Chapter 6: All That Glitters

The gilded walls of Madarame's palace shone brightly under the gallery lights. How different the place looked compared to the artist's run-down shack with its shuttered windows and weathered facade. The various artworks hanging on the walls were indeed skillfully rendered. Joker would even call them beautiful, if only they hadn't consisted of the stolen dreams of children.

He listened to the tap tap of the shadows patrolling the corridor. They were security guards this time - the ones in Kamoshida's palace had been disguised as medieval knights. Joker supposed it made sense given each man's perception of the world around him. He peered around the corner, keeping low to the ground as he discerned the precise moment to strike.

Tap tap.

Almost there…

Tap.

Ta-

Joker struck the shadow with his blade, dispatching it in mere seconds while Skull took on his partner on the opposite side. A lightning strike here, a hail of bullets overhead, complemented with a blow to the head with a pipe. When the battle was finished, the two thieves reconvened before the opulent door that had impeded their progress earlier in the week, their chests still heaving from the effort of the fight.

"Now we wait?" Skull asked.

"Now we wait," Joker concurred, placing his dagger back in its sheath.

The two of them settled into a companionable silence. Joker shut his eyes and tried to focus on the mission at hand. The Phantom Thieves had received Madarame's name from Nakanohara Natsuhiko, whose heart they changed in Mementos.

Nakanohara revealed that the great artist Madarame had been plagiarizing his students' work for decades, robbing promising young talent of fame and profits in exchange for his sponsorship. The scheme resulted in millions of dollars for Madarame and a life of destitution and regret for his former pupils. Nakanohara lamented his own lost love for art before retreating into the depths of Shibuya Station.

The Phantom Thieves were now on a mission to infiltrate Madarame's palace and steal the core of his distorted desires. They reasoned that exploiting vulnerable young people was a crime he deserved to repent for, especially as the situation now involved one of their own. There was at least one student, a lanky young man named Kitagawa Yusuke, who continued to work under Madarame's tutelage.

Panther had been feeling watched for weeks when she caught Kitagawa staring one morning at Aoyama-Icheome station. The next thing Joker knew, he was standing between Skull and the stranger, with Panther behind them pointing at Kitagawa's face. Skull was beside himself with outrage, and as Kitagawa extolled "Ann-chan"'s beauty and his desire to paint her for his next project, he grew more and more agitated.

"I have a bad feeling about that guy. I don't like him at all," Skull warned the team.

Ren, for his part, was a little more trusting. Kitagawa didn't seem capable of true malice. All his eccentricities stemmed from his devotion to art. And right now, his fixation on Takamaki Ann was their only hope of getting past the mental block in Madarame's cognition. Panther would keep Kitagawa distracted while Mona tinkered with the locked door near his room. The feline hypothesized that once Madarame saw the door had been broken into, their path in the Metaverse would clear.

Joker hoped things were going well. Despite the rocky introduction, Panther and Kitagawa seemed to enjoy each other's company. He hoped that would get them through this without burning bridges.

In the meantime, he and Skull waited. Their job was to turn off security once the doors had opened - which meant they were on standby until Panther and Mona were successful. The silence in the room was so thick, he could slice into it with his scimitar. It was quiet. Too quiet.

Joker cracked open an eye. Skull was looking more pensive than usual. Maybe it was because Mona and Panther weren't around to provoke and chide him, respectively.

"Something on your mind?" he asked.

"Just wondering if the others are okay," Skull said. "They seriously gonna be able to pull this off?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Joker asked.

"Panther was saying stuff like 'I'll seduce him with my acting," Skull mimicked Panther's high-pitched voice, "but that sounds way outta her league."

Joker suspected Skull's restlessness had less to do with the mission's outcome than the possibility that Panther was posing nude for Kitagawa at this very moment. That had been the rub: the artist not only wanted to paint Panther. He wanted to paint her naked.

"Dude, you encouraged her to do this," Joker reminded him.

"You encouraged her to strip!" Skull retorted. Joker had to acknowledge that was true: he did tell her to strip for Kitagawa as a parting shot.

Panther hadn't wanted to pose nude, of course. It was the easiest way to gain access to Madarame's house, but he had been willing to consider the alternatives. He wondered if Skull understood the implications of his teasing when he goaded Panther into booking the job.

"It seems we both took the joke too far," he said with a shrug. Skull scowled and looked ready to protest his use of both when the panels before them began to part ways, revealing yet another golden corridor with a security kiosk off to the side. Just like Mona predicted.

The thieves darted into the security office in search of the controls. Joker felt their surroundings begin to distort, wavering between reality and cognition as he fiddled with the dashboard. He caught glimpses of Kitagawa's studio, the worn floorboards ghostly beneath the multitude of keys and buttons at his disposal. Mona's instructions echoed in his head. There should be a switch somewhere...

"There!" he said, grabbing the lever and pulling hard.

He had seconds to step out of the way before a tangle of limbs materialized at his feet. He spotted Panther first, wrapped snugly in Kitagawa's arms. Mona appeared next, bouncing off Panther's latex suit and landing next to Skull, who scooped him up as though the monster cat was still in his quadruped form.

"You guys made it!" Skull cried, shaking the still-rattled Mona. Panther was already back on her feet, attempting to console the confused young man she had just dragged into their problems.

"Kitagawa-kun, it's me!" she cried, removing her young man withdrew from her anyway, scooting backwards on his arms and legs. His fearful eyes looked from Panther to Skull and finally Joker - then back to Panther, eyes widening in recognition. Even if her identity was confirmed, Joker supposed he had no way of knowing who his other two elaborately dressed kidnappers were.

"Wh-who are you?" Kitagawa cried.

Panther looked to Joker, who nodded and began another round of introductions: to the Metaverse, to their alter-egos and code names, to the reason they were all standing in a museum in the first place. If they were going to steal Madarame's treasure, he supposed it wouldn't hurt to have one of his pupils lead the way.

"Mako-chan… oh, Mako-chan, can you hear me?"

Makoto looked up from the depths of her coffee. Okumura Haru was sitting across from her at the Wilton Buffet, the only high schoolers in a sea of grey-haired patrons.

"Mako-chan?"

"O-oh, sorry!" she said. "I was lost in thought."

But Haru didn't seem to mind. "What do you think?" she asked, for what was surely the second time.

Makoto took another sip of her coffee. It was warm and comforting, with a slight acidic aftertaste.

"It's wonderful," she sighed. She couldn't quite explain how, but it tasted different from the brew Sis made at home. There seemed to be a faint bitterness beneath the mellow flavor that she found delightful.

"I'm so glad!" Haru cried. "You see, just a single cup of the Dark Ivory coffee here costs roughly six thousand yen."

"SIx thousand yen for a cup of coffee?" Makoto blurted out.

"Indeed. I expect it to be worth the high price. My father always told me to never skimp when it comes to learning experiences."

Makoto had so many questions. Why is the coffee so expensive? Where is it grown? How do you have so much money? But she decided to let them go for now. Her friendship with Okumura Haru had only just begun; there was no need to scare her away already. Since their tea at the student council office, they had exchanged numbers and chatted once or twice. Still, they were already on a first-name basis, which Makoto found refreshing.

Today they had arranged a coffee date before heading to the Madarame exhibit in Shibuya. Makoto could hardly call herself an expert on fine art, but Haru's enthusiasm precluded any possibility of escape. Her father was a collector, and she had learned to appreciate the principles of design like composition and color and space.

It was probably for the best that Makoto was out of the house and spending time with someone other than Sis. She needed to get her mind off her most recent mock exam scores. She blamed her subpar performance partially on Amamiya, who had become even more elusive as of late. The two of them hadn't crossed paths since that day at the arcade.

Was he going out of his way to avoid her, or had she lost her nerve? All she knew was that she was no closer than she had been a month ago to confirming the identities of the Phantom Thieves.

Maybe she liked it that way. She could keep those moments in the arcade frozen in time. Nothing had happened since to spoil the memory.

No, she thought. You're supposed to be robotic, remember?

Not to mention there was the problem of Principal Kobayakawa getting on her case.

It didn't help that the student who placed ahead of her on the mock exam happened to be the so-called detective prince, Goro Akechi. He was a prodigy investigator, having cracked several high-profile cases that stumped even the police. He was a staple on the talk show circuit and lent his expertise to many of Sis's investigations. It seemed that these days, Sis spent more time with Akechi than she ever did with Makoto.

She felt her eyes drift to the ceiling whenever someone at school got wind of their acquaintance. The fake friendliness and requests for introductions grew tiresome. It was unfortunate that Akechi also happened to be handsome.

"Mako-chan is very competitive," Haru said, brows furrowed as Makoto related her concerns about the next mock exam. "What does it matter if you're not first place?"

Makoto shrugged. Haru had a point: it was her actual exam scores and letter of recommendations that would decide her future. Even so, she felt this relentless need to prove herself. As if defeating Akechi academically would win back Sis's affections and prove that there was a purpose to her life. That she was needed. Useful.

"I don't know," she finally said, knowing full well she was about to give a canned answer. "I guess it matters to Sis, so it matters to me."

As she spoke, one of the adults crowded around the buffet broke away and approached their table. Makoto saw a gleam of recognition in Haru's eyes. She wondered if this was her usual crowd. It was quite mature for a high-schooler.

"Takakura-san?"

"Hello, Haru," the man said. He was wearing an expensive pinstriped suit. Makoto guessed that Takakura-san must work for Okumura Foods.

"What a strange place for us to meet," he said. "It's not often I see people your age at this luxurious buffet."

He looked over at Makoto. "And who is this?"

"Oh, she's a friend from school," Haru said. "Makoto, this is Takakura-san, senior vice president of Okumura Foods."

Thought so. "Very nice to meet you," Makoto said, defaulting to her usual politeness. Takakura-san returned the sentiment before turning back to Haru.

"How are things going with Sugimura-kun?" he said.

Makoto's ears perked up. Sugimura-kun? she mouthed to Haru, who was busy keeping Takakura's questioning at bay.

"You know, these days you need to reserve a wedding hall almost a year in advance if you want a good one," he said. Since when did a high schooler have to worry about the intricacies of planning a wedding?

"R-Right, we're in the process," Haru stammered.

"Sometimes it worries me how laid back you are, Haru-chan."

"I promise I have it all under control!"

The senior vice president of Okumura Foods eventually ran out of things to talk about and offered to pay for their drinks, which Haru graciously accepted. Makoto waited until he was out of earshot before asking the question on the tip of her tongue.

"Haru… are you engaged?"

Makoto thought she saw a shadow cross her friend's face. It was becoming increasingly obvious that their lives were as different as their fashion aesthetic - Haru's frilly pastel dresses compared to Makoto's pragmatic jeans and turtleneck. It dawned on her that this was why they got along; their secrets kept them walled off from the rest of their peers.

"It's not like that," Haru said. "This isn't a love match."

Makoto had a feeling that was as complete an answer she would get.

"Shall we go?" Haru asked, turning to the door. "It's going to get crowded if we wait any longer. I don't want to spend the day waiting in line!"

Makoto had to remind herself. New friendship. Don't push it too far.

Joker shielded his eyes in the face of Kitagawa's Persona, the hero-thief had watched alongside Skull and Panther as Kitagawa dug his nails so hard into the ground he left streaks of blood in their wake. They all winced as they recalled their own awakenings, the blood and the pain, and that familiar refrain:

I am thou, thou art I.

A flash of blue light enveloped Kitagawa. When it faded, the art student's clothes had transformed into armor. His features hardened into one of rage. Most importantly, it was evident the light burned away any esteem he had left for his instructor-cum-guardian.

"How amusing," Kitagawa murmured. "It seems the truth is stranger than fiction. I wanted to believe it wasn't true. My eyes were truly blind… Blind, and unable to see the true self behind this one horrible man."

He had become one of them.

Like Panther and Skull, Kitagawa had been recruited into the mystery plot Joker spent these first months in Tokyo trying to unravel. It was just as Igor, the man with the crooked nose, said. There were others who had the ability to wield Persona and help him avert ruination, whatever Igor meant by that - all he had to do was find them and activate their potential.

It made him wonder if there was a point to all of his encounters with her. The thorn in his side. Niijima Makoto of the turtleneck and braided headband. Niijima Makoto, student council president, aikido acolyte, yakuza enthusiast. What if she was next? He felt a tightening in his chest as the thought crossed his mind. He'd seen her in action: the girl could pull her punches.

What would it be like to fight alongside her?

More importantly: did her vision of rebellion leave as little to the imagination as Panther's?

There was a time and a place for those questions, and it wasn't now. Madarame's shadow had bloodlust in his eyes.

"The price for your insolence will be death. Where are my guards?"

Joker pulled his gloves tight, bracing himself for the onslaught of minions.

The exhibit was stunning, as Makoto expected. She spent the afternoon looking at paintings in a wide range of artistic styles. Even the brushstrokes were distinctive, soft wisps in one work contrasting with stabs of paint in another. It was hard to believe that all of it could have originated from one man.

"You're right. I suppose it shows his versatility," Haru said when she pointed this out.

About a week later, Makoto was on her weekend grocery run when she noticed the crowd fixated on the big TV overlooking Shibuya. A man she recognized as Madarame was preparing to hold a press conference. The exhibit is over today, Makoto thought, tapping into her memory of the adverts all over the city. Why is he holding a press conference now?

Then she noticed the bowed head and lack of eye contact, and she knew. He was feeling guilty about something. The old man's face crumpled as he confessed to his crimes, a litany of offenses accumulated over several decades. Just like Kamoshida had, but on a larger scale.

"Phantom Thieves again," she murmured.

Little did she know that the thieves she spoke of were just a few yards away - including their leader, who had her in his direct line of vision.

A/N: This chapter was such a challenge to write. Mainly because it was a part of the story I didn't find so interesting. I ended up taking creative liberties with a few in-game events to suit the narrative I'm trying to tell.

Things should ramp up again with the next chapter, which will hopefully take less than two months to write!