Chapter Twenty Eight: Beetles and Robins
Nobody had restful sleep on the night of the return. It was only by consequence of mental wear that the interior of LeBlanc was so quiet. But though the sleeping faces were tense and dark, no one stirred in the slightest until daybreak. A long day awaited hence. They promised they would help Lavenza 'mend the Velvet Room', whatever that actually meant. It was for that reason that she sought, and then rescued the Phantom Thieves. It was only just that they lent their aid; and if they had to face Nyarlathotep again, they would surely need the Velvet Room's resources.
And after that, they still needed to follow on the spark set alight by Sae Niijima before everybody called it a night. By the attorney's own admission, most of Wakaba Isshiki's work on the mutable configurations of the cognitive world were beyond her grasp. But she still comprehended the core fundamentals, seemingly from how she could feel her sister Makoto while the latter was missing. In a similar way, both Akira and Makoto were able to 'sense' the emotional distress of those who cared for them in this world. This meant that, despite the barrier between worlds, a means of influence and communication remains. Sae's conjectures all fell acute within the Phantom Thieves' own experience in the Metaverse.
By Sae's logic, there could be a way to aid them from this side when the time came to cross over once more. She put special emphasis on this after hearing about their experiences on the past few days. Even if she could not begin to picture what occurred, Sae understood the urgency of it all with grim sobriety. It was both reassuring and daunting that she would be so steadfastly willing to help them. But behind this gritty initiative, there had been horrible, horrible moments of realisation: that she could not protect her sister from what took her, that she was not safe yet. That failure could well signify losing her little sister for good.
Boss and Sadayo took on the role of listeners that night, but they shared Sae's intent, as well as her fears.
And when the time did come, when Sae, Boss, Sadayo, and all the rest did their part, would it suffice?
Akira Kurusu reflected on some of these things, and then some that night. It was 4 AM, and he could not go back to sleep. Morgana slept at the side of the mattress, while Makoto slept on the couch in his room, and Yusuke laid spread out on a modest air mattress on the floorboards; everybody else camped downstairs. Even before he offered his bed, he knew that his friends would brook no argument about him sleeping on his actual bed. He thought to himself that he would surely be able to sleep the night through if his girlfriend was next to him.
The young man breathed out silently. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling. Everything was dark, save for a few lights pouring in from outside. But even if all of Tokyo was without light, his eyes would still be able to see the things they were not meant to. They were not there before, or they could have been, but he did not know how to see them.
Akira reached a hand out, and closed it into a fist, gripping only air.
The first time Sojiro spoke during the discussion earlier was when Sae acknowledged the red curtains, which she started to see after hearing about them. Boss also saw them a few times, experiencing a foul sensation every time that he could not put into words. Akira told them he believed the red curtains to be more than a passage to the other world, but also a fringe of it, a memento that accompanies those who know about it. He theorised that the reason his friends were pulled into the other world was because he told them about the red curtains.
That was assuming Nyarlathotep spoke true.
Those words bothered him. Was he truly meant to cross over into that world alone?
Why would that be?
The mention of their foe unearthed an aspect they momentarily forgot about – that their tormentor had another name, Susumu Kamiyama. Sae was quick to notice the mention of that name bothered Haru.
It went as thus.
"Not to put you in the spot, Haru, but…" Makoto summoned as much tact as she could. "You mentioned something about knowing him over there. Please, explain us. Do you really know him?"
The Okumura Foods' heiress looked uneasy.
"Not personally. Rather, he is the chairman of a company that sought a collaboration with Okumura Foods not too long ago."
Everyone looked suitably confused. Yusuke had an apprehensive look in his eyes.
"I totally never saw that coming." Futaba remarked. A silent spell followed for a moment after.
"I don't get it. Why would that guy be doing all that shit in the other world?" Ryuji said.
"Could he be wanting to… I don't know, take over your company?" Ann suggested with little faith in the idea.
"I don't think so. None of what he said sounded especially entrepreneur-like." Morgana remarked, after which Futaba translated for Sae.
"True." Haru bit her lip in hesitation. "He seemed only interested in Akira."
That led to Nyarlathotep's claim of Akira as his 'template', which resulted in the making of the other Joker. This relation was the clearest and most simple thing they had to work with; everything else was plagued with troublesome incognita. But then they realised just what they had in their grasp. The fear for their lives and the fight for survival had blurred the thought, but on the moment Susumu Kamiyama confirmed his identity, they were given the possibility of an answer, a solution.
"Susumu Kamiyama…" Sae repeated, writing down his name on a notepad. "I'll need to look into him further on my own, but for now, tell me all you can about him. Did he say what his motives or goals were?"
Everybody turned to look at one another with uncomfortable expressions.
"He said he wanted to create a new world, somewhere everyone can be happy and all that jazz." Ryuji said.
"Really?" Sae raised an eyebrow at the young man's response.
"It is a rather crude paraphrase, but not an inaccurate one." Yusuke added.
"A new world. Doesn't sound like a simple enterprise." The elder Niijima remarked. "That's where this Nyarlathotep individual comes in, correct?"
"His benefactor…" Akira thought out loud.
"Excuse me?"
"Kamiyama talked about Nyarlathotep as his benefactor, but it seemed as if he didn't know his true identity. He claimed the name escaped him." The young man continued.
"A strange thing to say."
"Didn't it seem to you guys like everything he said was kind of mixed messages?" Futaba suggested.
"Yeah… He was very polite one moment, and real creepy the next." Ann said. "Like they were two different people in one…"
Ann's words summoned a most disturbing memory, reflected in the faces of all her friends, for there was more to this adversary than the duality between Susumu Kamiyama and Nyarlathotep. Makoto looked especially troubled. Though her sister asked that they tell her everything, she could not think that revealing Nyarlathotep suddenly looked like their father would cause anything but harm. Even now, the image gripped cruelly at her insides, and twisted without mercy. But that kind of pain was not hers alone; every one present in the other world had seen the Crawling Chaos wear their parents' likeness.
The hateful, unnatural yellow in 'Akihiko Niijima's' eyes was an attempt against Makoto's very foundations as a person.
Sae could tell by her sister's expression that something in the retelling was too hard to bring back up. She said nothing, but even her silence was a firm request for them to carry on with the testimony.
Akira saved Makoto the ordeal of having to tell it herself, instantly reviving some inner turmoil he still had about his father Takahisa. Sae Niijima took her time to digest this, to acknowledge without imagining. Everybody stayed quiet for a minutes, to let the foul taste of it pass. Sojiro looked quizzically upon his daughter, wondering if Nyarlathotep had taken his appearance. Futaba's face alone answered his question, and it broke his heart.
"But yeah…" Ryuji interjected, trying to push past the moment. "Everything was weird with that Kamiyama guy. Like, he even screamed at us to escape after putting us through some weird Escher maze-like mindshit."
"That was very strange. He seemed repentant after he showed us a way out." Haru mentioned. "I don't think he was truly intending to hurt us. He even disowned his so-called benefactor in the end."
"It was as if he didn't know his intentions." Makoto's words still echoed in Akira's head.
Futaba suggested that Susumu Kamiyama was somehow possessed. Though the conjecture sounded unfitting at first, nobody could put a better name to it. Sae double-checked their testimony, asking for further details on the things the older man said, and how he said them when he was docile. After some more discussion, the hypothesis was that Susumu Kamiyama had been influenced and deceived by Nyarlathotep, somehow. The former apparently sought a new world for the betterment of human kind, whereas the latter aimed to use it for his own benefit.
Yet it did not seem like Nyarlathotep sought mere all-encompassing dominance as Yaldabaoth had. He spoke of retaking his rightful place, of having been banished, and showing the futility of an unknown party's sacrifice. The sum of it all hinted vengeance. The Phantom Thieves knew a motive like that could make a foe extremely dangerous, but also careless. Knowing the recipient of Nyarlathotep's hatred could be a valuable resource when they took the fight to him once again.
The notion took form in Akira's head. It was almost audible, to nobody but he.
They called it a night shortly after discussing Nyarlathotep's motives. Everybody was quite exhausted by then, and the next day would surely need to start early. Farewells were said, and a taxi was called for Sadayo to get home safely. There was also a very serious warning, disguised in a jocular tone, for Sae, Sojiro and Sadayo.
Stay away from red curtains.
Everybody turned in shortly after. Nobody really thought of asking whether anybody still saw the crimson path into the other world, not even Akira.
Especially not Akira.
The red curtains that had been haunting him were no more. But his line of sight was not free of their reach either. Rather, they had changed in appearance, and they lingered surreptitiously on the corner of his eye no longer. There was no need for the other world to disguise its presence anymore. On the last moments before Akira crossed over, he saw the red curtains devolving, mutating back into their true form. And with it, he attained a cold sense of familiarity and certainty.
Akira again reached his hand out, and closed it into a fist, gripping only air. He knew there truly was nothing there that could be felt with his skin, nothing tangible to probe, tease, or damage. The thing would not unravel, no matter how hard he tried, or how insistently he pulled. His hand merely go through it, feeling nothing, as if he were passing it through a streak of light.
But this long, black vine was very much real, as was the shapeless mass of tentacles attached to it, equally as ethereal. The initial shock an hour ago was short-lived. By now, he felt somewhat accustomed to it; he knew the countless tendrils attached to him, going to and from in his room were the true appearance of the red curtains. And it was not the first time he had seen them, either. They hailed back to one night a year ago, give or take a few days.
He thought it only a dream, a very bad one. But the things he saw during a stroll in the dark were real, on the night Kawasaki had a blackout. It was apparent that Nyarlathotep had his clutches on him back then.
Unable to tolerate the stagnant feeling from lying down too long, Akira sat up on his bed and observed his room, invaded by untouchable limbs. His eyes found Makoto, sleeping on the couch, as peacefully as one could after the horrors. The tentacles spiralled around her body, concealing her eyes and mouth from view; but they did not touch her. There was too some fair distance between the black tendrils and Futaba and Morgana's bodies, also sleeping in his room.
The attachment to the black limbs was for Akira alone. And yet, he knew those he cared for were still at risk.
A sound made him turn his head in a heartbeat, away from Futaba and Morgana. Makoto groaned in her sleep, otherwise completely unperturbed by an alien presence she could never see or feel. The young man still could not shake the feeling that she and his friends, and everybody present at LeBlanc earlier were Nyarlathotep's hostages.
The quiet anger inside of him led to a vow, which he spoke out loud. It was a thing barely above a whisper.
"Now I see you for what you truly are. You will not hurt them. I will not allow it."
Nimble feet made the floorboards creak not even a little as he turned around in a circle.
"I promise I will end you, no matter what."
There was only silence after that, but Akira knew his words warranted a response. He felt it, in a way that could not be code through physical senses. A world away, the Joker smirked cruelly, sensing the young man's defiance, deeming it a child's pouting tantrum.
[ ]
Makoto's back was stiff when she woke up, and her mouth tasted of morning breath. Unbeknownst to most people beyond her sister and her boyfriend, she was a heavy sleeper. The young woman relied on her phone's alarm every morning, but this time she slept right through it. Neither Akira, nor Futaba or Morgana were in the room. The dreaded shame of oversleeping crept up her face, but at least she had one comfort that morning. It was one of two problems she could handle with more ease and calm than fighting for survival.
The other was slightly more embarrassing. The last time she showered was a few hours before Akira's 'intervention'. She wore perfume also. Most everything since that moment had been impromptu physical activity with hardly a break. And it showed. She knew this applied to her fellow Phantom Thieves as well, but it did not help.
She could hear the morning sounds of LeBlanc downstairs. She guessed it may be the first time in a while anybody used the French press, or stirred the pot for a generous breakfast. Makoto desperately wished to come down and see the facsimile of a normality she loved, but she wondered if she could maybe make it to the restroom unseen. The sink and toiletries would suffice for a quick washing and tidying; it was not the first time she had done so, after all.
"Good morning, Makoto." Sae spoke as soon as her sister came down the stairs. She sat in a booth, with Yusuke, Haru, and Ann, with a hot cup of coffee in front of her and clean plate.
Akira turned to her just as Sae marked her presence.
"Makoto! Good morning! Did you sleep well?" He sounded like he was making an effort to show a brighter mood. The younger Niijima could tell even if she went deaf.
"Morning." She smiled. "Sae, Akira, Boss, Mona… um…" She discreetly made her way to her left towards the restroom, concealing her embarrassment.
"Breakfast will be ready in a minute." Sojiro looked her way. "Restroom's free, by the way.
Her façade broke a little.
"Thank you, Boss." Makoto did her best to play down her hurry.
She flicked the light switch on. But the light bulb was not the only thing that illuminated the inside of the small room. There was also a pair of big, yellow eyes, looking straight at her. It was a miracle that she limited her reaction to a gasp that took the air of her lungs. Those eyes were attached to a face, and a long cascade of bright hair and a thick concentration of blue.
"Lavenza!" Makoto said the girl's name, suddenly horrified at the realisation that nobody checked up on her after they returned to Arancia's second floor. One moment, she held Akira as he fell unconscious, and the moment after, she was gone from everybody's attention.
"Good morning." The mood in the little attendant's voice could not easily be discerned.
"I'm so sorry! Did… did you spend the night in here?"
Lavenza squinted, slanting her head in inquisitive fashion.
"Lavenza, this is terrible. We shouldn't have neglected to find you better accommodations. After all you've been through, I can't believe we were so careless so as to let you sleep in here."
The girl in blue opened her eyes wide.
"No, I… I didn't sleep in here. I only…" She pointed to a blue door at the very back of the room. It was not there before, but Makoto knew where it led. It was an access to the Velvet Room. The way Akira used to talk of it, they showed up anywhere Caroline and Justine thought suitable.
"Oh… um, good!" A brief, but very uncomfortable silence followed. "Lavenza, I know for a fact that Akira and that kind man with the beard outside are very good at cooking. Wouldn't you like some breakfast? It would do you good." She said, sounding more motherly than she realised.
Lavenza's eyes lit at the prospect of tasting Akira's cooking. She did a quick manner of a curtsy and exited the restroom to Sojiro's very audible shock. The following sound of running water drowned out the voices outside the restroom – surely Akira explaining in full detail who the little girl in blue was. Makoto could only imagine what it must be for her sister and Boss to suddenly be in this close contact with a world so alien to them, yet so strangely familiar to Makoto herself.
Without further delay, she made do with what she had available, if at least to feel better prepared to tackle the day. But in spite of the quickness of it all, she still indulged in shower thoughts – brief reflections on the events transpired. Soon enough, she came upon something alarming. Sae and Sojiro mentioned that they too started seeing the red curtains after the Phantom Thieves' disappearance. There was a potential risk that they could cross over into that strange world, even by complete accident. Furthermore, they started seeing the curtains, merely after hearing about them from Yasunori. It was as if even a cursory awareness of the other side cast ripples on their world.
It went without saying the night before. But everybody agreed to keep the nuances of this affair within the closely-knit group. Sae and Sojiro knew better by now, but more people could be in danger of crossing over if word somehow spread out. Discretion and control of information became all the more important within an instant.
Makoto finished her impromptu shower in a matter of minutes. She came of the restroom slightly more refreshed, but her appetite vanished as soon as she started dwelling. Once again, she considered the common factor between Susumu Kamiyama and Nyarlathotep's words. Each had a different attitude regarding the issue, but the two of them remarked on the same thing.
Only Akira was meant to cross over.
Was this marginal spread of the red curtains somehow a consequence of that? If so, was there some way to turn this into an advantage?
Yet, for all anyone could tell, this too could prove to Nyarlathotep's favour.
Around her, the strange banter between Lavenza and Morgana was muted by her train of thought, derailing every time into considering the worst case scenario. As if by instinct, her eyes found Akira's. She saw his exceedingly affable mask crumble. But beneath she did not find dread or damage, as she feared. Instead, she found sharp intent as the shine of his dark eyes. It was quite akin to the lead characters in the Yakuza films she enjoyed so much.
Like them, she would need to keep her temper, mind, and knuckles sharp.
She decidedly took a mouthful of Boss' curry, and savoured it. Only for a moment, she would let the normalcy speak louder than the worst case scenario.
Breakfast went by quickly. It was time to travel into the Velvet Room.
