The Children of Thieves

Tokyo Emergency

This chapter will be a small bit messy because I hadn't had it fully worked out. I didn't want to go straight into Hokori's Palace immediately after the revel of who he is, and I also needed to give Inori her Second Awakening before they go into this Palace. So, this is a bit fillery and won't be as long as my previous chapters, because there isn't much to discuss in this chapter. But I hope you enjoy nonetheless.

The group wasn't able to meet up with each other everyday to try and figure out Hokori's Palace because the Christmas exams were steadily approaching. So, Cho was often left on her own in the house, once again with nothing to do. But, at least she could leave her bedroom and walk around to the other rooms in the house. Despite the fact that Cho wasn't attending classes for now, Makoto insisted that she carry on with her studies, just in case she's able to return before the exams start. Still, it wasn't all bad. Because Inori was home-schooled, the two were often playing online games together while the others were busy. It was during one of these games that Inori's Second Awakening occurred.

The two were playing a fighting game together and talking about their relationships. Inori was talking about how Yuta finally took her out on a date, which was just a trip to the cinema and then Big Bang afterwards, but to Inori it was like he took her to a ball. She gushed about how fun it was and talked for ages about the movie, which almost cost her their match. Almost. "Dammit!" Cho yelled as Inori's avatar finally threw hers off of the stage. "I was so close!" Inori cackled with glee. "I saw through your little trick there!" she announced. "You were trying to distract me by getting me to talk about Yuta, but I outsmarted you!" Cho chuckled. "If I recall correctly," she retorted, "you started gushing about him all on your own." "I know your ploy Amamiya!" Inori shouted back after a moment of thought. Then, she cooled down and said. "But in all seriousness, if it wasn't for you, I'd probably still be pining for him without any idea what I was feeling." "So, like your average anime or fanfiction protagonist" Cho joked. Inori laughed. "No," she said, "I don't think I was as bad as you." Cho mumbled about how Inori was lucky they weren't in the same building.

"Anyway," Inori continued. "I want to thank you. I was going to let you win, but I'm way to competitive for that so I threw that plan out the window. So, instead, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask. If it's with anything techy I'll be there as quick as I can. Anything emotional, I'll be there, but I'll most likely need mental preparation first." Cho laughed and agreed. They couldn't shake hands in person so they had their avatars emote with each other in the game instead. When they did, their bond grew to level 10. When it did, Inori gasped. "Second Awakening I see?" Cho commented. Inori made a noise of confusion, so Cho explained what it was, then asked what the new Persona is. Inori thought about it for a few seconds, before saying, "Ganesha."

Aina visited Cho whenever they could, which became increasingly rare as the exams approached. Cho started trying to make these visits worthwhile, so she would frequently make meals for the two of them, such as curry or coffee that her father and Haru taught her how to make. Speaking of her father, Ren was trying to get used to using his wheelchair. Thankfully, his hands were fully healed up, so he was able to use them to wheel himself around. However, that required a bit of practice, which he did in the evening, often ending up crashing into things. So, Makoto or Cho would help him around the house. After half a week since he was discharged, the Children of Thieves were able to come up with a way for Cho to finally be able to leave her house. Cho would put a thick hoodie on with a large hood and a pair of black jeans. She wore the hood over her hair and a pair of sunglasses. Then, Ren could say she was an intern hired to help him around until he was able to do it by himself.

When she wasn't playing video games with Inori, helping Ren around with his wheelchair or studying, Cho was with her friends in her home, either in her room or in the sitting room, trying to work out Hokori's keywords. Morgana had told them that it took the Phantom Thieves a few tries to work out what the keywords of a man named Masayoshi Shido, the man Ren mentioned in Cho's memory, were. However, they were able to get his location pretty quickly. The Children of Thieves however were totally stumped on the location as well as the distortion. They were only able to meet up twice as a group after Cho told them about her memory. They didn't have very long, but they tried the Diet Building, Hokori's home, and two of the regular voting buildings. Nothing. So on the second time they visited, they spent their time pouring over information on Hokori's past, in case that yielded any results, but no luck.

About a week after Ren's discharge, Cho found herself in the Velvet Room once more. Igor and Lavenza stared at her with a look of concern, which Cho didn't think was possible for Igor, since his face was in that permanent grin. "It seems you're dealing with a most elusive foe," he said. "This particular enemy will not be so easy to take down." "Could you tell us how to get his keywords?" Cho asked. "Because we're totally stumped." Lavenza looked at her sadly. "Unfortunately, we do not know them," she said. "It's as if the Palace Ruler has gone through extra lengths to hide himself and his Palace from the world. He could very well be more dangerous than Masayoshi Shido." Cho didn't like the sound of that.

"But do you know of a way we can beat him?" she asked. Igor shook his head. "Even if we did, I wouldn't tell you," he told her. "The point of the Trickster is to work it out for yourself. It is how it has always been done. However, I will give you a piece of advice in regards to what his Palace might be." Cho nodded her head eagerly, ready for their job to be made a little bit easier. "If you want to find his keywords, you need to think bigger" Igor told her. Cho gaped. That was it?! she thought, amazed at just how vague it was, and Igor was known for being vague. She was about to protest how useless the advice was, but before she could, the bells sounded in the distance. "Well now, our time is up," said Igor. "I entrust that you will be able to figure it out from here, good luck Trickster."

Then, Igor and Lavenza vanished along with the Velvet Room, and Cho awoke in her own. Cho checked the date, and realised that they only had three weeks until Hokori was voted in as Prime Minister. So, she called her friends in and told them that they needed to figure out his keywords today, and pointed out their deadline. Reluctantly, they agreed, and since it was a Sunday, they were able to spend the full day at it. So, with that set up, Cho got the apartment ready for her friends to arrive. Today, she swore to herself that she'd figure out how to get into Hokori's Palace!

Like I said, I'm sorry for how short that chapter was, but I didn't want to send them straight into the seventh Palace immediately after Cho finally recovered her lost memory. That's why this chapter was really messy and kind of bad. But next time, it'll pick up again, because they're finally going into that Palace, which will take me a few chapters to write out all the way.