Chapter Text
Goro Akechi was dead. That was the logical conclusion to the sparse number of memories he had retained. It hadn’t been too difficult to figure out. Akechi had been a detective after all (another thing he’d managed to remember). Everything else, though, was still a blur. There’d been a bald man, a girl with red hair and a man in a lab coat that pissed him the hell off for whatever reason. But they were vague shapes in the back of his mind, voices that sounded like conversations in the distance. Like words that had faded on the page.
Then there was the boy with the black hair. His right hand reached for the notebook stuffed in the pocket of his stark white coat’s pocket, pulling it out and flipping to the page about the black-haired boy like it was routine.
Akechi’s memories often centred around the boy. The vignettes that would manifest in the background of his mind all focussed on him. But still, Akechi’s sketches lacked definition. Lacked definable features. Shaggy, black hair over a thin face, locks that framed his equally raven-black spectacles. But nothing else dared to manifest. The boy was a recurring shadow in the middle of the well-lit rooms that made up his remaining memories.
He let his fingers drag along one of the sketches for a moment, lost in the fragments of memories at his fingertips. But he stopped himself, hesitant to let himself stop for too long, before closing the notebook and stuffing it back into his coat.
Akechi continued walking, his gaze along the endless railways. He’d been wandering that place for what had felt like forever. Eternity walking through railway-laden corridors, turning corners hoping to reach a destination he never did. He felt no hunger. He didn’t feel tired. But it never ended.
The name of the place had finally popped into his head a few months ago, another memory scavenged from the recesses of his mind; Mementos. He hadn’t known what it meant, and he still didn’t. But he had his own interpretation. He was in hell. He had died and been sent to wander the railways for eternity. And his insecurity in that interpretation was the real punishment.
Some days, when he felt a memory begin to surface, Akechi would stop wandering the halls. He would come to a stop, and sit down with his back against the wall, pulling out his notebook to jot everything down. It became a ritual. Write down the pieces. Try to connect the dots. Move on, repeat. And eventually, when it all worked out, solve the case. The Goro Akechi Case. The case of his own life.
That’s how he’d figured out the sparse few facts he had remembered. His past as a detective. His name. His residence in Tokyo. But that had been the extent. Glimpses of hope between endless bouts of wandering. Those glimpses had been the only thing keeping him going.
Eternity resumed. Akechi walked like the Messiah through the desert, though with markedly less trust that he would reach his destination any time soon, or any time at all. The metaphor ran through his head and he chuckled at the sheer self-aggrandizement his mind had concocted. Akechi didn’t know where it came from, but it came naturally. Another case to solve. He-
Akechi stopped dead in his tracks. He heard something. He heard something. For the first time since his awakening, Akechi had heard something that wasn’t the sound of his own voice, the moaning of ghastly voices, or the creaking of the great halls of Mementos. The sounds of battle. He pulled into a sprint almost instantly.
Akechi moved faster than he had since this eternity had started. It wasn’t want. It wasn’t motivation. It was instinct. His body pulled him towards the sound of battle, of chaos. A need to investigate, Akechi reasoned. It made sense. Mementos had been an eternity of silence. This was out of the ordinary. An aberration. Maybe, perhaps, if someone else was here, if someone else had entered… that meant there was a way out?
He suppressed his hopes and kept sprinting, until he eventually turned another corner and found it. There, further up the wide-spaced hallway, were people. Real, genuine, people. The kind Akechi had literally not seen since he could remember. It was like he could feel his heart beating faster, pounding harder, a reaction of… excitement? Akechi couldn’t tell. His body was reacting to the stimuli on autopilot.
Akechi moved in closer, approached for a better look. Find out what exactly was happening there, down that great hall. There were three people, caught in an engagement with… something. Akechi couldn’t tell what it was. It was green, slick-skinned but rugged and far too large. Like a frog blown far out of proportion, large, lumbering, stomping around and making the ground shake with its every movement. A disgusting beast with a name he did not know.
He shifted his gaze to the people. There was a girl clad in pitch black, a long, flowing overcoat over a nimble frame, moving fast and weaving between the beast’s strikes. She wielded a scythe, red and black and shifting in shape as she swung it, her attacks landing but barely doing any visible damage to the beast.
There was another girl. Shorter, thinner, and moving even faster, skin inhumanly fair, white like a pearl. She was dressed like a ballerina, outfit woven from cold and pastel colours, whites and blues making up the bulk of her colour scheme. When she moved, she looked almost like the wind, Akechi thought, poking small holes in the giant frog’s skin, but once again not doing any major damage.
And then, there was the girl with the red hair. Akechi’s mind flashed back to the red-haired girl in his memories, but this girl sported lighter, more orange hair, short with bangs covering her forehead. She wore a blue suit that made her look like a cross between a superhero and a wizard, and the pink platform she was flying around on cemented that image.
Akechi was close enough to hear them, now, and their dynamic as a team quickly became clear. The redhead was the leader, commanding the scythe-wielder and the ballerina as she pelted the enemy with her magic.
The redhead floated around the battlefield with nimble control over her platform, pelting the beast with light attacks that would distract it, allowing the scythe-wielder and the ballerina to get their attacks in. But the beast seemed to only incur more anger from their attacks, each of them barely leaving a scratch. It lashed out around itself with heavy swings, lumbering and surely powerful, but too slow to hit their targets. To Akechi, it looked like a stalemate.
The scythe-wielder seemingly wanted to change that.
“We’re not making any fuckin’ progress like this!” She yelled out, dashing back out of the beast’s distance to take in the situation.
“Just follow the plan, Scarlet! Trust me!” The sorcerer reprimanded her, floating to the other side of the beast and getting its attention to take the pressure off the ballerina.
“Fuck your plan!” The girl to whom the name seemingly belonged yelled back. She summoned her scythe back into her hand and dashed forward, ready to attack the beast as it had its back turned to her. She got close, pulled her weapon back with all the intent to attack. But the beast had seen her coming, or at least expected her headstrong approach, and countered with a stomp of both its hind legs.
The ground beneath its feat cratered, and the impact propagated forward like a wave. Scarlet was caught off guard, still in the motion of her sprint, and the attack sent her flying back on her ass, hitting the ground a few meters away, dazed and certainly confused.
She propped herself up on her elbows, her vision hazy but good enough to quickly spot that the beast was headed in her direction. She tried to crawl back, but knew damn well the beast was moving far faster than her. She braced for impact, but it ended up being for naught. As the ballerina stepped between her and the beast.
“Pearl, no!” Gwen yelled out, only able to watch as Pearl lunged forward with the tip of her rapier. Scarlet pushed herself up to her feet as quickly as she could, tried to move, tried to get Pearl out of the way. The monster opened its massive maw in the middle of its charge, and before Pearl had a chance to react, it wrapped its writhing tongue around her mid-riff and pulled her into its mouth.
“Scarlet, down!” She practically screamed, and Scarlet heeded her command instantly this time. The redhead cast her hand forward, and a beam of pink light came from her palm and went right over Scarlet’s back. It hit the beast between its eyes, the beam splitting on impact like a stream of water, and it struggled backward, trying to fight against the force. And soon enough, it lost the battle. It was flung back of its feet, blasted into the wall and cratering it on impact.
Scarlet rose back to her feet, turning to face the redhead with a huff as she crossed her arms. “Humor me, Gwen. Could you have done that the whole time?”
“Not until you were both in the clear. And until I knew how impervious that thing’s skin was. I had a plan, Scarlet. One I needed you to follow.”
“Pragmatic.”
“Careful.” Gwen corrected, stepping off her platform to stand before Scarlet. She crossed her arms to stare her down, and Scarlet seemed to almost flinch as Gwen stood over her, though she kept her composure. “One of us has to be.”
“Back off, Tennyson. You’re not the boss of-”
Gwen’s eyes went wide, and she pushed Scarlet out of her way out of pure instinct. Scarlet fell on her ass, dismayed and not so slightly angry, only to witness why Gwen had done what she’d done with her own eyes. Gwen dashed forward, cast an arm forward as she placed herself between Scarlet and the monster. The monster charged into the shield, and a massive shockwave rocked the hallway.
“I am done with you!” Gwen yelled out, stepping back from her shield and bringing her hand to her forehead. Blue flames erupted from her palm, and a shock of memory shot through Akechi’s mind. She sucked in a quick breath, and let a single word erupt from her lips.
“Persona!”
Akechi fell to his knees at Gwen's utterance, and his hands shot to his head. There was a pounding, hard and fast. The rushing of memories back into his conscious mind. Words, voices, so many voices, and names. Arsene, Captain Kidd, Goemon, so many that his brain could hardly keep up. Like putting too much air in a balloon, it felt like his mind was soon to burst apart. And then, his own voice appeared, a memory at the forefront of his mind. A single name. Two words that shook quietude into his struggling mind.
“Robin Hood…” He mumbled, slumped forward on his knees, breathing heavy and belaboured. His mind was calm again, a new set of memories unlocked. He pushed himself back to his feet, his body heavy like a crossbar, hard to move and harder to order to do anything else. But it yielded under Akechi’s command, and through the haze and the blur, he found himself standing upright once again.
Akechi looked ahead, and found the two remaining fighters on the backfoot. Scarlet was more aggressive than before, skittering around the battlefield like a fidgeting cockroach. But it was a defensive measure, and a gamble to not get hit. Gwen herself was still floating around the beast, but she looked sapped—that beam attack had taken a toll on her, and the beast was still standing. They weren’t gonna be able to beat that thing. Not if Akechi didn’t step in.
He found his voice back on his tongue, found his body reinvigorated. And he parted his lips to speak the name that had inserted itself back into his mind. He straightened his back, cast his hand forward like a command and yelled it out.
“Robin Hood!”
Blue flames erupted from Akechi’s hand, moved up and forward and shaped into a humanoid form, top-heavy and barrel-chested. It formed into something more corporeal, a being many times larger than Akechi himself, floating just before him. Red, white and blue colours mixed into what looked like a pastiche of a superhero, wielding a great bow crafted from gold. Akechi didn’t have time to take in its eminence, pointing his finger at the frog-beast down the hallway and shouting another command.
“Kougaon!”
Robin Hood heeded, pulled its bow back as an arrow manifested into the spot meant for it, a projectile conjured from what looked like pure light. The light intensified, and the projectile turned more solid, a process that continued until Robin Hood had pulled the string all the way back. And at that apex, it let go.
The arrow of light soared through the great hall, large and luminous, lighting up its immediate surroundings as it moved. And it moved fast, bridged the distance between Akechi and the battle in a second flat, before hitting the frog-beast in its exposed side. And it didn’t stop there. It pierced the beast’s skin, sunk deep into its body and came out the other side, travelling further down the great hall like the beast hadn’t even been there.
And the beast stood for another second. Until its knees gave way and it sank to the floor.
Scarlet was standing in front of the beast, gaze on its soon-to-rot carcass. Her head snapped in Akechi’s direction, and she yelled out.
“Who the fuck are you!?”
She turned her head to Gwen, who’d been hovering on the other side of the beast, and yelled again.
“Who the fuck is that guy?”
Gwen… Gwen was confused. And judging by the look on her face, that was something that didn’t happen often to her. “I… I don’t know.”
Robin Hood disappeared, and Akechi began approaching Scarlet and Gwen, speaking as he walked toward them. “You can call me Crow.” He flashed them a dashing smile, and Scarlet almost belched at the sight of his posturing.
“This dude has a fuckin’ nickname.”
“Cut it out, Scar.” Gwen said, and Scarlet groaned, crossing her arms and turning her gaze to Akechi with a roll of her eyes. “Seriously, who are you?”
“So many questions for the guy who just saved your lives.” Akechi finally reached a normal speaking distance, tilting his head and pinching his eyes. “How about this: why don’t you tell me who you are first?”
“No way, dude-”
“I’m Gwen, this is Scarlet.” Gwen cut Scarlet off, and Scarlet scoffed in utter disbelief. "I'm a sorcerer, she's a Grim Reaper-” “The Grim Reaper!” Scarlet corrected her. “Also, not cool to just-” “The Grim Reaper. We've both been roped into a mysterious game by an anonymous game master. We’ve lost two of our team members, and we’re not sure if we can make it out.” Akechi blinked. And he blinked again. “You're surprisingly forthcoming.” “It's because she's an idiot.” Gwen groaned. "Look. This game is dangerous. We can't afford to make enemies, especially not while we have one foot in the gutter. Whether you're an opponent, or someone entirely disconnected from these games, we need your help.” “Wait, wha- hold on!” Scarlet jogged up to Gwen, stood beside her ready to protest. “You don't just get to make this decision on your own, Gwen. We should at least talk about i-” “Why would I want to join your little team?” Of course Akechi wanted to join them. If they were here for this game, that meant they weren't normally here. That they came from outside Mementos. And if they came in, they could go back out. That was reason enough. But he couldn’t let them know that.
“Because I know that you want to leave this place. You want to get out of Mementos.”
Akechi froze. Gwen’d just read his intentions like a book. He tried not to show his shock, though he did squint.
“We can help you do that. If you help us win this game.”
“Gwen, please.” Scarlet tried to get her attention, grabbed at her shoulder, gaze skittering between Gwen and Akechi as she spoke. “I know we’re outnumbered now, but… but this guy. I don’t know about him.”
“Scar.” Gwen’s head snapped to Scarlet, and Scarlet almost winced. “Your judgment got Pearl… it got Pearl killed. Do you even care about that?”
“Of course, I care, but… there are more important things right now. One of those things is that I don’t trust this guy.”
“Jesus.” Gwen looked away, returning her gaze back to Akechi. “Please. Take this deal. We can help you. But you need to help us too.”
Akechi sucked in a breath through his nose, eyes still squinting slightly, trying to appear like he was still thinking. But he’d made up his mind. And with a big sigh, he let his arms drop to his sides and spoke.
“So… how do we win this game?”
A game. Who was running it? They didn’t know. What would they get upon winning? They didn’t know that either. Akechi was beginning to think Gwen and Scarlet didn’t know anything, but he’d noted the few facts they’d been able to tell him in his notebook.
The games were called The Butterfly Games. This anonymous game master had created teams of four to compete in these games, it had been the first thing they’d heard from him over the payphone. That was another thing, they’d all been contacted over the payphone—Akechi did not remember those still existing in the first place—, told that someone close to them had been kidnapped, and that unless they played along, they would kill them. They hadn’t explained how many teams there were, but Gwen had made the assumption that there were many more. They’d seen one enemy team, but had managed to get away before without notice.
What was the game? The voice had called it a test, a test of all the contestants’ skills. They had been sent into Mementos, which had been contorted into a maze, and tasked with finding the exit. Meanwhile, the place had been filled with monsters, and two hunters with one goal; hunting down every player.
“We’ve seen one of the hunters.” Gwen said, leading the group of three further down the great halls. “A man in black armor, something like a samurai but-”
“Edgier.” Scarlet finished her sentence with a chuckle. “He’s actually scary, though. We do not want to get caught off guard by him.”
“Why?” Akechi asked.
“Because he took that entire team out on his own. They could barely touch him. When he touches you, you turn to ice.” Gwen explained. “If we meet him, we should focus on escaping.”
“You don’t think we can take him?” Scarlet countered, the smirk on her face obvious just from the tone of her voice.
“No.” Gwen’s answer came quick, and Scarlet rolled her eyes in response. “And we shouldn’t try. Unless you’re that willing to get someone else killed. Or yourself, for that matter.”
Scarlet groaned, crossing her arm and throwing a death stare at the back of Gwen’s head. After another few moments in silence, she sighed and turned her gaze to Akechi. She gave him a once-over, scowl still on her face, until she found the question she’d been meaning to ask.
“So, what’s your story, Crow?”
“Is this necessary?” Gwen asked.
“Yes, it is!” Scarlet threw back. “We’ve been telling this dude our goddamn life stories, and we still don’t know anything about him other than an obviously fake nickname! How about we start with this; how the fuck does someone get stuck in Mementos? If you can get in, you can get out. So how did that happen?”
Gwen groaned, but didn’t argue back this time. Akechi chuckled.
“I thought you were supposed to be a team. Do you ever agree with each other?”
“No.” Scarlet answered.
“Sometimes.” Gwen answered at the same time.
“Conclusive.” Akechi smiled. “Alright, I’ll acquiesce to your request and tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Goro Akechi, not Crow. I was known as the great second coming of the Detective Prince in my day, before I… before I ended up here.”
Crickets. Neither Gwen nor Scarlet seemed to know what he was talking about. Gwen was the first to levy any kind of response.
“The great what?”
“Never mind.” Akechi sighed.
“Okay then,” Scarlet interjected. “how about actually answering my question next?”
“I don’t remember how I got here.” It was a half-truth. Akechi knew how he’d ended up here—he’d died. But he didn’t know why. “I was… I simply woke up here, maybe a year ago, with my memory missing. And I’ve been wandering these halls since, piecing together what little I remember in my notebook.”
Gwen looked back at him, surprise at the forefront of her eyes. “Sorry. You’ve been here for a year?”
“Maybe longer. Days and nights aren’t easy to distinguish in this place. They might not even exist here.”
“And you don’t remember anything from who you were?” Scarlet asked.
“Nothing except what I’ve already told you.” Akechi sighed, crossing his arms behind his back. “Does that satisfy your curiosity?”
“I guess…” Scarlet mumbled, eyes squarely on the floor, though sometimes skittering up to look at Akechi. Watching him. Like she was scared he might act. That he might attack them. Akechi didn’t get it. “I get why you wanna get out of here, though. I don’t think I could last a week in this place without wanting to claw my eyes out.”
“Aren’t you the Grim Reaper?”
“Yes. But at least Hell has people in it. And Satan.” Scarlet chuckled. “It’s really not that bad once you get used to it. Most layers aren’t, at least.”
“I doubt that very much.” Gwen said. “Quiet down, though. I feel we’re getting close.”
“Close to what?”
“The exit.” Gwen explained. “Don’t you feel it?”
Akechi and Scarlet exchanged a knowing glance, before Scarlet took the lead on answering. “Nope. Don’t feel a thing.”
“I definitely feel it. A low rumbling in my bones. We’re almost there.” Gwen jogged ahead, moving to the edge of the turn coming up in the hall. Scarlet was quick to follow, taking her place next to Gwen as she peeked around the corner.
“You see anything, boss?” Scarlet whispered, trying to peek around Gwen as Akechi caught up behind the two of them. Gwen pulled back around the corner and shot Scarlet a worried look. Scarlet pulled her head back. “That bad?”
“He’s there.”
“Who’s there?” Akechi asked.
“Shit.” Scarlet backed off, rubbed her forehead as she turned her gaze to Akechi. “Samurai guy. He’s waiting for us.”
“That’s not good.” Akechi nodded, bringing his hand to his chin like he was weighing up their options. “Do you have a plan?” He asked, turning his gaze to Gwen. Gwen looked back with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you have a plan? You’re the detective.”
“And you’re the boss.”
Gwen chuckled. “Well, as it happens, I do have a plan.” She turned her eyes to Scarlet. “And you’re gonna follow it this time.”
Scarlet rolled her eyes.
Akechi waltzed down the hall leading to the exit to Mementos on his own, hands stuffed lazily in his coat’s pockets. He stared ahead and found the exit pretty quickly, though it certainly hadn’t been hidden all too well. It was a large, circular portal, flat against the far wall, conjured from a red magic that looked strangely ominous. Akechi couldn’t see through to the other side, but he still knew it was the way out. He couldn’t feel it like Gwen could, but he could hear it. And to someone trapped in isolation for so long, the simple sounds of traffic felt like a taste of heaven.
But the hunter was there, as Gwen had told them. He stood tall, even taller than both Akechi and Gwen, chest puffed out like a bodybuilder. A menace in the flesh, standing tall in his black armour and spikes along his arms. Akechi wasn’t scared but… the man certainly looked imposing. He hoped Gwen’s plan would work out. Akechi called out to the man.
“Hey! I think I might be lost?” He yelled, waving at the armoured man as he walked. “I’m trying to find the way out of here, do you think you could help me!?”
The man stared him down, unwavering in his stance as Akechi approached. He remained there in silence for a few moments, his eyes presumably taking Akechi in, analysing him, though he couldn’t find his pupils behind the darkness of his mask. Eventually, he broke his own silence.
“Who are you?” He demanded.
“I was about to ask you the same thing!”
“I am Oroku Saki! I am The Shredder!” He set a foot forward, accenting the announcement of his name and title with a loud stomp. “I am an arbiter of this game! And you… you are not supposed to be here.”
“That’s exactly why I’m trying to find the way out! This place is very confusing to navigate.” Akechi stopped a few meters ahead of Shredder, crossing his arms and staring the man down. Shredder groaned. “I get the feeling you’re upset with me.”
“Leave.” Shredder unsheathed the sword at his hip, grasping it with both hands and slowly moving into a stance ready for battle. “You are not part of this game. Don’t insert yourself into it. Or you will quickly come to regret it.”
“I’m sorry.” Akechi tilted his head, pursed his lips. “But I’m a detective at heart. And this case is just too lucrative to ignore. Isn’t that right, Gwen?” He looked to the right, and Shredder’s own gaze followed suit. And there stood Gwen, just emerging from her previous invisibility.
“Increto!” She yelled out, and before Shredder had a chance to react, chains of purple magic erupted from the floor beneath him, tying his arms down to tether him to the ground.
“No!” He roared, wrestling against the chains holding him down.
“This is our chance, let’s go!” Gwen said, beginning to run in the direction of the exit portal. Akechi was quick to follow. But Scarlet, who’d been standing behind Gwen, was ever the rebel.
“You fucking wish!” Scarlet shouted back. She broke formation, and Gwen’s head snapped around, eyes wide as she watched Scarlet rush at the bound Shredder.
“Stop, Scarlet, dammit!” Gwen ground to a halt, her shoes producing sparks as she turned on a dime. She sped past Akechi, fast enough for him to feel the wind slap him across the face. But Scarlet was faster.
“I’m getting this kill, and you’re not stopping me!” She cast her arm to the side, and the scythe she’d been wielding earlier formed in her hand once again, an amalgam of some kind of red energy. To Akechi, It looked like the same kind of energy as Gwen’s magic, though obviously of a different hue. She reached Shredder in no time flat, raised her scythe above her head to strike, and brought it down with a-
Snap!
Gwen’s chains snapped. Scarlet’s eyes went wide. And Shredder grabbed the Reaper by the throat before her attack had a chance to connect.
“F-fuck!” Scarlet grumbled out through choked breaths as the towering Shredder lifted her into the air. And she couldn’t get another word out, as her body instantly turned to a Scarlet-shaped icicle.
“Let her go!” Gwen screamed out, casting her right hand forward as she continued to make a dash for Shredder. Shredder turned his head in her direction, watching as an aura of purple magic manifested around her hand. Before she could cast her spell, Shredder gripped Scarlet’s neck tighter and threw her at Gwen.
Scarlet hit like a brick, fell to the ground like one too. Gwen herself, still mid-sprint and too unstable to stay on her feet, was flung back, right through the gigantic portal. Right out of Mementos. Akechi’s gaze returned to Shredder, and found the hulking samurai already staring right back at him.
As Shredder raised his blade up again, centred his attention on Akechi, he considered his two branching paths.
His gaze went to the portal first. Open. The key to freedom. Sweet, precious, freedom. The thing he’d been craving for eternity. For, quite literally, as long as he could remember. The way back to the land of the living.
Then, there was Scarlet. He looked at her, her frozen being. Trapped in ice. If he were to leave now, he’d be leaving her for dead. But what did that matter to him? He barely knew her. And judging from everything she’d said before, she would’ve been just as eager to leave him for dead, had their roles been reversed. To choose herself over everyone else. Who’d blame Akechi if he were to do the same?
But there was the boy with the black hair. The one that always existed in the back of his mind. The boy he wanted so badly to remember. The one that spoke to him not in words but in feelings. And he’d made the decision for Akechi before he’d even realized it.
Akechi pulled the rapier off his hip, levied it at Shredder and spoke. “I’m going to retrieve my friend. And if you get in my way, then I will go through you.”
“Ha.” Shredder didn’t sound all too impressed. “I would like to see you try.”
“I don’t need to try.” Akechi sucked in a subtle breath. And he dashed forward like a bullet.
Shredder was slow to react, caught off guard by the sudden movement, but managed to move his blade in time to block the thrust of Akechi’s rapier. Shredder didn’t budge, but he was shaken, caught off-guard. And that was perfect for Akechi to deliver a follow-up.
He stepped back, feinted Shredder into thinking he was backing off, into letting his guard up. And Shredder did, raised his sword into the sky ready to swing it down. Exactly like Akechi had anticipated. He shot forward like a spring, the tip of his rapier aimed at Shredder’s chest.
And Shredder caught his blade with his hand before it could hit.
Akechi stumbled forward, still leaned over, and wrenched his head up to see Shredder with the tip of his blade pinched in the palm of his hand.
“Nice try.”
Shredder gripped his sword tighter, before tossing it to the side—and Akechi along with it. Akechi flew through the air, limbs swinging around helplessly. He couldn’t stop his own momentum, at least not quick enough to do something before he hit the floor. And hit the floor he did. The impact winded him, and he rolled along the ground a few more meters before eventually coming to a halt.
“Dammit…” Akechi groaned. He pulled his face from the floor, propped himself up on his forearms to take in his new situation. Shredder was approaching again, slowly but surely. A confident stride—he didn’t see Akechi was a real threat. Akechi hated that. Then, he found Scarlet.
He’d landed almost right next to her, and on the floor, their eyes met each other immediately, even though Scarlet’s were hidden behind ice. She was motionless, literally and utterly frozen, caught in the ice of the Shredder’s touch. Akechi reached a hand out instinctively, and when his fingers touched the ice, it reacted instantly. The shell melted away, and Scarlet fell those few inches to the floor with a soft thud.
“Ugh. Took you long enough, Gwe-” Scarlet lifted her gaze up from the floor, and found Akechi’s face rather than the one she’d been expecting. “What the- what the hell are you doing here?”
“I was hoping for gratitude. I stayed behind to help you out.”
“Jesus, alright. Thanks! I just wasn’t expecting you to come back for me.” Scarlet groaned, pushed herself to her knees, and found Shredder still approaching them. “We deal with him first, right?”
Akechi rose to his feet. “Yeah, just follow my lead.”
“Heh.” Scarlet rolled her eyes, and summoned her scythe back into her hands. “Like Hell I will.”
Scarlet shot forward again, and Akechi cursed under his breath as he watched her raise her scythe. She was gonna get herself frozen. She was going to get herself killed. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t let that happen.
“Robin Hood! Megidola!” Robin Hood formed again, pulled another arrow of light back, but now aimed into the sky before he let go. The arrow fired into the sky, and disappeared into nothingness as soon as it left. A rain of light arrows erupted above Shredder’s head, and he let out a menacing growl as the projectiles began to pepper him.
“Dammit!” Shredder pulled one of his hands from his sword’s grip, raising his arm above his head to block the incoming projectiles. That meant, as Scarlet moved in, he was forced to block her strikes with only one hand on his own sword. And her strikes were lightning fast. Scarlet was aggressive, and as he watched her fight, he almost believed that attitude was warranted.
She attacked like a wild bull, strikes that came frequently and did not stop coming. Aggressive, but surprisingly precise. Wild aggression as a cover for surgical precision in battle, at least that’s how Akechi reasoned what he was seeing. Unfortunately for her, even with his handicap Shredder was fast enough to catch most of her attacks, and even the ones that hit barely made dents in his armour.
“What! The! Fuck! Is! Your! Problem!” Each word punctuated a hit, and frustration was really starting to boil over in Scarlet’s attitude. She was on the verge of making a very, very dumb decision, Akechi felt it in his bones. He had to step in.
His mind went through his Persona’s spells. Though direct descriptions were hard to find, impressions of its abilities were still embedded in the burrows of his mind. And he found something useful.
“Scarlet, back off!” He yelled out, hand pressed back to the surface of his red mask.
“Yeah, no fuckin’ way!” Scarlet yelled out between continued, blocked strikes.
“Just listen to me!”
“Why would I-”
“If you don’t back off I’ll just have to go right through you instead!” Akechi cut her off, force in his voice that hadn’t been present before.
Scarlet threw a single glance back, the only movement she had time for without getting hit, and in that moment she made up her mind. One more strike, one more block
“Zionga!”
Robin took one of his hands off his bow, casting it forward like Gwen did when she cast her spells. And a lightning bolt erupted from the palm of his hand. Shredder was taken aback. He’d been dialled into Scarlet’s fighting style, her aggressive way of battle. Her inability—or simply unwillingness—to back off and rethink her strategy. So when she dashed back, he was frozen, if only for a moment. And that moment was long enough for Akechi’s plan to work.
A lightning bolt struck Shredder in the chest. He roared out something awful, stepping back from the sheer force of the hit. The attack had hurt, obviously. But the sound of his agony was punctuated by the equally beautiful sounds of metal breaking, and soon enough clattering to the floor. Akechi parted his lips to bark another command, but a smirk popped on Scarlet’s mouth and she’d blocked out his voice before he’d had a chance to speak.
She dashed forward, faster than Akechi could even see, and stopped just past Shredder. Shredder was frozen, in shock or in what, Akechi didn’t know. But when the top half of his body wrenched itself free from the bottom, and hit the ground with a wet splat, he’d found the answer to that question.
Akechi brought his gaze from the body on the floor to Scarlet, who was still standing there with her back facing Akechi. He opened his mouth to speak, but Scarlet raised her hand like she was telling him to pause.
“Wait. I’ll be right back.”
Scarlet disappeared. Akechi blinked. She had disappeared. He made a decision not to think about it, and turned his gaze to the exit portal. Great and towering, a sign of Akechi’s absolution. But he waited. He’d stayed behind for Scarlet already, what was the point of leaving without her, now. Only a second or two had passed, but Scarlet appeared right in front of him
Scarlet squinted slightly. “Huh. You actually waited.”
“You asked me to.”
Scarlet groaned, like Akechi had said something she didn’t believe. He had no idea what gave her that impression. “Look. I’m going to tell you something, and I’m only gonna tell it to you once, so you better listen.”
She approached him before another word could fall from his mouth, and placed her index finger in the hollow of his chest. An accusatory gesture, though Akechi had no idea what he was being accused of.
“I don’t trust you. Not for a fucking second.” She locked eyes with Akechi, and Akechi stared back unperturbed. “This whole… amnesiac thing, I don’t know if it’s an act or not, and honestly I don’t even care. You’re an enigma either way, and the fact that you were trapped here in Mementos confirms for me that it’s not the good kind. Aside from the whole…”
Scarlet trailed off for a moment, words lost in the back of her throat. She had almost revealed something she hadn’t meant to, Akechi had clocked it immediately. That was another mystery to solve.
“So, what? Are you going to leave me here?”
“No.” Scarlet’s answer came quick. “But I’ll be watching you. And if you hurt Gwen, or you hurt me, or anyone else I don’t tell you to hurt, I’m going to kill you. I won't even have to think about it. Do you understand that?”
Akechi stared back in silence. He didn’t answer. Scarlet took her finger off Akechi’s chest, turning her back to him as she made her way to the portal. “You’re a sinner, Goro Akechi. Maybe that should be the next mystery the great Detective Prince tries to solve.”
Scarlet stepped into the portal. And she was gone. Akechi was still staring at the portal, when he finally let out the breath he’d been holding. He brought his hands up into view, staring down at them as he wondered aloud.
“What did you do?”
Gwen had been waiting on that Bellwood curbside for too long. Way too long. She hadn’t been counting but it had felt like forever. Arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently on the tiles beneath her, she was staring into the portal like it was the most engaging entertainment in the world.
Scarlet and Akechi were still there, trapped in Mementos. Last she’d seen, Scarlet was trapped in ice, and Gwen hadn’t been able to help her. She’d kicked herself for it, but she couldn’t go back in. That had been one of the rules the man on the payphone had given them, and Gwen wasn’t one to tempt the ire of this being. Not before she knew exactly who it was, at the very least.
Gwen pulled herself out of her thoughts when a foot stepped out. She held her breath, waiting for a fell body to exit, and quickly let it out when Scarlet stepped out onto the curb.
“Hey, I-”
Gwen jogged up to Scarlet, pulling her into a hug before Scarlet had a chance to finish her sentence. Scarlet almost pushed her off out of instinct, but let an arm settle on Gwen’s back instead. She’d been tense before, though some of that melted away under Gwen’s touch.
“Are you good?” Scarlet asked, eyebrows raised in clear confusion. Gwen pulled slightly, Scarlet still held in her tight embrace, and she found Scarlet’s eyeline.
“I’m just… I’m glad you’re alive.” Gwen locked eyes with her, and Scarlet had a hard time keeping that eye contact, the urge to look away itching in the back of her mind. “I’ve seen enough people die today, Scarlet. I don’t know if I can take much more.”
Scarlet sighed, and wormed her way out of Gwen’s embrace, crossing her arms like it was routine. She looked away, didn’t let Gwen look her in the eyes again. “Well, I’m fine. So no need to cry about it.”
Gwen opened her mouth to speak again, but Akechi stepped out of the portal behind Scarlet before she could. Gwen’s gaze shot to him, walking out with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his brown coat.
“Did you stay behind to help her?”
“I didn’t need his help.” Scarlet interjected.
“She was an icicle.” Akechi scoffed. “She would’ve died if I hadn’t stayed behind.”
“Well, thank you.” Gwen smiled at him, and Akechi found it in himself to smile back. He looked away soon enough, turning his gaze to the clear window of the building he’d appeared next to, and found his own reflection. No longer was he clad in the red and white outfit from Mementos—instead he wore a brown, double breasted coat over a white dress shirt, the top of his tie poking out from behind his closed lapel. An outfit far more reminiscent of the detective he’d remembered himself being. A hand moved from his pocket to his chest, to touch the badge pinned to his lapel, when a voice froze him mid-movement.
“Contestants!” The voice was booming, large and low-pitched. So reverberant that it felt like it came from the core of Akechi’s own chest. He turned around, attempting to keep his cool like the voice hadn’t sent the hairs on his body into an upright position. He tried to find the source of the voice, following Scarlet’s and Gwen’s eyelines and stumbling upon… an electronic advertisement board. The type that normally displayed makeup advertisements, or ads for upcoming TV shows, on an endless loop. Instead, there stood a man on the screen, clad in white and with a mask across three quarters of his face. The mask, too, was white, though decorated with details that were reminiscent of butterfly wings, golden-yellow and effervescent.
“It seems you have made it out of Mementos.” He threw his hands up, a gesture seemingly meant for celebration.
“By the skin of our teeth, that is.” Gwen replied. The man tilted his head.
“This in and of itself is a victory, you must understand.” He crossed his arms. “There are many, many people who did not survive this game. You should be happy you are not among them.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it!” Scarlet spat back, approaching the advertisement with heavy stomps. “What the hell kind of ‘game’ is this any way? What kind of sicko comes up with this kinda stuff?”
“All will be revealed in due time. As for now, I can only tell you certain truths.” The man sighed. “I do mourn both losses your team has endured, and I understand this leaves you disadvantaged for the games yet to come. I see you have already secured one replacement for your missing members, but to make it entirely fair, I will provide you with one more to bring you back up to your starting number. But do take care; this is the last favour of this sort I will provide you. From here on out, you are on your own.”
The man turned his gaze back to the portal, and all three of them followed it like a command. One more foot stepped out, so hesitant and nervous that Akechi clocked it in their gait before they’d even stepped out. And out walked a boy, couldn’t have been older than 15, dressed in squire’s garb. Like he’d actually travelled from the past right to the present. Gwen shot in the kid’s direction almost instantly, quick to squat down by his side and introduce herself.
“Hey kid, who are you?”
“I-I am-”
The man on the screen spoke again. “This is Terence. He is the last of his team, and he is also the last contestant of this game to escape Mementos, just after you three. He is now the last member of your team.”
“This kid?” Scarlet side-eyed him before turning back to the screen. “There’s no way that’s fair.”
“First impressions don’t always tell the whole story, Scarlet.” Scarlet rolled her eyes. “And I believe that is all. Once again, congratulations on making it this far, it is already a step further than many before you have made it. I will contact you soon for the next game. In the meantime, find a place to rest. You will need it.”
The screen flickered. The man was gone. In his stead was an advertisement for Maybelline. And they were left in the relative silence of the Bellwood city streets. Gwen, still squatting in front of Terence, turned her head to Akechi and spoke.
“I have a place we can rest.”
Akechi stood at the windowsill of Gwen’s RV, staring out into the corn field it had been parked aside. Out of every type of domicile she could’ve lived in, an RV was the last thing Akechi would’ve bet his money on. Outside, in the shimmering lights of the setting sun, Gwen was teaching Terence some kind of magic spell, and the boy was listening attentively.
That was another enigma Akechi had quickly jotted down in his notebook. Terence, squire to the mythical Sir Gawain of the Roundtable. This had frozen Akechi’s mind dead in its tracks in two separate ways; one coping with the fact that Arthurian Myth had suddenly become very real, and the other trying to understand how the boy had come here from the sixth century. If here was even the word one would use when referring to time.
He pushed himself off the windowsill, beginning to head to the RV’s bedroom. He’d been walking for a year, he was due for a good sleep. And as he walked past a mirror, he caught a look in his own eyes that confirmed that fact instantly, bags deeper than the Mariana Trench, and nearing on darker, too.
He made his way to the triple bunk, slipping comfortably into the middle of the three beds—the top one had been claimed by Terence, and Scarlet said she liked sleeping low to the ground, whatever that meant—and laying his head on the pillow with a groan. He thought it would have taken longer, but Akechi was swept into a deep sleep not long after hitting the surface of his bed.
Akechi awoke as quickly as he’d fallen asleep. His eyes shot open, and he lifted himself off the floor he’d woken up on instead of the bed he’d fallen asleep in. Pupils wide, Akechi took in his surroundings and was… rightfully confused.
Blue, that was the first word that came to his mind. Incredibly, enigmatically, blue. Supernaturally blue. The hue resonated in the back of his mind, a strange thing for a colour to do, but he couldn’t place the memory exactly. It was only after he’d processed the overwhelming colour that he managed to take in the actual layout of the room.
It was a courtroom, that much he recognized. It felt familiar, and he understood why well enough. He’d been a detective, he must have been in places like this often enough. Testifying in court. It made sense, logically.
He pulled his gaze from the walls of the room to the far end, beyond the empty pews, and the defendant and prosecutor stands. And there, in the place of the judge, stood a man with his back turned. He was clad in blue, egalitarian coverage broken up only by the stark white hue of his hair. As Akechi laid his eyes on the man, it was like he sensed it, and he turned around to face Akechi.
“Ah, there he is!” The man cast an arm forward, a gesture as if in elation. “You know, I’ve been waiting for you.”
“W-what is this- who are you? And where am I?”
“I…” He brought his hand to his chest, pointing at himself as he continued. “… am Nero. And this…”
“… This is the Velvet Room.”