Maruki barely dodged a Curse attack. "N-now," he said, "let's not do anything either of us will regret."
"Too late for that," Akira snarled. Blue flames covered the red streak on his face. "On both ends."
A tentacle failed to completely block a Physical attack, and it hit Maruki with enough force to sting. He readjusted his grip on the staff. A bunch of other tentacles, each half a meter thick, rose up from the floor, surrounding Akira from all sides.
"Vanadis, Heat Wave!"
Most of them dropped limp on the ground. Akira glanced to the side to see Sumire thrusting her smallsword into one of the remaining tentacles and yanking it back out as it collapsed.
"Back off, Violet!" he commanded. "I'm done letting others clean up after my mistakes!"
"There's a difference-" Another thrust, another tentacle down. "-between letting others clean up-" A gun materialized in her off-hand and she took a shot at another tentacle, stunning it. "-and letting others help." She cocked her gun with one hand and delivered a finishing blow with her sword. "And what makes you think-" She dodged a third tentacle trying to strike her from the rear. "-I wanna take the easy way out?"
"Fine!" Akira didn't want to waste time and effort fighting a friend on his side. "Cover my six, I'm charging the host."
"Okay," Maruki said, holding his staff at the ready, "if you do not stand down I will be forced to-"
"Forced to what?!" Akira casted Riot Gun at the tentacles in front of him, knocking them down. "What else could you possibly do to me, you delusional piece of shit?!"
Akira-
AKIRA WILL SLIT YOUR FUCKING THROAT IF YOU TRY THIS BULLSHIT ON HIM, TAKUTO.
Maruki recoiled in completely understandable terror. He put a pair of thick tentacles between him and Akira, but he just cut them down with a single swing of his cane.
"Face me, you fucking coward!" he proclaimed. "Or does your commitment to this reality end when you're in danger?"
That struck a nerve. Maruki charged him with his staff, but Akira parried him without issue.
"All of you," he tried to thrust the spiked head at Akira, but he dodged it, "keep on rambling about how I 'did not think it through'." His backhand smash was parried again. "But it all would've worked just fine if you didn't keep undermining it!"
"You've been running this reality for two weeks," Akira tried to counter with a blow to the ribs, but Maruki recoiled at the last moment. "Do you think we're gonna be the only problem you'll face until the end of time?"
"Grabber, seven o'clock!" Sumire shouted, occupied by two other tentacles.
Akira pulled out his pistol with his left and put three rounds in a tentacle behind him. "And how have you been dealing with the 'problems' we've caused so far, huh? Was there one issue you haven't made worse by accident?"
Maruki didn't have a response to that. As Akira tried to strike him again, he grabbed the hook of his cane with his staff, and yanked it hard enough to toss it aside. A tentacle wrapped around Akira, as Maruki reached for his mask as Azathoth manifested above him. "Now hold sti-"
A shot from Sumire's lever-action rifle hit the upper half of Maruki's mask, distracting him for long enough for her to sink her smallsword in the tentacle restraining Akira. He dropped to the ground, then sprung forward towards Maruki, grabbed his lapels, and headbutted him as hard as he could. Maruki recoiled away, and Akira didn't waste time on theatrics – Loki just manifested above him and struck Maruki with a Laevateinn. He tumbled backwards with great force, dropping his staff, and ended up in a heap on the floor. He barely had a chance to pick himself up from the floor before Akira decked him in the face.
"Tell me," Akira snarled, throwing another punch, "were you my friend at any point, or were you just another two-faced bastard using me for your own-"
Maruki ducked under the third punch and jabbed Akira in the stomach, knocking some air out of him. "Don't you dare to accuse me like this!" he barked back, pointing his finger at him in accusation. "I gave you the peaceful life you wanted!"
"I also wanted it for the other Phantom Thieves!" Akira snapped back. "And I told you to not hurt them, but did you listen? DID YOU?!"
"They should've just stayed out of my way!" Azathoth manifested above Maruki to strike. "I won't let anyone tear this reality down!"
Then, Vanadis manifested and slashed Azathoth with her long claws, as Maruki grunted in pain. Akira glanced at Sumire; she had run out of tentacles to deal with and now trotted up to stand by his side. Loki followed up Vanadis' attack with his sword, hurting it enough to throw Maruki off-balance. Akira and Sumire spotted an opening and, in sync, pointed their guns at Azathoth.
"Checkmate," Sumire proclaimed.
They fired in unison, with a satisfying, loud bang. The salvo was strong enough to knock Azathoth to the ground. Maruki dropped down to all fours.
Akira slowly approached him, pointing the gun at his head. "It's over, Takuto," he announced, poking him with the barrel. His finger twitched, just a little bit, not hard enough to pull the trigger.
"Akira!"
He froze. The voice… This had to be another trick. Keeping one eye (and the gun) on Maruki, he turned to the side, and saw the other Phantom Thieves, alive and conscious, watching the commotion.
"I told Oracle to dig through Queen's inventory for some revival items while we distracted Maruki-san," Sumire explained. "I suggested that they should wait until everyone's back up so they would rejoin the fight at the same time…" She smiled awkwardly. "And then you ended it before they could help."
Akira scanned the crowd. They seemed… nervous. Scared. Of him? The thought alone was enough to force him to restrain himself. There were a few missing faces. "Where's Futaba and Goro?" he asked.
The crowd stepped aside to reveal Goro still lying on the ground, with Futaba crouched by his side, holding his hand.
"He'll recover, I'm sure of it," Makoto said. "But for now, it's over. We won."
As if to punctuate that statement, the Treasure manifested in front of the group – a golden, shining torch. Akira stared at it for a moment. The rage inside him was still there, but so was another force, another facet of his personality that's been there all along. You could call it a moral core, an innate sense of justice, or maybe just a set of personal standards, but however you'd call it, it told him that laying a hand on Maruki at this point would not be right by any definition of 'right' he signed up for.
He took a deep breath and holstered his pistol. Maruki watched as he approached the Treasure and picked it up with his off-hand. In response, the ground underneath everyone's feet started to shake.
"That's that then," he muttered under his breath, then turned to Makoto. "I think this is the part where we-"
"Senpai, look out!"
Akira turned around just in time for the Nagant bullet to go through his forehead and out the other end. With a sharp grunt, he dropped down to his knees, as the torch fell out of his hand.
Maruki cocked the revolver. "I-I'm sorry… but this isn't the end just yet."
"Maruki-san!" Sumire exclaimed, and Maruki pointed the gun at her.
"N-nobody move," he said, picking himself up from the floor. "I… almost forgot I had this thing, before Akira threatened me with his own."
"Just… fuck off." Akira was too stubborn and too pissed to die from something as trivial as a bullet to the head, but that doesn't mean that he was able to fight back. "I can't believe you've done this…"
"Y-y-you left me with no other choice, Akira." Maruki outstretched his free hand and the torch floated back to it. "If… if I must be the villain to protect my reality, then a villain I shall be."
He raised the torch above his head, and Azatoth floated above it. It spun its back towards the Thieves, and a bunch of tentacles manifested on either side of the crucifix. They merged together into a pair of black arms, covered in light-blue Tron lines. The arms then expanded around the original cross to form a torso and from there, completed the humanoid form.
"Is he-" Morgana muttered, "is he evolving his Persona?"
The humanoid towered above everyone. A white flash enveloped him, covering him head to toe in a golden armor, not unlike his summoner's.
"Adam Kadmon!" Maruki announced. "With my… no, with our power, our reality is-NGAH!"
A two-handed battle-axe, large enough to match the newly summoned Persona, embedded itself in Adam Kadmon's torso. He faded away, as Maruki doubled over in pain once more. His breaths turned erratic and sharp, and a few tears went down his face.
GET UP.
For a moment it felt like static clouded the vision of everyone in the room. Futaba felt Goro's hand twitch.
YOU FLUNKED THE PREVIOUS FIGHT WITH THAT FUCKING GOBLET, AND NOW YOU'RE DOWN AFTER ONE HIT.
GET THE FUCK UP.
Another jolt of static. Goro's body was enveloped in blue flames, startling Futaba, who recoiled towards the rest of the team.
AKECHI WOULDN'T HAVE FELL LIKE THIS.
USELESS PIECE OF SHIT.
Everyone watched as Goro, still covered in flames, slowly and deliberately lifted himself off the ground.
THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO FINISH THIS.
DO WHAT COMES NATURAL.
The flames subsided, revealing a black buttoned-up trenchcoat. Between the bandanna covering his mouth, a knitted cap covering his head, and a pair of red-lensed teashade glasses, Goro's identity was hidden even more thoroughly than even in his previous Featherman costume. There was a P90 submachine gun in his left hand, and a serrated sword in his right.
DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU WHAT TO DO.
NOT THAT FUCKING SHRINK, NOT AMAMIYA, NOBODY.
A new Persona manifested above him. It resembled a floating ribcage and skull, wrapped in some bandages, wearing a tattered black trenchcoat flapping in the nonexistent wind. Its eye holes were hidden by a pair of goggles with glowing red lenses. Two hands floated by its side, unconnected to the torso, one wielding the axe from earlier, the other holding some kind of one-handed submachine gun.
I AM THOU, THOU ART I.
After the longest second of everyone's lives, Goro turned towards Akira, and his Persona followed. "This is how your mercy ends." There was something off about his voice, and it wasn't the bandanna muffling it. "A sneak attack from a foe stupid and desperate enough to not realize they have already lost."
"Spare me the lectures," Akira hissed.
"Oh, you will be spared, Amamiya." Goro replied. "Despite your failings, you remain a beacon of justice in an uncaring world." He turned to Maruki with an unnerving smirk. "Your demise, on the other hand, will be prolonged."
Maruki tried to pick himself up from the ground, but that came with difficulty. "Pers-ah!" He dropped back to his fours. Instead of his Persona being summoned, he only felt a jolt of pain going through his body.
"Doesn't work anymore?" Goro tilted his head a bit. "What a pity. I hoped you would put up a fight. Futile as it would have been."
He took a step towards Maruki, and then another. His movement was stiff, the feet barely lifted from the ground, soles scraping the floor. The arms were hanging limply at the sides.
Maruki picked up the Nagant from the floor and pointed it at Goro with his trembling hands. "S-s-stay away from me!"
"Try and stop me," Goro replied, in an unnaturally tranquil tone.
Maruki pulled the trigger. The bullet, predictably, bounced off of the target and ricocheted to the side.
"Now, my turn." Goro raised the hand with his own firearm and fired a short burst. It blasted the revolver out of Maruki's hand. Maruki clutched his wounded right palm with the left, hissing in pain.
"'Then a villain I shall be'," Goro repeated mockingly, continuing to march towards Maruki, who tried to inch away. "You don't have the balls for it, weakling. You still cling to justifications; even as everything falls apart around you, even as you do more and more damage to people to claim to care about, you keep telling yourself it will all be worth it. Me? I have no need for excuses. I want you to die, slowly and painfully, and so you will DIE."
"That's enough, Go-"
"SILENCE, NIIJIMA," he butted in, pointing his gun at her. "I still have four bullets left for every person in this room. Heal the wounded, take the Treasure, and depart," he demanded. "Do so, and I will let you live."
Makoto opened her mouth to protest further, but a single bullet whizzed past her ear and the words got stuck in her throat.
"The next shot will not miss."
Makoto weighed her options. Either she'd have to fight a foe powerful enough to wipe out Maruki in a single strike, and who already had an automatic weapon pointed at her, or she'd retreat and leave two men to die – and despite everything, she didn't believe either of them had it coming.
Finally, after a long period of deliberation, she ordered: "Mona, heal Akira, and switch to car form. We're leaving."
"No, we're not."
Goro spun around to notice Sumire standing between him and a terrified Maruki with a defiant expression on her face.
"What do you think you're doing, Yoshizawa?"
"Getting in the way," she replied.
A barrel of Goro's gun was roughly shoved under her chin. "Have you already forgotten what happened the last time you tried this nonsense?"
"I didn't," she replied, almost masking the fear in her voice. "That's why I'm not trying to disarm you. In fact," she opened both her hands and both her smallsword and her lever-action gun fell down on the ground, "I'm disarming myself. We've both fought enough."
Confusion very briefly flashed on Goro's face. "What is the meaning of this?!" he snarled. "Do you think you can distract me long enough for them to pull anything? Because let me reassure you, if they try to pull anything, I will pull the trigger."
"Take my word for it," Makoto commented, "this isn't any trick I'm aware of."
"It's exactly how it looks," Sumire reassured him. "I am just trying to talk you down."
"Out of my way, second banana!"
Sumire did not budge. She could see her reflection in those red lenses. "I know what you're going through."
"You don't know shit!" Goro screamed.
"I know how it feels to try and pretend to be someone you're not," Sumire retorted. "You're pretending you're the," air quotes, "'real' Goro, like I pretended to be real Kasumi, because you think you yourself aren't strong enough to deal with this. And… even with my cognition overwritten, even knowing as much as I did about my twin sister, it just… didn't work. What came out was a parody, a caricature, a poor imitation of the real deal. I'm sure this isn't how the real Goro would act."
"And what would you know about the real deal?" Goro countered. "You didn't know him! You didn't know how many people he threw under the bus in the name of vengeance!"
"I do."
The two turned to see Akira getting up from the ground with difficulty, supporting himself with Goro's cane, blood still dripping down his face. He then turned to the other Thieves. "Mona…"
"Oh, right!" The cat's Persona manifested above him and brought Akira back to full health. There was still a streak of blood on his face from the gunshot wound, but nobody really minded at that point.
"That's a relief…" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to get his emotions under control, glanced back at Sumire and Goro. "Like I was saying… I knew the real Goro. The sadistic, murderous, green-eyed bastard that caused me and everyone I care about so much grief."
"Nobody's perfect," Sumire remarked.
"Oh, I agree." After confirming that the revolver landed far enough from everyone that he could react if need be, Akira stood by Sumire's side and squeezed her hand. "For all the flaws of Goro, he was also stubborn and resourceful. And while he cannot be excused by it, he got the shittiest of shit hands dealt to him by life. I believe that he would've been able to turn his life around." He looked aside. "Maybe if I confronted him earlier and didn't try to work around him..."
It was hard to read the reaction on Goro's face, on account of the bandanna and the glasses. "Pah, what drivel. You can't be stupid enough to believe that."
"I…" Akira paused, looking for a follow-up. "I want to believe that, for all it's worth." He glanced at the terrified Maruki behind him, still clutching his wounded hand. "Despite my own rage, despite the wounds done to me, despite all of it… I consider both him and you my friends. It's like Sumi said a moment ago – we've all fought enough."
"Tch. Very well then." Goro moved his gun and put it to Akira's forehead. He did not react. "If it would pain you so much to see him dead, then I'll spare you the image. Four bullets to the skull should be enough, don't you-"
"No."
Akira and Sumire noticed that Goro's mouth moved underneath the bandanna. What they assumed to be Goro's voice did not come from his mouth – not directly, at least.
"What do you mean, 'no'?" the Persona protested.
"I am thou, thou art I," Goro proclaimed. With a shaking hand, he lowered his gun and firmly pointed it at the ground. "I won't let you hurt them."
"They deny you your vengeance!"
"THEN FUCK VENGEANCE!" He tossed away his sword, and it bounced off of the floor with a loud clang. "If Maruki moves a millimeter, I'll kick his fucking teeth in, but not a moment earlier!"
"You pathetic worm!" the Persona snarled. "I granted you freedom, yet you still prefer to be shackled to Amamiya's conscience?"
"You don't give me freedom." Goro reached for the glasses on his face with his free hand. "You enslave me with my knee-jerk reactions, my basest, most primal emotions." He grabbed them near one of the hinges. "And if Akechi saw that as freedom, then to hell with Akechi!"
He threw the glasses against the floor and they shattered to a million tiny pieces. The Persona faded out of existence, and Goro's costume burned away, revealing his civilian clothes – an overcoat over suit jacket and black pants.
"Game over," he muttered, then collapsed to the ground – or would have collapsed, if Akira and Sumire had not caught him before he could hit the ground.
"Speak to me, Goro-kun!" Sumire pleaded.
"Tired…" he muttered. "But I'll live… to spite him…"
Morgana did not wait for an order and switched to his car form. "Load him in and let's get out of here."
"I agree." Makoto approached the discarded torch on the ground and picked it up. "This has dragged on for far too long." She glanced at Maruki. "Will you require-"
She was interrupted by a loud, sharp crack.
The Palaces falling apart when the Treasure was taken has been standard procedure.
Them decaying in a matter of seconds was not.
In the following few seconds, the Thieves and Maruki have managed to see rapidly-widening cracks in the floor, and had just enough time to process what was about to happen. Akira glanced at Maruki, expecting answers, and found him doing the exact same thing, with fear in his eyes.
Then, the floor collapsed underneath everyone.