The Children of Thieves

Phantom

Once again, this chapter will be similar to what happens in the actual game, but I tried to change it up a bit. I promise, change is coming, just not yet. Bear with.

The buffet place was the fanciest place Cho had ever seen, and she'd been to fancy restaurants before with her parents. But this was another level. The tables were piled high with different types of food. The sight made Cho drool. She met up with Mubo and Hana at a table Hana had picked out. The two of them already had food in front of them and they were eating away happily. "Hey Cho!" Mubo waved her over. "We wanted to wait until you got here, but the food looked so good, so we decided to grad some for ourselves." "It's fine," Cho replied, placing her bag underneath the table. "Mind my things, I'm going to get myself something." As she headed towards the food, Morgana yelled, "Hey! don't leave me here with these idiots! LET ME COME SEE ALL THE FOOD!" Cho chuckled to herself as she grabbed a plate.

But as she was loading up her plate, she overheard some people talking about the Yokubo case, and stopped to listen. "Ghastly what happened in Shujin isn't it?" a well-dressed man commented. "Quite so," replied a snobby looking woman. "You know, something similar happened just 30 years ago, in the same place no less." "You mean those awful Phantom Thieves?" the well-dressed man asked. "Yes them," the snobby woman replied. "A bunch of hooligans that caused pandemonium. Most likely these New Phantom Thieves are a bunch of attention-seeking copycats." Cho's anger flared, but she couldn't do anything about it. The two must've noticed her staring, because they looked over at her. She quickly pile food on her plate to hide herself. "When did this place start letting street urchins in here?" the snobby woman asked her friend. "Actually," the well-dressed man replied, "I do believe that's the daughter of Ren Amamiya and Makoto Niijima!" Cho pretended not to notice the woman scanning her. "Oh, so it is!" she replied.

Cho went around to other tables, listening in to conversations and grabbing some food. Some patrons were worried about the New Phantom Thieves and what they would do. There were others who flat-out didn't believe they were real. Some even thought the whole thing was a hoax, which made Cho angrier. Eventually, she'd heard enough, and brought her food back to the table. Mubo, Hana and Morgana gaped at the mountain that was on her plate. "Wow, you must be hungry!" Mubo commented. "Starving," Cho replied, tucking into her lunch. "But never mind that, I overheard some people talking about The New Phantom Thieves." While she ate, she told the other three what she'd heard.

When she'd finished, Mubo looked furious. "Stuck-up pricks," he muttered. "They're only scared that we'll come after them." Cho thought she saw an opportunity to approach the idea about continuing. But before she could say anything, she suddenly felt a jolt in her stomach. Hana looked similar to her. "I've eaten too much," she told them. "I think I'm going to be sick!" "Me too!" Cho announced. And with that, the two girls rushed to the bathrooms. "Watch our stuff!" Hana yelled to the boys. They were getting a lot of stares on their way past, but Cho was in too much of a rush to stare daggers or flip the bird. The two of them made it, but it was a close call. After finishing up, the two of them made their way back to the table.

But, as they were standing at the lifts, a group of men came walking over. The two girls tensed up when the men stood behind them. They knew the chances of them doing anything to them were slim, but it didn't make it any less unpleasant. But when the lift arrived, the men pushed them aside and got in. Cho's unease turned to anger at this. "Oi!" she confronted. "We were her first!" One of the men stepped out of the lift and pushed her back. "This is a very important man you are talking to," he said, gruffly. "Watch your tone!" He went to push her back again, but Hana grabbed his arm. "Don't touch my friend like that!" she said fiercely. The man simply pulled his arm from her gripped and knocked her aside before getting back in the lift.

Cho saw red, and was about to charge at them, but then, the man in the middle of all of them, the supposed "Very important one", spoke. "Leave them," he told his bodyguard. "They're obviously a bit challenged if they think that kids meals are served here. They're probably just upset that no toy came with the meal." His entourage laughed as they all got in the lift. Cho froze. Not because of what that bastard had said, but because of his voice. She recognised it. And she didn't know why, but that voice made her feel a prickle of fear. Hana must've noticed, because she tapped Cho on the shoulder and asked if she was alright. Cho shook herself, then reassured Hana that she was fine.

They returned to Mubo and Morgana, seething. Mubo looked rather pissed off as well when they sat back down. "What's up?" he asked them. Cho told him what happened, neglecting to tell him about her reaction to the man's voice. Thankfully, Hana didn't bring it up either. When she was done, Mubo looked ready to punch the table, and Morgana looked like he wanted to find the man and scratch his eyes out. "Something similar happened to us," Mubo told them. "We were sitting here minding our own business, when a woman came walking by and tripped over my seat and spilled a bit of food on herself. But then she got angry at ME, saying that it was my fault because my chair was too far out!" "What a prick," Hana replied angrily. "There really are a whole load of rotten adults in this city." "That's why we became the Phantom Thieves 30 years ago," Morgana told them. "And it seems that with the return of the Metaverse, the adults have returned to their rotten ways."

This was it, the opening that Cho needed. "What if we tried to fix the rotten adults this time round?" she asked. The others looked at her. "I mean," she went on, "what if we continued as the New Phantom Thieves and went into the Metaverse?" The others thought about it. "That could be fun," Mubo agreed. "But we'll need a better name than The New Phantom Thieves." "How about Dazzling Thieves?" Hana suggested. "Not a snowball's chance in Hell," Mubo replied. "I was thinking The Young Phantoms." "Too simple," Morgana replied. Then he turned to Cho and asked her, "What do you think?"

Cho had been sitting on a name for a while. But she thought it was a good one. "The Children of Thieves" she told them. "Why that?" Hana asked. "Well," Cho explained, "my Persona, Aoife, is from an Irish myth called The Children of Lír. And our parents were members and aids of the Phantom Thieves." "I like it" Mubo said. "It does have a nice ring to it" Morgana told them. "Alright, let's go for it," said Hana enthusiastically, "and since you came up with it Cho, and Ren was the leader of the Phantom Thieves, you can be our leader." "Really?" Cho asked. The other two agreed whole-heartedly. "Ok then," Cho said. "From this day forth, we'll be known as The Children of Thieves."

 Sorry if it's so similar, but hopefully Shido's counterpart's rudeness was different enough. But anyway, I hope you like the name. Mubo's suggestion was what I was originally going to call them, but then I changed it to this one. But with that, I'll see you tomorrow.