During the time period between this chapter and the last, I became an anime protagonist! I'll explain what that means later.
"Also, what the heck does Mishima think he's doing?"
We'll get to that soon!
"Whats Toya's favorite food?"
He's a pretty big fan of Big Bang Burger. That'll make a certain arc down the road a little bit awkward for him.
June 23rd, 20XX (Thursday)
After School - Shujin Academy
"That's… That's insane. You're insane! You realize how insane you are, right!?" Toya blurted out in shock, taking a step back while staring at Mishima. "That place is like… really, REALLY dangerous! Like, enough to kill someone if they're not super careful!"
"I have to agree… Without a way to properly defend yourself, there's no way to tell what could happen to you. You could get hurt, or worse-"
"I-If you don't take me there… Th-Then I'll expose you two!" Mishima stuttered and almost stopped short, but he said that while looking right at them. It led to momentary silence between them. Mishima's expression faltered a bit, but he did his absolute best to stay determined.
"Something's up about him."
"Yeah… Mishima would never suddenly call us out like this. He's even threatening us. But… I can't just call his bluff like that. And…" Toya closed his eyes and faced the ground. "...I can't just be mean to the guy, y'know?"
"Why? He's threatening you."
"Well yeah, but… He was my friend. And I'm the one who screwed that up."
"So, that overrules all senses of logic, then? You won't even question why he wants this? You don't know what's going on inside of his head, Jester. For all you could know, he could be trying to find a more definitive way to expose you."
"Him? No… No, that's impossible. He wouldn't do something like that to me. I'm sure of it."
"You really trust that…? Hmph. Very well, then. But keep your guard up. You don't know what will happen next."
"...Alright. We'll take you there." Toya said, not lifting his head. Even without looking, he could feel the look that Makoto and Mishima were both giving him. Makoto was surprised that Toya was actually willing… and Mishima was surprised that he actually managed to threaten him effectively. There was a big part of him that was expecting this to blow up in his face, but it somehow didn't.
"A-Are you sure that's a good idea!? What if Kaneshiro-"
"We're not taking him to the bank. That would be a death sentence for him-maybe even for us, if we focus too much on trying to make sure he stays safe. We're taking him somewhere else."
"Somewhere else…? What exactly are you referring to?"
"…It's hard to explain. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't know much about the place myself." Toya raised his head, looking over at Mishima. "But it's definitely safer than the bank. Will that be enough to meet your demands?"
"O-Oh, um…" Mishima stumbled on his words again. "Y-Yeah. That'll work fine."
"Well… Alright. If you think it's fine, then sure. How do we get there?" Makoto asked, letting out a defeated sigh. She still wasn't all for the idea, but if it's a safer alternative than taking him to the actual bank, then she could at least accept it.
"It's actually in the same area as where we get into the bank. We just have to be in Shibuya. Come on, we'll take the train." Toya turned around and started walking away, with Makoto and Mishima following behind. Mishima had more that he wanted to say, but he opted not to. Things were going… Better than he had expected, deep down. He didn't want to potentially mess it up.
As the three of them walked away, a different group of three walked onto the scene. The actual Phantom Thieves that attended the school: Ren, Ryuji, and Ann; accompanied by Morgana.
"Did'ja hear all of that?" Ryuji blurted out, watching the prior group of 3 walk away.
"That was heavy… But what was that all that stuff they were talking about?" Ann put a hand to her chin and pondered the thought, replaying everything that she heard in her head.
"..." Ren stared at them. He was getting lost in thought. They were off to go somewhere in Shibuya, and called heading into a bank a 'death sentence'. Unless someone were to get caught trying to rob one, nobody could ever call a bank dangerous, let alone calling a trip there a death sentence. There was something else going on… Or at least, that's what he thought. "I should keep an eye on them…"
June 23rd, 20XX (Tuesday)
After School - Mementos
Toya brought them into the Shibuya station, and into the Metaverse. Nobody had accidentally slipped in with them, thankfully. It was just Toya, Makoto, and Mishima. Upon entering the Metaverse, Toya and Makoto had their attires change without so much as a thought.
"What's up with that outfit…? Wait, when did you get one too!?" Mishima said, staring at Makoto in a costume that he hadn't seen before.
"Oh, this? I got this a few days ago. Though, um… I don't know how to explain how I got it…"
"It just means that we can fight anything we come into here with some kind of way to defend ourselves. That's all it really is." Toya said, trying his best to explain it in a way that wouldn't confuse Mishima too much.
"Fight… So you do have to get physical in this world! A-Are there monsters?"
"Uh… Well, if you're just gonna say it out loud… Yeah, there are. We fight the ones that are in our way to get to someone's heart… and that's how we change it! Or… That's what the Phantom Thieves do, at least. That's what I've gathered from watching them."
"...Show me. I want to watch the two of you fight some." Mishima asked, an excited look on his face.
"Y-You want to watch us fight the stuff down here? You realize that's more dangerous for you than it is for us, right!?" Toya said in shock, taking a step back. Even still, Mishima's expression didn't change at all. He kept the same excited look on his face as he previously had.
"I'll be fine, I just need to see this in action! I'll stay back at a safe distance, or whatever! But I need to see a fight!"
"...Okay, what's up with him?"
"I have no idea. It doesn't surprise me that he gets excited over this stuff, but… doesn't he realize how dangerous this is? I can't get a read on his motive at all…"
" Well, it's only Mementos. I really doubt that there's anything too dangerous down here. You used to handle these things basically on your own. Now you have Niijima with you, so I'm sure you two can keep him safe."
"Yeah. We'll definitely be fine. I'm just confused…" Toya stared at Mishima. What was he planning…? He had no idea. It could be anything, for all he knew. He didn't have a way of figuring out without just straight up asking, but with the looming threat over his head of Mishima potentially exposing both him and Makoto, as well as the fact that he felt as bad as he did… He didn't want to say anything that could potentially get on his nerves.
"Fine. But you're staying behind us the entire time, got it? This place is as dangerous as we're making it out to be; especially for someone with no way to defend himself." Mishima ecstatically nodded in response. Toya couldn't get a read on him at all, no matter how hard he tried. Makoto, on the other hand, was much more concerned with his safety, rather than his motive. The motive did make her curious, it was just overshadowed by concern. Regardless, she had to focus more on what was coming. This was her first time ever coming to Mementos, so she wasn't really sure what to expect. She was told it was less threatening than the bank, which did give her some comfort. If she kept her guard up, she'd be able to protect herself while still being able to keep watch over Mishima. She kept this in mind while following Toya down the path that led further into Mementos, with Mishima close behind.
The three of them had to go pretty deep into Mementos for anything to confront them-at least, deep for their standards. Toya saw a couple of monsters, but they ended up turning around and running away from them before either Makoto or Mishima could even notice them. But soon enough, they were able to find something that didn't just run away from them. A large, monstrous figure made eye contact with them from a few feet away, and started charging towards them.
"W-What the heck is that thing!?"
"It's your cue to stay back!" Toya stood far in front of Mishmia and materialized his bow in his hands, as the amalgamation in front of them took its true form, one that… didn't actually scare Toya much. It turned into three corpse birds, the same ones that he saw when he went to Madarame's Palace. They weren't too threatening back then, so they would be even less of a problem for Toya now. "These things are weak. Keep an eye on him!" He called out while looking back at Makoto, before stepping forward and drawing his bow, shooting an arrow straight ahead and through the head of one of the monsters. With how weak the monster was, the arrow alone was strong enough to finish it off without any additional effort.
"Where the heck did he get a bow and arrow from!? I-Is he magic!?"
"...Did I sound like this when I first came here, too?" Makoto thought to herself and put her hands on her hips, taking a breath and going back to focusing on Toya… who was starting to show off. It didn't really surprise her, but she was a bit disappointed that he wasn't taking it more seriously anyways.
" Couldn't you at least try to take this seriously?"
"Come on, I gotta practice new stuff here! If I try this stuff for the first time in the bank, who knows what'll happen?" Toya thrusted his fist forward, shooting his grappling hook out at one of the monsters and piercing through it. The impact of the hook wasn't enough to kill, but there was enough force for it to get completely stuck inside of the monster. It cried out in pain and tried to free itself, but it couldn't do anything about it. The one that was beside it rushed forward and charged a blast of fire in its mouth, before shooting it out directly at Toya. With his free hand, Toya unmasked himself and summoned his Yama by his side. With a charge of dark magic, Yama was able to completely disintegrate the blast of fire magic that was headed for Toya.
" Have fun explaining that one to Mishima."
"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!"
"You'll be there within less than a minute!" Toya focused all of his power into the arm that he fired his grappling hook from, raising it into the air and dragging the monster attached to the hook with it. He raised his arm as high as he could and then slammed it down as quickly as he could. The grappling hook moved along with his arm, propelling the monster attached to it right into the other one. The impact from the two monsters crashing into each other was so fierce that the sound echoed throughout the halls, ensuring that it was more than strong enough to finish them off. With all threats defeated, Toya put his mask back on and took a breath, his bow disappearing from his hands. He turned back around to Makoto and Mishima. Makoto had a disappointed look on her face, while Mishima had a look that… He couldn't even describe.
"You… Demon… Magic…? What did… How-" Mishima muttered, his eyes wider than Toya had ever seen before.
"Told you."
"Yeah, yeah…" Toya rolled his eyes and dismissed Osiris, trying to think of how he could possibly explain what he just did to Mishima.
"Sooo, uhhhh… That was… Uhh… How do I put this…"
"That was… AMAZING!" Mishima yelled out, jumping into the air and completely cutting Toya off.
"Oh my god."
"Are you kidding!? This is PERFECT! If you can do cool stuff like that, then this will work even better than I thought!" Mishima kept yelling in excitement, closing his eyes and grinning." Toya stood still, completely dumbfounded.
"Huh…? Wait, what do you mean, 'this will work'? Are you planning something?"
"That's not important right now! What's important is how AMAZING that was! Hey, can you show me more!? Maybe against something even stronger!?" Mishima said ecstatically, completely dismissing what Toya had asked. He started looking around the room before spotting something on the wall. "Hey, is that a portal? Does that lead to something stronger than those things!?"
"L-Listen, I know you're excited and all, but- Hey, where are you going!? You don't know where that thing leads!" Makoto watched Mishima run off towards the portal on the wall and started chasing after him, but before either her or Toya could catch up to him, he had jumped through. "What is he thinking being this reckless...!? Do you know what's on the other side of this portal?"
"I've never even gone through these… Come on, we gotta go in too! We can't leave him by himself!" Toya jumped into the portal without any hesitation, with Makoto following immediately after him. The two of them felt reality change around them for a brief moment, before they found themselves inside of a secluded room together. Inside, they saw Mishima, as well as… someone else. Someone that they didn't recognize.
"Wait… Is that… a person…!? How the heck did someone else get in here!?" Toya took a step back while staring at him. He wasn't anyone that he recognized… But that still didn't explain things. If anything, it just confused him even more.
"Wait, I know this guy's face… Someone told me about him before!" Mishima said, staring at him. "His name is Nozomi Odo… Someone at school told me about him. There are a lot of rumors about this guy. He's the manager of a store and he steals money from cash registers that other people are in charge of, and blackmails them to pay it back in full!"
"Seriously…? But why is he here…?" Makoto asked under her breath, trying to make sense of it.
"I think I'm starting to get a feel for what this place really is…"
"Huh? You are?"
"Perhaps… But it's far too soon to tell. You should try to speak with him and see if you can figure anything out about him." Toya nodded and walked forward, his hands at his sides as he cautiously approached him.
"Welcome, welcome! How may I help you, ladies and gents of the Phantom Thieves?"
"Rumor has it that there's a store manager blackmailing his employees. Sound familiar?"
"Hmph. I don't need strangers complaining about how I use this shop's money. Part-time workers are the property of the shop. Thuys, they are mine to use as I will."
"Well, the rumors check out! And judging by this crazy aura going on around him…" Toya pulled his bow out and aimed at Odo, glaring. "This is just some cognitive version of Odo-just like we saw with Kaneshiro. That's why he's admitting to all of this."
"I get it now. You pretend to be heroes, but you're all just criminals. I'm gonna kill you!" He held onto his head and sunk into the ground, before reappearing as some kind of a celtic warrior with a spear in his hand and a scarf around his face.
"Whoa! So he's a monster too!?" Mishima said, clenching his fists in excitement.
"Just… Stay at a safe distance, alright?" Makoto told him, as she rushed to Toya's side, ready to fight against this cognitive version of Odo.
"Outlaws who dare trespass in my sanctuary… Prepare to be royally obliterated by my hand!" He yelled, before suddenly rushing forward faster than Toya could see and holding his spear above, slamming down with the broad side of it. Toya quickly raised his fists and tried blocking it, gritting his teeth and trying to push back against him.
"This guy is way stronger than those other things…!" He said, grunting and struggling to protect himself.
"I got it!" Makoto yelled, rushing Odo while he was busy with Toya. She was able to get a free kick in, followed up by a punch that knocked Odo away. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. But…" Toya turned his attention back towards Odo. "That attack didn't even scratch him… Our weapons aren't going to do anything to this guy, we need to rely on our Personas!"
"Nothing you do will be enough to stop me!" He yelled, as he raised his spear into the air. A pink aura appeared around him, increasing his strength by over double what it was before. He rushed towards Toya again, raising the broad side of his spear once more.
"Damn it! Yama, come!" He yelled, ripping off his mask and quickly summoning his Persona. He used Yama to fire a blast of dark magic at Odo, making direct contact with him and causing a small explosion, as well as a cloud of smoke covering him. "That should at least do something…"
"Think again!" Odo yelled from the smoke, jumping out of it with his weapon in the air.
"What the!?" Toya raised his fists again and tried to block his attack, but this one was much stronger due to him powering up beforehand. Regardless of Toya blocking, the sheer impact of the attack was enough to push Toya all the way to the other side of the room, crashing against the wall. He grunted in pain as he smashed against it, falling down to his knees.
"Johanna!" Makoto yelled out and summoned her Persona, firing her own blast of magic at it. This one caught Odo off guard, and unlike Toya's attack, it did a considerable amount of damage. Odo was pushed back almost as far as Toya was, but to the other side of the room. With Odo out of the way for now, Makoto rushed towards Toya, her Persona still summoned. "Here, let's patch you up…" She put a hand onto Toya's shoulder and raised him up, as her Persona healed his wounds.
"Wait, you can heal me…? How-"
"My Persona has the ability. That's not important right now though, we need to focus on him." She said, staring at Odo, who stood back up and started approaching them. As he did, he raised his spear up once more. But this time, instead of charging up an attack, he erected some kind of barrier around him. "A shield…?"
"My guess is… it's going to block magic attacks. But it doesn't look that strong. At most, it can probably block one… Actually, it might reflect it back. But it won't be able to block multiple…"
"I can't fire off multiple spells at the same time, I can only do one!"
"...I'll deal with the barrier then. You wait for the opening and then attack!" Toya yelled, rushing forward with his hand on his mask once again.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm getting rid of that shield!"
"And just how do you plan on doing- Oh my god, are you really about to do what I think you're going to do!"
"Yeah, probably!" He ripped his mask off and summoned Yama once more. Just like last time, he casted dark magic and sent it flying towards Odo. And just like he predicted… the barrier around him kicked in. The barrier faded away on impact, but the spell was still sent flying towards Toya as a result of it., He raised his arms to defend himself, getting hit by his own blast of magic.
"Now, Johanna!" Makoto yelled, summoning her Persona and sending out a blast of nuclear magic. The nuclear magic connected with Odo, sending him flying away to the other side of the room once again, and ending the fight in the process. "You're so reckless, you know that…?"
"Hey, it worked, right?" Toya said, slowly getting back up. It was his own blast, so it didn't hurt him that badly, but there was definitely a bit of a sting from it. It was nothing he couldn't handle, though. They shifted their attention back to Odo, who had reverted back to his original form.
"Employees aren't property… They're human beings. And yet, I took advantage of them. I-I've done bad things… I don't know how I can ever make up for this…" He said solemnly, before fading away in a bright light. And all that he left behind was… a book. Toya kneeled down and picked it up.
"...So that's how it is…" He said to himself, pocketing the book.
"Wow… That… That was AMAZING! Haha, this is perfect!" Mishima started cheering, jumping into the air in excitement. "I never even imagined that I'd see something so amazing… This is so much better than I thought it would be!"
"...Okay, enough. It's time you start explaining things." Makoto said, having had enough of the situation "What's so 'amazing' about this? This is dangerous stuff! This isn't something you can make a show of!"
"W-What?" Mishima said in surprise, trying to think of a more proper response in his head.
"Is that what you think?" Suddenly, the three of them heard… something. A voice from behind them, one that sounded… familiar, but still slightly different. Toya and Makoto turned around… only to see a familiar figure standing there. It looked exactly like Mishima did… only with bright, golden eyes.
And now... Things get crazy.
Okay, so for starters, let's talk about what I said at the beginning of the chapter, about how I have become an anime protagonist. If you guys follow me on Twitter, you probably know all about this by now, but I'll explain it to everyone else just in case you don't. (WHICH YOU SHOULD!)
A few of my friends are working on an abridge of the Persona 5 anime-think something akin to TeamFourStar's Dragon Ball Z Abridged. I auditioned for it, and lo and behold... I somehow got the part of Ren Amamiya! So if you're interested in that... FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER ALREADY!
But in all seriousness, I'm really happy to be a part of the project. Everyone on the team is great. So from now on, I'll be posting both my Twitter, as well as the Abridged Twitter at the end of every chapter. Seriously, go support it! And there are still a couple of roles that are available, if you're interested in getting a part!
Twitter: Kazero5340
P5Abridged Twitter: P5A_Fandub