A little bit of inspiration from Twilight Princess here, but not much. I'm trying to vary up the heists. Disclaimer: I don't own Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the Persona series, Lupin the Third, or any other referenced media.

Thirty-Eighth Caper: An Icy Manor of Mind-Control, Heart of the Lion

Joker and Violet were driving through the snowy regions of northern Canada. "The manor should be up ahead," Joker noted. Violet pointed out the large building. "There is it. The McLeans should be there." The two thieves had gotten a request via Joker's Facebook account from the couple to help them with a serious matter that had been plaguing them for some time. The two hurried inside, but found parts of the manor to be frozen over. "What a godforsaken place," Violet noted, "Let's find Diane and Joey and get this job over with." Joker nodded. "They should be further inside."

Sure enough, Diane McLean was cuddled up to the fireplace in the nearby sitting room, a blanket over her shoulders. "Oh, hey there," she said when she saw the duo, "Sorry, my mind's been a bit muddled lately. Joey can tell you more, he's in the kitchen over there." She pointed to a nearby door. Sure enough, Joey was inside tending to a soup pot filled with broth and fish. "Oh, you must be Joker and Violet. Thanks for coming." "What did you need us for?," Violet asked. "We bought this place a few months ago from a swami named Sinbu," Joey explained, "He agreed on the terms that he be allowed to stay until he could find a new place, using a large diamond as collateral."

He sighed. "But ever since then, Diane hasn't been doing so good. She was the one who was handling the rent at first, but now she's too sick to even get up from the fireplace. As a result, we couldn't get together the money we need to fix the place up." He showed a picture of the diamond. "I want you to steal it and get it out of our lives. Things have been going wrong since that swami offered Diane the diamond." Joker looked at the picture. "That's the Heart of the Lion, a piece of the Joestar Collection. I suddenly have a bad feeling about this swami..."


Much of the manor was frozen over and dilapidated. "Jeez, how long has this swami been living here?," Violet wondered. "I'm not sure he really was," Joker noted, "There's a serious plot going on in the background, I can tell. Somehow, the pieces of the Joestar Collection always wind up in the hands of criminals, regardless of whether their crimes are overt or not." Violet nodded. "So Sinbu might be the same. We'd better keep an eye out then." She noticed a large tower near the back that had been locked tight.

Diane had directed them to where the key was supposed to be, but all they found was a pumpkin lying on a desk. "Was someone carving for Halloween?," Violet wondered. "I think something may have addled Diane's mind," Joker suggested, "And I'd bet anything it was that swami. But let's take this back and see if Diane can remember a little better." Violet nodded. Joey was grateful for the pumpkin, which he used to flavor the soup, while Diane was confused about why it was there.

"I must have been prepping the pumpkin for some reason," she decided, "My memory has been foggy for quite some time now, ever since Sinbu offered up that pretty diamond." Joker and Violet looked at each other in concern. "Do you think you have a better idea where you left it?," Joker asked. Diane tried to think and came up with an answer. "It might have been left in the room just under Sinbu's. He likes his privacy, you see, so he rarely comes out." Violet noted that Diane didn't seem to sure of herself.


Whoever built the manor in the first place clearly intended to use it as a military fortress, since there was a system in place to transport cannonballs, and working cannons. Using them, the two thieves started clearing out some of the ice building up over the manor. In one of the halls, Joker found a suit of armor carrying a giant chain mace. "That could come in handy," he noted, and he had his Stand pick the mace up. "What are you planning on doing with that?," Violet asked. "A little deicing," Joker quipped.

Inside the room, Joker started putting the mace to work. But all that was behind was a well-preserved wheel of goat cheese. "Well aren't we the goat," Joker quipped. The mace made it simple to smash through the large ice clusters that littered the manor, opening up the place quite well. Violet noted that with each one shattered, the manor started to become warmer and warmer. "It's like the cold was generated from the ice," she noted, "Rather than being formed by it." "That's normally impossible," Joker said, "Since cold is just the absence of heat. Scientifically speaking, cold doesn't truly exist. Unless you're a Stand user... Or a Magus..."


Joey was grateful for the cheese, since it was the perfect ingredient to finish the soup. Meanwhile, a rather confused Diane wondered what she was missing. "Hmm... We put it somewhere important... Oh yeah! We left it in the manor's chapel, since it was the place we got married in. Actually, it was after that day that my head started getting fuzzy." "Joker," Violet said, "How big is the Heart of the Lion?" "It's about fist-sized," Joker said, "Not very heavy." "So, it could be used as the weight of a pendant?," Violet asked. Joker nodded, having a good idea of where Violet was going with that line of questioning.


Meanwhile Sinbu was watching the duo through his crystal ball. "I should have been able to prevent any such interference from coming in. But that is the weakness of my technique. That man is not as naive as his young wife. I need that feeling of fresh happiness in order to complete my ritual." He picked a talisman shaped like a snowflake. "I will use my mystic powers over the ice and cold to deter those thieves from getting closer. They will learn the price of standing against me!"


Sinbu's ritual had turned some of the ice into summoned monsters, but apparently Sinbu was not all-seeing, since Joker was able to make use of the chain mace to destroy a couple of ice breathers meant to block the path. "Looks like Sinbu is watching us somehow," Joker noted. "How will we deal with him when we take the treasure?," Violet asked, "I'm pretty sure the Clock Tower doesn't have a website." "Not to worry," Joker assured her, "Some recent generation mages have become more tech-savvy. Besides, we can always let Rin know where we are."

They continued to explore through the manor, breaking down both ice monsters and ice blocks to open up more of the place. "We keep this up and the place might become livable," Violet noted, "Of course, we'd have to deal with Sinbu first. How can we contact Rin?" "Through Jigen," Joker suggested as he activated his visor, "The wild card is in the deck. Going all in. Contact Daisuke Jigen." After a few minutes, he had managed to get the sharpshooter to convince Rin to come to Canada. "Now we just have to find that key so we can send Sinbu the calling card."


Meanwhile, Rin was looking up Sinbu's information. "He's a talented ice mage and hypnotist. Was researching how to use positive emotions in rituals to make them more powerful, but was placed under arrest by the Policies Department. If he's operating in Canada right now..." "Think we can spare the time to find him?," Jigen asked. "I guess we might as well," Rin decided, "But this has to stay within mage business, so we can't call anyone else. Luckily, the two of us should be more than enough to deal with him."

"What's the deal with that old manor anyway?," Jigen asked. "It used to belong to a prominent mage family before it was abandoned," Rin explained, "It was built on an intersection of ley lines to better channel magical power. But when it was put up for sale the Policies Department made sure to remove all traces of anything magical in case mundanes bought it." "Like the McLeans," Jigen realized. 'What's Joker gotten himself into this time? He's even more crazy than Lupin sometimes...' "Hey," Rin said, "We're going Jigen." "Huh?," Jigen said, getting snapped out of his thoughts, "Oh, right. Coming."


"Still wish we could properly use our powers here," Violet said. "It can't be helped," Joker said with a sigh as he used a cannon to take out another ice creature, "When the Policies Department cleaned the place of magic, they overlooked the walls since those enchantments were meant to keep out secrets and spirits. And they work just as well against my phasing abilities or your light melding." Violet sighed. "This is so much more fun as a video game concept. At least we're almost at the end of it. And much of the manor is now open for Diane and Joey."

The had just reached the chapel and were now clearing it out of ice monsters. At the far end, Violet found the key for Sinbu's room. "Think we're ready for the confrontation?" "Let's give it a bit," Joker suggested, "We need to give some time for Rin to get here so she can haul in Sinbu under Clock Tower jurisdiction. In the meantime, we'll monitor Diane and make sure she doesn't get any worse... Or goes anywhere near Sinbu's room. Whatever he wants with her, I doubt it's anything good."


Sinbu hadn't been seeing any real movement from the two thieves. "Reception out here in terrible in winter," he noted, "Which is rather ironic since I'm an ice mage." He had tried a couple times to draw Diane over for another session, but she wasn't responding. Suddenly he heard the sound of something being slipped under his door. "I swear if it's one more death threat from Joey..." He was shocked when he saw it was one of Joker's calling cards. "Swami Sinbu, we are the Phantom Thieves Joker and Violet. Today we will steal the Heart of the Lion from your possession."

As if that shock wasn't enough, his crystal ball suddenly glowed with an image of Rin and Jigen approaching. "Accursed luck. That's the head of the Tohsaka family. If she finds what I've been doing I'll be ruined for sure!" "You have bigger problems," came Joker's voice. Sinbu whirled around to see him and Violet standing there. 'I need to try and turn them back... Perhaps my special pendant can...' He reached into his robe to grab the pendant with the Heart of the Lion, only for Violet to snatch it the second it was visible. "Talk about moving at lightspeed," she quipped.

Sinbu tried to unleash his ice magic next. "Gandr!" Rin's voice echoed through the room as her magic bullet knocked Sinbu's talisman out of his hands, another shot knocking him out. By the time Rin arrived inside, the two thieves had already vacated. "Just missed them," she noted, "But they're meant for Goro and Yu." She looked over Sinbu's research lab. "Just like before," she noted, "He was using the nearby chapel to take advantage of the pure happiness that a woman feels on her wedding day, draining it to power a simple ritual to mass produce ice."

"Talk about cold," Jigen said, "But why go through all the trouble?" "There's a surprisingly big market for ice," Rin noted, "And it would be even more valuable if it never melted, which magical ice doesn't. Basically Sinbu was trying to corner the market just to get rich. It's not uncommon for mages to use their craft to make money but normally they're smart about it and make sure not to hurt anyone in the process. Anyway, Diane McLean should recover after a few hours as the manor warms up. Let's take Sinbu to the Policies Department." Jigen nodded.

Next time, Joker and Violet get word of a company director with a great deal of treasure, including perhaps the most valuable piece of the Joestar Collection. Of course, in order to get at it, they need to deal with a pair of brothers who are part of the Zodiac Assassins. Read and review.