san a victim too? How many others?"
Setting down his sweat rag, Kobayakawa swallowed and took a deep breath. "I can see this is a difficult time for you. For the student council president to have to hold together the school after one of her fellows… one of her juniors attempted suicide."
Makoto's breath hitched in her throat.
Kobayakawa leaned back in his chair. "School is a place of binaries. The successful and the unsuccessful. Where all people feel ill at ease and light grows dim, or where all students can feel at ease."
"That's it?" She clenched her hands. "What if there isn't a Phantom Thief and it was all just a conveniently-timed hoax? The calling cards were four days before that strange confession. One anomaly does not make for a readable pattern. What—?"
Kobayakawa sat up with sharp suddenness, slapping his hands down on his desk and looking her in the eye with an intensity that made her look away. "I'm sure your sister would have had no problems with this trouble. She would have devoted her energy to her duty and conquered it. Not gotten lost with tangents."
The air of finality felt choking to Makoto. "I… Yes, sir."
He smiled. "Very good. We all want to make our family proud."
She bowed, fearing her knees would give out any moment. "Yes, sir."
His personal cell phone rang and he waved her to the door.
Makoto left, her cell phone pleading with her for help against a growing scam ring in Shibuya warm in her pocket and the principal's orders causing a cold lump in her stomach.