Chapter 0: Prologue

"Talking", 'Thinking', "Igor Talking", "Caroline/Justine/Lavenza Talking", "Morgana Talking", "Persona Talking", "Jose Talking"

"Do you really have to go?"

It was a nice night in Inaba. The air was cool, a light breeze flowing through the town. The branches of trees swayed under the dim glow of hanging streetlamps, casting shadows upon the faded gray of the road below. On that road, a simple blue van stood still, a group of teenagers staring out at one boy. The boy grins, and shakes his head.

"Sorry guys. I have to do this."

A set of bittersweet smiles all around. The now disbanded Phantom Thieves of Heart ask their leader one more time… only to receive the same answer.

"Well…" a blond young man sighs, "That's our Leader for you. Once his mind's made up, that's that."

"Quite," agrees the blue haired boy next to him, "That iron will… He wouldn't be our Joker without it."

The brunette in the driver's seat can only nod, as she gazes upon him with heavy eyes.

"Got everything?" she asks, already knowing the answer.

"Of course," he replies, adjusting the bag over his shoulder, "There's only one thing in here anyway."

"Hey…" the bag's resident mutters, revealing his head, "I resent that. I'm not a 'thing', I'm your partner!"

The round of laughter his indignance evokes only makes him sigh.

"Mona-chan…" a bubbly young woman reaches out her hand and pets the cat on the head, "Of course, we'll miss you too."

"For sure!" an orange haired blur tackles the boy and cat in a hug, "But don't worry! We'll be sure to visit you both!"

"That's right!" a blonde girl cheers from the car, "We're on spring break, so we can even come back later this week!"

"Um, that may be too early…" Makoto sighs again…

…

"Hey man…" Ryuji speaks up, breaking the silence, "Your parents, they—"

"I know." Akira confirms his thoughts, whatever they may be. "I know what they're like, but…"

He looks around at his friends, staring back, expectantly.

"We've done so much…" he says, "We battled fear and corruption. We brought down evil and prejudice. We fought our own demons, confronted our past mistakes, and we came out the other side."

He scratches his cheek, with a sheepish grin.

"What's another change of heart?"

And everyone smiles back.

Their Leader would be just fine.

"Oh… man…"

Akira lets out a breath of relief, as he flops onto his mattress.

"It's my own bed…" he sighs, "I can't believe it's been a year since I've seen you!"

The leader of the Phantom Thieves rubs his cheek against his pillow affectionately. Morgana quirks a proverbial eyebrow, but doesn't question his partner's dorky behavior.

"Was the bed that Boss gave you really that bad?" the cat asked, leaping up, and sitting next to him, "It felt alright to me."

The boy chuckled. "You slept on top of the blanket, so you wouldn't know…" He rolled over, onto his back. "The thing was like a brick. Don't get me wrong, I was grateful and all, but…"

He snuggled into the soft bedding. It was like a cloud to him, after so long.

"...I guess I'll take your word for it," the hope of humanity stretched out his tired legs and curled up next to his friend, "So? Shall we sleep?"

Akira glanced at his closest confidant. "Oh? You tired?"

"I'm glad you guys believed in me and all…" Morgana left one eye open, "But did you have to 'believe' that I was a cat? If you just listened to me when I said I was human, I might've actually become one then."

He scratched his ear with a rear leg, "...And I wouldn't have to walk around in this puny body. It's tough getting around, you know? Being so small."

The boy frowned, scratching his friend behind the ear for him. "Sorry about that…" he mumbled, "If we knew, maybe we could've—"

"I was joking," the cat laughed that laugh of his, "But it's fine. I'm just glad I'm here with you."

Akira's thoughts moved elsewhere, as he started to scratch beneath Morgana's chin.

…

"...Hey…" he murmured, "Are you really okay, coming with me? You could've stayed with everyone else in Tokyo."

His gaze wandered to a box, in the middle of the room. A box with all his belongings from his year away. He could see a few things spilling out over the edge. The set of Documentary Plans he got from Mishima, the Recipe Notes from the Boss, the Fashion Magazine that Ann gave him... or even Desire and Hope leaning against the wall. Yeah, he had a lot of stuff.

"Of course I'm staying with you!" the voice was matter-of-fact as always, "Someone's gotta' look after our Leader! Who knows what kind of trouble you'll get into out here?"

"Inaba's a pretty quiet place…" he stopped himself, "Well, there was that weird thing a few years back, but nothing really happens here."

"And yet, you managed to run into, knock over, and publicly shame the would-be prime minister…" Morgana shakes his head, "I wasn't talking about the town. After that you entered a school with a sleazy teacher who almost got you expelled. Even with all the palace rulers aside, you confronted literal demons, turned the Diet upside down, altered reality, and got into a knife fight with god. Face it, Joker. You're a trouble magnet."

He had a point. "I can make pretty good coffee though."

"What's that got to do with anything?" The cat looked at him funny. Akira shook his head.

…

His eyes landed upon one final item.

A key. A glowing key. Something that shouldn't exist, yet… there it was.

…

"Hey, Morgana…" he mumbled, "Is the Velvet Room… really gone?"

The cat's eyes popped open at the question. Not in surprise, but genuine interest.

"Well… no," he shook his head, "The Velvet Room always exists. The form may be different, and Master's assistants may be different, but it's always there. Why do you ask? Fusing Personas won't really help you anymore, now that the Metaverse is gone, and buying them from the Compendium is just a waste."

"...I dunno'. Guess I was just curious."

He closed his eyes. He could picture it in his mind.

The World.

The final arcana, bestowed unto him by the true Igor, and his true assistant, Lavenza. Now that he had it, the Journey of the Fool had come to an end… or so they said.

Ah, well. He had the rest of his life to ponder those questions.

As if he'd read his partner's thoughts, Morgana speaks up with familiar words.

"You must be tired after today. Let's go to sleep."

And for the first time in his life, Akira Kurusu had no complaints. He shut his eyes…

Brick.

He feels it against his back. The cold, hard feeling not unlike the mattress at Leblanc. There's a terrible pain in his neck, like he'd slept without a pillow…

'Oh well. I'm probably imagining things,' he thought, 'I'm cold because Morgana's hogging the covers again. I'll just try and steal 'em back…'

…

His hand grasped at nothing. Where'd the blanket go? 'Don't tell me he kicked them off the bed again.'

He reached out further, far as he could, when he heard a familiar sound.

Clink.

Clink Clank.

The sound of chains.

He shot up quickly, leaping out of bed and onto his feet in one swift motion. Or, that was the plan anyway. There was a sharp tug on his leg and he tripped, face smashing into the floor.

Ow… What's going—?

"Pfft! And what was that supposed to be, Inmate?"

"This is to be our prisoner for the next year? Such idiocy."

"Well… he is the 'Fool', after all."

Oh.

Oh no.

He knew that voice.

Akira knew that voice. But, what was he…? Didn't they…?!

My head rose, shakily, confronting the truth he didn't want to admit.

Caroline… Justine… and…

Someone he never wanted to see again.

"Trickster…" Yaldabaoth smiled, "Welcome to my Velvet Room."

A/N: Hello! I don't do Author's Notes often, so please read me~

This Prologue was originally written as a New Game Plus fic for vanilla Persona 5 back in 2017. It was a small, what-if sort of scenario I didn't plan on writing much for, and ended up leaving to collect dust for a little while.

Now it's 2020 and I've finished Persona 5 Royal and I'm all set to make this a full story. So a couple notes on that, since it'll be a while before they're clarified.

1. Akira got the True Ending of vanilla Persona 5, on his first run. All the elements of Royal, however, were still present.

2. This fic will feature limited amounts of other Persona and Shin Megami Tensei media. It won't be anything too out of the way, and I'll do my best to explain whenever it comes up, so don't worry too much if you're out of the loop.

3. Most importantly, this is a Akira x Kasumi fic. I love these two together so much, and it's the entire reason I've got this up and running again.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy this little adventure I have planned~!