All His Masks: A Persona 5 Fanfiction

Chapter Five

A/N: I apologize for the delay on this chapter, it was personally a lot tougher than usual to get this one going, along with the addition of school and the fact that I somehow got sick again for the second time since I've started writing this. Plus, I'm probably one of the hugest procrastinators on the planet. I'm trying my best to get these out when I want them out, but it's harder than expected :(
        "You're joking." Ryuji leaned forward so he wasn't resting against the building behind him anymore.
        "That's what Sakura-san told us," Haru responded, tugging on the sleeves of her fuzzy sweater. 
        "Why would he leave?"
        "He didn't know exactly why, and if he did, he didn't tell us." Makoto crossed her arms and sighed. "I wish we could talk to Akira in person, but I assume he would refuse to tell us anything."
        A long silence stretched between them. They wanted to say something, to ask about more, but it was as if the words were stuck in their throats. They were collectively stumped; they did not in the slightest understand why Akira would want to leave Tokyo. He seemed completely happy with his school life, being a Phantom Thief, living with Sojiro... then again, he did seem a lot different after the interrogation when he came back. They assumed it was just him trying to get over such a stressful experience, but now they knew that he had a palace.
        Futaba cleared her throat, making a shaky attempt to lead the group a bit. "Should we head into the palace? Or should we, like, go ask more people that Akira is close with?"
        "I believe we should do that, but why not enter the palace and learn a bit about the surroundings?" Yusuke suggested. "It could help us learn more about his cognition."
        Futaba looked around at all of the members, and when no one objected, she pulled out her phone and opened the MetaNav. "I suppose that means we're going in."

        There was a short period of quiet, minus the robotic voice of the Nav confirming that they were going in, until their surroundings started to distort. They entered into an area that looked similar to the alley that they were in before commencing the navigation, except that it was bathed in a dim ruby-red light. In addition, every sign in the area was replaced with red and black posters with a design that resembled Akira's metaverse mask and a few words in big bold letters written on each.
        Ann ventured closer to one of the signs and got close enough to read what was on it. " 'Enter the Theater; It's Showtime'."
        "And that's Akira's mask." Futaba looked around her surroundings with a grim expression, her orange hair now turning into bright scarlet flames in the ruby-red lighting. "Is this really how he sees Yongen? Like, Yongen is small and all, but it's weirdly empty and quiet."
        "And red," Ryuji added. He turned a corner towards where the subway station would be ahead and waved to the team. "We should check out the trains after this. Y'know, since he rides them almost every day."
        "It doesn't look like there's much to see here," Morgana moved to the middle of the group, "So I say we skim the rest of this area and then move on. That's just what I think, though."

        They all looked at each other, waiting for a decision to be made. They were clearly lost without Akira's leadership, even with Morgana, Makoto, and even Futaba tryng to lead as much as they could with the absence of their trump card. 
        "Since we're just going through to make sense of Akira's cognition, I agree with Mona. During our first explorations of palaces, we don't often pay too much attention to little details until later," Makoto stated to break the silence. 
        Ann nodded, plastering a smile on her face in an attempt to lower the tension and lighten the mood. "Yeah, this is just our first time in here. Why don't we just come back to this later and go take a look at the station?"
        And, with that, they ended up walking to the station. Most of the places that they passed looked mostly like what they originally were in the real world, only with a few areas being more distorted than others, until they actually got to the station. It was obvious that it was the same place, but it looked much different in Akira's cognition than how it actually was in the real world.