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The crash hurt less than expected.
Used to sudden falls, Riku curls inward as his body rushes to the ground. He lands on his shoulder and rolls forward, diverting the impact that meets him through and out of his body. His back complains when he stands up, having taken the brunt of the hit that ejected him out of the gummi ship.
Considering what probably looked like a human materializing out of thin air, there isn’t much attention on him. A few concerned pedestrians ask if he’s okay, and he waves them off. Otherwise, people walk around him, some bumping into him without looking back, as if his sudden appearance is a common occurrence.
It works for him, so he rolls his shoulders and follows the flow of traffic.
Needing to gather his bearings, he looks around for a spot he can stop at. An alleyway next to a flashy building with a burger logo is completely empty, so he peels out of the crowd and makes his way there.
Finally feeling like he can breathe, he pulls out his gummiphone to dial Mickey.
A hand grabs his arm. He twists out of its grip and jumps back.
“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” A girl holds her hands up, fingers stretched out. “It looked like you fell kinda hard. Are you okay?”
“Sorry, yeah.” Riku rubs his arm. “Thanks.” He isn’t as good at talking to strangers like Sora is. “Actually, I’m lost. Do you know where we are?”
The girl twirls one of her voluminous pigtails with a finger, lower lip disappearing under her teeth. “We’re in Shibuya. You’re not from around here, huh?” She clasps her hands. “Are you a model?”
“No, I’m”—there’s a word Mickey taught him for situations like these—“a tourist. It’s my first time visiting.”
“Oh,” she says, drawing out the word. “That makes sense. Your clothes don’t look like any trends here.”
Riku folds his arms. “Right. I’ve got to make a call, so…” He backs further into the alleyway, then he remembers that it’s better to create familiarity than to stay distant to residents of a world. “Thanks for checking on me. I’m Riku. Maybe I’ll catch you another time.”
“Oh! Uh, okay. I’m Ann. Oh—” Ann’s brows furrow and she stomps her foot. “Oh, shoot!” She runs off, disappearing into the crowded street before Riku can ask her what’s wrong.
Sora would chase after her. Always looking to help others no matter what catastrophic event is hanging over him—that’s what makes him a natural hero amidst everything.
Riku debates on whether he should call Mickey first, but eventually chooses to find Ann. He’s fast, he should be able to catch up to her.
He didn’t account for just how many people there were on the street. Racing on the beach trained him to be a fast sprinter; it didn’t train him to squeeze and weave through an almost impenetrable mass of bodies.
“Excuse me. Sorry,” he says, keeping his arms tucked in, and shoulders his way into any openings he can find.
He gets caught in the river of people, forced to walk along them while he searches for an opportunity to break free, when he hears a girl talking excitedly next to him.
“There’s no way they’ll keep stealing hearts! Not when there’s a bounty on them,” she says.
“I don’t know about that,” her friend says. “Thieves get cocky. That’s how they get caught, you know?”
The first girl bounces with each step, accidentally jostling Riku a few times. “Maybe I’ll try catching them,” she says, breaking out into laughter when her friend snorts in response.
It’s the first time Riku’s entered a world where the organization’s motives are known. He tries to stop, to ask them if they’ve seen them, but they’re breaking off from the street to stop at a store. One thing at a time, he decides and picks up his pace to find Ann. Then he’ll look for any clues to find whichever organization member is pulling the strings here.
The crowd comes to a standstill, voices buzz around him as he pushes through. He doesn’t yell, but his heart does skip a beat when he falls into open air and something large rushes at him. He’s about to jump, better to risk being a spectacle than to be slammed by a large object, but someone yanks him from behind and hauls him back.
“Careful.”
He turns, his thanks on the tip of his tongue, when he’s forced to move forward with the wave of people. Unable to identify whoever helped him, he follows the crosswalk until he reaches a plaza.
He finds Ann there. But, a boy greets her before he can approach her. She talks animatedly with him, grinning, as a cat leaps from his bag.
Riku watches as Ann tugs the boy down the structure they were standing next to. If there’s anything bothering her, it’ll be better for her to confide in a friend instead.
He pulls out his gummiphone and turns it on. There aren’t any notifications. Worried, he swipes at the screen to open his contact list. A large black eye on a red square appears, obscuring every app on his phone. It doesn’t shrink when he taps at edges of his phone background and continues to glare up at him when he tries to lock the screen.
On one of his taps, it expands and overtakes his phone completely.
“What—” he says, whipping his head around as the world is swallowed up in red. The square’s suddenly devoid of people, eerily quiet in their absence.
A muffled rattling reaches his ears as he wanders around. He runs toward it, finding it to be coming from the structure Ann had been standing next to earlier. The sound grows louder, roaring from underground.
He forgoes the steps and jumps down the stairs.
While he was shocked at the red hue everything took above ground, the pulsing walls of exposed muscle disturbs him enough to give him pause. They grow a deeper red as he rides the escalators down, with charred bones crawling up in arches.
Eventually he sees rails and jumps onto them to grind through the tunnel. It’s not as quiet down here, but the only sounds he hears are the wind splitting around his illuminated form and what sounds like wailing in the distance.
He checks his gummiphone. The weird eye icon is gone, but none of his apps work. He tries tapping on Mickey’s contact info to no avail. With nothing else to do, he pockets his phone and continues down tunnel after tunnel and escalator after escalator.
If Riku’s learned anything from traversing multiple worlds, going down the obviously dangerous path tends to lead him to his destination.
As he’s shaking off his feet at a platform, a loud crash shakes the area and is followed by tires screeching away.
Adrenaline coursing through him, Riku jumps onto the rails to chase the noise. Large black figures startle at his presence, but he zips off before they act further.
When he nears the sound of a purring engine, he stops, jumps off, and peers around a wall. A black van shakes rhythmically in place and then leaps into a red and black vortex.
Plunging into the unknown seems to be his modus operandi at this point, so he takes a big breath and dives in.
He rolls forward into a crouching position and sees three people rushing at a floating creature. They attack it lightning-quick, faster than Riku’s eyes can follow, and land with flourish.
No longer able to put up a fight, the creature droops and morphs into a human.
They don’t seem to have noticed Riku yet. Still in defensive stances, they surround the hunched figure as it talks. He can’t make out their conversation from where he is, but it doesn't seem like they're hostile.
Then the person dissipates into nothingness, leaving only a shining orb behind. Before Riku can react, the one in the black trench coat swipes at it.
Riku leaps behind the car and peers around it.
“I’m telling you, he came out of thin air!”
Though Ann’s dressed in a completely different outfit, the poofy pigtails and voice are too familiar. It’s bad luck that the first person he met in this world might be his enemy, but he’s dealt with worse.
“That’s rather troubling,” a high, boyish voice says. “Another metaverse user could mean a potential ally for black mask. We should be on our guard.”
“Should we try figuring out who he might be after? Then we can steal their heart before he gets to them.”
Riku feels his hackles raise. The only one that’s dressed like an organization member is the boy in the black trench coat, but if they’re all teammates then he might be in trouble.
“Whatever we do, we should hurry! The longer we stand around, the less time we have to stop him.” The car vibrates with each word.
The car can talk.
By the time he’s processed that the car can talk, he notices the others drawing closer.
Riku steps away from the talking car with his keyblade poised above his head. “Don’t move!”
They freeze in place before a cloud of smoke obscures Riku’s vision. It dissipates quickly, revealing a cat-like creature scrambling toward Ann.
He falters. The cat looks similar to Mickey. He needs to find him quickly.
“Hold on, you don’t have a mask,” Ann says.
“No? Why would—” Then he notices that they’re all wearing masks. It doesn’t seem like a constant with this world; the people above ground hadn’t been wearing any. Maybe it’s an indicator of a specific population or group.
“We can never be too careful,” the boy in the white uniform says, brandishing a sword made out of a beam of light.
“Crow, wait.”
Crow tosses an irritated look to his side before returning his attention to Riku. “Joker, with all due respect, he has his weapon drawn.”
Joker tilts his head downward, and Crow sighs as he points his sword to the ground. “You’re the leader.”
Now that Riku’s attention is on Joker, he’s shocked he didn’t notice his piercing eyes, bright and steady beneath his mask. His presence suddenly becomes imposing, while remaining nondescript.
“Who are you?” Riku asks.
Joker blinks, but doesn’t react beyond that. “We’re the Phantom Thieves.”
“So, you’re the one who’s been stealing hearts. Why?”
The strange thing is that there’s only faint, almost imperceptible, traces of darkness from Joker. Instead, the one that’s swimming in darkness, surrounded by its heavy scent, is Crow. But he looks nothing like an organization member. And Ann and the cat don’t have any, the latter actually brimming with light.
Joker lets out a huff, covering his face with a fist as he shakes with quiet laughter.
“This situation is hardly humorous,” Crow admonishes, still staring Riku down.
“Sorry,” Joker says, “it reminded me of when we first met Noir.” He stoops down and pets the cat on the head. “Remember, Mona?”
Against his better judgement, Riku lowers his keyblade. He notices Ann relaxing after him. She leans to the side, crossing her arms and smiling, as she watches Mona shake off Joker’s hand.
“Really…” Crow says, sighing. “Have you all forgotten we have a potential enemy in front of us?”
Riku honestly shares the sentiment. It makes him laugh too though. He stifles it quickly.
“Alright.” Joker straightens back up, but he shoves his hands into his pockets and looks far from drawing any sort of weapon. “We want to help people.”
“By stealing hearts?”
“It’s not really stealing hearts,” Ann says. “We take the treasures from their hearts.” She taps her chin and hums, tilting from one foot to the other. “That kind of makes it sound bad too though, now that I think about it.”
“Could you please make it sound somewhat more appealing? You’re the ones who believe it righteous to do so in the first place,” Crow huffs.
“Are you being coerced?” Riku says. He knows all too well what it’s like to be manipulated, to be deceived, into following the bidding of others under the guise of doing what’s right. He’ll never forget the way Maleficent twisted the darkness in his heart and pulled the ugliest emotions out of him before he learned to accept them.
Crow places a hand on his hip. “Not at all. Rather, I’m the one who’s blackmailing them. I appreciate your concern, however.” Then he frowns and points his sword at Riku. “If you’re trying to convince me you’re not a threat—”
“Hey! C’mon, we’re not trying to start a fight,” Ann says.
Even with a weapon pointed at his head, the way she sounds so genuine has Riku’s shoulders sag with relief. “Ann, thank you.”
Ann’s face turns red, rivaling the color of her mask, as three sets of eyes turn to look at her. “It’s—it’s Panther,” she says, voice barely away from becoming a shriek.
“Sorry,” Riku says, because he would rather be on as many people’s good side here while he’s stuck alone. “Panther.”
She tucks her pigtails behind her shoulders, pouting, but, otherwise placated. “Anyways, what are you doing down here?”
“I’m looking for a friend. We were separated and I haven’t been able to call him.”
Joker nods. “He looks like Mona.”
“Sort of. How did you know?”
“We saw him.”
“You mean we almost crashed into him! You’re so reckless sometimes,” Mona says, jumping into the air indignantly. Joker shrugs and grins sheepishly.
“Where did you see him?” Riku says, a second away from bolting and tracking Mickey down.
“Some floors below. Want a ride?”
Mona’s pupils shrink to the size of peas. “Hey, shouldn’t we talk about this before we let a stranger come with us?”
“Sure.” Joker turns to Ann and Crow. “What do you guys think?”
“I think we should help him out,” Ann says.
“O-Oh, well, if Panther says so…” Mona says, paws pressed together. In a puff of smoke, he turns back into a black van.
Crow walks past Joker and slides open one of the doors. After a moment’s pause, he tosses his head back. “I’ll keep an eye on him, but if we end up crashing because he attacks any of us, I will not be happy.” The loud slam that follows makes Riku wince.
He feels a pair of hands push at his shoulders, and he turns his head to face voluminous blond hair and beautiful blue-green eyes. “Go ahead and ride on the passenger seat. I’ll sit in the back with Crow.” Then, in a whisper, “Don’t worry about him. He gets a little”—Ann waves her hand back and forth—“testy when he’s worried.”
“Don’t let him hear you,” Joker says, grinning as he joins them. Ann swats him lightly on the arm. “You scared me!” She opens the same door Crow had gone through.
Riku lets his keyblade disappear from his hand in a shimmer of light. He hears an approving hum next to him.
“That’s a neat trick,” Joker says as they settle into their seats, flicking his dagger between his fingers and sheathing it away under his coat. “Is that a magic skill?” The car roars to life with a push of a button.
“No, it just comes with my weapon,” Riku says.
The car swerves around a shadow (what the Phantom Thieves call them) and Riku grabs onto the dashboard for dear life as they narrowly crash into a wall. He looks behind them to check on Crow and Ann, but they look completely unfazed. Crow glares at him until he turns back around.
“Where can I get one of those?” Joker says.
“You have to be chosen. Sorry,” Riku says, lips twitching.
“Maybe I’ll steal it from you instead.”
“You can try. Can’t say it’ll work out for you.”
Joker laughs loudly at that, drumming his fingers on the wheel. “Alright, that just makes me want to try even more.” His boisterous laugh has Riku grinning in response, but a strong thud against his seat causes it to fall immediately.
“Hey!” Mona’s voice surrounds them. “That’s me you’re kicking!”
“My apologies. I simply was trying to stretch my leg and overshot,” Crow says.
It’s such a bold-faced lie, and the way Ann is hiding her smile behind her hand confirms that Riku’s not the only one who can tell. He shrugs it off; he isn’t a stranger to hostility when traversing worlds.
Whether Joker understands Crow’s intent, Riku doesn't know. He keeps his eyes on the road and says, “We can fight a shadow or two if you want.”
“Oh, no, that’s quite—”
Crow’s words are swallowed up in a surprised yelp when they crash into a shadow’s back. Mona transforms back into his other form and lands on his feet with the others.
“I would prefer a proper warning next time!” Crow yells, exasperated, while clutching his mask. Joker ignores him, a manic grin stretching across his cheeks as a red and black being materializes behind him. It crouches into its enclosure of blue flames and sends out dark magic at several mounds of black ooze.
The attack bounces off one, and it shakes with squealing laughter. “Darn, forgot about that,” Joker says. “I’ve got a persona with thunder magic, cover me.”
“I’ve got it,” Riku says and shoots out thundaga thrice in succession. They manage to strike every ooze but one.
“Nice! Pass the baton and follow up.” Mona says.
“Pass what—?”
Crow comes up next to him and slaps the hand that isn't holding his keyblade. “I don’t understand it either,” he says. “Robin Hood!”
A large white being with gold, red, and blue accents appears behind him to shoot a glowing arrow at the last ooze.
With the shadows knocked down, the thieves rush at them, too quickly for Riku to make out who is who in the flurry of silhouettes. By the time they land back onto the ground, the shadows are already disintegrating into nothingness.
No hearts float into the air, so they don't seem like heartless. It’s an odd world he’s fallen into. He wonders if Sora’s ever stopped by here before.
He watches as Crow shoves Joker, the latter falling back a step dramatically, laughing uninhibited, as he balances on the heels of his boots. When it looks like he might actually fall over, Crow hurriedly drags him forward with a tight grip on his elbow.
Once Joker’s flat on his feet, Crow turns and startles upon meeting Riku’s eyes. His entire face is red and turns even redder with each second.
So that’s what the seat-kicking had been about.
Riku’s expression must give him away, because when Crow stalks past him, he grumbles, “I don't want to hear it.” The next words leave his mouth like they’re being torn from him. “Utterly reckless. Would it kill him to stop and think for once?”
“This is a regular occurrence then?” Riku asks.
Crow rolls his eyes hard enough to be seen underneath his mask. “You have no idea. He’s supposed to be the special one, and yet I have to keep watch over him.” He clears his throat then, turning away after the rushed confession.
“Actually,” Riku says softly, “I think I have some idea.”
He smiles when Crow scoffs at him. If scolding worked that easily on everyone, then he and Sora wouldn’t be hopping worlds.
“I appreciate the sentiment,” Crow says, “but it’s impossible to understand my situation. Especially when we’ve just met.”
“You’re probably right.” Riku shrugs. “I can tell when someone’s trying to deny how much they care about someone else though.
Before Crow can respond, Joker’s shimmying up to both of them. “Ready to go?”
“Yes,” Crow says. It comes out more of a hiss, but his friends seem used to it. “The sooner we can leave, the better. Busy day tomorrow, as you’re aware.”
“Right,” Joker says. Then to Riku, “Sorry, you’re probably worried about your friend too. We’ll find him.”
They climb into the Monabus again, speeding off the second every door is shut. Riku wishes there were seatbelts included when Joker weaves around shadow after shadow. At this rate, he’ll be tossed back and forth enough to be rendered unfit for combat.
He’s lost count of how many floors they’ve gone through, answering questions while dodging anything that might give away the fact that he’s not a resident of this world. In turn, he learns more about the Phantom Thieves and what they do, such as the fact that they call the manifestations that appear behind them personas (with individual names too), that the place they’re in is called Mementos, and that Crow and Joker are hopelessly, obnoxiously, attracted to each other.
It’s like watching a younger version of himself and Sora. It’s painful. He sends a mental apology to everyone who’s had to witness them tip-toe and stumble around each other while they were still figuring their feelings out.
Then sounds of fighting reach his ears, and he sits up. He exchanges a glance with Joker, who, somehow, speeds up even faster to find the source of the noise. There’s a familiar pair of round ears, and Riku is jumping out of the Monabus before Joker brakes.
A cacophony of screeching and jumbled voices follow him, but all Riku can focus on is the clanging of Mickey’s keyblade as it meets the sword of a towering elephant. He dashes toward them, his steps becoming weightless as he lets darkness veil him, and jumps into the air with keyblade in hand once he’s close enough.
Distracted by Mickey, the elephant doesn’t notice Riku swinging his keyblade down until he’s already slashing into the ground. The impact scatters the shadows around them, but the elephant stays put.
Riku feels a reflective force sweep him off of his feet and he grabs Mickey while they’re both blown back, curling over him to shield him as they roll to safety.
“Riku!” Mickey says, worry bleeding into his voice as they gather themselves. Riku grins at him, groaning just a little when the dust settles and he picks himself up.
“Sorry I’m late.”
He casts thundaga when black oozes creep toward them, stunning them in place. Following his lead, Mickey casts thundaga as well to stop a pair in their tracks. The elephant from earlier gets up with a duplicate, swords at the ready, so Riku raises his keyblade.
“Don’t attack them!” Joker yells. Riku whips his head back to see Crow’s persona nocking a gleaming arrow and aiming it at the elephants. It sings across the air before striking the belly of one, causing it to fall to the ground in a daze.
“They’re allies,” Riku says to Mickey while Crow passes the baton to Joker.
“Daisoujou,” Joker says. A skeleton in yellow and green robes appears and opens its jaw widely to cast twin blades of light at the second elephant. He and the others run toward the shadows, gesturing at Riku as they draw closer. “Come help us, these guys have a lot of health.”
Quick on the uptake, Mickey nods at Riku and they follow the thieves. “What do you need us to do?”
“Hit them as much as you can,” Mona cackles, running alongside Mickey. “Let’s get them!”
He manages to keep up with their lightning-fast strikes, though he comes close to pushing his limit by the time they land. Planting his feet firmly on the ground, he recenters his sense of gravity and stretches to get the last bit of adrenaline out of his body.
“Are you all right?” he asks as Mickey also shakes out his excess energy.
“Yeah, what about you?”
“I’m fine.”
Mickey chuckles, the familiarity helping Riku relax since landing alone in this world, and stretches up so he’s on the ball of his toes. “That was incredible! Our new friends’ abilities would be useful to master.”
“Sure. Maybe later though. I’m kind of wiped out.” Riku curls and stretches his tingling fingers. When he notices Mickey looking over at their approaching company, he says, “They call themselves the Phantom Thieves.”
“Huh, and what’re they thieves of?”
“I’m not… sure.”
Mickey hums in thought, but smiles easily when the Phantom Thieves greet him.
“We can show you, if you’re still worried,” Joker says. He stumbles forward with a silent gasp when Mona jumps onto his shoulder. “You’re like me!” Mona says. “Hey, are you trying to get your human body back too?”
“Well, gosh, this is how I’ve always been,” Mickey says. “I’m okay staying the way I am.”
“Oh.” Mona’s ears droop. He perks up quickly though and leaps off of Joker’s shoulder. “More importantly, we’ve gotta take care of the last request, then we can go back.” He trots off to turn into a car again.
“Offer’s still on the table,” Joker says.
The thing is, Riku doesn’t really suspect them of being part of the organization or taking hearts for their own gain. From what he’s seen of the organization, they’re always looking out only for themselves, willing to abandon their teammates without warning, and use others for their own gain. Joker doesn’t give him that impression. None of the Phantom Thieves do.
“What do you want to do, Riku?” Mickey says.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful. If they are stealing hearts and he has to intervene, he at least has an ally he completely trusts with him now.
“Let’s go with them. Just to see,” Riku says. They enter the Monabus, Mickey taking the passenger seat at Riku’s insistence, Riku squeezing in the back with Ann and Crow. It’s spacious enough for the three of them to fit in comfortably, so he ignores Crow’s thinly veiled complaints while Joker drives. As long as he doesn’t kick Mickey’s seat, it’s fine.
Ann leans forward, propping her arms on top of the seats in front of them. “I’m feeling kind of tired, do you have something I can eat?”
“I’ve got coffee,” Joker says.
Ann groans. “I have to sleep early tonight.”
“If I recall correctly, our next target is on a higher floor, so it should be a lower level shadow,” Crow says. “If you’d like, you may sit this one out, Panther. I’m sure between Joker and I, we can take it down.”
“Hey! Don’t forget about me,” Mona says, rattling with a cat-like squeal when Joker makes a sharp turn. The force of the turn has them all sliding to the right, though with much more scrambling from him and Mickey compared to the thieves. They seem to move flawlessly in tandem with sudden stops and turns, and it makes Riku question his sense of balance.
He pushes himself off of Crow with a quick apology. Thankfully, Crow’s too busy snarking at Mona to snark at Riku.
“Yes, and you as well, Mona. You’ll have to forgive my oversight. I’m quite tired as well.”
“I can help,” Riku says. “I’ve got a lot of energy left.” He knows Mickey will understand to stay back and keep watch.
Joker taps his fingers on the steering wheel. “Sure, we can use the support. Alright, hang on.” He revs the engine and speeds through the tunnels.
Riku’s seriously reconsidering taking the middle seat as he’s tossed to and fro during the drive, squishing into either Ann’s or Crow’s side. They both take it in stride, but he’s frazzled by embarrassment by the time they reach their last target.
He clutches onto the leather of the seat as the Monabus dives into another vortex. It leaves him dizzy, and he barely registers Joker leaping and tumbling out of the car. “It’s okay,” Ann says, lightly placing a hand on his arm, “we usually need a second too.”
“Yes, our fearless leader is the one with a flair for dramatics,” Crow says, and Riku doesn’t need to look at him to know he’s rolling his eyes. “We’ll leave once you’re ready.” He lifts his mask up to press his hand to his eyes, massaging his temples with his fingertips.
Riku ducks his head and breathes in steadily. “I think I’m okay. Let’s go.” He smiles at Mickey.
Mickey returns the smile before turning back around to open the door on his side. “Okay, but don’t push yourself. I can take your spot if you feel tired.” Once they’re all out, Mona turns back into his cat form and joins them to where Joker is waiting.
He’s facing a person swathed in black flames, already half-crouched as if anticipating a fight.
“We usually speak to the person’s shadow beforehand,” Crow says as he draws his beam saber, “but we’ve had no success in talking them out of fighting yet.”
“We’ll knock them back into their senses, get ready,” Mona says, nodding.
It’s not the worst thing he’s seen, but the ripping sound combined with the person heaving backward causes him to take a step back. The black flames leap up and crash down, spilling over the floor like acid, then another, bigger, human-like figure appears where the target used to be.
“This isn’t good,” Crow says. He jumps back and stands between Riku and Joker. “This shadow is resistant to curse and completely immune to bless. Keep that in mind, Joker.”
“Good call,” Joker says, and Riku sees a self-satisfied smirk slide across Crow’s mouth. Briefly, he wonders if Donald and Goofy noticed the same of him whenever he tried to one-up Sora while searching for Kairi. “Distract him with physical attacks. I’ll find a spell to put him to sleep. Mona, focus on healing Crow and use your wind spells when you can.”
“I have a sleep spell,” Riku says.
Joker blinks at him, then smiles. “Good to have you on the team,” he says, and Riku feels eyes burning into the back of his head. “Then, let’s alternate between putting him to sleep.”
“Got it. I have to get close to him, so cover me.”
Riku rushes forward as Crow pulls out a toy gun and fires rapidly. The shadow recoils with each bullet, unable to react in time when Riku releases sleep from his keyblade. The spell’s waves flow from it and hit the shadow hard enough for it to slump over immediately.
He feels wind pick up around him and jumps away just in time to avoid a rippling green cyclone. It encapsulates the shadow and knocks it on its behind. “Let’s go, attack!” Mona yells, and instinct overrides any other thought as Riku rushes in to join the others in ambushing their enemy.
He’s barely landed when the shadow rises again and sets its spear on Crow. It moves to strike while he's still straightening up from his crouch. Riku reaches out, but a swirl of black fabric blocks Crow from his view before he can do anything.
His breath catches in his throat when the spear is mere inches from sinking into Joker’s back, and he almost misses the “Stop!” in the distance. Only when the shadow stills, frozen in place, does Riku tear his eyes away to see Mickey pointing his keyblade in their direction.
Crow snaps out of his shock and wrenches both Joker and himself back so that they’re stumbling away from the shadow. “That was reckless!” he chides, one hand clutching onto Joker’s back and the other wrapping behind his neck. “What were you thinking?”
“Save the argument for later,” Riku says, readying his keyblade. “Let’s take it out.”
He swings as hard as he can, knocking the shadow back several feet, and then feels a hand on his left shoulder, a paw on his knee, and watches as Ann and Mona summon their personas to light a cyclone of fire underneath the shadow, burning it into black ashes.
The person from earlier appears again, crying and hunched over. “I’m sorry!” he yells. “Am I really not worthy of being the store manager?”
Joker walks up to him, Crow in tow, and sighs. “At least you realize it.” The man starts sobbing. Riku tenses, ready to jump in if anything happens.
“I remember now… employees aren’t property… they’re human beings.” he says eventually, wiping away the tears from his eyes. “And yet I took advantage of them. I don’t know how I can ever make up for this.”
“For starters, you should probably confess everything,” Ann says, wrapping her whip into a loose circle.
While they talk to him, Riku asks Crow, “Not going to say anything?”
“I’m not one for pep talks,” he says, amused. “Besides, they do well enough without me.”
They don’t touch him and keep a moderate distance as they talk, heads low and voices soft, and, before Riku’s eyes, the person dissipates and a gleaming white orb is left behind. Joker grabs it and brings it over.
“You really don’t take hearts then,” Riku says, holding the magazine that Joker handed to him.
“It’s catchy.” Joker smirks. “But no, we don’t take literal hearts.”
Riku gives the magazine to Mickey. The cover has “Chinese Sweets” in large red and yellow lettering and a picture of an idyllic street with colorful booths. “What do you think?”
“Doesn't’ seem like they’re harming anyone. I’d say we shouldn’t worry.”
“Okay.” If there’s no organization member involved in this world, then there’s no reason to stay. “Can we hitch a ride with you? Out of Mementos?”
With Joker’s carefree driving and the lower levels of the shadows on the upper levels, they’re able to make it to the top of the subway system quickly. The place is still swathed in red, but Ann assures them that they’ll be back outside soon while Joker taps at his phone.
It feels like he’s being pulled in all directions, his vision blinking in and out in waves, and then they’re back in the square. He blinks rapidly, adjusting to the twilight—bright in comparison to the gloom of Mementos.
“Huh! You guys just—look like that?” Mona says.
Except it’s not Mona as Riku knows him. Now he looks like a regular cat, proportionate head and all, riding on the shoulder of the boy who Riku saw earlier. “Mona?” Riku says.
Joker puts a finger to his lips and winks. “It’s Morgana out here.” He slouches, losing the confident air in an instant, and twirls a lock of his hair. “You already know Ann. I’m Ren. He’s—”
“My apologies, I’ve received news of an urgent matter. It was nice to meet you all, but I have to be going,” Crow says and walks off in long strides without a glance back.
Riku laughs at Ren’s apologetic expression. “It’s okay, we should get going too. Thanks, Ren, Ann.”
“Don’t get lost!” Ann says, giggling. She bumps shoulders with Ren, and they both wave at him as he and Mickey walk toward Central Street. They’re stopped a few times by tourists asking to take pictures with Mickey, but they decline and thankfully are left alone when they do.
Mickey points out the place where he fell when they crashed, a spot not too far from where Riku had landed. They draw closer to the large crowd gathered in the center, having seen the distinct red shine of their gummi ship.
Riku’s ready to push past the spectators when a faux pleasant voice drifts into his ears.
“I should have suspected as much.”
Crow tilts his head pointedly toward an alleyway before returning his attention to the group of girls squealing over him.
“Akechi-kun, will you please sign this?” A girl stammers, shakily presenting a notebook with a floral design. It’s taken with a light chuckle and the girl looks close to fainting.
Riku waits in the alleyway until Crow’s gaggle of fans depart. “You sure are popular, Akechi-kun.” he says, laughing when Akechi’s smile twitches.
“The police don’t know what to do with that… thing,” Akechi says, ignoring his remark. “They’re afraid to touch it for now. If you could enlighten me as to what you’ve brought to our city—?”
“It’s our ship,” Riku says.
“A ship.”
“Yeah.”
Akechi presses a knuckle to his brow and shakes his head with a quick jerk that makes his curtain of hair obscure his expression. “I was supposed to sleep early tonight,” he mutters.
The red waves of Mementos encircle them. Riku looks around, quickly assessing his surroundings, manages to land on his feet on the train tracks, and narrowly avoids getting sliced in half by a serrated red blade.
“Crow? Mickey?” he yells, blocking the next slash with his keyblade. With a burst of strength, he pushes back with a swing and forces his adversary back.
“Riku, over here!” Mickey says, appearing from the depths of the tunnels, slashing at shadows that come his way, and running past ones that dash away from him.
“Where’s Crow?” Riku says. He whips his head back at low laughter.
“Shouldn’t you be more concerned for yourself at the moment?”
Riku blinks, taking in the figure, clad in a black and blue striped outfit with a black helmet, in front of him. The voice is rougher, but the scent is unmistakable, almost choking him with its darkness. “Why are you attacking me? We were allies.”
Akechi pulls out a gun and shoots at him without warning. The bullets slow in mid-air when they touch the grey waves of Riku’s stop spell. He grunts and stows his gun away. “If you refuse to call your persona, don’t expect to live. Loki!”
A striped persona appears behind him, balanced on a towering red sword, and in a blink, a white spike of energy drops down. Riku leaps to the side and brings up his arms to guard his eyes from the debris. A newly formed crevice splits the train tracks apart in the spot he’d been standing in a second ago.
“I don’t have a persona,” Riku says. He unleashes dark firaga on him, shooting three in succession.
Akechi swipes at the first one with a clawed hand, recoiling when the darkness dissipates to reveal a flaming fireball. “What the hell,” he growls and blocks the rest with his sword. He looks up to see Riku and Mickey swinging down on him as a combined force.
He skids back, clawed hands sparking where they dig into the ground, tries to get up, and falls back down on one knee. “I knew you were holding back. If you’re not a persona user, then what are you?”
“A tourist.”
Akechi barks a heaving laugh—guttural to the point of choking. Robin Hood manifests behind him, replacing Loki, and shoots a light arrow. If it weren’t for Mickey jumping in front and blocking the attack, Riku would have been in trouble.
“Damn it. How insufferable,” Akechi says.
“You’ve got to stop,” Mickey says. “We don’t want to fight.”
“Isn’t that unfortunate for you.” Akechi stabs his sword into the ground and stands, seemingly unaware of the shadows approaching him.
“Watch out!” Riku says, but Akechi is summoning his persona again and a blood red aura forms underneath him and shoots thin pillars up into the air, drenching the shadows in it. “Have you ever seen this before?” Riku asks Mickey.
“Not in any worlds I’ve been! Be careful.”
It’s not as worrisome as the cyclone of heartless, wriggling and crawling over each other in countless numbers, that had swallowed him up in the realm of darkness, but the shadows are bigger and acting as separate units in unpredictable ways. Riku dodges the claws of one, and no sooner than he gets his bearings, does he have to twist out of the way of another shadow.
He knows Mickey can handle himself, so he focuses on striking as many shadows as he can while minimizing the damage he takes. Some hit him when he’s distracted, and he has to cast cura or wait for Mickey to heal him.
The number of shadows dwindle down, and Riku takes a moment to catch his breath. Sweat drips from his chin as he collects himself. He’s about to run back into the fray when a sudden bloodlust creeps up behind him.
He exerts some of his last remaining energy into a wide, spinning swing without any regard for who or what is around him. By the time he stops, the area is clear of shadows, and Akechi is slouched over and breathing heavily.
Riku’s had enough too. “We have to leave,” he says, extending a hand.
“Why do you insist on helping me?” Akechi says, looking even more murderous at the gesture.
“Because I have a friend who didn’t give up on me either when I pushed him away.” He retracts his hand and nods at Mickey. “We don’t have to see each other again after this, but I’ll feel better knowing you made it out safe.”
Akechi scoffs. “Do you honestly believe I’d fall for that? You—get your hands off me!”
He weighs more than Riku expected, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. “Stop clawing at me and hold on,” he says, the only warning he gives before he jumps on a rail and lets it whisk him away.
“What is this—?!” Akechi shrieks in his ear as he latches onto Riku, arms flying up to loop around his neck in a death grip. He can hear Mickey laughing next to them.
They leave Mementos soon enough and Akechi scrambles out of Riku’s arms like a flailing dog, hair sticking out in every direction. He grumbles as he tugs at the ends. There isn’t really any point in straightening it out, considering how dark it’s gotten, but Riku’s not really the type to prioritize looks anyway.
He peeks around the corner of the alleyway to check on the gummi ship. There’s yellow tape around it, and the number of onlookers have significantly decreased. It attracts a curious bystander every once in a while, but they usually don’t linger too long. Two men stand guard, one on each side of the ship.
He turns back around to ask Mickey what they should do, but it’s Akechi who’s uncomfortably close—leaning back right when Riku meets his eyes. “What?”
Akechi’s expression remains passive. Carefully, he says, “Where did you fly that from? You said you’re a tourist.”
“An island.”
“Oh? An island nearby here?”
The flip-flopping self-righteous, innocent act is starting to get on Riku’s nerves. He feels a twinge of sympathy for Sora—it must have been much worse to deal with that from a best friend, and yet he’d forgiven him despite everything. He wants to emulate Sora’s kindness, to offer compassion as he does.
And, like Sora, that doesn’t mean he’s not above telling Akechi off.
“Fellas, let’s not fight,” Mickey says, sensing the tension between them. Riku clamps his mouth shut and huffs out a breath. “We’re looking for a friend of ours, and need to leave as soon as possible. Can you help?”
Akechi crosses his arms, frowning deeply. “I don’t—”
“Hey, you guys are still here.”
Akechi’s brow pinches for a brief moment as he purses his lips, then his face falls back into a picture perfect smile devoid of wrinkles. “They seem to be having difficulty navigating the city.” His composure slips for a moment when Riku laughs. “What brings you here, Ren?”
Ren adjusts his glasses. “I had to return some DVDs.”
“Oh, I see.”
There’s an awkward silence that settles between them while they look away and fidget with their clothes. Riku coughs, but they don’t pay him any attention. Eventually, Ren takes a quiet breath, prompting Akechi’s eyes to snap back up.
“Everyone’s meeting up for billiards soon. You should come.”
Akechi brushes at his blazer again, ducking his head in feigned contemplation. “Well… I do have an early start tomorrow, as you know, but perhaps I can spare some time—I may have to check my schedule.”
As funny as it is to watch them dance around each other, Riku and Mickey have a place to be. “Hey, so we need our ship to find our friend,” he says loudly, keeping his smile down when they, having drifted closer to each other unconsciously, both jump apart from each other.
With a steadier voice than his embarrassment indicates, Akechi says, “Unfortunately, it’s under police surveillance now. There’s nothing I can really do.”
“We can distract them,” Ren says. “Then, you guys sneak in and take it back.”
Akechi sighs loudly. “Why would you suggest such a thing when I’m right here?”
It’s risky, but they might as well try. “That sounds good. The sooner I leave, the sooner you don’t have to deal with me anymore.”
Akechi grumbles, pulls out his phone, and shoves it back in his pocket. He grabs Riku by the arm when he starts to leave the alleyway. “Wait, they’ll be switching officers any minute now. I’ll intercept the ones meant to switch in. This plan will have a better chance of working if we distract the guards while they’re tired from their shift.
“Your best bet would be to sneak around the back. Oh, and Mickey will garner too much attention walking around. I believe it would be best if you carried him and pretended he was a doll.”
“Uh—that’s—”
“It’s okay, Riku! Let’s trust him.”
Mickey jumps into his arms immediately and Riku’s stomach flips as he narrowly avoids letting him slip and crash to the ground. “Then… excuse me, then.” He adjusts his arms in what should be a solid, but not too tight grip.
“Should we go now?” Riku says.
Akechi checks the main street. “Yes, I see them. Well, good luck.” He walks briskly out.
“Ready?” Ren says.
Riku looks down at Mickey and adjusts his arms again. “As much as I’ll ever be.”
With a mischievous grin reminiscent of his Joker persona, Ren walks off. He blends in seamlessly within the crowd, whereas Riku definitely draws some stares. Mickey stays convincingly still, but it can’t be helped when they’re dressed a lot differently than the people here.
He follows Ren, stopping a short distance away when he starts conversing with the officer guarding the back. Ren talks meekly, fumbles with his phone, and shines the bright screen in the officer’s face, making him wince and rub at his eyes.
Seeing his cue, Riku dashes, turning into a wisp of darkness for a split second to avoid detection, and reforms behind the gummi ship. He plasters himself to the door, crouches, and sets Mickey down. “We have to run in the minute the door’s wide enough. Ready whenever you are,” he says.
The gummi ship’s engine roars to life the minute Mickey places his hand on the touchpad, lighting up like a christmas tree and kicking out a gust of wind. Passerbys jump back in alarm and stare, bewildered.
Riku and Mickey jump in the moment they can, closing the door behind them and running to the cockpit. They flip switches and plug in coordinates as quickly as they can. Thankfully, the circle of people outside are far enough to safely ascend into the sky.
Riku looks through the window and sees Ren and Akechi holding back the guards they had distracted. Ren grins and slinks off once the gummi ship is high enough. With a mental word of thanks, Riku punches the button that shoots them out of this world’s atmosphere.
The expanse of space welcomes them, strangely comforting despite its emptiness. The asteroid field they need to enter is a fair distance away, so Riku sits back and relaxes. “Think they’ll work it out?”
There’s a soft thumping sound as Mickey makes himself comfortable. “We can only wish them the best of luck. As long as they follow their hearts and are willing to learn from each other, they will find their way just as you did.”
Riku watches the numbers roll on the overhead screen. “You’re right.” He chuckles. “When we get Aqua out, maybe we can go see Sora?”
“That sounds like a good idea. So let’s make sure to find her this time.”
“Yeah, this time we will.”