Chapter Text
They entered the metaverse, the palace looming in front, casting shadows on the ground.
Red and white striped fabric was assembled into the form of a Big Top, although it was larger than any circus tent Ren had ever seen before. Flags were positioned at every peak of the tent, flapping in the breeze. The tent itself rippled a bit in the wind, but it held strong. In the center was a large canopy opening adorned with bulb lights, blinking in different bright colors. Jaunty music spilled out into the open space, a cheerful tune made chilling by the simple displacement of hearing something so bright in the metaverse.
The Phantom Thieves were silent as they took in the sight before them, a silence not broken until Ryuji spoke.
“Gotta say, man, not quite what I was expecting,” he said. The others murmured their agreements, but Ren stayed quiet. He couldn’t say he blamed them, exactly. A circus was not quite in line with everything they had seen thus far. But Ren had a feeling this was going to be more than it appeared to be.
……………………………
The group sat crammed into Ren’s attic room, having been assembled there for an emergency meeting. He and Morgana had finished giving everyone the briefing.
"I'm so glad everything went okay," Haru said, a hand over her heart as she gave a sigh of relief.
"I know, it was so scary!" Ann said. "Even though I knew our plan, I couldn't help but worry things had gone wrong."
"I will admit, hearing your death on the news gave me quite a chill," Yusuke said.
"Not me," Ryuji said, giving Ren an affectionate punch in the arm. "I always believed in you!"
The chatter continued like this for a bit, and Ren didn't stop it. Even if for just a minute, they needed a second to just sit in the fact that things had worked out. After everyone was able to get that out of their system, they got right back on track.
"With that out of the way, we need to plan," Makoto said. "Akechi may think things are over, but for us they are just getting started."
"We've got our route into Shido's palace confirmed," Futuba said, tapping away at her tablet. "We can begin infiltration at any time, but we need to be careful. There is no saying what we are going to run into in terms of Akechi's plans."
"About that," Morgana said, jumping into the middle of the table. "We discovered something that you guys are going to want to see. Show them, Ren."
With everyone's attention on him, Ren simply placed his phone on the table, sliding it into the middle so the others could see. It was the metanav app open to a palace search screen with Akechi's name on it, and big red letters indicating there was a hit.
Silence fell across the table as they all took in this new information.
"I… I can't say that I am surprised," Makoto admitted, pulling her arms across herself like she was giving herself a hug. "Not after everything."
Yusuke nodded solemnly. "It makes sense."
"Of course it does!" Ryuji said. "Why wouldn't that bastard have a palace? Well adjusted people aren't tearing through palaces giving people mental shut downs."
Haru turned her head to the side, looking like she was going to be sick.
"What are we supposed to do about it?" Ann asked. "We have a deadline with Shido, shouldn't we focus on that?"
"If it were just about anyone else, I would agree," Morgana said. "However, he could pose a threat to us within Shido's palace. Strategically, it would make sense to change his heart, to avoid such a risk."
"We can't all be in two palaces at once," Futuba said. "Even if we split up to cover ground in both, I would only be able to help navigate in one at a time. If we do this, we have to be sure this is the right path."
With that, everyone turned to Ren. He had to admit, even after all this time, he still felt the weight of his leadership in moments like this with all eyes on him. He took a breath and folded his hands — still bruised from the events of the interrogation room — before looking at everyone.
"I want to change his heart."
He was ready to defend his decision. He knew the others did not have the view of Akechi that he did, that dealing with the potential complications in a different way would provide much less stress and put them in much less danger than a dual palace infiltration. He also knew he shouldn't feel this way after getting shot point blank by the guy, but Ren felt there was something worth learning inside this palace, despite everything.
But in the end, he didn't have to defend his decision or convince anyone.
Ryuji gave a shrug. "If that's what you say, I'm in."
Ann enthusiastically nodded her agreement. "I'll back you up, my vote is yes."
"You have never steered us wrong before, Ren," Yusuke said. "I'll stand by your side."
"It would be best to deal with the root of the problem," Haru said softly.
"The less palaces in this world the better, I say," Futuba said.
"I'll assist with coordination," Makoto said. "We can make this worse."
"Well, there you have it," Morgana said. "Unanimous. Now, we need to figure out all of the key words."
Everyone immediately switched over to infiltration mode, all discussing the possible key words that could get them to the palace. Sometimes Ren couldn't believe how lucky he was with the supportive friends he had found in Tokyo. Never again did he have to handle things alone.
"Let's start with the real world location," Makoto suggested. "Due to his consultant work, maybe it's the police department?"
The phone buzzed with an error message.
"What about an interrogation room?" Yusuke asked. That was a dud as well.
They went through their process, guessing different locations as they came to mind. They thought about all the places Akechi would be doing his actual consultant work, but none of the related law or criminal justice buildings had a hit. After a while of guessing, it was Ryuji that stumbled upon the right answer.
"What about where we first met him?" Ryuji said. "The news station?"
The metanav let out a soft ding, indicating a hit. The paused for brief celebration on their correct answer before focusing back in on their task.
"Next is how his palace forms, correct?" Haru asked.
"Yeah," Ann confirmed. "Maybe… a theater?"
The metanav buzzed in denial.
"Perhaps a movie set," Yusuke suggested. No hit there either.
The others continued guessing, things related to the Detective Prince's performance and connection to the news station. Ren went quiet, thinking. He didn't think they were far off, making these performance based guesses. He thought back to the time he and Akechi had tried to go to the cafe together, and they'd needed to use Ren's glasses to disguise Akechi from those who had come to gawk at him. This wasn't so simple as a featured performance.
"A circus," Ren said, interrupting the barrage of guesses. The metanav chimed, indicating a correct answer. Another brief pause for celebration at the right answer, but Ren couldn't fully join in. He felt a knot in his stomach at that being the correct answer, but he kept that to himself. His relationship with Akechi had been… unique, to say the least. Maybe he was over thinking things.
At this point, it wasn't hard to find how Akechi viewed himself in the distortion. They'd simply begun listing off roles relating to a circus until stumbling across the hit of "ringmaster".
"Now we have everything," Morgana said, getting them on track. "We should go scope it out and look for our infiltration point as soon as we can."
Everyone nodded their agreement.
……………..
"Can't we just go in through the front?" Ryuji asked.
"Of course we can't!" Morgana said. "We are Phantom Thieves, we don't just waltz through the front door! Have you learned nothing?"
The two began to bicker, and Ren tuned them out. They could sort it out on their own, there were more pressing matters at hand. The front entrance would be tempting, but there was a queue of shadows lined up there at the entrance. They wouldn't be able to get through without a fight, and there was no telling what would happen in subsequent infiltration attempts.
"The tent is staked to the ground very thoroughly," Futuba reported. "This will not be as easy as just ducking underneath, we will need to find something else. Check the perimeter, I'll start looking for a weak point."
They began to go around the perimeter of the tent as instructed. This really gave a sense of how large the place was, it seemed to stretch on forever, almost impossible to get a real sense of how big the tent was. Luckily, there was nothing much on the outside they had to worry about. The shadows were all congregated at the entrance, so once they left that area there was nothing else to get in their way.
"There!" Futuba said. "Along the next stripe, there's a weak point."
Ren went up to the area Futuba indicated. The stripes were thick, alternating red and white. Along the seam of this one, though, the fabric moved differently. Closer inspection showed a tear in the fabric, with frayed threads that showed a previous stitching attempt had come undone. The rip was about three feet tall, and when Ren parted the fabric to the sides it had just enough give to create a decent opening.
"It'll be a tight fit, but we can get in through here," he reported back to the others.
Ryuji stretched his arms above his head. "Compared to some of those vents we've wedged our way into, this is no problem at all."
"Yes, this will do just fine," Yusuke agreed.
"Just lead the way!" Ann said.
Ren nodded, before wiggling his way through the tear in the fabric. He landed softly inside, compact dirt beneath his feet. He stepped away from the tear to allow the others space to climb in after him, and he took a look at his surroundings.
They were beneath a set of wooden bleachers. The seating towered above them at an angle, and through gaps in the wooden slats he could see the forms of some shadows sitting down. They were sparse, just a couple here and there among the mostly empty bleachers. Ren and the others were well hidden beneath the bleachers, the shadows wouldn't see them unless they got down on the floor of the bleacher rows to peer through the slats, so they didn't have to worry about a high security level quite yet. The floor this far down was not constructed, simply packed dirt from the lot the bit top was in. A breeze flowed in through the rip in the fabric, but otherwise things were still.
Ren turned to the others that had just came through the tear and placed one finger to his lips to indicate quiet before pointing to the bleachers. The others took a glance through the slats and saw, nodding to show their understanding.
"This must be why they were lining up outside," Makoto said in a whisper. "To see a performance."
It made sense. After all, what else was a circus for? Still, it was strange. What exactly were they waiting to see?
"Let's get to the next area quickly," Ren said in a hushed voice. "Before we're caught down here."
He probably shouldn't have said anything, because that comment seemed to practically summon a shadow.
The shadow patrolling the area beneath the bleachers wore a sort of circus uniform, although a toned down one. A red and white striped vest with a top hat. It wore a name tag with unintelligible writing, and held a ticket puncher. An employee meant to escort guests to their seat, perhaps, and also make sure those without tickets didn't get in.
The shadow's eyes landed on them and it looked around frantically. It's eyes began to glow and it raised the ticket punch, rushing in.
"Well, shit," Ryuji said.