2025-09-08: Versus
- Log: 2025-09-08 Versus
- Cast: The One in the Black Mask, Ren Amamiya
- Where: Kobayakawa's Palace, Shujin Academy, Tokyo
- OOC Date: September 08, 2025
- IC Date: Sunday, July 08 2012
- Summary: While re-investigating Kobayakawa's Palace after needing to beat a hasty retreat for Kasumi post-awakening, Joker and Mona come across the One in the Black Mask and are promptly separated. What follows is a brutal and one-sided fight--and yet, for some reason, it doesn't end in death.
<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.
The bunker is in high alert today. Alarm Klaxons whine incessantly, shining whirling crimson over every room. A loudspeaker calling out in barely concealed panic beneath the seeming air of composure.
We are in the midst of an invasion. G-Gather before the War Room, where we shall make our last stand. FOR THE GENERAL!
The Palace security should be at maximum, Joker and Morgana know. How many Shadows should there be? And yet, there are none. The whine of the alarm is what leads them deeper within, rather than any trail. And near the lowest safe room they find the internal Parade Grounds... changed.
There are barricades set up, but now the metal and wood is broken like shattered teeth, scorch marks all over the ground, tell tale signs of Mines. A blast door has been lowered, splitting the grounds, but perhaps... too late? There are sounds on the other side, reverberating against the metal like thunderous Taiko Drum Beats.
How does one get to the other side then? Well a cursory search at least would show there are ventilation ducts, mostly hidden, but available. If you crawl within them, you'll eventually be led upwards, to a vantage point through a grate.
Ichor sprays like blood, the battlefield strobing crimson as a Kin-Ki suffers upon the ground, the giant toppled, with a hole in it's chest, claws sidle across it's face, and begin to drag the giant bodily as machine gun fire clangs-clangs-clangs against a blurring saw-toothed blade, wielded with one-handed ease.
"AhahahahHAHAHAHA- this!? THIS is your last stand!? How delightfully..." Suddenly, that Kin-Ki, despite it's impossible size is heaved with a strength that seems almost Herculean, and throw towards a line of barricades, the still twitching body slams into them, as they begin to topple and scatter, the line of cognitions and Shadows falling, falling.
"... pathetic."
Right into the mines they set up as defense. In a chain reaction, the room detonates into one - then two - then twelve, until it all fades from distinction, into one enormous ear ringing explosion. And in the gently wafting smoke of the aftermath of the slaughter, Joker and Morgana may feel like they haven't been witnessing a battle.
This isn't a battlefield. It's an abattoir.
A shine of crimson of a single lens, against the silhouette of a slim figure is all that remains. The security of the Palace at maximum, but defeated so completely. Shadows will return in time, but for now, all is silent, save the footsteps of metal upon concrete as he strolls through the otherwise silent reaches of the Palace, straight up to the War Room Door. But on his way, there is a pathetic coughing, that breaks the silence.
"We-*cough*-give our lives... gladly... Hck." He makes the time to sink his blade into a shape in the ground on the way, right into their heart, and Joker may be disturbed to understand he recognizes that voice.
He recognizes it because it's Haru's voice. A shape that then dissolves into nothing soon after.
IMPORTANT WAR ROOM BUSINESS
DO NOT DISTURB
"Oh 'Kobayakaawwwaaaa'..." He's more visible now, the tatters of his cloak, his armored ankles feel like they're dripping off of him, alive, like they're the stuff of shadows themselves. As he knocks once, twice - almost like one would at a normal door. Then a third time, and it's like all those layers of steel and rivets just buckle from that third knock of his hand, caving inward into a large dent. As his voice drops from something almost playful, to something with deadly menace.
"... I'm home."
Why? Why would someone who can erase their presence so completely go through the Shadows and defenses of this place like not merely a Bull in a China Shop, but a typhoon?
The only answer that can spring to mind is he enjoys it. He enjoys it this much.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Joker can only stare at the bunker as klaxons blare and loudspeakers announce that the Palace is being invaded. In the chaos surrounding the mostly-underground bunker, there's almost no activity--presumably all the Shadows are deeper within for that last stand they keep talking about. They and Mona share a worried glance--but they came here to check on the place after Kasumi's awakening. Their original goal was to try to learn something from the Shadow Principal, to see if a certain Detective Prince had come here asking about them.
Now it looks like they've stepped in the middle of something entirely different. The deeper in they go, the more they find evidence of the so-called invasion. Broken barricades. Scorch marks from spent mines (something to remember for later). A blast door that blocks the way onwards, but even though the thick metal, chaos booms.
Joker presses a gloved hand on it. "There's no moving this," they observe.
Mona, paws folded, peers at it--and then at the walls nearby. "...But we're thieves. There's more ways inside a Palace than the obvious one."
Joker follows his eyes up. When they spot what Mona means--a ventilation shaft not immediately visible--they shoot him a smirk.
They're narrow, but big enough that Joker can fit inside. Mona goes first, being the smaller one; he's better able to scout out ahead and make sure Joker won't get stuck as they progress. Arm over arm, Joker scootches forward, occasionally stopping when grates offer them and Mona a limited view of what's happening outside. And when the path leads up, Mona and Joker silently bear witness to...
"Hey. That's..." Mona murmurs.
Joker says nothing, even when he trails off. They remember that split-second sighting in Kaneshiro's Palace of that Persona User in the striped costume and the horned mask. The one in the black mask, Shadow Madarame had called him. At the time, The Phantoms hadn't taken him seriously. Now...
Now, it's a one-man slaughterhouse. Mines set off a domino effect, destroying an entire army in but a moment.
Joker stares at the one in the black mask, blood pounding in their ringing ears. There is a flash of crimson on that black mask; then its bearer strolls onwards--but not before skewering one last cognition.
It's the cognition with Haru's voice. The tingle along Joker's skin turns into a crawl. They shake their head. It's just a cognition, they remind themself. It's as disturbing to hear her pledge loyalty to the Principal as it is to see execute her with such nonchalance.
"Let's hurry on," Mona murmurs. Joker nods agreement, and the two of them hurry further down the vents.
~ * ~
Even the War Room needs air--especially the War Room, since it doubles as a Panic Room. There's some puzzle-solving that involves getting in there, but between the two of them, they manage to get to the tube that runs the length of the ceiling in the hall just outside. With all the banging at the door, surely their movements won't be overheard until they make it to the grate that leads down, Mona on one side, Joker on the other. The two of them peek down towards the door as there is a bang, bang, BANG--and that metal door buckles under the force of their fist.
Joker swallows hard, masked eyes riveted on their back.
"That's a human... right?" Mona hisses, grimacing. "That Resonance has got to be a Persona User--but there's something about him that just isn't natural..."
Joker knows what they mean. The darkness in the folds and scraps of their costume make it almost seem alive. It reminds them of Rumormonger Merry's costume, not that they had a good look at it. The abject hostility and bloodlust that all but radiates off this person, though... it's a world apart. Even more so considering they could have snuck into this Palace, but they chose to brutalize their way through it.
Just because they could. Because they're having fun.
That is the natural answer, isn't it?
"Get ready to jump him," Joker murmurs with a charade of confidence. "If he's here to kill the Principal, we have to stop him."
The Phantoms don't kill. That means they also don't stand by and let someone get killed either if they can help it--even if it is someone as rotten as Principal Kobayakawa. Still... what did they mean by 'they're home'...?
<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.
"If you don't make me drag you out of there, I might go easy on you this time." The figure in the beaked Black Mask smiles in a way that seems just 'off'. It is a human smile, but it is so different from the smiles Ren sees in his day to day, so much so that one might almost mistake it for being inhuman at the thoughts beneath it.
Right as Joker and Morgana start to move through the ventilation ducts, as they do, view of him fades... right into a view of the 'War Room'. A table, chairs, radios. There's maps of the 'Shujin Expansion Plan'. A list of student quotas, on papers, by names in order to 'Meet Expectations'. And one large terminal of monitors and security cameras, like they're more focused on the bunker within, than the enemy without. The room is...
Empty!?
No wait Joker's Third Eye suddenly hones him in on an enormous cardboard box settled into a corner, the box is even trembling slightly. "But who am I kidding? I probably won't." Through the metal, they can hear a low snigger, echo through into horrible laughter, "AhahahahAHAHAHAHA!"
Then both of them feel a muted presence of something... even more unnatural than before. Abruptly, the door has this terrible shriek of contact with a blade upon it, before the metal just bubbles outwards, layers upon layers of old steel parting like it's melting butter.
The War Room has been breached! I repeat-! The War Room has been breached! Protect the General!
But nobody came.
And what floats in ahead through the uneven gash in the door, silent, is a translucent, whirling outline, shifting in a chaotic frenzy. It's hard to get a read on it, except the subdued buzz of a narrative of violence, and hatred. But try, just try...
Who is he?
... that if you look closely enough, you might see the yawning of the abyss, that swallows up everything, including the identity of the person wielding it.
Who am I?
Look long enough at that which cannot be seen, and you might even lose yourself in it. The shape spins about as if in somersault, before hovering over the room that's as silent as a grave.
As the outline vanishes, the door to the War Room is still dripping, the figure walks through the gap too, with a hand upon it's sidearm. It's no model, nor does it have it's silencer screwed upon it. The figure takes several steps forward, his gaze not even having to survey the room... it simply falls upon the box.
"Looks like he isn't here... Oh well." The one in the Black Mask says casually, smiling, to give him false hope, as he walks around the table, the gun in his hand. He steps closer, and closer, raising his gun at the cardboard box in his left hand. "... Did you really think you could hide from me?"
The box trembles all the more, right as the black armored figure pivots so suddenly that Joker almost doesn't even realize he's pointing it at him. For him to realize he was talking to him, not Kobayakawa.
The sound of a bullet, as a ventilation strut gets cut - no not just one, as Joker's weight lists, but - two, three, more. It's an impossible shot. And his ears can pick up the subtle thud-twang-thud-twang as the bullet ricochets rhythmically back and forth between concrete and metal.
His section of the ventilation duct is taken by gravity, hurtling towards the ground.
The Ventilation Ducts to the War Room have been compromised. Initiating Lockdown to prevent Chemical Weapon exploitation.
And just like that, Morgana finds himself blocked off from entering the room, by a plate which slides shut in the ruined section of the ducts ahead of him, right as the figure approaches.
"... I thought I heard some rats scurrying about, and who do I find but the leader of that group of small timers, the 'Phantom Thieves'...?" The figure smirks, then cackles, "Did taking Kaneshiro and his little piggy down really give you a high opinion of yourself? Did it make you think you were ready to play with the 'big boys'?" He says, inflecting the words mockingly, before his tone just shifts again. "Fine... I'll play."
Step... step... step. "Make the first move." He challenges Joker, without even a blade in his hand, and behind him, Joker would see the cardboard box sprout feet, as General Kobayakawa tries to slowly sidle around the war room in the opposite direction, out of their way.
AS: The One in the Black Mask has readied for combat as ? ?? ?? ? ?! He is now fully healed! Atk_Up added!
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
This time... Those words stand out to Joker, too. They're congruent with what the one in the black mask said about how they're home. This isn't the first time they've been here, and whatever this rampage is all about, it's not just a job. This is them getting off on the Shadow's fear and panic. Does that mean that they don't have intent to kill? Shadow Kobayakawa sure thinks it's serious, so Joker prepares themself for the same.
Onwards they go, further along the vent shafts until they and Mona are inside the War Room proper. There's only an instant to take it in, but that instant is long enough for Joker to spot, with the Third Eye that Igor granted them, a cardboard box that lights up green in the dimmed room. It trembles. That's Shadow Kobayakawa, all right... There's no way it'll fool anyone.
The door shrieks and melts. It's not just a sword. There's something--awful, something hateful, in the presence just beyond. Mona and Joker watch the door with trepidation just before it parts, and a strange... thing... floats in. Is that... a Persona? Their Persona? Looking at it hurts Joker's eyes, with or without the Third Eye. It doesn't make sense. It's like it swallows up everything around it. Joker shakes their head and clutches their forehead, and when the Persona vanishes, they find they're relieved.
The User walks in, gun in hand. Joker and Mona shoot another, more alarmed glance this time. In cognitive worlds, a model gun may as well be a real gun, but there's something about that one... Are they here to kill Kobayakawa after all? Joker prepares to smash the vent open--
Did you really think you could hide from me?
It isn't until after the one in the black mask has already opened fire that they realize they didn't mean the Principal, but Joker themself. The struts snap; the shaft cracks; and to the sound of a trick shot, Joker's section falls to the ground with a SLAM. They shout in pain and surprise while lockdown plates separate Mona from dropping down to join Joker.
It's like a plunge into the Samegawa in winter. Icy adrenaline makes Joker ram a kick along the inside of the ruined, broken shaft, and they slide out at speed to jump to their feet and face the one who could have slaughtered them all in Kaneshiro's Palace while they'd fought his Shadow. Their dark eyes are sharp and focused behind their mask, and beads of sweat roll down their face.
The cardboard box is sneaking out as the black-masked one taunts, insults, and challenges them. Joker forces themself not to look at it directly, to keep their stare on the black-masked one. It's high-key galling to put their life on the line for a wretched coward like Kobayakawa, but even though they would've made that choice anyway, that choice has now been made for them. They don't even have Mona as back-up anymore. They've got to do this on their own.
The one in the black mask says they'll play--invites them to... no, demands they make the first move. How courteous, Joker thinks grimly. They snap their right wrist outward, and a rainbow-edged dagger appears in their grip. They raise it as if planning to slash at them--
"PERSONA!!"
Just before a winged figure in black and red arises from the blue flames of Joker's mask, spreading clawed fingers with a cackle of their own. Smoky darkness roils up throughout the room, obscuring those within it--but Joker is steeped in darkness, and this comes from their own heart. Between that and their Third Eye, now Joker charges in, sweeping their dagger around in an attempt to disarm their nemesis of their firearm. With a snarl, they follow it up with a kick to their midsection, aiming not to do damage so much as force them deeper into the room, away from the door--and the cardboard box.
<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.
Now closer to the one in the Black Mask, he can make out the details, how his outfit isn't all black, how it instead alternates with blue spirals around the torso, like intricate leather armor, the numerous belts, the metal in the gauntlets. It's... odd.
What precisely does his rebellion represent?
Arsene arises, with a call from Joker, and the one in the Black Mask simply stands there in the smoky haze, as if he weren't even trying to avoid it. A crimson lens upon his own mask feels brighter even than the energy unleashed by the Persona. The smirk on his face, it looks like he's about to say some smug comment,
... but Joker preempts that, by charging right in. His dagger aiming for his firearm in a flash, the figure twisting the firearm, and fluidly bending at the back, like he's merely leaning back chaotically against the flow of Joker's rhythm, he parries with the gun, side of his gun.
Right as he kicks, and his right hand flows like an inky blur, grasping his leg, and twisting the foot painfully as he tugs ferociously as he lets go, so that Joker is pulled right past him towards the War Room table, and then, the gun is up again, "And just what was that?" He asks, as if painfully unimpressed.
The gun is pointed towards Joker, then abruptly he shifts it again, as it strikes the edge of a monitor, then ricochets at the ground, right ahead of the cardboard boxes' position leaving a dent - not dissimilar from the one he left in the ground by Kaneshiro. The box immediately makes a noise of alarm, and falls back down, trembling anew.
"Can't you at least make me work for it?" He asks mockingly... but more to goad him. He wants to see more, and if he doesn't show him something worth seeing, then he'll not just kill him, but Principal Kobayakawa as well in the process.
"If this is all the leader of the Phantom Thieves is capable of..." Pulling his saw-toothed blade out of his belt, he wields it with his back-hand, as he suddenly becomes a smear upon the room's background, he's right in front of him, then he sees movement to his left.
As the one in the Black Mask brings down the blade in a chaotic assault to slam that dagger out of the way, before raising the gun again, like he's trying to keep a bead on him at all times merely to demonstrate dominance. Right as he bends that arm, driving a vicious elbow strike towards Joker's collarbone.
"... THEN THIS WILL BE OVER BEFORE I'VE EVEN GOTTEN STARTED! AHAHAHAHA!"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
It is odd. Joker will think about it later. Right now, though, they don't have the spare cycles to contemplate what those blue stripes and clawed gauntlets and so, so, so many belts represent.
Right now, they have to deal with the fact that--while they didn't give their opening move their all, they did put their heart into it, and it did precisely nothing. Right now, those spirals represent Joker's despair at trying to open a fight with a debuff and watch it not take.
"!!" That's the sound they make when the one in the black mask grabs their leg, followed by a snarl of pain when they wrench it to one side and throw them into the war room table. Joker grabs onto the edges as their back strikes it, teeth grit. Their pulse LEAPS when they see that gun pointed at them, but then the black-masked one points away--does a trick shot, another one, that lands a bullet right in front of the cardboard box.
They really are playing around. If they really wanted either of them dead right now, it would be simplicity itself to do it. They talk like they're unimpressed, they mock them with how far they're beneath them, they move with nigh-impossible speed, but they haven't gotten bored yet.
That's their chance--if Joker can make good on it.
As the one in the Black Mask brings their sword down on their dagger (another hint that they haven't gotten serious yet) and slams their elbow into Joker, Joker heaves a pained cry, but doesn't stop thinking. Darkness was ineffective; their sight didn't seem obscured at all. Trying to disarm them was ineffective; they just parried with the side of their gun. Trying to redirect them was ineffective; they proved they can shoot someone even at a ridiculous angle. It'll hurt, but if they can at least keep this creep's attention on them long enough to let the Shadow escape (HIGH-KEY INFURIATING), then they can figure out what to do to get themself out of this mess.
With their right arm thrown wide, they aim a punch with their left fist at the Black Mask's side--it would be a kidney punch if Joker had paid more attention to anatomy in science class. On top of being a weak strike thanks to coming from their off hand, they mostly just get the side of their ribs. But as they do that, their dagger vanishes from their grasp, and they pull out their Makaronov in its place. They pepper their enemy with bullets, aiming for the feet and legs. The important thing is to hamper their mobility. Whether or not they evade those shots, Joker swings their back up onto the war room table, rolls backwards on top of it, and pulls again at their mask with blue fire.
But instead of a winged entity in red and black--
"ANGEL!!"
--Joker shatters a boundary in their own mind and summons a blindfolded angel in bondage gear. Above them, Angel raises her arms over her head and calls forth a brilliant Kouha spell to sear into the one in the Black Mask with hopefully blinding brightness. If they were watching them fight Piggytron, the one in the Black Mask no doubt already knows they can change Personas, but they shouldn't be able to anticipate this particular Persona.
If darkness did nothing, then let there be light.
<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.
This time, Joker punches, right at the Black Mask's kidneys, and what's worse is that it actually makes contact - driving into the leather of the blue and black spiral. Hard enough that it makes contact beneath, and the figure grunts, before singing out a cackle, "AhahahahAHAHAHAHAHA! I can't believe you did that! Trying to Rabbit punch ME!"
If it was his dominant hand, perhaps Joker might have done more damage. Perhaps. Why does he get the impression he let him have that, just to see if he could make it hurt? He's still laughing even as Joker begins to fire, and he suddenly goes low to make himself a smaller target, his blade blurring, from side to side, catching several on the flat, before he sweeps it outwards, slicing through one clean in half. Each half sliding by him, to strike the wall on either side.
"Anything goes for you, so long as it's to save a life?" The Black Masked one observes, all smug, as if trying to see right through him, into how he fights, his motivations, his moral code. With an analysis that seems painful on point in the moment. "Even when it's a loathsome piece of SHIT like this one." He mocks, "You'll put it all on the line."
Though this time, when Joker puts his hand to his mask, and the Black Masked one has his hand on his mask with absurd speed, but what spews forth from his mask are not blue flames, but a red and black inferno of psychic energy, that swirls around his whole body.
"COME FORTH!"
And Angel finds it's Kouha spell landing, right on guard, but in the haze of red and black, what seemed like a surefire 'point' to score against this figure suddenly becomes just another rabbit punch against that shroud of energy. Just another grunt. "I almost FELT THAT ONE!" The buzz of resonant hatred intensifies, against the translucent haze of the figure, the monitors distorting as they're seeing through him like a warped window pane. Curves and contours that make no sense without the context of color and definition.
But then rather than his Persona attacking, it remains there, as the one in the Black Mask leaps forward, blade at the ready, passing by the Angel in an inky blur, a slash so quick and instant that the Angel has no time to react. The Angel's blindfold masks it's eyes, but it's jaw opens wide in silent scream, as it's expression distorts, then it bisects at the waist, shattering into shards.
And he lands on the ground by Ren, his sword already thrusting into his coat, attempting to pin him against the wall through his trenchcoat on the right side through the sleeve of his trenchcoat, into the meat of it with weirdly chaotic precision, as his gun is suddenly up, tapping against his left chin, like some deadly mocking Kabedon.
"If only you had anything that could back that up. Trash like you trying to save even more worthless trash." He hisses with a certain sibilant menace before he whips that gun brutally across Joker's face, "It's all too funny...!"
And pounds that gun down again into his mask, hard enough that he'll see stars. "...but you did name yourself Joker, didn't you?" Like his whole life, his whole code and cause really is just a joke before this individual's power.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Another consequence of not paying close attention to the anatomy part of science class: knowing that a kidney punch does a lot of damage, but not to the extent where a successfully landed hit can do so much damage that it can cause severe injury. In that sense, the Black Mask's taunting about anything goes lands--because it's now that it dawns on Joker that a move like that is more serious than they'd thought.
...It doesn't seem to actually upset the Black Mask, though. On the contrary, they seem delighted, even in their stated disbelief. And, in all fairness: it seems to have successfully gotten their attention firmly and completely on Joker, just like they wanted.
Good for them!!
Damn, they mouth, impressed despite themself by the Black Mask countering their gunfire with a goddamn sword. Cutting bullets in half mid-flight is the definition of cool. They might've told them so if this guy weren't a homicidal maniac. (Or at least, he is very successfully giving Joker that impression.)
The bitterly ironic thing is that the Black Mask is completely right: Kobayakawa is a loathsome piece of shit, and Joker is giving it their all to protect him even so, because it is in fact that important to them not to let someone get killed right in front of them. They really wish they could be fighting on behalf of someone worth fighting for--but that's the point of having convictions. You'll fight for them even when it sucks.
So Joker keeps going, even after that emotional bulls-eye. Too bad that the Kouha isn't much more effective. Joker flinches and grunts when that Resonance intensifies, when that haze thickens like cooling blood. In that instant, they're open, but the Black Mask doesn't take that perfect opportunity to strike--not with that strange Persona. Instead, they cut down Joker's Persona itself while their own Persona hangs back, filling Joker's brain with a distracting, sickening buzz.
Still, while it might have been Angel getting cut down, Joker screams like they felt it themself, because they did. Before they can react, the Black Mask is on top of them, against them, pinning them to the wall by a blade through their goddamn sleeve--and then a gun pressing up on the underside of their chin. Joker's breath catches in their throat in raw fear as they freeze--except for their hands, which tremble like leaves in a chill autumn wind.
This guy is incredibly strong, and it would be extra impressive if he weren't proceeding to pistol-whip the shit out of Joker. They cry out in pain, once, twice. Their mask doesn't fall off--a cognitive costume isn't thwarted that easily--but it is left askew, and the blows do indeed leave them seeing stars as blood smears down the side of their face. In the throes of those stars, Joker can't fully process the Black Mask's hissed contempt, but rest assured, the gist of it parses just fine.
They're completely outmatched here. And if they bore this man, they die.
They're going to die.
They can't think. They can't concentrate. Their legs are shaking too now. They're scared. They don't want to die.
They're scared, but if they die pathetically here, this maniac will just move on to Kobayakawa--and then...
And then Morgana. And then the rest of The Phantoms. Joker's friends--the people whom they actually care about. The people for whom they actually will do anything.
Joker grits their teeth.
In that moment, Akechi's voice comes to them.
There's no way out, save one, Amamiya-kun. First... you must consider the board carefully...
"....."
...and then, you realize... the only move left to you... is to seduce your opponent.
.............
that's a terrible idea, akechi.
But it does manage to clear Joker's thoughts enough to focus. Even if they can't win this fight--they can't let this monster walk away unscathed, either. Forget Kobayakawa. For Morgana, for their friends and partners in crime, for themself--they can't let this guy walk away without a scratch.
Still shaking, still dizzy, they lift their head. From behind a bloodied mask, their dark eyes lift to meet those crimson lenses. Their vision is a little blurry; they can't really see the shape of the eyes underneath. But for a moment, it might seem as though the only one they see is him. Their fingers rise, red digits reaching out to brush along those bruised stripes, before attempting to hook into one of the belts that crosses their body... and pulling them closer.
And then, when the two of them are only a breath and a beak apart...
...Joker calls up their dagger and attempts to stab it directly into the Black Mask with all their remaining strength. Thou shalt not kill, and they're sure they won't, not after the strength this monster's displayed--but maybe they can put them out of commission for a while. Long enough for Morgana to escape. Long enough to get a warning out to the others.
For them, anything does go.
<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.
Amusingly, Black Mask doesn't even know that Joker doesn't realize. After all, he's a smart guy, he's probably gotten into enough fights to know the 'rules' of honorable fighting, and what makes someone a ruthless street fighter.
But even if he did, he'd still be impressed at his adaptability.
As it stands, he's showing a lot of growth, and potential. But is it worth the risk? What he said, what he said that day. If he ever finds out about Shido... certainly they aren't strong enough now, but if they could change his heart.
I'll kill you first
What he wants, what he truly wants - isn't worth the possibility of sacrificing everything he's worked for, strived for, for the dull ending of Shido giving him fake platitudes, that the person he is now would be incapable of even considering. Shido isn't capable of becoming anyone else.
Unless the Phantom Thieves make it so, through their damnable Cognitive Psience, whose methods are still UNKNOWN to him. He's been on the fence on this decision, ever since that day at the cafe. He knows he ought to, but...
In a strange way, to have a rival would allow him to define, to clarify his existence in such a satisfying way. And as he whips Joker across the face...
Joker stares into his eyes, his digits reaching towards the stripes of his armor, and for a moment, Joker is treated to a look of the expression on the one in the Black Mask seeming startled, "The hell...?!"
Because he's remembering Ren Amamiya surging across that table again as he's grabbed and pulls closer, it doesn't break his stance, it's more like he just lets it happen because he's so shocked.
Then Joker stabs the dagger forward in desperation, with all of his strength, and in a moment before that dagger would make contact, he would see the surprise once again become a smirk. Because Joker's blade makes contact with... SOMETHING!
It's translucent, through it you can see the Black Mask quite clearly, he's not even touching his mask. But... his Persona never went away, did it? It was still there.
"Nice try."
Joker's dagger instantly becomes red hot, almost too hot to hold, bursting into flames from the invisible object, not from any spell, just from it's presence, and Black Mask's face is distorted in the heat haze of his dagger... then without fanfare, he yanks the blade out of Joker's bicep, bringing it up quickly, to disarm him if he hasn't let go of it yet, before then slamming the pommel into his ribs.
"But I'm finished playing with you."
When Joker hits the ground, the heel of his boot makes contact with the center of his chest, but the kick is surprisingly not so forceful as one might expect. It hurts, certainly, but it does not drive all the wind out of his lungs, more to keep him pinned. Because the Black Mask is standing over him, grinning wickedly at him, the firearm pointing down at his face, dead to rights.
"End of the line."
The hammer is cocked back, his finger on the trigger, and he's staring down the barrel of his gun. And yet, he hasn't pulled the trigger yet. Is he waiting to see if he'll bargain, or beg for his life?
"Was it worth it?" he asks, the simple question, one of ideals to the man behind the mask. Was it worth it... dying alone here, to try and save scum like this man?
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
At the very least, next time--if there were to be a next time--Joker would have better knowledge of what they were doing if they try a move like that again. They frankly haven't gotten into any fights in the real world, and the cognitive world just doesn't work the same way, so they don't know any rules for 'honorable' fighting.
This can hardly be called an honorable fight, anyway. Especially when they touch him, when they draw him close, and he lets it happen with shock on his breath...
The one in the Black Mask has dropped his guard fully. Maybe it's because it's such an absurd move that they couldn't have possibly expected it. Joker certainly doesn't expect it to work again. And when their dagger makes contact with a translucent Persona that has apparently just been hanging out this whole time--they realize (assume) that it never really worked at all.
The searing heat that suddenly engulfs their dagger rips a scream from them as they reflexively drop it. A shock for a shock--sure, that's fair. But it's fully game over now, as Joker knows even before that pommel strikes his ribs and sends him to the ground, even before the Black Mask says he's done playing, even before he drives his boot into their chest to pin them down.
Joker's at the mercy of one who clearly knows no mercy. Their breath comes in ragged pants. They're shaking badly. This is it. I'm going to die, they think as they stare up the barrel of that gun to the grin behind that jagged mask.
Was it worth it?
What kind of fucking question is that?
In that moment, Joker hates the one in the black mask with all their heart. It isn't enough to beat them up and murder them in cold blood, is it? This piece of shit has to mock them to the very end, too. From the very start, this monster's looked down on them, treated them like they're nothing, and now they have the ever-loving gall to ask if it was worth it, like it even matters to them how they feel?
That's why I believe, if a truly powerful opponent were to corner them, they would flee without a second thought, Akechi had said that day in the TV studio.
Their dark eyes burn with a fury fiery enough to match that forge-hot blade and lock on to that leer behind those red lenses. They still shake in sickening fear, but for all they're pinned to the ground like the bug the black-masked one has been treating them like, they neither cower nor beg.
They'd fight to the end, Ren had told him. At least Joker can take bitter satisfaction in knowing they'll die proving they were right and Akechi was wrong.
"Fuck you," they spit, their first and final words of conversation, raw and defiant to the very end.
<Pose Tracker> The One in the Black Mask has posed.
Blooming Villain - Midnight Mementos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tew3w9wKpRE
What kind of fucking question is that? Well, it's literally the difference between life or death, isn't it? Joker doesn't know it's still undecided of course, but it is...
... his finger is on the trigger, and he's starting to apply pressure to it, because he expects at any moment, that Ren Amamiya, that Joker won't be the type of person he claimed to be. He won't be the person who would die for the sake of his ideals.
Not for some random, loathsome piece of shit like Kobayakawa.
What he sees is anger, but he expects him to crack, he expects it. Thinks the decision is a foregone conclusion. And the moment he begs, he'll pull the trigger, he'll do it. Then Joker spouts two other words instead.
'Fuck you,' he spits...
That look in his eyes...
Even right now, he feels a slight shiver under his leather armor, not of fear, but...
The seconds pass, after he says that, with Black Mask's finger still on that trigger, and then he utters, not in that playfully psychotic way as before, not continuing to mock his existence, instead with a fascinated, "... Interesting." His eyes, their own color can't be seen through the hues of red, but... his finger eases off the trigger, and the hammer uncocks.
The weight of his foot suddenly eases off of Joker's chest, and then he turns... and walks away. Step... step... step... and then there's no sound whatsoever, no sight of him. He's... gone?
And there's a sound outside the room, like more Shadows are beginning to, form... one by one. Even spared, his troubles are not over.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
...Interesting.
The one in the black mask's finger moves, not to pull the trigger but to release it. He eases his foot off their chest, turns, and... leaves. Joker blinks rapidly, that fury and hatred giving way to confusion. They watch him go until he's gone from sight, and then... nothing.
Joker stares at the doorway. They clutch their chest with their left hand--the same hand on the black-masked one that had just been about to deal death to them.
I'm... alive? they wonder. They clutch their chest with their left hand. I'm alive...
They start to laugh breathy little laugh, more out of shock than anything else. They cut themself off when they hear the telltale sound of Shadows reforming. They sit bolt upright, staring at the broken door frame. Yup... That's the shadow of a Shadow. Great.
At least Kobayakawa's gone. Unless the black-masked one killed him on the way out--no, if that happened, the Palace would be falling apart right now. Small blessings.
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, they climb to their feet and creep to the doorway. Right. They need to get out of here. First, they need to rendezvous with Mona somehow--god only knows where he is now--and then they need to find a grate to slip back into the ventilation tubes, because that blast door is probably still up blocking the way in and out.
No rest for the wicked. They'll lurk around corners and behind structures to watch carefully for when the Shadow soldiers are walking away; then they'll make their slow, cautious escape from the bunker. They'll reunite with Mona partway, and only after agreeing to tell him what happened on the way out and joining him back in the vents does Joker's heartrate begin to drop.