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3PM. Akira was hanging out with Haru at Big Bang Burger. She was telling him about Okumura’s affiliates.
“Several years ago,” Haru told him, a slight fear in her eyes, “When Okumura Foods first tried to go international, we partnered with a famous pizza establishment. I think they called it… Fazbear Entertainment?”
Akira frowned. That sounded familiar to him. “Tell me more.”
“They mostly owned pizzerias with mascots, like Chuck E Cheese. But what we didn't know at the time was that… there had been murders there.”
“Murders?!”
Haru nodded grimly. “Decades ago, a group of children went missing at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The rumors say that… that they were killed and stuffed into the suits by an employee.”
Akira shuddered. He was no stranger to serial killings, having heard of them in his childhood, but this case sent shivers down his spine.
Haru shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She hadn't even touched the burger yet. “Actually… Fazbear Entertainment is still affiliated with us. In fact, years later, they're trying to pin the blame on us.”
“What?! But why?”
“A long time ago, before Okumura Foods was established, Grandfather had helped out for a birthday party at one of their pizzerias… the same place where the murders took place.”
“But you're sure Okumura Foods isn't linked to the murders?”
“Of course!” Haru insisted, desperate conviction in her words. “I… I know the company has a track record of employee abuse. That's why Father had a Palace, after all. But this is just…!”
Akira crossed his arms, pursing his lips in deep thought. Okumura Foods didn't have a good record these days, but Haru was still trying to fix it. If this case got worse…
“Do you know the name of Fazbear Entertainment’s owner?”
Haru thought for a moment. “Um… as of right now, the only active one is William Afton. We haven't seen him in years, though. But Akira, what are you…?”
Akira patted her shoulder. “Don't worry about it. Get some rest for now, Haru.
“What are you even thinking, Akira?! Are you insane?”
Ann’s face was deathly pale as Akira told him his plans for next week. They still had several Mementos requests pending, but then Akira had suddenly approached her after a modeling session asking her to help him… catch a plane to America.
“Hey, the Phantom Thieves are worldwide at this point. Who's to say we can't leave the country?” Akira was grinning like a madman, as usual. As much as Ann trusted their leader, he was seriously scary sometimes.
Ann pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath.
“So… this guy. William Afton. What's he like?”
Akira pulled up his phone and showed her some screenshots. “Founder of Fazbear Entertainment along with Henry Emily. Really into robots. MIA for at least a few decades. Has, uh… at least two children. Loves purple. British, which is immediately a red flag.”
Ann decided to ignore the last few bits. “Maybe he's like Okumura? That still isn't much, though.”
Then Akira lowered his voice. Ann felt a shiver crawl up her spine.
How horrible…
“Okay, yeah, we DEFINITELY need to change his heart!” Ann decided. “But, um… I'm kind of busy. And so is practically everyone else. Also, isn't Futaba out cold until next week? Morgana’s staying with her, too. Who are you going with?”
Akira grinned. It was that damn Joker grin, which told her he had everything under control but also meant he was going to do something insane.
“Don't worry about it, I won't drag Futaba, Morgana, or any of you busy folks into this. Just make sure to get us two tickets to America.”
“Well, well, well… if it isn't America. I love burgers! Pizza! America forever!”
Ryuji groaned as he helped Akira get their ‘luggage’ out. “Seriously, dude? I mean, I got time, but… Man, my head still hurts from the jetlag.”
Akira chuckled. “It'll be fine. You love horror games, right?”
“I do NOT!”
“Well, I do.” He shrugged. “Don't worry about it too much. I'll do the leading, you do the fighting.”
“Dude, I REALLY don't think Shadows are the only thing we're fighting in that place.”
Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza had, as they discovered too late, burned down years ago already. Which didn't really add up with Haru’s story… but then again, there were a lot of rumors about Fazbear's that were weird in general.
Ghosts? A serial killer? Haunted robots? Ryuji thought it was something out of some shitty horror game. Beside him, Akira was all too willing to indulge.
Instead of a pizzeria stood what appeared to be a ‘haunted house’, like those things you visit at amusement parks where people were paid to dress up and scare the crap out of you. The place was called Fazbear's Fright, and interestingly enough, they also claimed to have “a real animatronic” there. Whatever that meant.
Ryuji Sakamoto wasn't a coward. He just had enough self-preservation left to know that this was a BAD IDEA.
Of course, unlike him, Akira Kurusu didn't give a shit and was currently staring down at his phone with a contemplative look on his face. “Let's see… William Afton. Fazbear's Fright. Pizzeria.”
Almost immediately, the world around them began to distort, swirly hues of red and black enveloping their vision.
“Oh, COME ON!” Akira groaned. “Absolutely no creativity whatsoever! Not even like, I don't know, a home, a maze, anything else that wasn't so painfully obvious?! Zero out of ten. William Afton SUCKS. Let's go, Skull.”
“Uh, sure, man…”
Akira was strange. Ryuji didn't mind—that was kinda why they got along in the first place—but like… His best friend was seriously weird.
Even so, he followed in Akira's footsteps as they walked towards a pizzeria that should've burned down years ago.
“... Weird. I don't sense anything yet.” Akira squinted at the monitor in front of them, watching the security camera go back and forth over a view of the three main animatronics: Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica. He actually liked their designs—they made him nostalgic for his hometown, where a bear mascot would also advertise for the local market—but the darkness of midnight did make it understandable that his best friend was currently freaking out.
Ryuji was clinging to the sleeve of his black coat, his hands colder than usual. “Yeah, no shit! Both of the navigators aren't here. Joker, you sure this is a good idea…?”
“It'll be fine. This Palace is hilariously tiny, anyway.” Akira wasn't lying. For a Palace, the Pizzeria was… way too small. Sure, the other Palaces were of exaggerated size, but this was just laughable. “Besides, you have me.”
“What?”
He smirked. “I've gotten strong enough to protect you, haven't I?”
Ryuji groaned. “Dude, shut up. At this point, I don't even know who's your actual type anymore. First it was A—Panther, then you tried hitting on Fox, then me, then Queen… also, that time I saw you making out with fucking Goro Akechi in the alleyway last—”
“Shh.”
“What is it now—ohhh god.”
Freddy Fazbear had disappeared.
Akira took a deep breath. It was fine. Haunted robots had nothing on a cracked Izanagi-no-Okami. He was overthinking this. “... Skull. Check the door lights.” Thankfully, Ryuji did as told and checked outside.
“Nothing here, man, just—OH MY GOD.”
“What is it, Skull?!”
Ryuji was frozen where he was, though, so Akira hurried over to where he was standing to see just what he'd spotted in the hallway.
In the dim, flickering lights of the pizzeria, two tiny lights were staring straight ahead. Two very tall lights. Two lights that were slowly but surely approaching the office.
Then they ran.
“Skull, door, NOW!” Akira barked. Ryuji hurriedly slammed his palm onto the red button.
The metal door flew down shut. The thieves waited with bated breath, looking at each other with pure terror in their eyes.
“You think that's—mmfgh!”
Ryuji gasped for air as Akira clamped his mouth shut, whispering. “Shh. Let me check…” With his free hand, he pressed the white button under the red one.
Freddy Fazbear stood at the window, his beady, glowing eyes staring right at them. Akira didn't have a fear of mascots, but this was a pretty damn good attempt to give him one. Also, was that a TONGUE?
Akira promptly slapped the white button back off. Ryuji shuddered at the monstrosity they'd just witnessed.
“Wait, don't the rumors say those suits are stuffed with kids…”
The two looked at each other again. The Phantom Thieves had dealt with some seriously disgusting people before, but it was still hard to get used to. Hopefully this one didn't go to that length, at least.
Akira tugged on his red gloves in a small effort to distract himself from the unease in his gut. He wasn't a scaredy-cat, but he was 100% certain anyone would disturbed by the freak of a robot standing right outside their foor. “Cognitive Freddy shouldn't be worse than the rumors. We should expect the other animatronics to be haunted and aggressive as well.”
“So, we're surrounded.” Maybe the Palace being this small wasn't good for them after all. They were trapped in a tiny office seemingly for a security guard, with only two metal doors dependent on limited electricity.
He could probably just get Ryuji to use Ziodyne, but he didn't have a good feeling about that either. One mistake, and they were two against three without a navigator.
Akira nodded grimly. “Four, actually. Five if we're being technical.”
“Wait, what?”
Instead of answering his question, Akira turned to the monitor, where he switched the cameras. Now onscreen was “Pirate's Cove”, which only displayed a purple-ish ‘cove’ and a sign that said “OUT OF ORDER”. As much as he liked pirates—they stole treasure, and his own best friend(?) was technically one—he wasn't a big fan of the one inside this. Still, he grinned as he pointed to the camera.
“Look, Skull. It's you.”
Ryuji snorted. “That ain't me, man.”
“Yeah, you deserve to be center stage with the rest of us.” The ‘gentleman thief’ winked. “I'll always leave a spot for my first mate.”
“Hey, I'm the captain here.”
“Je suis désolé then, Captain—I meant first date.”
Ryuji was about to reply, probably that if Akira was really treating this as a first date then this was a really shitty spot for it, but their attention was caught by the sound of pots and pans banging outside the office.
“Guess someone else's awake,” Akira muttered. He changed the camera back to “Show Stage”, and as expected, someone was missing again. That yellow duck thing—Chica, was it? “Man, talk about nocturnal.”
“Yeah. By the way, why did we have to go here at night, actually? This would be way less scary if we were doing this in broad daylight, but nooo, we gotta deal with Freakbear over here standing at our window while he and his friends are trying to KILL US.”
Akira shrugged. “Par for the course for us already. Besides, you know what the dude on the phone said. The animatronics do get a bit—”
“—a bit quirky at night, yeah,” Ryuji finished. “But how are we supposed to find the Palace Ruler when we're freaking trapped here with no way out?”
Akira smiled. It was that specific smile that he knew Ryuji kind of liked but also really hated, because it meant he'd come up with a plan that was both incredibly brilliant and incredibly stupid and had a 50/50 chance of getting them both killed.
“Skull, have I ever told you that I can see ghosts?”
No, Akira had never told him that. On one hand, he'd been kind of implying it for a while now—
“Hey man. What's up?”
“Hey, Ryuji. I saw him on the train again…”
“Wh—again? Seriously?”
“Yeah. Had a bunch of officers with him too. He didn't see me.”
“Akira, dude, that's… literally impossible. You know the guy's—”
—dead, right?
Ryuji knew Akira had serious attachment issues. He also knew that, for a pathological flirt, he had really weird taste. Akira once claimed that the fastest route to his heart was to point a gun at his head. That was partly why Ryuji kept deflecting his advances, but also, Akira really seemed to believe that ‘that person’ was still alive. That didn't exactly add up here, though.
Instead of bringing that can of worms up, Ryuji replied, “Uh, ghosts? In the Metaverse?”
“It's not impossible. If William Afton really believes that the animatronics are haunted, then it's not a stretch to assume they are.”
Without warning, Akira's eyes became a glowing gold. Ryuji had to do a double take and remind himself what it was—Akira's so-called ‘Third Eye’ ability. It was actually relatively mundane, only used to provide them Palace puzzle hints and extra focus, but it still freaked him out sometimes. It looked too much like the Shadows of the Metaverse.
“Seriously? That’s what you're using to see the ghosts?”
Akira nodded, his eyes fading back into their regular dark. “I think if we investigate the animatronics, then we can find Afton’s Shadow.”
“I mean, I get that, but…” Ryuji gestured to his face. “How do you know this will work?”
“Weren't we just playing Twilight Princess, Skull? Get with the program.”
Ryuji was about to ask why the hell Akira was applying videogame logic to their endeavors, but quickly figured that 1) it wasn't the strangest thing to have happened anyway and 2) Akira didn't give a shit.
“Focus,” Akira murmured as his narrowed eyes glowed bright gold once more. He turned to the window behind where Freddy was still standing with those glowing eyes. “Tell us who took your life on the day of the party.”
No response.
“Joker, I really don't know if—”
A loud bang on the window cut him off. Ryuji nearly bit his tongue when he jumped.
“Oookay, yeah, he was NOT happy about that.” He looked at the glowing dots behind the glass, which had definitely gotten closer. Was that a crack on there, too?
To put himself at ease, Ryuji readied his shotgun and preemptively aimed it at the metal door. It probably wouldn't do much, but it was better than nothing.
Akira took in a sharp breath as he let his Third Eye waver. “It's no use. He doesn't understand me at all. He thinks I'm the one who killed him.”
“No shit. For all we know, the kid doesn't even remember anymore. We probably just look the same to him.” In hindsight, that was actually a pretty scary thought. These children had been dead for decades, presumably stuffed into those musty robot suits… suits that, in the real present, were left to rot in a horror house for peoples’ entertainment.
Suddenly, the glinting, wet tongue behind the window was way more disgusting. Ryuji wasn't sure he wanted to see what Afton’s Shadow looked like at this rate.
“Check the other door,” Akira muttered, having given up on interviewing the aggressive animatronic. “I swear, at this rate, he's going to drain all out power…”
As ordered, Ryuji walked over to the other door, pressed the white button—and let out a scream that was so loud that it also caused Akira to scream in his own shock.
“SKULL, WHAT—”
“GET OUT, YOU—!” Ryuji scrambled to smack the red button as the visage of Chica, who also had a tongue, stared at them with a predatory glare. “Joker, can't we just fight these things?! They're Cognitions!”
“And get rid of our only leads? We're no closer to Afton than we were before!”
“Yeah, well, we're not getting closer anytime soon! We're trapped in this shithole til who knows when!”
Akira tugged at his bangs, his forehead creased with quiet frustration. “Sunrise, actually. But we have to get to the bottom of this before sunrise.”
“Dude, it's like 1 AM. Are you sure we can—”
“I’m sure. It'll be fine, we'll figure this out.”
Ryuji let out something between a groan and a sigh as he turned off the lights on his side. They didn't need the door lights to know they were completely surrounded.
Five hours. They had to get an answer, presumably from the Cognitive animatronics, within five hours and before they ran out of power.
“... Joker, how much power do we got left?”
“Uh… 76%.”
Somewhere in a better timeline, Ryuji would've liked to attend a party here with his friends, maybe even eat some pizza. The mascot stuff was a bit childish for his taste, but Freddy and Co. performing for them onstage would've been a lot better than Freddy and Co. seeking out their deaths.
Akira better be right about this, or else.