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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[...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.

[Kurama will wipe those away, too, his touch soft and caring. And if his lips brush Goro's temple when he shifts to watch what he's doing, that clearly must have been an accident, right?]

I suppose I'll have to leave the fighting to you and Joker, then, if my own natural powers don't equate. I'm hardly without other useful skills.

[Right...surely an accident. And it doesn't have Goro's cheeks darkening as he remembers that kiss on Monday, either.]

That...does assume we can make it back to the living side of things. Even the revival magic I know of wouldn't help us at this point...

[And since his cheeks are darkening, Kurama can't possibly be noticing how cute Goro is when he's blushing.]

I doubt any of us were actually meant to die this way. If we can regain access to our original worlds, I may be able to convince Koenma to help.

As I understand the story, Yusuke was dead for quite a while before his first resurrection.

Can it really be said that I would deserve that second chance? If I were just two years older, the courts would almost certainly order me executed for the crimes I had already committed.

[Kurama shifts his hand to cup Goro's cheek softly.]

Do you remember the last words I said to you before we ended up in that execution chamber, Goro?

[He does. He remembers the shock on the teen's face as he whispered 'I was worse than you, for longer.']

Yes...you were trying to assure me that people can change, right?

[He chews his lip, looking nervous.]

I had thought I'd changed...become less selfish. But then the timer came close to running out, and I killed someone anyway. Then did it again, just so there wouldn't be a witness to tell everyone what I'd done...how can I claim I've changed for the better, after having done that?

I was. As well as letting you know that I am not someone with the right or the inclination to judge you harshly.

[Can Kurama coax the lip out from between his teeth with a gentle thumb? That's not actually good for it.]

Goro... No one sheds a lifetime of pain in two weeks. Everyone can change, but no one can reverse their entire course in an instant. Change is a process. It may start in a single moment but it will rarely if ever be completed in it.

[He sighs quietly, lowering his eyes.] Many will tell you it is an irrelevant distinction, but murder and assassination truly are two different things. There is no such thing as a spontaneous assassination. They are premeditated by nature.

You committed murder as an act of desperation and fear. Your remorse is clear. This is not the same as your sins of the past.

[He can, though Goro responds by reaching to grab his other arm, instead.]

One could argue that it's worse. As an assassin, there's...the understanding that even if you refuse, there will be others more willing. Shido has Yakuza connections, and has paid to have people simply disappear, before.

What I did last week...I was well aware that I was the only danger to their lives.

[That's fine. Kurama will just go back to holding him tightly.]

Were you? I will admit that while my own secret was not quite enough to drive me to kill, not the way a threat to my mother was... I did consider it. I doubt I am the only one, just as I doubt that no one but me was tempted by the danger to our loved ones.

We are all, in the end, only...human. Everyone has a breaking point.

I didn't see anyone else out that night. As far as I could tell, I'm the only one who...acted on that temptation. And even if someone else would have, does it really matter, as long as I was acting with the belief that they would live if I did nothing?

[Kurama sighs quietly. He lifts a hand and runs it gently through Goro's hair.] Knowing what you know now, Goro. Seeing what you've seen, of how much we care for you...

Would you do it again?

[He's silent for a moment, as he thinks back to the trial. He can't judge accurately how his hatred of Shido might influence his feelings on the matter, but...right now? With his more objective view letting him understand how abandoning his plan and embracing the Thieves' methods would be the most practical way of dealing with him?

...Come to think of it, would he even have a choice but to act quickly, now? He's been gone for three weeks, he missed an important assignment...surely that would be seen as abandoning his duties. A betrayal to be punished. He doesn't fear Shido right now, but he does know what that would mean.]

...No. I feared most of you would abandon me as soon as you learned the truth, regardless, but...I realize now that I had too little faith in my bonds. So many of you stayed by my side...I think I might even be able to face the scorn of the public, with such loyal friends.

[His eyes are misting up again, but the tears are different this time. They aren't from hurt or anger...he's simply so touched, he can't help but cry.]

WELCOME TO THE GAME.

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