The Children of Thieves

A Woman

Children of Thieves Group Chat

Yuta: Shall we be entering Kyoei's Palace today?

Cho: Yes we are.

Hana: Great, let's meet up at the hideout after school to discuss strategy

Cho: Actually, we're going to need a new hideout.

Mugio: What's wrong with the roof of our school?

Cho: Mubo, I want you to think very carefully about why what you just said was really stupid

Mugio: .....
Mugio: Ohhhhhhh
Mugio: Yep, I'm an idiot

Yuta: How about the bike shed next to the Subway in Shibuya, that's almost always deserted?

Hana: Yeah! That could work!

Cho: Great, so we'll meet there after school, then head into the Palace

Mugio: Gotcha!

Hana: Ok

Yuta: See you all then

End of Conversation

Just as they had arranged, the 5 of them met up in the bike shed outside of Shibuya station. As Yuta had told them, there was no one else in there. Speaking of Yuta, just like with Hana and Mubo before him, the Meta Nav had appeared on his phone, with the coordinates for Kyoei's Palace written in it. Since he was the newest member, the rest of them decided that he should do the honours of activating it. Yuta thanked them and activated it, transporting them into the Palace. As usual, there clothes changed, becoming their Thief attires. Once the transformation was done, Lupa looked Yuta up and down before saying, "We need to think of his codename."

Yuta looked perplexed, but agreed. "If you tell me yours, we might be able to think of one for me" he said thoughtfully. Blackbird acquiesced. "I'm Blackbird. Mubo is Silver, Hana is Lupa and Morgana is Mona." Yuta took all that in, then made his decision. "Since you all went with what you look like, then I'll be Legionnaire." Blackbird didn't think that suited, but Silver beat her to it. "Nope, too long" he told Uta. "Why don't we leave it to Blackbird," Mona piped up. "She came up with everyone's codenames. Except mine, of course." Blackbird analysed Yuta. Both his outfit and his Persona. Then, she came to her decision. "Hero" she said. "Why that?" Yuta asked. "Because your Persona is a hero in Greek myth," she explained, "and warriors were often heralded as heroes in songs and poetry." Yuta thought about this, before accepting it. And with that, they made their way into the Palace.

As they made their way through the hallways of former students of Kyoei, Blackbird felt a small bit queasy looking at them, knowing that most of them were probably dead and that Kyoei potentially had a hand in killing them. Hero had to stop when he saw his own face on the wall. Blackbird thought she saw tears well in his eyes when he started playing Desire. Lupa approached him and placed a comforting hand on his back. "You made this didn't you?" she asked. Hero nodded. "It's based off of a painting I saw in a gallery with a similar name," he answered. "The painting moved me, and I felt music emanating from the painting. But then that rat-bastard claimed he made it, and I was forced to go along, if I was to be able to continue under his tutelage." They stood in silence as Hero continued to listen to the piece. After the song ended, they continued on their way.

They came to a new room after dispatching a new range of Shadows. At the start of that new area was a Saferoom. They quickly made their way inside and recuperated. They made their plans and Blackbird divvied out some of the medicines she got from Kurusi and other items that would heal and reinvigorate them. Then, they left the Saferoom, and proceeded through this new hallway. And what they saw made Hero stop dead in his tracks. It was the same as the first room. Pictures of students, with whatever music piece they created for Kyoei underneath. But the pictures had red crosses on them, and the pads that had the pieces on them wouldn't play. The rest of the Thieves were curious about the red crosses, but Hero stared at the pictures in horror. "These are all former students of Kyoei!" he told them, aghast. "Every last one of them died, either by suicide or an accident."

This caused the rest of them to stare as well. Now that Blackbird thought about it, she'd seen some of these people in the news recently. A lot of them were involved in some of those accidents that Makoto was investigating. Others appeared in the news because they were found with signs that they'd committed suicide. "This man is truly sick" said Lupa. Blackbird nodded. "Come on," she said to them, "let's put a stop to this madman's crimes." They nodded and continued through. But they'd barely made it halfway through, when Blackbird heard a noise. She turned on her Third-Eye on instinct and saw a trap activating. "Look out!" she yelled. At that moment, lasers appeared from the ceiling and would have sliced them in half had Blackbird not warned them. But now, she, Hero and Mona were on one side of the grid and Silver, Lupa and the way forward were on the other.

"NOW WHAT!?" Silver yelled angrily. Blackbird scanned the room with her Third-Eye, eventually coming across a junction box in the room down the hall she was in. "Go into the next room and make sure no Shadows come through!" she called to the two, "We'll get rid of the lasers." Silver and Lupa said the understood, then Blackbird ran over to the junction box. she messed around with it until it deactivated. Then they followed Silver and Lupa into the next room, only to find a large door blocking the way. "Can't anything go right for ONCE!" Silver yelled angrily. "How do we open this?" Blackbird wondered aloud, switching on her Third-Eye again. "I see no mechanisms or anything." Mona had a look at the door. "This is just like 30 years ago," he said, then turned to the others. "When I did this with your parents, we needed to leave the Palace because the only way to get passed the door was to open one just like it in the real world," he explained, before turning to Hero. "Are there any doors like this in Kyoei's house?" he asked.

Hero scanned the door, then his eyes widened. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "It's sensei's study!" "Great," Mona replied. "Has he ever let you in there?" Hero shook his head. "That's it!" Mona announced. "Now, all we have to do is to open that door and get him to see it. Once we do that, this door will open." "So how do we get it open?" Lupa asked. "I asked Blackbird to help me with my next project," Hero told them. "We could use that as an excuse to get in there." With that settled they retreated from the Metaverse. Uta wanted to do it right away, but they were all exhausted, so they decided to do it tomorrow. With that settled, they parted ways for the day.

I was originally going to have the opening of the door in this chapter, but I didn't think it'd fit. So that'll be the next chapter. I hope you liked Yuta's codename. I got the idea off of another fanfic I read ages ago on AO3. Unfortunately I don't remember it's name nor the author, but it's basically made up Mementos conversations. But anyway, I'll see you next Chapter.