Welcome To Hashi High: A Persona 3, 4, and 5 Crossover

The Pen is Mightier Than My Fists

Ann dug through her bag with increasing frustration. School had started back up after Golden Week, and for the life of her she couldn't find a pen at all. I knew I was unorganized, but not this bad. She sighed and threw her bag back down. It was too late to go back to the dorms to search, so she leaned over to Akira, startling the thief from whatever he had been thinking about.

"Hey Akira? Do you have a pen that I could borrow?"

"Hmm?" Akira lifted his head from his hand, returning to the real world for now. Ann had been around him long enough to know when he was off in his mind. He liked to call it the third eye, and outside of Phantom Thief business, had no real use other than blocking out people around him. "Oh, a pen. Sure."

He reached towards his bag right as Morgana popped his head out, a pen in his mouth. Akira flinched back a little, but snatched it before hissing at the cat to stay in the bag. He handed the pen to Ann.

"Wait, where did you get this pen?" It was far too pretty and fancy for something that Akira would use, yet she could tell that Yusuke wouldn't own something mundane like this. In fact, none of the Thieves would ever want to have a pen like this. Its matte blue exterior was certainly pretty, but Ann couldn't picture her friends with this pen.

But Akira only shrugged. He rested his chin on his hand again and stared off in the distance. Right before those dark gray eyes of his glazed over, a smirk found its way to his lips. "I stole it from Arisato."

Ann nearly leapt from her seat. "Akira! You can't just-"

"Don't bother with him, Lady Ann."

The muffled meow echoed from Akira's bag. "He's been pilfering little things like that from the other two leaders. I tried to tell him that he shouldn't but he won't listen. He even does this to pointedly make sure I drop it." Morgana groaned angrily, and the bag lurched. Ann tapped the pen between her fingers.

"I'll return it to Arisato myself."

Ann simply didn't take notes, deciding it would be better to ask either Chie or Yukiko later. Once classes were done for the day, she wandered back to the dorms, stopping by the store to pick up some sweets she hoped could be seen as a peace offering.

She hated how the leaders constantly fought, and the rest of the Persona users felt the same. She often sat with Yukari and Yukiko and talked about how they wished they could do something, but the leaders absolutely refused to even try to work together. It's a little more than just frustrating.

Yusuke had recently confided in Ann, how he had been having odd dreams. Ones where he could see the leaders and feel their anger before everything erupted. If it was any normal person, she would have written it off as a nightmare. But Yusuke was no normal person, and spending a year around the weirdo showed that he was particularly sensitive to dreams.

He knows something bad is going to happen.

Ann was at Arisato's door in no time, taking a deep breath before knocking. It swung open, revealing the boy as he sat on his windowsill. Arisato looked rather out of place like this, his headphones pounding music loud enough for her to hear. He wasn't staring out of the window, instead his eyes were trained on a spot right in front of him, as if someone was sitting there. When he finally looked up, his eyes went wide.

"Takamaki!"

Arisato flung his headphones from his ears and all but fell from the ledge. He swatted his hand through the air, as if trying to clear the room of something Ann couldn't see. Arisato adjusted himself, his usual cold demeanor returning. His face was still rather red though, and Ann could guess that his heart was pounding.

"You walk so quietly I couldn't hear you. What is it?"

At least he tried to be civil towards the other Phantom Thieves. Ann pulled both the pen and a small box of sweets out of her bag, noticing how Arisato's eyes lit up at the mere suggestion of sugar.

"Akira took this from you, so I found it only right to return it. The box has some sweets in it as well, but those are from me." She held out the two items, and thankfully Arisato took them. He glanced between the box and the pen before chuckling softly.

"Thank you Takamaki." There was a weird stiffness to him as he turned to shut the door back, one that suggested he might not be as complacent as he showed. Ann went to walk away anyway, noticing Akira rounding the corner. He waved at her, but in a split second, a flash of blue swept past her. Akira let loose a scream of surprise as Arisato was upon him, weaponless but terrifying nonetheless.

Ann ran forward, desperate to keep them from fighting. Akira had begun fighting back against the tiny boy, his taller frame giving him an advantage. Both boys were screaming profanities, and Ann was the only one trying to help. She dragged Arisato off the other leader with a hard yank.

"And they wouldn't stop yelling at each other until I managed to force them to apologize. And even then they wouldn't stop glaring at each other."

Ann sighed deeply and took a bite out of her crepe. She had been talking to Shiho on the dorm roof, exhausted from breaking up the fight from earlier.

"You sound like its been crazy staying with the other transfer students." Shiho giggled, leaving Ann to blush slightly. It had been crazy, but I can't say I'd want to go back. "I still can't believe you got transferred to this school." Shiho leaned back a bit. "The other students talk about you. Saying that everything was fine until the transfers showed up."

Ann looked down at her feet. It was true that those cultist killings were brought to light as soon as they all transferred here. The fact that they were all so extremely different from each other didn't help.

"I don't care though." Shiho looked at Ann with a smile. "You and that black haired friend of yours saved me. It doesn't matter what they say about you, you're still my friend. Besides, those friends of yours are super cool too!"

Ann smiled back. Shiho was right of course. The Persona users were a very different group when compared to the normal students. But I guess that's what makes us the best.

And in the end, who cared what the other students thought? The Persona users were the only people here that could solve these mysteries. They needed to be here no matter what.