The first morning shipwrecked was tense, to say the least. Benham rose from what could be generously described as a bed inside a makeshift hut made of planks and driftwood. It was extremely modest, to say the least. Maybe using leaves for the bed wasn't the greatest idea… Benham didn't have time to lament his less-than-ideal sleeping conditions, for now was the time to interrogate the two ex-pirates Team Shadows had reported about yesterday. He'd decided that he'd interrogate them first, then interrogate mocker using their statements. If everything went well, he'd figure out the entire situation with them, including why they were dumped here and for how long. In the best case scenario, they'd even be able to recruit them.
After a meager breakfast from salvaged food, Benham headed to the edge of the camp, where team Shadows was waiting. Time to explain the situation to them.
"Team Shadows. One we reach the the ex-pirates, I want you to return to camp immediately. I'll come back only after I've finished interrogating the ex-pirates."
"Are you sure you'll be fine, Benham?" Ren asked. "You'd be alone with two potentially dangerous individuals."
You have little faith, Ren, Benham thought. I've fought the ruler of time and won. "I am more than capable of handling myself in a situation like that. I didn't become Guildmaster by slacking off."
"If you say so…"
The four of them headed into the jungle, with very few words. Benham knew that they'd been gone for a while, so he assumed it was a long walk. They took a twisting path through the forest, and Benham could tell that they were largely playing it by ear, but they were looking out for something. Eventually, they stopped at a bunch of oran berry trees.
"What's the deal with this place, then?" Benham asked. "Are they nearby?"
"Yesterday, we were scouting and came across these berry trees," Ren started. "We noticed that they'd been plucked partially when we tried picking some ourselves. Their camp is a few more minutes of walking in that direction." Ren pointed straight ahead of himself. "We'll probably meet them quickly if keep going."
"In that case, you should head back now. I'll take it from here, got it?"
"Are you positive you're okay facing them alone?" Morgana asked.
"Again, I'm more than capable of handling them by myself. There's no need to fear."
"If you say so, Guildmaster…" Anya sighed. Strangely, she seemed disappointed.
Benham continued on his way as Team Shadows returned to camp, hopefully. They were strangely forceful about interrogating these two with me… Benham dismissed it for the time being as mere worry, but it still bothered him. The forest only seemed to get denser over the next few minutes, and Benham could tell that he was getting closer. Eventually, he happened upon a hut made of vines and wood. Benham, seeing he had found their camp, took a moment to gauge the area. He found some Purple and light brown furs on the ground, and noted that they smelled musky. These clearly belong to the ex-pirates. A Stunky and a Skuntank, maybe? Hm…. Benham, steeling his nerves, knocked on the door. A Purrloin greeted him.
"A visitor? Are you another member of the guild the other three mentioned?"
"I am Guildmaster Benham Raichu of Wigglytuff's Guild in treasure town. I have a few questions to ask the two of you. And I don't plan on taking no for an answer. Do I make myself clear?"
"…Very well. Come inside."
Against his better judgement, Benham followed the Purrloin inside the hut. Inside was a Stunky as well as a simple table and a bag of berries, likely plucked from the same few trees he'd been earlier.
"Excuse the barebones arrangements in here. We are not skilled at carpentry."
"That is none of my concern," Benham replied, sure to make it clear his guard was up. "Names, please."
"I'm Yusuke," The Purrloin responed.
"Futaba," The Stunky chimed in.
"Very well. Now then, Team Shadows, the individuals you met yesterday, claim you are ex-pirates. Is that correct?"
"…Yes, that's correct," Futaba answered. She seemed oddly shaky. "We were indeed pirates on the black pearl for a time. It's my understanding that your guild was once attacked by that ship."
Is she really that intimidated by me? Perhaps a pirate should show more bravery in the face of an interrogation. Moreover, they seem to know about the raid on treasure town. "Never mind that. Can you describe how you came to be pirates in the first place?"
"Well, we were living in wave town in the air continent when he approached us. He seemed to take an interest in us for some reason, so we decided to go along with it, not really sure what to do." Futaba almost seemed like she was struggling to maintain eye contact.
"Are you sure that that's the entire reason you joined the Phantom Thieves?"
"Well…" Yusuke chimed in. "I think we were partially motivated by the allure of being members. We also wanted to explore the world a bit…"
If they wanted to do that, there were legitimate ways of doing it… I'm struggling to believe this is the whole reason… Benham stayed silent, hoping he'd get more of a response. Sure enough, Futaba continued.
"Mocker was also… Kinda forceful? I think, anyway…"
Mocker must've had a reason to want them if he really was being forceful about it. It's possible blackmail was involved, judging by their wording. What could it be? "How long exactly were you members?"
"We were only with them for a few weeks," Futaba responded.
Only a few weeks? If they were bad enough to warrant dropping after a few weeks, that would explain the nervous demeanor they have going on. "Why did you leave?"
"We were the ones who got kicked out, actually," Yusuke said, confirming Benham's suspicions. "We were abandoned on this island for not killing a man."
"And how long ago were you dropped here?"
"About a month ago. It's been difficult to keep track of the days, however…"
Immediately, Benham was on edge. Month? A month, not a moon? I've only heard that terminology one other place! When I interrogated Akechi! Should I call them out on it? Probably not. If I do that, and it turns out that they are connected to Ren and Morgana like Ryuji and Akechi were, it'll probably draw unwanted attention to this investigation. Best to keep Team Shadows in the dark as much as possible… Remaining composed, Benham continued asking questions. "About what you said earlier regarding the Phantom Thieves' history with Treasure Town. How much do you know?"
"We were told that about two decades ago, the two groups clashed, and there were many dead on both sides. That's it."
If I'm to find a contradiction, that small piece of information is likely the best think to present to Mocker. Depending on his account, I'll know for sure whether they're lying. Maybe I'll even be able to confirm whether they're humans. And if I can know that for sure, I might be able to build a stronger case for Ren being the culprit in high town. Benham turned around to leave. "That'll be all. You'll likely be getting a few more visitors out of sheer curiosity, so be prepared to have your quiet life here disturbed."
"May we meet again," Yusuke responded as Benham closed the door behind him.
If they really are humans, then trusting them is foolhardy. Who knows what they would get up to with Ren and the others? They don't seem particularly hardened, so maybe I could let them go free if they gave me info on Mocker. That's off the table until I have the facts, however.
Back at the camp, Ren didn't have very much time to waste. Now that Benham would be back any minute, he had to get Homura to explain what he couldn't yesterday. "Morgana, Anya. You guys stay here. I'll explain the rest of the business with Incubator to the others with Homura."
"Good thinking," Morgana observed. "With everyone at camp, Homura's time stop is the only way to deliver information secretly."
"Can we even trust Homura?" Anya asked. "She went and helped Akechi do his dirty work, didn't she?"
"Right now, we just have to work with her. For the time being, Benham's got his eye on us. Moving around during the day is off-limits."
Ren discreetly made the signal when he spotted Homura, and before long, She popped beside him, time frozen.
"So, where's the taxi going today?"
"Taxi?"
"That's how you've been treating me this whole time."
"Can you think of a better way for us to get around without getting caught? I can't exactly extend my illusions the length of the island."
"Fair enough, but don't take my help for granted."
"I'm not." Ren sighed. "We're going to go explain the deal with Incubator and Magical Girls to Yusuke and Futaba. You gave them their story yesterday, right?"
"I explained it to them exactly like you said. I also informed them about what the Pirate Phantom Thieves did to Treasure Town."
"Good. Let's go."
The journey took slightly shorter than Ren expected, due to Homura basically speed-walking all the way there, but Ren could keep up just fine. They spotted Benham walking back, which was good. The last thing they needed was to get there while Benham was still interrogating them. Eventually, they made it to the same hut Ren had found with Morgana and Anya yesterday. Futaba and Yusuke were standing outside, seemingly deep in discussion.
"Alright, time to interrupt."
Ren touched Yusuke and Homura touched Futaba, bringing them both into Homura's stopped time.
"Yeah, I hope this works- ah!" Futaba seemed a little shocked. "…Oh, hi spooky. Oh, Ren's here too this time. Yay."
"Spooky?" Ren asked.
"She's a litte bit scary, ya know?"
"For now, I'll overlook that comment," Homura responded coldly.
"Ah, spooky."
"Are you sure we should be insulting the only person who can make these meetings possible?" Yusuke asked.
"Let's just get down to business." Homura seemed increasingly annoyed by their remarks. "Let's talk about where I came from."
"So… You're something called a magical girl, right?" Ren was a little surprised to see that Futaba already knew about this, since he doubted Homura would explain herself.
"You already know?" Homura asked.
"I wouldn't say know…" Futaba trailed off. "It's more like I got the cliff notes version. We were in the metaverse, and we met these two people, and they started questioning us, so then this little white thing who called himself Kyubey tried intervening, and basically said that they'd been contracted to fight for him in exchange for a wish."
Homura sighed. "That's not wrong, but it's missing a lot of details." She temporarily took her hand off of Futaba to take out her soul gem, seemingly intending to show it to her. Once it was out, she let her back inside the stopped time. "This is a soul gem. It's formed the second a contract with the Incubator is formed, and it contains my soul. As a result, this is my real body, for all intents and purposes. If I get separated from it, I die. It's also what allows me to use any kind of powers granted to me, including this time stop. But it holds a dark secret."
"…And that dark secret would be the reason that the two we met showed resentment towards Kyubey, or Incubator, rather?" Futaba was seeing where this was headed.
"Indeed. As we use magic, you see, it starts getting cloudy and murky. What we're told is that it's an indicator of how much magic we have left, so when we hunt 'Witches' as we call them, we use what's left behind to purify it. In actuality, what happens when it gets to murky is that we become witches ourselves. None of what I told you just now, including the part where the gem is my real body, is told to us by incubator. It's not hard to see why we resent him so much."
"That's horrible…" Futaba seemed sympathetic, but not totally shocked.
"And we're going to steal Incubator's heart!" Ren declared, hoping to lift the mood in the room.
Yusuke smiled. "And so, the dealer of the Faustian bargains shall fall! Have at you, Incubator!"
"But before we do that, we need to take care of our current problem. The captain of the black pearl needs to be dealt with first and foremost. Any ideas at his Keywords?"
"No dice, even for his name," Futaba sighed. "It looks like 'mocker' is just an alias."
"…That's a problem. If we can't get his name, then we're out of luck…"
"Well, we'd better scare it out of him, then," Homura calmly suggested. "I can take care of that."
"Ah, spooky didn't hesitate to pick the dark option…"
"Would you please stop voicing those thoughts out loud, Futaba?" Homura seemed increasingly annoyed with her. "It's not like we have many options here."
"I know, I'm just teasing you. Still, torture is a bit extreme, don't you think?"
"I wasn't implying that I'd go that far to get his real name. I could also use blackmail, or just threaten him. There's no need to take it that far."
"Still a bit questionable…"
"You people are a touch soft, I think."
"Now, now, let's not start an argument. Is it safe to say this discussion is over, at least for now?" Homura driving a wedge between the group was the last thing Ren wanted to see.
"I don't have any more questions, no," Yusuke replied. "This was an interesting discussion. We'd ought to meet in the metaverse next time."
"Agreed." Futaba was still in a good mood.
"Actually…" Homura said. "Can you tell me anything about the two you met in the metaverse? I might be able to recognize them if you describe them to me."
"Oh, right! Those guys… Let's see, uh… One had long red hair, the other had short blue hair and wore a cape…"
"That would be Sayaka and Kyoko. I know those two."
"Ah, so you could maybe get them to trust us?" Futaba seemed very hopeful.
"…I'm not exactly on the greatest terms with them, so it would be difficult. Sayaka in particular has had some serious disagreements with me in the past."
"…You're terrible at getting people to like you," Futaba pouted. "So you're saying they'll distrust us even more than they already do if you come forward?"
"Maybe, maybe not." Homura was dismissive of Futaba's complaint.
Ren sighed. "All right, is that everything?"
"Yes, that should be everything," Homura responded. "See you two later." Without another word, she took her hand off of Futaba, and Ren reluctantly did the same for Yusuke. After that, the two headed back to camp without another word. I suppose we'll just have to go with Homura's plan for now. Maybe we should try meeting up in Babel… It would take a long time to find the two of them, however…
When they got back to camp, Homura let go of Ren right where he was when she froze time. To Ren, it looked like time resumed and she suddenly teleported to her previous location.
"How did it go?" Morgana asked.
"Seemed like they got it. Also, the ones they met in the metaverse apparently knew Homura and were on bad terms with her."
"So Homura's bad behavior is going to cause more problems?"
"Yes, I suppose that's true… Still, we'd better be careful not to get on her bad side. It's important that she trusts us, after all."
Later that night, Benham was preparing to confront Mocker about the ex-members they'd found on the island. He knew that something was up with the two on the island, but he needed to interrogate Mocker to know for sure. The first thing to ask about is how exactly he came to meet the two of them. After I get that story, I should try poking holes in his story using their account, or vice versa. The goal is to uncover the truth. Could they really be humans? That's not certain yet, but…
Benham headed to the hut where Mocker was being held. It was guarded by multiple teams who took shifts guarding the place, and it was much more sturdily built than the other huts. Benham wouldn't be taking any chances. There was no way he was going to give this murderer a single chance to get away. That meant security had to be top-notch, lest a anyone try something drastic. Despite this, the best they could manage was a door held shut at all times. Benham imagined that this just wouldn't be enough. After all, it wouldn't be to much effort for someone to break in. He approached the entrance, which was, of course, guarded by a four-person team.
"I'm going in. I need to interrogate Mocker on a few things."
"Go right ahead, Guildmaster. Best of luck in there with that thing."
"Of course. You'll know if there's trouble, but try not to listen in."
"Understood."
With that, the door was opened, and Benham stepped inside. He found himself staring right at the monster of a Beartic that had terrorized Treasure Town so long ago. Even while he was bound and paralyzed, Benham had to admit that the man was still frightening to look at. Something about Mocker just put Benham on edge. The twisted smile he seemingly put on at a moment's notice didn't help matters in that regard.
"Hello, landlubber. What trivial shit have you come here to do on this fine fuckin' evenin'?"
"Interrogate you, of course. Seeing as you so graciously turned yourself in."
Mocker just laughed. "Yer fuckin' cocky, ain't ye? What, ye think you've won? Yer the one on the ropes here, matey."
"And how would that be?"
"Ain't it fuckin' obvious, matey? The Ogra's not getting repaired, since the lower decks are flooded. Ye gotta build a new ship. How long's that gonna take, ey? Moons? How long ye food supply gonna last? Not even one? Yer in checkmate."
"While it's cute that you think we can't overcome your imaginary time limit, that is not what I am here to discuss with you. I-"
"Ye wanna know about the fuckers on the island, yeah? I'm a good sport, see? I'll tell."
Benham was a little shaken that he knew what he would say before he said it. Regardless, he continued. "How, exactly, did you meet those two?"
Mocker smiled, like he was waiting for this. In all likelihood, he probably was. "I was in wave town, not too long ago. We fuckin' run that town, see? Everyone there knows not to mess with us, so they give us a bit of coin in order to keep their necks. Good fuckin' deal, ey?" I-"
"Get to the point, please." Benham tried his best to be threatening.
Mocker just laughed. "You think you fuckin' scare me, matey? I've faced death more times than I can count. I don't need yer fake-arse intimidate. Now then, I was doin' a little checkup on the town, get their debts paid, make sure no upstarts got any ideas, ye know. I was checkin' out one of my old friends. He runs a pasta shop, ya see. Good fuckin' stuff. So I'm asking him about the money, and who else walks in but these two fuckin' dumbarses. They just waltz on in, when my whole-arse crew was waitin' outside, like they had death wishes or something. And I get mad at first, I tell em' who we are and why they gotta scram, but they stand there all fuckin' confused. Then I realized what was fuckin' happening, so I gave them an offer. Be by the docks by the afternoon and join me, or don't show up. They showed up, and they started workin' for me until I discovered they were fuckin' cowards and kicked them out to this island. That good enough fer ye?"
"What conclusion did you come to, exactly?"
"Figure that part out fer yerself. I'm not fuckin' completing the puzzle for ye, scallywag. That would ruin the fun."
It's no good. He's not going to be intimidated by me. Although, I can probably assume he came to the conclusion that the reason they didn't know anything was because they were humans. Although, it was entirely possible that they were far enough from sea for most of their lives. Anyway, I'm not getting a straight answer from him. In that case… "How much did you tell them about the history of the Phantom Thieves with my Guild?"
"Nothing. Why would they hear that story? I doubt they even knew you arseholes were a thing before ye shipwrecked here."
Bingo. A clear contradiction in their stories! They shouldn't know about what happened between our two groups!
"I can see the gears turnin', matey. They knew, didn't they?"
"I'm the one asking questions here, not you."
"Oh, give up the fuckin' tough guy act already. Ye know what that means, right? Work backwards to who could have told them that, and you'll have yer faker. Simple, right?"
"Why are you being so cooperative?"
"Two reasons. One, I've already fuckin' won, because there's no way food will last long enough to build a brand new boat. It doesn't matter Two, I'm out fer revenge. This fucker stole my name, and made a huge-arse stink up in High Town with it. I was planning on raiding them myself before he went and made a mess. Ain't that right, Current?"
The Floatzel, also bound and paralyzed, spoke up for one. "Sure was, captain. The fuckin' place was in anarchy the day after. I bet it's up in flames by now."
"There you fuckin' have it. He stole our thunder, so I'm gettin' revenge on him, and you in the process."
"You're awfully confident."
"Yes, I am. This is a safe bet, Matey."
We'll see about that, Mocker… Benham, knowing he wouldn't get the last word in, left quietly for the night. He'd at least managed to determine that the two ex-pirates had something big to hide.