Wednesday, November 8th
Akira's leg bounced impatiently. He looked up at the clock above the blackboard.
2:57. The day was almost over. Thank god.
Today had been difficult for the young man and his dilapidated dick.
He ran into Haru in the morning; Their conversation had been awkwardly paced, tense, and brief as his cheek burned hot where she'd planted her lips; neither teenager acknowledged the kiss directly, but the space between them had been far too hot and humid for a winter morning and their curt farewell was just about as awkward as someone pee into a urinal with their pants down. Throughout the rest of the day, Akira hadn't been able to focus on any school material either, so preoccupied was he with drooling and staring at Ann's ass. He was normally quite proficient at dodging the chalk-missiles his professors often launched at him, but today he could feel a small bruise begin to form underneath his bangs from the stationery barrages he'd endured. Then during lunch time, he turned a corner to enter the cafeteria and walked directly into Makoto. The brief milliseconds for which he felt her body pressed onto his almost saw his knob executed right then and there, but he was able to hold on by aggressively reciting long division in his head and scuttling away like a roach after a quick apology to the confused girl.
2:59. Come on…
His member throbbed. He wanted to yank his chain so bad. Fucking Luciano. Akira's singular respite was that today marked the official end of the first week of the challenge. He tried to hold onto that small victory as tightly as he could, fearing that focusing on anything else would allow his brain to wander back into the horny recesses of his subconscious and amplify his pain, or worse, his arousal.
'Ouhh… hold onto that… tightly, Makoto…' he snorted internally
Bad wording… Fuck.
*Ding-dong bing-bong* 3:00! Freedom! Akira hastily slid his school materials into his bag and was about to make his way for the door, until-
"MREEOOWWWW!" Morgana suddenly sprang up from the cubby underneath the desk and mercilessly scratched at Akira's face, the entire class jumped.
"W-what the shit!?" Akira managed to peel the rabid cat off his face and make a break for the exit, weaving between frightened students and the shocked professor before any of them could even react.
Ryuji stood at his usual spot near the staircase, leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed as the other students began to creep out of their classrooms. His face was turned towards the stairs and cast in shadow and Akira couldn't get a good look at his expression when he ran up to him.
"Ryuji! Morgana's lost it, he started attacking me out of nowhere. Help me neuter him!" Akira pleaded. Hearing the encroaching screams and yelps from students behind him, he turned back to face the hallway. "Here he comes…!"
Akira felt a pair of forearms plant themselves around his shoulders and pin him in place. "RYUJI! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"
"BASTAAAARRRRDDDDDD!" Morgana emerged from the crowd and leaped at Akira.
Prepared for the assault this time, he ducked his entire body hard, feeling Morgana's claws graze the top of his hair as they dug into Ryuji's face instead. Morgana clawed blindly, he barely even distinguished between the two in his rage. The onslaught caused the blond to release his grip, Ryuji was in on it too!?
"W-what's going on!?" Akira tried one last time to reason with them. He swore he saw their eyes glow red in the half-second it took them to regain their bearings and lunge at Akira in tandem. Bad idea.
He dashed down the stairs four steps at a time. The third years had already flooded the hallway leading to the exit, and the leader of the Phantom Thieves had to use all his experience and training to keep up a decent speed while weaving through them all. The guttural bellows of his pursuers were growing louder in his wake, there was no time to take his school shoes off and Akira bolted out the door like a bat out of hell.
If Akira could hide in the busy Tokyo crowds, it might buy him enough time to formulate some kind of strategy to incapacitate them, or at least survive long enough for them to calm down on their own. Firstly, he needed to escape the school and put some distance between them.
Reacting instinctually to a blurred movement overtaking his vision, his body ducked on its own and narrowly avoided a collision between an oblong object and his head. While sliding on his knees like a football player, in his periphery he saw Yusuke holding a wooden training sword, reeling from the momentum of his failed attack. Him too!?
Akira ran in the direction of the train station. He was no athlete, but Yusuke's lanky body, Ryuji's busted knee, and Morgana's stubby cat limbs meant he would be able to stay ahead for a few minutes if he sprinted. Dodging passerby after passerby he heard their screams behind him, they were about 20 meters away at best. Why were his closest friends attacking him!? Akira had no idea what was going on, but he sure as hell wasn't going to stick around and find out.
He scanned his ID on the station gate and hopped over the doors before they could even open. Muscle memory from months of taking this route guided him through the winding paths, he slalomed through the crowds and found himself on the Ginza line.
"Please stand back. Doors closing." The robotic voice said. Crap, gotta move!
"GET BACK HERE YOU SACK OF SHIT!" Ryuji and the others had made it into the station, they were right behind him!
Like a secret agent in a spy film, Akira dove headfirst into the train, only barely avoiding getting his leg guillotined between the closing doors. With an elegant front roll and a gasp from startled onlookers, Akira turned back to see a set of enraged faces banging their fists on the glass. He'd made it, barely.
"WE'RE GONNA SKIN YOU ALIVE AND TURN YOUR ASS INTO A CARPET FOR MAKING US GO THROUGH WITH THIS SHIT!" He heard Ryuji's muffled scream as the train accelerated to safety.
When the train entered the narrow tunnel, Akira finally breathed out. It would only be a few minutes until the next one allowed them to resume their pursuit, only a brief respite with which to try and make sense of what the fuck had just happened.
Akira replayed the past few days in his head, tapping his foot in a desperate attempt to vent his nerves… Was there something he'd done to piss the three of them off? Try as hard as he might he could not think of any reason why Morgana, Ryuji, and Yusuke would suddenly be after his head. If anything, ever since the start of No Nut November their bond had become stronger than ever! At least he'd thought… Maybe it was something to do with the challenge? The blood pact they'd made? The upcoming reward from Luciano? Was his power really growing as they'd hypothesized before? And so quickly that he was now able to reach out into the real world? Had he found a way to control the others from the safety of his maze?!
His panicked thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing in his pocket. A text?
Makoto: I saw you getting chased leaving the school. Is everything alright?
He was about to reply with a halfhearted 'yup, all good. Just a joke' to stave off any suspicions, but the doors opened to Akira's destination and he started running again, no time to lose. he would think of an excuse later. All four involved parties knew the layout of the labyrinthian Shibuya Station by heart, but he did have one trick up his sleeve. Akira weaved through the crowds once again, making his way to the secluded catwalk the Phantom Thieves once used as a hideout and jumping into Mementos without a second thought.
Hiding in plain sight. It was a strategy that had worked surprisingly well for the thieves before, nobody would question a bunch of teenagers hanging out at the train station, after all. Akira took a page from his own book as he descended the escalator to Luciano's domain, they wouldn't suspect he'd come here of all places. Here he could hope for at least a couple more minutes to think before Morgana's innate tracking abilities found him. Akira wracked his brain for some kind of plan as he navigated the empty red caverns towards the metal door that lead to the deeper levels.
No matter how he spun it, Akira didn't see this ending without a fight… He threw out all his compassion and empathy and crafted a plan like a stone-cold war general in his meeting room as he ran through the empty upper floor of Luciano's crimson hell.
In the real world, he stood no chance in a 3v1, but in the metaverse it might be a different story. Without dedicated healers like Makoto or Ann around, all he had to do was take Morgana out first – who normally served defensive roles in the party and lacked heavy hitting moves – and then it should be possible to catch the others by surprise one by one…
Akira opened the all-too-familiar metal door and gulped when he saw the light-swallowing darkness beyond. At the very least, the path deeper down could serve as a bottleneck if he couldn't take Morgana out quickly enough, though that idea was shaky at best. He sighed. They would be here any se-
"-npai?" Was that Kasumi's voice?
"Ka-…Kasumi!?" Akira spun on his heel.
She was in her metaverse outfit and had her hands at her chest. Her mask made her look a bit like an owl with those large cutouts and pointed 'ears', but even with it obscuring most of her face Akira could tell she was distraught and uncomfortable. This was her first time not only in Luciano's Domain, but in al of Mementos as well.
"Kasumi! What the hell are you doing here? It's not safe!" He spun her around by the shoulders and started rushing her back towards the escalators. Even if they ran at full speed, there might not be enough time…!
"Wait, Senpai!" She twisted herself free from his grip and turned to face him. "I need to talk to you."
"Not here. You need to go, now!"
"I'm not leaving!" She stood her ground.
"C-can't it wait like 10 minutes?"
"No!"
Akira looked past her shoulder down the long veiny tunnel, no sign of the others yet. He balled his fists.
"Okay, Fine! Make it quick!"
"I must apologize to you, Senpai!"
"For what?"
"F-for yesterday…" Kasumi brought her ponytail across her shoulder and fidgeted with it "I-I asked you a question that put you on the spot… It's completely understandable that you would run off like you did!"
'What the fuck is she talking about!?' He screamed at himself.
"I am sincerely sorry, Akira-senpai!" She bowed from the hip. "It was uncouth of me to ask such a question. Please forgive me!"
Akira saw over the locks of her ponytail the silhouette of a van swerving uncontrollably down the tunnel. Crap, they'd found him already! Getting Kasumi out wasn't going to be an option anymore.
"Y-yeah! Don't worry about it! I-I forgive you!" he grabbed her by the shoulders again and guided her to the door.
"Wh-really?" her legs moved stiffly.
"Yup! It's no big deal!" He decided to play along and figure out what she was talking about some other time. "But uhh, if you want to make it up to me…"
"Y-yes! Anything I can do, please tell me!"
There was too much adrenaline coursing through Akira's veins for him to notice her wide-eyed expression as he positioned her against the concrete. He put a hand next to her head and leaned his weight on it while staring directly into her eyes for the briefest second. Kasumi suddenly felt very hot and bothered with her back to the wall and beloved senpai's face so close to hers, she could feel her heart pounding in her ears and her face explode into a steamy blush.
"…Stay still…" He whispered.
Kasumi swallowed and flattened herself against the wall as much as she could. W-what was Akira-senpai doing!? She wasn't ready for something like this! Not even in her wildest imaginations did she imagine her first time might be in the metaverse of all places! Her fantasies always had this scenario play out in her room, or Akira's room, or maybe in an empty gymnasium at night, but this was crazy even for Akira-senpai! But… how could she say no to him? She turned her head away and closed her eyes, surrendering herself to his whims.
Kasumi felt a cold, hard surface lightly press itself against her stomach and chest. When she mustered up the courage to flutter her eyes open, she saw a metal door sandwiching her between itself and the concrete behind her. Craning her head up to peek through a small window, she could see the top of Akira's hair shrink away quickly.
"Hide." She heard, followed by hurried footsteps vanishing through the threshold.
All her previous excitement replaced with confusion, she was about to hop out from behind and follow him in to demand an explanation, but sounds of rabid screams began growing louder and louder from ahead. Kasumi briefly saw a set of familiar costumed boys yelling wild obscenities as they poured into the hole in the wall Akira had gone through. She pulled the door to her body and squeezed herself against the wall, ducking her head under the window to stay hidden. Something about the way their eyes looked told the gymnast she should listen to Akira and stay put, and so she did just that. Eventually the stomps of their feet faded to silence and Kasumi gingerly pried herself out from behind the door.
"Yoshizawa…!" A feminine voice behind her said.
.oOo.
Makoto twirled a pen between her fingers absent-mindedly. She looked up at the clock above the blackboard.
2:57. The day was almost over.
She sighed. Normally, she was good at pushing aside the many distractions her brain tried to bombard her with, and as such should have been completely engrossed in the last few minutes of the ongoing (and admittedly rather boring) history lecture. Recently, however, she'd found her mind beginning to wander, particularly during slow moments like these. And for reasons that persistently eluded her, it was often on thoughts of Akira that her train of thought settled.
During their movie outing last Saturday, Makoto thought she'd begun to tear down Akira's walls. It was a joy to see him react so expressively to the film, a rare moment of emotional authenticity that stood out among her memories of his usual stoicism. For the first time, she was able to get a glimpse into Akira's real self, something she'd been wanting to do for months as both a fellow member of the Phantom Thieves and as a proper friend. She'd thought that this movie hangout would signal the start of a less closed-off vibe between the two. She envisioned them texting each other silly pictures and jokes throughout the day, idly chatting on the phone every so often, having a laugh over some lunch, or… really anything to suggest they were at the very least friends.
But now it felt to her like that enclosure she'd worked so hard to break into had kicked her out and been rebuilt. They didn't text at all during the rest of the weekend and they hadn't even seen each other until just a few hours ago when they bumped into each other in the cafeteria; When they finally did interact, it was unsatisfying, awkward, and impersonal. He didn't even look her in the eye when he apologized and bolted off as if he'd left the stove on. It was just like all those times before when he'd randomly excuse himself to go to the bathroom mid-conversation, except here they hadn't even exchanged any meaningful words…
2:59 She sighed.
Makoto was relieved that his opinion of her had not soured in spite of her mistake that first time in Mementos, but she couldn't lie to herself that she wanted a bit more from him after their time spent on Saturday. Just a text or a call, or at least a 'Morning, Makoto' in the cafeteria…
At least Haru was making good progress… Makoto never expected her to outright kiss the guy, but given their operation was in jeopardy at the time, it had actually worked pretty well; Incredibly, it seemed like Akira had not seen her when he opened the door, like she wasn't even there…What power a simple kiss had.
She tugged at her collar, suddenly feeling a bit tense after thinking about that morning. Makoto didn't know all that much about boys or their physiology beyond the basics taught in sex-ed, but she knew perfectly well what it meant when their little dudes stood to attention.
On Sunday, when Haru was putting the moves on Akira, he had an… An erection. That meant he liked it. Really liked it. Makoto knew with every fiber of her rational being that this should be a cause for celebration, but something deep within her ribcage throbbed whenever she replayed the events in her head. He'd really liked Haru's hug, and that kiss, too…
If Makoto were to hug him like Haru did, would Akira react the same way? Would he get ha-
*Ding-dong bing-bong!* 3:00.
Makoto jerked to attention, it was unlike her to daydream so much. She groaned, maybe Dr. Maruki would have some advice? She looked down at the floor dejectedly as she swung her bag over her shoulder and made her way out the classroom along with the other students. Why did it feel like her mind kept dragging itself back to Akira?
As if on queue, the leader of the Phantom Thieves appeared from the stairwell right as Makoto stepped out through the door. She took back what she thought about wanting to see less of his stoic side when she saw the look of pure terror in the boy's eyes and the speed with which he maneuvered out the front door. As if that expression wasn't concerning enough, Ryuji and Morgana were hot on his tail, looking like they wanted to dip him in acid and break his neck in that order. What on Earth was going on!?
She was about to chase after the boys to put a stop to whatever nonsense had overtaken them, but she paused when she saw she'd been beaten to the punch. Following not too far behind Ryuji was a familiar red ponytail effortlessly bounding its way through the tightly packed crowds of a Shujin afternoon. Kasumi Yoshizawa, the freshman, appeared to be in on it too, though judging by the genuine concern on her face, it didn't look like she wanted Akira's head.
Red ponytail?
Makoto thought back to Ann's room yesterday.
"There's someone he really likes who has lots of red on them." Futaba had said.
…
Could Yoshizawa be that someone?
She does spend a lot of time alone with Akira, and it's pretty obvious that her crush on him is almost as large as Haru's, not to mention she always seems to be looking for him… are they dating in secret!?
'W-well…!' Makoto thought to herself. She didn't know it was possible to stutter in internal monologue 'It'll be bad if Akira's already romantically engaged with someone…F-for Haru! I-it'll be bad for Haru… I…I should investigate…!'
"For Haru… For Haru… For Haru…" for some reason, those words replayed in Makoto's head as she jogged after them. They were running towards the station, it gave the girl a hunch.
Akira's not a fighter, not in the real world at least. If, for whatever reason, Ryuji and Morgana decided to team up against him, he'd probably try lure them into a palace or mementos where he could use his multiple personas to gain an upper hand in direct combat.
She looked down at her phone anxiously as she rode the train down to Shibuya. She figured it wouldn't help much, but any chance that he'd reveal it was all just some practical joke was one she was willing to bet on. For Haru
Makoto: I saw you getting chased leaving the school. Is everything alright?
She stared at the screen for perhaps 20 seconds longer than was necessary. No response. As she stepped out of the train and walked to their old hideout on top of the catwalk, Makoto realized she was gripping her bag too tight. What would she find once she caught up Akira?
After a quick head-check to make sure nobody was looking, she opened the Metanav app and entered Mementos just in time to see Morgana's cat form carve around a corner far off in the distance. Makoto pulled her mask off and crept along the dungeon atop her motorbike persona, following the tire tracks left behind.
Morgana, likely with Ryuji and possibly Yusuke inside as well, drove aimlessly and erratically. Makoto figured it would only be a matter of time until the cat's tracking abilities found Akira, so she instead drove a long path around the chasers and managed to catch up to Yoshizawa, who seemed confidently locked onto Akira's trail.
Makoto hesitated when she descended the escalator into Luciano's domain after the girl, but hiding in plain sight had worked for the Thieves before, and none of Akira's assailants were not likely to want to return if the pit forming in her own stomach was anything to go by. It wasn't long until she turned a corner in the too-empty floor and saw Akira himself talking to Yoshizawa in front of the door that leads deeper into the dungeon. Makoto recalled her persona and tiptoed as close as she dared before hiding between some folds of Memento's tunnels to avoid detection.
'Why am I spying on them like this?' her conscience asked…
…
F-for Haru
Makoto shook her head and stuck an eye up and over the ridge, staying out of view.
It was clear even without dialogue that Akira wasn't expecting to run into Yoshizawa here of all places. Judging by how agitated they had been at school, Makoto doubted the others would end up doing anything other than starting a fight and while it was true that Yoshizawa had a persona of her own, it would be wise of them to avoid a traditional battle with two of the Thieves' hardest hitters and their most competent healer; A sentiment she was sure Akira shared.
Makoto faintly heard Morgana's screaming engine in the distance and ducked further away into the wall as the pursuers careened by, narrowly avoiding spinning out multiple times; They'd found him quicker than she expected. When Makoto poked her head out again, she saw Yoshizawa had vanished and Akira's foot disappearing through the door. Once the others frantically jumped out and followed suit disgracefully, Makoto came out of hiding and hurriedly made her way towards the door as well.
The gymnast popped out from between the opened door and the wall once she thought she was alone – clever hiding place, Akira – and stared sheepishly back at the entrance. As Makoto got closer, she felt her chest tense up in a way that was familiar. In shame and disgust.
"Yoshizawa…!" Makoto said.
Seemingly still on edge, the freshman pirouetted hastily and pulled the mask off her face in one rapid, jagged motion.
"W-woah! Hey! It's me!" Makoto put her hands up in surrender. "Yoshizawa, what are you doing here?"
"O-oh! Makoto-senpai!" she put the mask back on and her persona disappeared. "S-sorry, you startled me!"
"I-it's alright…" Makoto stared back through the expansive tunnel ominously and steeled herself. "But this place is dangerous, Yoshizawa. We need to leave, now."
"Leave?" Kasumi turned to look at the door. "But Akira-senpai's being attacked! We need to help him!"
Makoto summoned Johanna and swung a leg over the saddle, the guilt overtaking her almost made her want to vomit again.
"There's nothing more we can do. That door doesn't let women through." She explained, injecting what she hoped was the right amount of urgency "Hop on! Quickly!
"W-wha? For real?" Kasumi tried to stick a hand through into the darkness, but found a set of blue sparks and an invisible, textureless surface prevented her fingers from poking through. "Woah…"
"Yoshizawa, I'm not joking around!" the brunette revved the engine, now angry. "Get on right now!"
The redhead, suddenly looking a lot smaller than before, quickly but gingerly hopped on behind her and the two nearly popped a wheelie as they sped off.
Shame. Guilt. Regret.
Makoto felt like a gossip-obsessed middle schooler. She had stalked Akira and Yoshizawa into Luciano's domain over a possibility that they might be dating after hearing a rumor from Futaba, and instead of pulling the girl out to safety when she had the chance, Makoto stood back and waited to see what they would do when alone together. They were in Mementos, for God's sake! What exactly did she expect them to do? What kind of maniac flirts in Mementos!?
How unbelievably childish of the supposed second in command of the Phantom Thieves.
Makoto shook the thoughts out of her head. Beating herself up over it now wouldn't do any good… She'd already wasted too much time. Her wrist twisted the throttle as far as it would go, the most she could do now was ensure Yoshizawa's safety and trust that Akira could handle the others on his own. Makoto wouldn't let last week's mistake repeat itself. She wouldn't let someone get hurt again because of her mistake.
Approaching a corner, the two girls saw an out-of-place yellow shape in the distance. Makoto recognized the color, and when she got close enough she stopped the bike. A small shiba-inu bared its teeth at something beyond the bend. The dog's ears were flush against its body and its head was lowered nearly to the ground with how wide its front legs were. It growled and snarled with a vigor neither knew the small breed capable of, only acknowledging Makoto and Yoshizawa with a brief and subtle twitch of its ear in their direction.
"Balltze…" Makoto whispered. An image of a screaming Ann clawing at her metaverse outfit flashed through her head.
Makoto's heart sank. Another angel…
"Get off." Her voice was low.
"Is that a…Dog? M-makoto-senp-"
"NOW!" Kasumi had never heard a whisper so loud in her life.
Makoto dissipated the bike and tiptoed up to the corner, hugging the wall and hopefully staying just out of view of whatever Balltze was growling at. She motioned to Yoshizawa to stay quiet as she crouched down and craned her head around the edge to peer past.
A green cube around the size of a small house spun slowly in the air along its diagonal axis. It was partially see-through and looked to be made of some crystal with how it distorted the backdrop of Luciano's domain through its emerald planes. The faces of its geometry were flat and smooth unlike anything Makoto had ever seen, a perfect crystal seemingly down to the atomic level. Hanging in the air like magic, for an instant it looked almost beautiful.
Makoto was only able to appreciate it for an instant, for not even a second after she locked her gaze on it, it began to move. The cube shrank, grew, spun, and flipped. Parts of its corners and edges separated, vanished, and reappeared elsewhere nearby, shapes triangular and square and hexagonal extruded outwards and cut into its form in ways Makoto could not describe. It groaned and screamed and sang all at once as its translucent green form cycled through dozens of immensely complicated polyhedrons in the blink of an eye before finally settling on a vaguely star shaped decagon. A hideous bleeding eye the size of a car sat at its center, looking directly at Makoto with a pupil a brighter blue than the clearest sky.
Makoto could do nothing but feel her limbs petrify as the thing began to slowly hover closer. A hand-shaped weight on her shoulder from the gymnast as she peered around the corner was almost enough to unfreeze her, but the force with which Yoshizawa's grip tightened once she saw the creature gave Makoto the power to duck back behind the wall and pull the other girl with.
"Yoshizawa! Stay calm!" Makoto whispered, the redhead's eyes were wide and her breathing was rampant. She looked like she'd seen the dead.
"W-w-w-what is that thing!?" Yoshizawa whispered back.
Before Makoto could answer, A strange light slowly flooded the tunnel and the brunette froze. Behind Yoshizawa's back, Makoto saw thousands of green shapes phase into existence along with the same otherworldly chants and screams from just a second ago. Somehow, it was teleporting behind them. Seeing Makoto's face lose its color, Yoshizawa whipped her head around and…
"CENDRILLON!" Yoshizawa let forth the uninhibited squeal of prey looking down the maw of an incomprehensible monster. "KOUGAON!"
Too late. Before Yoshizawa's persona could even fully materialize, the green prismid changed again into a tunnel-filling flat hexagon. A shield, it effortlessly negated the gymnast's attack and instantly morphed into a new shape, s jagged spear. A lance the size of a train was pointed directly at Yoshizawa, just centimeters away from her forehead at its sharpest end. It began to glow a bright white, enchantingly painful alien screams bounced off the walls and engulfed the girls in a warm feeling of safety.
ZAP!
A pencil-thin beam of pure white light passed straight through Kasumi Yoshizawa's head.
Makoto's lungs felt like they were being squeezed from the inside. Through her negligence and deliberate complacency, another one of her mistakes had put somebody in jeopardy. She had already almost cost Akira his life by risking the group's integrity over a schoolyard crush, and now Kasumi Yoshizawa, an innocent third party was in the same peril. All Makoto had to do was take Mementos seriously and not fool around or get distracted, all she had to do was take her own advice and avoid doing the very thing she'd chastised Haru for last week, but as Kasumi's eyes went blank, Makoto knew she had made yet another catastrophic mistake.
Yoshizawa's persona screeched in agony as its user's limp body slumped to the floor with a loud thud. The girl's eyes were wide open and her mouth hung agape.
"Y…Yoshi-!" Makoto tried to call out to her in vain.
CRASH! Suddenly, a yellow streak cleaved the angel in half. Green shards hovered in the air and cast the ceiling, walls, and floor in dazzling rainbows.
Balltze landed between the angel and Yoshizawa. He no longer resembled a normal animal, his furry yellow body had swollen and bulged into an almost cartoonish parody of a bodybuilder, sporting comically short legs, a skinny waist with a six-pack, and gargantuan arms at least twice as large as Makoto's entire body. Only his head remained dog-like, framed unnaturally by two enormous trapezial muscles and sitting atop a thick neck.
He leaped into action as the green angel fragments tried rearrange themselves back together. The buff dog's lunges broke the angel up further and further in to smaller and smaller chunks of green glass. This was Balltze's true form, Cheems' true form, and it was fighting hard to give Makoto a precious opening.
"JOHANNA…!" Makoto rose to her feet and tore her mask off, tears streamed down her face. "MAFREIDYNE!"
The green mass tried to coalesce back into the same shield that had blocked Yoshizawa's Kougaon, but Balltze's relentless assault meant every single piece of it was forced to take the full blunt of Makoto's attack. Even if her rage was directed at herself, it increased the power of the move exponentially. The floating green pieces harmonized, this time in pain. After an agonizing couple seconds of earsplitting chorus, each and every particle of the thing simultaneously exploded into fireworks of blood, caking a 15-meter long segment of the tunnel in a foul-smelling red.
Just like that, it was over.
"Ouuhhh…" A voice from behind moaned. She was alive!? "What…happened…?"
"Y-yoshizaw-Oof!" Makoto lost her balance when she saw the freshman poking at her temples.
"M-Makoto-senpai! A-are you oka-whoa!" She tried to run over to her, was shaky on her legs, too. The girls ended up piled atop one another the other on the uninviting ground.
"Y-you're okay!?" Makoto wheezed incoherently. "You got hit! By-by the angel!"
"The a-angel? T-that thing is an angel!?" Yoshizawa dragged herself off Makoto's back and helped her up, the girls leaned on each other as they rose to their feet. "I-is it gone…?"
"Yes… yes it's defeated." Makoto sighed, strength was steadily returning to her limbs. "Are you alright?"
"I…Think so… I-I don't feel any different." Yoshizawa rested her free hand on her knee. "That was… that was crazy…"
"You're sure you're fine?" Now fully back in control, Makoto grabbed Yoshizawa's face with her hands and twisted her face around, as if inspecting her every skin cell for injury. "You don't feel like… taking your clothes off? O-or anything?" It seemed Makoto's brain was still looping.
"S-senpai!?" Yoshizawa nearly fell over again, her face turned red.
Makoto sighed. She remembered Ann, and how unrecognizably sad she had been during that meeting at LeBlanc's. Somehow, Kasumi Yoshizawa had just taken the same angel attack to the face and looked like she was about to walk away from it completely unscathed! As relieved as she was to see the freshman unaffected by the attack, Makoto couldn't help but feel this was some sort of cruel prank from God. She shouldn't have gotten away with messing up the first time, why had the universe forgiven her twice?
"Sorry…" she summoned Johanna again. "Let's get out of here before something else decides to show up…"
"Arf, arf!" Balltze, now back in his adorable Shiba-Inu form, trotted up to the girls and jumped his front paws onto Yoshizawa's leg.
"Oh…! Cute!" she smiled and pet the dog casually. "What's a dog doing in mementos?"
"It's a long story, I'll explain later." She swung a leg over the bike "This is his home, he's kind of like Morgana, so he'll be fine. We need to go."
The ride back was uneventful. Makoto was able to swiftly dodge any shadows that didn't run away in fear of the girls' high power level, and in less than five minutes they left through the same entrance they'd entered with and found themselves back in Shibuya station. After a quick stretch and a few self-hyping slaps to the cheeks, Makoto placed rested her weight on the handrail and looked though the window at the passing crowds. She let out a long sigh.
"That… could have gone a lot worse, we were very lucky." She said, her back to the gymnast. "…I was very lucky…"
"I understand that you were concerned for Akira's wellbeing, Yoshizawa, but it was reckless to chase him into Mementos. Next time something like this occurs, please let the rest of us know and we can think of a strategy together, alright?" Makoto pivoted her neck back to look at the girl. "Oh, you've let your hair down."
"Sorry…?" Yoshizawa blinked lazily, droopy-eyed and with an odd blush on her face. The fatigue must have finally gotten to her, or something. "Oh. Y-yes…"
"It looks good on you." The brunette smiled and looked back outside. "I'll keep it brief, since I have a prior engagement soon, but that area of Mementos is particularly dangerous. Even when all the Phantom Thieves are together, we have to take extra caution to-… Yoshizawa?"
When she turned around again, it was as if Makoto had been talking to herself this whole time. The gymnast was nowhere to be seen, the only point of evidence that she'd been here at all was a small puddle of water on the floor that trailed droplets off into the tunnels of Shibuya Station.
'She must still be shaken up, I don't blame her…' Makoto thought to herself.
She checked her phone, it was almost time to meet Ann.
'I wonder if Akira's okay…'
A/N
Hi again lads, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Honestly, this one was really difficult for me to write, it took me a long time to be satisfied, and even now I'm not 100% pleased by it. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask! I will clarify anything that doesn't make sense.
The good news is that this day in the timeline marks the first turning point for the series. After this, things are going to be even more insane! I hope you've got your strawberry milk ready, because this is going to get spicy!