This story contains a few big spoilers for Persona 5: The Royal in the first chapter
Turn back now if you aren't aware of the new plot beats to the story
The following story is a work of fiction that is not meant to represent anything that can be perceived as offensive or harmful
It is also written by an American who is not informed on every aspect of Japanese culture so please be open-minded when there are elements that involuntarily contradict the norms of Japan
All rights are reserved to their rightful owners
All OC's presented are all the author owns in this story
Thank you
The contract has been sealed…
Yet there is another piece in this game, this is an odd situation to be sure as he shares similarities to the main player. Yet he seems to be quite inferior to our trickster's capabilities while also having a powerful ability of his own, how amusing…
Not only that… There are some slight changes to our board, two pieces that are arranged differently from where they should be. The board itself seems to be different, larger and more bizarre than its previous state. Very well then, let us continue this variant of our game.
And let us see if these tricksters will rise from the abyss of distortion.
Day:?
Date:?
Time:?
Location:?
Threat Level 100!
The sounds of sirens blaring radiated out of the casino, waves of shocked patrons rushed out the building as they looked up to try and find what the cause was of this outburst. Security guards pushed past the customers to get their eyes on what was ruining their establishment, or that is to say… who.
A young man in a long black coat, red gloves, and a predominantly white domino mask with black accents around the eyes– it resembled much like a bird with how it was shaped. He looked upon the frustrated guards with a smirk on his face as he held a metal suitcase in his arms with the moon behind him as he stood upon one of the lights of the casino, its blue radiance lighting his hair with a slight glow.
"He's here, move in now!"
And with that, he was off. The black-coated figure began jumping from the platforms from above that casted light on to the casino, his smile still not fading away as they rushed to cut him off upstairs.
"Good! Get running, Joker!" Mona demanded of the Phantom Thief as he ran onto the middle chandelier.
"This is our only chance!" Crow reminded the leader of the Phantom Thieves with a tense voice.
"Stay calm, you can get away now!" Oracle cheered.
"We'll retrieve the briefcase on our end," Queen informed their leader in a stoic tone.
"Maybe I should have been the one out there, probably could have gotten that crowd and more of those guards riled up." Another member of the Phantom Thieves could be heard rubbing the back of his head as he said that.
"I think you would be more focused on getting their attention rather than staying safe, Ghost…" Joker laughed as he continued to run across the chandeliers.
"Well, at least I could do it…"
"I don't think Skull can say the same thing." Panther laughed, said Skull groaned at her mention of his name.
"That's because you have no sense of aesthetics." Fox sighed with a very distinct contempt for his team mate's lack of 'flair'.
"Nobody asked you Inari and why am I always getting picked on?" Skull sighed as Joker leapt onto another light above the casino.
" 'cuz you're an easy target…"
"Shuddup, Ghost!"
"But seriously, are… are you gonna be okay Joker?" The newest member of the Phantom Thieves asked, her voice audibly shaking at their leader's dangerous role for this mission.
"I'll be fine, Violet. Don't worry your pretty little head, alright?"
"O-okay…" She could be heard trying to stifle a love-sick giggle, bleh…
"Are you two seriously flirting on a life-threatening mission?" Ghost judged the two over the intercom, getting a muffled apology from Violet and scoff from Joker.
"Haven't you done worse?" Joker quipped as he jumped onto the balcony of the casino, the sound of Ghost clicking his tongue in annoyance could be heard over the intercom as he did so.
"Ok, while the enemies are focused on him. The rest of us can sneak away…" Mona mused to the team.
"Does everyone know where we're meeting up?" Noir asked over communications, their navigator answering with no anxiety to be had in her voice.
"No worries, I can guide you all." The Phantom Thief smiled, he had no worry that this was going to go south.
He jumped onto the balcony of the casino where two men in suits blocked the stairway, their bodies began convulsing before transforming into masked creatures with golden eyes and hunched forward. He turned around to see that another one of them had dropped down from the ceiling, looking ready for a fight.
"Take them down Joker!" Panther cheered as Joker leaped onto the creature behind him, his fingers gripped tightly onto the ends of its mask before ripping it off with a commanding shout.
"Show me your true form!"
TAKE YOUR TIME
The rest of the team were running down a long dark hallway, trying desperately to find a way out of here. Ghost turned to their orange-headed navigator who was currently looking over a map of the place, "Oracle, how far away is that exit?"
"Uh, got it! We're heading towards a fork in the road and one of them should lead us out of here," The group stopped at a pair of doors standing side by side, they looked to their navigator for the right direction. "Let's see, it should be…"
"End of the line thieves!" They turned their heads to see several shadows gunning for them. Without a thought, Ghost pulled out his twin M9 berettas and began laying down fire. Stalling the shadows as long as he could.
"Oracle, door! Now!" He demanded with a voice that could kill, their navigator pulled up her screen and quickly found their destination at his command.
"Left! Head left!"
The thieves pushed past the door with Ghost holding his fire as he backpedaled past the frame of the door. As soon as he went through, Skull quickly grabbed a metal rod in the corner of the room and slid it between the door's handles. Keeping the shadows from entering for a little bit.
"Everyone, stick to the shadows…" Crow hissed out as he cloaked himself behind a large crate, the others already in their hiding positions. Ghost's eyes turned to Oracle who looked over to the door on the left of the corridor‒ so that's where they needed to go...
Ghost looked over to one of the doors on the other side of the room, an idea bounced into his brain. He hopped over to the door that went straight into the next room across and proceeded to kick it down with a great force, he announced with great volume.
"Come on guys! Let's go before they break it down!" He made his way back to his hiding spot where he waited for eight shadows to burst into the room with the rod slipping out.
"They're on the move, go now!" Ghost rubbed his nose with his thumb and smirked as they sprinted out the room, the team moved out of their positions after a few seconds had passed.
"Nice thinking, Ghost." Mona congratulated the teen with a small smile, the rest of the team sharing similar sentiments.
"Oh well, thank you very much!" He gave an over-exaggerated bow at the attention, the thieves groaning at his joke theatrics.
He quickly composed himself before speaking to the group, "In all seriousness, let's get out of here before more of those guys get on our asses."
"Yeah... and Oracle?" Violet looked over to the shorter girl, "How's Joker doing?"
"Oh…" The navigator brought up the screen and showed it to the group, smiling as Joker finished up the Moloch shadow. "He's doing just fine."
"Good. You defeated them with ease." Mona congratulated Joker as he holstered his knife and adjusted his gloves. But as he turned to see that more shadows had appeared around him.
"More of them? Be careful!" A shadow lunged forward to attack Joker however he avoided it with a swift backflip and leaped to a higher platform behind him. "Joker! Behind you, go through that door!"
He turned around at Oracle's request to see that there was, in fact, a door behind him, Joker hopped onto the higher floor and rushed through the dark corridor. "Have you guys escaped yet?"
"Close, don't worry about us. You're the ones with enemies on your ass…" Ghost whispered into his earpiece as he led the team past the enemies while they stuck to the shadows. They made their way to a door, where Ghost peeked through the crack to see one singular shadow guarding the room where the window out of here was.
"Tch, We got away from those guys in black but there's still loads of them!" Skull complained from behind.
"Well, we don't have to worry about that because I see the exit." Ghost informed, but before they could feel relief he also added. "However, there's a shadow in the room. No way sneaking past it."
"I suppose there's no other way out, we'll have to fight." Crow mused with his fingers on his chin.
"Well, let's figure this out before we‒ Ghost is gone!" Violet reeled back in surprise seeing the thief who was right in front of them had just disappeared without a warning while the other thieves just sighed in exasperation.
"Show your face for the folks at home!" Ghost's voice called out and the sound of a mask being torn could be heard from behind the door. They rushed into the room to see him backflip away from a body that burst into streams of black and red that then proceeded to take shape once again.
"Let's help him before the idiot gets himself killed…" Mona rubbed the back of his head as Ghost pulled out his machete, preparing for the shadow's true identity to be revealed.
A Ganesha, who was looking quite pissed at Ghost. The Thieves formed a wall around the shadow as the "rogue" of the group was directly in front of it.
"Physical attacks are weak on this enemy," Ghost nodded at Oracle's words and did as his teammates were doing‒ pulling out their ranged weapons. "Blast 'em away, guys!"
The elephant-like creature was sprayed with bullets from the nine of them while Oracle hid in the background, it made a break for Ghost in a desperate attempt as its body began to bleed black liquid. It's target began backing up with twin pistols still laying down fire, expecting it to die before it could reach him but the thing was resilient!
"Robin Hood!" The Ganesha exploded once a large ray of light struck it, leaving Ghost unharmed. The thief blinked twice and turned around to see Crow with his hand on his mask, the detective flashing the off-guard Ghost a smile.
"I believe you owe me one…"
"Yeah, right." He rubbed the back of his head with a shrug, "That thing was gonna die before it could touch me."
"Whatever you say," Crow said, his smile still on his face as he made his way to join with the others out on the roof.
Ghost gave a hefty sigh as he made his way to the window, where Skull and Fox helped him up by the arm.
"Alright, now with that done… How's the big guy holding‒ OW! What the hell, Queen?!" He was cut off when Queen firmly planted her knuckles against the back of his head.
"That's for jumping the gun again, but how is Joker?" She asked Oracle, Ghost staring daggers behind her. The Navigator pulled up her screen and showed it off to the rest of the thieves.
"Hm, it looks like he's almost home free…"
TAKE YOUR TIME
Joker looked over the balcony to see several guards on the bottom floor, his eyes scanned for a place where he could exit but to no avail.
"Something wrong? The exit should be up ahead."
"Through there?" He looked over to the large stained glass window across the large room, not exactly the most convenient of exits. But it might be the most stylish if he did this right!
"Ngh… That's just how it is." Oracle audibly flinched, "After the commotion, the bottom floor is‒"
"‒Completely closed off!" Queen finished that sentence for Oracle, shocked to see how many of them were around Joker. "Hey, can you make it?"
Before Joker could say something, the sound of a door being forced open could be heard from the hallway behind him. He turned his head to see several guards with guns in hand quickly march towards him. Once the guards raised their guns, he hopped onto the rails and began running towards the large window. He kneeled down at his stop and looked over to the guards with a smirk.
"See ya!"
He then proceeded to fling his body out of the building and through the window, much to the chagrin of his teammates.
"Talk about reckless…"
"You can't speak about recklessness, Ghost!" Violet, Oracle, Noir, and Panther simultaneously called out Ghost on his hypocrisy, to which he gave a deep sigh as a response.
"Yeah, that's fair…"
Joker smiled at his teammate's bantering as he fell from the air with pieces of glass flying past his face. He landed safely with a roll but he wasn't alone... as spotlights were flashed upon him, the Phantom Thief jerked his head up to see a wave of police in front of him.
"Enemies here?!"
"What's wrong?!"
"These readings!"
"An ambush?!"
"What happened?!"
"Joker, can you handle this?!"
"Joker!"
"Oh no!"
"Please! Get out there!"
"Run for it!"
Once the first wave moved in, Joker quickly scanned for any escape route. His eyes landing on a ladder of a nearby building. It wasn't much but he needed higher ground, then maybe he could use his grappling hook to get back on the run.
He made a dash for his escape route and began his desperate ascend. But once he was at the apex of the ladder, he noticed the SWAT team above him. Before he could even blink, he was hit with the butt of a rifle. Knocking him back down where several cops tackled him and held him down, where a detective amongst the crowd moved over to the captured thief.
"Didn't expect to find some kid. You have your teammate to thank for this," He grasped Joker by his hair as if to drink up the moment with some amusement. "You were sold out."
"What?" It was the only thing he could breathe out before handcuffs were tightened onto his wrists, with the surrounding sounds of police calling for 'the suspect's arrest.'
TAKE YOUR TIME
"You think he's gonna be okay?" Kyotaro asked Morgana nonchalantly, the cat sternly nodded his head in response as his eyes were focused on the scene before them.
The Phantom Thieves were currently laying low on the roof of the Casino where they saw their friend and leader, Akira Kurusu, being forced into the back of a police van. With several cops surveying the area, giving one last glance of the area for the rest of the thieves before taking the head honcho with them.
"I'm sure, we've done all we could for him and the plan," Morgana said with his arms crossed as he looked upon the scene with feigned stoicism, as given away once Kyotaro noticed how his little legs shook from where he seated himself.
"Damn…" Ryuji gritted through his teeth and the sound of his gloves tightening in his grip could be heard. "This still sucks!"
"Yes," Yusuke agreed, bringing a hand to his forehead, "It's disheartening to see our dear friend be captured like this."
"Let's just go home…" Makato said slowly with a large frown formed on her face, she looked over to Kas- Sumire, who looked to be on the verge of breaking down seeing him being taken away. She placed her hands onto her shoulders for support, "They'll be looking for us, so it's best we stay low."
"Right now, the best thing we can do is have faith." Ann joined her junior with a small smile, Sumire giving a tearful nod. The girls giving Sumire support after what happened to her was a rough sight to see, first the whole thing with Maruki now she had to see Akira get pulled away by the police.
But there was one person missing, someone that was behind Kyotaro after he made his way out the window. Goro Akechi, not a single trace left of the guy…
"Yo, lookie who just bounced…" Kyotaro hiked a thumb behind him as if he had just left the roof, though it wasn't like they needed the obvious to be announced. "Mr. Detective Prince had just left the crime scene."
"He disappeared while Akira was being taken away... " Futaba informed the group with a small smirk forming on her face. "He has no idea."
"Let's just hope so." Haru placed her hands on her chest, trying to calm down her rapidly beating heart.
The thieves looked over to the front of the casino, where police were driving out of the metaverse. Disappearing in a ripple of black and red once they passed the field.
"Right," Kyotaro brought a hand to his head and brushed back his dark brown hair covered in sweat, "If this goes to shit then that means Akira is as good as‒"
"Shut up, Kyo!" He flinched back hearing the entire team, save for Sumire, yelled at him. He hid his mouth underneath his hands after realizing he said that aloud.
"Crap! S-sorry, Sumi-chan! I- I..." He muffled an apology, but she didn't look upset. In fact, she was smiling. She kneeled beside Kyotaro and shook her head with her small grin still on her face.
"It's okay... Because that won't happen, you're right Ann-senpai. We just gotta have faith that this will work."
Right… a bit of hope that this will work. He looked at Sumire with a saddened expression- he looked over to everyone else to see that they had the same hope as she did. Kyotaro didn't understand the entire plan that they made but they seemed like they knew what they were doing, just had to stay home and wait it out for the best…
And hope Akira was gonna be alright, lord knows where Kyotaro would be if he never met him…
And there we go, the first opening of the story
As you can tell, this story has some changes to it alongside the OC
As I wanted Kasumi to be more involved with the Phantom Thieves, I rearranged some stuff like Maruki's palace and downplayed his power for this story
I have something else planned after Yaldabaoth instead, if I ever get there…
Also I named Joker after his manga name, no other reason why. I just like Akira a bit more, I don't hate the anime name but Akira Kurusu just seemed to roll off the tongue for me. Yeah I know that Amamiya is considered to be basically his canon name, but here's the thing. He's a nameless protag in the game, where you can name him literally anything so long as he has a first and last name. And yes, I know there's a character named Akira Konoe in Scramble. I'm still gonna use the Manga name...
I don't know why I rambled so long on this part.
As for my OC's costume and Persona, they will show themselves in due time.
Thank you and please go easy on me in the reviews