Disclaimer: Fate and Persona are owned by different companies and I hold no ownership and all that jazz.
6/24
Hakuno had finally found the keyword for Futaba.
She has been working on it ever since she found out about the Palace's existence, but knowing that she thinks she can't leave…
Tomb.
Hakuno still wasn't happy about hearing that.
Hakunon: Akira, I have a Palace I have to go into.
Tricky&Kitty:... what?
Hakunon: My…friend needs help, and they helped us. She wants us to change her heart.
Tricky&Kitty: Who is it?
Alibaba: Hello, Akira Kurusu, Leader of the Phantom Thieves. I am the one who asked for assistance, Futaba Sakura needs a change of heart.
Hakunon: Futaba, be nice.
Alibaba: Hakuno! Quit ruining my moment.
Tricky&Kitty: Is 'Futaba Sakura' related to Boss?
Alibaba: … Yeah.
Hakunon: Taba…
Alibaba: Fine fine, yes I want someone to remove my distortion. I can't live like this anymore!
Tricky&Kitty:... Fuck ok we will figure this out, we will need a few days we are almost done with Kaneshiro… Can you hold out tell then?
Alibaba: … A few days? You promise?
Tricky&Kitty: A few days once we confirm with the team, at most two weeks.
Alibaba: Just… Can it be Hakuno by herself?
Tricky&Kitty: It's to dangerous to do a Palace by yourself.
Hakunon: I can handle Futaba's Palace, don't worry.
Futaba: If its dangerous, I dont want u to get hurt.
Tricky&Kitty: Just give us a few days to finish up Kaneshiro.
Hakuno probably thought it was a bad idea as she walked into The Sakura family house.
But.
Hakuno wanted to help her friend. Waves of Red and Black covered her vision as she entered Futaba's Palace.
Hakuno wasn't in her outfit but a flex of her Magic Circuits brought it forth, Avenger's comforting presence helped against the waves of heat.
She was in an overly large desert. Hakuno had Avenger carry her up a large sand dune, as they reached the top she saw in the distance an overly large Pyramid with a large crack in it.
Sighing, she set out at a decent pace as she muttered, "Don't worry Taba I'm coming…"
Akira had just finished jogging with Ryuji. As he responded to the text conversation, he shook his head lightly. I will deal with it later… The two ended up at the place they first truly talked about. A nice small beef bowl restaurant near the school.
"You know Takeishi's mom is the PTA prez, right? He told her everything. After that, she came stormin' in with all the parents and raised all heck. Wish I coulda seen the look on Yamauchi's face. I mean, the school can't ignore the entire PTA. As a result," Ryuji got a big smile on his face, "Our old coach is back! Well… filling in for now. But still!"
"I'm glad Ryuji." Akira was, the track team was Ryuji's first home and helping his best friend make sure his old team was going well? That is awesome.
"Serves that dick right! What a great feeling! Everything is finally going right! I think they will go far in the meet."
"We can't lose to them."
"Hell yeah! Ah crap, let's eat!" Akira was already eating by the time Ryuji spoke, causing the blonde to elbow him.
"Phew, that was awesome as always…" Ryuji got a serious look on his face as he paused, "To tell the truth… I was scared of facin' those guys… I couldn't stand how much they hated me… It only just made me think of how stupid I was…"
"You weren't stupid."
Ryuji froze, "You still aren't stupid Ryuji, and if they can't see it? Well tough for them." Akira was confident Ryuji was smarter then he led on, maybe not in book smarts but definitely in the heart.
More so than any of his former teammates.
"Haha… thanks… I managed to change because of you and the rest of the thieves… I got you wrapped up in this shit, but you stayed with me 'till the bitter end. You didn't abandon me. So… thanks man."
Akira smiled, "It's all because of you."
Ryuji's grin never left his face as he blushed slightly, "Man, you're the best bro anyone could ever ask for. Either way, it's my turn now. If anything comes up, I'll be running right to ya."
Something popped and fit into place as Ryuji finished. Akira wasn't too sure what it was but everything for that one moment felt right.
"All right! Now that's off my chest! I'll be counting on ya leader! Now." His grin grew even wider, "Let's race to the station!"
Futaba thought she heard the front door open, checking Sojiro, Akira, and Hakuno's phones showed none of them near her although… Hakuno's was offline… Futaba shuttered before checking her cameras.
Seeing nobody in the house Futaba let out a small sigh of relief…
"Murderer! If only I had never birthed you...!"
Hakuno kicked at the sand as she finally reached the Pyramid, she had no idea how much time had passed in the real world but she knew it had to have been a few hours.
The heat was also annoying, while her outfit kept her from feeling the absolute worst of it, she still felt some of it. Trending into the pyramid Hakuno felt the wave of cold air as thankfully the Pyramid had air conditioning.
Futaba was standing in front of her, looking down on her on top of a large staircase. Bandages were wrapped around her chest as if it was her top, along with a long flowing dress. A golden snake was in her hair… "Hakuno? You shouldn't be here."
Hakuno gave her a soft smile, "I'm here to help… Like I should've done two years ago."
Futaba's Shadow shook her head, "I can't help you in here, it truly is a dangerous place."
"It's fine… I had hoped you wouldn't try." Hakuno shrugged, "My Shadow at least was dangerous from what I was told."
"... You already know most of the truth… but… considering the state of her Palace… I'm not even sure you are strong enough to remove the shackles from her heart." Futaba turned away from her. "Her memories are distorted… can you become the light that pierces the haze?"
"It is good to see you again Taba." Shadow Futaba froze before shaking her head and disappearing, leaving behind a map? She picked it up and glanced at it before stuffing it into her Ring.
Hakuno sighed, and she began her slow and steady walk up the steps, as she did shrieking came from deep within, a large rumbling sound occurred as a large boulder began racing down the steps.
"Avenger!" Blue lines covered her body as Avenger manifested his cursed claws stabbed into the falling rock. Black and Blue flames spread into the boulder as it slowly began to crack from the pressure. With a final shove the boulder became an overly large pile of dust.
"...Oh." Hakuno heard Futaba mutter but she couldn't see her…
Hakuno gave a slight smirk, "You're going to have to try a bit harder than that Taba."
The Shadows were strange, all of them were slower then she felt they should be…
Avenger grabbed another Naga and threw it into the pit that they found. Her gun was actually being put to use as she couldn't really hit the flying Anzu without waiting for it to attack in it didn't do often as it liked to just send gusts of wind at her. She could send Avenger but she was choosing to take it slow… she didn't want to exhaust too much of her strength.
Hakuno took a moment to drink one of the many cans of soda Akira had given her to store, surely they wouldn't notice a few missing as long as she restocked them. It isn't like he goes to every vending machine everyday and buys every can… right?
Doing a mental check of just how many there are… he might actually do that.
Shaking her head, Hakuno glanced around the corner… One of the Patrol Shadows was just banging its head into a wall.
This Palace… is strange.
"Murderer! I SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD YOU! YOU WILL DIE HERE!" The Palace shook spikes erupted from the floor in front of her, Avenger pulling her back before one of the many spikes could go through her. The voice shrieked in pain as the Palace stopped shaking.
That voice… Hakuno shook her head… Wakaba?
Seeing her route temporarily closed off Hakuno sighed as she took the jog back to the Safe Room to exit for the day.
Futaba's Shadow was sitting to the side, her body invisible to all. She knew how some of the events should have played out.
Hakuno should have gone and got the rest of the thieves after the Mob Bosses Palace, Hakuno would have led them up the stairs, the boulder would have made it impossible to continue and they would come back another day. After that the Palace would send them down to the basement where they would have to fight their way up the Pyramid finding the hidden truths.
She wasn't expecting Hakuno to just stop the boulder. Or for her to drop the map.
She really wasn't planning for that to happen but it did.
Hakuno knows most of the Truth, she knows the true feelings that even the real Futaba doesn't remember. Even if Hakuno doesn't fully know exactly what happened in the end. She just hopes Hakuno won't come back without help.
"Hey Hakuno, where ya been?" Ann was concerned, Hakuno had showed up late to their apartment and didn't answer her phone all day.
"Hmm? Ah…I was at the movie theater, decided to take it easy today." Hakuno seemed exhausted…
Ann knew how stubborn the girl could get though and didn't want to push it.
"If you say so…"
"So… how's it going with Ryuji?" Hakuno prodded.
She felt a small blush form, "The boy is denser than a rock, what about you? Any girl or guy catch your eye?"
Going from what Ann knew of her previous life Ann had an inkling Hakuno preferred women, but Hakuno's Body/Shadow/Thing seemed to be really attached to the Archer…
"Hmm?" Hakuno tilted her head, cute, "Nobody yet…"
6/25
Makoto hadn't finished figuring out the cipher, and Hakuno was too tired to go back to Futaba's Palace… So she did a run around Shibuya and bought replacement items, or at least tried to.
Most of the vending machines were already sold out.
Tricky&Kitty: Hakuno, got somethin you should check out.
Hakunon: In Shibuya, meet you by the twins?
Tricky&Kitty: K, Cya soon.
Hakuno blinked, "Here." In his hands was an ornamental diamond necklace, seventeen large diamonds adorned it.
Hakuno put it in her hands and felt mana was… not an amazing amount but it could work. Hakuno also had an inkling on the best use of it as well. She would need dexterous hands though…
"Hmm… you busy?"
Akira shifted his bag, "Not today."
"Wanna help me make something?"
"Sure?"
Normal electronics didn't work too well in the Metaverse, you could exit the Metaverse with the app, and check messages but you couldn't call or take pictures inside.
Hakuno's idea was that something made using Mana and Materials made from the Metaverse would work to some extent inside.
Hakuno and Akira had bought eight headsets to test the theory. Hakuno's main reason she believed it would work was due to Cognition.
If it could turn a Cat into a Bus due to a popular movie, then all the Spy movies in the world should help the cognition that thieves always were able to communicate.
Checking that they didn't work even to play music, Hakuno was somewhat confident that using the ambient Mana of the Metaverse she could make them act as a two-way radio…
"Can you remove the circuitry from the outer shell?" The twins were watching the pair of them, Joker got to work on removing the circuits while Hakuno slowly removed each diamond from the necklace.
Taking one of the diamonds and plastic shell of an earpiece Hakuno got to work, ever so slowly she pushed her Od into the diamond, and, attempting to mimic the structure of the circuitry the diamond became malleable and filled in the missing electronics.
The earpiece didn't look aesthetically pleasing, being half plastic half diamond with pits of metal poking out. But Hakuno had a feeling it would work.
Finishing up the second one Hakuno decided that she had the perfect testers, turning to the twins she waved them over with two in her hands. "Try these on."
"I did not think a human would be able to do something similar to what we do…" Justine muttered.
Caroline took one and looked at it questioningly, "What's this?"
"I believe it is a type of weapon, see this part,." Justine pointed at the microphone, "Releases electricity as you stab someone."
Joker chuckled, which got a death stare from Justine, "No… um, they are headsets, put one in your ear and you can talk to each other from a distance… Right?"
Hakuno nodded, "That's the idea, if it works that is…" She was about sixty or seventy percent sure it would work.
Justine had a small blush on her face as she coughed lightly in her hand "I knew that… It was a test," Justine placed it in her ear, before walking to the other side of the area and whispered something into the microphone.
Caroline's blush couldn't be hidden as she jumped, "SHUT UP JUSTINE!" Caroline began chasing after Justine.
Hakuno smiled as the twins chased and fought, "Are they always like this with you?" Joker asked, a small look of bewilderment on his face.
"Hmm? They are kids aren't they?"
"...Sure." The two of them began to work on the rest of the diamonds and headsets… "You think you can teach me your Magecraft stuff?" Hakuno paused before continuing.
"I have heard it's painful to first awaken… And you have to have the aptitude for it…" Rin had mentioned it when they were going over how the real world was, not everybody was born with Magic Circuits…
Well Hakuno was so it wouldn't be impossible for others to be?
"I see… Well, after Kaneshiro and Futaba's Palace we can work on it?"
Hakuno nodded, it was possible, "Will you get me more of these… Treasure Demons?"
"Sure, it's a deal."
"Thank you…" Hakuno bowed slightly, "It went by much faster than I thought it would." Hakuno was grateful, as with his help it only took a few hours of testing to ensure all the pieces worked together.
And it was fun making the Mystic Code… As long as the Metaverse is around Hakuno could see herself making even more of them.
Hakuno felt the familiar waves of red and black as she exited the Metaverse, taking note of the time Hakuno decided to send a quick text to inform everyone…
Hakunon: Made communicators for Metaverse, already tested.
Pirateboi: Sweet! More magic stuff?
Hakunon: More Magecraft stuff.
Pirateboi: Magic, Magecraft same thing.
Makoto: That will be a great help if there ever is a time we are separated, any other devices you can make?
Hakunon: I need Mana, and can only really get that in the Metaverse at the moment as well as materials, something that can either generate Mana or can slowly absorb it from the Metaverse.
Makoto: What is Mana?
Hakunon: Complicated… easy answer; Life Force of the Planet.
Tricky&Kitty: Alright, I'll see if I cant get you more Treasure Demons, the twins charge a lot for them.
Hakunon: Thanks.
Art: Would it be possible to make one that grants infinite paint?
Hakunon: … Maybe? Not sure. Would need the right materials
Art: Akira, Hakuno! this is of utmost importance!
Catburglar: It would let him have more money for food…
Hakuno nodded, "See you around." The two split off as Hakuno went home for the night.
Author's Note: Hakuno being a bit… reckless… Hakuno made her first real Mystic Code with some help. She can make basic Mystic Codes in her room, aka stick two things together and get something weak, like the Breeze Ring she made.
But if it requires some actual work then she has to do it in the Metaverse.
Hakuno Confidant Progress! It wont all be about Magecraft and Mystic Codes. And her confidant technically also is with the entire group of Phantom Thieves. Hakuno's journey of evolution won't just be limited to her interactions with Akira, though as the Trickster he will of course be important.
Mystic Code: Diamond Communicators
Ability: Allows two way communication between similar made items. Absorbs Mana from the surroundings for an energy source. Can be used in Mana Rich environments or fueled by a person's own Od.
Made via Queen's Necklace