Chapter Text
Kei had been walking to school as always, the normal, regular route to Jouin High, when catastrophe hit Tokyo. An earthquake similar to the one that sent him to Da’at the first time, only 2 days ago, and even worse, a demonic woman with black wings protruding from her lower back, Naamah, floated in the middle of the station. He hadn't noticed at first, his nose in his book that he'd read a hundred times by now. He only looked up when someone ran into him. Naamah summoned an animal-like demon that slaughtered commuters, absorbing their Magatsuhi. Other passersby, students and businesspeople, ducked and ran for cover, but when the ceiling in Shinagawa Station began to crumble, and the demon woman's gaze sought his blood, he felt the familiar tingle and saw the flash of light of Aogami running to protect him. He raised his arms bracing for the impact.
He blacked out after feeling Aogami’s arms shielding his body; was that the sound of glass shattering?
He opened his eyes in the nurse’s office, putting a hand to his head.
“Guh…”
And then, an unfamiliar woman’s voice. “Oh, you’re finally awake.”
When his eyes regained focus, he saw a woman with brown hair, a jean skirt, and a striped shirt. She looked positively, downright annoyed to be there.
“Second transfer student this year and yet another conundrum to deal with.” She sighed and looked at Kei. “Amemura Kei, correct?”
“Yes…ma’am?”
“Are you okay?”
“Um, yes. Just a bit confused. Um. Where am I?” He looked around. He was in a nurse’s office, sure, but he didn’t recognize this nurse’s office.
“The Shujin Academy nurses office. Are you sure you’re okay? I really don’t want to write an incident report.” Why the hell was this teacher acting like a belligerent child?
“Shujin? I go to Jouin High school.”
“Where the hell is Jouin High?”
“Just off Shinagawa station…”
“We’re just off the Aoyama-Itchome station.” She shook her head. “Look. you were just transferred to Shujin Academy, you’re in Class 3-A. Let me call our student council president down and you can shadow her for the rest of the day. All the rest of your information should be in your bag.”
“Oh… Thank you?”
“Yeah, no problem. I need to get back to my class, so take a few more minutes while I go get Niijima.”
“Of course…”
He sat in the nurse’s office, opening up his phone. He checked his location, and sure enough, Aoyama-Itchome. He checked his Maps app. Jouin High, Jouin Uni, and the medical research lab did not exist. And yet, his contacts still had Yuzuru, Tao, and Ichiro. Unfortunately, when he tried to call their numbers, all he got were dial tones.
He sucked a deep breath in, releasing it through his nose. It’s fine. He’ll figure this out. maybe it’s a trick by Lucifer, right? No, if anything, he seemed interested in his and Aogami’s fusion… Or maybe he was inflicted with Sleep and it’s just a crazy status-effect-induced dream and he’ll wake up near Aogami any moment now.
Any moment.
Any…
moment.
Knock-knock-knock
“Amemura? Are you in here?” A different girl’s voice asked.
He stood up and walked to the girl. Brown hair with a braided crown? headband?
“Yes, that’s me. You’re the Student Council…”
“President, yes. I’m Niijima Makoto, and you are also in my class.” She squinted at him slightly, looking at him with a small tilt of her head. “Ms. Kawakami said you had some kind of strange amnesia? She said you apparently passed out cold on the way to school and a group of students carried you to the nurse’s office.”
“Really? All I remember is blacking out after an earthquake.”
“Ah, I see. Though it wasn’t a very bad one, no?”
“It felt like it, to me…”
“Oh, of course, I'm not trying to discredit your experience. In any case, let me show you to class.” She turned around and started to walk down the hall.
He grabbed his school bag and followed her. She gave him a small tour of the school on the way to class, explaining the buildings and where all electives and extracurricular classes would be, along with PE.
The teacher and everyone else looked their way when Niijima opened the door. Kei remembered why he hates being the “new kid”. Naturally, when the teacher saw him walk in, he was forced to introduce himself, and he did, not wanting to disrupt the class even more, and then quickly took the last empty seat in the back corner of the class, near the second classroom door.
His leg bounced with anxiety, but sure enough, his name was on the class schedule. He somehow was supposed to be here.
Even more worrying, Aogami was still nowhere to be seen.
He did his classes and work as normal, was given all his books and make-up homework by the class president, followed all the other students to the station before pulling his phone out and checking his maps for his home address.
Part of him felt… honestly kind of scared. Shujin didn't seem to have dorms like Jouin did. Does he live alone in an apartment? Or does he go home to his parents? Are his parents even the same in this world? Maybe this strange upheaval even changed them.
The thought didn't do much to quell his anxiously beating heart. But he couldn't stall any longer. He had to go home. Wherever that was, now.
He looked down at his navigator app and started walking to his platform.
When he got to his stop, he could hear his blood pumping in his ears. Maybe he is just alone. Maybe he does have okay parents in this world, if they even are there. Maybe he should just calm down. He reached into his school bag, fumbling for his house keys. Hand shaking, he unlocked the door and stepped inside.
“I’m… I’m home.” He announced into the apartment.
No answer.
He hung his bag and his keys up on the hook near the door, taking his shoes off and stepping inside further. A bedroom, a small kitchen, a bathroom. All his own. It was a little bigger than his Jouin dorm, but also very clearly for just one person. He had a laptop in his bedroom and a small TV with a DVD player on the dresser.
He let out a relieved breath, the anxiety mostly melting out of his system. He checked his fridge, starting to make some dinner for himself.
He opened his laptop, checking the date.
June 5, 2016
Two-thousand and sixteen. Twenty-sixteen. 2016. How can it be 2016? It was April of 2022 twelve hours ago.
He went to school the next day, the day after, and the day after… It was almost nice, the mundane routine. No demons, no end-of-the-world. Though, every time he started thinking like that, he began to worry about Tao, Yuzuru, Miyazu. And Dazai too.
He had been reading the news, first some teacher resigned and admitted to… horrific things at his own school before he “transferred”. And now, a few days ago, some artist broke down in tears, admitting to abusing his students. Weird, but not too alarming.
A couple weeks later, though, he started seeing Niijima stalking a bunch of underclassmen.
Again, weird, but.. not his business.
After a couple days of noticing her stalking the second years, she had suddenly stopped, looking visibly panicked during class. No one else really seemed to notice, but he could see her tugging on her hair, chewing the eraser of her pencil, bouncing her leg. She was scared.
He knew it wasn’t any of his business, but he was curious. After a couple days of watching Makoto panic quietly—he’d always been a quiet observer of his peers—he set a plan to follow her.
A few days later, he did exactly that after school. The girl was remarkably unsubtle. From the way that she “hid” her phone in class to the abandonment of the Student council room mere minutes after she had stepped inside it when the bell rang.
He followed her to Shibuya, ducking behind one of the information stalls near the glass windowed overpass in the station. There, she met up with a boy from another school, and a couple of second years that came up to talk to her sometimes during lunch periods. After a while of the group chatting—were they talking to the cat?—they all got up and walked down the flights of stairs to a fairly secluded spot of the station.
They took out their phones, and Kei crept closer.
The world twisted and warped around him and he found himself in a red-tinted, hellish version of the station. He could feel… something sending a shiver down to his fingertips as he ducked behind the same—yet now empty—help booth.
All of the students were in… strange outfits. The blonde girl was in what looked like an uncomfortably tight catsuit, the blue haired boy had a kitsune mask, the blond one looked like a weird pirate, and the one he knew as “the other transfer student” stood wearing a rather impressive black coat with red gloves and brown boots and a silver, turtle necked vest.
“Okay, guys,” A young sounding voice said, walking up to the group. It had a large head, black and white with a yellow necktie. Ears... and a tail…
The other transfer student’s unsubtle cat transformed too?
“Deeper into Mementos we go! We need to get Queen stronger!” The cat thing put his paws on his hips and nodded as the other students rolled their shoulders, limbering up for…. whatever the hell this was.
“As always, stand back, if you will.” Once everyone was clear, the cat thing jumped into the air, did a flip… and turned
into
a car?
Kei was willing to suspend his disbelief, like the outfits changing in an alternate world that laid adjacent to the real world, due to his experiences in Da’at, but this was getting ridiculous. The group all piled into the cat-car, and he crept closer. The blond boy hadn’t gotten in yet. He was lagging behind.
Unfortunately, Kei hesitated too long, and the car sped off. He sighed, sitting down at one of the benches. He had absolutely no idea how to get back to normal Tokyo, let alone his Tokyo. He looked down at his phone. No connection. It was like his phone was fully non-functioning now. He looked down the escalators that the cat-car sped down. Should he follow them?
He started to walk down the escalator, looking around. He saw… demons, here, in this other Tokyo! He has no power, he can’t fight them! He needs Aogami, he was never shown how to summon demons like Yuzuru and Ichiro. His identity as Nahobino had carried him though Da’at… He took a few steps back stumbling over his feet before running back up the escalator. Okay. So. He is just going to stay here until those other students get back.
The thieves were on the third floor of Mementos, killing shadows and exploring the floor further, until Joker, leaning over the back seat, pointed at Jose’s shop further down the floor.
“Hey! there’s something there with Jose.”
Makoto squinted, looking through Monabus’ windshield. “Have you ever seen this before, Joker?”
“No. Jose has always been by himself. Let’s go check it out. Besides, we have flowers to spend.”
The bus drove up to Jose, who was waving at them as always.
“Hey, Mister!” The young boy smiled at Joker before looking up at the tall man that stood beside him.
The man had blue hair and was wearing some kind of skin-tight, futuristic bodysuit. White with thick, navy-blue lines, and thin red lines that converged into a sort of “S” on his chest.
“Hey, mister! A new mister showed up a while ago.”
The tall man turned to Joker, bowing his head before speaking. “My name is Aogami. I have not been able to leave this place, as I am not sure where I am. The boy explained that this is something called a Metaverse, and yet it matches nothing of my data stores.
“This is Mementos. The culmination of Tokyo’s cognition,” Morgana piped up, still in car form. That garnered a confused look from Aogami.
“So we are indeed in Tokyo. That is good to know.” Aogami nodded, still looking around, shaking off the confusion of the talking car.
Skull hopped out of the car, walking up to the man. “Dude you look like a crazy android something…”
“That is a somewhat accurate assessment. ‘Crazy’ however, is not. I assure you, all of my mental faculties are in order. I am simply trying to find my counterpart. I protected him when the earthquake happened, but then shortly after, we were separated and I found myself regaining function in this place.”
“Counterpart, huh?” Queen asked, looking up at him. “What do they look like?”
“He is about the black haired boy’s height, with gray-green eyes and an uneven bowl cut. His name is-”
“Amemura Kei.” Queen finished for Aogami.
“Yes, that is correct. My data stores seem to be faulty, however. Despite you saying that we are in Tokyo, I can’t seem to pinpoint where we are.”
“Shibuya station.” Joker spoke up.
“I see… and the… date?”
“October 2016? Duh?” Skull answered.
“Hm.” Aogami’s face darkened, his eyes taking on a slight glow as he processed the information.
“Look, we can bring you back to the real world with us,” Joker said, stepping up. “Amemura goes to our school. I’m not sure where you’ll stay until we can bring you to him, but we can figure it out.”
“Umm, he could probably fit into some of my dad’s clothes —but that’s just for clothes! I am not comfortable with some random man staying in my parents’ house.” Ann raised her hand, looking to Joker. She looked at Aogami with an apologetic look. “Sorry..?”
“Of course. Do not apologize. I would hate to intrude. Finding Kei is my highest priority.”
“Hmm, he couldn’t come with me… Sis would know and I’d be probably executed. Or he would…” Queen grimaced at the thought.
“I would be difficult to kill to an average human.”
“It’s an expression.” Queen sighed.
“My apologies.”
“No it’s… fine…” She shook her head.
“Mister Aogami,” Mona said after a moment of silence, “Since you are down here, I'd like for you to show us your Persona.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Your… Persona? You know, the culmination of your soul. Personification of your inner self?”
The man just looked at Mona with a confused look.
“Well, hm, let me demonstrate! Come, Zorro!” The cat thing took a step back, and with a flourish, a being came into existence. It wore black, brandishing a sword. Its head was a hat with owlish eyes, and bearded chin protruded from underneath the hat. Long spikes also came out from under the hat and extended behind the being’s head. It looked like a strange mustache. It had on fancy black clothes with a cape and pointed boots.
One by one, the rest of the students presented their Personas to Aogami, who took in all of the information.
“How am I supposed to summon one of these myself? What is their purpose?”
“Um, y’know, like they got magic and stuff? They help us fight dirty villains who’re hurting people.” The blonde haired boy spoke up.
“Hm.. Where I come from, my own powers simply came from the essence of my being…”
“The essence of your being? Hmm… Maybe try summoning your own powers? I’ve never heard of anyone having power unrelated to a Persona before… You could try to shoot whatever power you have at Skull!” The cat thing took on a confident pose with a mocking laugh in the blond boy’s direction.
“Screw you, you dumb cat!”
“I’m not a cat!”
“Both of you, shut up!” Queen snapped at them, shaking her head. “Well then, Mr. Aogami… Try to summon your power.”
Aogami closed his eyes, holding out his hand; Zio, the basic electric skill. That’s the one he used to rescue Kei when they first met, therefore, it should be easy to summon. He could feel the electricity crackling at his fingers, but it felt…different, distant. His own senses and yet another’s. It was different from being the Nahobino, where his and Kei’s senses were intertwined, one and the same.
When he opened his eyes, a man with white hair, white eyes, and deep red skin stood floated before him. He wore a black hakama with the kimono folded over his waistband, exposing his chest. Curved fangs protruded from his mouth and two horns sprouted from his head. He floated, with a ring behind him, nine drums equally spaced along the ring, and triple magatama upon the faces of the drums. The demon—or rather, the god— looked at Aogami. He couldn’t decipher what was in his eyes, but his data stores recognized him immediately.
“Raijin.”
“How peculiar, to be called upon by one such as you. You are a long way from home, my incomplete brother.”
“Indeed…”
“While the wind remains still, you and your other half will be stuck here, out of place. But the dormant storms alone are not the only obstacle blocking your return.”
With that, the demon—the Persona disappeared, but Aogami could feel its presence somewhere in the back of his mind. He was lost in thought for a few moments, and when he returned to the present, the students, with their costumes and masks, stared at him. A mask of his own had covered his face, resembling that of a biker helmet with horns that glowed red, a red circle glowing on the curved visor of the mask, matching the glowing red of Aogami’s body.
“Woah…” Panther said first. “What…was all that? I mean Carmen definitely talked to me and like… told me to stand up for what I believed in, but your Persona seemed confused or like, interested? That you summoned it?”
“Hm…” Aogami hummed, thinking. He shook his head at himself, a habit he’d grown after being fused with Kei.
After a few more minutes of silent contemplation, Mona spoke up. “Well, guess that means you can roll with us. But you’ll need a code name.”
“A code name?”
“Mhm. Once we get back to the real world, we’ll all introduce ourselves properly. But when we’re in the Metaverse, we use code names. I’m Mona, she’s the beautiful Panther, that’s numbSkull—”
“It’s just Skull!” The one apparently named Skull interrupted.
“She’s Queen, and our glorious leader is Joker!”
Aogami nodded. “I see. So I must use an alias as well, then?”
“Mhm! And I think I know just the one!”
“Do you?” Joker asked, a smile on his face.
“Mhm! We can call him Android.”
Aogami frowned. “I’m not sure I like that one.”
“Yeah, Mona, it’s a little on the nose.” Panther said, an unsure look on her face. “Also that’s a phone brand.”
“Well then what should we call him? If his name is Aogami then he needs a different alias!”
“How about Paladin?” Joker suggested.
“Paladin?” Mona asked, tilting his head.
Aogami also looked towards Joker. “What makes you say that?”
“Hm, you mentioned Amemura, and stuff about protecting him. And your Persona manifested as Raijin, a god. Paladins are protectors and usually related to gods at least in like worship and promises.” Joker shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. The boy seemed remarkably perceptive.
“I see. I would like that. Thank you, Joker.” Paladin nodded towards Joker.
“Yeah. Anyway, you said you needed to find Amemura, right? Then let’s end this Mementos run early today. That good with all of you?” Joker looked around to the other teammates. The way Joker confidently spoke and the other “Phantom Thieves” responded reminded Aogami of Kei, at least when they were Nahobino. When they were together. He needed to find him. Make sure he was unhurt and okay.
The other thieves nodded and agreed to go home early, and so the group piled back into Monabus after Joker gave his flowers to Jose.
Kei was sitting inside this “Netherworld”s information booth. He ended up just pulling his book out of his bag and reading for the…however long he was stuck in there. Eventually, though, he heard the sound of a literal purring engine. Instead of revealing himself, though, he stayed hidden in the booth. Surely he’ll be returned to the real world with the rest of them.
“Alright,” he heard the other transfer student say, “Paladin, when we get to the real world, we’ll help you meet back up with him. He goes to our school, so it shouldn’t be hard, but you look college-aged, so you would have to wait outside the school.”
Niijima’s voice spoke next. “He’s in my class, so I’ll just talk to him tomorrow.”
“Of course. As long as we are able to reunite.”
“Aogami…” Kei whispered to himself. That was Aogami’s voice, for sure. It had to have been. He peeked out of the booth, seeing… what looked like Aogami’s body, but with a cyberpunk-looking mask over his face. and they were calling him “Paladin”?
“Well,” Niijima’s voice again, “should we head back?”
Everyone agreed and the world began to warp again after a small, robotic voice announced the return to the real world.
Upon return to the real world, Aogami found himself looking different, feeling different. He looked at his hands, a sweater’s sleeves dangling around his wrists and they were fleshy. He had wrinkles on his knuckles. Fingernails. He reached a hand to his face, and felt a smooth chin, a set of ears, his bodysuit armor nowhere to be found.
“I seem to be… human.” He noted to himself. He looked down and saw a pair of black slacks over a pair of comfortable work shoes, a dress shirt with a dark blue blazer. No tie. He had a tote bag with textbooks, a tablet, wallet, and a phone slung over his shoulder.
“Ugh! No fair!” The cat meowed. “You get to leave the Metaverse and be a human? I’m just cursed to be a cat!”
Aogami still relatively felt the same, his mind was the same, and his ability to access information was the same as his “Proto-fiend” form.
“Interesting…” He mused, pulling the wallet out. He looked at the ID that was in the wallet. Koshimizu Aohito. So even this world acknowledges that he and Koshimizu Hayao, Tsukuyomi, are brothers, or rather whatever brought him to this world did its research. Something felt all too perfect, almost suspiciously so, but he wasn’t sure about what yet.
He still felt the pulling in his chest, the emptiness of being outside of the Nahobino’s fused form. The string that connected him to Kei was pulling taut. Was he near?
“Oh!” Mona meowed again. “We still need to do proper introductions! Outside of the Metaverse, you can call me Morgana!”
“Pleased to meet you, Morgana. My name in this world seems to be Koshimizu Aohito.”
“Huh, never heard of the Metaverse setting people up before. That’s pretty cool,” Morgana meowed again.
“Oh, um, I’m Takamaki Ann, and that’s Sakamoto Ryuji.” The blonde girl smiled and the blond boy waved with a big smile.
“My name is Kitagawa Yusuke,” The blue haired boy spoke next. “I wasn’t able to get a closer look at you in Mementos, but you are a fascinating specimen. I would be honored if you could allow me to draw you sometime.”
“Oh, well I don’t see why that would be—” Aogami started.
“Yusuke, no more springing surprise nude paintings on people!” Miss Takamaki scolded.
Kitagawa put a hand to his chest, feigning offense. “Him being nude wasn’t even on my mind at that moment, I’ll have you know.”
Queen cleared her throat, to stop their bickering before turning to address Aogami. “My name is Niijima Makoto. Amemura is my classmate.”
“Hm, pleased to meet you.” Aogami nodded.
“My name is Amamiya Ren.” Joker speaks last.
“I see. Thank you for stopping when you saw me. Without your notice, I wouldn’t be this much closer to finding Kei.” Aogami gave his head a small, respectful bow.
“Don’t mention it. I still have some time before I have to go back to Leblanc. Would you like any help locating him?”
“That would be good, thank you.”
While the other students were talking to Aogami after they returned to the real world, Kei left the station and went home. There was something… bothering him. He wanted to reunite with Aogami, deeply, but something nagged at him, pulling him the opposite way.
The next day, at school, he saw the student council president staring at him. All. Day. Her eyes always found him again. And he could hear other students starting to whisper when they, too, saw Niijima glance his way. He would just bury his face in his book rereading the same passage again, and again. Paradise Lost, how many times had he read it? In his own world, and in this.
“Niijima keeps taking looks at the new guy!”
“Do you think she’s got a crush on him?”
“Look, he keeps looking away! Do you think he’s shy?”
“They’d be cute together, yeah? New nerdy boy and the most studious miss student council president.”
God, he wished they’d just shut up. At least at Jouin, he was invisible. He’d been at the school from the first day of first year and he was invisible from the very moment he introduced himself.
Until Yuzuru asked him to go home with his group. Then suddenly, he had friends.
He missed them. Maybe they’d like it here. An almost normal world. No gods and demons trying to devour humans and the world. Only mean, nasty people and a world of… Shadows.
The whispers and gossip were getting onto Makoto’s nerves, too. When the lunch bell rang, she tried, and failed, to catch up to Amemura. And then after school, too. Was he avoiding her? Surely the rumors can’t be that bad?
Phantoms GC
Makoto: Guys, he keeps avoiding me. He’s annoyingly good at disappearing!
Ren: divide and conquer?
Yusuke: None of us know where he tends to haunt, though.
Makoto: Ren, maybe you can tail him tomorrow?
Ren: why me
Makoto: You know I suck at it.
Ryuji: you can say that again. renren told me about how you were the most obvious stalker ever
Ann: i could try talking to him?
Ren: it’s been one day and it’s very difficult trying to hide aogami from sojiro…
Makoto: Did you. Check his bag? Maybe he has an apartment… He has textbooks and is a college student apparently.
Ren: oh yeah.
Ren: i’ll go back to leblanc and check. after sojiro closes up, i can i guess send him on his way
Ann: so you let a random college guy sleep on your couch?
Ren: he’s new to the whole being a human thing. he said that he was a robot from another world remember?
Ann: true, but still you didn’t even think to like? check his bag?
Ren: look
Ann: uh-huh thats what i thought
Makoto: guys, focus, please. how are we supposed to get Amemura to Aogami?
Ren: i got it, i got it
The next day went by like a sludge. Ren knew they needed to get back into the palace, but Aogami insisted that reuniting with Amemura was his highest priority. So, Ren found himself, on the third year’s floor, his face down on his phone, scrolling though the Phan-site.
Eventually, the older student stepped out of his classroom, his nose in his book.
It’s Ren’s time to shine. He followed Amemura at a distance, often breaking his stride to look at his phone, or an information booth in Shibuya, or running into the movie theater on Central Street, acting as if he was meeting friends for a showing.
The book store. Why was he not surprised?
After about twenty or so minutes, Amemura didn’t leave. Another 15 minutes. Another five. Ren finally shook his head to himself and opened the door to the bookshop. There he was. Amemura. Behind the counter with his sea-green eyes staring directly at Ren.
Ren knew he’d been caught, but he needs to keep up appearances, so he went up to the counter.
“I, uh. I’d like to buy something.”
“Okay.” Amemura’s voice was deeper than he thought it would be. “What book?”
“I dunno, do you have any recommendations?”
“There’s a leadership book. Called Why are They Following me? by an American author called Jenny Blossom.” The older boy’s eyes pierced Ren’s vision. He’s… He’s really good. Interrogation through books.
“Ah, thank you,” Ren said with a nod, “I was actually looking more for books about reunions. Finding someone’s friend and getting him back to them.”
“Really? I could help you with that, but I’d need more detail.”
“Reeeeen, what kind of weird code are you talking, just ask him to talk to you for five minutes. You know you can’t keep that Aogami guy in your room...” Morgana whined from the bag.
Ren saw Amemura’s eyes dart to the bag, and a twitch in his eyebrow after Morgana mentioned “keeping Aogami in his room”. It could have just have been a reaction to the meowing. People did tend to notice when Morgana got loud…
“You can’t have pets in here, Amamiya. I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
“Fine, meet me at the diner.”
“Why should I? And you shouldn’t bring pets into a diner, either.”
“He’s usually quieter.”
“Why do you bring it to school, too?”
“I am not an IT!” Morgana yowled, and Ren jostled the bag.
The corner of Amemura’s mouth twitched in a strange hint of a smile before he looked back up at Ren.
“Okay, look, you're better at this than I expected. You want to find someone called Aogami. I know where he is, but there’s some details I can’t really get into. Okay? He wants to see you though, I can promise that.”
Amemura sighed, shaking his head slightly—Aogami did a similar thing the other day, didn’t he? The older boy brushed the longer side of his bangs from his face before speaking. “My shift ends in three more hours. Think you can wait?”
“Oh, yeah. No problem.” Ren nodded.
“Great. See you then.”
Ren’s leg bounced as he looked over his homework in the booth. Mona laid curled up on the seat next to him. He couldn’t focus on the math, the numbers and letters floating off the page. There’s definitely something off about Amemura.
Ren: got him. he’s meeting me at the diner
Makoto: How did you get him to agree?
Ren: he knew i was following him
Makoto: even you?
Ren: yeah. there’s something up with him
Ann: wdym
Ren: i think he can hear morgana
Yusuke: But wouldn’t that mean he’s been in the Metaverse in proximity to us then?
Ren: yeah thats what i’m confused about
Ren: but i’ll let you guys know if i find anything else out
Ann: good luck!!!!!
“Amamiya.”
Ren jumped. “Speak of the devil.”
“You weren’t saying anything. That phrase is usually reserved for groups speaking about an outside subject.”
“Was thinking about you.” And just talking to the group chat about you, but he doesn’t have to know that.
“Well, I’m flattered, but you’re not my type.”
‘Tha— That’s not what I mean!” Mona’s ears perked at the sound of Ren’s mild distress.
The older student laughed a little, before returning to a more serious expression. “So does everyone in your friend group have a weird obsession with stalking people?”
“What?”
“First Niijima stalked you, and now you were following me.”
“How did you know she was—”
“She’s the most unsubtle girl, no, person I’ve ever met. Stalked you for like 2 days or so before coming back incredibly anxious. She seems more sure of herself now, but now she just keeps staring at me throughout the day.”
Ren nodded. “Yeah, so um. Aogami?”
“What about him?”
“Okay, he’s at my place.”
“Why?”
“We kinda just found him?”
“Where was he? I haven’t seen him in weeks.”
“Shibuya Station.”
“I go through the station every day, Amamiya.”
“You’re from another world, right?”
“Who’s to say?”
“Aogami did.”
“And how did you find him?”
“We just did.”
“But how? If he was just aimlessly wandering Shibuya, I would have found him by now.”
At this point, Morgana had sat up and was watching the interaction. “He’s playing hard to get, Ren. You know regular people wouldn’t be able to understand the Metaverse.”
Amemura looked at Morgana. “Go on, then. What wouldn’t I understand, cat?”
“I’m not a cat! Can’t you be nicer?”
“You can hear him?” Ren leaned in over the table.
“I followed Niijima the other day.” Ren’s eyes widened a bit. This guy is really good… “But where was Aogami?”
“In one of the lower floors of Mementos,” Morgana answered, now knowing his cover had already been blown.
“Mementos.. You mentioned that before turning into a car.”
“I did indeed. Mementos, is the manifestation of Tokyo’s collective cognition.” Morgana explained again. “The Metaverse is made of cognition.”
“Uh huh…”
“You’re confused.” Morgana noticed.
“Well, where I’m from, there is an adjacent Tokyo, but it’s just the result of Tokyo being sacrificed to a Lucifer-worshipping cult. God created a new Tokyo, but now God is dead and new Tokyo is starting to crack and demons from Da’at are… slaughtering humans.”
Ren stared at him in disbelief. “What the hell?”
“Yeah, I was just a normal student, but then I got caught in Da’at. Aogami saved me.”
Ren nodded. “I see, that’s why he seemed adamant about finding you.”
Ren was quiet for a few moments, and then realized something. “If you followed us to Mementos, then you would have known we found Aogami, right?”
Amemura nodded, looking down at the table.
“Then why didn’t you say something?”
“I… don’t know. Honestly. I wanted to just throw myself in his arms but, something felt… off.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. This entire place feels wrong. I mean it’s just Tokyo and there’s an adjacent world to Tokyo. Sure, I can handle that. But an earthquake in my Tokyo, on the way to school… And then I black out and wake up in your school’s nurse’s office. There’s something wrong here. And I… I’m sure Aogami is the same as he ever is. And that might ease my mind.”
Amemura paused. “Look, I need to get back to my world. They need me and Aogami there.”
“Well. I don’t know how to get you home, but I can at least get you back to Aogami?”
“I’d like that… Thank you.”
“I’m gonna call everyone to Leblanc.”
“Oh, why?”
“We can explain everything to you to catch you up to why we are… going into Mementos anyway. But it’s not really a thing to discuss here.” Ren gave him a smile.
“Oh, duly noted…”
Ren: everyone to leblanc asap