Hello everyone! Quick note: At least eight sources have said the beginning of this fic is hard to get through. I've considered deleting the first few chapters, but before taking that drastic step, I'm going to try guiding the reader to what they want first:

In a nutshell, this is a shipfic from Makoto's point of view that tries to remain (mostly) canon compliant. As such, I preserve in-game dialogue (with some skipping/summarizing) when I cover in-game scenes with Makoto's thoughts and interpretations highlighted. Before Makoto joins the PTs, there's not a lot of wiggle room for meaningful new scenes. This means in early chapters the in-game scenes are more frequent and it's not all that shippy as Makoto and Ren are odds. If that's not your thing, I recommend starting at one of these chapters:

Chapter 4 - After the night of Makoto's awakening, all new scenes

or

Chapter 5 - Elaborates on early shiptease scenes and is where Makoto first learns of the Casino Palace.

I can't implicate Amamiya until I have evidence.

Makoto looked up over the thick manga anthology, making sure Amamiya Ren was still in her sights. The principal had been pressing her hard and increasingly frequently to discover what ties Shujin Academy might have to the Phantom Thieves. Approaching it from the assumption that the Phantom Thieves were indeed Shujin students, it wasn't hard to deduce that the delinquents Kamoshida threatened with expulsion and the best friend of Suzui Shiho, all of whom had started hanging out together just before Kamoshida's confession, might be involved. This deduction was, surely, not enough for Principal Kobayakawa though. Surely. This merited further investigation.

A passerby headed the opposite direction slammed into Makoto's shoulder. Central Street Shibuya was a busy place. Makoto briefly regret chasing Amamiya's group off the roof. They would have been so much easier to keep an eye on there. If the group was meeting elsewhere, she had not been able to catch them in the act. The venture was really cutting into her study time. The principal had also been pressuring Makoto to score first place regionally on the next mock exam and she worried Sis was disappointed with her constant second place.

However, Makoto needed evidence first and thus studying was relegated to late into the night. Keeping an eye on the suspects came first. Mishima Yuuki went directly home after school and had not been with the group on the roof. He was likely not a phantom thief. Sakamoto Ryuji stayed a little later, sometimes going running with Amamiya. Takamaki Ann frequented the shops at Shibuya station, sometimes hanging out with Amamiya and sometimes going to visit Suzui at the hospital. Amamiya was a little more varied in his afternoon wanderings and thus required more attention, so Makoto told herself.

When Makoto followed him in Shibuya, Amamiya did a variety of things—visit the bookstore, study at the diner, work at the convenience store, pick up some snacks. It was all so very normal. While rather reserved, a look exacerbated by the hair and glasses covering his eyes, he seemed to have a warmth about him and people seemed to find him quite charming. He got along well with his coworkers and the wait staff at the diner put up with his lonely drink orders. The only odd thing was that he often went to a corner down an alley and just seemed to stare off into space for a bit. At first Makoto thought he might be contacting someone but she didn't see any sign of movement or anyone else in the area.

One last thing of note, Amamiya carried around a surprisingly well-behaved cat in his bag at all times, including at school. This was certainly against the rules, but no evidence of phantom thievery and well, Makoto worried what might happen to the cat if this was discovered. Could he really be that bad a guy if he was taking such good care of a cat? Clearly Makoto would have to keep following him to be sure.

The frequent trips to Shibuya did give Makoto the opportunity to warn other Shujin students she came across about possible dangers in the area, though she had doubts how many were taking her seriously. It was what little she could do though. Principal Kobayakawa had quickly shut down conversation on the matter and emphasized that she focus on the Phantom Thieves.

Though Makoto was keeping a close eye on Amamiya, she had no idea what he might be doing in the evening. She always returned home in time to make dinner for Sis. Makoto liked maintaining their apartment and doing the household chores, not only did it let her help out Sis, but it was also the little time she had to just think.

"Uh, Niijima-senpai?"

Makoto looked up from her manga. Amamiya Ren, thick black voluminous hair atop thick black glasses frames, was looking down at her. His eyes were open just a little wider than normal and his lips slightly parted.

"A-Amamiya-kun," Makoto struggled to find her carefully-constructed Student Council President voice. She was glad Sis wasn't around to hear her fail all working-womankind. "It's surprising to run into you here. Are you meeting up with Sakamoto and Takamaki today?"

Makoto tried to wander into the crowd again, small talk finished. Amamiya was undaunted, keeping pace with her and looking expectant.

"W-well," Why was her commanding Student Council President not coming out? "I-I need to pick up a few items at Rocinante. If you'll excuse me."

Amamiya said nothing, but stopped walking with her. As she turned away, she thought she briefly saw an amused smile form of his face but by the time she worked up the nerve to turn around again, he was gone.

––––– ––––– –––––

Makoto recalled being transfixed on the large screen showing Madarame Ichiryusai's confession. All of a sudden, the Kamoshida case went from 'strange occurrence' to 'strange pattern.' Moreover, all of a sudden Principal Kobayakawa went from simmer to boil. He was panicking about having the school associated with something that now went beyond its gates.

The principal had gone so far as to post flyers around the school, urging students to present their problems to the student council. The rest of the student council was not pleased. Had Makoto just given Principal Kobayakawa names a month ago, her fellow council members wouldn't be in this situation now. She had assured the rest of the student council she would take care of the new requests on her own.

There were a lot of requests, but most concerning were the ones indicating that indeed students were falling prey to scams in Shibuya. She had urged one student, Iida, to go to the police but he refused, telling her his parents would be targeted if he spoke up and swearing her to secrecy. A few days later she found herself back in the principal's office, being told in no uncertain terms that any scamming problem she would have to handle on her own as the Phantom Thieves took precedent. Makoto wasn't sure what the principal expected her to do. What would Sis have done? (Other than solved it, easily, of course.) Principal Kobayakawa seemed to believe she could solve both the Shibuya scams and the Phantom Thieves in one fell swoop.

It was as if there were few paths open to Makoto, as if she was standing on a narrow path surrounded by sheer drops, as if every person she talked to made more and more of the ground crumble away around her, made the wind gust more harshly, made it more and more likely she would fall. There were so few moves she was permitted to take and such a great distance she had to cover. She had to be responsible. She had to be demure. She had to be smart. She had to be accommodating. She had to avoid offending anyone. She had to somehow make everything work out.

Sighing, Makoto decided to head to the courtyard for some fresh air, refocusing herself on the Phantom Thieves. It would have been hard to believe high school students would take an interest in Madarame had Makoto not spotted Amamiya, Sakamoto, and Takamaki together with Kitagawa Yusuke, Madarame's current pupil.

"Let's see him do it then!" Sakamoto's voice pierced Makoto's thoughts the moment she left the building. She jammed her hand into her bag, fumbling to find her phone. Scanning her screen she somehow located the recording app and hit play. "If someone else could help 'em, we wouldn't be doing' stuff as the Phantom Thieves to start with!"

Takamaki walked right past Makoto, seemingly not noticing she was there.

"We can't let the cops scare us outta bein' phantom thieves," Sakamoto's argument continued.

Makoto stared at her phone in disbelief as Sakamoto and Takamaki continued talking. Her heart was beating fast. Takamaki mentioned something about ...a palace? Makoto shook her head. This wasn't the time. A photo. She needed a photo to go with her recording. She would have to come up with some excuse. She took a deep breath, stepped out from behind the wall, and snapped the picture.

Calm down. Be like Sis. Cool and collected. In control. Elegant and refined. Politeness as a blade. The model student. What other students should aspire to be. "You three seem to be having so much fun, I'm a little jealous."

"Are you snoopin' on us again?" There was an edge to Sakamoto's voice, but he kept it calm and quiet. "We said before, we don't know nothin'."

Don't let Sakamoto intimidate you. Find out what you need to know. "Why do you think I'm here to question you? Could it be that you're hiding something? My ears are always open to the troubles of my peers, you know."

"You're really that hungry for a good letter of recommendation? ...Of course you are." Takamaki jumped in, punctuating her sentences with annoyed sighs. She accentuated the hard consonants as she spoke. "Nobody would take on your annoying job if they weren't."

"What's that supposed to mean...?" Makoto narrowed her eyebrows.

"You're student council president, right?" Ann took a few steps forward, her eyes narrowing as well. "Wouldn't you have known about Kamoshida?"

The implication dragged at Makoto's gut. Kamoshida? People thought she turned a blind eye to Kamoshida? "Of course not! He seemed like an honestly good teacher... until that day..."

"Oh, but you always take the teacher's side," Takamaki drew out her words so her sarcasm would not be missed. "That's what a good council president does, right?"

"Then... how about you? What did you do for your friend? You were much closer to her than I was, so how did you help?" Makoto's voice became louder, harsher with each word. Seeing the tears bead up in the corners of Takamaki's eyes, she immediately regretted it. It hadn't been a fair question, and Makoto knew it.

"There wasn't any way to help!" Takamaki balled her hands into fists and stomped one of her feet in Makoto's direction. She paused. "By myself... I couldn't do anything for her!"

Makoto grappled to find her refined student council president voice. "There's no need to shout."

"If those Phantom Thieves are out there helpin' people... I'd root for 'em, no questions asked," Sakamoto spoke next, drawing Makoto's attention away from Takamaki. "They've gotta be more dependable than some people I know."

"Just make sure you show up to your classes, all right?" Makoto mumbled the first piece of student-council-president speak that came to her head and high-tailed it away, something she should have done way earlier. She shouldn't have prodded. What good did that do? Sakamoto and Takamaki had been intense. Not only that, Makoto hadn't even been able to bring herself to meet Amamiya's eyes.

Once safely across the courtyard, Makoto looked down at her phone. There was no question now, she definitely had evidence. Now what?

A/N: But seriously, where was Makoto standing to be able to record Ryuji without Ann noticing her when she entered scene?

Originally posted 2017/7/15, edits made 2018/06/03 based on advice from AO3 user NieRville and FFnet user Ganheim. Thanks to Aoi-Tora for finding a word duplication.

Additional Notes (2017/11/28): This story is based on the original Persona 5 game released in North America. It does not (purposefully) incorporate anything from the subsequent anime or games featuring the characters, as most were unknown to the author at the time of writing.

Additional Notes (2017/12/24): The protagonist's P5D name came out today as Amamiya Ren so I am changing it throughout. Hopefully I got all the bugs. Some of the older reviews may still refer to Akira.

Skip Ahead? I've listed some shortcuts below based on feedback from reviews/comments/messages. Later chapters begin with a brief summary of the story thus far.

Where Makoto is finally a member of the Phantom Thieves, a chapter with all new scenes: Chapter 4

Where the in-game shiptease scenes start in earnest and things start diverging at the end: Chapter 5

Where Makoto starts acting on the secret she's keeping from the Phantom Thieves: Chapter 7