All His Masks: A Persona 5 Fanfiction

Chapter Two

 A/N: Totally not my best chapter, I'm not great with dialogue or dialogue rules, so I'm sorry if it's awkward or anything! I know that in the game the parts where they find the keywords goes a bit slower, but I wasn't sure how to do it so it's a bit fast paced. 

        It may have been expected that the team would freak out or instantly start discussing how or why Akira, their leader, had developed his own palace. They didn't, though. They just sat in silence, all eyes on Futaba.
        She looked around at all of them, repositioning herself so she was now crouching in her spot on the couch. "Um... I don't know what the keywords could be. All I got was the name, obviously," She noted. "Leblanc isn't the location, though. That's what's confusing me."
        After she broke the silence, everyone suddenly started brainstorming as they always do when they had to find the final keyword. Futaba recognized this and picked up her phone, opening the Nav and waiting for any input.
        "Maybe the location is Shujin Academy? Even though he isn't currently attending school, it still is a possibility," Haru remarked.
        Futaba shook her head as the monotone voice coded into the Nav denied the statement.
        "Well, what about the whole of Yongen?" 
        "Nope."
        The group continued to list off some locations that Akira was commonly found in, but they couldn't quite figure out what it could be. It was strange, since they normally would only have problems with the distortion. After a few more ideas from the thieves and the same repetitive "conditions could not be met" from the Nav, Makoto stopped interjecting. They didn't seem to notice until their own answers slowed down and became more unsure.
        Ann nudged Makoto with her elbow, who seemed lost in thought. "What're you thinking? You haven't said anything in a while."
        Makoto glanced at Ann and scanned the other people in the room, one hand brushing back stray pieces of hair. "Well, what if the location was all of those places? After all, he's known for being hard to locate, which is why he only ever comes to us instead of the other way around. I'm not exactly sure how we would enter that into the Nav, but..."
        There was a moment of pondering silence, when suddenly the harsh voice of the Nav cut through the quiet.
        "Results found."
        Makoto gasped as she looked over Futaba's shoulder and at her phone. "I didn't expect 'all of those places' to cut it. I thought we would have to be more specific."
        "Maybe we just had to name the places and then say that we meant all of those." Ann craned her neck forward to see the screen. "It did take a second afterwards to say that you were right."
        "Now, time for the final boss," Futaba proclaimed, placing her phone back down on the arm of the couch, scooping up Morgana, and putting him into her lap. "Akira's distortion."

        They each looked at each other, none of them seeming to have any idea of what it could be quite yet. After a few random suggestions that were denied by the Nav, Morgana forced himself out of Futaba's arms and jumped to the ground, his tail flicking from side to side.
        "I don't know what his distortion could be," Morgana admitted, "but I've noticed in the past eight months that I've been staying with him that he seems to act different depending on who he's with or where he is. It's the same in the Metaverse."
        "I have started to notice a similar pattern as well," Yusuke replied, leaning forward in his seat. "He's much more reserved during meetings, when he's around each of us at once."
        "But in the Metaverse he seems much more confident. Kind of a show-off, if you ask me," Futaba pointed out as she started to recognize it in turn with the others in the group.
        Ryuji shrugged his shoulders, his arm swung over the back of the armchair he was sitting in. "I dunno, what about somewhere people act? Y'know, like a movie set? If he's acting different depending on who he's with, wouldn't that make sense?"
        Futaba shook her head, but she seemed to agree with Ryuji about the acting part. "Yeah, I'm picking up what you're putting down. That's pretty smart, for someone like you." 
        "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Ryuji retorted before they started hurling insults at each other, as usual.
        Makoto just sighed at their antics and crossed her arms. "Stop it, you guys. This is serious. Save the arguing for after we figure out what the final keyword is." Futaba smirked at Ryuji as he huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms. 
        "Well, since we've decided that it might be related to acting, how about a theater?" Yusuke proposed, followed by a short period of silence and then the voice of the Nav replied, confirming his suspicions.
        "Results found."