Persona 5 Plus: Between Sea and Stone

Chapter 15

Meepmeep. Meepmeep.

Ichiko Ohya groaned in her sleep.

Meepmeep. Meepmeep.

Her eyes opened, her vision blurry. Her darkened room was a mass of greys. The hangover crashed into the front of her head and she winced, then buried her head into her pillow again, but it didn't help at all. This was a bad one. A bad one amongst bad ones. Why the fuck did she do this to herself?

Meepmeep. Meepmeep.

"Fuck... you..." she mumbled. She wasn't going to answer it. A phone call on her day off? Not on her life- such as it was. And her fucking head. God. Why did she go with gin last night? That was a mistake. Gin was always a fucking mistake.

Moooop.

Yeah, leave a voicemail whoever you are. Go to hell.

Da-Daaaa!

A text, too? Ohya raised her head, wincing, gazing at her phone glowing in the darkness. Maybe something was going on, after all. She reached for the noisy device. Opened it. Winced in pain as the bright white light of the screen flashed into her face. It was Itsuki, her junior reporter. He was still staking out the Shido residence, where the controversial and now famously corrupt politician remained secluded while his legal battle waged on.

==Itsuki: there are some cars here at the Shido place.

Cars. Fucking woop. Another cry about the proverbial fucking wolf. Ohya had responded to texts like this before. She might as well just throw her subway fare out the fucking window and save herself some goddamn time. Itsuki was useless. Ohya dropped the phone to her carpet, still open, and then she rolled over, her brain seeming to cartwheel painfully against the walls of her skull. Fuck you, gin. You got me again. You're such shit.

Meanwhile, on her discarded phone:

==Itsuki: maybe 10 cars in the driveway, and lots more on the street. Its like a motorcade. And a limo.

==Itsuki: lots of suited men. Sunglasses everywhere. Looks like a yakuza meet from a damn movie

==Itsuki: they are wheeling him out! They are taking him somewhere

==Itsuki: hello? Ms. Ichiko?

==Itsuki: I'm gonna call you again.

Meepmeep. Meepmeep.

Meepmeep. Meepmeep.

===

Ann woke to the brightening light of early morning. Yusuke was asleep in a chair in front of her, head slouched forward. He was where he'd been sitting the night before during their short voyeur party, though a sketch book seemed to have fallen from his grasp at some point in the night. Morgana was curled at the foot of the bed by her feet.

Ann raised herself up sleepily. Futaba was stretched out beside her, and on the other side of the bed was Ryuji and Haru. It seemed Haru rolled against Ryuji in her sleep and they looked adorable together, though it would be pretty funny when they woke up. Everyone but Ren and Makoto were here. They all must have suddenly crashed hard last night.

It was early and Ann didn't feel the need to disturb anyone. She carefully extracted herself from the bed and headed to the bathroom. When she returned, she picked up Yusuke's art book on a whim. She flicked it open to see what he'd been working on, and saw her own sleeping face drawn with gentle detail over a page. Ann froze, a mixture of wonder and indignation growing in her- but it was only a portrait. She turned the page. Her face again, but this time it was contained in the center of an intricate flowering tree. Another page. Her face again, but sleeping in a field of flowers. Another page. Her face again, but as an artistically-detailed sun, with little figures accepting her light.