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.
I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy
Chapter 64: - The Third Target
While on the train ride, the train news was reporting on the mafia's actions but it also mentioned Haneruya, a restaurant that had been set alight by a worker that claimed to not know why he did it. That was added to the list of things that me and the Velvet siblings needed to investigate, but quite odd that this was the second restaurant to get targeted in recent days, before it had been mostly vehicular accidents or other sort of crimes in wholly unrelated places.
"I saw Niijima arguing with the principal about the mafia or… something," A student commented. He sounded excited about it which wasn't a good thing in my opinion, but then he did sound young. "What was that all about?" He wondered. Me and Ren shot each other a look, to have been arguing with the principal meant he also knew about this situation; was there nothing that scum knew of but didn't care to resolve.
"I hear her older sister's involved with the investigation. Maybe she's just trying to play detective, too," The student next to him commented. That certainly wasn't the case; clearly, she had done some investigation, but I wouldn't count it as playing detective, though I was surprised to hear that Sae-kun was involved in the case. I did wonder how the elder Niijima must have been doing in her life.
"Are you kidding me?! I can't handle a student council president with no focus," The excited student complained. How dare he!? Makoto was solely focused on making sure that no one else had to suffer something unnecessary like the volleyball team had; I started forward ready to lay into these children who knew nothing, when something gently grabbed my wrist. I turned around and found Ren holding onto me with a calm demeanour to his face as he gently tugged me back to stand beside him.
"I get that you're angry. I don't know what your bond with Niijima is, but don't take it out on other people. We'll fix this issue and then they'll see her focusing on them," Ren reassured. I let a sigh escape from me, I knew that he was right, but it was still annoying to hear such things being spoken about her; Ren suddenly leaned in close. "Especially since you are very intimidating," Ren joked. I huff out a laugh and gently pushed him in the shoulder causing the boy to sway backwards with his own laugh escaping him.
*Persona 5 Royal*
Once school was over, we quickly made our way to Shibuya in order to enact our plan, despite my cool certainty from yesterday now that the moment was upon us, I'm almost certain there were butterflies creating a storm in my stomach. I tried to focus myself and calm down so as to not blow our chances of getting answers completely out of the water, I continued to do this until Yusuke arrived at last at Shibuya station.
"Mkay, we're all here," Ryūji commented. At least with everyone present then we would have more eyes and ears watching over the incidents in Shibuya to feed information to me and Morgana while I played the part of bait; hopefully this would work as we had planned and give us the very important information that we sorely needed.
"There sure are a lot of high schoolers during the day. They must be targeting them somehow," Ann stated. It made sense for them to target high schoolers during this time of the day even more as I looked at the crowd of uniform wearing adolescents, it was so easy to pick them out even among the crowd that was gathering which just made these people easier targets so long as they fit the desired criteria.
"Finding the specifics may be difficult. With such a crowd, the odds are against us," Yusuke worried. That was quite true, but if I narrowed my search to 'suspicious characters talking to high schoolers' then I'd probably have better luck in spotting the people that we were hoping to capture; though that might come with the risk of me actually missing them if I remained to focus on that narrow viewpoint, but it seemed better than looking at anything and everything which would definitely mean I'd miss something.
"We have to do this and the quicker we do it, the better," Ren insisted. Our leader was right, we needed to be quick about this because the longer we took then not only would we look more suspicious to everyone, but we would also end up losing the chance to find the mafia members today if we ended up taking too long.
"Right! We're gonna grab 'em by the tail!" Ryūji declared. That was essentially the point of today, which meant that I had to locate the person or people who were responsible for this savage recruitment and blackmail methodology; I pushed off the rail that I had been leaning on and adjusted the straps of my bag which was already containing Morgana.
"I'll head over to Central Street then," I decided. It was best to get this mission started so that we could help out the people who were suffering at their hands, the others all turned to look at me with varying degrees of worry on their faces which I understood; but this was the best way to get the information we needed. Ren stepped forward so that he was closer to me than the others currently were.
"Okay. Morgana, she's in your paws," Ren reminded. The boy reached a hand out to gently stroke the head of the cat who was currently leaning on my shoulder; I figured that Ren was holding himself back from worrying too much or he was relying upon Morgana to keep his worry from over taking his thinking process.
"You can count on me," Morgana reassured. He seemed quite determined to fulfil the role that he had been assigned, but if I'm honest, I was quite relieved for him to be accompanying me since that at least meant that if I ended up getting into trouble there was someone who could get back-up for me to keep the situation from spiralling out of control.
"Sweet, let's get goin'! Let us know if you find any shady people!" Ryūji encouraged. I nodded my head in agreement and quickly turned to walk away as Morgana proceeded to slip himself back into my bag; it was best for me to put as much distance between my friends and me as possible, even if they were willing to approach people in groups, an isolated individual would likely be more attractive to these people.
I moved through the station towards the Crossing, it was the central shopping area which meant it was probably the best place to start looking for these mafia people. Such a large collection of people would be prime pickings for the mafia since people wouldn't really be able to see if something sketchy was happening, I just had to be careful that I didn't miss anything happening.
"We might end up running into the mafia. Be ready for anything!" Morgana warned. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat at those words as I tried to keep myself calm so that no one would end up getting suspicious of me; the only thing I could do now was search for information to get the proverbial ball rolling on our investigation.
However, before I could get far into the shopping area, I spotted movement in the corner of my eye which caused me to still; I proceeded to look over at the source of the movement and felt my lips pull into a frown at the sight that greeted me. Niijima Makoto was standing there looking at me with a scrutinising gaze, before she proceeded to walk over to me without any more preamble.
"Are you investigating with your friends here today? I hope something comes of it. I'll be counting on you," Niijima-senpai commented. I tensed up at her words, but I also wasn't about to reveal the truth of our task to her; even if she was the one who had given us this task, I wasn't about to give her any more ammunition to use against my friends for that scumbag who controlled our school.
"Is she following us, nah it can't be," Morgana commented. Except that, from what Ren said, Niijima-senpai had indeed been following Ren around prior to the blackmail incident which meant it was highly probable for Niijima-senpai to be following after us in order to actually be watching over what we were doing for this task. I said nothing and instead proceeded to turn away from the woman.
As I turned away, I noticed that a couple of police officers were standing off to the side, it didn't surprise me that they were here given what was going on, but perhaps I could use this. Even though they hadn't caught the boss, there was still a possibility that they might know something that could lead me to someone connected to the mafia; I carefully made my way over to them in order to hear what they might be saying.
"Once again, nothing to report. There are many people falling victim, yet no perpetrators… they appear and disappear as they please… not only that, but they blend in with normal teenagers," One of the officers worried. Well, that was certainly unnerving to hear, since it could make my search for these people much harder unless I truly did manage to draw someone out who was connected to the mafia.
"Stop complaining! If we don't try getting information, people will say the police are useless!" One officer snapped. Except they kind of were useless, Kamoshida's and Madarame's actions might have been hidden from view, but there was plenty going on that they hadn't been able to resolve. "The media are already on our case and the higher-ups aren't doing a thing… this is bad for morale…," The officer admitted. Well, if they were having that much difficulty then I couldn't be that angry at them.
I moved away, walking closer to Untouchable, I really need to visit Iwai again to get something done about my bow, it was still falling short of appropriate performance. There was a group of four men, two who looked like students while the other two were a bit more… unknown so to speak. It seemed like a good idea to approach them and hear what they might be discussing in their group.
"Hey, aren't you interested in all the hottest brand names?" A menacing man wondered. That suggestion, it could certainly be a good way to hook in people who were concerned about appearances by implying this job could provide the funds to obtain those items. "We're having a special sale just over there. How 'bout you go take a peek?" The man suggested. Why did everything they say sound very ominous?
"We ordered way too much so I have a ton left over," A man with some piercing commented. This was just getting more and more suspicious; it was pretty bad that they went and ordered more supplies than they actually ended up needing. "My boss'll kill me if I go back to him with all these extras," The pierced man added on. Seriously, this was getting worse the more that I listened to it. "Look, I'll sell 'em to you for cheap. Whaddya say?" The pierced man pressured
"What should we do?" The glasses wearing student asked. How was anyone falling into this scheme? My warning bells were going off at full volume so I couldn't understand why on earth they were getting tangled up in this; I might have been here to stop them from continuing to torture innocents, but I couldn't believe that some people could be so oblivious to the danger coming off of them.
"It depends on the price, wouldn't you say?" The brown haired student commented. He sounded a little condescending if I was honest but that was probably something that might keep him from being caught up in the trap that was probably being set for them, the pierced man suddenly turned around and looked at me.
"Hey, what about you? These are unforgettable deals," The pierced man claimed. I definitely thought this was suspicious but given that I had no idea about whether these people were mafia or not, then it was likely that I wouldn't be able to continue searching for the actual mafia if I got involved in this which could potentially not be involved in the actual task I had to complete.
"Very sorry, but I'm busy at this moment," I calmly responded. It was best to step away from the situation until I had any confirmation as to whether these men were actually involved in the mafia that I needed to find; hopefully I'd still be able to approach them after turning them down in this manner, if not then it'd probably be best to reach out to Ren for his aid in getting in contact with them.
"Well, that's disappointing. Come back if you change your mind," The pierced man stated. That was a little reassuring to know I would still be able to come back to these men if I managed to figure out that they were connected to the mafia; the man did not seem to be annoyed by my refusal which was the best thing I could hope for at this moment. I took a few steps back and turned my back to the group.
"C'mon, the shop's right around here. How about you come take a look," The menacing man insisted. Seriously this sounded so suspicious just from hearing it that I wouldn't be surprised if these two men really were involved with the mafia; I controlled any impulses that might give away what I was currently feeling.
"It seems like some kind of sale. You probably shouldn't bother," Morgana commented. He wasn't wrong in saying that, but it could also just be something more mundane, as I moved away I noticed something, a man was standing in the alleyway, peering around the edge towards where Untouchable rested; it was so suspicious that I proceeded to walk up to the man and cleared my throat softly, causing him to turn around and face me.
"What's wrong, kid? Don't see guys like me very often?" The man asked. I wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that, suspicious people could be everywhere in the city if not the world depending upon a person's perspective of others; I wondered if there was something else going on. Deciding to take a chance since I hadn't learned anything useful yet, I made my choice.
"Actually sir, I was wondering if you knew where I could get a part-time job?" I asked. I don't know what it was that made me decide if I was going to speak to this man about the mafia, merely that I felt something urging me to speak about this; hopefully I'd be able to get some kind of information about what was going on in Shibuya.
"Hm? Is that supposed to be some kinda password? I have no idea what you're talking about," The man claimed. He was lying, I don't know how just that I did know this fact, which meant that I needed to keep pushing him to get some answers about what was going on. "I haven't been here long. Try talking to someone else," The man insisted. Now that was an interesting bit of information.
"Won't you introduce me to someone?" I requested. I needed to keep myself immensely calm yet seem interested in the conversation that we were having, but I couldn't be too interested since that might just put the man on edge and I'd lose the information that he seemed to have; thankfully it seemed I was convincing enough since the man appeared to be thinking about what I was doing.
"That ain't so easy… I only know one guy, around here… sometimes I see him in the alley across the way, but I don't think he's there today," The man commented. Well, that was rather interesting piece of information, I glanced at the alleyway via the corner of my eye and saw that it was indeed empty but it might be a good place to check out at some point. "He might be near the station. Go there if you wanna see him," The man advised. That was at least something to look for.
"Thank you so much sir," I chimed. With that I turned around and walked away, once a reasonable distance, I pulled out my phone and sent a quick message to the others, directing them to the train station; better I remain here to keep an eye out for anyone. My phone suddenly went off and I looked down at the words being messaged.
Ryūji: Miss President's here. I walked passed her at the station.
Yusuke: Is she keeping an eye on us?
Ann: Maybe. I guess she's curious about all of this
Ryūji: Well let's ignore her if she's not gettin' in our way.
Ryūji: More importantly, how're things on your guys' end?
Ann: Nothing so far I'm going to try staking out the underground walkway.
Ryūji: Then I'll check around the Inogami line. I guess I'll get there from the underground.
Yusuke: I'll gather some more intel in the underground shopping mall as well.
Ren: I'll check everywhere else then.
Ren: Our lead is here so let's find it more Natsumi.
"Everyone's going about this seriously. They're definitely worthy of being phantom thieves," Morgana praised. He seemed rather proud of how the others were handling the situation; but I felt Morgana's legs suddenly tense up which caused me to glance at him in concern. "Natsumi, incoming," Morgana warned. I looked up, seeing Niijima-senpai coming towards me, I tucked my phone away as Morgana fled back into my bag.
"Giving up already, that hardly seems like you," Niijima-senpai commented. I could feel myself going tense, this confrontation could not have chosen a worse time to come; if anyone from the mafia happened to overhear this discussion then they might get nervous depending upon what was said between the two of us. I could keep quite but the true question was whether Niijima-senpai could do the same thing.
"What would you know of me, Niijima-senpai?" I asked. It was a good way to end the conversation, by reminding Niijima-senpai that she didn't really know me anymore; although I felt my heart give a painful twist when I saw Niijima-senpai flinch at my words which I didn't like to see, as if my question had managed to hurt her which just made me feel horrible.
"You're right, I don't know you. I never would have expected the girl I knew three years ago could end up doing something like this," Niijima-senpai admitted. At least she wasn't saying anything that could be incriminating, plus the low tone she was using would be helpful in keeping people from listening in on us.
"I've changed a lot. But so have you, I remember a young girl who believed in doing the right thing, never allowing someone else to manipulate her," I reminded. The two of us stared at each other in silence for several moments before I turned and began to walk away; I needed to remain cool headed and butting horns with my former friend was not something I wanted to devolve into doing. My phone suddenly went off and I pulled it out in order to look at it.
Ann: How's it going? Have you found anything?
Ren: Maybe a little
Yusuke: Ah, so you've grasped something already. As to be expected from someone like you, Ren.
Ann: Why don't we go over the intel we've gathered so far.
Ryūji: I'll start.
Ryūji: Supposedly some guy near the accessway talking about some kinda 'strong drugs'.
Ryūji: I'm not counting on anything, but I'll go check it out.
Ann; As for me, I heard someone soliciting a 'high paying job' in the station plaza.
Ann: Apparently, they're mostly targeting girls. I'll go see what it's about.
Yusuke: On my end, I heard there are people saying strange things in the back alley near the arcade.
Yusuke: Something about ice and vegetables and something about snow tomorrow.
Natsumi: The man who directed me to the train station did mention his associate is normally in that alleyway.
Ren: And the guy I just spoke to mentioned people saying strange things.
Ren: Like code words.
Yusuke: I will go observe, just in case. The arcade is on Central Street, correct?
Ren: Yes, it's there, be careful.
Natsumi: I'll head for that back alley then.
Tucking my phone away, I quickly began to make my way towards the alley way that had been pointed out to me, it was beside a gym but that was really the only noticeable thing in this alley way. The rest were pretty bland ordinary buildings with nothing standing out, which was rather interesting since it seemed like the kind of place very few people would choose to willingly visit apart from those heading for the gym.
"Hello," Niijima-senpai's voice commented. It seemed that she had decided to follow me into the alleyway to keep an eye on what we were doing to find the information she couldn't give us. "Have you made any progress toward finding the boss?" Niijima-senpai asked. Her words immediately made me tense upon at hearing them.
"What is it with people and talking about this stuff in the open?" I hissed. I whipped my head around, checking for more people just to make sure that we weren't being overheard. "Could you try to be a little more discrete about your intent," I warned. Niijima-senpai raised her eyebrow at my words but I definitely didn't care since she'd just been as careless as Ryūji which was weird given how intelligent she was. "As for your question, only a little. Now shoo, before someone gets scared off by your presence," I insisted. I even flicked my hands in the manner to encourage her leaving but all Niijima-senpai did was stare at me with hard eyes.
"Hey, you two got some time? I have a great job for you," A voice called. I looked over to see an obviously suspicious man approaching us, this was not a situation I had wanted to be stuck in, but there was no way out of it now, since Niijima-senpai was already here and being spoken to. "It's real easy. Guess you could call it a delivery job," The man stated
"It seems we didn't have to look very hard in the end," Niijima-senpai commented. I gave her a hard look out the corner of my eye, because if she kept speaking like that then this man was going to become incredibly suspicious of her, which might as well just shoot our chances of finding the mafia boss in the foot before we even got running.
"You're high schoolers, yeah? Don't you want something more than just your allowances?" The man suggested. Thankfully it seemed that he didn't realise the oddity of what Niijima-senpai had said, all I had to do was keep him talking and then I'd be able to get what we needed; of course, that depended on if Niijima-senpai could keep her mouth shut.
"Hm… by delivery, do you mean that of suspicious materials?" Niijima-senpai asked. I had to hold back the urge to smack my forehead at the fact that she had so bluntly asked that kind of question; I hissed out her name as quietly as possible, but the girl didn't even react to me, instead staring at the man who was giving Niijima-senpai an intense look.
"Heh, you're a funny girl," The man commented. I didn't like the way he was acting; it was clear that he didn't actually find the situation funny at all which meant there was a high risk of Niijima-senpai angering him if she kept pushing her questioning, I needed to stop this situation from spiralling out of control otherwise we'd lose the lead.
"So, you won't answer me? Then I was right," Niijima-senpai stated. Damnit! Couldn't she realise just how dangerous this situation of becoming the more pressing with her questions she got; I could feel Morgana writhing about in my bag which wasn't good, of course the dark look on the man's face was the more concerning part of this whole scenario.
"Eh?" The man sounded. He then marched over and got in Makoto's face which caused the student council president to go tense all over and her feet suddenly started to widen. "What's up with you anyways? Why're you asking all these questions, huh?" The man demanded. I darted forward and gently pulled Makoto away from the man, before he could do anything to hurt her, or before he found himself on the receiving end of Makoto's punch
"Please sir, I apologise for my friend," I spoke up. The man looked at me as I placed myself in front of the older girl, hoping that he didn't realise how I wasn't actually cowering but was instead prepared to tackle him if he tried anything. "She a cautious individual and overtly worries about very little detail, it's a habit of hers. Please don't hurt her," I tried to soothe. Really, he'd be lucky to get a hit on Makoto but antagonising a member of the mafia was not the goal of this whole venture.
"It was all a joke. Why would I get worked up over some dumb kids?" The man wondered. He seemed to be relaxing now that I'd interjected, hopefully this would mean nothing bad would come of the situation. "Anyways, I can't hang. Seeya!" The man declared. He then proceeded to turn around and his words indicated that he was fully prepared to walk away from us, which was very bad as I didn't have the information we needed.
"U-Um, if you don't want to deal with us, we could always go see your boss ourselves," Niijima-senpai commented. She had stepped out to stand behind me, but I caught the back of her shirt in order to prevent her from moving much further away from me; that man had been inches from attacking her previously and I dearly wanted to avoid that situation happening again.
"You're really gonna say that, knowing who he is?" The man asked. He had stopped moving away from us and turned back in order to give Niijima-senpai a mocking look. "Heh, no way I believe that. Well, I'm outta here. You guys are annoying me," The man commented. He then left and I couldn't think of anything to say that would cause him to remain here after what Niijima-senpai had done.
"I'm pretty sure he's part of the mafia we're looking for," Niijima-senpai insisted. I had been rubbing my nose before she had spoken, but when I realised what she had said, I dropped my hand and proceeded to give the older girl an extremely annoyed look since she had basically ruined the opportunity I had managed to find.
"Really? What tipped you off, the aura, the manners or the fact that he was obviously acting in a way that lines up with Iida and Nishiyama's recounting and all the rumours," I wondered. My tone was a bit acidic though, Niijima-senpai proceeded to look at her shoes as if finding them rather interesting all of a sudden. "Unfortunately, your questioning of him just put him on high alert, we can't tail him now and I probably can't convince him to lead me to the boss willingly," I stated.
"I was trying to trick him into saying something, but he dodged all the traps I was laying down," Niijima-senpai admitted. She lifted her head to look at me, but I could see in her eyes that she looked regretful about what had happened just now; but that was rather cold comfort since it didn't fix the situation or give me the boss' name.
"This boss of theirs is, unfortunately, smart. Which means he likely warned them about those kinds of moves ahead of time," I acknowledged. All of the Rulers had been intelligent in some manner, the first three had used their reputations to protect themselves from scrutiny with Madarame intentionally manipulating his pupils into being reliant on him while Kamoshida ingratiated himself with the upper echelons of our school to protect himself while blackmailing the students into keeping quiet, as for Ouvrard she had known exactly how to cut me off further from the world to give me no support network.
"Um… thank you, for standing up for me. Despite how we've grown apart," Niijima-senpai admitted. I jerked myself out of my dark thoughts and focused upon the girl, I was rather surprised that she had referred to the time when we had once been friends; since finding out that she was also at Shūjin, I hadn't been sure how to her approach her so this was really the first conversation we'd properly had, all the others had been barb throwing.
"You were my best friend once, I don't want to see you hurt Makoto," I stated. It was true, I'd rather see the brunette kept as safe as possible when in a dangerous situation, like the previous one, despite how capable she was; people like that were the greatest threat so I had simply wanted to protect her from harm.
"Nor do I want to see you hurt Natsumi," Makoto responded. She had walked up and gently gripped my right arm, her eyes gleaming with something I couldn't quite identify; suddenly Makoto pulled back and sharply cleared her throat. "I'm going to go now," Makoto commented. She then proceeded to walk away before I could say anything; Morgana chose that moment to jump out of my bag and onto the floor.
"That boss seems tricky… it looks like he taught his subordinates well, too. No wonder the police are having trouble catching him," Morgana mused. He was quite right, it also made me wonder how this boss could know so much about the way the police operated; that was a very unsettling thought to process but still one that bore thinking about.
"Better someone smart than a fool, you can't outthink a fool they're unpredictable. A smart person just takes more work," I admitted. And we certainly had our work cut out for us in this situation, we needed that name as swiftly as possible but had currently run into a rather annoying dead end, I could feel my headache starting to come back.
"Anyway Natsumi, that was very brave of you, not backing down at all against that hooligan," Morgana praised. His words causing the tension that had been building within me to relax a bit and I looked at him, seeing the human turned cat giving me an encouraging smile I felt the rest of the stress wash off of me and I returned his smile with one of my own.
"Eh, Shadows are scarier," I commented. They were much more intimidating than any human could possibly even try to be, their appearance and the very real threat they posed to my life was enough to make any human seem a paltry threat in comparison. "Besides, I had you to back me up Mona, that's all the reassurance I need," I admitted. Morgana seemed to preen at the compliment, but I knew that our healer would have helped me in every way he could, even in his currently limited form.
"To bad we didn't get any new information, let's stop here for today," Morgana insisted. It was probably the best thing to do since we had pretty much had our chances blown of getting the information that was needed for the next part of our heist; my phone suddenly went off, so I slipped it up in order to see what was being said.
Ryūji: How about it, wanna meet up?
Natsumi: Yes, I need to talk to you all.
Ann: Do you think it's safe though?
Ann: We did ask a ton of people, so there's a chance we're getting followed.
Ren: But we still need to discuss what was learned.
Yusuke: Just to be safe, we should refrain from doing anything to make ourselves stand out.
Ren: Sun's getting rather low, I say we split up for today and reconvene tomorrow to talk about what happened.
Ren: If that's okay with you, Natsumi?
Natsumi: Yeah, it's nothing urgent.
Ann: Why don't we meet at karaoke tomorrow? We can talk in private and it'll be cheap after school.
Yusuke: Ah, that must be what they call hustle hour.
Ryūji: Dude, it's muscle hour.
Ren: Actually, it's happy hour.
Ann: Yeah, muscle hour sounds sweaty.
Ann: Anyway, see you at karaoke tomorrow.
"Time to get you back to Ren," I decided. I quickly made my way to the train station, hopefully what we had found would be something to us.
*Persona 5 Royal*
After a rather dull day at school, baring a discussion between Ren and Akechi before we got to school, we proceeded to meet up at the karaoke for our little discussion, the noise was quite irritating, but it perfectly covered up our conversation. Speaking of which I allowed each of the others to speak up first which revealed that the leads Ryūji, Ann and Yusuke had chased turned out to be dead ends, Ren had learned nothing new and I revealed what had happened on my end.
"Aw for real!? We didn't get anything!?" Ryūji exclaimed. I couldn't entirely blame him since it almost felt like we'd wasted and entire afternoon, the sounds from the other room got louder, Ann claimed they sucked and I could not argue since they were rather bad. "Man, we're goin' nowhere with this," Ryūji stated. Too true, it had been three days and we still didn't have a name for this mafia boss. "Hey, can't we ask Miss President to change it up?" Ryūji wondered.
"You mean change our target?" Ann clarified. That was exactly what he meant, while I completely understand that it was irritating to be faced with such an immense obstacle so early in the search, I just don't think that was going to happen; the only downside was that this wasn't exactly a powerful Shadow we could overcome with better supplies, training and a bit of rest.
"I doubt it, she likely chose this target knowing it would be difficult. She wants us to 'prove our justice', remember," I pointed. We just needed to find a way around the problem we were presented with; though how does one convince the secretive boss of a mafia group to come out into the open, the principal was aware, but I wouldn't bet money that he actually knew anything that could help us.
"Yeah, but we're only doing this to satisfy her," Ryūji commented. I wouldn't say that was the only reason we were doing this, after all the mafia were still guilty of derailing many innocent lives and hurting the students of at least two schools. "There are tons of shitty adults in this world. It's not like it matters who we're goin' after," Ryūji stated. He both was and wasn't wrong with what he had said, Niijima-senpai wanted to be sure we were doing the right thing even with slightly less than ethically right actions, ergo choosing a criminal. "She says this is for the students, but I bet it's just so she can go brag about it on college apps," Ryūji insulted.
"No, it does matter, at least to Niijima-senpai, she's asking us to take down a criminal who is actively ruining a lot of people's lives. More than even Kamoshida and Madarame did," Ren spoke. I was glad that Ren had spoken up at that, his expression was quite severe, but I think that just showed how seriously he was taking this situation.
"The mafia is stealing money from kids. We can't just accept that! It doesn't matter who the target came from anymore," Ann agreed. She had spoken rather vehemently, it actually warmed my heart to know that, despite how she felt towards Niijima-senpai in general, she wasn't just going to dismiss this situation readily despite the grave difficulty we were facing in even getting started.
"Ann and Ren are right. We want to give courage to the weak. Isn't this the perfect target to accomplish that goal?" Yusuke pointed out. The blonde punk seemed to be wavering slightly at hearing our words which was a relief; at that moment the singing got worse. "They really have no talent," Yusuke complained. The grimace on my face got even stronger as I had to listen to these people essential murder the song they were singing along to, I felt a deep well of pain for the song.
"I never thought it'd be this noisy if you weren't singin'," Ryūji commented. There was that issue, without anyone singing we were being directly impacted by the noise that was being made; however, despite my distaste with the noise that couldn't even be appropriately called singing, that didn't mean I missed the quick glances that Ryūji happened to be sending me and my eyes narrowed into a glare.
"Don't even think about asking me, it's not happening," I grumbled. Ryūji practically turned into a cherry when I said those words and looked down with what I could only tell was shame on his face; I reached over and gently patted his shoulder. I knew he meant nothing cruel or presumptive by the glances, so he didn't need to feel so put out.
"Anyways, I'm sure we'll shut Akechi up if we pull this off, but…," Ryūji worried. It seemed he was still rather hung up on the words that the high school detective had spoken on air not long ago; admittedly it did seem like this was probably the best way to get Akechi to realise we truly didn't mean anyone any harm. It'd also be great if we could find the Black Mask behind these strange incidents.
"Seems even more of a reason to complete the request," I stated. I had no issue with Akechi, even if I disagreed with his words, but if the idea of sticking it to Akechi was what motivated Ryūji to keep going in face of the obstacles rising up against us then I was fully willing to try and play that angle so that we had everyone on board and putting all their effort behind this.
"It all comes down to intel in the end…," Morgana acknowledged. That was definitely what we were lacking this time around, we had to find the answer that we were seeking if we wanted any chance of completing Niijima-senpai's challenge. "If we don't start finding tips on that front, we'll never get any further than this," Morgana admitted. An unfortunate but accurate outlook given our current situation.
"There has to be someone who has what we need," Yusuke stated. Someone, someone who would know all the comings and goings of Tokyo, a person who had access to sources that neither the cops nor students could possibly possess, an individual who could get answers out of those more unwilling to speak up. Someone with their finger on the pul- wait a minute! I know who can help us!
"What about Ohya-san!" I suggested. Although the excitement that was infused into my words had caused everyone to stare at me with rather wide eyes and I saw confusion in three pairs of them, so it was best to explain. "Ohya-san is the reporter we met outside of Madarame's house, she's investigating just about anything she can," I admitted. Understanding came to the two blondes while curiosity appeared within Yusuke's gaze.
"Which means she could have knowledge about the mafia that we wouldn't!" Ren exclaimed. At least our leader had understood the angle that I was coming from, as a journalist she likely had all kinds of sources in and out of sketchy practices or simply those who were more attuned to the goings on of the city's underbelly which expanded her source of information.
"Didn't she give you her card?" Ryūji asked. Ren quickly pulled the card out and set it against a bottle so we could look at it, it revealed that she worked for Maiasa Newspaper to the rest of the group; I could only hope that she would have the information we were in serious need of. Hopefully the next target wouldn't have this ridiculous level of difficulty in even getting a hold of a name.
"This is for a major publication," Yusuke admitted. The others who were native to Tokyo nodded their heads in agreement with that admission, at least this would reassure them that she probably had the resources and credentials to get a hold of what we needed; the only question would be if she was willing to part with that information.
"You think we can trust her?" Ryūji asked. The blonde punk proceeded to look at Ren who was staring at the card quite intently before the curly haired boy proceeded to lift his head and turn his gaze; his grey eyes proceeded to lock onto me instead of answering Ryūji's question and I had a feeling that I knew his next question before he even spoke it to me.
"Natsumi, you know her a bit better than I do," Ren queried. It made sense that he would look for that information in the person who knew Ohya best out of the lot of us, even if that was a pretty limited amount to actually make the best judgment call necessary; but thinking about all that I knew about Ohya from my brief meetings with her… well I came to the only reasonable conclusion I could.
"I think so, she's not against us at least and she was investigating Madarame, so she probably doesn't approve of such things," I answered. That was really all I could say about such a relatively unknown woman, it was a risk but one that we had no choice but to take; there was no other path if we wanted to handle this situation.
"There's no other way," Morgana pointed out. I nodded my head in agreement, glad that someone else had pointed out how we were pretty much tangled up in quite the mess, if this was our best way forward then then we had to do it. One look at the others showed that they were at least resolved to make this risky choice.
"Okay, let's contact her!" Ann encouraged. The phone on the wall began to ring as Ren got to work contact Ohya so Ann got to her feet and proceeded to approach the cradle to answer who was calling us. "Hello. Okay, thank you," Ann spoke. She proceeded to set the phone back and turned to look at the rest of us. "He says our time's up, should be extend it?" Ann asked. At that moment, the singing we'd been enduring pierced into our room once more.
"Can we please leave!? I've kept quiet long enough, but I can't take it anymore! My singing sensibilities are revolting and I think my ears are bleeding!" I exclaimed. Seriously! I was just about done listening to their nonsense the moment it first happened, but if I had to keep enduring this then I was liable to lose what was left of my mind.
"Yeah, happy hour's over. Let's just go, especially since I don't think Natsumi's joking about her ears, they do actually look red," Ryūji agreed. Yusuke proceeded to start drinking his drink too quickly since it didn't want to waste it and choked in the process. "Anyways, guess we just gotta wait for that journalist to contact us back," Ryūji admitted. It was all that we could do at the moment.
"I'll let you guys know as soon as she contacts me," Ren assured.
*Persona 5 Royal*
My finger tapped a relentless pace, much like one of the more explosive pieces from an opera I'd watched, as I sat through a lesson the day after our karaoke meet up, though my mind was barely paying any attention to the context of this session. I knew it was ridiculous to expect an answer immediately since Ohya was likely a busy woman, but it still did not help with the nerves that I happened to be feeling. My phone went off and for once I was actually quite grateful for the distraction it provided.
Ryūji: Yo, did that reporter get in touch with you yet?
Ren: No, not yet.
Yusuke: We only just contacted her yesterday. Why are you so hasty?
Natsumi: I know there's a two week deadline, but no need to rush.
Ryūji: I dunno. I've been looking for info, but I can't find a damn thing…
Ryūji: We only got two weeks left man. Duh, we're in a hurry.
Yusuke: To be more precise it's ten days.
Ryūji: We ain't gonna have much time, even if we start right after she responds.
Ann: Looks like this battle will have to be a quick one then.
Natsumi: A location, a distortion.
Natsumi: Followed up by overcoming the obstacles in the Palace.
Natsumi: One day to prep and send the Calling Card.
Natsumi: Then the heist itself.
Ren: Putting all that together, we need a minimum of four days.
Ren: But that's cutting it by the skin of our teeth.
Natsumi: Plus, there's the potential of us fighting whoever this is.
Yusuke: We must also consider what we do in case she fails to respond entirely.
Ann: Hey, don't jinx this!
Yusuke: I am merely discussing all the possible outcomes.
Ren: In that case, we go back to the first plan.
Ren: But me as the bait while Natsumi detains Niijima-senpai to prevent further interference.
Ryūji: Ain't you nervous about this?
Yusuke: Nervousness will not help us solve anything at this point.
Yusuke: Were that the solution to our problem, I would be much quicker to turn to panic.
Ann: Wow, he's like some kind of philosopher.
Ryūji: I think he's an idiot.
Natsumi: But he's right.
Natsumi: Losing our heads begets nothing but wasted time and reckless actions.
Ren: Keeping our cool is in everyone's best interests.
I slipped the phone away and tried to follow Yusuke's advice because it was rather sound, if I was caught being distracted then I'd have to come up with a lie and while I was certainly more convincing, it would still likely be suspicious whatever I came up with. I did my best to focus upon the remainder of my lessons throughout the school day even if it felt like each minute moved very slowly. Eventually school ended and I pulled out my phone when it proceeded to go off again.
Yusuke: Sorry to bother you while you are expecting information from that journalist.
Yusuke: However, do you remember that thread about the group of burglars in Shibuya.
Yusuke: It seems the one who posted about his brother is a student at my school.
Yusuke: And so, after some prodding, I was able to pry a few more details out of him.
Ann: Oh right! I was actually wondering about that.
Ann: It didn't sound like they had anything to do with the mafia we've been chasing.
Yusuke: Indeed. Now, I was able to ascertain his brother's name
Yusuke: It's Makigami Kazuya
Ryūji: Dude, it's freaking crazy that someone involved in that shit goes to your school.
Ren: Good work Yusuke, after everything, we needed some good news.
Ryūji: Yeah, nice work.
Ann: And you even found the name of the guy we're looking for!
Ann: That was super awesome!
Natsumi: We should make this a priority once Niijima-senpai's request is resolved.
Ren: Definitely.
Ryūji: This burglar guy isn't gonna be near as scary as the mafia. He's just a plain dude, right?
Ryūji: We'll show him what being a phantom thief's really about!
Yusuke: It seems we are unanimous then.
Yusuke: We will further discuss this later.
I doubt I'd be good company for anyone today so I simply proceeded to head back to my house, better to distract myself in private then be terrible company for my non-Phantom friends and acquaintances and risk them getting suspicious of me.
*Persona 5 Royal*
It was slightly nerve wracking to be waiting for information about whether Ohya would contact Ren, if all else failed then I could probably find a way to contact the woman or at least ask Lala to do it for me. All I could do to relax my nerves was relentlessly running through my kata… when that failed, I went to the kitchen to make a meal and almost wished I knew of something else to try and distract myself from this dark cloud of nothingness. So, when my phone pinged with a notification, it wasn't too much of an exaggerating when I threw myself at it and was relieved to see the group Chat alight.
Ren: Ohya-san contacted me. She wants to meet at the Crossroads Bar over in Shinjuku at night.
Ryūji: Shinjuku at night, eh?
Yusuke: That sounds rather dangerous.
Natsumi: It is dangerous.
Natsumi: Especially at night.
Ann: Where should we meet up?
Ryūji: Stand by, Ann. It'll be easier to move around with less of us.
Yusuke: My apologises, I don't have the money to take the train there.
Ryūji: Then you're on standby too.
Ren: Natsumi, you should probably stay back as well.
Ren: Having a girl and two guys wandering around would be too memorable.
Natsumi: I HIGHLY disagree with this idea.
Natsumi: But fine. Just let us know if anything happens.
Ryūji: Just me and you then Ren.
Ann: If Ren's going, I guess there's no need to worry. We'll leave it to you then.
Ryūji: Well, I guess that's that. Let's meet up in Shibuya.
Ann: Be careful, you two.
Yusuke: I shall be sure to save money for situations like this from now on.
Natsumi: I'm serious you two! Anything happens then you call me or Ann immediately!
Now my worry had increased ten-fold, knowing that three of my friends were going into a fight and that if they did need help it would take time for me to reach them was more nerve inducing than the previous waiting. I finished making my meal, but found my appetite had turned to smoke and after only a few sparing nibbles, I put the rest in the fridge for later.
I immediately tried to distract myself: first was more kata, but there is only so much repetition I could do to relax, I was in no mood for photography so that was out. I tried reading, but after staring at the same paragraph for well over a minute, I quickly gave up on that. That's about the moment I started getting really desperate, enough that I proceeded to fish out the cleaning supplies and pretty much blitzed the house.
My house wasn't dirty or dusty, or anything that might seem unhygienic; but it also wasn't some shining sparkly bastion of spotlessness and purity. I cleaned as and when it was needed, what I was doing right now might have most people label me a clean freak. But it did the damn job of distracting me better than anything else as quite some time had passed by the time my phone went off again.
Ren: I got the name
Ren: Kaneshiro Junya.
Ren: I had to sacrifice Mishima to get it though.
Natsumi: I'm sure Mishima won't mind.
Natsumi: He's always supporting us anyway.
Ann: Just checked the Nav, by the way.
Ann: It's a hit.
Ren: Good, that means we can deal with him.
Ren: The location is probably somewhere in Shibuya.
Yusuke: We should meet up there then.
Natsumi: Where's Ryūji?
Ren: Um…
Ren: Probably best you don't know.
Natsumi: Did he get arrested?
Ren: No, I can say that much.
Natsumi: Then I'll assume he's safe and leave it alone.
I heaved one massive sigh of relief and finished up my cleaning which was pretty much my bedroom. Once the supplies were put away, I barely got changed before collapsing onto my bed.