Chapter Text
Part I
The Phantom Thieves now had Medjed checked off the grocery list of defeated targets, thoroughly taken care off and secured under their belts, all with a new teammate to aid them on the rest of their journey.
Ryuji had gotten used to the adrenaline that regularly thrummed through his veins ever since he’d unleashed the full potential of Captain Kidd. After all, it was difficult to return from the high in between exploring palaces, completing requests in Mementos, and being forced to act as an unassuming student during all of it. He struggled to keep his mouth shut as it was, but he prayed that the constant jumping of his fingers on a table or his leg under his desk wouldn’t be a giveaway, somehow.
The same adrenaline combined with the electricity that came with summoning Ryuji’s Persona while fighting shadows made for an intense thrill in battle, it was different than he’d ever felt before. He found himself losing track of the number of shadows they’ve defeated in Mementos on every trip, even when he tried to make a game out of it and force himself to count for the hell of it.
The most he ever got to was 26, before every Zionga he unleashed at a shadow was enough to fizzle any focus he had on counting. Power ebbed through every fiber of his being when he was fully immersed in battle, and upon poorly relaying the feeling to Ann, she said she felt it too.
It was difficult to come down from, especially when all Ryuji had on his mind was being a Phantom Thief. How powerful he felt taking justice into his own hands, how much he liked the sensation of feeling like he could fry a circuit board with the tip of his finger if he focused hard enough on achieving the fact. He never expected any of his power to translate into the real world, albeit it was in tiny, unassuming ways.
Ryuji noticed it in the rest of the team whenever they were out and about in the city, allowing themselves a momentary break from Phantom Thief business in the form of dart games and billiards in Kichijoji. Though, their Personas could never really leave their spirit even outside of the Metaverse.
“Skull, you ready?”
Ryuji didn’t have time to dwell on it any longer.
The team was in Mementos that evening, planning on exploring a few more levels to gain some experience and fulfill the stacking Phansite requests. Morgana, as they had dubbed him the “Mona-bus”, had just ambushed a wandering shadow amongst the creeping vines that slithered up the dark walls, and Akira was looking at Ryuji with a glint in his eye.
Ryuji didn’t realize he and Joker were the last to be sitting in the Mona-bus, as the rest of the team had pooled out to take care of the shadow.
“Ready as ever, man,” Skull responded, signature deviant grin pushing the corners of his mask up on his face.
Oracle informed them that by the looks of it, the shadow before them was nothing they haven’t handled before, and Joker was pretty sure he had a Persona with a curse ability to target its weakness.
The air shifted, but Skull was too antsy to pick up on it. It was easy to chalk it up to the energy stored in his limbs, and how badly he needed to release it. It had been a while since he summoned his Persona, what with being too busy with initiating Futaba into the team for the past week and softening her resolve against the world outside of her PC.
Joker cast a curse spell onto it, but it didn’t send the shadow to the ground like it had with the others they’ve seen previously.
Oracle muttered into their intercoms, “That’s weird, I have it listed in the system with a Curse weakness. Looks like it’s gonna be a little difficult if it’s a wildcard-- try Psychokinesis when you can!”
Jokers turn was up, and he was the only one with the Psy skill. Instead, he instructed Ryuji to try zapping it with a hefty bout of electricity in an attempt to elicit a reaction out of it that would provide some clues.
Other than it’s weakness not matching its companions, the shadow was off in more ways than one. It was uncharacteristically still, not even offering a sway to indicate a life behind its dimmed eyes. Its copies were usually bright with light, from their glowing aura and misty appearance, whereas this one's skin cracked with dryness at the spaces where distorted limb met with distorted limb.
“Could this be…?” Mona muttered under his breath, but not before Joker instructed him to send a gust of Magaru towards the shadow. No, it couldn’t…
However, before Mona could conjure the wind spell, the shadow lifted it’s head.
“Mona, hold,” Joker said, stiffening his posture. It was unlike Mementos to be so silent that the air flow felt like it had stopped completely.
There wasn’t time to absorb the scene properly before it began to suddenly unfold; The shadows' eyes grew blindingly bright in a couple of moments, catching the party off guard.
Mona should have realized sooner.
“GET OUTTA THE WAY!” he yelled, his and Ann’s catlike agility allowing them to jump out the way and behind Mementos debris in time. The rest had been watching from their own posts, ready to jump in in place of the initial party if need be.
The shadow wasn’t interested in them, though. It had trained the growing, too-bright light towards Joker and Skull, who had their arms thrown up over their eyes to shield them from getting blinded.
Ryuji couldn’t remember exactly what happened after that.
He was on the ground, thrown unceremoniously so. Every heaving breath he forced through his lungs intensified the ache at his side where he landed, but he couldn’t manage enough air to lessen the pain. God, he definitely wasn’t leaving Mementos without a couple of bruises to show for it.
He couldn’t feel Skull’s mask where it usually rested over his eyes; it probably fell off of his face when he was dropped. A groan escaped his lips when he tried to push himself up using his arms, and he realized how dry his mouth was.
Joker wasn’t faring any better. He was probably thrown onto his right leg with how intensely it throbbed at him, but the pain wasn’t too different from how the rest of his body felt every time he made to move.
Dust. There was dust billowing like a fog around them when he opened his eyes, probably the impact of the shadow raising it at the intensity of the blow it sent at him and Skull. Or did it levitate them into the air and drop them onto the ground? Joker found himself not being able to recall the details after another wave of pain pulsed through his leg.
His eyelids felt heavy, tear ducts overflowing with how intensely the dust gathered in them and he closed them again. His head felt too fuzzy to think about anything else but how his body ached, and every time he thought he was feeling better, he’d be gifted with a fresh wave of pain to remind him of it.
“Akira!” came the worried cry from Ann, code names be damned. The dust must have cleared out as he became aware of the nearing pad of the heels, the team running over to where he presumed he and Ryuji were.
With how Ann yelled his name first, Akira expected her signature heels to clack over to him first, but instead he heard her drop to her knees on his… right.
He didn’t mind her checking up on Ryuji first, but he could have sworn Ryuji was on his left in the party when they began fighting...
The shadow jostled them up, that was for sure.
Instead, Akira heard Makoto’s armor clang over his head and a hand came to rest on the side of his face.
“Ryuji, you there?” she asked, voice straining with worry.
Ryuji…
“Huh?” Akira grunted, wondering why she was addressing him as…
Makoto sighed in relief at a response, though she hadn’t noticed Akira’s confusion yet.
“Why the hell’re you callin’ me Akira?”
It was Ryuji’s tone of speech, but it sounded wrong in Akira’s voice.
No, wait, that was… that was Akira’s voice! But if Ryuji was there, and he was here…
“There’s no way that we’re…” Akira said slowly, but low and behold, his words came out in the voice of Ryuji.
It was jarring to open your eyes and see your own slumped body on the ground instead of your teammates.