4/17
Being Sunday, the four cannot meet up inside the school. Instead, they rendezvous across the street in the now familiar alley which opens toward Shujin.
Ryuji shows Akira the toy shotgun he purchased, having already given him the pistol they'd bought for him. "This is gonna be so freakin' sweet."
Akira nods, a small smile on his face.
Ann crouches deeper in the alley, rifling through her bag with Morgana, making sure the medicine and food is secured. "Hey, Mona?"
"Yes, Lady Ann?"
"What's up with Akira?"
The cat hesitates before answering. "What'd you mean?"
"He's all, I don't know, off today. Did something happen?"
Morgana checks to ensure the two boys aren't listening, then whispers, "He got a call from his mom last night."
"And?"
"Well, I don't think it was a good call."
"Oh."
"He answered, and then just took his phone and went outside. He got really pale when he realized it was her."
"Do you know what they were talking about?"
Morgana shakes his head. "When he got back, he apologized and got ready for bed. I wanted to ask him, but didn't want to pry."
"How'd he look? When he got back, I mean."
"Tired."
"Oh." Ann looks. Akira is more worn than she's seen him before. There are circles under his eyes Ryuji doesn't seem to notice. His hair is a mess, and not the stylized mess he typically sports, but an actual mess mess. "Do you know what the deal is, with him and his family?"
"Actually," Mona says, guilt in his voice. "It never crossed my mind until last night. I thought about it while he was sleeping. I know about his record and everything, but he hasn't talked about that at all. I'm kind of in the dark."
"I see," Ann says. She starts to ask, "Do you thi-" but Ryuji turns and stalks over to the two.
"Are we doing this or what?" He rocks back and forth on his feet, boundless in energy.
Morgana looks past Ryuji and asks, "Ready, Joker?"
Akira stands at the mouth of the alley, staring at the school. He straightens when he hears his moniker, turns to the group, and says, "Yes."
#
"This is so cool."
"Quiet!"
"I know, I know. But still, this is so cool."
"It won't be cool if we get caught."
"Alright, my bad. Seriously though-"
"Skull, shut up!"
Panther flushes when the words leave her, and Joker holds up his hand to signal a halt. The four thieves pause, separated as they are atop the chandeliers, and peer at the shadows down below.
They are above the castle's main entrance, a grand hall with marbled columns and a wide stairwell leading up to a breathtakingly revolting portrait of Kamoshida. The room is thick with shadows, and the thieves had decided upon an alternate route.
Joker crouches on the gold grate of the chandelier. He balances by grasping the fixture's chain.
Below, a shadow stops and looks up. The hollow, black sockets of its mask scan the ceiling, but it fails to spot them. It continues on its little route around the hall, an automaton on a track.
Each thief breathes a sigh of relief. "Nice going, Panther," Skull whispers.
"Me? That was all your fault."
"Enough you two!" Mona says, waving his arms in the air. "Save it for when we're clear."
Joker nods, smiles, and jumps to the next chandelier. This thrills him. His body feels weightless and responsive, not bound by the small inconveniences of the real world. It does what he wants, how he wants.
He lands on the far balcony, crouches, and darts up to the corner leading to the next room. The others stack behind him. "Shadow?" Mona asks.
Joker nods.
"Should we try out the weapons?" asks Skull.
He draws the toy pistol from his jacket. There's a heft to it here absent in the real world. The plastic is harsher, nearly metal. The shine isn't juvenile, but aggressive. "Let's."
The others draw and Joker runs up behind the shadow, springs onto its back, wraps his free hand under its mask, and pulls. It rips away, and as Joker leaps clear, the shadow convulses and erupts into a globule of black slime. The slime contorts and sloughs away to reveal a charcoal armored knight astride a tall destrier. In its hand it holds a golden trident.
"Intruders!" It cries, but the four thieves surround it, weapons trained.
The shadow pulls on the reins and shifts its focus from one to another.
"Get wrecked!" Ryuji shouts and squeezes the trigger of his shotgun. A volley of bullets crash into the creature, puncture its armor and it quakes and falls to the ground with a groan. Its trident clangs against the tiled floor.
"Stop you knaves!" It tries to bellow but its voice is strained and labored.
Joker lowers his gun.
"Should we finish it off?" Panther asks.
Joker walks over to it, and the creature turns its helm towards him. He does not know why he is doing this. The world has dimmed, the voices of his friends are faint.
"Y-you are-" The creature chokes out but Joker interrupts.
"I am thou," he says, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Thou art I," the creature says. The wounds vanish. It stands, and retakes the reins. It kneels, steals up the trident. "I am Berith."
It collapses into a point of blue flame, resolves itself into a copy of Joker's mask, and dashes across the space between them before latching itself onto the boy's face.
"A-Akira!" He hears Skull shout, codenames forgotten.
Electricity swims through his blood as he reels from what has happened. He feels heavier, as if he has inhaled too much air.
"Halt!" Comes a voice.
"Shit!" Skull cries.
A guard shadow charges them, sword held high. Joker steps forward and rips the mask from his face with a cry. "BERITH!"
The knight materializes into a charge and the guard halts just long enough for it to be lanced through by the golden trident. Berith rides him the rest of the room, slamming the guard into the wall. A low groan escapes its mask as it dissolves, and Berith returns to Joker's side at a trot, trident held upright smartly.
The three thieves stare.
"What the hell just happened?" Panther asks.
Skull looks down at Mona. "Did Joker just use that other shadow, against that shadow?"
"I-I think so!" Mona runs up to him and begins to bounce in the air. "You can summon more than one Persona?"
Joker shrugs. "Can't we all?"
"No! Of course we can't! One person, one persona! That's the rule!"
"It's a rule?"
"W-well, I don't know for sure. But I can only call Zorro. Panther, Carmen. Skull, The Captain! But you just, I don't know, captured that shadow and turned it into a Persona!" Heavy, stomping footsteps echo from down the hall. Mona groans. "Come on, there's a safe room around here, I can feel it. We'll continue this talk inside."
When they are tucked into the small room, safe from the assault of shadows, Joker tells them how it felt. While he explains it, and the others debate its significance, he remembers something said to him in a dream.
"Were you under the impression you could only wear one mask?"
Was this what Igor had meant?
None of this feels strange to him. "Guys," he says, while the others converse. They stop and defer to his words. "We should keep going."
"Are you sure?" Mona asks. "We don't know what this means."
"But it's not a bad thing. If I can carry additional Personas, we have more abilities at our disposal."
"That's a good point," Panther says.
"Yeah, he really stuck it to that other shadow!" Skull puts in.
Mona nods. "Well then, let's keep going."
#
The deeper they go, the more he collects. Mask after mask. They fill his mind like bees.
"This is like Pokémon!" Skull shouts, pumping his fist into the air as Joker takes another.
"What's that?" Mona asks.
They continue.
The physics of the Metaverse become clear, even as they avoid any kind of sense. Room after room of Kamoshida's castle is filled with valuable looking knickknacks, and as they snatch and steal them, they find the things fall into their pockets and weigh as little as lint. Their costumes are their own little universes, capable of holding an almost infinite amount of material. The medicine, which Joker had worried would break with all the battling, is safe and secure within the little pouches on Mona's tool belt.
Some levels down they find the shrines. They are - of all places - built into a series of libraries. They are semi-circular in shape, hallowed in all else. Each holds dozens of candles, which illuminate the photographs on the wall in a smoky light. In the center of each is a homunculus construction, a photo lathered with what looks like saliva where the head should be.
One for each girl, it seems.
Panther finds Shiho's shrine, and cannot speak.
Skull finds Ann's, and decides to stay quiet about it.
Joker finds another, and the photographs are of a girl he knows well - by sight - at this point. Makoto Niijima, her eyes turned towards him shyly, her cheeks tint with red, her clothes shorn or in a state of deliberate undress. A dozen of these photos stare down at him.
They reconvene in the center of the library, each lost in their own world. "This is sick," Panther finally says. No one replies, but everyone agrees.
"Moths to flame."
They turn.
A guard shadow in golden armor lumbers into the library, arches its back and erupts.
A massive blot of black stretches into the air, and resolves itself into a fifteen-foot tall satyr, horns scratching the ceiling, tongue lolling down near its stomach, cloven hoofs stomping a slow, menacing beat. Its wrists end in furred hands which end in needled claws. "None can resist the temptations of King Kamoshida's harem!" Its voice is scratchy, but it booms. "My Lord knew you'd come through here! He permitted me the honor of breaking you!"
Skull holds his pipe in one hand, his shotgun in the other. "You'd better get out of our way!"
The beast's mouth opens and a song flies forth. A song. Musical notes made manifest, sharp as razor blades hurtle towards them.
"Scatter!" Mona shouts, and they fling themselves in different directions.
Joker pulls his pistol, feet still off the ground and fires a barrage at the satyr. The bullets puncture its pale red flesh, but the thing reacts without pain. He lands in a roll and comes to a rest behind a reading table, as notes splinter the wood.
"Zorro!" Mona, who crouches atop one of the stacks, calls. His Persona rises before him. "Garu!" A gust of wind slams into the satyr's stomach, and it grunts before it turns and hurls itself at Mona's perch. The shelf of books smashes to pieces at the impact, and Mona goes cartwheeling through the air, a feline scream on his lips.
Panther circles and summons Carmen, and as the satyr picks itself up, a wreath of flame springs up across him. It laughs and the flames reverse and speed towards the girl. "W-what?" Panther asks, before the fire hits her in the face. She yelps in pain and flies back, landing on a table and sliding across it before finally crashing to the ground.
"Shit!" Skull dashes to her side. "Mona, get over here!" The cat limps along and approached the two. "You gotta heal her!"
Joker rises from his hiding place. "Arsene!" His Persona manifests above him, screeches and flings its tendrils at the satyr. The monster rolls, avoiding most but a few snake into its calves. It roars in reply, kicks itself free and charges for Joker.
"No you don't!" Skull shouts, as Mona hits Panther with a Dia.
He leaps up onto the table. "Fry em, Captain Kidd!" The buccaneer manifests, fires its weapon and a ball of electricity hits the attacker in the side. It screeches and hits the floor, a groan escapes it.
Mona's ears perk up. "That's it! It's weak to electricity!"
Joker shouts, "Skull!"
"On it!"
Both boys leap into the air and as they descend upon the slowly rising creature, Skull cries, "One more time, Cap'n!" while Joker calls forth, "Agathion!" The little blue devil trapped in a golden vase - another of Joker's acquisitions - spawns besides Captain Kidd. Both Personas screech and a series of electric strikes dance across the satyr's back.
It screams in pain, hurls itself up, and backs defensively against the nearest bookshelf.
"My turn." They turn and find Panther on her feet, hair disheveled but otherwise unharmed. She hurls out her whip and it lashes around the satyr's feet, dragging them together. The monster tries to break free, but Panther grabs her weapon in both hands and pulls tight, teeth gritted. "Finish it!"
Joker charges. "Mona!"
"Right!" The cat darts alongside him, and they both fling themselves at the enemy. Joker punches his blade into the satyr's chest as Mona's falchion finds its home alongside. The monster's head tilts back and its moan is high and worn.
"Skull!" Joker shouts.
"You got it!" Skull crosses the floor in a sprint, leaps into the air, and grips his pipe in both hands. "Take this, asshole!" He screams, and brings the pipe down into the center of the monster's face. Its breath catches, and then it dissolves into a pile of ash. Unbalanced, Mona and Joker pitch forward, the former landing in a pile of stuff, the latter into a flamboyant crouch.
Silence, save for heavy breathing.
Joker straightens, adjusts his gloves and asks, "Everyone okay?"
Panther groans and collapses across one of the still intact reading tables. "I'm pooped."
Mona rises, spitting ash out of his mouth. "I hate to say it, but that one took a lot out of me."
"The hell was that thing?" Skull asks, pulling a chair from one of the desks and dropping into it.
"It said something about Kamoshida's harem," Panther says, and props herself up on one elbow. "Talk about gross."
"Are you alright?" Joker asks her. "It reflected that fire back at you."
She beams. "Mona fixed me up, no problem."
Mona reaches a paw into one of his pouches. "Anyone need medicine?"
"I'm good," Skull says, and drops his head forward. "I'm kind of exhausted though."
Joker takes stock. They have gone far, but not far enough. Mona can 'sense' the treasure, and therefore knows it's still a long way off. They've already used some medicine, and Skull scarfed down most of the energy bars they'd brought. "We should go back," he says.
"For real?" Skull asks, straightening. "I can keep going!"
"Joker's right," Mona replies, and hops up onto Panther's table. "We don't want to risk running out of steam. We're all tired. If we keep going, we could get hurt or worse. We should head home, rest up, and come back soon. We've made enough progress today."
They all agree.
#
Akira drops the last of the castle's loot - a palm-sized golden bust of King Kamoshida - into the box and shoves it under his bed. "That's everything," he says, standing. He rolls his shoulders. "It's hell carrying all that crap."
"Too bad the real world doesn't work like the Metaverse," Morgana says, from where he lays on the bed.
Akira yawns. "I don't know. I'm okay with not having dodge shadows every time I want to use the bathroom."
"Guess you've got a point."
Akira sits on the bed, removes his glasses, rubs his eyes. "I'm so tired."
"We had a long day."
They'd been in the castle for hours. True, their escape had been easier, as they knew the route and had eliminated numerous shadows during their infiltration, but they'd still had to exercise caution. Once outside, a quick tap of the app had been enough to take them home. Everyone had split up, and Akira dragged himself home, made all the worse by the numerous bits of loot which had exited the Metaverse into his book bag, and Morgana, who had refused to walk.
"Hey, Akira?" Morgana asks.
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"What'd you mean?"
"Last night," the cat says. "You got a call. You said-"
"I'm not ready to talk about that," Akira blurts. Morgana looks hurt. "Sorry." He reaches out, haltingly, and rubs Morgana's head. "But I'm not. It's..." He struggles to find the right words. "It's a whole thing."
"Okay."
Akira lays back on the bed.
"I think you need to sleep," Morgana says.
"I think you're right."
##
A/N: First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their well-wishes. I really appreciate it. Second, I've reached my decision. I will take a break from posting the week of the 31st. This means that I'll keep to my M-W-F schedule for this upcoming week. Thank you for taking the time to read Crimson, and I hope you continue to do so!