Persona 5 - The Jester's Point Of View

Scene 17

When at home they had opened the folder, taking a closer look and reading through it. Their eyes couldn’t believe it, all of this ‘evidence’... Long story short something just did not add up here. It was a gut feeling. Had their father really been so cruel, to have committed a brutal murder like this? He did not seem to be the type of man… Nor was he that healthy to begin with. He could not handle this sort of thing, could he? It seemed surreal… He was a man of words, not a man handling weapons. Well, he does know how to handle a gun from the stories he had told them but… He didn’t own a gun. Not as far as they knew. They never saw him with one nor was there one in the house. He was an honest man! So why… 

It was devastating to read, that it was all too late… According to this he was not even here anymore. The death penalty. In the time of no contact he had been executed, fairly quickly. It had them sit in their seat and stare at the opened file with wide eyes, first having an empty head. This was a shock… Their hands were clutching onto it before dropping it onto the desk. Their thoughts were racing… It cannot be… Who was responsible for this? The first thought they had was the one who handed them the file but… No, that’s too hasty. There was no proof. And yet… What if he was involved? They didn’t want to draw sudden conclusions however. Would he present it so easily? Or would it be to get them off his trail? Both was completely possible yet was there any way for them to know? No, not right now… And it only added to the pile of thoughts forming inside their head. 

One would expect them to be sitting at their desk all crushed and for a few days they did. Their mother had asked them what was wrong yet they would play it off as nothing, trying their best to keep their composure. At least in front of their mother. Did she know? Or was she still hopeful that father would return home? If they told her they wouldn’t know how she would react so they had to keep it a secret. Go out and then go home, as if nothing was wrong. Nothing had happened. Pretend as if everything was the same but… No, nothing was the same. They knew.

Right now they were eyeing the folder again, staring at it in silence. Needless to say it brought up another question: Is this really the truth or had this been fabricated? Maybe this is a lie, a trap set up to shut them up… The truth would be crushing. But they had to know! This wasn’t over yet! They knew that but there was another thing they had to consider… Someone else… 

That face… Thinking back on it still sent them shivers down their spine. They may have been thinking about it too hard, too much. And yet, it would always flash back into their mind. That cold face, the expression of emptiness. Yet it felt as if he had been hiding something in there… Not the Detective Price mind you, that mask had slipped it seemed. One reason or another, they didn’t know why. What led him to this decision. What led him to being Akechi at this very moment. Did that make sense? It was hard to say…

The worst timing possible, to be getting interested in another person. No, it was not the interest one would think in this instance. Call it morbid curiosity. They had always been curious what lies beneath the perfect prince so many admired. There was no way that he was perfect after all… There had to be something else going on. It sounded like a bad idea to be honest, to be too curious for your own good. Curiosity killed the cat after all. And yet… There was something. Ah, maybe they hold onto those words from some time ago. Even if they were a lie… 

“Did I say something wrong? You seem… Awfully nervous. Was my statement inappropriate?”  

“Ah— N… No! Not what I mean! It’s just… Er… It’s just…” 

“You can just tell me if there is.”

“That’s… All you gotta say?”

“Was I supposed to say something else?”

“That— N… No! You don’t have to! Just… This isn’t weird or anything?”

“Well, I won’t pretend that I understand what’s going on. But you must have your reasons.”

“You… Are just going to accept this? Just like that?”

“I don’t think how you decide to dress is my business, is it?”

Even if the acceptance was nothing but an act, to not cause a scene or something like that… It was weird but in a good way. Hah, they felt as if they were latching to something so meaningless. Was it really that easy to impress them? Sounds kind of pathetic, doesn’t it? But… Maybe they were a little pathetic. Just some hope that they weren’t being an overall weirdo. Some… Hope? Them being a ‘crossdresser’ was not the reason he gave it to them to perhaps get rid of them, right? And if that wasn’t the reason then… They could respect that, oddly enough. Then maybe his words at that time were not a lie. 

Now listen to them, their thoughts. It really shouldn’t have turned out like this. They shouldn’t think like this. And yet, here they were, clinging onto something like that. They cannot get distracted now from their goal here. But… Maybe… 

Would it be fine to actually try to get a little closer? Not just for information’s sake, they doubted that they could squeeze anything else out of him anyways. And besides, anyone with ties to the police might not know what was going on truly… They had to search elsewhere. Maybe ask for help from the— Ah no! No no no!

Anyways… If there is one thing they could actively pursue then it would be this… A desire to bond… What a joke, with Goro Akechi of all people. How pathetic were they now? They sunk low, didn’t they? Wanting to get closer to some guy who said something which should be normal to them… But they couldn’t help it. 

Yeah, even if it is a bad idea… Maybe… This won’t be so bad.