Persona 5 Royal AU

Chapter 2 - Friends and Loss

The next morning I got up a bit earlier since I couldn't really get back to sleep. There was no breakfast this time and I guess that's kinda my fault. Maybe I can get something quick on the way to school. I grabbed some bread and ate it on the way. After class, I went into the hallway and overheard Kamoshida talking to that girl from my class.

My left eye turned red as I listened in so I had to keep it shut. I swear that I heard him attempting to flirt with her in some non-obvious way. He seemed upset that she dodged him and left. As I was leaving school, Ryuji walked up to me.

"Yo."

"Oh hey Ryuji, what's up?"

"I couldn't stop thinking about that strange castle yesterday. Mind helping me look?"

'He doesn't seem like a bad guy, guess I'll help him out.' I thought. "Sure what should we do first?"

"Let's start by retracing our steps." he said. "Follow me back to the station, we'll start from there."

I followed him and we started going the same direction we came from before but ended up at the school so we tried again. Same result the second time, when I told him to check his phone it sparked a memory and he had me hand him my phone. I handed it and he saw the eyeball app.

"What's this eyeball?"

"I don't know, I can't delete it." I replied.

"Seriously? What a weird app." he said. "Oh wait this is it! I knew it, it's a navigation app. It's even got your search history!"

He activated it and I saw the scenery change around us and we were back at the castle. My outfit changed again to what I was wearing again. Ryuji stared.

"You Jelly?" I asked with a smirk.

"Not really. What's with the get-up anyway?" he asked.

"I thought I heard you two."

We looked up seeing Morgana.

"The shadows became agitated and a bit scared so I came to see what's up. What are you two doing back here?" Morgana said.

Ryuji explained why we came back here and Morgana sighed and we decided to head in with Morgana. Since Ryuji can't fight he'd have to stay behind us. Once in a safe room that Ryuji gave me a model gun that looked realistic enough and some medicine. Morgana was explaining the situation and we had to listen in on where the captive slaves were. We heard that they were taken to the training hall.

We waited till the two shadows were gone and then stepped out. We had to head down and take out the guard that was in front of the door. Once inside we still had a ways to go and Morgana taught me about using the gun in the palace. It actually fired real bullets because the enemy assumed that it was real. Another enemy we did a special move, till we finally got to the training hall. Once inside, we saw the slaves and they were enduring violence. Ryuji wanted to save them but Morgana told us they were something called Cognitive Beings, in other words, they aren't real people. Ryuji couldn't take pictures but decided to memorize their faces. I asked him to hurry up because the longer we were here the more chances we would be discovered.

"Good to go?" I asked.

"Yeah, let's go." he said.

We started to head back the way we came in when we were met by an ambush near the castle entrance. Shadow Kamoshida was there with his guards and they held Morgana and I down. He mocked Ryuji calling him a track traitor and I heard Ryuji's backstory at least from one side.

I was tempted to flip my mask upside down when I thought of something.

"Ryuji, are you just going to let him mock you?" I asked him.