Date: 4/23 – Saturday
Location: Shujin Academy, Aoyama-Itchome
Standing near the bread stall on the ground floor with Blake and Sun, I could help but laugh internally as we watched most of the student body clamber around the two notice boards near the doors that lead to the courtyard. They were looking at crudely done Calling Cards that Sun spent the better part of yesterday (even though we were in school) making, they had the black and red motif of the sky from the Palace with a poorly drawn flaming skull wearing a top hat.
"I'm surprised that you didn't get caught, Sun." Zwei said, poking his head out of my backpack.
"Hey," He yawns. "I can be stealthy."
"He's done well." I said turning to Sun and smiling at him. "You don't happen to have any left, do you?"
He cocks an eyebrow at me before pulling a couple of the Cards out from his inside blazer pocket and handing me one. "Here, I don't know why you want one."
"I want to keep one for prosperity sake."
"Sir Adam Taurus, the utter bastard of lust. We know how shitty you are, and that you put your twisted desires on students that can't fight back. That's why we have decided to steal away those desires and make you confess your sins. This will be done today, so we hope you will be ready. From, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts." I read aloud so Blake could here.
"Wow, I know what you wanted to say, Sun, but it sounded like an idiot trying to be an adult." Blake said whilst looking over my shoulder.
"Plus, the logo's a litt-" Zwei started but I cut him off.
"You did your best seeing as you did this within an afternoon." I placed the Card into the inside pocket of my blazer.
It didn't take long for the man in question to come a-knocking. "Who's responsible for this?" His voice was loud as he pushed his way to the notice boards.
"Look at that, a predictable reaction for someone who knows what we mean by distorted desires." The Corgi said after moving around in my backpack so that he could continue to look.
"Did you do this? Or was it you?" Taurus said grabbing a couple of students by the shoulders and forcing them to look at him. I watch a bunch of students turn tail and run while the rest stayed to see what happen.
"We should probably get to class before he tries to interrogate us." I said as I notice gaze turn to us with fire in his eyes.
"Good point, Ruby, let's crush him after school." Sun said grasping his clenched fist.
Date: 4/23 – Saturday
Location: Central Tower of Taurus' Palace
As my vision cleared, the Safe Room was bathed in that same red light as before and as I moved the small distance over to the table, I pulled the small box that had the earpieces in and set it down. Turning around, I was greeted by the three them looking at me funny.
"What you got their bro!?" Skull asked as they walked over.
"These are earpieces, I picked them up yesterday from Untouchable after I had a brief encounter with Taurus." I said opening the box up and pulling the foam casing out and showing them.
"YOU HAD A RUN-IN WITH TAURUS!?" "What did that bastard want?" "Why didn't you tell me about it when you got back?" They said at the same time, all of them with a disapproved look.
"Yes, I did. He wanted me to stop doing this and I didn't tell you because I didn't think it was that big of a deal seeing as Weiss got me out of there." I leant against the table. "Oh, here's an interesting fact about Taurus that I don't think a lot of people know about him. He has such a small dick."
Panther and Skull starts to laugh as Zee still had a disapproving look before what I said dawns on them. It was Panther who spoke up first, concern was evident in her speech. "Wait, how would you know that?"
"He… got uncomfortably close to me before Weiss saved me." I said meekly. And as silence fell across us, I kinda off wished that I didn't bring the subject up. "Anyway," I said with what I hoped was with my normal cheer. "Shall we get going?"
I watch them nod before grabbing one of the earpieces and putting them on. It was clear that they weren't happy about what happened, and I couldn't blame them, but I was hoping that with what we had planned this afternoon, they would forget about it. We did have trouble securing Zees, but in the end, we had to tie it around some of the hair in his ear. It wasn't the best solution and it might have gone against some animal rights, but it had to do for the time being.
Even though the Castle was on high alert, no Knights were patrolling this area. 'It seems that the "Good" King didn't know that we could do this.'
Stacking up against the Throne Room doors, with Skull and Panther behind me and Zee standing on my head as we both peeked inside. The room was empty apart from his Throne, which started to give me an eerie feel to it.
I told everyone to be on alert as we made our way through the room, but oddly nothing happened and before we knew it, we were standing in the Treasure Room, with a big ass Crown floating where that blob was the day before. The crown looked a lot like the Crown Jewels from England, but a lot gaudier.
"So… that's his Treasure then?" Skull said as we were looking up at it.
"It would appear so." I said scratching my chin. 'How the hell are we meant to get to it and get that out of here?'
"Why is it crown?" Panther voiced my other concern.
"People's desires can form as anything and a Crown fits this place and the owner perfectly." Zee said with glee before leaping up and latching onto the crown.
"What is his problem dude?" Skull asks and I shrug in response.
After coaxing Zee to act normal for a bit, we came up with a plan to get the thing down, it mostly consisted of me and Skull jumping up onto it and weighing down till it fell out of whatever it was that was holding it up there.
On paper, it was a sound idea, in practice, it was terrible, considering that when the Crown fell, it fell hard and sent us flying off it and into the piles of gold. Well, Skull landed in the gold, I was unlucky enough to hit one of the barrels.
"To think it'd go so well… and I've even found three Persona users in the process." Zee said whilst Panther, Skull and I were holding the Crown and he was standing on some of the gold. "My judgment was correct. I made the right choice in making a deal with you!"
I felt my back heat up and some pain at the mention of our deal, I was glad that Ozpin gave the ability to withstand most of the pain. It was still not enough to the point that I almost let go of the Crown, which didn't go unnoticed by Panther, Skull and Zee.
"Everything okay there, bro?" I heard Skull say before I felt Zee tap my leg with a worried look.
I reach down after making sure that I had a hold on the Crown before patting Zee on the head. "I'm fine now guys, thanks. Let's get this thing out of here."
'Magician Rank 2 eh… so what does that give me then?'
The next thing to do was to get the Crown out of here and apart from rolling it, which we all agreed that it would be more of a pain to do, so the only other way was to carry it out. With Skull being the tallest male there, the brunt of the weight went to him while Panther and I took the rest and Zee was there for moral support, which apparently meant that he got to sit on my shoulders.
"Why am I carrying most of this stupid thing?" Skull said in-between some grunts as we made it out of the Treasure Room.
"You're expecting two girls and an anthropomorphic dog to take the brunt of this thing?" I said with effort. "The stairs are coming up lets' take it one at a time, okay."
"Sure, and can you two shut up and focus on carrying this stupid crown." Panther shouted form behind the Crown as silences fell over us as went down the stairs.
"Hey, can we have a break, this thing is starting to get heavy." Skull said as we made it down the stairs and were coming up to the Throne.
"No, we are about halfway, Skull; we can have a small rest when we get to the door while Joker makes sure the way is clear." Zee said with authority, even though he couldn't take his eyes of the Crown.
What we failed to notice as we passed the Throne, was Shadow Taurus sitting on in it, with his cognitive version of Blake sitting on his lap.
"I won't let scum like you lot to take this." He said and before any of us could respond; a flash of white light blinds us. And when the light fades, the larger than necessary Crown was no longer in our hands and was no longer as big and was sitting in Shadow Taurus' hands.
"This proves that I am the king of this castle -it is the core of this would!" Shadow Taurus said with a snarl as he stood, letting cognitive Blake fall to the floor with a small oomph before clambering up and draping herself over Shadow Taurus' left arm.
"So that's how that bastard properly sees me?" Panther asks in anger as she came and stood to my left.
"Sadly, yes." I said keeping and an eye on the perverted king as Zee hopped off me.
"Yo, pervert," Skull said moving to my right and next to Zee. "Were you waitin' to ambush us?"
"It made it easier to find you." He gave us a look of pure hatred. "I'll dispose of you myself. Right here, right now!"
"Hey, doesn't that sound like something we should be saying and not him?" I asked in a jokingly way to no one and it was Skull who responded.
"Yeah, that does sound like somethin' we should be saying and not that sexually-harassin' D-bag."
"What a selfish misunderstanding..." That slimy smirk returns to Shadow Taurus' face.
I notice Panther taking a step forward out of the corner of my eye before she spoke with pure malicious. "How is it a misunderstanding!? You were doing things that you kept in secret from others!"
I watch Shadow Taurus' raise the Crown up before tossing it up and catching it, the smirk never leaving his face. "It was the people around me who kept it secret. Adults who want to share in my accomplishments, students who have the drive to become winners… They willingly protected me so that we all may profit from it."
"This is starting to sound more like a cult than anything else." I said.
A look of rage appeared of the "kings" face. "There are too many imbeciles who don't understand that! Including naïve shits like you and that girl who tried to kill herself!"
"True, she's a total idiot… letting you manipulate her, trying to commit suicide… And I'm even more of a dumbass for not realizing that! But you do not get to speak about her like that!" I could feel the fire emanating from Panther. "They don't need your permission to live their lives!" Blue flames erupted from her face as Carmen appeared behind her.
I hold my hand out in front of her in the hope that she could hold off for a bit longer.
"Drop the attitude, you mediocre peasant! There's no wrong in using my gifts for my gain. I'm a cut above all other humans!" The "king" said with the same look.
"I've had enough with all this cult shit; you're just a goddamn demon who's obsessed with his own sick desires… now are we going to fight or what?" I shouted as I had lost all patience with perv.
The room falls silent for a moment before we hear Shadow Taurus begin to laugh and his red heart printed cape billows out, which pushes cognitive Blake to the side as a red aura appears around him. "That's right. I'm not like you…" He grabs cognitive Blake into him before holding the Crown up in front of him. "I am a demon who rules over this world!"
I notice the blue flames from Panther disperse as the red and black bile spill down the couple of steps as Shadow Taurus himself grew and morphed into what looked like a giant baby, but with four arms, ram horns with the Treasure (now to his size) sitting in between them, a ridiculously long, pale-blue tongue and he had a very pink skin tone, seriously, the thing looked like it had a really bad case of sunburn.
He held a large golden knife and fork in his lower hands and a large wine glass with red wine? And cognitive Blake in it in one and a baton in the other upper hands. And what was really disturbing was a chalice that was sitting in front of him which had feminine looking legs hanging over the edge. Standing on either side of him were four clay-like people, about up to the height of his ankle, wearing an iron mask that was attached by thick iron chains to a couple of golden volleyballs.
"Wh-what the hell?" Skull said as we started to move away from the creature.
"I don't know Skull, but I think it best if we find some cover, like now." I said turning around and making a run for one of the far pillars.
"I'm allowed to do whatever the hell I want!" Shadow Taurus said, his voice reverberated around the Throne Room.
It wasn't long before Panther joined me behind one of the pillars on the left as Skull and Zee posted up behind one the right. "That creature is too big to really move, so if we focus on long-range attacks, we should be fine." Zee said over the earpiece and I was glad that they were working; especially Zee's seeing as his was a DIY job.
"We can't just sit all day; we'll run out meds before then." Panther said and she was right, after the death march we did last week just to get here, we did burn through a large number of our supplies.
"She's right guys, we're going to have to try and get in close to the monster." I said peeking around the pillar to see Shadow Taurus waving that tongue around, saliva flinging off in all directions.
I look over to the other side and watch as Skull runs out from behind the pillar and across the room, firing a shot from his shotgun and shouting. "Lunge at him, Captain Kid."
I wince after he shouted that, and I am sure the others did as well as I watch the Captain plough straight into the monster. Hearing the crack of a whip and then a flash of black before I notice Panther doing the same as Skull, but without the shouting.
We continued this for what felt like hours and we were getting nowhere and after propping myself up against one of the pillars on the right, I watch as several volleyballs role past me before Panther landing on the ground, covered in saliva. 'Eww, gross.' After giving her a hand up and pulling her into cover, I look over to see how the other two were doing.
Zee looked like he was doing fine, probably due to his small stature; he was able to dodge most of Shadow Taurus' attacks, but it was clear that he wouldn't be able to keep it up. Skull looked like he had run half a dozen marathons, judging by the way he was panting, then yeah, he needed to slow down.
"There has to be an easier way of doing damage to the twat." I said as I watch the monster use his fork to grab a pair of legs from the chalice and eat them like it was chicken, before using its tongue to defend itself against the Lightning, Wind and gunshots.
"We… could try and… take the Crown off it head… it might make him lose focus." Skull said with heavy breath.
"That's not a bad idea Skull." Zee said bouncing off a pillar before a volleyball punches a hole through it.
"Right, Skull, you're on that duty, Panther, Zee, we'll provide cover and hope to god that that monster doesn't realize that you're gone." I said ducking back into cover after seeing volleyballs heading towards me.
"Fuck… I kinda wish I didn't say that." I heard Skull say before a shot rings out from his gun.
"Tough luck, Skull, now get to it." I heard Panther say over the volleyballs punching through where I was just standing. 'Note to self, don't get in the way of those.'
"Right, lets' go guys." I said diving out from the cover and letting Jack-o'-Lantern out to fire off a couple of fireballs, only to watch Shadow Taurus shrug them off.
I watch as Skull runs towards me and the pillar that I was behind before Panther takes the charge and runs straight towards Monster Taurus and taking several shots at him, some of which hit the chalice in front of him, the rest got deflected by the golden knife and fork. As she made it to said chalice, she jumped up onto it and used her momentum to launch herself at him and delivered a meaty looking kick to his chest and as she pulls away, the pale-blue tongue wrapped its self around her and hoist her up in front of him.
"Get your slimy tongue off of me." I heard the black cat say before I took off in her direction with my dagger in hand.
Dodging some of the volleyballs and with the swing of his knife, I was able to get up near the monster and I was able to grab a hold of the tongue as it swung by. "Just passing through?" I said to Panther shortly after making it to her.
She lets out a groan before replying. "Just shut up and get me out of here."
"Just sit tight and I'll try and get you out." I said making sure that my grip was tight before plunging my dagger into the tongue and hearing a pained noise come from large bull faunus baby.
"I can't do anything but that you ass." Panther shouted at me. "Plus, it's getting hard to breath."
"Zee, a little help!" I said plunging my dagger a couple more times, the tongue started to thrash about, which in turn, threw me off.
Landing into a backwards roll and onto my feet, I failed to hear Panther shout at me to move and I failed to notice the golden fork coming straight towards me. It was only when I felt a searing pain just below my breasts and when I looked down, I saw a couple of the prongs sticking through me.
"Ow…" I said coughing up some blood.
It was my first time for an out-of-body experience and I don't think I will ever get used to them, but as I watched my body slide down the fork a little bit due to Shadow Taurus lifting the large utensil up, before being flung of it like one would when one wanted to throw food.
Crouching down next to my body after it landed, I couldn't help but realize that I might have just died. "Huh… so this is what death feels like… kinda boring to be honest."
"What did you expect? A grand parade or a white light and a set of golden stairs… or in your case a hole to the underworld." My other self said taking a more visible appearance on the other side of my body.
"I don't know, I was expecting more than just watching my blood slowly come out of me." I said with no real emotion as I sat on the floor and crossed my legs.
"For someone who has just died, you're awfully okay with this." She said coming around and sitting next to me.
"You would think that, but after what you did last time and just getting hear, I came to terms with it that something like might happen." I said as I flopped backwards and spread my arms and legs and closed my eyes and waited for the end.
"So what? You're just accepting this then?"
"Well, I can't really do anything about it now can I?" I made a hand gesture at my body. "I can't use any of the items so… and hey, at least this time I can't blame you for killing us." I feel her lie-down and curl up next to me.
When a choking feeling came, I sat up as I started to cough and draw in a breath at the same time and as tears came to my eyes, I couldn't help but open them to see Panther looking over me with a worried look and tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
"You're the absolute worst, you know." She said with a waiver.
"For what it's worth, I'm glad that they brought you back."
'Same here.'
"How do you think I feel babe, that's the second time I've been stabbed now and it's not getting any more fun." I said wincing from the pain. "How come I'm back? I thought I had the last of our revival items?"
"I had a Revivadrin on me." I head Skull say as Panther wipes what tears that did breakthrough.
"Hey, if you're up and moving, Joker, how about some help." Zee said over the earpiece followed by an explosion of some kind.
"I'm almost in position as well." Skull said as Panther helped me to my feet. It was then that I realized that Panther had moved my body behind one of the pillars.
"Thanks, Skull, Panther; I owe you both a bowl of ramen sometime and I'm coming, Zee." I said feeling the stiffness in my torso release.
Running out from behind the pillar, I fired off a couple of shots before switching and using Pixie to send out some Lightning, whilst Panther sent out Carman to use Fire on the Monster. It was only when I see Zee leaning up against one of the pillars that I notice that half of him was coved in blood and that a large pool of blood was forming around the chalice of legs due to the tongue.
"Is there one less of you? Where is that other one? Where'd they go!?" Shadow Taurus said, his voice reverberating off the walls.
"Shit! I thought we did well to cover up his disappearance." I said staking up to a pillar on the left of the room.
"Don't worry guys, that bastard doesn't know where I am… also, I'm in position, so call it whenever, Joker." Skull said and upon looking up, I could see Skull standing near the edge of the chandelier that was right above Shadow Taurus.
Panther gives me a thumb up when she sides behind a pillar as Zee lands on a pillar in front of Panther. "I'm ready."
"Drop when ready, Skull!"
I watch him stand there for a few seconds before he drops like a sack of potatoes and somehow land on Shadow Taurus' head. "There you are you, little runt." Monster Taurus said as he starts to shake and thrash his head about, I notice that Skull had grabbed a hold of one of the ram-like horns.
'Hang in their bro.'
"Cleave him Arsene!" I said switching to Arsene, pulling my mask off and watching Arsene take off towards Shadow Taurus, dodging the golden utensils and the tongue to deliver a downwards kick to the chalice with enough force to crack it slightly.
'That's it!'
"Guys hit the Chalice; it should hopefully get his attention away Skull." I said before taking aim with my pistol and firing a bullet downrange.
"On it." "Affirmative, Joke." Panther and Zee said with Zee leaping out from behind the pillar and sending a hail of pellets towards it from his slingshot.
It was clear that that Chalice was not meant for direct confrontation as the crack from before started to open more with some of the liquid spilling out it and around it. By the time Panther had landed her attack on it, there was a sizable pool forming around the base and it was then that Shadow Taurus noticed.
"Hey! Leave that alone, you insignificant runts."
"Batter up!" We all heard and looked up to see Skull winding up to bat the Crown off.
There was the classic ping as his pipe collided with the Crown and sent it flying of Shadow Taurus' head. I watch it fly towards us and notice Skull leaping down and running towards us as well after shooting the Chalice. The look of horror on Monster Taurus' face as the Treasure shrank down to a more decent size to catch.
I jumped up and latched onto the hip of the pillar before springing off it towards it.
"Nooo! My… my precious…!" I heard the mutant Shadow Taurus' say as I managed to get my fingers around one the arches and flipped upside down and threw the Treasure back, only to hear Taurus shout. "Gold Medal Spike!" Before watching him summon and launch a volleyball about the size of his head at me.
"Get out the way, Joker" I heard my friends say as I landed with my back to them and the volleyball.
"Not again!" I said turning around and saw the volleyball mere meters away from me. I closed my eyes and waited.
"You really are terrible at this you know that." I heard the soft words from behind me.
Opening my eyes, I could see the volleyball hanging there and just like the first time they appeared, the blue tint was a refreshing sight. "Hello Miltia, you guys have picked the right moment to show up." I turned around to face her and the blue cell door. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"My Master wishes to bestow a gift to you and seeing as the situation that you are in; you would be wise to expect it."
"Well he couldn't have picked a better time, but why couldn't we have done this sooner?" I ask, looking around at my friends and seeing the dread on their face.
"Well… we had some complications setting it up." She said in a small voice and her head down.
"Wow, I would never have thought that you and Melanie would have trouble setting shit up, especially seeing as you guy can stop time." I couldn't help being sarcastic as I moved to stand in front of her and patted her hat.
She lets a harrumph out before batting my hand away with her clipboard. "St-stop that, Inmate or I will hurt you!" There was a clear blush when she looked up at me.
"Aww don't be like that, you look cute when you blu… OW, jeez, fine." I said rubbing the back of my head after being hit by her clipboard. "Will my friends be okay?"
"They will be, time will resume here when you are ready, Inmate."
"Thank you." I said as I stepped into my cell.
Location: The Velvet Room
"Welcome to the Velvet Room, Trickster." Ozpin said as I walked up to the bars of my cell door.
"Hello again, Ozpin… Melanie."
"I'm sure that Miltia has told you why I have summoned you here." His low toned voice still didn't sit right with my bones.
"Only that she and Melanie had some hassle getting whatever you've got planed set up." I reached out and patted Melanie on the head. "Don't worry, performance anxiety happens to everyone every now and then."
I retracted my hand and take a couple of steps back when she turned around and levels her baton at me at face height with a tint of red to her cheeks. "You're lucky that my Master wants you unharmed, Inmate."
There was a low, deep chuckle came from the centre of the room and Melanie turn around and stand to attention. "Come, Trickster, the wardens are here to help you."
"So why did you call me here for then?"
"I wish to introduce you to the other aid that we will be providing." He pushes his thin glasses up his nose.
"And that is?" I said moving back over to my cell door and leant against it.
"Due to your potential in wielding the power of the wild card, and with it, the ability to handle more than one Persona. That power holds infinite possibilities. We will assist you in nurturing that potential." He made little movement as he spoke apart from a slight twitch in his crossed leg.
"And how will you do that?"
"We will execute your Personas."
"…Wait, what?" I gripped the bars tighter as he Ozpin chuckles again.
"Do not be alarmed, Trickster. Personas are personalities that exist within you. Thus, you will only be discarding old personalities to have them be reborn as new ones."
"If what you said is true, then how come I haven't seen a change in myself?" I let my grip loosen and push away from the door. 'I've got a myriad of different types of Personas, so I should have seen a difference in myself by now.'
"Your own personality is strong, Inmate and thus it overrides them." Melanie said without looking at me.
"By discarding your old identity, you give way to a new one. Hence, we call that process "execution." The impish man said as I felt all eight of my "masks" pull away from me and hang in the air.
"Which Persona do you wish to fuse, Inmate?" Melanie asked, finally looking at me.
I knew which Persona was which just by looking at my floating mask. Something in me was telling me to pick Arsene and Pixie for this "fusion," but I didn't really want to give either of them up seeing as they were my first two Personas. 'Who the hell do I pick? I could pick Incubus as one…' Looking at the other Masks floating there, I couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty for having to get rid of two of them.
"Personas are the power of the heart… the stronger those bonds, the stronger your Personas will be." There was odd joy in Melanies' voice as she spoke and as I closed my eyes and pressed my head against the bars. "In other words, the effects of your bonds on execution are quite substantial."
'So, my Personas can share something with my friends? I'll need to look into this more.'
"When you fuse a Persona that shares its arcana with one your bonds, it will gain great power." I heard Miltia voice from behind me even though I knew she wasn't in the Velvet Room. "A word of warning, Inmate, you won't be able to create Personas' that are a higher power than you."
"And why not?"
"The resulting Persona would be too powerful for you to handle effectively." Was her deadpan response.
"Ah, so you're saying that I could die if it was too high a level?"
"There is a possibility that could happen." Melanie said with slight joy.
"Right… I think I'm ready to pick now." I said raising my hand through the bars and picking two of them with my eyes still closed.
Feeling the rest of my Personas return to me, I opened my eyes to see which ones I choose. Jack-o'-Lantern and Kelpie. Ozpin let out a chuckle before disappearing in a gulf of blue flames and two, blue guillotines appearing with a golden 'V' on the blade, both were facing me at an angle towards me.
"Wait! When you said you were going to execute them, I didn't think you were going to do something like this." I said with concern and all Melanie did was grin at me as walked to the guillotine on the left as my Persona Masks flew over to each guillotine.
As my masks formed into their Persona, Melanie threw some sort of blue sheet over them both and tied them up with chains before locking them in place within the guillotine.
"Hold on, Melanie, isn't there another way of doing this?" I said and upon getting no response from her, I grip the bars tight again and close my eyes again.
It wasn't long before I heard the thud of the blade dropping and I felt a something die within me. Cracking an eye open, both the sheet and the chains were gone and new a Persona was standing in the centre of the room.
The red, shin-high persona was hoping back forth from one leg to the other and every so often, his long-braided ponytail would swish out. How it could see me was beyond belief seeing as he had one hell of a fringe, he also had a wide smile that was showing off a set of fangs. I had no idea what the gold coin looking patens on his hands, arms and stomach were about, so I made a mental note to look into that at some point.
"I'm Obariyon; I've got your back as long as you have that mask, miss!" My new Persona said before turning into my Mask and flying to me to join the others.
In a flash of blue flames, the guillotines disappeared, and Ozpin and his desk reappear. "Ah, how impressive…"
'If you count closing your eyes and picking randomly "impressive…" then yeah… sure.'
"A stronger Persona has been born from the body and blood of the old. It shall be your new strength." Ozpin said with the piano playing softly in the background. "It's worth will be made clearer when you return to the field of battle."
"Gather Personas, and bring them here, Inmate, so we may execute them and continue to give birth to even stronger Personas." Melanie said appearing before my cell door. "So that your rehabilitation goes well, we have a variety of rituals to choose from, regarding executions that is. And depending on the effort you put in, our Master might consider further development of new rituals."
"Your heart is steadily gaining the strength of rebellion. It seems your rehabilitation is proceeding smoothly-a joyous fact, indeed." Ozpins eyes never left me till I felt my back start to heat up.
'Shit!' I let out a couple of pained noise and dropped to one knee, till the pain disappeared.
"It looks like you are getting accustomed to her pain, Inmate."
Standing, I let go of the bars and walk towards the exit. "Yeah… people are going to start calling me a masochist if they ever find out."
Location: Throne Room
As I stepped back into the Throne room, it was like I never left. The blue tint and the Volleyball were still there, a few feet away from me, my friends looking at me with panic, the Treasure on its way to Panther.
"Developing your powers as such will play an integral role in the stand against ruin." Miltia said as I came to a stop just in front of the door to the Velvet Room.
"Duly noted, Miltia." I said before closing my eyes and checking out Obariyon. Having the ability to somehow deal gun damage was not so bad, it would come in handy if I ever ran out of bullets and being able to slow a foe down was hopefully going to be helpful for whenever we run into a speedy git. But what I didn't understand was how he got the Agi skill. 'Did he inherit it from Jack-o'-Lantern?' Then I found something interesting about my new Persona.
"Wait… you naturally resist Physical damage?" I said in hope that he could hear me.
"You bet ya, miss." I heard him say inside my head.
"How convenient… I think it's time we showed off." I said opening my eyes and turning around to face Miltia, who had a small smile. "I think I'm ready, Miltia."
"Very well, Inmate, I wish you the best of luck."
Turning back around to face the volleyball, I felt the blue flames lick my face as I saw the blue tint start to fade.
Devil Trigger
Location: Throne Room
I stopped dead in my tracks as I watched the large Volleyball crash land where Joker was standing and as the clouds of dust rose up, I couldn't help but feel sadness and anger at losing my best friend.
"Yes, finally I've managed to kill one you little shits!" Shadow Taurus said before cackling like a witch.
"You bastard!" I yelled as I turned around with my shotgun in hand and fired every shot I had left in the clip.
Dropping my gun, I start to run at Taurus with my pipe in hand only to stop when I heard laughter in my ear.
"I can't believe that worked, nice one, Obariyon." Turning around again, I watch the cloud of dust explode into blue flames as Joker walked out, golden-eyed and her mask aflame with a little red creature on her shoulder.
"What! You're meant to be dead, why can't you stay that way." Taurus said and I wished that I saw his face before everything kick-off.
"You shouldn't celebrate when there are three others left to take down." She said walking down the aisle with an evil look. "Let's dance bitch!"
In a cloud of rose petals, she took off. "Guys, just throw everything you got at him, he can't block us all." She said over the earpiece before balls of flames appeared out of nowhere and were sent at Taurus.
"On it." "Let's go." Panther and Zee said using their Personas to attack at range, all the while Shadow Taurus was sending out volleyballs after volleyballs at Joker, all of which were missing or getting deflected by her or her new Persona.
It was strangely satisfying to watch Joker go to work so to speak. She was dancing and tumbling across the room and volleyballs as she got closer to Taurus as we continued to barrage him with what strength we had. And the same feeling as before rose up as Shadow Taurus spawned another one of his giant volleyball as Joker was in the process of leaping across the room and it was looking like they were going to intercept, but when a trail of rose petals disappears around it, I let a sigh out before ducking behind a pillar to reload.
After loading two shells and stepping back out, it was then that I heard "The shows over!" from Joker over the earpiece and then an ungodly scream from Shadow Taurus as the black and red ooze started to ooze out of him and around our feet till only the half-naked man was there slumped on the ground with Joker standing not too far way, mask still aflame and weapons out.
Location: Throne Room
Closing my eyes, I couldn't help but fall back into the readily dissolving bile and let out a sigh of relief and a pained groan as I landed. 'Man, I'm going to ache tomorrow.'
"See, wasn't it fun to let loose?"
'It… was actually, but still, tomorrow is going to be a sore day.'
"I wonder if there's a maid service around here that does house calls."
'As much I would like that, I don't think James would be happy about having a maid show up.'
"It's a shame we can't get Weiss to dress up as a maid."
'Yeah… yeah, it is.'
"Hey, Joker, you okay?" I wince as I heard Skull come over to me.
"Please don't shout, Skull, it feels like all my Personas are throwing one hell of a party in my head." I said opening my eyes and taking his offer to help me up.
"Shit, sorry bro." He said pulling me up and I notice that Panther and Zee had their weapons trained on Shadow Taurus. "That was some crazy shit you pulled off."
"Yeah and now I feel like shit." I said as we came to stand in front of the defeated King.
"Here you go, Joker." Panther said as she pulled the Treasure out from somewhere and tossed it to me.
With our eyes off Taurus, no one noticed him stand and it was only when he snatched the Crown out of the air that I remembered that he was still there. As he ran over to a small opened door balcony (that was hidden in under the larger balcony,) he stopped when we came up behind him.
"What's wrong? Not running away?" Panther said as I felt a breeze caress my cheek. "Why don't you run? Aren't you a great athlete?"
"It's always been like this… all those goddamn hyenas forcing their expectations on me… I'm doing this all for them! What's wrong about demanding a reward for that!?" Shadow Taurus said with anger turning around, clutching the Crown to his chest.
"What's wrong with that? Now you're making excuses" I said, placing my hand on my holstered gun.
"We'll do something about that distorted heart of yours." Skull said coming to stand next to me.
He let a snarl of aggression out, but his eyes told a different story.
"Scared…?" It was clear to me that Panther could see it as well. "Right now, you're seeing the same view that Ilia did." She took a couple of steps towards him as he took the same backwards. "I'm sure she was scared too… except she had no choice but to jump… So, what will you do? Will you jump? …Or would you rather die here?"
As her Mask busts into flames and Carman appeared behind her with two fireballs in both hands.
'Wait… she can't be thinking about killing him, we told her what could happen if he did.'
"Why don't you let her, he is an ass after all." Her lips brushed against the shell of my ear.
'True, but we agreed to not killing him.' I watch Shadow Taurus move back even more and seeing as no one was going to stop her, I walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Panther…"
"I know… but I-I don't care anymore." The stutter in her voice told me everything I need and after squeezing her shoulder, I take a step away.
"It's your call then."
Sweat started to roll down Shadow Taurus face as his whole demeanour changed in an instance. "No, please wait! I beg you… Just forgive meeee!"
"SHUT UP!" A chill went up my spine as she spoke. "I bet everyone told you the same. But you… you took everything from them!" A ball of fire shot out from Carman and hits the wall next to Taurus, making him cower in fear.
"I accept defeat…You want this? Take it." He drops to his knees and holds the Crown up before throwing it at me before speaking in a sorrowful tone. "Go ahead, finish me off…"
"Go, plunge your dagger into him and finish this off!"
'No, I won't kill him!' My eyesight blurred as my other-self pull at me to kill and I felt the weight of my dagger in my other hand. 'I said no.'
"Blake!" I heard and as my eyesight cleared just in time to watch the second fireball fly past Shadow Taurus and out of the balcony door.
As her Mask turns back to normal, she turns around to face us. "If his mind shuts down, he can't admit his crimes."
"I'm glad you saw reasoning, Lady Blake." I heard Zee say as I sheathed my dagger.
"I've- I've finally lost." His love-heart printed cape fell around him. "You're through when you lose… What am I- What am I supposed to do now?"
"Atone for your sins." I said gripping the Crown a bit too hard.
An honest smile graced Shadow Taurus face as a white light appears around him and slowly engulfs him. "All right… I will leave now and return to my real self… I'll make certain that I- "
When the last of the light disappears, the exhaustion of me showing off hits me like a truck as my legs give out. "Thank God that's over."
"I wouldn't count your chickens just yet, Joker; we don't have time to waste." Zee said coming to stand in front of me.
"Why is that?" Panther asked turning to face us. A look of relief on her face.
A second later, a piece the balcony falls just away in front of us and then more started to fall as well, splintering off into more rubble. 'Well, shit!'
Date: 4/23 – Saturday
Location: Outside of Shujin Academy
Slumping to the ground with my back against the wall and my backpack near me, I couldn't help but groan in pain. 'I wish I didn't show off now.'
Hearing pants from the others, I guessed that they were feeling the same as I did. "That sucked…" Blake said crouching down and hugging her legs.
"Hey! Look at the Nav!" I heard Sun say and after pulling my phone out and feeling Zwei jump onto my shoulder, I opened the Metaverse Navigator.
"The destination had been deleted." The synthetic female voice said from our devices.
"So… we can't go there anymore." Blake said before Zwei hoped off and stood between us.
"What about the Treasure?"
'Oh yeah!' Grabbing my bag, I open it and start to rummage around to try and find it. 'My gun, my school equipment, my dagger, Suns' old shotgun, some of Doctor Fall's medicine, the last of the bread, some shit I need sell… where the fuck is… Ah, there it is.' Pulling the Treasure out, I show everyone that it had turned into a Gold Medal.
"What the…?" Sun said taking it out of my hands and looking at it thoroughly.
"…A Medal? Where'd that Crown go?" Blake said standing and walking over to Sun.
Hoping up on one of the smaller HVAC systems in the alleyway, Zwei spoke up. "It means that that was the source of Taurus' desires. To him, this medal is worth as much as that Crown we saw in his Palace."
"Wait!? This is his Olympic Medal?" Sun shouted before realizing what he did. "So, that perv kept clingin' to his glory and couldn't let it go…"
"So… this means that Taurus's heart might have changed, right?" Blake said taking the Medal from Sun and passing it back to me.
"Probably." We heard from Zwei after a few seconds of silence.
"What do you mean, Probably? Our expulsions on the line here!" Sun said taking a couple of steps over to Zwei.
Location: Outside of Shujin Academy
I watch Ruby stand and shoulder her backpack before picking Zwei up and lifting him onto her shoulder as he spoke in a weary tone. "This is the first successful example for me too." He moved and slid into her backpack. "However, there's no doubt that this has affected Taurus's personality quite a lot. The entire Palace did disappear after all."
"Ugh, I feel all antsy! Ain't there a way to check now?" I said kicking the ground.
"Will know soon enough… right?" Ruby said adjusting her backpack, causing Zwei to fall back into it.
"The board meeting is on the 2nd of May." Blake said combing a hand through one of her pigtails.
Popping his head back out, Zwei spoke up. "Come on, why the gloomy faces? Be happy! We completed this with great success, you know."
"How can we when we don't know if everything's OK yet…" I said crossing my arms.
"I'm pretty sure it'll be fine… remember how Shadow Taurus said that he's returning to his self in reality?" We nodded. "Adam Taurus was scum. Still… he did seem to regain his conscience somewhat at the end."
"He did look somewhat at peace with himself." Blake was still combing a pigtail.
"There are definitely those who have been saved thanks to what you've done." Zwei said before closing his eyes and slipping back into Rubys backpack.
"Sooo I guess we gotta wait then." I said before hearing our phones catch up with the time distortion, but I raise an eyebrow up when I watch Ruby pull her phone out and typing something out before putting her phone and the Medal away.
"I'm sorry guys, but I totally forgot that I made plans with Weiss today, you don't mind if I shot off, do you?" She said with a light a blush showing up on her cheeks.
With a quick glance over to Blake, I couldn't help but let a smile out as I look back at Ruby. "Sure, we don't mind, enjoy your date." I said, enjoying watching the blush spread more.
"Yeah, I plan on having a nice soak in the bath before crashing for the rest of the day." Blake said before stretching enough that she made her chest very prominent, something that I couldn't help but stare at. "Thanks, by the way, for letting me finally get revenge for Ilia. I'm sure that there was no way I'd been able to do anything on my own."
"It was mainly Sun," Ruby said and a cock an eyebrow at her. "If it weren't for his badgering to go back there, then I'm sure that I wouldn't have gone."
"Hey! I remember you being all up for going back." I said stomping my foot and all I get is laughter from them both. "Shouldn't you be going?"
I watch Ruby go wide-eyed before dashing out of the alleyway with a quick bye before disappearing into Shujin.
"She's completely whipped, isn't she?" I heard Blake say as we pick up our bags.
"Definitely."
Authors Notes
First, thank you to everyone who reads every chapter, leaves comments or reviews, every sub, favourite and follower.
Second, we are coming to the end of the first arc my friends and it almost took me 2 years to do so and what's great about that is that my new laptop runs a damn sight better than my 6-7-year-old one. I would have finished this chapter sooner, like the other chapter but I had fallen ill once again toward the end of November, which leads me onto my next point, I would like to apologise about the last Authors Note as I pretty much passed out shortly after posting the last chapter. So, I give a bit of info now.
So, we had the sighting of Nora and you will have noticed that her last name as change for obvious reasons and if you are wondering why she calls Wiess, Mako-chan, is because after doing some researching, Mako can mean Strength, plus having her call Weiss, We-chan sounded too stupid for my liking. I wanted to have Adam try to get to Ruby and seeing as I have a female protagonist, it did seem only reasonable to have something like that play out and it gave me a reason to have Weiss save her.
Now, for this chapter. The longest fight scene that I have written and I hope that it flows as nicely as I see it, I'm still not 100% on some bits, but if I took my time to make sure that I was happy about it, then it would take some time before this would even come out. I wanted a different Persona fusion than the normal due to wanting to do the POV switch scene with Ruby using the 'Third Eye' ability, which, how I see Ruby moving around in that scene is kind of like the Devil May Cry 5 opening cutscene with Nero. I hope you like how I did the Persona fusion and the Velvet Room as I've never really liked how they did it in-game.
If there is anything else you guys or gals want to know about the last chapter or this chapter that I didn't cover please feel free to comment and I'll try to give you the answers you seek without spoiling anything, but in the meantime, Walk Tall and Be Fierce, my Friends and I hope you have a Merry whatever you celebrate around this time.