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Yu: Mitsuru.
Mitsuru: Yes, Narukami?
Yu: I’m sorry.
Yu: I know that I was banned from looking for trouble
Yu: That I was supposed to be focusing on my studies
Yu: And that I was under strict orders by you to run away from trouble
Yu: But I found the Phantom Thieves and discovered that they use Personas
Mitsuru: Explain. Now.
Yu: I swear I wasn’t looking for trouble!
Mitsuru: You guys never are.
Yu: Fair.
Yu: But honestly! I was just at a fishing pond!
Mitsuru: HOW
Yu: The leader was also there!
Yu: And he has a cat!
Mitsuru: If a shadow ever walked up to you with a picture of a cat, we’d all be dead.
Yu: Excuse you.
Mitsuru: I refuse to apologize for the truth.
Mitsuru: Finish your story.
Yu: Fine.
Nervously, Yu stepped off onto the station at Ichigawa. He took a quick look around the station, his shoulders relaxing slightly as he saw other folks heading out of the station with fishing poles as well.
He hitched his uncle’s old fishing pole over his arm to a more comfortable position before following the general crowd of fishing poles. In his other hand was a firmly grasped flyer, the friendly fishing competition announcement for today’s activities.
Between assisting Rise with her newest tour, going through college, helping Yosuke not fail out of business school, and trying to figure out the mental shutdowns with Mitsuru and the other group of Persona users…. Yu was exhausted.
This was one of the first times that he was to be left alone for the weekend in quite some time. As his semester was ramping up again with work, Mitsuru had currently benched him on the Mental Shutdown Investigation. She had stated that she had one of her team members looking more thoroughly into it, someone who was more intimately aware of what to look for in this specific situation from their Iwatodai days.
Rise was on the road and Yosuke was visiting another Junes location to do some shadowing for the weekend, he was due back this evening. Chie was busy training under Akihiko, and everyone else was outside of Tokyo.
Which, thankfully, let Yu relax for once. His crazy Fool Radar wasn’t going off with a social link to uphold (or surrogate one with the other Persona group). He could just relax and fish and maybe feed some fish to the cats that lived outside his current apartment.
He had been planning on just resting and maybe reading a few books, but when he saw a flyer for an informal fishing competition, his plans were immediately changed.
And so, here he was, getting himself settled on a crate by a nicely sized pond full of fish, the seats around him slowly being filled up. He relished the nostalgic feeling of getting his seat for the day comfortable and his hooks and bobbers and tackle all set up.
As he sat still for a moment, allowing the sun to warm his face, his whole body froze.
He heard a meow.
Swiveling his head over to the side jarringly, he was face to face with a younger man with a cat peeking out of his bag.
The boy, with unruly black hair a large glasses was staring him down, furrowing his brows in confusion, his charcoal grey eyes piecing his with scrutiny. He heard more meowing from the cat as he tried to figure out why the kid was so focused on him. The silence between them stood for a moment, tension growing the more the cat kept meowing until finally Yu broke the silence by gesturing to the bag.
“That’s a talkative cat you got there.”
The kid jolted for a second before completely transforming his face into a relaxed laugh, “Yeah, Morgana is quite a talker.”
“He seems very well behaved though, or at least content to travel in your bag.” Yu grinned softly, trying to never return to that awkward tension.
“Yeah, he loves coming out here, the pond owner loves him too.” the kid laughed, “We just know that some of the others here for this competition might get distracted by him or try to blame him for their inability to win.”
“A cat would never interrupt a competition.” Yu solemnly agreed.
“Exactly!” A smile graced the younger man’s face. The cat poked his head out of the bag to look at Yu and give a catty grin. “He agrees, by the way. In case you couldn’t tell by that smile.”
“I mainly got into fishing to feed the local cats in the town I went to high school in. I totally understand cat language.”
Morgana was shimmying in place in the bag, tail going wild in question mark shapes. And then started randomly swiping at and headbutting the teen.
“Later.” The teen rolled his eyes before facing Yu once more and reaching out his hand. “Hey, I’m Ren Amamiya.”
Yu grinned and follower suit, noticing the cat staring in a slight bit of fear as he did so, “Yu Narukami.”
“I haven’t seen you at this fishing pond before, please don’t feel too bad when you lose.”
“Bold claim, Amamiya-kun.”
“Substantiated though.” The kid, Amamiya-kun, preened as the cat puffed his chest in unison.
This is weird cat behavior.
He didn’t get too long to sit on it before the fishing competition started.
And by Izanagi, the boy could fish.
Every single time that kid threw his line out, within a minute he had a bite. Every fish he pulled out was massive. It wasn’t that the kid was just insanely lucky either, he could tell the kid was pausing and panning the whole lake before casting out each time. Almost as if….
Almost as if he could see the fish.
Was the kid cheating?
Yu pondered this for a while as he waited for his next fish to bite. After reeling the medium sized fish in, Yu decided to look in on what the kid was up to.
He had to know the truth. He, very unfortunately, was literally wired to find out the truth of the situation if for no other reason than knowing.
Attempting to be subtle, Yu looked around the pond trying to decide the best place to recast, deciding on a place that was slightly facing Amamiya’s seat. Not enough to be considered in his way or an impediment, but enough that he could position himself just right to watch the kid more closely the next time Amamiya cast out.
As seemed to be normal for Amamiya, it didn’t take long. He reeled in, yet another, giant fish before sitting and surveying the lake. His cat yammering the entire time while staring at the lake.
Is the cat finding the fish and telling him where they are somehow?
He watched the cat out of the corner of his eye while watching Amamiya, seeing if he was following the cat’s paws or something, only to suddenly have all the color run out of his face.
His fishing pole clattered to the ground.
Amamiya’s eyes were gold.
Shadow Gold.
Slowly reaching down to grab his pole before it got snagged under, he didn’t break eye contact with the teen sitting next to him with the suddenly gold eyes.
The teen, however, was looking slightly above Yu’s head, terrified. His hand was tapping behind him for the cat frantically while haphazardly holding the fishing pole with the other. The cat silently weaved out of the bag and hid itself from view under Amamiya’s knee, bearing his teeth at Yu.
At once, the two of them asked the other, “Who are you?”
Neither was sure which one would answer first.
However, also both as one, they looked around and realized they were acting out of place and may bring attention to what could be a bad conversation, so they both grabbed their fishing poles and got back to fishing while eyeing the other out of the corner of their eye.
Yu sighed loudly before answer, “Are you a shadow?”
Amamiya scoffed, offended, “Excuse you. I am not. With your power levels though, I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“That’s a hilarious question.” Yu snorted, “Does the word Persona mean anything to you?” he asked as casually as if he were discussing the weather.
“I believe I’ve heard of a definition beyond Jungian Psych.”
“My favorite Persona is Izanagi.”
The kid almost dropped his fishing pole again, “Ah, so that’s yours.”
Yu furrowed his brows, still looking forward to the water, “What does that mean?”
“Igor said that one belonged to someone else.” The kid said wistfully.
“Damn, no wonder I zeroed in on you, kid.” Yu replied, doing his best to keep his body from being as shaky as his voice.
“What’s the arcana over your head?”
“The World.”
“The only Persona of that Arcana is Izanagi-no-Okami.”
“That’s…. Also mine.”
“I feel we need to talk.”
“Agreed.”
The cat walked over and sat on his feet.
Preventing him from leaving.
—
Purposefully standing off on the pier as everyone else was packing up, using petting the cat as an excuse, the two Wild Cards stood and chatted.
“So, how do you go to the Shadow World?”
“The Metaverse?” he looked over at the cat, “Can I show him?”
The cat, pausing from his slow melting in Yu’s hands for a moment, stopped to think about it before nodding and meowing in return.
“Come with me, I can show you… and we can talk more clearly.”
Yu nodded and hefted his things over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“Well, we’re off to Shibuya.”
Yu wasn’t sure why they needed to be in Shibuya, but he did know that the Iwatodai gang didn’t need to climb in TVs, so who knew how to access shadows in this situation. And so, he dutifully followed.
He considered trying to chat with Amamiya-kun as they traveled, but the boy was deep in a conversation with his cat. The two of them kept looking over to him before chatting some more, so he assumed it had to do with what they were going to tell him, but that didn’t make it any less unnerving.
He made his way slightly closer to them on the train to overhear a one-sided, “Yeah, I know we should be cautious, but I don’t think you get it, I have his Persona, I know his heart already. He’s trustworthy. I’m gonna tell him everything.”
Eventually in a break in conversation, Yu joined into their chat, “So, I’m guessing Morgana here can communicate with you?”
The cat puffed up as the boy replied, “Yeah, Morgana here is a chatterbox. You should be able to understand him once we get into the Metaverse.”
“How do we do that anyways?” At the kid’s confused look he continued, “Each group of shadow fighters has used a different method. I know you can’t be using the method I used.”
“Interesting. I know that Oracle would love to know more about that.”
“Oracle?”
“Teammate. We like using code names. It’s fun.”
Why would they need code names?
—
Yu was awkwardly leaning up against the model train car as the kid chatted with some older man who was campaigning nearby.
After a moment, the kid came back over scratching the back of his head sheepishly, “Sorry about that, that’s my Sun Arcana. I usually help him with his speeches on Sunday. I let him know I might be a little late.”
“Look at you, making a schedule. I was the worst at that.”
The kid continued looking sheepish until the cat bwapped him on the back of the head, “You’re right, you’re right. Okay, lemme grab your sleeve, it’s time to go into Mementos.”
And the world turned red.
The lithe teen who had grabbed hold of his sleeve was now dressed in a steampunk cosplay with a masquerade mask.
Before he got a chance to comment on the new outfit, he put his hand up to his face only to find his Investigation Team glasses were already on his face.
“Oh, you fight shadows here.” he mumbled to himself.
“You have a pair of glasses for a mask?” A new voice called out to Yu.
Yu took the glasses off to clean them of any smudges as he turned around to face the new voice, “No, my team had glasses on to always be able to see through the shadow’s fog and see the truth of the situation and… and your cat transformed.”
“I’m not a cat.” the small creature hopped up and down, angry.
Turning back to Amamiya, nonplussed, “You know, I had a bear on my team. But when he went to the real world, he turned into a human. Eventually. We had to pretend he was a bear mascot for the local store for a while.Teddy would be glad to know he’s not alone in the world of anthropomorphic animal Persona users.”
Morgana’s shout of “He became HUMAN?” intermixed with Amamiya’s “How did you find a bear?”
Yu shrugged, “He told me he did pushups every day until he grew himself a body. Teddy was a weird shadow. Loved humanity enough that he learned to be a shadow/human hybrid.”
Morgana was suddenly very silent.
Amamiya, however, continued to stand very casually, “Ah, there’s the problem. Morgana isn’t a shadow.”
“True, I’ve never seen a shadow with blue eyes. That’s just not how that’s done.” Yu nodded. Especially not that blue. He hadn’t seen that shade in years.
“You’re taking this all rather well.” The teen remarked.
“I fought a serial killer in a television set to save my cousin from literal heaven with a cartoon bear mascot shadow. There’s not a lot that’s going to freak me out anymore. If anything, I’m jealous you got a cat.”
“I’m still not a cat.” Morgana muttered.
“Cat shaped sapient being.”
Mona’s lip curled.
“I had just assumed he was a persona user, but thought he would be like Koromaru and be unable to talk.”
Amamiya’s brows furrowed in confusion.
“Koromaru is a dog who has a Persona. He’s just a dog. A nice albino shiba.”
“How did that arcana work?”
“I don’t know, his Wild Card is no longer with us.”
“Oh.”
Morgana was still silent, but his eye flashed for a moment.
“Yeah, I’m kept real busy most of the time because I’m currently the only known Wild Card to the overall Persona user base in Japan.”
“How many of you are there?”
“15.”
“Plus the 9 I know about. Not all are on my team, but…”
“It seems we have a lot to talk about… let’s start with your team. What’s your team’s goal? Every group of Persona users seem to have an overall goal.”
“... You heard of the Phantom Thieves? We’re trying to stop the guy behind the mental shutdowns, who is manipulating another teen Persona User into assassinations.”
And suddenly Yu could tell that he was about to get his ass kicked by Mitsuru.
Mitsuru: I can’t believe you found the head of the Phantom Thieves at a fishing hole.
Mitsuru: I also can’t believe you solved the mental shutdowns.
Mitsuru: Fuuka is going to be so glad to be done with that.
Mitsuru: So who is the Persona user?
Yu: The 2nd Detective Prince, Akechi Goro.
Mitsuru: I’m going to fight god myself.
Yu: That reminds me, I need to talk to Aigis.
Yu: I think there’s something wrong, Wild Card stuff.
Yu: And I need to talk to Aigis about it.
Mitsuru: I’m Literally Going To Fight God.
Yu: Well this explains why Tokyo’s been feeling weird!
Mitsuru: You never thought to tell me this before now?
Yu:... Anyways, once you meet the cat in the “Metaverse” you can understand him
Yu: I can now talk to a cat.
Yu: This is the best day of my life.
Mitsuru: Clear your day tomorrow
Mitsuru: I’m coming to Tokyo to kick your ass.
Mitsuru: And meet this Phantom Thief
Yu: I’m going to spend my remaining time enjoying my new cat communication skills
Yu: And you can’t stop me.
Yu pulled his phone down, looking back up at Ren’s (he finally learned his given name) coffee menu before ordering another drink.
Morgana was seated on the stool next to him, chattering away about all of their previous adventures while Ren stood in front of him, asking him more and more questions about what it meant to be a Wild Card and how to deal with all of the weird stuff.
And then it hit him.
“I should probably tell Naoto that their successor is a mass murderer.” Yu slumped onto the counter, “They're going to be so mad. Teen detectives barely get enough respect as is.”
“... Naoto Shirogane is a Persona user?” Ren uttered in shock.
“Fortune Arcana. Got all the insta-kill spells.”
“Akechi is Justice.”
“Yikes.”
“Tell me about it.” Ren rolled his eyes.
Trying to change the topic, Yu leaned forward, “What’s your most fucked up arcana link?”
Ren quirked an eyebrow.
“My Devil arcana was a nurse at a part time job who kept trying to sleep with me as a teen.”
Ren looked around to make sure that no one was in the cafe before leaning in as well, “My Temperance arcana is my homeroom teacher… she was a maid who had to call me master.”
“What the fuck?” Yu whispered.
“Right?”
“No, seriously, what the fuck?”
“I was stuck between that or that doctor who uses me to test medicine.”
“What the fuck????”
Ren threw his head back and laughed at Yu’s confusion. The two of them continued to share wild stories about their bonds.
As for what happened next? Y’all this is a one shot and I can’t find a way to end it. Just assume Aigis comes with Mitsuru, and she talks with Ren and Yu about Weird Igor and heads roll because good luck fighting 3 Wild Cards. Okay? Just let it happen. This is a crack fic that I kept accidentally writing serious stuff in. Let me have this.
Here's my 80s teen movie montage of what happened next:
Yu facetimes Morgana at least once a week after all is said and done.
Mitsuru gives the PT every resource they could ever want and then takes Haru out for chais to talk about girlbossing
Akihiko teaches Ryuji the punching method to getting over any injury
Naoto screams into the heavens at the damaging blow akechi did to the reputation of teen detectives everywhere after all the work they put in
Kanji comes out to support Naoto in their time of need and ends up art talking with Yusuke, and also makes him clothes because the boy is always cold
Chie and Makoto punch and kick together. It's very beautiful, brings a tear to my eye.
Teddy teaches Morgana the Human Body Workout. The cat gets shredded but never becomes Human.
Ann and Rise become friends, obviously. I don't need to go into the details here.
Futaba is hired by Mitsuru the next day after she hacked into the Kirijo website overnight to connect her with the old mental shutdowns
Yaldy gets his ass kicked
Yoshizawa is at training camp with a Physical Trainer named Jumpei.
Akechi is business as usual, unaware of everything going on.