Persona 5 x persona 4

chapter 45

Joker stood at the beginning of Mementos as his friends took a second to collect themselves. The Shujin group had all made it across with no incidents even if their school had been surrounded by the Japanese special police force. Joker looked around quickly seeing Oracle and Fox had both made it. Fox look positively bewildered at his current situation but a proper explanation would be given in a moment. For now, Joker was just relieved everyone had made the jump. Naoto and her group were already here the second they arrived so that made everyone.

"Shit Koromaru." Ken suddenly growled as Joker noticed Ken's canine companion wasn't with them.

Aigis looked towards her fellow Shadow Operative. "He'll be fine Ken-Kun, only other Persona users know of his true nature. I contacted one of our agents and they are getting him out as we speak."

"Good, that's probably for the best. He's an old dog and doesn't need to be fighting." Ken gave a visible sigh of relief, only further relieved as Noir stepped up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"So if I may inquire, why we all here?" Fox asked looking around at the whole group.

"I can answer that," Naoto announced stepping into the center of the group. "Masayoshi Shido has been assassinated and the Phantom Thieves are being accused."

"What?! You gotta be freakin' kiddin' me! We beat the guy up but we didn't touch 'em after he had his change of heart!" Skull boomed visibly upset.

"Doesn't matter." Naoto folded her arms across her chest. "They are looking for any excuse to take us all in, Shadow Operatives included."

"What are we going to do now?" Panther sounded desperate.

"That's what we have to decide." Naoto glanced over everyone.

With that everyone went silent for a few minutes as well a look was passed amongst each other. There was an unease that hung in the air. It was understandable, the stakes of the game had just risen even farther then they had been when Crow had sprung his plan. Sure the rest of the Phantom Thieves were wanted after he had been captured but now they were actively being hunted. They were only now realizing the fear Joker had to live with every day. To him, this was nothing, the people he cared most about were currently already safe in this room and all his other confidants didn't have a price on their heads.

"So they killed Shido..." Crow's voice muttered through the uneasiness that built up in the air, he wasn't affected by the sudden danger and looked pensive.

"You got an insight in all this Crow?" Queen asked.

Crow glanced towards Queen. "Theories yes. I know Shido's organization better than anyone here and I can probably predict how they are trying to play this out. Can't say I know 100 percent but it'll probably be close."

"Well let's hear'em!" Kanji called out.

Crow nodded. "Very well. Shido has several people who I could see killing him, top of the list is his political adviser Keiki Honda. Honda used to be a nobleman but he put too many of his eggs in Shido's basket and while he may look like a good man on the outside, he is as corrupt as Shido. He'd do anything to save his image and no doubt ordered Shido's assassination because he has the most to lose if Shido goes down. His plan is probably to play Shido's death off as a martyr and paint us as villains that stood in the way of Shido's dream for Japan. The elections are close but Shido's death will probably delay them, giving Honda time to find someone new to take Shido's place. Sojuro Matsushina is a good puppet, already liked among people and he has a charisma about him. Also, there was already talk about making him vice prime minister. That would leave Keiki Honda the new head of Shido's organization."