Altered Personas (Persona 5 AU)

Shadow in the Window

Akira laid in bed that night, trying to get the images out of his mind. He had killed his first alter ego, and he took no pleasure in the victory. His shoulder still ached from the bite he had received, but nothing noteworthy was wrong with the wound. He hadn’t bothered to change his clothes and had slept for the rest of the day. Now he was fully awake, and sleep evaded him once again.

Akira sat up, now annoyed by how the bed had grown warm and his earlier actions. Sure, he had protected whoever had been in the school, but something didn’t sit well with him. Was there really a need to kill these monsters? Yes, a lot of them did wreak havoc and kill innocent people, but Akira couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else to it. Why wasn’t there a way to revert the poor people back to the way that they had been?

There was a shadow in the window once again. It was the same one that he had seen before. The boy turned around and moved over to the window and opened it. Lightning fast, the creature raced inside and disappeared into the darkness. Akira whipped around, trying to discern where the thing had gone. He walked over to the shelf, and the small blur of fur leaped onto his bed and buried itself in the covers. Akira grabbed the sheets and captured the creature. The small thing struggled for a while until it eventually fell still.

Carefully, Akira pulled the sheets apart and held the creature in his hands. It was shaking in fear. Akira pulled it close to him, confused about this strange turn of events.

“You’re... a cat,” he muttered to no one in particular.

“I am not a cat,” the cat growled.

Akira shrieked and dropped the cat, falling on his butt and scrambling away. The cat huffed and looked away from him, his tail flicking in annoyance.

“Everyone’s been treating me like this now!” the cat exclaimed. “And here I was, thinking you’d be different.”

“You can talk?!?”

The cat looked at Akira, its blue eyes piercing into his soul.

“Yes, I can talk. Why is everyone so surprised about that? Obviously, I’m not a cat.”

“Then... why do you look like one?”

“Because I’m an alter ego!”

“You’re an alter ego?”

“You’re a scout, you should know!”

Akira stared at the cat for a moment. He wondered why his Meta-vision hadn’t activated yet.

“Are you sure?”

The cat sighed. “Yes, I’m sure. Someone has a twisted sense of humor! I used to be human, but then I got turned into this!”

Akira looked the cat over. He took a deep breath. He’d seen weirder, he was sure of it.

“Okay then, what’s your name?”

“I’m Morgana.”

“And I’m Akira. Alright, Morgana. Why are you here?”

“I was thinking that you might be able to help me out...”

“You do know that alter egos can’t revert back to who they once were, right?”