Ryuji goes with a heartbreaking scream, disappearing entirely.
The Thieves look on with alarm as bits and pieces of them begin to vanish.
Ryotaro's arms wrap around Tohru, Tohru's wrap around Yukitaro and Ryotaro both.
"Dad?" Yukitaro's voice shakes with fear.
Tohru holds him close, tight with desperation.
"I'm here, son, kid, Yukitaro , I'm here.."
Ryotaro's gaze is tender as he stares at Tohru. His face contorts slightly, the pain becoming unbearable. Fear is also very evident in Ryotaro's tone as his grip tightens. He's hanging on as much as possible, using all of his will.
"l.. I can't.. go.. Nanako needs me..!"
"Doji.." Tohru pauses. "Ryotaro, I'll care for her.. Go be with the one you love."
Ryotaro Dojima's crying now, silent tears. Despite this.. he smiles through his tears and chuckles.
"Tohru, you idiot.. It's y.."
He's faded away before he can finish the sentence.
Tohru reaches a hand out, his cry of "RYOTARO!" piercing the air.
Yukitaro speaks up as well. His voice is strained, cracking with pain.
"D-Dad.. it hurts.."
Tohru Adachi has no witty retort to make to that, for once.
He simply kisses Yukitaro's head, holding the boy close. His tears are falling into the younger boy's hair.
"I know," Tohru whispers, his voice breaking.
Yukitaro cries out softly, grip tightening around his father, and at once he is gone.
Tohru Adachi steps away. There is a hand over his mouth.
The tears do not stop coming, and it all feels so raw - an emptiness more evident than ever, something he can never hope to fill. He's sobbing harder than he thought, his hands covering his face. "Ryotaro.. Y-Yukitaro.."
"Adachi-san.." Akira calls out, and Tohru's heart skips a beat - sounds too much like the Narukami brat, his thoughts practically scream. Tohru looks up and stares Akira in the eyes - the lying-down, pained Akira Kurusu - just before Akira vanishes.
Tohru waits for the pain, he waits for the mercy of disappearance, but it does not come. He peers out from his hands, inspecting them carefully.
That's when he notices the gleam of Mayumi Yamano's ring on his finger, can almost see her mocking smile reflected in it.
Her ring's dull gleam grows even brighter.
Indeed, it's her gift. His very own eternal damnation, eternal salvation from ruin.
"You stupid bitch, you idiotic slut.. I want nothing more than to join them and you deny me even that, " he hisses, tears falling fast and hot down his face.
He falls to his knees, unable to do anything other than cry for a few moments, because how can he not, with his whole world snatched from him in a single moment?
And how it overtakes him in that moment. All that grief and fear turns to white-hot rage so potent it bubbles up his throat.
"You took them from me, you fucking took them from me.."
His heart snaps into a place, hard and cold and fast, a placid strength that allows him to see what must be done.
He pulls out his phone.
"... Then let the rest of those complacent brats learn the pain. Let them feel my anger, those brainless little bitches. They don't wanna face the music? They don't wanna understand that their actions have consequences? Fine. I'll drag this world down to my hell. "
He types out the words that will change the course of human history.
-/ begin: Phantom Requiem
All over Japan, a group of 20 people receive the same notification on their electronics.
One by one, each finds a handwritten card in their own handwriting that they don't remember writing.
Remember Ryuji Sakamoto? He was your son, a housewife finds.
Remember Ryotaro Dojima? He was your uncle, Yu Narukami finds.
Remember Futaba Sakura? She was your adopted daughter, Sojiro Sakura finds.
There are instructions on the backs of these cards, instructions that are followed to the letter.
Tohru Adachi, after crawling into the Television World, finds his way to his world - his alone, his dominion - far too easily.
Its skies have once more turned blood-red, reflecting the roiling anger and grief inside its master.
Magatsu-Inaba, this world is called.
It hasn't looked this demonic since the murders.
While it doesn't look as ruined as it did before, the now-clean streets and buildings - a perfect replica of Inaba - seem to reverberate with whispers.
The feeling of sparks dances atop Tohru's skin as he strides through. This world recognizes him as its master, almost welcoming him back.
this is your home, Magatsu-Izanagi whispers, this is your metaphorical Palace, your kingdom.
Tohru can feel his mind almost reach out into the rest of the world, searching. He laughs softly, mockingly.
This was always the place of his own head, the place where his distorted desires bend completely to his whim.
And yet there's one thing missing.
He closes his eyes, and reaches out with his mind - shadow of my partner, come to me, his mind murmurs.
He opens his eyes and Shadow Dojima stands before him.
It's not the same Shadow Dojima he encountered in Mementos, but it's close - how Tohru sees Dojima.
"Adachi, what's wrong?" Shadow Dojima asks, concern in his distorted tone. Tohru's answer comes in a tight hug. Shadow Dojima hugs back.
Shortly after, the sound of muted, short sobs fill the air of Magatsu-Inaba.
"Dojima.. I missed you."
They stay in that embrace for a while. Tohru's chest heaves with the tears he's been keeping in.
Tohru pulls away, wiping tears from his eyes. He looks like a mess, tear-tracks and snot staining his face.
"Wait, can you look completely like Dojima's Phantom Thief self? Even in the eyes?"
Shadow Dojima changes forms and suddenly the Phantom Thief Baron stands before Tohru.
Tohru wipes his eyes free of tears again, and his face grows in a wide smile.
The people of Japan know that everything is going to change when millions of screens display the Phantom Thief symbol - before cutting to a video.
The figure displayed differs, but all 20 wear masks. Some figures can be recognized even under those masks - a famous idol by the name of Risette, the notorious policeman Akihiko Sanada, the illustrious Second Detective Prince Goro Akechi, his precursor Naoto Shirogane, and so on.
Yu Narukami's voice - and the voice of several others - rings out, even and calm.
"Greetings, people of Japan."
"We speak for a group of rebels you have tried to silence. Your disregard of their words goes beyond simple ignorance into willful sloth."
"You have done more than disregard them - you have attempted to eradicate them down to their very names, to their legacies."
"And that cannot be forgiven."
"Bear witness to the Thieves' callsigns. Listen to the ways in which these institutions and systems made to uplift them instead crushed them! Face the storm that is to come and know that it is of your own making! Hear us, as we lend our voices for those that have been silenced in their pursuit to make this society one worth living in!"
"People of the world, we will take more than your attention. Sinners of Sloth, all of you complicit in the deaths of the brave members of the Phantom Thieves.. for your grave sin, we will take your very hearts and souls."
Each of them says a callsign of one of the Thieves, and the ways in which Japanese society failed them.
"I speak for the Phantom Thief known as Queen, forced to bend to the unattainable mold adults made for her," Sae's voice rings.
"I speak for the Phantom Thief known as Marquis, forced to hide his festering wounds at the hands of Suguru Kamoshida for the comfort of all around him!" Shiho Suzui, one of Kamoshida's victims, cries.
"I speak for the Phantom Thief known as Baron, who bore witness to the corruption of the police force in an effort to save his lover from suffering at their hands, and I speak for his lover Devil, a reformed ex-convict who endured indignity after indignity after the hands of the police!" Yu Narukami barks out, eyes glittering with rage.
"I speak for the leader of the Phantom Thieves, Joker, who was unjustly crucified by Masayoshi Shido's hand for the simple crime of saving a woman from her rape!" Goro Akechi hisses, the most visibly enraged of all of them.
Yu Narukami's smirking wickedly as the camera cuts back to him.
"I command you, the world, in the name of the Phantom Thieves.. revolt, rebel, riot! Start protests, steal from the rich and give to the poor, topple the unjust with hatred in their hearts and make a difference!"
"Face the shadows of your grand civilizations, and turn this world into one worth living in…! That is my command to you all who listen to us and know our names. And for those that insist on complacency, who turn the eyes of the public away towards further ignorance, in the voice of Devil.."
Yu Narukami throws back his head and laughs mockingly. The sound is a pitch-perfect recreation of Adachi's laughter, his voice slipping into Adachi's raspier tones with terrifying ease. "Consider this our way of making you confess your sins with your own mouth!"
"Let the Phantom Requiem, the rebellion that will shake the world to its very core, begin!"
Twenty years later, people around the world who had participated in the Phantom Requiem - who had seen the results with their own eyes, been saved by it, been damned by it, who had experienced it like no other - would speak of it in terms that were almost like the Rapture.
It starts in Tokyo. Reports of mass activism come from Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and then radiate outward. The news broadcasts people in masks starting protests, riots, marches, coups, acts of community service of all stripes. Yakuza, nurses, politicians, idols, athletes, and people of all types unite in the faceless mob of masks.
"Long live the Phantom Thieves, we are the Thieves! The Thieves live in us!" the crowds chant.
And then it spreads quick through Japan; in Sumaru City, in Iwatodai, in Inaba, the same surge of activism and action, the same words - "Long live the Phantom Thieves, we are the Thieves!"
The real shock hits when the Phantom Requiem spreads worldwide, reports of events with the same intensity, the same vigor happening in places like America, Paris, Brazil, Scotland. Again the words echo - "Long live the Phantom Thieves, we are the Thieves!"
Members of the Phan-site are among the most active, heading and organizing events, marching at the frontlines, shutting down the efforts of police who dare try to silence the worldwide requiem of the Phantom Thieves.
To many, it is an event that saves them - people owe their lives to community service and charity done during the Requiem.
To some, it is the worst day of their lives.
In the instance of Masayoshi Shido, it is the day hell came to Earth.
His estate is on fire. There is an angry mob outside, throwing stones in his windows and screaming for him to come out. There are knives drawn. Masayoshi can hear the doors being rammed into.
He's trying to push his dresser aside to access his secret passageway out. As sorry as he feels for everything, with the Thieves changing his heart.. he does not want his legacy to end here.
He strains, but it doesn't budge. "Come on.." he rasps. He turns around and hears the click of a gun.
Goro Akechi stares down at him with one eye that holds all the fury of the world. His other is covered with an eyepatch.
"Hello, dear father."
Masayoshi laughs nervously. "G-Goro, I know you can never forgive me.."
"Look me in the eye, father. You've lost the election - your incumbent's taken all the votes, I believe his name was Taro or something similar. Your reputation is permanently stained. And you will never.. never… have my forgiveness."
"That doesn't mean I have to d-die!"
Goro pauses. Then he laughs softly.
"If I have to live on this bitch of an earth, so do you." A gunshot goes off right into Masayoshi's leg. Another goes into his other leg.
Masayoshi screams with pain.
"Son, please, I'll legitimize you.."
Goro stares down. "Fuck legitimacy. No, Masayoshi.. tell me, have you ever wondered what it's like to be driven berserk?"
Masayoshi looks on in horror as Goro's eyes begin to glow.
"Goodbye, father."
The Phan-Site moderator "Jump Up Home-Star"/Violet, better known as Kasumi Yoshizawa, sits in the makeshift hospice for Requiem rebels.
A woman in a plague doctor mask and choker - a local doctor woman by the name of Tae Takemi, who goes by the codename "Dolorosa" - attends to her wounds. The wounds aren't that bad to her - just a few bullet-holes she received from police scuffles and some heavy scrapes.
"Violet, I'd urge you to wait at least an hour before getting back onto the field," the woman instructs.
Kasumi shakes her head, wincing.
"Can't afford to wait that long, Dolorosa. Thirty minutes, at the most. I've got a protest to keep going."
"Fourty," the woman counters.
"Twenty-five."
"Thirty-five."
"Deal."
As she sits on the cot, another man comes rushing up in a lab coat and medical mask. From those sandals and that blue tie, Kasumi can tell it's her therapist, Takuto Maruki - which raises the question of what her therapist is even doing in a riot zone like this.
"Kasumi.." he begins, but Kasumi shushes him violently. She frowns. "Are you nuts? Call me Violet here."
"S-Sorry, uh, Violet." Takuto rubs the back of his head, pulling down his mask. "Anyway, Violet, I.. what are you doing here? This isn't like you, I know you used to dislike the Phantom Thieves.."
Kasumi meets Takuto's gaze. "Things changed. I changed. If my friend could go from a shy, nervous wreck abused by Kamoshida to a Phan.. to a hero who fights for what's right , then I can stand up to injustice as well."
"Your father will go catatonic with worry if he finds out.."
"I don't have to worry about him."
Takuto sighs, looking down at Kasumi with all sorts of worry in his eyes. "Kas- Violet, this isn't like you. Please, can you just allow me to get you out of the way of danger..?"
Kasumi grits her teeth and bursts out screaming at him: "How can I do that and let Mishima's memory go to waste?! When will you accept that I'm not always the person you think I am?!"
Takuto flinches back as if he's been struck. Even though he looks emotionally hurt, he still reaches out to put a hand on her shoulder. "Violet, please.. Please just let me help. I'm sure Mishima.. whomever he is.. wouldn't want to see you hurt like this."
Kasumi puts a hand over her mouth. She turns her face away, taking a deep breath in. "Who are you to speak for what he would have wanted when you don't even know him? Takuto.. I don't want to see you right now. Please go."
Takuto pauses once more as Kasumi bursts up, rushing out of the makeshift hospice with tears in her eyes. While other aides try to calm her down and get her in shape to get back onto the field, Tae looks at Takuto.
"... I would urge you, Takuto, to remember that all of us here have a reason to fight - a connection to the Thieves, the memory of a friend who revered them, whatever that may be."
And then the cameras cut to footage of Tohru Adachi in his Devil attire, standing underneath the blood-red sky of Magatsu-Inaba.
"Greetings! I am the Phantom Thief known as Devil, who speaks for himself and all the others at once…!"
His voice booms around the world, raw and vicious. He holds Shadow Dojima to his side, eyes gleaming in the dim light. The other Shadow Thieves surround Devil, Joker at the very front.
"So you thought you could take us down? You thought you could kill us all?"
Tohru throws his head back and howls with laughter. The other Thieves join him.
"You've seen it in Japan. Corruption thrives, people preach kindness while stepping on others' backs. This was a world I thought nobody could change. No more."
He takes a deep breath in, plunging his spear into the ground as he steps up to the front and begins his sermon.
"I command you to continue to take up our mantle and don your own masks! Spread acts of kindness to the communities who have so often been stepped on as you spread acts of rebellion against those very systems!"
His voice reverberates further now as it takes on an eerily persuasive quality, that of a jester speaking truth to power.
"You've done brilliantly so far, I've seen it, I know it like I know my own heartbeat. But you can do better, I know you can.. So step it up, all you bitches and whores that so idolized us Thieves once before! Really set those corrupt, talent-sucking bastards to the torch and bring the whole world toppling down with such glorious, chaotic change! Make them realize that if change isn't coming peacefully, they're being dragged into it kicking and screaming!"
Spit flies from his mouth and his eyes glow yellow as he snarls out the last bit.
"This world is shit, but we can change it - and if it takes rebellion to make people realize that, in whatever form it manifests, then so be it! In misery, in silence, in rage - RISE!"
Tohru Adachi throws his head back and lets out a peal of hellish laughter that puts all nightmares to shame before the broadcast cuts out.
In Inaba, a certain Investigation Team watches in complete silence. They're all in attendance - even Rise Kujikawa, the famous idol, has made it to Inaba for this occasion.
Yosuke Hanamura, Yu Narukami's "partner," sits on a file cabinet with wide eyes.
Naoto Shirogane, the first Detective Prince, is pacing back and forth quietly.
Kanji Tatsumi, the famous clothes-maker, is leaning up against the wall.
Even Rise sits slumped down in a chair nearby.
The rest are trying to keep themselves as busy as possible, talking "quietly" about it in the background.
In the middle of the room is Yu Narukami himself, who stares at the screen with the most haunted eyes anybody in the room has ever seen him have. The static picture of Tohru Adachi, masked and laughing hysterically, remains on the screen.
The first to break the silence is Naoto, with a near-silent "My God."
Yosuke pulls up his laptop, typing quickly on it before he looks up.
"It's still going. The riots are still going."
Yu stumbles back into his desk, putting a hand to his head. "... Adachi-san.. He isn't like this normally. He isn't normally this.. this.." He waves a hand around, trying to find the right word for.
Yu's friend Kanji clears his throat. "This damn bold, you mean?"
"Exactly, Kanji. Thank you for giving me the words."
Naoto nods. "I agree.. Though the Midnight Channel and his mask conceal who he is enough for him to be able to still carry on as the Phantom Thief 'Devil' without others knowing the truth, it's rather presumptuous of him to take control of the narrative in such a way."
"Well," Rise adds, "this whole thing was his plan. He contacted us for it, after all."
Yu Narukami goes completely quiet at that.
"Yeah, it's just.. what the hell are we even supposed to do?" Yosuke asks, running a hand through his hair. "He asked other teams too, right? Partner, you told me how you'd given him the contact info for the Shadow Operatives.."
Yu's eyes are carefully made as blank as possible as he says, quietly, "I called them too. Do you know what they said?"
Kanji sighs. "... what'd they say?"
"Akihiko Sanada got on the phone. When I asked him why he agreed to do it, why the others agreed too, he said one thing. 'We did it for her - for our Wild Card.' That was the most explanation he gave." Yu pinches the bridge of his nose with one hand, grips the edge of the office desk behind him. "You know what a Wild Card is, right, guys? I explained it to you after we fought Margaret?"
They all nod. "Good," he says, "because I'm going to tell you all something that should rightfully terrify you."
Naoto blinks impassively. "We just saw Tohru Adachi take gasoline and a lighter to most of the world's socio-economic and governmental hierarchies. Try me."
"Not only am I of the belief that he's in contact with a good amount of people.. people like us, but that he's gained my power."
Yosuke raises his hand. "Wait, wait, wait. By your power, you mean.. You mean the ability to summon multiple Personas, or that whole 'bonds give you power' thing, or.. What?"
"Yes."
Yosuke squints, making an incredibly befuddled expression. "Yes? I.. what do you mean by yes, partner, you can't afford to be vague here!"
"I mean that he has all of the above you just listed. The ability to summon multiple Personas, the ability to gain power through bonds."
Naoto tips the brim of her hat down. Kanji punches a hole in the wall. In the background, another member of the Investigation Team - Chie Satonaka, the police officer - can be audibly heard yelling "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"
"I wish I was," Yu Narukami deadpans, "but that isn't even the worst part."
"W-Whuh-wait, there's MORE?" Yosuke snaps.
Narukami nods. "He's as bold as he is because he's been getting increasingly more confident in his plans. I.. I honestly don't know how they've been able to work as well as they have, especially considering how much of it is done on what I can assume is complete impulse and improvisation. But I can say one thing confidently - you all remember how he was when we caught him."
Naoto nods solemnly. "How could I forget? It was as if a switch had been flipped. He became much more.. Volatile. Prone to lashing out."
"So you're telling me that once one of Adachi's big plans fails, we're going to see a breakdown that's just as bad outta him?" Kanji growls.
"Worse," Yu Narukami says, and the chaos that erupts in the Investigation Team's office at that statement that night is a sight to be forgotten.
