Phantom Thieves of Hope - A Danganronpa X Persona 5 Story.

Chapter 17: The Dollmaker of Pride.

Blooming Villain - Persona 5

Before either side could throw so much as a punch, Shadow Kirigiri hovered above the Phantom Thieves and snapped two of his 20, boney fingers.

To the thieves' surprise, the walls and floor of the room they were in suddenly fell down and disappeared, and the lights above them were turned into multiple colored spotlights, shining down on themselves and Kirigiri. After taking a moment to process their new surroundings, they found themselves in the middle of a large stage, squaring the puppeteer down.

The situation got even more surprising when an audience of Shadows suddenly arose from seats surrounding said stage, cheering and waving and applauding the spectacle in front of them.

"Are you surprised? Don't be," Shadow Kirigiri smirked, holding out his arms as if giving a demonstration, "this is a theater and I'm the master. Why wouldn't I want to make your miraculous deaths a spectacular performance of its own?"

"Fine by me...!" Makoto cracked his knuckles, "it'll be all the more embarrassing for you when we defeat you in front of your adoring fans!"

"You got that right!" Komaru added, "now stop wasting time, and let's get to it already!

"Au contraire, you brainless bronco," Kirigiri shook his head and waved his finger, "the show has only just begun! And the audience desires to see you DANCE IN THE FIRES OF HELL!"

True to his claim, Kirigiri clapped all four of his hands together, creating a burst of flame in between them, which he then threw in a wave at the thieves, with the audience looking on and applauding. The 5 of them all leaped back to avoid it, but Sleuth slid back near the edge of the wooden platform they stood above and looked into the abyss below.

"There's no footing beneath this stage!" he called out to his teammates, "we have more than enough space to fight, but be careful! Don't get too close to the edge!"

"Not good with fire, are you?" Kirigiri jerked, "then how about I use some of THIS to COOL YOU OFF!?"

Following this wisecrack, two of his hands launched glowing orbs at the ground in front of him, which then exploded into a burst of freezing cold ice that almost blew the thieves away!

""Cool us off?" Really!? That's the best you've got!?" Razor shook the frost off her arms and rushed in, "BARROW!"

Shadow Kirigiri grunted as Razor launched herself up towards him and elbowed him in the face! She then used the impact as leverage to fling herself above the creature and let Barrow land an array of cuts and slashes into him with claws and blades!

"YEAGH! Get off me, you simpleton!" Kirigiri snarled, backhanding Barrow. The Persona took the attack, which was reflected back on its user, but Razor did not succumb to the pain! She landed on her feet, and looked up in time to see Kirigiri aiming one of his palms at her, and firing a ball of crimson fire directly at her!

"Bufu!" Sleuth yelled, summoning his own Persona and launching a blast of ice, which intercepted the fireball and stopped the attack in its tracks! Razor used the subsequent mist that formed from the clash of fire and ice as cover to get in close without being spotted.

She managed to get behind him, and as she jumped up and thrust a pair of scissors into his back, Sleuth ran up and smacked him around the face with his baton! Kirigiri screamed in agony, and spun around, flinging the both of them off!

However, while he was focused on these two, Highwayman and Leprechaun had used the opportunity to get in close themselves, and now the proverbial baton had been passed onto them.