April 25
Monday
Afternoon
Sunny
The subsequent bus ride back to Shujin Academy was tinged with a mix of awe and apprehension. By all means, a complete game shutout with an equally impressive outing at the plate would energize a team. The hero would be showered in commendation, but almost no one knew what to say to Akira.
He had remained impassive as he went through cool-down stretches, slipped his arm into an arm sleeve and slowly sipped his electrolyte drink.
Perhaps it was his lack of expectation that made the rest of his team cautious. Regardless, a complex emotion hung in the air until the baseball advisor, Nanba, praised Akira as the team descended the bus. It was the second time he had done so, and Akira felt it to be a deliberate method to demonstrate his inclusion into the team.
Surprisingly, quite a few echoed the praise, some went as far as a pat on the back. Naturally, a handful said nothing and just walked off to the locker room.
Akira took it all in stride, reciprocating praise to those who commended him and ignoring those who did not. Last year, he would have been more mindful, more socially fluid, but circumstances change.
…
Afterschool
Sunny
Rounding the corner, he pulled out his phone. The message from Ryuji was direct, "Waiting inside." Sent four minutes ago. A few swipes later and he was using the Metanav app, whispering the keywords and rounding into a nondescript alley as his form bled into the supernatural world.
The sensation of stepping in constantly shallow water had become unsettlingly familiar. He was still far enough from Kamoshida's Castle that his Phantom attire had yet to manifest, but he urged the Spirit that flowed through him to combust into blue-black flames.
With each of Akira's steps, his Shujin uniform smoldered away revealing the man known as Ace. As he finally began crossing the drawbridge his mask fully formed while his shoulder dragged along a flaming cape that coalesced into the heavy overcoat draped effortlessly on his shoulders.
"Yo."
"Hey."
"Hi."
Ace nodded to Lieutenant and Rouge before turning his attention to Merlin, "How'd it go?"
…
"…So when Kamoshida saw the calling card along with the crowd of students whispering, he exploded and immediately tried to find the culprit. Something else happened too," explained Merlin. "In his anger, I could temporarily see his Shadow, who was just as furious."
"Interesting…So despite being completely unaware of his Shadow version, it can temporarily manifest in the real world when sufficiently stimulated, at least for those capable of entering the metaverse…Hmmm." Ace took a few moments to carefully reflect on Merlin's story and the possible implications. "Nonetheless, excellent work Merlin. I'm impressed by how you handled the situation."
"Nya-ha-haaa!"
"…Nya-ha-ha? And then he denies being a cat," murmured Lieutenant.
Rouge chuckled at the comment, which Merlin, likely due to his cat-like hearing, picked up on, instantly starting another squabble between the two.
Ace watched the three as traces of a smile crept up his lips. His right arm was sore from pitching, but Pneuma had mitigated a fair amount of the fatigue. And much like he theorized, if he believed it, then the effect would manifest, hence his inverted gear. His darksaber hilt resting on his right hip and his blaster pistol on his left. He was ambidextrous to an extent, but mentally reinforcing the idea had urged the Spirit in the Metaverse to act accordingly.
"Alright, let's go over the plan." Ace's voice was calm but commanding. "We'll move through the castle using Quick Travel to the final tower. Since this place will more than likely collapse after we steal Kamoshida's treasures, might as well take what we can in terms of valuables. I know a buyer, and we'll split the profit."
This aspect of the plan was new but not unwelcome by the team. They were thieves after all, and who better to steal from than a man whose closest genetic relative is sewage waste.
"Afterwards, we'll move to the Safe Room near the throne room, move along the upper floor, enter the last room…and take the treasure. Ideally, this happens effortlessly, but be prepared for combat. Any questions? None? Ladies and gentlemen…Showtime!"
As if on cue, the Metaverse, or at least the area around Kamoshida's Palace, sparked with energy. It was already heavy with the air of an impending conflict, but now the faint sound of music blared to life, the instruments and voice blended to create the ideal setting for this wild and fantastic escapade.
With a flourish and sweep of his coat, Ace along with the Phantom Thieves made their way to changing destiny.
…
The initial start of the plan had been simple enough. They looted much of the castle, especially the gold and silver trinkets that were easier to sell. They ran into a few Shadows, which due to the Calling Card were on high alert. The fights were overall more challenging due to Shadows proving to be more offensively minded and erratic, but the Thieves prevailed, making swift work of Kamoshida's guards.
"That clears up this sector, but I can already hear more coming down the hallway. Let's move."
Using the skills taught to them by Morgana, they moved using the shadows, not just using pillars and furniture as coverage, but sometimes even perching on chandeliers to avoid being swarmed by Shadows.
Soon, they were back in the Safe Room and using Quick Travel, had arrived at the location closest to the throne room. Interestingly, the entry method they had used last time was sealed. Suspicious but left with no choice, they entered through the front door.
Ace verified with Kippōshi, and while both were certain this was a trap, there was very little that could be done.
The band of thieves carefully approached the Treasure room.
Akira walked in front with Ryuji making sure to silently close the door behind them.
"Woah."
"Hm…What's up? What does it lo—"
"It's huge!"
All three teens were astonished by the size of the crown, the Metaverse representation of Kamoshida's desires.
"How can such a disgusting man have such a beautiful treasure?" Ann's voice was both confused and amazed. But before anyone could respond, Merlin leapt out like a wild jungle cat towards the massive floating crown.
"Meeeoooooowww!"
"What the eff?!"
"Mrrrrrroooooooww!" At this point Merlin was rubbing its entire body on the floating crown.
"Dude! Tell me this isn't a straight up cat?!?"
"Merlin. Relax"
"…Meow, meow! Meeewwww!"
"Get off of it, cat!"
As if awakened from a dream, Merlin leapt off the treasure and apologized for his behavior.
"You were completely out of character. What was that about?"
"I-I couldn't stop it either…To think I'd be drawn to human desires this much…Oh! Doesn't that mean I'm human!?"
"Dude…Is this cat high?"
Ace pursed his lips to suppress a chuckle as the entire sequence had thrown him completely off guard. After a brief moment, Merlin seemed to recover his composure.
"A-Anyway, you guys need to carry it."
"I really can't get behind listening to this cat. Still, that was easier than I expected. I fully expected an insane trap or something."
"It might still happen," interjected Ace. "Not much we can do but take the treasure. Once we're in the Safe Room, we'll Quick Travel to the entrance and disappear…but…I have a feeling it won't be so simple. Let's stay focused."
"Right!" Ann paused and her face lit up. "If Ace's theory is true then as long as we believe we're incredibly strong then this should be easy to carry."
"You're right! Then we could have the rest of us on guard. I'll carry it."
Without further hesitation, Lieutenant approached the crown and hoisted it while leaning it against his torso.
"…That's not too bad. Definitely heavy, but I can manage."
"Nice job. Once we leave with this, the palace will disappear…and Kamoshida will change too…"
"…That should be the case, Lady Rouge."
"Can we save the talking for later? This thing's pretty heavy!"
"Sorry!"
Rouge took the front position carefully leading Lieutenant out of the room while Ace and Merlin made up the rear of the impromptu procession.
"To think this went so well…I even found three persona-users, each with great potential." Merlin turned his gaze towards Ace who met it squarely. "My judgement was correct. I made the right choice in making a deal with you! Nyahaha!"
Before Akira could respond he felt it. That invisible yet seemingly tangible connection with Morgana. The familiar translucent card of Le Bateleur, meaning The Magician, appeared but it felt more solid.
"…Let's finish the job before we celebrate too early."
"Meticulous as always, nyahahaha!"
Leaving was simple, but as they walked through the throne room, an unsettling sensation gripped the Phantom Thieves.
"Stay focused everyone."
Yet, before anyone could respond, a familiar voice rang out.
"Go, go! Let's go! Ka-mo-shida!"
Impossibly high in the air, Shadow Kamoshida spiked multiple balls at the Phantom Thieves. Rouge managed to dodge, while Merlin flipped over the incoming projectile. Ace used his sword to cleave the volleyball and move to cover Lieutenant, but it was too late as the fastest of the hit balls impacted the massive crown, sending it flying. Ace flashed behind Lieutenant to prevent him from falling.
"Woah!! Oh, thanks man."
"Don't sweat it."
With uncanny agility, Kamoshida performed an aerial maneuver over the thieves, and using his connection with his own treasure, shrank the crown while telekinetically dragging it into his hands. From some unknown corner, Kamoshida's cognition of Ann, still clad in a leopard print bikini, embraced the essentially naked palace owner.
"Hmph! I won't let anyone take this!" Kamoshida leveled the thieves with a vicious glare. "This proves that I am the king of this castle—it is the core of this world!"
"That rat bastard! That's how he seems, isn't it!?" The indignation and fury physically radiated off Rouge as she glared daggers at the wicked king.
"Yo, pervert. Were you waitin' to ambush us? How pathetic."
"Like you would know anything about strategy. I just made it easier to find you all. I'll dispose of you vermin myself, right here, right now."
"What are even saying? You're the douche bag whose been sexually harassin' people, not to mention physically abusing students!!"
Kamoshida's gaze morphed from menacing to contempt. "Ha. What a selfish misunderstanding."
"How is it a misunderstanding!?" Rouge whose emotions were simmering began to roil. "YOU were doing this that you kept in secret from others!"
"People around me were the ones who kept it secret. Adults who want to share in my accomplishments, students who have to strive to become winners. They willingly protect me so that we all may profit." Every word oozed of pungent privilege and arrogance.
"Profit?" Lieutenant asked in bewilderment.
"There are too many imbeciles who don't understand that!" By now Kamoshida's expression was the picture of power lust and self-entitlement. "Including naïve brats like you and that girl who tried to kill herself!"
"True, she's a total idiot…letting a low-life like you manipulate her, trying to commit suicide…And I'm even more of a dumbass for not realizing that! But no matter what kind of fool someone might be…They don't need your permission to live THEIR lives!!"
"Drop the attitude you mediocre peasant! There is no wrong in using my gifts for my gain! I'm a cut above all other humans!!"
"Above? You mean beneath. You're a goddamn demon obsessed with your sick desires!"
The thieves watched as Kamoshida burst into a sycophantic chuckle all while visible energy radiated from him.
"That's right, I'm not like you. I am a demon who rules this world!"
Dark-red energy fully enveloped the King of this Palace. Kamoshida began to grow, his form nearly reaching the high ceilings of the throne room. His skin turned lustful-red, a second pair of arms grew from his back, and a set of horns grew atop his head. He held a knife, a fork, a wine glass, and a riding crop, but the most disturbing of all his tongue grew massively into a grotesque form nearly the size of his entire body.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!GYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The sheer power he possessed surged out and physically pushed against the Phantom Thieves. Kamoshida's transformation changed the entire area as even the castle seemed to pulse, and the previously untraceable music turned synthetic and ominous.
"I'm allowed to do whatever the hell I want!"
"…So, this is your true form?"
"HAHAHAHA! Scared?"
"Scared? Shocked that your transformation is just as ugly as your actual face."
"How dare you!? YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!!"
"This ends now, Kamoshida."
"You goddamn, no-good, shitty brats! Haven't you been taught not to point at people!? Huh!?"
"Formation 1. Stay focused."
The thieves moved into a semicircle, with enough room to maneuver but close enough to assist another team member easily.
Kamoshida first targeted Ace, launching a series of volleyballs.
The slaves attached to the grotesque form rattled their chains, hollow-eyed things that didn't so much fight as flinch and wail whenever Kamoshida moved. Ace didn't spare them more than a glance. They weren't the threat.
He caught the volleyball on the flat of his blade, left hand steady despite the strain still sitting deep in his shoulder. The impact rang up his arm anyway. He rolled with it, let the follow-through carry him a step sideways instead of fighting the force head on.
"Ace, on your six!"
He was already moving. Another ball, another deflection, this one glancing off the edge of the blade and scattering into the dark above them.
"Keep formation," he said, not loud, just firm enough to cut through. "Don't chase him."
Ryuji wasn't listening. He surged forward, club raised, Zio crackling blue around it as Captain Kidd's power layered in. Kamoshida barely flinched.
"That the best you got, teach?!"
"Lieutenant, fall back to position."
Ace didn't raise his voice this time either. He didn't need to. There was something underneath it that made people listen even when they wanted to argue.
Ryuji retreated half a step, jaw tight, Captain Kidd's spectral form hovering close behind him like it was just as unhappy about pulling back.
Rouge was worse. Carmen bloomed behind her in a wash of red and flame, Agi already gathering in her palm before Ace could get a word out.
"Rouge, wait for the opening—"
She didn't wait. The fire lanced out, caught Kamoshida across one massive shoulder. He roared, more insulted than hurt, and the volleyball assault redirected toward her instead.
"Rouge!"
Merlin was already moving. Zorro's rapier flashed and Garu caught two of the incoming balls, knocking them wide before they reached her. "You gotta stop doing that," Merlin snapped, sliding back into position beside her.
"He was open!"
"He's never open. That's the point."
Ace let out a breath through his nose, not quite a sigh. This was the shape of it. Ryuji and Ann fighting like every fight was one they could just win by wanting it enough. He'd have to be the ballast. Kippōshi settled into place behind him, that low steady presence he'd come to recognize as the persona finding its footing.
"Tarunda," Ace called, and Kippōshi's voice layered under his own, dragging at the edges of Kamoshida's next swing until it came in half a beat slower than it should have.
"Tarukaja," Ryuji answered from the flank, the least reckless thing he'd done all fight, and for a second it actually worked as a team. The follow-up hit landed clean, Ace's blade opening a line across Kamoshida's forearm while the debuff still held.
Kamoshida screamed, more outrage than pain. "You insects! I am not some common enemy for you to toy with!"
"Then quit actin' like one," Ryuji shot back.
The tongue lashed out low and wide, catching Merlin across the side before he could get clear. He hit the ground hard, skidded, came up with a hand pressed to his ribs.
"Merlin!"
"I'm fine. I'm fine." He wasn't, quite, but he was upright, and that was enough for now. Dia's soft green light passed over himself before anyone could argue about it.
Ace felt the fight change shape before it visibly did, some shift in the air that told him they'd cracked something. Kamoshida's stance shifted, the four lackeys at his sides jerking upright on their chains like something had been switched on inside them.
"You want a real king? Fine. I'll show you why kings don't lose."
He reached for the trophy floating at his side, speared something from it with the fork, and ate.
The wound on his arm closed. The bruise on his shoulder faded. Whatever ground they'd taken, gone in a swallow.
"Seriously?!" Ryuji's voice cracked with disbelief. "He's just eating his way outta this?!"
"The chalice." Ace's eyes were already on it, floating there beside Kamoshida like an afterthought, ornate and gleaming and clearly the actual problem. "That's what's healing him. Not him."
"So we smash it," Rouge said.
"We smash it," Ace agreed. "All of us, together, this time. Not one at a time."
That got a look from Ryuji, sharp and a little wounded, like he knew exactly who that was aimed at. He didn't argue it, though. Nobody did.
Kamoshida wasn't giving them room to plan it. His tongue whipped out in a wide sweep, low across all of them at once, and Ace felt it clip his shoulder as he threw himself sideways. Ryuji wasn't as lucky, caught full across the chest, the sound he made somewhere between a grunt and a curse.
"Ryuji!"
"I'm good. I'm good." He wasn't, not really, one hand braced against his knee, but he pulled himself upright before anyone could fuss over him.
Merlin's Dia found him a second later anyway, green light stitching the worst of it closed. "Stop getting hit," Merlin muttered.
"Stop tellin' me to stop gettin' hit and maybe I'll stop gettin' hit."
Ace kept his eyes on the chalice. It sat close to Kamoshida's side, orbiting lazily like it belonged there, and every time he angled toward it Kamoshida shifted his bulk to block the line, almost lazily, like he knew exactly what they were after and found the effort of protecting it beneath him.
"He's covering it," Ace said. "We need him looking somewhere else."
"I can do somewhere else." Rouge was already moving, cutting wide around the left flank, Carmen's flame gathering bright enough that Kamoshida's head turned toward her on reflex.
"Rouge, that's not a real opening, that's just you being loud."
"It's working, isn't it?"
It was. Kamoshida's attention dragged after her, his whole massive frame rotating half a step, and the chalice drifted with him but not fast enough, not covered anymore.
"Now," Ace said.
Ryuji was already there, club already rising. Kippōshi's blade came alive with dark light beside him, Spirit Stab gathering low and quiet, waiting for the signal instead of firing wild.
"Together. Go."
Kippōshi's blade cut down through the space between them and the chalice, dark light trailing behind it like a wake. Ryuji's club came in from the other side, Rouge's flame curling low and fast beneath both. The chalice didn't so much shatter as come apart, gold and crystal scattering into nothing before it hit the floor.
Kamoshida's scream this time had real pain in it.
"You little—my chalice! Do you have any idea what that cost me!"
"Don't care," Ryuji said, already moving back into position without being told this time.
"He's still got the crown. That's the real prize." Ace didn't relax. If anything he pulled the formation tighter.
"I can get it." Merlin was already crouched low, tail flicking, the kind of stillness that meant it was calculating angles rather than resting. "Just keep him looking at you three."
"Don't get caught."
"Please. I'm a cat. Stealth is literally my whole thing."
"You're not a cat," Rouge said, not even looking at him.
"I'm a cat right now, that's what matters—"
"Go," Ace said, before it could turn into an actual argument.
Merlin peeled off toward Kamoshida's blind side, muttering something about respect, while the others closed ranks and drew the attention back where it needed to be.
"Hey! Ugly!" Ryuji again, louder now, club raised high enough to catch the light. "Eyes over here!"
It worked. Kamoshida's massive head swung toward him, tongue lashing out in a wide arc that Ryuji barely cleared. Ace stepped into the gap it left, Kippōshi's blade catching Kamoshida across the ribs while his attention was still elsewhere.
"He keeps looking at me. It's so gross, I could just—" Rouge kept her eyes on Kamoshida's face instead of his hands, watching for the tell before he wound up again. She didn't finish the sentence, just let her flame answer for her, another burst of Agi that made him flinch and kept his attention exactly where they needed it.
Merlin's small shape crept along the base of the throne, unnoticed, patient in a way that didn't match his usual temperament at all. A breath. Another. The seconds stretched out, each one a small held thing, until finally.
The crown lifted off Kamoshida's head and simply vanished from his grip.
For a moment nothing happened. Then he noticed.
"WHERE—"
"Got it!" Merlin's voice rang out triumphant, the crown clutched against his chest as he scrambled back toward the others.
"You think that changes anything? I don't need a crown to be a king!" Kamoshida's face contorted into something past rage, something closer to panic dressed up as fury.
He didn't wait for an answer. The riding crop came down against the floor with a crack that shuddered through the stone, and the throne room itself seemed to flinch with him, torches guttering, the ceiling groaning like something overhead had shifted its weight.
"Uh, that's new," Ryuji said, backing up half a step.
"Everything's new with this guy," Merlin muttered. "Nothing about him follows the rules."
Kamoshida surged forward, faster than something his size had any right to be, all four arms swinging in a wide arc meant to catch as many of them as possible at once. Ace planted his feet, felt Kippōshi's presence sharpen behind him, and made a call before he'd fully thought it through.
"Slime."
The swap was instant, a shift in the air more than anything visible, and where Kippōshi's blade would have met the blow head-on, something softer and stranger absorbed it instead. The arm connected. Ace skidded back a full body length, boots dragging grooves into the stone, but the impact that should have cracked ribs barely registered as more than a hard shove.
"Since when could you do that?!" Ryuji stared at him like he'd pulled a rabbit out of a hat.
"Since always. Didn't come up." Ace rolled his shoulder, testing it, and found nothing wrong. "He's basically immune to that whole style of attack."
"That's so unfair, why do you get the cheat code—"
"Focus, Lieutenant."
Ryuji grumbled something under his breath but fell back into position anyway.
"I don't need tricks. I don't need luck. I earned everything I have." Kamoshida recovered his footing, breathing hard, patience clearly thinning.
"You didn't earn any of it," Ace said. "You took it."
"SHUT UP!"
The tongue came again, faster this time, aimed low at Rouge's legs before she could get clear. She went down hard, the wind knocked out of her, and Kamoshida's laugh rang out ugly and delighted.
"Rouge!" Merlin was moving before the sound had faded, Dia already gathering, but it was Ace who reached her first, hauling her up by the arm before the follow-through could land.
"I'm okay. I'm okay, let go, I can stand—"
"Then stand behind me for a second."
"I don't need you to—"
"I know you don't need to. Do it anyway."
She didn't argue further, which told him more than the argument would have.
"Fine. FINE. You want to see real commitment? I'll show you commitment." Kamoshida straightened to his full height, chest heaving, and reached instead for the lackeys chained at his sides.
The chains rattled. One of the smaller shapes stumbled loose and hit the floor, hollow-eyed and obedient, offering something up toward Kamoshida with both hands.
A volleyball.
Ace's stomach dropped before his mind had even placed the face. Mishima. Or what Kamoshida had made of him, anyway, some hunched and eager thing that flinched at its own master's shadow.
"Guard!" Ace didn't think, just moved, blade raised in front of him, and the others followed a half-second behind, Ryuji's club up, Rouge bracing low with Merlin pressed close beside her.
Kamoshida wound up with all four arms at once, the motion almost comically theatrical if it hadn't been aimed at killing them. The spike came down like a collapsing building, sound and force both, a pressure that seemed to compress the whole room down to the size of the blow.
It hit. Ace's arms screamed with the effort of holding the guard, feet driven half a foot back across the stone, and beside him he heard Ryuji grunt through gritted teeth, Rouge's small sound of pain swallowed almost before it started.
Then it passed. They were still standing.
For a moment nobody spoke. "That coulda been real bad." Ryuji straightened first, breathing hard.
"It still can be." Ace's eyes were already on the cognitive Mishima, dissolving back into the crowd of shackled figures, replaced by another small shape stepping forward into the light.
Nobody moved for a second. Even Kamoshida seemed to relish the silence, savoring it, watching their faces for the reaction he clearly expected.
She'd been dressed up. Bunny ears, a collar, heels she'd never have chosen for herself, all of it soft and pale and deliberately, sickeningly cute. Not armor. Not even a uniform. Just what he wanted her to be.
Rouge made a sound that wasn't a word, something caught between her teeth before it could become one.
"Rouge—" Merlin started.
"Don't." Her voice shook, but not with fear. Carmen flared behind her, flame licking up her arms without her seeming to notice. "Don't tell me to calm down. Look at what he did. Look at what he made her into, this is, this is inside his head, this is what he actually—"
"I know," Ace said quietly.
"You don't. You don't know what it's like to watch someone decide you're just a thing they get to have." Her fists were shaking. "She was my friend. She still is. And he's got her dressed up like a, like a—"
Kamoshida laughed, delighted by her fury. "Oh, is Princess upset? She should feel honored, I put so much thought into it—"
"SHUT UP!" The flame around Rouge's hands doubled, spilled over into something closer to a wildfire, and for a second Ace thought she'd break formation entirely just to reach him.
"Rouge." He said it firm, not sharp. "We end this. That's how we make it stop."
That reached her, or close enough. She didn't cool off, exactly, but she held her ground, jaw tight, eyes wet and furious at once.
It didn't make the cognition any easier to look at. The shape of her was too specific, too careful in its cruelty, small shoulders drawn in like she was bracing for something that hadn't happened yet.
"Aw, is my star player upsetting you? She's not much use to me anymore, honestly. Maybe I should just…" Kamoshida's grin widened, oblivious or indifferent to how close he'd come to losing control of the room entirely.
"Do it fast," Ace said, cutting him off before he could finish that sentence. "Don't let him wind up again."
Kippōshi answered before Ace had even fully spoken, a sharp burst of curse energy closing the distance in an instant. The cognition folded and dispersed without ceremony, gone the way smoke goes when a window opens, no scream, no resistance, just absence where something had been.
"Useless. I'll have to teach her a real lesson later." Kamoshida's face twisted into something almost bored, like he'd already forgotten she existed.
"There is no later," Ace said. "Not for you."
"Not for you," Rouge repeated, quieter, and somehow that was worse than if she'd screamed it.
"I am not afraid of vermin like you." Something in Kamoshida's expression finally cracked toward fear, just for a second, before pride papered back over it.
"You should be."
"We done playin' defense?" Ryuji stepped up beside him, and for once there was nothing reckless in it, just a settled kind of readiness.
"We're done." Ace felt Kippōshi's attention sharpen, that particular stillness that meant it was ready. He glanced sideways, caught the look Ryuji gave him, the one that said he was done holding back and wasn't going to be told otherwise this time. Ace let it go. This was the moment for it.
"Rouge, Merlin. Now."
Merlin's paw came up, Zorro's rapier tracing a quick sigil in the air. "Rakukaja, on Rouge!"
The buff settled over her like a second skin, and Carmen's flame doubled behind it, gathering into something with real weight this time, heat enough that Ace could feel it from three feet away.
"Cpt Kidd! Let's go!" Ryuji surged forward, and this time nobody called him back. His club came down in a single unbroken arc, Captain Kidd's spectral fist driving down alongside it, physical force enough to stagger Kamoshida backward half a step, cracking stone where he landed.
Rouge followed immediately after, Agi roaring out reinforced and vicious, catching him full across the chest. He staggered again, one knee buckling, and for the first time all fight something like real fear showed plain on his face.
"No. No, this isn't. I am not losing to a bunch of—"
Kamoshida reeled, and Ace moved.
"Dream Needle."
Kippōshi's arrow found its mark clean, a thin dark thread of sleep curling into Kamoshida's system before he could shake it off. His massive form swayed, eyes glassy for half a breath, defenses down in a way that wouldn't last.
It didn't need to last long.
"Spirit Stab."
Kippōshi's blade drove forward, dark and precise, straight through the last of whatever Kamoshida had left to stand on.
The transformation reversed all at once, red flesh receding, extra arms collapsing back into nothing, until what remained hunched against the throne room floor was smaller. Human-shaped. His head bare, crownless, the absence of it somehow more damning than the crown itself had ever been.
"No. No, this isn't. This isn't how this goes." Shadow Kamoshida dragged himself upright, eyes darting toward where the crown lay discarded near the base of the throne. "I'm the king here. I decide how this goes."
He moved before anyone could stop him, a burst of speed that didn't belong to something so broken, closing the distance in a single desperate lunge and snatching the crown off the floor mid-stride. It settled crooked over his head as he staggered back toward the window, gold gone dull now, no longer catching the light the way it had before.
"What's wrong?" Ann's voice cut through the room, sharp as the flame still curling at her fingers. "Not running away? You're an Olympian. A gold medalist. Guess you've still got some speed left in you after all."
"I did everything for them!" His voice cracked upward, defensive and shrill, one hand pressed flat against the crown to keep it steady. "For this school, for those kids, what's wrong with wanting something back for that!"
"Now you're just making excuses." Ann didn't move any closer. She didn't need to.
Ryuji stepped forward first, Captain Kidd's spectral shape looming behind him, nothing frantic in the way he moved. "Y'know, I used to think about this a lot. What I'd say to you if I ever got the chance." He looked down at him, no urgency in it at all. "Broke my leg. Called me trash in front of the whole team. Insulted my mom. Made sure nobody'd believe me if I said different." A pause. "I got over it, eventually. Took a while, but I did. This ain't about me anymore, though. Hasn't been for a long time."
"Ryuji—"
"I'm good." He didn't move any closer. "Just wanted him to hear it."
Ace stepped up beside him, looking down at the man who'd once stood in front of a classroom and decided what Akira's whole life would be called from then on. "You know what the worst part is? Everyone believes you. Sure I have a record, but those are private matters that a teacher should not divulge to others, yet you were eager to do so." He held Kamoshida's gaze, steady, giving nothing away yet. "I know exactly what it's like to have your version of events become the only one that matters."
"I never, I didn't think it would follow you like that—"
"You didn't think about me at all," Ace said. "That's the point of a king, isn't it. Nobody else's story matters once yours is the only one anyone repeats."
Ann hadn't moved from where she stood, Carmen's flame still curling faint around her fingers, unspent, until it was her turn. "Shiho's still in that hospital bed because of you," she said, and her voice didn't shake this time, which was somehow worse than when it had. "She tried to die because of you."
Her eyes flicked past him to the window at his back, the same window, the same drop.
"You're looking at the same view she was," Ann said, quieter now. "The last thing she saw before she jumped. I bet she was terrified. I bet she didn't want to. She just didn't think she had anything left to choose from."
"You don't understand what I built here. Do you know how many people wanted to be me? How many parents begged me to just look at their kids, coach them, notice them? I earned that. I earned all of it, and you think you get to—" Something in Kamoshida flared one last time, some dying ember of the man who'd stood in that throne room minutes ago and called himself a king.
"I don't care what you earned!" Carmen's flame lashed out on the shout, a burst of Agi that scorched past Kamoshida's shoulder and cratered the stone behind him, close enough that he flinched hard against the window. Ann's voice cracked on the word after, not from weakness, from how hard she was holding the rest of it steady. "I care what you took."
Kamoshida opened his mouth to argue further, and then it simply left him. Whatever had been holding his spine straight gave out all at once, and he sagged against the window frame like something had been cut.
Then, with a kind of frantic clarity, he tore the crown from his own head and threw it, an underhand, desperate toss that landed at Ace's feet with a hollow clatter.
"Take it. Take all of it, I don't care anymore." His breathing had gone ragged, eyes wide with something closer to panic than grief. "My life, take that too, whatever squares it, whatever makes this stop, just, please—"
Nobody moved to pick the crown up. It sat there, dull gold against dark stone, entirely unwanted.
"You think that's a trade." Ryuji's voice, quiet now, none of the earlier edge in it. "Your life for what you did. Like there's a number that clears it."
"Isn't there? Isn't that how this works?"
"No." Ann again, and this was the last thing she said to him, the words landing with all the weight of everything before it. "You don't get to decide you've paid enough. You go back. You tell them everything, your own name attached to it, in front of everyone who ever believed you. That's what this costs. Not a bullet. Not a jump. Living with it, every day, in front of people who know exactly what you are now."
Kamoshida stared at her, something breaking further behind his eyes, and when he spoke again his voice had gone quiet in a different way, stripped of the panic. "I'll confess. All of it. My own name, in front of everyone." A breath. "I mean it this time."
Nobody answered him.
Ace moved.
Kippōshi's blade came down through the space beside Kamoshida's throat and pinned him hard against the window frame, the glass behind him fracturing in a spiderweb around his shoulders. Ace didn't speak. He just looked at him, close, unhurried, the kind of stillness that made the room feel smaller than it was.
Kamoshida's breath caught. He didn't move. Couldn't, with the blade where it was and the drop at his back.
Ace held the look a moment longer than anyone was comfortable with, some silent accounting passing behind his eyes, and then let the blade withdraw a single inch.
"Just a joke," he said, flat, already turning away before the words finished landing.
Nobody laughed.
Behind him, Kamoshida's shadow had already begun to come apart at the edges, distortion eating inward from where the crown had struck the floor, his outline thinning like smoke losing its shape.
Ace glanced back once, caught the crown still lying there, and hooked the toe of his boot beneath it. A flick sent it spinning up into his hand, and he closed his fingers around it without breaking stride, tucking it away into the space that wasn't quite a pocket.
The throne room shuddered. What was left of Kamoshida collapsed the rest of the way into nothing, and the ceiling cracked overhead, gold leaf sloughing away in sheets, centuries of borrowed grandeur coming down all at once because none of it had ever been real to begin with.
"That's, that's not supposed to happen this fast—" Morgana's ears flattened. "The whole place is coming down. We need to move, now!"
Ace was already moving, though something in the set of his shoulders hadn't quite let go yet. Around them the castle was folding in on itself, walls that had stood in for a man's whole self-image losing the will to keep standing now that the man himself had nothing left to prop them up with.
It didn't feel like winning, exactly. It felt like watching something finally fall that should have fallen a long time ago, and knowing that falling didn't undo what it had already done on the way up.
"Go, go, go!"
They ran.
The corridor ahead buckled before they reached it, stone folding in on itself like paper catching fire, and Ace threw an arm out to stop Ryuji from running straight into the collapse.
"This way!" Merlin was already scrambling up a tilting section of floor, claws finding purchase where none of them could have. "Window, now, there's no time for the stairs!"
Glass gave way under a burst of Garu before anyone could argue about it. Ann went through first, Ryuji right behind her, and Ace felt the whole structure groan beneath his feet as he pushed off after them.
The fall lasted longer than it should have, distortion stretching the drop out past what the physical space could account for, and then the world simply changed around him mid-motion.
He hit pavement instead of stone. Cold night air instead of the palace's stale heat. Streetlights buzzing overhead, ordinary and small after everything that had just come apart behind him.
Alone.
Ace stood there a moment, catching his breath, scanning the street for any sign of the others. Nothing. Just Tokyo at night, quiet in the particular way only a side street could be, indifferent to what had just ended somewhere none of these people would ever see.
He walked with neither purpose nor absentmindedness. The city didn't care what he'd just done, didn't slow down or look twice, and there was something almost steadying in that. He passed a vending machine humming to itself, a couple arguing quietly outside a bar, a delivery bike leaning against a wall. None of it knew. None of it needed to.
The alley was narrow, tucked between a shuttered noodle shop and the convenience store's loading entrance, lit by one flickering bulb that couldn't decide if it wanted to work. Ryuji was already there when Akira arrived, back against the brick, arms crossed.
Ann showed up next, hair slightly mussed, Morgana trotting along at her heels in cat form, tail flicking with what might have been irritation or might have just been residual adrenaline.
"How's everyone?"
"I've been worse," groaned Ryuji.
"About the same. What time is it?"
"Let me check…Look at the nav!"
The rest of the thieves pulled out their phones and as if on cue the voice from the Metanav spoke from each of their devices.
[The destination has been deleted.]
"…Finally. We can't go there anymore."
"What about the treasure?"
At Morgana's question the thieves looked at Akira.
He reached into his pocket dimension and pulled out a medal.
"What the…"
"…A medal? Wait, where'd that crown go?"
"…So this is the source of Kamoshida's desires. To him, this medal is worth as much as that crown we saw in the Palace."
"An Olympic medal…So, that perv' kept clingin' to his glory days and just couldn't let it go…"
"How pathetic," noted Akira.
"Without a doubt, but this means that his heart should have changed, right?"
"Probably," unsurely replied Morgana.
"What the!? Probably?"
"What do you want me to say? This is the first time for me too. No matter what, this has dramatically affected Kamoshida's personality. The entire Palace disappeared, after all."
"Then so have his desires." Akira processed the whole ordeal while scrutinizing the medal. "We'll just have to wait. We have done the hardest part."
"Right."
"Come on, why the gloomy faces? Be happy! We completed this with great success, you know. I'm pretty sure everything will be fine. Remember how Kamoshida's Shadow said he's returning to his self in reality? We all know Suguru Kamoshida is scum, but at the end he seemed to have regained a smidgen of his conscience before he disappeared."
"That and Akira almost made him crap his pants."
"Yeah…I thought you were really going to end him right there."
"…If his Shadow is related to his soul, then I wanted him to feel the moment when a knife is pressed against your neck…Like how Ryuji felt, you felt Ann, and…how Shiho felt."
"…Thank you, for thinking about all of us," responded Ann after what felt like an eternity. Ryuji opened his mouth but no words came out so he settled for a heavy nod.
Akira reached into his pocket dimension again, pulled out something smaller this time. Rigid, crisp-edged, untouched by everything that had just happened. The fourth card.
He held it out to Ryuji without a word.
Ryuji stared at it a second before he understood what it was. "You kept it?"
"Figured it should end up with the guy who wrote it. Not me."
Ryuji read it out loud, quiet at first, like he wasn't sure he wanted to hear his own words again.
"Sir Suguru Kamoshida, you rotten lustful bastard. Too long has your reign of terror cast a shadow over Shujin Academy. Your twisted desires have ruined the dreams of those who dreamt of running fast and flying high. You even dared to desecrate the life of another. You are scum. Your fate has already been sealed. Wash your neck because we will be taking your crown of twisted desires."
He got quieter toward the end, the anger gone out of it now that it had already done its job.
Without a word he passed it to Ann. She read it over once, eyes moving slower than his voice had gone, and lingered a moment on the line about desecrating a life before handing it back.
"Guess we actually did it, huh," Ryuji said.
"Guess we did," Ann said, and held the card out to Akira, like she understood without being told that it belonged with him now.
He took it and returned it to the space it had come from, careful with it in a way he hadn't been with anything else all night.
"Since we can't do anything else but wait let's not stress of it."
"Sounds good."
"Yeah, let's go."