Miss Violet: No time for introductions. Time for class to start!
Persona V: Reversing the Wheel of Fate
Chapter Sixty
[Opening Scene: Brothel of Fraud - 27th Floor (Sauna Level)
Theme of Brothel of Fraud: Club Zodiac from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment]
The group's plan was simple.
They were to look around to find disgruntled cogs, as Skull had called them, causing them to make enough of a scene to distract the guards, so they could traverse to the next floor.
The group also decided that for their plan to work, they had to look the part but weren't sure if they could remove their Phantom Thief gear, or in Beauty Thief's face, her regular clothes.
But to their utter astonishment, their clothes changed to match those of the room, with the boys wearing dressed as the customers, and to the disgust of the girls, they were dressed as the workers.
Thankfully, the females had wrappings around their breasts to keep them modest, but they were very thin and if someone were to remove the necklaces, they would barely be able to see their breasts.
"Well, there are a lot of implications with this," Mage said.
"I guess this is part of being a thief. Being able to blend in with our targets," Skull grinned. "Alright, now that we have our disguise, let's rock and roll."
The group then dispersed to different areas of the large room.
Beauty Thief decided to go to the west side of the room, where she overheard two masked men conversing.
"This is the life. Madam Mistuyo has really outdone herself this time," One of the masked cogs said. "We get to kill someone and enjoy the freshest meat? This is why I keep coming back here."
"Yeah, no kidding. If only every day could be like this," The second masked cog stated.
Beauty Thief felt her rage building but she calmed down and continued looking for any disgruntled cogs. After another two minutes of searching, Beauty Thief found two masseuses in a heated conversation.
"How dare you take my client? This is the third time today!" One of the girls exclaimed.
"It's not my fault that your big meaty claws can't relax anyone!" The other girl countered and then walked away, which left the first bunny masseuse steaming.
Beauty Thief stretched out her arms, rolled her neck, and approached the two girls.
Time to get her gold medal in instigating.
"She makes me so angry!" the girl growled.
"You know," Beauty Thief said to the first girl. "Personally, I wouldn't have taken that level of disrespect. She said you have meaty claws, girl."
The masseuse turned to her and sighed, "I know! But she's my superior…."
"But is that enough to debase yourself?" Beauty Thief asked. "She's stolen three of your customers and then insulted you. That shows that she doesn't respect you or the time you put into your craft. Madam Mitsuyo chose you, right?"
The masseuse nodded.
Beauty Thief smirked beneath her mask and went in for the kill. "And you know what happens if we fail Madam Mitsuyo, right?" Beauty Thief whispered.
The masseuse gulped and then nodded.
"She's putting your livelihood at risk," Beauty Thief whispered only to see the second masseuse talking to another masked man. "Wait, I thought that was your next customer?"
The masseuse growled and exclaimed, "You're right! Enough is enough!"
Beauty Thief grinned as she watched the masseuse go to her higher up and smack her.
And thus, the fight was on.
And like clockwork, one of the guards went over to break it up.
'Alright, let's hope the others got this….' Beauty Thief thought.
"I hate everything about this," Panther whispered to Lioness as the two walked side by side with a golden platter in their hands.
"I know," Lioness muttered. "I don't know if seeing us in bikinis in Kamoshida's Palace was bad or if our outfits here are worse."
"Definitely this one," Panther grumbled. "My boobs are straining against the wraps and the wraps themselves are too thin. My nipples keep rubbing against the gold. It's mad uncomfortable."
The two then heard fighting and looked up to see two masseuses fighting. They also saw Beauty Thief watching on.
"One down, four to go," Panther whispered.
The two thieves continued their "job" and either give out the strange drinks or retrieve the empty glasses until the pair came across four men in the large pool area.
"I can't believe my favorite waitress took that piece of shit to the 56th floor," One of the men complained.
"What's so special about the 56th floor?" The second man asked.
"Well, that's where we get to have our way with the girls there," The third man lewdly answered. "But you have to have a golden pass to get in there. And the only way you get those is fighting Madam Mitsuyo's champion on the 30th floor."
"But isn't her champion like a big tentacle monster on a chariot?" The fourth man asked.
The third man nodded and said, "Yeah, but, I have a plan. Since the rules state we can have multiple people fight her champion, why don't the four of us fight him?"
The three men looked unsure at this.
"There is no way he could handle all of us in a fight. The best part is that once we win, we get to take the golden elevator to the 56th floor, which has glass floors, which means we could watch the main event from above while having our fun!" The third man exclaimed.
The men murmured in approval.
Lioness and Panther exchanged a look and nodded, filing away this information to tell the others.
"Well, if we're all game," the third man began as he got out of the pool area. "I am going to get a massage before we do this."
The other three men nodded and the third man walked off. This was their chance to sow chaos. "I'll handle these three," Panther told Lioness. "Just stay close by."
Lioness nodded and walked a little ways away.
Panther knelt on the wet marble floor and held out her platter, "More drinks, gentlemen?"
The man answered with cheers in her direction. "You know," Panther stated, "So, are guys friends?"
"Nah, we're business associates," The first man answered. "Decided to come here to um….plow some fertile fields."
"And my, oh, my, aren't your fields looking fertile," The fourth man said with a slimy tone that made Panther shiver in disgust.
"Well, that's strange then because I spoke to him earlier when we were on the 56th floor and he was ranting abo—" Panther started.
"Wait, he was already on the 56th floor?!" The fourth man exclaimed.
Panther nodded and answered, "He got kicked out due to him insulting Madam Mitsuyo over certain….conditions he wanted, and threatened her life."
She hoped this worked.
"That's when he started to talk to me about how he was going to get back there and get three other people to fight Madam Mitsuyo himself," Panther explained. "She said if she sees him back there, she was going to have her champion kill him and those that helped him get there."
The three men looked at one another. "That idiot is trying to set us up for death," The first man said.
"We need to go kick his ass!" The second man yelled.
Panther gave a nod to Lioness, who immediately fled to find the third cog.
Skull and Mage let out fake laughter as they sat in a room with two other cogs, sweat pouring from their bodies.
"And then after I blasted her face, she begged me to feed her more. I had her under my thumb the entire time!" The first man laughed.
"That's why this place is great," The second man spoke. "We pay good money, chase some tail, have our way with them for two hours, and get them drunk off of it."
"Yeah, that's something," Skull offered, barely able to keep the anger from his voice.
"But don't you two feel bad for how you're treating the workers here?" Mage asked.
"Why should we? They want to act like whores, we'll treat them like it," The first man answered. "And trust me, there are many whores in this place. Just last week—"
Mage leaned to Skull and whispered, "This is a load of barnacles."
Skull nodded and whispered, "I just want to beat their asses so badly, but we need to hold off and get this done."
Mage frowned but nodded.
"But enough about them, did you two hear about the main event on the 55th floor?" The first man asked. "Pretty exciting, right?"
"Yeah, I can hardly contain myself," Skull replied.
"Yeah, being able to kill and then fuck the newest girl is going to be something sweet," The second man said. "We already got sneak peeks of her. Her ass is supple."
Mage and Skull's eyes widened in shock. "What?" Skull hissed.
"Yeah. When Madam Mitsuyo gets a new girl, she often gives all of us a sneak peek at her naked body. Sure, she was dressed, seeing her long creamy legs and her ass under her kimono was fantastic."
Skull started to shake with rage, which caused Mage to take his hand. "Sorry about him," Mage helplessly apologized. "He's just….bubbling in excitement at getting a piece of that…. Cute booty….?"
"Hey, no skin off our shaft," The first man replied. "Anyw—"
The sounds of massive combat were heard outside of the room, which caused the eerily quiet Skull and Mage to run out of the steam room to see four men in a brawl, and three guards trying to break them up.
"Whoa! What happened he—" Skull interrupted the first man with a brutal punch to the back of the head, sending the man to the floor. Mage quickly grabbed a discarded gold platter and smacked the second man in the face, sending him to the ground.
"We need help!" Skull shouted. "These two guys are knocked out!"
Skull grabbed Mage and ducked back into the steam room and left out the opposite door fast enough to see the final guard walking toward the two downed men, none the wiser.
Skull and Mage made it to the unguarded door, with Panther, Beauty Thief, and Lioness meeting them, and together, they darted up the stairs, their clothes changing back.
The group went up one floor of stairs, found a safe room right next to an elevator, and closed the door behind them.
[Scene Change: Brothel of Fraud – 28th Floor (Safe Room)
Theme of Safe Room: 3-31 from Persona 3 FES]
The Phantom Thieves panted as Skull held the door shut with his body hunched over.
"We did it," Lioness whispered as she plopped down on a chair. Panther moved to the seat across from her and sat down while Mage plopped down on the couch that sat at the north end of the room.
Beauty Thief sat beside Lioness as Lioness said, "Thank goodness we came up with that plan, but it was tough to implement."
"Hopefully, that's the last time we need to do that," Skull panted as he moved away from the door, walked to the table, and sat beside Panther. "Truthfully, I'm itching for a battle because this place has me pissed."
"I agree with that statement," Beauty Thief said. "The way these Cognitions are talking about killing Joker and Fox and…." Beauty Thief paused to keep her anger in check. "And how they talk about Champ is making me want to chop them into tiny pieces and fertilize my garden with the remains."
A beat of silence passed over the group.
"Well, that was dark," Panther uttered. "But, we do have some new information to share."
"Do you?" Mage asked.
"So, the Cognitions that Lioness and I had the displeasure of talking to spoke about how we can get to the 56th floor," Panther started. "On the 30th floor, there is an arena. If we can defeat the champion in battle, we can get golden tickets to ride the golden elevator to the 56th floor, which is right above the 55th floor."
"Wow, that would save so much time," Beauty Thief said.
"But we'd have to battle to get it," Skull muttered. "I don't want to run the risk of saving them while weakened. But, if we're lucky, there may be a safe room either on the 30th floor or the 56th floor so we can rest our wounds."
"I know what happened the last time we were here was bad," Panther started as she placed her hand on top of Skull's. "But we have to run that risk. They're supposed to die today…."
Skull sighed and nodded. "Yeah, we're running out of time," Skull whispered to himself and then said, "Alright, then we have our mission. Get to the 30th floor, fight the champion, beat them, and then ride our way to the 56th floor."
The group nodded.
[Scene Change: Hasegawa Temporary Residence (Afternoon)
Theme of Danger: Troubled from Persona 3]
There was something very wrong with this house.
Morgana couldn't place why, but he felt uneasy being here. There was just a miasma of negative energy in every room.
It reminded him of the energy in Kamoshida's and Madarame's palaces.
But why?
Morgana limped around the house, he found where that energy was coming from.
Akane's room.
That couldn't be right.
Morgana jumped at the door knob and managed to flick it down, cracking the door open. He landed on the ground and pawed the door open and felt himself almost choke on how thick the miasma was.
"What is this?" Morgana whispered to himself as he looked around the room. It looked like a normal room. There was a twin bed, decorations, a computer, a desk, chair. But there was something evil here that Morgana couldn't understand.
Until he looked at the mirror in Akane's room.
Most didn't know but Morgana didn't need the app his fellow thieves needed to get into a palace. He was able to see the palaces and travel to them. He didn't know how or why he could do this, but he could.
Which is why he was so shocked to see the reflection of a palace in Akane's mirror.
Akane had a palace….
This little girl had a palace!
"This is bad, I need to go find the others…." Morgana whispered, only to hear the front door open.
[Theme of Thy True Self: Bomb Shelter from Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP Ver)]
"Shit!" Morgana cursed as he ran out of the room and into Zenkichi's room and lay at the end of the bed.
As he lay at the end of the bed, he could ghostly whispers coming closer.
"Someone was our domain."
"Zenkichi? No, another presence."
"We must find the invader and deal with them."
"Akane-chan, we must take care of this intruder…."
Morgana kept his eyes closed as Shadow Akane's whispers grew more demanding and furious.
This was so much worst than he imagined….
He would need to investigate the palace the next chance he got.
[Scene Change: Brothel of Fraud – 30th Floor (Champion's Arena)
Theme of Brothel of Fraud: Club Zodiac from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment]
The Phantom Thieves stepped out of the elevator and entered a large chamber filled to the brim with men being seated and the girls dutifully serving them. In the arena, there were no combatants, probably due to no one being willing to fight this champion yet.
"Welcome!" An excited voice exclaimed. The group turned their head to see a bunny waitress seated in an area next to the elevator. "Are you all here to watch or to challenge?"
Skull stepped forward and announced, "We're here to challenge."
"Wonderful!" The girl chirped. "Will it just be you or all five of you?"
"All five of us," Skull answered.
The girl nodded and replied, "Great! Please descend to the arena floor using the elevator to my right." The girl motioned to the elevator on the right side of her office. "Today's prize is five golden tickets to the 56th floor. Good luck and have an entertaining fight!"
Skull nodded and motioned to the group to follow him into the elevator. The doors closed and the group rode down to the arena entrance, where they walked into the arena floor. The moment they walked inside, the crowd of men began to roar in excitement.
"Alright gang, let's try not to use any of our Personas. If it gets too rough, then avoid using SP, got it?" Skull instructed.
The group nodded but Beauty Thief looked unsure. "Remember, I don't have a Persona or even a weapon," Beauty Thief reminded him. "What should I do?"
"Stay far away from the fight. As long as you're here with us, you should be just fine," Skull offered.
"ATTENTION EVERYONE! WE HAVE FIVE CHALLENGERS FIGHTING FOR A CHANCE AT OUR VIP PRIZE, FIVE GOLDEN TICKETS TO THE 56th FLOOR!" The announcer exclaimed.
The ground began to rumble as the steel wall in the arena opened and to their absolute horror, a large green, tentacle monster with a penis-shaped head riding a golden chariot appeared behind the steel wall.
"What in the hell is that?" Mage whispered in horror.
"That," Lioness whispered. "Is the Torn King of Desire…."
"Mwahahahaha! Welcome to Torn King's den! You may think you can defeat me, but I'm clearly the bigger man. Gwahahahaha! Now, then... Why don't we get this party started, hm? Ahahahahahaha!" The Torn King of Desire cackled.
"Well….This is not going to be fun," Skull sighed. "Alright gang, knuckle up!"
Miss Violet: The next chapter will be the battle between the Thieves and the Torn King, followed by the big rescue! This is not going to be pretty. Until then, class is dismissed!