Chapter Text
6/30 - Confidant Rank 1
“That swine and his gilded palace built upon gluttonous desires! Wicked swine preying upon the weak willed teens at our school!! That damn swine!! Picking on people that have nothing!! That-that-!!”
“-Swine…”
Makoto’s mini tirade stopped dead in its tracks as she lost her train of thought and a voice she’d honestly forgotten was there piped in what she was thinking. Then by the flat tone she quickly realized he was mocking her. Red eyes turned and glared at the boy.
“Eh-he…” the blonde punk put his hands up defensively, really unused to that intense look on the class president. Seriously, any time they’d met prior to the whole bank thing she’d been… well, cold was one way of putting it, but then her glares were minor and just something to laugh at. After seeing her pull out her persona in unbridled fury and mow down a group of ogres they were having problems with like it was nothing WHILE riding a motorcycle like something out of one of those futuristic messed up American action flicks… well, those red eyed glares of hers held a whole new meaning.
Trying to laugh it off did not seem to be helping him.
A quick cough from the punk, “L-like I mean… you’ve been over using the word ‘swine’, ‘kay I get the creep is a pig, ‘eff him right?” he waved his hands, closing his eyes as that made it slightly easier to deal with those fiery red eyes pointed his way, “what I mean is, like, I know I’m not good with writing or nothing, but it just sounds weird saying it like that…” when the apocalypse didn’t happen Ryuji braved opening his eyes.
Makoto wasn’t even looking at him anymore, instead standing demurely like she normally did, quiet, calm, rational, hand holding her chin with her head slightly turned down and eyes looking at nothing. Clearly thinking over what he’d literally pulled out of his ass. “I suppose you’re right. It wouldn’t do for the illustrious Phantom Thieves to sound like a teenaged girl on a rant.”
“Not that I don’t mind or anything!” the words and accompanying stupid grin were out before Ryuji’s brain could kick itself in the nuts and reign them in. Seriously, it was HILARIOUS watching the prim and proper Class President just go OFF on something. He felt bad for any guy that was on the wrong end of her ire, that’s for sure.
Now the surprised, if confused, look she gave him after said he should have probably kept that to himself.
“Er… I mean…” okay, words were definitely not his friend right now, “Damnit!!” stomping his foot and scratching the back of his head he grumbled to himself. –Stupid, stupid, stupid!!- he was almost expecting to see Queen, standing there in her badass spikey leather outfit, fist raised with her brass knuckles and that deadly gleam in her eye like she was about to pulverize him.
What he got was a wicked side glance from the Class Prez and a rising smirk.
Crap, he was dead for sure.
------
“THIS. IS NOT! FAIR!!!” Ryuji whined as he wheezed, running around all of Shibuya tacking up flyers of their calling card, booking it the second he so much as heard someone all the while Makoto was simply being the look out. –Bitch isn’t even helping!!- really, she was less look out and more just enjoying watching him suffer trying to jump up scaffolds and buildings and stuff trying to get as many of these damn flyers up.
“Well, I did use my Student Council privileges to print out all those flyers, the least you could do was post them.”
-MANIPULATIVE BITCH!!- Really, she just was not worth it!! All this bullshit! He hoped as soon as they were done with that fat piggy bank bastard she left them alone. THIS WAS ALL HER FAULT TO BEGIN WITH!!
Hell, it wasn’t like he gave a rat’s ass about his rep getting ruined or anything…
“Who’s down there?!”
“Shit.” Wait, was that the class Prez cussing?
Suddenly Ryuji found himself being pushed off the dumpster lid he was on and dragged down the alley, “Dude, the ‘Eff?!”
“Move!” Makoto quietly growled at him, dragging him away from the airsoft shop and down towards the train station. She’d seen a few cops around and hoped they could evade them and get this done with, but of course the second they started posting Phantom Thief flyers everywhere and Shibuya was suddenly Red they were bound to garner some attention. The flashlight and authoritative shout was all she needed to know that was a beat cop on their trail.
–This was a stupid idea!!- Why did she have to be so vengeful and dramatic!! It paid to have the Phantom Thieves seen as amorphously big and threatening, so the flair was key, but of course she didn’t account for how dangerous actual vandalism could be. It was a major underestimation on her part, of course she knew the cops would be out looking for ANYTHING dealing with the Phantom Thieves! Her sis was on the case! That was serious!
They needed a way out and fast!
“Hey, this way!” suddenly it was Ryuji’s turn to grab her arm and drag her towards Shibuya station.
“What in the-?!” okay, taking the train was… a decent idea, she supposed, but wouldn’t that be the first place the cops would look for vandals to run?
“Hehe,” the blonde runner glanced back a moment, giving a devil may care smile before holding up his phone and hitting a rather familiar eye-looking app.
Makoto had all of a moment for her eyes to widen and realize he was sending them into the Metaverse.
Suddenly the dark sky was a hazy purple-red, everything was silent but a low hum and were the lights green?
Skull finally stopped running, dropping her hand and smirking like a maniac, “Check it, best escape ever?!” he made a pose, hunched, knees bent, and hands out with thumbs up and sticking his tongue out, “Oh yea, baby!”
Makoto couldn’t help but raise a brow, then felt somewhat silly as she could feel the metal mask of Queen on her face. Of course he couldn’t see it! With a sigh she crossed her arms, “I have to admit, jumping into the Metaverse never crossed my mind as a simple escape from the cops…”
“Am I good or what?” that self-satisfied smirk under his black skull mask.
Queen couldn’t help but roll her eyes, even if he couldn’t really tell thanks to the heft and depth of her own mask, “Yes, I suppose,” she threw out halfheartedly, ignoring him as she glanced past the black leather clad boy, “What’s that down there?”
Behind him was what she knew from the real world to be the entrance to Shibuya station. In the Metaverse it looked almost pitch black and gave a very ominous and unsettling vibe. Also there was moaning? It sounded like a ton of voices put on low were emanating from the place.
“Hm?” Skull finally turned around, taking up his normal pose of slouching with his hands in his pockets, “Oh, that? That’s Mementos.”
There was a well-deserved glare from her as he said that like it was the most normal thing in the world, “And what is Mementos?”
Well that tone of voice definitely sent a chill down the blonde boy’s spine, the accompanying flat stare and mask of Queen did not help him! Damn she was scary looking like that, made him just want to drop to the floor and beg for forgiveness, “Er, ri-right, you ain’t been here yet,” he tugged on his collar trying to avoid her eyes, “But, uh… yeah… uh…” scratching his head, how the heck did his bro and that damn cat explain this place again? “Eh, screw it,” he waved his hand over his shoulder while walking down the bleak stairs, “Easier to just see the place…”
Makoto raised a brow; that was an oddly succinct response. –But this is Ryuji…- she reminded herself, already tonight he’d proven he wasn’t that great at explaining things. Writing them down? Sure, he was fine, able to mesh her little tirade into something eloquent for the Phantom Thieves, but verbally? Not so much. She put a finger to her forehead, feeling the metal of her mask, and sighed, “Right, what was I thinking?” then simply crossed her arms and followed him down.
Now, what she was used to was a ticket gate, station workers and commuters flowing normally in the soft subway light to the platforms awaiting their next destination.
What she saw in this ‘Mementos’ was sort of like that, only red, lots of red, and creepy. The whole place gave her chills that despite the fact she was in a full-body leather suit left her feeling very cold. The voices, that creepy hum, was also louder down here…
“So, uh, yea,” Ryuji waved his hand out at the station entrance of Mementos, “This is Mementos, it’s like… I dunno, Mona said it was like everyone’s palace or something, so it’s pretty big and full of all kinds of shadows.”
“Everyone’s palace?” That piqued Makoto’s interest, though she knew it’d be little use asking Ryuji, he was having a hard enough time just introducing the place to her and they were standing in it. “Hmm, interesting,” She supposed the concept made sense, in a weird Jungian psychology kind of way. –I should probably look more into this later…- More studying, later, it appeared, “So… you guys fight shadows in here?”
“Huh, yea?” Skull scratched the back of his head, “That damn cat’s all up on this place for some reason, always wanting us to check it out, but like see it closes up on us at points and it wasn’t till we beat the shit outta Kamoshida, then Madarame, that we could go further… but, uhhh… I wouldn’t recommend it, the further down the shadows get harder… so…” the blonde stumbled a bit, not sure there was really much else HE could say about the place. The only thing he really paid attention to was that they could fight shadows in here cause well, it was pretty fun!
Makoto walked further down, into the entrance proper and on the platform. There were rails down below but it didn’t look like there were any trains running on it. If anything it looked disheveled and unused, with strange red vines growing on it, “Are those tire tracks?”
“Hmm?” Skull came up behind her, holding a bat on his shoulder, “Yep, get this, Mona can turn into a bus! So we like pile in him when we’re here, otherwise this place would take like WAAAAAY too long to explore!”
Red eyes blinked at the boy; she recalled the cat, Morgana or Mona, turning into a bus the others road when they were escaping that damn bank the first time she was there. But that wasn’t what she why she was blinking, “Ryu-Skull, where did you get that bat?”
“Hm? This?” he rolled his shoulder, indicating the bat, “Oh, yea, well I can’t always be walking around with one on our way here, cops always giving me this look, so I usually just stash one while we’re here and welp, seems like nothing comes up this far to mess with it, so hey, I got it just in case ya know?” he ended again with that wide carefree grin of his.
“Suppose you have a point,” So far she had used knuckles to help out in their fights, but really she was just as deadly empty handed. Red eyes glanced from Ryuji, dressed as Skull, with his bat on his shoulder and looking like the text book definition of a punk, down to the tire tracks on the dirt by the subway tracks…
It gave her an idea.
“You wanna go hunt some shadows?”
“Whaaaaat?!” Skull was staring at Queen with wide eyes and an unbelieving look on his face. Was she serious?! Sure, he kept a bat here just in case, but there was no way just the two of them… well, Queen was kind of a badass… he shook his head, “Are you outta your damn mind?! We usually only head in here when we got a request or something going on, and it’s not like we can get very far…” not that he knew or anything cause it wasn’t like he’d come her by himself a few times and tried chasing down the big shadows or anything. –cough-
Suddenly that familiar blue light of summoning a persona appeared around Queen as she grabbed her mask. Before Skull could say a word there was that tinkling of bells and the 3rd year girl yanked that thing off, her motorcycle persona appearing behind her as she quickly jumped on.
The look she gave him made him weak in the knees and he was not ashamed to admit it.
“So,” she revved her persona’s engine, deadly fiery eyes, defiant smirk, and all the presence of a post-apocalyptic road warrior about to head out and take down some civilization, “You want to go for a ride?”
Ryuji had to swallow a lot of spit. That was a deadly look, a damn fine deadly ass look that was going to get him killed. He knew it was late, knew they were only here cause they were ditching the police while throwing up those calling cards, and really they still had a bunch to put up that he stashed where he normally hid his spare bat…
But damn, that rebel look and the thought of hitting shadows on the back of a bike? Ugh, that was like some fantasy of his he never knew existed!
“I’m in!” he jumped on the back, confidence shining through for once, holding his bat in one hand and the bike with his other.
“You might want to hold on tighter,” Queen smirked, gunning it before Skull could so much as move, and didn’t even notice has he grabbed her round the waist and squeezed tight as she jumped Johanna off the platform and down into the tunnels of Mementos.
There was the rev of an unknown bike engine and the hoots of a rowdy pirate as the two brained a few unsuspecting shadows. What better way for a pair of rebels to enjoy a successful escape, after all?