4/25

Akira opens the classroom door and steps through. He slides it shut and hears the gentle click as it completes its circuit.

"Hello."

His heart spasms. A girl sits at one of the desks near the far wall. She holds a book in her hands, and its cover is adorned with the image of a garden spade piercing rich, brown soil. Elegant curls of chestnut hair cascade down beneath her chin and complement her same-colored eyes. She wears a light pink cardigan over a white long-sleeved shirt, and her Shujin skirt covers her thighs, while ivory tights conceal the rest of her legs. Her smile is petite but polite and warm.

"I'm sorry, but you're not in this class, are you?"

Akira clears his throat. He wears a sweatshirt over his uniform and has the hood pulled up. Bruises still wreath his face, and he tilts his head forward, out of the morning’s light breaking through the windows. In his hand, he grips a small, wrapped box. "No. I'm not. Sorry."

"Is there something I can help you with?" She places a golden bookmark between her pages and sets the volume upon her desk. She stands.

“Um, I was wondering if you could tell me which desk is Niijima-senpai's?"

"Oh?" She asks and tilts her head to the side. "May I ask why you need to know?"

"It's, uh, personal."

The girl's smile grows from polite to knowing. She clasps her hands together, palms to the floor, and rocks on her heels as she says, "I see. Well, in that case," and she nods towards the first row. "It's that one."

Front row, dead center. Figures.

"Thank you."

He feels her eyes scour him as he walks the length of the classroom, yet she says nothing as he places the small box inside Makoto's desk. His hands, now empty, clutch at one another, seeking something to hold. He clenches them, turns to the girl, and bows.

"Thank you very much for your help."

"Think nothing of it."

Akira quickly moves to the classroom's door, but when he opens it, the girl calls out, "I'm sure she'll love it!" He reddens and steps out into the hall.

#

Makoto enters the classroom a bit later than usual. There’s an ache the size of a fist behind her eyes. Haru Okumura giggles as she walks past, but Makoto cannot be bothered to give this any thought.

She sits in her seat, opens her bag, and begins to organize. Her hand, when she reaches inside her desk, brushes against some foreign object. She grasps it. Withdraws it. It is a small blue box, wrapped in a red bow.

She unties the bow and slides the box open.

Inside is a Buchimaru pencil case. White with black spots, tipped by the character’s cute animal face. It is identical to Makoto’s old one. Her pulse quickens as she lifts the lid and finds a tiny note within.

'Niijima-senpai: Sometimes, you just have to know where to look. Happy birthday. - Akira Kurusu'

She takes the pencil case, slips it into her bag, stands, and walks out of the classroom. She enters the girls' room and finds an empty stall. She shuts the door, latches it, and sits down.

Tears come unbidden to her eyes, but for whatever reason, there's a smile on her face.

#

The guard lurches up to its comrade. "Anything to report?"

Its opposite shakes its head. "Nothing. Our liege’s Treasure remains secure. No sign of the intruders." They stand sentinel within a room littered with gold coins and paraphernalia.

"We must locate them soon; our lord's patience grows thin."

Another guard serves its post near the treasure room's double doors and remains silent.

"You there," the first shouts at it. "Report."

It doesn't reply. "I said, 'Report!'"

Its head tilts back, and it emits a whimper of a cry before it evaporates into a cloud of ash.

From this cloud, stalks Joker, knife in hand. "Looks like you found me."

The two guards convulse and burst as Joker calls upon Arsene. His Persona rises and cackles as it vomits a fiery jet of red and black tendrils. They impale one guard before it can completely transform, and accompanied by the sound of crushed metal, it dies.

The other emerges as a gargantuan pool of black sludge, with a gibbering, slobbering approximation of a face.

Perched on a balcony above, the remaining thieves take stock.

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"Man," Skull says, as Joker draws his gun and fires a series of useless bullets into the sludge's side. "Joker's real pissed today."

"He hasn't taken a new Persona either," Panther remarks. "He's just been carving them up."

"Now's not the time to be talking about it!" Mona shouts as the sludge hurls a thick collection of itself at Joker, who is just able to dodge. "We need to get in there."

The three leap down and throw themselves into the fray.

Skull's Captain bombards the thing with lightning as he falls, but it has no discernable effect, and the creature turns its eye upon him.

"Shit!" Skull shouts as one long, dripping arm hurls out of the thing's side. It slams into Skull's stomach and pitches him into the far wall.

Panther lands and summons Carmen. The dancer unleashes a pulse of fire with a pivot that washes over the sludge. It gurgles in pain. "Mona!" She calls and outstretches her hand.

The cat lands in her palm, and she throws him back into the air. "Let’s do this, Zorro!" The outlaw materializes, and with a flourish of its sword, a great wind bellows down from above. The fire - which still clings to the sludge like a painful second skin – sucks in the air and grows.

The thing shudders but does not die.

Joker steps between the thieves as Mona lands. With a flick of his wrist, he tosses a small medicine vial through the air. Panther catches it. "See to Skull," he says. "I'll finish this one."

"Are you-" She starts, but Joker does not wait for her to finish.

"Eligor!"

A burst of blue flame, and the mounted samurai - once an enemy - arises behind Joker.

"Agi."

It raises its spear, and another burst of fire bathes the writhing black mass. A squeal escapes its distorted mouth before it erupts into a thick ashen paste and scatters upon the coin-strewn floor.

"Sorry, sorry," Skull says as he hobbles up. He tilts the medicine vial up to his lips and sips the last of it. "Good thing it was weak to fire, right?"

"You okay?" Joker asks.

"Yep," he replies, tossing the empty vial aside. "All set."

Panther and Mona stand behind him and nod when Joker regards them. "So," he asks and turns back to the shimmering, stationary aurora in the center of the room. "Is this it?"

Mona smirks and walks beneath it. He lifts his paws into the air and says, "That's right. This is the Treasure."

The three remaining thieves regard the formless cloud. "Um," Panther says. "How are we supposed to steal this?" She waves her hand through it. "We can't even touch it."

Mona tilts his head to the side, a knowing smile on his face. "Well, that's because desires have no physical form by nature. So we're going to need to make this materialize before we can steal it."

"Wait, what?" Skull asks. "Why didn't we just do that before we got in here?"

"Because," Mona says. "There's a limited time frame. First, we need to make the target - in the real world - aware that their desires are, in fact, a Treasure. Once we do that, the Treasure will materialize, right here, and we can come in and steal it."

Skull frowns. "So, we get all the way in here, and now we've got to get back out and convince Kamoshida of whatever you just said, and then we have to come back in and take it?"

Mona nods. "That's right."

Skull groans. "Why didn't you just tell us that?"

Mona blanches. "Well, I-"

"How long?" Joker asks. His eyes haven't left the formless Treasure. "Once we make him aware, how long will we have?"

"We'll have about twenty-four hours."

Joker sighs. "Fine. So, how do we make him aware that his desires are Treasures?"

"We warn him. We send him a Calling Card."

Joker's eyes widen. "A Calling Card?"

Panther turns to him. "Something wrong?"

"N-no. It's nothing."

Skull straightens, his protestations forgotten. "We get to send out a Calling Card? Okay, that's pretty awesome. Oh, I get to make it!"

Panther rolls her eyes. "Fine, but you better not make it lame or something."

"No way! It's gonna be totally badass!"

"Don't go overboard, got it?" Mona asks. "Keep it simple. Kamoshida, we’re going to steal your twisted desires. Something like that."

Skull smirks. "Oh, I've got a few things I want to say to that asshat."

Joker straightens. "Then, we should go, right?"

Mona looks at him, frowning. "Well, yeah, I guess. Thanks to the Safe Rooms, our infiltration route is secure, so once we send the Calling Card, we can just come back here and nab the Treasure."

"Alright. Let's get going then."

#

Ryuji waves goodbye as he disappears down into the subway.

Akira turns to Ann and says, "See you tomorrow." He sticks his hands in his pockets and begins to head for his train line.

"Hey, Akira. Hold on a second." When he turns back to her, Ann looks him in the eyes. "Um, are you okay?"

He smiles and points to his bruises. "Yeah, they're fading already. In another few days, I should be bearable to look at again."

"It's not that. Don’t get me wrong, that's good. That’s great, but not what I meant."

Morgana shifts his way out of Akira's bag and sets his forelegs on the boy’s shoulder. "What's wrong, Lady Ann?" He asks.

Ann tries to settle the butterflies looping in her stomach. “You seem alright now, but when we were in the Palace, you were angry."

Akira shrugs. "I mean, I guess I was. I wanted to get to the Treasure.”

Ann shakes her head. "We all wanted to get to the Treasure. But you were, like, royally pissed off. Even when we were amongst ourselves, you had this look in your eye, and you didn't talk much, except to give orders."

Morgana's tail swishes in the air. "Well, Kamoshida did give him a severe beating the other day. It's only natural he'd be mad, right?"

"I know that.” Ann fights back a sigh. She knows she must be coming off poorly, so she takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself down and relax her shoulders. “It’s just, you know you can talk to us, right, Akira?"

Akira’s grin widens. "Yeah, I know."

"No, I mean, you can talk to us. Morgana, Ryuji, even to me. The last time we talked, we agreed that we’d be partners in this. That doesn’t just mean that we cover for each other in the Castle and steal Kamoshida’s Treasure together. This whole thing - what we're doing - it's crazy. I know we keep telling ourselves, ‘Wow, this sure is nuts,’ but I don't think we've ever really sat down and taken a second to think about what we’re doing and how insane it is. So, if you need to vent or talk to us, we're here for you. We are your friends, after all."

Akira dips his head, sighs, and says, "Thanks, Ann. The truth is, this whole thing freaks me out. You guys rely on me, and I don't really know what I'm doing. I don't mean to be standoffish or nonresponsive when we're in there. I just really want to stop Kamoshida, before he does what he did to Shiho to anyone else.”

Her smile is short-lived. "You're not just telling me what I want to hear, are you?"

He chuckles and shakes his head. "No. I'm not that smart."

"Then, can I ask you something else?"

"Sure."

"When Morgana mentioned the Calling Card, you looked a little... weird. Like, it shocked you, or something."

"Hey yeah," Morgana says and leans further across Akira's shoulder. "I was wondering about that too. What's up?"

Akira looks Ann straight in the eye and says, "Sorry, I don't remember doing that."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Ann breaks her gaze. He’s lying. He’s lying again. She doesn’t know what to think about this. Why would Akira get hung up on the mere mention of a Calling Card? “Okay, well, that’s fine then,” she says. “We should get some rest. If we’re going to steal the Treasure tomorrow, we’re going to need to be ready.”

They say their goodbyes and separate. To Ann, the walk home seems colder than usual.