Author's note:
As the title of the chapter indicates, it'll will contain some non-English lines. They shouldn't make it incomprehensible, but if you're curious about the meaning and can't be bothered to run to Google Translate with each line - especially since copying and pasting is disabled unless you dig through the page source - the ArchiveOfOurOwn version comes with translations, and there's a translation convention version of the chapter on my deviantArt (bvader95).
The Thieves had just entered Mementos. "Alright, Mona," Joker turned to the cat, "can you sense the target of the day?"
He focused for a moment. "Let me just… yep. Loud and clear, as usual."
"Okay, forward team is me-"
"Before we begin," Akechi spoke up, "I need to… check something."
"What?"
"If I… well, if I still have Loki available. I had a dream… I was on a subway station and-and there was a panel on a wall and a button to delete Loki, and I pressed it, and then the dream ended." Pause. "Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?"
"Nah, not at all. I've had weird Metaverse-related dreams before."
"So, can I check if he's still available? You know, just... switch for a moment and then back to this," he pointed at his beaked mask.
Joker turned to the group. "Does anyone have something against that?"
"'Having nothing against that' isn't enough," the detective butted in. "I want explicit permission from everyone."
"He said, staring at two people in particular." Do you want to take over narrating if you're so good at it, Futaba? "I'm fine, and you?"
"Ditto," Haru said.
"Hey, what's the worst thing that could happen?" Ryuji asked.
Akechi sighed. "I have no clue, and that's what terrifies me."
"We've subdued you once, we can do it again."
The detective looked at Yusuke. "That sentence had no right to sound as reassuring as it did." He closed his eyes. "Alright, let's rip off the band-aid…"
He focused, the same way he had done a dozen or so times before, and braced himself for pain. After a moment or so of nothing happening, he opened one eye, unsure. "I cannot-"
Suddenly, the Black Mask costume wrapped around him like a snare. Taken aback, he lost his balance and tumbled backwards. A thin figure in dazzle camouflage materialized in front of him, as the rest of the Thieves watched, unsure of how to react.
It appears my days of chaos and destruction are over, he said, in a voice not unlike the detective's. Thou art I no more. Go forth with your resolve, define anew what you stand for.
He disappeared into thin air, and Akechi's costume reverted to the toy soldier uniform.
"Of course he didn't say anything useful," Joker helped the detective get up.
"What did just happen?" The detective turned to the cat. "You're the guy that knows how this all works, what the heck was that?"
Morgana looked aside, "Yeah, I have no clue how Wild Cards' Personas operate, sorry."
"I had something like that happen to me" the brunette butted in. "My original Persona, Arson-"
"Arsène?"
"Yes, thanks, Noir. He appeared when I was escaping Sae's Palace and said I'm in danger. Like, duh, if things go wrong I get suicided!" Akechi looked elsewhere. "No offense. Do you wanna be in the forward team today? I'm curious how you'll perform after everything that happened so far."
"If you can find two more people willing to cooperate with me, sure."
"Ooh, me!" Ryuji waved his hand.
"Allow me to volunteer as well," Yusuke stepped forward.
"Aren't you scared that I'll poison the field rations?" the detective snarked.
"Of course not, Joker is in charge of that. I merely wish to show I bear no ill will." the artist replied.
"Wow," the detective was taken aback. "I… appreciate that, I guess. I'm ready when you are."
The group marched downstairs and boarded the Morganacar. The next few minutes went on in complete silence before Joker spoke up: "Why is everyone so quiet again? C'mon, talk about what happened at school, make engine noises, anything!"
"I feel we need to talk about what just happened to Crow," Makoto said.
"VROOM! VROOOM!" went the detective.
"Why are you avoiding the topic?" Haru spoke up. "I mean, you have released a Persona that represented your irrational hatred. That's a good thing, isn't it?"
"Does that- does that prove anything though?" Akechi muttered. "I-I don't feel like a better person. And besides, Joker juggles his Personas all the time and it doesn't mean jack."
"I never thought about them as an 'another' me," the other Wild Card weighed in. "Just… me. A part of me that I want to put on display at the moment."
"What part of you is Mara supposed to represent then?" whoever you're shipping with Joker asked.
"I'll leave that to your imagination," the brunette smirked. The Morganacar rolled through a passage to a separate chunk of Mementos and parked in front of the confused Shadow in a dark-gray suit.
"Co do kurwy..." he said, as the team got off the car, which then turned offscreen into a vaguely cat-shaped thing.
"Welcome, mister!" Joker adjusted his mask, cocky. "How do you find our lovely country?"
"Fucking irritating," he spat. "The people are apathetic and the language is incomprehensible."
"You know," Ryuji spoke up, "if you don't like it, you can always go back to Russia or wherever."
Judging by the Shadow's expression, that hit a sore spot. "To Ru- I'm not fucking Russian! I'm from Poland!"
"What's the difference?"
A sabre materialized in the Shadow's hand. "Zapierdolę was jak psy!" He charged towards the forward team and took a wild swing at Joker. The brunette had no problem dodging the attack.
"Alright, gentlemen," the leader adjusted his gloves, "the usual procedure. Poke around for elemental weaknesses."
"Ziodyne!" Ryuji screamed. The attack connected and dealt damage, but didn't knock the Shadow down.
"Bufudyne!" Yusuke followed up, with a similar result.
Joker browsed through Personas trying to find something not covered by three other teammates. "Agidyne!" Again, dealt damage but didn't knock the enemy down.
"Kougaon!" That one was less effective than the other three, dealing scratch damage, to Akechi's annoyance.
"Gówniarze…" the Shadow growled. "I'll show you…" He pointed the sabre at them. "Tower of Babel!"
"Wait, co?" Joker raised an eyebrow. "Tego nie znałem."
"Joker, ich verstehe dich nicht," Akechi piped up. "Du sprichst eine andere Sprache."
"¡Chicos, no puedo entender a ninguno de los dos!" Ryuji reacted.
"Gentlemen, you appear to have lost the ability to speak Japanese." Yusuke raised an eyebrow - not that it was visible underneath the mask.
"Nie żebyśmy gadali po japońsku… a, nieważne." Joker took a deep breath. It was going to be one of those missions - not difficult, just with enough bullcrap to drag on a straightforward fight. "Czacha!" he pointed at Ryuji, then mimicked firing and cocking a two handed weapon.
"¡Simón!" The blonde produced a shotgun and fired a few shots, dealing unremarkable damage.
"Kita!" Joker went for a non-literal translation to get Yusuke's attention. He pulled out his knife and slashed the air a few times.
"On it." The artist charged at the Shadow with his katana out. While the attack - you guessed it - didn't hit a weak spot, it connected and the enemy started looking a bit worse for wear.
"Tak trzymać, chłopaki!" the brunette cheered on, hoping the team could guess the meaning from the tone, then switched to a Persona with a Wind attack. "Garudajn!" The attack, for a change, missed altogether. "Cholera jasna. Kruk!" he turned to Akechi and drew a pentagram in the air, then pointed at the enemy.
"Jawohl. Eigäon!" After two turns of trying the waters, the Thieves managed to hit a weak spot - unfortunately, since the Shadow had turned out to repel Curse attacks, the weak spot was Akechi's.
The Shadow chuckled, then pointed his sabre at the downed detective. "Debilitate!"
"Ach, hau ab," the detective spat, and then got slashed for massive damage.
"Niedobrze…" Joker muttered, dissatisfied.
"Can I weigh in?" Haru spoke up from the rear guard. "Can you understand me?" The leader nodded, and she continued, "Before we left the hideout, I had talked with Crow about a new Showtime attack…"
"Are you trying to overcompensate for what happened in the laundry room?"
"Probably."
"I… I don't think I…" Sigh, change of gears. "I like the idea, but I think we should trade places in it. You're using a grenade launcher, and I'm using a toy ray gun, you need to stay further away."
"But that means you might end up too close."
He grinned. "We've already established I'm good at dodging."
Some more awkward silence, as she looked aside. "I'm sorry for holding you at gunpoint."
He put a hand on her shoulder. "And I'm-I'm sorry for… for everything that led up to that." Pause. "Am I- am I allowed to put my hand there? Is-is that okay?"
Joker nodded vigorously to indicate he understood the plan, then turned to Ryuji, and mimicked hitting something with great force.
"¡Manos de Dios!" Ryuji shouted, and his Persona struck the Shadow.
The leader repeated the same gesture at Yusuke. "Brave Blade!" he commanded, and his Persona followed up.
"Diarachan!" Joker shouted, and the detective got up from the floor, fully healed. "Czarny, Kruk, scena jest wasza!"
Akechi looked at Haru, Haru looked at Akechi.
"Bereit?"
"I'm ready, if that's what you're asking."
Picture a grassy flatland.
In the middle of it, back to back, stood Akechi and Haru. He quietly lifted up his ray gun, and she mimicked the gesture with her grenade launcher. The two marched in opposite directions.
"One, two, three..."
"Eins, zwei, dre-" Akechi bumped into the Shadow. "Ausweichen Sie bitte." He gestured at him to move away. "Wir duellieren uns hier."
"Five, six, seven..."
The Shadow didn't budge. "Aus dem Weg!" the detective looked behind himself, worried.
"Ten!" Haru spun around and fired a barrage of grenades.
Akechi took a dive to the side. He landed on the ground and fired a charged shot, which connected at the same time the projectiles did, dealing an absurd amount of damage to the target.
The forward team watched the battered Shadow kneeling on the ground.
"Is that it?" Yusuke asked. "Are you willing to surrender now?"
The Shadow looked at him with defiance. "Coffee Time," he announced, then took a sip out of a mug that appeared in his hand, regenerating some health.
"Er- er hat- er hat sich geheilt!?" Akechi sputtered, irritated.
"Gritar enojado en alemán le queda bien a Cuervo, ¿no crees?" Ryuji remarked.
"Nie mam prawa tego zrozumieć, ale tak, pasuje do niego."
The detective pulled out his ray gun out of turn and started shooting the Shadow. Pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew… The guns in the Metaverse operated based on how Shadows perceived them, and it's kinda hard to estimate the ammo capacity of a sci-fi weapon. True, it's blatantly overpowered in game terms, but I'm already playing fast and loose with combat rules.
"Joker, what should we do now?" Yusuke asked.
"Proponuję gadanie o niczym tak długo jak on strzela," the leader replied. "Każemy mu przestać the moment the debuff wears off- Crow, enough! He's down!"
Akechi stopped shooting, but kept the gun pointed at the enemy. The Shadow stared him in the eyes. "Kończ waść, wstydu oszczędź."
"Japanese, if you please," Joker replied. "And get up."
"What's the point?" he said. "I ran off from my shithouse of a country years ago and keep missing it ever since." He lowered his head. "I know it sucks and whenever I read the news I get more reasons why it sucks, but I still miss it."
"That's not an excuse to be a prick to people, you know."
"You could try your luck elsewhere," Ann piped in. "Maybe closer to your homeland, so when you start missing it again, you could drop in for a weekend or something."
"Like moving to a different continent is easy," the Shadow spat.
"Nobody said it is," Joker countered. "And you can try something less intense. Maybe your embassy has job openings."
"Or maybe get some therapy."
"Just… do something about the things that bother you," the brunette added. "Don't be passive. Act."
A pause. "Fine," the Shadow finally said, then looked at the group. "I'll try."
He disappeared in a flash of white light, leaving behind his sabre. Joker picked it up to inspect it. The blade was almost a meter long, a bit wider at the business end. The words PAN TADEUSZ were engraved on the side. "Mona, I think that's your cut of tea," he smirked at his own bad pun, handing the weapon over to the cat. "Good work all around, everyone. Crow, could we speak for a moment."
"It's about attacking out of turn, isn't it?" He rolled his eyes. "I got a bit miffed, it won't happen again."
"That's the thing: It will happen again," Joker said. "And I'm not saying that 'cause you're worse than us or anything. I'm saying this 'cause this entire group's basically a buncha teens that got angry about injustice once and never looked back." He poked the detective in the chest with a finger. "You will get mad at something at some point down the line, and what's important is that you keep the anger controlled. Directed. Pointed at the bad guys. Got it?"
"I... guess?" Akechi replied. "I mean, I don't want to make any serious declarations that will end up meaningless when push comes to shove."
"At least try, okay?" He smiled. "Alright, people, do we go back up or do we stay and beat up some more Shadows?"
"Personally, I'm in favour of the latter option," the detective spoke up.
Makoto turned to him. "Permission to speak freely?"
"Granted."
"I expected more… well, more bloodlust from you. Snarling, screams, the whole package."
"Eh." he shrugged. "Combat still brings me joy, but I feel like all the," he ahemed, "outward displays of it are pointless, not to mention irritating to the team and detrimental to my throat."
The president chuckled. "You, being concerned about other people? That's a new one."
"It's pure pragmatism on my part."
"From a guy that attacked eight people and expected to win?" Morgana piped in. "Still a new one."
The party decided to stay in the Mementos and practice some more, and ended up leaving somewhere in the evening. Nothing worth mentioning happened and everyone was content.
As they emerged in the real world, Joker and Ryuji's phones buzzed.
"Mishima," the blonde read from the screen. "21 missed calls."
"Thirty-six on my end." The brunette's phone played a ringtone - call number 37 from the classmate. He picked it up. "Hey, what's up?"
The group couldn't hear what the person on the other side was saying, but the reactions of the brunette were worrying. "What?" He raised an eyebrow. "This is a bad joke, innit?" His eyes widened slightly, as he processed the info. "What do you mean: there's a video?" Another pause, during which his usual easy-going demeanor evaporated in record time: "No, no, no no no. Fuck!" he raised his voice, not paying attention to the crowd.
"What's going on?" Ann asked.
"I want you in Leblanc five minutes ago," he commanded, in a much more authoritative tone than usual, then hung up and looked at Futaba with a pained expression.
"In Leblanc?" the geek reacted, worried. "What happened? Is Sojiro in danger?"
In response, he pulled her in closer and embraced her tightly.
Z tego miejsca chciałem pozdrowić tego jednego Polaka który dodał tę obelgę dla kanonu do ulubionych :P
Polish and Mexican Spanish lines were written by native speakers (me and a friend of mine) but German was heavily supplemented with Google and corrections are welcome.