Chapter 28: This Bitter Earth

After dropping off Maruki and Morgana near the train station, Sae took over driving. The train stops near the site of the press conference were closed, so they hoped to get closer in the van. However, the closer they got, the more the cab crawled due to the heavy traffic. Besides the obvious emergency vehicles, there were far more cars and pedestrians than usual, drawn by the cut-off video stream. Some were probably searching for loved ones, but others were surely just going out of morbid curiosity, or to "be a part of history."

Goro had never seen anything like it. Sae recalled her parents talking about the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in the mid-'90s, though she had been too young to witness it herself.

"They told me it was like the police disappeared," Sae said, gripping the steering wheel. "Nobody wanted to take charge. Nobody knew what to do. What saved lives that day was individual people deciding to help somebody who was having trouble walking, or taking it upon themselves to remove the gas packets from the train cars."

"Looks like the police are better organized this time around," Goro observed. "They've established a perimeter around the scene. It's already marked on the official transit app. No traffic in or out, except emergency vehicles."

"Then we steal one. What do you think, cop car or ambulance?" said Sae through her teeth.

"No! Neither! We don't need to steal anything," said Togo hurriedly.

"We don't need to investigate the real world, Sae. We have to trust that the first responders did their jobs," said Ren gently.

"And Morgana will let us know if our friends are at St. Luke's," Takamaki added.

"We'll get as close as we can and then focus on the Metaverse. That's the part the normal authorities can't check," said Goro.

"Assuming there's a quiet place we can…" Takamaki wiggled her fingers.

"Do we actually vanish from the real world, then?" asked Togo, fascinated.

"We do. It takes a few seconds, so it can even be caught on camera," said Akechi.

"Do you still have those pictures?" asked Takamaki.

He shook his head. The photos of the Phantom Thieves vanishing had been on his old phone. It was probably for the best.

Sae peered over the steering wheel and put on her blinker.

"I think this is as close as we're going to get," she said, sliding the van into a parking spot.

She was trying to keep her tone light, but they all understood how tense she was. She had spent the trip contacting various hospitals and clinics, but gotten no word about Makoto or any of the other Phantom Thieves. It was possible that authorities hadn't gotten to contacting the next of kin of every victim, but judging by the size of the audience in the video clips he'd seen, Goro thought it was more likely that the Phantom Thieves really were missing. In the best case, they were in the Metaverse but otherwise unharmed. That thin hope was all Sae had to cling to.

They all climbed out of the van. Up ahead on the street they could see a perimeter of police officers in riot gear, keeping the public away from the scene of Shido's ill-fated press conference. It seemed pointless to try to push through the crowd and argue, so they headed into a grungy, deserted alleyway.

Akechi pulled out the MetaNav, double-checked that there was no one to see them, and they entered the Metaverse.

There was a large, memorable office building that served as a landmark for them to move towards. It formed one side of the park where Shido had held his press conference, with two other buildings and a street forming the other boundaries.

Like the real world, the Metaverse was teeming with humanity — though in the Metaverse they appeared as Shadows. Gambit couldn't help peppering them with questions as they pushed through the crowds of Shadows — Are these people? Will fighting hurt them? Are they aware that we're in here, beating their subconscious minds?

"Jose, do you want to take a few of these?" Crow suggested.

"Sure!" said Jose enthusiastically. "They're tied to humans' subconscious minds, so their waking minds aren't affected by what we do down here. Except in special cases, like Personas. Personas represent a human's deepest self, so killing one would also kill that person."

"The same was true for people who had especially strong Shadows," Joker added. "People like Masayoshi Shido. I guess you could say a Shadow is like an out-of-control Persona."

"Wait," said Gambit, stopping to puzzle this out. "Then how did you fix my mother?"

"We did have to beat her Shadow into submission, but then we just talked to her," said Joker. "We didn't kill her Shadow, just…made it back down."

Gambit blinked under her mask. "Okay. I suppose I can accept that. What are all these black veins all over everything?"

"Oh, that?" said Jose, examining it. "I was surprised by that, too. It turns out that human hearts aren't really very clean. Do you have any more questions?"

Gambit paused briefly and then said, "Actually, I'm fine, thanks."

At least the Shadows of the citizens of Tokyo weren't hostile, so the group ignored them as they headed toward the row of rough-looking police Shadows.

"Is it me, or are they getting bigger the closer we get?" asked Gambit nervously.

"It's a reflection of how people think of them — intimidating," said Joker.

"Nothing we can't handle," said Crow. "We'll hit them with a blitz attack and break their line. Then we can go in there and investigate with no distractions."

"Well, not none," said Gambit. "My scans are showing more Shadows inside the perimeter."

"One step at a time," said Joker encouragingly. "I can show you some tricks to sneak around the Shadows."

"You can avoid fights?" said Spike.

"Of course you can," said Joker, surprised.

"Not really my style, but sure," Crow shrugged.

"We should talk about this later," said Spike sternly.

As planned, they split into two groups: Crow, Gambit, and Banshee in one group and Joker, Panther, and Spike in the other. Although he wasn't an official member of the team, Jose had also decided to stick around and observe.

"All right, everybody. Are we all ready?" said Gambit, in their earpieces. "Then…ELECTRIFY THEM!"

The two teams rushed the police Shadows. When she reached the line, Banshee threw her head back and shrieked, instantly terrifying the nearest Shadows. They didn't last long enough to suffer, though, as she followed that up with a massive Zio attack that vaporized half the line in one shot.

Some of the remaining Shadows fled; those that didn't were quickly mopped up by Joker's team.

Crow shot a look at Banshee. "Feeling okay?" he asked.

"Better now," she said, flexing her neck and shoulders.

He smirked. "Fun, isn't it? Brats, keep your eyes peeled and radio chatter to a minimum. We don't want to miss anything."

Joker looked around the blasted area of the park. Things did look worse on the Metaverse side, but he was surprised at how much damage ended up in the real world, too. He was positive that before, the Phantom Thieves' effect on the real world was minimal — after all, they could only affect people's thoughts. But not anymore. Like Morgana had said, the material and mental planes were starting to seep into each other somehow.

They started by calling out the Phantom Thieves' code names. Nobody answered; it didn't seem like anybody was around. It did attract the attention of some Shadows, but those were easily dispatched.

The warm, pleasant feeling from whatever Dr. Maruki had done to him had long since faded away, leaving Joker with a sucking vacuum of guilt. While he was screwing around in his hometown, his best friends were here fighting for their lives.

"Do you think they were all here?" Joker asked. "The Phantom Thieves, I mean."

"Queen asked them to come, and they all said they would," said Panther. "Besides, she wouldn't come alone. Queen isn't the type to forget a lesson she learned the hard way, you know?"

Joker nodded, still troubled.

Panther added, "You know…if Shido did turn the crowd on them…they wouldn't have gone down without a fight."

That was a good point. Joker had been so distracted feeling sorry for himself that he wasn't focused on the task at hand. He scanned the area again, trying to focus on any signs of a fight.

As they combed through the wreckage, they tried to piece together what might have happened. The TV feed, along with the Internet live stream, had cut off at just about the same time someone had thrown a bottle at Shido. The hashtags people had been using to discuss the press conference didn't completely vanish, but it was clear that after a certain point, only people who were not at the site were updating them. The news coverage coming from the site stopped, and into the void came speculation about what was happening.

Unfortunately, while journalists were verifying the accounts they were hearing, thousands of unreliable, unvetted rumors were already spreading all over the Internet. Almost nobody knew enough about the Metaverse to say anything useful; they were all just speculating and mostly getting everything wrong.

Then Joker spotted it: a Buchimaru pencil case. He almost missed it under all the other rubble, but when he looked closer, there was also a shoe, and then a girl's barrette. Throwing aside some debris, he found Makoto's backpack. Looking around, there were other human objects. A wallet. A destroyed phone. A t-shirt with Shido's face on it, that looked like it had been ripped off and trampled on.

Waving at the girls to follow him, he followed the trail to its end on the far side of the park. Whatever had happened here, it had been a knock-down, drag-out fight to the death. They saw a teen boy in a bright t-shirt, slumped over a pile of bricks. Joker ran as fast as he could. Pulling off his gloves, his own heart pounding, he checked the boy's pulse. There was a strong, steady heartbeat. But it wasn't Ryuji.

"Found someone!" Ann called from nearby. "She's okay, but unconscious!"

"I found someone too," said Shiho.

They searched the area, throwing aside busted street lamps, park benches, cinder blocks, and even some playground equipment, though Joker was sure there hadn't been any in the real world. When they were finished, they'd found four living people…but none of the Phantom Thieves.

"What should we do?" asked Spike.

"Let's regroup with the rest of the team…and hope they had better luck," said Joker.

Crow had been thinking of this place as "ground zero" in his head, but until he saw it in person, he didn't know how accurate the name was. The concrete was scorched in places, and there was a spot where a tree had been blasted right out of the ground, wood chips scattered all around. Rubble was everywhere.

"I don't see any bodies," said Gambit, tentatively. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you."

"I wonder…" said Crow, stroking his chin and thinking out loud, "If it was the crowd's cognition that caused the Metaverse to bleed into the real world…then once enough of them had been injured or knocked out or fled, the effect disappeared. Like we saw in Kanda."

"That's right! Once the crowd ran away, my church went back to normal!" said Gambit.

"Then it's likely that anyone caught here was sent back to the real world, where the paramedics would have found them," said Banshee, relieved.

"Yes, I concur. Still, I don't think we can count on that to solve this problem. We can't have reality fluctuating back and forth like this all the time," said Crow.

Gambit shook her head. "Besides, what if it doesn't go back to normal? Maybe this all depends on human imagination right now, but what if it's just a…a precursor? An introduction to something else?"

"That would be just our luck," Crow sighed.

His mind was spinning with possibilities. To focus his thinking, he tried a technique Gambit had taught him. He closed his eyes and redrew the scene in his mind's eye, starting with a blank area and adding only the pieces he felt were important. To his right was a tent. There were no markings on it; probably for the TV crew.

On his left was a stage. Camera equipment was scattered around in front, looking pretty thoroughly trampled. There were two posts on either side of the stage, though one had been blown apart halfway up. From his TV appearances, he guessed those were for stringing up additional lights or microphones.

He opened his eyes again and surveyed the scene, noticing the details that he hadn't included in his mental picture. They stood out now, unexpected. There were char marks everywhere, no pattern to those, but he also noticed some parallel lines imprinted in the concrete.

He turned so that he was perpendicular to the lines. Now he could see more of them, broken, but still a trail. He whistled to get Banshee and Gambit's attention, then started following the tracks.

The tank treads led to the stage, which struck Crow as odd. Would the Tank Shido have attacked the real one? Why? He walked over to the stage and inspected it. It was a simple, modular construct with a skirt tacked to it to hide whatever was underneath, probably extra wires, lights, microphones, and such. Or maybe nothing. Maybe Shido just thought it would be prudent to put some distance between himself and the crowd, even if it was only a few feet.

"What in the world could have done this to solid concrete?" Gambit wondered aloud, kneeling down to touch the tracks.

"A tank," said Crow. "I've seen it before."

"A tank?" Gambit cried. "I thought we were just up against knights with swords! Maybe horses! They have a tank? We can't beat a tank!"

"Use your head, Gambit. There's got to be some way to defeat a tank. Otherwise we'd all be speaking German."

Banshee let out a low moan. Crow patted her shoulder, not knowing what else to do. Then he noticed another sound. A muffled voice.

"…Akechi? Is that you?"

In the quiet, Crow could tell that the voice was coming from the stage. He flung the stage skirt up to reveal none other than Masayoshi Shido, cowering at his feet. He savored the moment, barely able to conceal his amusement as he said, "Well, well. Look who found a lifeboat."

Shido peeked through his fingers at Crow. "It's…really you? Not the other one?"

Crow closed his eyes briefly and pretended he hadn't heard that. He didn't need more problems. Amusing as it would be to string Shido along, time was of the essence, so he just flipped up the visor on his mask. "It's me. Come on out, let's get you back to the real world."

"Wait. If it's really you, then you'll know what book you were reading when I first met you."

It felt like so long ago, Crow could barely remember. He reached back in his memory, recreating that day. What stuck with him was how he'd felt on meeting his father for the first time; he couldn't believe Shido remembered something as trivial as what book he'd been reading.

"I think it was 'Either/Or.' Kierkegaard's response to Hegel's thesis/antithesis dialectic."

Shido visibly relaxed. "That's it. Who else but you could even name a book like that?" He beckoned Crow closer.

What could he possibly want? Crow ducked under the stage and joined Shido. As he went further and his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he was astonished to find the Phantom Thieves laid out on the ground, hidden behind some debris.

Crow called for Banshee and Gambit, who quickly followed him.

"Makoto!" cried Banshee, cradling her sister's head.

"How did this happen?" Crow demanded.

"They're alive, just…look, I can tell you everything, just get me out of here," Shido begged.

"Stay put for now. You're safe here, as long as you do what I say," Crow told him.

He left Shido under the stage and tapped his earpiece to contact Joker, who turned out to already be on his way. After a quick discussion with the whole team, they decided to bring the other survivors over and hide them under the stage as well.

"Shido-san's foxhole will serve as a perfect exfiltration point," said Gambit. "It's concealed in the real world too, so there's a built-in explanation for why the first responders missed these survivors."

Shido poked his head out, took a look around, and came out from under the stage. "Looks like the coast is clear. Now how do we get me out?"

"That's simple. We'll take you back to the real world and you can turn yourself in," said Crow.

"Hell no! Are you insane? What if that thing follows me into prison? I'd be trapped!" Shido protested, raising his voice.

Joker jumped in, an unusually harsh tone to his voice. "You confessed. Did you think something else was going to happen? Why are you even out of prison in the first place?"

"I pulled some strings," Shido said, taking out a handkerchief and wiping down his forehead. "It was important that I get my message out there."

"This message?" said Joker, gesturing at the wreckage around them.

"No, this wasn't anything to do with me —" Shido began.

Banshee interrupted, "How can we make sure they get to St. Luke's? Takuto's the only one who has any hope of finding a cure," she said anxiously.

"Of course — Maruki! I'll tell him everything that happened. It could help his research," said Shido.

"Yes, it could! Anything might help," said Banshee. Crow could hear desperation in her voice, knew that Shido had dangled the one bait that could keep him out of prison. He hated Shido for doing that, but he couldn't just discount his information either.

"Fine," said Crow. "Here's what we'll do. Banshee, you go with the Phantom Sleepers here back to the real world. Call over the paramedics, tell them you're Makoto's sister and they need to go to St. Luke's. The rest of us will head back to the van and meet you at the hospital."

That decided, they rounded up the unconscious bodies of all the survivors they could find and brought them over to the stage. Then Banshee disappeared back into the real world.

As the rest of the team made their way through the Metaverse back to the van, Shido stayed so close to Crow that he became a tripping hazard. When the van was in sight, Shido sprinted for it and tugged at the handles.

"Settle down, already," Crow told him. "Didn't I tell you you're safe with us?"

"Why didn't you ever mention how terrifying this place is?" Shido cried.

"Would that have impressed you?"

"Well…no," Shido conceded.

Crow took out his phone and navigated them out of the Metaverse, at which point Shido let out a huge sigh of relief. He got into the van first, pushing ahead of the girls.

There was no one in the driver's seat. "I don't have a license. Anyone?" said Goro carelessly.

All the teenagers looked expectantly at Shido, who reluctantly unbuckled his belt. Grumbling, he moved to the driver's seat and they got under way.

When they got to St. Luke's, there were newly posted signs directing visitors to the Mental Shutdown Ward. Goro directed them to the back entrance, to avoid security. The ward was buzzing with activity, but they found Maruki and Sae together in an otherwise empty conference room.

"What's going on here?" asked Shido, as soon as he saw Maruki. "There wasn't supposed to be any publicity!"

Maruki stared at him in speechless surprise for a moment, before Goro stepped in. "Dr. Maruki, I guess it's time for you to meet your patron…Masayoshi Shido."

Etiquette dictated that Maruki should bow to Shido, but after a slight hesitation, Shido bowed. It was something of an olive branch, but Maruki just watched it dispassionately and did not reciprocate. A look of irritation flickered across Shido's face and Goro's estimation of Maruki went up a bit.

"Anyway…" said Maruki mildly, "Since there's an emergency underway, we decided that I should send out a bulletin to nearby hospitals and clinics. The hope is that people will recognize Mental Shutdown Syndrome symptoms and send patients here, instead of treating them like normal coma patients. The cat's out of the bag. We're just minimizing the damage now."

"How's Makoto?" Goro asked.

"Getting checked in. My staff are taking good care of her."

"But she's…."

"Unconscious like the others, yes. They're all fine for now, resting comfortably. But I think, for most of us, this does add urgency to the situation." Maruki's eyes lingered on Sae.

"How — how much time do we have?" Ann asked, her fingertips brushing her lips.

"There's no way to know. I can say that since the establishment of this ward, I haven't lost a patient yet…however, none of them has recovered, either."

A heavy silence fell over the room.

I wonder if he thought of trying his new Persona, Goro thought, but he didn't want to blurt it out and get Sae's hopes up. While he was thinking of a way to say it more delicately, Sae herself spoke up.

"What about the healing power you used on us earlier today?" Sae asked.

"I'll certainly try it, but I want to stress that was a cure for a very different type of problem," said Maruki.

"Please try," said Sae, taking his hand in both of hers. Goro could practically hear Maruki's heart melting into goo.

Before Maruki could agree to anything impossible, Goro said, "Sae, I think he should have a rest before he tries that. It's been a long day. You want the best possible odds of success, don't you?"

"If…if you think it'll help," she said reluctantly.

"I do," said Goro, though he was actually hoping she would get some rest and bolster her resilience. Privately, he agreed with Maruki that this type of healing was unlikely to help, no matter how powerful it was.

"I'll try it tomorrow, then. Now…you have some information for me?" Maruki asked, taking a seat across from Shido.

"Tell us what happened — please," Sae implored.

Shido crossed his arms and bowed his head in thought. Though he wasn't at the head of the table, something about the way he carried himself commanded their attention. After a moment, he began his story.

"I suppose you're all aware that there are some rumors going around about my activities inside prison. I called the press conference to address these rumors. I'd gotten the sense that they were tipping into a conspiracy theory…." He sighed and shook his head. "So let me just start by saying that those rumors are baseless. I'm not running anything from inside a cell."

"Except this place," said Goro pointedly.

"Yes. Mental Shutdown Syndrome is a scourge that I ushered into the world, and I want to help cure it." Shido paused for dramatic effect.

Goro rolled his eyes internally. Do you think we're going to vote for you?

Shido continued, "Anyway, I donated funds for the location and staff. I also directed you, Akechi, to help with Dr. Maruki's research. Otherwise, I have no involvement with how this ward is run."

"That's true," said Maruki, a little grudgingly.

"Good to know," Akechi acknowledged. "So what happened?"

"A crowd gathered to see me speak. They weren't as receptive as usual, although that's to be expected when you have bad news to deliver. It wasn't until somebody tossed a bottle that things really got out of hand."

Ren, who had been looking down at his phone, looked up at Shido. "I bet this had something to do with it." He passed over his phone. Shido looked at it and went pale.

"Oh my God," Shido murmured. "Is this the app? The one spreading all the lies?"

Goro took the phone and looked it over. "Apps don't lie, people do. And sometimes they incite violence. Looks like 'Myojo' sent out a call for his followers to riot at the press conference."

There were gasps around the table. Ren's phone was passed around as they all looked at the messages.

"So that's what happened," said Sae, scowling.

"Not just that. Myojo specifically named Takuto Maruki and Makoto Niijima as targets," said Ren grimly. He looked again. "And…someone named Kaede Wada."

"Wada!" said Goro and Shido at the same time.

"I suppose he's not responsible, then," said Shido.

"One moment. Let me check something," said Maruki, and hopped up and left the room.

"I know this face," said Togo, examining the picture of Wada on Ren's phone. "I saw him in the crowd footage when I was watching news clips."

"He could have sent that text!" said Takamaki.

"Maybe, but why target himself?" Suzui asked reasonably.

"To fake his own death! But then it all went horribly wrong!"

Maruki returned and Goro made a "zip it" motion at Takamaki to cut off the tangent about Wada's fake death, which she was embellishing with a secret twin brother.

Maruki said, "Sorry to hold things up. I saw the name Kaede Wada on the intake forms today. He's here, in the ward. He's a victim."

Goro nodded. "That tracks with what Ren learned about two people being behind the app. Maybe they had a falling out. Is it possible that Myojo — the guy we met in Souzencho — could have sent those messages?"

"He could have sent them from anywhere," Ren pointed out. "All he'd need is the right phone."

"Myojo didn't seem…well, human. At least to me," said Togo hesitantly. "Would such a being even need a cell phone?"

"Fair point," said Goro. "We're probably looking for another human accomplice."

"If he was working with Wada…" said Shido thoughtfully. "Maybe I can make a few calls."

"Good. That would be helpful. So what happened next?"

"The crowd started rioting. That was when things got strange. All of a sudden the people didn't look like…like people, anymore. There were some that looked like soldiers, some samurai, a lot of Phantom Thieves…I couldn't see any of their eyes. They were hidden under helmets and masks," said Shido.

"Did you say 'a lot of Phantom Thieves'?" asked Ren.

"Yes. At first, it was the real ones, I think. They tried to quiet the crowd down. They said killing me wouldn't be justice. I couldn't believe it, honestly." He trailed off and paused, remembering that moment. "Then the tank started firing and…well…."

"You hid under the stage and let a bunch of kids take the heat for you," said Ren scathingly.

Shido hung his head. "I'm not proud of it. I didn't know what else to do," he mumbled.

Sae put her hands over her face, but when she removed them, she just looked tired. "If that's all, I'd like to see my sister now."

"Of course. Anyone who'd like to visit someone in the ward is welcome to do so," said Maruki. "This has been a long day for everyone. Why don't we meet here tomorrow morning? I'll bring you all up to speed on what I know, and maybe if we pool our knowledge, we can make some progress."

As they filed out, Goro lingered behind. Quietly, he said to Maruki, "I don't know if you have any ideas yet, but I'll do whatever I can to help. That's a promise."

"Thank you," said Maruki simply.

Goro felt that an understanding passed between them, although the Death bond still stubbornly refused to form.

Feeling like he needed a break, Goro said he wanted to check the news and headed to the visitor's lounge for a few minutes.

He didn't really want to watch the news. Music videos were his first choice, but he would have watched anything lighter, even cartoons. But there were already visitors in the lounge, and they already had the TV tuned to news.

A word on the screen caught Goro's eye: Kichijoji. That was his old haunt, when he worked for Shido. Something about the eclectic shops, the foreign and secondhand goods, the music from all over the world, made him feel at home there. It was a neighborhood full of things that didn't fit in, like him.

Now it was on fire. A mob had marched through the streets earlier that day, when Goro was still on the road. Now that the sun had set, more of these rioting assholes had come out of the woodwork and fires were popping up all over. Tokyo's governor had dispatched the Metropolitan police, but with so much unrest all over the city, they had to pick their battles.

The newscaster listened into her earpiece for a moment, then said, "Let's go to our live news cam."

A drone slowly flew above a familiar street now blazing with fire; it hadn't gotten to Jazz Jin, but Goro knew that was on the next block. He had a sudden intuition; his insides turned to ice. He turned his head to get a better look. As if following his movement, the drone gained altitude and turned so it was perpendicular to the street. Now it was easy to see that the fire wasn't random. It was a pattern.

Inscribed in fire, outside Goro's favorite place in the world, were the words:

TOO LATE