Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 5!

Note: For easy reference, the actors and actresses still retain the same names as they do in the Persona 5 game. There will be huge changes in personality in some characters, but some of them will not be very different. This story will include romance, but the couples will be kept a secret for now. This story will also not always be full of random and funny crack, but will also have some emotional parts. This chapter is extra long as I have placed the original versions of Chapter 1 and 2 together to introduce most of the characters.

I will not be updating this story very often, because I'm actually currently close to exam period in my school. This chapter was uploaded because I wanted to introduce you guys to the characters as early as possible.

Warning: Expect a huge amount of OOC from some of the characters in this story, and coarse language!

With that, enjoy the story!

"Dad! Mum! I got a role! I got a role!"

Mr Kurusu turned to him in surprise. "You got a role in Persona 5?!"

Akira Kurusu nodded excitedly as a large smile beamed all over his face, causing a happy glow to engulf him.

Squealing in joy, Mrs Kurusu dropped her ladle back onto the plate beside the cooking pot and gave him a bone-crushing hug. "Yeah! That's my baby! That's the pride of the Kurusu Comedians!"

Akira could only chuckle at his mother's comment. She wasn't wrong. They were a famous family of comedians, after all. Thinking back, Akira had started being a comedian ever since he was a child, and quickly clambered to the top of stardom and success thanks to his witty and hilarious personality.

He still could not believe that he had attained a role in that game from such a famous franchise. The Persona series was a very popular franchise, especially after the students from Gekkoukan High School acted in Persona 3 and the students from Yasogami High School acted in Persona 4. Akira had to admit, Persona 3 was a huge tearjerker for him, but Persona 4 brought him a lot of laughter.

Both schools in real life were schools of the Performing Arts and Media, so Akira wasn't really surprised that his school, Shujin Academy, which was also a school of such category, would be selected for Persona 5.

And he actually got into it!

Akira could barely contain his glee, but couldn't help wondering if the role which he had attained was going to just be a random confidant rather than any of the main characters. After all, he was a comedian! The Protagonist, also known as Joker in the game, was so stoic! But he couldn't blame the game developers. The people who played the games were supposed to choose their Protagonist's personality.

Thinking back to his school, however, Akira could not help but smile at what happened on his first day at school...

Few weeks ago...

"WAKE UP, GET OUT, GET OUT THERE!" Akira's mother screamed as she dragged the covers off him before she pulled the curtains wide open to let in the sunlight, causing Akira to shriek in agony and frustration.

"AAAAH...!"

"Come on, kiddo! We gotta get you up and ready for your first day at school!" Mrs Kurusu sang back at him as she gave him a huge grin before sailing out of the door.

Akira laughed at his mother's antics. Well, what was he going to do since he was born in a family of comedians?

Showering and getting ready for school, Akira wondered how the school was going to be like. Was it going to be as crappy as he heard it would be? Or was it going to be a fun place for him to study and improve on his performance skills? But then again, how fun could a school called 'Shujin' be? It literally meant 'Prison' in English!

Akira shook his head. He shouldn't just judge a school based on its name, after all.

Back to the present...

Akira remembered that at the school, he met quite a couple of really nice students, but the ones who had a bigger impression on him were two students. The first one was a girl from his class, Ann Takamaki. Also a student from 2-D, he heard that Ann came into this school studying to be a model and an actress.

The second one was Ryuji Sakamoto, a student from 2-E. He and Ann were childhood friends. However, now that Akira thought about it, he never asked Ryuji how he came into this school. One needed to have some sort of performing skills to enter the school, such as dancing, singing, acting and such. Either that, or they have skills relating to the media such as designing, composing, filming and directing.

Somehow, he couldn't see Ryuji being in any of those categories...

"So, my boy! Which role did you get in the game?" Mr Kurusu asked Akira, snapping him out of his daze.

"Erm, I'm actually not too sure. All of us who auditioned know the Joker's personality, but we don't really know anyone else's. Atlus is really keeping it under wraps..." Akira replied as he continuously flipped through the letter, only to come to a pause at the part in which his role in the game was stated.

Akira stared at the words through his glasses in shock before he blinked once, and shrieked.

"Th-th-the Protagonist?!"

His mother's eyes sparkled in excitement while his father began to grin. "Really? Let me see it!"

As Mr Kurusu snatched the letter from his son, Akira was still in a state of shock. "B-But the Protagonist is a really serious character..."

"Oh really, now?" Mr Kurusu gave Akira a smirk before he handed the letter back to him. "Read the fine print, sonny."

Confused, the black-haired boy gingerly took the letter back from his father, which made a snall crinkling noise. Looking at the bottom of the letter, he read it out aloud.

"The Protagonist's personality is up to your interpretation..."

A grin similar to that of his father's grew on his face.

"Hey, Akira!"

Recognising the voice, Akira looked up to see Ann looking at him, wanting to speak to him.

The two of them were in class. Classes for them had just ended, and Akira was just packing his notes into his bag.

"Oh, hey Ann! What's up?"

Ann Takamaki was a rather tall and beautiful girl with blond wavy hair let down and curled over her shoulders. Her blond hair and blue eyes were a unique touch to the class since she was the only Caucasian in the school.

"I'm going over to Student Lounge 1 now, so I can't walk to the station with you and Ryu today, sorry!"

Akira was confused. "Huh? You're going to Student Lounge 1 too?"

"… Wait a minute! You got a role in Persona 5 too?!"

"Yeah! I got the role of the Protagonist!"

Ann stared at him before she burst out laughing. "Wait, you of all people are playing as the serious Protagonist? That's just...!"

"Oh my god, imagine me being like..." Akira complained in his usual hilarious way before he put on the most stoic and bored face he could ever imagine, causing Ann to laugh even harder than before.

"Stop, stop! I'm going to die of laughter at this rate!"

"Alright, alright," Akira smiled at Ann's reaction before he lifted his bag and added, "Let's go to the Student Lounge, shall we?"

As the two students stepped out of the classroom, Akira asked Ann, "So, which role did you get?"

"I got Panther. Not sure what type of character she is, but based on the name, she seems like a flirty type of character..."

Akira saw a hint of sorrow sweep past Ann's face, and he understood why. Ann was the only Caucasian in the school, and a model at that. Thus, she was bullied by some of the students in school and sometimes called some of the worst names Akira could ever think about using on a girl.

But maybe there was one thing he could say that would cheer her up, but get on her nerves at the same time...

Akira winked at her before he snapped his fingers at her and sang, "... Eyy! Sexy lady!"

Ann looked at him in surprise before her expression turned into one of exasperation. "Akira, if you don't stop, I'm going to smack you!"

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry!" Akira cackled madly at Ann's reaction, but was slightly heartened to see that Ann seemed to have cheered up a little.

At that moment, the two of them looked up. "Oh, we've arrived. Let's go in!"

Akira nodded as he pushed open the door and stepped into the room...

Akira and Ann sat in the comfortable beanbag chairs in the student lounge as they waited for the rest of the main cast of Persona 5 to arrive. Ann blew her cheeks up as she stared at her phone for a moment before she groaned and flopped her phone down once more. "We're half an hour early..."

Akira shrugged. "I guess that means we have some time to do some stuff. Hey, want to see me do a stand-up comedy skit?"

"Sure... but hey, the Student Lounge is actually pretty amazing! I've never been here before," Ann smiled back as she fished up her phone once more and snapped a selfie with it.

The Student Lounge was a place where students get to book to relax after classes, and consisted of a cube-table, beanbag chairs, a fridge full of snacks, a whiteboard, a bookshelf and other decorative items. It was pretty simple, but even simple decoration could brighten up a place easily.

Akira shook his head, remembering how Ann was a bit of a social media addict. However, Ann quickly shut her phone off and looked at Akira. "So, you said you wanted to do a stand-up comedy skit?"

Akira nodded before he stood up. He took a deep breath.

"So there was one time, when my mum actually allowed me to-" He said in his comedian demeanour.

SLAM!

The door slammed open, interrupting Akira and causing Ann to jump. Akira quickly turned to the door and saw a lean delinquent-looking male walk in with a slight swagger in his stance. Ann raised an eyebrow in shock.

"Huh... I didn't know the delinquent of the school would actually be acting in Persona 5 too..."

The male, who had slightly messy hair covering his left eye, looked at Ann and smirked. "Oh, I didn't know the sexy model was here too."

Akira looked at him and cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "Who's this?"

Hearing Akira's voice, the male looked up at him. "So, the transfer student's here too, huh?"

Ann cleared her throat before she introduced hesitantly, "Well... he's Ryuji's classmate. Also a student from 2-E... though he's a year older than us because of his grades..."

The guy groaned and rolled his eyes as he threw his bag to the side and placed his hands in his pockets. "Did that story seriously spread that fast? God damn it..."

Seeing as the guy seemed like a bad boy, Akira wondered how he would react when he pulled a hand out and grinned, "Hey, I'm Akira Kurusu! A pleasure to meet you!"

Looking at Akira's hand, he reached out to shake it...

... Only to hear a big farting noise once he gripped his hand, causing the guy to suddenly tense up.

Akira began to chuckle while Ann giggled madly. "The old whoopee cushion in the hand trick!" Akira laughed as he gave the blue-haired guy a wink. "It's always funny!"

The man stared at Akira for a moment with a straight face before he started laughing too. "Come on, dude! That's so lame!"

As he removed his hand from Akira's, he gave him a nod and introduced himself. "Yusuke Kitagawa. Nice t' meetcha! Oh, by the way..."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Yusuke pulled out a box of pocky and handed it to Akira. "Want one?"

"Maaaaaan! It's pretty god damn boring here..." Akira heard Yusuke groan for probably the fifth time.

"Will you shut up, Yusuke? We are ALL bored too, you know," Ann sighed.

"At least you still have your phone?! Freaking Shibata confiscated mine!"

"Serves you right for using your phone in class..." Ann shook her head before she looked up and asked, "By the way, where's Ryuji? Aren't the two of you in the same class? I just received a message from him telling me that he was in the cast too!"

Yusuke looked at the blue-eyes girl like she just asked him a dumb question. "You know very well that I ditch the classes I hate and only come to school just because of that 50% attendance policy."

Ann groaned once again and turned back to stare at her phone. Suddenly, Akira felt a huge presence coming towards their room and briefly prepared himself for anything shocking...

"BANG!"

"GYAAHH!"

"... WAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The door suddenly banged open with the loudest sound anyone could imagine, causing Ann and Yusuke to freak out and turn towards the door. However, what caused Akira to burst out in mad laughter was when Yusuke suddenly gave a loud, high-pitched scream. Yusuke yelled at him, "Stop laughing at me, damn it!"

"Whaddup, guys! Is this the place for the Persona 5 cast meeting?" The brown-haired girl with a spunky attitude grinned at them as she looked at them with her determined red eyes. Akira could just notice the braid hairband on her head.

Yusuke was the first to react. "… Fuck, Makoto Niijima's here."

The girl, Makoto, glared at Yusuke, causing him to flinch. "Mind your manners, Yusuke. I'm your Senpai!"

He huffed in irritation. "We're the same age, damn it! Anyways, you told us to treat you like how we would to others, so how am I in the wrong?"

"Then you should do something about that rude attitude of yours, simple as that!" she grinned back, causing Yusuke to slam his head on the table.

"I swear to god, if Makoto Niijima is gonna be acting with us, I'm gonna fucking cry..."

Ann and Akira were confused, but Ann was the first to speak up. "Um... what exactly is wrong about Makoto?"

"She's scary, god damn it!"

"Wait, you're scared of... what...?!"

While Ann began laughing hysterically at Yusuke, Akira analysed Makoto's outfit and movements. She seemed like the sporty, tomboyish type of girl who was pretty loud.

At that moment, Makoto noticed Akira and smiled. "Ah! You're the new kid in the block, aren't you? What's your name?"

He introduced himself with a smile "Akira Kurusu."

Makoto suddenly looked as if she were in deep thought before she snapped her fingers. "Oh! The Kurusu Comedians! You're part of the family?"

"Yeah! I'm from 2-D! Nice to meet you, Makoto-Senpai!"

"Just call me Makoto! I'm from Class 3-C! Nice to meet you too, Akira!" Makoto nodded as she grabbed his hand and gave him a firm handshake...

And another loud fart came blasting throughout the room, causing Yusuke to guffaw and Ann to giggle madly. Makoto had a confused look on her face until Akira revealed the whoopee cushion in his hand with a huge smile plastered on his face.

Makoto stared at him with an exasperated face. "You..."

Yusuke's smile vanished instantly. "Oh, shit..."

However, she just laughed boisterously and slapped Akira's back, remarking, "Damn, I like you already, sire! Tell me more about yourself!"

"Um... Hi! is there anyone inside?"

The group instantly turned to the door to see a small-sized, bespectacled orange-haired girl standing at the doorway, seemingly hiding shyly behind the door.

"Oh! Are you in the Persona 5 cast too?" Makoto asked cheerily.

"Um... yeah..."

"Come on in!" Ann smiled happily. "It's great that this place isn't going to be a total sausage fest!"

Yusuke frowned. "The hell's that supposed to mean, Ann? There are more girls than guys here now!"

The petite girl stepped into the room. It was then when Akira noticed the headphones around her neck, and the fact that she was wearing the proper school uniform, unlike the rest of the students in the room. Ann had modified her uniform such that she wore a hoodie instead of her uniform's top, and red stockings with brown boots instead of the usual school shoes. Yusuke wore a yellow singlet, sneakers and his blazer tied around his waist. Makoto wore the female school uniform normally, but she had a vest instead of a blazer on, and he could see a pair of tight black shorts that reached up to just above her knees. Heck, even Akira himself was wearing his blazer open!

It looks like this school doesn't even care about dress code...

The girl stuttered for a moment before she quickly bowed towards them, "I... I'm Futaba Sakura from 1-D, playing as Oracle... or Navi, if you prefer. Nice to meet you all!"

"Sweet, we have a Kouhai here, guys!" Makoto cheered before she introduced herself. "I'm Makoto Nijima! Nice to meet you!"

"I'm Ann Takamaki!" Ann smiled back at Futaba before pointing out, "Hey, we haven't really introduced our roles, have we?"

"No," Yusuke replied bluntly as he stared at her with a look that said, "Thanks, Captain Obvious."

Akira pipped in. "Well, we can always do that after everyone's arrived, no?"

"That's actually pretty true..."

Suddenly, Futaba walked towards Akira. "H-Hey, you came in just two weeks ago with the rest of the year ones, right?"

Akira nodded. "Yeah! What about it?"

"Well, then I hope we get along!" Futaba smiled shyly as she lifted her hand out towards him.

Akira took it gently and shook it with a similar soft smile. Seeing her soft demeanour, he didn't want to scare her with that trick, after all.

"So there are only three people left, right?" Ann counted. "Since Morgana's voice actress will be recording in the studios instead..."

"Mm-hm. I wonder what the personalities of our characters are, though!" Makoto added.

"I swear, you're always so happy-go-lucky..." Yusuke groaned.

"Hello!"

"Another girl?" The blue-haired male turned to the door. "Hoo, boy! This may end up being a great time!"

Futaba suddenly muttered softly, "Yusuke-Senpai, what are you thinking, exactly...?"

"... Haru! Oh my god, you're in Persona 5 too?!" Ann gasped in surprise when she saw the curly-haired girl step into the office before she squealed and pounced over to hug her. "OMG, OMG, OMG!"

"Goodness, Ann-chan! Calm down!" Haru giggled before gently wrenching herself free from her frenzied friend's grasp.

"Ooh, it's the Designer Genius!" Makoto grinned, which caught Haru's attention.

"Makoto-san? You're here too?"

"Let me introduce her to you guys!" the red eyed girl stood up as she gestured to Haru. "This is Haru Okumura from 3-C, the genius in Clothing Design in this school!"

Haru giggled once more as a slight blush rose on her cheeks. "Geez, Makoto-san, you flatter me!"

Then she turned to Akira. "Oh, hello. Are you the new student? Nice to meet you!"

Akira smiled back as he stretched his hand out, "Hello. I'm Akira Kurusu. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

As usual, a farting sound echoed across the room once more, earning loud laughters from Yusuke and Makoto, and stares of disbelief and bewilderment from Futaba. Ann simply smiled and shook her head.

However, Haru just laughed and replied, "That's immature..."

What she didn't know was that her simple remark had driven Akira into a corner drawing circles as he sobbed about how he did not get the reaction that he had wanted from her.

"Two more people left... where the heck is Ryuji?" Ann sighed as she scrolled through her phone for new messages.

"That guy's late for like, 15 minutes..." Yusuke added as he shoved the last pocky stick into his mouth. "... Crap, I've finished it all already?"

"You're one to talk," Makoto snickered.

"Well, hey! At least I arrived early today!"

SLAM!

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I'm late! I'm late-WARGH!"

CRASH!

Upon hearing the sudden loud commotion, Akira turned to see his friend sprawled all over the floor with a ton of papers and books scattered all around him. But something about him seemed really off today...

"Ugh... seriously...?" the blond-haired boy groaned in a soft manner as he pushed up his spectacles and began picking up his research papers.

Concerned, Akira picked up the papers and handed them to him. "Ryuji, are you okay?"

He smiled back and nodded, "Aha, yeah. thanks Akira-san!"

However, Ann was staring at Ryuji as if he had grown four arms. "Ryuji... did you just... bleach your hair...?!"

He laughed awkwardly as he scratched the back of his forehead, "Well, I was asked to bleach my hair for my role, so..."

Yusuke snorted in amusement. "So the Well-Mannered Class Genius finally did something out of his demeanour, huh..."

Ryuji turned to his classmate and pouted. "Stop teasing me about that, Yusuke!"

Akira had to admit, Yusuke was right. Ryuji's appearance was literally like that of a good boy: properly-worn school uniform, glasses and always carrying books around him. Even his diligence, sweet and nerdy personality, and book-smartness was known all over school. The only thing was that...

"Heyo, Ryuji!" Makoto smirked as she gave him a noogie before laughing madly. "Nice blond hair you've got there!"

"Ow... w-will you please stop that, Makoto-Senpai...?"

He was pretty darn awkward around everyone else!

It was at that moment when Haru suddenly swooped up on him and observed his hair with a slight frown on her face, causing Ryuji to sweat and ask, "Um... Haru-Senpai...?"

"... Ryuji. Did you bleach this by yourself?"

He laughed awkwardly. "Y-yeah."

She slowly nodded. "Not too bad for first try, but not good enough to stand in front of a camera. Is it okay if you stay back for a moment for my hairstylist partner to smoothen the colours out?"

Akira could see the stumped look on Ryuji's face. "Uh... what?"

As the conversation between the two of them continued, Akira picked up another pile of research papers and was about to hand them back to Ryuji when he noticed something on the covers of one file.

"... Arsene Lupin? William Kidd? Ishikawa Goemon?" Then he turned to his awkward friend and went, "... What?"

"I was asked by the studios to do some research about these characters since I'm in the research sector of the media," Ryuji replied as he took the papers from Akira and smiled back at him. "By the way, thank you so much!"

It was as if many things don't really faze that boy in a negative way...

Ann looked at Ryuji in surprise. "You are in the research sector? You never told us anything about that! Why am I not surprised that you're studying research skills, though..."

"Well, hey! Don't look down on people like us!" Ryuji argued as he put on a small pout. "It's exactly because some of the drama programmes have been handing out false information about how the world works, that's why it needs researchers like us to make things accurate and plausible!"

"Alright, alright. Don't need to go on and on about defending your job, kiddo," Yusuke sniggered, earning him a small sigh from Ryuji.

Suddenly, Haru stood up once more as she pulled out a file. "Oh, right! The studios wanted me to design some clothing for the cast when the characters go Shadow-hunting! I did quite a couple of drafts, but here are the ones approved by Atlus... I couldn't really agree with the design for one of the outfits, though."

Haru took out a pile of papers with colourful sketches on them before handing them out.

Ann snatched up the sketch with the Protagonist's concept outfit which was labeled, 'Joker'. "Whoa, Akira, you're the Protagonist, right? Your outfit's pretty cool..."

But that wasn't what Akira was looking at. He was staring at the code name of his character.

Futaba giggled, "Joker, huh... how befitting of you."

"A joker being 'Joker'..." Makoto snorted at that pun.

Akira chuckled as he continued, "Well then, jokes on you all, because I'm a joker who's just joking and is going to become the 'Joker'."

Yusuke groaned in exasperation. "Please stop, that's just bad..."

Deciding to leave Haru's design sheets aside first, they introduced themselves to one another.

Makoto began with her upbeat voice. "What's up, everyone! I'm Makoto Niijima from 3-C! I play as Queen!"

Haru nodded at them in her mature way. "I'm Haru Okumura, also from 3-C. I play as Noir."

"Hello, I'm Ann Takamaki from 2-D, and I play as the Panther!"

"Yusuke Kitagawa, 2-E. I'm Fox."

"I-I'm Futaba Sakura from 1-D and I play as Oracle! Nice to meet all of you!"

"Hey guys! I'm Ryuji Sakamoto from 2-E, and I play as Skull."

"I'm Akira Kurusu from 2-D, and I play as the Joker!" Akira grinned cheerfully as he brought his fingers to his cheeks in a cheeky manner.

Ann giggled slightly, "Um... Akira? No more Joker puns, please..."

However, Akira wriggled an eyebrow at her. "Did you mean... Joker jokes?"

Yusuke face-palmed. "I swear, I'm probably gonna die sooner or later at this rate..."

"So I see that you all have met each other," a female voice suddenly said as someone stepped into the room, causing the entire group to turn towards the teacher standing at the door.

Akira was shocked to see who it was at the door!

"Kawakami-Sensei?!"

Why was his form teacher here?!

Ann was surprised too. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

The female teacher with the black wavy hair shrugged with a smile, "Duh, I'm here to supervise you all in your filming for Persona 5. Didn't you know that there will always be a teacher to supervise all of you each day whenever you guys meet up for any reason that's got to do with the game?"

Yusuke rolled his eyes and tilted his chair backwards, sitting in a reclining pose as he draped one arm on the back of his seat. "Fuck. Didn't know there will be teachers here."

Ryuji slapped his classmate on his arm. "Yusuke, language!"

"… And now the Bumbling Genius is trying to get me to stop swearing. Fan-fucking-tastic."

Kawakami sighed before she turned to Yusuke and said, "Kitagawa, if you continue to let your mouth run like that, I'll have to send you to detention. You know that, don't you?"

Yusuke turned away, irritated. "Tch."

"Anyways", she said as she turned to the table and slammed an entire pile of files on top of it, "Here are all of your scripts. The file for the overview of the story is the top one."

"Holy cow, Kawakami-Sensei. I didn't know you were that buff!" Makoto giggled as she searched through the pile and pulled out the script labeled 'Queen'.

Yet as everyone shuffled through the pile, no one knew that starting from then on, the times that they were going to spend together will become the craziest times of their lives that they will ever experience…