Persona 5: Daywatch

by Ganheim

Akira is banished to Tokyo by his own father. What begins as a near-suicidal quest for vengeance becomes a desperate attempt to turn the pieces of his life into an honest whole. Aided by clever strategists and opposed by supernatural puppeteers, one lost boy's quest for something greater clashes those who would think themselves gods over men, and demons within. AU elements.

44. June 2nd, Breaking the Vault

Persona 5: Daywatch

Thursday, 2 June 2016
Lunchtime
Shibuya, Spiral Hostess Club

Rapid footfalls scrambled down the back hallway, pausing just outside his door. Kaneshiro reached around his laptop for a champagne flute. He took a deep drink. This week wasn't looking good. The police snooping around didn't bother him, but moving labs cost money. What grated his nerves, however, was his network going silent. A few street-level drug pushers could be easily replaced, but the people disappearing went all the way up to Hirotoshi. And so did rumors of henchmen turning themselves over to the authorities.

The door flew open and his bodyguard popped to his feet, pistol up before the messenger in a crisp business suit surged in, breathing heavily. "S-sir!" He paused to gulp a deeper breath and held out a small, red piece of paper. "These things just showed up all over Central Street."

At a small wave of Kaneshiro's hand, the gunman slipped his pistol back in its quickdraw holster and sat back down. The clan boss took a deep drink of champagne. His uncle would've beaten a messenger for interrupting lunch, but business opportunities could come at any time. "What is it, Masui?"

The courier took a shallow step closer, still looking out of breath. "A… calling card, sir."

Kaneshiro set down his champagne and took a bite of chicken piccata. "Well, read it."

Masui gulped, fidgeting for a long few seconds. "But sir…"

Kaneshiro glanced at his stock market trading program. Ikeda was trading higher today. He sighed, then thought back to the gaps in his clan. Replacing personnel meant private investigators and other trouble-shooters. He glared up at the courier. "I said read it. I'm a busy man."

Masui swallowed, fidgeting for a moment longer before staring down to the strange red card. "Sir Kaneshiro Junya, the pitiful sinner consumed by gluttony. You indulge in cowardly scams on children, blackmail, and drug trafficking in your desperate want for money. Your punishment shall be visited upon you by your own hand. I, the Phantom Thief of Hearts, shall steal your distorted desires without fail."

Swallowing champagne, Kaneshiro glared over the top of the flute glass. "You wasted my time with some stupid prank?"

Masui took a stumbling step closer. "Sir, we've been finding these things scattered all over Central Street." He pulled out his phone and checked his messenger. "I've even gotten texts about them being found farther out over Shibuya. People are talking about it online. Clan heads are going to find out…"

Kaneshiro set down his champagne hard enough to splash a droplet out. "Don't waste my time with stupid shit." He sneered. "Phantom Thief? Ha!"

His arm candy, the buxom girl cutting his next bite of chicken, paused to look up at him with a tremor in her eyes. "But if we can't get that protection money—"

Kaneshiro slapped her hard enough to send the knife tumbling to the table. "Don't you ever presume to tell me my business. This city and all the money in it is mine. All the other clans are afraid because mine is the one raking in the money." He glared up at Masui. "Some so-called thief says he'll steal from me? He'll soon learn his mistake." Having to replace clan businessmen wasn't bad to start with, but some threats needed a full salvo. Computer crackers, stake-outs, burglary experts. "Spread the word." He paused to eat another bite of chicken and capers. "This month's quota just went up."

Thursday, 2 June 2016
After School
Shibuya, Station Walkway

Leaning against the concrete wall next to the track star, Akira opened the link in Mishima's text to a browser page. "And there's another forum talking about a new sighting of the calling card." He closed his browser and looked up at the stuffy class president. "I have to admit, I was worried about your plan. It's gutsy, but looks like it's paying off."

Makoto gave a humble shrug of her shoulders. "Since the rest of you couldn't find out where Kaneshiro was, and it would be too dangerous to try going directly to him, message en masse seemed the only way. I'm sure his lackeys have brought at least one to him by now."

Morgana straightened on the transfer student's shoulder, giving a smile. "For our newest member, you sure have a good grasp of the theatrics of a phantom thief. The true brains of this operation."

Standing up from the wall, Akira retorted, "Hey, I'm here too!"

Ryuji pulled his hands out of his pockets. "And I'm the one who went postin' it all over the place." He shot a narrow gaze at Makoto. "You even made me dress all up like six times."

Akira rolled his eyes. "It's called a disguise, Ryuji. Even not being a thief, I'm familiar with the idea. We'd do it all the time at Inuri when we were going to prank the cops."

Ann crossed her arms tighter. "I'm just anxious to go after him. First Kamoshida, now a real live criminal overlord." She made a tight smile. "I could get used to this kind of phantom thieving."

Nodding, Makoto's tense stance hinted much more tension. "We steal the Treasure and the ruler's heart changes, right?"

Morgana gave a nod and smile. "Exactly." He glanced to the track star. "A certain someone still struggles to comprehend it."

Teeth bared, Ryuji snapped, "Get off my back, cat! This is only our second Palace, and this whole thing is weird."

Akira shot him a smirk. "Technically, he's on my back."

Ryuji rolled his eyes. "C'mon, not you too."

Makoto clasped her hands, eyes to the pavement. "Kaneshiro's been making thousands of people's lives a living hell, and I am no better for failing to do anything before. I should've done something with Kamoshida, but I can do something about this now."

Akira held out a fist to her, but when she looked at it with a quirked eyebrow he lowered his hand.

Standing up, the leader took a glance at the assembled Phantom Thieves. "Everyone ready?" When they nodded, Morgana smiled. "Then let's do this."

Thursday, 2 June 2016
After School
Kaneshiro's Bank Vaults

Morgana called up from the walkway of the inner ring, "Looks clear."

Akira glanced back at the circular walls they bypassed, then took the nylon cord in hand and rappelled down. He brought his sub-machine gun up as soon as his feet hit the floor. "I don't like this. Patrols are up in the whole bank but the vaults? I smell a trap."

Ann groaned as she descended after him. "Don't say that, we could use a lucky break."

Makoto sighed from the top of the stack of lockboxes and slung her shotgun on her shoulder by its strap. "He's probably right. There's no better time to set a trap than the eve of an enemy's action."

Akira paused at the gaping vault door, looking over Makoto as she slid down to the inner ring concourse. Despite her settling into a wary stance, a calculating gleam shone in her eye that set his heart pumping. "You and I will have to play a game of shogi after this is all over."

Her boots hit the floor with a thump and she looked him in the eye. The bright lights over the concourse cast her in stark greys and blacks of sharp shadows. Her mask made it hard to tell, but he thought Makoto's eyebrows rose. "You play shogi?"

Tossing his sub-machine gun from hand to hand, Akira smirked. "Shogi, go, labyrinth. You name it, I'm game."

Morgana unfolded his crossbow. "Let's steal the Palace ruler's Treasure first." He paced into the core vault, dark as a spider's burrow. Like last time, gold bars and yen notes carpeted the floor in loose piles. Ann's gun-light swept across the dark vault, slowing when it illuminated a wall a few meters from the back that wasn't there last time. The spotlight froze when it reached a large, circular opening. Beyond the opening lay something like a table crammed with gears, levers, and other mechanics.

"What… is it?" Akira leaned one way, then another to try to figure out what the Treasure was.

Makoto squinted. "I think it's some kind of printing press. The old-fashioned kind with movable type or woodcut images. I'd say it was some kind of money printer."

Akira shrugged. "Well, that was easy." He trotted forward, but the instant he was about to reach the threshold, a circular door slid into the space, then whirled into a clockwise spin. Kaneshiro cackled, and white lights lit up the enormous vault chamber. The yakuza boss smirked at them from a metal grating catwalk over the new sub-vault door. Akira groaned. "Look, we fought our way here twice. Can't you just make this easy and get out of our way?"

Shadow Kaneshiro's lips pulled into a deeper sneer. "Tch. You only got here because of luck, but your luck is about to run out."

Ann pointed her suppressed pistol at him with one hand. "You can't just walk over all the people of Shibuya!"

Shadow Kaneshiro smirked. "It is the way of the world for the mighty to take from the weak. And what is might but wealth? People will do anything for money."

"Bullshit," Akira shouted, hating how much like his father the yakuza boss sounded. "There are honest people who can't be bought. And some of us just happen to be standing in front of you today."

Shadow Kaneshiro's smirk held fast. "Those people just need a certain… leverage to convince them to play along." Hand going to his chin, he scrutinized Akira. "Now what would yours be? Drugs to make it feel like the shitty world around you is a little farther away? A few photos of your family where they think they're safe to remind you how vulnerable your kin are? The… touch of a woman—"

"What is it with all you assholes," Akira snapped, "and saying I need some woman to complete my life? I'm here now." He braced behind his sub-machine gun, aiming at the Shadow's pudgy if immaculately-dressed belly. "And I'm going to take you down." He glanced at Makoto. "Though I just so happen to have two girls tougher than nails who have the same plan."

Makoto raised her shotgun. "Right."

Morgana aimed his crossbow. "The police may not have gotten you yet, but you'll go crawling to them by the time we're done with you! And everyone out there will know that the Phantom Thieves can clean up anyone!"

Shadow Kaneshiro's hands slammed on the metal railing as rage twisted his face. "There's no such thing as a clean person. Just what each person's dirt is."

He jerked, clenching the rail to hold him up as his body stretched upwards. His eyes widened and glazed over, but continued to expand, pushing out and up his face, darkening like red gemstones until they looked like compound eyes. His already pale skin whitened until it reminded Akira of a bloated corpse floating on the sea, hardening and segmenting. His stylish silk coat merged into his chitinous surface, and broad, translucent wings like a fly unfurled behind him. Shadow Kaneshiro's monstrous form stood twice as tall. Gold glinted at one of his left wrists.

Before he could line up his gun, Shadow Kaneshiro flapped his wings and flexed his arms, emitting a solid wake of pressure that hit Akira like a train and knocked Makoto to all fours. "It has always been the weak that consume the strong."

"Then how did you last so long, Junjun?" Akira shouted, going for a detail from Kaneshiro's memories in the hopes it would make him leave an opening.

He whirled on him and jumped down from the catwalk. "I'm no poor weakling!"

A ball of ice slammed into the monstrous Shadow, exploding in a huge burst of frost.

He shook his arms and flapped his wings, ice cracking and falling off. "God damn punks. You're gonna cry at me for flexing my power over others, but then do the same thing against me?" He snapped his fingers.

Six man-sized pustules of black muck appeared across the vault, quivering for just a heartbeat before bursting into various oni.

Akira gave a groan. "Aw, c'mon. We already fought through these bozos to get to you."

A snow-white oni whirled a double-bladed staff sword and drew up in a pose Akira recognized as charging its magic, left hand held flat before the hole through its head where a face should be.

Having defeated one in the halls above, Akira didn't even have to concentrate to change Personas. "Agathion!"

Motes of pale light coalesced into the green imp hiding in a gold vase, which thrust its fingers at the oni, the lightning bolt knocking it to the ground.

Makoto ran over it, blasting it and the Sui-Ki behind it into dissolving smoke.

Seeing a red-skinned oni heft its greatclub and chase after her, Akira brought out Pillar of Heaven and pelted the oni with darkness until it collapsed, then turned to Shadow Kaneshiro and continued. Fire bolts joined while Carmen and Zorro tag-teamed the last oni.

When all four of their Personas concentrated back on him, Shadow Kaneshiro raged as he fled their attacks. "You thieving hypocrites! The one in the black mask doesn't hold anything back to get what he wants. Why should I be any different?"

Akira aimed down the sights in the top of his sub-machine gun. "Don't try to hide your cruelty behind some other person's heavy-handedness. You're the one responsible for your actions. And when it comes time to be judged, you're the only one who will have to excuse yourself."

Wings buzzing, Shadow Kaneshiro hopped away from a fireball lobbed by Johanna, then growled at a stab from Zorro before bashing away the burly Persona with a flick of his segmented arm that sent Morgana's Persona flying. The monstrous Shadow raged, "You may be stronger than you look, but you're still nothing but low-down punks! I have the resources to show you your place."

A snap of his fingers, and another eight oni sprouted from the ground, piled yen notes and gold bars tumbling from their footsteps.

Carmen and Zorro tag-teamed a Kin-Ki on the far side of the vault while he sicced Agathion on both of the Fuu-Ki.

Shadow Kaneshiro hopped up to evade Makoto, his wings buzzing. He flitted back and forth to avoid Makoto's firebolts, then Akira's when he summoned Pillar of Heaven. "You little shits! I crawled from the mud to where I am."

Akira shot a burst from his sub-machine gun. "That's no excuse for you to push others into the mud. How many people have you beaten with pool cues because they couldn't pay?"

Shadow Kaneshiro came to a hover in midair, giving Johanna and Carmen a perfect stationary target for exploding balls of elemental power.

Still staring down three purple oni, the transfer student zapped each of them with howling dark energy from Pillar, but they kept closing on Zorro. Eyes growing wide as he backpedaled, Morgana shot one in the throat, bringing it to its knees, but the others sped up their charge. "A little help here!"

"Shesha!" Akira howled, digging inside for that focused passion Hifumi brought out so easily in her shogi matches. The starscape-skinned serpent coalesced as the purple oni slashed into Zorro, the serpents' heads opening singing mouths and unleashing rays of cyan energy into all three Sui-Ki. The one on its knees collapsed into fading smoke, the other two falling to the floor, wide open for Zorro to stab them through the head and finish them off.

The rabble finished, Akira turned to Shadow Kaneshiro. Shesha blazed beams of cyan light from all five singing mouths into the monstrous, bug-faced form.

Shadow Kaneshiro fell to the ground, knocking gold bars tumbling and yen notes fluttering. The Phantom Thieves formed a ring around him, guns up, with their Personas close by. Kaneshiro glared up at them, the anger somehow clear despite the red bug eyes. "You… you bastards. You condemn me when you're no different than Black Mask. Goin' around, takin' whatever you want from other people's hearts."

Ann pointed her gun at his face, "Don't impose your selfish motivations on us. We're here to steal distorted desires, not your money or secrets."

Akira stood straighter. "Right! We fight to set people free, not to trap them in a cage of debt or despair."

Makoto glared down the top of her shotgun, looking unnervingly like a professional soldier. "Your fate was sealed long ago. We're just the heralds, Kaneshiro. You murdered my father because he was inconvenient, but we'll see you in prison." Her shotgun thundered, and when the monstrous Shadow stood, the other Phantom Thieves added their gunfire.

Shadow Kaneshiro slammed his fists into the ground, sending out a shockwave knocking all four Phantom Thieves flying over the messy vault floor. Yen notes fluttered all around them, but not enough to hide Kaneshiro lifting a deformed hand with thumb and finger poised together. "You think I don't have the resources to destroy you? Ha! Even the government can't help but bow down to the power of my money. Even the commissioner will turn a blind eye for the right price."

His fingers snapped.

The lights went off, leaving the vault in pitch black outside the cone of Ann's gun-light. The sound of Shadow nodules bursting raised the hair on the back of Akira's neck. The dim glow of Carmen and Shesa only gave enough light to see the Personas themselves.

Something scampered through the settling yen notes, making his sub-machine gun's laser dot flicker from the wall to some point just a few meters away.

Morgana shouted from somewhere in the dark, "Panther, stay where you are! Rider, can you pick up Joker?"

"Where are you?" She shouted from his right.

Yen notes scattered behind him and Akira whipped around, letting out a short burst concealed by his sub-machine gun's suppressor. Whatever was there dashed away, knocking two gold bars together. The distraction was still enough to cause Shesa to dissipate, leaving Akira feeling naked and vulnerable to at least two new Shadow minions. "Right here." Taking his finger out of the trigger well, he waved his sub-machine gun in her direction, hoping she'd either spot his laser or the dot it projected. "I'm holding position right here." He summoned High Pixie and the Persona as small as a regular person floated above him, though something seemed to sap at the light that used to glint from its translucent wings.

Red flames flickered underneath Makoto as Johanna formed underneath her, the red tracery and steel plating even more intimidating in the darkness. The transparent canopy finishing just in time to cast aside a flying sickle on a chain. Her wheels blazed as she raced at Akira, and the transfer student backed up a step when she came to a stop just a few centimeters away. She dismissed her Persona, then spun around when something dashed through the notes piled over the floor, her shotgun braced against her shoulder just like Ryuji taught her.

She startled when Akira backed up against her, sweeping his sub-machine gun left and right to try to get that dot jump indicating something closer than the wall.

The cone from Ann's gun-light spilled over a black silhouette, humanoid as the other oni but wearing black, shrouding clothing just a little loose at the arms and legs. A close-fitting hood concealed the head. She pulled the trigger and followed it, three shots piercing its torso before it escaped her light. A fourth shot rang out, passing just above Akira's head.

He dropped to the ground. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! I'm right here!"

"Sorry!" Ann called, going back to her jerky back-and-forth search.

"Okay," Morgana shouted from the spot where Ann's gun-light cast its cone. "I'm going to transform and pick you guys up."

His red dot flickered and Akira squeezed off a burst.

Something scuttled away from the dot-jump point, and five or so meters to his left. "But we can't fight from inside you."

"It's not ideal," Morgana called back. "But once we're together we can focus on fighting the Shadows and less on avoiding shooting each other." A pop echoed in the darkness and two cones of light shone out across the space, one headlamp revealing Kaneshiro rubbing his hands against each other and the other a crouching oni wrapped in black clothing.

Makoto and Akira both opened fire on the oni holding a sickle on a chain in one hand, and the weighted end of the chain in the other, one of the shots striking it in the head and sending it sprawling to the ground, leaking smoke. Makoto shot it another two times before it dissipated.

Heavy footsteps over loose notes drew Akira's attention to his right. They scuttled away before he could figure out quite where they were, but before he had the chance to complain, Morgana pulled up in his bus form and the side door slid open. Ann hopped out, her gun-light waving back and forth. The three students came back to back and Morgana hopped onto Akira's shoulder, crossbow at the ready.

Ann jerked, tensing against him before she called, "Carmen!"

Morgana summoned Zorro an instant later, but by then the sneaky oni was lost to the darkness.

Shadow Kaneshiro laughed from somewhere in the dark.

Heart hammering in his chest, Akira scrambled for something to give them the upper hand. "What's wrong, Junjun? Doesn't this remind you of sneaking into your uncle's office to steal the deed to blue street in Shibaura?"

Kaneshiro roared. "I had no choice! I had to pay those Hashiba bastards with something. My uncle wouldn't have lifted a finger to help me."

Akira's lips pressed into a thin line and he muttered, "Sounds familiar."

His laser dot jumped, and he pulled the trigger.

His companions spun around, Ann's gun-light casting white over the black-clad oni holding another kusari-gama. While they blasted it with gunfire, he summoned Pillar.

Darkness didn't even make it flinch, and the Shadow leaped through the gloom at Pillar, slashing through the churning swirl of dark and fire. Akira collapsed to the floor, clutching his chest.

When he fell, Makoto growled and leaped forward, Johanna forming underneath her before rocketing over the floor at the Ongyo-Ki.

It shot into the darkness, its sickle smashing into the back end of Johanna followed by a chained iron weight the size of Akira's head.

Her Persona dissipated into flames and she tumbled, skidding through yen notes carpeting the ground in uneven piles. The sound of her bones colliding with gold bars rang twice.

Despite the flames of Pillar of Heaven, Akira couldn't see more than a few meters past it, so the group lowered their guns and rushed over to Makoto.

His dot jumped, and Akira pulled the trigger. Something dashed over mounds of yen notes, but he heard Shadow Kaneshiro grunt in pain.

Makoto summoned Johanna and lobbed a ball of fire towards the same general area he blasted his gun at, the ball itself only striking the yen on the ground but the explosion catching Shadow Kaneshiro, who leaped away with a buzz.

That sound was all Akira needed to lob fire from Pillar of Heaven. Carmen joined in with ice, but it wasn't until Morgana cried out that Akira realized he'd forgotten about the team's leader.

"Help him!" Makoto snapped, keeping her eyes on Kaneshiro, Johanna pulsing bolt after bolt of fire at him as he buzzed back and forth in the darkness.

Akira picked up their panting leader, who gave a thankful nod. Morgana looked out into the darkness, where Shadow Kaneshiro faded, then to Akira. "I've got a plan, but you need to hold back until they take the bait. You're our wild card, the only one Kaneshiro and his minions can't prepare for."

Akira nodded.

Morgana loaded bolts into his crossbow's magazine. "This new minion doesn't seem to have a weakness to any of our elements, so you need to hit it with your strongest fighter. Leave Kaneshiro to us until that damn ninja Shadow is dead." Akira gave a grim nod, then Morgana leaped to his own two feet with a roar, summoning Zorro and using his psychokinesis to pick up and fling gold bars after the flying monstrosity. "Everyone else, throw everything you two have at the Palace Ruler! Focus on him!"

Akira settled back, straining to hear above the sound of gold bars clinking against the vault walls and either ice or fire exploding.

He spotted the Shadow oni with a kusari-gama charge into Makoto and Johanna a fraction of a second too late to stop it from powering a blow into the mask on the armored front of the tank-like motorcycle. Johanna disintegrated into red flames.

Makoto screamed as she tumbled through the air, skidded over piles of yen, then into Ann, knocking her over.

The oni shrouded in black turned on Zorro, but Akira was already calling on his newest Persona and channeling all of his fury into it. All of the impulsive power of Caroline and merciless precision of Justine. "Yaksha! Tempest Slash!"

His own purple-skinned oni formed behind the larger black-shrouded one, a barbed, forward-curving sword held each hand. Her long black hair shifted as she lifted her swords and powered a chop down into the Ongyo-Ki's back, reverse-slashed upwards, left, right, then down through its back again. The ninja dissipated into smoke.

Ann's gun-light fell over Shadow Kaneshiro again, the Shadow on all six limbs. When something on his chitinous wrist glinted, Makoto pointed, "There, that bracelet! The real one never wore anything on his hands."

"Just like Kamoshida's crown," Morgana said with a smirk, before launching at the gold loop clinging to the monstrous limb. Locking his crossbow's bayonet out, he thrust it between the gold bracelet and corpse-white exoskeleton, and twisted with all his might.

The bracelet cracked, black tendrils reaching out to continue grasping for Kaneshiro's arm. Hissing whispers slithered through the air before a ball of ice hit him in the limb and exploded, flinging shards of ice.

The bracelet snapped off.

Shadow Kaneshiro wailed as the lights flipped back on. The monstrous boss slid back down to his knees as smoke gushed from every cut and blow through the fight. His height dwindled, his face shrank back down to the rounded human one, and at last a Kaneshiro in tattered pants and the ragged remains of a silk tuxedo jacket looked up at them. The spinning sub-vault door came to a stop and drifted open.

Kaneshiro ran to it, throwing his arms wide. "No, you can't! Black Mask already takes anything he wants from other people's hearts. This is my money!"

Akira snarled. "Stolen from the people of Shibuya!"

Makoto stepped closer, wincing but keeping her shotgun trained on him. "Innocent people."

Tears streamed down Kaneshiro's face. "B…but without it, I'm just another one of those ugly, weak fools. Weak people can't have happiness." The yakuza boss's lips trembled. "We can't even feel safe."

Akira glanced at his sub-machine gun, noting the bolt locked forward again. Well, maybe the Shadow wouldn't notice it. He pointed his gun. "You think you can play the victim when you've been making thousands of people suffer? You're even worse than the people who made you afraid when you were a teenager trying to show his uncle how smart he was."

Ann held her gun out at him, trembling despite both hands on her pistol. "You surrounded yourself with people who only cared about money, and now you have the gall to act afraid that the people around you will treat you badly because you don't have enough money?"

Kaneshiro looked up at the standing Phantom Thieves forming a semicircle around him. "Where else did I belong?"

Makoto lowered her shotgun. "Where you make for yourself. The only right thing is to spend the rest of your life paying atonement in money and other ways. Even if you have to beg for forgiveness."

Kaneshiro looked over the four. "With all your power, with all the Palaces you could loot, or even better extort… how could you give up the chance to make bank? How much is justice worth if nobody can afford the bill?"

Akira lowered his sub-machine gun. "Only if the single way you measure the world is money. Some people live to safeguard their family, to give their children a quiet place to lie down and sleep without nightmares. That can't happen when everybody is running around sucking money without care for what it does to others' hearts or lives."

"Yeah!" Morgana said. "Now go back to your real self and set your debtors free. Stop covering for those other yakuza thugs. Make up for what you've done. If you can do that, you'll have a place even if you don't have money."

Kaneshiro stared at the messy piles of yen and gold carpeting the floor for a long moment before he nodded. His shoulders slumped as he faded away.

"Come on," Akira shouted as he threw open the sub-vault door.

Morgana leaped past him and for a moment the transfer student thought he was going to help before the catboy clamped onto a wheel controlling the money press and rubbed his face on it. "Treasure," he purred.

Ann rushed in, yanked Morgana off, and threw him to the ground still strewn with piles of yen notes, gold bars, and the occasional glint of some gemstone. "Come on, let's load it and get out before the Palace collapses!"

Bracing against the side of the subvault door, Makoto's eyes widened under her mask. "Collapses?"

A bolt pinged out of the iron girders above and the bank groaned around them.

Ann's face flushed underneath her mask and she let out a nervous laugh. "Oh, uh. Did we forget to mention that?"

Akira and Ann surged for the Treasure and Morgana popped back into the catbus for a mad dash out of the bank.