— –Ren Amamiya– —
Palaces were unpredictable.
They were made out of the thoughts, the cognitions of people whose desires had been corrupted. Every single stray thought the owner of the Palace had could create an entirely new challenge. That was especially true when it came to Okumura. It was for that very reason that he had been so careful. Why he never pushed the line. Why he played it so safe.
Because the last thing he wanted was to put his friends, his Thieves, in danger. To make another decision that might lead them to get hurt, or worse.
Ironic, wasn't it? To wish to protect those he cared about while bringing them into the minds of criminals. While leading them to fight Shadows. While guiding them into Palaces. While placing them in the sights of not only the police, but also the Antisocial Force.
All the while keeping a secret from them. Secretly leading them into a battle against what he believed to be a god. A god he wasn't even sure he could escape from. A god that might be watching him at every moment. A god that would soon pull the leash he'd willingly placed around his neck.
Really, it wasn't until he'd told Makoto that he'd truly begun to be bothered by that fact. There was something about having kept the secret to himself. And now that he'd opened the bag, the faint guilt had begun to creep into the back of his mind.
Perhaps that was why he'd been so hesitant, so careful when infiltrating Okumura's Palace. This had been by far their slowest infiltration. Sure, he could excuse himself, after all, he'd seen first hand just how dangerous the Palace could be. Yet, every single time an alarm rang, or something went slightly wrong, he'd pull back his Thieves.
Perhaps if he'd acted more decisively, if he took more risks, they would have stolen Okumura's desires by now. Yet, there was no point dwelling in the past, not anymore. Not when the proof of his mistake was staring him in the face.
Following the path the crates had led them to, they'd eventually arrived at the single largest room in the entire Palace. A room in which they were building… Strangely enough, another spaceship. It resembled the same ships they'd used to send humans to the moon. From the looks of it, it was still being built, but soon the ship would be complete.
Before he even asked her, Futaba had already begun to answer his question.
[This is… Shit.] Futaba muttered with some confusion. [He's building a Palace inside of his Palace? How the hell… Joker, we have to stop them. Okumura is planning on using this spaceship to escape his own Palace. I don't even know how the hell it works, but they will complete it in a few days. If he gets away… I'm not sure if we'll be able to steal his treasure. At least not without turning Mona into a spaceship, or something…]
Perhaps Okumura himself, in the real world, hadn't noticed that anything was wrong. But his Shadow definitely had. Every single time they activated an alarm, every single time they caught his attention they made the paranoid man even more paranoid. Okumura's Shadow was well aware of just how vulnerable he was, even with all of his defenses. So he'd begun to plan his escape.
A place where neither Phantom Thieves or the Black Mask could reach him.
"Oracle…" Joker called out, trailing off as he saw the countless robots flying through the air, taking the parts out of the containers before moving to the spaceship and welding them together. "How long would it take for Okumura to build another ship if something were to happen to this one?"
[Heh, that's a very… specific question.] Futaba answered him with an awkward chuckle, going silent for a moment as she used her Persona to try to find the answer. [Maybe a month or so? Perhaps less if this one is not too damaged. Really, the only real way to delay him would be to blow this whole spaceship to bits. The cleanup itself would delay him even longer.]
A month….
At the pace they were now moving through the Palace with Haru by their side, they should only need a week or two. Perhaps even less if they didn't trigger any alarms that forced them to retreat. Hell, if they pushed it, fighting through the alarms, they might even be able to steal Okumura's heart before the spaceship was complete.
Yet…
"How many enemies would be alerted if we attacked the ship?"
[There's twenty eight robots… adjusting for the Shadows inside there's probably around fifty to sixty Shadows in this room. Most of which we probably won't have any information on since we are in a different part of the Palace.]
"Shit…" Ren sighed, glancing at the robots flying through the air. There were too many.
Perhaps the best thing to do would be to sneak past them. To risk Okumura escaping. But his gut was telling him he was wrong. That if he risked it, if Okumura fled, that everything he'd been working to would go to waste. Whether he liked it or not, Okumura was their stepping stone to the Antisocial Force.
If they failed, they'd lose. Hell, he could only hope that the Palaces they would face in the future would be the Palaces of prideful men. Of people who were so confident in their strength, their absolute power, that they hadn't devolved into the paranoid and insecure mess that Okumura had turned to.
Turning to the side, he saw Mona and Ryuji hiding near him, their narrowed eyes looking through the spaceship in front of them.
"Wanna blow the ship up?" Ryuji asked him, almost as if reading his mind, in a whisper. Unable to hide the grin on his face. "I betcha we can take them. Hell, I've been dying to try out the rings that Jose gave us."
"I agree, Joker." Mona continued. "I'm sure we can defeat the Shadows if we work together. Whatever you choose, I'm ready."
Ren felt dumbfounded for a moment, looking at the two idiots who had absolute trust in him. The moment he gave them the signal, they were prepared to jump into one of the messiest fights of their lives. One that might spiral once the alarms rung.
For a moment, Ren had to hold back the urge to laugh. Possibly risking blowing their cover.
It was ironic, wasn't it? To want to protect the same people who would jump into the fire for him. Those who would jump in front of a train without hesitation if he ordered them to. The fools.
[Hell yeah, I'm down for anything but uh… How loud are you planning on being? Because, well, not to be a bummer, but this place is my nightmare, remember?] Futaba asked through their comms. [If the alarms go off there's another thirty robots ready to act as backup. And I can only hold them back for a few minutes at best. So unless you have a plan…]
Finally, a voice of reason. Though Ren really had to hold back his laughter then.
"Oracle…" He began, reaching into his pockets and drawing out the wishing star Jose had given him. "Do you think you'd be able to hold them off with this?"
[Oh?] Futaba mused, a faint excited giggle escaping her lips.
"Is that a yes?"
[Fine…. Just try to make whatever mess you cause quick. Be prepared to retreat should it come to it. I should be able to at least make you an escape path with it.] She answered, though she couldn't keep the excitement from showing in her voice. [You have no idea how long I've been waiting for my turn to use that freaky star. Give me a second, I'll be there soon.]
Cutting off the comms, Ren was left in silence as Mona and Ryuji began to prepare for the battle in their own hiding spots. Which left Ren with a moment alone to himself. Or as alone as a Persona user could ever be.
"What do you say, Tartuffe?" Ren whispered, looking out one of the massive windows showing the stars in the distance. "One last ride?"
"One final flame of splendor before the curtains fall on us." Tartuffe answered with a chuckle. "So be it."
"Ah, don't get dramatic with me. We still have Okumura left." Ren muttered with a faint smile. "Besides, it's not goodbye, it's…." Ren began, trailing off to let Tartuffe finish.
Yet perhaps that was expecting too much of them, since Tartuffe never answered, instead simply chuckling inside of his soul.
— –Futaba Sakura– —
A single semi-transparent tentacle moved through the air, slowly wrapping around Ren's hand and grasping the wishing star in it. Then, the tentacle quickly retracted, wiggling through the air before entering the invisible spaceship in which she sat. Or to be more precise, the Persona she sat on, Necronomicon.
The inside of her Persona was hard to describe, because, in a way, it was almost as if she were floating inside data itself. There was nothing, but at the same time, there was everything. For the most part, she floated comfortably in the air, summoning screens and keyboards to interact with the world outside.
Sadly, her Persona had no real combat capabilities, yet what it lacked in fire power it more than made up for in its capability to interact with the cognitive world. With her Persona, she could hack the very world around her. It was almost like a strange game, where she could see Ren and the rest of the Thieves from a third person point of view. She could see the Shadows, the security, the Palace itself.
"Hehehehe." She couldn't help but giggle to herself as she grabbed the star, looking at it for a moment before summoning a keyboard in front of her. Then, with a few keystrokes, a small receptacle appeared in front of her.
Now, if her Persona could already control the cognitive world. Just how far could she push it by adding Jose's star? A star that gave the user the ability to temporarily hijack the cognition of not only Palaces, but the very Metaverse itself. The single, most powerful item she'd come across. An item that Ren kept closely to his chest. Their final line of defense, and so, one she hadn't gotten the chance to use should an emergency come up.
After a few moments, the wishing star inside the receptacle began to glow, letting out a faint pulse as countless screens began to flash in front of her. Screens with far more in-depth information than she was used to. She could see the plans of the spaceship in front of her, and she could see exactly how many Shadows each robot held. For a moment, she wondered just how far she'd be able to see without even activating the star, yet glancing at another screen she could see that just this much was already starting to drain the power of the wishing star.
"Sheesh, Jose really ought to charge this thing a bit more." She muttered with some annoyance as she summoned a few more screens analyzing the room they were on.
She could see every single security protocol in place. God, it almost gave her a headache. There were lines and lines of contingencies and alarms and… hell, she didn't even want to start having to keep track of it.
"I can keep the chaos in this room contained. It should last us about thirty minutes, so don't get too carried away." Futaba announced through the comms. "Are you ready?"
"Ready." Ren answered her, and she could see the shadows around him turning almost inky as his Persona prepared to attack.
Taking a deep breath, Futaba focused on the receptacle with the wishing star, transforming it into a large button in front of her.
Showtime this… showtime that… Ren really had the worst naming sense. He didn't even realize the power he held in his hands, and just how big an opportunity he was missing. Cracking her fingers, Futaba let out a giggle to herself before placing one hand over the button.
"Domain Expansion…" She began, trailing off as she tried to come up with the best name for what she was about to do. Then, almost as if by fate, she felt a name appear in her mind. "Al Azif."
With those words, she pressed the button.
For a moment, there was silence. Hell, Futaba almost considered that she had messed up somewhere. But the next moment countless screens began to flash in front of her, with countless lines and lines of text passing every second in front of her. There was so much information she couldn't even process it. But then, the screens all closed, leaving Futaba with only the one screen that was acting as her eyes outside of her Persona.
It was freaky.
The walls and floor across the entire room were quickly being consumed by an inky blackness, from which countless tentacles and eyes began to sprout, each of them whipping left and right or focusing on different parts of the room. For a moment, she even swore she could hear faint whispers coming from within her Persona, yet the next moment they were gone.
Before she knew it, the entire massive room had been encapsulated by her Persona's freaky tentacle nightmare. Yet that was just the start as more and more screens began to flash in front of her. The one that drew the most attention to her being the map of the entire Palace. Because for this one moment, she had gained a backdoor directly into the security of the most paranoid man she'd ever faced.
She had to hold back a whistle as she saw the map of the space port. No wonder they had struggled so much to make progress before, the place was a freaking mess. There were countless security gates, and each patrol was built to be the most inconvenient it could be. And it only got worse the further they went.
She could see a series of complicated password protected locks ahead, each that would have required her hours of work to decipher. In addition, it would have also caused the Thieves a lot of issues due to how completely ridiculous the requirements for access were. Yet, with her window into the Palace's security, she quickly injected one of the backdoors she'd prepared in advance so that they could use later.
Yet, the other thing that caught her eye was the two strange signatures on her map. The two signatures she didn't recognize. One looked like a Shadow, far stronger than any other Shadow in the ship. Probably Okumura's final defense, judging by the way it was moving through the ship directly towards where she believed the treasure was located.
Yet the other one looked… almost like them. It wasn't a Shadow… it was another Persona user? The signature appeared to be coming from just ahead of them. Yet, the moment her Persona locked onto them she saw the signature begin to move, running away from her detection. And just as she was about to try to learn more information on them countless errors began to flash in front of her.
"Shit…" She muttered as she saw the Palace fighting back against her control.
Adjusting her glasses, she quickly began to type away, fighting back against the Palace, yet, she still pulled one of the screens into her view. The screen showcasing the fight.
Ren was the first to jump from his hiding spot, his grappling hook wrapping around one of the robots building the ship, then, a formless shadow manifested behind him, black tentacles wrapped around the robot crushing the face before flinging the robot away.
"Tartuffe!" Ren shouted, the formless shadow behind him suddenly growing bigger before transforming.
In an instant, the Persona behind him turned into a massive four armed giant with a flaming head and a massive wheel on their back. From her Persona she could see it had taken the form of Mada.
Just as the countless robots began to swarm him, the wheel behind his persona began to spin, fanning the flames more and more before unleashing a blazing hell that expanded all around him. The fire caused all of the robots near him to lose their direction, causing them to fly past him, crashing against the walls of the room before exploding into even more Shadows, yet, thanks to the wishing star, she quickly managed to turn the walls into a weapon, the tentacles grasping at the closest shadows and quickly crushing them.
[Warning]
Sadly, before she could fully take advantage of the opening Ren had given her, another warning flashed in front of her screen. Forcing her to turn her attention back to the Palace rather than the fight. Still, that didn't mean she couldn't give them a hand.
"Yo, wanna see how much of a pain this Palace really is?" Futaba called out as she quickly began to activate the security measures. "I'm passing over the security measures to you instead of the Shadows."
Hard Labor, Forced Overtime, Damage Control. Three security measures that were meant to increase the Shadows' damage, speed, and defense respectively were activated on the Thieves. Then, she activated Personal Liability, weakening the nearly fifty Shadows in the room.
[Warning] The screen flashed once again in front of her.
Yeah yeah, she got it. Swiping away the buffs, she looked back at the security system trying to detect what was happening in the room. Still, she kept an eye on the screen with the fight, after all, they were still under zero gravity. The Shadows could attack not only from their front and back, but from the top and bottom. The Thieves had their little boosters, but that didn't give them too much leverage to move.
Hell, even with the boosts, it might be too much for the Thieves to handle. But if need be she could activate some of the more severe security measures. Even if that meant increasing the pressure Okumura's Palace was putting on her.
Glancing down at the star, she couldn't help but grin. Just with this much she already had so much access. What could she do with a fully charged star?
[Warning]
"I got it, geez." Futaba grumbled.
Outside, Ryuji had summoned Captain Kidd. He grabbed onto the mast of the ship as he and his Persona began to move, dodging the barrage of the Shadows flying in their direction. Shadows that appeared to be entirely unaffected by the lack of gravity, moving around without any issue.
Hell, even the massive elephant headed humanoid holding a sword was moving through the air with far more grace than he should have had on land.
Mona, for his part, used his high agility to jump from one Shadow to another, using them as foot holds to maneuver himself through the air, and once he'd gotten far enough, he pulled a handful of multicolored orbs from his pouch before shooting them one after the other in all directions. Each of his shots struck exploding into different elements, to differing levels of efficacy, but Futaba instantly recognized what he was doing.
"Scan complete, good job, Mona. Sending everyone the weaknesses and resistances!" Futaba announced, only to get hit by another three warning notifications.
Lightning began to flash inside the room as Kidd began his assault, yet sadly, none of the Shadows in the room were weak to it. So after a few moments, Ryuji changed tactics as he jumped off from his persona, letting Kidd pick up some speed as he began to ram using the entire weight of the ship into every single Shadow that was chasing them.
The Shadows were moving like a swarm of bugs, yet before Kidd could get overwhelmed, Ryuji called him back only to summon him once more next to him. Then, Kidd sent a barrage of lighting to the swarm of Shadows where he'd just been.
Ren, for his part, was starting to be overwhelmed as nearly twenty differing Shadows swarmed him, who appeared to be left helpless mid air. Yet, Tartuffe behind him, still in the form of Mada, simply sent another barrage of flames. Enough to deter the Shadows from dogpiling him.
That didn't stop the group of Mithras and Kumbhanda, who simply charged through the flames. Yet, Ren appeared to have predicted something like it might happen, since Tartuffe had changed from the four armed giant into a gentler form, that of Parvati. The moment the Shadows had charged through the wall of flames, Tartuffe let out a graceful smile before psionic orbs manifested around her, all of them shooting and striking at the Shadows.
The attack momentarily stunned the Shadows. However, every other Shadow that had been deterred by the flames hadn't remained idle, instead charging as many different elemental attacks as they could to shoot through the flames.
Rather than letting out a fearful expression, Ren simply let out a massive grin as he grasped onto Tartuffe's arm before being flung away, barely missing the barrage as he flew through the air, with Tartuffe soon reappearing in front of him. Taking the form of Ose, Ren's own Persona used him as leverage as he kicked off from Ren's own body to charge directly at the Decarabias near them. With a single swing of his blades, Tartuffe sliced them in half, causing them to turn to dust.
"The Star Shadows can be killed easily!" Ren shouted as he flew through the air, propelled by the kick from his Persona as he landed against one of the walls. The tentacles emerged from them reaching to grab his legs, stabilizing him. "Skull, focus on them!."
Just as he spoke, the Decarabias in the room became wary, letting out a faint glow as they used a Tetrakan, a skill that could deflect the next physical attack.
"Just shoot em, Joker." Futaba called out as she quickly glanced away from the errors she was getting. "Don't worry about the ricochet. If you stay near the wall I can protect you."
Without hesitation, Ren began to fire from the wall, shooting specifically each and every Decarabia that was about to be struck by either Kidd, Mona, or Tartuffe. Hell, Futaba even saw Tartuffe reach a Decarabia that Ren hadn't yet shot, but rather than waiting the Persona simply threw one of his blades at it, and when it flew back at him, he simply dodged the attack before stabbing it, letting the other blade fly through the air until it crashed against a nearby Mothman.
Mona for his part, had also been busy. Using his agility to herd the Shadows that were chasing him into the massive spaceship they were building. Thanks to her Persona, Futaba could see him jumping from wall to wall, barely dodging the Shadows chasing him. Using every opportunity he could, Mona would jump from the walls to attack the Shadows with a swing of his blade, yet that was all nothing more than a distraction. Futaba could see Mona reaching into his pouch and throwing explosives everywhere he went in the spaceship.
After a few minutes, Mona had made his way from the very bottom of the ship to the top, and once he reached an opening. He jumped out, finally calling forth Zorro to launch a barrage of Wind attacks at the exit he'd just used. Thankfully, the Shadows were smart enough to realize that they could simply dodge the barrage of attacks by hiding behind the walls of the ship. So rather than shooting out, Zorro's barrage was enough to keep them trapped for just one moment longer.
A moment that Mona used to reach for a detonator. With one click of the button, the explosives he'd placed inside of the spaceship began to blow up, quickly climbing from the bottom before reaching the top, where all of the Shadows chasing him had been. The explosions themselves caused a chain reaction with the spaceship itself, making an even bigger explosion.
[.... is that right, Oracle?] She heard a voice calling out to her. Quickly shaking her head, she realized that it was Makoto and Haru.
"One second… Joker's making a massive mess… uh…!" She trailed off, flinching slightly at the explosion. "What was it? Ah, yeah, the big red container. That's the door to the Will Seed room, alright. It's got a high-level encryption lock. I'll try to crack the—ah crap! Ah, well, uh, hang in there. I'll be back."
— — —
Holding back her headache, Futaba glanced at the dim wishing star inside of her Persona. She'd spent who knows how long fighting back against the Palace, and she was reaching her limit. There really was only so much she could multitask. Between supporting the Thieves, fighting back, and cleaning up their mess, Ren really owed her a big one.
Using the last of the wishing star's powers, she focused on the eyes and tentacles surrounding the walls and floor and used them to reach into the remaining scraps of the spaceship, dragging them into mouths that would open from within the eyes.
Finally, she finished typing out her masterpiece. Pressing enter on the keyboard in front of her, the wishing star stopped shining. With it, the eldritch abomination she'd summoned glowed for a second before starting to vanish away.
In the span of half an hour, the room she was standing in had gone from holding a massive spaceship to being practically empty. Something that would have turned on alarms once they'd finished, but with her girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep secret technique, she'd managed to do something she hadn't thought possible.
There was no war in Ba Sing Se. Or in other words, the spaceship in this room had never been built. Really, she wasn't sure just how it would work once Okumura's Shadow walked in here, but she'd deleted every single record of the ship itself being built. As far as Okumura's Palace knew, they'd actually hadn't begun building it. At least not yet.
She hoped that even if Okumura himself walked in to check on the ship, he'd really just end up being confused. There was no evidence of the ship having existed. So perhaps she'd be able to gaslight him into thinking that maybe he'd hallucinated the whole thing.
Either way, they'd earned what they'd been looking for. Time.
With this done, they wouldn't have to worry about what might happen should Okumura have actually escaped. But that really only moved the deadline up a month. As much as they did here, she couldn't actually delete the factory itself that was building the parts. So soon enough, another spaceship would be built, and unless they wanted to play this old song and dance again, they really only had a month. Or perhaps less.
Should be more than enough, really, with the progress they'd made. But…
"I don't think I can keep going." Futaba muttered, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. "Should we turn back for today, Joker? I have a path planned for our next infiltration. So we should be able to secure a route to the treasure next time. As long as we don't take too long, we should be good."
Ren, who'd been floating in the middle of the air with Mona and Ryuji next to him, gave her a nod. They must have been exhausted, too, because they were simply ragdolling through the air aimlessly.
"Queen and Noir should be here soon… once we regroup we can escape. Good job, Oracle."
"Man, I'm effing hungry…" Ryuji muttered as he spun in the air. "Do you all wanna grab some ramen?"
~A/N~
Sheesh, sorry for the long delay. Like I said, I can't really promise consistent updates, but I do try whenever I get the chance. Since last chap I started a business with my family, and I am now suffering from success lol. We've been getting a good amount of jobs, but I am not used to having to be responsible for so much, so it gets pretty overwhelming. And then after, I just end up wanting to go to bed and do nothing. Anyways, I'm hoping to finish off the Okumura arc here in a few chaps. I changed the final boss in the Okumura Palace. It's actually two bosses lol, so it'll be a fairly hard fight for them. Still, I think Okumura's palace will by far be the most pain in the ass Palace for the thieves, even if the ones that come after will be technically harder.