Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I took inspiration from A LOT of my favorite fanfictions when writing this one so if you see some similar aspects in this story to a few others than know I’m drawing my inspiration from there as well as a few of my own old stories. This fic is a retelling of Persona 5 Royal with an all new ending an all new setup and story and a dual perspective setup between our Male MC and our Female MC. I will be switching perspectives quite a bit during this story, but it’ll be easy for you to understand when they happen, I promise. Obviously, there will be spoilers for Royal but also for Persona 3 and 4 Golden as well so keep that in mind as you read along.  I thank you for choosing to read along and I hope you enjoy!

This story is a work of fiction.

Any relation to any real-life persons or places are purely coincidental and not to be taken seriously.

Do you accept these circumstances?

Yes             No 

Good, then let us begin the game.

April 9^th, 20XX

Our story begins with a young man inside of a locked cell. Lying dormant on his bed unaware of the strange events that are about to unfold before his very eyes. He awakens but is understandably thrown off by his surroundings. A jail cell? An all blue room with a pianist and singer accompanying said blue with a haunting aria? To top it all off there’s a desk sitting smack dab in the middle of it all with two small children dressed as wardens standing on either side and a man with an exceptionally large nose sitting in the seat in the middle. Almost as quickly as he made out the entirety of this strange imagery.

He woke up.

“Ah!” He let out a somewhat loud but quiet yelp as he jumped awake. Finding himself in his normal attire again he looked around to find he was indeed still on the train. He also hadn’t missed his stop so that’s a double bonus.

“What was that just now?”

He questioned to no one in particular. Shaking his head, he opened his phone up to mess around with some apps on his phone as he awaited his arrival in Shibuya. Opening his phone led the discovery of another strange anomaly: the second one in the past few minutes it seems.

“I don’t remember installing anything like this. The hell?”

The app he was referring to had a red background with a black eye as the logo.

 “I’ll just go ahead and get rid of this.”

He held his thumb down on the app for a second or two and clicked delete. His phone prompted him to confirm whether or not he wished to do this and of course he chose ‘confirm’.

“Shibuya! This is Shibuya!”

Hearing that our protagonist here got off of the train and the rest of the announcement was drained out by the loud chattering of the folks coming to and from the station. The rest of his trip went without a hitch. He made his way to Yongen-Jaya. Once he got there it was just a matter of asking around to find out where the hell the Sakura residence was and bam! Well, not really. He wasn’t exactly home but with the help of the mailman Our boy was advised to head to his new caretaker’s place of solitude. A little café he runs called “Leblanc”. He found the humble café in an alleyway of the backstreets and took a deep breath.

“Well, this is it Akira. Time to find out what kind of person you’ll be stuck with until probation ends…whenever that is.”

 He turned the knob quietly and slowly opened the door to the café, admittedly a little nervous about meeting the woman who would be taking care of him. When he entered, he didn’t see any lady, instead he was greeted to the sight of an old geezer chatting it up with one of his patrons.

It took him a bit, but he finally noticed the kid standing at the door of his café like some kind of weirdo. He instantly recognized who said weird kid was though.

“I was wondering what kind of unruly miscreant would show his face when they told me about your probation but to think you’re the kid they’ve been telling me about. Huh.”

Said “kid” stared the old man down in retaliation to his stare down at him.

“So, your Sakura-san? Won’t lie I was expecting someone more…”

“More of a woman? Yeah, I suppose it isn’t entirely unreasonable to expect that.” Sakura-san sighed as introduced himself.

“Yeah. I’m Sojiro Sakura. I run this little café here and I’m gonna be your caretaker for the foreseeable future.”

The young man gave a slight bow in an effort to show a little respect for the elderly man, “I am in your care.”

Sojiro smack his lips seemingly unimpressed before turning his back on him and walking towards the staircase in the back.

“Cmon, follow me kid.”  

Glasses boy nodded and started after him with his hands in his pockets.

Once he reached the top of the staircase he was greeted by a rather unwelcoming site. A dusty ass, dirty ass, looked like it had only just recently gotten a very bare cleaning ass attic.

“What do you think?”

“Well…”

Its big.

It’s dusty.

Are you for real?

“I should play it cool.”

“It’s big.”

Sojiro scratched his head at the odd statement. He one hundred percent expected the kid to tell him that the room was a dusty mess.

“Well, it’s up to you to keep things up around here. While I’m at it let me lay down a few ground rules.”

Take Your Time

“Kasumi…”

“Its okay. I’m fine…”

A lone red-haired girl laid flat on her back with her legs held up on a sling. The all white room only given life by the warm sunset outside of her hospital room. It drained her of her energy. Telling everyone she was fine while trying to focus on not going insane staring at the same white wall in front of her. She could turn on the TV but recently Gymnastics had been all the rage, and that only made it harder to feign her strength. In all honesty, “fine” was the furthest thing from what she felt. She felt fucking awful.  She could hear her own thoughts berating her on her incompetence as an older sister.

“You pushed her out of the way only for her to still end up dead and now your dream that you wanted so badly to achieve was taken from you. Now you can never atone for what you’ve done. You robbed yourself and your sister of your dream.. How’d you manage to fuck that up so badly?”

Thoughts similar to this kept echoing within the deepest recesses of her mind. But she kept telling everyone she was fine.

Eventually…that façade faded away.

April 9^th,20XX

“We think a change of scenery will really help you sweetie.”

“What does that mean?”

“We’ll be sending you to live with your cousin in Yongen for a while.”

“Okay…”

The motherly figure reached out and kissed her child on her cheek, “I promise Hamuko is the most uplifting relative you have. You’ll see sweetie you’ll have a wonderful time!”

“Sure thing.”

“Wonderful time my ass.” Bright red hair swayed slightly in the spring breeze as she stood in the backstreets of Yongen. She noticed a woman pass by her that she couldn’t take her eyes off of. She had a pretty strange goth attire and headed for some building she didn’t know the purpose of.

Shaking her head, the girl looked up from her phone and started off in the direction that the map app was directing her too. Soon enough she had reached her destination. Kasumi rang the doorbell and waited for an answer over the intercom.

“Hello? Ah there you are Hamuko!”

….

“No, she’s been trying, but she just hasn’t been able to recover neither mentally or physically.”

…

“You always were a sharp one.”

…

“Thank you Hamuko. I really appreciate it.”

In reality she knew why she had to go. She had performed abysmally after the accident had broken her leg. She recovered but only partially even after a long two years. She wasn’t going to be allowed to keep putting up terrible numbers and stay at such a prestigious school.

“Shujin Academy huh? What a shitty excuse to send me all the way out into Yongen. I could just as easily have stayed home, but my dumbass chose to stay silent,” the red-haired ex-gymnast gave a loud groan and smacked herself on the cheeks.

“Whatever, I guess I shouldn’t blame Arisato-san for this. It wasn’t her decision to send me all the way here after all.”

Soon, she got her awaited response. The voice of a tired young women came from the intercom. Sounds kind of like she just woke up.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, Arisato-san? It’s me Kasumi.”

“Oh! I’ve been waiting on you!”

“Uh huh…”

Seconds after, she was greeted by her high-spirited cousin bursting out of her front door and rushing at her with arms wide!

“Wait what are you-!’

She opened the gate and tried to throw her small thin frame at her younger cousin but despite her injuries Kasumi’s reflexes were still sharp. She got the hell out of dodge causing the younger Arisato twin to almost faceplant.

Almost.

Instead she displayed incredible grace as she flipped over to land on her two feet.

Kasumi felt obligated to clap as she watched her cousin bow as if she had just given some big performance.

“Thank you! Thank you! Your too kind!” She blew fake kisses to no one.

“Anyways, cmon! Let’s go help you unpack. A lot of your shit came already and is in the room I have prepared for you!”

With that the red-head duo entered the rather nice living space of Hamuko Arisato. As they made their way to Kasumi’s room Hamuko decided to give her a small tour of the house.

“This is the Kitchen/Dining Room! I have tons and tons of food variety so feel free to make what you want when you get hungry!”

“Are you sure? I have-”

“A gigantic. Almost unbelievable appetite? Trust me. It probably isn’t as bad as mine. I eat way too much! Besides, I make enough money to supply the both of us with enough food to keep us from feeling like every meal was an underwhelming one.” She winked.

“If you say so.”

“This is the Living Room! I don’t really use this room too often since it’s just me here but with you here we can totally watch some anime or play some games! Maybe do some Yoga! Normal girl stuff! It’s pretty spacious I like to think!” Hamuko continued to beam at the Yoshizawa girl as she showed her around.

For Kasumi it was almost too much. She had gotten this same treatment the first year dealing with the death of sister from her friends and peers alike, but it all felt so forced. With this woman Kasumi felt as if she was just…ALWAYS like this. Maybe her mother was right about her being a super upbeat and uplifting person. To be perfectly honest she was feeling a little more relaxed thanks to her cousin’s more than excited energy. Though to be honest “normal girl stuff” seemed a bit odd coming from this woman in her mid 20s but she supposed she didn’t look all that old.

“Nooooooooow!” Hamuko slid down the hallway in her socks and stopped at the back and pointed to their left.

“This! This is my room!”

She pointed over to the other side, “And here you is!”

Kasumi giggled a bit; she hadn’t really paid attention to it but she’s had a small smile plastered on her face since the tripping incident. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Kasumi followed her big cousin’s lead and slid down the hallway before turning to her right and opening the door to her room.

“Oh.”

It was a decent sized room. Nothing too crazy, but Kasumi hadn’t been expecting the greatest living conditions when this arrangement was brought up. The room was a little cluttered though. All of her things had been delivered here prior.

“Wait a sec…Arisato-san! Did you move all of this into this room by yourself?”

“Sure did!’

Hamuko flexed one of her very well-endowed muscles, “It took a little bit of effort, but it was nothing! Gotta ask though, what the hell are in some of those?” She recalled some of those boxes being tough to carry through the house because they were so damn heavy.

“Ahaha well…That was probably my PC and desk”

“What the fuck? No way! There were like three of em!”

“About that, I packed my actual PC in one box my two monitors in another and I have all the parts to my desk packed into another.”

The twin red head opened her mouth as if to speak but nothing came out. Instead she just let out a sigh and started to unpack.

“I don’t even have anything witty for that just help me unpack.”

Take Your Time

Footsteps could be heard nearing the attic. Of course, no one other than Sakura-san himself was the one to appear.

“What the?”

Much to his surprise he found a rather tired Akira cleaning his room pretty thoroughly. It wasn’t completely done yet, but it did look miles better than the state Sojiro left it in for him.

“I heard a bunch of racket from downstairs but, I didn’t think you were cleaning.”

“Well, you did say it was on me to keep this place tidy for myself. I figured I might as well do it now. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Well you make a valid point, I guess. Anyways I came to tell you I’m closing up shop for the day. Now I don’t care whatever the hell it is you do as long as you stay out of trouble. I’m gonna lock up so naturally that means you can’t go out at night. Don’t stay up too long though. Tomorrow I’m taking you to go get acquainted with your new school, and if you end up sick, I won’t be the one to take care of you.”

“Jeez, I haven’t done a damn thing yet and I’m already getting the shittiest treatment for any guest I’ve ever seen. So much for a good start. Guess that’s what happens you have a criminal record.”

Fuck you.

Gee Thanks.

Woooow okay.

‘Fuck it. I’ll just roll with it, I guess. Maybe a little sarcasm.”

“Gee thanks.” Akira rolled his eyes as he plopped down on the bed.

Sojiro just shook his head, “I hope you understand the gravity of the situation you’re in kid. One wrong move and I will not hesitate to throw you out of here! It’s in your best interest to stay behaved during your stay. Who knows? Maybe they’ll let you off probation early and you can head back home if you do.”

With that he headed back down the stairs. Akira made sure he heard the door close and lock before he let out a long sigh.

“Stupid Sojiro.”
Shortly after he had gotten all dressed up and washed up for bed, finally ready to turn in after a long day of being treated like a bastard child.  

As he laid down onto his bed, he decided to check his phone one last time.

“Huh? Again?”

Once more that weird app from earlier had found its way onto his phone.

“Must be a virus or something. I need to find out where I can get my phone checked out around here when I get the chance.”

He deleted it again and closed his eyes. Prepared to drift off into a deep sleep.

Take Your Time

“Thanks for helping me unpack Arisato-san.”

“I told you Kasumi-chan you don’t have to be so formal! We’re family, and I’m not that much older than you!”

“I don’t know 10 years is a lot.” Kasumi jested.

Hamuko puffed out her cheeks, “That is so mean Kasumi-chan!” She shot back with fake hurt evident in her voice.

The two giggled a bit becoming rather acquainted with one another in their short time spent unpacking Kasumi’s things. Kasumi was, however, a little lucky they started unpacking on opposite sides of the room. Admittedly Kasumi had to hold back a few frustrated shouts and tears whenever she stumbled across things that reminded her of her now dead Gymnastics career and her also dead little sister. Two precious parts of her life gone within in an instant and she’d never get either of them back ever again.

She was never able to dwell on those thoughts long though. With Hamuko around Kasumi found herself steadily being snapped out of her thoughts by her older cousin shouting her random thoughts of the things Kasumi had packed. It made her laugh and the banter they shared helped keep her mind off of things. For the first time in what feels like forever Kasumi felt okay. She could still smile and laugh genuinely with people. An ability she thought she had lost long ago, but it seemed like Hamuko was a special case. Always so bubbly and bright it seemed. Kasumi couldn’t thank her enough for that.

Soon, the two would finish their unpacking adventure and they both found themselves beat and super-duper hungry. It was all worth it though as they lay in the middle of the floor.

Kasumi’s room seemed a lot livelier now. Various posters of famous Olympic gymnasts and anime littered the walls. There was now a large rug in the center of the room where they lay with a red heart pattern across a large white background. Not to mention her desk that had her Gaming Setup as a pity gift from some sponsors as well as some other merchandise she kept on her desk at all times.

“Hey Kasumi-chan?”

“Yeah?”
“I’m tired as hell. Definitely not feeling up to cooking tonight.”

“Me either.”

“Wanna order some pizza and call it a night?”

“That sounds fan fucking tastic not gonna lie Hamuko-san.”

“Language child.” The eldest girl jests.

“Fuck you,” was the other girls reply, a casual flip of the finger accompanying the word choice.

The two cracked up at the little exchange which only served to tucker them out even more.

Kasumi was the first one to get up from her spot on the floor. She gathered up the nightwear she left out of the drawers as she got ready to take a nice hot shower and wind down for the night.

“Bathroom?”

“First door to left can’t miss it!”

“Thanks!” Kasumi called back to her as she left the room

Hamuko laid there still picking up her phone and ordering the pizza she and Kasumi decided they would be having tonight. Both of them agreed it was pretty late so eating a little lighter would be best. So Hamuko only got 3 Large boxes of pizza. Haha...yeah, lighter.

As soon as she ordered the pizza, she was greeted with a call log of about 13 missed calls. All from her best friend through the years, Yukari Takeba.

“Shit!”

Hamuko cursed herself and pressed on her name and the call button. She crossed her fingers as she heard it ring, “Please don’t be mad. Please don’t me mad. Please don’t be-”

“Hamuko what the fuck!”

The Arisato girl winced at the loud screech that violated her tired tired ears.

“I’m sorry Yuka-chan! I was busy, I didn’t know you called until just now!”

“For eight fucking hours? What could possibly be taking up that much time!?”

“I didn’t tell you?” Hamuko’s face scrunched up in visible confusion.

“No!”

“My little cousin just moved in with me. I’m her new guardian while she lives in the Yongen-Jaya area.”

“What? You never told me about any family!”

Hamuko winced once more. She could have sworn she mentioned them at least a few times.

“Sorry Yukari! I thought I brought em up at least a few times before!”

“Well you didn’t! Jeez, how scatterbrained are you really?”

“I dunno it depends on what time of day it is and how active my brain needs to be.” Always a “joker” Hamuko.

“Well whatever. Do what you gotta do but don’t forget we have a meeting tomorrow at 15:00.”

“Yeah yeah I know don’t remind me. Bleh.”

“You are such a child,” Yukari pressed her fingers into her temples, “Fuck Hamuko.”

“I am not! It’s just S.O work is exhausting!” Hamuko did a dramatic rollover to emphasize her exhaustion even if Takeba couldn’t see. “Especially with all of the recent psychotic breakdowns. We still don’t have a total understanding of Cognitive Psience yet and it seems like these incidents are only getting more and more frequent!”

“Yeah I understand how you feel,” Yukari let out a a fustrated sigh, “Try not to stress out too much over it Hamuko.”

“Yeah…thanks. Love you Yuka-chan I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, love you too,”

Hamuko hung up.

Ding Dong!

“Must be the pizza!” Her crimson irises seemed to flash a vibrant blood red at the thought.

Hamuko got up and slid her way to the front door with money in hand. She opened the door and was greeted by the pizza man.

“Three Large PEP PEP PEP PEPPERONI PIZZAS?!” He shouted.

Hamuko reeled her hand back in excitement, “Yes sir! That’s me!”

She handed him the cash and grabbed her pizzas closing the door on his face and sitting the pizzas down on the table just in time for Kasumi to be coming out of the bathroom.

“Hey kid! The pizzas here!”

Kasumi almost flashed into the kitchen the way she ran in once she heard the food was here.

That meal did not last long AT ALL.

“You weren’t kidding Kasumi-chan! You lived up to the hype surrounding your legendary appetite!”

“You too Hamuko-san! I didn’t think your appetite was anywhere near as big as what you said it was earlier! “

The two laughed at their insanely high affinity for food only rivaled by the other wild card among them.

“I only know two people who can eat like that! That’s one of my co-workers and my twin brother!”

“You have a twin Hamuko?”

“Had.”

Kasumi’s face dropped, “Oh.”

Hamuko’s face stayed the same though, “It’s fine! It’s not like you were supposed to know he was dead without me telling you or something.”

“Yeah but I-”

“No buts! I said it’s okay Kasumi! I promise I’m okay, that was a long long time ago.” She gave her younger cousin a reassuring smile.

Kasumi was going to say something in retaliation but opted to nod and for some different words instead, “Thanks.”

Hamuko waved her off playfully, “Aww it’s no big deal Kasumi.”

“No, not just for forgiving me, but for everything you did today.”

Hamuko blinked, “Huh?”

“For being such an awesome older cousin. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun. Ever since… Sumire died everyone’s treated me like some kind of fucking sad homeless ass puppy. I stopped getting treated like I was a person with feelings outside of what happened that day. Everyday people would constantly stare at me and talk behind my back. They all talked about just how they felt sorry for me and what not. My own parents tried to baby me before I told them to cut that shit out and stopped them from coddling me like everyone else was trying to do. Hell, even sponsors started sending me those fucking pity gifts hoping they’d help me with my “mental and physical recovery” as they put it.” Her fists were clenched tightly now. She shook slightly as she spoke almost like all of these repressed emotions were threatening to erupt like a volcano at this very moment.

Instead of erupting, however, she just started to cry.

“But you? You took me and when I came here you knew how I was. You knew I was broken and maybe even thought I would be unstable, but when I got here you treated me normally. I didn’t have to worry about pity from you. I could just talk and laugh with you. It was like I was back with Sumire again for the first time in a long time.”

Hamuko had gotten up at this point hugging her younger cousin as she squeezed her tightly in retaliation.

“I’ve long since accepted what happened. I know my sister is gone and I know I can’t blame her or myself forever. I never needed help coming to terms with all of that. All this time I just wanted people to be there for me as people I could just be with. You’re the first person to be that for me. So, thanks Hamuko.”

Yoshizawa gave her older cousin another smile through her tears.

“Anytime.”

Hamuko smiled at her little cousin and stroked her hair, letting her hold onto her body for as long as she needed too.

Eventually, she let go and stood up from her seat.

“All better now?”

“Yeah, I think I got it out of my system.” Kasumi smiled at her. She started towards her room with a slight wave of her hand.

“I think I’m gonna turn in for the night. Night Hamuko-san!”

“Oh! Don’t forget to be up kinda early! I gotta take you to go get acquainted with your new school! Woooooooo!!”

Hamuko cheered enthusiastically as she slid down the hall to her own room. Kasumi just let out a miserable groan, “Ugh school! I totally forgot about that!”

“Don’t worry kid! It’ll be fun trust me! Night!” She closed her door on that note, probably feeling pretty tired.

“It’ll be fun! Trust me!” Kasumi mocked to herself, “Easy for someone who’s not changing schools to say.”

She shut her own door and flopped onto her bed. She decided she’d watch some Youtube until she fell asleep. When she opened her phone though some weird app had been there on her phone.

“What the fuuuuuuck?” She asked herself.

“What is this thing?” Her finger hovered over it curiously but then she snatched it back quickly.

“No! If it’s some kind of virus then I better just delete it.”

She held down on the icon for a bout two seconds before dragging it over to the trash bin, effectively deleting the app with a satisfying “POP!” sound.

Soon enough the red head fell into a deep sleep.l watching some SkyeBy videos.

Take Your Time

Back into the blue room we are. Our frizzy haired protagonist seems to have found himself back into the strange area. However, his bed seems more cramped than before. What in the hell could this be beside him? He sits up onto the find he’s being held back by some kind of weight.

“What?”

He lifted his eyes up from his shackles following the chain to the owner of the restraint holding him down.

“Ah!”

That made him scream. It would appear that this mysterious weight was actually a girl. The same red-haired girl from before actually. That scream seems to have jolted the girl awake as well.

“Huh!? Where am I!?”

She would also go through the process of finding out she’s chained to the opposite sex.

“Ahhhh! Pervert! What the hell are you up to buddy!”

“Me!? You ended up in my bed! I was just sleeping as usual when-“

The boy paused his response.

“What’s wrong?”

“This is weird. I really did just go to bed, right? So why am I here? With you no less.”

“I…I also just went to sleep. I don’t know where this place is. Why are we locked up? Locked up TOGETHER at that!”

They both jump at the sound of an amused chuckle.

“Tricksters.”

A light cut on illuminating the entire midnight blue room. They couldn’t see whoever that was singing and playing the piano…weird. The large nosed man and twins from the boys first trip here was still there though. Could the laughter have come from him?

“Welcome to my velvet room.”

The two managed to get up and head over to the cell door.

The red head spoke first, “Who the hell are you?”

A sharp voice came from the little girl with the buns in her head, “Hey! Show some respect inmate!

The child with the braided ponytail spoke up.

“Your real-world selves are currently fast asleep. You are only experiencing this as a dream.”

The other one, who is considerably feistier smacked the cell with her baton. The force caused a small shock effect which stung frizzy hair’s hands a bit.

“You’re in the presence of our master! Stand up straight!”

Said master had some more words for our tricksters.

“This place is between mind and matter, dream and reality. It is a room only those bound by a contract may enter.”

“I am Igor. The master of the very velvet room you find yourselves in now. Remember this well.”

“I summoned you to speak of important matters. It involves your lives as well.”

“Important matter?” asked the boy in the fake glasses.

Igor simply looked around the room, “Still it is most interesting.”

“What is? Spit it out old man!” the spunky read head grabbed the prison bars.

This prompted another strike from the feisty blue girl. “Watch your tone!”

Pain. All these tricksters know is pain.

“The state of this room reflects the state of your own heart. To think a prison would appear as such.” Igor was now specifically speaking to frizzy hair. “It seems you truly are a “prisoner” of fate. In the near future it is no mistake that ruin awaits you.”

“Ruin?” The boy’s hands gripped onto the bars slightly tighter at the words.

“I speak of the end of everything.”

“What?” Asked the now less hostile girl.

“However, there is a means to oppose such fate.”

“You must be rehabilitated. Rehabilitated towards freedom. That is your only means to avoid ruin. Do you have the resolve to challenge the distortion of the world?”

“Wait what?” Was a thought that played in his mind. That likely wouldn’t give him any answers though. He just wants to avoid this coming “ruin”.

“If it’s all the same to you I’d like to avoid ruin.”

An amused chuckle escapes Igor’s lips.

“Allow me to observe your path to rehabilitation.”

The two children seemed to move restlessly almost as if signaling for something.

“Ah, pardon me for not introducing you to the others. To your right is Caroline, to your left Justine. They serve as wardens here.”

The one on the right, known as Caroline, was the one smacking the cell. She smirked smacking her baton in her hands, “Hmph, try and struggle as hard as you like.”

On the left was her supposed twin, Justine, “The duty of wardens is to protect inmates. We are also your collaborators. That is, if you two remain obedient.”

Igor spoke again with more haste this time, “I shall explain the roles of these two on another occasion.”

Igor pointed at the girl standing beside the young man.

“As for you, it seems as if your fate and his have been closely bonded together. I know not why you are able to manifest in this room alongside the trickster but perhaps the game will take on a new form with the appearance of another player. Yes, it would seem your very presence in the same plane of existence as this young man has altered the course of both of your lives as you know it. The same ruin will befall you as well if you choose not to act.”

The girl scoffed a bit, “Game? Plane of Existence? Tied to him closely? I don’t even know this guy! How could our fates be tied so closely?!”

Igor simply asked the question again tapping his fingers impatiently at the thought of entertaining this unexpected guest, “Time is running short trickster. While you may not possess the same powers as he, your role in the events that are about to unfold are all but certain. Whether you choose to aid in his downfall or success is all up to you.”

The girl bit her lip at that. Even now the boy in question was staring at her with expectant eyes. She wasn’t sure about all of this, but if this was all just a dream then it wouldn’t hurt to just roll with it. Right?

With a heavy sigh she resigned to what seemed like her destiny with this strange boy.

“Yes, I’ll help challenge ruined fate or whatever the hell you said.”

A low growl from Caroline.

“Very well. The night is waning…it is almost time. Take your time to understand this place. We will surely meet again.”

All of a sudden, a very loud bell began to ring out hurting our two heroes’ ears.

“Time’s up. Now hurry and go back to sleep! The both of you!”

Frizzy hair wasn’t down for that though he needed answers before he could just wake up and pretend like this didn’t happen! He tried to shake at the bars desperately hoping for some sort of miracle that the cell would open.

“Tied to his fate huh…” Kasumi mumbled to herself her voiced thoughts drowned out by the obnoxious ringing.

Soon…everything faded to black

Take Your Time

Chapter Text

April 10^th, 20XX

“Alright, kid c’mon. Let’s head on down to the school.”

“Be down in just one second!”

Akira was fumbling with his shoes as he hopped down the stairs. Apparently, he had woken up a bit late thanks to that weird dream of his. Well, he woke up on time, but he felt so exhausted he laid still in his bed for a while before even moving to check his phone for the time. Thanks to that he’s rushing trying not to give off a lazy impression on his first full day with his new caregiver.

Sojiro just shook his head. “I told you to be up a little earlier. You're going to be kicked out real soon if you can’t even follow instructions as simple as that.”

“Do you have to keep bringing up kicking me out? You know I was arrested on false charges, yet you keep treating me like some sort of troublemaker.”

“I don’t know a damn thing brat. For all I know you really did assault that man. I’m not taking sides, but this is a pain in my ass. I’m the one who has to keep you in line for the foreseeable future.”

The teen just stared dead into his caregiver’s eyes.

“He shouldn’t be blaming me for this! I understand it must be a pain in the ass to take care of some kid but taking it out on me is fucking bogus.”

Yeah whatever...

It’s not my fault!

…

“…”

He held his tongue on that one.

A large sigh coming from the eldest in the room.

“Whatever just- let’s go to the car and get this over with.”

Nodding his head Akira followed Sakura all the way to his car and was silent as he hopped into the front seat.

Take Your Time

“Kasumi-chan! Wake up!” Hamuko Arisato was currently shaking the absolute shit out of Kasumi Yoshizawa trying to get her to wake up.

“Five more minutes I’m begging you sis.”

“I’m not your sister dumbass! Wake the fuck up!”

Hamuko growled, at this rate they were gonna be more than late getting to Shujin. Hamuko gave a drawn-out sigh as she stood up and started out the door, “I didn’t wanna have to do this.” Soon enough Hamuko came in and drenched the sleeping redhead in ice-cold lemonade.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Kasumi woke up with a scream, jumping out of bed and landing on her face. She stood up running to grab some clothes and dry towel, “What the actual fuck Hamuko!?”

“Sorry Kasumi-chan, but you would not wake the fuck up. I tried so many times. I’ve been at this for like 10 minutes I had no choice.”

Kasumi smelled something…sweet? She sniffed herself before facing the mischievous Arisato twin. “What the fuck!? Why Lemonade!? You could have just dumped water on me now I’m all sticky!”

“That was for making me sit here for ten damn minutes trying to wake you up! Now go shower and get ready so we’re not extremely late!”

“Late for wh- ooooooooh.” Kasumi immediately took off toward the bathroom.

Another sigh from Hamuko.

Think it Through

“Okay! I’m all ready to go!”

“Alrighty then kid let’s head on out!”

Hamuko kicked her keys lying on the table into the air and snatched them as she walked towards the front door.

Kasumi followed suit behind her cousin as she pulled her bland red hood over her head. For a few years now she had taken quite a liking to hoodies. They made her feel a little cooler. Something she desperately needed after the incident.

Kasumi hopped into the passenger’s seat and Hamuko took her place in the driver’s seat.

“Okay kid let’s get you to school on time!”

Kasumi did not like the dangerous glint in Ham’s eyes at that very moment.

“Hey, what are you going to doOOOO!”

Her question was cut short by her own screams and the sounding of a weird alarm along with the sudden speed the car had picked up as Hamuko speeded onto the freeway. The road was busy as hell but thanks to the loud as fuck siren blaring everyone pulled over to the shoulder of the road to make way for the “cop” car.

“You’re a police officer!?”

“Eh, something like that! I’ll tell you all about it today!”

In no time they arrived at their destination.

Think It Through

As our red-headed duo approached the office door two men seemed to be finishing up their meeting and heading out. “Ah! Sakura-san!” Hamuko waved.

“Arisato-san? Good to see you.” His eyes glanced over at Kasumi before returning to the older woman. “Who’s the kid?”

“It’s my younger cousin!”

Kasumi gave a slight wave. Her attention was more focused on the young man behind Sakura.

“Who’s that kid?” Hamuko pointed to Akira.

“Just some brat I took in for his parents. He’ll be staying with me for a while, so I hope he’ll be on his best behavior.”

Akira scoffed a bit under his breath before looking to the two redheads. “My name’s Kurusu Akira I just got transferred here. Nice to meet you.”

Hamuko gave the glasses-wearing juvenile a smile, “Well my name’s Arisato Hamuko and this one just got transferred here too! Arrived yesterday!”

“Yoshizawa Kasumi. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, he just arrived yesterday as well. My name’s Sakura Sojiro by the way. I run the café in the backstreets of Yongen.”

Kasumi felt a small lightbulb go off in her head, “Oh you mean that small little café in the alley? Leblanc, right? I passed by there while I was getting lost looking for Hamuko-Chan’s house.”

“Yep, that’s the one,” Sakura chuckled, “The two of you should stop by sometime for some coffee. I have to go open shop now, so we’ll be taking off now. Nice seeing you around little lady.” He flashes them a smile before motioning for Akira to follow him out as he heads to the front gate.

Akira flashes a glance at Kasumi before leaving, “See ya tomorrow Yoshizawa-san.”

“Sure thing Kurusu-kun.” She waved at him.

With that out of the way, the two cousins entered the principal’s office.

Principal Kobayakawa was no ordinary man. He had a large frame for sure and his head was shaped like one of those people off the movie “Coneheads” it was a little funny to be honest.

“Ah, hello Principal.” Hamuko spoke formally but there was some edge to that formality.

“Nice to see you again Arisato-san. I take it this child is our new transfer?”

“Yes sir. That’s me Yoshizawa Kasumi.”

“I see. It says here you are a gymnast. We have tons of-“

“Was.”

The principal glanced up from the files at the girl, “Hm?”

Kasumi bit her lip, “I was a gymnast. My career is over now.”

“Oh.” He cleared his throat before continuing on, “It seems you hadn’t had the best of grades back at your old school. Fret not. We have already assigned someone to be your tutor. You will meet with her after school tomorrow. Her name is Haru Okumura, a third-year student, and the school's gardener. Given the circumstances, we could not ask the best of the best, but she should prove adequate.”

The ex-athlete gave a small nod to show her appreciation, “Thank you, sir.”

“It is my pleasure,” he returns the gesture with a small smile, “Tomorrow when you arrive you will meet with the lovely lady over to my right in the faculty office.”

Said lady had been standing around with a “professional” look in her eyes. It was almost like she was trained to not speak until permitted, “My name is Ms.Chouno. I will be your homeroom teacher for the year.”

To be honest, Kasumi felt a slightly odd vibe coming from the woman, but she wasn’t in any position to complain so she opted to just bow instead, “It’s a pleasure.”

“Such a well-mannered young lady. We’ll get along swimmingly!” Ms.Chouno smiled.

“Well-mannered my ass. Ha.” Kasumi mumbled.

She went unheard by everyone except the woman standing beside her who nudged her discretely, “Knock it off.”

Welp the little redhead’s shoulder hurt a little now so that was great.

Take Your Time

Akira and Sojiro were stuck in traffic.

Again.

“The roads have been packed all day. Is it cause of the subway accident?” Sojiro was clearly impatient tapping his fingers on the will and his foot against the car floor.

“Subway accident?”

“Didn’t you hear? One of the train conductors on the Ginza Line crashed the train off the tracks killing and injuring hundreds of folks.”

“That’s awful.”

“Sure is, supposedly they’re linking this case to the mental shutdown cases that have been springing up as of late. What a bunch of rubbish.”

“Now that I’ve heard about. What is it with those shutdowns anyway? They’ve been so frequent lately.”

Silence…

“Hey,” Akira spoke up.

“Yeah?”

“Why’d you…why’d you take me in?”

Sojiro paused for a second.

“Your parents are good friends of mine. Since they called and asked me for help, I gave it to em. That’s all there is to it kid.”

“So, it was just to do my parents a favor?”

“That’s the gist of it.”

“Hm.” The younger man just pushed his glasses up and stared absentmindedly out the car window.

Take Your Time

“Uh…Hamuko-chan? What are we doing at the police station?”

“I have a little business to attend to at work today and you need to be present.”

“Why?”

“You’ll find out soon enough little one.” She gave the smaller girl head pats.

Kasumi responded by smacking her hands away, “Cut that shit out I’m not a fucking animal!” She pouted.

Hamuko laughed at her little temper, “Aww someone’s a little angry.”

“Fuck. Off.” Kasumi gave her the finger.

Hamuko led her to the elevator, dropping a few highs and hellos, and pressed one of the buttons. It made a weird noise almost like a music note.

“Fancy.” Kasumi complimented.

“That’s not the best part.”

Boop boop booooop booooop booooooooooop

She played the tune to “Burn My Dread” and the elevator began to move.

“Look at you. Trying to be cool now we’re gonna be forever getting to where you need to be.”

“Actually.” Hamuko pointed up at the floor number display.

“What the fuck!?”

The numbers were changing rapidly she didn’t even see most of those numbers on the elevator buttons!

“Where the hell are we going!?”

“Don’t sweat it!” Hamuko giggled.

Ding.

The elevator opened to a small hallway with some doors lining the sides.

“Where are we?”

“The floor where all the top-ranking Shadow Operative officials lie.”

“Shadow Operatives? I thought you were a police officer!?”

“I am! Just…a special kind of police officer hehe.”

“What the hell even are the Shadow Operatives?”

“A specialized team created by the current head of the Kirijo group and one of my closest friends, Mitsuru Kirijo. We specialize in hunting down creatures called shadows and handling Persona related activity”

“Shadows? Personas? Hamuko-chan with all due respect. What the actual fuck are you going on about?”

“I guess it’s pretty weird to wrap your head around. You’ll probably get a better explanation when we get inside.” Hamuko opened the door to one of the rooms to find a large meeting room.

“Woah.”

Hamuko giggled.

Inside of the meeting room some of the Operatives were already there.

“Hey guys! I brought her!” The auburn-haired girl stepped to the side to reveal her younger cousin.

“Uhhhh…Hi?” Kasumi stood there awkwardly before a large blush settled onto her face.

“God this is so embarrassing. Why the hell am I suddenly just put on the spot like this! Damn you Hamuko!”

“Okay. Relax Kasumi say something cool. Something cool.”

Something Cool

Something Cool

Something Cool

“…Bruh”

While Kasumi was mid breakdown a lady dressed in a business suit sat at the head of the table and called her to attention.

“Yoshizawa-san.”

Kasumi was snapped out of her thoughts by the authoritative voice calling to her.

 “Eep! Yes ma’am!”

Now Kasumi wasn’t a delinquent or anything, but she’d like to think she developed a much more rebellious personality following the accident. Somehow though…this lady. She’s scary.

“Take a seat if you please.”

Doing as she was told Kasumi took her seat in one of the chairs that sat at the table.

“First of all, I’d like to welcome you to the Shadow Operatives. I trust Arisato-san has provided you with a basic rundown of what we are?” She cocked an eyebrow at the girl in question.

“Yep! I uh, I definitely did that way before we got here!” She smiled to try and pass off her nervousness.

“Mhm…anyways. We asked you here today not to join us but rather to ensure you know of the potential you possess and what dangers come with it.”

Kasumi unknowingly leaned forward a bit in her seat, “Potential?”

Mitsuru slid her a large briefcase, “Your potential as a Persona user.”

“Hamuko-chan mentioned personas to me earlier. What are they?”

Mitsuru gave Hamuko the stink eye while the smaller girl shrunk under her gaze. The Kirijo girl pinched her nose as she spoke, “Personas are the manifestations of one’s heart. They represent the true self hidden within. Everyone has one but not everyone has the potential to manifest that Persona. For those without the potential, it is essentially impossible for them to summon one.”

Kasumi cocked her brow at the older woman, “And your saying I have the power to summon one of these persona thingies?” She slowly opened up the briefcase.

“What the fuck!?”
Everyone in the room jumped at the sudden shout.

Mitsuru was able to quickly recover her composure, a skill she’s honed over the years, “Refrain from using such vulgarities in the future Yoshizawa-san. A lady shouldn’t carry herself in such a manner. Though, I understand that may be difficult with a certain someone acting as your guardian.”

Hamuko flipped her off briefly before continuing for her commander, “Inside that case, my dear little cousin, is what we call an evoker.”

Kasumi furrowed her eyes at the gun feeling its weight in her hands. She had been frequenting a shooting range in secret before, so she knows a real gun when she sees it. Because of that, Kasumi was easily able to recognize this was indeed a fake gun, but it felt real? “I’ve never heard of a gun called an “Evoker” before. Is this some kind of special military gun?”

It was Hamuko’s turn to look a little confused. Her younger cousin seemed to examine the weaponry a little too expertly for her liking, “I didn’t take you for a gun enthusiast. Akane didn’t tell me anything about this before I took you in.”

“I hid my little hobby from them, but more importantly. What’s up with this thing? It doesn’t even have any mags for ammunition. What am I gonna use this for?”

Kirijo took over for her dumbfounded friend, “As Arisato-san stated earlier that is an Evoker. We use it to summon our personas although the method is a bit…unnerving.”

“How so?”

“I can’t divulge that information to you. We just wanted to give you that gun in case of emergencies.”

“So then why was I brought to this meeting?”
Hamuko interjected this time, “Well, I told them about you the night you arrived here while you were in the shower so they decided it’d be best to inform you of the dangers you might face as a persona user. I know it seems a little weird right now but don’t worry about it. The way things are right now you shouldn’t need to worry about ever having to use that old thing.”

Kasumi raised her hand to speak before Mitsuru cut off Hamuko again, “What exactly are these dangers?”

A large screen descended from the ceiling. Kasumi watched in awe as the screen lit up once it finished its descent. It began to display some very…odd imagery of some muddy black shapeless creatures.

“For starters shadows may hunt and prey on those who have the potential. Shadows can take many forms but when you see one you will definitely know it. Another threat may be other Persona users. Not everyone who wields a persona has good intentions. Don’t trust anyone who is an unregistered persona user. If they can’t provide a license be prepared to defend yourself.”

Kasumi massaged her temples gently, “So I just need to keep an eye out for other persona users and shadows correct?”

“That is the gist of it.”

“Okay, I…I think I understand.”

“If there are no questions then we’ll have Arisato-san escort you back home once the others introduce themselves.”

Ah yes, Kasumi had nearly forgotten there were other people in this room alongside her. She had been so focused on what the hell these two were telling her she hadn’t had much time to process anything else.

“Introductions?”

An awfully familiar face stood up first, “Hi. My name is Takeba Yukari. I’m more of a reserve member at the moment but I do what I can.”

“No way! You’re the Yukari Takeba! Like, Pheonix Featherman Pink Argus Takeba!?”

A small smirk played on the spirited brunette’s face, “Oh? You’re a Featherman fan, are you?”

“I mean…yeah! I watch Featherman all the time! This is so cool! I can’t believe I’m meeting Pink Argus!”

Next up was this weird old looking dude.

“Looks like you got some fans Yuka-tan!”

“Can it Junpei.”

“Haha! Cold as ever I see,” He turned to face the new girl, “Sup newbie! The names Iori Junpei! I’m the same as Yuka-tan being a reserve and all. I’m no actor but I coach a little league baseball team. You a fan of baseball Yoshizawa-san?”

“Yeah! I like all sports. I may not understand much of the rules of baseball, but I know enough to enjoy watching!”

Then this maid looking lady stood up, effectively cutting that exchange short, “Hello my name is Saikawa Kikuno, I serve as the personal assistant to the Shadow Operatives.”

“Nice to meet you Kikuno-san…”Kasumi felt a bit awkward after the lively introductions of the others she felt that the formality here was a little suffocating.

“Aigis! Your up!” Called Hamuko, she could sense the unease and knew Aigis was just the thing!

The robot lady stood up from her seat and pumped her fist attempting to mimic the previous interactions after processing the fact that our little athlete didn’t deal too well with the formal thing.

“Sup yo! My name is Aigis! I am normally on the front lines whenever there is trouble! I tend to favor a number of different activities!”

Mitsuru wasn’t even surprised at this point, “I really need to stop her from hanging out with Hamuko and Junpei so much.” Her head was starting to hurt.  

Kasumi was a bit in shock, rightfully so of course. Aigis was without a doubt not human, that much Kasumi could tell, but her behavior was so human-like it was unlike anything she’d ever seen and what came next didn’t help either.

Aigis motioned for her sister to get up and introduce herself as well and so she did.

“Hello, my name is Labrys! I’m Aigis’s kid sister! I’m not as much of an experienced member as Aigis but I do my best alongside everyone!”

Now Kasumi was really in shock. The talking robots had differentiating personalities and referred to each other as siblings!

“I-It’s nice to meet you both.”

Mitsuru just shook her head in disbelief, “My my. You all were supposed to give brief introductions so we could get Hamuko out and back in time,” She turned to the not robot child in the room, “You’ll have to excuse them. We have a member who is gone at the moment, but you may meet him one day. His name is Akihiko Sanada. Though it may be a bit rude it is about time you leave now Yoshizawa-san. We have things we need to discuss that we can’t have you around for. We’ll have Arisato-san take you back home and you can rest for today. Tell no one what we just told you and keep your evoker hidden am I clear?”

“Yes ma’am” Kasumi nodded obediently. There was the chill again. This lady was seriously scary.

“Alright guys I’ll be back in a bit!” Hamuko waved to everyone as she and Kasumi exited the room.

There was silence as the two rode the elevator back down to the first floor.

‘So…”

Kasumi turned to her older cousin and raised an eyebrow, “So what?”

Ding.

They started off towards the car. The sky had changed to a vibrant orange during their time inside.

“How are you taking everything?”

Kasumi rubbed her shoulder anxiously, “I don’t know. It’s all so…weird.”

Hamuko unlocked the car doors and they both hopped in as she started the engine.

“Like I don’t know how to make heads or tails of any of this. How’d you get into this job anyway? How could you sense the potential in me?”

Hamuko put her foot to the gas pedal and pressed slowly. She wasn’t gonna burn all her gas in one day zipping through town like that.

“Before the Shadow Operatives were a thing. My twin brother and I led a group of persona users called S.E.E.S. Mitsuru was actually the leader, but we were the field commanders. Everyone she mentioned today except for Labrys was a member of S.E.E.S. We were all just high schoolers at the time and Kun-kun was just in elementary school.”

“Ken-kun?”

“Oh. He left the S.Os a while back after an incident in Inaba. He’s a good kid. A few years younger than you kiddo. Anyways, back then we were fighting to get rid of the Dark Hour. An extra hour of the day that only people with the potential to wield personas could be active in. Normally everyone is asleep during that time though so even potential users might have missed it.”

Kasumi’s eyes lit up for a moment, “So that’s why whenever I would stay up I could swear there was an extra hour added where time wouldn’t move!”

Hamuko nodded, “It’s a wonder you weren’t attacked. The shadows would attack anyone not inside of a coffin during the Dark Hour: A.K.A persona users. There have been cases where people ended up dead and no one knew the reason why. Investigation shows they were also kids with the potential. It was…tough to say the least, figuring out there were others like us who didn’t have the means to defend themselves in distant countries.”

Hamuko shook her head a bit, attempting to refocus on her story.

“We ended up finally ridding the world of the Dark Hour and the tall tower that accompanied it called Tartarus by sealing Nyx and preventing a catastrophe known as “The Fall.” It was supposed to be a group effort between me and Minato but…”

Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes, “Minato was insistent on doing things alone. He sealed Nyx and became the seal on the door keeping humanity’s desire to fade away and die from ever reappearing. Even right now as we speak his soul lies there even if his body is buried. After he died, I was heartbroken. I should have been the one to go but I didn’t fight with him hard enough. I didn’t try hard enough to convince him we could do it together. So, he was sent alone, and he died alone, leaving me behind. I left Tatsumi Port Island and finished up school at Shujin Academy while living here in Inaba. I didn’t even go to his funeral. Worse still a year later I found out about another incident. Apparently, everyone got caught in a time loop within our old dormitories where they faced the truth of what happened to my brother. Ahaha, I couldn’t even be a semi-decent leader anymore. Everyone else was struggling towards finding the future and fighting towards figuring out the truth but I…I just turned tail and ran away. None the wiser.”

She pulled into the apartment’s parking spot and just…broke down. She dropped her head onto the steering wheel and let out a stream of tears that just had been welled up within her for a long time. Kasumi didn’t really know what to say or do. As an adult, you would expect Hamuko to have, at some point, been comforting Kasumi but here we are now.

“Sorry…sorry.” Hamuko wiped her eyes a bit even as the tears kept falling trying to compose herself.

“Aigis inherited my brother’s wild card abilities during that time. Yukari immediately called me afterward to explain what happened,” She took in a deep breath to try and finish this out, “Fast forward a few uneventful years and I was slowly getting better. Yukari told me that Mitsuru had formed a new group with the sole intent of hunting down shadows. I accepted. I was in college having a shitty time and taking this job helped financially and mentally believe it or not.”

Hamuko actually looked at Kasumi for the first time since she began her tale of woe, “I didn’t think I’d be telling you this so soon you know. You reminded me so much of myself after I lost my brother that I had to intervene. When your parents told me your situation, I was eager to take you in. I wanted so badly to help you but in reality…Having you around these past few days has made being home so much more fun then it had been for me for such a long time. So, thanks Kasumi-chan.” A weak smile made its way to her face as she started to unlock the car.

“Cmon kid. Let’s get you inside I’ll be back in a bit.”

Kasumi stepped out of the car and walked around to Hamuko’s side instead of inside. She knocked on the window and Ham rolled the window down in response.

“Kasumi-chan? What’s up?”

Suddenly there were two small arms wrapped around her body tightly she felt her body tense up at the sudden contact before eventually returning the gesture.

“Thanks for telling me all that Hamuko-chan. At first. At first, I didn’t think too highly of moving in with you. It seemed like a dumb idea and I thought you’d just try to pamper me out of my funk. Instead, you kept it real the whole time. I appreciate that. I’m glad you trusted me with sensitive information. I don’t care why you thought it was a good idea to trust me with it, but I am glad. I’ve known you for about a day, but I can already tell your one of the most caring and amazing people on this miserable rock we call Earth. I’m sure your brother knows that too. He sacrificed himself so he could guarantee you live your life out to the fullest. I don’t think you betrayed his memory at all by getting selfish. It’s okay to be a little spoiled when times get rough, but you’ve shown you can get back up and keep fighting. Literally and figuratively. I’m proud to call someone as amazing as you family. You’re the greatest older cousin I could have ever asked for. I love you Hamuko-chan.”

There aren’t many words someone can give after something like what just happened. Hamuko knew that, so she didn’t try too. Kasumi didn’t need her too either. She was perfectly content feeling the smile that had begun to take shape on her cousin’s face as she cried into her for a bit.

In a way, this was almost similar to last night, just with the roles reversed. A warm feeling grew within Kasumi’s chest.

“I am thou. Thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity. With the birth of the Fool Persona I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…”

“I love you too kid. I gotta go now. Order something good for us to eat while I’m out kay?” She gave her a big grin and a cheesy thumbs up as she sped off in her car leaving Kasumi alone.

She turned around and pulled out her phone.

“Something good to eat for dinner huh?” She smiled to herself subconsciously before heading inside.

Think It Through

“I’m home!”

Hamuko walked through the door and tossed her keys on the table.

“What’d you order squirt?”
“Now I’m squirt? These names are only gonna get more fucking stupid.”
“Don’t be so damn pissy all the time “lil cuz”.” That made Hamuko giggle a bit.

“That wasn’t even the slightest bit funny fucker.” Didn’t succeed in amusing our little firecracker though.

“Anyways, what’s up with the food?”

“I ordered some sushi. I at most of it but there should be enough left for you in the fridge old lady.”

Hamuko gasped, “I am not that fucking old! I’m 26!”

“Pfffft. Grandma.”

“You little motherfucker.” Hamuko opened the refrigerator and pulled out the container of leftover sushi.

“What the fuck is this!?” She showed the container to Kasumi with an exasperated expression.

“What?”

“This is not enough you cheeky bastard!”

“Sorry about that. I forgot you could eat grandma.”

Pop!

“Ow! Why’d you go and do that!?”

“For running your damn mouth too much, and for leaving me this little ass plate! Now I have to make something on top of this! Ughhhhhh!” Hamuko let out a groan as Kasumi rubbed her poor little head. Who knows somebody could make a plastic box of sushi hurt so much?

“Just make a sandwich or something Hamuko-chan jeez.”

“Whatever food hog. Next time if your gonna order out, order enough for both of us!”

“I get it I get it fine! Just don’t throw the sushi container again that shit actually hurts somehow!”

Hamuko set about making herself a sandwich with a slight attitude as her stomach growled.

Kasumi took a glance at the clock displayed on the oven.

23:46             

“It’s late Hamuko-chan. I’m gonna head to bed now. I don’t wanna be late for school tomorrow.” She started off towards her room.

“Oh! Speaking of,” Hamuko followed after her sliding to a stop after a small jog to catch up, “You should stop by Leblanc for breakfast tomorrow! I already called and told Sojiro you’d be stopping by!”

Kasumi turned violently to face her, “What!? The little café in the backstreets? Why can’t I just eat breakfast here!?”

“Cause…”Hamuko whistled as she began rocking on her feet, “I don’t feel like cooking tomorrow morning.”

“Then I’ll do it!”
“It’s just a block down away Kasumi plus you can head straight to the train station from there! You and the kid Sakura-san took in can head to school together and get all acquainted! It’s a win-win!”

“Fine, whatever.” Kasumi sighed in defeat, “I’ll head over to Leblanc tomorrow on my way to school.”

“Awesome! Now I’m gonna go make my sandwich because someone ate the goddamn sushi!” Hamuko stomped off back to the kitchen seemingly furious all over again.

“Crybaby.” Kasumi jabbed as she closed the door to her room and laid onto her bed.

“That boy. I know I’ve seen him somewhere. It was a little dark in that “Velvet Room” cell but I think that might have been him. Maybe…Maybe I should ask him about it on the way to school?”

Kasumi shook her head a bit, “Whatever I’ll figure it out tomorrow. For now, I need to sleep. I’m fucking pooped.”

She pulled out her phone, once more deciding to binge YouTube so she can reach a peaceful sleep. Yet, that app seemed to make its way onto her phone again.

“Again!? I’m getting my phone checked out immediately after school tomorrow. Maybe Hamuko’s robot friends can do something about it.”
Kasumi chuckled mischievously to herself, briefly plotting how she could convince her to get her friends to take a look.

“Maybe not though. That Kirijo lady might have my head for even trying it.”

The ex-athlete once again deleted the app from her phone before opening up YouTube and putting on a League of Legends YouTuber.

Take Your Time

By the time they entered the café, it was already super late.

“Well, no point in opening today,” Sojiro scratched his head in frustration, “Dammit, this is gonna be more trouble than I thought.”

“You didn’t have to take me in you know.”

“Shut it brat.”

A chuckle escaped the delinquent’s lips.

“Well, whatever. I’m heading home for today. I’m gonna lock the place up so you get ready to hit the hay so you can make it to school on time tomorrow. You're taking the subway. You know the way, right?”

Akira nodded his head, “I think I got it.”

Sojiro shook his head to that. “Just try not to be late tomorrow. You don’t wanna get in trouble on your first day.”

Another nod in response.

“Good. I’ll be on my way now. Night kid.”

“Night Sakura-san.”

There he goes.

“Well, there doesn’t seem like it’s much to do so I guess I’ll just head on to sleep. “

With that, Akira went through a small nightly routine before turning in. It’s a good thing Sojiro stopped by Big Bang for a quick dinner on the way back.

Akira opened up his phone once more.

“What? It’s back?”  

It seems like the app from yesterday had made its way back onto his phone.

“I really need to get this checked out.”

Akira frowned a bit before deleting the strange app once more.

Chapter Text

April 111^th. 20XX

“I’m off Hamuko-chan!”

“See ya later Kasumi-chan!”

Kasumi was running slightly behind so she decided it’d be best to make a mad dash over to Leblanc to eat before it was too late. The first day of school on an empty stomach would absolutely suck.

As she opened the doors to the humble café a nice ringing noise sounded as the bells swayed with the movement of the door. That alerted the boss and his “adopted” ingrate to her presence.

“Hey, Yoshizawa-san.” It was the kid in glasses who spoke to her this time.

“Kurusu-Kun hey!” She took a seat at one of the booth seats. “So, Hamuko-chan told me to eat here for the morning. What are we having anyway?”

Akira just gave her a sideways glance while pointing at the busy man in front of them, “See for yourself.”

Soon as she did, she caught wind of a familiar smell. A delicious one but odd to smell this early.

“Curry!?” Kasumi was rightfully caught off guard even almost falling out of her seat.

“Isn’t it a little too early for something like curry Sakura-san?”

The man in question served them their plates with a small smile, “Well, that may be true but it’s like my specialty and it gets you going for the day.” He explains while scratching his head.

“Uh-huh.” Kasumi nodded slowly before grabbing her spoon and digging in. “Woah! This is amazing Sakura-san! I’ve never tasted curry this good before!”

That brought a smile to the old man’s face, “Glad to hear you liked it Yoshizawa-san.”

“Gee, when I got judgy about the breakfast curry I wasn’t given nearly the same amount of leeway on it,” Akira muttered. Unfortunately for him, Sojiro heard him anyway.

“Quit your complaining. If it bothers you so much why don’t you just find something else to eat in the morning! Just don’t expect it to come from my fridge.”

“Yeah yeah.” Akira absentmindedly ate at his plate.

“Seconds please!” Kasumi was already done with her plate and had her plate out for more.

“Woah there. You sure are the cousin of Arisato-san alright. Eat just like her. Here.” He fixed her a second helping which she had no problem washing down again.

That made Akira stare a bit, his eyes wide. When she finished her third plate and noticed him gawking like a moron, she cleared her throat. “Hey, you gotta problem?”

That was enough to snap him out of it for a bit. “My bad. It’s just…”

“Hey, you two better hurry along before you miss the train.” Sojiro reminded the kids like the responsible adult he was. Truly a role model.

“Oh, your right.” Akira scarfed down his plate while keeping that same cool expression. He got up from his seat as did Kasumi. “Well, we’re off old man. See ya later.”

He walked out before Sojiro could even get a word back into him, “Disrespectful little brat.” He sighed pulling out a pack of squares. He lit one up and put it too his lips sucking in and puffing out little clouds of smoke, “Reminds me of a younger me he does.”

Take Your Time

Outside our little tricksters were on their way to Aoyome-Itchome.

“Hey.” Kasumi was the one to initiate conversation.

“Yeah?”

“You and Sakura-san don’t get along too well do ya?”
Akira turned to face her, “Gee, what makes you think so?”
Kasumi turned to face him this time fist balled up, “Hey pal, keep the ‘tude to yourself. I ain’t the one you got a problem with it’s your caregiver.”

Akira scoffed at the idea of calling Sojiro his “caregiver”, “The old far? My caregiver? Ha, you should see the way he treats me. He’s more like my warden if anything else. You heard the man yesterday it’s not like really wanted to take me in or nothing. He was practically forced by his own need to pay my parents’ back a favor it seemed.”

“Why’d you need to be taken in in the first place anyway?” Kasumi tried switching the subject, obviously, something about it was a little touchy for him.

“Well, I used to live in the country. There was only one school out there and my parents couldn’t afford to move anywhere anytime soon so they needed someone to take me in somewhere else after being expelled from my old one.”

Kasumi cocked her head a little. He had said all of that way too lax for her liking, “And just what did you do to get expelled?”

“No reason.” He stepped off of the train platform starting towards the subway exit.

“What do you mean no reason!? You can’t just get expelled for no reason!”

“What I mean to say is,” He stopped walking allowing her to catch up, “It’s not your business.”

“I-”

It seemed almost instantly but in reality, they’d been so deep off into their conversation that they hadn’t noticed the rain clouds taking shape. Now it was pouring down on them. They made a mad dash for the nearest cover.

“I didn’t hear nothing about rain this morning,” Kasumi complained.

“I didn’t either. We can’t stay here too long either or we’ll be late. Who knows how upset the old man will be if he finds out I’m late on the first day?” Akira sighed.

As they stood praying for the rain to pass somebody else came and stood next to our duo. A beautiful foreign girl. Her blond hair complimented her sky-blue eyes. She was definitely foreign. A foreign beauty to both of our tricksters as they stared absentmindedly at the new face.

“Woah…” was all that escaped the lips of Kasumi. That was apparently enough to get the foreign woman to turn her attention towards the two. Seeing her looking back at them the two shaped up immediately. Before any of them could get a word in a car had pulled over right beside where the three of them had been standing.

They all watched as the window rolled down. Inside was some man whose head was kind of shaped like Wispy Woods from Kirby. His hair laid on top of his head kind of like a mop.

“Mophead.” Akira said with a blank face hitting his hand in his palm like he just figured out something important. Kasumi didn’t even spare the stupidity a glance.

The strange man opened his mouth to speak, “Hey you three. Need a ride?”

Akira pointed to himself and mouthed a sarcastic, “Me?”

That brought a slight irritation to the man, “I only have room for two in my car, boy. Sorry, but you’ll have to walk.”

Akira stepped forward a bit, clearly displeased with the boldface lie, “Hey, wait a minute! You just said you had room enough for three, mophead!”

Kasumi facepalmed, “He went there huh?”

“Well you see your a bit bigger than those two young ladies I’m afraid with all the equipment in my car I won’t be able to fit you in,” the man countered.

“You think I just fell off the turnip truck or something?” Akira deadpanned, “I know you can fit all of us in that car no problem.”

“I don’t blame him for not wanting to take you with that attitude.” Kasumi side-eyed the glasses-wearing boy.

“I don’t remember asking you about it.”

“But besides that. We’re quite alright sir. We don’t need a ride.”

The foreign girl opened her mouth to say something but ultimately nothing came.

“I see then. If that’s the case, just try and make sure you aren’t late alright?” He gave off of this phony grin before pulling off and heading towards the school.

The girl beside them let out a sigh of relief.

Kasumi was the first one to respond, “Hey, you alright? I know a creep when I see one and it seems like he had his eyes set on you from the jump. Do you know him or something?”

Ann nodded, “You don’t?”

Akira walked up beside the redhead, “Should we?”

At that moment, another blond appeared. This was one wasn’t as cute. He was handsome though. Oh! It was a boy!  He was pretty alright though, scruffy hair and he seemed to have some variation of an athletic build going on. Whatever that means.

“That bastard!” He kicked at the puddle on the sidewalk trying to splash the car as it pulled off.

He turned to the trio of idiots standing in the unrelenting rain. “Takamaki? Why didn’t you go off with him huh?” He jabbed at her. To Akira and Kasumi, it looked like he was trying to insinuate something. Something really bogus too.

“Hey what’s that-” Kasumi was about to shoot her mouth off before Akira stepped in poking her in her forehead hard enough to throw her balance off. With her leg the way it was she ended up falling back against the door, so she didn’t fall completely.  

After making sure he didn’t actually knock her down he turned back to the unidentified blond, “Say, you just called this one here by her name,” he pointed to the blond girl, “You know her or something?” He put a hand up to keep the now angry gremlin known as Kasumi from pummeling him, holding her just far enough for her little arms to be just out of reach.

“I…guess?” The blond boy was trying to keep attention on the conversation but the scene happening in front of him was odd. Not every day you watch somebody deal with an assailant so…casually.

“I see,” he let her go causing her to stumble over her momentum, “Well if you know her then it’s obvious why she didn’t get in the car man. Hell, I just met her, and I know that.”

“Huh? She’s always riding around with him though.

“You don’t think maybe he has some kind of hold on her or something? She seemed hesitant to me a second ago.”

“Forced?” It seemed like the boy hadn’t considered the possibility. He folded his arms humming to himself in thought before answering his own question, “Yeah. That sounds in character for the asshole alright,” he muttered to himself.

“Oh? You seem to know more about this than we do then.”

“What you mean you don’t know Kamoshida?” That made the blond boy suspicious.

“Uhh…no? Once again, should we?”

The blond boy turned to face the gremlin girl. She shook her head too.

“You two are students of Shujin right?”

Akira in a flash of brilliant sarcastic wit turned to face Kasumi, “Hey, we did meet with the principal of Shujin Academy, yesterday right?”

Kasumi turned back to him with an equally confused expression, “Sure, I think we did.”

“So then how come you don’t know about Kamoshida?” The blond boy asked again this time he sized the two up, “You guys have on the uniform with the second-year pins and everything. So, what gives?”

Akira just sighed, obviously, they were gonna have to spell it out for him. “We’re transfer students. I don’t know about her but I just got in yesterday, so I don’t know anything about anyone.”

Kasumi chipped in her piece as well, “Same here. I’m new to this town.”

Ann cleared her throat. While it was interesting seeing all of this godown. They did still have a school to attend today. She pointed at her wrist to make her point.

In came a chorus of “Ohhhh.” From the other three.

“Well, this rain isn’t too bad. We better get going yeah?”

They all nodded in agreement.

Think It Through

Since they all had to head the same way it makes sense, they’d at least become somewhat acquainted, right?

“So, you two aren’t related?”

“Nope”

Ryuji looked at Akira kinda funny. He doubted him it seemed.

“I don’t know her I said. I just met her yesterday and our guardians are well acquainted, so they arranged for us to walk together.”

Ann turned to him as well, “Well the way you two get along you’d think you’d be siblings or something.”

“Ha! As if. If I had a brother, he wouldn’t be a complete jackass like him,” Kasumi took a jab at him.

“I fancy myself pretty nice to people who don’t get nosey.”

She stuck out her tongue at him. Very mature.

“Anyways,” Akira ignored her childish taunt, “So your name is Ryuji Sakamato,” he points over at Ryuji, “And your’s is Ann Takamaki?” He pointed over at Ann now.

They nodded.

“And that sleazy guy was a teacher at Shujin? Suguru Kamoshida yeah?”

“Right,” Ryuji affirmed, “Sleazy doesn’t even begin to the cover his ass though. The Stupid asshole thinks he’s some kind of king! Like Shujin’s his castle or something!”

It stopped raining.

Akira’s normally sharp expression seemed to soften a bit, “You really hate this guy huh? He must be a grade-A asshole.” Akira could tell this Kamoshida guy had done his fair amount of emotional damage to this guy. He felt bad.

Ann rubbed her shoulder awkwardly. She was used to Ryuji getting a little rowdy when he got angry but ever since the track team disbanded it seemed to be a whole lot worse. “You two should be careful too.”

Kasumi and Akira turned to her simultaneously, “Why’s that?” Kasumi asked.

“Everyone at school is already talking about you two.”

Akira cocked his eyebrow, “Talking how?”

Ryuji butted in over Ann, “Aw yeah! I heard some nasty rumors about how Akira was some kind of dangerous criminal. They say you kill people, assault women, carry guns, you name it you’ve done it so they say.”

“Must be because of my record,” Akira muttered. He took a deep breath, “Well I haven’t done a thing so they can gossip all they like.” He shrugged off the issue, “But what’s that got to do with her?” He pointed to the smaller girl on his side.

“They say she…” He seemed a lot more hesitant about this one.

“What? Spit it out man! I need to know!”

Ryuji sighed, “They said something about you pushing your sister into the street. They figured out you had a sister and a nasty rumor spread saying you did it ‘cause you envied her ability.” He rubbed his shoulder sheepishly.

The conversation was taking a dark turn again.

“I see…” Kasumi's eyes were focused on the ground now, “…”

Almost as if to break up any tension the group had seemingly arrived at school.

“Huh!? Hey Ryuji! You said you knew a shortcut, but I don’t see Shujin!” Ann pointed at the massive European-styled castle that stood before them.

“What the!? No way I was sure we came the right way! When the hell they’d even build something like this!?”

Akira wasted no time starting towards the entrance.

“Hey, where are you going!?” Ann called out to him.

“Where does it look like?”

The other three stood dumbfounded at his response looing at each other before deciding to follow him in.

Think it Through

“Woah check it out.” Akira whistled as he entered the strange building.

“I’ll admit. It is pretty impressive,” Kasumi let her eyes wander for a bit until they caught sight of an especially large painting. “Ugh. I take it back.”

The rest of the crew followed her eyes until they found the reason for her sudden change of heart.

 “The hell!?” Ryuji shouted, “Why is there a super-sized painting of Kamoshida in king’s clothes!?”

“Good question…guess we made it to Shujin.”

“Like hell we did!” Ryuji and Ann both protested.

“Well then what do you make of it all. After all, I’m pretty sure if some giant castle was in Aoyome-Itchome we woulda noticed it doncha think?”

Ryuji scratched his head, “Well he has a point, but your way to calm about this!”

Akira couldn’t argue that he just shrugged, “Eh.”

“Man, you’re a stable as stable comes huh.” Kasumi deadpanned

“Halt!” The sound of a man rung throughout the large corridor.

Soon the group could hear the clanging of armor approaching them. Louder and louder it got as they got closer.

“Over there!” Kasumi called warned as a bunch of guys dressed up as soldiers started filing in through the side door.

“Who dares disturb this sacred ground!”

Akira walked up to one of the guards and knocked on the suit. “Wow. This thing seems pretty authentic. Say, where’d you get something this real?”

The man in the suit did not answer.

“Not much of a conversationalist eh?”

“Insolent welp!” He grabbed Akira off of the ground and pointed his sword as the others, “Take them away! They will pay for trespassing against King Kamoshida!”

That lit a fire under Ryuji’s ass, “King Kamoshida!? What the hell are you guys going on about!”

One of the soldiers knocked him over, using its shield. “Ah! Your gonna break my bones dammit!”

The same happened to Kasumi, “Hey! Watch what the fuck you're doing with that thing!”

The guards seemed to hesitate when it came to Ann though.

“Princess?”

“Huh?” Came the confused response of the “princess”.

“It is! What are you doing with this drivel!? They must have sought to kidnap you and take you as their own! We will return you safely at once!” So, the guards began hurrying off with the foreign girl.

Kasumi wasn’t letting her go without a fight though, “Hey, you fucking jerks! Enough of whatever stupid game it is your laying this is modern Japan, not the Kofun period! Let Ann go and let us out of here we’re gonna be late!” Her struggles were to no avail as the grip the guards had on her was inhuman.

The one who they all assumed to be the “captain” scoffed at her, “You petty criminals won’t get away with trying to steal away the princess. “Take them away!”

“Hey, let us go you freaks!” Akira protested.

“This shit ain’t funny man cut it out!” Ryuji cried out.

“You guys are dead men hear me? Dead men!”

Think It Through

Kasumi: Hey everyone! Welcome to a new little edition to give to each chapter some flavor! Make it seem more like an anime from the 80s! That's right we've got chapter previews now! Hey hey! As it turns out Ryuji's little shortcut didn't lead us to the school at all! Instead, it took us to some stupid castle where Kamoshida is the king! Or...maybe it is the school? I don't know but if this is Shujin this'll be my last day! I wonder where the hell those guards think they're taking Ann! Better yet where are they taking us!?

Next Time on Double Tricksters!

What's A Persona?: The Seige on Kamoshida's Castle Begins!

See You Next Time!