The next morning, Sojiro, Morgana, and I watched the news. The police are putting a 30-million-yen reward on our heads. This is insanity, with Sojiro involved I could only apologize to which he did the same for not seeing sooner.
Everyone around was talking about the reward money. After school, we all met up in my room.
"We're 'wanted' now..." Ryuji said in disbelief. "And the reward is thirty million yen? What is this, a comic book? Haha, it feels so unrealistic, I can't help but laugh..."
"We're finally being treated as actual criminals..." Ann said.
"I'm positive now... Remember all of those what-ifs I mentioned before? All of this was truly set up." Makoto said standing up. "How President Okumura ranked first, the fad before that, even Medjed... It was all to make the Phantom Thieves famous. On top of that, we were lured to target Okumura..."
"Yeah..." Morgana said. "The enemy likely planned to lay the blame on us from the start, after we gained popularity."
"Then, what about everything we've done until now?" Ann asked.
They want to place blame on our group for all the past and future break downs. It started arguments between everyone and frustration. Ryuji looked up at me.
"Hey Ren... Why did we lose?" he asked. "What did we do wrong?"
"We lost sight of our goal when we got to wrapped up in the fame." I said.
Everyone realized that was the truth and they were thinking of giving up. I had to reassure them.
"Let's turn the tables on them." I said.
That renewed everyone and I looked to them. I told them about my suspicions with Akechi and that the next palace Akechi suggests, I will not be using Shadeon's power. I also don't want them saying anything because it could be an issue if he learned about Shadeon's power. Everyone agreed and soon we parted ways. That night, Ryuji called me.
"...Hey, it's me." Ryuji said.
"What's up?" I said.
"Um...About me yellin' earlier. Bein' framed, and the added bounty... It all felt like such bullshit." Ryuji said. "I lost it... I'm sorry."
"I know how you feel Ryuji." I said.
"You too?" he asked.
"Sure, it's not uncommon to feel as though we were betrayed by the people we wanted to protect." I said.
"Yeah... Hard to believe we're wanted criminals now." he said.
I cheered him up when he was beating himself down. We can still turn this around if we keep hope. I know we will. The next day, we met up after school, Akechi was there and we started discussing with him on what he wanted. When he said he wants to trigger a change of heart in Sae Nijima, Makoto went a bit pale. It confirmed my suspicions as well.
The other's don't believe a single person could fabricate false evidence.
"Unfortunately, that's not the case. What is I told you that those around her would turn a blind eye to false evidence?" Akechi said.
"The police would do somethin' like that?" Ryuji asked.
"It seems they're more trusted than I thought." Akechi said. "Their priority is settling the situation. They don't care who the supposed culprit is."
"No." Haru said.
"They're completely rotten!" Ryuji stated.
"My objective is to find the true culprit. That must be the case for all of you too." he stated. "However, the current situation is extremely bad."
YOU ARE READING
Persona 5 Royal AU The Good Route
FanfictionRen has taken a hold of the hand of the calm version of himself. This helps him not only save Shadeon and his friends, but it helps him push through the coming troubles. (Not sure how this got relabeled sorry, I had an error that changed the origina...
