Chapter Text
Goro—
Takes a breath. Blinks.
Silence. The only sound out there was a hum of the engine. Which had to be based on cognition since one expected it, not because the engine was actually working and propelling the ship.
Noir’s axe is broken into pieces in front of him - the work of particularly vicious Laevateinn if he recalls correctly. Noir herself is also there, laying face down, her usually pink shirt several shades darker thanks to the… blood.
Right. Not a shadow.
Goro glances away, feeling more than a little queasy.
She managed to hit him, didn’t she? He numbly rubs his right, bloodied arm. Yup, she definitely did.
He lifts his heavy, heavy head and looks around.
The Thieves’ bodies are scattered in the engine room. Mona’s paw is extended towards Panther whose mouth is formed around the disrupted spell. Skull tried to protect Fox, not that it ended well for them. Queen’s a little further away from the group; she tried to sneak around and deliver the blow from the side. Oracle… Goro recalls managing to get a hit on her when she attempted to change the cognition around him.
(Not a particularly hard one; even then he wasn’t really able to hurt her. He hated the Thieves, despised them, but Futaba was a certain kind of complicated hate, the one he didn’t want to think about.)
It seemed that Oracle escaped. Which. Good. Alright? Good.
Joker, however…
Amamiya was in front of most of the group - he tried to run at him, didn’t he? Goro didn’t know what he was planning but acted, managed to hit first. And he… He fell first. The Thieves were yelling at him to get up, oh does he remember their anguished screams. And then…
…Wait.
He won the fight.
…
He won the fight?
How in the—
Deep breath. Out. In out. Inout. Okay. Okay.
First he had to
make sure the Thieves were dead, gone for good, not interfering with our plans
take the letters from Joker’s body corpse body. Maybe grab something to heal himself, replenish his SP while he’s at it.
Goro manages to stand up, take a few steps and— oh, he was already there, kneeling right next to Amamiya. That was… fast. Too fast even, if his dizziness was any indication.
There’s some blood trickling from under the body.
check his pulse
don’t look at his face
Fuck, he’s always a little out of it after driving himself psychotic. He forgot, when was the last time he had to use it on himself it has been a while hasn’t it—
Goro rummages through the tailcoat’s pockets. Leblanc’s coffee in thermos. He drinks it in one go, feeling a little less lightheaded afterward. A sandwich. Goro pretty much inhales it.
There were other various, rather weak items. He consumes a few, but mostly puts them aside on the floor. When did Amamiya find time to buy so many cans of soda? Was he really lugging them every time he entered the Metaverse?
Finally, a letter. And another. And another. A life stone that ends up rolling on the floor. Fourth letter.
A… Gauntlet?
Goro blinks. A single, clawed gauntlet that looks suspiciously like—
He rummages through a pocket a bit more, but there’s no pair. He does, however, find the last letter. Is it the last one? He counts them. One, two, three, four, five. Onetwothreefourfive. Five. Five letters.
So. That’s it then.
Goro won. The Phantom Thieves are no more. He holds all the cards now. He can bring Shido’s downfall however he wants whenever he wants with no one standing in his way.
He—
This time Joker’s eyes are closed. He’d look as if he were sleeping, though stuck in the nightmare if the pained expression was any indication. It was pale and bruised, there was also a small, fresh cut on his cheek.
Goro turns Ren onto his back, head on his lap. His claws gently move black curls away from the forehead. He grabs the wrist in his other hand, squeezing it, trying to detect something, anything.
He looks away from the pale face and notices a huge gash across his chest that stopped bleeding a while ago.
Even though he just drank coffee and some disgusting soda Goro feels the inside of his mouth dry up. Panic claws up his insides.
This is what he wanted, what he had to do, he won, he should leave—
“Samarecarm,” he rasps out.
Robin Hood appears behind him and surrounds Ren in magic light, though he pays it no mind, staring at his face instead. Goro saw the spell in action only once, back in Sae’s Casino, after Panther fell down and Mona immediately put her back on her feet. The wound vanished, but Joker himself wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing, wasn’t waking up and springing into action. Was Goro too late? Did he actually end him once and for all?
Ren takes a sudden breath and coughs. He blinks rapidly, staring up in confusion at the cracked mask above him.
“…Crow?” He mutters, eyes squinting. “‘S that you?”
Goro opens his mouth. Goro closes his mouth.
He throws Amamiya’s head back on the floor, and, ignoring the yelp of pain, scrambles to his feet and quickly moves towards the exit, Goho-M already tight in his grasp, leaving the defeated team behind.
“Crow!” He hears. And then, much quieter: “Oh fuck.” Joker must have noticed his friends around him.
He’ll let him figure it out on his own.
Outside, in the real world, the gauntlet transforms into a single black leathered glove.