Persona 5: Daywatch
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Early Morning
Shibuya Station
The train slid to a noisy stop, the faint smell of metal and oil in the air. Akira tapped his foot as the doors trundled open, waiting for the workers heading into Shibuya to disembark. Before the last passenger got off, a few of the other waiting Shujin students pushed their way in, so Akira did likewise. To his surprise, few people occupied the train.
Akira rushed for one of the available seats and even resisted the urge to smirk at the next Shujin student.
More people piled in and the team leader popped his head out of the bag. "Nice, you got a window seat."
"They're all against the window," Akira said between chuckles. He tapped the diminutive team leader. "Hey, since I don't have to hold you, this is a great opportunity to get some reading in."
Stumbling when the train accelerated, Morgana squeezed to one side to let Akira draw a small book. "The Screwtape Letters? I don't remember seeing you buy that one."
"H—Togo-san gave it to me," Akira said. He pulled the small book out and opened to the first page.
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
After School
Shujin, Class 2-D
Relaxing as much as he could in the classroom, Akira busied himself with homework. Except for a pair of girls talking favorites about famous boys, the other handful of students still around lounged at their desks working on their own homework. The front chalkboard sat clean, but on the back rested a crude likeness of Madarame, drawn by some fan after his gallery opened up just a few days ago.
Akira looked down at his math homework with the lethargy of a convict at a ditch yet to be dug. It didn't seem as skull-battering hard as before, but still made his veins pulse in frustration. He pulled his phone out, but hesitated at Queen Togo. Would she be bothered by him taking more of her time after fishing information out of her about a possible heart to change? He already used her for spying on a possible target. Or would she be more creeped out by his cyber-stalking when he spent an hour yesterday looking for those luscious photo shoots she cringed about?
He didn't deserve someone like her.
He lowered the phone, then held it up. Despite all those photos yesterday, it wasn't enough. He didn't just want to see her curves, but hear her sonorous voice and see that living spark in her eyes when they sat down to a match.
"What's up?" Morgana whispered from inside the desk.
Akira adjusted his phone so the team leader couldn't see it, and texted her a study request. His phone buzzed in his hands and the transfer student's throat went dry. A response, already?
Opening the chat, he felt a cold disappointment at the Phantom Thief chat. Mishima's ID stood at the top. [Hey, everyone. Sorry for the delay. Just got out of StuCo meeting. I ID'd a couple people for requests on the Phansite. There's an insurance fraudster back in Shibuya. He swoops in, cheats a couple insurance agencies out of hundreds of thousands, then disappears. He has to have a stash of alternate identities all lined up, but the MO looks the same, so I figured his original name should do for you guys. Akitsu Fumio.]
Makoto's ID blinked, [I have to get back to student council work, but shouldn't the police handle that? Insurance companies and the prefectural police both have departments dedicated to handling fraud.]
[For real,] Ryuji texted.
A beat passed before Ann popped into the chat, [Shiho's parents both work in the financial sector. That money doesn't come from corporate-only money trees. That kind of fraud is just theft from a whole ton of people with a middleman doing the collecting. Then they raise the rates on all their customers. If we can help, I say we do it.]
Akira sent, [I never thought about it like that before. Count me in.]
Ryuji replied, [Makes sense to me.]
Ann texted, [I thought you were going to be running today.]
[I had homework.]
Akira's eyebrow quirked. [Ryuji? Doing homework before the night of?]
He texted an angry face emoji. [Dude, President already gave me crap today.]
[There's another one I think you guys might want to make a priority,] Mishima sent. [Remember that stalker I mentioned a week ago? One of the helpers on the Phansite linked to her blog. She started dreaming up violent fantasies at the start of the semester, and only got more deranged as time went on.]
Akira opened the following link. His browser opened a very plain blog using a black high-heeled shoe as her profile image. The last post started with 'I'll kill him. Nobody will take him away from me' and got graphic enough no image was necessary. He scrolled back a few posts and read, then back a few more.
Back on the chat, Ryuji added, [I don't know what the big deal is. Isn't it hot that a girl's thinking of you?]
Akira closed the browser. [You didn't read it, did you? I don't like drawing on my experience in the Institute, but there's some clear escalation. Most days, I'd say a teenage girl's diary isn't a very reliable source, but she knows a lot more about veins in the neck than a high schooler should. I think we should change her heart before she makes the transition from fantasy to reality.]
Makoto texted, [An emergency we need to take care of today? Can't read blogs until the meeting's over.]
[Yeesh,] Ann sent. [That girl's got issues.]
Morgana's ears twisted in the shelter of his desk. "You read too fast for me to finish those blog posts. What do you think?"
Akira's lips pressed into thin lines as he thought. [I'd say we have a couple weeks at the most, but a few days shouldn't hurt. Why?]
[I can't get away from Student Council today,] she texted. [It would look suspicious to leave this much work unfinished.]
Ann's ID blinked. [Oh! In that case, can I have the day off? My agency sent me a sub request and I could use the extra cash. My parents have also been wanting to take me out for a family dinner.]
Morgana let out a soft sigh. "Of course Lady Ann can go."
Akira typed, [Morgana says, 'Work, slave!']
The team leader lashed out, scratching Akira's finger. "Ow!" Akira pulled back, his chair bumping into Mishima's desk behind.
[I'm going to take that as a yes. You're the best, Leader!] Ann sent.
Akira texted, [Who's our stalker?]
Three dots danced next to Mishima's ID for a moment. [Mogami Yumeko. Remember the girl huddling by that bend in the hallway before the cross-over between the academic and practice building?]
Ryuji replied with remarkable speed, [I totally knew that creepy girl had to be some kind of stalker! She's always there staring at those ex-basketball club guys by the second-floor billboards.]
Morgana's ears twisted with a distinct impression of disappointment. "So much for it being 'hot' for a girl to be thinking of you."
[No objections here,] Akira texted. [Any luck with those Madarame pupils?]
Mishima's ID blinked. [None I can find any traces of. Which in itself is suspicious when I've confirmed he had fifteen students. I'll text you guys an update if I find anything else.] He signed out, followed in short order by Ann and Makoto.
[Weird that he'd have fifteen dudes and NONE of them would make it big.] Ryuji's ID lingered. [Hey, you still up in the library?]
[2-D. I got cleaning duty, so I figured I'd just stay and do homework here.]
[Want to run?]
The tip of Morgana's tail twitched. "You two might as well. I don't want to take the Phantom Thieves into Mementos when we're down two members. Just let me out the front and I'll see you at Leblanc."
[Give me a minute to change and I'll meet you at the courtyard,] Akira sent before closing the chat.
After slipping Morgana out the front gate, the transfer student found Ryuji bracing against the back practice building wall and stretching. "Yo."
"Hey, Ryuji." Akira joined him in stretching. "So Shujin used to have a basketball club?"
"Yeah," the track star said, raising his arm to stretch out his side. "Shujin used to be like a lotta' other schools. Had kendo, basketball, volleyball, even a swim team before I got here. Dunno where they practiced." He switched his raised arms and leaned to his left. "Basketball lost their budget and just kinda petered out my first year here. Wouldn't be surprised if Kamoshida was behind it. Only club he didn't fuck with was kendo, but that's 'cause they never won a meet." He straightened up, his eyes taking a faraway look. "Now track was Shujin's big deal. We were gonna beat the regionals again… and maybe even place in the nationals."
Akira scratched his scalp. "I know he broke your leg, but how come the track coach didn't stop it?"
Ryuji snorted and straightened, just to lower into a pose stretching out his left calf. "Yamauchi – first-year language arts teacher – brought up accusations of 'mishandling club money'. Tch. Effin' lapdog just wanted to suck off Kamoshida. Kicked Wada-san out. Kamoshida took over as sub." He stood up straight, hands clenching in tight fists. "Shithead made us do shuffle sprints right after a long run. We'd go 'round the whole block, but he'd never let us drink."
The cognitive runner tripping and falling back the treadmill into the spiked roller flashed in Akira's mind. "He was doing the same kinda thing to you he did to those dupes in his nightmare castle." He shook his head. "Why didn't any of the other guys on the track team go after him?"
Ryuji folded his arms, the rolled-up arms of his white shirt reminding Akira of shimenawa wrapped around temple trees. Those brown eyes scanned the broken clouds in the sky. "He treated all us like shit. Went after me 'specially." Ryuji's eyes fell to the transfer student. "Knew I'd fight back." He nudged the transfer student with his elbow. "A bit like you, eh?"
Akira elbowed him back, then tugged the sleeves of his PE jacket straight. "You got a mouth on you, but you take as good as you dish out. How'd Captain Ass-Hat get you?" He blinked. "I mean, if it's not too—"
"Naw," Ryuji waved him off. His posture tightened a little, but the creases in his forehead smoothed out. "You prolly already guessed it. Told everyone Ma was a drunk's sleaze." His teeth clenched together, though with the corners of his lips turned up. "I knocked him on his fat ass. Everyone went quiet." He jammed his fists in his exercise slacks. "Then he had ta get back up. Shoved me down an' broke my leg." His lips drooped into a frown and he peered out over the courtyard. "Used that ta shut down the track team."
A brief wind blew.
Akira came alongside the track star and stared out at the packed turf. "They should've stood up for you." He shifted his weight from one foot to another. "Thinking about what might've happened if things had gone different?"
"Nah." Ryuji said, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. "Well, maybe a bit. But I ain't so good at keepin' my head down. Don't want 'em goin' the way I went."
Akira moved a few steps on and leaned against a support strut for the covered walkways. "Doesn't seem like you went so bad. You're still running, and damn good at it too. You still had enough heart to hold up against Kamoshida, even when they should've had your back. Still took care of your mom… and even stood up for me." He shook his head. "They don't know what they lost."
Ryuji drew in a deep breath, a surprising level of contemplation deep in his eyes. "That's all in the past. I mean, Shujin could make a new track team, but it would hafta be a different one." He slipped his hands back in his pockets. "Old one has too many scars. Even if I didn't eff it up for all'a them, it'd never work if I tried to go back. Small time meets and prob's like that? If you're gonna do somethin', go big or go home." He paced closer and elbowed Akira, knocking him out of his casual lean. "I gotta place here. You know, with you guys. No need to look back." He gazed out at the sun dipping behind the skyline. "But if those guys could make a new track team, I bet it would be good for everyone." He clapped his hands. "Enough with mopin' – let's get to runnin'."
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Early Evening
Shujin Library
With Ryuji and Makoto both gone, conversation bubbled around the library. When Akira's phone buzzed, he dove for the excuse to get out and do something besides homework in Tokyo's noisiest library.
The ID Queen Togo stared up at him, and he felt his face heat up. [Good evening, Akira-kun. Cram school is over, but I still feel like math today. Still interested in tutoring?]
He blinked. He muttered, "Feel like math? What on Earth is wrong with you, girl?"
Morgana yawned, blinking bleary eyes from his hiding spot in the transfer student's satchel. "Who is it?"
Akira weighed bringing the leader along. On the plus side, he was pretty astute about almost any subject and lacked the transfer student's aversion to math or poetry. That could help during study later. On the minus side, he couldn't talk freely if a personal topic came up, and with Hifumi, he wanted to be able to talk about anything. "Shogi rival."
"Ugh." Morgana groused, but at least kept it quiet enough the student in the next cubicle couldn't hear.
[For Queen Togo? Anywhere, any time.]
Three dots danced next to her ID for a moment, then disappeared. A second later, she sent, [The tutoring is for YOU, silly. Have you been around the Waseda Language School?]
Akira began packing up. [I have not.]
[There is a lovely stir-fry restaurant in the northwest corner. Kanaoka's.] She linked a review of the place giving its exact address.
[I'll text you when I get there.] Akira slipped his last book under Morgana and headed out, letting the team leader off at Shibuya.
Kanaoka's Stir-Fry
Akira stepped into the long, narrow eatery dominated by bamboo paneling, but saw no sign of the shogi master with a cute omamori-style knot in her hair. He sent her a text telling her he'd arrived, but when it sat unread, he plopped down at the worn wood bench by the front. He pulled up an online shogi match and waited.
Fingers tapping him on his shoulder jolted him out of another win. Akira looked up to see the poised brunette leaning over him, looking prim but expectant. He held a hand over his heart to try to quell the thundering beats. "Geez, Togo-san. You didn't tell me you were part ninja."
She giggled and led him to the front host's desk, where he led the pair of students to a booth table in the back. As she strode down the restaurant aisle, he couldn't help but look at her back and think of the wine red, backless dress she wore in the CM Now photo spread. And the way it cascaded down her shoulders and drew attention to curves even her school uniform couldn't dim.
Akira swallowed against the sharp feeling of dryness in his mouth and throat. After ordering some appetizers, they settled into tutoring. Akira fixed his eyes on his papers and went through more math than he remembered absorbing from class in a week.
He just finished a derivative drill when a handful of whispering boys in the periphery stood up from their table and scurried through the neo-modern furnishings. The first squeaked, "It is!"
The second, a boy with a bowl cut, let out a sound Akira would've sworn was a squee. "The Venus of Shogi!"
Taking in a slow breath, Hifumi covered her face with one hand.
The third boy in the rumpled uniform of one of the local colleges held up his phone. The click of a shutter emanated from it.
Akira shot from his seat and interposed himself. "Dude, show some respect!"
Squeaker tried to step around the transfer student, his eyes never leaving the shogi master. "Can I have your autograph?"
Hifumi slapped her hand to the table. "No autographs, selfies, or social media."
Squeaker pushed against the transfer student, just to get push back. "Aw, c'mon. You can't shut down your adoring fans. We love you!"
Another shutter click came from the snaggle-toothed moron ignoring her explicit request.
Akira's blood thundered in his ears. "Did you not hear her? Back off!" He snatched for Snaggle Tooth's phone and a tug-of-war ensued.
Fists clenching, Hifumi's face reddened. "Stop it!"
Akira's stomach twisted and he let go, bitterness coating his throat. Her anger may have swept over the intruding men, but her piercing gaze stopped on him.
Footsteps pounded from the front, but it wasn't sycophant cops coming to throw him against the wall. No rich bastard with orange-tinted glasses mocking him with liquor-suffused breath. Just the host who led them to their table, and a beefy guy with thin remnants of black hair. Both wore the same black shirt and dress slacks of the restaurant's uniform. The beefy man snapped, "We do not allow disruptions in this establishment."
Snaggle Tooth aimed his phone's camera at Hifumi, who clenched her jaw.
The manager grabbed Snaggle Tooth by the shoulder and hauled him around to stare into the pipsqueak's eyes. "Settle your check and leave. We only provide for customers who respect this place and other customers." His glare swept over the other standing men.
Bowl Cut flapped his jaw a couple times. "But—"
"Out!" The manager turned to the host. "Settle their checks and see to it they leave immediately." The three college morons filed out behind the host. Instead of looking pleased, the manager turned to the transfer student. "Out."
Hifumi massaged her temples with her fingertips. "It's okay, he's with me."
Akira scratched his neck, eyes unable to meet the other two. "I didn't help de-escalate."
Her head tilted just a little forward, exasperation writ over her features. "You were trying to do what you thought was right. And help me."
The manager's stern posture relaxed.
Akira took off his glasses to wipe the lenses with a microfiber cloth, unable to bear their scrutiny. "I should have tried calling the manager—"
"You're damn right," the thinning-haired man snapped.
Hifumi sat straight against the back of her bench, her green eyes fixing on him. Her voice jumped a couple decibels, "Sit down!"
Akira sat, sliding his glasses back on his face. The manager walked away and the transfer student fixed his glasses. "Sorry about that."
She tapped her pen against her notes in a rapid patter for a second. Her lips pursed before she forced herself to set the pen down. When she spoke, her melodious voice was quiet but filled with stern disappointment. "Akira, you're the only one still holding onto it." She tapped his knuckles with her pen. "I have to deal with fans occasionally. What you need to do is let things go. Getting angry about it never helps."
Akira let out a whoosh of air. "Anger can come in handy sometimes."
She rolled her eyes, but the tension in her posture held fast. "Maybe. But remember the Beatitudes. 'I tell you anyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment'."
Akira scratched his scalp. He was tempted to look it up on his phone, but she'd see it for sure. "Uh… where's that?"
Her easy, assured gaze sharpened. For a moment he felt like her gaze peeled away not just his readied excuses, but his skin and bones and stared straight into his soul. "You're Catholic and don't know where the Beatitudes are?"
Unable to withstand her deep green gaze, he looked at the floor as his face flared with heat. "I just converted end of last year, okay?" He considered telling her the guards took away his Bible during his stay in jail until the judge pronounced him guilty. "I haven't even finished reading the Old Testament yet."
Her intense gaze held for a moment longer, then softened as she sat back against her booth seat. "Matthew, Chapter 5. But if you're not very familiar with the Old Testament, I'd suggest reading Luke first. He interviewed the surviving disciples like Matthew the tax collector, but was himself a Gentile, not a Jew, and also wrote for a non-Jewish audience. Matthew and Mark both presuppose quite a bit of Jewish tradition, so you can lose some nuance by reading them without the background of the Septuagint."
Akira held his chin in his hand and looked over her. A smile crawled over his face. "You are amazing, Togo-san. Every time we meet, I learn something new. Sorry about those three jerks who don't think of you besides the red dresses and costumes."
Hifumi's smile, which had been creeping its way across her face, went flat in the blink of an eye. She tapped her pen for a moment. "I figured you'd look them up." She set her pen down on her notes with a thump. "Sorry, that sounded more aggressive than I intended. I did even tell you about it." She looked up at him, the meekness of her posture clashing with that sexy lip bite. "What did you think?"
Akira swallowed. His mouth went dry and heat scorched his face. "I… uh…" She continued staring, and he realized he would have to answer if he didn't want to pull a Mishima and run away from the problem.
His mind reminded him Akira never ran, and he'd need to give a careful answer. His mouth went ahead without the rest of him. "I'm surprised a devout Catholic would model for such flamboyant photos."
She let out a 'tsk', though he could tell Hifumi's consternation was directed at herself. "You mean gaudy and scandalous." The faint dusting of pink on her cheeks darkened.
Akira scrambled to try to recover. "Uh… there's nothing wrong with being a model. Ann-san does that sometimes."
A hunch still in Hifumi's shoulders, her eyes snapped to his. Given the tension in the small muscles in her neck, he couldn't be sure if she was angry or embarrassed. "Excuse me?"
"She's a classmate," he explained, tugging at his collar to get some air. "She works as a model for her part-time job. Sometimes she talks about the scramble which happens when she has to sub for somebody else."
"Oh," Hifumi said, before taking her water glass. Her deep green eyes stared into the half-filled container.
Akira examined her posture, trying to figure out what was whirling through the gears behind her eyes. "You want me to put you two in touch? She might have some advice."
Hifumi took a deep drink, then set her glass down and picked up her pen. "Oh, I don't want to be a bother." She swallowed as if trying to work down tension. "I hardly have any time anyway, as full as Mother keeps my schedule. If it wasn't for bringing in money from our tutoring, Mother wouldn't even allow me to do this." Hifumi gave a bitter smile. "She definitely wouldn't if she knew it was with a boy. It's about cultivating the image of a shogi personage, you understand." Those green orbs flicked up to him and the tension returned to her posture. "She's as strict about what I can't do as what I must. I haven't even been on a date since middle school."
Akira opened his mouth to say something, anything. His heart shot into his throat, telling him he had a chance at the same time his mind told him he had no chance with a brilliant beauty like her.
She turned a page in her math book. "I'm sorry for bothering you with all that. Let's get back to derivatives."
She kept them on-task for the remainder of their short time together in the restaurant with nothing but a handful of appetizers. Akira tried to keep his mind on the math, but by the time they departed, he couldn't help but think about whether his tutor's mother could do with a change of heart.
AN: The collision course between Akira and Hifumi picks up, and Akira learns his friends are more like him in his troubles than he thought. The game didn't take much advantage of either Haru or Hifumi's characters despite both of them being relatively prominent figures, but I don't have the game's constraints. I hope you all like how I work them in. Leave a review with your thoughts, questions, and where you think things are going!