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 61: - Caught!
I could only hope that with the start of a new week that things would be different for us, all this stress of trying to find a new target along with dealing with the repercussions of Akechi's words had caused were quite headache inducting. Hopefully though, things would go easier for us this week, primarily in finding a target for our next heist.
"Fancy seeing you here," Akechi's voice sounded. Speak of the devil, I continued leafing through my book but kept an ear on the conversation just in case the boy detective let anything interesting slip. "Oh, right. I guess Shūjin was in this direction too. Still, I wouldn't have expected to run into you at this time. Perhaps it really is fate… how are you doing?" Akechi asked. His voice sounded normal which I was immensely grateful for.
"Not too bad," Ren admitted. I caught him shrugging his shoulders as he said those words, of course he was probably just trying to follow his own advice and relax; I was actually more concerned with whether or not Ryūji would listen, especially regarding his rather vitriolic anti-Akechi sentiments which some people might not appreciate or would even get suspicious off of.
"Haha. Relaxed as always, I see," Akechi commented. He chuckled slightly, but I wasn't too sure what to make of his words, he was a rather difficult person to read. "I've been getting interviewed a lot lately, so I've been wondering how to answer such questions. I see now that there's no need to be so roundabout with my responses. Talking with you helps me realise many things. If it isn't too much trouble, may I speak with you again sometime?" Akechi requested.
"Of course," Ren agreed. With that, the train pulled into the station, me and Ren hopped aboard and it seemed like Akechi wouldn't be joining us but a small puff of air escaped Ren suddenly. "I think Akechi just realised you were stood beside me. He got a deer in headlights look," Ren commented. I felt a grin spread across my lips at those words as I turned to him.
"Shame I couldn't see it, that would have been funny to send to Ryūji as a picture," I admitted. Ren choked on a laugh as his shoulders trembled slightly with the giddiness he must have been feeling, even Morgana seemed amused by the suggestion if the trembling of his body was anything to go by; the rest of the journey was rather sedate as we eventually climbed off the train.
We continued along the way to Shūjin, I really hoped that everything would be okay, I just suddenly got this strange sensation pressing down upon my shoulders the closer we got to school. It was a deeply unpleasant sensation but clearly my instincts were revolting against something, not that I could tell what; however, before we got to the school, a voice echoed towards us.
"Hey, I heard from one of my upperclassmen, but apparently there's some kind of weirdo in Kichijoji. Even at a glance, you can supposedly tell right away that he'd bad news. You live there, don't you? Are you okay?" An uneasy voice asked. I looked over and spotted two girls stood near the outside vending machines, with the uneasy one twisting her fingers together in a complicated manner, to the point I was concerned she'd dislocate the digits somehow.
"Oh, you mean the old man in Harmony Alley? My parents were talking about him too. Doesn't that just make you wonder!? I'm thinking I might try looking for him today," The girl beside her responded. A man in Harmony Alley? I quickly looked at Ren and saw that he looked intrigued by the conversation going on, although the other girl did sound rather reckless if she actually followed through with those words.
"Wha, don't do that! Besides, I heard he hides his face. Who knows what he'll do to you if he sees you? You're gonna end up in a ditch somewhere, I just know it!" The uneasy girl exclaimed. While dead might be a stretch, it would really depending upon this person's personality, which meant that it was entirely possible that this girl could end up seriously hurt if she decided to follow after this guy.
"Did they say Kichijoji? Did we ever see someone like that?" Morgana wondered. I looked at Morgana, wondering when these two could have gone to Kichijoji and why; it was a bit of a surprise. "It just sounds like a rumour though, so who knows how much of it you can believe? What do you think, Ren?" Morgana wondered. It was a rumour but the rumour about Madarame turned out to be true, so we couldn't just brush it off.
"I am curious, but it sounds like he could be dangerous," Ren admitted. If someone was worried about something happening to a friend then it was entirely possible that this old man was a dangerous individual, which might mean a Shadow and that was good for us in this regard since it would provide training for us, so we didn't get rusty while waiting.
"Yeah. If on the off chance he really is a bad guy, we should do something about it," Morgana agreed. We kept walking towards the building, but my warning bells kept getting stronger.
*Persona 5 Royal*
The day was over and I was looking forward to the meet up Ren had scheduled, it was likely that he intended for us to go down into Mementos, I could only hope that would help with my current state of mind. All day, something had felt off and it hadn't waned in the slightest which was actually causing me to be a bit jumpy at every odd movement in the corner of my vision, I'm certain that Ann, Morgana and Ren were suspicious of my state of mind.
"Oh good, you haven't gone home yet," Kawakami-sensei suddenly spoke up. Ren turned around to look at our teacher, I did as well but Ann had already run off to do something, she'd actually left in quite the hurry and her excuse had been too rushed to make heads or tails of it. "Niijima-san's look for you. Could you head to the student council room right away?" Kawakami-sensei revealed. That caused the warning bells I'd had to starting ringing just a bit louder. "She says there's no report of a lost item, so she wants you to start filling out some paperwork," Kawakami-sensei explained.
"I don't understand sensei," Ren answered. Neither did I, to be honest, why did Niijima-senpai suddenly need Ren to start filling out some paperwork and especially after she had made it quite obvious that we were her prime suspects in the Phantoms investigation that she was running, it caused my body to start tensing up and I could see that Ren wasn't too thrilled by the idea of having to go and talk to Niijima-senpai
"Telling me that isn't going to get you out of this," Kawakami-sensei insisted. Our poor teacher seemed exhausted and completely caught in the middle of all this trouble, which she didn't deserve. "The student council room is on the third floor, next to the library. Got it?" Kawakami-sensei informed. With that she proceeded to walk away while complaining about running errands for Niijima-senpai, not that I could blame her, but I had more important things to focus on.
"Do you want me to come with? This seems very sketchy," I asked. It was obvious that something was going on here, something that I didn't like and I liked the idea even less of simply allowing Ren to walk into whatever the danger could be without at least offering to go with him as some form of moral support. Ren's lips spread into a thin line and he tilted his head from side to side as he seemed to be juggling the idea around in his head before stopping the tilting.
"Yeah, I think I'll take the back up," Ren agreed. I allowed a breath of relief to rush out of me, while I had faith in Ren and his ability to handle the situation, I knew he didn't like authority and tended to wilt underneath its' presence and I didn't want him to be facing that down without someone else there, someone that could at least properly speak up since Morgana – who just popped out of the bag – wasn't able to do that.
"Niijima's the girl who keeps following us around right? What could she want?" Morgana wondered. He sounded worried which didn't surprise me since I'd been worried about Niijima-senpai finding out about our secret since learning that she was investigating us, now it seemed like she might be trying to set a trap for our leader; hopefully my presence would derail her plans even slightly.
"Guess we'll see and find out," Ren decided. He pulled out his phone and quickly told Ann and Ryūji to head for the hideout without us, we'd been planning to walk there together but it seemed that went out the window thanks to Ann suddenly darting off – though she could catch up – and Niijima-senpai's request. I guided Ren to the student council room and the curly haired boy proceeded to open the door.
"Ah. Earlier than expected," Niijima-senpai acknowledged. I stepped in behind Ren and moved to stand at his side, the room was pretty bare bones with Niijima-senpai leaning against the table in the centre; her eyes cut to me when I moved around. "Although I wasn't expecting you to bring Chiba-san… but it doesn't matter," Niijima-senpai commented. She extended her hand to the table. "Have a seat," Niijima-senpai requested. We did as such with her doing the same. "I'll get straight to the point. Kamoshida-sensei and Madarame. Won't you tell me the truth behind the Phantoms' incidents?" Niijima-senpai requested. Like that was going to happen, but we had to find some way to wriggle out of this. "Can't answer that? Ah, of course. There's no way you would admit such things," Niijima-senpai spoke. She suddenly pulled out her phone and set it on the table. "Have a listen," Niijima-senpai insisted. She then pressed play on some kind of recording.
"If someone else could help 'em we wouldn't be doin' stuff as the Phantom Thieves to start with!" Ryūji voice yelled. I was going to pummel him! I had told him, we had all told him countless times to stop blurting out our secret and now it was in the hands of someone actively working to unmask us at the hands of someone who licked the boots of our first collective target; Kobayakawa was probably going to see us punished as much as possible if he got a hold of this.
"So, you think it's true? We'll be okay if we keep doing this… right?" Ann's voice came. Clearly edited then, since that hadn't been the next part of our conversation, but even so the words would probably be enough for someone to decide we were persons of interest; especially if they decided to look into our backgrounds and found out about Ren's record… our capability to act as the Phantoms was now handing by a thread of spider silk.
"What could all this mean?" Niijima-senpai wondered. Her tone steady and calm but it was harder than before, Morgana immediately claimed we had screwed up… monumentally so. "Was it blackmail? Hypnosis? How do you corner someone into making them confess? Won't you tell me how you did it?" Niijima-senpai questioned. There's no way she'd believe the truth, besides confessing anything was as good as signing our own prison sentences.
"No," Ren answered. His tone was sharp, glacial so, and it caused Niijima-senpai to flinch backwards while I warily eyed my leader but made no other move. "You think I'm going to tell you anything then you're apparently stupider than I thought. Then again, your stalking was terrible anyway, I lost you so many times over the last few days that it was actually a fun game," Ren claimed. She had been stalking him? That was actually rather unnerving even if he had managed to lose her at several points.
"Besides Senpai, that recording is doctored, I remember the conversation clearly and that's not how it flowed. It doesn't prove anything," I added on. My words caused Niijima-senpai to look at me, I tried to appear as blasé as possible about the situation by resting my chin on my right hand, but my left was under the desk and worriedly tapping against my leg as I tried to puzzle a way out of this for us.
"I believe you four are the Phantoms. Now what would the police think if they heard my recording?" Niijima-senpai wondered. That was the worst possible thing for us to have happen, thankfully I managed to keep my face neutral so that she didn't see how worried I was and it appeared Ren was keeping a stony mask in place; we had to find a way to shake Niijima-senpai's assumption. And fast!
"It'd be bad if we were put under police surveillance. There's no telling what'll happen to you, too!" Morgana warned. That was something we knew already, Ren couldn't afford to be placed under such scrutiny after everything he had gone through, he was coming out of his shell but slowly and I was worried that police hanging over him would only push him back into the shell that he had crafted for his protection.
"If you confess the truth, I don't mind just leaving this between the three of us. You'll tell me, won't you?" Niijima-senpai wondered. That caused my eyebrows to furrow, she was trying to blackmail us, that much was obvious to me now from her words instead of trying to pry more information out of us like I'd thought, but why on earth would she be trying to get something out of us.
"Or you'll go to the police, right?" Ren asked. His tone was inquisitive, but I got the sense he knew exactly what to say at this moment. "But you haven't… which means you want something," Ren pointed out. A small scoff escaped from him as his eyes hardened into daggers, so sharp that his glasses did nothing to block it. "So, I'm wondering what could cause you to delay in going to the police," Ren admitted. Niijima-senpai seemed to be struggling to answer, but Ren took this as an answer and proceeded to stand up with me following his moves. "Sorry, Teacher's Pet, but unless you're honest with me… I've got nothing to say to you," Ren stated. Suddenly his phone went off, Niijima-senpai insisted it be answer so Ren did so, while side-eyeing the girl as he moved to the door.
"Hey, where you at? Takin' a leak? Let's meet up at the usual spot to hold-," Ryūji's voice came. Ren tried to get him to stop talking but the blonde punk just steamrolled right over him. "-our Phantoms meetin'!" Ryūji finished. And just like that, our secret was out and Niijima-senpai had her confession, 'if onlys' spun around in my head; but now wasn't the time to be focusing on those things.
"As loud as always… but his timing's perfect," Niijima-senpai commented. Perfect for her maybe, but it certainly wasn't for us as it put us in a difficult position. "I'd like everyone else to hear this as well," Niijima-senpai admitted. She rose to her feet and looked at us with a gleam in her eyes. "Won't you take me to your friends?" Niijima-senpai requested. We really didn't have much of a choice in this matter given what had happened in this room.
"Follow us," Ren insisted. We proceeded to leave the room and headed towards the café, I spun numerous scenarios around in my head as I tried to think of a way out of this, but it seemed we really didn't have any kind of escape route from the situation; perhaps we could use whatever Niijima-senpai wanted from us against her… provided that she would actually tell us. We stepped into the café and Yusuke promptly looked up, but his eyes narrowed upon seeing Niijima-senpai, his lips moved but I couldn't read them, although it did draw Ann and Ryūji's attention towards us.
"Wh-What the hell?!" Ryūji questioned. I heard him from across the room, I quickly made my way over to the table that the three had managed to select while grabbing an extra chair along the way for our unexpected guest; I deposited it rather roughly by the table before leaning in and jabbed my finger right into Ryūji's chest as I got in his face; the full force of my ire directed squarely at the boy who gulped.
"This is all your fault," I hissed. With that out, I quickly dropped into the seat beside Ann, the model wrapped her hand around one of my own as Ren slid into the space beside Ryūji while slipping the Mona-bag off his shoulders and ensuring that our phantom thief expert could hear everything; Niijima-senpai proceeded to slide into the seat that I had brought over.
"What's the meaning of this?" Ann demanded. Her tone was hard and her blue eyes burned like wildfire as she stared at Niijima-senpai, but at least she seemed to be reining her anger at the elder girl in; though whether that was for my benefit or because she didn't know what was fully going on I couldn't be too sure, I was just grateful that she was ensuring nothing blew off.
"I had them lead me here," Niijima-senpai admitted. The others proceeded to stare intently at Niijima-senpai. "Sakamoto Ryūji, Takamaki Ann… and you're Kitagawa Yusuke, correct? Second year at Kosei High and former pupil of Madarame? I wanted to ask you all about this," Niijima-senpai acknowledged. She proceeded to play the recording she had for me and Ren; once it was done, Yusuke proceeded to glare at Ryūji while Ann ducked her head with a deep pink blush spreading across her cheeks.
"How many times did I tell you Ryūji!? Not. In. Public!" I snapped. Ryūji had gone rather pale upon hearing his own voice as he realised what had happened to cause this, but it was too little too late at the moment. "That call you made to Ren was the final nail in the coffin!" I added on. He needed to know just how much he had ended up damning us because of his lack of a brain to mouth filter.
"An extremely similar technique was used on both Kamoshida and Madarame, while those affected by their acts were just coincidentally meeting up. How could that not raise suspicion," Niijima-senpai admitted. It seemed that she was refusing to let anyone get diverted from the conversation that she clearly wanted to have with us about our activities.
"What do you intend to do?" Yusuke asked. He pulled his gaze from Ryūji in order to fully focus upon Niijima-senpai, but his glare did not wane in the slightest, in fact it might have even become stronger; but Niijima-senpai did not wilt or even flinch when staring back at the artist. "Have you come just to say you're going to report us?" Yusuke theorised. That was highly unlikely given everything else that had happened in the student council room.
"I bet someone told you to find us. The school can't have ties to criminals after all! And yet they turn a blind eye when it comes to suicide and sexual harassment" Ann snapped. I didn't say or do anything to stop her, as her words were quite accurate. "Those adults are just using you. I feel sorry for you," Ann hissed. Niijima-senpai's face turned downwards and I'm certain that she was feeling shame.
"I… I know," Niijima-senpai admitted. This surprised Ann as she looked at our upperclassman with widened eyes, Niijima-senpai pulled her head up to look at us. "That's why I would like to verify the justice you speak of," Niijima-senpai insisted. But that seemed to confuse everyone judging by the looks we shot each other as Ryūji outright questioned her. "I'm the only one who knows about you. If you prove what you're doing is just, I'll erase this," Niijima-senpai explained.
"You were right Ren, she wants to make a deal," Morgana admitted. The question was, what deal did she want to make? 'Verify our justice' was a rather obscure question for her to suddenly ask about what we were doing, it was something that itched at my skin; whatever she wanted us to do could put us in some serious danger.
"There is someone whose heart I'd like you to change," Niijima-senpai admitted. Well, that was unexpected, my eyes widened and I proceeded to look at the rest of the group who all seemed surprised by the request that Niijima-senpai had just revealed; Yusuke leaned forward and rested his chin on his linked hands.
"Who?" Yusuke asked. It was an appropriate question to ask, we needed the name of this person to even start trying to figure out where they could have caused a Palace to have formed root, if they even had a Palace of course; they could just as easily be a Shadow in Mementos, so I really couldn't say what was going to happen to Niijima-senpai's request.
"Hm, so you're not saying it's impossible," Niijima-senpai commented. She had an ever so small curve to her lips which didn't sit well with me, this could just as easily be an attempt by Niijima-senpai to gather up information about the exactness of our methods. I didn't really know her after all, not anymore, so while I might have faith in her moral code… that didn't really mean I knew what she might be up to.
"You've got a noose around our throats Niijima. We can't exactly deny anything if we want you to get rid of that evidence," Ren commented. He had folded his arms and seemed extremely closed off to the discussion, his tone was steady, but it was also cold which showed that he wasn't particularly happy about being forced to listen to the request of Niijima-senpai.
"I cannot tell you that just yet. Let's continue our talk after school tomorrow. On the roof," Niijima-senpai insisted. She proceeded to turn slightly in her chair in order to prepare to stand up, but she stopped and proceeded to look at the rest of us. "Assuming you accept my offer, that is," Niijima-senpai added on. With those words, she proceeded to start rising to her feet, but my hand lashed out to seized around her wrist and stop her from leaving without me saying something.
"You better not be trying to trap us Niijima Makoto, I won't forgive you if you are," I stated. She stared at me and I glared right back at her, I proceeded to release her; Niijima-senpai didn't leave immediately but neither did she say anything in response to my words and she soon began to drift away and leave the café. All of us proceeded to gather in so that we could continue this meeting now that the outsider was gone.
"This is turnin' into a real pain," Ryūji complained. He had his shoulders slumped down slightly, however his words only caused four of his to proceeded to glare at him since he was explicitly the one that had caused this situation to even happen in the first place; the blonde punk proceeded to shrink in on himself as if he was afraid of what was about to be said by any of us.
"And who's to blame for that," Ren responded. His tone was very icy when he said those words which caused Ryūji to shrink down even further since he probably realised just how angry our leader was at his reckless actions; seriously, I hoped this acted as a revelation to Ryūji and ensured that he would start being more careful in public.
"You were careless. I don't think you truly understood how high the stakes were," Yusuke chastised. His own gaze was quite heavy as he glared at Ryūji clearly showing how unimpressed he was about what had happened. "Anything to say Ryūji," Yusuke challenged. This caused Ryūji to sit up straighter and he seemed annoyed by the words that were being slung at him by the painter.
"Why're you singlin' me out? Ann got recorded too, y'know," Ryūji pointed out. He even proceeded to point at Ann which caused me to divert my gaze from our Electricity wielder to our Fire wielder and I saw that she seemed to look a little galled by the accusation that had been suddenly flung at her by our teammate.
"Except I didn't say anything so incriminating!" Ann reminded. Which was quite right, out of context her words could have been attributed to anything, granted most people would think something bad, but they also wouldn't immediately jump to we're the Phantoms accusations. "But I am sorry either way," Ann added on. She looked down a little, but at least she had actually apologised for getting caught talking about our activities.
"Hey, what should we do? That girl's got dirt on us" Ryūji wondered. It wasn't enough for anyone to convict us of doing this, but just the possibility of it reaching the police's hands especially since they were already investigating us and what they might do… well it wasn't the most pleasant possibility, and that was ignoring the potential for Akechi to get a hold of the recording.
"A recording seems to be insufficient evidence though," Yusuke commented. It was on its' own, but there was enough said for anyone to get suspicious and start watching over us just as a precaution. "And even with that, there's no way they could prove our methods," Yusuke added on. That was exactly why I was suspicious of Niijima-senpai's request, even if our methods were too supernatural to be believed by most people.
"It is insufficient, especially one that's been doctored, because that conversation didn't exactly flow like that. However, given Ren's record, it's not entirely implausible that the police might take it at least partially serious and set up surveillance on us which would seriously hamper our social activities and if we try to lose them, that'll just increase their suspicions," I explained. That was the situation we had to deal with at the moment.
"Considering who we're dealing with, I think it might be a trap," Ann admitted. Good to know that someone else had thought of that possibility, it was difficult to get a read on what Niijima-senpai was really up to; but I'm certain if we didn't play along with Niijima-senpai's game then she would take the recording straight to the police.
"Regardless, Ren would be in real trouble. He's on probation, after all," Morgana reminded. I nodded my head in agreement to that words, Ren's record was the real danger here – damn that unknown man! – because while they might dismiss it as nonsense without the record, with its' existence then it would likely make the police take it more seriously.
"Things'd get rough if we didn't have our leader… and I totally don't wanna deal with the police," Ryūji stated. None of us wanted to deal with the police, and without Ren's Wild Card ability to tap into Nuke, Psy, Curse, and Bless then we might not be able to deal with every enemy as best as we normally could since only Ann and Morgana had an Ailment, but only Ann's could be exploited for increased damage without Ren.
"Then… we have no other choice but to go along with it," Yusuke worried. A grim look was exchanged between all of us as it came to the unfortunate conclusion that we had no other choice than to go along with the request, it was our only route at the moment that wouldn't lead directly to the police getting that recording.
"Unfortunately, at this moment, our hands are tied," Ren answered. We really were tangled up at the minute, I was convinced that my head was going to start pounding from all the pressure we were now under to deal with this issue; I could only hope that the situation would be easily resolved, but my instincts were telling me that wasn't going to happen.
"It's best we agree, at least for the time being," Morgana agreed. Not much choice in the matter, we definitely needed to deal with this issue before it got much worse. "We made a crucial mistake… but not a critical one. We'll just have to recover from here on out," Morgana advised. Definitely, we weren't outed yet; but we needed to keep that recording from getting to anyone who might actually use it to hunt us down.
"Yeah, yeah. My bad," Ryūji commented. It almost sounded like he still didn't understand how much he'd screwed up, which could end up putting us all in danger again if he didn't learn to start watching his words. "So… we doin' this?" Ryūji asked. His expression was pained as if the situation was something he'd rather avoid, all of us probably wanted to avoid it but there wasn't much choice at the moment.
"It is our only choice at the moment, we have to. I'd rather we were all on board with the choice but we're practically on the guillotine already," Ren admitted. A bit of a morbid reference to use, but it also felt rather apt as well, considering if we failed to meet the demand then we probably were going to get executed, in a manner of speaking.
"Alright. We're meetin' on the school rooftop tomorrow, yeah?" Ryūji reminded. That was what Niijima-senpai had said, A small hum escaped from someone and I quickly looked over to see that it was Yusuke with a troubled expression on his face as he looked between the rest of us, likely concerned about something.
"What about me? I could always sneak in, if necessary," Yusuke wondered. It was true that Yusuke wouldn't just be able to walk into our school in order to attend the meeting, but if he just decided to try and sneak in, then there was every chance that somebody would spot him which could lead to him being thrown out and someone would get suspicious as to why another school's student was creeping around our school.
"No need. I can think up a convincing excuse to get you inside with no need for sneaking. Most teachers don't suspect me of ever being up to anything odd," I suggested. I was probably at the bottom of whatever suspect list Kobayakawa had created simply because of the way that people viewed me, which did work in in some cases quite well.
"Thanks, Natsumi. Sneaking in would draw too much attention and it'll be good to have someone as observant as Yusuke present," Ren spoke up. I nodded my head while quickly starting to run through various ideas about what to say to people in order to get Yusuke in safely, it did need to be believable otherwise the teachers wouldn't buy it.
"What could she be scheming?" Ann wondered. A very good question, but one we unfortunately didn't know the answer yet.
*Persona 5 Royal*
Honesty, I don't think I could settle down after what had happened with Niijima-senpai, so instead I tossed around an idea in my head before deciding to start packing a few things. I'd likely be out a little later than normal, but I really needed to do something to help take the tension off a bit, as I was packing, a buzzing alerted me to Chat messages, so I quickly took a look at it.
Ryūji: I'm so effing pissed.
Ryūji: Do we just gotta do what she says?
Yusuke: Considering what has happened, it seems we have no other choice.
Ann: I wonder whose heart the student council president would want us to change.
Natsumi: Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll be the principal.
Ryūji: Don't matter to me.
Ann: But there might be a reason behind who she picks, right?
Ren: Obviously there will be, I think we'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Yusuke: I am curious myself.
Yusuke: She mentioned how she wants us to prove our justice, did she not?
Ann: Yeah, she definitely did
Natsumi: That's what makes me think of the principal.
Natsumi: He knew about Kamoshida's actions and did nothing.
Yusuke: That seems like a solid reason if it is her choice.
Yusuke: Please don't go picking any fights, okay? Do you understand, Ryūji.
Ryūji: Why're you singling me out!? I ain't dumb!
Setting my phone to silent, I slipped it away and then grabbed my camera case and quickly made my way to the Shibuya train station, on a mere whim to decide on what would be the best distraction, I selected my destination as being Shinjuku. It wasn't all that safe of a place for someone my age to be hanging around, but it was early in the evening and so long as I hung back by the theatre then I'd probably be fine.
The best thing about Shinjuku were the lights, it was so much more vibrant at night than in the daytime and I honestly think that might have factored into my mercurial reasoning to picking that place to head. Upon arrival, I quickly pulled my camera out and started to look about, hoping to get some good shots of the reflecting lights.
"Hey kid!" A voice bellowed. I flinched back away from the lens and lowered my camera so that it remained undamaged; I quickly looked over and saw a man dressed in a police uniform storming towards me which didn't make any sense since I was probably the least dangerous person in this section of Tokyo. "What do you think you're doing with that camera?!" The officer demanded. I could not stop the eyebrow that rose at those words.
"Taking pictures," I deadpanned. I mean really, people might say there's no such thing as stupid questions, but there are times like these when I would point out how there really are; there might be no stupid questions based on curiosity or to clear up knowledge, but to demand what a girl with a camera is doing seems quite obvious that the question is unnecessary.
"Well, you're going to-," The officer began to state. I had no clue what he was about to demand but if it was Mirai's camera then Shadows had a better chance of killing me then he did of getting a hold of it; but whatever he was attempting to say got interrupted when an arm suddenly looped across my shoulders and I was pulled into the person who had done so.
"Sorry about that officer, I take my eye of this kiddo one minute and she gets lost in her lens," A familiar voice chimed. I quickly glanced over and saw that it was actually the woman who had spoken to us outside Madarame's house. "She's my apprentice and is still learning the journalism ropes, maybe go a little easy on her, okay?" The woman requested. I kept my face relaxed so that the lie wasn't given away.
"Fine, just keep an eye on her," The officer grumbled. With that he proceeded to turn and match away with a grumble echoing from him, I could just hear the insults that Ryūji would have been throwing at the man and I don't blame him since that was such a ridiculous thing for him to do. Once the man was gone, I proceeded to pull away and turn to face the woman properly.
"Thank for this miss," I admitted. It was very kind of her to decide to intervene, especially since it seemed that the officer did not take kindly to me taking pictures which is ridiculous to be honest; we're outside and the people weren't even the focus of the pictures, it was the neon lights I'd been more interested in and how they danced across the buildings with each shifting pattern so I certainly hadn't committed any crime.
"Ah, that's alright. Though you've got some impressive backbone, standing up even when that guy was practically screaming in your face," The woman complimented. I shrugged my shoulders at her words, it took much more to scare me than some old man blowing out hot air. "Come on, I better get you off the streets, we can chitchat somewhere safer," The woman insisted. She proceeded to drag me further into Shinjuku, but I didn't really try to escape since I didn't feel any danger from her; I was guided to step into a building behind the woman. "Lala-chan!" The woman enthusiastically greeted. I looked around and found that we were located in a bar.
It was fairly small, with an area that appeared to section off down a short hallway, the bar itself took up the side of the room across from the sectioned off area with a line of stools sitting in front of it. The lighting was rather low making it a bit difficult to see, but Mementos' gloom allowed my eyes to adapt enough for me to identify a neon sign shaped like a heart with the word welcome inside of it.
"Ichiko, you're later than normal," A deep voice greeted. I peered around the woman and saw that stood behind was a woman who looked rather robust, but that could just be because of her outfit; she had purple hair styled in a bob, blue eyeshadow that emphasised her dark eyes and red lipstick, her outfit was a black and purple kimono with gold detailing. "Who's this?" Lala asked. A stink eye coming off the woman quite intensely, but I didn't really feel any danger coming from it.
"Oh, relax Lala-chan, I just found her taking pictures and getting picked on," The woman stated. The woman's stink eye relaxed as the lady who had dragged me here marched over to her chair and promptly proceeded to drop down into it with no hesitation, a big smile on her face as she looked at me. "Ah, I never introduced myself, Ohya Ichiko," The woman realised.
"I'm Chiba Natsumi," I responded. I slipped into the seat across from Ohya and Lala immediately started to move about behind the bar; soon enough a glass was set in front of each of us, Ohya's was a dark colour that I couldn't exactly identify due to the dim lighting of the room; on the other hand mine was clear as glass and a quick smell indicated that it wasn't alcohol and a sip proved it to be water… thank goodness.
"So Natsumi, why were you taking pictures, in Shinjuku, at this hour?" Ohya asked. A smirk on her lips as she raised the glass to her mouth, she had an odd gleam within her eyes, as if she was hunting for something though what that something was, I couldn't say; Ohya proceeded to set the glass back down on the table top.
"I needed a way to relax," I explained. It was the truth, the meeting with Niijima-senpai – both today and tomorrow – where fraying on my nerves and I just needed some way to direct my focus to that instead of directing my energy towards what was coming; if I did that then I'd be pretty much useless to the others tomorrow, especially Yusuke since he needed me to get him in.
"Relax huh? You take pictures to de-stress," Ohya commented. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of her tone, if I was honest, it sounded completely neutral when she said those words it probably meant that she didn't know how to feel; that meant my response to it couldn't be indignant but that didn't mean I couldn't at least defend myself even in some small manner.
"Yes, is that strange?" I wondered. I didn't need to be judged for what I was doing, many people had different way of relaxing but today a book wouldn't cut it and I was too stressed out in order to practice a kata properly; taking pictures was my last recourse in order to unwind before than damnable meeting we had tomorrow.
"Nah, but do you mind if I take a look?" Ohya requested. I saw nothing wrong with it, so I took my camera from around my neck and handed it to Ohya, she seemed familiar enough with the model to easily turn it on in order to actually take in the pictures; upon seeing the most recent one however, Ohya's eyes widened. "Huh, these are pretty good," Ohya remarked. That admission caused my eyebrows to shoot into my fringe.
"Really?" I questioned. I wasn't interested in making them good, but it was a surprise to hear someone say as such, plus given that she carried a camera herself then it was highly probably that she had some understanding of what was required to make a photograph truly stand out; Ohya proceeded to nod her head as she continued to look at the pictures.
"Yeah, you're really good at capturing how things can interact with each other," Ohya explained. She continued to flick through the pictures, stopping to scrutinise each one for a few moments before moving on to the next one; when she eventually reached the end, she lifted her gaze to look at me. "Who taught you?" Ohya asked. Well, that was a fairly easy question to answer.
"No one," I answered. It had actually been quite the challenge in the beginning to get even half-decent shots, but I preserved if only to keep something of my baby sister alive… I wonder if I'd done it so that she could still see this world; in response to my admission, Ohya's eyes widened in shock while Lala pausing in her cleaning of a glass.
"Woah, self-taught, that means you've got a good eye," Ohya admitted. I could feel a blush starting to burn at my cheeks hearing those words; Ohya proceeded to thank the camera back to me. "I'm a journalist for Maiasa so I've seen pictures that aren't anywhere near as good as this from professionals, you've got spirit," Ohya complimented. I was surprised to hear such a thing as I tucked the camera back into its' case.
"Thank you," I spoke. It was quite sweet of her to say such things to me, I wonder how she would have reacted to Mirai's pictures since my sister pursued it with much more passion than I could ever emulate. "I saw you outside of Madarame's house asking about the Sayuri, why was that?" I wondered. It had been a question that was nagging at me ever since then and now came back full force with her right in front of me.
"Oh, so you are the girl from then, wasn't too sure but good to know," Ohya realised. I nodded to my head in agreement with those words while Lala showed absolute professionalism by not asking what the heck we were talking about; I rather respected her for that. "As for what I was doing, I'm basically looking into anything and everything," Ohya admitted. She seemed bitter about that, but her words caught my attention as an idea started to brew within my mind.
"You must have quite the finger on whatever's happening in Tokyo then," I complimented. The wheels in my head were already starting to spin as I realised just how lucky it seemed that this woman had shown up at Madarame's house when she did; in fact, she had known – or at least suspected – the legitimacy of Sayuri's theft which meant she had to have quite the network of information.
"Hehe, thanks Natsumi," Ohya bashfully stated. She took a quick sip of her alcohol, yet I still noticed the deep blush that was starting to creep up her neck. "I mean, I certainly hear lots of things, you curious?" Ohya wondered. That was probably quite the understatement to make but if I seemed too eager, then Ohya might end up getting put off; true she could actually get more invested, but it was the safer bet to remain calm and control in expressing my interests.
"I am actually," I admitted. This woman could potentially hear things that I never would, things like where mental shutdowns or psychotic breakdowns were taking place, which would make mine and the Velvet siblings' investigation much easier. "But it's also much later than I realised and I need to go home," I explained. I had quickly checked my watch and knew I needed to rest up in order for me to be mentally prepared for tomorrow.
"Yeah, I've got a story I need to get working on and if I don't, well my editor won't like it," Ohya admitted. She proceeded to stand up, quickly swallowing the alcohol that was left yet it seemed to have no effect on the woman. "Hope to see you again Natsumi. Bye Lala-chan!" Ohya declared. With that, Ohya darted out the door and allowed it to slam closed behind her.
"It's been a long time since I've seen Ichiko that sober, even longer since I saw that sparkle in her eye," Lala admitted. I looked at the woman who had a warm look in her eyes as she stared at the door, before directing her attention to me "You're quite something kid, come back any time, just don't expect me to serve you any alcohol," Lala stated. Though her voice went a little deadpan at the end.
"I don't see why anyone would enjoy it. I'd despise losing control of myself in such a manner," I admitted. Lala's eyebrows rose at my words, but a smirk wound its' way onto her lips, apparently satisfied with my words; I quickly finished the last of my water. "Thank you for the water, Lala-san," I spoke. I made to pull out my purse, but Lala simply raised her hand and gave me a small shake of her head.
"No problem kid, you get home same now," Lala insisted. With that, I proceeded to leave the building and made my way to the train station, hopefully I'd be able to properly sleep tonight.