Chapter Text
He might have been a little presumptuous to think so, but Akira thought he had a solid grasp on this whole Phantom Thief thing. Morgana had drilled the basics into his skull over the last week, he had grown used to his enhanced mobility in the Metaverse, and he was now tearing through what had to be his fiftieth hoard of Shadows alongside his equally adjusted team. With Skull at his side and Panther and Morgana providing healing and long range support, it would only be a matter of time before King Kamoshida’s reign ended.
The second to last Shadow popped like an over stuffed bubble, and the last, down to the dregs of his health, dropped to his knees and groveled. Watching such an arrogant thing as this imp lose its confidence was oh so satisfying, especially after nearly half a year of being looked down on himself. A small part of his mind was alarmed by the sudden onset of sadism, but he allowed himself to forget his worries and go with the flow for the time being.
“O-okay, I surrender! Don’t kill me!” He grinned predatorily at his crestfallen foe, a rehearsed facade to hide the turning of the cogs. He tallied the healing items in his pack and the yen in his purse, both of which would have surely been overflowing had it not been for the Metaverse’s expanding influence on containers. Weighing possessions against power, the latter struck him as the worthier investment.
“Join us, and we’ll spare you.” The imp’s head raised enough to look him in the eyes, and his clasped hands turned from begging for his life to praying to his new lord.
“Yes, I accept! You drive a hard bargain, just like…” His eyes lit up, the haze of the lustful king’s corruption clearing away. “Wait, I remember now!” His posture straightened, and he hovered before the thieves once more, certain of his safety in their presence. “My name is Incubus, and my real home is the sea of souls.”
“I am thou, thou art I.” The vow rang through Akira’s soul, chains that bound a forgotten aspect to his greater whole. Blue flame erupted from Incubus’s being, his skin dissolving until all that remained was his pure essence. It flooded towards Akira all at once, and when it met his mask, he accepted it as he had many wayward aspects before.
“Alright, dude!” It was no more than a second after the light faded into the background of Akira’s mind that Ryuji rushed in to celebrate his pal’s newest acquisition with a hardy pat to the back. Akira kindly refused to let him know how much it stung. He couldn’t ruin the pearly white smile on his first mate’s face. “At this rate, all of that bastard’s lackeys are gonna be on our side!”
“That’s unlikely.” Morgana had no such compunctions, however. Piercing blue slits of eyes looked condescendingly up at Ryuji. “The sea of souls is infinite in length and depth. As long as Kamoshida’s Shadow is strong enough to draw others in, his Palace will be filled to his liking. Chances are he already has a new Incubus recruited to fill the old one’s armor.” He turned to Akira, ignoring (at least visibly) the way Ryuji steamed at the joy assassination. “Still, today's gains have been impressive. If it does come down to a fight with Kamoshida, we’ll be ready.”
“If you say so…” Ann was averting her eyes from the rest of the team, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. The uncertainty in her eyes drained the joy from Akira’s latest conquest.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s just…” She looked at him closely, her eyes running over him skeptically. “You said getting new Personas was like taking in a new personality, right?” He nodded, still not seeing what made her so uneasy, “You did see what you just took in right? That thing was just…” He could see her struggle to keep her eyes pointed above his waist, a sliver of disgust worming into her expression whenever she failed. “And from Kamoshida’s heart, too…”
“Actually, Panther, it’s perfectly fine.” Morgana hopped up onto a nearby table, giving himself some extra height and, in his mind, authority. “Incubus is a spirit of lust, but lust is a perfectly normal part of the human spirit. Without it, there wouldn’t be much drive to make more humans. As long as it doesn’t become the focus of the spirit, it’s healthy.” Akira nodded in agreement and tapped the side of his mask.
“Arsene’s still in here, too. It balances out.” Ryuji slung an arm around his shoulder, snickering under his breath.
“I don’t know, Joker, he sorta has those hungry eyes going, too. Did you see the way he was looking at that lady Shadow before?” Akira rolled his eyes.
“He looks that way at everyone.”
“Hey, I don’t judge tastes.” Ann was next to get that devilish look, her earlier discomfort forgotten. Whether it was from Morgana’s explanation or Ryuji’s joke, no one knew.
“He is pretty handy with those chains.” Ryuji’s laughter abruptly cut off. He cautiously looked at where his hand was, the tip of a finger brushing against a link draped over Akira’s shoulder.
“You up for some experimentation, Skull?” He leaned in close, his grin sharp enough to cut through concrete. “The safe word is Shibuya.”
“Nope. Nuh uh, not happening.” He abruptly stepped away, grabbing Morgana and putting him on Akira’s shoulder. “Do that kinky shit with Mona. I’m vanilla, dude.” He shuffled stiffly down the hall, and Ann and Akira’s laughter haunted him the whole way.
“But I’m not into bestiality.”
“I told you, I’m not a cat!”
-
Ann tapped her foot impatiently, looking down from the marble rafters with the rest of the team. Well, two of the three.
“I think that’s enough, Joker.”
“Hold up, I know there was something else.” His eyes darted across the room only slightly slower than the rest of him, checking every nook and cranny for a hint of treasure. The Third Eye was starting to cramp up like nothing else, but the extra weight of loot on his back would soothe it real quickly.
“Ugh…” As Morgana cleaned his fur and Ryuji balanced his lead pipe on his forehead, Ann wondered if it would be more expedient to wait or whip their de facto leader into surrender.
-
“Come on, just a little higher!” Akira strained under Ryuji’s weight, but he wanted to see the results of their hard work just as much, so he persisted. He even dealt with the occasional glob of glittery gunk dripping down onto his slick overcoat. “You almost got it up there, Panther?”
“Yep! Just a few more strokes.” Morgana stared at the Phantom Thief totem pole and groaned.
“I thought you were above these idiots’ pettiness, milady?”
“She is. Literally.” If he hadn’t been the base supporting his precious Ann, Akira was sure Morgana would have clawed his face up. Totally worth it.
“There we go!” Ann backflipped gracefully from the top of the tower. The sudden shift in gravity knocked Ryuji off balance, and he fell to the ground, his thick metal spine carving into the marble tiles. Akira was too enamored with their masterpiece to bother with such things as falling.
Above them, Kamoshida’s unholy statue had been reborn. The scarlet lipstick brought out the dopiness of his smile, and the eyeliner highlighted the soullessness in his eyes.
“The blush was a nice touch.”
“Why thank you.”
“Take that, douchebag!”
“Are you three done yet?” Morgana had ran ahead of them, taking a perch on the rafters above. “We have bigger fish to fry, you know. Hurry up.” He scurried away over their heads, scouting out the next area as the others looked on. Ryuji hummed as a thought struck.
“You know, that probably would’ve been easier if we just rappelled down from there.” A silence spread through the group, only broken as Ann smiled at their handiwork.
“Still worth it, though.”
“Hell yeah.”
“Definitely.”
-
“I look forward to working with you.” Succubus touched a finger to her lips, a smoky moan sliding through. “It will be… pleasurable.” Her flame was sealed away in Akira’s mask, and he could feel the eyes on the back of his head. Ann gave up, staring straight ahead.
“No comment.”
“There’s no shame in being in touch with your inner woman.” Akira glared back, and Ryuji avoided the red hot coals that were his eyes with a smirk on his face.
“Don’t make me call Arsene.”
-
Chunks of meticulously carved stone fell like sand, but the thieves couldn’t hear it over the blood pumping through their ears. Ryuji and Ann were panicking, their running akin to puppets being dragged across a windy stage. They only found comfort in how composed their leader looked, but beneath the mask, Akira was the most terrified of them all. He constantly glanced back, both to check on the advancement of the crumbling castle and monitor his ragged teammates.
Ann was quickly running out of breath, but the will to live burned brightly in her eyes. She would be fine. Ryuji was much the same, but a hint of doubt clouded his determination. Akira didn’t like the way he kept glancing down at his leg, either. He remembered what had happened to it all too clearly, and it would be too fitting for the injury to haunt him at this moment.
The fates weren’t blind to the perfection of present circumstances, and they were historically swift to the cruelest decisions. A speck of light made itself known at the end of the hall, just within reach, when Ryuji yelled in agony.
Akira ground to a stop. Halfway between him and the ravenous abyss was Skull, toppled and clutching his right knee. His screams strained through clenched teeth. Ann had been quicker to stop, trying in vain to heft her fallen teammate onto her shoulder.
He knew it was a fruitless effort. The Metaverse’s amplifications mostly hit her agility and dexterity. She didn’t have the strength necessary to haul the brunt of Ryuji’s weight, and that was without factoring in his heavy, metal garb and the matter of seconds before the floor collapsed under them both, sealing them away in the depths of Kamoshida’s rotten heart.
“Joker, Panther, hurry!” Morgana called from near the exit to reality, regret poisoning his every word. “We don’t have enough time to help him! If you don’t get out while you can, it’ll be a party wipe!”
“I’m not leaving him behind, damnit!” Her body might not have been the strongest, but her spirit was unwavering. She managed to get Ryuji’s arm over her back, but that was the farthest she could go at more than a burdened shuffle. He tried to push her away, but his strength had left him behind, a muffled weep escaping him at the realization. Akira could only watch as the floorboards beneath them started to come undone.
‘No, this can’t…’ In that moment, his mind was a hundred miles away. The ramshackle supports he had built were cracking and waning, his one comfort amidst a cold, uncaring world collapsing at his feet.
‘I won’t… I can’t be alone again!’ Suddenly, the uncertainty and terror in his heart turned to flame, brighter than all the stars above. With a guttural roar only found in those most desperate of beasts, he tore the mask from his face and hurled it into the darkness.
“ARSENE!” The mask bursted into blue fire, and his rebellious spirit’s voice rang through his mind. And then came the chains. At first, it was only the normal ringing, but then something pulled them taut. No, not pulled, pushed. The iron ground against the outside of his skull, and the moment Arsene materialized, a resounding crack echoed into the depths of his mind. His thoughts had scattered in the wake of inhumane pain, his body locking in its summoning stance.
Even without his greater whole’s input, however, Arsene acted all the same.
“I have heeded your desperation. Phantom Thieves that struggle against the binds of corruption, I shall shatter this wicked fate!” Azure light tore through the hall, headed by two slits of crimson. Ann only had the time to glance before it passed, and the chains that served as its tail ensnared both her and Ryuji. She was forced to squint to protect her eyes from the blinding light, but through that slim peephole, she could have sworn that the red of Arsene’s coat had been burned away, exchanged for a regal white.
Arsene’s hands swept down, grasping the still paralyzed Akira by his shoulders. Morgana had the mind to stay clear of the incoming fireball, diving through the exit into the gateway back to reality. When the others followed, Arsene’s body was dissolved by the touch of the real world, leaving only the light of day to carry them home.
-
“Hmm, how curious.” A voice like chiming bells flittered in Akira’s ears. He tried to open his eyes, but all that he saw was a fog of deep blue. “It was only for a moment, but the inmate’s Fool gave way to the World.”
“That can’t be right!” The second was more akin to a pair of cymbals crashing through his eardrums. “Master was clear, a change like that should only be possible at the end of a journey, but the inmate isn’t even close to rehabilitated!” Both were silenced by an unearthly chuckle, and Akira felt like he was drowning in the thickest oil.
“It seems the trickster is quite special, beyond even his own ilk. We must watch him closely.” The blue fog parted, giving way to a thinner golden haze. A streak of bright yellow stood out from the rest, and it was in observing its movements that he realized he was being shaken. A voice poked through the cotton padding his mind.
“-ude, wake up! You can’t go saving our asses and kick the bucket, it’s not fair!”
“The only thing that might kill him is you throttling him like that, you big ape.”
“Shut your trap, cat! Not like you care about a few of us dropping as long as you still have one to work with!”
“Ryuji, sto…” Akira tried to speak, but the flow of air triggered the most violent coughing fit he had experienced in his life. He knew he must’ve hacked right in Ryuji’s face, but he was too ecstatic to hear his leader’s voice again to care.
“Yo, Ann, he’s up!”
“Thank God!” She rushed into his line of sight next, and it was only when his breathing settled that he could see both of them were on the verge of tears. “Are you okay? I have some water in my bag somewhere if I can just…”
“M’fine, really.” The exhaustion was clear in his voice, and his hair had devolved from organized chaos to complete anarchy, but he was alive, they were alive, and that was more than enough to define as fine to him. “Don’t blame Morgana. He was trying to be realistic.”
“Like he said. I thought you were down for the count. Heck, I saw you trying to shove Ann off of you!”
“Doesn’t mean you have to be so blunt about it!” Said the guy with the lead pipe. Maybe that sentiment was shared among the quartet, or maybe the fact that they had just escaped certain death with the treasure in tow was finally hitting them, but, whatever they were thinking at the time, all they could do was laugh tiredly. The sun was going down, but for the Phantom Thieves, things were looking brighter than ever.