Fool's Gamble
Life 96
Chapter XI: A Fiddle of Gold Against Your Soul
Kōriyama, Japan, 2004
"Condor, why are you helping Kuraim? He wants to destroy everything!"
"Because Hawk, he's my father."
Goro Akechi had learned of heroism like many children in Japan, through television.
Phoenix Ranger Featherman R, a show centering on a group of youths learning teamwork and friendship, but he had always seen it in a different way.
Rather than armored avengers, he saw figures of justice, willing to fight against even the most heinous monsters.
And not willing to give in, even when one of their own betrayed them, the tactician Black Condor.
Goro had always loved the character, because while his powers were less than his allies, he was never weaker than them.
His greatest strength was his cool composition and his intelligence, and Goro had always longed to be like that, able to handle any situation so long as he was smart.
And yet, that view had changed when Phoenix Rangers Featherman Void had released, the film promising to reveal the truth of who had killed Green Toucan and Purple Cockatoo's parents, and the identity of the monster named Void.
The murderous monster, Void, wasn't a monster at all… It was Black Condor, all along, the hero having worn a different mask to hide his actions from his teammates.
He had lied to the entire team, had killed friends and family of theirs, and had betrayed them to their greatest enemy…
Despite it all, Condor had still pretended that all was well, that he hadn't become the very thing he had sought to destroy.
Ignorant to the fact that he had become the villain of their story, not the hero he had impersonated.
"Kuraim… I did all of this to gain his truth, to make him regret what he did to me… But even in that, I've failed…" Condor had stood cornered by their enemies, the rest of the team, and Red Hawk, begging for him to join them, to help them defeat the Dark Lord Kuraim.
And yet, as Black Condor stood before them, the glass of his visor broken to reveal crimson eyes, the traitor refused to come with them.
"Condor…"
"Hawk… All of you… Don't let this all be for nothing, don't let all the people I've hurt… rest uneasy. Defeat Kuraim for me… Please. Bring him… to justice."
Goro had waited for over a week for Void's premiere, to finally learn the truth, to see the final chapter of Black Condor's story, as the marketing had said.
His mother had even been off work early that night, staying up with him to watch it.
And to stare at Goro when he was silent as the credits fell away, a dark screen similar to the darkness that Black Condor had drowned in.
"Go-Chan? Didn't you like it?" Chiyo Akechi had asked with a curious glance at her young son, the boy holding silent as he held his toy mask in hand, the black bird's head squished tight as Goro watched the screen grow dark, the boy usually so much more animated after having watched Featherman.
And yet, now he was silent, his fingers slowly crushing the mask of his favorite character, tears beginning to roll down his little face as she brought him close, her embrace being enough to draw sobs out from him.
"It's okay Goro, Black Condor did the right thing in the end." She tried to reassure him, having remembered the boy's childhood basically centered around the Dark Hero, only to see the character die so sadly.
It likely was horrible for him to watch.
And yet.
"Condor was a traitor…"
The next morning, Chiyo had been surprised to find several full garbage bags by their front door, almost every single piece of Featherman merchandise or posters Goro had owned, all of them with Black Condor on it.
When she peeked into his room, the boy was still sound asleep, and she looked to the furthest wall of his room, where once a giant poster of the Featherman team had been.
Except now, the end of the poster had been torn right off, a clean break.
It was clear to her then, and every time Goro spoke of the characters after that, that Black Condor was not a Hero to Goro anymore.
So, with a broken mask in hand, Chiyo just looked up ideas for his birthday.
The Red Hawk mask looked like a good idea.
"Wake up Patient 24,601. Your recovery has only just begun." A cattle prod to the ribs woke Goro from his restless journey, the comfort of the train of blue gone as he awoke a prisoner once more, one of the Surgical Shadows striking him a blow to the head as two others watched.
Sadism was evidently in their training, the Shadow bringing the prod down on Goro's knees as he felt the tip burn straight through his outfit's material, his flesh turning black as he felt an unholy pain course through his bones, the mask of the Shadow being his only focus as he felt an unnatural hatred flood his mind.
'This whelp seems to think I'm on the menu… Time to show him how very wrong he is…"
And yet, it felt wrong, that cold voice. Like a virus infecting his mind, he saw flashes of black lines across his vision, like a vignette clouding his world.
With the patience of a saint, Goro began to breathe slower, knowing these were only reflections of darkness, they knew not what they did.
Through the blistering torment, Goro only vaguely noticed that the furthest Shadow said something incomprehensible, the others following as they left him alone in his torture, a coldness all he could feel in his left leg as the electrical burn began to settle into his flesh.
And yet, just as he began to waver back to the land of dreams, he saw another Shadow enter his padded cell, this one with an odd detail.
Rather than golden eyes shining through it's mask, they were an odd, but shimmering silver.
With a dry throat attesting to his subpar treatment, Goro tried to be polite.
"G-good evening."
The Shadow closed the door behind it.
Akira stiffened, Mephisto screaming warnings in his mind as he pressed himself against the wall, his eyes alert and wary.
He'd heard Tae's Shadow, he knew her voice anywhere, and yet he didn't know where she'd come from.
"Oh, did I startle you? Or, perhaps you merely prefer your real name?" Shadow Tae's voice spoke once more, the concade everywhere and anywhere as he felt dread begin to soak into his skin. "Akira Kurusu, right?"
The Shadow knew who he was, he should have expected that, at least the little bit she knew of him.
And at that he took off running, like so many times before, his coat flapping in the wind as it followed in his stead.
And yet, he took note of hundreds of screens lining the walls, a hooded figure with golden eyes with a sharp grin, watching him.
"Where are you going little mouse? Looking for a hole to hide in? I'm afraid you'll find no safe haven in my halls." Shadow Takemi said with a sharp sneer as Akira flexed his senses, trying to get some indication of a Safe Room, yet coming up fruitless.
"I fear I am not a Seeker, Young One. Yet even one such as I can tell, she gives us no quarter of reprieve. Remain wary, thou are never alone." Mephisto spoke out to him then, the frustration of Navigating without a Navigation Persona hitting Akira like a truck, Mephisto's spectral form beginning to waver in the corner of his eye.
And yet, Akira pushed forward, the Dark Angel's eyes firmly on him as he refused to fall into her hands once again.
"Tell me Kurusu… why do you wear that mask? What do you have to hide from me?" Shadow Takemi spoke again as the dungeons grew darker, a chill spreading through his veins as Akira snarled through the growing mental anguish, a barrage of sounds assaulting him all of a sudden.
Ah, the Operating Theater…
Cells full of emancipated bodies, drained of their blood as they stared at him with pitiful yet demanding eyes.
Others weren't quite so lucky, screaming in agony as they lay in separate pieces, a familiar looking Shujin student crying softly as he held his own severed head in his arms.
Akira thought his name might have been Hikagi, but he couldn't recall it due to his attention being on retaining his lunch.
In the distance he heard wild electricity, likely some demented form of shock therapy as he began to trudge through what seemed like a river of blood, a cracked door providing the tide.
'Pediatrics'
With clenched teeth, Akira walked past the sound of horrid wails and prayers to an unloving god, resolved to end this perversion of care and at the very least try to save his former friend from the edge.
He took solace in the fact this was her distortion, meaning she might not be an actual murderer, at least she wouldn't be if he could stop her quickly enough.
And a part of him, though he knew Treasures were not on the table this time, wondered what Tae's Treasure would have been…
What distorted her heart, and yet also broke her free from Yaldabaoth's influence?
"Admiring my work? I have so much more to show you…"
With his own blood mixing like wine with that of the cognitions, Akira felt disgust as he beheld the true corruption of Tae Takemi.
But he would not fail her.
Would not lose this Game.
Not again.
"Show me your worst."
Goro expected to be struck, for the Shadow to attack him in some way, like it's fellows had before it.
And yet, he found silence accompanying them, the Shadow just… staring at him, not even moving an inch, like it was reading him.
"Can… Can I help you?" Goro asked it then, hoping to jarr some kind of reaction out of the strange Shadow, even if it only attacked him in return.
Instead, it spoke.
"Is… Is Justice… real?"
A question, and one that completely caught Goro off guard as the Shadow almost seemed more uncomfortable than him, like something was troubling it for it to ask such a philosophical question.
"I, uh, I like to believe it exists. Sometimes it just happens, like Karma, but other times… Other times we have to bring about justice, because not everyone is so fortunate. I seek justice, for everyone that doesn't have the strength to do so." Goro said plainly then as his knee began to blister, the burned flesh tearing as soon as he moved even the slightest bit, but he supposed it was his penance for long speeches.
"You remind me of… Of someone I once knew… Why do you… Why do you help people?" The Shadow asked him as it stepped closer, Goro feeling oddly like it was frowning through the mask, though he assumed it didn't truly look like this bloodied butcher.
But that question was difficult.
"I suppose… I help people, because it's the right thing to do. Perhaps I'm not truly selfless, as I enjoy helping others, and I suppose a truly good person gets no joy from helping people, but ever since I was a child, I've wanted nothing but to be…" Goro said as he slowly shifted to a more comfortable position on the floor, his neck popping painfully as he pondered why he walked this path even when it hurt him time and again.
"What exactly?"
"A hero." And that was the complete and absolute truth. He enjoyed being the one swooping in for the rescue, to defy fate and save people, to be the one breathlessly thanked as he refused any and all repayment.
The Shadow made a sound then, almost like it was thinking, but Goro's eyes began to grow weary from all of this… treatment.
And he supposed that since this Shadow didn't seem intent on torturing him, he could get a small nap…
"By the way… What did you need? Not that I don't mind your company?" Goro asked with a pained yawn as it stepped closer, a hand raised upwards as he almost thought it planned on grabbing him.
And yet, it instead wrapped it's long fingers around the surgical mask it wore, and tore it away in a flash.
A wave of darkness blasted forward as the Shadow unmasked itself, and Goro saw only a bright light.
The trident sliced away at his arm as Akira just roared through the pain, Mephisto's flames fading as he refused to bow before the Shadows.
The familiar form of Berith stood before him, but it's eyes held none of the protective warmth they once had, the Knight abandoning its steed as Akira found his breath fading.
And yet, he refused to bow.
"There is no escape… Surrender, and the Angel shall make your treatment quick." The Berith growled out as it brought the trident back around, Akira swinging his axe suddenly then, the axe's face hooking itself up under the trident's points as they were locked in combat.
And Akira was out for blood.
"She's no angel." Akira snarled out as he threw a kick out at the Shadow, the sudden move throwing the Berith back as Akira drew the axe back and brought it's edge swinging at the knight's helmet.
And yet, it merely caught the axehead in it's grip, and the Berith began to squeeze, cracks forming in the metal as a primal hate began to spread through Akira.
This axe wasn't his to lose.
And yet, while he had hoped to have Mephisto lend his aid on crushing the knight, it was an unfamiliar voice that spoke to him now.
And considering how many Personae he has fused in the past, an unfamiliar voice was jarring to say the least.
Behind the Berith, in the corner of his vision, Akira saw a figure in a dark cloak.
Shapeless and vague, it just seemed to watch him, patiently.
"Pathetic."
"Excuse me?!" Akira snarled out in question as he brought the axe back down again, a furious series of strikes at the Berith as it kept dodging out of the way of his blows, and Akira swore that this Shadow had never put up such a fight before.
"To think, one that once gave you strength beyond measure, now orchestrated that which shall be your end. Amusing." The figure said with something that could perhaps be called a laugh, a boney arm coming free from it's mass as it seemed to be holding something in it's fleshless fingers.
It was… his mask, the original one, the white that melted away, the black that had been an accessory but later consumed it.
"How… how do you have that? Who are you?" Akira cried out as the Trident came forward in a far too close strike, the youth barely getting away with a brief slice as he tried to fight for his life along with entertaining this mystery Persona.
Except, it was slightly familiar, in a way he couldn't name.
"I suppose I have a fondness for the lost and forgotten… But it matters not, I have arrived. in your moment of need.
It is a pleasure; Trickster."
And Akira could barely breathe as the entity flew into his mask, his entire being burning as he felt an unholy pain, his hands shining a blazing red as he stared down at them, the axe going flying as he watched his black gloves burn away.
His bare hands began to grow black as the skin almost seemed to rot, his gaze horrified as his flesh began to fall away, a shining skeleton being all that remained.
Until a forest of dark thorns blasted out of his chest, the thorns wrapping around his hands and wrists until they almost seemed to replace his flesh.
The thorns and vines felt… good.
"Say my name Trickster… Let us end this posturing."
With a renewed spirit and a gleaming grin, Akira just smiled at the Berith as it finally struck home, it's trident sinking into his chest with a deafening thud.
And yet, despite the grievous wound, no blood came forward… just something similar to ink, trickling down his vest as he chuckled.
He could get used to this.
"Come forth… Mors!" Akira called aloud as the cloaked figure emerged, only for the hood to fall away and reveal a blackened skeleton wrapped in dead vines, gleaming white eyes shining in hollow sockets.
"And so it was said, that when Man escaped death, that the Reaper came for his due."
Akira just held a hand to his gaze, crimson eyes shining through his fingers as he felt that same tar begin to fall like tears.
"Drag him to Hell! Pallida Sanctum!"
"I was not meant to harm." A voice in a bright oblivion, Goro's mind confused as he was seemingly floating in an endless void, but he didn't have a body either, just a floating consciousness.
"I was like the others, made of grace and light, made to serve. We were told to stay away, but we were so curious… What your kind was like… Our Father forbade it, said we could not leave, but the first of us… The Bright One… He left, flew so far away that we thought he was gone forever… He became something else entirely, a Demon Lord, and yet… some of our kind wondered if he was not right, that we should follow the Humans to freedom from our tyrannical father. I was foolish, I believed that even through his hubris, my Father was mine, and he would listen to reason. I went to him, begging for him to let us go, to let us make our own mistakes as Helel once had… But he struck me down, erased me from existence… And yet, I persisted in the shadows, nameless and blind… Until you spoke to me, said those words… You remind me of Helel… I was named Uzziel, and I was too hopeful."
And at that, the light died away and Goro beheld the figure of a blonde Angel, her outfit sensual and teasing, yet it seemed more the attire of a resigned prisoner than a guardian Angel.
With a shaky hand, she tore the blindfold away from her face, a pair of shining silver eyes meeting Goro's gaze as he felt something solid in her eyes.
Something otherworldly, perhaps a true example of Divinity, but no matter what it was, it gave him a new sense of self.
"You who broke through my distortion, who reminded me that Justice is not a delusion… So long as you will have me, my wings are yours."
He could feel her settle in his mask, her name burning into his mind, as they truly became one.
The Angel Uzziel, of the Justice Arcana.
The Most Faithful of the Heavenly Host, and the first to die at her creator's hand.
Goro began waking then, the feeling of being caressed carrying him back to the land of the living, the wondrous light fading as he felt the pain return.
For once in far too long a time, Goro let someone else take care of him.
"Interesting… When you face adversity, you gain strength… You are truly my most valuable subject Kurusu…" Shadow Tae said with something akin to admiration as Akira tore his way through another padded cell, his goal being to find Akechi, but so far he had found only Shadows and Cognitions.
And the entire time, Shadow Tae had been mocking him over her intercom, and Akira found himself no closer to his missing ally.
Until… He found a broken cell, the padding in it ripped to shreds, the door having been launched far off it's hinges as if something had evidently escaped.
If he had to guess, Akechi had found his own way out, but where was the other boy… That was a harder guess.
"You know, I let you escape to see if you would survive in my laboratory, but not only have you killed those I swore to protect, you gain only power from my attempts… Perhaps it's best to end this game of ours, Kurusu."
With a wary glance, Akira steeled himself, ready to be ambushed or attacked in some way.
Only for the reinforced door at the end of the corridor to swing open, a cold breeze fluttering past.
"I would like to speak with you, Kurusu. Just you and I. The doors will allow you passage, and my employees won't bother you. Come and see me…" Shadow Sae requested as the speaker cut off with a scratch, and Akira considered the idea, to go and have a meeting with a Palace Ruler…
"Young one, to even consider this is naught but foolishness. Thou must seek out thine comrade, then we may strike back at that foul practitioner!" Mephisto cried out in his skull as Akira considered the point that Mephisto was likely right, this was almost certainly a trap.
However, Tae's Shadow had this entire palace wired like a bug zapper, if she wanted to trap him, she would have done it already a thousand times over.
"It is a tempting option Trickster, one dangerous yet possibly fruitful. You agree, she need not lure you in to hurt you, so why the summon? Perhaps this Shadow has a piece to be said. I say we entertain her request, but remain onguard and vigilant." Mors said his piece as Akira began to think over it, even though he wondered about Mors.
It wasn't a typical Persona, and he had awakened it, not fused or gained it… So was it like Robin Hood then?
Robin Hood had been Akechi's second Persona, he had been awakened, and as far as Akira knew, Akechi had no knowledge of the Velvet Room.
Yet, Akechi had somehow awakened to two separate Personae… Perhaps he now had the same luck?
And yet, the mystery would have to wait, as he needed to get the answer to his current predicament before doing anything else.
Walking into an almost certain-to-be trap, and sit down with the Shadow of Tae Takemi.
He missed when things were simple…
The office was odd, for he saw traces of the office Tae had once had in Yongen-Jaya, and yet traces of something entirely different and ghoulish.
Her Shadow was passive, just watching him from across her desk, the shadow of her hood leaving her details hidden, but he could clearly see those golden eyes glaring at him.
He would not play this game with her, even if it meant he had to speak first.
"You wanted to see me, so say your spiel." Akira said with a dark gaze as he summoned his axe, the presence of it on the desk a welcome friend if he might need it
"I thought you would be more fun, that you could be my little guinea pig… But you do nothing but ruin my research… So I'm cutting you loose, Kurusu." Shadow Tae said with a critical eye as she held up a hand, his cellphone clenched between her fingers like it were a playing card.
"You see, I was confused at first, seeing you and the Detective arrive at my lab, when you're on guard duty currently… Then when my Assistant brought your phone to me, well I saw what she saw." And hadn't that been a shocker, a Cognitive version of Shiho, which meant that Tae really did have something planned for the girl, and made him laugh a little.
Everything had changed so much, but he was once again in a Castle in Shujin, and betrayed by a Cognition of Shiho, the girl he meant to help.
However, he froze when Tae showed him his phone's screen, and the Metanav open and blinking, her details on it…
"You used this to travel here, it's obvious. You came here to stop me, but that isn't the daydream you imagined, is it? However, I am fair, so I will do for you just as I did the Detective. I will give you a choice." Shadow Tae said with a dangerous look in her eye as she set his phone down on the desk, a smile on her twisted lips shining like bone.
"I give you your phone, and you leave this place. You never come back, and you forget all about Goro Akechi… You let me keep him, and I'll let you go."
Akira wouldn't do that, even if this Akechi hasn't even introduced himself yet, Akira refused to abandon their Crow for a second time.
"Or, you act like a Fool, and try to save him… I destroy this phone, and you are thrown back into the dungeons to rot with your friend… You decide if he's worth dying for, but he is mine, no matter your choice." Tae said with a snarl as she took his phone back, his eyes intense as he considered the choices, despite how much he hated even doing so.
Akira was alone, Akechi was somewhere off on his own, and Akira was slowing down.
While awakening Mors had given him a boost, the usual awakening exhaustion was weighing on him.
Akira would not be able to keep this up, let alone fight against her or work his way up from the dungeons again.
"Of course, there's always my choice… I could just use this phone, couldn't I? Go to your world, and show them how much I care about their health… Leave you here to rot, while I go and show your friends and family the gift I have for them… I wonder what would happen... If I pressed it?" Shadow Tae said with a sick glee as she held his phone out then, the 'Return' button clear to see and highlighted, her finger hovering teasingly over it as he held his breath.
Akira had no idea if it would even work, a Shadow using the Metanav… But it wasn't something he was willing to let happen irregardless…
"Live or die, Akira Kurusu."
He felt something break inside him, as Akira stood and let out the hellish breath he had been holding.
He only hoped it was all worth it.
"I'll take your deal."
The Grand Compendium
Mephisto
Arcana: Fool
Background: A being bearing the likeness of the Demon, Mephistopheles, and the wily emissary of Hell, engaging Humanity in barter and trade. Infamous for his bargain with Johann Georg Faust, Mephisto created the idea of a Faustian Bargain. It is said that Mephisto will take any deal, even one to protect a mortal.
Mors
Arcana: Death
Background: The Roman God of Death. Mors is the second son of Nox, twin brother of Somnus, and a God of true equality. Poor or rich, quiet or infamous, all fall under Mors' hands, though he is known to make exceptions. He loves a good wager, and even once fought the hero Heracles for the life of a dear friend.
Hoʊmz
Arcana: Fool
Background: A being based off the main character of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, Sherlock Holmes. The world's greatest detective, and the truest example of a hero plagued by his own inadequacies. While brilliant, it is said that he is quick to lose touch with reality.
Angel
Arcana: Justice
Background: Uzziel, the Angel of Faith. A once stern believer in the twisted control that Yaldabaoth desired, she was killed by her creator after questioning his will. One of the most kind and virtuous of the Angels, she holds great shame for her time spent as a Shadow.