A bit of a lead-in to the next chapter at the end. Plus another event that I had to get in. Disclaimer: I don't own Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the Persona series, Lupin the Third, or any other referenced media.

Thirty-Ninth Caper: Serpentine Brothers, Golden Keep

Inside a dark office, Nagayuki Tomita was on the phone with his twin brother, Takeyasu. They were both members of the Zodiac Assassins, with Nagayuki as the Dragon and Takeyasu as the Snake. "So I hear this guy Joker has been making waves in the thieving scene," Nagayuki noted. 'Makes us in our own thieving days look like amateur hour,' Takeyasu noted. Nagayuki laughed. "Bro, we were amateur hour! We set off so many alarms, nearly got busted on a number of occasions, not to mention half the time I'm pretty sure we didn't steal anything meaningful."

'And then we got recognized by the Houses of the Dragon and Snake for the power of our Stands,' Takeyasu said, 'Honestly, I consider it a miracle we managed to live that long.' "Speaking of thieving," Nagayuki said, "The guy I have a contract with has a nice little item in his vault. A small statuette of a building. Solid gold. Thing's worth a fortune." Takeyasu whistled. 'Well, we were planning on robbing these guys after we kill them anyway. Just remember, you can only kill my boss, and I can only kill your boss.' "I can't wait to see the capital from this job," Nagayuki said with a smirk.


"They really call the pharmaceutical Atari?," Violet asked. She and Joker were staking out their next heist. "Well the game company bombed," Joker pointed out, "So the name was no longer under legal ownership. But the name's not important. What is important is that Alibaba discovered these guys were doing some legally questionable drug tests." "What makes them so questionable?," Violet wondered. 'Try the fact that they're using human trafficking to supply themselves with test subjects,' Alibaba chimed in. Violet shuddered. "Yeah... That'd do it..." "While we're unsure of the specifics," Joker said, "We do know that the director here has a Joestar Collection piece."

'The Golden Keep,' Alibaba noted, 'At 140 kilograms of 24 karat gold, this beauty is worth just over 60 million yen, making it perhaps the most valuable piece in the entire collection. At least in terms of monetary value. It was commissioned in honor of the architectural skills of Forsythe Joestar, though there was never actually a building it was modeled after.' "Joseph intends to pay us the full worth of the Golden Keep plus interest," Joker noted, "I plan on sinking it all into our hideout's renovations."

Several black cars pulled up to the building. "There's our target two," Violet noted, "A notorious ringleader of a human trafficking ring." She took a closer look. "Hey, wasn't that guy supposed to be the bodyguard of the director? No, wait... I think he might be his twin." Joker narrowed his eyes. "I see. So now we're dealing with the Dragon and the Snake, twin brothers from the Zodiac Assassins." 'The Golden Keep is kept inside a biometric lock,' Alibaba noted, 'But that won't be a problem. I mean Joker can walk through walls. I'd be more concerned if they included weight sensors or infrared cameras.'

"And we have the perfect chance to steal the treasure during some upcoming chaos," Violet noted, "Since Atari is nearly done testing its newest drug, they won't need anymore orphans to test their drug on. So they're planning on backing out. Which is likely the reason why they hired the Tatsumi brothers in the first place." "But the brothers are also notorious thieves," Joker said, "Not on the same level as us or Lupin. Not enough finesse. But that vault holds more wealth than just the Golden Keep."

'Here's something interesting,' Alibaba said, 'I've managed to get an ear inside the office. Seems the organization wants Atari to keep paying or else they'll leak the human testing to the press. Want me to do it for them?' "Let's wait and see if any of them are still alive after the chaos," Joker suggested, "While I love airing out dirty laundry, it would be dishonorable to do so to the dead." "The deal is set to go down tomorrow," Violet said, "So, we send the calling card tonight then?" "Yep," Joker said, "By this time tomorrow a lot of curious glances are gonna be coming this way."


And so, just as the two forces squared off, the director blanched at the sight of the calling cards all over his pharmaceutical. "Marlon Yates, we are the Phantom Thieves Joker and Violet. Tonight we will steal the Golden Keep from your possession." "How did they even know about that priceless treasure!?," Marlon demanded, "Did that bastard Drex leak it somehow!?" He immediately called down to his men. "Hey! Make sure to question Drex about his connection to Phantom Thief Joker! That bastard just sent our company a calling card, meaning he knows all about our business arrangement!"

'We've got bigger problems!,' came the reply, 'That bodyguard we hired!? Drex hired a guy who looks just like him! Both of them are twin brothers! Drex's guy is roasting our boys, but our fighter is just ignoring him to ice Drex's goons!' "You gotta be kidding me...," Marlon said in shock, "What else could happen tonight...?" That's when Drex burst into the room, though he didn't look enraged so much as exhausted and freaked out, so Marlon had a feeling he wasn't there to kill him. "What kind of maniac did you hire?," Drex asked. "What about you?," Marlon pointed out, "And more to the point, how did you literally end up hiring the twin brother of my hire?"

"He never even mentioned he had a brother," Drex argued, "I'm pretty sure they're working together while keeping to their contracts. My guy wouldn't fight his brother, but he didn't exactly turn on us either. Just kept blasting his flamethrower on your bodyguards. Meanwhile the other guy's been turning my boys into ice cubes, but didn't even touch your men." Marlon sank into his seat as the power went out. "Crap, now what?" That's when Joker phased out of the vault, the Golden Keep in hand. "You've got quite the haul in there. Lucky for you..." He smirked as he held up his prize. "I prefer to travel light."

Drex pulled out a gun, only to have it shot out of his hands by Violet. "We'll be taking what we promised," Violet said with a smile, "Good luck with the Tatsumi brothers." As they phased out of the room, they started walking down the stairs. "Why are we taking the slow way?," Violet asked. "The second those brothers realize we have the most valuable item in that vault," Joker explained, "They'll be coming after us. And they won't stop chasing us unless we prove we're not worth the effort."


Sure enough, after killing Marlon and Drex, the brothers were shocked that the item they were hoping to find was gone. "You gotta be kidding me!," Takeyasu said, "You said it'd be here!" Nagayuki grimaced as he found the calling card. "Remember that guy Joker I was talking about just yesterday? Looks like he beat us to the punch. Come on! Let's teach him a lesson about jumping our claim!" Takeyasu and placed a hand on the ground. "Gin Hebi!" Using his Stand, Takeyasu felt along the ground before grinning. "I've got them! This way!"

Nagayuki nodded and leapt into the air. "Kuro Tatsu!" He began floating out the window, using his Stand to control his altitude while his brother raced down the stairs. Takeyasu reached the end of the trail, but was shocked when there was no one there. "What the hell?" "You know that old saying about a snake in the grass?," came Joker's voice. Takeyasu was shocked as Joker came up behind him with a knife. "I find that saying ironic in this situation." Meanwhile outside, Nagayuki freaked out when Violet appeared on a ray of light and started firing on him, using her light form to dodge his ice thrower.

Inside, Joker used his shadow form to ignore Takeyasu's flamethrower. "You could really start a bad fire with that thing," Joker noted. He called out his Stand, shocking Takeyasu, who suffered serious injuries as W Boiled Xtreme unleashed its claws on him. Outside, Violet was also knocking around Nagayuki with Be The One. As he landed on the ground, he spotted Joker walk out to his motorcycle without a scratch. "You should be satisfied with the money and gold still in there," Joker said as Violet landed on the bike behind him, "I'd go and grab it before your brother burns the place to the ground out of rage."

Nagayuki quickly got to his feet as Joker drove off and went to look for his brother. He found him unconscious and injured, but not too injured to move. "Man that guy's a pain...," Takeyasu muttered, "So much for that golden statue..." "Well," Nagayuki said, "The rest of the money inside the vault should be worth as much as the statue in the long run anyway. Come on, let's finish our fun and get out of here." "Y'know," Takeyasu said, "I was gonna burn this place to the ground after we were done, but now I'm just not feeling it." Nagayuki smiled. "Well, it should make the cleanup cheaper."


Later Ren was attending as a guest at court in a case against the brothers. Seems someone managed to learn of their actions and were trying to press charges. 'There's no denying their actions are duplicitous,' Ren thought to himself, 'But at the same time as Zodiac Assassins connected to the United Nations, they are technically above the law. Prosecuting them is an effort in futility.' Indeed Nagayuki, who was acting as his and his brother's defense, was making similar arguments whilst the prosecutor seemed to be on a Templar-like crusade.

Once the trial was over, with the case being dropped altogether as Ren expected, he walked out of the courthouse. "They could stand to act more professional." He got a call on his phone. "Joker's number... Hello, this is Joker speaking." 'It's me,' came Lupin's voice, 'I need your help with a small issue regarding my first real partner.' "Since when did you and Jigen have a falling out?," Ren asked. 'Not Jigen,' Lupin clarified, 'I'm talking about before that, when I was just starting out.'

Ren listened as Lupin explained the entire story about him and a man named Albert, a thief that was even more skilled than Lupin, at least during his early career. 'Right now we're dealing with an individual named Jose,' Lupin noted. Ren knew that name. It was bizarre to think that the only other Jose he knew was a young boy. But of course Lupin was speaking of a notorious terrorist who seemed intent on taking Paris. 'They have possession of a book containing every crime covered up by the French government,' Lupin noted, 'And I for one think it would be a very bad idea for that book to see the light of day.'

Ren nodded. "I'll have my friend Alibaba look into things. If the situation is as dangerous as you say, there's no telling how many innocent people will get hurt." He hung up. "Looks like things are starting to take a turn for the crazy on the world stage." He got on his motorcycle. As he drove through an alley, he shifted to his Joker persona. "The wild card is in the deck. Going all in. Contact Alibaba and Violet." 'Something wrong?,' Violet asked. "We're getting embroiled in an attempt to prevent an international incident," Joker explained, "Alibaba, I need you to find any and all information on the terrorist Jose."

'Now there's a name I've heard before,' Alibaba noted, 'I'll get started right away.' "Good," Joker replied, "Violet, we're taking a flight to Paris. I'll brief you on all the details during the flight. We'll be taking first-class for privacy purposes." 'Got it,' Violet said, 'I'll order our tickets right away. This is going to get dangerous, isn't it?' "Every heist is dangerous," Joker pointed out, "The real trick... Is how you handle the danger." He drove off for the nearest airport, intent on waiting for Violet. "Lupin... What did you get up to while I wasn't looking?"

Two more new Stands for two more brothers.

Gin Hebi
User: Takeyasu "Younger Tatsumi" Tomita
Ability: With this Stand, Takeyasu can track a target moving across the floor via their body heat. To some extent he can do the same along walls and even ceilings, but not a floating or flying enemy.
Power: E
Speed: E
Range: A
Durability: A
Precision: B
Potential: D

Kuro Tatsu
User: Nagayuki "Elder Tatsumi" Tomita
Ability: Nagayuki can use his Stand to control his altitude while floating in midair. He can fly as high as commercial airliners and maintain strong vision even at such heights. However, if something should impact him his Stand will automatically shut down.
Power: E
Speed: E
Range: D
Durability: C
Precision: B
Potential: E

Next time, Joker and his team join Lupin and his former partner Albert in stealing a certain notebook from a terrorist organization intent on using it to capture all of Paris. But even as they work together, Joker discovers that Albert has two pieces of the Joestar Collection in his own possession. Read and review.