Chapter Text

Akira stared out the window of the classroom with an apathetic blankness to his expression, letting his teachers drone on about whatever it was they wanted to teach today without paying them any attention. He’d always preferred the second year classrooms over the third year’s; being on the ground level was convenient for getting to and from class, sure, but there was nothing interesting to look at out the windows. Just the boring courtyard of Shujin Academy. And with nothing nice to look at, class was truly and utterly a waste of time.

No matter, he thought to himself as he flicked his phone out from his pocket. I’ll just peruse the Phan-site for potential targets. The only thing he found himself doing in class of late was looking for the next person he’d go to Mementos to change, or perhaps the next Palace ruler to take down. And it was easy, too; with the Phan-Site’s near 100% approval rating, almost the entire country of Japan was crying out to them for help. Don’t worry, he thought with a smirk. I’ll take care of all of them eventually.

None of the requests in particular really stood out to him, so he just bookmarked them all and decided he’d change them all in one fell swoop next time he got everyone together to go to Mementos. Closing the Phan-site, he started surfing the web for information on his most recent big bust. After all, a bunch of petty criminals getting a change wouldn’t have the same impact this next target would.

The Chief of Police, Inaho Fukunaga. Akira couldn’t help but scoff; in the past 4 months, he’d taken down more policemen than he could count. Not that he minded taking down another; if the whole institution is corrupt, the only way to solve problems would be to change the whole institution, naturally. But that wasn’t the main reason he was targeting Fukunaga. According to his primary informant, Fukunaga was making some underhanded deals with the express goal of taking out the Phantom Thieves. Akira clicked his tongue within his mouth. That wouldn’t do. He’d already checked the Metanav, and Fukunaga didn’t have a palace, which meant he was probably just some small fry in Mementos. It’s better that way, if a bit less satisfying. He made a mental note to bring Fukunaga up at the next Phantom Thieves meeting.

The Phantom Thieves. His group of crime fighting vigilantes who were socially reforming Tokyo, and Japan as a whole, one twisted heart after another. When he thought of the organization, he always felt a swell of pride in his chest, followed by a pang of guilt. The rest of the Phantom Thieves didn’t know. They had no idea about the deal he’d made with Yaldabaoth, and the fact that Tokyo and Mementos were the same place now. Sometimes he’d blink and see the horrifying Qliphoth world around him, or feel the blood red rain on his back, but fortunately the rest of his friends didn’t seem to notice. They were blind to the truth. Sometimes he wished he could tell them, but this was the only way. Or so he told himself.

Regardless, since this was how the world was now, it was his job to keep it as good as possible for the people within it. And that’s why criminals like Fukunaga had to go down. He clenched his fist upon his desktop tightly, a firm scowl replacing his expression of apathy and boredom.

“Akira?” asked Ann from the desk in front of him.

He was returned to reality by the voice. When he looked around, he saw that classes for the day had ended. Most students had already gotten up and left. Guess I was so distracted I didn’t notice. . . “Hm?” he responded.

“Are you okay? You seemed kind of out of it.”

“I’m fine,” he said, grabbing his bag. Morgana wasn’t in it, like he always had been last year – for some reason he hadn’t wanted to accompany Akira out of the house recently.

“Alright. That’s good to know.” Ann smiled, but it felt . . . rehearsed. Practiced. Things often felt this way when Akira talked to his fellow thieves lately. “Are we meeting at the hideout today?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’ve got a few targets I want to go over,” he stated casually as he whipped out his phone and fired texts to each of his fellow Phantom Thieves, telling them to meet him at Leblanc for the usual pre-Mementos debriefing. “Want to head over there together?”

“I would, but I have something I want to take care of beforehand. I’ll meet you there,” said Ann before heading toward the door. Akira gripped his phone tightly, but nodded in her direction. He waited a few minutes. Guess I’ll go shopping beforehand, since she’ll be late. . . He sighed and departed from the classroom, on his way to Central Street.

The rest of the Phantom Thieves arrived long before Akira did. Ann was the last to walk in. “Hey, sorry I’m late, guys. Did you start without me?”

“No,” said Futaba as she squatted in a booth. “Akira isn’t back yet.”

“Huh. . .” Ann tapped her chin and thought. “That’s strange. He left before me, so he should be back by now. . .”

“Eh, probably just went shoppin’ or somethin’.” Ryuji took a long sip from his soda – he still wasn’t a big fan of Leblanc’s coffee. “You know how crazy prepared he likes to be.”

“It’s true. . . And with how frightening Mementos has been as of late, I cannot say I blame him,” commented Yusuke.

“Yeah, it’s been pretty scary lately. Every time I scan it, it somehow feels even bigger. . . How are we supposed to get to the bottom like this?”

Makoto reached up and grabbed her forehead. She grimaced, clenching her teeth tightly. “The bottom . . .?”

The other Phantom Thieves looked at her with concern. “Remember, Mako-chan? We’re trying to reach the bottom to get Mona-chan’s memories back,” said Haru, though she didn’t seem convinced herself.

“Right. . . I just feel like I’m forgetting something.” Makoto shook her head and dismissed the thought. “Speaking of Morgana, where is he?”

“Upstairs,” said Futaba. “He hasn’t come down all day. Hasn’t been eating a lot lately either.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised. We’ve been runnin’ him ragged in Mementos lately. . . Feels like we’re goin’ almost every day.” Ryuji laughed, though he didn’t do much to lift the mood.

“It’s weird to see you expressing concern for Morgana, Ryuji. But I agree. Maybe we should take a break,” Ann said, frowning firmly.

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of Akira walking into Leblanc. All eyes were immediately cast to him, and he responded with a sweeping glance of the room. “Am I interrupting something?” he asked casually as he stepped past Ann and took a seat at the counter.

“No, we were just talking about how often we’ve been going to Mementos lately. . .” Ann looked around the room, as though silently communicating with the others to see what they thought.

Makoto was the brave soul to speak up first. “It just seems odd that there’s so many targets. We’ve never had so many back to back to back before. . . Not that we can’t handle it, but still.”

Surprisingly, Akira responded with a soft smile. “If you all don’t feel up to another outing today, I understand.” He stood up as though the meeting was adjourned then and there. “I can go by myself.”

“What? No way, dude.” Ryuji stood. “Without even a hint of backup, even you’d have a tough time down there with how it’s been lately. If you’re goin’, I’m goin’.”

“I’m happy to hear that.” His smile took on the slightest glint of satisfaction as he pulled out his phone. “If we’re alright with going today, we should begin to list off targets.”

The Phantom Thieves agreed, after worried glances were exchanged. Truth be told, many of them didn’t want to go, but they weren’t comfortable with the idea of Akira or anyone else going and getting outnumbered. So they listened as he began his lightning-round listing of some 10 or 20 criminals from the Phan-Site. Everyone deliberated about each one before deciding it was an okay target.

“The last target is Inaho Fukunaga,” Akira said as he shut his phone screen off.

“The captain of police,” Makoto chimed in. “Sis knows him. Apparently he’s been pulling a lot of strings in all sorts of departments. . .”

“Sounds shady. I don’t like the sound of that one bit,” Ryuji said.

“Not only that, but he’s trying to take down the Phantom Thieves. A corrupt officer who wants us destroyed is dangerous,” Akira offered, though with a certain coldness to his tone that hadn’t been there before. “Anyone disagree?”

No one raised their voice. “Then that’s a unanimous decision. Does someone want to get Morgana?” asked Akira as he pushed off the counter behind him, preparing to head to the subway station.

“I’ll get him.” Futaba rose and walked upstairs, and before long the thieves were on their way to Mementos.

Not a lot of conversations took root within Mona as they drove out from the site of their most recent target. The silence was almost suffocating; the only noise was Morgana's engine as they tore through the corrupt underworld. The walls seemed redder, the floor bloodier, as though Mementos was evolving somehow. None of the Thieves liked it, but they didn't understand why, save for Akira, and he didn't mention anything. So they kept to business as usual, pursuing their targets for the night. They’d taken down almost all of them by now, and were steadily making their way down to pick off any stragglers. Joker kept his hands on the wheel and eyes on the rails as always and didn’t allow himself to get distracted by the occasional bit of banter that did arise.

“Looks like this is the last target of the night,” said Mona, with a notable lack of enthusiasm. “That Fukunaga guy.”

“Hm. Let’s get him.” Joker drove the bus into the distortion on the wall, and they emerged in Fukunaga’s own little portion of Mementos. The man looked like your cut-and-paste inexperienced police chief; short, poorly kempt hair and a disheveled suit that looked like it had been through one too many nights of dead-end leads. He slowly turned to face the thieves as they filed out of the car, regarding them with hatred in his golden eyes.

“You’re the Phantom Thieves, aren’t you? You bastards. . .” His entire frame shook. “To think I’d find you here.” The aggression pent up within him let itself loose in a roar of cacophonous laughter, his bellowing almost seeming to shake the foundations of Mementos around them. Joker stood still despite the sound.

“We’ve come to take your heart,” he said, plainly.

“Of course you have . . . just like you’ve come to take everyone else’s!” he spat with venom. “You menaces won’t stop until you’ve turned all of Japan into worshipers of your thief cult!”

“Cut it out, dude,” interrupted Skull. “You’re just upset that even by cutting corners and playing dirty you can’t catch us!”

“Yeah! You don’t have any room to criticize anyone else’s methods when you’re using underhanded tricks to get what you want,” said Panther.

Fukunaga’s anger turned into hurt for just a moment. “Of course I have to be underhanded. . . No one else is going to catch you if I don’t!”

“Why do you want to catch us so badly? You’re letting your desires destroy yourself.” Queen sounded as though she pitied him.

“Because, like I said, you’re a menace. . . Every day, it’s more hearts changed, more people pleading to the Phantom Thieves. I used to look up to you, when you took on big name criminals and seemed to be saving Japan. . . But now you just spit on everyone who disagrees with you!”

“That’s . . .” Noir spoke up to contest this, but found herself at a loss for words. All of the Phantom Thieves did.

“I don’t care what I have to do!” shouted the shadow of Fukunaga, his rage shaking the room. “I’ll get rid of you Phantom Thieves, and save everyone whose hearts you’re forcing to change!” With that, he was swallowed by the pools of black ooze around him until he burst free in streams of black and red filth. The police captain was replaced by an angel of sorts, wrapped in a pure white robe that looked almost as though it didn’t belong in a world as corrupt as Mementos.

“He’s getting ready to fight! Everyone, on your guard!” called Futaba as she summoned her Persona, Necronomicon, and let it scoop her up.

Joker was the first to take aggressive action. He tore his mask off. “Arsene!” His voice echoed through the tunnels as the devious Trickster manifested behind him and swiped its claws toward the angel. Fukunaga’s shadow roared in pain as his form was torn by the rending claws, but it counterattacked – it conjured clouds above Akira, and with the force of the heavens, a golden fist slammed down on top of him.

Arsene took the brunt of the blow, but the fist still sent Akira to the ground, black and white spots clouding his vision as he struggled to retain his special awareness. “Mona, I need some help. . .” He pressed his hand to the ground and tried to push himself up, but even after a while, the help hadn’t come. He’d regained enough awareness to be able to see the world around him, and he looked to see what possibly could’ve been holding Mona up.

Nothing.

The rest of the Phantom Thieves stood in defensive positions, sure, but they took no action. They looked at the angel as though it was an enemy they didn’t want to fight; their morale looked shaky at best. Even Mona, who was usually rearing to go with any fight in Mementos, seemed hesitant.

“Guys?” he called toward them, before dodging another blow from the shadow. “I need some help!”

“R-Right!” Skull shook his head and summoned Captain Kidd to fire a surging wave of lightning toward the shadow. Black ooze was blasted off of its form as it cried out.

“Damn Phantom Thieves. . . Why!? Why do you refuse anyone who doesn’t fall in line with your ideals!?” he shouted before unleashing a ray of white light at Skull, whose knees buckled under the weight of the blow.

“Skull!” Panther clenched her teeth and summoned Carmen, letting the fire dance across the form of the angel.

“Guys, I’m not happy about this either, but right now survival is most important!” Futaba insisted as Necronomicon channeled energy toward the active roster. The comment seemed to be just enough to shake them from their daze as they all sprang into action as well, prepared to fight.

Arsene tore the angel’s head from its shoulders as the shadow collapsed back into the pool of black gunk it had spawned from, until eventually only the Fukunaga with golden eyes remained. He looked up at his adversaries with fear and hate in his eyes. “Fine. . . I get it. Even if I believe what I’m doing is just, it isn’t fair to get what I want by stepping on others. . . I’ll go back now. But I think you all should think about that lesson as well. . .”

Yet another collective pang of guilt shot through the Phantom Thieves as Fukunaga started to dematerialize, until eventually all that remained was his treasure. Joker snatched it from the air quickly before turning to face the exit. “Nice work, team. That’s the last target. Are we going back?”

“Joker, hold on. You can’t seriously expect us to not talk about that.” Mona looked up at their leader.

“Is something wrong?”

“I dunno’. . .” Panther held her elbow and rocked from side to side, as though cradling herself. “All the things he said seemed kind of right, didn’t they?”

“I don’t wanna admit it, but . . . yeah. Just listenin’ to the things he said really riled me up. . .” Skull sighed, seeming uncharacteristically resigned.

Yusuke looked as though he was truly in anguish. “Could we have become blind a second time? Are we only working to further our own agendas . . .?”

This time, it was Oracle’s turn to grimace. The petite girl grabbed her head and grimaced, pants and grunts of pain escaping her from time to time. Noir grabbed her shoulder. “O-Oracle, are you alright?!” she asked frantically.

“N-No . . . I mean, yeah, but . . .” She slowly steadied herself as the pain faded. “I can’t help but feel like I’m supposed to remember something. . .”

“I had that same feeling earlier today. . . Are we forgetting something?” asked Queen, concern laid plain across her face.

The next sound was one no one had expected; Joker laughed. Not heartily, nor haughtily, as he often did in the Metaverse, but dismissively. “Maybe today’s outing was a bad idea. I think we’re all a little exhausted. . .”

“. . . Yes, that’s probably the case,” said Mona, though he still eyed Joker. “We should suspend Metaverse activities until we’re all feeling up to it.”

“Good idea. As for what Fukunaga said, we’ve never questioned ourselves before. . . No one else can do this. It’s our job to administer justice, right?”

“Yeah. . .” Skull cracked his neck to relieve some stress. “And besides, it’s not like these people’d have shadows if their desires weren’t distorted. I still wonder why so many of ‘em are showing up, but we can’t be in the wrong here.”

“That’s right. Now come on. Let’s go home.” Joker strolled toward the exit casually, leaving the rest of his team dumbfounded. With nothing left to do, they resigned and followed him.

Akira opened the door to Leblanc and stepped inside, muscles weary from a long day in the Metaverse. “I’m beat. Let’s get some sleep, yeah?” he said to the cat inside his bag. Sojiro wasn’t there – they’d gotten back pretty late, so that wasn’t too much of a surprise.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. . . I’m tired too.” Morgana didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic about talking as he hopped down from within the bag and onto a table.

Akira frowned. “Is something bothering you? Come to think of it, you haven’t been leaving the house much often. . .”

“I just . . .” Morgana sighed. “Everything seems different lately, you know? More Mementos operations, everyone doubting themselves. . . And we still haven’t reached the bottom, or gotten my memories back. Doesn’t that feel weird to you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“There’s something we’re forgetting. I know there is. Whenever I think about what’s at the bottom of Mementos, my head hurts. . . It never used to do that before.” There was a grave seriousness in Morgana’s voice.

“. . .” Akira did his best not to look guilty. “That sounds bad,” he said, as though he had no idea what could possibly be happening.

“Yeah . . . But maybe I’m just tired. I’m sure I’ll feel better with a little bit of rest.” He stood from the table and started trotting toward the stairs, though didn’t sound like he convinced himself. “I’m gonna turn in. Goodnight.”

“. . . Night.” Akira scowled once the cat was out of his field of vision and started pacing toward the stairs himself, though he was interrupted by his phone going off.

He expected the Phantom Thieves group chat, but surprisingly, the text was from Futaba. It wasn’t a surprise or anything; they were dating after all, but she hadn’t messaged him privately in weeks. With the recent surge of Phantom Thieves activity, they hadn’t had a lot of time to get together.

He read the messages.

Futaba: Hey, Akira. . . Are you doing alright?

Akira: Huh? What do you mean?

Futaba: I just mean with all the operations recently. I hope you’re not running yourself down.

Akira chuckled. He was the last person anyone needed to be concerned about.

Akira: I’m fine. And if I’m not, we’re taking a break soon anyway, so I’ll have plenty of time to rest up.

Futaba: That’s good. I’m glad to hear you’re feeling okay. After that hit you took today, I was worried. . .

Futaba: Um, speaking of that break. . . We haven’t done anything together in so long. It feels like it’s been forever since our last date. We should go out and have some fun, just the two of us.

Akira smiled at the thought. Getting bogged down by Phantom Thieves work and abandoning his personal connections was the last thing he wanted to do, even if his work as a Phantom Thief was important.

Akira: That sounds great. How does tomorrow sound?

Futaba: Really?

Akira: Really.

Futaba: Awesome! I’m really excited!

Futaba: We can hang out in your room and play games like we used to! You better be prepared, because I’m gonna kick your butt! >:)

Akira: Sounds like a plan. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.

Futaba: Super! Goodnight. I love you!

Akira: Goodnight.

Akira closed his instant messaging app and headed upstairs to go to bed, but something on the TV caught his attention.

A newscaster spoke. “. . . and this is what he had to say about the recent ‘change of heart’ of Chief of Police Inaho Fukunaga.”

The screen cut to a fit looking man – he couldn’t have been more than forty. He looked more like a politician than a policeman, but the caption at the bottom said he was the Commissioner General – Akira didn’t recognize him, but judging by the amount of mics in his face he was popular. He spoke with a calm clarity to his voice.

“I don’t know who these Phantom Thieves think they are,” said the man in the white suit, “but I’ve come to the conclusion that they must be stopped. They spew rhetoric about how ‘blind’ the people in this country are, yet now the country blindly follows the Phantom Thieves. It’s clear that these ‘saviors’ are really just brats on an ego trip. I will be devoting all efforts to the apprehension of these heinous criminals. These people who go around changing the world as they please to create their own ‘utopia’ surely aren’t considering the terror of the masses who they claim to be protecting.” The intensity with which he spoke built over time, and the anger in his eyes seemed to bore directly through the TV and into Akira.

“That was our Commissioner General, Mashiro Natsukawa.” The woman continued to speak, but Akira shut the TV off.

He held the remote so tightly that his whole arm shook. Seething rage built up within him until he could hardly contain it. He set the remote down, for fear of breaking it, and opened the Phantom Thieves group chat.

Akira: Meet me at the diner tomorrow. We have something to discuss.

He didn’t check to see if there were any replies; he went upstairs to rest, knowing he had a big day tomorrow.