Chapter 13: Luxuria

(A)

"Sir Suguru Kamoshida, the utter bastard of lust. We know how shitty you are and that you put your twisted desires on students who can't fight back.

That is why we have decided to steal away those desires and make you confess your sins. This will be done tomorrow, so we hope you will be ready.

From, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts."

The twin-tailed blonde frowned.

Akira stared.

"Wow," Ann said.

Wow was right.

They went right back to Ren, Ryuji and Mona, who were a couple of meters behind them, and said,

"Damn. Not bad, Ryuji." And she meant it.

It was certainly better than she thought it'd be.

"Heh heh, thanks," her friend said. "I looked up a bunch of stuff like it online for reference."

At that point Ann caught up and said, "Really?" looking at her in disbelief.

Akira pouted behind her mask. "What? I like the name and the logo."

"Cool right?"

She smiled. "The best."

Then Ren said, "While I agree on that front, I'm with Ann on that it could've used a little polish, especially the words."

"Yeah..." Ann said. "I mean, I know what you wanted to say, but the way you said it makes it sound like an idiot trying to be an adult."

"O-Okay, y'know what? That ain't true!"

"Yeah, it's not that bad," she said.

"Only because you like to swear," Ren said with a smirk.

She glared. "Don't act like you don't swear at all."

"That doesn't change the fact you do it more than I do."

"Why you little..."

Before she ended up proving his point, the chatter of the students in front of the annoucement board caught her attention, wondering and speculating about the cards and the contents of it. Before long, their intended recipient came, Akira easily imagining steam bursting from his ears as he said,

"Who's responsible for this?"

Akira snickered. Ren smirked. And Mona said,

"Look at that. A predictable reaction for someone who knows what we mean by distorted desires."

"Did you do this?! Or was it you?!" He snapped and stalked right to them. "Was it you three?!"

"And if it is?" Ren said.

"Not like it matters, right? You'd still blame us if you wanted to," she said.

The mophead grumbled and said, "What garbage." He shook his head. "Never mind. It's not a problem. You'll be expelled soon enough anyways."

Then all of a sudden it wasn't the teacher that stood before them, but the king, and he said,

"Come... Steal it, if you can!"

And then he was back to normal and left them in a huff.

That was their cue.

With that, they were back in the castle and warped to the safe room near the throne room. But just as they were about to sneak in, they found that the doors to it were wide open. Rogue frowned.

"What the hell?"

"What's goin' on?" Skull said. "The door's open and there're no guards anywhere..."

"It's likely understaffed because they've all been assigned elsewhere."

Rogue doubted it. This reeked of trap. And they were going to have to trip it. She looked to her brother, who had a half-grimace, half-smile, and knew he didn't like it either. But nonetheless he led them down the hall and into the treasury where...

"Awwww yeaaah! The Treasure has appeared!"

...a giant crown was floating, one that looked like the one used for coronations in England.

"Man, it's huge!"

Rogue resigned herself for Skull saying the obvious.

"What do you think?!" Mona said, jumping in joy. "It's just as I said! Now we can steal it! Ahh... The shine brings a tear to my eyes..."

"It kinda pisses me off..." Panther said. "Why's it so pretty? Isn't this Kamoshida's desires?"

"Well maybe 'cause if it's his desires, then it's gotta be something he wants?" Rogue said.

"To be king and do whatever he wants?" Joker said.

Then Mona said, his eyes gleaming, "T-Treasure..."

"Uh...the cat's awfully excited."

"What's wrong? Is something—"

And then he jumped onto the crown and meowed.

They all stared.

"Uh..." she said.

Thankfully her brother said, "That's not catnip."

And that snapped the totally-not-a-cat out of his trance.

"Ugh...forgive me for displaying such an insolent display in front of a lady..."

More like embarrassing himself in front of his "Lady Ann", but Rogue wasn't going to say that.

Instead she said, "Never mind that, what was that all about?"

"Yeah, you were being completely out of character," Panther said.

Mona frowned and his ears drooped. "I don't know... And I couldn't stop it either..." he said. "To think I'd be drawn to human desires this much..." He suddenly smiled and perked up. "Doesn't that prove I'm human?"

"How should we know?!"

Rogue groaned. "Never mind. Let's just steal it already."

"Agreed."

"Uh...but how are we supposed to do that?"

"Carry it, duh."

"Yes! Get right to it!"

"Ugh...all you do is bark orders..." Skull said as he joined her and Joker in lifting it. "Still though, that was easier than I thought. Thought there'd be some insane trap or something."

"Oh come on!" Rogue glared at him. "Now you're just askin' for it!"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Come on guys," Joker said as he put his hands under the crown. "Focus."

As Panther came up to help, she said, "If we take this, Kamoshida's Palace will disappear, right?"

"That should be the case."

Rogue certainly hoped so because it would be rather anticlimactic and troublesome if stealing this did nothing to Kamoshida. Especially as the longer they took to carry the heavy crown, the more worried she got that Shadow Kamoshida would come or some kind of trap would be triggered. So it came as no surprise when someone said,

"Go, go! Let's go! Ka-mo-shida!"

And the crown was knocked off their hands with a volleyball.

Rogue gritted her teeth alongside Joker as the king flew over and landed before them, standing in front of his throne. He held out his hand and the crown not only went to him, but shrank to a comfortable and portable size.

Cheater.

"I won't let anyone take this!" Kamoshida said as Cognitive Ann came and draped herself over him. "This proves I am the king of this castle—it is the core of this world!"

"That's how he sees me, isn't it?" Panther said.

Rogue and Joker frowned and nodded, keeping their eyes on the Shadow.

Meanwhile Skull said, "Yo pervert! Were you waitin' to ambush us?"

"I just made it easy to find you. I'll dispose of you myself. Right here, right now."

"That's our line, you sexually-harassin' d-bag!"

"Hmph. What a selfish misunderstanding..."

Rogue glared. "Misunderstandin' my ass! We know how much of an asshole you are!"

Panther did the same. "And you've been keeping what you're doing a secret from others!"

But then Kamoshida clarified what he meant by "misunderstanding" when he said, "The ones around me were the ones who kept it secret."

And Rogue's heart sank as she tried to focus on anticipating an attack.

It turned out Skull was right about a lot more people knowing about the abuse.

"Adults who want to share in my accomplishments, students who have the drive to be winners... They willingly protect me so that we all may profit from it. There are too many who don't understand that!"

Focus. Focus. Don't lash out.

The king looked straight at Panther and said,

"Including naive brats like you and the girl who tried to kill herself!"

Panther sombered. "Yeah...she's a total idiot...letting you manipulate her, trying to commit suicide..."

Don't lash out. Don't lash out. Don't fricking shoot him between the eyes for saying that to Panther. They needed a better chance to steal the crown. She had to stay strong. Especially when her brother's face was slowly but surely becoming more and more blank and cold.

To her relief, Panther said,

"And I'm even more of a dumbass for not realizing that!"

Rogue allowed herself to smile, not only for Panther, but for seeing Joker's poker face defrost with a smaller smile.

"Drop that attitude, you mediocre peasant! There is no wrong for using my gifts for my gain! I'm a cut above other humans!"

"'Above'?! You mean beneath. You're a goddamn demon obssessed with his sick desires!"

She was so glad Panther was saying that. That meant she could focus on reacting to Kamoshida instead of getting mad at him.

Which turned out to be soon as the Shadow suddenly chuckled low.

"That's right..." he said. "I'm not like you! I'm a demon who rules this world!"

And...shit.

"Of course he has another form!" she said.

Before them was the demon he said he was, with four arms, curved ram horns, eyes that moved like a chameleon's and a tongue twice as long as he was tall, and he towered over them, four times their size. In front of him was a cup with squirming legs. Behind him were several baby dolls chained to weight balls.

"Fire!" Kamoshida said.

"Everyone! Back!" Joker said.

Everyone barely managed to dodge the volleyball assault of those dolls. When Rogue landed, she brought out her rifle and shot back. The demon king grunted from the hit but otherwise looked unharmed.

"You goddamn, no-good, shitty brats! Haven't you been taught not to point at people?! Huh?!" his distorted voice said.

This time the volleyballs were too quick for her to avoid and she shouted in pain. She dug her boots into the ground to stop her skidding.

"Everyone! Fire your spells!" Joker said, readying his mask. "Arsène!"

"Dance, Carmen!"

"Come on, Captain Kidd!"

"Come, Zorro!"

"Show your strength, Fantôme!"

The spells landed their mark but none of them made him stagger as he soon retaliated with a volleyball assault, this one aimed all on Skull.

"Mona! Heal Skull!"

"On it!"

Meanwhile, she tried ice from Silky but this too didn't stun the boss. Rogue cursed. All they had left were physical attacks.

"Fantôme!" she said.

"As you wish."

Her Persona attacked with his lasso and it only hurt the distorted Kamoshida, bruises showing. In that time, Joker had lowered Kamoshida's defense, Mona was assigned to healing duty, and Skull boost her brother's, Panther's and her strength. Rogue cursed again. The only way they were going to stun him for an All-Out Attack was hitting criticals.

As if to make her swear even more, the demon plunged his fork in the cup of squirming legs and...ate one. And all of his wounds disappeared.

"Mhhmm, that hits the spot..."

"Oh come on!"

"Everyone! Change targets! Go for the cup!"

Of course Kamoshida wasn't too happy about that. But as Mona put it, "When someone tells us not to do it, it makes us want to do it even more", they still did it. The demon drank from his wine glass, chomping on the Cognitive Ann that had been in it, before spitting her back out and a red aura flashed over him.

"His attack is up!" Mona said.

Ignoring her disgust, Rogue called on Fantôme to lower it and designated herself as the debuffer while Joker and Panther continued to whale on the cup. Kamoshida tried to stop them, but before long the cup shattered and the demon slumped as if drained.

"Ack! No! This was when I won the nationals..."

"Well boo hoo for you," she said.

"Now! All-Out Attack!" Joker said.

The pink demon screamed as they jumped, slashed and bashed across him until he was back up.

"Grr... you think you can get away with such a thing?!" he said. "Do you realize who I am?! I am Kamoshida!"

He swung his knife. Rogue took the hit for Mona.

"Ugh. So what?" she said, silently thanking Mona for the heal he did just then.

"Huh? I just said I'm Kamoshida! Doesn't that mean anything to you?!"

He swung his knife again but this time at her brother, who also tanked it.

"Hmm, maybe?" he said. "I'll think about it later."

"Why you little...!"

Another volleyball assault but Joker dodged it. Skull followed it up with Captain Kidd lunging straight at the king's eye.

"Gaaaaaah!"

"Y'know I always saw you as a condescending hotshot," Skull said. "But right now...you're just a pathetic loser."

"You'll pay for that!"

"That's my line!"

Skull took the hit like a tank. With Kamoshida focusing on him, Rogue took over buffing duties for a moment while Panther aimed for the crown on his head. Just as she was about to fire, the demon noticed and moved his head so that the shot hit his face instead of the Treasure.

"Grgh! Stop it you stupid brats!"

Panther groaned in annoyance. "We came all this way to steal that! Will you just give it up and hand it over?!"

"Silence! I won't let the likes of you have this!" Kamoshida said.

He cracked his whip for another barrage of balls, but Arsène landed a nasty hit on his arm, adding to the growing collection of bruises and wounds that thankfully weren't disappearing.

"You still have the energy to say things like that?!" Mona said.

"Grrr... I'm the king! If I'm not, then who is?!"

"Then we'll just have to overthrow you," Joker said and fired his gun.

The demon shouted again in pain. "How dare you keep defying me...! Time to bring out the big guns! Slaves! Bring out you-know-what!"

All the dolls behind him were let loose. Worried, Rogue aimed her rifle and tried to hit them but they were already gone. She cursed.

"Everyone! Avoid damage and heal up!"

All of them did as told, using their healing items so that Mona wouldn't have to use up all his energy. They did their best to avoid the swings from his knife, but sometimes the large size made up for its slow speed. Of course Kamoshida got frustrated and said,

"What's the holdup?! Where's my ball?!"

And then they all stared as Mishima came from behind them.

"I-I'm so sorry, King Kamoshida," he said, as bruised and meek in the real world, not taking a step into the battlefield. "I-I have it right here."

"Too slow! Worthless chump!"

"Wait what?! Why's he here?!" Panther said, staring.

Thank goodness Kamoshida was also just as distracted by the boy.

"Calm down!" Mona said to the red clad thief. "It's just his cognition of him!"

"Yeah, it ain't the real one," she said.

Meanwhile the demon said, "Good. Now pass it to me Mishima! Don't tell me you can't do something as simple as that!"

So of course Mona said, "But more importantly, it looks like he's about to do a big attack. Keep your guards up!"

"Everyone!" Joker said.

They all braced themselves. Mishima launched the ball. And Kamoshida jumped and spiked it. Rogue gritted her teeth as fire, light and wind exploded and engulfed the entire room. But because they were ready, she only felt a little bit tired and overheated from the explosion.

"Okay! Now! Old roles!"

Mona healed them. Skull buffed them. Rogue debuffed Kamoshida. And then Joker and Panther whaled on the king with force and flames. The king screamed as scorch marks now covered him and he glared.

"I knew I couldn't go all out with Mishima as backup," he said. "Hey shit-for-brains! Get off my court!"

"S-Sorry..."

With that, Mishima left and Rogue thought he wouldn't be doing that "super volleyball spike" again. But then the demon said, cracking his whip stick,

"Next slave, get out here! Hurry up with my damn ball!"

And everyone gasped.

Walking in from the entrance in a scanty bunny suit outfit...was Shiho.

And she smiled seductively as she said, "I've brought your ball, King Kamoshida. Just like you asked."

The king had the gall to seem soft and affectionate as he said, "Aw, now that's a good girl. All women should obey me like this—ain't that right, sweetheart? Now come here."

"Yes King Kamoshida," she said and went closer, ignoring the fact that there were at least five enemies in her way.

Though then again...

"N-No way! What's Shiho doing here?!"

"Panther, calm down! That's not the real one!" Mona said.

"Y-Yeah, you're right," she said, grimacing. "But this is just..."

"Damn it, even Suzui too! You've gone too far you piece of shit!"

And her brother...

Her brother just froze and stared at Cognitive Suzui passing by them, even if his pain and indecision wasn't so plain on his face to her, she could feel it in her, her heart having an ache that wasn't her own.

If she was still alive, she could help Kamoshida much better than Mishima if he still viewed her as a good volleyball player.

But to get rid of her...meant "killing" her.

The answer was easy.

"Fantôme! Get her!"

"With pleasure," her Persona said.

His lasso wrapped Cognitive Suzui's wrist and pulled her to Rogue. When she was close, Rogue grabbed her arm and flung her back at the walls near the entrance. The girl screamed in agony. Rogue wanted to tear apart Kamoshida even more.

"Huh? Hey! Give her back! She's mine!" the demon in question said.

"Rogue?!" everyone except Joker said when she did that.

"I'll deal with her! You deal with that cesspit asshole!"

And Rogue turned around and put all her focus on her swings.

Left, right, left, right, up, down, cross, cross. Again and again and again. Rogue attacked and attacked and attacked. Until Suzui gave one last scream and faded into dust. Rogue panted, staring at the last spot the cognitive double had been.

And then Kamoshida said,

"Hmph. Even Suzui's useless. Looks like I'll have to give her special lessons later... One-on-one!"

Red.

CRACK.

"Burn in hell."

Fantôme flourished his cape and arrows of light shot straight at the king. Now her attention was on the stupid, pink, too-many-armed, naked, gaudy, selfish, perverted, pigheaded, disgusting, piece of—

"Aki!"

Rogue paused. Big Bro?

BAM

"Ack!"

She was whacked right in the torso and flew, but instead of thudding on hard tiles, she felt someone catch her and stop.

"Sorry," her brother said as he held her. "You were ignoring your wounds."

As soon as he said that, all those hits she took and ignored while doing the same to Kamoshida crashed on her and she groaned from her full body soreness.

"Ah shit..."

It wasn't for long though as the cool night of Joker's brand of healing soothed them. Rogue breathed a sigh of relief. Then her brother said,

"Come on, we have to distract him from noticing Mona."

She had been curious what he meant by that, but she obeyed her brother nonetheless, confident of whatever his plan was. It was back to her and Skull mainly providing support while Joker and Panther attacked, but this time she doubled as a healer with Mona missing from their lineup and Skull occasionally attacked as well. Thankfully, without his slaves, all Kamoshida could do was swing that large gold knife of his while they could easily hit him with his huge size filling up most of the room. All the while the Shadow kept spouting nonsense about the school staying afloat because of him and that the women came to him instead of the other way around, until he said,

"Wait, is there one less of you?"

Shit.

"Mona!" Joker said.

A black blur tackled the crown and sent it flying behind them, putting them between it and Kamoshida.

"No! My...my precious..." the Shadow said.

He flailed around in a vain attempt to find it, but upon seeing it was nowhere near, he turned dejected, any motivation sucked out of him.

"Everyone! Full assault!"

Rogue smirked.

Fire, lightning, and wind in tandem with light and dark assaulted the demon and with no energy devoted to holding his ground, he screamed and fell, his form turning black and dissolving. Once again, they all stood still to see if he would come back. But when it continued to shrink, they relaxed and went to the crown behind them. Rogue picked it up and smiled.

"Mission accomplished," she said. "Now let's—agh!"

Rogue let go as something pushed her and everyone shouted in surprise and anger. When she righted herself she saw Kamoshida was back in his scanty clad human form and was stuck between a balcony and the rest of the team. As Rogue moved closer to them, Panther said,

"What's wrong? Not running away?" Her voice turned low and cold. "Why don't you run? Aren't you a great athlete?"

"Grr, it's always like this!" he said, upset despite the slight panicked tone to his words. "All those goddamn hyenas, forcing their expectations on me!"

"Now you're makin' excuses?" Skull said, unimpressed.

Rogue scoffed. "Course he is. It's always someone else's fault."

"I'm doing this all for them! What's wrong with demanding a reward for that?!"

"Rewards are treated better than how you treat people and they're not even alive," Joker said. "But people are and you treat them like garbage. We won't stand for that."

"Yeah. We'll do something about that distorted heart of yours."

The king whimpered and Panther said,

"Scared?" She took a step forward. "Right now, you're seeing the same view Shiho did." Another. "I'm sure she was scared too..." She put a hand on her mask. "...except she had no choice but to jump." She tore it and Carmen appeared. "So what will you do? Will you jump?" Fire burst. "Or would you rather die here?"

Rogue stared. No...she wasn't going to actually—

"Do you want to finish him off?" Mona said. "It's your call."

"Mona!" she and Joker said.

"No wait, please! I beg you!" Kamoshida said. "Just forgive me!"

And Panther just said, "Shut up. I bet everyone told you the same. But you...you took everything from them!"

And fired.

Rogue froze. No no no was she—it hit the wall near Kamoshida. The man shrieked and whimpered and fell to his knees and he said,

"I accept defeat... You want this? Take it."

He threw the crown towards them and Joker caught it. But all Rogue did was say,

"Panther... Come on, let's go. We got the Treasure."

"Please, Panther," Joker said, stepping close to her. "Don't do it."

That seemed to calm her somewhat, her shoulders relaxing, but she was still glaring up a storm at Kamoshida and she still had one more fireball ready to burn him. She and her brother were about to say more but then the man said,

"Go ahead and finish me off..." he said. "You do that and my real self will go down too... You have the right since you've won..."

And Panther clenched her fist and fired.

"Ann!" they all shouted.

There was a big bang...but no scream. Only a bewildered, cowering man staring at the scorched wall behind him.

"If his mind shuts down, he can't admit his crimes," Panther said.

Rogue and Joker sighed, glad she wouldn't kill him.

Then Mona said, "You're kind, Lady Ann."

And Rogue wondered why he let her name slip but shook that thought away. That wasn't important right now.

Right now Kamoshida looked utterly defeated as he said, "I've... lost. You're through when you lose... What am I—what am I supposed to do now?"

Those words easily explained a lot about Kamoshida in her mind. He kept wanting to win, and feeling like a winner, no matter the consequences. Which likely made the fact that he was just a teacher now a gigantic blow to his pride and he tried to compensate for it. But now...

"Atone for your sins," Joker said.

"And don't you dare back out like now, coward," Rogue said.

To her shock and disgust, the man actually looked...peaceful as he said as he faded into light, "All right... I will leave now and return to my true self. I'll make certain I—"

With that, he was gone, this time for sure, and everyone relaxed...

THUD

...until the place shook.

"What the hell?" Rogue said.

"Hey, just so you know, we don't have time to waste," Mona said, nonchalant. "This place is about to collapse."

"What the hell?! You knew?!"

"To the safe room!" Joker said.

"Ergh, got it!"

"No! We have to go straight out!"

"Why would we do that?!"

"Teleporting won't work!"

"Oh you've gotta be fu—!"

Rogue dodged a falling ceiling block. She'll complain later. Right now they needed to push their already sore muscles even further. And be incredibly glad they had grapple hooks because that saved time on at least half their trip by using it to just fall safely down. The rest was just running and jumping over debris. However...

"Gah!"

"Ryuji!"

Behind them Skull had tripped and insisted he was fine. But Rogue would have none of it and dragged him with her until he could run again. Thankfully by that point they were at near the foyer and when they reached the landing, they all just jumped from it, hoping to dive right out of the exit. With a combination of adrenaline and Metaverse physics, they made it and found themselves back in the alley.

Or in her case flat on her back, panting like a fish out of water.

Everyone else wasn't much better though.

Ann panted before she said, "That sucked..."

"Yeah..." she said, taking in as much air as her faulty lungs could.

She heard Ryuji pant to her side for a bit then he said, "Look at the nav!"

The rest took out their phones and they said, slightly out of synch,

"The destination has been deleted."

"It's true. We can't go there anymore," Ann said.

"What about the Treasure?!" Mona said.

At this point, she sat up just as her brother brought out a medal from his pocket.

"What the..." Ryuji said.

"A medal? Wait, where'd that crown go?"

The answer was simple for Akira. "That's it, isn't it?" she said, looking at it.

"What?! That's it?! Why's it a medal?"

"Because it's the source of Kamoshida's distorted desires," their Metaverse guide said. "To him, that medal is worth that crown we saw in the Palace."

Thankfully Ryuji got that as he said,

"Huh. An Olympic medal..." He turned contemplative. "So that perv kept clingin' to his past glory and couldn't let go..."

"Where do you think he got his big ego from?" she said as she readied to get up.

At least until her brother offered his hand. Then she got up properly as Ann said,

"But...this means that Kamoshida's heart might have changed right?"

Mona went back to being unhelpful and nonchalant. "Probably."

"What?! Our expulsion's on the line!"

"Hey, this is the first succeeded example for me too," he said. That explained a lot. "However, there's no doubt this has affected Kamoshidas personality a lot.

The entire Palace disappeared after all."

With that reminder, she glared at him and said, "Which you should've told us would happen."

"But I did tell you."

"You didn't say it was going to collapse! You just said it'd disappear."

"Er, well..."

"And how come you think teleporting won't work?"

"Oh that's simple. I tried. I suspect it's because those safe rooms don't exist anymore when it turned back to normal."

Akira groaned. "So basically the warp points are gone..."

"Yes, simply put."

"Ugh! Never mind that. You sure there ain't no way to check now? I'm already antsy..."

"We'll see soon enough," Ren said, putting away the medal.

Then she said, "Unless you wanna go straight to Kamoshida's house?"

"Okay okay, I get it..."

"Come on, why the gloomy faces?! Be happy! We completed this with great success, you know."

"It's not a success until Kamoshida's heart is changed," her brother said.

"Yeah, we just don't know if everythin's okay yet..."

"I'm pretty sure it'll be fine," Mona said. "Remember what his shadow said? We all know he's scum, but it looked like he regained his conscience somewhat before he disappeared."

Oh Akira saw. She was still mixed on that. But, "Yeah. It'll work. I'm sure of it."

Because as mixed as she was at seeing Kamoshida like that, Mona was right, it was a good sign that it worked.

"Exactly. There are definitely those who have been saved thanks to what you did."

"Yeah..."

"Ugh...guess we do gotta wait... But man, it all boils down to if his heart changed...or we get expelled for real..."

Akira didn't want to think about the latter. And it seemed almost as if Ren picked up on it as he said,

"Let's go home."

And Ann said, "Yeah, let's go home."

Author's Note: The title is the Latin word for "Lust". Or at least one word for it from what I could tell.