"You're changing our agreement," said Ren, his voice getting louder despite himself.
Otohime slammed her sake cup on the table with a loud 'clack'. "No, Mr. Mackerel! I'm trying to help you meet your side of the bargain! If you don't wish to exploit this opportunity. Fine. Go take on Takoa yourself. Go off down the street to wherever he is, get past his army, and then do it!"
Find someone who police couldn't keep tabs on, couldn't catch. Then what do the Phantom Thieves do? Sneak in? Unlikely. Perhaps use some mind-control abilities and bluff their way through? Still too risky. Those powers didn't always work and were limited in scope. Perhaps, fight their way in with their powers? Possible. But noisy and public. And after that? Kill Takoa? Obviously not. The Phantom Thieves are not assassins. So then… find a few hours to safely stand around Takoa and jump into his cognition... right after using super powers to bash into his stronghold? Not damn likely.
I've been a fool, Ren realized. I should have thought of all of this before agreeing with Otohime's deal. This isn't a single mission- it's a campaign. But create a Change-of-Heart in a low-ranking street criminal?
"Ms. Otohime. What do you hope this will accomplish? If we do this thing to this man, we don't know what he will do or how he will react. You're assuming we will gain some sort of control over him? We won't. We don't know what will happen."
"Don't you?" said Otohime, "You performed this… thing on me. And here we are. Why are we talking here, now, if you truly have no control?"
"Because you are blackmailing us."
"And do you think I would be doing that otherwise?" snapped Otohime, "Do you think I would even care who you are? Do you think I would have ever had the desire to start a conflict with a stronger family than mine over some trafficked women? No, Mr. Mackerel. You do more than you say.."
Ren did not feel in control of anything at the moment, but that wasn't exactly a strong line of reasoning to argue. He floundered for another line of argument: "What do you hope this man will do if we succeed?"
"Spill his guts," said Otohime. She raised her sake cup, and one of her bodyguards bowed over and poured it full. "To me. Or to the police. Either way, some useful information will get out and that's what we need."
"How much time do we have?" said Makoto suddenly.
Ren turned to her in surprise, but she was focused on Otohime, her crimson eyes calculating. He trusted that Makoto's mind had already leaped through the scenarios he'd just considered, and she was already in the planning stages of taking action. Ren was surprised. He expected Makoto would be more resistant to Otohime's suggestions.
"Tetsu!" barked Otohime.
One of her thugs opened the restaurant door behind Ren.
"Yes?"
"How is our guest?"
"Already drunk and talking about getting something to eat. I told them to get a girl on his lap and an appetizer. They say he's sated for now."
Otohime turned her attention back to Ren. She opened her hands in an unsure gesture. "There you have it. If you two are going to move, you better do it before he does."
So not much time, then. Just as long as a drunk street thug didn't decide to leave Otohime's territory. Which certainly wasn't enough time to contact and gather the Phantom Thieves for a mission. And that seemed to kill the operation before it even began. They didn't move without the team. He opened his mouth to say as much, but Makoto again cut him off.
"We need a private, secure spot to do this," said Makoto, drawing another surprised look from Ren. "And we need to be protected from interruptions."
"Easy enough," said Otohime with a wave of her hand, "The club has VIP rooms that can be very private. And I have plenty of able bodied young men for security. You won't be bothered."
That sounded like Makoto was actually going to agree with Otohime's suggestion. The strategic planner, let's-do-it-slow-and-right-next-time Makoto was looking to pull the trigger! Without the others!
"Hold on!" said Ren, "Makoto, can I speak to you for a moment?"
Her calculating eyes locked on his, and she nodded. They both stood up from their chairs.
"Don't take all night," grumbled Otohime..
Ren ushered Makoto in the far corner (which wasn't very far in this tiny establishment) and leaned close to Makoto's intense face. "You sound like you are actually considering this," said Ren in a low whisper.
Makoto copied his volume: "Yes. Listen: she's right. This is an opportunity we should seize now."
"Without the others?," said Ren, a bit of disbelief evident in his whisper. "We've never infiltrated a Palace with just two people before."
"You and Ryuji did it."
"With Morgana! And that was before we knew anything at all."
Makoto paused, accepting the point. Her eyes shifting down. She was thinking. Her eyes snapped back up to Ren's. "Well, this won't be a Palace, Ren. This isn't some terribly distorted soul. It's just some fool at the bottom of the ranks. He won't have a Palace."
"You can't know that. You're just making assumptions."
"I'm making educated guesses off what we know so far," said Makoto in a matter-of-fact whisper.
"How can we infiltrate someone's cognition if there is no Palace?"
"I think the same way Akechi used to- he targeted normal people several times- alone."
That- that was true. Akechi probably spent most of his time leaping into undistorted minds- or perhaps only… normally distorted? Futaba's mother. A subway engineer. Principal Kobayakawa. None of them had distortions that approached the level of a Shido or an Okumura, yet Akechi was able to get inside their heads, all the same; And in the old, geographically-linked metaverse before Above the Clouds.
Makoto was ahead of him, as always: "If Akechi could handle the cognitions of the undistorted, then I'm reasonably assured that you and I will be more than a match for anything we might find inside some low-brow flunky."
"But move without the team? Without even a meeting? We've never done that before."
"But we don't have time. This window will close, just like Otohime is saying," Makoto paused, an amused expression appearing on her face. "Ren, you sound like me."
"Because you don't sound like you," Ren blurted, realized that didn't really help his case. "And I like the sound of you, so I have to fill in here."
A pause. Makoto gave him a look of bemused exasperation. "That line was a bit of a reach."
"Yeah..."
The sharp crack of porcelain on wood caused Ren to jump slightly. Otohime had banged her sake cup again.
"The evening is waning, you two!"
Makoto's face returned to its serious cast. "I don't like that woman and I don't like how we are involved with her; but- but she's obviously capable, knows her business, and wants us to succeed. We need to take the opportunity she's discovered. From what we know of Takoa, he's certainly the greater evil to take down."
Well, Makoto was ready and eager. Ren wasn't personally opposed to an infiltration with just the two of them. He was more worried about the Phantom Thieves rules… but… the team had already voted to take on Takoa, after all. So if he thought about it that way, the team already gave the green light to begin operations. No reason to argue too hard against what he himself wanted to do, too.
Ren turned back towards Otohime, but he felt a hand on his arm. He looked back over his shoulder at Makoto.
"But if it looks like anything like a real Palace, we get out, okay?"
"Yeah," said Ren. And then to Otohime. "Okay, Ms. Otohime. We'll do it."
"Of course you will. You're sensible people." She made a shoo-ing motion with her hand. "Go outside. Tetsu will take you there and provide all that you need."
At her words, the door was opened from the outside, beckoning them back into the Tokyo night. But the scar-faced man reemerged from his kitchen and placed a small paper bag on the countertop. He indicated they should take it.
"For your journey," he said.
It being impolite to turn down such an offering, Ren and Makoto took the bag, bowed, and thanked the man. They exited the small restaurant and found Tetsu waiting for them. He was tall and broad, with a no-nonsense expression on his stony features. Ren didn't pay much attention to male fashion, but even he noted that Tetsu looked good in his tailored suit.
"Come," said Tetsu. He then turned and walked down the alleyway towards the distant main street.
Ren and Makoto looked at each other and then followed. As they walked, Ren looked inside the paper bag from the chef. Inside, two cylinders of fried something nestled in wax paper. The smell of warm cornbread was unmistakable.
"What's in it?" said Makoto.
"Corn dogs?" said Ren.
