Persona 5: Daywatch
Monday, 5 September 2016
After School
Matsushita's Tower, City Exterior
Ryuji craned his neck left, then right. His new club, fresh from the cosplay catalog at Untouchable, felt even lighter than the hollow aluminum bat he started with. But the squared spikes studding the outer third of its meter-and-a-half length looked wicked. He looked like a street rebel before, but now he felt like one.
Before he could start tapping a toe in nervousness, Hifumi leaned closer. In her voluminous hood and heavy cloak, she reminded the runner of a video game assassin. "How long does he tend to 'meditate'?"
"It can go for a while," Morgana hopped to the runner's shoulder to answer. "But he doesn't tend to take more than a few minutes when we're about to begin a Palace." He hopped down when the runner shrugged him off.
Makoto stood from the black bag of supplies she and the team leader had been handing out. "There's a few spare homonculi, Byakko. Did you want to divide those out?"
"No, everybody's got one. We'll redistribute if we run across another Shadow with curse magic." He tossed his compacted crossbow from hand to hand. "I'm seeing a few new accessories. How do you all feel about fighting Shadows in this new Palace?"
Letting his machine gun dangle from its lanyard, Ryuji held up his club. "Lemme at 'em, Leader. I just feel stronger with this thing."
Morgana rolled his eyes. "Right. No subtlety from Reaper."
"Simple can still be very effective," Hifumi chastised. "If I bore a melee implement like the rest of you, I imagine I'd use a spear or naginata, some of the most fundamental weapons of warfare. They were the mainstay of armies the world over for a reason."
Ryuji smiled and puffed out his chest. The girl really was as nice as she was smart. Why couldn't 'Koto be that chill? Speaking of… his eyes wandered and not just over that leather suit which was too tight to be fair. "You had me pick up your shotgun from Untouchable. What'd you put on it?"
She held her gun in both hands and the runner wondered if she knew she struck a picture-perfect pose. "Just a reflex sight on it. I don't know how much that would've helped against that dark knight, but that little boost could help if we see more of those damnable flying squirrels."
"Right?" Futaba said. She looked at the strategist in a heavy cloak. "What'd you say those were?"
"Ratatoskr," Hifumi answered.
Peering down the new holographic crosshairs in his carbine's new scope, Yusuke explained without prompt, "I sought him out in the library. He was a messenger of the gods of northern Europe, flitting up and down the great tree connecting existence."
Before he could go on, Akira called out, "Inugami!" Soft motes of light formed above him, coalescing into something like the fusion of an eel and dog. It growled at the tower, then faded away. He bore a wicked grin as he held up a blue gem in his gloved palm. "Hey, Ann. Think Carmen could use a boost? The twins said this was an emission gem, but it might make her magic a little more of a strain."
She reached out. "I'll take it anyway. Got a charm bracelet to lock it in, Byakko?"
The team leader searched through the pockets on his bandolier. "I've got it in here somewhere. Ah, here." He took out a small chain bracelet and snapped the gem into one of the dangling metal loops, then offered it back to her with both hands as if bequeathing a sacrifice to the gods. "This is our last one. We may need to look for a suitable alternative in the real world."
Hifumi crossed her arms, but her silence didn't clue the runner into whatever she was thinking. Maybe impatient to get going?
"Damn." Akira slipped something into his other pocket, then picked up his P90 and straightened the strap. "I'll just hold onto this one. Bless resistance should help if I ever summon Pillar of Heaven or Rakshasa."
Morgana led the Phantom Thieves down the zip line and back into the tower and the freight elevator big enough to carry a tank plus its infantry support. "Fifth level, everyone." He hopped up to hit the button.
Ryuji rolled his eyes at the dramatics, but the doors slid closed, the lift rumbled once and shot upwards. Wind rushed through grating at the sides the floor. It had no ceiling, but whether a trick of the Metaverse or just a long-as-hell shaft, he couldn't tell if any progress was happening on height. Just lights on the walls racing down faster than their travel up felt like it was going.
Sticking to the cloaked strategist, Futaba prodded, "So what's up with you and Joker?"
Hifumi dismissed her Persona, and Ryuji noticed her clench the edges of her heavy cloak. "Nothing's up."
"But you two've been standing on opposite sides of the team since we all got here," the hacker protested.
The taller girl's hands tightened. "There's nothing going on."
Without warning, four Shadows in humanoid-mecha forms slammed down from above. "Villains!" They burst into those weird tar-puddles which didn't fall through the holes in the floor grating. Two big-ass eagles rose out of the nearest two tar puddles, some ugly dude in a white battle gi and holding a war fork rose out of the third puddle, and a white dragon the size of a war horse floated out of the last.
"Hold them off!" Morgana hopped back to help Ryuji, Futaba, and Hawk take out the nearest giant eagle. Zorro formed above the team leader, the focused glare in his eyes reminding the runner of just how used to the Metaverse catboy was. A pinkish aura shimmered over the giant eagle and knocked its head into the ground, but if it caused any injury the feathers hid it.
Hate blazing in the Shadow's yellow eyes, it opened its beak and shrieked shredding winds at the Phantom Thieves.
Hifumi whipped up her heavy cloak around herself and Futaba, the slicing gale howled against it but failing to pierce through. The sharp winds hurt and opened up dozens of tiny cuts outside Ryuji's mask, but he weathered the attack without losing his footing. Morgana, of course, stumbled back like a sissy.
Well, payback's a bitch. "Captain Kidd!" His boat-surfing Persona coalesced and rocketed forward, slicing his long, curved sword through the Shadow eagle's flank and wing before dissipating.
It straightened, then snapped out its wings. If the runner wasn't crazy, the muscles under its feathers bulked up.
"Shoot it!" Makoto's voice rang from another corner of the elevator.
Ryuji and Futaba shared a 'what could it hurt?' shrug and followed the advice. The fiery pulse slammed into the white eagle's flank, leaving only a scorch. Ryuji's burst of lead drilled across its body and sent it stumbling to the floor.
"As one, Phantom Thieves!" Morgana commanded, his vigor back now that he was on his feet, and the group slammed into the Shadow until it dissipated.
The instant that happened, Morgana turned his focus to the remaining three fights. Makoto dodged a wing slap but seemed energetic. Akira was doing his best to tag-team the white dragon with Yusuke, stepping in as the artist fell back, his knife deflecting off its horns before he backflipped and summoned his sexy red fire-breathing fairy to cough a pulse of flame into the white dragon. In yet another corner, Ann was breathing hard as she bounced up from a dodge-roll, the masked humanoid's trident returning to ready.
As expected, the team leader panicked. "Panther! C'mon, Thieves!"
While he ran off, Ryuji glanced back to the leathered-up president throwing a series of punches into the remaining giant eagle. It weathered her blows and slashed its sharp beak across her, sending the girl sprawling and blood splattering.
Ryuji clicked a flashlight affixed to the side of the barrel, casting a narrow white cone with a convenient cross-hair. Running at the next eagle, he pulled the trigger as he sprinted closer.
Most of his long burst missed, but enough struck the eagle's head to knock it down and give Makoto a chance to shove herself up. She gave a thankful nod and fell back, summoning Johanna.
The Shadow swatted its wings out, sending a momentary burst of shredding winds. Ryuji braced against them, tucked his paratrooper machine gun against the pocket of his shoulder and aimed down sights. His next short burst drilled into its face and sent it back to the ground. He and Makoto needed nothing more than a nod before they fell on the vulnerable Shadow.
By the time that was done, the other Phantom Thieves had finished the rest of the ambushing Shadows. After what felt like way too long for a measly five floors, the freight elevator hissed to a stop at a wide door made of angled metal panels heavy enough to stop a bomb blast.
Afternoon
Matsushita's Tower, Halls
Makoto's feet slid back on the floor as she tried to hold back the nine-toothed rake of the enhanced, pig-headed Shadow pushing her towards the wall. A bark sounded from Akira's Inugami, only for the Shadow's cold, gold eyes to continue to bore into her. "Stop wasting time! It's clearly resistant to cognitive influences. Switch persona!"
"Right!" Akira called back, sounding a little more shamed than irritated. "Daji!"
His long-dog Persona burst into motes which re-formed into the twin-tailed seductress of the Jin court and cast a lightning bolt into the pig-headed Shadow.
Afternoon
Matsushita's Tower, Air Traffic Control
Ann followed the runner in, her pistol sweeping up and to the left as they surged through the angle-slatted blast door even before it finished opening. A handful of those roller-robot Shadows manned the workstations arrayed with glittering buttons and shining screens. Ryuji's gun barked first, so the blonde leaped to the attack as well, firing into the brain-dome at the nearest robot in an open-cubicle-style office room with a huge screen on one of the walls, depicting a buzz of air traffic around the tower. Makoto's shotgun and soon Futaba's staff weapon joined in the fire raining in on the Shadows, but they only held surprise for so long.
Ryuji, making use of his reflexes from years of practice on arcade shooters and long bursts from his gun, eliminated two Shadows and sent a short burst into a third before the remaining three robots collapsed into black puddles. An emaciated skeleton of a man with a horse's face rose out of the nearest, another man in a white battle gi holding a war fork, and the furthest a shapely woman whose bright green hair contrasted her dark red dress.
The Phantom Thieves advanced, the remainder taking up a rear guard, but before the others could lay down any assisting fire, a broad-chested man almost bursting out of his bright red tights jogged from behind. Were it not for the flowing red cape, the blonde would have thought it a cheap ripoff of Kamen Rider. He pointed and furrowed his brow. "Evil doers! For what foul purpose do you trespass upon the rising star of the LDP?"
Sarcasm dripping from his tongue, Akira snapped, "Killing babies and misspelling headlines."
Futaba elbowed him. "Hey, this is our first time." She kept her staff-weapon low but still pointed at him. "Councilman Matsushita. What did you send those interns out to harass and throw stones at other politicians?"
Shadow Matsushita laughed as if she told a joke. "That little bit of harmless fun? They're not even LDP, what could they matter? And it's a good opportunity for the fledglings to prove their loyalty!" He let out the kind of cough which signaled an end to a conversation. "Now I've had enough of you maligning true heroes. Interns!" Then, almost as fast as the blink of an eye, he grabbed one side of his cape and yanked it over himself and folded into nothingness, leaving a giant white centipede with a huge toothy maw in his place. Human arms where its legs should be shuffled it about much faster than something of that bulk should have.
At that unspoken signal, the Shadows in the room attacked. The emaciated horse-demon threw its crescent-bladed dagger and Ryuji braced behind his studded club, deflecting the boomeranging blade.
Ann lashed her whip left and right at the floating Shadow in a red dress, but the damn thing was quick and she couldn't use both her weapon and Persona at the same time without risking hitting herself. Most battles, Akira would start off by feeding some energy into someone to help their momentum…
Ann shouted, "Joker, gimme a boost!"
"R-right! Jack Frost!"
She felt the cold flow into her, the crispness of a winter day in Rauma, and funneled that energy back into Carmen plus some. The graceful dancer spun and unleashed a volley of ice javelins into all three Shadows in front of her. The horse demon went down and the feminine Shadow in a red dress stumbled, but the spear-wielding Shadow in a white battle gi looked even stronger as it squared off against Ryuji.
"Hawk, focus!" Morgana snapped behind her. "Scan the new Shadows, give us an opening."
The floating Shadow in a dress flicked a hand, and a spear of light flung into her.
Ann felt blood flow, but it wasn't enough to stop her from moving. Gritting her teeth, she backed up to summon Carmen. Her Persona coalesced, but her concentration was thwarted when she thudded into Hifumi, stepped on her cloak, and caused it to rip off her shoulders.
The green-haired shadow took the beat of inaction to make a sweeping rise with one hand, casting a shimmer of motes of light over the Shadows. Yusuke and Futaba both grunted in frustration.
"Reaper, switch!" Makoto called from the far side of the room, and a moment later fire blasted at one of the other Shadows.
With a beat to catch her breath and step off Hifumi's cloak, Ann sent Carmen against Green Hair. Carmen flung an ice javelin, but her foe danced out of the way with a grace even Carmen couldn't match.
A feminine yelp was the model's only warning before Futaba crashed into her as if launched from a catapult. The two went down in a heap, but at least Carmen shifted to her whip. Futaba sprang up with an apology, but then Makoto shouted, "Ann, ice the horse demon!"
Ann dodged a gold javelin dropping down from the high ceiling, her Persona evading one but not the second to plummet. "Kinda taking fire here!"
"Tank it! Joker's down," Makoto shouted as she struggled to fend off the demon's curved blade.
Making a mental note to tear Makoto a new one when this finished, she directed Carmen at the horse demon. Sure enough, Green Hair threw another trio of light spears into Carmen at the same time as she flung a bolt of ice into the horse-demon. Seeing Makoto drift over it and the flaming rear wheel tear the demon to dissolving shreds would have felt a lot more satisfying if it didn't come with the feeling of taking three punctures to the chest as Carmen was hit by every attack from Green Hair.
The spear-wielding Shadow wearing a white gi swung its free hand, loosing a volley of needles at all of the forward Phantom Thieves. Ryuji dodged, but after taking a volley of light spears, Ann felt the three-inch needle pierce her shoulder just below the collarbone, and twice in Carmen's flank. A sensation of nausea and weakness shot through her.
Just when Ann thought things were going to hell in a hand-basket, Makoto on Johanna roared past Spear Shadow and up to Green Hair, billowing fire as she raced.
Green Hair floated back, avoiding Johanna's armored bulk but not the spewing flames. The pause allowed Carmen to lash her whip around Green Hair's neck and head. Despite sending enough energy down her whip to make it emit cold fog, ice refused to form on Green Hair.
Makoto dismissed her bike-persona and leaped fit for a movie, delivering a kick and then pair of punches with her studded gauntlets. Green Hair dissipated, and a moment later Spear Shadow fell to Captain Kidd's cutlass.
Battered and angry, the remaining thieves minus Yusuke and Akira turned the force of their power against the giant white centipede with a toothy maw. Captain Kidd's cutlass and Marcus' beam cannons finished it off.
A beat later, Yusuke got a hold of the longcoated boy's feet to keep him from scooting away and called, "I have him!"
"I'll take this," Makoto barked. She reached into a pocket against her hip and drew a paper fan, then marched right up to Akira and smacked him with it.
His panicked thrashing came to a sudden stop. "What the hell happened?"
"You succumbed to that worm's fearsome roar. Must have been a mind-affecting power like most of Zorro's." Morgana picked up a chip from the spot the giant worm or centipede or whatever died on. "Well, at least that's an authentication chip. Come on, scour the room for something else of value."
Ann murmured a dissatisfied acknowledgment with the others, but fanned out with them. The space looked more like an open-style cubicle setup than air traffic control center. Each workstation had plenty of blinking lights, but also a picture profile of some intern with a series of numbers where the name should be. "Kind of weird for him to think of himself as a hero, but at the same time think of interns as robots without even a name."
"He might think of everybody as a cog in a machine," Makoto mentioned as she yanked at locked drawer after locked drawer.
Ann almost ran into an open drawer at the next cubicle. Inside sat a bottle of some strange soda and a white magatama bead.
A few minutes of continued searching found nothing else, but as the thieves convened with Makoto, the blonde noticed Morgana still in a corner cubicle with Akira. She slipped closer to listen in.
"I know you can't always help being impacted by a Shadow's attacks, but you've been off your game the entire day," Morgana snipped. "You haven't been kicking off our fights like you usually do. You've even been forgetting to change Persona until one of us tells you to. What's going on?"
Akira towered over the team leader, for all the lack of good it did to his imperturbable calm. "So what if I haven't been ripping masks or domes off these robots? We've been spreading that out the past few palaces, anyway."
"That's not what I'm talking about, and you know it," Morgana shot back. "You've merged magic into every single one of the Phantom Thieves before, but you haven't done it at all today without prompting."
"Well maybe I'm a little tired from yesterday," he snapped.
"Ryuji and I were there too," Morgana said with firm tone of voice. "And neither of us are having any problem. It was less than half an hour in Mementos. I discussed this with him ten minutes ago to be sure it wasn't just me."
"So what? I'm just screwing this mission up like I screw up everything?" Akira shot back, his voice rising and red gloved hands curling into fists.
Then everything clicked in Ann's mind. Despite their talk yesterday, he was still mulling over his fight with Hifumi. No wonder it felt like the Phantom Thieves had been tripping over each other all day. She stood out of hiding and paced straight at them. "You don't screw up everything you touch, Joker. You not handling things perfectly doesn't mean Hawk shouldn't be a big girl." She held out the white magatama bead. "Here, Byakko. Looks like I'm the only one who found anything."
Morgana took the bead and slipped in a pocket with one hand while turning a harsh glare on the longcoated boy. "You either need to learn to compartmentalize or let things go, Joker."
A beat of silence passed as red leather gloves squeezed. "Easy for you to say."
"I know," Morgana granted. "But I still do it, because that's what the whole team needs. Sometimes, that's just what I need." He hopped down from the expansive desk of the cubicle. "Come on, we have a new authentication chip and I want to make as much progress as possible before the Phantom Thieves have to put operations on a hold for your guys' class trip."
"Over here!" Makoto called. The other Phantom Thieves wound their way through the humdrum sci-fi version of cubicleville to the station she stood in front of, a large screen looming over an oversized keyboard with knobs and dials. Once they gathered, she said, "You all need to see this," then entered a quick keystroke and stood back, scribbling away into a notebook. "Names I want to follow up on while you guys are on your trip. One of the terminals was fallout of the Kuramoto Children."
Static flickered over the screen before it played a memory.
Monday, 3 January 2005
Afternoon
Tokyo, Chiyoda-ku, Marunoichi
Matsushita Hiroyuki stepped into the senior campaign manager's office, his office window looking out into what could have been any neighborhood in the concrete jungle of Tokyo. Photos of councilmen, representatives, and cabinet ministers shaking hands in front of celebratory crowds lined the short hallway space from the door into the manager's office proper. His eyes lingered on Yosano, one of what seemed the few members of the LDP who won his seat in Tokyo in the 2003 election despite his party losing its majority to the DJP for the first time since its formation after the Second World War. "Takagi-san?"
The old man's hair was an unnaturally even shade of black, standing out on a face weathered with wrinkles. His face remained dispassionate as he gestured to one of two chairs in front of his pinewood desk. "I'm sure you're aware the best doesn't come cheap."
"I can't lose another election," Matsushita snapped. Bad enough what happened to Yoshida, even though the young man wouldn't have had anything to do with the stolen money. "And… I still can't secure endorsement from senior members of the LDP as long as old man Kuramoto is still angry with me." He took in a deep breath. "I… need an in. Somebody else to secure those endorsements and campaign finance streams I can't."
Takagi opened a manila folder on his desk. "Your letter was… most persuasive. But I'm going to need your blessing to follow the money where-ever it goes."
Matsushita nodded, a grin spreading across his face. At last, after years of wasting time, he could get into office where he could get some real work done.
Opening a drawer to one side of his desk, a dozen burner phones rattled. Takagi dug around through them for a moment before pulling out one with a hot pink and faux-glitter finish. He dialed and spoke. "Sir? That client I told you about is interested." A long beat passed before the campaign manager's eyes swung to the ex-wrestler. "Your chief patron would like to speak to you."
He took the phone and mumbled, unable to work through competing senses of giddiness and anxiety making his nerves shake. The man on the other end of the phone left a moment of silence before answering, his voice as smooth as when the yakuza brushed his elbows at the last election commiseration party. "I can make sure to get you fifty million yen before your first plate per dinner. Other backers will flock to you once they find out you've got such a war chest. But once you're installed, you're going to need to guarantee Packing and Gravel wins its bid."
As if waiting for his cue, Takagi slid a sheet for a concrete bid for a construction contract in the billions of yen.
Matsushita reached for a pen in his own pocket, wondering if it might have been more appropriate to sign in blood instead of black ink.
Monday, 5 September 2016
After School
Matsushita's Tower, Air Traffic Control
Ann crossed her arms as the screen faded to black. "I'm confused. His palace makes his desire to be a hero out to be the biggest thing in his heart, but all his memories are desperate grabs for any power or money for campaigns he can get."
"It does appear a curious disparity," Yusuke conceded.
Makoto ran her thumb over her knuckles in thought. "Sometimes once you get fixated on accomplishing one goal, you can commit other sins in pursuit of that one."
"It won't always be clear what the seed of his distorted desires is until we reach it," Morgana piped up. "Let's keep going."
Matsushita's Tower, Fuel Depot
Yusuke swung to parry war-fork, only for a Ratatoskr to swoop into him from one side, claws scratching at him as it leaped back to the air. The deathly pale, gi-glad man's fork stabbed into the painter, its tines dulled and speed slowed by his protective crystal, but still plenty to break ribs and spill blood.
Late Afternoon
Matsushita's Tower, Paperwork Labyrinth
Ryuji paced alongside mister acrobat. Literal reams of paper stacked up to the ceiling hemmed them into what ended up tight corridors.
"Left," Hifumi called, her voice a little more monotone than usual as she channeled her focus through her Persona. "Shadow."
The treaded robot rolled out and began turning onto their corridor. The swirling red light stopped on them, so Ryuji surged at the robot to rip that stupid dome off its body.
Akira did the same thing and the two boys crashed into each other. That gave the Shadow enough time to collapse into the tar-puddle-thing before popping into an emaciated horse-man. The paper walls collapsed around them as if to give the Shadow enough room to battle.
Ryuji sighed and settled back behind his club.
Early Evening
Matsushita's Tower, Paperwork Labyrinth
The Shadow emaciated, horse-headed demon broke into black streaks and soared into the longcoated boy's mask. Their first break since setting foot in this rotten, sci-fi-themed pain house. Even though it happened every time they finished a fight in the maze, when the paper maze re-formed back on them, Ryuji shouted, "Fuck. This. Place."
The hacker thumped her staff weapon against the floor. "Damn right."
"Oracle-chan," Makoto chided. "And you, Reaper! Be a better example."
His finger jabbed at the strategist. "Well, if she'd have used that shield block thing to help us in there," Ryuji snapped, knowing his complaint was illogical before he finished saying it, "we wouldn't've been so beat up the whole way!"
Akira clenched his fists, but to the runner's surprise, didn't let off a diatribe in her defense.
Morgana hopped up on the hacker's shoulder so he could look down on the group. "All right, everyone. We haven't even gotten all the way out of the labyrinth yet." He looked up at the cloaked strategist. "He's right, Hawk. You've been significantly slower to scan targets, and have forgotten to block attacks unless you're reminded. Then you forget to scan."
Pink dusted her cheeks and Hifumi pulled that voluminous hood further forward to hide her face. "I…" She gave a quiet humph. "Sorry, I'll do better." A hand moved to her face and those red optics disappeared and her red Persona formed above her. "The labyrinth has changed again, same as after all the previous fights." Several other Phantom Thieves groaned. "The good news is we're not far from the exit." She pointed at one of the three ways from the small corridor they found themselves in. "Down this way and to the right."
Early Evening
Matsushita's Tower, Paperwork Labyrinth
No further Shadows interrupted their remaining trek out of the paper maze. Beyond sat a giant hangar door the hacker fiddled open. Despite being nowhere close to ground, crickets chirped and the stars shone down from a brilliant night sky. Ryuji pointed. "Hey, uh… Just to check, that doesn't mean it's night time in the real world, right?"
"There's no big nebula in the night sky, Reaper," Morgana said as he advanced out onto the landing pad. Six of the Cosmorhino-type fighters arranged over the black top. "It's part of the Palace's distortion."
"Pretty cool, though," Ryuji replied. If the night sky looked like that, he might've spent time stargazing with Ma. Maybe tried to learn different things instead of obsessing over guns to the degree even his friends at track gave him distance. Oh well. "So how do we get down? The elevator was back there, and there's only six fighters."
Futaba raised her free hand. "Uh… Marcus."
Ryuji's hand thudded against his mask. "Even not counting you, there's seven of us. And the fighters in Space Battleship Yamato were single-seaters."
Hifumi stepped forward. "I'll remain behind. Thanks to my Persona, I can stay in contact with you as well as scan for a considerable distance. The next balcony connects to another room with a narrow bridge, then the freight elevator."
"No," Morgana said with a shake of his head. "We've worn ourselves out for very little headway. If we run into the Palace Ruler or another strong guardian, we might not even have the chance to use Dihya's ability to revive one of us."
Ryuji nodded. Even after that blackout-and-pickup from Hifumi, he still hurt like hell, and from Akira's slowed movements after Togo revived him it was clear she couldn't mend all their injuries. "Then… what?"
"The slowest and most injured should take the fighters down to the lowest landing platform," Morgana said. "Joker, Fox? You've both been taking a beating all day. Do you think you'd be able to fly yourselves down?"
Fox's gaze dropped to the floor. "I am afraid I have no more skill in the piloting of advanced vehicles than at our escape from Oracle's pyramid."
Ryuji sighed. "I'll take 'im to the arcades tomorrow."
Clasping her hands, Hifumi's hood shifted left. "Advanced vehicles?"
Futaba thrust her staff weapon in the air. "Yeah! My palace was an advanced model Goa'uld Mothership, which's gotta be the most awesome Palace ever! We battled a cognition of the false image of Mom in a Daedalus battle-carrier!"
When Hifumi looked to Makoto, the president shrugged. "It's from some TV show."
When the hacker looked ready to go to blows at calling it 'some' TV show, Morgana cleared his throat. "Fine, Fox will have to take the long way. Hawk, have you ever played a flight simulator?" When she shook her head, he gave a quick sigh. "All right. Rider, since you can't—"
"Actually," she said, crossing her arms, "Reaper introduced me to a new arcade after one of our study sessions. They had helicopter and jet fighter simulators."
Ryuji shrugged. "So it's us Shujin peeps takin' the fast way, and Oracle flies down in her Persona?"
Morgana's eyes narrowed in thought for a beat. "No, actually I'd rather she come with us in case we run into Shadows and need healing along the way. Any objections?" The others shrugged and murmured, so he tapped his folded crossbow in hand. "Okay, then. We'll rendezvous with you at the lowest landing platform, then zipline out and disperse."
Monday, 5 September 2016
Early Evening
Matsushita's Tower, City Overlook
After the team finished healing, swapping out supplies, and shunting junk to the two boys who somehow had contacts willing to buy the garbage they kept finding in the Metaverse, Ann went with her natural gusto and called first place for Akira's end-of-mission treatment. The lift up, crack, and set down somehow made it feel more like their hours-long trek in the Metaverse had been a matter of minutes. Still tiring, but not as physically grinding. Trying to hide the stumble of her next few steps, she walked a few paces out for a better view of the others.
To the model's surprise, the runner wasn't the only one to give a pass to Akira's offer for some quick physical therapy. Hifumi, who'd been at the group's periphery all day, gave a stiff and shallow bow with some muttering about needing to get back home to attend her dad.
As if the process took so long.
Akira shifted his weight from foot to foot, his mask hiding enough of his face around his eyes the blonde couldn't be sure what he was thinking. She'd have given it even odds he was still obsessing over her.
Ann sighed. There might not be the same passion between her and Yusuke, but they clicked on command. Maybe that was better, but it was no good letting her friends be unhappy. "I'll walk her home, Joker." She gave the others a wave. "See you!"
Morgana paused from his post-mission chat with the others, his blue eyes locking onto the strategist's. "Okay, but go get some rest and deal with whatever is keeping your head out of the game."
Hifumi didn't give any sign of assent, or voice argument even when the two girls started walking away. Damn girl needed to stop keeping her cards so close to her chest.
Well, fine. Ann didn't get a reputation for being the bold foreign girl because she sat back. That didn't get you the last chocolate-covered strawberry at the stand in Rauma. "So… you up for talking about what happened with Joker?"
Hifumi burst into sudden coughing. The blonde glanced around, but the leader had already dispersed the Phantom Thieves. After several seconds, the coughing fit subsided and Hifumi pushed herself up from the wall, a hand disappearing under her cloak before returning with a paper-wrapped… hard candy? She twisted it open and popped it in her mouth with one hand. "Sorry. Haven't been feeling well."
Ann's jaw set. Not feeling well was one thing, but from the way Akira went on, she had better discipline than he did. "Since Sunday with Joker?"
The brunette let out a long breath and stepped out to keep some distance from Ann. "A bit before that, actually. I'm not saying that as an excuse, just… complicating factor."
Ann crossed her arms and lengthened her stride to keep up. The brunette may have been tall for a Japanese girl, but the model held the advantage. "Hawk-san, even before yesterday you had to know he's crazy about you."
Hifumi drew her phone from somewhere within the darkness under her cloak despite her hood having fallen back during her coughing fit. The hard shell over the upper half of her face reminded the blonde of the prim, stoic projection she maintained in the real world, but her mouth below curled in a frown. "That's what I thought, too. He was sweet and cute, just not there enough. Until I asked him about Shiho." A tremble passed through her lips.
Uh-oh. Unless this was like her and Yuuki, sharing the same moment and walking away with different stories until Akira put them together? "I assumed you and he already dealt with that after we talked to Yuu-kun's Shadow."
She hit the Nav and the real world faded in around them. Ann felt the slide of her cotton shirt and jean shorts even as she watched the pop of Hifumi's cloak-and-cavalier outfit into a dark purple dress, the black shell with stubby optics was replaced by a white cloth cough mask. Nothing to hide the maestra's iconic princess-cut, though it wasn't an uncommon style. The strategist let out a long breath as if trying to force the last vestiges of the Metaverse from her. "After hearing about his suicide attempt, I kind of felt like the rug was pulled out from under me."
Ann tugged at the end of a pigtail. "Because suicide's a big sin in Catholicism?"
Hifumi shook her head, the motion causing a thread under her red hair knot to jostle. "No, because he seemed so… invincible. Like a storybook ronin sweeping in from the wilderness to lay low the bandits besieging a town. My own Prince Charming." She clasped her hands tight and set out in slow steps. "Joker didn't just save… or change Mother's heart. He saved me. The family's been fracturing for months. Mother was turning shogi from the last love I shared with Papa into a chain wrapping around my neck, dragging me underwater. I was losing my love of shogi. I was losing the will to wake up and breathe. I was even losing faith in God."
Crossing her arms, Ann gave a nod. Her parents took her to church on Easter and Pentecost, that was about the extent of her family's religious observances. But she knew how intensely some people needed their faith. Maybe like Shiho needed volleyball… before the jump, and how the slow realization she'd never be able to play again could leave her in a berserk rage or weeping in a corner. But first, the Akira problem. "Then why the jealousy?"
Those green eyes traced up and down the model's height. "Have you really never been in love? Had a boyfriend? Somebody you can talk to about anything?"
Ann gave a shrug. "I did that with Shiho."
Hifumi's jaw set and thoughts spun behind her eyes. "More than just social, there's a… warm physicality."
Ann brightened. "Oh, like hugs, sure! I do that with all you guys. Maybe not so much Ryuji because I don't want to get his hopes on the wrong thing, but even Makoto's a softie once you get past all the formal walls."
Hifumi pressed her fingers against her temple for a moment. "No, not… I mean, not that there isn't hugging, but there's a greater intimacy to it." Her hand drifted to the cloth mask over her lips and lingered.
The glossy lips might be hidden under a cough mask now, but the finger's position made Ann think of her own. "Yusuke and I've kissed. He's… surprisingly experimental. No hesitation about talking about everything from positions to colors. I guess artists are just mentally much more open to new things."
Hifumi blushed. "You… He… W-well… I suppose you and he had quite a rapport even before I joined. But no, that's still not love. There's a kind of warmth to it when you're with him that's… like wrapping your soul in a downy comforter on a cold winter day."
A lot fewer situations sprang to the blonde's mind at that example, but she still came up with a few. "I feel like that when Mom and Dad come home."
Silence fell on the pair for a few beats as they headed to a bus station connecting to Shibuya's hub. Hifumi offered in a hushed tone, "I'm sorry. Aki-kun's mentioned how often your parents are away for their fashion business. I hope you get to see them more."
Dammit, why did she have to make it so hard to stay mad at her? "All of this just makes it harder for me to understand. I've never seen two people more in love."
Hifumi spun on the blonde and grasped the blonde's raised hands. Her voice came out in a low growl, "Because he loves Shiho more!"
Ann knew the spark of fear of abandonment in those green eyes. Yuuki had a shadow of it every time Shiho had to go, back when they'd stay at each others' homes.
Ann pulled the other girl close and wrapped her arms around. "I know he can be dumb about getting across what he really feels. But somebody in love with another man's girl wouldn't go to church to be with you every Sunday."
"Mass is every Sunday," Hifumi protested at a whisper. She neither raised her hands to return nor break the embrace.
"He's been angry for Shiho," Ann asserted. "But he's done everything from weeping tears of terror to roaring in rage for you. He glows when you text him. I know things have been hard with your family, and I know your Mom chased off your old boyfriends. Don't chase off your best chance for happiness. You're both my friends, and I'd rather you two were happy than sad." Her fingers tightened on the slender girl's shoulders. "Now come on, let's get you home."
Then a flash lit their silhouettes against the wall and the model heard the snap-click of a camera shutter.
Ann let go and whirled on the reporter, some guy in a shabby brown jacket. "You jerks are the worst!" He fled when she stormed at him, yet another small man too cowardly to face the people he wanted to profit off.
Hifumi let out a soft chuckle. "You and Aki-kun are both very courageous people." Her cheeks tensed, but the blonde could see the frown in the way her eyes tensed. "If I was more like you, I wonder if…" Her stomach growled loud enough to be clear even over the city noise around them. Her blush returned full force.
Ann laughed and resumed the walk back to the train station. "Haven't you been eating lately?"
Hifumi's face turned even more red. "My… experiments with cooking have not been very… productive." She covered her face with a hand. "Rei-san could just… throw anything together and it would be delicious, and still fit Mother's high nutritional standards. But the more I try, the worse my cooking seems to become."
Ann thought back. She must have missed the Togos getting rid of Ueda Rei. "Hey hey, everybody has trouble with something the first time she does it." She hip-bumped the strategist. "I can give you some pointers today, but you know who's even better at cooking than me? Makoto. Aki's almost as good as me, though." She grinned. "You should've seen him while we were making hot pot for our party after Kaneshiro." The blonde snapped into a hunch as if she curled over a cutting board and mimed his crazy-fast vegetable chopping. "Dadadadadada!"
A laugh barked out of Hifumi and her eyes crinkled with a smile hidden by her cough mask. It would have been cute if her stomach didn't rumble again. "You're an amazing girl, Takamaki-san. You unveil new talents every time I see you."
Ann chuckled. "Anything's easy when you've done it thousands of times." She tilted her head a bit. "Haven't you done a bunch of cooking? Mom and Dad had me cooking to get stuff started all the time when they had a late day at work."
Hifumi's head dipped as if she wanted to hide her face. "Rei-san would always take care of cooking. Even when we had big family get-togethers, I was just a child so they'd shoo me out of the kitchen so the adults could work."
Remembering the number of times the strategist talked about her family pushing her to the periphery in their evening phone calls, Ann took the other girl's arm in hand. It didn't matter if the strategist wasn't the personality to push herself into the center of things. "I want you to know… they took opportunity away from you, okay? Cooking's not easy, no skill is." She pushed out a smile. "But you didn't get good enough to capture Akira's heart without hundreds of games of shogi, right?"
Hifumi pulled out of the other girl's grip. "Not experience with so many boys?"
Ann lengthened her stride to keep up with the other girl's attempt to speed-walk away. The strategist may have been on championship-winning swim and hurdle racing teams, but she couldn't out-pace the blonde without breaking into a full run. "Hey. You really think Akira's like that?"
"Everyone's like that," Hifumi snapped as she came to a stop. Her eyes flicked about, the foot traffic increasing this close to the train station. "Purity is a virtue the world over." Her breath caught for a beat, but she pushed through it. "Every boy who approached me did so because he thought I'm beautiful. Not because I'm 'wise' or something from being with other boys."
"You are," Ann shot back before realizing the tone was getting heated. She straightened and crossed her arms. "Tall, leggy, and with gorgeous hair like I'll never have. I still remember the first time Akira told us about you. It was the day Kosei's finals ended. He said you were a legitimate master of shogi." When the mask stretched for the strategist opening her mouth, Ann cut her off. "No, I don't care if idiots call you Phony Princess now. And that's not all. Akira said you were kind because you helped us look out for Yusuke. That you were a respectable Catholic. He looks up to you."
Hifumi's footing wavered and her eyes glistened. "He offered me his heart of crystal. And I threw it on the rocks."
In that moment, the strategist reminded Ann so much of Shiho with her over-sized heart. She pushed out a smile for both their sakes. "He was cracked to start with." She reached out to rest a hand on the strategist's shoulder. "But if there's anybody who can put it back together, I think it's you. Now come on, if you're not feeling well, I'll help you make something."
AN: Japan's overly-structured method of churning people straight from high school and college to yearly recruitment drives combined with the economic slump turning into an economic crash in the 90s where most companies entirely stopped hiring, leading to about nine hundred thousand never being able to enter the job market. Despite trying, they were treated with disdain, stuck in the equivalent of low-paying day labor, and passed over in favor of younger workers even once hiring resumed. This has come to be called the "lost generation" and combined with their aging population is one of the biggest demographic-economic crises being faced by developed nations.