- 𝐀𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞 -

Chapter 17 - Amidst Your Silhouette (pt. 2)

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...There was no doubt, he really 𝘸𝘢𝘴 here.
𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦.

But just seeing that here in his own cognitive world wasn't very convincing, rather, it was actually very confusing.
So of course he couldn't just believe that Crow, Akechi, was really there. To really believe it, he would need to see it in the real world; as himself.

The others were still fighting the shadow's persona, everyone was giving their all. But they still got tired after a while and had to change formation, that was to be expected of course.
Noticing the chance to also finally attack then though, Arsene finally did something too, making Joker temporary forget that he just saw 𝘩𝘪𝘮 and getting him back to the fight.
Getting worked up during the "𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸" about something he can't even believe himself is foolish anyway.

As Arsene then attacked the Thieves, they took quite a lot of damage. Of course he was stronger than usual at the moment, but they didn't expect him to be 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 stronger. "Are you guys alright?!", Oracle then asked concerned from above after their foe attacked them again.

"We're fine!" Noir replied to their Navigator while holding her arm gently before summoning her own persona. When summoning Milady, the hall suddenly went into inverted colors, leaving everyone a bit shocked and surprised. The persona then appeared through a psychic portal, snapping her fingers to make everything back to normal. "Madame, I am here!"
When she arrived, Noir smiled at Milady and told her to attack Arsene, which she didn't even hesitate to do since she realized that it wasn't the real one.

"Woah-! That was effin' epic!", Skull stated quite hyped after watching the casted Psiodyne hit the corrupted persona, "I wanna fight too!" he then added on and summoned his own persona as well. After that, a bright and huge lightning bolt crashed down with Captain Kidd sailing out of it; "YARRRR!", the persona yelled when he got ordered to attack Arsene as well. Casting an electricity spell, he then hit Arsene too, causing slightly above average damage.

After Skull's persona attacked, Fox drew his katana quietly as he watched; "Hm... I suppose now it's my turn.", he moved his hand to his face and passionately summoned Goemon, his persona.
When he did that, ice shards suddenly appeared around them and swirled into a vortex before exploding into Japanese ink along with Goemon. When Fox's persona then took a step, the ink normally used for Kanji faded away. Fox ordered him calmly to attack as well, which he then did.

The Thieves kept on attacking, but so did Akira's shadow. Well, actually his persona did, but he also started to fight after finally stopping to stare at Crow in disbelief. But not a single time did he ever take off that damn mask, not even while summoning his "persona". He kept it on at all times, it kinda made the group curious. What would happen if they would just tear that mask down from his face? All of them somehow shared the same thought.

After a while then, they finally noticed that they made some progress in defeating him. Of course they weren't done yet, but they were getting closer to it. It was quite a satisfying feeling to feel victory always coming closer, but they were still curious about that mask he was always wearing. Was 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 the treasure? Maybe. There was only one way to find out, so they continued.

But this time, they didn't just attack his persona, they also started to aim at him.

"𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴? 𝘢𝘩𝘢..-"

They continued to fight, and now it wasn't just the personas versus the other persona; now it was the Phantom Thieves versus the Shadow of their leader.

It was impossible to tell the expression of his face, it seemed somehow pleased, yet so dark. The mask didn't really help either, it made it even harder to tell.

When they managed to get close, Crow suddenly grabbed the Shadow's mask, causing everyone to gasp out surprised. That wasn't how it was planned, and they didn't know what could happen next.
Even more surprised were they when Joker then kicked him away and backed away with his hands covering his face.

"Crow-!", Panther went over to him to see if he got injured by the kick, she could make Carmen use healing magic if he would've gotten hurt after all. "I'm FINE", he replied a bit annoyed and got back up, now looking at the shadow backing away and protecting his face. "Seems like that mask's really important to him!" Noir said before looking back at the others rather quiet. "So we just gotta take it away from him?" Queen then asked before looked upwards to Oracle to hear her response; "Yup, I think that's the case."

"Aight then!" Skull yelled and cracked his knuckles before looking back to the personas who were still fighting Arsene. "But first we have to get closer..", Fox then said quietly, "Hm."
"That shouldn't be a problem!" Oracle talked from above once again to reply to Fox's statement. "His defense is pretty low right now!"

They nodded at each other and went rushing towards Joker trying to grab hold of the mask to tear it off his face, but that was easier said than done.
Desperately he tried defending himself, but since he was outnumbered they had the advantage.

Still, he didn't let them get that so easily, he tried to get them away from him. But in the end, he kind of failed to get them away. Backing away into a corner, he just stared at the Thieves with an unreadable expression again. He was cornered from the Thieves, and they were gonna tear off that mask of his where he hid under so long.
They started to approach him, and soon got right into his face. Crow grabbed his mask once again;

𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦.