"Okay..." Panther drawls, a frown on her face. "This is weird, right?"
Joker nods.
They've stepped through the door, and discovered a basketball court.
Several basketballs lay scattered across the blacktop, and the nets seem well-worn and threadbare. "Why is this inside?" Skull asks.
Rose steps forward and looks around. "This does seem out of place."
"We should keep moving," Mona warns. A hallway opens on the opposite side of the court. "We need to find our way down to the Treasure."
They begin to walk across the court, when Joker raises his hand and motions for them to press back up against the wall. "Look," he says, and gestures towards a security camera in the corner. It steadily swivels towards them, and Joker's wave becomes more frantic. The Thieves retreat, and jog the length of the wall until they're safely beneath the camera.
"It keeps going over and over the hallway," Mona whispers. "What should we do?"
Fox sets his bag down and unsheathes his sword. "It would appear that despite the décor, we are still in a fortress." He leaps up, swipes his sword, and the camera separates from the wall and clatters to the ground.
"What was that noise?" Comes a voice from deeper down the hall.
Joker curses and runs for the hall's entrance. The others follow.
A moment later, a Shadow, still dressed as an infantryman, saunters out of the hall, peering at the court.
Joker slides up to him and presses his gun up against the thing's helmet. It freezes and Joker is sure he can hear an actual gulp.
"Hi," he says, a smile on his face.
#
There's a sound from downstairs. Iwai stiffens.
Crouched, he approaches the edge of the balcony, careful to keep himself out of sight. He's got a good vantage point of the warehouse's floor from up here, but there's also few avenues of escape from the stairwell. He glances back at Sugimura, but the punk remains unconscious, his breathing steady.
He peeks over and lets his eyes adjust to the dim below. The light from outside casts long shadows over the floor, and they soon resolve into a lone figure, sliding through the warehouse, moving from cover to cover.
"Shit," he whispers.
The guy is dressed in a driver's uniform, but he's not moving like any driver Iwai's ever seen. That first noise must've been a fluke. This guy has had training. He moves in a wide, sweeping path, head swinging from side to side. He's near silent. He doesn't call out or whisper Sugimura's name, as far as Iwai can hear.
He knows something's wrong.
Iwai moves away from the edge and considers his options. He knew he might have to deal with the driver. It would've been nice to know said driver had some kind of training. Iwai guesses the SDF, and finds himself hoping he's right. If he's someone more dangerous, like an assassin or something, he'll be in real trouble. But they don't hire assassins to drive some shithead around. Then again, maybe this driver wasn't a driver at all.
He checks his supply of chloroform. He has enough to knock out another individual, but he doubts it'll be as easy as it was for Sugimura. Not if this guy is already on guard.
"Dammit," he whispers, once more. You're dead when I find you, Akira.
#
They go deeper and deeper.
Down the hall from the basketball court, was a series of batting cages.
Another level down, they had to sneak their way through a counting house filled with money.
On the third floor, Shadows seethed through a cocktail party filled with mannequins, smiles carved onto their faces.
Rose wanted to shut her eyes on the fourth. The Thieves skirted past door after open door. Inside each was a lavish bedroom, complete with barely clothed girls, moaning and writhing. Rose saw a few that looked like her. When they found a Safe Room just before the last stairwell, she stopped and told the others to give her a moment, and begged an energy drink from Fox to cover up her discomfort.
The Safe Room was that of a well decorated den, and reminded Rose of her own.
Panther slides up to her after a few moments.
"You okay?" She asks.
"Yes," Rose says, and nods. Then, "No."
Panther rests a hand on her shoulder. The boys are across the room, examining the remaining supplies.
"Kamoshida was the same," she says. "Well, kind of. Mostly. It was gross."
Rose turns the drink around in her hands. "Our marriage was set up years ago," she says. "And our fathers decided it would be a good idea to introduce us." She swallows. "I remember being so nervous, but also kind of excited. And I..." She trails off. "I don't know. How did he get like this?"
"You almost sound sorry for him," Panther says.
"That's the thing," Rose replies. "I hate how he thinks of me. I hate what he tried to do to me. But part of me does feel bad for him. Being like this, being so messed up inside? It's... it's sad."
"But he's a predator, Rose."
"I know that," Rose replies. "I really do. He deserves what's happening to him. He deserves to go to prison. But... I don't know. Maybe I'm not being clear. It's just... I don't know."
Panther looks over towards the others, but to Rose's eyes, she seems to be staring past them. "I got so mad when Kamoshida came into the gym and told everyone he was going to kill himself," she says. "All I could think was, 'what a coward.' He did all this horrible crap, and he wanted to just, like, exit stage left? It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to Shiho or Skull, or me, or anyone else." She sets her hands on the table, folded across one another. "I still hate him. I don't forgive him. At all. But I've thought about that moment a lot over these last few weeks."
"And?" Rose asks.
"And, I'm not sure. But maybe I get it. What you're saying, I mean. I keep thinking how awful he looked when he walked in. How he had to practically drag himself up to the stage. I hated him. But now? I think I almost pity him, now."
Rose reaches out and pats Panther's hands.
Panther shoots her a quick look. "Don't tell Skull, okay? I think if he got the chance, he'd beat the crap out of Kamoshida, still. I don't want him to think I've gone soft, or anything."
Rose smiles. "I don't think you've gone soft, Panther. I think you're very brave."
Panther's cheeks redden beneath her mask. "Right, well, yeah. Okay. Cool." She shoots up and cries, "We should probably get going."
#
Joker pokes his head around the corner. A great steel vault door sits ahead of them, bookended on each side by a card reader and keypad.
He sees no guards. No cameras.
He turns his head and nods to Skull, who crouches across the hallway's entrance. His friend beams and flashes him a thumbs up.
The two dash out, and run up to the keypads. They stop and Skull whips a red keycard from his pocket. Joker withdraws a blue one. They'd taken them off a few Shadows earlier. "Ready?" He asks.
"Ready," Skull replies.
"One, two, three," Joker calls, and they swipe their cards through the reader at the same time. A screen appears above each reader, and Joker quickly punches in the four digit code. From his peripherals, he can see Skull doing the same. They hit, 'Enter' at the same time, and a great mechanical groan reverbs down the hall. The vault door begins to spin and the two Thieves take a step away to allow it to open. The others join them and Joker witnesses more than one of them look relieved. All save Rose, actually, who grips her axe with knuckles Joker is sure are white beneath her gloves. He stares at the door intently, lips pressed together in a firm line.
"Let's make this quick," Panther says as the door swings open. "We're almost out of supplies."
Fox nods and pats his limp bag. "Yes, I'm afraid these last few floors have taken their toll."
Joker shakes his head. There's nothing for it now. Things hadn't gone as planned, but given that they had managed to reach the Treasure Room in one go, he was satisfied. So long as they could steal it, and exit quickly, they'd be fine. And if the car is still there, and things haven't gone haywire back in the real world. He steels himself as the door opens further. There wasn't time to think about that. They had no way of knowing what was going on outside, so the only thing they could do was press on.
In the center of the Treasure Room is a tall, marble pillar. Floating just off the top of the pillar, is a large metal ball.
Shadow Sugimura leans against the pillar. He's dressed in his military fatigues and holds a small knife in his hand. He stares at it, swinging it lazily through the air, a small smile on his face.
"Good afternoon," he says, and casts a short gaze their way. "Phantom Thieves."
"Aww shit," Skull groans.
"I knew it," Panther replies.
Sugimura pushes himself away from the pillar. "I figured you'd get here, sooner or later," he replies. He jerks his eyes upwards. "You caused quite the commotion up there."
Joker's eyes run the length of the room. When the door had opened, he'd only been looking for the Treasure. Now, he sees the whole place looks rather... odd. There are figurines shoved into the corner, things like soldiers and sports figures frozen atop one another. Oversized electronics like computer gaming systems and mobile phones litter the floor. Things that look like yen bills are crumbled all over. What the hell is this place?
Rose steps forward. "Sugimura," she says, hands still tight on her axe. "Rin. We've come for your Treasure. Please, hand it over. Then, we'll leave."
Shadow Sugimura blinks a few times, and his smile flickers. "I'm not giving you anything. You can't just come in here and take something that isn't yours." He spreads his hand in a lazy gesture. "This is all mine. Everything here." He ends the gesture with a finger extended towards Rose. "Including you, Haru."
Her back stiffens. "No, I'm not."
He chuckles. "Sure you are. And do you want to know why? Because you don't know how to be anything else." He takes a step forward. "You don't know how to be anything but what your daddy tells you to be."
"That's not true," Rose says. She begins to tremble.
"Yes, it is. Your daddy points you in a direction and you go towards it. But, of course, you have to go through your strong and independent phase, so I'll forgive these last few transgressions, but at the end of the day, you'll come right back to me, because that's where you belong. And you know it."
Skull steps up alongside Rose. "You're full of shit, asshat. She doesn't belong to anyone. She's with us now. We would've just taken your Treasure without a fuss. But now I think we should kick your ass before doing it."
Sugimura's grin grows. "Is that so? Are you with them now, Haru? Really?" He takes another step forward. "I don't care what you think, or what lies you're telling yourself. This Treasure is mine. You are mine. And you're not taking anything that belongs to me."
He drops forward, and shudders. His body grows exponentially with his top half forming that of a wolf, while his lower becomes the treads of a tank. He tilts his snout up and howls. "YOU ALL BELONG TO ME!"
The Phantom Thieves run forward. Rose remains still. Joker stops alongside her. "You're not going to listen to him, are you?" He asks.
Rose - Haru - looks at him. Beneath her mask, her eyes are wet, but she's not crying, not yet. "I- I don't-" There's an explosion as a great tidal wave of flame erupts this new version of Sugimura.
Joker wraps his arms around Rose's waist and leaps back, carrying them out of harm's way.
Joker doesn't lands alongside her. Rose blinks and stares at the top of the Treasure room, the worn wood lining of the ceiling. Her breath has been knocked from her, but a thought drifts into her mind. She thinks of the tanks, the weapons, the different floors and everything on them. She thinks of this room, of all the different things inside it.
It's like a Toy Chest, she thinks.
Rose sits up. Except it isn't Rose. It's Haru. Haru, because she's never thought of herself as Rose. Never thought of herself as a Phantom Thief. Maybe Sugimura knows me better than I'd like to think.
She remembers the first time she'd meet him. Their fathers had introduced them to one another. Sugimura had been some years older than her, sure, but with his hunched over shoulders, he'd looked almost her age. She remembers, as they stood across from each other in that room, that he could barely meet her eyes. He kept staring at the floor, face pale, hands shoved into his pockets.
Haru couldn't remember what she'd felt in that moment, but thinking back, she must've seen Rin Sugimura as nothing but a scared little boy.
She sits up and stares at him, a giant monster howling and snarling and swiping at the Phantom Thieves as they dart around him.
"Ak-" She starts, then catches herself. "Joker." She takes ahold of his jacket's sleeve. He turns to regard her, still looking dazed from the crash to the ground. He blinks and focuses. "I'll distract him. You grab the Treasure."
They both look out at the floating ball above the pillar.
"I don't think it'll be that easy," he says. "Looks like it's protected."
Haru stands and slaps her pantaloons a few times, clearing away the dust. "You're Phantom Thieves, aren't you? Break through it."
She watches as Mona summons Zorro, who sends a gust of wind slamming into Sugimura's side. It does nothing.
"Rose, I-" Joker starts.
"No," Haru says. "That's not my name."
She steps away from Joker then, and pulls her grenade launcher from across her back. I've been coasting along for too long, she thinks. She aims at the side of Sugimura's head. Time to take responsibility.
She pulls the trigger.
Womp.
A mini-detonation pulses from the side of Sugimura's head, and he roars in pain and swings his head around to face Haru. He snarls and begins to charge across the floor at her, the treads on his tank spinning.
Haru takes up her axe and runs.
"Get back here, Haru," Sugimura screams. "GET BACK HERE!"
She jumps into the air, landing atop one of the discarded electronic devices. Sugimura comes to a stop near her and swings out a claw. Haru leaps to the side and it misses. He comes at her again, and she throws her axe up into the fleshy side of his hand, then pushes off it to get her axe clear.
Sugimura growls and laps at his wound. "You bitch!" He shouts at her.
Haru responds by firing another grenade into his face. The resulting explosion pushes her further back.
Behind Sugimura, she sees the Phantom Thieves scaling the pillar, aiming for the great metal ball.
Sugimura rears himself up, glaring balefully up at her from one eye. The other is shut and raw-red from the explosion.
"You can stop now," Haru tells him.
Sugimura lurches towards her, mouth agape. She jumps out of the way as his teeth close around the air.
"Sugimura, you don't have to do this."
"Stop fucking talking and do what you're told," he screams. He inhales and Haru bolts. A gout of flame shoots from his maw and Haru jumps down from the gaming systems and heads for the other corner.
She feels the heat lick her back, but keeps going, telling herself not to look back.
Soon, she hears the treads of his lower half roll against the ground. Come on, she thinks, to the Thieves. Come on.
She spins once the heat dies down and charges Sugimura instead. His wolf grin smirks, but then she aims, not for his head, but for his midsection, landing on top of the treads and slamming the edge of her axe into his stomach. He howls and doubles forward.
Haru makes to move, but feels an intense pressure hit her side. She gasps as the air leaves her lungs and she slams down onto the ground. Sugimura has slapped her with his overlarge hands. He rotates until he's looking down at her, one hand in the air, the other over his wound. He whips his hand down just as Haru screams out, "Milady!"
Her mask disappears in a puff of blue flame, and her Persona materializes above her. Sugimura's hand stops in midair, held aloft by Milady's fan.
"Sugimura," Haru says, still prone. "You don't have to do this anymore. You don't have to be this."
Sugimura tries to press down, but Milady holds firm. "You don't know anything," he screams down at her. "You don't know how to do anything other than what your father tells you!"
"Then, I guess we're the same," Haru says. She sees something cross his eye. "Because I don't think you know how to be anything else either."
"Shut up!" Sugimura screams.
Looks like I hit a nerve. "That's what I'm saying, Sugimura. You don't have to be what your family wants you to be."
"It's not the same," Sugimura screams. "It's never been the same. Not for me!"
It's not a toy chest, even if that's his cognition. Just like it's not a fortress, not really. The toys up above. The basketball court. The money discarded like toys. There's no consistency, nothing coherent, no solid theme throughout. Almost like the whole place was constructed in confusion. Because he is. He's confused.
An awful and loud crack echoes through the room, and Haru winces from the sound.
Sugimura screams and turns his head towards the source. The metal ball has broken apart, and a shining light takes its place. The other Thieves hide their eyes.
"No," Sugimura screams. "No, no, no, no!" He begins to vibrate, shudder and with a final scream, his Shadow form bursts apart.
Haru rolls clear as the black goo drops to the ground.
"You okay?"
She turns to find Mona and Joker jogging up to her. The others remain behind near the Treasure, as the light begins to fade.
"How'd you get break through?" She asks.
"We, uh, kind of just kept hitting it until it broke open," Mona replies, staring at the ground. "Not our grandest moment."
"No, but it worked," Joker replies, a smirk on his face. "Once that light goes out, we'll-"
"Uh, guys?" Comes Panther's shout. "I don't think this is the Treasure."
They turn and look. The light has resolved into a gigantic golden ball, revolving where the metal one once sat.
"Seriously?" Mona asks. "All that for another-"
A scream rips through the Treasure Room. The others turn as the black goo shifts together once more, and shoots up from the floor, growing larger and larger.
"Oh, dear," Haru says.
"It's never easy," Joker says with a sigh.
The black coalesces into a humanoid shape.
Skull runs up to their sides, "Guys might wanna get back, yeah?"
The slime peels away, revealing a gargantuan golden, smooth, featureless humanoid figure. It takes a single step towards them, and the room reverberates.
"Heh," Skull says. "Golden Boy." He looks at Haru. "Get it?"
"Seriously?" Mona asks.
The giant figure of Sugimura takes another devastating step towards them, and the four Thieves retreat back towards the pillar.
Joker takes his pistol from his belt and fires a few rounds into the thing's chest. Haru can hear the bullets ricochet off.
Haru looks up at the golden ball. "We need to keep trying to get inside," she says. "We need to break into that one now."
"How many more layers are there?" Mona asks.
"I've no idea," Haru says. "But I don't think we'll be able to stop him unless we break inside." She spins around and fires off a grenade. It strikes Sugimura in the upper arm, and he twitches, but continues to pursue. "We'll have to keep distracting him."
Panther leaps down from the pillar and cries, "Carmen!" Her Persona appears and a great pillar of fire envelopes the Shadow. Sugimura shoulders his way out of the flames a moment later, only to be met by a thunderbolt from Captain Kidd.
"Keep going," Skull shouts to Fox, who still stands atop the pillar. "Break that damn thing open!"
Haru summons Milady, who spits machinegun fire into the thing. It staggers as the bullets pummel into it, but it only appears irritated, not obstructed.
"Come on," Haru whispers. She can feel it. "We're so close."
#
Iwai hides in the shadow of the door. He's gone down another flight of steps. He lost track of the driver, or whoever he is, from up on the balcony. If he needs to confront him, he wants to keep it as far from Sugimura as reasonably possible.
But he doesn't hear anything. Nothing at all.
Where the hell did you go? He starts to inch his way out of the stairwell.
A knife slashes out towards him.
Iwai has just enough time to jump back and avoid a cut. He trips on the bottom step and falls, the edges of the steps jabbing painfully into his back. He ignores it and shoves himself up as the driver whips around the edge of the door, knife held in front of him. He slashes, and Iwai backs up. Again, and another step. The driver continues his pursuit, careful not to sacrifice his footing as he pushes Iwai back up the steps to the third floor. All Iwai can do is keep his arms up, keep himself guarded as he retreats.
"Hold it," Iwai shouts at one point, but the driver doesn't reply.
Finally, Iwai has no choice but to fall back to the third floor landing, and the driver follows him.
The driver's eyes flicker off him, for only a moment, and take in Sugimura's body.
"Is he dead?" He asks.
Iwai backs up. "No."
"What'd you do to him?"
"Chloroform," Iwai answers. If he keeps him talking, maybe the man will drop his guard, but he doubts it.
"This blackmail?"
"Yeah," Iwai replies.
"It's not going too well, is it?"
Iwai shakes his head. "Not anymore."
The driver runs his eyes over Iwai's body. "You yakuza?"
Iwai doesn't reply.
"Right. All I want is the boy. Back off, let me take him out of here, and there won't be any problems."
Iwai doesn't believe that for one second. "This kid is a real piece of-"
The driver rushes forward and Iwai has just enough time to throw up his hands to guard his vitals. The driver slashes out and Iwai feels a red stab of pain across his left bicep. He shouts, but before the blade can do any more damage, he throws his hand in a palm strike. It connects with the driver's face, but misses the chin, which is what he'd been aiming at. The driver replies with a quick kick to Iwai's solar plexus, and as the air goes out of him, Iwai falls back a few paces, trips over Sugimura's body and goes sprawling.
Fuck! Get up! Get up! Get up! His body doesn't respond, save to lift his head.
The driver crouches down next to Sugimura's body, and still holding out the knife, hefts Sugimura up almost effortlessly into a fireman's carry across his shoulders.
Iwai brings his hand up to touch his wound. It comes away bloody. He looks back into the face of the driver. He missed the chin, but must've gotten close to the nose, because a thin trail of something dark leaks from one nostril on the man's face.
"Want some advice?" The driver asks, and without waiting for a response, says, "Find a new line of work."
Then he backs into the stairwell and Iwai hears his feet taptaptaptap down the steel steps.
"No shit," Iwai groans and rolls himself onto his side. He winces in pain. His shoulder throbs. "Shit." A closer inspection shows the blade did more damage than he'd anticipated.
I need to get this looked at, right now.
He looks over the balcony and sees the driver rushing across the floor, Sugimura's limp body bouncing on his back.
"Dammit," Iwai whispers. So much for that plan. Where the hell was Akira? He hadn't thought this would take that long. Something must've gone wrong.
He barks out a laugh. Of course shit went wrong! Here he was in an abandoned warehouse, bleeding from a knife wound, his quarry getting away.
He shakes his head. Nothing I can do about that, he thinks. Even if he could catch up with them, he was in no shape to stop the man. He needed to get out of here, before that bastard called the cops. He needed to get his shoulder fixed. He frowns. He knows plenty of underground doctors from his time with the Dragons, but he also knows a visit to any of them will result in a million questions. He couldn't go to a regular hospital, either.
A face pops into his head, and Iwai groans.
No real choice. He pushes himself to his feet and shoves himself into the stairwell. "This day keeps getting better and better," he mutters.
#
Haru gulps air. Her lungs scream in protest. Her muscles burn. Sweat rolls down her face, but she looks up and forces herself to move. Sugimura's golden foot smashes into the floorboards. Haru lands in a heap to the side.
The Shadow's head turns her way, only for Captain Kidd to sail into its side. It falters from the impact and takes a few quick steps to steady itself.
Skull sprints up to her, huffing, and reaches out a hand. "You okay?" He manages.
"H-how-" Haru struggles out, and casts a glance towards the golden orb. She clasps his hand. "How much longer?"
"Hell if I know," Skull replies, hauling her to her feet.
Fox is hunched over in a corner, one knee on the ground, his sword thrust into the floor for balance.
Joker and Panther keep bombarding the golden ball with attack after attack, and Mona keeps tossing them energy drinks for them to chug and keep going.
There's no real pattern to what they're doing. No one's communicating. Someone attacks the golden ball, and someone else goes to try and stop Sugimura. There's little that can divert him. Despite the near constant barrage against his Treasure, the Shadow seems determined to catch up with Haru.
It straightens and continues its pursuit. Haru lifts her grenade launcher and pulls the trigger. A hollow tuff sound pops out. "Oh, no," she whispers.
"C'mon, Captain!" Skull shouts, and his Persona manifests once more to jolt the Shadow with a lightning bolt. It pauses for a split second, then continues.
"Crap," Skull yells. "Mona, we need some help over here!"
The cat gives a barely audible moan and starts to close the distance between them. Haru can hear Joker screaming at the ball as he stabs it with his knife.
"Come on, come on, come on!" He brings it down one final time, and a terrific CRACK bounces through the room.
Shadow Sugimura halts, then slowly turns his head. Then it sprints for the pillar.
Joker and Panther have just enough time to jump away before Sugimura crashes into the pillar, smashing it apart.
The golden ball - a great crack clear on its facade - remains in the air.
"Oh, come on," Skull moans.
We're almost through, Haru thinks. She steps forward.
Shadow Sugimura is lashing out with his limbs, a low bellow reverberating from somewhere deep inside its golden shell.
So close, she thinks.
Sugimura slams a fist down and splinters the floor by Joker. He goes flying into the air and crashes down by Fox. Panther spins and is about to attack with her whip, but Sugimura's foot catches her in her side, and with a sickening crack, she goes spinning into the wall.
"Ann!" Skull screams, forgetting protocol. He sprints away.
Mona too, hustles to her side, careful to avoid Sugimura, who seems intent on him now.
There's no one else. Haru can see where this is going. Sugimura will corner Skull, Panther and Mona, and crush them. Then he'll turn to an exhausted Fox and wounded Joker.
She's the only one who can do something.
I have to do it, she thinks, turning her eyes back to the orb. She thinks of that young man from all those years ago, too scared to meet her eyes.
She forces herself to stand straight. She sucks in one final, fist of air, and screams, "M'LADY!"
Her mask explodes off her face, and her Persona materializes in front of her. There's no need to command. No need to direct. Milady is Haru, after all, and she knows what she needs to do.
The Persona lifts its hand into the air and a great red bolt materializes above, whirls out, and crashes into the side of the orb.
CRACK.
The golden ball splits down the middle.
Shadow Sugimura halts, and begins to vibrate. It brings its hands to its head and the low growl increases to a shattering shriek.
Shadow Sugimura bursts into a mess of black once more, and Haru collapses to the ground.
She doesn't lose consciousness, but she is aware of a figure getting closer to her. She turns her head and sees Joker approaching her, a slight limp on his left leg.
"Panther?" Haru asks.
"She's fine," Joker says, and nods towards the group. Haru looks, and sees the girl is sitting up, an uncomfortable look on her face, surrounded by Skull and Mona. When she sees Haru looking, she lifts a hand.
"And that's not all," Joker continues, and points. "Take a look."
In the center of the room, where the golden orb had been, is a small... well, something, that lowers itself to the floor.
"Is that-?" Haru starts.
"The Treasure," Joker replies, and offers her a hand.
She takes it and throws an arm around his shoulder when he offers it. They stagger towards it.
Between the two halves of the golden orb, lies a small chain. Haru peers closer. "I think that's a watch chain," she says.
Joker scoffs. "I hope it's worth something."
"Don't..." Comes a voice.
They both turn. From the pile of black gunk rises a small figure.
He steps forward and the black sloughs off him.
"The hell?" Joker asks. "It's a kid."
Haru watches as Sugimura takes a tentative step towards them. He is Sugimura, but not the one she knows. This one is smaller by a few inches. His clothes hang loose on him like they barely fit, and his hair is a bit disheveled. He looks, she thinks, like a more unkempt version of the Sugimura she first met so many years ago.
She hears a soft huffing noise, and glances to the side to see a tired Fox make his way up to them. "Is there to be another fight?" He asks. "Because I sincerely hope there is not."
"I don't think so," Haru says, turning back to the small Sugimura. "I think..." She pauses, getting her thoughts together. "I think this is how he sees himself, I think this is how he really sees himself."
"You sure?" Joker asks. "Cause five minutes ago he was a giant wolf-tank."
"And a very large golden man," Fox says.
Haru shakes her head. "No," she says. "Those. The general. That's what he wanted people to see. It's what he wanted people to think. You saw those tanks upstairs. The basketball court. The dolls. Even this room. They're toys. I thought maybe he saw people and objects as playthings, but I don't think so anymore. I think he sees himself as a child."
"No!" Sugimura shouts, stamping his foot. "I'm not! I'm not! And you can't have that Treasure! It's mine. It's-"
"That's enough now," Haru says. Sugimura's mouth snaps shut. Haru takes her arm from around Joker's shoulder. "It's okay," she says, when he protests. "It's all going to be okay."
She walks towards Sugimura, who cowers from her. Haru can see the other Thieves behind him, penning him in. "You were scared all along, weren't you?" She asks.
"No," he counters. "I'm not scared of anything."
"Everyone's scared of something," Haru replies. "For a long time, I was scared of you."
Sugimura shakes his head. "You're supposed to be my wife! You're supposed to do what I say!"
"I'm sorry," she says.
He blinks. "Huh?"
"I'm sorry this happened to you," she continues. She comes to a stop next to him. "I don't know what happened, exactly. I don't know if it was your father or something else, but I guess you never had people to show you otherwise." She thinks of Makoto, and smiles. "You never had any friends, did you?"
Sugimura glares up at her, defiant. "No one has friends. There's only people that you can use or will try and use you. You don't need friends if you've got wealth, if you've got-"
He stops when Haru pulls him into a hug. His hands hang limp at his sides.
"It's okay," Haru says. "It's okay. You don't have to be this anymore."
Sugimura, his head pressed against her chest, says, "You're wrong. People only respect those who take what they want. They don't-"
"It's okay, Rin," Haru continues. She lifts a hand and rests it on the back of his head. "It's okay. You don't have to do this anymore."
"People don't... I don't... I-" And then Sugimura chokes out a sob. And another, and another. And then he wraps his hands around Haru. Tears shunt from his eyes. Haru holds him close.
"I don't know how," he chokes, "to stop."
Haru steps away from him, both hands on his shoulders. Tears leak out from the golden eyes that stare up at her, desperate. "You have to make a choice, Rin. You have to choose to be better." She nods towards the Treasure. "We've helped. We'll take away your twisted desires, but you have to make the choice to change." She runs a hand over to his chin, cups it, and lifts it up. "I want you to go back now. To the real world. You're going to break off your engagement with me. And I want you to start making amends. But," she says, and her voice grows firm. "Not to me. I don't want to see you again. Or hear from you again. Do you understand?"
He nods, and sniffs. "I'm sorry, Haru. I wanted you to love me."
"I know, Rin," she says. Her mouth opens, and the words, 'I forgive you,' hover on her tongue. But then she says, "Time to go."
Something shifts in his face, then. The twisted features slacken, and Haru could swear it's a look of peace. Then, Sugimura grows bright and begins to vanish.
Haru stares at the space he once occupied.
She hears Joker walk up to her. "You okay?" He asks.
"I think so," Haru says.
He holds out the chain to her. "You should have this."
Haru looks at it. "I don't think I want it."
The Palace begins to rumble. She looks to Joker. "Um, what's that?"
He grins. "Pretty sure we mentioned this part, yeah? We win and then the whole place collapses."
"Oh," Haru says, and forces herself to run. "Great."
#
Fumihiro shoves Sugimura into the backseat of the car, not bothering to put his seatbelt on. This thing is built like a tank, he thinks. He'll be fine. It wasn't as if the kid ever bothered with a seatbelt anyway.
Fumihiko shakes his head and heads for the driver's seat. What he needed to do was get Sugimura back home, where it was safe. That was his job.
He had to get Sugimura into the car, and he had done that.
Fumihiro gets into the car, and puts the keys in the ignition. Sugimura is in the car.
He stops.
His grip tightens around the key. His vision begins to go hazy.
Sugimura is in the car.
A pounding echoes through his skull. It feels like his brain is beginning to boil. He opens his mouth to scream, but no sound comes out save for a tortured groan. His hands turn the key in the ignition.
WhrrWhrrWhrr-bip, goes the engine. It doesn't start.
He tries again.
WhrrWhrrWhrr-bip, again.
He got Sugimura in the car! That was what he was supposed to do. But he had to do something else, and he needed the car to start!
He tries again.
WhrrWhrrWhrr-bip-
He groans again, as something leaks from his eyes.
He tries again.
WhrrWhrrWhrr-chugchugchug.
The car rumbles to life.
His hand puts the car in drive, then it moves to the wheel to join his other. He presses down on the pedal. He has a job to do.
The car shudders once as it begins to move, and then crawls out of the warehouse's cracked parking lot, slowly picking up speed as it gets on the road.
#
The vibration stirs him awake. Sugimura groans and lifts a hand to his face. His memories are a haze of disjointed images. He slides his eyes open and sees the interior of his car. All at once, things come crashing back into place. The texts. The warehouse. The hand over his face and the wet rag. He sits up.
"The hell?" He asks.
How did he get here?
He shakes his head to clear out the fog. He'd been heading to that warehouse, because he was going to pay off the person who had Haru, and-
"Haru," Sugimura whispers.
He lowers his face into his hands.
What have I done? He wonders. Why did I do those things?
He remembers the phone on the chair, and the message it contained. "The Phantom Thieves," he says.
Sugimura looks out the window, and frowns. There's very little light left outside, so it must be the early evening. The outside surface appears to be a blank surface extending in a singular direction. Where are we? What's going on?
And come to think of it, what was the vibration he feels bounced along through the car? Sugimura slides closer to the window, and his eyes widen.
That great blank surface is Tokyo Bay. The vibration is the wheels of the car, bouncing against the dock that extends out into it. He presses his face against the glass. They were running out of space.
Sugimura scrambles to the driver's window, and raps his knuckles against the glass. "Fumihiro," he screams. "What're you doing?"
The driver stares ahead, hands tight on the wheel.
"Fumihiro, stop! Stop the damn car," Sugimura screams.
His driver doesn't reply.
"Come on," Sugimura shouts. "Please, st-" He catches a reflection of Fumihiro's face in the mirror. His eyes are bone white shells. They seep black liquid. A thin trail of the stuff leaks from his nose and slides over his lips into his mouth. He looks dead, but Sugimura can see his face moving as it draws breath.
"What the hell?" Sugimura asks.
Then the car drives off the dock, and plunges into the water. Sugimura slams forward and cracks his head against the driver's window. Then, there's nothing else.
##
A/N: Meant to post this yesterday, but I was busy. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Stay tuned, because the day isn't done!