A Disregarded Palace

A Begining

"Akechi! Why are you doing this?!" Akira screamed at me, trying to persuade me to stop fighting. I could barely hear the others over my labored breathing, Akira being the only one within earshot.

I could tell I was getting weaker; my injuries obtained in the prolonged battle forcing me to double over. While Morgana heals Ryuji's wounds inflicted by me.

"Your teamwork disgusts me..." I softly chuckled, "But there is still something I need to do." I carefully attempt to stand back up, but I hear a strangely familiar voice scream dormina, and everything goes black.

When I awoke, I found myself staring at an attic ceiling. Did they bring me to Leblanc? I try to sit up, but pain shoots through my whole being, so I lay back down. My wounds must have been worse than I thought... But then why didn't they just bring me to a hospital?

Then I hear creaking wood as someone approaches from downstairs. I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep.

"Is he awake yet?" meowed a familiar voice.

"It doesn't seem like it." voiced a different yet concerned person.

I open my eyes and see Akira and Morgana staring down at my broken and bruised body.

"Welp. I guess we woke him up." Morgana spouted sarcastically.

Akira knelt down to be eye to eye with me. "How are you feeling?"

I glared at him. "Hurt."

"Understandable." Akira smiled down at me.

"How long was I asleep?"

"A few days. I was honestly really concerned you wouldn't wake up," Akira explained.

"What about Shido?"

"Already taken care of. All we have to do now is wait for the deadline."

Something popped into my mind at that moment. Whoever put me to sleep, the voice was familiar, but I knew it wasn't any of the Phantom Thieves. So who cast dormina on me?

"Who put me to sleep?" I asked wholeheartedly.

"We're still trying to figure that out..." Akira doesn't know? There is another person who can use a persona? Not surprising, but why put me to sleep?

"What did they look like?"

"None of us saw them, or their persona. But whoever that person was, they saved you."

"What do you mean?! They basically knocked me out!" I was honestly mad, I didn't need help...right? The nuanced pain throughout my body reminded me of just how battered I was. How was I still able to stand before I was knocked out? "I-I'm sorry for yelling."

"It's alright," Morgana spoke this time. "But you were saved, because right after you were knocked out, a cognitive version of you arrived and tried to shoot you. You're lucky we got you away before he could."

"Why didn't you just leave me to die? Wasn't it hard to get me out of there?"

Morgana jumped onto the bed next to me, "Don't worry about that. It was Akira who wanted to save you, not me."

I solemnly looked up at Akira, "Why did you want to save me, even after I tried to kill you so many times?"

Akira smiled, "Because I wanted to return your glove. And to give you a second chance."

Give me a second chance? But I tricked him, lied to him. I scammed all of the Phantom Thieves, and even tried to kill them...

"I don't deserve a second chance..."

At just that second, Akira's phone went off.