Let me begin by saying that I have the Royal edition of the game, which includes some added features. While I am using that version to base this story off of, due to it being the only version I own and the overall superior version: It's not perfect; and in this story I will be fixing the biggest problem I have with it. This is a Universe Alteration, same plot, a few tweaks.
Important warning for all and my usual readers who might be curious: The game contains some subject matters I am not accustomed to writing about. I will be doing my best to handle these subjects with proper respect in context of the story. Because these topics are things that happen in the game's story, some of which are crucial details, they are not things I can avoid writing or skip over without losing context on what's going on. If you are sensitive to these topics, then you have been given your warning, and I understand completely if you back out of the story when they show up. Please remember, I do not wish to put these things in. They are not there to be supported or encouraged in any way, but they are necessary to the plot. This will not be a prolonged occurrence through the story, but it will be there for a small portion of it. The true fun of the game are the characters and their interactions with each other, and the moments of levity they share as they work to save the world, that is why I'm writing this story.
Begin!
~Normal POV
"Run."
"Run."
"Get the hell out of here."
A figure clad in all black with a mask over his face surveyed the area of the casino. Despite his desperate situation, the young man was confident in his mission. He was going to escape; make it back to his companions. They were waiting for him, and he wasn't planning to let them down. He stopped momentarily to look down. He was standing on the rafters above the main entrance floor. He could see guards moving in past the casino patrons, and the boy knew they were looking for him. There was no denying it, he was a thief after all.
He watched as one of the security guards spotted him and alerted the others. "Good," The boy thought. "That's exactly what I wanted." With the Treasure, a silver briefcase, gripped tightly in his hand, the boy began jumping across the rafters. In his ear was a communication device, and through it he heard the voices of his companions as he headed towards the balcony at the opposite end of the room.
"Showing yourself above the crowd, huh? Excellent maneuver, Joker," A female voice spoke to him.
"Only the best from our leader," A high-pitched male voice added, excitedly.
"Is everyone out safely," The boy called Joker asked.
"Most of us are," A different, softer, male voice responded. "Except for one. You still need to hand the Treasure off to-"
"Hold that thought, Crow!" The first female voice interrupted, "Shadows incoming!"
Joker had made it to the balcony where before him stood three hulking monsters called Shadows. They were vaguely human in shape; though much taller than the average man. They were dressed like security guards, with pale blue skin and glowing yellow eyes.
"These guys are nothing, take 'em down, Joker!" The female voice urged.
Joker pulled a pistol out of his belt and shot the three monsters dead in mere seconds. Their bodies disappeared on impact with the ground. He smirked. "Didn't even break a sweat, and still have bullets to spare." He returned his pistol to his holster and continued on.
"Good job, leader." The female voice said in his ear. "Now get moving; there's a door to your right, take it."
As Joker ran through the specified door, he spoke to his companions once more. "Oracle, are there any enemies this way?" He was now running through a darkened utility hallway of the casino.
"I see a few, you'll have to get sneaky," The female voice called Oracle responded. "And the checkpoint for package interception is getting close."
"No fighting for a few steps then," Joker said.
"Dude, how are you holding up though?" A new male voice asked. "This can't be easy on you."
Joker laughed, "Are you kidding, Skull? Killing Shadows, stealing shit, and running for my life? This day can't get any better and it's not even my birthday!"
"Let's pick up the pace then, shall we?" Another more smooth, baritone, male voice suggested. "We're not getting out of here without our leader."
"Fox, you got nothing to worry about," Skull replied casually, "It's Joker; the guy can handle anything you throw at him."
Joker halted his progress through the hall; a pair of guards were blocking his path. He quickly ducked behind some metal pipes protruding out of the walls. The meet up point was ahead, but there was no way past these two without getting spotted in the cramped hallway. He had to make it up the stairs behind them; fast. After all, he didn't want to keep a lady waiting...
"Joker, scaffolding above you," Oracle whispered. "There's a door up there too. Goes directly to the checkpoint. It'll save you a little time."
Joker ensured the guards were not looking his way before stepping out of his hiding place. He reached out his left hand and from a mechanism hidden under his sleeve, a grappling hook shot out to the scaffolding above him and wrapped tightly around the metal. The grappling hook pulled him safely up to his destination. He steadied himself on the platform briefly, before quickly going through the door beside him. The guards appeared oblivious and didn't notice.
He continued his trek through the dark halls until reaching another hallway crossroads splitting off in different directions. At the center were several more guards, and they were blocking his checkpoint. He hid behind some metal crates off to the side.
"Shit," Joker muttered.
"What's wrong," Oracle asked.
"There's a lot of enemies in the way, and I can't get to the checkpoint."
A new female voice spoke to him this time, it was a stern, clear, voice of someone in a position of leadership, despite being an underling in this situation. "Do you think we'll need 'Operation Distraction?'"
"Yeah, looks like it's the only way. Ok, Queen, set it up and make sure you don't hurt anyone."
"I'm on it, Joker," Queen replied. "Noir, you heard the man, one noisy distraction coming up."
"I'm ready, just tell me where to shoot!" The one called Noir responded in a very high-pitched, feminine, voice.
Joker waited in his hiding spot, clutching the briefcase tightly, as he listened for the sound of "Operation Distraction."
Within seconds, a loud crashing of glass and a grenade going off could be heard from somewhere above them. He also heard the loud revving of a motorcycle engine speeding away. Joker smirked to himself as the guards blocking his path quickly ran off to find the cause of the disturbance.
"Operation Distraction complete, Joker!" Noir shouted, happily.
"Thank you, ladies." Joker replied, as he started running again. "Was anyone hurt?"
"Negative, the room was empty," Queen answered, "Though I will admit, breaking that window was fun."
"I'm just thankful you didn't ask me to drive through it," The high-pitched male voice said, fearfully. "You and Noir can be scary."
"Sorry, Mona," Noir said.
"That was quite intense," Crow said. "We would do better to get out of here soon. Our enemies are likely to turn up the heat if we continue wasting time."
Joker pressed onwards and stopped in an open area of the utility hall. He recognized this as the checkpoint where he was to hand the package off to his partner. There were only a few hanging ceiling lights illuminating the area. Between the hanging lights he could see a mess of pipes above him. On one side was a tower of metal crates that led up to a partially opened window. He nodded in satisfaction, knowing this meant his teammate tasked with intercepting the package was already here, hidden in the dark somewhere from the guards. Before he could alert his partner to his arrival, a group of Shadows emerged from the floor. They looked the same as the security guard ones he saw earlier; only this time there were more of them; eight, he counted.
"Shit, you're surrounded! Even you can't take down this many by yourself," He heard Oracle say.
"Relax, I have back up." Joker said, calmly, smiling at the sight of a figure running along the pipes above him.
One of the Shadows lunged at him, but was suddenly stopped by a pillar of fire encasing it. The Shadow swifty dissipated, like the others before it, in the flames. A second Shadow met its end via a fireball thrown from above. Seizing his opportunity, Joker stabbed two of the Shadows down with his dagger. Three Shadow-guards were left. One of them tried to attack him, but was stopped by a whip cracking against its arm. Joker took advantage of the Shadow's momentary surprise to shoot it with his pistol. The two remaining Shadows seemed on edge now.
Joker's partner dropped from her hiding spot on the pipes behind the two shadows. She reached behind her and pulled her own gun out, and unloaded her bullets into the creatures; making them dissipate for good.
Joker smiled at her as she put her tommy gun away. "Thanks for the help, Panther."
"No problem." Panther replied, flashing him a heart melting smile. "...But you're still late."
He handed her the briefcase. "Sorry; got held up."
"I figured. I heard Operation Distraction from here. And it's a good thing too, there were enemies all over this room earlier." She paused and added. "You be careful, ok?"
"I should be saying that to you," He replied. He took one of her hands in his. "Get back to the others and if something happens to me: Don't look back. I'll keep them off of you guys for as long as I can."
"And then we'll see each other back at the hideout, right?"
"I promise. And…" Joker smirked. "Once this is over, I'm thinking; you, me, a candlelit dinner to celebrate…" Panther grinned at him and was about to reply when-
"Copy that, Joker." Oracle teasingly interrupted over the comms. "Need I remind you two, we are in the middle of escaping with our lives?"
Joker rolled his eyes playfully and responded, "Says the girl who's got her feet up in mission control, while we're doing the leg work." Panther giggled at his snarky reply.
"Burn, acknowledged." Oracle said. "Now get out of there before more enemies show up."
The couple looked at each other again. Panther let go of his hand and partially removed her thief mask. "I'll never forgive you if you don't come back…"
Joker removed his thief mask as well. "I know, but I will come back…" She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Once they pulled apart, they quickly put their masks back on. Panther held the briefcase close as she turned to start her climb out of the building. Joker started walking ahead towards the staircase at the opposite end of the room. They looked back at each other one last time.
"I love you…" Panther said, softly.
"I love you too…" Joker replied.
He watched as she jumped back up the metal crates and disappeared out her escape window.
With his partner safe, and his task complete, Joker started running up the stairs.
~...
Stairs combined with guards chasing him without mercy was wearing on his patience. After the second climb, he'd heard confirmation from Oracle that Panther had rejoined the rest of the team. That was one weight off his shoulders. All that was left was to get out himself.
He was at the top of the stairs now. Behind him were a couple guards that had no intention of giving up. He seemed to be trapped. There was a railing around this balcony and on the opposite end of the room he saw the casino's huge stained glass window.
"The exit is just up ahead," Oracle said.
"Through there…?" Joker asked, with some uncertainty.
Oracle groaned. "Yeah, that's just how it is. After that commotion, the bottom floor is-"
"Completely closed off." Queen interrupted. "Hey, can you make it?!"
Joker mulled over his plan in his head before hearing the men behind him had caught up. He looked back and saw them point their guns at him, thinking they'd caught him. But he wouldn't give in that easily; especially not with his promise to Panther on the line. With confidence, Joker hopped up onto the railing and ran along it towards the window.
Once in front of it, he saw the men give chase again, but he had a plan. He gave the guards one last famous smirk, and said, "See ya!"
He then jumped right through the window and out into the night.
Gasps could be heard from the casino patrons. And in his ear he heard Oracle say, "Hmph, what a showoff."
Within moments, he landed neatly on the pavement outside the building. He had been correct in assuming that he could get out of the building. (He made a mental note to collect his reward from Skull later on that bet.) Now to get back to his teammates-
Multiple sets of blinding headlights suddenly flashed in front of him. Once his eyes adjusted, he saw over a dozen police cars barricading him in the parking lot. There were even multiple helicopters pointing spotlights at him. Cops were everywhere, he was completely surrounded. He vaguely heard his teammates radio him, asking if he was alright. But all he could register in his head was the plan. He would not give the police any indication that he wasn't alone. His teammates needed to stay safe, and he knew they were watching him from their hiding spot. Their leader couldn't fail them now.
Joker started to run swiftly to his right. Many of the cops moved to follow him. Perhaps if he made it to the fire escape he could grapple over to his teammates on the opposite roof. With that hopeful thought, he jumped onto the fire escape ladder and climbed-
Until he saw that the police had foreseen such a plan and three armored cops were already waiting there for him. One of them knocked him clean off the ladder by hitting him in the head with the back of his gun, causing Joker to land on the pavement in a crumpled heap.
Within seconds, he was swarmed by the cops. Several of them held him down and cuffed him. Joker looked up at the men surrounding him with utter disdain in his eyes. He opted to make little struggle for them. After they were satisfied that their target was indeed secure, an authoritative looking cop knelt down beside him.
"Didn't expect to find some kid." The man said, surprised. "You have your teammate to thank for this. You were sold out."
Joker made a surprised expression, but inside there was only one response he wanted to say. He couldn't, but he wanted to, badly. Only two damning words crossed his mind…
"I know."
~...
"Guess the drug was too strong… Wake him up."
The young thief was abruptly woken by a bucket of cold water splashing him. He was sitting in an interrogation room now, handcuffed to a chair, his vision was quite blurry. Two burly detectives occupied the room with him. He saw a table propped against the wall off to the side. Littering the floor around him were the source of his nightmares: needles that had been used on him repeatedly in the past hour. He hated needles. The two men had explained that the drugs within were some type of experimental truth serum. He had no idea if it was effective. All he had felt so far was tired and his memory a bit fuzzy. But his interrogators had gone the extra mile.
The boy was now covered in bruises. The men had no problems beating a defenseless suspect, even if that suspect was a kid. If the boy didn't know any better, he'd think the two saw him as a terrorist.
"No dozing off." The detective said, nonchalantly. "You still don't get it, do you? Give it up!" The man then kicked the boy in the gut, knocking him off the chair and onto the floor. "You gonna talk now, brat?"
The boy coughed in pain. He remembered what they wanted: the names of his accomplices, he would not give them. He stayed silent, and glared up at his captors.
"Come on, cooperate." The detective said as he stepped on the side of the boy's head. "Or what, you want another shot?"
The boy kept his death glare on the man and betrayed no sign that he was afraid of that outcome. He then shifted his blurry gaze slightly to the wall where the other detective was standing. Above him was a security camera.
The detective that was stepping on him noticed this. He removed his foot and looked back at the camera too. "Huh? What about the camera? Are you thinking it can be used as video evidence?" The man grabbed his hair and pulled his head up slightly as he asked this.
The boy chose to respond this time. "Of course not…" He said quietly.
"Hmph, so you're not that dumb." The detective said, dropping his hold on the boy. "Which is good, cause we get to take as much time as we need!"
He then kicked the boy in the gut once more, causing him to cough and wheeze again.
The man then grabbed a clipboard from his companion and read off the charges listed. "Obstruction of justice, blackmail, defamation, possession of weapons, manslaughter too, yeah? Talk about the works. To think that all those crimes were led by a punk like this… And you seemed to be enjoying every second of it… huh?"
The boy reflected silently and said nothing.
"You should know your place." The detective said, exasperatedly. He nodded to his companion, who then unlocked the handcuffs on the boy. The man roughly pulled him up into a sitting position on the floor.
As the boy nursed his aching wrists, the first detective shoved the clipboard in front of him. "Sign here. It's a confession under your name."
The boy took the clipboard without hesitation, but quietly informed the detective, "I need my glasses to see."
The detective groaned and commanded his companion to hand over the glasses they had taken from the boy's person earlier. The young man took them and put them on gently. He then took the pen that the first detective handed to him.
"Don't expect to walk out of here in one piece." The man warned. "We are going to make you understand… One must take full responsibility for their actions…"
The boy sat up straighter, feeling slightly more comfortable now that he could see clearly. He signed the paper without another word and handed it back to the interrogator. The man looked at it quickly to affirm that it had been signed.
"Alright, nice to see some cooperation." He said, bluntly. "We're gonna go turn this in. Don't bother trying to escape." He pointed to the camera to banish any possible arguments.
The boy was then ordered back into the now upright chair, thankfully this time without handcuffs. The detectives put the table back in the room's center and left him there alone at last.
He breathed in relief to himself, the worst of it was over. There was no clock in the room, and the boy had no watch or phone on him to tell how much time had passed, but he soon saw the door be opened again after an unknown amount of time. He prepared himself for another beating from the callous detectives, but that wasn't who entered the room.
Instead, it was a woman. A very intense looking woman in a black pantsuit with a large dark blue purse. Her hair was long and grey-blonde. Her eyes were reddish brown. She was tall and imposing. She looked to be the kind of woman one didn't mess with.
She pulled up a second chair and sat down across the table. "I didn't expect it'd be you…" She started in her firm, clear voice. "You'll be answering my questions this time."
The boy felt relief wash over him again. He could see she had no intention of beating the answers out of him. They were going to talk, like human beings. He was safe for now.
"Well, let's start with the obvious." She continued. "My name is Sae Niijima, I'm a public prosecutor from the Special Investigations Unit. But, based on what I know about this case, you already know me. You can start by telling me your name."
"Akira Kurusu." He replied, promptly.
Previously he wouldn't have answered such a question verbally, but the circumstances changed. Akira had a strict code of personal honor, and that code included never showing disrespect to a lady. Especially one who seemed perfectly reasonable. "It's nice to officially meet you, prosecutor." He added, folding his hands in front of him.
"Likewise, Mr. Kurusu. Next question, how old are you?"
"16."
"So… you're the leader of the Phantom Thieves? You mean to tell me that the most wanted man in the country is a 16 year old boy?"
"I have nothing to gain from lying to you. Yes." In his head, a sly thought crossed his mind as he remembered that he lived with the most feared hacker in the world: and she was a 15 year old girl.
"It's rare I get a suspect who actually listens." Sae said, shocked by his honesty. "Very well, I need you to continue answering honestly. I don't have much time either. What was your objective? Why did you cause such a major incident? I didn't think it was a prank from the get-go, but I couldn't assemble a case for prosecution. It's because I couldn't figure out the method behind it."
"Of course you couldn't…" Akira replied, simply. "It's not easy to wrap your brain around."
Sae made an amused sound. "True. There's no way I could be convinced of such a... 'world' just by reading the reports. It seems you're coherent. Let's get on with it then. When and where did you find out about that world? How is it even possible to steal another's heart? Now, tell me your account of everything. Start from the very beginning."
Akira looked at her quietly. "You want to hear my story?" He sighed. "Alright, prosecutor, I'll tell you what happened. It all started one night last March. The night my life was ruined…"
~End of Chapter!