Summary: The Phantom Thieves fight the Monarch of Sapporo's Jail, the Shadow Self of Yuri Hikawa.
Saturday, August 12th 20XX, Morning
Toyohira Stadium
Early in the morning, eagerly wanting to cram in as much training before her finals, Yuri Hikawa wasted no time in getting herself ready for the big day. She put on her workout clothes and team tracksuit, picked up the breakfast and lunch that had been prepared by her family's personal chef, and took a chauffeured limousine out to the stadium where she would spend the rest of the day. But as soon as she entered the ladies' locker room to stow away her excess belongings, she found a shocking surprise waiting for her.
All around the room, black-and-red cards had been stuck to the locker doors and other surfaces. There were too many for Yuri to count, but there must have been a hundred or more, she assumed. She ripped a card off from a locker door to read it for herself. The various kanji and kana, clipped from various sources and pasted onto the card's black-and-red background, were arranged to read:
"To Lady Yuri Hikawa, the false queen of rhythmic gymnastics, you are a cold-hearted manipulator who would belittle others and steal their victories out of utter jealousy. On behalf of all the girls whose dreams have been shattered at your feet, we will not forgive you. Today, we will take back and return all of the Desires you have stolen, without fail. From, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts."
Crumpling the card in her hand, Yuri was outraged. "What the **** is this!?" she said out loud to herself. "Is this someone's idea of a prank? Is someone trying to psych me out? I will not let this stand! Who is responsible for this!?"
Meanwhile, in the deepest recesses of her psyche, Yuri's Monarch form reacted with paranoia. "The Phantom Thieves? And they're going to steal my Desires? **** that! I worked too hard for those Desires, and I'll not let anyone take them away! As long as I'm the Monarch, I won't let anyone stop me! ...Very well. If you Phantom Thieves want to add to my list of those who have fallen before the world's greatest rhythmic gymnast, then the game is on!"
Back in reality, Sumire Yoshizawa entered the locker room. Nobody would have suspected that she had actually been in that very room, just hours before, to sneak in and place the Calling Cards. Nobody, that was, apart from Yuri. She had no proof to use against her, but nonetheless she was naturally suspicious of her biggest rival. Before Sumire could put away her belongings, Yuri rushed up to confront her head-on. Pointing to one of the cards still on the lockers, she angrily asked, "Sumire! What is the meaning of this?"
"Y-Yuri-chan! What are you talking about?" Sumire did her best to feign surprise as she read the card herself. Although unnecessary on her part, since she wrote it in the first place, she needed to keep up appearances. When she was done reading, she stared coldly at her foe and said, "You think I did this?"
"Admit it, Sumire, you've always had it out for me!" Yuri figured that if she kept up the pressure, Sumire would slip up and admit something she could use against her. "You knew you can't hold a candle to me as a gymnast, so now you pulled this stunt to psych me out?"
But Sumire kept calm. "I couldn't have done that," she declared. "I only just got here to get in some training for today. If you don't believe me, ask my coach or my teammate." She had done her best not to wake up Hanako on her way out and back from her secret mission, and could only pray that this was, in fact, true.
"Training? Why, just so you can lose to me?" Just then, Yuri's angry expression curled into a cruel smile. "…Fine. I'll make you a deal. I can make it so no one outside this room ever finds out about these… things, and all you have to do is forfeit your ribbon finals! But if you refuse… Well, I have some very powerful friends who will make sure your gymnastic career will end for good!"
Staring her accuser down, Sumire defiantly replied, "You don't scare me, Yuri. I won't let you or anyone else crush my dreams!"
"My, my, look who decided to grow a pair," Yuri mocked. "Whatever, you little murderer."
"That's not going to work on me anymore, Yuri-chan. I'm not stuck in the past anymore. I've grown. Why haven't you?"
Stunned at her foe's defiance, all Yuri could do was scoff at the question. Brushing past Sumire, she added, "Prove it on the mat." With that, the two rivals went off to change for their training session, keeping as much distance from each other as possible. Sumire waited for Yuri to leave the locker room first, then discreetly pulled out her smartphone and texted a message to Ren. The first phase of their plan was now complete, and the rest was in his hands now.
Meanwhile, three kilometers away in Odori Park, the Phantom Thieves were still asleep. That did not last, however, as Ren was woken up by a familiar voice from his own cell phone. "Good morning, Ren," greeted Sophia. "You have a new text message from Sumire." It took a little while for his brain to register this information, but when it did, his eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright, clutching the phone as he read the message:
SUMIRE: Good morning, Senpai! I showed my friend the gift we made together. She loved it!
Ren, of course, understood the true meaning of this message: "Yuri has seen the Calling Card. She seems angry and afraid. Her Desires are ready to steal." This was the signal he had been waiting for. Flinging off his covers, he shook Ryuji and Yusuke awake and told them the news. Then, after getting dressed, waking up the girls in the cabin below, and taking a quick, balanced breakfast to go, the team rode the subway down to Toyohira Stadium and prepared for the battle to end Yuri Hikawa's reign of terror.
Toyohira Stadium, Sapporo Jail
When the Phantom Thieves warped into the Metaverse and laid eyes once more upon the icy stadium that was the Monarch's Castle, they quickly noticed that something had changed. The locks of the barrier surrounding the rooftop stronghold had been blown off the night before, upon defeat of the Lock Keeper, and one of the giant metal chains surrounding it was now embedded in the ground before them, providing a direct route to the top. This sort of shortcut had happened in the last two Castles, so this was expected, but no less welcomed by the Thieves. Link by link, they all climbed their way up.
"Hey, I just realized something," Skull said as they ascended. "If we're not goin' through the Castle itself this time, maybe our clothes won't change when we get up there!"
But Mona wasn't so sure. "I don't know, Skull… That spell was unlike anything we've dealt with before, so I still have no idea how it works."
Their questions would soon be answered. As soon as they set foot onto the rooftop square, each of them instantly transformed into their gymnastic costumes. "For real!?" Skull groaned, his head hanging low in frustration. "Man, can't she take it easy on us for once?"
Suddenly, a frightening thought came to Queen. "Wait a minute! Since our weapons are gone again, how are we going to fight the Monarch? Do you think we can find some spare apparatuses there?"
"We'll have to search her stronghold before confronting her," answered Mona. "If we can't find anything, be ready to double back and pick some up in the gym from before."
"But won't they just disappear once we go outside and transform back?"
"…Crap," Joker winced. Even he hadn't thought of that. "We'll just have to take our chances. Everyone on me. Keep quiet, and don't engage any Shadows until we're re-armed." Cautiously, the others lined up behind Joker as he opened the front door of the icy rooftop mansion and snuck in.
The Phantom Thieves didn't realize it at the time, but this building was a copy of the Hikawa family's home. Nevertheless, they checked every room they passed, but the whole house was deserted. That was, until they approached the private gym, where they heard grunts of exertion echoing out into the icy corridors. Silently opening the door by a sliver and peeking inside, he caught glimpses of a figure dancing and leaping about from one side of the room to the other, ribbon trailing behind her. Without a doubt, this had to be the Monarch, the Shadow Self of Yuri Hikawa. Joker pushed the door further open, ever so slightly, to get a better look at the further corners of the gym. To his relief, he found piles of hoops, balls, clubs, and ribbons which they could use against her. Giving a quick nod to his teammates, he heaved the door all the way open and declared, "Yuri Hikawa! We're here to take back your Desires and…"
But the Monarch seemed not to listen, instead running through the rest of her routine without interruption. Dressed in her glittering white performance leotard and an ornate diamond tiara, she looked every bit as graceful as her real self, if not more so. Her snow-white skin, even paler than usual, gave her an odd, yet beautiful, appeal that made it hard for them to look away from her. When her routine was finally over, she knelt in her finishing pose and turned her head to face her sudden audience, bitterly asking them, "Who the **** are you?"
"Who are we!?" snapped Skull. "We're the effin' Phantom Thieves!"
"You've ruined the dreams of countless other gymnasts by stealing their Desires," Queen added, "and now we're going to take them back!"
"Never!" the Monarch shot back. "If I let up for even one instant, I'll never get back my rightful place as the world's greatest rhythmic gymnast!"
"Why are you so obsessed with winning all the time?" Panther asked.
Yuri's tone became more agitated, revealing her feelings of paranoia. "I have to win! In this world, if you're not first, you're last! Nobody gives a **** about you unless you've got a gold medal!"
"What!? That's just stupid!" Skull protested. "Lots of athletes got famous even though they never made it to the top! Like…" He paused in thought, before sheepishly continuing, "…Okay, I don't really know any other gymnasts, but you get what I mean!"
Before the Monarch could argue, Queen held her ground. "I know how much you want to be the best, but this isn't the way to do it, Yuri. Any dream which requires the sacrifice of so many others' dreams isn't worth fulfilling!"
Posing and pointing at their target, Noir announced, "Yuri-san, say goodbye to the countless Desires you stole, because Beauty Thief and the Phantom Thieves… are about to take them back!"
But Yuri simply chuckled at this declaration of war. "Ohoho… You insignificant worms have no idea who you're ****ing with!" She kicked off and spun with her leg high behind her, ribbon twirling around her, but did not slow down. Instead, both she and her ribbon whirled around until they appeared as nothing more than a pale blue-and-white blur until, suddenly, she stopped. The Monarch's body was now entirely crystalline, while her clothes were replaced with a battle dress and knee-high boots of similar construction. She wouldn't have looked out of place in a magical-girl action anime, as either a hero or a villain. "I am Yuri Hikawa, the world's greatest rhythmic gymnast!" she announced, posing dramatically. "And in the name of the Hikawa family, I will crush you!"
Staring down the newly transformed Yuri, Joker commanded his team, "Alright. Skull, Panther, Sophie, you're with me. Everyone else, get to safety." The five other Phantom Thieves did so, retreating from the room, while Joker and the three remaining Thieves huddled together. "Panther, keep your whip - I mean, ribbon charged and strike her from a distance. Sophie, your first priority is keeping us healed. Other than that, debuff her defense and, when you can, hold back and snipe at her with your ball. Skull… smash." The blond delinquent grinned at the simple, yet satisfying, order he had been given. Putting their hands together, the team of four broke apart, armed themselves with the various apparatuses available at the edge of the room, and readied themselves for combat.
The Phantom Thieves wondered which apparatus Shadow Yuri would fight with. As it turned out, she would use all four. She began her offensive by reaching up and magically summoning a ball to her hand, which she tossed and kicked at the apex of an illusion turn, shooting it at practically supersonic speeds. The Thieves just barely dove out of the way in time, causing the projectile to leave nothing but deep cracks in the icy walls and floor. Once the Monarch caught the ball, it vanished and was replaced by her hoop. Closing the distance between herself and Joker, she twirled around on one foot, letting the hoop swing outward. As it flew around her, deadly icicles shot up from the ground underneath it. But Joker was one step ahead of the Monarch, backflipping clear of the attack and countering with a hoop slash of his own. His attack actually connected, but the Monarch's armor was tough and suffered little lasting damage. As expected for a Shadow of such high stature, he knew they were in for a long fight.
However, Yuri's bag of tricks was nowhere near exhausted. Turning her attention to an easier target, she switched out her hoop for a pair of clubs and sprinted in the direction of Skull and Panther, spinning the clubs in mills as she ran. Skull was clocked head-on by the whirling tools, but while Panther managed to keep clear, she could not react in time when Yuri shot one of the clubs in her direction. Struck in her back, the twin-tailed blonde collapsed, groaning in pain as she willed herself to stand up.
As the backup Phantom Thieves watched the fierce melee unfold, Noir grew impatient. "There's got to be something we can do to help them!"
The others had nothing to suggest, until a thought eventually came to Oracle. "Heyyy… Remember that server room Violet found yesterday? I wonder what kind of havoc I could wreak there."
"Now that you mention it, Oracle," mused Fox, "would it be possible for you to disrupt the spell on this Castle? The spell over our clothes and weapons?"
"It's worth a try, Inari! You'll all protect me, right?"
"Of course, Oracle," Queen said with a matronly smile. After Mona cautiously snuck back into the gym room to retrieve some more equipment, the five headed out of the mansion, retracing their steps through the Castle until reaching the secret passage previously discovered by Violet. The server room they wound up in was surprisingly large, and unsurprisingly frigid. Towers of electronic equipment were stacked around the edges of the room, while a lone computer terminal stood at the back of the open central area. "Once Oracle logs on," warned Queen, "enemy reinforcements could come at her from any direction. Everyone, pick a corner and focus on defending it." She took a defensive stance and held her clubs firmly by their ball-topped small ends.
"Got it!" Noir said, arming her hoop's razor edge as she got into position.
"I'll heal you, so don't worry and just focus on what you need to do!" promised Mona, straightening out his bladed ribbon.
"Here they come!" shouted Fox, aiming his ball at the first Shadows that emerged from between the server racks.
Back above, the battle with the Monarch raged on. Each of the Phantom Thieves took turns clashing with her, all the while attempting to reason with her and talk her down. "Why do ya gotta do all this, Yuri?" Skull pleaded while locking clubs with Yuri. "The bullyin', the brainwashin'… This ain't what Kasumi would've wanted!"
At the mention of Kasumi's name, Yuri's anger surged, tinting her crystalline body from blue to red. With even greater strength, she pushed him away, arguing, "What the **** do you know about her!? She and I were the best! With her gone, I'm the only gymnast who can bring honor to this country! You'll never understand the pressure I'm under… unless you feel it for yourself! Ribbon Vise!" With this call, she swung her ribbon wide. It flew out, extending infinitely and tracking targets as if it had a mind of its own.
"Everyone, spread out!" warned Joker. "Don't let it catch up to you!"
But it was no use. The ribbon curved itself right in front of Skull and wrapped around his body, covering him completely from feet to neck. He tripped over himself and fell, and with his arms and feet pinned at his sides by the snakelike satin, he could not get up. Struggling to no avail, he tried to scream out, "Guys? Get this effin' thing offa me!" But his cries for help came out quieter than intended, as the ever-tightening ribbon squeezed his chest more and more with every second.
With a quick visual scan, Sophie analyzed the vitals of the distressed blond boy. "Skull's in trouble, everyone!" she warned. "That ribbon is squeezing his chest. If we don't free him, he will suffocate, or even be crushed to death!"
Panther and Joker both made a mad dash to the stretch of ribbon between Yuri and Skull, and with a sense of desperation, struck at it with their respective weapons, but it proved too sturdy for them to cut. Worse still, Yuri sensed their futile attempts to free their friend, and when she attacked them in turn, her rage-fueled strength knocked each of them back, flinging them all the way to opposite sides of the room. Panther smacked into the wall upside-down and collapsed, doubled over with her hips in the air and her legs on either side of her head "What are we gonna do?" she groaned as she recovered from her impact. But, from this awkward position, she noticed something. Multiple chandeliers hung from the ceiling above, just like they had seen elsewhere in the castle. These were suspended higher up than before, but she believed that she could reach them. She ran across the room to Joker and pointed up at one of the fixtures.
Joker's frown of fear curled around into a cunning smile. "Brilliant," he praised. He wasn't sure how this would free Skull exactly, but even if it didn't, they could at least deliver a massive payback for what Yuri did to their friend. "Sophie, keep her busy!", he directed, while crouching in position with his hands locked together. Judging her distance carefully, Panther backed up and ran at Joker, tumbling into a handspring. As soon as her feet landed on his hands, he pushed up with all his might, launching her skyward. She barely managed to grab one of the chandelier's many branches and nearly slipped from her precarious perch, yet by some miracle, she held on and pulled herself topside.
Watching the battle below from her lofty platform, Panther waited for Yuri to position herself to get hit by the chandelier. It was difficult for her to gauge, as the Monarch was a fast, agile target who seldom stood still for long, let alone where Panther wanted her to be. But Joker and Sophie, well aware of the plan, did their best to guide Yuri into the drop zone. When her target was finally in place, Panther slashed the chain holding up the chandelier, leaping away just in time so she would not fall on top of it. Falling from such a great height, she worried if she would be able to break her fall, and cursed herself for not thinking it through. But just then, Joker swooped underneath her, catching his blonde ally in his arms.
Yuri was not so fortunate. She took the full brunt of the chandelier as it shattered into thousands of icy pieces, leaving serious cracks in her body and armor. Its force pushed her to the ground and made her drop her baton, which finally freed Skull from his nearly-fatal bonds. "Aaaugh!" she roared in agony, glowing even redder than before. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Panther land into Joker's embrace. Realizing her to be the one responsible, the glacial gymnast turned to her and swore, "**** you!"
Before she could defend herself, she was suddenly struck in the back of the head by Skull, who retorted, "Aw, eff yourself, Yuri!" Suddenly, he stumbled, only to be supported over Panther's shoulder. "I guess that makes us even, huh?" he said to his longtime friend.
"For what?" she asked quizzically.
"Remember Aramaki?" Getting only a blank, forgetful stare, Skull explained, "Oh, right. You probably don't, 'cause you were - look out!" He cut himself off when he spotted Yuri bearing down upon them. The two dived away in opposite directions to dodge the Monarch, her slashing ribbon, and the deadly icicles springing up in her wake..
Joker was watching the situation from afar, when his mind flashed upon Noir's duel with Larisa. During that fight, the Beauty Thief attempted to make her opponent mad and follow up with psychic damage. Even though that didn't work out for her, Joker was not about to pass up this opportunity. Fixating his mind upon the image of Kaiwan, he ran at Yuri and performed back-to-back butterfly jumps, swinging his hoop beneath his high-flying legs, and stood with his hand stretched high, calling out, "Mapsio!" The star-shaped Persona appeared behind him, unleashing a wave of mind-corrupting energy upon the Monarch. Clutching her head in mental anguish, Yuri collapsed to the floor, and her body returned to its original bluish colors as her feelings of rage subsided.
Dazed by his counterattack, Yuri pushed herself back up and retorted, "Fine! You wanna cool off? Then quiver and shiver before me!" With a flourish, Yuri unleashed a thick arctic fog that filled the entire room. These conditions were even worse than the blizzard they had encountered elsewhere in the Sapporo Jail. The cold was more debilitating, slowing the Phantom Thieves' movements to a crawl, and their visibility was reduced to a scant few meters. However, the Monarch was not affected by these conditions, and struck at them with unrestricted swiftness well before they could even see her through the white mists.
"This is bad!" cried Panther. "What are we gonna do?"
"Spread out, so she can't hit us all at once!" commanded their leader. "I'll see if Oracle can do something about this. Until then, just hang on!"
Meanwhile, on a lower floor of the Castle, Oracle was hard at work hacking into its cognitive network as Mona, Fox, Queen, and Noir protected her. While the redheaded wunderkind made great progress on tracking down and disabling the psientific spell over their clothes and weapons, she could not ignore the pleas of her comrades-in-arms. Her talented brain was able to keep up her ongoing assault while simultaneously splitting part of her attention off to the arena's other systems. Scanning the list of available functions, she spotted one labeled "Heaters", and through it, she found that she could divert power to the room's heaters. However, she could not physically turn them on herself, and in order to minimize the risk of attracting the network security's attention, she could only afford to power up one of the heaters, and only for a limited time.
Back above, Joker and his squad were being battered by Yuri. Without being able to see or react to her attacks, they were rendered utterly helpless to defend themselves. Even though their spread-apart formation meant she could only attack one of them at a time, her ongoing onslaught on Joker brought him to his knees, and nearly to death's door. But then, as his hope for survival was fading, he heard a welcome voice in his earpiece. "Joker!" Oracle shouted. "I've rerouted the power to one of the heaters. If you can get over there and turn it on, that should take care of the blizzard!"
"Which one?"
"Hold on… Northeast corner!"
"Got it!" He recalled that Sophie was closest to that corner of the room when the fog was unleashed, and assumed that because of its effects, she couldn't have moved far away. "Sophie!" he called to the AI girl, "You heard Oracle. Get to that heater!"
"Roger dodger!" she replied. Tumbling and cartwheeling, Sophie wrung every ounce of speed she could out of her slow-moving body, while attempting to dodge the balls and clubs the Monarch tossed her way. With a final diving leap, she landed at the base of the heater and hurriedly flicked its power dial on. Heat flooded the room, instantly dissipating the fog and its frigid effects, bringing much-needed relief to the Phantom Thieves, and an unpleasant surprise to Yuri.
"Well done, Sophi- aaagh!" Joker began to congratulate the AI girl, only to collapse in pain from his wounds. Without any prompting, she set out to heal him, first by rolling her ball from one arm down to the other, then holding it in her outstretched hand as she did a front walkover, and finally posing as Pithos, her artificially-made Persona, appeared behind her. The long black-and-white boxes that made up Pithos's form whirled around her as they casted a Diarama spell upon Joker, restoring his strength. "Like I said,'' he praised with a smirk, "thanks, Sophie. You too, Oracle!"
"Pleasure doin' business!" Oracle replied on the other end. With her partners out of immediate peril, she could return her full attention to her main goal of shutting down the Castle-wide cognitive spell. It was tough to track down, as that system was more complex than the one controlling the heater power, but thankfully, her keen knowledge of rhythmic gymnastics helped her identify what variables to look out for. Just as she was making a breakthrough, however, a guard Shadow managed to slip past her friends' defenses and make its way behind her. Grabbing the back of her head, it smashed her face hard onto the keyboard, and then slammed her body down to the ground, sliding her feet apart to force her legs into splits. The inflexible hacker, who had never been able to achieve this position before, screamed, "AAAGH! THIS IS PURE AGONY!"
Mona heard her cries and said, "Hold on Oracle, I'll save you!" Thankfully, the Castle's spell did not prevent Mona from transforming into his van form. With a poof, he did so, and slammed into the Shadow behind Oracle, knocking it into oblivion. Then, whirling around with the speed of a deranged cartoon creature, he charged up a healing spell to nurse the pain out of her pulled muscles. "You got this, Oracle!" cheered the cat.
"Thanks a bundle." Now, back on her feet, Oracle could finally finish what she started. She continued spamming the target system's ports as she had been doing before, and after barely a minute of this assault, its resources were finally overloaded. The cognition around them shimmered briefly before returning to normal - with one key difference. Oracle and the other Phantom Thieves were now wearing their original Metaverse clothes, and wielding their standard weapons once again. Mona and Fox's swords, Queen's knuckle-dusters, Noir's axe… they all agreed it felt good to have them back in hand. However, it would be a while before they needed to use them, as when the system shut down, all the enemy Shadows in the room disappeared, their goal of stopping the network intruder no longer relevant. Exuberant, Oracle waved her fists high in the air and shouted, "YES! I AM INVINCIBLE!"
"Wow, it actually worked!" said Noir. "Great work, Oracle!"
"Now let's go back to the others," suggested Fox. "Now that we've turned the tides, their fight should be over soon."
"Okey-doke, Inari! Let's all make like hedgehogs and roll out!"
Meanwhile, Joker and the others were close to wiping out the Monarch, but their own stamina was being exhausted as well. In her desperation, Yuri had unleashed multiple new attacks, more damaging than the ones that had come before. She would charge her hoop with energy and fling it out, bouncing off the walls, or leap up high and spike her ball down to the floor below, causing a shockwave. The Phantom Thieves were able to adapt to these attacks and evade them, but one slip-up could spell doom for whomever got hit. Their only hope was whatever Oracle was planning, which Joker had not clearly heard them discuss earlier. Whatever she had up her sleeves, whether or not she would pull through would ultimately determine their success or failure.
And then, their cognition changed, restoring their equipment to its old, rightful state. Realizing what just occurred, the Phantom Thieves cheered with delight, while Yuri was left speechless as she processed it all. "This… can't… be…" she eventually said, incredulously. "My rules… no longer have meaning…? Impossible! You cheated! I don't know how, but you cheated!"
Skull, still angry from almost having been crushed to death, rudely gestured and retorted, "Now you know it feels to be cheated, ya c-"
"Calm down, Skull!" Panther quickly interrupted.
"She nearly killed me," he argued. "I ain't gonna forgive her just yet."
Oracle called out to him. "Hey, Skull! Know what time it is?"
"Uhh…" Scratching the back of his head, Skull came up with nothing.
"It's Showtime!" she answered for him. "Blow her away!"
"Aw yeah! Captain Kidd!" Skull crouched down on his hands and feet, as if on a runner's starting block, while Captain Kidd burst into being above him. "On your mark, get set… DIE!" Pointing its gun upwards, the pirate Persona fired a giant bullet and Skull burst into action, dashing forward for a few steps before suddenly leaping high into the air. As the bullet curved around beside him, he swung his bat around and hit the projectile from behind, sending it careening at Yuri with tremendous speed. On contact, it exploded, the smoke forming a skull-shaped mushroom cloud.
Once the cloud cleared, Yuri's Shadow Self reverted to its original form and collapsed onto her hands and knees, legs folded in a W-shape on the ground. Joker pointed his gun at her and said dryly, "You're disqualified, Yuri."
"Wait! Not yet!" she begged desperately. "I won't let it end this way! I must claim victory!"
Fox looked upon the defeated Monarch with disappointment. "Hikawa-san… why? Your performances as a gymnast are simply captivating. What could have possibly given you the urge to take an unfair advantage?"
"Don't you know where the world's best rhythmic gymnasts come from? Which countries win all the medals?" Before anyone could answer, she spat out, "Russia! Ukraine! Belarus! Bulgaria! Places where the sport is so popular, their governments spend the most money on training them! I tried to break through, but when I saw how I stacked up against those ***damn Europeans, I realized my dream would never come true… unless I took action."
"But if you're takin' out the strongest opponents," argued Skull, "then you aren't really provin' to the world how strong you are!"
This appeal unexpectedly gave Yuri pause, to which Joker followed up by recalling one of his old confidants. "Your story reminds me of somebody I know."
"A gymnast?"
Joker shook his head. "No, a shogi player." He briefly recounted the tale of Hifumi Togo, whom he had befriended during his time in Tokyo the year before. "She was brilliant, but her parents controlled her image, secretly fixing her matches behind the scenes. After she confronted them on it, she lost her next match, but she actually felt good about it, because it was entirely on her terms." He left out the fact that he and the Phantom Thieves were the ones who changed her mother's heart, a fact which Yuri did not need to know.
Panther stepped in. "What they're saying is, you're not helping your own goals by doing what you did. You're only squashing the dreams of others. Especially Sumire."
Yuri recoiled at the mention of that name. "That ***** deserved it!" she shot back. "She was so jealous of her sister, she was willing to kill her!"
"That's not true!" Noir pleaded. "I know you're sad about losing Kasumi, but taking down her sister won't bring her back. Sumire was hurt by her loss as much as you, but instead of feeling angry or sad about it, she worked her hardest to live up to the promises they made together. If you really care about Kasumi, you should follow that example."
"Why should I give a **** about that brat?" argued Yuri. "She's a screw-up! A weakling who hasn't got the tiniest fraction of the talent her sister had!"
Joker clenched his fists, desperately trying to contain his rage against all the insults levied at his closest companion. But before he could lash out at her, Queen gently placed a hand on his shoulder and told the Monarch, "Sumire is stronger than you realize. She's picked herself up from more emotional falls than you would assume, and she's getting better and better at gymnastics, too. Would the weak Sumire you remember have made it to that final the other day?"
Yuri's defensive demeanor finally began to soften. "Are you saying… she's worthy of my respect?"
Noir stepped forward to explain, "You don't have to respect her that way just to be friends. Friendships aren't built on talent and skill, but on love and support. If you two work together, like you did with Kasumi, you'll both soar to new heights, perhaps even greater than Kasumi herself. But first, instead of blaming Sumire for taking your friend away, you should give her a chance. Talk with her, and understand how she felt on that day."
As each of the Phantom Thieves' words left their mark on Yuri's psyche, she gradually began to shed tears of regret. "Yes… you're right," she finally admitted. "My obsession with winning all the time distracted me from how good it felt when Kasumi and I were together. When she was gone, I thought nothing else could come close to that feeling, so I never went for it again. All I had left was my old dreams of glory, but the only thing I got for that was ****ing things up for so many people…"
"Well, it ain't too late to un-eff it up," Skull said with a determined smile. "Just do what you gotta do, startin' by makin' nice with Sumire."
"And when you do make your grand return to gymnastics," promised Fox, "we shall await your new performances with eager attention!"
Breaking through his initial hatred of her, Joker gave an understanding smile and said, "So will Kasumi-chan. I know she's watching down on you from Heaven, and she'll be just as thrilled to see the new you!"
"Thank you. I guess it's time for me to change my ways… for Kasumi, for Sumire, and all the others." And then, tears sliding down her porcelain-white face, Yuri's Shadow Self glowed until she was enveloped in a blinding light, and disappeared.
No sooner was she gone than the Castle around them began to tremble. "This place is collapsing!" warned Panther. "Let's go!" As if they even needed prompting, the Phantom Thieves made a mad dash for the mansion's exit, clambered down the giant chain to ground level, and left the Metaverse. Joker's mind was preoccupied with what effect their actions would have on the real Yuri Hikawa, especially involving her relationship with Sumire, but he told himself to have faith, that everything would work out between them.
He would not have to wait long to witness the fruits of his labor.
AN: Special thanks, as always, go to Deathmanstratos and SupremeKnight3 for editing and support. Welp, we're in the home stretch now. This is the last Metaverse scene of this fic, and good thing to, because as I've said multiple times before, I find action sequences more difficult to write than dialogue-heavy parts. Still, I've come a long way as a writer, to the point that my editors have suggested fewer changes in these later chapters.
Obviously, this chapter replaces P5S's actual boss battle against Mariko Hyodo. While I miss not being able to incorporate the well-deserved character development Haru got in-game, I'm quite satisfied with removing her Shadow Self from the equation, because… yeesh! Gonk much? That said, I did design Yuri's attacks to serve counterparts with Mariko's, such as the former's "Ribbon Vise" acting like the latter's "Dinnertime". When Panther talks about the time she and Skull fought Aramaki, that was another reference to the events of my past P5 fic, "Futaba's Unveiling".
Characters from Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers TM & (c)2016 2020 Atlus
Text (c)2021 SpyHunter29