6/27 Wednesday
Days Until Pics Leaked: 12
She found herself feeling an odd mix of anxiousness and anticipation as the school day went on. A part of her dreaded returning to Kaneshiro's palace, and another part wanted nothing more.
Everyone met up in Shibuya after classes had ended, and calling the atmosphere tense would be an understatement, the reality of their situation fully set in.
The consequences of failure here were astronomical compared to all their other targets.
"Are you all ready?" Makoto asked as they entered a secluded alley.
Everyone nodded.
"Then let's go." Makoto said. "Back to Kaneshiro's palace."
They quietly made their way back into the Metaverse and into the palace, careful not to alert the guards.
"We'll take a stealthier approach." Makoto stated. "Joker, Mona, Fox, you're with me."
The group quickly made it through the reception area, but ran into problems a few rooms in.
"Security cameras…" Makoto muttered.
Along the wall were several moving cameras, preventing them from going into certain rooms.
"If we get caught by one of those, Kaneshiro will just send waves of shadows after us until we have to retreat." Ren stated.
"There's gotta be a way to get through them, right?" Ryuji asked.
"Maybe a control room or panel…" Makoto suggested. "Let's start searching."
They carefully made their way through a few hallways before Morgana rushed up to them, a panicked look on his face after he looked around the corner.
"Guys, there's an incredibly fierce enemy ahead!" Mona cried.
"Seriously?" Ren asked. "Let me see."
Ren peeked over the corner, a confused look on his face when he returned.
"...Mona, that's just a guard dog." Joker pointed out.
"Dogs are menaces to society!" Mona cried. "Just a few days ago one of them chased me around the alley! He must have thought I was a cat or something…"
"Gee, I can't imagine how he'd make that mistake." Ren smirked.
As Morgana gave Ren a stink eye, Fox started thinking.
"Let's sneak up on them from behind, just like a regular shadow." Fox suggested.
"Well, I can definitely try it." Makoto nodded.
They hid in the shadows, waiting for the guard dog to turn around.
As soon as it did, they ambushed it, taking out all but one of the shadows for her to… negotiate with.
"Grr… give me 2000 yen!" the shadow snapped.
"Seriously…?" Ren deadpanned. "Why does a shadow want money?"
"Maybe it's influenced by being in Kaneshiro's palace." Morgana theorized.
"2000 yen is far too much money." Yusuke frowned. "Try to haggle with it, Makoto."
Makoto raised an eyebrow, wondering how to do that, before deciding to fire a warring shot next to the shadow.
"1000! 1000!" the shadow quickly yelled. "1000 will do!"
She too wondered why a shadow would have any need for money, but complied anyway.
"This isn't nearly enough!" the shadow roared. "Give me 500 yen!"
She narrowed her eyes, but still complied.
"Still not enough!" the shadow insisted. "Give me… a bead!"
Makoto sighed, handing the shadow the requested item. "There. Now will you join up with us?"
"...I think we're too ill matched." the shadow said. "You'll have to make do with this!"
The shadow threw the bead she had just given to it back at her, and tried to run away.
"Oh no you don't!" Makoto shouted.
She chased the shadow, easily catching up while riding Johanna, managing to surround it with the other's help, guns pointed on it.
"H-Hold on! I… I..." the shadow cried before it's eyes widened. "I am Orthus! I shall serve as your mask!"
Orthus now under her command, she led the others to the end of the hall, where they found a control device.
"Oh, these must control those security cameras!" Ann brought up. "But how do we disable th-"
*SLAM*
Makoto wordlessly slammed her fist into the control device, breaking it and turning off all the cameras connected to it.
"There. Now come on." Makoto ordered. "Let's find the other ones and destroy those too."
Along the way, they found a chest, Makoto taking out a lockpick as soon as they saw it.
"Joker, cover me while I open this." Makoto said.
Joker nodded and glanced over, keeping a lookout while Queen looted the chest.
"Heh… enjoying the view, Joker?" Skull smirked.
"W-What?!" Joker stammered.
He glanced back over at Queen, who was bent down, looking inside the chest.
"I-I was just watching her back!" Joker defended.
"More like her backside, am I right?" Skull grinned. "I may be the one with the pirate persona, but it looks like you're the one after the booty."
"Skull, knock it off!" Joker exclaimed, his face beginning to flush.
"Ok, ok, I'll stop." Skull said. "But…"
Joker sighed. "That sounds like a big but."
"I thought you liked big butts."
"SKULL I SWEAR TO GOD-"
"What are you two talking about?" Makoto asked.
"N-Nothing!" both boys stammered in fear.
Makoto raised her eyebrow in suspicion.
"J-Joker was just feelin' a little nervous, so I was lightening the mood. That's all." Ryuji excused.
"There's no time for that." Makoto coldly stated. "Keep calm and be serious or stay out of the front lines."
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" Ryuji stuttered.
"Queen…" Ren trailed off, frowning. "Is… everything ok?"
"I'm fine." Makoto insisted. "Now come on! We need to find those security devices."
She was tired. She was stressed. But she was also the leader.
She couldn't show weakness.
The team focused on locating every security device they could find and destroying their control panels.
Slowly but surely, they made their way further and further down, eventually finding a large metal safe door.
"Well, not exactly the type of safe room we're used to, but I'm guessing the treasure is somewhere inside there." Ren stated.
"...Proooobably can't punch our way through that." Ann commented.
"Then let's go and search for a key!" Ryuji suggested.
"Actually, before that…" Mona trailed off. "I can sense a will seed nearby."
"Then let's head towards it while looking out for a key." Makoto ordered.
Sure enough, it only took a little bit to locate the will seed door. Makoto opened the door and took the skull, and just like before, the room began turning and changing around them…
They saw a skinny young boy running as fast as they could, carrying tons of food in their hands.
"Stop, thief!"
"Get back here!"
Several people chased the young boy through the streets.
The young boy tried to get away by running into an alley, but they had managed to corner and surround him.
"Now we've got you."
"Time to teach you a lesson."
The people punched, kicked, and smacked the boy with sticks and brooms, taking back the stolen food and not stopping until he was covered in bruises.
The small crowd left, leaving the boy beaten in the alley.
The small boy seemed to be unconscious, but as soon as the crowd left, he opened his eyes, slowly getting up and taking out some bread he had hidden in his shirt.
As the young boy greedily scarfed down the bread, a suspicious looking man entered the alley and approached the young boy.
"Pretty slick little trick you pulled there, kid." the man said. "Hiding the bread in your clothes like that."
"D-Don't tell anyone... please…" the boy stammered.
"Naw, I won't tell anyone." the man said. "But I wonder… what's a young kid like you doing stealin' food?"
"I-I have to…" the kid stammered. "I don't… have anyone…"
"No parents?" the man asked.
The kid shook his head. "They… someone came with a w-weapon and…"
"I get the picture." the man quickly said. "Tell you what… why don't you do a little job for me."
"A… job?" the young boy repeated.
"Yeah. I just need you to do a few deliveries for me." the man stated. "Just pass out some envelopes to a few people and I'll pay you some good money, ok?"
"Y-Yeah!" the boy cried. "I'll do whatever you ask!"
"Excellent…" the older man grinned. "Now, here's what you're going to do…"
They all returned to the will seed room.
"That little kid… was that Kaneshiro?" Ann asked.
"It has to be!" Ryuji claimed. "And I bet that that other guy is a yakuza member."
"He even mentioned delivering envelopes." Ren mentioned. "Those are the same tricks that the yakuza were using on our classmates."
"This must have been the time he started getting associated with the yakuza." Yusuke pointed out.
"He mentioned something happening to his parent's too…" Morgana noted. "Guess that made him an easy target for gangs. What do you think, Makoto?"
"It doesn't matter. I don't care about his past." Makoto muttered. "Now let's keep moving."
"O-Oh, right." Morgana stammered. "Let's go!"
After smashing the final control devices, all of the cameras, electrical fences, and other control devices had shut off, opening up new paths to them, including a security room.
They made their way into the monitor room, checking all of the views of the palace inside.
"Man, I can't see Kaneshiro or the treasure on any of these monitors!" Ryuji groaned. "I thought we had something!"
"Hold on!" Yusuke stated. "Look right there!"
Yusuke pointed to a monitor showing another security room, where two guards stood, one of them holding a big, bright key.
"I bet that's the key to that giant door!" Ann exclaimed.
"I wonder if we could separate those guards so that we don't have to fight them at the same time..." Morgana mumbled.
"Let's try contacting them." Ren suggested. "There should be something here that can do it."
"Yeah. Let's try that." Makoto agreed. "Everyone, keep quiet.
She pressed a few buttons on the keyboard before speaking into the microphone.
"Come in, security room! This is the monitoring room!" Makoto began. "We've been ambushed by the intruders! Send a guard down, we need backup!"
"Roger that! We'll send someone down right away!" the shadow called.
Sure enough, one of the guards in the security room started running towards them.
"Alright, everyone hide and we'll ambush him once he gets inside." Makoto ordered.
They lied in wait as the guard rushed down to the monitor room.
"What the hell? There's no one here!" the guard shouted.
"Not quite!"
Makoto lept out from the shadows, ripping off the shadow's mask and taking them by surprise.
"Everyone, attack now!" Makoto cried.
The thieves fired off several spells and gunshots, immediately dealing heavy damage to the shadow.
"Urk… you'll p-pay for that!" the shadow roared. "I-l'll-"
"Freila!"
Before it could even get up, however, Makoto blasted it with her strongest spell, finishing it off.
"Alright. The other shadow should be alone now. Let's go to the security room." Makoto stated.
The thieves stealthily made their way over to the security room, where one slim, sketchy looking man lied in wait.
They burst through the doors, confronting the man inside.
"What the?! Are you the intruders?" The man asked.
"It'd be best if you surrender." Ren advised. "We've already taken out your partner."
"My partner, huh..." the man repeated. "Hmm… So you're the ones who sent that message and took down one of the clan captains, huh?"
"You're talking about that purple oni?" Makoto asked.
The man nodded. "And I bet you're also the ones who have been breaking all of our security devices?"
"How very astute of you." Makoto scoffed. "Since you're so smart, I assume you know why we're here."
The man pulled out the key they had been searching for and taunted them with them.
"These, right?" the man grinned. "The boss placed a lot of faith in me, giving this key to guards. Course, I am the third in command in this family."
"I don't care what position you're in. Give me the key… now!"
"Hey, hey, come ooooon, we don't have to fight…" the man. insisted. "How's about you give me, say…. 3000 yen, and I'll pretend I never saw ya, ok?"
"Ugh… even the shadows here are all about money." Ann groaned.
"So, that's how it's going to be?" the man asked. "I can't imagine someone as weak as you having much bargaining power."
"That's my line!" Makoto snapped. "Now give me the key!"
"Or what?" the man scoffed.
"...Or I'll break you." Makoto coldly threatened.
The other Thieves seemed surprised at her threat, but none of them spoke up.
"Oh? You're gonna break me?" the man smirked. "I'd love to see you try!"
The man violently dissolved into ooze before reforming into another oni-like shadow.
This time, the oni had light blue skin, a sharp, bladed weapon, and had no eyes or nose, just a large, gaping mouth with sharp teeth.
"I'm not a pushover like those captains! I'll rip you all to shreds!" the shadow boasted.
The shadow quickly darted around, much faster than she expected.
"Everyone, watch out!" Makoto shouted.
"Ahh!"
Fox dropped to his knees, clutching at several cuts on his arms.
"Damn it!" Ryuji snapped. "He's tryin' to beat us little by little."
"Death of a thousand cuts, huh?" Ren muttered. "Alright, then I'll slow him down. Sukunda!"
Arsène slowed down the shadow, giving Makoto time to let loose a Freila spell, but found it wasn't nearly as effective.
"You're in over your head, you cocky punk!" the shadow mocked. "You're the one who's gonna break at this rate!"
The shadow used a Sukukaja spell on itself, regaining its lost speed and resuming its assault.
Makoto grit her teeth as she felt her arms and legs getting sliced.
"F-Fox, speed up!" Makoto ordered.
Fox used his own Sukukaja, and Makoto swiftly did the same with one of her new personas.
"Orobas!" Makoto called.
Now speed up, they were able to keep up with the speedy shadow.
Sensing it's movement, Yusuke blocked the shadow's blade with his own, giving Makoto time to punch the shadow into the security controls.
"Maragi!" Makoto shouted.
She blasted the shadow with fire, damaging both the shadow and the security controls, causing sparks to fly.
The shadow grit it's teeth, quickly backing away from the sparking machine.
I wonder…, Makoto thought. Could he be…?
"Skull!" Makoto shouted. "Blast it with lightning!"
"Got it!" Ryuji exclaimed.
The shadow quickly rushed towards Ryuji, hoping to stop him, weapon at the ready and mouth wide open to bite Ryuji's face.
Ryuji grunted in pain when the shadow slashed him, but was able to get off a Zio spell before it bit him, blasting the shadow with lightning and stunning in place.
Ryuji slammed his weapon into the enemy's side, sending them falling to the ground.
"Everyone, now!" Makoto shouted. "Destroy them!"
"N-No, please, I-"
They struck the shadow again and again before they could get up, and finished them off for good.
Makoto grabbed the key from where the shadow once stood.
"This should be the key that we need to open that safe door." Makoto stated. "Let's get going, everyone."
"H-Hang on!" Ryuji gasped. "We're a little injured! Can't we rest at a safe house?"
"There's no time for that." Makoto replied. "We don't have any time to waste. If you're injured, then stay out of the front lines."
"I'm tellin' you, I'd be fine on the front lines if you'd just let us rest for a bit!" Ryuji argued.
"And I'm telling you that there's no time for that!" Makoto snapped. "I gave you an order!"
"Guys… come on…" Ren frowned.
"Stop fighting, you two!" Ann pleaded. "We have to work together if we're going to get through this!"
"...Is anyone else injured?" Makoto asked.
"I took a few slashes from that shadow." Yusuke explained.
"Ok then. Ann, could you swap with Fox?" Makoto asked.
"We're still going?" Ann asked.
"There are six of us, so we can keep swapping out if we have to." Makoto explained.
"I guess…" Ann muttered.
She led the group back to the locked safe door, and sure enough, the key that they had obtained opened it up.
"Good work everyone." Makoto praised. "The treasure has to be somewhere inside."
They opened the large safe door… and were greeted to a room filled with money.
"Dude… There's money all over the floor, and there's a huge pool of bills below!" Ryuji gasped.
"So, this must be all the money that Kaneshiro took from the weak." Morgana frowned.
"...Soon, he'll be the one who has to pay." Makoto promised.
As they continued to move throughout the room, they found not just money, but gemstones, luxury goods, and other signs of wealth.
Golden statues of Kaneshiro, fancy paintings and decorations, and so much more…
It was wealth on a level she had never seen before…
"He… certainly likes to indulge, doesn't he?" Ren muttered.
"It's… a bit much." Ann muttered. "It reminds me a little of the temple…"
"Hey, guys!" Morgana shouted.
"Find something, Mona?" Ren asked.
Morgana nodded. "There's another will seed nearby."
"We'll keep an eye out for it, then." Makoto nodded.
It didn't take long for them to find the will seed that Morgana was talking about after carefully navigating above a giant pool of money.
Makoto grabbed the seed, and the group began to witness another glimpse into Kaneshiro's past.
"So… you want to join us? Officially?"
An older looking Kaneshiro was being stared down by an intimidating looking man.
"I-I've done work for your family plenty of times!" Kaneshiro argued.
"You've delivered a few envelopes." the older man scoffed. "Any punk kid with half a brain can do that. What else can you do?"
"...Give me a chance and I'll show you what I can do!" Kaneshiro insisted. "I've lived on these streets! I know them better than everyone!"
"...Why would you want to join us?" the older man asked.
"I… I need a place to belong." Kaneshiro admitted. "Somewhere I can matter! I'm sick of just barely surviving out in the streets!"
"...One of my boys told me about you." the older man replied. "They told me about how your parents were offed by yakuza. A regular collections run gone bad."
"That doesn't matter." Kaneshiro muttered. "No one else… will give an orphan like me the time of day. I need… money to survive. It doesn't matter who's giving it to me."
"That hunger in your eyes… I like that." the older man grinned. "All right. I'll give you a chance. I'll get you started on your first assignment right away…"
"So, that must have been when he officially joined the yakuza." Yusuke noted.
"I guess… it would be pretty tough for a homeless orphan, huh?" Ren muttered.
"That's kinda messed up, having to go back to them." Ryuji said. "He knows how bad those Yakuza are! It's one thing to join 'em but becomin' their leader and continuing to mess with kids like us… it's effed up."
No sympathy… No forgiveness!
"Queen, should we move on?" Ren asked.
"...Yeah. Let's." Makoto nodded.
As they continued traversing along the money-filled halls, they climbed down another few flights of stairs, and finally ran into none other than their target himself.
"Kaneshiro…!" Makoto scowled, her fists balling in rage.
"We should expect a fight if we go after him now." Morgana said. "Are we ready?"
Makoto nodded. "Everyone, now's our chance!"
Makoto rushed forward, rearing back her fist.
"Kanashiroooooooo!" she roared, ready to strike.
Kaneshiro turned around, his eyes widening as he saw her approaching.
Before she could hit him, however, another man jumped from the staircase and met Makoto's fist with his own.
The man was absolutely giant and had muscles so big that he seemed more beast than man.
Seeing the giant man readying his other fist, Makoto quickly jumped back to avoid the punch.
"Y-You little bastards! How did you get this far?! Where is my s-"
"Your security is destroyed." Makoto cut him off. "And you're next!"
"You ain't gonna keep hidin', are you?" Ryuji taunted.
"Enough running around! Give us the treasure, Kaneshiro!" Morgana exclaimed.
The giant man turned to address Kaneshiro. "Hey Boss, let me handle these punks. I'll take them out."
"Yeah. Keep those vermin away from the elevator!" Kaneshiro ordered.
Kaneshiro rushed to get into the elevator, Queen running to catch him.
"Get back here!" she yelled.
The large man moved to intercept her.
"Your fight's with me!" the man roared, before turning into another shadow.
Like many of the other guards, he also turned into an oni like creature. The oni in front of them, however, had hard, golden skin, and while it lacked a weapon, it was significantly more muscular than the other oni.
"Bahahaha!" the shadow laughed. "There's a reason why I'm Kaneshiro's second in command! Hit me as hard as you can! I doubt you put a dent in me!"
Makoto and Ren immediately went on the offensive, striking the shadow with their fist and knife, respectively.
Makoto winced while Ren nearly fell over from his knife bouncing harmlessly off the shadow.
"Jeez… it's like trying to cut into a brick wall." Ren frowned.
"Feels like a fly bit me!" the shadow boasted.
The shadow laughed before violently swatting them away as if they really were nothing but flies to him.
Makoto gripped her face in pain, watching as the shadow continued to rampage.
"M-Mona! Confuse it!" Makoto shouted.
Morgana did just that, firing off a Pulinpa spell as fast as he could.
The effect was immediate, the shadow clutching his head and groaning in pain.
"Leanan Sidhe!" Makoto called. "Psio!"
Makoto blasted the shadow with psychic energy, worsening the confusion and causing it to roar in pain.
"Get out of my head!" the shadow cried.
The shadow started swinging wildly, even punching itself multiple times, denting its armored skin.
Makoto blasted it with another Psio spell, bringing the shadow to its knees.
"Everyone, now!" Makoto shouted.
The thieves all struck the shadow at once with an All-Out Attack, knocking it to the ground.
"I… I think we beat it." Makoto panted. "Now we c-AHH!"
The shadow suddenly rose to its feet and charged with surprising speed, slamming its fist into Makoto, and sending her flying across the room.
"Queen!" Joker shouted.
The shadow's armored skin was cracked and beginning to break, but that only seemed to make me angrier.
"I'll kill all of you!" the shadow shouted.
The shadow began raging even more, punching Yusuke and Ryuji away when they tried to stop its rampage.
"E-Everyone… be careful." Makoto whispered, struggling to get back up.
"Don't worry Queen!" Morgana assured her. "Panther and I've got this!"
"Time for our combo attack!" Panther cried.
Morgana pulled out a bouquet of roses, which Ann quickly reached for… pulling out a large gun. She fired wildly at the shadow before Morgana and her flung a bomb at it, causing a huge explosion.
The shadow roared in pain before finally collapsing and dissolving into ooze.
"What was that…?" Ren muttered.
"Our combo attack! Wasn't it amazing!" Morgana grinned.
"It… was definitely something…" Ren trailed off.
"G-Good work you two." Makoto said. "Now, let's… keep… moving…"
"Queen, you should really rest." Ren insisted. "You took a nasty blow back there."
"Joker, I'm fine." Makoto insisted.
"I'm just saying-"
"I SAID I'M FINE!" she snapped.
She immediately regretted her harsh tone, seeing a hurt expression flash on Ren's face for a moment.
"Ok… we can keep going." Ren relented.
The others slowly picked themselves up and followed Makoto into the elevator.
As they rode down the elevator, they saw numerous solid gold safes on the floor below.
"Please don't tell me that we're going to have to look through all of those safes…" Ann groaned.
"Knowing Kaneshiro, his treasure will probably be at the deepest part." Makoto replied.
"Hmm…"
"Something wrong, Joker?" Mona asked.
"I was just wondering… why does he need so much money?" Ren asked. "He already seems to have more than enough."
"Yeah… at this point he's just hoarding it…" Makoto realized. "All of the pain and suffering he's caused… for nothing…!"
The elevator reached the bottom, but as soon as they reached the bottom...
"Eeep!" Ann squealed. "T-That's-"
In front of them lay a body on the ground, not moving.
"Hang on…" Makoto trailed off. "Could this man be…?"
Makoto carefully turned over the body, her eyes widening when she saw their face.
"This is the man that we saw in that flashback from the second will seed!" Makoto exclaimed.
"You're right! This has to be his cognition!" Morgana replied.
"B-But why is Kaneshiro's cognition of him… dead?" Ann stammered.
"He must be dead in the real world." Morgana explained.
"Everyone… y-you might want to see this…" Ryuji muttered.
The group walked a few steps forward into a hallway, gasping at what they saw.
"W-What is this?!" Ann cried.
In front of them stood more piles of money, these ones stained with black ooze.
And next to the piles of money… were bodies…
Bodies with bloodshot eyes and black ooze coming out of their mouths.
"Did… Kaneshiro do this?" Morgana mumbled.
"These people… they look like… they've had mental shutdowns." Makoto whispered.
"That effin' bastard!" Ryuji shouted. "All of these people are dead cause of him?!"
"All the more reason to change his heart!" Morgana declared. "Then we'll be able to end these incidents once and for all!"
"Yeah!" Ryuji nodded. "We'll be heroes!"
"...My father isn't here." Makoto trailed off.
"Huh?"
"I know Kaneshiro didn't cause a mental shutdown in him, but if these are all of his victims, why isn't my father here?" Makoto clarified.
"Well… that's a good thing, right?" Ryuji asked. "I mean, maybe he never knew what your father looked like."
"Y-Yeah. That… must be it." Makoto nodded, her voice shaky. "That… must be it."
"W-We should keep moving." Ren insisted.
Everyone hastily agreed, the scene before them shaking them to their cores.
...And reminding them what could happen if they failed.
A few hallways down, they came across a nearly pitch-black room at the end.
"I can faintly make out a door on the other side." Yusuke noted.
"Then let's keep moving, but be careful." Makoto warned.
She cautiously entered the room, the others following closely behind.
She found the dark, spacious room a tad suspicious, so she began focusing for a moment, and sensed movement to her side.
She instinctively dodged, narrowly avoiding a knife strike.
"Heh… you're not half bad, little girl."
She whipped around, seeing a familiar face.
"You… you're the Cleaner from before!" Makoto realized.
"So you actually remember me. I'm flattered." the Cleaner grinned.
"Did you just sit here waiting to ambush us?" Ren frowned.
"It's what I do." the Cleaner nonchalantly said. "Whenever the boss can't do a mental shutdown, or even when he can and he just needs someone to 'clean up', that's where I come in."
"O-Oh… S-So that's what you mean by clean…" Ann gulped.
"Exactly." the man said, the devilish grin on his face implying that he enjoyed their looks of fear. "Sometimes I have to ambush someone in an alleyway. Other times I need to place some fake evidence next to a driver who had a psychotic breakdown and ran over some dumbass pig on the str-"
Makoto punched the Cleaner right in the face, knocking him back.
"Bastard…!" Makoto raged. "I'll-"
"Hahahaha!"
Her eyes widened when she heard the cleaner laughing before wiping a bit of black ooze from his lip.
"Tough one, aren't you?" the cleaner smirked. "Now let me show you what I can do!"
The Cleaner began to transform, becoming yet another oni, this one as dark as night, glaring red eyes, and a sharp, double-bladed weapon.
"H-Hey! I can barely see him in a room this dark!" Ren shouted. "I thin-AHH!"
Ren gripped his arm, blood dripping from a light gash in his arm.
"That's the idea!" the Cleaner exclaimed. "Still, six on one seems a little unfair, so let me even the odds!"
The cleaner slammed his weapon into the ground, and suddenly, three copies of him appeared.
"What the hell!" Ryuji cried. "There are four of him now?!"
"How do you like my illusions?!" All four Cleaners asked in unison. "Soon, you'll be nothing but a stain on the floor!"
The four shadows charged, ready to slice them to bits.
Makoto's Confidant Progress:
THE FOOL - Ren Amamiya: Rank 6
THE HUNGER - Igor: Rank 5
THE CHARIOT - Ryuji Sakamoto: Rank 4
THE MAGICIAN - Morgana: Rank 4
THE FAITH - Eiko Takao: Rank 5
THE TOWER - Chiaki Yasui: Rank 4
THE SUN - Shiho Suzui: Rank 4
THE MOON - Takayo Tachibana: Rank 4
THE HIEROPHANT - Sojiro Sakura: Rank 4
THE TEMPERANCE - Naoya Makigami: Rank 2
THE STAR - Hifumi Togo: Rank 2
THE DEVIL - Mitsuhide Matsuoka: Rank 1
THE HANGED MAN - Munehisa Iwai: Rank 1
THE EMPEROR - Yusuke Kitagawa: Rank 2
THE EMPRESS - Haru Okumura: Rank 2
THE LOVERS - Ann Takamaki: Rank 1
THE STRENGTH - Caroline and Justine: Rank 3
THE JUSTICE - Goro Akechi: Rank 2
THE FORTUNE - Phantom Thieves of Heart: Rank 3
THE JUDGEMENT - Sae Niijima: Rank 3
THE COUNCILLOR - Takuto Maruki: Rank 4
Are the Phantom Thieves just? Yes 4.7%