CW: brief nonchalant reference to what happened in the interrogation room; I'm not sure if it even warrants a content warning but I'd rather err on the side of caution
Special thanks to wr3h for helping me iron out the kinks of this chapter.
Ichiko Ohya dialled a number on her phone. "Hey, hey, hey," she greeted Joker, "I got your message about a nice big scoop for me."
"Ichiko, it's two in the morning," he muttered, lying in his bed.
"Sorry, my phone died, I just came back home and plugged it in. So, what's that scoop?"
"Assorted dirt on Masayoshi Shido." Joker sat up. "A… pissed former employee brought me some documents from his office. A computer-literate teammate noticed some passwords on the margins and got some extra stuff to sweeten the pot. All put on a nice little drive and wrapped in a cute bow."
"Does that mean your usual magic didn't work?" the journalist asked.
"I'm almost sure it did, but it might not be enough this time," he sighed. "I'm holed up in a hotel in Ōta, can you drop in tomorrow slash today morning? I can't really go anywhere during normal school hours, so I'm flexible."
"'Kay. Text me the address, I'll drop in first thing in the morning."
"Sure. Now, goodnight." Joker hung up. He was about to lie back down when he heard the front door lock beep. Promptly and silently, he got up and peeked through the cracked bedroom door. Noticing who was on the other side, he opened it widely. "Akechi! What were you doing outside at night?"
"I couldn't fall asleep, so I went on a walk," the detective responded, taking off the sports bag. "I had Morgana with me, he can confirm I didn't do anything fishy."
"Well…" the cat said, "it wasn't fishy per se, but he stopped by a pharmacy and got some sleeping pills."
The detective showed him the pill bottle. "Normal over-the-counter stuff."
"Trouble falling asleep, huh?"
Akechi sighed. "I have… thoughts."
"Yeah, that sounds ominous."
"Especially with a bottle of pills in your hands," Morgana added.
"No, not suicidal thoughts," Akechi responded, inspecting the label. "I just… can't name them, really. Do you think I had someone try to talk me through my feelings at any point in my life?"
"It's guilt, isn't it?"
"I guess?" he shrugged. "I mean, it is there, it will stay there until the end, but… there's more to it, I think." His hand twitched. "And I think and I keep thinking and I want to stop."
Joker took the pill bottle from him. "Yeah, you're getting that rationed." He got out two pills from it and handed them over to the detective who swallowed them without washing them down.
"What are you going to do with me when this is all over? When Shido's party gets stopped, one way or another?" he asked.
"I don't know yet. Maybe you'll stay with us so we can watch you. Maybe we'll talk with Sae about a plea bargain or something. Or maybe the Metaverse will collapse in the meantime and we won't have to worry. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."
"All of those sound either unlikely or complex and resource-intensive."
"As opposed to what, Akechi? Turning you over to authorities is out of the question, because I'm certain you won't get a fair trial."
In lieu of a response, the detective put an index and middle finger to his forehead and mimicked a gun recoiling.
Joker pinched the bridge of his nose. "Like… even if we put aside the morality of taking someone's life, we aren't the Phantom Judges, Jurors and Executioners. None of us are killers, even though some have tried to pretend otherwise."
"Well, other than you…" Morgana muttered under his breath.
"So, at the end of the day, after everything I've done, you'll let me walk away without punishment." Akechi said.
"Your guilt keeping you awake will have to suffice."
"What kind of justice is that?"
Joker stared him down. "One concerned with righting the wrongs over shooting the bad guys in the face. I can't bring back Kunikazu, Wakaba, or all the other people you killed, but I can make both you and people pulling your strings atone for what you did."
"Can you?" Akechi tried to out-stare him. "Furthermore, can you guarantee that I won't pull off any more stuff like that that the moment you stop following my every step?"
"We're on day five of us living in a single flat, and other than some snippy remarks at people, you're cooperative. At this point, I'm not worried that you'll go on a killing spree, I'm worried that I'll enter your bedroom and find you hanged on your shoelaces."
The two stared at each other for a moment before the door to Futaba's bedroom opened and the geek poked her head out. "Just fuck already!"
After a beat, Joker shrugged. "I mean, if it clears the air-"
"Goodnight, everyone." Akechi spun on his heel and marched to his bedroom in a huff, slamming the door behind himself.
The brunette turned to the geek. "Did we wake you up?"
"Nope dot avi. I was working on some new stuff for the chat app, heard you arguing about something, and thought saying something inappropriate will give your loop a break."
"You did good," Morgana muttered, as Joker patted her on the head.
Akechi was lying on his bed, eyes closed, trying to clear his mind. It wasn't going well, because of all the sounds upsetting him.
Cars on the street.
Keyboard clicking in the room next to him.
And Joker's voice: "You can name those thoughts and we both know it."
"Get out of my ro… room…" he trailed off, noticing that he wasn't in his room anymore.
He was on an underground train platform. It wasn't particularly spacious, and for whatever reason had only one track by it. There didn't seem to be any exits from it, and when he attempted to peek into the train tunnels on either end, he found out that there's an invisible wall keeping him on the platform.
"It's okay, they had it coming."
He twitched, startled. He spun around, trying to find the source of the voice.
"It's not like anyone will miss those people."
He looked up and noticed a speaker hanging above him.
"And besides, they'll hang me for that anyway, so it'll be fair in the end."
Despite the distortion, he recognized the voice as his own. "So this is Hell, huh?" he muttered.
"Oh, you wish."
He recoiled, startled, as a boy roughly his age was suddenly standing next to him. He looked remarkably like Joker - Shujin school uniform, ruffled hair, glasses, smug smirk on his face. The only difference was that, for whatever reason, everything black about him had a noticeable red tint.
"What's all this?" the detective asked.
"It's all in your head," the brunette's (the redhead's?) grin got wider. "And who else could play the part of that annoying voice in the back of it?" He shook Akechi's hand. "I'm Dream Joker. C'mon, take a look around."
What was there to look at though, Akechi thought. It was a subway station, he knew how these looked like, Tokyo had almost three hundred of those. There were a few seats for passengers, some adorably retro split-flap displays, a transit map hanging on the wall…
He paused. Tokyo subway system wasn't so linear. And it had more than seven transit stations.
Looking from left to right, there was a single red line, joined by two others, and then a third. The four lines ran concurrently to a station labelled Castle of Lust. Then, the four were joined by a fifth and reached Museum of Vanity. Sixth line before Bank of Gluttony. Seventh starting from Pyramid of Wrath. Eighth joining before Spaceport of Greed. And ninth, dark gray, before Casino of Envy. The red and dark gray lines split away from the rest and crossed over on a small station labelled Interrogation Room. The red line returned to the bundle, and the dark gray line ran in parallel before crossing the rest in a station labelled Cruiser of Pride Engine Room. It appeared to have terminated there, but someone had extended it with a marker, so that it bypassed the Cruiser of Pride station and connected with three other lines in Otorii.
"I love the subtle symbolism," Akechi muttered.
"You noticed how all the lines end dashed, for all the stuff in the future?" Dream Joker tapped the rightmost part of the plan. "Well, almost all of them."
"Are we going to hammer the obvious point some more, or are you going to tell me something I don't know?"
He looked at him. "I have to lay things out thick, so that you're unable to drown 'em out. 'Cause that's something you've been doing for the past two and a half years - drowning out that voice in the back of your head that tells you that you're doing stupid things. And you know where that leads to?"
A door appeared on the wall and creaked open. Akechi peeked inside and found himself staring into the interrogation room, with Joker's red-tinted corpse lying on the table in the pool of his own blood.
"…I get shot in the face and someone fakes my suicide?"
"Swing and a miss." The brunette picked himself up and wiped the blood off his forehead and face. "What I meant is, you end up doing and saying things you regret later. You burn bridges you shouldn't have." He stepped out of the room back on the platform and the door closed and disappeared behind him. "And not everyone has the patience of a saint and limitless capacity to forgive like I do."
Akechi rolled his eyes. "Of course, Mr Discount Shoulder Angel. If only it wasn't two dead parents and countless other victims too late for me to apply that knowledge."
"As always, you're incorrect."
One of the split flap displays had activated with a reassuring rustle, prompting the two to approach it. The main part was able to display three rows of text, letter by letter. Below that was a smaller row, with a single flap going through a series of words Akechi recognized as Major Arcana. To the left, there was a larger flap showing pictures going by too fast for him to identify. On the right, there was an analog meter of some sort, with no unit given, and the scale going from 0 to 10.
The Arcana part stopped on Justice, and the picture flap displayed a logo he had seen somewhere before. After a moment, the main part finished setting itself to PHANTOM / THIEVES / OF HEARTS, and the meter set itself to 3.
Akechi noticed a knob sticking out the side of the contraption and attempted to turn it. The picture flap flipped, displaying a black-and-white drawing of a familiar bespectacled brunette. The Arcana flap changed to The Fool. The top and bottom row started cycling through the first few letters, while the middle row stabilized: XXXXX / JOKER / XXXXXXXX. The meter went up to 8.
"That's an interesting one." Dream Joker grinned. "I have a theory that this little doodad is showing how deep your bond is with a person or a group. I mean, there had to be a reason why I'm not," his voice switched to Futaba's, "a neon-orange-haired hikikomori. But eight on a ten-point scale?" he went back to Joker's voice. "That's basically an admission you want to jump his bones. Should I take my shirt off?"
"Ew!" Akechi recoiled in disgust before collecting himself. "I mean, I'm not interested. In anyone. I have hang-ups. You should know that if you're the voice in my head."
"I like messing with you."
"Anyway," he took a deep breath, "the thing with Joker is… I'm jealous of him." He started pacing around. "I'm jealous of how he's so effortlessly smart and powerful and stays on the moral high ground and just rubs his superiority in my face all the time." A breath to calm himself down. "But… I guess, on some level, I respect him for that. And… he keeps his principles even when dropping them for just a moment would cause him less pain and worries. And he's concerned about me,despite everything I've done to him he's actually concerned about me after I… I…"
"Have you ever told him that?" Dream Joker interrupted him. "Not a copy in your head, him specifically?"
"Would he even believe me?" Pause. "Oh, of course he would, what am I even saying?"
"I wonder what's the significance of his name not being shown."
"Maybe it reflects about how he thinks of himself as Joker first and his civilian identity second."
Or maybe the author thought not using his canon name was a good idea two months and eight chapters ago.
Akechi looked around. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Dream Joker replied. "Let's see who else the magic relationship box will show."
The detective turned the knob, and the display switched to RYUJI / SKULL / SAKAMOTO. The meter showed a 2, ditto for Morgana. Ann and Yusuke each had a 1. Makoto had a 3, Futaba had a 4, Haru had a 3. Akechi turned the knob again, expecting things to wrap back to the Phantom Thieves as a group, and found himself staring dumbfounded at a picture of his own face.
The first and third rows finished setting themselves, but the second remained in motion, displaying GORO / XXXXXXXXXX / AKECHI. The meter on the side kept wildly swinging its pointer around.
"Before you ask," Dream Joker piped up, "I don't get the meaning of this either."
The Arcana flap stopped on The Tower. "Okay, feel free to hammer in the symbolism now," Akechi said. "My knowledge of Tarot reading begins and ends with 'Death means change and not literal death'."
The brunette rubbed his chin. "The Tower also implies change, but carries connotations of destruction, danger, and other fun stuff like that. Reversed could mean negligence, carelessness, apathy."
"It checks out."
"Note that it doesn't have to be a change for the worse," he added. "To use a completely random example: a change from a shrieking sentai villain into a nonchalant yet loyal ally would definitely be a positive one." Ignoring a pointed stare from the detective, he went on, "Tell me something, 'cause I'm curious: were all the slasher smiles, screams and shit-talking who you really were underneath the affability, or was that just another mask hiding what we see now?"
"I have no idea," he replied. "If that was a real part of me, it died in Shido's Palace and shall not be missed."
As if on cue, a different display has activated elsewhere on the platform, attracting their attention. It consisted of two identical modules stacked on top of each other. Most of the module was taken by a display labelled Persona Name. Next to it, a mechanical seven-segment display labelled Lvl, showing 75 on the first module and 70 for the second. A small light-up button labelled Equip, lit up for Robin Hood but not for Loki. And a large red button under a cover, labelled REMOVE PERSONA.
Akechi and Dream Joker walked up to it. "Well, isn't that…" he trailed off, as the detective, without missing a beat, lifted the cover and pressed the button to delete Loki. Then pressed it again, repeatedly.
"I said it died in Shido's Palace and shall not be missed!"
The flaps clicked, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Then, they burst out of the machine and spilled on the floor, but at a point where they should've hit the ground, they dissolved into nothingness, and so did the floor underneath them, revealing the void underneath. The dissolution started rapidly spreading on the floor and walls, and the two stepped away, but soon found themselves backed up against a wall with nowhere to run.
"What will happen now?" Akechi asked, slightly unnerved.
"Hell if I know," Dream Joker shrugged. "I'll probably disappear alongside this place."
"And what about me?"
"You'll just wake up."
Akechi's eyes opened and he sat up on his bed. He was in a bedroom in a rented apartment in Ōta, but the details of the dream subway station remained crystal clear in his mind. He thought that sleeping pills were either a splendid idea or a terrible one and attempted to lie back down, before he picked up someone's footsteps on the corridor. Promptly and silently, he got up and peeked through the cracked bedroom door. Noticing who was on the other side, he opened it widely. "Joker! Where are you going?"
"I had a nightmare and I want to walk it off," he said, weary. "Please don't murder my sister and cat while I'm out."
"Wait a moment, please." The detective walked up to him and put his hand on the shoulder. "I…" he froze up for a moment, "I will not commit suicide because it would make you distraught and you don't deserve that?" Joker looked at him confused. "It sounded better in my head."
The brunette smiled. "Thanks. I appreciate that."
"And…" the detective went on, "I feel like I need to say something more."
Joker turned to him. "Go on. I'm listening."
"I… really shouldn't get credit for turning back to the Phantom Thieves. After all, what other options did I really have? Well, other than…" he mimicked shooting himself in the temple. "But… if it's possible… I want more. I want to… be more… than a rival… than an enemy on your side by necessity…" Realization flashed on his face. "Oh bugger me, this sounds more… romance-y than I intended."
Joker chuckled. "Don't worry, I get what you mean. If I can suggest a bonding activity: we could experiment in the kitchen." Noticing Akechi's uneasy expression, he added. "Uh, as in, try a recipe other than curry and pancakes. I'm gonna stop by whatever store's open to buy something interesting-looking, okay?"
The detective smiled. "Yeah, sure. Stay safe."
"I will."
And with that, Joker left the flat. Akechi spun on his heel, ready to go back to sleep, and noticed Futaba peeking from her bedroom in silence.
"Um, is something wrong? Have I-"
She pointed at the floor. "Kneel."
Confused, he obeyed. The geek marched out of her room and patted him on his head.
"You did good," she said. "And my mom used to pat me on the-" she noticed him stiffen up, "Have I done something wrong?"
"No, no, no," he got up and tried to regain composure. "I… I really appreciate the gesture. It means a lot coming from you. Can I… can I pat you back?"
The geek hesitantly nodded. Akechi's head pat was awkward, but gentle. "Okay, I'm gonna go back to coding. Nightie-night!" she smiled and returned back to her room, leaving the detective alone with his thoughts, again.
He didn't have any more dreams that night, or at the very least couldn't remember any. There was, however, a line he couldn't get out of his head.
"You noticed how the actual me is much less smug and annoying?"