Chapter Text
Jumping from light to light, the briefcase was tucked snugly under his arm. Joker drew the attention away from the rest of his team as they escaped, just like they had planned. As he landed a safe distance away from the guards chasing him, he sneaks like a black cat, prowling through the hallways of the casino, passing the surveillance room as they desperately looked for him. He notes the voices of his teammates transmitting to his earpiece as he finds an escape route, them teasing Skull about his lack of grace.
“There! Joker!” One of his teammates informs him, her voice mixing in with the others talking, making it difficult to define who was talking. He nods anyways, having spotted his exit path before her. Leading him to the top level of the casino.
He stood there for a moment, accessing the ground before and simply enjoying the grand atmosphere of the place. Then, 3 guards burst from the stairwell door, pointing their guns at him and panting.
“Freeze! You have nowhere to run!” One of them shouts.
He smirks, fully knowing that he wasn’t trapped as he takes off running on the pristine balusters of the place. It was quite simple really, though his balance wasn’t as good as it used to be, the guards were just dense. He made his way to the huge stained glass window of the casino, looking back at the guards trying to catch up to him. Before they came, he quickly uttered a quiet “see ya.” as he took a running start at the window as he smashed through with ease. Having quite a bit of airtime, he decided to show off a little, elegantly twisting in the air as if it was second nature. He could hear the smirks in his teammates' voice as they ‘scold’ him, saying he was a showoff.
He landed on the ground with a silent thud, the glass shards around him clattering to the ground. It was dark and peaceful, but something felt off. It was too dark and too quiet. He stood up as a dozen huge spotlights lit up, showcasing him in his full glory. The lights were blinding and he instinctively held up his hand to block some of it, however, he could still make out the hundreds of policemen standing there. He had been ambushed. Joker could hear the others express their confusion and inquiring about his safety. It was a quick silent standstill before one police officer with a megaphone ordered the others to get him.
He immediately took off with the lights following him, as he ran to the fire escape ladder to the side of the building. Climbing up, he thought he was safe until he was surprised by more policemen standing at the top of the ladder. They immediately took the back of their gun and knocked him off, forcing him to land in the sea of cops below.
He got caught. That was simple to say before he lost consciousness, a boot on his face.
When he came to, he was in a dimly lit metal room, his memories of what had transpired foggy, like a mist that blocked his thoughts. What was happening? Everything felt like he was on fire. Everything hurt. So much. His brain was fried... who was he again? There were people in front of him in that stale metallic room. They were speaking but it felt, hazy, not there. He was so tired, he just wanted to take a nap.
“Guess the drug was too strong” the mysterious voice announced though the words were muffled to Joker. "Wake him up," It said, as a substance was thrown onto him.
Despite the liquid barely registering for Joker, it jolted him out of his muddled thoughts. "Let's get this straight, you ain't dosing off here and you are to answer our questions truthfully and to the point. I ain't tolerating any nonsense here," it ordered, grabbing Joker by the head forcefully, Jokers vision still swimming into view.
The figure spoke again, the words falling onto deaf ears with Joker being unable to hear him, it grew angry as it forced the chair that Joker was tied and handcuffed to the ground. Lying on the cold hard ground, Jokers eyes were naturally drawn to the camera in the room, being the only speck of colour in it with the small red light blinking.
"Eh? You think that that can be used as video evidence huh? Tch seems like you're smarter than you look. No matter though, we can do whatever the hell we want to you and nobody would know, not even your precious phantom thieves." The voice sneered. Joker sighed internally, knowing that this was going to be a long while.
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Sae walked down the silent metal hallway, the clicks of her high heels echoing along as she walked.
She had a single mission in mind and she was going to complete it.
As she approached the guarded door, she was stopped by other policemen, telling her nonsense; That the thief’s methods were unknown and that he could still potentially be dangerous.
“Like real” she thought to herself.
He was a criminal surrounded by policemen that were watching his every move and wouldn’t hesitate to kill or hurt him should he try something, it was unlikely that he was stupid enough to try something considering his circumstances.
Another policeman tapped her back, she sighed outwardly as she turned to face them.
“U-Um your boss is on the phone.” They said simply, holding out a phone that was indeed on a call with her boss.
She sighed yet again as she put the phone to her ears, knowing fully well that she would be able to beat her boss in a battle of the wills, no matter their circumstances. As he conceded defeat, he allowed her to interrogate him, the phantom thief himself. This, however, was not without some restrictions; she would be allocated a shorter period of time than normal for her interrogation and that after her interrogation, she was to completely drop this case and let the others handle it.
She agreed anyways, desperate for the answers she sought after.
Entering the room, she couldn't believe what she was seeing; the person in front of her was supposed to be the infamous phantom thief, charged with multiple crimes and treasons, taking ‘hearts’ with a huge grin on his face. Instead she saw a beat-up high schooler, who couldn't be over 18, looking as if a strong wind would send him flying. His face pale and his hands shaking, he was gripping his head as if he was in agony. That was when she noticed the empty syringes that were strewn across the floor, 3 to be exact.
She huffed in annoyance, she couldn’t believe that they would use THAT on a kid, it was peculiar to say the least. THAT was meant for hardened adults, not some delinquent teenager. But she was getting off-topic now, she didn’t have much time with him so she had to act quickly.
Staring intently at the supposed Phantom Thief, she noticed something that she hadn’t noticed before. Fairly large eye bags sitting under his eyes and the slight trace of tear tracks. Thinking of it as ‘irrelevant’ she pushed that thought to the back of her head, she had an important job to do at hand.
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Someone had entered the room, Joker could tell that much. However, their general presence felt different, not so much of 'I hate you for doing these illegal crimes' but more of 'I want to figure out what and why you did what you did'. This person’s presence was calm and collected, a haven compared to the manic, violent presence of those before them.
Sitting down in the chair opposite him, there was nothing but awkward silence between them. That was until they took the initiative, and begin to ask him some questions. Their voice was higher than the others, possibly meaning they were female and the way she talked reminded Joker of one of his close friends, her name on the tip of his tongue yet still unknown, gosh what was happening to him? Why couldn’t he remember his friend’s names?
Their first question? What is your name?
That answer was simple. It was Ren Ku-...Amamiya.
Right...
“Ren Amamiya” He answered, voice scratchy and hoarse from its lack of use and from the abuse he endured. He could see her flinch slightly, probably due to the state of his voice, but she still kept her composure.
“Please, I need you to be honest with me and answer all my questions with straight answers. I don’t think either you or I have the time to beat around the bush.” She sighed, before taking a deep breath and continued. “What was your objective? Why did you cause such a major incident? I cannot form a case with such little information on your methods or motives, so I ask you once again, nicely, to answer my questions with only the truth. Only then would I be able to form an opinion and possibly reduce your sentence.”
As Joker tried to recall everything, his head stung and felt swollen. It was that thing again, whatever the others had injected into him. His memories felt distant and foreign, yet his senses were overloading, he could smell the mild perfume the other was using, the staleness of the air and the stench of his blood on the floor. It was both over and underwhelming.
With Joker desperately trying to recall everything, he noticed someone standing next to her. A tall male figure wearing darker clothing. He hadn’t seen him enter the room unless he did without him noticing. At first, he would have thought she would talk to him or at least acknowledge the other male, yet she acted as if he wasn’t there, instead, she asked Joker what he was looking at.
The other male didn’t speak for a moment, giving him an unamused and disappointed look, crossing their arms as if to show disapproval before quickly shaking off their tough exterior and smiled gently at Joker. As they spoke, their soft voice brought comfort to Joker’s entire being,
“Gosh Ri, I can’t believe you did all of this behind my back, even including the others in this crazy plan of yours, but... you seem to be in a sticky situation. I can help you... for now. However, don’t forget that I’m gonna kick your butt once this is over.” They laugh, as they begin their story from the very beginning.