Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Phantom Chat

Skull: Guess who’s part of the graduating class of 2018!!!

Oracle: Dang, they really lowered their standards, huh?

Skull: Oh shut up! I worked hard for this!

Panther: It’s true, I can vouch for him. Honestly, I think I barely made it through, myself.

Queen: At least you two made it. I assume Ren had no such problems?

.It was all too easy

Oracle: Heh, leave it to Joker to show everyone up.

Fox: My own graduation went fine as well.

Noir: I am so proud of all of you! We should celebrate!

Skull: I like the sound of that. Summer break is coming up and all, and I’d like at least some more time to relax before college.

Queen: I don’t blame you. Last summer was really good to unwind for me, even if things got complicated.

.Saving the world is way more fun than school

Noir: I agree. The world is much easier to deal with when you can chop down your problems with an axe.

Panther: You worry me sometimes, Haru.

Queen: Anyway, how do we feel about having another trip together this summer?

Fox: I am always eager to travel. Where would we go?

Haru: A student club me and Makoto are in is having a study abroad program for the summer, over in Washington DC!

Panther: Ooh, the capital of the US? Count me in!

Skull: Hell yeah, sounds great! We can even go see Mount Rushmore!

Oracle: That’s in South Dakota, Ryuji.

Skull: I mean, it can’t be that far, right?

Oracle sent US map.png

Skull: Oh… damn, America is way bigger than I thought.

.I’m sure Haru could get us there fast

Queen: NO

Panther: NO

Oracle: NO

Skull: NO

Fox: I would rather not.

Noir: It wasn’t that bad…

Panther: But yeah, spending a vacation in DC sounds fun!

Noir: Don’t worry about ticket prices. The club is paying for mine and Makoto’s, but I’ll be happy to cover everyone else’s.

Oracle: Mona’s gonna have to ride in a pet carrier. I doubt they’d let Ren smuggle him in a backpack like usual.

.He’ll survive

Skull: The cat’s complaining about it, isn’t he?

.Yes

Queen: So, shall we all meet up at Leblanc at the end of the week, same as usual?

Oracle: I’ll let Sojiro know everyone’s coming. Make sure he has curry hot and ready.

Fox: Should we reach out to Sophia or Zenkichi, as well?

Panther: Nah, I’m sure they’re both really busy with their own things. Sophie and Ichinose are still traveling around Japan, and I doubt cops would get the summer off like we do.

Skull: Ah, well, we’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures for them. I’m so excited! We’re coming, DC!

“Yeah! I’m gonna go to high school!”

Zenkichi laughed at how hyped Akane was. He had just picked her up from her last day in middle school, a fact that made him a bit sad when he stopped and thought about it too much. She was growing up so fast…

“Think you can handle it?” he asked her. “High school is gonna be way harder than middle school, you know.

“Pfft, you saw my grades!” she bragged. “It’ll be a piece of cake!”

Zenkichi just laughed. “Well, you still have another summer to get through before then. What do you want to do?”

Akane turned to him, wide eyed. “Can we go on a trip? I wanna visit Tokyo!”

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Let me guess, wanna try and retrace the steps of those Phantom Thieves!”

“Yeah! It’ll be great!”

Zenkichi sighed and shook his head. If only she knew…

“There’s more to see than just Tokyo, Akane,” he lectured. “There’s a small town named Inaba that’s supposed to have a really neat hotel and set of shrines. Maybe we could go there instead.”

Akane tried to pout, but she couldn’t keep her excitement fully hidden.

Before he could tease her more about where to go, Zenkichi’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He sighed and fished it out before answering without looking. “Hasegawa speaking.”

“ Detective Hasegawa, I hope you’re doing well.”

Zenkichi felt equal parts relaxed and anxious. On the one hand, Commissioner Kaburagi was a friend and ally, someone he trusted very much in his line of work, especially after last year. Then again, her calling meant work, especially when she called him detective. “Yeah, just picked up Akane from school. What’s up?”

“ Don’t worry, it’s not anything serious this time.”

He sighed in relief. He was propelled into a bit of a work frenzy following his arrest of Owada, which was very good for securing pay raises and a bit of prestige within the police, but not so good for giving himself free time. At least Akane didn’t seem to mind.

“ We got a call earlier today from a police commissioner in the USA, ” Kaburagi explained. “ Garrett, currently working on a high profile case in Washington DC. Apparently he saw your track record, and wanted to extend an invitation for you to come over and assist briefly, provide an extra set of eyes in case they missed something. ”

“Huh.” Zenkichi drove in silence for a bit. “So, I’m being loaned out?”

Kaburagi chuckled. “ In a way. Of course, you will be compensated for your time overseas, and it is fully up to you if you wish to go in the first place. Garrett even admitted to me that he would not blame you if you couldn’t help much, so think of this as a fully paid vacation offer. You could even bring Akane with you, if you wish. ”

Zenkichi glanced at his daughter and smiled. “You know what? That sounds like a great idea.”

“ Excellent. I will send the details for the flight shortly. Safe travels, Detective. ”

He hung up and put the phone back in his pocket. Akane was practically falling out of her seat in anticipation. “Was that work?”

“Well, yes, but they had some good news this time,” he said. “You wanted to go on a trip, how does flying out to America sound?”

Akane’s fevered excitement filled the car for the rest of the ride home.

The sound of rhythmic clicks and clacks echoed through the dark building. A yawn cut through the noise as a suited figure walked into the armory, the only room with the lights on at this hour.

“You’re up early, Chains,” Dallas said.

The large man nodded and kept working on the guns in front of him. “Couldn’t sleep. Been too much on edge. Figured I’d get a head start on checking our guns.”

“Be careful you don’t clean them too much, we don’t need to polish away all the polymer.”

Chains rolled his eyes. “Just need something to do, man. Between Bain being gone, Locke insisting we lay low, and whatever the hell Duke is talking about from those boxes we got, I feel like I’d go crazy real fuckin’ quick without a distraction.”

Dallas glanced up at the kitchen, where he could barely see a corner of one of those boxes from where he stood. “Yeah, I don’t blame you. I don’t know what the hell Bain was getting involved with behind our backs.”

“How are the others doing?” Chains asked. He slammed another magazine in place and began disassembling the next rifle.

“About the same as us, honestly. Itching for action, wanting to do something instead of just waiting.”

“Why not hit a bank? Low stakes, keeps us sharp, like old times.”

Dallas shook his head. “You know we can’t take that risk. We all got targets on our asses right now. Any time we poke our head out, there’s a chance someone else isn’t coming home.” He sighed. “I lost Hox once, and now we lost Bain. I’m not losing anyone else if I can help it.”

Chains swore under his breath as part of his glove got briefly caught under a corner of the rifle’s recoil spring. “I hear you, man. Rock and a hard place.”

“Just hope Bain’s still alive. That Dentist bastard wanted to taunt us with him, but I don’t see why he’d keep him alive this long.”

Chains smirked. “My guess is, the Dentist wants to know something Bain knows about all that mystical shit, and he hasn’t cracked yet.”

Dallas nodded softly. “Yeah, that sounds like him. Wouldn’t surprise me if Bain was giving him all kinds of false leads, too, just to fuck with him.”

They shared a soft laugh, only to be interrupted by the sounds of muffled violence and yelping from downstairs.

“Looks like Jacket’s up,” Chains said. “No idea how or why he hasn’t killed Matt yet. I don’t think we need that waste of space anymore.”

Dallas shrugged. “I told him he could take Matt out at any time, but he just keeps him alive. I think he just likes having a punching bag that feels pain.”

Chains winced. “Crazy son of a bitch.” After a moment, he paused, and asked, “Think we should sneak in there one day and put Matt out of his misery?”

“And what, risk Jacket finding someone else to let out his aggression on?” Dallas shook his head. “No thanks. Last thing we need is him and Sokol to snap and kill each other.”

“Hmm.” Chains finished reassembling another rifle and moved on.

“Try and get some rest when you can, Chains,” Dallas said. “We all need to be sharp.”

“Got it.”

Dallas nodded and left the armory.

How long has it been? Several months now, at least. It was hard to keep track of time with a bag over your head while restrained to a chair, especially with the constant torture he was subjected to, but he was a tough nut to crack.

Bain knew what was at stake if he told the Dentist what he wanted.

The room was filled with only the sounds of his own shallow breathing and the occasional dripping of the IV bag attached to his arm. An extra layer of torture, not even providing the “luxary” of proper meals, but keeping him alive all the same.

The door opened, and Bain leaned towards the noise. Even though he couldn’t see, he still had a good idea who was visiting him.

“Any changes?” the sadistically smooth voice of the Dentist asked. “Are you ready to tell me what I want to know?”

Bain wheezed through his now very-porous teeth. “Go… fuck yourself.”

“I expected as much. That’s why we’re going to try something different.”

Bain remained silent. “Something different” had been tried at least twice now, and both times it preceded some new form of overwhelming physical or psychological torture. He grit his teeth on reflex, only to wince at the pain it brought.

“Tell me, Bain,” the Dentist spoke, “have you ever heard of a field called cognitive pscience?”

Bain couldn’t help but laugh weakly. “Dipping into pseudo science now, huh? Must be getting desperate.”

A thumb pressed directly into a fresh wound on Bain’s knee, and he hissed and recoiled with pain. “Don’t misunderstand,” the Dentist said, voice dripping with venom, “if I had known about this field when we first apprehended you, I would have tried it back then. I have very good reason to believe that it will prove very effective.”

The thumb came off the wound, and Bain gasped. “Go ahead and try, then. I still won’t talk.”

“Oh, Bain.” He could hear the smile in the Dentist’s voice, and he hated it. “Do not worry. When we are done with this, we won’t have to ask you for the answers I seek. You will give them willingly.”

The Dentist replaced his bloody glove, and threw the old one onto Bain as one last insult. “All you have to do is sit tight. We will take care of the rest.”

With that, he left the room, and Bain was alone once again.

He took a few more deep breaths to fight through the lingering pain. “Any day now, guys…” he muttered to himself.

He hoped his crew was still okay.

Chapter Text

Meeting up at Leblanc went very smoothly, along with the subsequent flight out of Tokyo. The trip was too long to make in a single flight, so the Phantom Thieves got to very briefly see Los Angeles, as well, before they were once again en route to their actual destination.

By the time the plane touched down in the DC airport, most of the gang were rather jet-lagged, but still very, very excited about their arrival.

“I never realized how close everything was until I saw it from the air,” Makoto commented as they walked out of the airport.

“Oh yeah, most of the tourist stuff is all in one place,” Ann said. “Makes it way easier to plan out visiting them.”

“I didn’t know there was a whole city around them!” Ryuji added. “I thought, like, DC was just the government buildings and stuff.”

Morgana leaned out of Ren’s bag to chuckle at his expense. “I thought you’d know how cities work, Ryuji, growing up in one and all.”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t need a lecture from the guy who spent the whole flight complaining from his cage.”

The others laughed at their back and forth. After some more walking, Makoto talked to a clerk at a counter, and accepted a pair of keys. “I figured we’d be moving around a lot as a group on this trip, so I went ahead and rented a van for us all.”

“It would certainly be more convenient than relying on walking and public transport,” Yusuke said.

Futaba nodded in agreement. “Plus, being packed in with a bunch of other people is bad enough back home. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be when surrounded by people who don’t even speak Japanese.”

Makoto raised an eyebrow. “I thought you had excellent grades in English.”

“Yeah, when writing or reading it. I’m still not the best when it comes to speaking it.”

“It’s not that hard,” Ren commented in almost perfect English.

Futaba rolled her eyes. “Show-off.”

Eventually, they found their rental van in a parking garage, and once everyone loaded their luggage and themselves inside, they set off with Makoto in the driver’s seat.

“Oh, yeah, don’t forget they drive on the right side of the road, here,” Ann said from the back.

“I’m more worried about getting used to the driver side being the left side,” Makoto said. “It’s throwing off my muscle memory a bit.”

“I could try driving instead, if you’d like,” Haru suggested. “I am a bit more familiar with-”

“ That won’t be necessary,” Makoto very quickly cut her off. “I’ll adapt, it won’t be too difficult.”

While they navigated to their hotel, the rest of the Thieves did their best to sight-see through the rear windows.

“Damn, there’s a lot of highways here,” Ryuji said.

“Americans love their cars,” Ann said, nodding to herself.

“I think it’s cool,” Morgana piped up.

Ren smirked. “That’s because you are a car.”

Morgana just swatted a paw at him.

Futaba scrolled through her phone. “You know, I wonder if I could tap into some government files while we’re here…”

“I would highly reconsider that,” Yusuke said. “I may not be as computer literate as you, but even I know that poking around government systems while on vacation from another country would be a very bad idea.”

Futaba just shrugged. “Fine, I’ll be good, Inari.”

Makoto spoke up from the front. “Alright, we’re here.”

They pulled into the parking lot of a multi-story hotel that blended in with the rest of the buildings around it. They weren’t quite in downtown DC, but they were close.

“So we booked two rooms on the upper floors,” Haru explained. “One for all the guys, and one for the girls. I was able to get three bed suites for us, but it still might be a bit cramped.”

“Thank you, Haru,” Yusuke said. “It will still probably be a step up in quality from my dorms.”

“They allow pets, right?” Morgana asked. “I wanna know how sneaky I have to be in there.”

“Don’t worry, I already thought of that!” Haru smiled. “It was only a small extra fee on top, but it’s already taken care of.”

Ren smirked again. “And here I thought we’d have an excuse to let him sleep in the alley.”

“Hey!”

The group shared a laugh as they disembarked and began pulling their luggage out of the van. Just before they went inside, however, Ryuji looked up and his eyes went wide.

“Gramps?!”

Everyone followed his gaze to find a certain police inspector in the parking lot, joined by his daughter as they pulled their luggage from their own rental car and approached the front of the hotel. He noticed them just as quickly as they noticed him, and his shock quickly gave way to a warm smile.

Even Akane seemed excited to see them again, and she rushed forward to greet them. “Hey, guys! What are you doing here?”

“We had a trip for our college club that everyone decided to tag along for,” Makoto explained. She then did a double take; Akane was very noticeably taller than the last time they met. “You’ve grown, too!”

“Yeah, she’ll be a highschooler at the end of the summer,” Zenkichi said when he caught up with his daughter. “Starting to eat me out of house and home, too. Puberty is a hell of a thing.”

Akane elbowed him in the thigh while everyone else laughed.

“So what brings you here?” Ren asked.

“Oh, just a working vacation,” Zenkichi said. “Apparently I’m being loaned out to the DCPD as an extra set of eyes on an outstanding case, so I get to go on vacation with my daughter and get paid for it.”

“What are the odds, huh?” Futaba said. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to keep an eye on us.”

They all shared a laugh, though Akane was only mildly confused at the context.

“Well, we should get our rooms sorted,” Makoto said. “We’ll be on the top floor, so feel free to stop by if you want to tag along while we see the sights, either of you.”

Zenkichi nodded. “Will do. You kids stay safe.”

With that, they parted ways inside the hotel, Zenkichi and Akane heading to one of the ground floor rooms while the Thieves piled into an elevator. Futaba was already typing away at her phone before the doors closed.

 

Wolf has joined the chat

Oracle: Welcome back to the group chat

Wolf: Oh, using your code names as usernames. Cute.

.It’s not like anyone knows our codenames

Wolf: I know, just funny.

The gang filed out of the elevator and beelined for their rooms. “So what case do you think he’s working on?” Ryuji asked. “Think it might need some help from…” He looked around the hallway, then waggled his eyebrows. “...you know.”

“This is a vacation, Ryuji,” Makoto scolded. “I know things tend to require our immediate attention very often when we all get together, but for once I’d like to have an actual leisurely time.”

“I agree,” Yusuke said. “As fun as those escapades may have been, I am happy to put it behind me for the foreseeable future.”

“A true Thief knows when to retire,” Morgana added.

As they split into their rooms, Ren couldn’t shake a feeling he had in his gut. Surely this would just be a normal summer with his friends… right?

Once their own room was settled, Zenkichi left Akane alone while he went straight to work. He knew she could keep herself entertained with that online show she did, and as she got older, he grew to trust her independence more and more.

Besides, even if this was a working vacation, it wouldn’t be a good look to instantly blow off the work side of that deal.

He followed the directions given to him and eventually pulled up to none other than the FBI headquarters. He was a bit shocked when he first learned about the venue of his work, given how much federal power they’d have, but thankfully the reality wasn’t as dire as he thought. The DCPD had been operating out of the same building for the last few years, in tandem with the FBI, which made sense to him. No sense building an entire separate building when they could simply piggyback off of a much larger one.

After showing his credentials at the gate and being allowed into the parking lot, Zenkichi took a deep breath, made sure his badge was easily visible, and entered the building. People were already hard at work at their stations, and he was given little more than nods of acknowledgement as he walked in. Even at the security gate at the front, he wasn’t even given a word of hello, just a nod.

While he waited on the elevator in the lobby, he couldn’t help but take a look around. The building was certainly opulent, but the more he looked, the more security cameras he noticed in every other nook and cranny, watching angles that he thought would be super redundant.

The elevator arrived, and after he stepped inside and pressed the right floor, he also noticed a small hole in a corner of the back wall.

Was that… a bullet hole?

He was broken out of his thoughts by the elevator dinging. He entered the top floor of the same lobby he was in before, and followed the directions that were texted to him yesterday. The people here gave him a bit more of a scrutinizing look, but as soon as they saw the badge dangling from his neck, they nodded as well and went back to their business.

It wasn’t long before he found the office he was looking for, marked with a “S. Garrett” nameplate, and knocked. There was no delay before an old, hardened voice said, “It’s open.”

Zenkichi let himself in. The office was in a state of controlled chaos that he was more than familiar with, papers and files being strewn about in a way that looked completely random but appeared to make perfect sense to the man behind the desk. He looked up at Zenkichi, and though his face appeared incredibly tired and worn out, he still managed a soft smile. “Ah, Inspector Hasegawa, glad you could make it.”

He stuck a hand forward as he stood up, and Zenkichi accepted the handshake. “Glad to be here, Commissioner.” Thankfully, he was already quite fluent in English, or else he wouldn’t have accepted this job so readily.

Garrett wasted no time and walked over to one of the many corkboards adorning the walls. “I suppose I should start by asking you, how familiar are you with the Payday case?”

Zenkichi looked over the pictures and red strings, but he couldn’t quite make sense of it all at just a glance. “Only as much as most people, I admit. Robbery gang that’s been operating since 2011, and has been terrorizing DC in particular for the last five years or so, right?”

Garrett nodded. “That’s true, but of course, not the full story.” He sighed and looked at the board. “I’ve been trying to nail their leader, Bain, for a while now, but the last year or so has been an absolute mess. We tried following every lead we had, questioning every scumbag we could get our hands on, but no matter what we do, we never get any closer to stopping the Payday gang or shutting down Crime.net.”

Zenkichi nodded as he finally was able to mentally untangle some of the board in front of him. “So you’d like me to try and take a look at the case, offer a fresh set of eyes, see if I find anything that you all might’ve missed?”

Garrett smiled and nodded. “I admit, at this point I have a bit of a personal investment in taking them down, but I’m not above asking for help. Especially with how much those clowns have been embarrassing us as of late.”

Zenkichi thought back to the bullet hole in the elevator and the excessive amount of cameras. “Did they… manage to steal from here?”

Garrett hesitated, then nodded. “Right under our damn noses. The only reason we knew it was them at all was because they insisted on blowing a hole in the basement wall to escape.” He sighed, his voice barely shaking with dull rage. “The bastards are taunting us.”

Zenkichi put a hand to his chin in thought. He had dealt with corrupt politicians and even a few smaller criminal gangs during his time in Japan, but this was on a far larger scale than anything he had dealt with before. Technically, only the Phantom Thieves case would’ve been comparable in scope, but of course, he knew how that turned out.

“Well, I can certainly look over everything you have, see if I can spot anything new,” he finally said. “I don’t know if I can provide any breakthroughs in this case, but I can at least try.”

Garrett patted him on the back. “That’s all I can ask, son.” After a moment, he added, “Oh, and I know you’re effectively here on vacation, too, so don’t worry about any deadlines or anything.”

Zenkichi nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

With that, Garrett handed him a file stuffed nearly full with papers and documents, and Zenkichi took his leave. Neither of them paid any mind to the Bulldozer bobblehead on Garrett’s desk, which gently swayed in the breeze of the air-conditioning.

A lone man sat in a dark room, watching a series of screens, showing multiple cameras, maps,  and web pages from all kinds of sources. A pair of headphones further shut him off from the outside world. He was focused on one screen in particular, showing a view from the deepest parts of the police operation against them. A Japanese man had just left the office, and once he was sure that the conversation was over, he leaned over and wrote down a note to himself.

Inspector Hasegawa from Japan now on Payday case. Investigate prior history and current involvement.

With the note in place, the man sighed, removed the headphones, and replaced them with his usual beret. He typed away at another monitor, searching through any possible leads and location data he had for one particular person, but as usual, couldn’t find anything definitive yet.

He couldn’t help but mutter to himself in the dark. “Where the blerrie hell are you, Bain…?”

That night, Ren found himself waking up to a very familiar feeling. He rose to his feet, only to be met with the sight of two beings he thought that he’d never see again.

“Welcome back, Trickster… to the Velvet Room.”

Igor’s voice echoed through the serene emptiness of the room, and Ren stepped forward. The confusion on his face must have been obvious, because Lavenza spoke up next.

“You have been brought here again because your fate is about to become directly intertwined with that of another,” she explained. “Someone whose choices and actions will have drastic consequences for the fate of the world.”

Ren couldn’t help but sigh. Of course this vacation would be anything but simple… “What will I have to do?”

Igor tapped his fingers together. “That, even we are not fully certain of. This other individual has a drive and motivation that is similar to your own, Trickster, and his own fate is on a very uncertain path. It will be through the intervention of yourself and your bonds that you could interfere with his fate, and ensure the safety of the entire world.”

Ren turned the idea over in his head. “Who is it?”

“Unfortunately, we cannot provide that knowledge directly,” Lavenza said apologetically. “As I am sure you know by now, fate is incredibly fickle, and though we can assist you as a guest to the Velvet room, we cannot provide answers.”

Ren frowned, but nodded in understanding.

“When you wake, I will return the ability for you and your friends to return to the Metaverse,” Igor said. “From there, I am eager to see the actions you take and the choices you make.”

With that, the dream began to fade, and Ren woke up.

Chapter Text

When Ren awoke the next morning, he was somehow up before everyone else, if the continued sound of Ryuji snoring from the floor was any indication. Even Morgana was still fast asleep on Ren’s chest, like usual.

Not wanting to wake them up quite yet, Ren carefully pulled his phone out. Sure enough, the meta-nav was waiting for him in the app list, just like Igor said. There was also an outstanding message in the group chat, which he quickly pulled open. 

Wolf: Sorry for such a late (or early) message, but there’s this weird app that showed up on my phone. Any of you recognize it?

Wolf uploaded image.png

.That’s the meta-nav. Long story short, looks like we’ll have some Thief business here after all

Ren winced slightly as he heard Ryuji and Yusuke’s phones buzz after he sent the message, but he couldn’t do much about that. 

Wolf: Well, dang, and here I hoped I’d be the only one working here. 

Oracle: Did you even go to bed, Gramps?

Wolf: Unimportant. Got a lot of papers and reports to catch up with on this case.

Oracle: Oooh, spill the beans. 

Wolf: Tell you what, once everyone’s awake and had their breakfast in a few hours, I’ll come up there and we can talk in more detail. For now, I’ll just say that it centers around these crooks called the Payday gang. 

On the floor, Ryuji finally stirred awake from his phone buzzing. 

“Way too early…”

Everyone else was up not long after that, and after a quick trip downstairs for breakfast, they packed into the boy’s room to discuss where they would go from here. 

“Says here the Payday gang are a robbery crew who’s been operating for years now,” Ann read off her phone. 

“Sounds like the type of people we’d go against,” Ryuji said. He turned to Ren and asked, “What’s the play, Joker?”

Makoto spoke up instead. “Easy there, Ryuji, Zenkichi will be coming by shortly with the info he was given. We can start figuring out what to do then.”

“Why can’t we just sit this out?” Yusuke asked, then yawned. “This was supposed to be a vacation.”

Morgana shook his head from Haru’s lap. “If the Velvet Room decided to give us back the meta-nav, then it’s a problem that we’ll have to solve.”

“Not that we can do much right now, anyway,” Futaba spoke up, typing away at her laptop. “‘Payday gang’ has no matches on the nav, and I can’t even find any usable info online. The best I get are obvious codenames posted on rumor sites.”

“Hey, maybe they use real names!” Ryuji suggested. 

Futaba rolled her eyes. “Something tells me nobody’s real name would be something like…” She squinted at her screen. “‘Jacket’ or ‘Clover’.”

“Couldn’t you simply hack into the police database?” Yusuke asked. 

Futaba shrugged. “Maybe, but there’s a non-zero chance I might trip some intrusion alert protocols, since I’m not as familiar with the US’s systems compared to Japan. The last thing I want to do is accidentally bring the FBI down on our heads, especially when Gramps is also in town.”

“Maybe there’s some useful info in the news?” Haru suggested.

Futaba shook her head again. “Already taking a look, and it’s mostly just either baseless speculation or old stories on past jobs of theirs. And from what I can tell, these guys are real professionals: always wear masks, and are equally capable of slipping in and out of places without a trace, or meeting the police in all out gunfights and coming out on top.”

There was a knock on the door. Ryuji quickly went to open it, letting in a very tired-looking Zenkichi carrying a thick manila folder.

“Jeez, Gramps, you should get some sleep,” Futaba said.

Zenkichi rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like you’ve never pulled all-nighters before.”

“...touché.”

He handed the folder to Makoto, who instantly opened it up on the bed and began sorting through documents. As she did so, Zenkichi spoke again.

“So, the Payday gang is serious business. Big time crooks, specialize in all types of robbery, theft, and targeted destruction. They’ve been seen pulling anything from jewelry store hits to raiding the FBI HQ in broad daylight.”

Makoto focused on a particular document. “I think that’s what this one is about. Apparently they retrieved one of their own from a courthouse and then went right to the FBI immediately after.”

Yusuke shook his head in disbelief. “That doesn’t make sense… if they were freeing one of their own members, why would they go right into the hornet’s nest so soon after?”

Futaba typed away at her computer, trying to find any additional info on this particular venture.

Zenkichi spoke again. “From what the cops can tell, it was almost an impulsive decision, made by the very same person they sprang from lockup.”

Ryuji looked over Makoto’s shoulder, and he winced at some of the aftermath photos that were included in the report. “Jeez…”

“We’ve never run into anyone like this,” Morgana said. “Sure, plenty of disgusting people like Kamoshida or Shido, but this is on a whole other level of brazenness.”

“Even Kaneshiro didn’t pull things like this,” Makoto commented, her face going slightly pale from horror.

The room was bathed in silence for a moment, before Futaba gave out a small fist bump. “Yes, found it! I got the name of the guy they recovered!”

Zenkichi just looked at her. “Uh, his name is in the files I was given.”

Futaba rolled her eyes. “Well, you took too long to tell us.” She turned her laptop around to show the screen, where she had a news report pulled up about one Jim Hoxworth going to a retrial.

“Well, that was easy,” Ryuji said, already typing into the nav. “We got a name, just gotta run that and–”

“ Error: destination not found. ”

Everyone froze as the nav on Ryuji’s phone made that statement.

“That can’t be right,” Ann said, before she pulled out her own phone and tried to punch in the name. However, she got the exact same response.

Zenkichi, meanwhile, was a bit confused. “So, uh, this is different from how using Emma worked, I take it this is bad?”

Morgana nodded. “Normally, we’d need the name of a Palace owner, the location of their distortion, and what their twisted heart sees it as. But if the nav isn’t recognizing his name…”

“He doesn’t have a Palace,” Ren finished for him.

Haru went wide-eyed. “But how could a criminal like that not have a palace?!”

“It makes sense,” Morgana said sadly. “People don’t have a Palace just because they’re evil.” He briefly shared a look with Futaba before he continued. “All it means is that their desires and worldview are incredibly distorted.”

Zenkichi put a hand to his chin. “So if he doesn’t have a Palace… that means he must know exactly what he’s doing, down to his very soul, and he has no problems with that, right?”

Nobody answered him directly, but the silence still spoke volumes.

Eventually, Ann was the first to say something. “These guys really are dangerous…”

Ryuji punched the palm of his hand. “All the more reason to do what we do best and change their hearts, right?”

“I don’t think so,” Zenkichi said. “These guys are way more dangerous than anyone else either of us have dealt with. Hell, I’d say that even Shido, as rotten as he was, could at least be somewhat predicted. The Payday gang,” he tapped the documents for emphasis, “are complete wild cards. We have no idea where they’ll strike next, what, or who, they’ll target, or even who they’ll do it for. All it takes is one wrong move from any of us, and we’ll be in a massive amount of danger.”

“But we have to do something,” Ren said.

Makoto nodded. “We couldn’t call ourselves Phantom Thieves if we backed down at the threat of danger. It just means we’ll have to proceed very carefully.”

Everyone else voiced their own affirmations. Zenkichi was quiet for a while, looking between all of them, before he sighed and shook his head, smiling softly. “Aw, dammit, I had a feeling you guys wouldn’t back down on this. Well, I’m not either, then.”

A small set of cheers filled the room, before Makoto cleared her throat to regain attention. She had flipped to a different document, one that held a diagram of the supposed hierarchy of the Payday Gang. “If we’re going to do this, we’ll need to do it right, and fast. Zenkichi, you know if this info’s up to date?”

He nodded. “From what I can gather, that’s as much as the FBI knows regarding who’s running the Payday gang and Crime.net.”

Futaba looked up from her laptop. “Crime.net?”

“Supposed to be some sort of criminal network that’s run by the one guy in charge.” Zenkichi tapped the top of the graph, where a blank silhouette, a missing picture, stared back. “Someone by the name of Bain.”

Yusuke noted the complete lack of image, even when everyone else below him had at least a police sketch at bare minimum. “Has nobody seen him?”

While Futaba tapped away some more, Zenkichi shook his head. “The guy seems to be a total ghost. The only reason they know he exists at all is because the gang themselves have been overheard using his name, and he’s also been mentioned by more than a few people that the FBI have arrested in connection with this case.”

After some typing, Futaba let out a low whistle. “Well, it took some workarounds and proxies just to access it, but I can confirm that Crime.net is real.” She turned her monitor to show a very plain black and blue log-in screen.

Meanwhile, Ann typed at her phone across the room, then suddenly gasped. “I got a hit on the nav for Bain!”

“Woah, for real?!”

“Great work, Lady Ann!”

Yusuke was just confused. “Bain was his real name…?”

“That’s one out of three pieces of info we need, then,” Makoto said. “Now we just have to figure out the location, and the distortion.”

“That’s gonna be tricky,” Zenkichi warned. “He’s been operating pretty much across the world over the years, it’s only recently that the Payday gang had any sort of focus in the DC area.”

“It’s still a start,” Ren said, pushing up his glasses.

Futaba tapped away at her keyboard, only to let out a muffled curse. “This is way more secure than anything I’ve ever seen… even the site’s entire backend is being scrambled in real time as I look at it. I don’t think there’s any way I could brute force this.”

“Might be for the best to leave it for now, then,” Yusuke said. “If we can go directly to the top and change the heart of the man running that site and the gang, I’m sure the rest will topple shortly after.”

Futaba sighed and closed her laptop. “Maybe you’re right, Inari.”

“If I’m right, why do you call me that anyway?”

Ren sat and thought to himself while the two of them bickered and the others went over the rest of the documents. He had faith in his teammates, but he still hoped that they weren’t making a mistake by getting involved…

Locke raised an eyebrow at the notification on his laptop. He opened it up, only to shake his head and chuckle. Someone had tried to poke around and access Crime.net, but very quickly stopped. This was far from the first time he had seen this happen; Crime.net had become a bit of an urban legend, alongside the Payday gang themselves, so it was only natural that the occasional kid with more curiosity than sense would try to look into it to see if it’s real, only to immediately be scared away or otherwise discouraged when they see just how real and secure it actually is.

Ultimately harmless, so Locke dismissed the warning and turned back to the two figures in front of him.

“Something happen, Locke?” Dallas asked.

“Oh, don’t worry. Just some kid trying to poke at Crime.net to see if it’s real. Nothing unusual.”

“Think it has something to do with that Zenkichi fella?” Clover asked.

Locke shook his head. “I don’t think so. I looked at the man’s files, and while he does have a blerrie impressive record with crooked politicians and even a few Yakuza gangs, there’s nothing on here about him being involved with cybersecurity.”

“But he’s still an unknown element,” Dallas warned. “You said he was directly involved in some other big case?”

“Just last year,” Locke said, pulling up the file on his laptop to read from. “Says he was directly involved in a case investigating the ‘Phantom Thieves’ last year, but apparently that was some unrelated tech company dwankie that got arrested instead.”

“I think I remember hearing about those Phantom Thieves a couple years back,” Clover commented. “Some vigilante group in Japan, right?”

Locke nodded. “Supposedly. I found a lot of conflicting reports about them, though, both from the police and the media. Apparently, the kerals claimed to have their leader in custody, and then they claimed he committed suicide, and then that ended up being a hoax some other politician was using as a smokescreen.” He shrugged. “Best that I can tell, even if they do exist, they’re far less influential than the rumors would have you believe, and no doubt Zenkichi came to the same conclusion.”

Dallas let out a thoughtful grunt. “Still, we already have enough to deal with as is, we don’t need another unknown element in the mix.” He nodded at Locke. “Keep tabs on the Zenkichi situation, let me know the moment you notice anything worthwhile.”

“You got it.”

Now that their little morning meeting was over, Clover stood up and walked away. “I’m gonna check the safehouse cameras, make sure nothing fucked with ‘em.”

Normally, Dallas would’ve poked fun at her paranoia, but since they lost Bain, he didn’t blame her at all.

Soon after she left, Locke pulled up something else on his computer. “There is one more thing I wanted to mention, Dallas.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why couldn’t you tell Clover, too?”

“I don’t want the gang to worry more than they already are, at least until I’m certain it’s something worth worrying about.”

Dallas walked over to take a look at his screen. “So, what is it?”

“Just a few hours ago, I skimmed through some intercepted Murkywater transmissions,” Locke explained. “Nothing very helpful, unfortunately, but there was one phrase I saw pop up a couple of times that’s new, and I figured I should at least let you know before anyone else.”

Dallas looked over the files on Locke’s computer, but he couldn’t quite understand from a glance. He never was much of a computer person. “And that phrase is…?”

“Operation: Heart Change."

Chapter Text

It had taken another hour and a coffee break for Zenkichi, but the Phantom Thieves finally found an opening for where to begin prodding.

“‘Vladislav Kozak’,” Zenkichi read out loud. “Former Russian mafia, runs a bakery here in DC, possibly as a cover. Apparently the FBI thought he was reformed and innocent when he got out of prison a few years ago, but recent evidence suggests some sort of connection between him and the Payday gang, though nothing concrete has been found yet.”

“Former mafia is a pretty high up place to start, Gramps,” Ryuji commented.

Zenkichi shrugged. “Well, out of all the people listed here that are actually reachable in some way, our only other option is a well-respected politician who would likely be far too busy to talk to even on the best of days.”

“So, what, you just go and ask him questions?” Ann asked. “No offense, Gramps, but I doubt that’d get us very far, because if he’s already mentioned here, I’m sure the cops have already done plenty of that.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right…” Zenkichi admitted.

Morgana spoke up. “Well, it may not be a total dead end. I have a hunch that we might just have an ace up our sleeve.”

“Oh? What could that be?” Haru asked.

“Mementos.”

Everyone, minus Zenkichi, immediately understood and whipped out their phones. Ren was the first one to finish typing, and he smiled. “It’s still there.”

“Wait, I thought we destroyed Mementos,” Yusuke said.

Zenkichi was mostly confused. “Destroyed what now?”

Morgana answered them both at once. “Mementos is the collective unconscious of the public. We removed the false god who took control of it, but given enough time, it would eventually reform on its own.” He glanced at the window. “Besides, something tells me the Mementos we know would be separate from the Mementos here.”

Zenkichi sighed and downed the rest of his coffee. “Well, we’re going in then?”

Ren looked at everyone else, who nodded at his gaze. Once it was clear everyone was on board, he pressed the button.

“ Beginning navigation. ”

All at once, the world melted away in a very familiar fashion. The sky outside went from a pale blue to a bright pink, and the very air around them seemed to crackle with a bit of latent energy.

Zenkichi shuddered as the change happened. “Oh, man, just when I forgot what that felt like.”

“Huh, we’re not in uniform yet,” Futaba mentioned. They were all still in their street clothes.

Morgana, at least, was back in his larger true form, and he hopped down from Haru’s lap and stretched. “Ah, it’s good to be back.”

“We should head outside,” Makoto said. “I doubt we’ll see much from inside a hotel in the Metaverse.”

Ren agreed and led the group outside, once Zenkichi had packed all the papers back into the folder. The interior of the hotel was the same as usual, although still bathed in that otherworldly feeling that came from being in the Metaverse. Ren didn’t want to admit it, but he had missed this feeling a lot, too.

As expected, nobody else was in this version of the hotel. They strode past the empty lobby, their steps “splashing” on the carpet in typical Metaverse fashion, and they emerged into the open air, only to immediately balk at what greeted them.

“For real…?”

“No way…”

Yusuke chuckled slightly. “I suppose it makes some sense.”

The city of DC remained where it was in reality, but above it was a gigantic, sprawling mess of highways stretching far into the sky. It disappeared into the sickly pink clouds, so they couldn’t even see just how high it went.

“In Japan, nearly everyone took the subways, so that’s the form Mementos took,” Morgana commented. “Here, since it seems like cars are the much more common transportation…”

As they stepped closer, there was a flash of blue flame, and they were all instantly back in their Thief attire.

Ryuji pumped a fist. “Aw, hell yeah! We’re so back!”

“I suppose knowledge of the Phantom Thieves reached even here,” Makoto said. She cracked her knuckles subtly.

Zenkichi blinked and tried to get used to his Thief outfit again. “Well, can’t say I ever expected to wear this again.”

Futaba smiled. “Aww, come on, Gramps, you look good in it.”

“I do hope this means there’s not another false god sitting at the top of this,” Yusuke said.

“I can assure you that will not be a problem,” a new voice answered him.

Everyone whirled around to see a familiar face standing next to the outline of a blue door. Ren and Morgana in particular smiled warmly at the sight of her.

“Lavenza!” Morgana called out, running to the front of the group.

“It is good to see you all again,” the Velvet Room attendant said.

Zenkichi just scratched his head. “Uh, have we met…?”

“Ah, pardon my rudeness,” Lavenza bowed slightly. “I am Lavenza. I assist Ren in the matter of fusing personas and utilizing the strengths of his bonds. I have talked to the rest of the Phantom Thieves briefly in the past during times of great crisis.”

“Right…” Zenkichi just stared at her for a bit, then shook his head. “Well, nice to meet you.”

She smiled at him, then turned her gaze upwards. “In any case, I am simply here to assure you that, unlike the Mementos you journeyed through in the past, this one does not appear to be ruled by anything at all, let alone a powerful god created by the masses.” She smiled slightly. “In a way, you are witnessing the collective unconscious of humanity at its most natural.”

“Well, good, didn’t feel like kicking some giant cup’s ass again anyway,” Ryuji said.

Lavenza nodded at Ren. “For as long as your mission here takes, I will be here to assist you like always, Trickster.”

Ren just smiled and nodded.

Zenkichi crossed his arms. “Just when I think I get used to the weirdness around you kids, you go and surprise me again.”

“You should know better than to get complacent around us, Wolf,” Haru commented, smiling sweetly.

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah…” To get back to business, he brought the Payday folder back out and pulled the top paper from it, the one detailing Mr. Kozak. “So, now that we’re here, now what?”

Futaba summoned her persona in the form of a series of hovering screens and keyboards around her. “People can have slightly distorted desires in the depths of Mementos, not enough to form a full palace but enough to begin the process. All I need is a name, and I can track down their rough location.”

“Definitely faster than if I tried to sniff them out,” Morgana said.

After some typing, Futaba frowned. “Huh… well, crap. I’m not getting any hits for a Vladislav Kozak in here.”

“Hmm…” Zenkichi scanned the documents closely. “Well, it’s not like anyone would notice us snooping around in here, so we might as well go down the list of every name here.”

“Oh hey, could try that Hoxworth guy again,” Ryuji suggested. “He might not have a palace, but maybe that’s just ‘cause he’s in here.”

Futaba typed away, then shook her head. “No dice.”

“Dang…”

“Well, the next name I see in here is a ‘Dimitri Volkov’, an old associate of Kozak,” Zenkichi read off. “Says he’s the one who ratted him out years ago, and conveniently became inconvenienced by the Payday gang shortly after Kozak’s release.”

Once again Futaba searched, and this time she smiled. “Got a hit!” She dismissed the computer projections, and pointed part way up the colossal tangle of roads. “Should be about two levels up, if I’m reading that signal right.”

“Now we just have to figure out how to get there,” Zenkichi said.

Everyone else just smiled as Morgana stepped forward. Once he was some distance away, he jumped high into the air, only to return to the ground in his bus form.

Zenkichi just stared. “Right, I forgot the cat was also a bus.”

“Come on, Gramps, you should be used to this by now,” Ann said as she climbed aboard with the others. “You’re a Phantom Thief too, now, after all.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still a cop first.” Zenkichi still couldn’t help but laugh with them as he squeezed into the passenger seat. Once they were all inside and Makoto was behind the wheel, she drove Morgana down the road, and quickly found an on-ramp to enter the tangle of highways to the heavens.

Although it had been a while since they had done anything in the Metaverse, and even longer since they had been in Mementos specifically, the Phantom Thieves were quick to shake off the rust. They were lacking in equipment, since none of them had expected to need model guns or melee weapons while on vacation, but they were still more than able to fight off whatever shadows they saw with their bare hands and their personas. It helped that most of them were quite easy to defeat, even with them being underprepared and out of practice.

In-between fights, the Thieves looked out Morgana’s windows to observe the scenery. This version of Mementos had a lot more to look at than the labyrinthine subway tunnels of old, and billboards were plastered on several skyscrapers and on the sides of the roads displaying all sorts of abstract subjects, no doubt reflecting whatever the public had on their minds as a whole. A lot of them were about expected things like sports, money, or TV shows, but the more they traveled, the more they began to notice something else recurring every so often.

“Those Payday masks really do leave an impression,” Futaba commented. “They were front and center on just about every article I found about them online, too.”

“I mean, we were all anyone could talk about for a while,” Ann said, “and we only changed the hearts of powerful people. I can’t imagine how much a robbery gang like them would dominate public thought…”

“All the more reason to do what we can to bring them down,” Haru said. She then frowned slightly. “I do hope they end up having shadows of their own somewhere, I would very much like to introduce them to my axe.”

The car was filled with silence, then Zenkichi leaned over to Makoto. “Is she always like that?”

Makoto only laughed uneasily.

“At least the road here is way easier on my paws than subway tracks,” Morgana’s voice came through the car radio. “Should make it way easier to drive for longer here.”

Futaba stared into the distance, her goggles occupied with more holographic readouts. “We should be coming up on him soon.”

After a few more turns, Makoto drove them into an inexplicable miniature parking lot that hovered alongside the roads. There, a lone figure stood, staring at the ground. Everyone got out of the car, and Morgana transformed back to join them. 

“So, how do we do this?” Zenkichi asked. “We needed calling cards last time, does that still apply?”

Morgana shook his head. “Since people in Mementos don’t have their desires fully distorted yet, they don’t need as big a push to make them vulnerable to being stolen. Us telling his shadow directly should be more than enough.”

“Hey, what about language barriers?” Ann suddenly asked. “If this guy was Russian mafia, I doubt he’d be speaking Japanese.”

“No worries, Panther. We’re in a world born from the hearts and minds of people, so we’ll be able to understand what they say and feel regardless of what they actually speak in reality.”

Ryuji looked at Morgana, wide-eyed. “That’s been a rule this whole time?!”

The cat shrugged. “We’ve only ever gone up against people from Japan in the Metaverse. It never came up before now.”

“Anyway,” Makoto cut in, “shall we get to work?”

With no need for any more of a plan than that, Ren led the group forward. 

Once they were close enough, the man’s shadow looked up at them. “Who the hell are you?!” he snarled, voice already dripping with rage.

Ren decided to be straightforward. “We’re the Phantom Thieves, Dimitri, and we’re here for your desires.”

His rage was briefly replaced with confusion. “The what now?” He shook his head, and resumed his anger. “Doesn’t matter. You kids won’t get in the way of me paying back Vlad for what he did to me!”

Zenkichi stepped forward. “You mean Mr. Kozak, right? The associate you sold out to the cops?”

This seemed to be the right button to push, because while Dimitri’s anger flared up, it seemed less directed at them now. “I had no choice, the cops were coming down on me if I didn’t give up something!” He turned around and scowled into the air. “I tried to tell him that, but he wouldn’t listen. And then eight years later, just as he gets out of prison, here comes that fucking Payday gang ruining my wedding, and robbing my club! I know that bastard is behind it, and this time I won’t settle for sticking him with jail time again!”

Ren saw an opportunity, and took it. “What if I told you we were looking to stop the Payday gang?”

That made Dimitri pause. “What?”

Makoto stepped forward now. “We’re aiming to take down the Payday gang from the top,” she explained. “And that starts with us speaking with Vlad, and you were the closest person we could find to him.”

Dimitri laughed. “Oh, that’s rich. I guess this time I’ll snitch to some kids in costume, and you’ll take care of Vlad for me instead, right?”

“Hate to burst your bubble,” Ryuji cut in, “but we’re not killing the dude. And we’re not gonna let you do that, either.”

“Face it,” Haru carried on the momentum, “you were both criminals. You did Vlad wrong, and he took the revenge he thought he deserved. If you keep going down this road, even if you kill him, someone close to him will no doubt come right to you to pay it back.”

Zenkichi nodded. “You need to stop this cycle of vengeance before it goes too far.”

Dimitri looked like he wanted to continue arguing the point, but their words were clearly having an effect, and he hesitated. “But… they took everything! My fiance left me, my club was closed down, my men don’t respect me at all anymore…”

“It sounds like the perfect opportunity to start over.”

Ren’s words shocked Dimitri to his core, and he looked up at them. “Start over…?”

“I’m sure you’ve done plenty of bad things over the years,” Ann said, “and nothing will change that. But you can still make things right, turn yourself in and put that life of crime behind you.”

Despite the situation, Dimitri chuckled darkly. “Even if I wanted to serve my sentence, most of my worst crimes happened many years and continents away. But…” He took a deep breath and looked at the group, softly smiling. “Maybe you’re right. I can try and make amends with Vlad, leave town, do what I can to right the wrongs I have done.”

His shadow faded into light, and then disappeared. A tiny glimmer of a treasure was left behind, which Ren quickly pocketed. Something to assist in persona fusions, no doubt.

“Huh, I was expecting a fight,” Zenkichi said. “Didn’t think we’d be able to just talk him down like that.”

“The best way to change hearts is to make people change it themselves,” Morgana explained, smiling. “It’s just like with the jail owners we dealt with last year. We couldn’t steal their desires directly, so we instead had to convince their shadows that they were wrong, and to make things right.”

“Although we still had to beat them up a bit, first,” Haru admitted.

“He said he was going to make amends with Vlad,” Yusuke commented. “Will that make it easier to get answers from him, Wolf?”

Zenkichi sighed. “Honestly, it might make him less likely to tell me anything. But it’s still the best option we got, so I could give it a try later today.”

Morgana turned back into a car, and they all got aboard to head back to the ground level. Once there, after Ren spaced out for a moment to do a bit of fusion work in the Velvet Room, they slipped into an alleyway and exited Mementos.

The Metaverse shifted and melted away, and they were soon back in the real city of Washington DC. It was jarring going from the absolute silence to the bustling of a packed street, but thankfully none of them noticed the group of teens, a cat, and one adult emerge from an alley onto the sidewalk.

“I’ll go take care of that business, then, strike while the iron’s hot,” Zenkichi said. “The day’s still pretty young, so you all should go sightseeing, take advantage of the vacation. All work and no play, right?”

“I would very much like to see the monuments,” Yusuke said before anyone else could. “Seeing them in person would no doubt provide ample inspiration for my own art.”

“No way, dude, we gotta go to that Air and Space Museum!” Ryuji countered. “They got all kinds of planes and rockets and shit, that’s so cool!”

“Ooh, maybe we could take a tour of the White House!” Ann suggested. “When else are we gonna get to do that?”

While they bickered among themselves, Zenkichi just laughed and said his goodbyes as he went to his car. It wouldn’t take long to find Vlad’s bakery, since the address was given plainly in the files the FBI gave him, but he still wanted to take a bit of time before visiting. He had a feeling that showing up at the same time Dimitri tried to apologize would only make things worse for everyone.

In the end, he waited about an hour, picking up some local fast food in the meantime (American fast food tasted pretty bad to him, but maybe that was just him being old, he thought). He pulled up to Vlad’s bakery well within business hours, although thankfully there appeared to be no customers at the time.

He entered the front door, his entrance announced by a bell like many other small businesses. A bored-looking young lady, probably college aged, greeted him from behind the counter. “Welcome, sir,” she said, her voice deceptively cheery for the bored look on her face.

Zenkichi smiled and walked up. “Hello, I was wondering, is Mr. Kozak in right now?”

“Uh, yeah, let me get him.” She left to the back room, and after a moment, Zenkichi could barely make out a conversation.

“Um, sir, someone’s here to see you.”

“Who the fuck is- er, sorry, Alex, sorry. Who is it?”

“He didn’t give a name, just asked if you were in.”

“...I see. Go ahead and take your break, I’ll go and see them.”

After a moment, a middle-aged man emerged from the back. Zenkichi instantly recognized him from the pictures in the documents, although Vlad’s confused look told him that he had no idea who he was. “So, what do you want?” Vlad asked in heavily accented English, clearly more than a little tense.

Zenkichi decided to follow protocol and pulled out his badge. “Inspector Hasegawa, currently working for the FBI. I’m so sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could answer a couple questions for me?”

As soon as the badge had been pulled out, Zenkichi noticed a shift in Vlad. His posture became slightly more guarded, he stood up a bit straighter, and that anxiety in his eyes turned into pure focus. “About what?”

“The Payday case.”

The room fell silent save for the faint ticking of a clock in the back room. Vlad broke the silence with a sudden laugh. “This shit again? I already told the feds that I don’t know anything about those guys.”

Zenkichi nodded along. “Of course, I’m very sorry to bring it back up, but I was flown in from Japan to assist on this case, and I feel like there’s no harm in going back over the basics.”

Vlad let out a small, sharp laugh. “I see. Well, Mr. Hazagowa, what do you want to know?”

Zenkichi ignored the (purposeful?) butchering of his name, and pulled out his notepad. “It is true that you got out of prison shortly before the Payday gang began operating in DC, correct?”

Vlad nodded and clenched his jaw.

Zenkichi kept going. “And is it also true that, in the midst of their opening crime spree, one of your former associates was victimized by them? Twice, even?”

He could see in Vlad’s eyes that this was the right line of questioning to push. There was the smallest trace of panic, before Vlad recovered and continued the stone face routine. “I heard about that, yes.”

“And is it true that this former associate, one Dimitri Volkov, was also responsible for giving the police information that led to your arrest in the first place?”

“What’s the fuckin’ point of this, huh?” Vlad suddenly snapped. “Re-reading my past to me like I don’t know? That’s ancient history, I am changed man now, and I don’t need you fucking mudak police reminding me every other month!” He seemed to realize that his temper was rising, and he took a deep breath. “If it’s all the same to you, Inspector, I would like if you leave, now.”

Zenkichi put his arms up. “Alright, very sorry for the intrusion, I’ll get out of your hair now.”

He left the bakery and returned to his car. Vlad stared after him and watched him drive out. Not long after, Alex returned from the back room.

“Everything okay, sir? I heard some shouting.”

Vlad waved her off. “It’s fine, I’m fine, sorry you had to hear that. I know I just said to go on break, but could you watch the front for a minute, please?”

“Oh, uh, sure.”

“Thank you.” Vlad began to walk to the back. “I have to make a quick phone call…”

Chapter Text

“Sir? I have some good news.”

The Dentist looked up as he put on a new set of blue gloves. He had just finished another round of “interrogation” on Bain, although once again he got nothing useful. At this point, it was more a form of stress relief than anything. “Yes?”

The Murkywater soldier handed him a clipboard. “The electronic warfare division finally had a breakthrough with EMMA’s source code. They managed to reverse engineer a method to enter the cognitive world, and even managed to narrow it down to the prisoner.”

The Dentist smiled as he glanced through the papers. “Excellent. How soon can recon teams be dispatched?”

“We’re still testing the limits of what we can and can’t send, so likely by the end of the day.”

“Good. See to it, then.” The soldier saluted and left. The Dentist glanced back at Bain, still restrained and blinded in the interrogation room.

The dominoes were now in place. Time for a little push…

Dallas flipped through every news channel he could think of. The search for Bain was still at a dead end, and there wasn’t a lot he could do to help Locke with his online inquiries. So instead, he wanted to check what the media was saying, see if something, anything had managed to slip out that would give them any sort of lead.

So far, absolutely nothing.

The phone rang, interrupting his channel surfing. Dallas practically jumped off the couch to run and answer it, even managing to beat Aldstone.

“Hello?”

“ Hey, Payday guys. This is Dallas, yeah? ”

Dallas sighed and dragged a hand over his face. “What is it now, Vlad?”

“ What crawled up your ass, huh? ” Vlad still laughed at the other end, although even Dallas couldn’t help but notice how forced it sounded.

“We’re just dealing with a lot, and the last thing we need is another job for you stealing nukes, or saving your brother-in-law because he forgot he left some drugs in a police station, or what the fuck ever.”

There was a pause. “Right, Bain and all that… I am sorry. Look, I am calling about this new Japanese cop that’s doing work for FBI.”

That caught Dallas’s attention. “Hasegawa?”

“ Ah, so you’re already looking into him. Good. See, he paid a visit to my store earlier, tried to question me about you guys, nothing the FBI hasn’t done before. ”

Dallas nodded to himself. Vlad did have a notable presence in the FBI’s case against them, but nothing concrete. It made sense for someone just brought onto the case to follow up any leads, even if it was simply to retrace and make sure nothing changed. “Then why call us about it?”

“ Because… the timing felt very strange. You remember Dimitri, yes? ”

“That guy who owned that club you had us hit way back, right?”

“ Da. Well, not long before Mr. Detective visited me, Dimitri himself gave me a call. Something he has not done in ages. ”

Dallas was beginning to put together the pieces. “He threatened you, or said he sold you out again, or something?”

“ No, actually. He… ” Vlad sighed. “ ...he apologized to me. For everything. ”

Dallas froze. That was not at all what he expected. “What?”

“ I did not believe it either. He said he wanted to start over, move on from this ‘circle of vengeance’ he called it, and said he was leaving town entirely. I have my men tracking him, and it looks like he’s being true to his word. ”

“You think Hasegawa did something to him?”

“ Maybe, maybe not. Either way, timing is simply too convenient between them. I was hoping you could do something to keep eye on him. ”

Dallas nodded, even though Vlad couldn’t see it. “Will do. Thanks for the heads up.”

“ If you need me, I will be in San Francisco for a while. Call me crazy, but I do not trust being in DC right now. ”

With that, Vlad hung up. As soon as Dallas put the receiver back, he rushed back up to his office, where Locke and Hoxton were already waiting. Locke put his own phone receiver down and nodded.

“Heard it all myself. This Hasegawa guy might be more of a problem than we thought.”

“So what, he’s just some Japanese cop?” Hoxton asked. “I don’t see the big deal, it’s not like Vlad flipped on us or anything.”

“The problem is whatever happened with Dimitri,” Dallas explained. “Gangster types like him aren’t the sort of people who just drop everything, apologize, and skip town without a damn good reason.”

Locke put a hand to his chin. “It does sound an awful lot like what those Phantom Thief dwankies did…”

Hoxton chuckled. “That urban legend? Even if they were real, how would the wankers be connected to this guy?”

Locke shook his head. “I don’t know, but I definitely agree that the timing is simply too perfect. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to think that the Phantom Thieves are indeed real, and Hasegawa is possibly working alongside them here in DC.”

“Right, so…” Hoxton trailed off. “Should we just ice the fucker? Nip this thing in the bud before it becomes a problem?”

“No, Hox,” Dallas said. “Same reason we can’t just bump off Garrett. We already have too much heat on us as is, an inspector from another country winding up dead within days of getting on our case would only make things even harder for us while we’re tying to fight those Kataru fuckers and get Bain back.”

“I agree with Dallas,” Locke added. “So far, we’re entirely under United States jurisdiction, but if a foreign detective winds up dead on American soil, that opens up the floodgates to bump us up to having Interpol on our case. We’d have even less wiggle room than we do now.”

“So, what? We just sit on our arses and wait for them to make a move?”

“Not quite.” Locke typed away at his laptop as he spoke. “Now that the Phantom Thieves are possibly targeting us, I’m going to spend some time trying to find out everything I can about their cases in Japan. If I can find even one person who was a suspected member, I can work from there to flush them out and deal with the problem at the root, fo’ sho’.”

“In the meantime, have everyone at the ready,” Dallas said. “Depending on how this all shakes out, we might finally have some action on our hands soon, one way or another.”

Hoxton smiled and stood up. “Well, I’ll tell everyone the good news. I’m sure Wolfy and the cunt in the garage will be especially bloody happy.”

Dallas sighed. “It’s been three years, could you please at least pretend to be a little nice to Houston?”

“Not on your fuckin’ life.”

By the time Zenkichi returned to his hotel room to finally pass out following his all-nighter, the rest of the Thieves had already hit up a couple of the most popular tourist traps, and had returned to the van in a nearby parking garage.

“DC is so cool!” Ryuji said, unbothered by the large amount of bags of souvenirs he was carrying for half the group. “Why didn’t we come here instead of Hawaii for that one trip?”

“The flights were a bit more expensive,” Haru explained. “Plus, I think the teachers figured the culture shock might’ve been too much, or something.”

Makoto rolled her eyes. “I think it was more that the school didn’t want to risk getting into even more headlines after the whole Kamoshida incident.”

“In any case, this has been a very fruitful day,” Yusuke said, flipping through his sketchbook. “So many new monuments and exhibits to inspire future art…!”

Futaba chuckled as she typed away on her laptop. “Leave it to Inari to bring this whole thing back around to art.”

The group shared a laugh at Yusuke’s expense, which he accepted wholeheartedly, before Morgana tried to peek at Futaba’s screen. “What are you working on, anyway?”

“Oh, just an idea I had for how to crack Crime.net,” she said nonchalantly.

“You’re still working on that?” Ann asked, equally confused and impressed.

“Not like that Dimitri guy gave us any leads to go on,” Futaba argued. “Plus… I’ll be honest, if I’m going to make another move on the site, it might be best for me to do it while we’re out and about.”

The van went quiet. “Whaddya mean by that?” Ryuji asked.

Futaba chuckled weakly. “Well, if I end up triggering some security, let’s just say I’d rather have my location point to a random parking garage rather than the hotel rooms we’re sleeping in.” She looked up at the others. “That being said… you guys should keep visiting places. Give ourselves a good alibi even if somehow they trace it to this car that we rented.”

Everyone hesitated. Makoto was the first to speak up. “You want us to leave you here alone?”

Futaba shook her head. “I’ll need someone to stay here, both to help with the hack, and to drive away if things go south.”

Ren nodded. “I’ll stay.”

Morgana hopped onto his shoulder. “Me too. Wouldn’t want to get you guys in trouble by having a cat follow you, anyway.”

After a moment, everyone else agreed to the plan.

“Stay safe, Futaba,” Haru said. “Let us know if you need help.”

“Thanks, guys.”

The rest of the Thieves left, leaving only Futaba, Ren, and Morgana in the van.

Futaba immediately switched into business mode and handed Ren her phone. “Alright, so, Crime.net is heavily encrypted, and the encryption automatically cycles at a rapid pace. I wrote a program there that can temporarily DDOS their backend to freeze that encryption, but I’m almost certain they have backup refresh systems in place, so you’ll need to be on top of it while I do the main work cracking through.”

Ren nodded, even though half of what she said went over his head. He was computer literate, but not anywhere close to her level.

Futaba cracked her knuckles and pulled up Crime.net again. “Alright, when you’re ready, just hit the button. As soon as you see the encryption change again, hit it again. Just keep doing that to give me as much time as possible to work.”

“Got it.”

Ren pressed the button on the screen, and Futaba got to work, typing away furiously. Morgana tried to follow what was happening, but Futaba’s screen was filled with multiple of her own programs that she was mashing away at, while Ren used his exceptional reaction time to mash the phone’s button as soon as he saw anything change.

The cat quickly lost track of what was happening, and settled for sitting atop one of the souvenir bags.

Locke was once again in his main station, shrouded in darkness, when an alert popped up on his screen. It was another probe attempt at Crime.net.

At first, he dismissed it as another foolish kid looking where they shouldn’t, and tried to focus on hacking into Tokyo police files. However, the alert didn’t go away, and in fact popped up again with a more worrying notification.

Whoever this was, they found a way to brute force the encryption.

He immediately dropped what he was doing and pulled up a full admin view of Crime.net. Sure enough, there was an unauthorized access attempt being made from within DC, and every few seconds, a string of error codes flashed across a corner of the screen.

Locke scoffed at the sheer audacity. They were DDOS’ing the encryption directly. Thankfully, he had thought ahead when he brought himself on board Bain’s operation, and the auto-refresh failsafe was working as planned. But even with that, the intruder was making steady progress. He’d be impressed if he wasn’t bloody pissed.

Locke tried to access the details of the offender’s computer, but found them to be encrypted or otherwise nondescript on their own end. Unsurprising, given their line of work, it just meant that he’d have to put in a little more effort.

After a few clicks, he began a geographical trace on the intruder, triangulating based on their internet connection access point. It didn’t take very long to narrow it down to a random fast food location in downtown DC, although the parking garage right behind it was a more likely spot to find them.

Still, this was unexpected. Locke was always afraid that Murkywater would find a way to crack into Crime.net one of these days, even without his help, but if this was them, it would’ve no doubt originated from one of the hundreds of Murky owned or affiliated bases across the country. And he couldn’t think of any other enemies of theirs who would have the capability to do such a thing while striking from such a nondescript public place.

He wanted to get information on this mystery hacker while getting them to piss off, and he had an immediate idea on how to kill those particular two birds.

Locke had to briefly disable the encryption refresh, which would give them more progress on breaking into Crime.net, but he knew he could finish his work before they did. After all, Crime.net was built from the ground up to allow for covert communication between criminals, so it would be child’s play to contact this hacker directly and force close all their programs.

The car was filled with the sound of rapid typing as Futaba kept working. Ren had done an excellent job keeping his end under control, but as he sat and waited for another refresh of the encryption, it never came.

After a while, it worried him. “I think it stopped scrambling…”

Futaba smirked. “We must’ve overloaded the auto-refresh function. Now I can work much faster.”

Morgana tilted his head. “I don’t know anything about computers, but doesn’t that sound… too convenient?”

“Hmm… maybe, but-“

Futaba was cut off by all of her hacking programs suddenly closing, except for the Crime.net window. “Hey, what the hell?”

Ren leaned over to view her screen, and the both of them froze when a chat window appeared. 

Why are you sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong?

Futaba was only a moment away from inputting the keys to instantly factory reset her entire BIOS, but she hesitated. She shared a look with Ren, and he nodded. 

This was an opportunity. 

Futaba took a deep breath and typed a response: Who’s asking?

It wasn’t long before their next message loaded in. Someone whose job is to protect Crime.net from nosy amateur hackers like you. 

Futaba scoffed. “Amateur? Who does this guy think he is?”

“Stay calm,” Ren cautioned. “They’re probably trying to get under your skin.”

After a moment, Futaba typed a question of her own.

Is this Bain?

Locke scowled at the mention of his missing friend. If this was the Kataru trying to get at them with a new tactic, why would they bother twisting the knife like that?

Which meant that, if he had to guess, whoever this is, they aren’t connected to them. Although there was another strong possibility…

Locke typed a response. No, he is currently indisposed. Who is this?

There was a pause, and then the hacker responded.

Call me Alibaba.

Locke snorted to himself. It was a bit of a presumptuous name for a hacker, but why did it sound so familiar…

He swapped to a different monitor and did a quick internet search, and quickly found several online rumors about a vigilante hacker in Japan who went by that alias. More worryingly, he even found unconfirmed reports that whoever this hacker was, they more than likely partnered directly with the Phantom Thieves in December of 2016, in order to directly call out a corrupt politician running for prime minister.

Locke tapped his fingers against his desk in thought. After a few moments, he finally replied to Alibaba, and decided to go right for the throat.

The same Alibaba that’s possibly connected to the Phantom Thieves?

This pause was much longer, and Locke even caught them typing a response before changing their mind a few times. Looks like he was right on the money, then.

Eventually, Alibaba responded. Maybe, maybe not.

Locke rolled his eyes and went back to his keyboard. Well, whoever you are, or whoever you’re working with, I’m only going to tell you once to piss off and leave this alone. We are dealing with a far bigger problem right now, and the last thing I want to do is send people to deal with you while we’re otherwise occupied.

He expected Alibaba to read the warning, get scared off, and disconnect. Their response completely floored him, however.

Did something happen to Bain?

“We’re playing with fire here, Futaba.”

“Ren’s right,” Morgana said. “We already know these guys are bad news. We have to be careful.”

Futaba grunted. “But this is the best chance we got to get any kind of lead. And from the sound of things, there’s a lot more going on than we knew about.”

Morgana looked down. “True. But everything about those guys made it look like they were unstoppable. What big problem could they be facing…?”

After a few moments, they got a response.

Maybe, maybe not.

Futaba let out a small, sharp laugh. “Cheeky bastard.”

Before she could send a reply, their mystery contact sent another message. All I can say is that this is far bigger than whatever corrupt politicians you may have allegedly taken down in the past. We are dealing with something that could impact the immediate future of this country for the worse, and put some very bad people in power.

Everyone in the car was baffled by this statement. “The future of this country…?” Ren asked himself.

“And something that affects the US like that would go global very quickly…” Futaba added, echoing his worry.

They looked at each other, then at Morgana. For a while, none of them said anything, until finally Ren spoke up.

“...we need to know more. They might need our help.”

Futaba went wide-eyed. “Have you lost your mind?! We’re supposed to be taking these guys down, not helping them!”

Morgana stood up on all fours. “I have to agree with Joker, actually. If what they’re saying is true, this very well could be something that only we can help solve for the greater good. We have the Metaverse, after all, and we already know Bain has a palace. If we play our cards right, we can help stop whatever third party is threatening the Payday gang, and still change Bain’s heart in the process.”

Ren smirked. “Well said, for a cat.”

“Hey!”

Futaba put a hand to her chin. “Well, when you put it like that, you make a good point.”

She typed up a long response and a proposal.

Suppose I am with the Phantom Thieves, and suppose that we believe what you’re saying about the fate of the US. Perhaps we could reach some sort of temporary partnership.

There was a very long pause. For a moment, they were worried that this person had decided to dispatch them, and they were simply waiting for the end. But then, just when Ren was considering starting the van and driving out of there, another reply came through.

Are you bloody stupid? Why would we partner up with some vigilantes that would no doubt try to turn us in at the first chance they get?

“Well, that’s a fair response,” Futaba deadpanned.

Ren tried to think for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Tell him we can find Bain.”

Morgana and Futaba both raised an eyebrow. “Find him?” the cat asked.

“Just do it. I have a hunch.”

Futaba shrugged. “Well, not like we have much to lose here anyway.” She typed the message and sent it.

Another long pause. Then, a response. It was an address, followed by instructions.

Public cafe. We’ll have a one-on-one meeting to discuss, tomorrow at 9 AM.

And then, after a few more moments that was just long enough for Ren to write the time and place down in his phone, the connection was severed.

Futaba leaned back and let out a huge sigh. “Ren, this is probably a bad idea.”

He nodded, but still held a firm gaze. “I’ll still do it.”

“I’ll go with him,” Morgana said. “They won’t suspect me, and I can help make sure nothing bad happens.”

“Hmm…” Futaba stared aimlessly at the roof of the van. “That gives me another idea…”

While she thought to herself, Ren’s phone buzzed, and he opened up the group chat.

Wolf: Alright, just got up from my overdue sleep, you kids do anything fun while I was out?

We made contact with who we believe to be the Payday gang and I'm going to meet them in person tomorrow.

Skull: Woah, that's effin' impressive.

Wolf: Very funny, now what did you actually do?

Oracle: Nah, he's serious. I tried to crack Crime.net and they intercepted me. Apparently Bain might be MIA, so we offered to help find him.

Wolf: ...you WHAT