15corpses | WELCOME TO THE GAME.

WELCOME TO THE GAME.

[You have died. When you awaken, it's in your body back to the shape it was in before whatever it was that killed you - but not all is right. Nothing surrounds you but darkness as far as the eye can see. A girl's gentle voice speaks to you from seemingly nowhere. It is a voice you probably haven't heard before.]

It's all right...it'll be all right.

Please forgive me for this, but, you're in the True Game now. As you're now here, on this plane, I...took something from you. Something important. The thing dearest to you. It has to be taken, though, as it's your entry fee - it's one of your means of surviving this!

I promise, we don't mean to do anything terrible to you! But this Game is important, and you getting through it is, as well. You'll receive missions, and for the missions you complete, you'll be given points. The more points you earn, the closer you'll get to leaving this place. And then, when you do finally leave, perhaps you'll understand why you were brought here. You'll regain what you lost, and you'll know the truth.

So please...please survive! I have faith in you! You'll be all right!!

[Sure enough, as soon as she's done explaining and collects your fee, something important of yours is missing. It might be memories, an object, or even a person (that's not a Titled), but they are your collateral now. Your motivation for continuing your existence in this world. You black out, and when you wake again, you're back in the mall, in the bedroom you'd been assigned. You remember everything you'd forgotten while you were alive, although you might have re-forgotten it if that was your entry fee. At least everything here seems mostly the same.

However, there's a few new things to discover... your cell phone now lets you read the surface thoughts of everyone that's living, and imprint thoughts into their heads (except for Croix, The Chance. Maybe it's because she didn't have a power? Who knows.) You also have all the items and money you had when you were still alive, which will be useful, because you still get hungry and, we'll say you still need clothes, but that's actually debatable because you are invisible. Not to other dead people, no, but to the other people in the mall.

Yeah. That's a thing. This version of the mall is full of random people who are using the mall as a mall, and even working the registers - oddly enough, there's this one girl with pink hair who seems to work at all of the restaurants at different times. But no one can see you, except for the shopkeepers of food and clothing stores specifically. (Luckily, the Barcade counts as food.) The Titled can be seen going about their business as well, and you can follow them around and watch them, listen to their conversations. However, nothing you say or do can be perceived by them. Even using your powers goes unnoticed, no matter what you try to do with them. It's like you're in parallel worlds. So that's a little spooky.

Speaking of spooky things, there are also monsters in this version of the mall, though the living seem as able to perceive them as the Titled can perceive you, and even to you they are only barely visible unless you focus on seeing them clearly. But these monsters attack people - they attach to the mall-goers like parasites, however for now, they seem to be leaving the living Titled alone... they prefer to attack the dead Titled, and only the power you gained here seems to truly damage them. They also seem quite difficult to defeat on your own. If one of them happens to come for you, you'll need to find the others, fast. At least if you checked your phone, your first mission told you where to go!]

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[Hopefully Kurama's paying attention to more than whether or not the survivors, well, survived. Otherwise, the left hook headed toward his face will be a little out of nowhere. If he is, well...maybe he'll have time to notice Akechi's red(der than usual) eyes and tear streaked face before he has to react.]

[Kurama's fighting instincts are honed by over a thousand years of experience of a world far harsher than the human one. He definitely sees the punch coming. He also sees who is throwing it.

Kurama doesn't even try to dodge. His head snaps to the side as it hits him, skin reddening with the force of the punch.]

...I won't try to pretend I don't deserve that.

You're lucky I wasn't holding a knife.

[His voice is hoarse, and it really shouldn't be hard to guess why.]

Why Sanzashi-san?

[For a moment, Kurama considers refusing to answer. It shows on his face. So does the moment when he decides that after everything he's done, the least he owes the people here is to be honest with them.

Goro most of all.]

Everyone of our group that died was either your victim, close to one of your victims, or disliked you personally. Sanzashi-san was the person who cared for you the most that I could still bring myself to kill directly.

[At those words, the bottom drops out of his stomach. Ren was chosen...for his sake. He brings a hand up to his face and lets out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob.]

Don't you think there's been enough death because of me, Kurama?

[Kurama lifts a hand to reach for him, but it hesitates and stalls before it gets anywhere near actually touching him. He doesn't have the right to try to comfort Goro that way, does he?]

You shouldn't blame yourself. Goro... My mother- [He chokes over that a little, because they took her.] She was in danger. I was going to kill someone. If it hadn't been him, it would have been another.

...I guess that makes both of us that have taken a father away from an innocent daughter, now.

Edited 2017-12-17 04:41 (UTC)

[Kurama flinches at that, subtle but visible. His hand falls back to his side.]

I told you I was a demon. I'm afraid I didn't recall until after you were gone just how much of a monster I truly am.

[He remembers so much more than that, now. Remembers who he was becoming in Yomi's palace before Yusuke, as he so often does, flipped the board and overturned all the pieces.]

Perhaps betrayal is in my blood.

[At that, he chuckles...but it's not a warm sound. Instead it's bitter, filled with pain and regret.]

We always knew we had a lot in common...more than we ever guessed.

I can only imagine... given what your secret was.

[Kurama closes his eyes, one hand lifting almost absently to press over his heart. He still remembers how his own arrow felt ripping through it.

He isn't sure if that or Akira's face hurt more.]

Words mean little after the actions I have shown, but Goro... I am sorry.

...I'm not the one you've hurt the most, here. I'm just the fool wasn't worth choosing Sanzashi-san to die.

Everyone I've hurt deserves an apology. Those I can offer it to will receive one. And I know that I hurt you with this, Goro.

I don't expect forgiveness, from you or anyone else.

[...Is this what it feels like, to be on the other side of this? It hurts so much, to see the fiery Kurama brought so low...]

Dammit...

Kurama, do you really think I have room to judge you for this? I'm pissed off because you left Akira alone and hurt Sanzashi-san, but...have you forgotten that I killed an extra person just to save myself, and then threw even that meaning to her death away?

[There's something just...a little bit shattered to the quiet laugh that escapes Kurama.]

I haven't forgotten anything, Goro. In fact, I've remembered a great deal. Perhaps I've changed less than I like to believe.

Goro, you sabotaged yourself because a part of you was struggling against years of indoctrination and abuse to do the right thing. You might consider it a waste of Feiiji-san's death but I consider it a spark of hope.

Hope? For what? I'm dead, and even if there is some miracle that brings us back...I'd still have to face up to what I did before this. And when the Phantom Thieves...when Akira finds out what I remembered when I woke up here, it would give him reason to doubt everything I've said and done since I figured out who he was.

You said it yourself. You didn't remember it until you woke up here. Akira loves you, Goro, and he will believe you if you tell him your intentions were true.

I know that.

What have you remembered to make you forget it?

[Kurama still looks like a wreck but his expression for this moment is all concern and completely genuine.]

The real reason I became the Phantom Thief, Crow. I wanted to believe that it was really just to help Sae-san, but that was just wishful thinking. What Ursula-san suggested in the first week was actually...very close to the truth.

I pretended to join the Phantom Thieves in order to betray them, sell them out so that Akira would be arrested, and then kill him immediately after his interrogation. I was never really one of his teammates.

[There's a small, sharp intake of breath. Oh Goro...]

You are now.

[It's soft, but certain. Absolute.]

Goro... I'm sorry, I have no right to ask this, but can I hold you?

[He hesitates for a moment, then slowly opens his arms. He doesn't say anything, but he hopes the gesture gets the idea across. As much as he hates to admit it...he needs the comforting physical presence, after everything that's happened in the past week or so.]

[That's really all the permission Kurama needs. He takes that last step in and wraps his arms around Goro, holding him close tightly but with clear care. He rests his head briefly against Goro's.

After a moment or two, one hand loosens and lifts. Gentle, tender fingers brush Akechi's face, wiping away the tracks and traces of the other young man's tears.]

[It won't help the red puffiness of his eyes, but he lets Kurama wipe the moisture from his face. His hands grip the back of the redhead's shirt, almost desperately.]

It's a twisted sort of irony, isn't it? I kill someone to prevent Akira from being assassinated by Shido, and then remember that I was the assassin meant to take his life all along...

Perhaps, but Goro, all this means is that you can make a different choice. This place has changed us all, for better or for worse.

[Kurama finishes cleaning the tears away and his hand slips to the back of Goro's neck, holding him close protectively.]

Your old path no longer defines you. We'll find a way out, and deal with Shido together.

...I wouldn't be able to do it anymore, even if I tried. Akira means too much to me now.

[He rests his head on Kurama's shoulder, finally letting some of the exhaustion from watching the trial seep into him.]

Our best choice would be to inflict a change of heart. I already have all the information we would need to try it, and he wouldn't even know I had turned against him until it was too late.

I know.

[Kurama strokes Goro's hair tenderly. It helps him, really, to be able to be here for him. To offer whatever he can to someone he cares about.

To offer something that isn't violence and death.]

I don't entirely understand the mechanics of it, but I'm a quick learner. I'm sure I'll pick it up as we go.

[The dam is broken, and he can't hold the tears back anymore. They fall down his cheeks at the comforting touch, making new lines where Kurama had cleared the old.]

The mechanics are fairly simple, once you know what you're doing. The difficult part is that only Persona users can hurt Shadows, and it's usually impossible to make your way through a Palace without any direct confrontations.

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