VS The King of Lust (2)
The battle with Kamoshida continued and the Phantom Thieves did everything they could to ensure that their enemy went down, but they soon found out it was a lot easier said than done.
Thanks to his cup, Kamoshida could instantly heal any damage that they made to him, while Mona and Joker were the only ones amongst them that could heal their wounds, yet they also had to worry about dealing damage to Kamoshida himself.
"Alright, I'm already pissed, this bastard just won't go down" - Avenger said while retreating together with Panther and Skull - "Any good ideas to beat him?" -
"Let's just keep attacking, he'll run out of ways to heal eventually!" - Skull yelled.
"Yeah, and we'll run out before he does. We need a new plan before…" -
"Just hit the cup!" -
Panther was interrupted by Joker, as he used his gun to shoot the cup, causing it to crack slightly.
"... Alright, how did none of us think of that earlier?" - Avenger said as she summoned her Persona and, instead of attacking Kamoshida, attacked his cup, making the cracks bigger.
"What are you doing!? Stop, stop in this instant!" - Kamoshida yelled in an intimidating voice, but the others paid little to no mind to him and kept their assault.
He tried to use his fork to stab Joker, but he was pushed out of the way by Mona. Using this distraction, Ruler and Shielder approached, attacking with their own Personas and cracking the cup even more.
"Good job team, just a little bit more!" - Mona yelled as they all prepared to break Kamoshida's healing item, but they were stopped as he yelled…
"Slave, come here and aid your king!" -
Soon, from behind the monstrosity that used to be Kamoshida, a beaten down and bruised Mishima appeared, one of Joker and Panther's classmates. Not only that, but he was carrying a giant volleyball with him.
"Mishima!? What are you doing here!?" - Panther yelled, shocked to see their friend inside the Palace.
"That's not him, that's one of the cognitions inside the Palace, like the students we saw back at the dungeon!" - Joker yelled - "He's not real, Panther!" -
"Now Mishima, prove you're not worthless, bring me my special ball! It's time to make the killshot!" -
"Y-Yes, King Kamoshida" - he answered, in a weak and submissive state.
"Whatever he's planning, it's going to hurt. Everyone, guards up, now!" - Mona yelled as they all got into a defensive stance.
"Pass it to me Mishima! Don't tell me you can't even do something as simple as that!" -
"He-Here goes!"
The cognitive Mishima threw the ball into the air and Kamoshida jumped towards it, spiking it with great power and sending it crashing towards the Thieves. It hit the floor in front of them, causing a huge explosion and damaging all of them.
"I can't go all out with Mishima here. Hey, shit for brains, get the hell out of here!" - After the scream, the cognitive Mishima ran away from the place and disappeared from view.
"That rat bastard…" - Skull said as he slowly got up after the hit.
"He's likely to try it again if he gets the chance, we need to stop him before he can do it again" - Joker said, keeping his cool.
The Thieves got back up on their feet and with help from Joker and Mona, got fully healed up. Thanks to this, they continued the offensive, keeping an eye in case Kamoshida ever tried the same move again.
Kamoshida launched a strike with his golden fork towards Avenger, but the girl dodged it with ease. She used this opportunity to jump in his arm and run towards his face, kicking him in the face before summoning her Persona for the finisher.
"Avenger, launch me!" - Panther yelled from under her.
Seeing the opportunity, Avenger grabbed the whip that Panther threw and launched her in the air, landing with a powerful kick straight into Kamoshida's right eye.
"Agh, dammit!" -
"He's distracted, break the cup!" -
After hearing Joker, the rest turned their attention to Kamoshida again, and launched a combined attack against his cup, shattering it with their power.
"No! That's back from when I won the nationals!" - Kamoshida yelled after seeing his beloved trophy, now shattered in the ground.
"Haha, perfect!" - Mona yelled pridefully.
In a quick strike, the Thieves managed to eliminate 2 of Kamoshida's assets, yet the most important still remained in his possession: The crown. While Kamoshida was distracted by the loss of his beloved trophy, they all surrounded him while pointing their guns at him..
"You think you can get away with such a thing? Do you not realize who I am!? I am Kamoshida, don't you get it!? I am the king of this world!"
"I'll think about it later" - Joker answered without hesitation. This caused Avenger to giggle for a second before returning to being serious.
"Huh!? How dare you speak like that to the king!" -
"I always saw you as a condescending hotshot, but now? You're nothing but a pathetic loser" - Skull coldly said.
"We came all the way just for that!" - Panther saud, referring to the Treasure - "Give up and hand it over!" -
"Silence! You will never have the king's crown!" -
"He still has the energy to say that after all we've done to him…" - Mona said - "Then we're going to up our game as well!" -
The Thieves then used Kamoshida's moment of weakness to launch a powerful All Out Attack, which dealt massive damage to the ruler of the Palace.
The fight then continued, but while the rest launched themselves against Kamoshida immediately, Ruler and Joker stayed behind to discuss something else.
"If we don't take the Treasure away from him, this fight will never end. We'll need to find a way to knock it out of his head" - Joker said while standing next to Ruler.
"There might be a way to do it…" -
"Are you thinking the same as I'm thinking?" -
"Oh, definitely" -
The two called Mona to come to them and whispered something in his ear before launching themselves against Kamoshida, using their Personas to draw his attention. Meanwhile, Mona hid behind one of the pillars, waiting for the right moment to climb to the second floor.
Avenger and Panther together used their Personas to block the giant fork used by Kamoshida, while Skull and Shielder both blocked the knife he had after he tried to cut both girls with it. With this opening, Ruler and Joker attacked directly, hitting him in the eyes and blinding him for a few seconds.
These few precious seconds were used by Mona to climb to the second floor and get into position to jump straight at Kamoshida with the intent to knock it off.
In order for this to work, the rest took it upon themselves to keep Kamoshida distracted long enough for Mona to do this, which Avenger and Ruler took quite seriously. The pair summoned their Personas, and blasted Kamoshida with light attacks to keep his attention on them, but they were too concentrated on this, and failed to notice how Kamoshida was preparing his knife for an attack. Launching it at high speed, he managed to hit both of them, throwing them against a statue of himself.
Seeing this, Joker went to heal both of them while Panther, Skull and Shielder kept Kamoshida busy with them. Using the little slaves he had on his sides, he attacked the trio with several small voleyballs, a quick barrage of attacks that slowly started to push them back.
"You're all really annoying, it's time to finish this! I'm going for the killshot again!" - Kamoshida yelled before laughing manaically - "Slave, get me my special ball!" -
From behind the deformed monster, Ann's friend Shiho appeared, but not how the girl remembered her. This Shiho, Kamoshida's cognition of her, was dressed in a skimpy bunny suit that only covered the bare minimum while happily jumping and giggling with a volleyball in her hands.
"I brought it for you lord Kamoshida, just like you asked" - she said in a flirty tone. Seeing this made Avenger and Shielder feel sick, and it made Panther burst with rage.
"Very good Suzui, this is how a good girl should behave! All women should obey my commands like this, ain't that right sweetheart?" -
"W-What? What's Shiho doing here!?" -
"Panther, calm down! Remember, that's not the real one!" - Joker yelled, trying to keep her calm.
"I-I know, but this…" -
"Dammit, even Suzui? That piece of shit has gone too far now!" - Skull yelled before attacking Kamoshida with electricity coming from his Persona.
"He's getting ready for his attack again, we'll need to stop him!" -
The group turned their eyes towards the person who carried Kamoshida's weapon, Suzui. They didn't want to, but it was a good way to stop him from attacking, and this Suzui wasn't the real one, but rather just a cognition of her real self.
"Everyone, attack Suzui" - Joker said, knowing that it was the safer way to stop Kamoshida from attacking.
With those orders, everyone focused their attacks upon Suzui's cognition and destroyed her alongside the ball she carried, denying Kamoshida his chance to once again do his attack.
"Bah, it seems even Suzui was worthless. Looks like I'll need to give her some personal training… One to one!" - Kamoshida said, distracting himself with his own monologue. This gave Mona the perfect chance to launch himself from the second floor directly towards Kamoshida's crown, knocking it clean off his head.
"Good job Mona!" - Shielder yelled, while Mona struck a pose after his landing.
"Noooo! My… My precious crown!" -
"He's shaken up! We did it!" - Mona yelled.
"This is our chance. Everyone, let's finish this son of a bitch!" - Panther yelled, while Kamoshida did nothing to stop them. His will to fight was lost once his Treasure left his grasp.
After that, it didn't take long for the Thieves to finish him off. A black aura started to come out of his body, like he was burning after his defeat, and he fell to the ground, unable to stand up again. As he stopped moving, the Treasure changed from its changed size to the regular one, like an actual crown.
"Good, that's finally over" - Avenger said, creeped out by what he saw Kamoshida do during the fight - "Let's get that thing and leave this place" -
"On it" -
As Skull was going to pick it up, Kamoshida, now returned to his regular self, rolled into it, grabbed it, and made a run towards a nearby open window. Yet, after getting to it, he found out he had nowhere to run.
"What's the matter, mister great athlete, are you not going to run anymore?" - Panther asked in a mocking tone.
"You don't understand! It's always them, those damn hyenas forcing their expectations on me! Everything I did was for them! Is it wrong for me to ask for a reward after all my hard work!?" -
"What's up with those excuses?" - Skull asked, confused as to what he was talking about.
Kamoshida growled in fear, and Panther quickly took notice - "Scared? Now you're seeing exactly what Shiho saw" - she walked closer to Kamoshida, as the Shadow slowly walked backwards towards the balcony, a giant fall with nothing to cushion his fall awaited him - "I'm sure she was scared too… But she had no choice but to jump" -
Ruler, Avenger and Shielder looked at Panther, as she walked towards Kamoshida. Saying she was angry at him would be an understatement, he wanted him dead.
"So, what will you do? Would you jump? Or would you rather die here?" -
Panther summoned her Persona, fire coming out of Carmen's hands as Kamoshida cowered with no place to run.
"Do you want to finish him off?" - Mona asked to Panther - "It's your call" -
"Please no! I'm begging you, forgive me!" -
"Shut up. I bet everyone told you the same. But you… YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM THEM!" -
The fire was launched straight at Kamoshida, but to everyone's surprise, it didn't hit her. Did Panther missed?
"I… I surrender. You want it? Take it, it's all yours" - Kamoshida said, weekly throwing the crown at them, which landed in Joker's hands - "Go ahead, finish me off. Do it, and my real self will go down too. You have that right, you won after all" -
The others looked serious, but Panther was shaking in rage. The second fireball was launched, but it missed as well.
"But why… Wasn't she going to kill him?" - Ruler asked.
"If his mind shuts down, he'll never admit his crimes" - Panther said while making her Persona disappear.
"You're kind, Lady Ann" - Mona said.
"I've lost… After everything, I lost. What… What am I supposed to do now?" -
"The right thing" - Joker stepped in front of them - "Confess your sins and atone for them, that's the only way" -
"I see… I will do that. I'll leave now and return to my real self" - those were the final words of Kamoshida's Shadow, disappearing soon after in a golden glow.
Ruler, Avenger and Shielder were still processing everything when the Palace started to tremble.
"Just so everyone knows, we don't have much time. This place is about to collapse!" -
With that, the Thieves made a run for it as the Palace fell around them.
"NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY!" -
"WE'RE GONNA DIE, WE'RE SO GONNA DIE!" -
Ruler and Panther both yelled as they all made their way towards the exit as fast as they could. It seemed like they were doing fine, but Skull started to run slower and a few seconds later, fell to the floor.
"Ryuji!" - Panther yelled as she went back for him.
"It's been a while, I just tripped, that's all" - he said as they helped him back on his feet.
With him back up, they made their last effort, seeing a light at the end of the hallway. With all their strength, they ran as fast as they could, and crossed it…
