Persona 5 reader insert -- Akira x reader

Chapter 35

>>A/N Note<<

Hi there, it's been a while since I had last posted and it's simply cause I had high school and life got me real good. Anyway, I hope this chapter is worth the wait. I was mulling over this chapter for literal months.

Also I swear I don't hate Ann.

-Merp

>>><<<<<

As soon as the bell rang, the pair get up from their seats and head out of the classroom.They must be heading to the roof already. I still have to pack my stuff away, so I'll be a bit behind. It doesn't take long, and before I knew it I'm suddenly outside the Palace with the phantom thieves in front of me."Woah. They're back!" Ryuji jumps back in surprise at the sight of me. I guess this is to be expected since it's been a while since I last saw them. "What's the deal? You just show up out of nowhere every time. Are you working with us or not?" Ryuji angrily points at me, conveniently hiding behind Ann."Who're they?" Ann looks to the boys for an answer, although they just look at each other with looks of asking for an answer from each other. "This would be the perfect time to welcome Ann into the group with a codename!" Morgana cuts the silence. "And we can give our lovely stranger one as well."Lovely stranger? "Alright then. I'm Skull, he's Joker and that's Mona." Skull points at everyone with their respective names. "Judging by your costume...." Everyone makes comments on Ann and I's costumes. "Whadda you think Joker?""....Kitty woman," Joker says with a dead serious look."Wait! Is that what you'll be calling me from now on? I'm SO not down with this!" Ann rightfully disagrees with the name choice."What do you wanna be called, then?"Ann is stumped for a few moments before deciding on Panther."Cause it sounds more...ferocious?" She justifies. After some back and forth between the team, they all turn to me. "What 'bout you? Have a name you wanna go by?" Skull starts.A name? Should that really even apply to me right now? Although, by the look of their faces, it doesn't seem like they'll drop it either.Well, considering my outfit, the first thing that comes to mind is a ninja, but that's way too basic. Even for me. I take a notebook out of my schoolbag, and write down the name that I think best fits me."Snake?" Panther reads."What? You look nothing like a snake?" Skull looks me up and down. He's not wrong, but the red hair clips (ribbon if your hair is short) remind me of an anime I watched long ago. The bright red being the color of a hero. "Sounds good," Joker speaks up. With Joker's approval, we return to the main focus of coming here.Kamoshida."I'll teach you guys the basics of infiltrating a Palace as we go." Mona charges to the front of the team. We all follow him toward the palace until Joker suddenly stops after we cross the bridge. While everyone else went ahead, I stopped in my tracks behind Joker. I look around to see what made him stop so suddenly, then notice the door to the velvet room appeared, with Justine coming out the door and motioning Joker to head inside. He doesn't waste a moment following her. Although, when he moves, the Joker in front of me stays and another Joker heads towards Justine. Am I hallucinating?Can Justine see me? Can she see this? I wave toward the guard, but once I catch her attention, her face bursts with surprise. She quickly returns to the door without a word. Was I not supposed to see her?..Joker must be getting a new ability from Igor. The gang ahead only now realizes that Akira had not gone along with them, so they quickly surrounded him. "Joker?" Ann waves in front of his face. "Eyy dude, you there?" Ryuji taps his shoulder. Sure enough, no reaction is coming from this Joker. "Did you see something happen to him?" Ann turns to me. I simply shake my head. I can't really explain that their leader had split into two, one staying here and the other disappearing into a blue prison door. The three just decide to wait, hoping for their leader to come out of the stupor he's in.After a few more minutes, the velvet room door opens again, only having Joker leaving and around at his teammates "Something wrong? You were just standing around all of a sudden?" Mona reaches out to Joker first. Joker seems to have a lot on his mind and yet says nothing."Why're you spacin' out like that? It's kinda hard to tell what you're thinkin' sometimes." Ryuj scratches his head."Let's just say he's a man of high caliber. We're counting on you, Joker!" Mona steers the team back on track."So, where do we start?" Skull stops."Let's head to the safe room we found last time. It's in the first floor of the west building.It's pretty close to our usual entrance. It should be a pretty decent starting point.""Safe room..?" Panther questions."It'll make sense when you see it. Welp, let's head out!" Skull reassures her. Joker nods then pulls out a crudely drawn map from under his coat. Did he make that himself? Simply pointing at a certain place on the map, everything seems to go by so much faster. I know for a fact we went through the palace, all the way till we reached inside the safe room. Yet how did we make it here so fast? How does that work? Is it special since Joker made the map himself?We enter the safe room, it shifting from the red and gold castle room to a regular classroom at Sujin. I immediately take a seat off the side of the room, as Panther and the others try to explain to her what a safe room is. "I guess I'll rest for a bit too then. Let me know when we're ready to head out, Joker." She takes a seat across from me, silently twisting a strand of hair around her finger.Everyone soon follows, taking a seat around the table. I guess they're going to be discussing a plan then."Ah, right- the safe room discussion reminds me.." Mona begins shuffling through the little pocket on his belt. What even fits in there? "This is for you!" Mona takes out a stamina kit s and hands it to Joker. Gosh, any stamina kits are a lifesaver. Too bad, they can only be used in safe rooms though. Joker gratefully takes it and puts it away....somewhere? Where did he put it? He just reached under his coat, then back out, and his hand was empty. Where did that Stamina kit go? Joker stands from his seat and heads towards the door."Oh? We're ready? Let's go then." Mona announces as the rest of the team begins to get out of their seats. I can't get left behind, so I'll just put Joker's item pocket as one of the seven wonders of the world. Right next to why Haru's forehead is so big."Alright, let's go. We still have work to do!" Panther reves herself up. I nod as we all head back out into the palace. As soon as we enter the first room, Mona stops Joker to give him more tools. "These fine tools have my seal of approval! Use them wisely, all right?"With that, Joker leads us toward the first enemy of the evening. Without any warning he immediately lunges towards the shadow and rips off its mask, having it drop to the ground and explode into 3 pixies. With Joker's surprise attack, the pixies are dazed. They are still trying to figure out what just happened, while Joker pulls out his gun and downs all three of them. "Let's do this!" Skull yells in excitement, as all three surround the group of downed pixies and take turns tearing them to shreds at such eye-blinding speeds. Although their speed was great for them being new, the all-out attack only took one of the three down.Two pixies were left. Mona joined in, and at Joker's call, he shot down the remaining Pixies, finishing the fight. Their teamwork was great! Although they've just formed, Joker was able to lead them swiftly. Not only that but with the use of the shadow's weakness, they were able to make quick work of the group. "Woohoo! That was great!" Skull cheers. He's excitedly running around and stretching as if he got a sudden stat boost or something. "That was easy enough." Ann stretches. "Let's keep going." Joker steers the team back together. We are about to turn the corner when Joker notices there is a shadow, with the exit behind it. Joker waits behind the corner till the shadow's back is towards us before he goes for the mask again. This time, three Crypt-dwelling pyromaniacs burst from the hollow armor. Just like before, the phantom thieves pull out their guns and start blasting. Why are they using guns? Aren't the Jack-o-lanterns weak to wind attacks? Mona can easily take them down by himself, then the battle would be finished then and there. Is there some reason to continue to use their guns?..I don't understand Akira's thought process. Every time they are in battle, the first things to go are the bullets. If the shadow is immune or they run out, they'll just switch to physical attacks. I usually wouldn't have a problem with this, but the longer a battle takes the more the enemy begins to steady themselves from the surprise ambush and more and more of their attacks begin to hit. In one fight, Ann almost took a hard hit, if it weren't for Akira pushing her out of the way before the both of them were taken down. I know they are all new to this, but there must be a better way to go about these battles. Will they be able to get through this castle on their own? We enter the next room, the caged map room. Speaking of the caged map, I still have the map in my bag. Before I could take out the map, Joker had already solved the puzzle. Everyone huddles in the middle, confused why there was all that security for nothing. As I take out the map from my bag, a hand catches my wrist. "What's that that you're holding?" Panther stares at me. Ah, I missed my moment to secretly place the map back onto the table. I was about to say something before I remembered that I can't speak with the risk of them being able to recognize me. But I can't take my notebook out to write anything with one hand being held and the other holding my bag open. Panther snatches the map from my hand and looks at it. "This looks like a map of the castle..." She then looks back up at me. "...Why do you have this?"Akira, Ryuji, and Mona look on from behind, looking at the map and then at me. "Were you tryin' to take this?" Ryuji speaks up after a long silence. Huh? Take it? Is that what this looks like? There's no way they actually believe that I was trying to make off with the map right? Although a quick scan through their eyes shows they are seriously doubting me. I quickly shake my head and reach into my bag to grab my notebook. I've got to explain myself before this-! "Why won't you talk? Are you hiding something?" Ann continues to push and push until finally, my back is at the wall, with the Phantoms behind her looking on. "Hey, everyone! Calm down! We don't know anything yet! They haven't even explained themselves yet!" Mona speaks up and tries to reach for Ann, but she just slaps his paw away. "You can talk, can't you? You always open your mouth to open something, but then stop yourself like you've only just remembered that you can't talk." Ann looks back at me. Wow, she sure is very perceptive. Did I give myself away that much? But why is she so hostile towards me? "Why are you here? You aren't helping nor are you trying to contribute in any way. Almost like you're trying to keep an eye on us."Ah.Am I in the way?Oh yeah, of course, I am. I'm not supposed to be here. Neither in the original game nor in this world.Of course, I'd seem suspicious, I'm not doing anything but following them around, eyeing them down, and following their every move. Of course, they'd feel on edge! Yeah, If I could just explain myself, then maybe I could-! Ann slams her hand onto the wall next to my head-"Panther!" The rest of the group panicked at the sudden escalation of things. Panther leans over to my ear and whispers, "What did you do to be so easily accepted while I practically had to beg to be able to avenge my friend...Leave before you get us killed, this isn't some game." With that, Panther removes her hand and leaves the room in a huff. The rest of the gang quickly ran out to follow her.A game.In the beginning, I likely-no- I did think of all this as a game. I mean, could anyone blame me? Suddenly being forced into your favorite game, that you spent literally hundreds of hours playing, knowing every single strat, character, and storyline. It's like a dream come true for any gamer!So I got ahead of myself and tried to change the story. Tried to be a main character and save those who couldn't be saved. I knew Shiho would survive the fall, but I wanted to be a hero and 'talk' her out of it. As if having a simple talk could erase and heal a person who wanted to kill themselves because of abuse. And now, all because of me, I put Shiho into an uncertain future for sure. I'm nothing but an outsider here. Even now, I haven't done anything, but have Ann get mad and lead the team astray. Why am I doing this anyway? To avenge Shiho?Ah, that's right to go home. Where I truly belong. Suddenly, I hear a yell out the doors. The way the Phantom Thieves ran through. I quickly run towards the screaming, trying to figure out where they are.What am I doing, wallowing in self-depreciation when I need to have the real main characters clear this story so I can get home!