Literally: to give someone school
Meaning: to treat someone harshly
Rough English equivalent: to put someone through the mill
Tuesday, January 3rd, Morning
Sumire found herself standing in the secluded corner of the Shibuya station, finger on the Metaverse app history entry, hesitating. She was about to enter a realm constructed from collective consciousness, and fight monsters under the tutelage of an assassin with dozens if not hundreds of deaths to his name, and who might also harbour a grudge after she had almost accidentally killed him. And all that while wearing a coat over a bodysuit.
"Not taking the easy way out this time…" she muttered to herself. Her hand twitched, but she tapped the screen and entered Mementos.
The aforementioned assassin was sitting by the wall, wearing a black outfit, firing finger guns akimbo with an innocent smile. "Tsk-tsk-tsk-" They were suppressed, obviously. "-oh, hey, Green." Goro picked himself up from the floor, trying to appear stern and serious.
"Welcome." Startled, Sumire spun on her heel and noticed a familiar-looking cell door with a familiar-looking assistant standing by it.
"Oh, h-hi Lavenza," she waved awkwardly. "Th-this door wasn't here yesterday, was it?"
"It was not," she replied. "I thought it would be unnecessary with the detective having no use for master's Persona-related powers, but then he suggested offering different services - namely, fast travel between safe spots in Mementos. They are present every few floors, all the way down to the Depths." She glanced at Goro. "The usurper offered you similar services, has he not?" He nodded.
"Did the Thieves use that to get around too?" Sumire asked.
"No. Mona was capable of turning into a large van and they drove him around this place," the detective replied. The gymnast waited for a moment for a 'syke!' that never came, and then he grabbed something silvery leaning on the wall, and handed it over to her, cup-hilt-first. "The usual supplier didn't have tucks in stock, are rapiers okay?"
"Yeah." She inspected it before putting it on her belt. "I'll just… need to be careful with the edges. Did you buy anything for yourself?"
"Oh, of course." She could've sworn she saw a glint in his eye, behind the opaque lenses of his glasses. "For close quarters, this beauty," He pulled it out and proudly showed it to her. "It's mahogany."
Sumire gave him a puzzled look. "…it's a cane."
"It's a bludgeon that you can carry everywhere without arousing suspicion," he said, spinning it in his hand. "It also comes with a wide hook useful for tripping people up and, lest we forget, it's also classy as fuck." He put it away… somewhere, the gymnast wasn't sure where. "I also got myself a firearm model not unlike your lever-action rifle."
The gymnast was confused. "Didn't you have that revolver already?"
"Yeah, but it's a real gun," he explained. "It comes with seven cartridges pre-loaded, they seem to regenerate daily." He had fired all seven the day before, just to check. "In the Metaverse, gun damage is proportional to how realistic the weapon appears, and so bullets from real firearms are tremendously lethal. Since I only have a few of those, I'm saving them for tough enemies, and for the rest, I've got this:" He pulled out a compact SMG with a suppressor attached to the barrel. "This model's based on the PP-2000. Its inspiration was a personal defense weapon, capable of firing both standard NATO pistol ammunition, and special overpressure cartridges designed to penetrate- why are you smiling?"
"…you have a pee-pee gun." Sumire failed to hold back a giggle.
Goro pretended to be unamused for all of three seconds, before briefly chortling and putting the weapon away. "We're gonna start on the topmost layer, just to play it safe. Follow me."
He marched through the faux ticket gates downstairs, and the gymnast followed, anxious. The floor below them looked like a deserted terminus station. Everything was tinted crimson, and there were some unspecified black… growths on the walls and signs. Maruki's cables were hanging from the ceiling, going deeper into the level.
"Initially," Goro jumped off the platform and marched between the train tracks, "I planned to just let you figure things out on your own while I stay in the back row, because… well, because that's how I learned it. How I got to where I am now."
"With all respect, this sounds like an argument against such an approach, Goro-senpai."
The detective froze mid-step.
"Oh, s-sorry, Crow-senpai."
He spun on his heel with an expression of genuine unease. "Please don't senpai me. Neither here nor in the real world."
She nodded. "Got it, Crow-sensei."
"That's even worse!" he protested.
"Why?" she asked, genuinely confused. "You're training a pupil in a…" Quick pause to find a good euphemism. "…in an art you've mastered over the past few years."
"I don't know, I just…" he paused, trying to phrase coherently what bothered him so much about those honorifics, "I don't like this… connotation of respect. Hell, you yourself said I'm not someone to be emulated."
"S-sorry, Crow-san, I didn't mean-"
"That wasn't an insult," he interrupted her. "That was an accurate assessment." He grabbed his 'mask' by the hinge and took it off to inspect it. "I'm a hero by necessity, because all the better people are either burnt out or ensnared by Maruki's illusions. The last in the Phantom Thieves order of succession." He pinched his nose with his other hand. "Fucking hell, I got sidetracked. But please, just call me 'Crow'. Or 'Crow-san', if you really need to be formal."
"Understood," she nodded.
"Ad meritum," he put the glasses back on and continued marching, "figuring things out as you go means you make mistakes. I wanted to let you do so at first, since they're great learning experiences and I can always cast healing or revival spells, but you're… well, you're new to this, and I don't want to discourage you right out of the gate." He smiled. "Honestly, with the right mindset, Mementos roaming can be fun, and I want to instil that mindset in you."
That must have been the creepiest thing he had told her. No, wait, there was the 'those things happen after you kill someone' line from the day before. Second creepiest then. "…fun? How?"
He noticed something in the distance and produced his cane, then gripped it right around the middle. "Watch me."
He sprinted forward, faster than Sumire expected, and ran towards a vaguely humanoid looking mass of black goo. It noticed him and, as much as the gymnast could read whatever passed for its face, got terrified, right as the detective leapt into the air and bashed its head in with an overhead two-handed smash.
It splattered on the ground, and formed into four piles of sticky rotting meat. Against every instinct in her body, Sumire ran up to the commotion. "Welcome to your first fight, Green!" Goro announced, a wide grin on his face. "Personally, I prefer real-time fights, but because I don't want to overwhelm you, we're gonna fight like the Thieves do - in turns. You have a turn, then the monsters do, then I do, then you do, et cetera, until they die."
Sumire was confused. "And they'll just… stand there and take it?"
"They were doing so up to this point," he shrugged. "Anyway, in a turn you can do one of a few things: attack with your melee weapon, empty your gun, use an item, or cast a spell using your Persona. Or, if things get dire, escape - but we're not doing that now."
"Y-y-yeah, obviously," she nodded.
"Out of all the options, all of them are self-explanatory, except for calling a Persona," he continued, with the confidence of someone that did it too many times to count. "But even that's really simple: focus on your resolve, on what keeps you going, and Cendrillion will appear. Then, pick an attack to use. You have Physical and Gun ones, they will tire you a bit, that's to be expected. Also, feel free to be dramatic. Clutch your mask and scream 'Persona!', that's always fun." He gestured at the Slimes with his free arm. "As I said, it's your turn. Fire at will."
The gymnast took a deep breath. Not taking the easy way out, not taking the easy way out, not taking the easy way out. "Persona!" she shouted, blue flames came from underneath her mask, and the crystal humanoid manifested above her. "Show them, Cendrillon! Heat Wave!"
Even when taking into account the Slimes' partial resistance to Physical attacks, the attack dealt enough damage to kill three of the buggers five times over. The fourth, unfortunately, dodged, then attacked Goro.
"Crow-san!"
"Calm down, Green, that did no damage." Unfazed, he pulled out his PDW, unfolded the wire stock, and fired a few bursts at a Shadow, killing it on the spot. With the skirmish concluded, he went and picked up the coins left behind by the defeated enemies.
"Will you need to… reload, somehow?" Sumire asked.
"The logic is, the guns work because the Shadows think they should work," Goro explained, "and I guess they assume we reload between the fights."
"That's… convenient."
"I know, right?" He reached into a pocket and pulled out a candy bar. "Here, a reward for the first fight won, and something to recover after that spell you casted." He tossed it at the gymnast. "Don't get too cocky, this was entry-level stuff. Still, it's a good start."
Sumire allowed herself a little bit of satisfaction as he unwrapped the bar and nibbled on it. "So, what happens now?"
"Well, now that we've got the basics covered, I was thinking about going back up and asking Lavenza to transport us a bit deeper. Fight more challenging enemies, see where your limits are, and try some more advanced stuff." He raised his hands a bit in a defensive gesture. "If you want to, of course."
The gymnast smiled. "Lead the way, Crow-san."
Daytime
The two ended up in the middle sections of the Path of Akzeriyyuth. Goro gave Sumire directions, informed her whenever her attacks would be very effective or ineffective due to the monsters' affinities, and fought alongside her with great satisfaction.
"You…" Sumire remarked after an nth fight, breathing heavily, "you don't even seem tired, Crow-san."
"I have more experience," he explained, "and I am not restricted to physical attacks, which means I get to use the SP that you can only spend on Charge." The lenses of his glasses glowed, and Woland manifested to rejuvenate the gymnast. "Buuut I'm out now, so let's wrap it up for today."
She looked at him expectantly. "Did I do good?"
"You did satisfactory," he replied. Sumire felt a little sting since the answer wasn't a straightforward 'yes'. "You have proven that if I take you to Maruki's Palace tomorrow, I can count on you to carry your weight."
The two marched up the stairs to a safe area. Lavenza was waiting for them by the passenger booth, standing by her usual blue cell door. "Do you require my services?"
Goro pointed at the ceiling with his index finger. "To the entrance, please."
The door opened and the two walked through it, instantly moved to the topmost floor. "Before we leave," Sumire piped up, "I need to ask one question."
"Ask away, Green."
"So… it will be just the two of us? You won't try and get the other Thieves to help us?"
A pause, and a sigh. "No," he turned to her. "I don't think I would be able to convince them."
"You convinced me."
"Did I?" he countered. "Or did Joker vouch for both of us?" He waited for a moment, just in case Sumire wanted to answer that rhetorical question, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Here's the thing: you haven't witnessed me at my worst. You only have the second-hand accounts. The Thieves… have their own reasons to give me a wide berth."
"It couldn't have been that-"
"I killed the mother of one of them and the father of another one."
"…oh."
The gymnast had to admit to herself she had outright forgotten that the boy in front of him is a ruthless assassin. Or did he soften up since then? She genuinely couldn't tell, especially as he stood in front of her, his head lowered in shame.
"As I mentioned," he went on, "I had also tried to kill Akira, and attacked them all one last time in December, right before they dragged me to their side." He glanced back at her. "Between that and my lacking social skills, the chance of convincing them to join me are next to nil. It's just the two of us, I'm afraid. If that bothers you…" he paused, trying to figure out how to make the follow-up not sound like a taunt, "well, I cannot and don't want to force you to cooperate."
"It does not bother me," she lied. "If stopping Maruki-san means I must work with someone like you, then… I will work with someone like you, I suppose."
"Don't get so enthusiastic about the prospect," Goro muttered, then pulled out his phone, grabbed Sumire by the wrist, and the two left the Metaverse. "Alright, we're meeting tomorrow at-"
"Recruiting someone new, Goro?"
The detective froze like a deer in the headlights. Someone was leaning against a wall next to the secluded corner, arms crossed, staring at him in mild bemusement. Waiting for them.
"Oh," he blurted out, taken aback, "h-hi there. H-how are you?"
"Um…" went Sumire, "who is that man, Cro-Goro-san?"
The stranger straightened himself. "Yes, how rude of me to not introduce myself." He bowed. "I'm Yusuke Kitagawa, Phantom Thief."