#lest i stay up till four in the ducking morning again

[oceantoast-writes]

Ryugoro week prompt: Amnesia 

Title: Deja Vu 

Word Count: 1040

@ryugoroweek

He wakes up to an alarm, cold sweat covering him. Like it was all nothing more than a bad dream. Pulling up his phone to check the time something more important catches his gaze- 

The date. 

It reads that the date is April 9th. That can’t be right. The last he had checked it had been November. What had happened, Akechi had no idea. Maybe everything up till now had been a bad dream, maybe he had vividly imagined the whole thing. 

Maybe he hadn’t, but staying in bed isn’t going to get him anywhere. He gets up and goes through his usual morning routine. He can’t remember if he’d scheduled anything for today. Hell he can’t remember much from the last time he’d lived today. 

As he scrolls through his texts he realizes something. If he’s here with memories of November that should mean the phantom thieves are suffering from the same problem. Suddenly it makes sense, this is a problem with the metaverse, it has to be. He leaves his apartment, knowing exactly what his next moves are going to be. 

--

The train takes what feels like goddamn eons to arrive. Akechi’s in far too much of a rush to wait all day. He shoves his way past people getting off, his one track mind making him forget about maintaining appearances. It’s not like having one bad day is going to ruin his career either way. Besides, he’s already changing fundamental aspects of what happened this year, so dumping his career down the drain will surely only make another small dent in this glaring problem. 

Finally he makes it to the fucking school, and from there he knows exactly what he needs to do. His problem doesn’t lie in the real world so logic would dictate that the solution won’t either. 

Ducking behind an alleyway he takes his phone out. Lucky for him there’s no need to guess what palace he’s getting into this time. He uses the keywords and lets the world warp around him. Unfortunately he’s graced with his gray and blue outfit, the trademark of Loki. While there’s likely no harm in it right now, it is going to be a dead give away later, and he doesn’t need the phantom thieves to turn on him in an hour of need. 

It takes only a moment’s concentration for the air around him to shiver once more as Loki’s mask morphs into his much more acceptable persona. 

Feeling comfortable with his control of the situation he heads in for the palace. After all, how difficult could this possibly be? The four of those idiots infiltrated the place in less than 2 weeks. 

He sneaks in through a side window, trying to think of where Morgana could possibly be hidden in this endless labyrinth. Exiting the safe room he scans all the places where he can duck and hide from the shadows. Best to not get in a fight before finding the cat. 

Luckily that takes all of an hour at most, given that it’s kept itself busy trying to open a locked chest. Sighing he walks out and to the cat. 

“Would you like some assistance?” He offers. 

Morgana seems rather taken aback, leaping off the chest and pupils shrinking as he turns his sword on Akechi. It’d be cute if it weren’t pathetic. How the thieves got anywhere with this bumbling fool was beyond Akechi. 

He lowers his sword upon realizing that Akechi was a fellow persona user. 

“Who’re you?” 

“Let’s just say I’m a friend.” He can’t exactly explain everything that happened to Morgana without sounding like some sort of lunatic. Then again talking to a cat that looks like some shitty anime mascot could certainly qualify as lunacy. 

“Alright, you helping me steal the treasure?” 

Akechi considers what he might say here. “In a way,” He agrees. Following the cat may be his best bet to finding Ryuji and Akira anyhow. 

“Excellent! Let’s go right now! I think I know where it is!” 

Morgana excitedly takes off and Akechi has to grab him by the bandana before they both get caught. He sets him back on the ground once they’re safely behind a doorway. 

“For someone with experience at this you are rather reckless,” Akechi points out. Morgana doesn’t seem appreciative of the observation, but Akechi is a little too preoccupied to really give a damn. 

The infiltration goes rather well until Morgana leads them into the main hall like the fool he is. Before either of them are given time to react they’re cornered. Much of what happens after is a blur to Akechi. 

--

He wakes in a cell with Morgana pacing back and forth, yelling empty threats to nothingness. 

“And tell me, where is this getting us?” Unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice any longer. 

“Ugh shut up! I’m thinking of a way to get us out!” 

“Let me know when that finally works out for you.” 

“Being a jerk certainly isn’t helping!” 

Akechi rolls his eyes and looks at his phone. It’s almost the middle of the night. He may as well get some rest. 

--

When he awakes again near nothing about their current situation had changed. He gives Morgana a smug look. “How has finding a way out worked for you?” 

“You’re really not being helpful, you know!” 

He checks the date, not that it’s going to help, given he has no clue the exact day Akira summoned his persona. Looks like he doesn’t even need to worry about that, as Morgana is waving out to something he can’t quite see. 

Finally the figures stop at the doorway, Ryuji and Akira. 

They bicker with Morgana and Akechi has to tune them out, lest he go insane. They unlock the door, freeing the two from their cell finally. Akechi takes a breath before realizing he has to ask them eventually. 

“Do you two have any sense of deja vu? Like perhaps you’ve been here before?” 

“The hell’re you talking about dude?” Ryuji replies, making Akechi’s heart break ever so slightly. He had gotten to know Ryuji well the last time. 

However, he has bigger fish to fry, such as getting to the bottom of this time loop mystery. 

#ryugoroweek2021 #there's not a lot of ryugoro in this one i am sorry #Ryuji Sakamoto #goro akechi #p5 morgana #akira kurusu