Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.
Thank you to the two Guests for their reviews.
I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.
Chapter 39: - The Emperor and The Hanged Man
There was so much to do day, not only did we have to get through the lessons while dodging being accosted by Niijima-senpai, but afterwards was when the work began. We'd need to meet up and get Yusuke prepared for combat in the Metaverse with his weapon, plus it would be good to evaluate how the others were handling their weapons and if there needed to be any fine tuning done to their styles.
"Oh, our grades are out," A female voice commented. I walked over to the crowd of students and started to scan for my name, Ryūji and Ann's names were unfortunately easy to find simply by glancing at the bottom; Niijima-senpai was obviously at the top of her grade and I was fairly close to the top of the second years with Ren also being quite high up.
"Nice work," I congratulated. Ren allowed a bashful smile to curl onto his lips as he pulled at a lock of his hair, with that we headed towards class. It would be nice to have a little bit of relaxation now that we were through the sealed door and had a new ally.
*Persona 5 Royal*
"Yusuke, we still need to explain the basics to you, don't we?" Morgana commented. We were all gathered at my house, with everyone in their exercise clothing and ironically enough Yusuke was dressed in a similar fashion to myself – that had earned him some looks from Ryūji – but in differing shades of blue. All of us were sat in my living room so that we could talk before starting training at Morgana's wise insistent.
"Oh, you mean about the Metaverse and the Nav. Yeah, I guess that stuff is pretty important," Ann admitted. She was looking much better than yesterday, which honestly made me feel much better; I don't know what was burning through her mind about yesterday but whatever it was, it clearly wasn't dragging her down like the way that the weight of Kamoshida's darkness had been.
"Please elaborate," Yusuke requested. He was so serious about this with a ramrod posture and steely focused eyes, but that was the necessary mind set for him to have, we needed to understand the strange world we worked in as best as possible for us to take advantage of it and be victorious over our enemies especially since they were native to that world.
"Okay, let's start from the beginning," Morgana decided. It was the best place for us to explain everything we knew about the Metaverse. "First, the Metaverse spots where we act as the Phantom thieves are called Palaces. Palaces are worlds that take form from someone's cognition… a materialisation of their perception of reality," Morgana explained. A contemplative look appeared on Yusuke's face although it was tinged with concern.
"So, do we each hold Palaces within ourselves as well?" Yusuke asked. A normal assumption to make given that I had done the same thing after my first Palace encounter, but at least we would be able to reassure Yusuke that this wasn't the case thanks to our knowledge which was only growing the more we interacted with that world.
"No. Individual Palaces are quite rare. The general public has one single shared Palace called Mementos which is where we train and handle small requests for Changes of Heart," Ren answered. Yusuke's concern faded away and he seemed quite relieved to know that not everyone he meant would have such a monstrous thing hiding within their hearts.
"Palaces form from strong distorted desires. Ouvrard's was Attachment, Kamoshida's was Lust and Madarame's is Vanity," Morgana explained. This caught Yusuke's attention and he focused upon the cat who was sat on the table like some kind of statue, except for the fact that his tail kept flicking about in an almost lazy manner.
"They basically gotta be criminals. Real bastards like Kamoshida or Madarame. Can't speak for Ouvrard 'cause I never met her, but she sounds like an absolute bitch," Ryūji spoke up. The boy's eyes darted over to me and I could see the concern within his brown eyes, I wasn't going to say anything but I flashed him a grateful look for his kindness.
"As for Persona users like us, we're uncapable of forming a Palace. A Persona is essentially a Shadow tamed, a Shadow is the darkest aspects of a person given form but to accept that Shadow instead of hiding it or burying it, pretending it doesn't exist, causes it to transform into a Persona. A Palace is Ruled by the Shadow, therefore with no Shadow born from distorted desires, a Palace cannot form," I explained.
"S-So that's how it works…," Ann muttered. Everyone's eyes were wide as I said those words, even Morgana seemed surprised, but less that this was true and more that I had this knowledge, Ann was busy talking too quietly for the rest of us to hear while Ryūji was absolutely surprised by the revelation, Yusuke seemed intrigued by the words I had spoken if his raised eyebrow was anything to go by while Ren seemed to be thinking about something.
"O-Obviously I knew that!" Ryūji claimed. Everyone proceeded to stop what they were doing and gave the boy an unimpressed at his words, even Yusuke could tell that the boy had no clue about that fact. "Oh yeah, and we use the Metaverse Navigator app on our phones to get into that world!" Ryūji added on. This was such a clear change of topic, but it was also necessary, so we simply rolled with it.
"It's actually pretty simple. Just say a person's name, physical world location and what they perceive that location as, then you're in," Ann explained. She drummed her hands on her knees as she tried to think about how to explain this to Yusuke. "Uhhh, so like Madarame's would be shack then his distortion is that he thinks it's a museum," Ann explained.
"How do you know what their Palace is going to look like if you have never set foot in it before?" Yusuke asked. At that, everyone proceeded to turn their gazes to me which I had completely expected to happen, but I still sighed at this none the less since it was going to have to be me who explained the situation about my eyes.
"That's partially my job and partially logical guess work. I've been born with eyes that can perceive the Metaverse, these eyes let me get a clearer view which allows me to make sense of the Palace's shape. We can also guess what it is by thinking how the person with the distortion would view the building based upon their personality," I explained. Yusuke leaned forward when I spoke about my eyes with a certain gleam in his eyes that made me fidget slightly.
"Hm, I feel as though I have a good grasp on the basic concepts. If anything arises which I fail to understand, I'll rely on those more experienced than myself," Yusuke decided. That was probably the best thing for him to do, so long as he had a solid grasp of the core concepts then the main objective of our pre-training meeting had been fulfilled.
"Yeah! I gotcha covered, newbie!" Ryūji declared. He had a big grin on his face when he said those words and while his energetic enthusiasm was a boon to all of us, it did nothing to stop the unimpressed look that Morgana and Ann proceeded to shoot the punk. In fact, Ann went as far as to lightly jab Ryūji in the ribs which caused him to jump away slightly from the contact as Ann turned to face Yusuke who had been watching the scene slightly bemused.
"Uh… you should probably ask Morgana or Natsu-chan if you need anything," Ann insisted. Yusuke nodded his head in agreement with those words, honestly Morgana was right to be the first choice since it was obvious he had more knowledge about the Metaverse as only he recognised the doorway had a physical world counterpart and what to do about getting that door opened.
"Thinking back to Madarame though… I can't believe he'd consider pressing charges," Morgana stated. It was quite the shock for us to have, Kamoshida certainly had been willing to do something horrible to Ren and Ryūji just for standing up to him, but getting prosecuted was miles above simply getting expelled from school.
"Yes, I've never seen him show such anger before. He is most likely quite serious about that," Yusuke admitted. Which was very much not a good sign for us, if Yusuke had never seen him like this then we had to take the threats Madarame was making towards us as seriously as possible, which meant completing the Palace as soon as we could to enact the Change of Heart before he could fulfil that threat.
"We did stumble across something pretty incriminating and scandalous, even if we couldn't out him completely, merely telling a journalist like that lady we met could ruin his reputation by way of salacious rumours. Madarame can't have that so he'll ruin the source before we can leak it since it'll take time to get that news out what with his exhibit going on," I explained. It was the kind of reaction that was worthy of coming from my uncle or one of his minions.
"What should we do? There's no way we'll be able to win if that happens," Ann worried. She fidgeted slightly in her seat as she spoke those words, probably imagining that the police would be breaking down my door any moment, but if what Yusuke said yesterday was true then we were probably safe for now, but we still needed to act fast.
"Don't worry Takamaki-san. I'm certain he won't act until the final day of the exhibit which is June fifth. Simply put, I doubt he would be so foolish as to taint his name with a trial during his exhibition," Yusuke reassured. The confidence that Yusuke spoke with went a long way to dropping Ann's shoulders from where her worry had hiked them to.
"Alright, so we just gotta steal Madarame's heart by then. There's no way we're gonna let him press charges… we'll show people who he really is!" Ryūji declared. He was filled with quite a large amount of energy now that we had a plan and a deadline for us to act by; now we just had to find the Treasure and then execute our heist.
"Might I ask, exactly why are we at Chiba-san's house?" Yusuke questioned. It was a fair question for him to raise since it had been something he wouldn't anticipate, despite discussing it in front of him me and Ren had been a little obtuse in explaining why we had to meet up here suddenly; him not asking would have been far more surprising than him doing so.
"Just Natsumi is fine Yusuke, you're one of us now so no need for formalities," I insisted. The painter inclined his head as if accepting this, especially since I was using his first name now, this was going to take getting used to. "As for why you're here, you don't know how to use your Rebel's Weapon, so I'm training you," I explained. With that, I pushed myself up from the table and moved towards the dojo's doors.
"A sword is different to a brush, of course I don't know how to use it," Yusuke protested. Shuffling sounded behind me which indicated that I was being followed by the other, I unlocked the dojo's door before turning around to face the five other Thieves with Yusuke having a deeply confused look on his face as the other three humans were grinning slightly in their own ways. Morgana was on Ren's shoulders, apparently not snooping this time, and he shook his head in disbelief.
"Are you so sure?" I asked. Opening the door, we all stepped inside and I made my way to the naginatas and pulled one off. "A sword is simply another tool; it is up to the wielder to make something of it. A brush can either make simple words or entrancing masterpieces. A blade can shred wheat or carve something magnificent. I wonder what you'll turn your katana into," I commented. Turning around, I found the others had drifted to their weapons except for Morgana – obviously – and Yusuke who gave me a rather intense look.
"A weapon can never bring about beauty the way a brush can," Yusuke argued. Those words caused a flare of annoyance to surge up within me, it was probably ridiculous to feel that way as it was only his opinion. But these were my father's teachings, one of the few things I had left of my family; so, to hear someone dismissing them so unkindly, almost insultingly from Yusuke's tone… well, it was enough to have my eyes harden as I dropped into a fighting stance.
"Take up your sword!" I ordered. I saw the other three share looks of concern given my sudden and almost arctic-sounding demand; Yusuke himself was surprised, but he proceeded to pick up a wooden katana and faced with a firm expression on his face as he adjusted himself so that he could point the false weapon at me. I mentally catalogued all the weaknesses he exposed in that moment, from his feeble grip to his weak stance.
I didn't let him make the first move. Instead, I darted in. Like a hawk after prey, I shot across the dojo's floor until I was close enough to strike out. The false blade of my naginata lunged towards Yusuke face, he twisted to the side with widened eyes. But his deplorable stance hindered his retreat as he stumbled back over his feet, barely maintaining his balance. Even worse, his sword dropped to the side, leaving him completely unguarded.
Biting down all expressions of annoyance, I pulled my weapon back in and quickly re-orientated myself. Yusuke seemed to be floundering as he brought his weapon up to face me. I thrust my weapon forward to spear passed his blade. With that position, I sharply pushed left and down with the shaft, tearing the fake weapon from Yusuke's loose hands.
The wooden weapon let out a dull thud as it hit the ground. I quickly kicked my foot against it, sending the weapon flying away from us. Yusuke foolishly gaped after the object which left him exposed. I pulled my weapon back and flipped it around, the weapon was thrust out so that the butt of it scored just passed Yusuke's cheek, not damaging him at all, but making a very obvious point, nonetheless.
Yusuke's eyes darted to the weapon that had just bypassed him, but I wasn't done yet. Instead, I pulled the shaft back in a sweeping arc and spun the object around. Blade or shaft, tip or butt, it didn't matter which I used; but as Yusuke stood there completely stunned, I struck the air around the knees, elbows, neck and several points of the torso before finally stepping back. The tip of my weapon resting against the ground.
"H-How did you move like that. It was like watching a dance of butterflies, o-or perhaps a whirlwind of cherry blossoms… I… how did you manage that?" Yusuke floundered. He seemed to be struggling to articulate his thoughts, but that was a good thing to me, he seemed to be comprehending that there was more to fighting that simply swinging a weapon around as they pleased; that was all I really wanted to impart.
"Training. My dad taught me since I was young. True masters make an art of their capabilities, I'm not there yet," I admitted. Moving away, I collected the katana Yusuke had chosen and handed it back to the boy who took it with an almost reverent motion. "You should study the way katanas have been wielded. They can teach you all the different methods to fight, perhaps they'd even show you just how much beauty can exist in wielding a weapon," I challenged.
"I would be willing to learn," Yusuke admitted. He lifted the katana up and bowed to me, I blinked in surprise at his words, but if he was going to listen then I might as well do everything I could to ensure he was prepared; I ran through what Yusuke needed to do in order to make sure he could better himself already. Once done I turned to look at the other three and immediately caught sight of Ryūji's grin.
"Don't be smiling Ryūji!" I commanded. The false blonde blanched as Ann immediately began to giggle while Ren and Yusuke started talking to each other. "All of you are going through training today," I warned. That stopped Ann's giggles as Ryūji seemed to contemplate running for the door, Ren on the other hand gripped his dagger and stepped up to face me.
I proceeded to spar quite thoroughly with the other three which tested whether they had actually taken onboard what I'd taught them the last session. All of them had thankfully, although Ann still struggled to control the whip – only practice would fix that – while Ryūji still over swung on occasion – again, practice – which ended up with him flat on his back thanks to a quick leg sweep. Ren was the best improved, but his weapon was also slightly easier to wield than a whip or bludgeoning weapon.
Eventually we ended the training session, since it was basically the middle of the day, I set about making some dinner for everyone with some help from Ren and Ryūji. Yusuke practically wolfed the meal down like he was starving which made me wonder if the food was actually that good… or if he hadn't eaten since we saw him yesterday; I hope he did eat regularly, or this might be a problem later on.
"Hey Natsumi," Ren called. I looked over at the ravenette as he walked up to me, we'd all changed clothes and the others were prepared to leave, we were going down into Mementos so Yusuke could practice but we'd have a break first, so I was curious as to what our leader wanted. "I was wondering if you'd come with me and bring your bow," Ren requested. That was interesting, I didn't have anything else going on today, so there was no harm in going with him and learning what he had in mind.
"Sure, we need the rest day before diving back into the Palace, especially Yusuke," I admitted. Ren seemed rather relieved by the words, a little too much if I was honest, but I didn't see anything wrong so quickly collected my purse and bow, we all departed my house. All of us walked over to the station in order to return to Shibuya since we all needed to get there, before we could split up again for whatever the others wanted to do today.
We made small talk on the way to Shibuya, mainly focusing on how safe Yusuke would be continuing to stay with Madarame. But the young painter was adamant so that we could have someone around to keep an eye on him. The firm set of his jaw, the icy glint of his eyes and the belief in his voice; all of these were enough to sway all of us that he was going to stay, regardless of personal feelings.
The moment we stepped off the train, Ren immediately took the lead and guided me out of the station. We walked passed the tram statue where I saw Ren give a nod to a man in a suit. Normally this wouldn't have bothered me but seeing the green sash – a political marker – strapped across his chest drew a deep scowl from my lips. I said nothing though, Ren wouldn't possess the same disregard for politicians that I did so it wasn't right to express my disgust for that position to him.
Instead, I focused on following Ren as he headed over the crossing and into the shopping centre of Shibuya. Ren walked a little further in before turning to the left and heading down an alleyway, I followed him in and around the right hand turn only to find him standing in front of a shop… at least I think it was a shop. The windows at the front were too dark to make the details out but it almost looked like there was a mesh covering. At the top was a neon green sign that read Untouchable in English.
Ren easily pushed open the door and stepped inside, I followed after him and my eyes widen at the interior. Guns. Very convincing gun models were sealed behind glass cases and there was other military paraphernalia such as helmets, gas masks and things I couldn't recognise. Filling most of the store were little boxes no doubt containing guns. I think I know were Ryūji got that model gun from. Looking over to Ren, I saw that he was stood by the counter behind which someone was sat holding a magazine.
The individual behind the counter was a middle-aged man with incredibly short grey hair – I almost thought he was bald at first – and grey coloured eyes, faint yet noticeable stubble decorated his chin, with sideburns running down the sides of his face and he wore earrings. A tattoo of a grey coloured gecko could just be seen on the left side of his neck near the back. He wore a grey pin-striped hat with yellow ear defenders, a black turtleneck sweater, a long grey coat with a red peace symbol on the left hem of his coat, simple blue jeans and black leather boots which were resting on the counter.
"Who's the chick, kid?" The surly man asked. He looked at me and I felt a small itch form along my back as I tried to figure out why I felt this way, I adjusted my stance ever so slightly, causing the bag containing my bow to shift and pull the man's gaze towards it; a small spark of interest filled his eyes as he looked at it before turning back to face Ren with a somewhat stony expression.
"A friend, Iwai-san. I'm actually here because I need some advice," Ren admitted. All the man responded with was to raise an eyebrow as if prompting the curly haired boy to continue with whatever request the boy had thought off. "She's an archer, but her bow isn't cutting it lately, can you do anything?" Ren asked. A small scoff that sounded almost like a laugh echoed from Iwai as he then proceeded to bring his feet off the counter and stand up.
"Bows, huh? Do I look like a bow guy?" Iwai asked. Ren remained silently, the two pairs of grey eyes silently clashing with each other, before the man let out a sigh. "Alright, let me have a look girl," Iwai insisted. I moved over and set the bag on the counter, unzipping it to reveal the weapon it contained. "Hmm, traditional nisun-nobi," Iwai commented. Surprising, he knew the exact make and that it had been crafted with the traditional methods, despite his prior question almost making it seem like he wouldn't know this "Hey kid, step outside," Iwai insisted. Ren didn't argue, instead he turned and left, once the door closed, Iwai looked at me. "What's your name girl? First name only is fine," Iwai asked.
"Natsumi," I answered. The response had been immediate, I didn't know much about this man or why Ren had decided to bring me here to deal with my bow – admittedly it was underperforming and that would be dangerous as we faced stronger Shadows – but, perhaps there might be a way to ensure that my range weapon was made better; therefore, it was best to trust this man.
"I know nothin' about bows. But the kid is helping me out. A big help actually. So, I'll see what I can do about the bow," Iwai stated. What could Ren be doing that was helping this man? This man who had an almost dangerous aura coming off of him and seemed quite interested in guns, practically encyclopaedic given his ability to recreate his models so much that thought made them real. Also, his claim to know nothing about bows might not be all true, he knew something, even if it was small.
"I'll help," I commented. The grey eyes shot to me and I found they had a piercing quality, not to the strength that Ren had and I found this one didn't feel innate like Ren's eyes; instead it almost felt like he had learned it. "I can provide you with my knowledge in exchange for your help," I explained. This was the best way to aid him, he needed to know and I had the information – or could at least locate it – to help him.
"Huh, you don't got any fear do you," Iwai stated. A smirk that seemed to just tap dance the edge of a smile curled onto his face; he seemed almost pleased by this false assumption, his man was dangerous and I could practically taste it, whoever he had been it still bore into his daily life even if he wasn't quite aware of this fact. That caused a slightly itchy sensation to make its' way across my skin.
"I do fear though, but I trust Ren. If Ren trusts you, then I trust you," I answered. The man stared at me with a heavy weight to his gaze while I simply adjusted my stance ever so slightly, we held each other's stare for a long time before the man proceeded to let out the lightest of sounds that could have been a scoff or perhaps a laugh or even just a regular sigh; it was that ambiguous.
"Alright girl, here's my contact information is you need it," Iwai stated. He proceeded to hand over a business card which I tucked into the pocket of my skirt, I zipped up my bow and swung it back over my shoulder; I bid goodbye to the man and proceeded to step out of the building, giving Ren a look when I spotted him leaning on the building across from us in such a cavalier manner.
"You have some strange friends Ren," I remarked. Coming here to update our other teammates guns might be a regular occurrence but for him to have actually struck up an odd sort of acquaintance with the shop owner wasn't something I expected. Ren smiled and moved over to stand beside me with a mischievous twinkle within his eyes.
"And you are one to talk Natsumi," Ren responded. I lightly shoved his shoulder which caused him to sway slightly but he kept his balance, we turned and began to walk towards Shibuya in order to join the others and put Yusuke through his paces.