Ren Amamiya's Return to Tokyo

Heads up, I do not know very much about the details of Persona 5 Royal (just major plot points). As such, some details about Kasumi and the third semester may be inaccurate or nonexistent. I'll try my best. Also, while Haru and Makoto are canonically third-years during the events of P5, I'll be putting them in the same class as Ren, Ryuji, and Ann due to this taking place after P5 and not wanting to have to do stuff about those two in university. And I do encourage you to add chapters to this branch.

And yes, I am using Ren Amamiya instead of Akira Kurusu.

I sat down once again in the attic of LeBlanc. After the events of last year, I returned home. However, my parents had some work-related issues. As a result, I was sent back to Tokyo once the school year started back up again. Luckily for me, Sojiro was kind enough to let me stay in Leblanc once again. Morgana was staying with Sojiro and Futaba, so it was pretty quiet around here. I rustled through my bag. For some reason, my parents gave me earrings as a parting gift. Why? I didn't really know. But they looked nice, so I figured why not wear them and check them out.

Once I did so, I looked at myself in the mirror. They actually didn't look half bad. It was strange that it was shaped like N's, but I felt it looked pretty nice on me.

Anyways, I proceeded to get ready for school. Today was the first day of the third year, and I managed to keep my seat at Shujin.

I sat down at my new seat. "Hey, nice to see ya again!" Ryuji said, walking up to me and fistbumping me.

"Same here." I replied. "Did anything interesting happen?"

"Compared to the Phantom thief stuff, no." Ryuji replied. "But they did manage to reinstate the other sports teams since Kamoshida confessed! I'm back on the track team now!"

"That sounds great," I replied.

"Oh, did you hear? Futaba signed up as a second year!"

"Really?"

Ann and Makoto came into the room after us. After getting caught up, class began.

Class was more or less how you'd expect. I hadn't gotten close to most of his classmates besides the other Phantom Thieves, so I didn't really get to interact with anyone else. Before I knew it, class was over. As a welcome-back party for me, the other Thieves decided to reserve a spot at the buffet. But once we arrived, there was a bit of an issue.

"Sorry, but we're full." the waiter said.

"You're full?" Makoto asked. "But we booked a reservation."

"What's your name?"

"Whose name was it under again?" Makoto asked. "Who's the one who physically booked it?"

Everyone looked around, but no one fessed up.

"Wasn't Ryuji supposed to be the one to book it?" Futaba asked.

"M-Me?" Ryuji asked. "Didn't Yusuke say he would book it?"

"No."

"Yeah, it was you, Ryuji" Ann said. "Did you really forget?"

"Sorry, if you don't have a reservation, you're going to have to wait. The wait's at least an hour."

"This is why I have to take care of these things," Makoto said. "Well, we can either wait until a table opens up, or we can go somewhere else."

"But this is the best place in town!" Ryuji countered.

I sighed. "If only it were normal for us to be seated at at any restaurant without a reservation or waiting in line."

They stood there in silence for a few seconds.

"Come on, let's go in. What are we waiting for?" Haru asked.

"Wait what?" I asked. "Didn't they just say they were full?"

"So?" Ann asked. "So what if they're full? It's not like they can't seat us anyway."

"That's a valid reason for them to not seat us." I said. "There's no space. There's nothing we can do about that."

"What are you talking about?" Futaba asked.

"What am I talking about? Isn't it obvious? Is there something I'm missing?"

The same waiter from earlier came up. "Okay, please come with me."

What? What just happened? The waiter just said we couldn't be seated and had to wait, then he's letting us in? No one left the restaurant in that time.

As we were walking around, I looked. None of the tables were empty, and no one looked close to finishing a meal.

"Here you are," the waiter said, stopping in front of a table that was clearly occupied and had around six people eating on it.

"Um," I said. "There are people sitting there."

The waiter bent down and talked to them. "Sorry, but I have to seat these seven people. Would you kindly exit the restaurant?"

What? What kind of service was this? They clearly weren't even done eati-

"Sure." one of the customers said. "Let's go."

They all stood up and prepared to leave as waiters came and picked up their plates.

"Wait," I said, grabbing one of the customers who was about to leave. "Why are you leaving? Are you done eating?"

"No, I'm not done eating." he said.

"Then why did you just get up?"

"Because the waiter asked us to. I mean, you seven need a seat, right? And the restaurant's full, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, but you don't have to stop eating for us. Did you even get your money's worth?"

"Well, no, we've only been here for five minutes."

I was dumbfounded. He shook my hand off and continued walking out.

"Ren, what are you doing?" Makoto asked. "The others already left to go get their food."

"Um, alright," I said. "Makoto, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, what?"

"Why did that table leave for us?"

"Well, we needed a place to sit, and the restaurant's full." she said. "To make room for us, someone has to cut their meal short."

"Or we could just wait for a table." I said. Makoto stared at me like it was the weirdest concept in the world.

"Why would we wait for a table? They'll just give us one."

"So, we can just go to any restaurant and be seated regardless of how full it is?"

"Um, yeah?" she said. "Are you okay? You're asking me obvious questions."

"What about us? Do we have to worry about a waiter asking us to leave?"

"Of course not." she said. "I mean, waiters would only do that if they want to give _us _a table."

"You emphasized 'us' there." I replied. "Does it only apply to us?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"Why?"

She looked puzzled. "Because... Because that's just how it is. I'm going to go get some food now."

She stood up and walked away as some of the others came back. I tried to ask each of them, but they each came up with the same nonsense answer.

Once I got my food, I sat down next to them. But I couldn't enjoy myself. Something just wasn't right. I thought back to what happened right before things changed.

"If only it were normal for us to be seated at at any restaurant without a reservation or waiting in line."

Did what I said somehow change the world? at first glance, it would be impossible. But we've been through changing people's hearts, have a talking cat, and have Personas, so I couldn't completely rule out that possibility.

I muttered under my breath. "It would be great if the waiter would tell the other customers to leave and give the entire restaurant to ourselves."

I waited. And waited. Nothing.

"What was that?" Yusuke asked. "Getting the entire restaurant to ourselves? That's a bit too fancy."

That didn't work... what specifically did I say? Was it the word "normal"? May as well try.

"It's normal for us to get the entire restaurant to ourselves whenever we dine." I said. I looked up from my plate of food and noticed that no one but us and the staff were inside.

"Ren?" Futaba asked. "What's wrong?"

"Where did everyone go?" I asked.

"Hm? You mean the staff?" Haru asked. "They're probably in the back."

"No, the other customers." I said. "This place was bustling just a second ago."

"They told everyone to leave when we got seated a few minutes ago." Makoto said. "Are you out of it today?"

"No, no, I'm fine," I said. So that was it... the word "normal" was the trigger. But why? I needed to figure this out.