AUTHOR'S NOTICE: THE FULL CHAPTER IS AT LAST UP. ENJOY. Fixed an error from earlier
Dojima's waiting at the bar Adachi's invited him to. The Crossroads Bar, it's called - the kind of shady establishment that Adachi and him always went to drink at after work, a sort of haven for their late night jaunts.
The place is blanketed in all sorts of devilish pinks and reds. The bartender seems a little heavyset, but she means well. Dojima lazily swirls his glass of whiskey in one hand, listening to the old music playing on the jukebox in the back. It's the kind of rockabilly he used to love back in the day as a student, and his face cocks in a grin as he listens.
Man. These past few months had been a whirlwind. Getting to meet Adachi again, to understand him deeper than he could have ever dreamt, and even to become part of the Phantom Thieves.. If somebody had told Dojima all of that was going to happen so suddenly, he would have declared they were smoking crack.
But here he is - because just as Dojima had never given up on Adachi, Adachi had never given up on him. Dojima chuckles as the bartender strides up to him. "Any reason why you've come tonight?" she asks, shaking her mixer as she stares at Dojima.
"Well, uh, my old work friend and I are getting together here for a drink."
The woman squints before her face brightens in recognition.
"Wait, champ, I know you, you're that man Kurusu called about. You should've told me earlier.. Come, come, let me lead you to your special table."
Dojima's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "Special.. table?"
The woman chuckles lowly as she walks over.
"Akira called after you two. Said he needed a favor. Got you two a special table right here - the best seat in the house."
And so Dojima is somewhat forcefully ushered over to a little booth that looks nice and cozy.
He doesn't miss the little rose-holding vase on the booth's table, either. His face flushes with either booze or embarrassment - maybe a small combination of the two.
"That damn kid," Dojima murmurs under his breath, but the woman merely titters again.
"Come, sit, sit. Your date should be arriving any minute now."
Dojima finally seats himself and, lo and behold, the seats are rather cushy. They're upholstered with fine leather, too.
"These seem pretty recently installed, these booths.." he said, trying to make small talk.
The woman smiles wide. "We got them all the way from another bar, the Stray Sheep."
"Huh. Interesting.."
The door opens, and the chime of the bell attached to the door makes Dojima look up.
What he sees takes his breath away.
Adachi looks.. halfway decent for once. He's wearing a rather sophisticated red waistcoat over a black formal shirt, with this look in his eyes - is that eyeshadow brimming them? His hair looks much less choppy and awkward, too. He looks like a new man, more charismatic than ever before and more.. more..
Dojima can't bring himself to say it through the blush upon his face - most likely alcohol-induced, that's what he's telling himself, the most likely alcohol-induced blush.
Adachi smirks, snickering a little as he seats himself in the small booth across from Dojima.
"Cabbage got your tongue?"
Dojima takes a deep breath in through his nose. "I think the expression is cat got your tongue, not cabbage got your tongue."
"Did I stutter?" The look in Adachi's eyes is so piercing now that he's dropped all pretenses of pretending to be the dopey detective around Dojima. It's something Dojima himself still can't believe, truth be told - that something so livid was living inside his clumsy, crooked-tie-wearing partner the whole time.
But the look in Adachi's eyes right now can make him believe every minute of it.
Adachi leans his head out from the booth, waving his arm to signal the lady. "Hey, missus? Couldja please turn on the news? I want to see Shido give his speech for tonight." he said, in his best "innocent detective" voice and face, right before turning back to Dojima and letting that mask slip right off.
How fast he can slip from one side of himself to another like that still gives Dojima shivers.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the reveal. Aren't you?"
Oh. Right. They were here for "plausible deniability", not just a regular drink together.
Dojima nods, taking a long sip of his whiskey. They naturally fall into silence as the TV turns on to the news channel.
Masayoshi Shido is there. His smile is wide across his face, and he's clearly rather smug about what's going to transpire.
"It appears," he begins in his speech, "that the Phantom Thieves have been getting awfully bold."
Adachi clenches his jaw. Dojima takes another sip.
"So in return, I shall reveal every single one of their names tonight. Let them be swept away, and let the rain of justice come down upon their shoulders!" Shido smiles even wider.
"We shall start with their leader.."
Adachi shivers as the TV screen turns to static and the symbol of the Phantom Thieves appears. Joker's distorted voice echoes from the screen: "Hello there, world. Looks like we're going to have to step in and put a stop to this, hm?"
"Yeah," Morgana's voice chimes in, "we can't have this getting out of hand, huh? Guess we're gonna be dropping Shido's Calling Card tonight!"
Yusuke smiles as his voice - again, altered by the voice changer, but with that recognizable diction of his - "It is this very video, crafted by all of us Thieves with love and hatred in equal measures. The supplement to your downfall, the very thing that shall sink the ship of your campaign.."
The barkeeper stares with wide-eyes. One lady - seemingly a reporter from the camera around her neck - is leaning closer with fascination gleaming in her eyes.
Joker's silhouette shows up on the screen, with him gesturing beside him. "The Thieves have amassed a Calling Packet unlike any other for you, the Sinner of Arrogance. This is a packet unlike any other, exposing every crime you have tried to hide over your years of civil service, painstakingly documented by the connections of our Espionage Branch - The Devil's Hand."
The silhouettes of Yukitaro, Adachi and Dojima come up on screen, waving with smirks on their faces. "Hey," Adachi's silhouette calls, "suck it, Shido. Know that there's no way you can take this down - with the help of our good buddy Oracle, we've spread it all across the world!"
Yukitaro clears his throat. "The crimes Masayoshi Shido has committed, in order, are.."
It's going to be a long night, but when Dojima looks over at Adachi, he sees a positively delighted, fiendish gleam to the man's eyes.
And indeed, the Calling Packet seems to spread like wild-fire, criticisms of Masayoshi Shido's incredible streak of misdeeds following in its wake. The United States in particular seems to latch onto the injustices of it, petitions made in order to get his campaign for Prime Minister suspended.
But in Japan, the very place where it matters, it premieres with a few days - a week at most - of riotous discussion, then nothing at all.
It doesn't sit well with many members of the Thieves, but it especially doesn't sit well with Tohru Adachi.
It's after the fight against Shido that Akira Kurusu comes into the Adachi house to find Tohru sitting in a chair. His hands are covering his face, and his jaw is clenched.
Akira hums, walking closer. "You know, you missed the Thief meeting we had about what to do with the reaction to Shido's change of heart."
"What? Our big bang that lasted all of two weeks?" Tohru hisses.
"Hey, come on. Let's get you out of this chair," Akira sighs, pulling Tohru up.
Tohru tries to lean back into the chair, making himself dead weight. "Leave me in this chair, kid! I've got to deal with it on my own-"
"No, we're going to talk this out somewhere. I know a place down in Ikebukuro that will work."
Akira maneuvers through crowds like a master, Tohru thinks to himself as they pass through the sea of people. He's very intent on finding the location he wants to meet at, seeming to know the place by heart. Through cramped alleyways and past sketchy shops they go, Akira's pace brisk.
"Hey, uh, kid -"
"Akira."
"... Akira, where are we going?"
Akira pauses.
"It's a hidden place I've found in a mall complex in Ikebukuro. You'll see."
They approach the building - an enormous highrise that stretches up for what seems like ages, a labyrinth of steel and glass. Once more, Akira works his navigation magic, weaving through all of the crowds. At last, he leads Tohru through a cramped hidden entrance to a space that's deadly quiet and completely dark save for the view outside the windows.
And what a view it is. Tohru can see what seems like the whole world spread out before him from that window. The lights outside the window gleam with a bright shine, and Tohru smiles. "... huh, you did good."
"Tohru," Akira says, and Tohru turns to look at him.
It's weird, how Akira says Tohru's name so differently compared to Yu Narukami. He figures he's always measured the two up against each other to some extent - two Fools, guests of the Velvet Room and Wild Cards, both of them.
Yu Narukami always said Tohru's name with a clipped tone, a tone that pitied him as much as it kept seeing him as the dopey detective. It was a tone that said "I can't understand you, and I don't think I want to, because to understand you is to become too much like you for me to ever be safe."
Meanwhile, Akira always says Tohru's name with respect - sometimes begrudging respect, or alarmed respect, but respect nonetheless. Akira's seen less of Tohru's bad side than Narukami has, but the fact that Akira seems to understand the concept of respect better than Narukami ever did intrigues Tohru in the extreme.
"Why?" Akira asks, and his tone holds the timbre of slight fear.
"What do you mean, why? Why what?"
"Why are you so.. so.." Akira gestures his hand, sputtering for words. Finally, he lands on what he wants to say, seemingly - "Why are you so fucking difficult?" - and is in the process of walking it back when Tohru lifts a hand up to stop him mid-sentence.
"Jester's always got to speak truth to power, right?"
Akira sighs. "Except you don't. Not always. You.. you meddle. You meddle, and you fuss, and you contradict me, and you make all of these schemes behind my back, and you lust over your boss and you either make a situation lean horribly in your favor or backfire and.. I, I just don't get it." He runs a hand through his own hair.
Tohru pauses. Then he shakes his head. "I've always had a hunger inside me. Remember what Akechi said about me? It's true. I've got an empty, hungry little thing where my soul should be."
"That's not true."
"It is, though. It is, and it has been, and it always will be. Not even death could fix that entirely," Tohru says, laughing mockingly.
"You help people, though. I mean, like Akechi, technically. And that Sho guy you told me about a long while ago - that one from the Persona-user tournament you were in, the guy that tried to kill you and you still helped him. And Okumura, and Iwai, and.."
"Yeah, yeah. Still did most of them for less-than-saintly reasons, so they don't count."
"What about Nanako? Or Yukitaro?"
Tohru pauses.
"You love Nanako like she's your own flesh-and-blood daughter, and you clearly do love Yukitaro. The man who killed Mayumi Yamano died when he pushed Yukitaro away and took the blow that would have killed him."
"It's not your place to judge whether I'm a saint or sinner," Tohru hisses half-heartedly, but there's no fight in it.
"You're hungry because you crave interaction, aren't you? You crave emotion, you crave intimacy and understanding but you tried to push away all of that before this point."
"I've had enough of this psychoanalytic bullshit, kid, I've got a few words on what you're hiding too."
Akira cocks an eyebrow. "Oh? Go ahead. Hit me with it."
"You're a shapeshifter. You're constantly making bonds as connections, like I do, because you crave the power that comes with it. You're saying the things that sound pleasing to the ears of each person you're talking to, putting on a mask for one and a mask for another."
Akira falls silent, but the clench of his fists tells Tohru to keep going.
"You fell into this eager-to-please mindset because of a rough school life, I'd imagine. You had a reputation on your shoulders, probably from your father's supposed misdeeds. That's why you got along with Akechi, right? Both of your fathers were after so much, or because Akechi reminds you of all the good and bad you see in your own dad."
Akira's shaking, eyes wide with anger even as they seem intensely vulnerable. "You sound like Sigmund Freud."
Tohru laughs mockingly. "Go to hell, kid."
"Likewise."
"Took a trip down there already when I died, it's pretty fun."
"So we both ripped off our masks, hm? We both have secrets to keep.."
Tohru looks away for a second, then looks back at Akira. "I knew another Wild Card like you once. He's a lot like you."
"That explains the weird defiance game you've always pulled on me when it came to my orders. You were projecting another person onto me."
"And you were constantly afraid of that hunger, even knowing how much it's set me free.."
Akira stumbles back, sighing. "Fine. You know what? Show me the hunger Yu Narukami never got to see. Show me your worst. Come on, pull the gun out and everything."
"I have Suguru Kamoshida for that."
"I said, pull out the fucking gun and show me your worst."
Tohru Adachi sighs. "You sure? Are you really sure?"
"Do it. That's an order."
Tohru shrugs, pulling out the gun with ease and pointing it at Akira.
"Y'know, sometimes I've heard you shouldn't take out a gun unless you really intend to shoot something with it.." Tohru says. His voice uses the same dead tone Yu Narukami heard long ago during the Inaba Television murders, in that strange Midnight Channel world inside the television..
"So this is what he got to see. Staring into the dead eyes of a broken man, huh.."
"You want me to shoot you in the leg? Tell you not to pity me?"
"Latter would be nice."
"If I were to shoot you in the head right now.. Well, not like I could cover that up very quick. Cops would be on my ass before you could say 'ka-blooey.' "
"You're a very different person than you used to be, Tohru.. But.."
"But what?" Tohru asks, tilting his head back mockingly as he clicks the gun's hammer.
"... Embrace this hunger, and take it inside you, and you can be even more free than before." The words pour off of Akira's tongue and drift in the air like dragonflies, but Tohru knows the truth in them as soon as they come out.
And an inner resolution sounds in his head, in his heart and soul -
let us embrace the power of a god, narukami's greatest gift.
let us grip the hearts we have gained, the bonds dearest to us, and never let them go. let us become as kings among jesters, fit to stand amongst wild cards in pride and brazen mockery - turn us to the world of FOOLS.
Instantly, Tohru's eyes widen and glow a beautiful gold for just a moment. He steps back, his heart speeding up fast in his chest - there's this inner maelstrom of energy that crackles alive inside him, the same sort of rush and high and shot of liquid gold that accompanies summoning his Persona but with a different feeling to it.
"W-What's happening to me…?!"
Akira watches in amazement as blue fire crackles around Adachi, Arsene's laughter rattling in Akira's ears as he can sense a change unlike any other.
What Arsene says in that moment engraves itself into Akira's mind for years: Akira, dear boy, you've given him the keys to the gates and at last, the Jester is stealing the fire from heaven!
I am thou, thou art I..
Thou hast turned your bond into the true wings of rebellion, and set free a power that brings gods to their knees..
Thou hast awakened to the ultimate secret of the Hunger Arcana, granting thee infinite power..
Margaret's hands shake in horror as she looks on from the Velvet Room.
Philemon watches in amazement and glee, a thin smile on his face.
The book is open to Adachi's page. The Hunger Arcana still spins, stubbornly as ever, on his page - but the Jester Arcana melts away to a new one entirely.
"Master.. He's.."
"He not only has become half-Fool, but has unlocked his full potential to ascend to the role of a Wild Card," Philemon sighs, and he looks half-dizzy with a maddened expression of exaltation that leaves Margaret sick to her stomach.
Tohru Adachi looks up from his delirium, in that moment, and smiles at Akira Kurusu just the same.