As they appeared in the gray washed circus world, Joker quickly exited the bear costume and as he did so human Teddie took it over. Yu handed out their weapons from a bag he had with them. As soon as he stepped out, it was clear the world didn't see him as a threat because both he and Oracle retained their street clothes while Mona was his normal monster cat self. Joker looked around watching a clown cop chase after a bad guy clown. Out of all the things Akechi's world could be, the more he looked around this world seemed to make sense. A boy that was forced to grow up, that held little respect for those around him, that always held himself as the smartest person in the room, but mostly someone that wanted to be the star of his own show. It all made sense to Joker.
"Is there something wrong?" Yu asked as he looked over at Joker, noticing he wasn't in his classic Phantom thief attire.
"This palace hasn't recognized us as a threat yet. I'm sure that'll change in a moment once we actually get into this place. What do you think Joker?" Mona looked to his leader for direction.
"Let's look around." Joker commanded taking a confident stride forward.
Just as Joker took a step forward, one of the clowns seemed to notice him. Instantly fear welled up upon the clown's painted face as it pointed towards Joker in exaggerated matter. "I-I-it's the L-lion!"
"They are afraid of a lion and not a ferocious bear like me?" Teddie questioned as he watched the clowns run from Joker.
In a twist of bluish flame, Joker's clothes shifted from the hoodie and jeans to the slick black fabric of his thief attire. With the shift of attire, Joker suddenly felt in control as his spirit of rebellion surged forward. He was going to show Akechi that even he had chains that bound him and it was only by rebelling that he would ever be free. A predatory smirk rose on Joker's lips as he pulled at his bright red gloves; this caused the clown's eyes to go even wider. If Joker was a lion here, this world was going to hear him roar. The clown took off running into several other clowns, causing a domino effect in which several clowns fell over. Joker took another step forward and the clowns quickly started to scatter in the most comic matter they could.
"Jeez you really have 'em running Joker. It's like your over leveled for this area and the trash mobs can sense it." Oracle called as she put a hand to her visor. Like him her spirit of rebellion was now outwardly manifested. "Jeez this place is weird. You're right about this place being empty Princess. Somethin' ain't right here Joker, and I haven't got a way to explain it."
"Oracle we could try scanning together, we might get a clearer picture if we do. That is if you are up to it." Rise stepped up to her fellow Navigator.
"Like a combo scan? Sure! But how?" Oracle tilted her head slightly.
Rise got a warm smile on her face. "Follow my lead Oracle. I've only done this a few times, but it should be even more powerful with two navigators." She stepped up to Oracle and took both of her hands. "Let the connection flow through you Oracle, we can't do this if you fight me. Don't be surprised by what you find."
Joker watched in amazement as both Necronomicon and Kouzeon appeared above their users and instead of Necronomicon abducting Futaba up into itself it instead hovered over Kouzeon. The strange black tentacles enveloped Kouzeon and pulled the other persona up into it. As the merger become complete the UFO gave a few sudden jerky movements before a luminous array of bright green lasers exploded from the object covering everything in sudden eerie green light. Joker had to shield his eyes from the bright green light but as he lowered his arm, both personas were gone and all that stood in their wake was the two navigators.
"Whoa…" Oracle blinked before she looked up at Rise and suddenly surged forward to hug her. "Princess..."
"What did I just see?" Mona asked, confusion playing across his face.
Rise returned Futaba's hug, tears misting in the corner of her eyes. "I know Oracle, but you've come so far. You should be proud."
"It's okay, I'm better now." Futaba muttered before she released Rise and smiled up at her. "You really are something though, I never knew being an Idol was so hard."
"Not as amazing as you Oracle. You are someone I can only admire." Rise looked around to the others, her friends seemed to understand what had just happened, but by the confused look on Mona and Joker shoed they had no idea. "My persona's root nature is one that connects people. With it I can connect to people's hearts and powers. I connected with Futaba so we could scan everything here. Some of our memories and emotions might have gotten through when we connected."
"Yeah it was weird but super cool!" Oracle excitedly proclaimed. "Anyways we got all the data! This palace isn't empty. Normally there is a cognition that rules over the palace while in this place there are only fragments." Futaba paused as if she was trying to find the correct words.
"It's like Akechi only accepted part of his true self, but not the whole thing. It's like he broke his cognition apart and only took the parts he wanted out of it. So there are fragments everywhere. Honestly I didn't know you could do that to your shadow and still be alive." Rise explained.
Naoto looked like she was pondering the words the navigators were saying. "Akechi could be a special case, so maybe the rules don't apply to him as they have in the past."
"This circus tent is divided into three sections. Each section has a fragment, but also has some beefy shadows lurking in them. We'll probably have to fight those shadows to get access to the fragments." Oracle continued.
"Yeah but what about the treasure?" Mona asked getting down to brass tacks.
"The treasure and the fragments seem to be one in the same." Oracle responded.
"So this palace has three treasures?" Mona's eyes got wide at the idea. "But we can't just send out three calling cards it'd be too risky. Umm."
"Could we possibly gather all three fragments together and just steal them at once?" Joker asked.
Mona jumped up. "Good idea Leader! Spoken like a true thief!"
Rise nodded. "We should be able to. The fragments are cognitions and they appear to have a tangible form."
"Then we'll gather them, then send the card and steal Akechi's heart!" Mona cheered. "Our lives as Phantom Thieves are on the line for this one! Let's GO!"
There was a look everyone gave each other. It was that look of determination that spoke volumes to getting the task at hand done. Even if it had only been a few days since Yu and Naoto walked into his life, there was some sort of unspoken rule that Yu and his friends could be trusted. Joker was grateful for them and this was just the start of a friendship he felt would last as long as it would with the other Thieves.
As the group advanced into the circus, the police offer shadows for the most part ran. Yelling about the 'Lion' coming to get them. Joker would have continued to be confused if Naoto hadn't show him the discarded billboard along the back of the circus tent. A few police officers stood to fight, melting into shadows that were easily taken care of with the combined might of the group. It was only as they approached the front of the tent did a new series of billboards catch the group's eye. Unlike the discarded Joker lion one, these ones were hung up just outside of the main entrance advertising what the team could expect in the tent itself.
The first one was of Sae Niijima, she was dressed in a leotard and juggling many objects. Some of the objects were a deck of cards, a justice scale, a folder, a large section sign and a Venus symbol. All of those seemed to hint at Sae's personality. However there were more traditional things people juggled mixed in as well; a sword, a torch on fire, and a bowling pin. The caption around the picture read 'Come see Sae Niijima struggling under the oppressing weight of the SIU as a public prosecutor with JUGGLING! How long can she continue to juggle until she fails?! Fun for the whole family as a woman completely breaks down!'
The second one was of Shido. He was dressed as some sort of strong man, but instead of a barbell he was holding up the whole of Japan. The picture reminded Joker of those pictures of Atlas holding up the world, but instead of the world it was all of Japan. The caption for this billboard read 'See Shido Masayoshi, strong man and political idol. It's a sight to behold, however he only has a limited performance before this man is killed. Come quickly and see him while he still lives and breathes!' It would seem Akechi wasn't going to let Shido live for long, which raised the question. Why let Shido become prime minster and kill him afterwards unless there was some sort of shock factor Akechi was trying to achieve with Shido's death. Hopefully this mystery would unravel itself.
The third one was probably the most surprising out of all of them. It was a picture of Naoto with Yu standing next to her in a gorilla costume. Naoto wore a rather revealing outfit that made the real Naoto quickly look away and become unable to look at the billboard. Rise offered her condolences but the picture really did over sexualize the detective. Apparently Naoto left an impression on her younger protégé. The caption read. 'Come see the tamer of both man and beast Naoto Shirogane and her trained gorilla Yu Narukami! These two are a real beauty and the beast pair that will take on and solve any mystery.' At the bottom was a smaller advert that ran along the bottom of the billboard. 'Watch Naoto's impressive skill handle the remaining Phantom Thieves. This is a limited time show come see it before it's gone.'
"You know I think he got our good sides; Agent." Yu commented looking towards his partner clearly trying to cut the tension.
"I-I..." Naoto appeared at a loss for words as she stared down at her feet avoiding looking at the billboard at call cost, even going so far as to lower her hat to just above her eyes.
"Oh boy if Agent's boyfriend saw that he'd probably lose all the blood in his body through his nose" Yosuke added as he folded his arms across his chest.
"You look beautiful Agent!" Teddie cheered as Rise consoled her friend and put an arm around her.
The fourth and final billboard was faded beyond recognition. In the faded image appeared to be a woman holding onto a rope, but it was really hard to tell. The paint was chipped and the billboard had a large chunk missing from a corner. It was hard to make out what the billboard once said but the words 'amazing trapeze. Gone.' Where the only words Joker could make out on the aged billboard. Joker could only believe this last billboard had something to do with Akechi's late mother, but there was little information to be gathered about her beyond that.
Between the billboards was a small booth that had a picture of a ticket with a badge on it. A bored looking clown sat behind the counter of the booth. While Joker didn't recognize the clown, both Yu and Naoto did. It was the receptionist that worked at the police stations front desk. Unlike the other clowns, this one had no fear of Joker and just gave the group as a whole a bored look as they approached the booth.
"Tickets please." The clown asked glancing over the group as it leaned his hand on his cheek.
"I suppose that makes sense, we have to present our credentials every time we head into the police station." Yu commented before he reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out his badge.
"Thank you, you may head in." The clown said before he turned his attention back to the rest of the group. "Tickets please…"
"It would seem we would all need to present credentials. Kingpin and I should get in fine but what are we going to do about the rest of you?" Naoto pondered as she looked over the group.
"I think I got this!" The smug tone Mona seemed to have was evident he had a plan. Jumping on the counter he put down a silver police badge.
The ticket taker picked up the badge. "Thank you please head into the tent."
"Where did you get that Mona?" Yosuke asked as Mona jumped off the counter with a grin.
"From that clown we defeated. It dropped after we defeated the shadow." Mona explained.
"Sounds like we got a fetch quest." Oracle put her hand to her visor. "Let's see which one of you guys have the badges we need… Ah there's one. But if we approach it'll probably run away…"
Oracle pointed to clown chowing down on some donuts. The clown was so preoccupied with eating his donuts he didn't even flinch as he was named out, but it was a ways off. Naoto looked down at Mona an idea appearing in her eyes. Mona just grinned up at her before he took a few steps back and turned into a van. Mona's driver side door opened to Naoto who calmly got in. The sound of Mona revving up didn't cause any fuss as Naoto got ready.
"Oracle, Princess can you guys work together to point them out, the rest of you get in and get ready to take them out once they are down." Naoto called out from the van.
Yu grinned and cracked his knuckles as he got into the van. "We got you Agent! Joker, Deputy, Kuma you guys ready?"
"Let's go." Joker pulled at his red glove ready to rock as he got in behind Yu.
"Let's bear pile these enemies!" Teddie called clearly excited about what was about to happen as he climbed into the back.
"Ready or not, here we come!" Yosuke added as the last one in the van.
Mona roared down the grassy turf of the circus grounds directly towards the unsuspecting clown. The clown heard the car coming closer and looked up, but by that time it was already too late. Naoto spun the van around and smacked the police officer into the side of the tent. The tent was surprisingly strong and the clown hit with a loud smack before it fell to the grown and melted into a very dazed shadow. Mona popped back into his cat form, dizzy, but otherwise fine at the impact. That switch opened up for the four boys to surge forward and beat down the shadow. The plan worked flawlessly as Joker bent down and picked up a badge from the ground where the defeated shadow once stood.
"Next target is at four o'clock. Looks like he's riding on a scooter giving someone a ticket." Oracle announced as her UFO persona floated above the tent.
Joker looked among the field of clowns instantly spotting the clown Oracle mentioned. He was indeed giving a ticket to another clown. There was poof to Joker's left as Mona once again turned back into a van. The cat's recovery time between the maneuver was far shorter then when Naoto first preformed the attack, showing how used to it Mona was getting. As Naoto set her sights on the clown Oracle had mentioned everyone once again loaded up into the van. Another hit, another downed enemy, another easy take out for the boys, and a badge as their reward. This happened several more times before enough badges were collected for everyone. By the end of the encounter Mona's recovery time reduced until the move no longer made him dizzy anymore.
Setting a small pile of badges down at the counter, the bored looking clown had a look of surprise flash on his face. It didn't last long however as his face conformed back into the bored look he normally wore. "Please enter, enjoy your time at the Tokyo Police Three Ring Circus. The most magical place in the Metaverse." And with that Joker and his group were allowed into the big top.
As they entered the big top the whole room was dark except for some minor illumination directing them to a set of bleachers. Not wanting to fight enemies in the dark the group funneled into the bleachers and sat down. They were clearly in a large tent, but with everything so dark it was hard to get an exact size of the area they were in. Once everyone was settled down a spot light illuminated the stands before swinging along the sides of the tent and stopping on a location Joker had a slight familiarity too. The area that the spot light shown on lit up in colors of red, blue and yellow as the set of the popular talk show Akechi was frequently on. Joker couldn't remember the name of the show but as the set lit up the spot light faded and the two talk show hosts that always interviewed Akechi took appeared from the circle at the back of the set and sat down on the red couches out in front of it.
"My My, Do we have a show for you all today," The male host started.
"Yes we do! Today our guest is a prosecutor from the SIU! Please put your hand together to welcome to the first ring of the circus. SAE NIIJIMA!" The female host announced.
The lights from the talk show set faded as several spot lights lit up a ring in front of the bleachers. The ring was quite large and in the center of it all was Sae. She was on a unicycle juggling several things already. Instead of the leotard she was wearing in the billboard outside she was wearing her normal gray pant suit. If this wasn't a cognition, Joker might have been impressed by the amount she was juggling but apparently that wasn't the only part of the act. A balding older man in sad clown make up reached into a pile of stuff and would occasionally just throw a new object into the mix for Sae to juggle.
"Hey isn't that the SIU Director? He's the one Niijima-san reported too if I remember correctly." Naoto asked as she pointed to the sad clown.
"I think so, I don't remember his name though." Yu responded with a shrug.
"Me either. I heard he recently passed away too." Naoto commented.
Sae tried to her best to maintain control over the vast number of objects she was juggling in the air. An anxious smile appeared on her face as more objects were tossed to her, before the sad clown pulled out a large doll that bore an uncanny resemblance to Makoto and moved to toss it into the mix. As the doll was tossed into the mix, the precarious balancing act all came undone around Sae. Things crashed to the ground, Sae fell off the unicycle. The Director ran off at this disappearing into the darkness beyond the ring.
"CURSE YOU WORLD!" Sae screamed as she got to her feet. "This system I tried so hard to rig for myself was rigged from the start against me!" She paused clearly trying to calm down before her attention turned to the audience. "I can get back up again! I just need to erase all those that saw my mistake."
"That's not foreboding at all." Yosuke deadpanned.
Sae reached down and picked up a large sword before she eyed everyone in the bleachers. Suddenly her regular clothing seemed to melt away into a more post-apocalyptic gear that reminded Joker much of her sister's get up, but far more ragged and aged. Reaching down she picked up her unicycle and it instantly transformed into the set of heavy weaponry that she had in her shadow form. She pointed the amalgamation of guns at the bleachers as the Gatling part of it begin to spin up.
"Hit the deck!" Oracle yelled as everyone quickly moved to scatter.
The heart stopping sound of the Gatling gun destroying the bleachers that the crew was just sitting on rang in the air. "Oh dear it would seem Sae is on another rampage, looks like our audience is having fun with it!" The male host announced from his spot.
"I wonder how long the game will last before Sae kills them." The female host giggled.
Joker ran around the ring of the circle taking up a position behind a large circle cage. Mona and Oracle also joined him in this position as everyone that scattered quickly got to cover from Sae's assault. Luckily from his spot it seemed everyone found some sort of cover, but they'd need to make a plan if they were going to assault Sae. With everyone so scattered that'd prove to be difficult.
"Ren-kun have you come here to play with me?" An eerily familiar voice called out from inside of the circus cage.
Joker blinked and glanced into the cage only to come face to face with a younger version of Akechi. The boy in the cage couldn't have been more than 7 or so years old but he was definitely Akechi; the boy even wore Akechi's typical tan pea coat and had a miniature 'A' brief case. He smiled at Joker from his cage, several toys scattered around the cage seemed drive home the child like feel of Akechi before him.
"It's a chibi Akechi!" Oracle yelped as she looked into the cage.
"It must be one of the fragments, but how do we get him out of this cage?" Mona asked as he looked up at the boy.
"The cage?" The boy asked tilting his head in confusion. "Oh you mean my room! My babysitter has the key!" The small Akechi pointed towards the rampaging Sae.
All three looked towards Sae who was currently suppressing their friends with superior firepower. Joker glanced at the Thieves at his side before he pulled out his pistol and nodded. It was clear he was going to distract Sae so the others could move and get out Sae's field of fire. It was going to be risky but he trusted the others to get Sae off him should he get pinned. Mona and Oracle nodded moving around to the other side of the cage as Joker got in position and took aim.
BANG BANG BANG
Three shot hit Sae center of mass causing the cognition to stumbling slightly forward at the impacts. There was a hang time of half a second before Sae spun around and unloaded on Joker. Joker quickly ducked back behind the cage as bullets whizzed past him. Mona and Oracle had taken their cue to escape and were no doubt roaming in the inky blackness that surrounded the circus ring. Suddenly the gun fire abruptly died.
"Are you and the babysitter playing hide and seek Ren-kun because here she comes. She know where you are hiding." The kid Akechi informed him from the cage.
Joker took a deep breath, hoping the others were working on their own plan as he prepared himself. Activating his second sight, he saw the looming shadow of Sae approach him but another larger figure vaguely outlined in his vision made Joker stay where he was. Glancing around the corner of the cage, Joker saw Kamui-Moshiri speed towards Sae's exposed back and unleash a Mabufudyne directly at the large gun in Sae's hand freezing it to the ground.
"GO!" Came Rise's voice from the other side of the ring as Kouzeon appeared.
Yu and Yosuke jumped over the broken down bleacher they had taken refuge behind and summoned their personas. Both Izanagi-no-Okami and Takehaya Susano-o looked at each other and seemed to nod before putting their arms out. There was a half a second pause as Sae tried to pull both her hand and gun free from the ice block but it was already too late. The smell of ozone filled the air as the spot lights flickered in and out and the low rumble of thunder could be heard. Instantly a large wind tornado appeared in front of the two persona tearing up the ground underneath it as it headed directly towards Sae, but it wasn't over as a massive bolt of lightning struck the tornado, electrifying it and causing it to spark. It had become a tornado of both wind and electricity.
Sae could only stare at the ball of death that was moving towards her. Vainly she pulled up her arm to try and block the attack but it hit with the force of a Mac truck. An explosion of lightning and wind followed by the sight of Sae getting knocked back into the pitch black of the rest of the tent. The gun still frozen in ice was all that was left. Joker stepped out from beyond the cage as everyone else rose form the places they had taken cover.
"That was so close my fur is a little singed" Teddie sighed as he stepped into the circus ring.
"Well we got her." Yosuke commented as he put his hands behind his head as he stared off into the void she had disappeared too
"Wait… She ain't done yet!" Oracle shouted, her voice echoing with panic.
Joker was barely able to bring up his dagger as Sae darted out the shadows and directly at him. The sword she had picked up was her new weapon of choice now that her gun was useless. Joker found himself in a battle of blades as he moved to try and parry every one of Sae's swift assaults. She was good, but he had recently fought someone on a whole other level, and he wasn't about to lose to this level of power.
Clang
Joker reversed a strike causing Sae's sword to swing wide and leave her completely open. Time seemed to slow down as a shot rang out from Naoto's gun causing the sword to fly from Sae's hand. This caused Sae to stumble back as Mona appeared and rolled through her legs. The cat instantly summoned Zorro who brought his sword across Sae's chest in his signature 'Z' slash. Sae continued her stumble backwards at the cat's assault before falling back and just lay there defeated. She slowly started to fade away like a defeated shadow.
Joker let out the breath he had been holding in. Everyone glanced at each other as if to reaffirm everyone was still in one piece before Joker looked down at the patch of ground the cognitive Sae had disappeared from. There sat a golden key just lying in the middle of the dirt begging to be picked up. Joker obliged and picked it up examining it before looking back at the circus cage the younger Akechi was in.
"Is this it?" The leader of the Phantom Thieves asked holding up the key for the boy to see.
"Yep! You gonna let me out so we can play Ren-kun?" Akechi asked excitedly.
"Sure." Joker said stepping up to the cage.
The boy Akechi grinned excitedly at Joker before he picked up his brief case and begun to shove it full of the toys scattered around the cage. As he was packing up his toys, Joker looked for the door to insert the key and quickly found it on the front side of the cage by the front axle. The key inserted smoothly and with a quick twist there was a satisfying click. Stepping back from the door it swung open as the boy Akechi jumped out, briefcase full of toys in hand. He grinned up at Joker.
"Thanks Ren-kun! Now we can play." Akechi proclaimed as the others joined Joker.
"He really is so freakin' adorable. Too bad he grows up into such a slime ball." Oracle sighed.
"So the first piece is Akechi's child self." Yosuke glanced at Naoto.
"What's that look for?!" Naoto was quick to demand.
"Nothing, nothing at all!" Yosuke started. "It's just both of you seem to have a thing about growing up and discarding your child selves."
Naoto rolled her eyes and went to fold her arms before the youth Akechi spotted her. "NAOTO!" He quickly bolted across the distance between them and clung to Naoto legs. "I love you detective Naoto, Imma gonna grow up and be just like you! You're my idol!" The kid's voice was filled with wonder like a kid meeting their hero for the first time.
"Looks like you made a friend Naoto." Yu commented looking at the young boy.
"Apparently." Naoto sighed before she pried the young boy off her legs and knelt down to his level. "Hi Akechi-kun, can you tell us were the other fragments are?"
Akechi tilted his head. "Fragments? I don't know what you are talking about but if you're here that means you are here to play right!?" The young Akechi held up his briefcase. "I brought all the toys, I want to play with you the mostest Naoto!"
"Aw would you look at that?" The female host called from her spot.
"He's adorable isn't he folks? With Sae Niijima's performance over, that's all we have for you today everyone!" The male host explained.
"Be sure to stop by tomorrow, we got an action packed show lined up for you!" The female host informed the others. "Bye bye everyone!"
"Bye!" The male host waved.
And with that the lights over the circle Sae had been in shut off and the lights from the set the two hosts were sitting at went completely off. A path back to the entrance of the tent illuminated under their feet. It was clear this was as far as they were going to get in this palace today. Best be back tomorrow to see what would be in store for them then. Without another word the group made its way to the exit and back out onto the circus grounds. As they walked out of the tent, Joker was surprised to see the younger Akechi cuddled in Naoto's arms. He was clutching onto her like a scared child would a trusted adult.
"So I guess we continue this tomorrow?" Yu asked the rest of the group.
"I'm game" Mona replied.
"Count me in." Joker also replied.
"I got things I need to work on tomorrow, but Monday I can join you guys!" Futaba chimed in.
"Sounds like we are going to have a full next couple of days. Next Tuesday, Teddie and Yosuke head back and I really should check in with Takura Productions. So that day everyone should take a break." Rise recommended as she looked over the group.
Yu nodded. "Sounds like a plan, what do you think Joker?"
"Sure," Joker slid his hands into his pockets as he spoke.