11/1 – Tuesday
Evening
Sae's Palace, Backrooms
Ren did not have the technical knowledge to parse what he was looking at. But he knew enough to know it definitely didn't belong in the mind of a prosecutor.
After a Safe Room pit-stop, past an armament of Shadow guards, the Thieves had made their way to the apparent end of this particular section of corridors: a room lined with control panels, monitors and desks from which to observe those monitors, each of which held a security camera shot of a certain angle of the casino. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Except for the enormous far wall, which was easily twice the size of the surroundings, the ceiling abruptly and unnaturally yanked up to match, and held an assortment of small blinking lights in various colors with absolutely nonsensical labels - fíor and bréagach appearing most commonly, connected to green and red lights respectively. Each light was connected by a tiny piece of colored metal, like a little arm, some of which were clicking from one path to another intermittently.
"What the fuck is this?" Skull asked, his mouth agape.
Oracle didn't answer. She was standing stock-still at the front of the group, gawking at the display, her goggles up on her forehead.
"Those words," Queen mumbled, her brow pursed with thought. "That's Gaelic. I'm almost positive."
"Fascinating," Fox said, who was currently arranging his fingers into a picture frame, staring through with one eye closed to attempt to capture the full wall. "Your sister wouldn't happen to have Irish descent, would she?"
Queen shook her head. "I don't think so. I've never heard her talk about it. And language isn't her forte."
Ren hummed a thought. "Do you know what those words mean? Like, do you recognize them?"
"True and false." Crow's voice, and Ren glanced over to see his face pale, eyes wide and breath halfway to shallow. "Input. Output. Seed. Alternation. Scramble."
"I...didn't know you spoke Gaelic," Ren said.
"I don't," Crow replied, the words leaving him nearer to a whisper.
Ren didn't have a chance to ask him what he meant before Oracle spoke. "It's a Schrödinger Logic Gate." She swallowed, gaze still locked on the contraption. "I've only seen it in diagrams. Never..."She trailed off.
"The fucking cat guy?" Skull asked, incredulous.
"It's her design," Oracle said. Like she hadn't heard him. "My mom." Ren's blood froze. "She helped make it. It's...one of the things she came up with at that laboratory."
Logic clicked cleanly into place. Ren's focus snapped back towards the aghast Crow. Oh. Oh no.
"I just..." Oracle reached out a hand, like she wanted to touch the wall, then drew it back. "I don't understand. I don't know why it's here ."
Crow and Oracle were both spiraling or on the verge of it, pointing off in different directions. He couldn't drag them both back. Yet again, Ren wished Violet was there. Okay. Focus. He turned, finding Panther in the midst, off to his left in sensibly close proximity to Queen. He made eye contact with her and jerked his head subtly towards Crow. Mouthing two words: help him .
Confusion for only a second. She glanced at Crow, and Ren watched her connect the dots in real time. Panther threw a look back towards Ren, the tiniest of nods, and began to scoot around the Thieves towards him.
Ren didn't let gratitude eclipse his concern. He turned back, took a few steps closer to Oracle, closing the distance between them. Not encroaching, just...there. "Sojiro told me that your mom and Sae talked about cognitive stuff sometimes. I don't know if they were friends, necessarily, all the way. But they were at least good enough acquaintances that...maybe she told her about the gate?"
Oracle's frown only deepened. "I didn't know that..." she mumbled.
"Ah." Ren barely held back his wince. "I...I'm sorry, I assumed."
"Okay," Oracle said. Eyes still locked on the gate, on all those switches and lights. "I don't think mom would have shared this with a friend." She shifted one side to another. "She liked her work a lot, was really proud of it, but the papers and diagrams weren't...they bored her. She always got frustrated whenever she had to write up the details." A ghost of a pained smile. "Mom told me all about cognition, but I didn't see any of her designs until after she died. After I went looking for them."
Hm. A new wrinkle. Ren furrowed his brow. Sae was a prosecutor. High ranking. She probably had access to resources that an ordinary person–
"Shido has long had his eye on Niijima as one of the final actors within the justice system that he has no control over."
An-So. The name struck him between the eyes. Shido's compatriots, or puppets, or whatever the fuck they were. They owned the cognitive psience labs Wakaba had worked at. They had reached out to Haru's father and fed him lies to get funding. Shido had wanted Sae under his thumb.
What better bait, what better compromise, than dangling a classified report from her late friend? Maybe a sign of faith. Maybe she'd already done a favor for him and that was her reward. Maybe–
Alert, dipshit. Key item is fucking flagging. Ren shook his head. Focus. Oracle was right there, in distress. It wasn't the time to get lost in his own thoughts. "You said you went looking," Ren said, slowly. "What if Sae went looking too?"
Her shoulders shifted down. A few quick blinks. "Oh," she said, and there was half a note of disappointment in it. "That...right. If they were friends. She's a prosecutor. She could call in favors, and she knew people." Oracle nodded slowly. "Okay. That makes sense." Deep breath in. "Sorry. I...kinda freaked out there." She finally broke away from the Gate, turning back towards Ren, towards the Thieves. "Uh. Yeah."
"Are you alright?" Noir asked, her voice soft and smile softer. "The Safe Room is nearby, we can always retrace our steps and take another breather." Mona hop-waddled a few steps forward as well, probably offering his own proximity.
Out of the corner of Ren's eye, he could see Panther and Crow farther off, talking in hushed tones. Neither looked angry. Panther, maybe a bit frustrated. Firm and unyielding in that way Ren adored. Crow had his back to Ren, his expression obscured. Nothing to go off of.
"I'm okay," Oracle repeated. She crossed over to Mona and plucked the cat up into her arms, cradling him tight to her chest. He neither protested nor struggled, just nuzzled against her arm near-silently with the quietest of thrumming purrs. "Uh. It just...startled me. Really bad." She nodded a few more times, petting Mona's head. "I'm good to keep going."
"Erm," Fox said, raising a hand. "I don't mean to pry, and please inform me if this question or topic distresses you further. But would you be comfortable explaining exactly what this particular device does?" He nodded towards the Logic Gate, still ticking away.
Oracle started. "Oh! Yeah, that's right, sorry." Still cradling Mona, she turned back towards it "So...Noir, uh, sorry for writing you off back at the dice game. You were actually pretty much right all the way."
Noir blinked, then seemed to connect the dots. "Ah, you mean the suggestion of a rule – 'I cannot lose.' Is that what this gate does?"
"Technically, yeah," Oracle said. "It's more complex than that." She swayed back and forth, rocking Mona like a particularly fluffy infant; the cat let out a series of little vaguely perplexed murps, but did not squirm. "My mom's team was working on quantum mechanics applications."
"Schrödinger," Queen said, repeating the word with a tone of awe. "I'm an idiot. He was dealing with quantum probabilities. "
Oracle nodded quickly. "He's also a piece of shit. Mom had a whole forward in the Logic Gate report acknowledging that using the framework of an abuser wasn't condoning his abuse. Like...credit where it's due, he invented the thing, but he's still an awful person." Back and forth, back and forth.
Noir hummed a single sweet note. "That's a very kind sentiment. Your mother sounds wonderful, Futaba. I really wish I could have met her."
"Yeah," Oracle said, with a little grin. "I mean...she wasn't great all the time, but I still really love her. And she definitely would have liked you a lot." Another breath, another catch. "But, uh, yeah. Mom had a theory that if you could change someone's cognition precisely enough, you could change the outcome of random events. Circumvent the observer effect by disregarding realities that didn't match your desired result."
"Uh," Skull said, throwing up a hand. "Layman here. Dumb version, pretty please."
Oracle scoffed in a way that almost resembled a laugh. She jerked a thumb towards the Logic Gate. "When Sae wants a dice to roll a six, this makes it so her cognition can't see any result of the roll that isn't a six. In real life, there's more complicated factors and the observer effect is theoretical anyway, so it wouldn't be anywhere near that powerful. But in here?"
"The Metaverse is all cognition," Mona said, blinking. He squirmed slightly in Futaba's arms, pivoting around to look at her directly. "If the Palace can't consider any other outcome, then none of those other outcomes will ever happen." Oracle nodded her confirmation.
"That is...deeply impressive technology," Fox said, staring at the wall with an expression of abject concern. "And I am very thankful that Miss Niijima is only using it to rig games of chance against her own cognitions."
"It's more than that," Queen said, her voice low. "Just because this can't affect reality, doesn't mean it doesn't affect her actions." She swallowed hard. "I'm guessing there's more of these somewhere. Hidden away. Other things that she's not letting herself see."
Ren nodded slowly. "It's like a backup plan. If we'd stolen her Treasure or tried to get her to change her own heart, she could just...refuse to even hear what we're saying."
"She just kept looking for reasons to discredit me. From that day onward, for weeks, everything I did was...another reason why I'd invented our father's abuse."
He swallowed. "That's how she's been moving forward. Shutting out any other possibilities."
"Probably, yep," Oracle said, reaching up to yank her goggles down onto her face. She swiped one hand across some invisible interface, still cradling Mona with the other. "Good thing my mom made a kill code."
And the Logic Gate froze. No steady wind down. It simply...stopped. Those little arms locked in place, even the active lights starting to dim away to nothing.
"Cognitive computers like this can be really dangerous," Oracle said, pushing her goggles back onto her head. "So mom really made sure that her team included some really easy ways to turn them off. And it's a lot harder to get something like this started than it is to make it stop." She flashed a little smile. "Doesn't matter how good Sae's hidden 'em. Cognitive code injection is gonna hit every single one."
A short amazed silence spread over the Thieves.
"Damn," Skull said. "Shit, that was fucking cool, Navi."
"I wouldn't repeat Skull's particular choice of words, but I share his sentiment." Crow's voice. Ren glanced over to see that he'd rejoined the group, standing there with that little condescending smirk as if nothing at all had happened. Despite that, something in his eyes seemed...tired. More than usual.
Ren caught a glimpse of Panther near the back of the group, and she threw a thumbs up before slipping over towards Queen again.
"We were lucky to catch this particular wrinkle now," Crow continued. "Otherwise, it would have disrupted our plans entirely. And of course, Oracle continues to be indispensable. Excellent work."
Oracle stared at him. "Are you... that bad at compliments to everyone, or is it just me? "
Crow scoffed out a laugh. "Think whatever you wish." A little hint of honestly relieving sharpness. It was still Crow, underneath that cloying prince schtick. It was still Akechi behind that mask.
Deep breath in, deep breath out. No more crises, but they were still far from done with the day. "Alright," Ren said. "So, now that the dice game is fair again, should we head back there and clean the place out?"
Oracle pursed her lips. "Uh. I mean, if she starts rigging it in the usual ways, I could exploit that. But if she keeps it open and fair, we're still, um..." She swiped her hand a few times right, glancing between some series of displays only she could see. "Fifty-eight percent to win. Sixteen percent of that is winning double, but we've only got two plays to work with."
"We could rob one of the cognitive guests," Noir offered. Ren almost choked thin air. Not that he was complaining, and he didn't even disagree, but...sometimes he could forget how his girlfriend sounded suggesting violence in the same sweet voice she delivered praise. It...Ren didn't exactly have a word to articulate how that made him feel, but it sure did make him feel.
"We could have enough for a hundred plays," Crow cut in. "It wouldn't be much more than a moot point if Sae closes the dice game. And my experience says she'll probably panic away from keeping it open the second her cognition recognizes she's handing over money."
Ren found himself nodding. "Loss aversion, yeah?"
Queen hummed a thought. "That definitely sounds like sis." She rubbed her chin. "Maybe we can take advantage of the chaos. Her Palace's security will probably look the other way for the next hour or two. We could use that time to recoup our losses, get closer to the chip limit required for the VIP Area." A breath, her eyes firm. "One step closer to her Treasure."
"Hey guys." Skull's voice, and Ren glanced over to see his boyfriend gesturing towards one of the many security monitors. "Not saying for sure that this is gonna fix stuff, but...they've got a cage fight."
Ren blinked. His feet moved on instinct, jogging over to Skull, glancing over his shoulder at the monitor. Sure enough, it displayed an arena of sorts, surrounded by fencing, where cheering guests watched two Shadows tear into each other with wild abandon.
Fox leaned in as well, and double-took. "A casino with a cage fight? "
"Lower courts," Queen said, near-immediately. "The way Sae talks about them, the clients don't matter, it's just about the defense and prosecution in the ring. Showing off, trying to beat each other."
"And the prosecution always wins," Ren finished, watching as the larger Shadow picked up the smaller and tore its arm clean off its body. He glanced back towards his allies, catching Crow staring off towards nothing in particular with the oddest smile on his face.
"That should do quite nicely," he said. Simple, calm as a crocodile, and Ren felt his pulse congeal in his veins.
Sure enough, the Thieves had emerged back into the casino to find the dice game swarmed with guards attempting to corral indignant customers, pushing back towards the games, demanding their winnings. The rush had even dragged a few slot machine players away from their vigils, and it wasn't hard to swipe a few coins here and there from those watching the chaos. Nothing they would notice or miss. Soon enough, fifty coins became a hundred. And from there, they made their way through an unmarked hallway, following Oracle's guidance all the way to the fenced-off arena.
"Would you like to enter as the defense or prosecution?" the masked receptionist at the desk next to the arena asked.
"What's the difference?" Ren asked.
"Prosecution wins at two to one. Defense wins at two thousand to one."
Ren blinked at the facsimile of a woman. Two thousand. "Guess the conviction rate here is a little more than 99%," he mumbled, reaching up to twist a strand of hair between fingers and thumb.
"Entry for the VIP area is set at a million," Fox noted, clearly doing the math in his head while staring down at the bag full of small-value coins the Thieves had accumulated. "Even if we were to succeed, that would still put us at eight hundred thousand coins short."
Queen nodded, her eyes locked on the current fight as yet another bulky Shadow tore into its far scrawnier opponent, to the delight of the onlookers. "If we can scrounge up another four hundred, we can bet that. That'll put us at a million exactly. Maybe a little extra, give ourselves a buffer."
"Oh drat," Crow said. "And here I was hoping to keep a few of these as souvenirs." Ren stared at him, waiting for an explanation that never came. Instead, the Prince reached into his jacket pocket and then extended a hand over Fox's bag. He opened his fingers.
And five golden coins clinked on top of the rest.
The Thieves, as one, stared down at the pile. All eyes eventually made their way back to Crow.
"The high level Shadow guards are paid in casino coins," Crow said, with the most confident and condescending smirk Ren had ever seen on the boy. "I found two of those in the crater Queen left in the backrooms, and the other three stashed in the Logic Gate room." He crossed one arm over his chest, gesturing loosely with the other. "If I'm not mistaken, the gold coins signify an even hundred. That brings us up to an entry amount of six hundred, and a maximum winnings of one million and two thousand."
"And you were just hiding 'em!?" Skull spluttered.
Crow shrugged. "As I said, I hoped to keep one or two for a souvenir. But I'd rather allow us to proceed with our mission than indulge any hoarding habits."
Ren's gaze lingered on his teammate, on that little show-off grin and the giddy gleam in his near-crimson eyes. He searched for a word to put to the feeling of dissatisfied contentment thrumming in his chest, and found none. So he turned back to the Shadow receptionist. "Defense. We're betting six hundred coins."
"Certainly." A Shadow guard peeled away from the side of the booth, reaching out to firmly take the coin bag from Fox, who acquiesced to the seizure with little more than a small noise of surprise. "And which of you will be entering the arena tonight?"
"Everybody but me!" Oracle chimed in from the back of the group.
"Eight of us," Ren confirmed, beginning to gesture to each Thief in turn. "Joker, Skull, Panther–"
"Only one entrant may accompany each bet," the receptionist said, her voice calm yet unyielding.
Ren's breath stalled. "Minimum bet is a hundred," he said, slowly. "So, that's...six of us?"
Crow slid past him, approaching the receptionist without a word to his teammates. "I'll be accompanying the six hundred coin bet," he said. Simple as anything. "Prince Crow, if you please."
"Certainly," the receptionist said, before anyone could get a word in edgewise. She gestured towards the guard, who stepped away from a metal door set in the wall. "When you are prepared for your fight, Prince Crow, please make your way into the ready room. You have half an hour to comply, or your bet will be forfeited."
"No need," Crow chirped, turning towards the door. "I'm always ready."
Ren's tongue was numb in his mouth. This was happening too fast, he couldn't–
"Okay, fucking stop." Panther's voice.
Crow stopped.
Panther took a step towards him, her brow set, fingers tense by her sides. "You're part of a team, Crow. You said that yourself. You want to act like a Thief, then actually act like one. Consult us. Talk this out." She gestured sharply to the rest of them, her hand leaving an odd ripple in the air, distorting it. A heat shimmer. "We're not about to sign off on you rushing ahead somewhere dangerous without backup, or at least a contingency or something ."
Crow didn't turn back around. "I saw no need to waste time debating. I assumed you would all inevitably arrive at the only sensible option."
"And that option is to bet our entire infiltration on your success?" Fox asked, his voice calm and cold as settled ash.
Crow reached up to comb his fingers back through his hair. "Myself, Amamiya and Niijima have experience fighting on our own, while the rest of you have trained as part of a team. Amamiya's strongest Persona is currently indisposed, Niijima has been extending herself fully during this infiltration already, and I have been conserving my strength when necessary. In case you forgot, I have a year of experience over you all, every second of which was spent infiltrating on my own. Furthermore, I have yet to truly prove my utility as your ally, and I won't do so by holding back and participating in your 'plays.' It's... beyond stifling."
"Joker may have defeated you on his own," Noir said, quiet and sweet as venom. "But I've seen what he can do with the rest of the Thieves behind him. I wouldn't undervalue that strength."
"Neither would I," Crow replied, his back still turned. "Your tactics trade efficiency for impact. Strength less than the sum of its parts, but applied with a haste and force that could not be achieved alone." A little, dark chuckle. "And how often do those tactics make full use of Arsene's power?"
Ren blinked. "All the time. I don't see your..." Logic clicked in. "Ah. Full use." He pulled in a breath as his brain whirred through his mental playbook. Arsene was a finisher. A final trump card. Something to be pulled out once the other Thieves had cleared the path, or to open a path himself for them to make use of.
But not a single one of them had the expectation of the gentleman thief to use anything more deadly than his sword or talons. No curse magic, nor the almighty force he had at his fingertips. Any of that would risk his allies becoming collateral damage. "None of them."
"Need I continue?" Crow asked. An ounce of sharpness leaking into his otherwise calm voice. He reached up to adjust his cape. "Or would you prefer I demonstrate my point in detail?"
Ren stared at his back, listening to the mumbling of the other Thieves. Something like a tinderbox was catching sparks in the back of his skull. "You being right doesn't change the way we do things. Unanimity isn't opt-in, and this isn't a group project you can just take the reins of by knowing the answer. We're a team." He turned, nodding to Panther, whose expression was still set and frustrated. "Panther's completely right. I'm not saying you need us to tell you the answer, but we still need to agree on it. Right doesn't mean best."
"You're wasting your time with etiquette," Crow said without missing a beat.
Ren found fury and fear rising into his throat. "You weren't in Madarame's Palace, Akechi. You didn't see Arsene break ." His hands clenched by his sides. "You think having a head full of answers keeps anyone here safe? That being strong makes us immune to fault?" He couldn't see the Palace, his allies, anyone. Nothing but Crow's turned back and the sides of that red mask. "Strength doesn't mean a damn thing when you or I drop and no one else is there ready to pick up the pieces!"
Chkt.
A piece of porcelain chipped off the side of Ren mask. He glanced down, watching the white material fizzle away into blue flame, before reforming back on his face.
"Amamiya," Crow said. "Allow me to make something clear. Your savior complex is sickening. And if you truly want to make me feel like one of you, stop lumping us together." Finally, he turned, and his left eye met Ren's gaze. Fury burning calm and cold behind that iris. "I am not your mirror, and I am not your pity case. Kindly get that through your head."
Always right. Always so fucking right. "Noted," Ren grumbled.
"Good." Crow turned back towards the door. "Unanimity, then. All in favor of betting six hundred on my fight?" He raised his own hand with a little performative flair.
Ren could feel eyes on his back. 'Unanimity,' and they were deferring to him. "No objection," he said. "Anyone else?" The words left his mouth halfway between begrudging and pleading.
Silence.
"I'll pull you out if things get bad," Oracle said, almost mumbling the words. "So you don't die, or whatever."
"Thank you for the offer, Miss Sakura," Akechi said, saccharine-sweet. "But I won't require it." He lowered his hand, placing it by his hip, by his saber's hilt. "I don't lose."
And it was the first wrong thing he'd said all day.
Thankfully, being Crow's "patrons" came with temporary admittance to the quieter, glass-windowed VIP with a high vantage point of the arena, and a buffer between them and the noise. Otherwise, the cacophonous rancor of the cognitive audience, stretched out over the long agonizing minutes of waiting for Crow's match, probably would have driven Ren and his sister both insane. Also, upside, couches and complimentary refreshments.
Panther had cleaned out the latter to refresh the Thieves' stock before plopping down next to Queen on one of the former and wrapping her arms around her girlfriend with the biggest, sweetest grin. Skull had commandeered the entirety of a second couch to stretch himself out, using the entirely unbothered Fox as a legrest, his calves parallel across the artist's thighs while they both stared down at the Shadows tearing each other apart below. Noir and Oracle were sharing a third, Ren's sister resting her head on his girlfriend's shoulder, Mona sprawled lazily across both of their laps and receiving simultaneous tummy rubs and behind the ear scritches - kitty heaven, no doubt.
Ren didn't sit. He stood at the far end of the room, close enough to the window that each breath out fogged the glass slightly. It didn't feel right to relax. Not like lingering was doing him much good, but the itch of unaddressed frustration against the inside of his ribcage felt...not cathartic. Proper, maybe. It made him feel sharp.
Had Panther said something? He'd left Crow to her, back in the Logic Gate room. Maybe she'd dropped the ball...no. Stop that. It wasn't her fault. Akechi was just always like this , wasn't he? With Ren, at least. Always a show-off. Always had to have the final word. To be the smartest person in the room. As if all that kindness, as if being the third Thief to know Ren's scar, was nothing. As if introducing him to Naoto was nothing. As if...
"Your mother and I work ourselves to the bone to provide for you. And you keep sticking your nose in business that doesn't involve you! Why can't you be just a little more–"
Grateful. As if Akechi wasn't grateful for everything Ren had done for him. That's what all of this was about. That's why his breath was burning his throat like bile.
Ren leaned forward and pressed his forehead against the window, his mask clinking against the glass. All of this, all his pride, his stupid righteous anger, all of it. Because Akechi was ungrateful . He'd pulled the Prince out of the only life he'd ever known, shell-shocked him half to death, presented him with a no-win scenario and then threw a fucking tantrum when the guy didn't play by their rules. Because throwing Akechi's entire fucking life off the rails had been tough for Ren. Had kept him up at night. Had been tricky and painful and difficult. Meanwhile Akechi had bled himself to sleep in a stale steel room a dozen feet underground for two weeks.
He was right. Yet again, that smirking motherfucker was completely and totally right. Ren was treating Akechi exactly like a pity case. Fuck .
"...blue corner, Prince Crow!" came the amplified voice of the announcer, cutting itself into Ren's focus through the blur that had settled like a fog across his brain.
"Why the Prince thing again?" Skull asked. "I mean, best as I saw, he was kinda sick of that, right?" He was? Ren hadn't noticed that at all. Or, if he had, it hadn't...he didn't remember. Fuck. One more reason why his lynchpin pursuit was destined for flames.
"My sister doesn't know Crow by codename," Queen said. "But she does know a Prince." She frowned, leaning into Panther's touch. "Maybe he wants to make a statement. Prove something to her."
And Crow made his entrance, striding with purpose into the arena. Not an ounce of flair. No pomp. Simply circumstance. He paused midway in and turned back to throw a glance towards the audience, his focus landing on the Thieves. Distance disguised his expression, but Ren could still see the gleam of something in those near-red eyes. Then, Crow turned away, focusing on the now-opening door across from him. The Prince drew his saber, igniting the blade in a steady blue glow.
"And his opponent, in the red corner, the reigning champion! The Emperor of Thunder!" Ren could almost hear both Fox and Skull perk up from across the room. "Thoooor!"
And a titan of a man emerged from the other door. He had to crouch to make it beneath the doorframe, before rising to his full height – which was easily twice Crow's. The Shadow had tattoo bands around his forearms and thighs, a massive blacksmith hammer in one hand, golden chestplate and matching horned helm beneath which peered two bright red eyes. And billowing back behind him was a white cape that would have looked at home on Crow's shoulders as well.
"Uh," Panther said, and laughed nervously. "That's...I mean, I'm glad we're not fighting that thing, but..."
Thor turned towards the audience, flexing his arms by his chest, letting out a roaring yawp that resonated through the cheers of the cognitions. Crowd favorite, looked like.
"If you're done showing off, I believe we have a fight to conduct." Crow's voice, coming in crisp and clear as anything through the comms, making every other Thief jump in unison. Ren whirled towards Oracle, who looked just as shocked as he was. If she hadn't... "And to my audience, up in your cozy glass cage." Crow slid one foot back, tensing his saber in front of his chest. "Please watch carefully. I won't repeat myself."
Crow had connected himself to the comms, hadn't he? Somehow, he'd been able to ensure all of them would be able to hear him. Ren shook his head. This was a new level of extravagance, and the fight hadn't even started.
As if reading his mind, the Shadow Thor cracked his neck one way, then another. "Kay," he said, and raised his hammer above his head, the goliath instrument crackling with contained lightning.
Crow straightened up, and in one smooth motion, grabbed something clipped onto his belt and flick-threw it towards his foe. Wait, his belt? Ren hadn't seen-
A barely perceptible click.
The sun set below the horizon.
The entire room was eclipsed with a whirling, furious tempest of shadow. It physically hurt to look at, as if the dark would drag the light from his eyes, steal away his sight. Ren flinched away from the glass; the glass that was now rattling in tune with a resonant shriek that definitely did not belong to the cognitive audience. They were singing a different, more panicked tune.
A long, petrifying second of night. And then the sun rose again.
The dark was quashed, the stadium lights bleeding through the remnants of dusk. Ren blinked away the shadows swimming in his gaze like floaters, and took a step back towards the glass.
The arena below was caught in a standstill, the scene exactly the same as it had been before the tempest. Thor, his hammer raised - though the rumbling thunder had left the steel - and Crow, his hand outstretched. Neither seemed harmed, though the former was definitely stunned into stillness.
"Seems that armor isn't for show," Crow said, his voice once again making it through without issue. "No using Curses, then." His offhand went to his belt again, and Ren squinted at the motion, trying to make out what the boy was grabbing. He couldn't see a thing, and yet Crow's hand left his hip holding onto what looked to be a metal rod with a spherical tip that had appeared out of fucking nowhere!
"And I'm guessing you're similarly resistant to Bless magic. That would put me at quite the disadvantage, since I hardly have a hide for lightning." He tapped the rod against his forearm with a chuckle. "But that would be assuming you and I are on the same level." Crow flicked the non-sphere side of the rod to one side, the metal springing outwards into what looked like a segmented harpoon. "Allow me to prove that assumption wrong in detail ."
Thor growled loud enough to be heard through the glass, and thunder rumbled across his hammer once again. With a strained, furious cry, he brought the weapon down, slamming it into the floor and sending a cascade of sparks screaming across the metal right towards Crow.
Crow, who turned the harpoon down, stabbed it into the ground cleanly – the barbed tip cleaving into the floor like butter through bread – and took a single step backwards.
The lightning did not reach him. Instead, every volt immediately and violently jerked towards the harpoon, slamming into the...the lightning rod, dancing across it like shrieking insects, grounding themselves away to nothing. Crow stood unharmed and Ren could almost see the smirk shining through the top of the boy's head.
Thor gawked at his opponent. The audience was silent.
"Now then," Crow said, almost purring out the words. " My turn." And he yanked from his belt, from nothing, a small handful of...something. In his palm, they looked like metal beads. And he flicked one toward the giant.
It bounced once and only once. Then it exploded. A bolt of roaring wind on perfect trajectory to uppercut the Shadow, sending it stumbling back into the wall of the arena.
Crow howled out a laugh, and Ren felt his entire body still. "Come on, then, champion! Give me something worthy of your title!" The wild, gleeful voice he'd heard before in Mementos. The voice behind the Black Mask. The voice of a killer.
Another bead clinked against the floor. This time, a blanket of fire wrapping itself around Thor, the Shadow swatting it away with a panicked hand. Another bead. A dozen icicles springing out from a shared epicenter in all directions, stabbing through Thor's cape and spearing one of his horns. Another. A blue sun flared into existence, searing away at the cloth, scarring the metal armor. Another . Reality warped and strained around itself, distorting the Shadow's form into impossible shapes, dragging it down with the force of its horrid gravity.
Ren couldn't look away. His hands were sweating through his gloves.
Crow tutted his tongue. "Champions don't belong on their knees." His offhand went to his belt again, this time tilting the remaining beads away into whatever nonexistent pocket rested there. "But the condemned do." That same hand up, against his mask. "Execute him. Persona."
The sound of porcelain shattering. Ren stared at the shimmering air next to Crow, already distorting itself into Robin Hood's form, those stripes of white and black and...red as spilt blood.
Those two horns above a wide, thisting grin.
Crow whirled back towards his Persona, and Ren could see the fear in his eyes across the distance. "No!" Fingers outstretched, he whipped his hand outwards, as one might tear apart the still surface of water. And as suddenly as the trickster god's visage had arrived, she vanished, melting away into wisps of color. White and black and red all over, and then nowhere at all.
Silence again. Crow's shoulders tense, his breath into the comms heavy. "I'm in control," came the quiet mantra. A whisper Ren knew was never meant for him, that he was never meant to hear. "I'm in control. I'm in control."
Thor moved. Nothing more than a blur of motion, and a whirling hammer tore through the anchored lightning rod. From the Shadow's throat, a roaring victory, and he lept towards the boy's turned back, open hands crackling with thunder like an oncoming storm.
"Robin," Crow spat, in a tone of voice reserved for traitors.
Thor stopped moving. There was a half-ephemeral man standing next to him, arm outstretched, closed fist against the back of the Shadow's neck.
A single golden arrow plunged between his collarbones.
Robin Hood yanked the arrow free, its golden tip stained black.
Thor crumpled. There was nothing graceful about that fall, nothing of value. No ceremony. He simply collapsed into a heap on the ground, slowly beginning to dissolve into black dust.
Crow began to walk. Not looking at the Shadow, not even waiting for Robin to finish returning to his mask. A corpse and a killer, abandoned in the same breath. There was something poetic about it. Something vile.
Ren turned away from the glass, threw a glance towards his allies. A myriad of shocked expressions awaited him.
"That was his other Persona, wasn't it?" Noir asked, her voice quiet and still as death.
Ren found himself nodding. "Yeah. That was...yeah." He sucked in a breath, filling his lungs with the stale air. "That was Loki."
The VIP area Safe Room wasn't hard to find. And while the rest of the Thieves rested or prepared themselves for the next leg of their infiltration, Crow sat alone on a couch at the far corner, nearest to the door. Back bent, one heel tapping idly against the ground. A small black pocket knife held in both hands. He flicked the blade open, and closed. Open, and closed.
Okay. Money where Ren's mouth was. He crossed from his position next to the table to stand in front of the couch, close enough that no one would mistake the focus of his attention.
"Say what you wish," Crow said, before Ren could even finish articulating a single word in his head. "You're the leader, aren't you?" It was an odd sort of spite. Toothless, almost. Like Crow was already bowing his head to the axe Ren had no intention to wield.
Breath in, breath out. "The lightning rod, those beads. You're well prepared. I'm guessing you've got more tricks like those?"
"Yes," Crow said, simply.
"Cool." Ren forced a casual smile. "If you want to keep those to yourself, I won't stop you, but it might help if you give us an inventory sometime. We might be able to work something new into the playbook. Like you said before, have us work around your full potential." And for whatever reason, the smile felt a little more natural. "Cause you're not like Arsene. I can't trust him to control himself all the way. But I can trust you."
Crow blinked. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. "And?" he prompted.
"And you did good work," Ren said. He knew what Crow, what Akechi, was expecting, was asking for. But Ren wasn't about to drop the other shoe. "I'd still prefer if you talked it through with us next time first, but you made your point. Betting on you was the right decision."
Crow clicked the pocket knife open. For a long few seconds, the dull blade caught idle light. It could have been a threat, if the boy holding it hadn't had such a pitifully empty fury shining in his eyes. Anger without offense. The way people looked when they got proved wrong. And he clicked the knife closed. "I'll keep that in mind." His voice was strained, hoarse.
Ren expected to take some petty joy in that. It would have made sense. But instead...idle mania leaked across his knuckles, setting a confidence that drew his shoulders back, his eyes up and forward. He felt accomplished. Proud.
At that moment, he felt more like Joker than himself.
Ren blinked away the thought. Okay. Weird. Nothing worth lingering on. He gave Crow a nod and turned back to the other Thieves. Queen had her notebook out and on the table, in deep discussion with Mona and Noir and Fox, the formermost of which was sitting directly on the table and tilting his head adorably to try and get a better angle of the notes. No issues there. Panther was a little way away, resting on a couch next to Skull while throwing constant little heart-eyed glances over to Queen, much to Skull's apparent amusement. Cute. Crow was pouting, as expected. And...Oracle. Where was Oracle?
Ren threw a wide-angle glance, almost missing the girl now sitting practically inside the corner exactly opposite the room from Crow, her legs pulled in towards her chest. Ren would have expected her to linger on the outskirts of conversation or mess around on her computer the way she usually did. She was just...sitting there. Her mask over her eyes, her headphones over her ears.
Did she want to be left alone? Ren wavered. Maybe he'd cause more harm than good. Offering to help, meddling in whatever she was going through. Maybe...no. No, he was her brother. He was supposed to be there for her. If she didn't need him to meddle, he wouldn't meddle, he'd just...be there. That could be enough. He hoped that it would be.
Across the room, ducking around the table, and Ren plopped down next to her. Still a foot and a half away, just in case she needed her space. Oracle lowered her headphones, but kept her mask up. "We don't have to talk," Ren said, softly. For her ears only. "But I'm here for you."
Oracle didn't answer right away. Just sat there, knees in towards her chest, fiddling with her headphones. "I'm just being dumb again," she said, quietly. A smile he could tell was forced. "You know me. Just...dummy Taba making a big deal about small stuff again."
His eyes blurred with the force of the ache that buried itself in his chest at the approximate speed of a bullet. Without even thinking through the motion, Ren reached out and tapped his knuckles across the top of Oracle's head. She jumped - not quite a flinch, just surprised. He could imagine her blinking quickly against the inside of her goggles. "I love you a whole fucking lot, you know," he said, no less quiet but a fair bit firmer. "But nobody gets to talk that way about my sister, okay? Not even you."
"Uh," Oracle said. A long few seconds. And then she smiled again. Strained, but honest. "Right. Sorry. I...sorry."
He again reached for her head, this time with a few slow and gentle pats, a silent apology weaving its way into the motion. "You're okay," Ren said, and hoped the words could carry the superposition of meanings he meant it to. "Your feelings aren't dumb. Whatever you're feeling, even if you don't like it, or, or feeling it...I mean, it's still not dumb. You're feeling it for a reason, right?"
Oracle shrugged. "I guess so."
"There's no doubt in my mind," Ren said.
And a silence settled between them, for a time, marred only by the hushed debate of their allies.
"Ren?" Oracle squirmed in her seat. "You'd tell me if I was...being bad to you, right?"
Ren's gut dropped again. "Yeah. Of course I would."
She nodded, but didn't seem quite convinced. Okay. No more beating around the big guns.
"You're not going back there again," he said. "Your Palace is gone. Necronomicon has her name back." A breath. "And you won't ever push me away."
Oracle tensed. Her shoulders up to her ears. Then, after a second, she let them drop again. Not quite relaxed. "Okay," she said. "Yeah."
"I promise," he said, firm as he could manage through the soft ache now permeating his tone.
She just nodded.
Something wasn't right. Ren couldn't figure it out, he knew that it should have helped, this should have been the right thing. Instinct was on the edge of its seat, ready to give the all clear. And Oracle still looked miserable. Better, maybe, but still miserable. Okay. Key items...weren't panaceas, right? Can't just apply the same person to every situation and expect different results.
"And," Ren said, forcing the words out, each syllable a new symphony of failure, "I bet Mona would love to talk to you more about that Logic Gate stuff. It sort of went over my head, but you two seemed pretty in-sync about it back there. I bet it'd be nice to...yeah."
Oracle didn't say a word. Not for a long few seconds. "Thanks Ren. I'll...try that."
"You're an amazing girl, you know," he said. "The best there ever was."
She scoffed. "That's Pokémon, you dork." At least he got a little bit of a smile out of her.
"I'm still right," he laughed, and ruffled her hair before scooting off the couch. Okay. Focus time. He raised his voice just enough to make sure the whole room heard him. "Alright guys. Let's take another five, maybe ten if we need it. We've got an infiltration to finish."
Biggest of thanks to Jane for being a wonderful friend and a fantastic critiquer. She's kept me honest, accountable and not that humble but 2/3 ain't fucking bad.
