Summary: The Phantom Thieves rejoin with Sumire and break into Yuri's Castle.
Friday, August 11th 20XX, Daytime
Toyohira Stadium
Step, toss, spin, catch…
While the Phantom Thieves were engaged in cognitive rhythmic gymnastics duels for the three Cores, Sumire Yoshizawa was busy with the real thing. She was in the middle of a training session in Toyohira Stadium's secondary gym, rehearsing her finals routine from start to finish under the keen, judgmental gaze of Coach Hiraguchi. Even as her wireless earbuds privately played her musical selection, her mind was firmly focused on the next few steps or skills she had lined up.
Jump, jump, roll…
Sumire kept herself going through each and every motion up to her final pose, which she held for a few tense breaths before turning her head towards her coach, wordlessly asking for her critique. "Good job, Sumire," she said with a nod. "No big mistakes this time, and your form is improving, too. Now, just keep practicing it over and over to build up your muscle memory. Oh, and remember to keep your legs straight on those spins!"
"Thank you, Hiraguchi-sensei," Sumire replied, standing up and returning to her starting pose. Once she was in position, her coach rewinded and replayed the song, cueing her to begin her routine anew. Time and time again she repeated it, with Hiraguchi bringing up new corrections for her to keep in mind, but nonetheless, her execution became more and more solid with every run. As the minutes and hours passed by, Sumire had lost count of how many times she had gone through her routine, and her body was approaching the limits of its endurance, but for the first time in so long, she finally felt confident in her abilities as a gymnast.
After one last practice run, Coach Hiraguchi beckoned her pupil over. "How are you holding up, Sumire?", she asked.
"I think… I've got it… down now," Sumire panted, glistening from the sweat of her endeavor.
"So do I. I'd say now's a good time to stop for the day. If I pushed you any further, you'd just start making more mistakes out of exhaustion."
"Okay… thank you… coach."
"By the way, Sumire, you seemed very insistent on training early today. Any reason why?"
"Oh? I… promised to meet up with a friend for lunch." This excuse was technically true, despite leaving out her ulterior motive of joining him in the Metaverse.
"Which friend?", Hiraguchi pressed.
"Re… Ren-senpai."
Hiraguchi suspiciously, yet playfully, raised an eyebrow. "Amamiya-kun, eh?" Sumire bashfully nodded. "He came all the way out to Sapporo to cheer you on?" Another nod. "Aww, how sweet!"
"I saw him and his friends in the stands the other day. He… really kept me going during the qualifiers." Sumire's affection for her boyfriend made her blush.
"Well, you have a good time together, and get plenty of rest for your big day tomorrow! Let me know if you'd like to squeeze in some more training tomorrow morning."
"I will. Thank you, coach!" Giving one last bow, Sumire took back her phone, spotting a notification for a new text message in the corner of its screen. She had an inkling of what the message was, and once she was alone in the locker room, she read it:
REN: Back from shopping. We got the stuff. You free?
Sumire's instincts were right on the money. She recognized the text as a code phrase which she and the Phantom Thieves had arranged the night before. It got across the fact that their mission so far was successful, without seeming out of the ordinary to anyone else who may have read it. Instantly, she typed her reply.
SUMIRE: Of course, Senpai! I'll meet you at the stadium, okay?
After showering and changing into her tracksuit, she rushed out of the stadium to meet her senpai Ren, and his fellow Phantom Thieves, waiting for her. They shared a round of welcoming hugs before she led them behind the wall of the bicycle lot. "This is where I entered and returned from the Metaverse," she explained.
"This should be a convenient access point," observed Makoto, "if it's safe. I mean, it's still pretty close to the Castle."
Speaking from Ren's phone, Sophia announced, "I detect a Checkpoint at this location. If we activate it, we can quickly travel here without needing to do so in the real world."
"Still, it should be fine for us to enter from here," Sumire continued. "It's out of sight from the guns and the guards." After a brief pause, she asked, "So, how did your mission go so far?"
"I'll tell you." Ren began to recount their conquest through the Sapporo Jail up to the present, describing Haru, Yusuke, and Makoto's duels in detail. As he narrated, he handed Sumire an extra-large bowl of miso ramen from his tote bag. "I hope that's not too much for you, Sumi-chan."
"Not at all, Senpai! I worked my butt off training for the finals tomorrow." Gratefully, she peeled off the lid, broke apart the chopsticks, and dug in. "Mmm!", she hummed ecstatically. "This is delicious!"
"You like it? I made it myself."
"Really? That's amazing, Senpai! You're a great cook!" Ren bashfully thanked her before resuming his story. "So, it's like you're performing and fighting at the same time?", she summarized.
Ren nodded. "Pretty much."
"Oh, my. Well, congratulations, you three!", she said to Yusuke, Makoto, and Haru. "I wish I could have seen you in action!"
"Not to worry!", Futaba piped up. "I recorded the whole thing on video. Want me to play them back for you?"
"Yes please, Futaba-chan!" The young hacker pulled out her smartphone and queued up the footage she took of the three duels. Sumire watched intently, marvelling at the glamorous gymnastic costumes created from the thieves' subconscious minds, nervously tightening her fists as each duel grew more and more tense, and sighing with joy and relief with each victory. "So," Futaba asked when the last video finished, "was it good for you too?"
"Wow, that was wonderful! Those fights looked dangerous, but you three were amazing, especially for how new you are to rhythmic gymnastics!" The three duelists bowed in appreciation of her praise. "And… Yusuke-senpai, I'm sorry you had to hear Yuri call you all those… nasty things. I assure you, I don't think the same way about you. I mean, unless you are-"
"It's alright," Yusuke cut her off, "and I'm not. But, you might like to know, I've actually been infatuated with Yuri herself ever since I saw her perform the other day. In fact, I intend to introduce myself personally after we change her heart."
Sumire gasped. "Wah?"
"Hopefully," Yusuke elaborated, "by then, her venomous opinions will have disappeared along with her distorted desires."
"If you say so…" sighed Sumire. "Good luck with that, Yusuke-senpai."
"Sumire, how long have you known Hikawa-san?", asked Makoto. "Was she always like this? Not just prejudiced, but mean and spiteful in general?"
"We've been in competitions together for a long time, but I never really noticed her until after Kasumi…" She shook her head, changing the subject before letting herself get distracted by thoughts of her sister. "...You know what I mean. I'm sure it'll all work out with her. Before we go in, I'm curious. What did Yuri's three proofs look like?"
Ren fished around in his tote bag. "We have them right here. Wanna see?" With her hum of approval, he pulled out the three Cores one at a time, letting her hold each in turn. "This is her ribbon," he explained, "and this was her first trophy."
"She won her first national tournament when she was just six years old," added Futaba.
I wish I was that good at her age… Sumire thought to herself, sighing wistfully.
"And last, but not least," concluded Ren, "the third Core is this photograph. You may recognize someone… special in this one." Indeed, she did. Sumire wistfully held a finger upon the image of her dear, departed sister as memories of them together began trickling into her mind. Sensing his friend's expression soften into melancholy, he asked, "You feeling okay, Sumi-chan?"
"Oh? I'm fine, Senpai." She handed him back the photo to stop herself from looking at it any longer. "You know, for as long as I've known Yuri-chan, I've never seen her looking this happy before."
"Well, when we reach the lock at the top of the Castle," added Ann, "we should find out how Yuri turned the way she did."
"I'm sorry, what 'lock' are you talking about?"
"Morgana can explain it to you on the way," Ren answered. "Are you ready to storm the castle, Sumire?"
"Of course. Lead the way, Senpai!"
Toyohira Stadium, Sapporo Jail
The Phantom Thieves were blasted by the familiar, yet no more welcome, arctic atmosphere of the Sapporo Jail as soon as they teleported in from the real world. After locating and activating the Checkpoint that Sophie had told him about, Joker took cover and peeked out past the edge of the wall. The icy Castle, glistening blue in the sun, looked just as Sumire had described it, right down to the security cameras and guns. Keeping far away from the defenses, he led his team out and around in the opposite direction. The secondary entrance they had seen on the north side was still present on this Castle, but like the main gate, it was guarded by automated guns, so they passed it by for the moment, and pressed on to the utility parking lot. Thankfully, the only apparent defense in place here was a small squadron of Shadows, which the Phantom Thieves dispatched easily.
With the threat gone, they scanned their surroundings for some sort of entryway. The doors to most of the service bays were rolled shut and seemed frozen in place, except for one that was open but blocked by a green force field. As soon as Oracle spotted this, and the computer terminal standing beside it, she knew the score. "Guys," she called out, "I can hack into this terminal and open up a way into Yuri's Castle. You'll protect me, won't you?"
"Of course." Receiving a wave of approving nods from the rest of his team, Joker did likewise and told her, "Do us proud, Oracle."
"Mwehehe! Time for some backdoor shenanigans!" Giddy with glee, Oracle rushed off to start her hack. It only took a few keystrokes before her presence was detected, however, and a fresh wave of Shadows teleported in front of them. Joker summoned Skull, Mona, and Panther to help guard her from both the many anonymous guards and occasional familiar creatures. By now, they had plenty of experience squaring off against Jack Frosts, Lilims, Setantas, and the like, and knew how to counter their innate weaknesses. For her part, Oracle had her own technique down pat, too. Utilizing the processing power of her Persona, Necronomicon, she flooded the door-control system with multiple barrages of junk data, with the goal of overloading its resources and eventually causing a shutdown. This was no idle task, for she constantly had to keep switching the IP addresses her Persona broadcast from before the target's defenses could identify and block her signal. On top of that, there was the constant danger of an enemy Shadow attacking her physically, which would disrupt the whole process momentarily, but that was for Joker and the others to worry about. Thanks to their keen defense, Oracle was able to accomplish her hack and shut down the barrier in short order, announcing to the group, "Ladies and gentlemen, your hack is now complete! Pleasure doing business!"
She briefly startled when Panther gave her a pat on the back, but relaxed when her friend told her, "Nice work! Thanks, Oracle!" Smiling smugly, Oracle rejoined her friends and crossed the threshold into the Castle. As soon as they did so, however, each of their outfits immediately transformed. Some of the new costumes were familiar; apart from the three of them who had fought in the challenges before, Sophie's was virtually identical to her regular white Thief clothes, and Violet's was the same lavender dress leotard she wore in real-life competitions. Among the others, Joker's outfit became a black full-body suit, decorated with flame-like swirls of red and grey. Skull and Mona both got sleeveless unitards, respectively designed with a black-and-gold star motif and a white-and-yellow paw print motif. Last, but not least, Panther wore a flesh-colored bodysuit, criss-crossed by red and black strips which covered approximately half of her body. "Yaa!" she screamed, covering herself. "Why's my costume gotta be so skimpy!?"
"Relax, Panther," urged Oracle, "it's not see-through, it's just skin-toned! I think…" Technically, she was half-right, as the base of Panther's suit was a fine mesh. For her part, Oracle was wearing not a leotard, but a black-and-red tracksuit with the Phantom Thieves logo on the back. "I kinda wish I had something cooler than… this, though. I mean, I guess it's 'cause I'm your navigator, but still…"
"If this is anything like your thief outfits," added Mona, "then these must represent your subconscious image of a gymnast. Besides, it doesn't matter how you look, as long as you lay the smack down with style and grace - like you always do, Lady Ann!"
"He's right, Panther," Skull agreed. "Even I gotta say, this feels a lot cooler than I thought it would!" He flexed the muscles in one of his bared arms in self-appreciation, eliciting a few subconscious blushes from Panther and Oracle.
Joker chuckled, before bringing himself back to reality. "Anyway," he announced to his team, "we may still have our Persona masks, but we won't last long without our guns or melee weapons. Violet, since you were here before, know anywhere we can re-equip ourselves?"
"Hmm… Oh! We can try the sub-gym first. That's where I fought and rescued those other gymnasts. There should be some apparatus - I mean, weapons lying around, plus some Shadows to fight for practice!"
"Good thinking, Violet. Everyone follow her, and stay out of combat until we reach the gym." With her confirmation, Violet and Joker led their team down the hall. Despite sharing the same basic layout as the real-life stadium, the caution with which they moved between cover points made the distances feel even longer. They all had to keep their guard up, though, and let every sentry wandering their way pass them by without a struggle. In their vulnerable state, none of the Phantom Thieves complained.
They made it to the side gym without incident and pulled open the door. The big room looked just as Violet remembered it from a few days ago, albeit the atmosphere was more peaceful this time around. Instead of Shadows harassing gymnasts and stealing their Desires, the cognitions of said gymnasts were busy training as they would normally. Violet and Oracle recognized some of these cognitions as either gymnasts who were successfully brainwashed but not used as guardians, or those whom Yuri did not consider a threat to her success. As such, they hardly registered the appearance of the Phantom Thieves, who did not antagonize the cognitions either. Instead, they each scrounged around for the apparatus they had agreed upon using, with Violet, Fox, Queen, and Noir giving the others some last-minute refreshers on handling the new weapons.
Joker and Sophie, who had paid close attention to their friends' duels, were quick to adapt to their respective apparatus, although Sophie's arm sagged as she picked up and held her orange ball. "You were right, Fox. This ball is much heavier than it looks! Recalibrating programmed movements to account for its mass…" After the briefest of pauses, she announced, "Recalibration completed.
The others required a bit more practice to catch themselves up. Violet maintained her patience as she led a few quick ribbon-handling drills for Panther and Mona, but after working with regular ribbons so much over the past couple of days, switching to the heavier bladed variety took even her by surprise. Still, she put in enough practice to acclimate herself well, and even threw in a few advanced moves from - unbeknownst to the others - what would be her routine in the next day's finals. I did promise Hiraguchi-sensei, after all, she told herself.
Out loud, she asked her teammates, "How are we all doing? You guys ready to move out?" She was met with thumbs up - paws up, in the case of Mona - and murmurs of agreement.
"Excellent!", responded Joker. "Remember, if you're having trouble with a certain move, just try something else. If you keep trying and failing, you'll just keep getting shocked!"
"Oh, that's right, Senpai," Violet answered, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I forgot this is a fight we're dealing with, not a performance."
"Yeah," agreed Skull. "We ain't gotta be perfect today. We just gotta kick some Shadow ass!"
Joker nodded affirmingly. "You tell 'em, Skull! How about you take point with me, Panther, and Sophie?"
"Umm… excuse me, Senpai," Violet interjected, but I was wondering if I could join the fight with you? If you want me to fight Elena when we get to the top, I'd appreciate getting to practice some more. It has been months since I've even used my Persona."
Joker thought about this for a while. "Actually, Violet…", he sighed apologetically, "I wanted you to take a backseat for now. If you're going to fight the next champion, you should save your strength." Then, he paused before adding, "If you like, you could join me for a few warm-up fights around the lobby, before heading deeper into the Castle. Panther, you okay with letting her take your place for a bit?"
"No problem!", Panther agreed enthusiastically.
"Thanks, Panther." To Violet, he added, "Just take it easy with your Persona, okay? Save your stamina. Oh, that reminds me - you can do tricks to power up your regular attacks, as well as your Persona's skills. A little something Noir discovered during her battle."
"I'll keep that in mind, Senpai." She held a piece of her ribbon-blade between her fingers and pulled it taut against the handle. "Let's do this!"
"Knock 'em dead, Violet!", Skull cheered, grinning as he spun each of his clubs around in his hands.
"Shadows, come and get it!" Sophie posed with her free hand on her hip, and a pair of scowling, downward-sloping lines in place of eyes on her face-mask.
Joker grinned with a sly gleam in his eyes. "Alright, team. Let's move out!" With an enthusiastic cheer, the Phantom Thieves spilled out into the hall and got into hiding while Joker looked around for patrolling Shadows. When a guard patrol passed by their location, he crept behind one of their number and, with the full momentum of a quick handspring, planted his feet straight into the back of its head. Before its allies could react, he reached down and ripped off the Shadow's mask, transforming it into a Mithras, a monster with a bare, gray-skinned top half and a floating rock etched with astrological symbols for a bottom half. It bore down on Joker, dagger in hand, but he parried the attack with a well-timed swing of his hoop. However, the hoop's blade left nothing but the faintest scratch upon the Mithras's arm.
It's tough… Joker thought. I need to wait for it to attack so I can pick the right Persona to counter-
"Comin' through!" Just then, his thoughts were interrupted by Skull, and cleared the way just in time as the blond lieutenant tossed up his clubs and launched himself at the Shadow in a diving roll.
"Skull, wait! It's strong against physical attacks!"
"Wha-!?" Caught off-guard by the news, Skull nearly fell over as he reached out to catch his clubs, but managed to turn the momentum into another somersault. As he stood up, he crossed the clubs above his head and called out for his Persona. "Captain Kidd!", he roared. His mask burst into blue flames, and Captain Kidd, a skull-headed pirate standing upon a diminutive ghostly ship, took form behind him. With the command, "Zionga!", it unleashed a lightning bolt upon the Mithras, sending its convulsing upper half rolling down onto the floor.
As Skull's Persona disappeared, and his mask reappeared on his face, the lad bore a cocky, self-satisfied grin, as if his near slip-up was something he meant to do all along. Unfortunately, he didn't notice the other Shadows about to attack him from behind, but that peril was rendered moot when Sophie's ball smashed into the side of one of the Shadow's heads. She caught the ball as it rebounded off the now-disintegrated monster and, with a smooth one-armed walkover, launched it straight at the other Shadow with even greater force and accuracy. "This is fun!", she said cheerfully as she caught the ball again, a "^ ^" expression portrayed on her mask.
By now, a second patrol consisting of Setantas and other Shadows arrived onto the scene to provide reinforcements, while the Mithras slowly righted itself and began casting a spell. So, it's weak to electricity, but resists physical damage… Joker thought. Anything else? He kept light on his feet in anticipation of the next attack, which came in the form of multiple blue-tinged explosions. Dodging the Mafreila blasts with a backflip, he swiftly processed in his head, It's using nuke magic! I'll try countering with psychic skills, then. To his team, he ordered, "Sophie, Violet, you take care of the new guys! I'll finish off this thing!" He then summoned forth one of the Personas he had recently captured, Kaiwan, and cast a Mapsio spell on his target. As expected, the Mithras reacted strongly to this mental assault, the damage being so overpowering that it instantly crumpled into inky nothingness.
Meanwhile, Violet faced down the encroaching Setantas. Lifting her leg up into a quick splits-pirouette, she called forth Cendrillon to bless her with a Brave Step, then began slashing at one of the sentries over and over with her ribbon blades. Thanks to her sharpened senses, her cuts landed in just the right spots to cripple the soldier with a critical hit, before she delivered a coup de grâce down the middle of its head.
The Phantom Thieves continued to pick off Shadows here and there until everybody felt themselves firing on all cylinders again. After letting Mona heal what few scratches or bruises they had suffered, they all returned to the locked arena entrance, where they noticed a three-tiered podium facing the door. It was exactly the kind of podium that winners would stand upon to receive their medals, although the numbers were switched around so that the tallest tier was labeled "3" instead of "1", and vice-versa. "This must be where we present the Cores we won," Queen surmised. "I guess the numbers are backwards because they represent the order of the Keeps. Joker, care to hand out the Cores, please?" Their leader obligingly procured them and passed out the ribbon to Noir, the trophy to Fox, and the photograph to Queen. Nobody questioned how he was still carrying them; given the nature of the Metaverse, they had all seen much stranger sights before. Once they were all in hand, Queen turned to her girlfriend and instructed, "Noir, you start by taking the lower step. N-not that I'm saying you performed any worse than us, of course!", she hastily added.
"Don't worry, Queen-chan!", Noir beamed understandingly. She stepped onto the lower tier with Yuri's ribbon in hand, followed by Fox on the middle tier and Queen high in the middle. When all three victors were in place, the Cores all turned back into orbs of light and disappeared. After a brief pause, they heard a familiar voice echoing all around them.
"Ohoho!", laughed Yuri the Monarch. "You have done well to defeat all three of my champions. But, before you shall have the privilege of an audience with me, you must prove your worth through even more of my challenges… and surprises! Get ready to face my gymnastic gauntlet!"
"Once we get in," Mona reminded them, "we're headed straight for the roof. Are you ready?" They all nodded to confirm their readiness. "Alright, let's go!"
AN: Special thanks, as always, go to Deathmanstratos and SupremeKnight3 for editing and support. This was my first chapter after coming back from my short stories for ShuSumi Week, and it felt like a rough one to have to restart with. Among other things, I've been burnt out by writing so many gymnastic duels in a row. Because of this, I decided to scrap one idea I had, a group duel between the Phantom Thieves and some cognitive gymnasts from Yuri's club. In its place, a more free-form set of battles, like what we had at the training gym in chapter 8, will follow in the next chapter.
Another scene I had dreaded writing for a while was Futaba's hacking scene. Even though it's not the first one I wound up mentioning in this fic, I wanted to portray her methods with at least some plausibility. To that end, I chose a denial-of-service attack as the basis for how I depicted her hack. Granted, the nature of the setting, cognitive psience and everything, does allow me to simply hand-wave a chunk of it, so I'm thankful for that. Oh, and as for the bit where Joker seemingly procures the cores from thin air? That was a cognition thing too. Let's leave it at that.
Characters from Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers TM & (c)2016 2020 Atlus
Text (c)2021 SpyHunter29