Hello! BlueRaptor629 here bringing you a story that I've been working on for quite awhile.

For those who have read the notice from Tales of the Phantom Thieves, I mentioned that I'm working on a Pokémon x Persona 5 Royal, right? Well, you're looking at it right now.

This story was also inspired by "Ultra Mementos", which the story have elements of P5 x Pokémon.

Without further ado, let's get started, shall we~!

Special note:

- "Human talk"

- 'Thinking'

- "MetaNav/PTA Voice/Flashback Talk."

- "(Pokémon Talk)"

- "Shadow Talk"

- "Persona Talk/Pokédex Description."

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon nor Persona 5 Royal. All rights goes to GameFreak and Atlus. I just the OC.

Phantom Trainers of Hearts

by BlueRaptor629

Chapter 1: Into the Unknown

The Galar Region, one of the many regions in the Pokémon world. It is also one of the region that was known for a unique phenomenon not found on any regions called the "Dynamax Phenomenon", where a Pokémon occasionally grow in size after being exposed to the region's particles or the power spots. It is also known for an area called the "Wild Area", where people can find most of the region's wild Pokémon right in this area.

Inside a house, in Postwick, a young man was resting on a couch in the living room with his knit cap covering his face. He has short, caramel blonde hair with black highlights in the end. He wore a navy loose top underneath a red hoodie and faded black denim trousers. He also has a Dynamax Band on his right wrist.

"Ace!" A voice belonged to a woman called the young man as she approached him. She has an auburn, short hair with pale blue eyes. The woman wore a black t-shirt with a picture of an Arcanine, a white, medium-length skirt, and a pair of black loafers. "There's a letter from-"

"If it's another one from you-know-who, then you can just rip it to shreds." The young man named Ace interrupted her without looking at her.

She sighed at his response. Rather than rip it apart like she was supposed to, she put the letter away.

"Can you at least call her once in a while?" The woman told him. "I mean, it's been almost a year since you last talk with one another."

"There's nothing to say to that workaholic deadbeat, Aunt Stella." Ace said coldly as he woke up to face his aunt, looking at her with his green eyes as he put on his knit cap over his head. "I was an idiot to trust her once, what makes you think this won't be anything different? I'm all over her."

"You may not care, Mr. Newest Champion of Galar. But I do..." Stella said to her nephew. Truth to be told, after dealing with a dangerous Pokémon named Eternatus, he fought against the previous Champion, Leon, and was successfully dethroned him in the next day. "I'm not asking you to forgive her, at least try talking to her every once in a while. Plus, what would your father say if he sees you act like this?"

"(She has a point, you know.)" A Pokémon said with choking noises as it suddenly appeared. It is a small Pokémon that has its body hidden under a cloth, which is resembles a Pokémon called Pikachu. There's a pair of black, beady eyes that can be seen through the holes of its disguise and there's a slight visible view regarding its lower body. The veil itself is yellow with black tipped ears. The Pikachu face was apparently drawn with crayons, consisting of black eyes, red cheeks, and a squiggly black mouth. And it has a wooden stick that shaped like a lightning bolt that it used to make the tail of the costume. "(Like she said, it's been several months since the last time you made contact with her. It would be nice if you let her know that you're doing all right.)"

"Oh. So you're on her side now, Mimikyu?" Ace asked the Disguise Pokémon.

"I'm sure Mimikyu has the best intention." Stella said to her nephew. "I think what your partner was trying to say is that you should at least give-"

"Hey, mate!" Another voice, this time a young male's voice, interrupted them as he entered the room. He has a short, purplish black hair and yellow eyes. His outfit consisted of a blue jacket with faux fur that he wore above his black sports t-shirt with purple designs that comes with a matching sport trousers, and purple sneakers. This is Hop, one of Ace's rivals and the younger brother of Leon. He's currently an assistant of Sonia, who had become a Professor recently. "There's a bit of a trouble in our hands!"

"Oh? It's you, Hop." Stella said after she noticed the young man.

"Whoa. A little early with the yelling there, Hop." Ace said towards the young man named Hop.

"Actually, this is afternoon." Stella corrected his nephew.

"Geez, Hop. Slow down a little, why don't you?" A young woman appeared before them. Unlike Hop, her skin was brighter, long orange hair that she tied in a side ponytail which had some heart-shaped clip-ons on her hair, and a pair of black sunglasses over her head. She wore a green crop top underneath her white lab coat, white trousers, and green boots. Following her is a canine Pokémon with a brown body with yellow fluff around its neck and yellow highlights around its eyes. It has a yellow bolt-shaped tail and a heart-shaped pattern on its rear. Its four feet are white.

"Sorry, Sonia. I was being carried away." Hop told her before he faced his friend.

"That's Professor Sonia, to you." Sonia told him. "You're my assistant, remember?"

"Oh right, sorry." Hop replied as he scratches the back of his head.

"Hello there, Sonia. How are you?" Ace's aunt greeted the young professor.

"I'm fine, thanks for-" Sonia replied casually before she remembered on why she's here with Hop. "Wait! That's not why came here!"

"Oh? Then why're you all here?" Ace asked. "Is it something what Hop said?"

"Something along those lines, mate." Hop replied. "Didn't you see the news four days ago? This has something to do with wild Pokémon disappearing in the Wild Area for no reason."

"Oh yeah, that." Ace said, realizing why his friends were here. For the last four days, there are less and less wild Pokémon that one can find in the Wild Area each day. Not even Professor Magnolia, Sonia's grandmother, can provide explanations to this phenomenon. "And I heard something about people seeing blood red lights from one of the power spots in the Wild Area, right?"

"Pretty much." Sonia said to him. "Anyway, mind coming with us to the Wild Area? We could use your help in investigating these phenomenons."

"Sure, why not." Ace accepted as he put on his blue sneakers, then picked up his green cream plaid travel bag, and finally returning his Mimikyu into his pokeball. "Alright, we're all set. Let's go!" He said as he leave his two friends.

"Be careful out there!" Stella told his nephew as he left.

Once outside, he then ordered the Flying Taxi service for them to get to the Wild Area.

"Here we are, Champ." The Cabbie said as he has the large raven Pokémon called Corviknight to land on a spot near the Meetup Spot, the early section of the Wild Area. Why go there? Sonia told him midway that she detected a powerful readings, coming from the power spots there.

"Great. Thanks a lot." Ace said as he came out of the carriage, as well as Hop and Sonia who came out of a different carriage. "Here's a tip." He said as he hand some tip to the Cabbie, who took it off his hand.

"Sure thing, Champ." The guy said as he and his friend, who were carrying Hop and Sonia, took off and flew away.

Ace proceeded to look around his surroundings. Just like the news stated, he saw only a few Pokémon around him. Eventhough there are still a large number of wild Pokémon in the Wild Area, it doesn't change the fact that some have disappeared.

"Now where do you think we should start?" He asked his friends.

"We could wander around for a bit." Hop suggested.

"Yeah, but let's see if I can detect something out of ordinary on my detector." Sonia suggested, who have said detector on her hands. "Follow me."

Just like that, they proceeded to follow her, in hopes of finding something regarding the mysterious red lights. Little did he know, he will find himself in an unusual situation that will change his life forever.

(In a city far, far, FAR away from Galar...)

Amongst those who board the train, a black, frizzy haired young man was suddenly woke up, as if waking out of a bad dream. Other than wearing a pair of black glasses, he was wearing a school uniform, which consisted of white turtleneck shirt underneath a black blazer and red plaid pants.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for riding with us today. We'll be arriving in Shibuya shortly. This is the last stop for this line. Please transfer here for all subway lines..."

As the PTA went on, the young man began to reminisce about that one fateful night that he got into an... unfortunate circumstances.

(Flashback)

He was on the streets at night when he found himself in a situation between a bald, drunken man and a woman, which the former was harassing the latter. Sure enough, the man grab the woman's hand so harshly with the intention of taking her with him.

"Please, help!" The woman begged the young man as he clenched his fist.

Not willing to sit by and watch, the young man proceeded to approach the drunken man and then pat him by the shoulders.

"Huh?" The man then turned around rather with the intention of backhand, but he missed. "Whoa oh!" He grunted before he fell down on his own.

The young man was surprised while the woman behind him gasped in shock. After a while, the man picked himself up before holding out his bleeding forehead, all while glaring at the young man.

"Damn brat! I'll sue!" The bald man cursed him.

The next thing the bespectacled young man knew, he was the one that was arrested by the local police officers, not the bald man.

(Flashback end)

The young man tried to think up some ways on why he was arrested on that night, but it happened so fast that he was in for real shock by the time he was apprehended. So he didn't remember much about the man who sued him.

"What? Are you for real? A mental shutdown?" His pondering was interrupted as he heard a conversation between two girls that wear school uniforms.

"To a person though? That's gotta be a joke." Her friend said in disbelief. "You really love all that occult stuff, don't you?"

As he heard the room, it didn't take long for the train to reached its final stop, which is the Shibuya Station. From there, he proceeded to walk out of the station while looking at his phone for directions. After walking a few steps, he found himself in front of the Shibuya crossings which there were so many people come and going. But all of sudden, he heard a beeping noise from his phone. When he looked it, he found a strange app. The logo was an ominous red eye with a black star for a pupil against a jagged black starburst, as if it were suspended in the remnants of a broken mirror. The app then enlarged on its own.

"What's this?" The young man muttered as he tried tapping the app, but to no avail.

Then, he noticed everything around him stopped in place, as if they were frozen in time. He proceeded to look around to see if there's something that caused this unique event.

After a while, he noticed some blue flames burning in the distance. As he continued to look at it, the flames proceeded to change into a humanoid shape. It didn't stop there because the flames took shape even furtner, now resembling a tall, horned humanoid with wings. The surprising part? Its "face" appeared as it lets out a malicious smile. The next one, however, takes the cake as he caught a glimpse of himself smiling with yellow eyes and was wearing different outfit.

The young man then was snapped out as everything gone back to normal, as if nothing happened. After checking to see everything's good, he proceeded to turn his attention to his phone. He moved the mysterious app to the trash bin, deleting it before he moves on.

He proceeded to go to the next train station thanks to the directions given in his phone before immediately getting on a train. It took a while as he arrived at his destination which is Yongen-Jaya, a quite part of Tokyo with little foot traffic. The young man then walked out of the station and entered the backstreet of the area. Although, he walked a few steps before stopping in front of a thrift store.

"Sakura-san's house should be around here somewhere." The young man muttered as he put away his phone. "Let's see if I can find where it is."

He proceeded to continue walking as he spotted several places of interest which were: a bathhouse, a batting cage, and a cafe. The frizzy haired young man also noticed a clinic and a thrift store as well as several apartment buildings with people loitering around.

After walking through three blocks, he saw a house at the end of a path to his right which he took it. Once reaching the end, he saw the word "Sakura" in what appears to be the name plate.

"Guess this is his house." The young man then proceeded to ring the bell, in which he found that no one responded,

"Hey, kid. Why are you loitering around?" He then turned around and see a police officer approaching him. "Judging how you're in front of this house, I take it you're looking for Sakura-san?"

"Yes. This is his house, right?" The young man asked.

"Yup, but he's currently working at a cafe at this time." The police officer answered. "Back from where you came from when you first enter the backstreets and then take the right path down. You can easily see a cafe to your left."

"All right then, thank you." The young man said as he made his way towards the cafe he spotted earlier.

It didn't take him long to reach the cafe, which was named "Leblanc".

"I guess this is it." The young man said as he entered the coffee shop, which the place's door jingled as he come in. He then saw an elderly couple sitting on the table and a black haired middle aged man, which was slicked back, sitting on one of his booth chair while facing on a newspaper on his hands. He also has a black chinstrap beard with a goatee on the chin and a pair of thin, rounded glasses that clung tightly to his nose.His outfit consists of a pink, button-up shirt he wore under a black apron, white khaki pants, and white loafers. To the young man, there's no doubt that this is the man he was looking for, Sojiro Sakura

"A public transit bus was driven down an opposing lane with its customers still in it!" A host from the cafe's tv said. "The citizens can't live in peace if this keepe up."

"Oh. How frightening." One of the elderly customers said.

"What could be going on? Didn't something similar happen just the other day?" His wife commented.

"And down is... the name of a shellfish used in pearl farming..." The middle aged man said, implying that he's looking at the crossword on the newspaper.

"Um... excuse me..." The young man called the middle aged man as he noticed the former's presemce.

"Oh... right..." The manager proceeded to put the newspaper on the counter as he stand up. "They did say that was today."

"We'll be going now. The payment's on the table." The old man said as he and his wife stand up, preparing to leave. "You know, Sakura-san, it's a good thing that this place is in the back alley. So there won't be a car crashing in here."

"A what now?" The middle aged man questioned, didn't quite hear about the older man's statement.

"There's been a string of rampage accidents, you know." The older man explained. "I just hope that none happen around here."

"It's none of my concern." The cafe owner replied.

"Haha, we'll see you next time." The old customer as he and his wife left.

"*sigh*... Four hours for just a single cup of joe." The man muttered before approaching the young man. "So, you're Ren Amamiya?"

"Yes." The young man named Ren replied. "Please take care of me."

"Uh-huh..." The man said. "I'm Sojiro Sakura. You'll be in my custody for the next year. I was wondering what kind of a unruly kid I've taken in, but you're the one, huh?"

"Looks like words travel fast around here." Ren commented.

"Considering one of my customers have known your parents—" Sojiro said before he changed the subject. "Well, not that even matters now. Follow me..." He ordered Ren as the latter followed the former upstairs, where he found himself a room that was quite messy. He saw several garbage bags on the floor. "This will be your room for a year. There's a bed in the corner with some sheets that I'll put on later."

"This is... quite cluttered." Ren commented.

"Yeah, and it's on you to clean this up. Also, your clothes have arrived this morning. It's in the box over there." Sojiro replied as he pointed to a box on the lower section of the shelf. "Hm? You got something to say?"

"Just one, actually. Why am I staying here instead of your house?" Ren questioned with curiosity as Sojiro replied with a sigh.

"I have my reasons. All of which have nothing to do with you." His soon-to-be guardian answered. "I expect that you don't cause any trouble for me. If you do, I won't hesitate to toss you out to the street. Your situation was bad enough as it is when you pushed that guy down and got yourself a criminal record, so don't make it even worse."

"Yes, I know." Ren replied. Since the guy going to be his guardian, it's no surprise that he knew about the young man's circumstances. "But I can just stand there and let him get away with harassing that woman."

"That could be true, but you really shouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong." Sojiro told him. "Did you think of the consequence that comes with meddling into someone's life?"

When he asked that question, Ren admitted that he acted without thinking during that time. It's suffice to say that the question left him speechless.

"Thought so. Sticking into someone's business will only gets you nothing but trouble." Sojiro groaned as he scratched the back of his head. "Just a piece of a advice: If you go through this for a whole year with your head down, then your probation will be lifted. Can I trust you on that?"

"I'll try." Ren nodded.

"Good." Sojiro said. "Get yourself situated around here, but please keep it down. I don't want my customers to be bothered by that noise, got it?"

Once he said his piece, Sojiro proceeded to go downstairs so he can serve some customers that may came into Leblanc.

For Ren, he didn't think it only took one night that changed his life. Once he was arrested, he was immediately put on a trial for his "assault" incident, which it ends with him being sentenced to spent probation in Tokyo for a whole year, which his parents agreed to it. Despite what he said earlier, Ren was not entirely sure if what he did is right or wrong. One thing for sure is that he refused to ignore the help of the woman he was harrasing. It's also a real shame he had to transfer schools because of the criminal record and was told that he'll be going to Shujin Academy for his second year. All Ren knows about the school is that Shujin being one of the prestigious school in Tokyo, which was weird why such a school would accept someone like him. If he had to guess, it's mostly for the status. To be frank, he found the uniform quite stylish which was the only good thing that came out from this predicament. Which is why he putted it on when he first arrived in Tokyo.

"No point of dwelling on the past." Ren said as he look around the room he's going to be staying for a year, which he found it quite pigsty. This also can be served as a breather for everything he went through. "Let's get to work." Ren said as he decided to clean the room up.

He started by throwing away the trash, dusting the ceiling, and mopping the floor with a mop he lent to Sojiro. If he's going to stay in this room until next year, at least he can sleep where the room was clean. He also started opening the box before sorting his clothes.

(In a spot near Watchtower Ruin)

"Looks like we haven't detect anything unusual yet." Hop said, feeling disappointed after spending a half an hour to find something regarding the mysterious red lights.

"Not quite, Hop." Sonia assured him. "I did notice that there are less and less Pokémon around here."

"Did you think they all fallen asleep?" Hop asked him.

"I find it unlikely though. Some Pokémon here came out even if it's nighttime." Ace told him

"But we still didn't find anything about that light—" As Sonia said that, her power spot detector suddenly beeping like crazy.

"Looks like we got a hit! And it's not far from here. Let's go!" She said before they head towards where the readings come from.

"What do you think we'll find there." Hop asked Sonia.

"Don't know, but I can't wait to find out." Sonia answered while she and her friends were still on their way.

It didn't take them long to reach where the massive readings were detected, in the ruin of a watchtower, hence why the area they're currently is called "Watchtower Ruin". Ace though took some note that there aren't many Ghost type Pokémon around the ruined tower.

"It seems that the readings were coming from here." Sonia said, still holding the detector on her hand.

"Looks like something is about to happen, and I don't like it one bit." Ace said as the ground around the power spot suddenly lighted up and almost immediately, a certain red light pillar proceeded thrust forward to the sky.

"Whoa! Looks like we found it!" Hop exclaimed as Ace sensed something wrong about light pillar. He couldn't shake the funny feeling about it. It almost as if... he was drawn to it.

"Yeah, but we have to very careful." Sonia warned as the young champion slowly approaching the light. "We don't know what it does—Ace!"

"What?" Ace said as he inadvertently touch the red light pillar, causing the light to glow brightly and for them to shield their eyes.

"What's going on!?" Hop questioned as he shielded his eyes.

"I don't know! I think it's reacted to Ace when he touched it." Sonia answered, still shielding her eyes.

Fortunately, the light died down as they open their eyes. However, the red light pillar disappeared completely. And so was Ace, who have disappeared along with the light.

"Dang it! We didn't get the chance to study the red light." Hop said. "And what's more, Ace disappeared too!"

"This is not good." Sonia muttered towards everything that has transpired.

(Back with Ren)

By the time the moonlight was shining through the now dustless window, most of the left side of the room have been cleared. Though he kept some of the trash so he can ask Sojiro whether to throw them out or not.

"I guess this we'll do." Ren muttered before he changed his clothes into his sleepwear, which is consists of a black long-sleeved shirt and olive sleep pants.

"*whistle* Look at this." He turned around and saw Sojiro, who have just entered through the stairs. "I was curious on why you need to lend my mop, but didn't think you were such a hard worker. I guess it's normal that you'd want to keep your room tidy."

"Or so I've been told." Ren simply answered.

"Anyway, you should sleep early. We're going to Shujin first thing in the morning to get you your class schedule and meeting with the principal." Sojiro told him as the young man nodded. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to close up the shop and get out of here myself. I won't be the one who will be looking after you if you sleep too late, you got that?"

"Of course." Ren nodded.

"Good." Sojiro said before turned around and sighed. "What a waste of my Sunday..."

After that, Sojiro proceeded to take his leave, which left Ren all by his lonesome.

"Might as well turn in for the day." Ren muttered as he proceeded march his way towards his bed before lying down on his back. As he did so, he begin to reminisce more about that fateful night.

(Flashback)

It was just any other night as Ren ended up going home late at night. As he walk through the neighborhood of his hometown, however, he heard a voice of a man.

"Get in the car!" The voice of the man can be heard. It's seems that he was talking to someone.

Each time he walked forward, the voices began to be much clearer and louder. Arriving on a road to the right, he turned and saw the man was harassing a woman, who was clearly not enjoying this.

"Someone, help!" The woman pleaded.

"Don't you dare crossing me." The drunken man threatened.

Ren proceeded to approach them, albeit slowly in order to get a closer look. Surely enough, his intuition was spot on, the man was forcing on himself to the woman.

"Help!" The woman cried for help.

"Don't give me that shit." The man retorted.

'I have to stop him...!' Ren declared in his thoughts as he head towards the two.

"Tch... what a waste of time." The man said with venomous tone. "You think you're worth causing me trouble, huh?"

"I-I'll call the police!" The woman said as she threatened him back.

"Heh, call them if you want." The man shrugged off the woman's threat. "The police are my bitches. They're not going to take you seriously."

Soon enough, the sound of police sirens can be heard from here and they're getting closer.

"Someone's called the cops, huh?" The man said before continuing on what he was doing to the poor woman. "Get in the car! Incompetent fools like you just need to shut your mouths and follow where I steer this country!" He told the woman before noticing Ren's presence and proceeded to glare towards him.

"Who the hell are you? Get out of my face!" The man told the young man before he turned around to completely facing him. "This isn't a show. Get lost, kid!" He then glanced towards the harassed woman. "See? This is all because you're so damn slow! Get in the car!"

(Flashback end)

Who knew saving a woman from being harassed only got him sued and an assault record for something he didn't do. He decided not to dwell on that any further so he could catch some sleep. But before he could, his phone ringed before he pulled it out to see what's going on. And to his surprise, the app came back.

"This again? I thought I've deleted this already." Ren said as he moved the app to the trash bin once more before putting it away. "Looks I need to endure this for a year if I want to survive." He muttered before he felt his eyes were getting heavier by the second. He decided it to not fight so he can sleep...

(Somewhere, ???)

Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

Ren snapped his eyes open after he sensed an unsettling feeling in his body. He woke up to see that he found himself in a prison cell with blue walls. What's more, he wore a set of white with black striped prisoner's outfit like the ones you'd see in cartoons. His hands were cuffed with iron cuffs with a chain between them.

Ren proceeded to stood up so he can look outside, only to realized that his legs were weighed down when he almost trip. One of his legs was cuffed and chained to a large iron ball.

"Ah, you've regained your conciousness." A menacing, deep voice told him as he proceeded to look from the iron bars of his cell. Outside of his cell was a circular room lined with the other cells that were all bathed in a deep blue glow as well as four directional megaphones that was hunged in the room. In the center of it, he saw an old man, who sat at a large desk as he was shoned under a searchlight. He is bald on the top of his head with white hair strands on the side and back of his head. His arms were lanky like noodles and his bloodshot eyes were wider than any normal person would have. The most obvious feature is his ridiculous long, hawkish nose.

Ren could tell that sensed something unsettling about him, but he couldn't figure it out why.

"Trickster..." The old man said as he extended his hand towards the Ren. "Welcome to my Velvet Room."

"Hey. Where am I!?" Ren asked him as he started pulling the bars.

"Quite, Inmate! Who do you think you're talking too!?" A voice belonged to a little girl said as he felt someone hitting the bar. He looked up to the source and a pair of small girls, twins with platinum blonde hairs with yellow eyes and an eyepatch, which has the "V" on it, they wore on the different sides of one of their eyes. Both of their uniforms were identical, which consists of velvet-collared blue shirts with black ties and thigh-length pleated shorts.

Besides their eyepatches, the differences between them were their hairstyles, the English words on their hats, and the items they were currently holding. The girl with a baton has her haired curled in two bun and the letters on her hat were "X-M-R-N". While the girl with a clipboard has braided hairstyle and the letters on her were "O-Y-O-O".

"Do not worry, Inmate. All shall be explained if you let our master to continue." The clipboard girl assured him. "The you in reality is currently fast asleep."

"You're in the presence of our master, stand up straight!" The girl that smacked her baton the bars ordered him.

"Welcome. I am delighted to make your acquaintance." The long nosed man greeted Ren as he faced towards him. "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those who are bound by a "contract" may enter." He explained. "I am Igor, the master of this place. Remember it well. I summoned to speak of important matters. It involves your life as well."

"Important matters?" Ren asked.

"Correct." Igor answered before glancing around the room. "Still, this is a surprise. The state of this room reflects the state of your own heart. To think a prison would appear as such." He commented before facing towards the captive young man once more. "You truly are a "prisoner" of fate. In the near future, there's no mistake that ruin awaits you."

"What do you mean by that?" Ren asked once more.

"It is exactly as you thought: the end of everything." Igor clarified. "But worry not. We shall provide you the means to oppose such a fate. To do so, you must be "rehabilitated". Rehabilitated towards freedom... That is your only means to escape ruin. Do you have the resolve to oppose to challenge the distortion of the world?"

"Wait! I'd like to avoid ruin, but there's still much I don't-" Ren said before he was cut off.

"Good answer." Igor interrupted him. "Allow me to observe your path to rehabilitation..." He said as the twins proceeded stand with each to facing towards Ren. "Ah, pardon me for not introducing the others. To your right is Caroline. To your left is Justine. They serve as wardens here."

"Ha! Try and struggle as hard as you like." The girl named Caroline said.

"The duty of wardens is to protect the inmates. We are also your collaborators...That is, if you remain obedient." The girl named Justine said.

"I shall explain the roles of these two at another occasion." Igor stated before he tapped his desk with his finger. "Now then, it seems the night is waning. It is almost time. Take your time to slowly come to understand this place. We will surely meet again, eventually…"

With a wave of his hand, the bell have began to echo through the circular prison. Ren's eyes darted towards the source.

"Time's up! Hurry up and go back to sleep, Inmate!" Caroline told him.

"No wait!" Ren shouted as he reached out and grabbed the iron bars. Before he knew it, he suddenly fell asleep, unable to get some answers regarding this.

(Somewhere, ???)

Ace have managed to regain his consciousness as he opened his eyes.

"What... happened...?" The Galarian Champion muttered as he stand up while holding his head. "Oh right. I touched the light and then it glows brightly." Ace commented as he look around him, finding no signs of Hop and Sonia. "Looks like I'm alone on this one-" He stopped himself before noticing something unusual around him. He found himself in a hall of what seems to be a castle. The interiors were also all too real, even the picture of a man with a king's crown. The young champion found it both disturbing and disgusting, but he didn't know exactly why.

But there's only one question in his mind.

"Where the hell that I got myself into."

To be continued...

Next: Chapter 2: First Day Troubles

That's all for chapter 1, I hope you enjoy it! Special thanks for Coral the Leviathan for helping in writing of some of the scenes.

Regarding the pairings for this story, here it is:

- Ren x Yoshizawa* (: Using her first name would be a spoiler for those who have not seen the endgame of Persona 5 Royal)

- Ace x Makoto (May add another girl to this pairing)

Lastly, Phantom Thieves will each have a partner Pokémon. You will be surprised on what Pokémon will they get paired with :)

Be sure to leave a review and stay safe!