— –Ren Amamiya– —
Okumura's Spaceship, the hardest challenge the Phantom Thieves had faced to this day.
It was the work of Kanikazu Okumura, one of the most paranoid men they had the displeasure of crossing. A paranoid man who had at least some knowledge of the cognitive world, of how the assassinations carried by the Black Mask happened. A man paranoid enough to want to protect his mind from the very weapon he wielded.
By far, this had been their slowest infiltration. Every single step of the way had some sort of challenge ahead of it.
The doors? They required biometric and keycard authorization. The guards? All connected into a hive system per each room that would alert all if a single one was taken down. The factory? Filled with not only workers, but guards and complex maze-like paths.
And that wasn't even accounting for the traps prepared specifically to deter any people like them. The first time they'd experienced it, they'd been completely unable to use their personas. They'd been forced to fight without their strongest weapon. And that was just the start of it.
The security system was designed by a paranoid man, which meant that if one system went offline, the rest would become harder to hack. Any little action they took would increase the security system, and nothing other than waiting would lower it back down to a manageable level.
In summary, this Spaceship was their antithesis. A place designed specifically to keep any would be Phantom Thieves or a Black Mask from reaching him. In fact, the Thieves had even been forced to dedicate days purely to allow Futaba to familiarize herself with the security system.
Yet, in the end, even the toughest of locks had a key.
{Authorized user detected.}
"You have to be kidding me." Futaba grumbled to herself as she saw the lock she'd spent so much time learning simply open before them the moment Haru stepped close.
"Let's go." Ren told them as he waved Mona forward, who ran through the hallway before jumping up and making his way into the ventilation system.
It was a risky maneuver, considering the security in this place. But just because their newest Phantom Thief made things easier for them it didn't mean they had to abandon the path they'd been working on since the beginning. Futaba herself had spent days mapping out the quickest and most direct route for a portion of the Space Ship. After all, who's to say when Haru's presence alone would stop opening doors for them?
And yet…
"Freeze!" One of the robotic guards shouted as the Thieves crawled deeper and deeper into the ship.
Haru had plenty of experience fighting, yet she was still learning how to move quietly. Just as they'd been getting closer and closer to their first checkpoint, one of the factories in which they manufactured more of the robots, she'd slipped. One single misstep sent her tumbling down a pile of boxes directly onto the Big Bang Burger factory floor. Directly into the middle of around twenty Okumura bots.
Ren was almost ready to give the signal to attack when he saw the robots approaching Haru, yet at the last moment he raised his hand to stop the Thieves from acting.
"Miss Okumura? Is that you?" The robot that had shouted previously asked, the robotic voice becoming ever so slightly more subservient and scared. "Are you ok?"
"Huh?" Haru asked, quickly standing up and raising her axe to protect herself.
"Oh no." Another robot added. "The boss is going to fire us. Roborto why didn't you clean this mess? Lady Okumura has hurt herself."
"I was delivering the packages as ordered." Roborto replied. "Cleaning is under Clankston's supervision."
"Clankston? Past order given was to supervise the assembly system. Adjusting hierarchy… System Error." The first robot answered, bringing his hands up to his head. "Executing punishment."
Then, with those words, the robot blew up.
"Hirearchy system has changed." The other robot reported. "System Error…. Rebooting. Miss Okumura, are you hurt?"
"No, no, I'm ok." Haru finally answered, lowering the axe in her hands slightly as she looked at the shadows in which Ren was hiding, almost as if asking him what she should do.
"Oh no… Miss Okumura is clearly hurt but she's too weak to admit it. Tension has been detected. Fear has been detected…. Executing punishment… error…"
The next second the other robot exploded, yet since he was closer to Haru than the first the explosion caused her to tumble back and fall once more.
"Hirearchy changed…. Attack on Okumura detected by previous supervisor… failure to act to protect has been detected. Executing punishment…"
One after the other, the robots in the burger factory began to explode. It was baffling, and it wasn't until almost a minute after the last robot had exploded that the Thieves finally moved. Stepping out from his hiding spot, Ren quickly grabbed Haru before sending his grappling hook up and pulling the two of them over to the rafters the rest of the Thieves had been hiding in.
"What the eff was that?" Ryuji asked, trying to contain himself to just a whisper as they began to move to their next checkpoint. "They just all killed themselves."
"Is uh… the whole Palace going to be like this?" Haru asked with a strange expression as she looked at the remains of the robots just as they reached the edge of the rafters and jumped down to the hallway that would lead them to their checkpoint.
"I doubt it." Makoto was the first to answer. "All of these robots are still the low ranking grunts. They are the lowest of the low in Okumura's mind, regular Big Bang Burger workers, so it's only fair that they'd explode should they hurt you or him in any way."
"I see…" Haru muttered, sounding somewhat ashamed. "I'm sorry for falling and making a mess."
"Don't be." Ren stopped her. "It's happened to all of us, and it's bound to happen to us again. We just need to focus. Oracle, did the security level rise?"
[Nope. Everything is still on the down low for now. Mona is almost to the first checkpoint, and he should be in position to create the distraction we need to make it past the factory. There'll be plenty of workers and chiefs, but we are going to start seeing some of the Manager level bots soon.]
"Understood. Get ready to open the door should Noir be unable."
[Aye aye captain!]
Yet in the end, they didn't need Futaba's help. The moment Haru approached the door, it instantly recognized her and opened for her. Another door down, and in turn, they'd already broken their first checkpoint infiltration record by about 45 minutes.
Really, Ren didn't know what to think. What the hell was going on in Okumura's mind? Did Kanikazu really care for Haru or not?
If you'd asked him before, Ren wouldn't have hesitated to say no. At least not truly.
Sure, he'd only crossed paths with the man once before, during the masquerade, but it was plain in his eyes just how miserable Haru was during that event, and Okumura hadn't appeared to have cared in the slightest. If anything, he had been nothing but delighted the entire event.
Then there was the fact of how he'd put Haru into house arrest for failing her exam. He still remembered how Mona had described her the day he'd snuck into their house. Or hell, even the fact that Haru had been mentally torturing herself the moment she'd discovered he was tied to the Mental Shutdowns. If he'd truly cared for her, he would have noticed and would have talked to her.
No, Okumura cared far more for himself than he did for Haru.
He was willing to sacrifice his daughter into a loveless marriage with a man she clearly disliked to advance and gain more power for himself. Even now, Ren didn't doubt that Okumura only really saw Haru as nothing more than a useful pawn that could be used to promote himself at any moment.
The man was garbage in Ren's eyes. The proof was in the Palace. If it weren't for Haru, he wouldn't be going through so much trouble just to save him from getting what he probably deserved.
"I see Mona, are you ready?" Makoto asked him as she leaned against a wall and glanced into the distance.
"Ready."
Ren had to hold back a sigh as they moved around the spaceship in silence. He was letting himself get lost in thought again, and that was something he couldn't afford inside a Palace. His hand subconsciously reached for the star Jose had given him and caressed the surface as they moved through the halls, avoiding every robot in their path with Mona's help.
"Oracle, how far are we from the anomaly you detected before?" Ren asked, stopping the Thieves just as they arrived at a crossroads.
[Only a few minutes… if we move fast we should be able to arrive before the scheduled patrol crosses through the area. Want me to call over Mona?]
"No, tell him to wait for now, but to be prepared to run should something happen."
Perhaps it was a long shot, but with Haru now on their side, it would be best to not leave any corner of the Palace unchecked. Especially one that had so much security around it that even Futaba herself couldn't hack into it without raising the alarms. She might have been able to brute force it, but things would have only spiraled for the worse if they acted recklessly.
Moving through the mechanical hallways, the Thieves soon arrived at a small door that blended into the wall, almost as if it weren't supposed to be noticed. In fact, were it not for his Third Eye and Futaba's sensors, they might have walked right by it without a clue.
"Noir, can you touch the wall?" Ren asked, glancing down the hallways trying to spot any potential traps with his Third Eye.
"Just touch it?" She asked him, reaching for the wall he showed her and jumping back in surprise the moment her fingers made contact. "Ouch."
[Beep. Authorized Security Biometric Code has been detected.]
With a hiss, the door in front of them slid open, revealing a dark hallway that led into another small room. The hallway itself appeared to be a mechanical entrance, with countless pipes and vents running through it, but as Ren looked past it, he could see the faint green glow of a Will Seed.
"Is that the thing you were telling me about before, Queen? The source of my father's corruption?" Haru asked, stepping a bit closer and peering through to the strange skull on a pedestal.
"It is…" She answered with a slight grimace. "Just… be prepared for what you might see."
"Don't worry, I'm ready." Haru reassured them.
Yet, Ren and Makoto couldn't help but exchange glances with each other for a moment before continuing.
It was a tight fit, moving through all of the tubes and vents in their way, but after a few moments, the Thieves found themselves in a small room with some shelves. Along those shelves were countless mementos of the early days of Big Bang Burgers, mostly the early toys they used to give away with the kid's meals.
Reaching for the Will Seed, Haru's hand stopped in the air for a moment before finally grasping it, and the moment she did, the room around them filled with strange lasers. For a moment, Ren worried that it was a trap, yet soon, the lasers turned into holograms, changing the very room they stood in.
In a few seconds, they were standing inside of a hospital, with the beeping of an electrocardiogram echoing in the background. Then, the hologram created Okumura and a woman he'd never met, but one he could recognize instantly.
"Mom?" Haru whispered, stepping a bit closer.
"It's alright…" Okumura spoke, reaching for the woman's hand and grasping it, bringing it close to his mouth before kissing it. "Everything will be alright."
"Are you telling that to me? Or to yourself?" The woman in the hospital bed asked with a charming giggle. "I told you to stop worrying, I'm fine."
For a moment, the hospital room went silent, before Okumura squeezed his wife's hand and spoke.
"Listen, I know you said you didn't want to. But there's experimental treatments going on in the USA, and if you don't like that, there is similar research in Switzerland. We could go there, I know we don't have the funds right now, but maybe if I take a few loans I could buy us another six months—"
"Honey…" Okumura's wife tried to interrupt him, but he pressed on.
"And if that fails, I can always sell one of the new stores. I could probably recoup the losses if we cut down the expansion plans. We could probably even fire some of our employees if we increase everyone else's quotas. Or we could—"
"Kunikazu!" Haru's mother spoke louder this time, finally getting Okumura's attention. "Please stop."
Okumura's mouth snapped shut, the half formed sentence hanging in the air.
It was quiet again.
Okumura glanced back down at her hand, examining it for a few moments as he caressed it slowly.
"I'm… I'm just looking at the options." He finally said, his voice dropping into a low, toneless murmur. "If I can adjust some margins, then I can make the cost of your care a manageable variable. It's all just a simple matter of reallocation."
"I know the name of every single one of our employees, and they all have families, they also have people they need to take care of. It wouldn't be fair to fire them just so I can sit in bed for a few more weeks." She said softly, her other hand reaching to grab Okumura's face. "Kunikazu… please…. I'm tired."
"Hana." Okumura answered weakly, taking a deep breath before letting go of her hand and pulling back, standing up and adjusting his jacket. "If that's what you want."
The holograms around them began to shift, causing the people in the scene to vanish, yet even then Ren managed to hear a faint "I'm sorry." coming from Haru's mother.
As the lasers finished shifting, slowly dismantling the scene summoned by the Will Seed, a heavy feeling of powerlessness fell over the Thieves. The very feeling Okumura felt the night of that memory. It was only once the final laser deactivated that the feeling vanished, yet Ren could see Ryuji and Haru reaching for their chests, still feeling unsettled by the emotion.
"Damn…." Ryuji muttered. "That's uh…"
"It's fine." Haru answered, though her voice was a bit strained as she reached to pass the Will Seed to Ren. "This is why we are doing it, right? The sooner we change his heart the better."
Grasping onto the Will Seed, Ren opened his mouth to speak, but his instincts reacted faster as he quickly threw his head out of the way. From within the eye socket of the Will Seed, a small black blob-like creature had jumped out, trying to land directly onto Ren's face, yet, after missing its sneak attack, Ren saw the small black blob slither through the ground onto one of the small vents near the floor.
"Was that an alien?" Ryuji asked, as he aimed his shotgun at the pipes, ready to fire the moment he heard anything. "Man… eff this… why the hell does it gotta be a creepy ass spaceship. Come on, let's get out of here, this place is giving me the creeps…."
— — —
{Notice. Unauthorized user detected. Please request a supervisor's help to continue.}
In the end, it didn't take long for their skeleton key to meet their match. Yet, the reaction of the security system itself was enough of a clue that simply having Haru nearby in this Palace was amazing. The security level hadn't risen even after an unauthorized user had been detected.
This was as far as they'd gotten before, because this very door had stopped them from going deeper into the Palace.
The first time they'd reached this door, Ren had tried to transform into one of the robots he'd defeated to use their security card, but the door itself had instantly detected that he was an intruder, raising the alarm and forcing the Thieves to escape for the day. The second time, they'd taken too long in trying to hack through it, and it had triggered a different security protocol. There had yet to be a third attempt until now.
Yet, when Haru approached it, rather than raising every alarm, it simply asked her to find a supervisor to continue.
[Hey, Queen, what are the magic words?] Futaba asked with a slight chuckle.
"Please and thank you?" Makoto answered with some confusion as she jammed a small pry bar into one of the vents so that the Thieves could hide while they figured out their next steps.
[Nope, they are open sesame!] Futaba exclaimed as the door in front of them let out a small beep and unlocked, finally opening to reveal a massive circular room that appeared to expand for over a mile upwards.
Unlike the cold and repetitive hallways they'd moved through so far with factories spread in between, this place appeared to be a bit more open. The walls were divided into the mechanical part he'd grown used to and massive glass windows that revealed the emptiness of the space outside. However, the room appeared to be somewhat empty, without any real path to continue.
That was, at least, until Mona took a step in.
"Woah!" He exclaimed as he waved his arms, trying to stabilize himself as he began to float into the air. Thankfully, Makoto caught him just in time before he could drift away.
[Hehe, the moment the door scanned Haru I was able to get access into the security system of the door. The dumbass system left itself wide open for a backdoor attack. I got to skip having to deal with that annoying security logic loop.]
"So even though she couldn't open the door, she still lowered the security system for us?" Makoto asked.
[Something like that… By the way, you probably want to be careful in that next area. There's some security robots flying around and nowhere good to hide. I think I might be able to bypass the alarm system with Noir's help if you get caught, but don't push it too much. We are on uncharted territory now.]
Taking a step into the room, Ren instantly felt his body weight disappear, the small step propelling him off the ground and into the air. There was a strange feeling of loss of control as he tried to steady himself mid air, but after a moment of failing, he simply shot his grappling hook into a nearby wall before pulling himself into a stable position.
It was good that they'd only brought a small team for this infiltration. For one, the security system itself was annoying enough to deal with as it was, so keeping the team smaller was better to avoid raising alarms. But now, it would drag this too long if they had to bring everyone through here.
Sadly, he was the only one with a grappling hook, courtesy of one of the chests from Mementos. But that didn't mean the rest of his team would be helpless to the gravity, or lack thereof.
"Oracle, how are the robots flying?" Ren asked as he looked up into the sky, narrowing his eyes to the faint movement he saw.
[They uh….] Futaba began, trailing off for a few moments before answering. [They have a repulsor system attached to them. Can't say I understand it, but I might be able to hack it to make them lose control if that's what you're going for.]
"Not quite… but if you can hack them then it's worth a try. How sure are you that you can stop the alarm from going off? With and without Noir."
[Like a six or seven without Noir. A nine with her help. If it comes to it, I should be able to block the system wide alarm a few times before the security system notices me.]
"Good enough. Queen, watch over the team for a second, I'll be back." Ren ordered as he called for Mona, who didn't hesitate to jump in his direction.
Grabbing Mona, he allowed him to climb into his back before shooting the grappling hook higher and propelling them upwards. Using the walls of the room as an anchor, he jumped up higher and higher until he could clearly see the flying robots.
They were a glossy spherical machine, around the size of a beach ball, segmented with thin neon seams that let out a faint glow. In the center was a single red optical lens rotating as they scanned the room. Finally, along the bottom of the orb were three small extensions that were emitting a strange light, what he could only assume was the propulsors Futaba had told him about.
"Mona." Was all Ren had to say as he pulled two small orbs from his pouch and passed them to him. Then, pulling his arm back, he felt him move onto his palm.
With one smooth motion he threw Mona upwards to the robots, then following behind he shot his grappling hook and flung himself up. While flying in the air, Mona shot the two small orbs Ren had given him, striking the two robots directly and causing the orbs to explode into a burst of electricity. Enough to stun them for a few moments just as the small cat crashed directly into one of them taking a small tool from his pouch and placing it on the robot, the very same tool they'd used in Madarame's palace to hack the security lasers.
Ren, on the other hand, used the opening to land directly next to the other stun robot, jumping one more time to latch onto the robot before calling for his persona, Tartuffe. His persona manifested into a shadow all around him, quickly slithering across his body and forcing its way into the robot through their eye.
He could feel his own persona's hunger, trying to consume the Shadows inside the robot directly. Yet unlike with the robots from before, they were managing to resist being consumed.
"No you don't." Ren muttered, activating the ring of wrath to empower Tartuffe.
Finally with that surge of strength, the Shadows inside of the robot were consumed, leaving the robot he was currently riding without a vessel as Ren turned to look at Mona, who with Futaba's help had managed to disable the other robot temporarily. Shooting his grapple once more, Ren pierced the eye of the robot Mona was in and pulled it closer, close enough for Tartuffe to latch onto it and force his way inside.
In the end, they were left with two hollow robots. Or better yet, six propulsors.
~A/N~
Ryuji rank 7 once again showing why he is the goat of Persona confidants. If you were confused as to what Ren is doing with the robots, any time Tartuffe consumes a Shadow before they have a chance to burst out it is a reflection of the Insta-kill effect from his confidant.