Chapter 32: Learning Curve
{R}
Ren was glad that Aki was out helping Yoshida-san. He would eventually explain to her about Ms. Kawakami, but only if his teacher ended up agreeing to his extra terms and was okay with him sharing her secret with Aki. If she didn't, it was pointless, especially considering how disgruntled the maid was when he called her through Leblanc's yellow landline phone. He wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Kawakami just kept it to only their original terms.
"So this is your room huh?" she said when she arrived, clad in her maid uniform.
Ren nodded.
"Hmm, how do I put this...?"
"You can say 'dump' if you want. Or a mess. I don't mind."
"No! It's uh...it's very 'chic'."
"Whatever you say, ma'am," he said with a smirk.
"Ugh, what kind of kid are you? You seem earnest with a strong sense of justice and yet you keep saying stuff like that and call a maid service..."
He flinched at her accusations, but decided to use the opportunity to segue into the topic he wanted.
"Actually, I wanted to talk about that."
She eyed him with suspicion. "Oh?"
"I requested you because I wanted you to help clean my room."
She stared.
Ren didn't blame her.
"What?"
"I want you to help clean my room."
"Help you?"
"You see how dirty it is. I do my best to keep it clean, but it takes a lot of time by myself and my little sister can't help me for a lot of it, since I'm cleaning it so that she won't breath up dust and other stuff in the first place. If both of us work on it, we can finish it quickly."
And also he would be the only one cleaning his hiding spot for their phantom thief inventory.
"Oh right, she has asthma..." she said softly, but Ren was able to pick it up. "Is that it?"
"Yes that's it."
She stared in disbelief for a moment. "That's really enough for you to keep quiet about me moonlighting as a maid?"
Ren knew he shouldn't be surprised of her being so distrustful, she had to be careful of having her secret stay a secret after all, but a part of him still felt sad she was so suspicious of him. He wanted to reassure that helping him clean was truly all he wanted, but it was clear being honest about it wouldn't work entirely. So he said,
"If it helps, you can offer more and I can also offer something else in exchange."
She was astonished and said, "N-No! I just...think you're not offering an even deal, since you want me to help you clean instead of having me do everything. So instead of just that...I'll also let you skip class a few times."
Now he was the one astonished. "I can skip class?"
"I reserve the right to stop if your grades fall though."
He couldn't help it, he laughed. "Of course of course," he said. He walked right into that one.
He felt awkward when he noticed that Ms. Kawakami had been surprised again, this time by his laugh. Ren coughed into his hand in a poor attempt to dissipate the feeling.
"So, you let me skip classes sometimes and help me clean my room...and I'll keep your moonlighting a secret and pay for your services. Is that fine now?"
Finally Ms. Kawakami smiled and said, "It's a deal."
I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall be the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity. With the birth of the Temperance Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power.
Yet another Confidant formed... And yet another card to look up later.
But for right then, he said,
"So can we get started? Or would you prefer we start properly next time?"
"Oh uh...we can do some right now."
"All right. You start there, I'll handle here..."
They didn't clean for long since Ms. Kawakami wanted to leave soon. But of course, before she left, she stopped before the door, curtseyed and said, in a much more cheery voice than her usual,
"All right, Master, that'll be all for today!"
The façade was soon dropped as she grumbled under her breath.
"Ugh, God...you have no idea how exhausting this job is..."
"I wouldn't mind finding out," Ren said, thinking about how fun it would be to wear a butler suit.
He forgot about the "implied" services until Ms. Kawakami said with a glare,
"Oh! Don't even think about it, mister! I won't have you throwing away your future!"
Ren flinched and waved his hands frantically. "I just meant wearing a butler suit! I didn't mean any of the dangerous parts!"
They froze.
A tumbleweed would've been appropriate but he wouldn't have appreciated it this time.
"You...would wear a butler suit...?"
He felt his cheeks heat up as he looked away. "It's pretty close to a tuxedo..." he said in way of explanation, though he knew that wasn't why certain people wore one.
"You're so strange..."
He knew that already. He didn't need to be reminded. But of course he didn't mention that.
Ms. Kawakami sighed. "Anyways, listen, you promise me you won't tell the school about this okay? For both our sakes," she said. "Absolutely no talking about maid stuff to anyone!"
"What about when they cover it in history class?" he said, holding back his cheeky grin.
She glowered. "You know what I mean..."
He smothered his snicker and just nodded, deciding on mercy since he thought she would finally leave then and there, with maybe one last good-bye because that was proper. He would ask about informing Aki about her presence next time.
Instead, what happened was her eyes widened, her lips pursed, and she said in a very cute tone,
"It'll be our wittle secwet just for Becky and Master, okay? Can you keep a secret?"
He tried.
He really did.
He still laughed anyway.
The maid was startled. "What? Hey! Stop laughing!"
"S-sorry...I...ha ha...can't...take you seriously with that fa-a-ace...ha ha ha!"
"Ugh...you won't even going to play along...you're killing me here..."
Oh now that won't do.
Ren smothered his bellow and said, "A-Ah, m-my apologies..." He cleared his throat. "Lady Becky. It was terribly rude of your master to laugh at your efforts."
"Huh?!"
"Oh? Did I offend you again, Lady Becky? I won't be able to atone unless you tell me how you wish for me to do so."
"Are you kidding me?"
He smirked. "Perhaps. I am told I'm quite the jester, after all..."
Ms. Kawakami groaned. "You know what? Never mind... I'll just head home now..."
"Very well," he said and opened the door for her. "Farewell, Lady Becky. Safe travels."
She just glowered at him. "Don't forget to study okay? If you waste all your effort playing around, your grades will suffer."
"I understand, Lady Becky."
"Okay, I get it! You can stop the act now!"
Ren laughed.
(A)
Ryuji was too drained from yesterday—Akira's guess of a torture session correct—Ann was hanging out with her brother right now, Mona left to wander—mentioned something about Mementos—and both Kasumi and Haru-senpai had already left school for business. Not only that, they didn't need to get any groceries today. In other words...
She was free today.
Akira: Hey Akechi, you free?
Akechi: As luck would have it, I am. I take it you are as well?
Akira: Yup! Ready to hit up the arcade?
Akechi: Sure. Which one though?
Akira: I think there's one in Central Street. Let's meet up at Buchiko.
Akechi: Very well. I'll see you soon.
Just as promised, he arrived not long after she did in front of the famous dog's statue.
"I hope you didn't wait long."
"Nah, I didn't." She grinned and said, "Come on let's go!"
The arcade, Gigolo, was a bit smaller than she expected, but that didn't matter when it had exactly the cabinet she hoped would be there, and no one was using it. So of course she rushed to it before someone else took it.
She pulled down her mask and said, "Come on Akechi! Get over here!"
The boy had an inquisitive look as he walked to her at a more leisurely pace.
"I assune you found a game you like?"
"Uh huh." She grinned. "Hope you don't mind, but can we play this first?"
"I don't see why not, but..." He looked at the cabinet's name. "...I haven't heard of this Guilty Cog the Third: Revelations."
"It's a fightin' game. That's all ya really need to know. I can teach you how to play. Unless you want me to tell you about the story and characters and stuff."
Akechi chuckled. "Well considering how eager you are...I think I'll hold the latter off. Shall we?"
"Yes! Okay..."
In the end, they spent all their time in the arcade on that game, first with her teaching Akechi the basics as Dr. Fortunato while he played the game's other flagship boy, Kyle Kasket. Once he got the controls down, she then spent some time going easy on him to teach him some basic fighting game strategies and techniques, as well as the ones specific to Guilty Cog. It was only then did they have proper matches, ones where she didn't hold back.
Dr. Fortunato wins!
Akira held back her snicker as Akechi palmed his face and groaned.
"That's three outta five in my favor. Not bad since this is your first time," she said, genuine.
If he kept practicing well... Akira hoped he would. She would definitely look forward to it. It would be very fun.
"If you say so," he said. "You are the more experienced one after all. It was quite impressive to see you play."
"Heh, thanks. But I ain't that much compared to the pros. Now those guys are really cool."
"I see... I guess that is to be expected if you aren't playing professionally. How often do you play then?"
"Hmm. A lot I guess, especially with my big brother. Though I play other games a lot too."
"With your older brother?"
"Yup! I main Dr. Fortunato in this game while he mains Josey. Oh, he's the one that looks like a fancy cowboy. He's the leader of a vigilante group."
"I...see..." he said.
Akira nearly snickered at his tone, like he couldn't decide what to think of the choice.
The brunett was about to say more but then someone said, trying to be subtle but failing,
"Wait, is that Akechi-san?"
"No way!" another said, likely a friend. "I didn't think he'd go to an arcade."
"Well he's still a teenager after all."
"But would a guy like him come here?"
Akechi frowned, looking over his shoulder askance.
"Oh no..."
Akira didn't need to look. "Fans?"
"Essentially..." He sighed. "Looks like we'll have to cut this short..."
"What? No way. We don't have to."
"I would rather not be bothered. They will come this way."
"Oh..."
That sucked. She could get it but...she was annoyed that they were going to bother him.
Well. There was only one thing to do.
She glanced to see if they were looking away. When they were, she said, whispering,
"Give me your coat."
"I'm sorry what?"
"Just give it. And swap places with me. I got an idea."
He was clearly dubious but he gave in anyway, giving her his uniform's coat as they changed places. In exchange she gave her blazer and Akechi put it on. When he was done with that, she did the final touches.
"What the—"
"Shh!"
She messed with his hair, put her glasses on him and then gave him her bag. With that, he looked like a brunett version of her brother. Well, minus the facial structure, but that was a given, and that wasn't important. What was important was that when she finally put on his coat, the length easily covering her skirt, the two people who were debating about going up to Akechi worked up the courage to do so, one of the two saying,
"Excuse me?"
Doing her best to imitate Akechi's voice, she said,
"Yes? May I help you?"
"Oh, uh, sorry...I thought you were someone else," the girl said, realizing her "mistake". "We'll be going now."
And they walked off, one saying,
"See? I told you that couldn't have been Akechi."
"But I swore I saw him..."
Akira kept an eye on them as they walked away, not letting up until they were gone. When they were, she grinned and said,
"Mission accomplished."
Akira wished she could see then, easily imagining Akechi having a really funny stunned expression until he gathered himself to say,
"You...didn't have to do that."
"No I didn't," she said. Then she smiled warmly. "But I wanted to."
She let her words hang for a moment, to let them sink past Akechi's disbelief, one that she felt more than she could see with her impaired vision, before she held out her hand.
"Now, can you hand me my glasses?"
"Oh. Yes..."
He gave them back and she put it on in time to see his small, but real, smile.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome," she said. "Now you want another round? Or you wanna go at another game?"
Unsurprisingly, Akechi did want one more round and lost in it. But she enjoyed the battle nonetheless, glad she felt Akechi's motivation through the Confidant.
{R}
When Ann had asked if he could hear her out, when she was doubting she was making any progress, Ren immediately agreed to her request. However, as soon as they got to her private spot, she...ended up a bit distracted and eventually reminisced about Tokyo, how it was like when she began to live here, how hard it was...especially at school. It wasn't that much different from how it was now, most only really saw her as the "foreigner". The only difference from when she was younger was that she had considered dying her hair to fit in back then.
"I'm glad you didn't," he said. "If you did it because of that, you'd just be hiding who you are."
For a moment, Ann seemed surprised but it was soon replaced with a smile. "Yeah, me too. But I'll admit...the only reason I didn't was because that was when Shiho talked to me. It was during art class, and you wanna know what she said?"
"What did she say?"
"She said 'Takamaki-san. Your painting sucks'."
He really shouldn't have, but he burst out laughing at that. Luckily for him, Ann joined along for a while, both of them taking a bit to calm down. So he felt it was fine to say,
"That's hilarious."
"I didn't think that at the time though. I thought she was just making fun of me like everyone else."
"I'm guessing she wasn't."
"Well according to her at least. She said they were so bad she just had to tell me. Pretty mean huh?"
"Well...I would've probably done the same."
"Of course you would."
"And Aki. And probably Yusuke."
"Okay okay I get it! Ha ha!" She paused to take a breath. "Still, that was the first time someone talked to me without mentioning my looks. We sorta grew grew closer after that...and Shiho's been my best friend since."
Ren smiled. "The best kind of backstory."
She nodded and said, "Uh huh..." Then tensed and gasped. "That's not why we're here though!"
"I was wondering when you would remember."
"You couldn't have reminded me?!"
"And interrupt your backstory with Suzui? Perish the thought."
"Ren!" she said, lightly slapping his arm in annoyance.
"Ah ha ha, okay okay, go on," he said.
The blonde sighed before gathering her wits and told him her idea. Simply put, she was going to use the villain she mentioned a while ago as inspiration to strengthen her heart.
Ren purposefully raised a dubious brow. "Can you explain?"
Because he certainly didn't want to steal her heart. That would mean she became a villain.
But then Ann stood and said, "I'm gonna star in action movies!"
His mind halted.
Ren kept up his smile.
Then thought resumed.
He...certainly wouldn't have came up with that, especially given Ann's...terible acting. But in a way, it was its own kind of genius. An actor had to face much hardship after all, and she would have to work on a weakness of hers. So he said,
"I hope you do well then. I'll do my best to help."
"Thanks! Your support really helps."
"So how are you planning on practicing?"
"Huh?" Ann said, looking at him like he had said a complex formula.
He frowned a bit in worry but continued. "You want to be an actor right? I might not be an expert, but I do know you should practice. You're going to need to learn how pretend to be someone else, learn how they think and their motivations, how to express what they're feeling. You should probably take acting classes since you're just starti—"
"Uh hey! Slow down! What are you talking about?!"
Ren tensed before he chuckled sheepishly, twirling a hair with his finger.
"Sorry. I wanted to know what your plans are so I can help out with them," he said.
"Oh. Uh...actually I don't really have much a plan. I was just thinking about looking into how much sit-ups and stuff I need to do. I mean, if I'm gonna be in action movies, I gotta work on my action."
What.
"Ann?"
"Yeah?"
"You do know if you're going to be a star of an action movie, you need to learn how to act, right?"
"Huh? Yeah?" Ann said with a confused frown. "But they mostly focus on action, right? So I'm gonna have to train my body for that."
Ren sighed. Never mind. He'll bring it up later, after he looked into it a little bit.
"Well in that case, we can always ask Ryuji. Or you can even join us in our group training sessions."
"Group training sessions?"
"Yeah. When we have the time, Ryuji, Aki and I all train together. We can have Ryuji give you a regimen to start out with." He frowned as a memory came up. "Though we were looking for somewhere else to train though so it might take a bit until you can join in..."
"Hmm...how about I help then? I'll look for a good gym to try too!"
He smirked. "Assuming Ryuji doesn't find one before you do."
"As long as I can train, I don't mind!" she said, pumping her fist in the air. "I never really thought about what I wanted to do in my life before...but now I have an objective. And that only happened thanks to talking to you, Ren."
Ren froze.
"Really...?"
"Uh huh. And I'm gonna work my hardest at it! So thanks Ren."
He... Really? It was a bit hard to believe. He wasn't really doing much after all, even more so since, as much as he loved theatrics, he wasn't necessarily knowledgeable about that field. But still...
He gave a touched smile and said, "You're very welcome Ann."
The blonde shared his expression for just a moment, until she said, "Oh! I should tell Shiho about this. She'll definitely be happy to hear it."
"I agree."
Ann eyed him for a moment. "You'll come along, right?"
For a second time, Ren was astonished. "Excuse me?"
"Come on, I know you heard me." She smirked. "What? Is your hearing getting worse?"
Ren stared, then he smirked back. "My apologies, I was stunned to be offered an invitation from such a wonderful lady."
As he guessed, Ann flushed and said,
"Ren! That's not fair!"
"Oh? My apologies again. I thought it prudent to assist you in your goal by practicing with you."
She groaned. He laughed. They ended up jogging to the station instead, his reparation for teasing her so.
(A)
"And...there."
One last twist and all the pieces were in place.
"Phew! Three lockpicks and one vanish ball. Not bad, eh?" Akira said, expecting a quip from Mona, acting like the cat he insisted he wasn't.
Instead she got a hum of acknowledgement and she looked to see him lost in thought.
She frowned. "Something wrong?"
He glanced at her, contemplating, then sighed. "Nothing much. I'm just thinking about that black mask person Madarame mentioned."
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that..."
Though perhaps because of the fact that a powerful boss type enemy was terrified of who could only be another Persona user was why she forgot. After all, from the sound of it, this was a Persona user who was willing to kill.
"You're worried about it, huh?"
"Of course I am. We likely have a powerful Persona user on the loose who's very dangerous and we have absolutely no leads on them. The best we have is that they're likely the one causing the mental shutdowns."
Akira had figured as much. Mona had told them if they had killed the Palace's ruler, they would die. But...
"We don't know if it's just one person or several doing it though. I mean, if there's one other Persona user, there could be more."
"But Persona users are rare."
"And there's like seven billion people in the entire world. With numbers that big, that's plenty enough to have a good chance of plenty of people being Persona users, right?"
Mona looked ready to protest but instead sighed and said, "Okay fine...but still. Unless we have proof of there being more than one, I'm going to assume we have one unknown Persona user that's likely the sole perpetrator of the mental shutdowns, okay?"
"All right."
"Because of that, we should prioritize any and all information that could lead us to them."
"That's gonna be rough though."
"I know! That's exactly why I'm worried..." Mona's ears drooped. "What if we encounter them and you're not strong enough to defeat them...?"
Akira stared. So that was why he was worried... She smiled and began to pet his head.
"Hey, you can worry about findin' info, but you don't have to worry about that."
"What the?! What are you—!"
"If we can't beat 'em, we'll bail, like a good phantom thief, and we'll get away just fine. We learned the best from our phantom thief sensei after all."
If cats could blush, Akira would bet that Mona would at that moment. But they couldn't, so all she got was Mona tensing and puffing out his chest.
"O-Of course you would! A good phantom thief knows when to retreat after all and I taught you all to be good phantom thieves."
She giggled, knowing that he would say something like that.
So she was caught off guard as he said, "And if worse comes to worse, I'll make sure to protect you all so you can get away."
Again, Akira stared, touched at his care, however...
"Hey, don't go sayin' stuff like that. I ain't gonna leave you or anyone else behind. And Big Bro would do the same too."
"Oh uh, well..."
They were startled though when Ren flopped face first onto his futon like the other day, the only difference being he had been the one to unfurl it.
"Big Bro? Why're you back so early?"
"I...don't want to talk about it."
Akira frowned. This... This wasn't like the other night. Two nights ago, he just sounded exhausted, so she let it go. This time...this time he sounded like he was holding back from crying. And it broke her heart to see him like this. It also made her mad at whatever possibly could've happened.
"Ren..." Mona said, just as worried as she was.
But as upset as she was, there was only one thing to do.
She took off her glasses, carefully laid beside him and snuggled him, wrapping an arm over his back. Her brother tensed, his breath caught for a moment, but when she just kept up the embrace and said nothing, he let go and sobbed.
{R}
"Let me treat you! As an apology for the...failed operation."
"Okay, but...how did you get the money to get here?"
"Oh, well...I posted that I knew you guys on the Phan-Site and the Phandom really ate it up. I ended up mentioning it was expensive running it and...well let's just say I got a bunch of really generous donations."
"What."
"Yeah, I know right? But it was pretty easy for someone as skilled as me."
"Give it back."
"Huh?"
"I said give it back."
"Huh? B-But..."
"We're not going to use donation money for a fucking buffet! I'm not gonna use money people trusted us to use for good on something so selfish!"
Ren flinched at the memory. He had turned and bailed on Mishima there, ignoring that he looked guilty then, as if he only just realized what he had done. And Ren...felt terrible about his behavior. Mishima had meant well, he wanted to apologize for putting Ren through Operation Maidwatch, and Ren could've just calmly chastised him for his actions. But instead, as soon as Mishima mentioned using donation money for the buffet, he just...
...all he could see was Shadow Madarame's vicious smirk while he bragged about what he did to Yusuke's mother and why he did it.
And to top it all off, he worried Aki. Thankfully he was able to reassure her he was "fine", in the sense he could handle it. And he would handle it. He would apologize, not by text, but face-to-face. There wasn't any time before school to do that, but come lunch time, he would ask Mishima to go somewhere more private to talk and then he would apologize. But when that time came, instead of him doing that, Mishima did, eyes downcast in shame.
"Can I talk to you?"
"Of course."
And as soon as they reached a more private spot, Mishima instantly bowed low.
"I'm so sorry for what happened yesterday."
"N-No, I should be the one apologizing. I shouldn't have made a scene like that... So stand straight already."
Mishima did as he asked, if with hesitance, but still had his guilt ridden expression on.
"But you were right. I shouldn't have used the money for that... It's a serious crime to misuse donations..."
"Still, I could've told you to do that without..."
"But..." Mishima said, but trailed off as he seemed to have a realization and then...laughed.
Ren snapped and frowned. "What's so funny?"
And then Mishima said, with an amused smile, "At this rate, we're going to go in circles."
He stilled. Then he finally joined in his laughter.
"So, we're even then?"
"Uh huh. Even. Still...thank you for that. I mean, I almost did something corrupt people would do."
"Well thank you for forgiving me for yelling at you."
"Ah ha ha..." He said, "See you later."
Ren nodded and with that, they went their seperate ways for lunch, both feeling much lighter than when they started.
(A)
"I know we already agreed to this but...should we really be doing this the day before Madarame's deadline?" Fox said when they transported into Mementos.
Everyone turned somber at the reminder.
"Maybe not..." Joker said. "But if the change of heart ended up failing somehow, at least we'll change one more heart before we have to stop."
Rogue nodded. "Yeah. So let's do our best!"
"Yeah! That's exactly what I'm talking about!"
Panther and Mona sighed in exasperation at their antics but nonetheless got pumped as well. To get their minds off of that even further, Rogue just ambushed every enemy they encountered. That, and Rogue still had a bit of steam to let off from Joker's situation, which he explained, out of earshot of the others, during lunch. Yes, it was good to hear him make up with Mishima, but with that and the worry of tomorrow's outcome made her want to beat the stuffing out of things. So the timing of going to Mementos was perfect as she destroyed Shadows left and right.
It didn't go unnoticed though.
"Are you all right, Rogue?" Panther said after one of their battles in the third floor. "You're swinging your daggers a bit harder than usual..."
"Oh yeah. I noticed that too. I just thought she was just pumped," Skull said.
"Yeah, I'm fine Panther. I just wanna beat 'em up," she said, trying to conceal her annoyance.
It seems she failed because that didn't convince Panther. "Are you sure? If something's bothering you..."
She rolled her eyes. "I said I was fine." A wicked thought popped up though. "If you wanna fuss, do it with Joker," she said, gesturing at him.
"Huh? Joker?"
"He's why I got worked up."
"Rogue!" her brother said.
"Why? What happened?" Panther said, frowning and closing in on him in worry.
"I'm fine. We're both fine Panther. So don't worry."
The blonde grumbled. "Well maybe I'll stop worrying if you just tell me what happened."
Joker chuckled sheepishly.
Rogue snickered.
"You too Rogue!" Panther said, glowering at her.
"Hey! I just said Big Bro's the one you should worry about!"
"Not if you keep redirecting me!"
Before she could retort, her brother said,
"Okay okay! I was bothered because of Mishima but it's a private matter and it's settled. Happy? Now let's move and look for our target."
"Wha—hey! Joker!"
The red latex girl chased after the black coat tailed boy and she was safe, the latter finally reassuring the former he was legitimately not making a big deal because he had settled his problem with Mishima on his own.
"Okay...but remember I'm always here to talk right? Like you do for me."
Joker stared in astonishment for a moment then smiled.
"I'll remember, I promise," he said.
"And everyone else too! Got it?!"
"Ha ha! Okay okay, I got it."
Panther nodded, satisfied at last. "Good."
"Geez, she's pushy..." Skull mumbled.
Rogue smirked. "Hey Pan-theeer!" she said in sing-song.
"Hey! Shut it you snitch!"
The thug dressed boy chased after her but she laughed and avoided his grabs. Joker and Panther made them stop their little squabble, not that she had actually been planning on telling. She just wanted to tease Skull. Once that was done, she was back to driving, gathering every single flower they encountered as usual. But it wasn't long before they stopped again when she spotted Jose whiz by and floored after him.
"Here Jose, I'll want...how many flowers did we get this time, Joker?"
"About sixty."
"Dang...I can't get much... Mind if we spend it all on these?" she said, lifting the black kogatanas.
"Sure."
"Uh...why you need two? Doesn't Joker already have one?" Skull said.
"I need more 'cause I'm experimentin' on custom weapons."
"Huh?"
"You are creating weapons?" Fox said, joining in.
"Yup! And if it goes well, we'll get cool and strong weapons from this."
"Hell yeah! That's awesome!"
"I see... What is the process you will do to create it?"
"Usin' an electric chair," she said.
Silence.
"I'm sorry what?"
"Fascinating...do you electrocute yourself so that your hands may gain the inspiration to create the weapons?"
"What made you think that?!" Skull said in disbelief and horror.
Rogue laughed. Leave it to Fox to not be bewildered by such an odd sounding explanation.
"Nah. I'm basically gonna use my Personas to make weapons. Hopefully."
"I can't tell if that's worse or better than the electric chair thing."
"I need both to do it so it doesn't matter."
"Where the hell did you even get an electric chair?!"
"A warden gave it to me."
Skull groaned. He gave up after that.
Panther ended up asking the same question as well, but directed it to Joker, who answered no differently from her, merely saying the truth in a way that was hard to believe. The blonde sighed in annoyance but understood it truly was that and it wasn't easy to explain otherwise. Her transaction done, they returned to their search.
After another battle, Fox said once they boarded the Monamobile again,
"Shadows...what is the consistent motif behind their appearance?"
That was a good, and interesting, question.
"Well, the only thing in common I see is they're all stuff from myths and stories," she said.
"Like angels and demons and yokai," Joker said.
"Yeah... I noticed that... Why is that?"
"Maybe it's 'cause they're Shadows and when you think shadows...you think of monsters hidin' in the dark."
"That's possible," Mona said.
"But why would it include angels?"
"Well, angels used to look a whole lot scarier before," Rogue said.
She saw Skull's dubious look through the overhead mirror.
"Angels were scarier?"
"Yeah. Cherubim for example. They had beast heads, usually four or three of 'em, with a whole lotta wings."
"Eeeeeeh?! So they aren't those cute little things that shoot arrows through hearts?"
"Isn't that Cupid?" Panther said.
Rogue jaw clenched. "No it's not! And even that's just his later depictions."
"Later depictions?"
Thank goodness they had an art expert. "Indeed," Fox said. "Cupid, and his Greek counterpart Eros, was originally depicted as a young man. It was during the Hellenistic period when he was depicted more often as a child, which is the image that has remained in pop culture. And greeting cards."
"Thank you Fox!" she said.
Joker just giggled in the background.
Thankfully they found the cat-napper, Ryoko Aino, two floors down. It was a bit of surprise when she suddenly wanted to talk in the middle of the fight, but Rogue was happy the option existed and they quickly took it. With their request done, Skull wanted to just go back through the Nav's teleportation, but Rogue wanted to go back the long way so that the flowers they collected wouldn't go to waste. Before the boy could argue more, she decided to bribe him by promising that the first weapon she'll make would be for him. He agreed. And everyone else decided to come along to.
It took a couple floors, but they did find Jose again and she got one more kogatana before they all teleported back to the top.
"Phew... We're finally done..." Panther said as she stretched. "Hey, does anyone wanna go shopping with me? I need someone to carry my bags."
"Who's gonna wanna go after hearin' that?!" Skull said with an annoyed look.
"I do," Joker said.
Because of course he did.
"Eh?! You kiddin' me?!"
Rogue snickered. "Nah, he ain't. If he was, he'd be teasin' you 'bout not bein' a gentleman."
"Hmm, I may not have known you all as long, but I can envision that."
"I didn't ask you guys!"
She laughed while Fox chuckled.
"Come on, let's go," Joker said. "I meant what I said about going with Panther. I was thinking of buying some groceries."
"Huh? You buy groceries?" Panther said.
He smirked. "What? You think I don't eat?"
"You know that's not that I meant!"
Now Joker laughed before he asked her to sell all their loot. Then more banter was had as they left Mementos and went their seperate ways, Akira reminding herself to think of what to tell her parents on their weekly call.
Author's Note: Fun fact: I usually try to have the times when Ren and Akira hang out with Confidants be the same as their in-game schedules. So imagine how annoyed I was to realize that I completely forgot about the schedule of Kawakami's Confidant when I wrote this after looking into the schedule again. A part of me was tempted to write it out but a bigger part of me was "Screw it. I like where the ranks are. I'm keeping them there". So yeah. Expect to see me "breaking the game" later with the Temperance ranks.