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The time is around when the sun starting to consider tipping beyond the horizon when Akira finds Shinya huddled near one of the abandoned alleys in Shibuya rather than his usual place at the Gigolo, kicking everyone who dares to challenge him on Gun About without any mercy. Akira knows that at this particular time, in these streets, Shinya faces no danger, so he doesn’t say anything as he stealthily reaches behind the grade schooler to peek at what he’s doing instead. To his surprise, Shinya is drawing; fingers work deftly to scribble lazy sketches into his padded notebook. Akira cracks a smile at the sight of familiar childhood hobby—what would childhood be without envisioning yourself as a future Shounen Jump artist once, anyways? That’s Akira’s take to life.
Though, now Akira is trapped in a conundrum. He is very curious about the contents of the sketchbook, because though most of them seem to be rough vignettes of what Shinya saw in the Metaverse and Mementos, there are some snaps that Akira doesn’t recognize. Yet Akira knows Shinya will hide the notebook immediately if he approaches him, if he’s chosen somewhere as deserted as here to just draw on it.
Thankfully though Shinya’s skills with the gun is superb, his stealth skills have much to improve on. His smaller size compensates for the clumsiness, so the net loss is practically negligent, but Shinya is bad bad at detecting shadows, or anyone. What has always been a point of concern now an ally, Akira slides smoothly from one container to another, keeping himself out of Shinya’s sight, until he snatches the notebook from above Shinya, plucking the pages right between Shinya’s own fingers and stepping back for distance between them. “What are you drawing?”
Shinya’s face, initially contorted with insane fury, immediately melts away and gives way to horror upon hearing Akira. “J-Joker! I mean, leader. Akira-san! What are you doing here? “I didn’t know we had a meeting today.”
“We didn’t,” Akira shrugs, flipping open the pages to skim everything before Shinya could steal it back. “Came to Akihabara to pick up some of Oracle’s stuff, but noticed you weren’t at the Gigolo, when you’re usually there at this time of the week.”
Shinya is flushed to his ears, how cute. Determined to hide his gaze from Akira, he dips his head, forcing Akira to address his hat rather than his face. Positioned like that, the grade schooler grumbles, “You could’ve texted me. I was just… out for some air.”
“Mhm,” Akira hums, letting his eyes settle on the drawings again. He outlines one of the quick sketches, smudging the graphite unintentionally. “You’re not that bad. You should ask for Yusuke to give you lessons on perspective.”
“No way. This is just a hobby for me. I don’t want this to be like studying,” Shinya shakes his head furiously.
Akira doesn’t reply to Shinya’s last comment because before he can something in the notebook catches his eye—a mostly benign picture of a sniper taking aim at a shadow, but what he notes is the red glove and white ones in the picture; the same color as Joker’s and King’s. His face makes a knowing serene smile. “Shinya, were you thinking about a conjoined showtime?”
The flush deepens on Shinya’s face. “I have some ideas,” he mutters under his breath. Akira whistles and flicks through the rest of the pages; these don’t seem like a few. "Though, aren't you... busy?"
It is no secret that Akira keeps an extensive schedule each day, keeping up with all his friends and contacts, procuring weapons and funds to keep them well-stocked while they are in the Metaverse. Akira knows that his friends are aware of his hard work, and that's why they haven't suggested any double techniques. But Shinya is different; far too younger than them to mix in with the other Thieves naturally to suggest a showdown alongside them, despite the tremendous help his techniques would bring to the team.
And Akira isn't that busy lately. He has a few free days to spare, which was why he went to look Shinya to get in some shooting practice.
“Let’s sit down somewhere and talk about it instead,” Akira suggests, and returns the book back to Shinya. "Do you know any good cafes around here? All I know is the maid cafe, so..."
Snatching the book away, the game champion saunters away towards Akihabara’s main streets and Akira follows him with a content smile.
The wishing star lights up, of course.
Though trying to seem aloof, the excitement that leaks out of Shinya is so vibrant that Akira ends up invigorated as well. Starstruck eyes flick up to meet his, grip crunching the papers with the diagrams drawn on them. “Does this mean…”
“We’ll test it out in Mementos later,” Akira nods, rubbing his gun with a cleaning wipe. “If it does work, it’ll be a huge help for our future adventures.”
"We are going to need a lot of guns," Shinya murmurs.
"Then we'll get a lot of guns," Akira quips back, smiling widely.
"Today, we are here to hone our technical skills," Joker announces, shoving his hands into his sleek black coat jacket. "Also to get some money before we delve deeper into the new floors. We're out of gauzes and medical-grade wipes."
There is a secret goal that only Shinya is aware of: a chance to try out their joint technique, of course. That is why the lineup for today is Joker, Panther, Skull and King, and they are in one of the higher floors rather than deep-deep in Mementos. This floor is mostly known for having a red shadow as Anubis, which is convenient because while Anubis doesn't have a specific weakness, but no strength either. Perfect for technical practice, but also for minimizing dangers while trying out the first showtime.
Now used to trotting the labyrinthine structure, they easily arrive to the floor they would need to practice. And with his three teammates behind him, Akira takes good hold of Mona's handle and rams it into the closest red shadow, earning a furious yelp from Mona's form as he dissipates, forcing the four of them to jump out of the Monabus to face Anubis.
"This one doesn't have any weaknesses," Futaba's voice rings above them. "You'll have to use technical damages or critical hits."
Ann smiles for the voice, before reading her grip on her mask. "Gotcha, Oracle. Hecate, Agidyne!"
The Persona manifests with the call, mask immediately melting away to make way for her Persona, black figure wrapped in red. The manifestation steps forward to concentrate the energy onto the shadow until the flames burst to life with a loud crackle, damaging then burning the furry creature. Despite the damage, it stands tall in defensive stand.
"Whoo-hoo! That totally hurt, Panther," Futaba wolf-whistles above them.
"Nicely done, Panther," Joker nods, pleased. "King, it's your turn now."
"Right, Freidyne!" The attack connects, atomic energy absorbing the status and exploding with a loud bang. The shadow falls, collapsing into a heap. Before Joker can order an all-out attack, however, Shinya steps forward, both on the two pistols strapped to his belt. "Joker, let's go!"
The others are confused, but before anyone can ask, Joker nods—giving the signal for initiating their coordinated attack. The scene shifts to a dark abandoned factory, only source of light coming from flickering fluorescent bulbs placed above the suspended ceiling. They filled with countless boxes that fell from the sky moments ago, nondescript cardboard boxes all stamped with a sleek monochrome mask as well as the words 'The Phantoms' in capital letters. The shadow roams between the cargo, kicking open boxes and forcefully grabbing some, flashlight in hand helping them search for what they are searching. Behind the shadow, one of the boxes lift up minutely, before they crawl away from the shadow.
The chase between cat and mouse continues for a while. It is when the fifth box is ruined when one of the boxes in the shadow's eyes flinches, making a little shake. The shadow aims the light towards the box that has moved, sinister intent evident from every step it takes forward. The shadow reaches for the box, fist crumbling the paper with no difficulty.
Inside of it is King, both pistols unsheathed and aimed at the shadow's face. "Take this!" King declares before he pulls the trigger on both weapons, but the sound of gunshot doesn't come. It befuddles both the creature and King, who fumbles for the magazine as he stumbles back with staggering steps. "Huh? Why isn't it working?"
The shadow quickly regains its senses and rushes forward, more menacing now knowing the human is unarmed and hopeless. Yet, when he reaches forward, the child suddenly smiles confidently, pointing to the floor under the shadow. The shadow's eyes follow the line to come across a gigantic red X painted with an airbrush, and almost immediately there is a hook digging into its fluffy fur, then long wires looping around its body until it's impossible to move any of its limbs. Before it can consider retaliation, it is being pulled upwards, forced upside-down and hanging from the railings above, almost like a cocoon.
A black form leaps from above the steel bars and lands graciously in front of King to reveal Joker, clad in his black overcoat and two fully loaded M530s in his hands. The younger of the two brings himself into full height before putting away his own guns, and the two share a quick look before Joker willingly offers the weapons to King, who takes hold of them happily, and aims it towards the helpless shadow.
"Try nerfing this!" King proclaims squeezing down on the trigger before unloading the entire magazine onto the shadow with eerie precision, puncturing Anubis with countless bullet holes despite the swinging caused by the shadow's struggling. Joker stands firm behind him, making sure his ally doesn't get launched too far from the recoil; realistically, this would blow both of them back, but thanks to countless Hollywood movies saturating the movie market in Japan, all Joker has to do is hold him down to deal with the backfire.
The gunshots come to a gradual decresendo as one of the guns run out of ammo first, and completely stop when the magazine completely expires. King sighs and tosses away the guns, before smiling and taking his two guns strapped to his waist, undoing the safety to land one shot on the head and another on the heart for insurance. Finished with the barrage, King turns away , and Joker follows behind him, concluding the scene with a snap of his wrists that sends the throwing dagger in his hands flying, the edge catching on the enforced wire and cutting through it, causing the shadow to collapse in a heap. Almost immediately upon contacting the ground, the shadow collapses inward to create a heap of black mist that dissipates away.
Akira reaches forward to retrieve the grappling hook, then curls his hand around the white orb settled around the shadow to pull back the money. The others are chatting vibrantly among themselves, all surrounding a significantly shorter Shinya who's grumbling because he's being treated as a kid, again.
Skull acknowledges him when he walks closer, clasping a hand down on his shoulder. "Nice moves, man."
Joker shakes his head, pridefully ruffing Shinya's hair with a free hand. "Nah, Shinya thought up most of the sequences. I just tweaked a few parts so it'd flow smoother." Then, he addresses Shinya, "That wasn't so bad, huh?"
Shinya's smile is wide. "Yeah, not that bad."