Taking Hearts, Breaking Limits (Persona 5 Royal x Final Fantasy VII)

XV

4/30 - Saturday - After School

Cloud's POV

Five days have passed since they stole Kamoshida's Treasure.

Nothing exciting or interesting had happened during those days, except the fact that Kamoshida never showed up to school the day after they stole his Treasure. Ms. Kawakami said he had placed himself under suspension. The group assumed that was because of the change of heart. They hoped it wasn't some mental shutdown.

I guess all we can do is wait, Cloud thought, and so did everyone else.

The group lived out their student lives as usual. Every now and then, the Phantom Thieves would have a meeting on the rooftop and discuss about the change of heart. Morgana said that they should be patient and just wait for the deadline which was May 2nd, next Monday.

As of right now, Cloud was in the library, doing his homework again on one of the tables. He could still overhear people gossiping about him, but he decided to pay no attention to that. As he was halfway finishing, he noticed a familiar girl about to sit down next to him.

"Hey there, Strife-kun." Makoto said. "You study here too?"

"Well, yeah." Cloud replied. "You gonna study too?"

"I am, actually. Mind if I sit?" she asked. Cloud nodded and she took a seat. "So, how's school so far?" she said to him. "Are you getting accustomed here?"

"It's alright, I guess." he replied unsure. "I'm getting bothered by all the gossip and rumors though."

"Yeah... I understand." Makoto nodded. "It's been like that all the time. There's been a lot of rumors lately, even some about you."

"Some huh?"

"Yeah. You've heard of the 'he's really smart' and the 'he got a girlfriend on his first day here' ones already, right? Well, there's also the rumors where they say you're being personally tutored by the teacher, you're a wizard, and even a crazy one about you stealing other people's girlfriends."

"Well... that's new-" Cloud said surprised. The tutoring one, he would slightly understand. The wizard thing? Either someone just made that up, or someone somehow leaked some things about his Materia (probably Ryuji). The last one got him though. Stealing girlfriends? That's just insane on so many levels.

"You're well informed on all these rumors." he said. "How'd you learn all of them?"

"They just happen to cross by the student councilmembers sometimes." she replied. "Well... we should probably continue our work, shouldn't we?" she said. Cloud agreed.

They did their homework together. Cloud finished relatively early since he already started before she did. They said some quick goodbyes and Cloud was on his way to go back to Leblanc.

He was on his way outside, but as he went down to the second floor, he saw someone familiar walking down the hallway whilst holding a big bag of fertilizer that blocked her face and vision as she clumsily walked toward the stairs, occasionally bumping into people.

"Gah- Sorry!" Haru apologized to a boy she bumped into by accident.

She kept trying to walk towards the stairs, but was making little progress. Cloud was wondering if he should help her out but thought that she could handle it. Unfortunately, a mean girl made her trip over her leg and sent her stumbling down the hall, trying to keep her balance. The girl just snickered at her. Cloud kind of wanted to hack her with his sword.