The Children of Thieves

The Whims of Fate

Just a heads up, quite a lot of this chapter is fighting, which I wasn't very good at writing at the time I was publishing this the first time. I found it difficult to translate fights from my brain onto paper. Also, I hope you like Fight Club, because there's going to be a shit ton of references. Enjoy.

The next day, the Children of Thieves met in Leblanc to discuss infiltrating Netami's Palace. While they were there, they also wanted to figure out Tetsuya's codename. "No need," he said, smiling. "I've already thought of one." "What is it?" Mubo asked, leaning forward eagerly. "Well," explained Tetsuya, "I figured I'd go with an animal to keep with the theme. Since, aside from Inori and Uta, all of your names are related to animals, and then Morgana just is one." Morgana looked like he was about to argue, but Tetsuya kept talking. "So, I've decided to go with Arachnid."

The group looked bewildered at the choice. "Why?" Meishu asked. "Various reasons actually," Tetsuya replied. "For starters, both mine and Sherlock's colour schemes are that of a Brown Recluse. Coupled with the fact that militaries often use arachnids to name things, and it fits." Then, he began to chuckle. "But also," he laughed, "where is the most common place to find spiders?" As he laughed, Cho thought about the question. Then, she groaned and facepalmed. "Holmes" she replied. Tetsuya roared with laughter at his own joke, while the rest of the Thieves groaned. Then, Inori stood up and nicked Tetsuya's phone. "Hey!" He exclaimed. "Your punishment for the terrible joke!" she replied before running away from him up the stairs. The others sat there laughing as Tetsuya chased Inori around the attic for roughly a minute, before storming back down the stairs, annoyed. "Do I want to know what she did to this?" he asked as he sat down. "I'd keep an eye on your social media accounts over the next few days if I were you" Cho replied. "Duly noted" said Tetsuya.

After that, they entered Netami's Palace. Once inside, the Shadow at the desk directed them to the door on their left. "Over there is the way to our arena," he explained. "And on your right is the training grounds. Please note, while here on the ground floor you can challenge the arena immediately, on the other floors, you will have to complete other tasks first, Understood?" They nodded. "Good," said the Shadow. "Now, when you are ready, the challenger will walk in the left hallway, while the rest of you shall take the one on the right once you walk through the door. Good luck." Blackbird handed over the bag of items she carried to Arachnid, who took a deep breath, then headed down the left hall, while the others walked down the right one.

Tetsuya: The arena that Arachnid had to challenge was about the size of the courtroom. And, looking at it harder, he realised that that's what it must be a cognition of. However, now it looked like the basement of an American diner. The rest of the Children of Thieves had to stand with the people who were just fighting, who stepped back to create a ring for Arachnid. Then, a holographic projection of Netami appeared at the centre. "The rules are simple," she said, getting to the point immediately as usual. "The challenger will have three rounds to fight, each round adding more and more of you in. If the challenger taps out, falls unconscious or is unable to continue, the fight is over. However, if the challenger manages to subdue all fighters, then they and their fellow challengers can move to the next floor. And, the most important rule is that you do not ask questions, no matter how unfair it may seem. Am I understood?" A resounding yes echoed from the Shadows. Netami smiled, then her hologram vanished and a bell sounded in the distance.

Then, a large Shadow came into the ring, and transformed into two spikey monkey looking creatures. "Matrix," Arachnid said quietly into his earpiece, "a little analysis please?" Matrix subtly scanned the creatures. "We fought them in Mementos before," she replied. "Their weakness is Bless." Arachnid grinned. "Handy," he said, moving to take off his mask. "Well Sherlock, let's end this quickly." He summoned Sherlock and readied for a fight. He fired light Bless attacks at one of them, then spun around and swung his daggers at the other. He found it easy to wield them if he pictured them as extensions of his own hands while doing karate. The Shadow put up a fight, blocking his attacks with ease, but Arachnid was better. He managed to wear it down enough, then summon Sherlock again and defeat it with one final Bless attack. He turned to the other Shadow and saw that it was still downed. Perfect! he thought to himself, before running in, shooting it with the pistol he bought from Iwai. He kept it down long enough to reach it, then finished it off by jamming both of his daggers into its mouth.