Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“This storm doesn't seem to be letting up…” Muttered Yusuke as he looked out through the Leblanc’s window to see the pouring rain, coming down harder than any other normal day, even though it was in the middle of fall.

Him and Futaba were by themselves in Leblanc. Sojiro was out to go get grocery supplies for some curry, and likely wouldn’t be home for a while due to all of the heavy weather traffic. Futaba sat in one of the booths in the back, watching an old anime on a laptop that she had brought over.

“Y’know Inari, Ren was telling me the other day about how you always bring rain everywhere you go, like those fireworks and on that Hawaii trip.” Spoke Futaba, temporarily shifting her focus off the show.

“I do not!” He said in retaliation. “Besides, even if I did bring rain those other times, it was never THIS bad.” Yusuke wasn’t really exaggerating either, it was really pouring like hell out there.

Futaba moved to the side of the booth before saying “Well… I suppose you can make up for bringing this onslaught of rain by watching Featherman R with me.” Even though Yusuke never fully understood the shows that Futaba had him watch, he still enjoyed spending the time with her.

He sat down beside her at the booth and observed alongside her, in which many characters in colorful and flashy outfits jumped around and attacked a giant Kaiju in unison. They almost reminded him of the all out attacks that the phantom thieves did. They were currently exploring the Palace of Kunikazu Okumura, although he preferred to not think about itduring one of his few chances to truly relax.

‘If I recall correctly, you’re a fan of the pink one, are you not?” Futaba’s face lit up after hearing that. “Well yeah, duh! She’s the coolest one out everyone, especially with how flashy she is with that bow and arrow!” She knew that Yusuke probably didn’t understand a good half of the words or characters that she was talking about, but it still felt nice to discuss these things with him.

As the two were watching the show for a while, Yusuke felt quite hungry, considering it was already around 6pm and he had only eaten a single meal that day. “Say Futaba, do you think Sojiro would mind if I made some food for us?”

“You don’t have to get anything, actually.” Futaba reached into her bag and brought out a packet of instant microwavable ramen from it. “I brought this here after hearing you were coming over, and figured you’d need it because of how little you eat.”

A smile appeared on Yusuke’s face as Futaba handed the bowl to him. “Thank you very kindly for looking out for me, Futaba.”

As he was cooking it, Futaba suddenly felt a lot colder. For a little bit, she just shrugged it off as the result of a big breeze or something coming in. However, it was too hard to ignore after a while.

“Hey Yusuke…do you also feel how cold it is?” He looked over after she commented on the temperature, and he saw her shivering in the corner of the booth. “Futaba, are you entirely sure that you're alright? You may have contracted some kind of cold.” He said to her out of concern.

“Y-yeah, I'm perfectly fine. You probably just can’t feel it cause you’re cold blooded or something!” she said in response. It was pretty easy to see that she was lying, considering how huddled up she was in the corner.

“While it is true that I likely got used to the cold due to the time I spent living in Madarame’s poor quality house, I think that the issue comes from somewhere else. His face pondered for a second before lighting up.

Futaba watched Yusuke go upstairs into the storage attic, where Ren lived. After a while, he came down with the blanket from Ren’s bed and gave it to her. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you borrowed it.” She looked at him and managed to show a smile before wrapping herself in it.

“Thanks Yusuke.” she responded. He smiled back at her before saying “Well, just think of this as an idea for paying you back for the Ramen that you had brought for me.”

Futaba looked back into the eyes of Yusuke. “Hey, uh… I-it’s still a little cold here, so do you think you could huddle up together.” Yusuke let out a slightly shocked face and blushed a bit.

“W-well, if you’re all right with it then I can” the slender boy awkwardly slid into the booth and wrapped himself into the (Stolen) blanket alongside Futaba, as they both turned their faces so neither person could see the blushes on them.

“Your body is… Surprisingly warm.” He let out a sigh before saying “I know that Goemon is an Ice-affinity Persona, but do you seriously expect for me to be cold all of the time?”

“Honestly, yeah. I dunno how to put it, but you just give off this Icy kind of vibe.” Yusuke looked at Futaba before saying “Well, if I really was that cold, then I wouldn’t be able to heat you up as I am now, and that would be quite unfortunate.”

She turned her head and stared back at him, and saw that his face was as red as hers was. The sound of the relentless rainstorm pattering across the roof of Leblanc had no signs of dying down, and it made for a mood that could relax even the most angry of people.

-Some time later-

The bell of Leblanc’s door rang as its owner walked in with a grocery bag in both hands. “Hey kids, sorry I'm this late, that endless rain made the traffic back to Yongen-Jaya like hell.” As he looked around the room for the two, he saw them cuddled up against each other with a smile on both of their faces, in which he let one out himself.

Chapter Text

“An incredible takedown from Fox!” Shouted Futaba riding inside of Necronomicon. As Yusuke tore off his mask, Goemon came out and sliced all of the shadows on the battlefield into 2.

All the phantom thieves were in the middle of going through Mementos on the request of Joker and Queen, who deemed that they needed a little more training before attempting to steal Okumura’s treasure.

As the last remaining enemy laid on the ground, the thieves all ran up to it for an interrogation. “It doesn’t look like it has anything we need…” muttered Joker. “You know what that means, Fox!” Yusuke got a look of excitement on his face as he smirked. “Right, time to commence an all-out attack!”

All the thieves leaped in the air and struck at the enemy from all directions, before Yusuke hit a flashy pose while the shadows bled out in the corner. (Do shadows bleed? Probably). 

Futaba ran the analytics on the rewards they reaped from the battle, and ran a scan on their map position. “Looks like we’re close to the exit, come on!”

“We should get going before the shadows show up, Fox.” Said Makoto, but he was currently observing a group of pillars close to them. “You all can go on without me, I need to study this, as it strikes some form of inspiration within me.”

She pondered for a moment before saying “Well, the shadows on this floor are pretty low-leveled compared to us, but make sure you come back as soon as you’re done, okay?” 

Yusuke nodded his head as he said “Thank you, Queen. Studying the depths of Mementos is an opportunity I can’t miss out on.”

As the other thieves left to go to the saferoom, Yusuke was lost in thought, studying the oddity of Mementos, and how its shaping and structure reflected on its origin.

Just as he turned to leave, he saw Necronomicon floating idly in the air. “Ah, were you watching me this whole time? Why didn’t you leave with the others?” As he got no response, he walked toward the flying object, and somebody grabbed his shoulder.

“Yusuke…don’t go near it, please.” He turned around and saw Futaba, looking quite injured and shaking. “F-Futaba, what happened to you!?” He looked back towards Necronomicon and saw a giant deity hovering behind it, with an octopus looking head, tentacles emerging from where its mouth should’ve been.

“You, girl.” He extended his long, fishlike finger towards Futaba, speaking in a deep and ominous voice. “Are you the owner of this Necronomicon?” Futaba winced in pain before saying “Y-Yeah, it’s my Persona.” The deity grabbed onto it before speaking “If you wish to keep this, you shall have to prove your worth.”

The look on her face was looking more angry by the second. “Who the hell even are you, anyway, and why are you so obsessed with my persona!” The deity simply responded “I will reveal that to you if I deem you worthy, but you may call me Cthulhu for now.”

Noticing how much Pain Futaba was in, Yusuke unsheathed his sword and started running towards the god with no hesitation. He leaped up and attempted to slice his face to no avail, before ripping his mask off. “Goemon, Strike him down!”  The persona promptly did a swift kick to Cthulhu’s face, which angered him.

“A foolish mortal like you has no right to intervene!” The tentacles quickly wrapped around Yusuke, and chucked him towards the floor. Yusuke quickly shrugged off the pain, and attempted to go for another attack, swiftly dodging the incoming tentacles.

He froze a part of Cthulhu's head, before slicing it open in an attempt to do extra damage. It only came off as a small scar, but with Futaba’s life on the line, even the smallest damage was good for him.

However, Cthulhu quickly put all his might into a punch that swatted him away, colliding into a wall next to Futaba.

She quickly ran up to him, seeing him covered in bloody bruises and wounds from his fruitless attempts to protect her, she started tearing up. “I-I’m sorry, Yusuke! I just…I’m just useless in a combat situation like this!” continuing to sniffle up, Yusuke reached and wiped a tear from her face.

 “I really dislike when you do that, always downplaying yourself.” He slowly pulled himself up a little bit. “You’re smart, both in and out of the Metaverse, you always take initiative when we’re down, and no matter what, I've never seen you completely give up. So I don’t want to hear you call yourself useless anymore, ok?

She sniffled the last of her tears away before saying “Yeah…Yeah! We’ve totally got this in the bag, so let’s go! As a green, tech-like aura arose from Futaba and swept around Yusuke, healing away all of his wounds.

Cthulhu watched as the two of them whispered up a plan, before running to a hiding place. He could make up enough of the environment to see the two of them. “Just what are you mortals planning…"

All of the sudden, the Necronomicon in his hand started to glow a neon green color. Before he could comment on it, it burst out in a blinding flash. “Teehee, I didn’t even know I could do that!” said Futaba, in order to provoke the god.

As Cthulhu was searching for her, darting his head around, he spotted Yusuke charging straight towards him, sword unsheathed and ready to strike. “What a foolish plan.” Cthulhu said, before swinging at him. Only for it to phase right through.

“A cognition change, provided by our dear Oracle.” He turned his head around to see the real Yusuke, slicing a mark right onto his face, and both phantom thieves dropped to the ground in front of him.

As Cthulhu got up, they were about to go for another strike attempt before the Deity started laughing. “Well, I didn’t expect the two of you to go that far, you seem more than worthy of the Necronomicon.” He got up on both of his legs. “It’s time for me to take my departure.”

“Hold on now,” said Futaba. “You never even told us who or what you are.” He shifted his gaze towards her before saying “I am but a small bit of the potential that you hold within that tome of yours.” He faded into specks of shining light, and the glimmers of what was once a god faded into the Necronomicon.

Futaba lost her balance and fell into Yusuke’s arms. “Heh…I guess that means I'm some kind of potential man, then.” He pulled her closer before saying “You need to rest now, we can save the witty comments for later.”

As this exchange happened the rest of the thieves pulled up inside of Morgana, seeing the two, both with significant wounds on them from dashing around. “What could’ve even happened here!?” shouted Ann, getting out of the car. 

Yusuke pulled up Futaba, her resting on his shoulders as he spoke. “It was just…a minor mishap, that's all.”

“Uhhhh, no way, dude. Look at the injuries you got!” Shouted Ryuji from the back of the Monamobile.

The pair looked at each other, before letting off a smile, despite all that happened to them. “We’ll tell you once we get to the safe zone,” said Futaba.

Chapter Text

The past month and a half was undoubtedly the worst time of Yusuke’s life, comparative to being total hell on earth.

The blue haired teen, looking scrawnier than he normally would, walked down the streets of Yongen-Jaya alone. A light drizzle covered the local area, but even the heaviest rainstorm wouldn’t be able to get him out of the mood he was in. As he walked down the street, he saw the open and present lights of Leblanc, looking as welcoming as ever. Any other time would have been nice, but he just wanted to be alone for now.

As he arrived on the front doorstep of the Sakura household, he reached and grabbed the key on his neck, putting it into the keyhole and stepping inside. It wasn’t a mansion, but the house was quite big, too big to fit a singular person inside, and too quiet as well.

Oh, how he hated the quiet. Noise was natural for humans to make, through idle chatter or joking with a friend, which means the quiet implies that something has been lost, or was never there to begin with in the first place.

Yusuke was part of the former. After that dreadful christmas eve, it seemed that he had lost his passion, along with his very reason to keep going in life. He remembered every detail of that terrible day.

-December 24th-

“We’ve got him on the ropes now, it’s time to finish this!” Yelled out Ren, leading the charge against Yaldabaoth. The god began to slowly fall, as each of the thieves slowly chipped away at its health.

All of the sudden, however, he started charging up an incredible attack, with all four of his hands forming to make a gigantic beam of dark energy, enough to completely wipe out all of the thieves where they stood. “If we allow that thing to fire at us, we’re done for!” Normally, they’d be able to withstand an attack even on this level, but the immense hatred residing within Yaldabaoth was simply too much to bear, and they were already pushing the limits of their energy.

All of the sudden, Futaba activated Prometheus and jumped inside of it, hovering over the rest of the thieves as they prepared for a brutal attack. Yusuke yelled out at her “Oracle, what are you-” But she had already made her decision, as she activated her ultimate support while she started to give a speech.

“This past half-year… you guys have given me so much, from changing my heart, to giving me a place to belong to the phantom thieves. I…don’t know what’s really gonna happen after this, but thank you, everybody, for everything you’ve done.

The neon-green veil of aura quickly spread around the other thieves as Yaldaboath was finished charging his ultimate attack, looking like a starry display of Northern lights. “Now you humans shall know the wrath of a true god!” He yelled out as the beam shot out, towering around them as a pillar of seemingly never-ending darkness.

As they looked up, however, the Veil that Futaba had shot out had completely absorbed the entire attack, with Prometheus glowing the same dark aura that Yaldabaoth had shot out at them.

 All of the sudden, as a loud pitch swept the area and the Veil started to glow, Prometheus shot out all of the energy it had collected into a single beam, not strong to finish Yaldabaoth fully, but enough to stun him and leave a massive hole through the side of his body.

“A near-fatal blow, impressive…but was the cost truly worth it?” Futaba smirked as Prometheus began to fade away, and she started to fall from the sky. Yusuke noticed and immediately ran to catch her in the air as she was falling out of the sky, leaping and falling to the ground while he kneeled and held her in his arms. “F-Futaba, what were you possibly thinking?!” As he was yelling at her, he suddenly came to a realization. “You knew, didn’t you…you knew blocking that attack would destroy you, and you still went ahead and did it!?”

The rest of the thieves surrounded the pair, while Ren was staring down Yaldabaoth with a scowl on his face, looking like he was gathering some form of energy. Futaba looked at Yusuke with a surprisingly content look. “Hey Inari, can you promise me something?” He nodded his head with no hesitation. “Absolutely, anything at all.”

“Promise me that once Sojiro finds out, tell him it’s not his fault. He's already gone through so much, I don’t want him to think that my choice was his doing.” He hesitated for a bit, before nodding his head once again. “If that’s what you wish, then I shall fulfill it.”

Slowly, she grabbed Yusuke’s fox mask and lifted it above his face, wrapping her other hand around his head. Bringing him closer, she embraced him in a cold and quiet kiss, both of them flushing bright red as they did so.

“Yusuke, I…I love you.” All of this, every single thing was just too much for him to take, and Yusuke's face started letting out an endless stream of tears. “I love you too, Futaba.” He wrapped his arms around her one final time, as he felt the warmth and life leave the person that he loved.

There was so much he wanted to do after he saw the light fade from her eyes. He wanted to scream in pain, he wanted to be the one to die instead of her, he wanted to go back and spend just a little bit more time with her if he knew that this would be her fate. But in his endless thoughts, he just kneeled there, holding her corpse and letting the limitless river of tears flow naturally.

-January-

The rest of those events on Christmas Eve played out as they normally should have. Ren summoned Satanael, the fallen angel, and used its power to unleash a god-killing bullet upon Yaldabaoth. However, Futaba's loss made what should have been a grand celebration into a painfully silent gathering in her loss. After they told Sojiro, nobody saw him for a week, with him giving Yusuke the key to his house while he went off.

However, this was far from the end of Kitagawa's suffering. He was later put under the manipulation of Dr. Maruki, the former Councillor for Shujin Academy. Other than Ren, he and the rest of the thieves were living fake lives, him enjoying time with a cognitive Futaba created by Maruki's reality.

After breaking free from the curse, he was reminded of his wonderful lover that was taken from him. He pondered that maybe, just maybe, being in this reality created by Maruki wouldn’t be so bad if he could spend his life with Futaba, being ignorant of its origin. Although this idea quickly went away, it shows just how desperate he was to spend time with her even once more.

That’s how he ended up at her house, still standing right in the middle of the hallway, unaware of how to process any of the sorrow he had. All of the sudden, he heard a knock on the door from behind him. “It’s Makoto, can I come in?” He turned around and went to open the door for her. “Ren told me the state you were in, so I came here.

She walked into the living room and sat on the couch. “How did you know I was over here?” Yusuke asked. “Well, considering everything that happened the past week with all the stuff about the reality manipulation and the fake Futaba, I figured you might have been here.”

He leaned on the wall across from her, his head still damp from the rain. “Makoto, you don’t have to answer, but…do you know what you would do if Ren had died?” Yusuke spoke. She pondered on that question for a moment, before replying “Well, if I'm being completely honest, I think I would be in a state similar to you.”

Yusuke walked up to the window and watched the rain pouring down. “I don’t completely know how, but I’m going to keep moving forward. I’ll keep going, step by step, because even despite my sorrow, that’s what she would’ve wanted. For keeping her legacy and dreams, I shall live.”

He closed his eyes and felt the spirit of both his Personas, Goemon and Kamu Susano-o, fuse into a singular being, that being his 3rd and final Persona, Gorokichi.

Makoto look at him with a smile, knowing that his will to fight and reject Maruki’s reality was lit aflame once more, in order to fulfill the wishes of the person that he loved, even if he had to stand alone whilst doing so.

Chapter Text

It was an average day in Mementos. A shadow creeped throughout the halls that mimicked the railways of Shibuya, ready to attack whoever they saw. All of the sudden, the Monabus blitzed right through it at an insanely fast speed. “N-Noir, you gotta slow down, we’re gonna crash at this rate!” Yelled Ann from the back of the car as she was being slammed around inside it, along with the rest of the thieves.

“I don’t even think that I'm going that fast, though?” replied Haru, acting as nonchalant as ever while the Monabus continued to crash through the walls of Mementos. “Oooooh, a shadow!” Haru braked before jumping out to attack the shadow, while Akechi managed to headbutt into it after being ejected out the side door.

As the group jumped out to fight, Yusuke watched as Futaba summoned her persona, choosing to hang by one of Prometheus’s mechanical arms rather than residing inside of it. He observed what she wore, how the goggles matched Prometheus’s eyes, and how the neon green lines matched up with the colors it omitted.

“What are you staring at, fox? Focus on the fight for now!” Yelled Akechi while he shot at one of the shadows. Yusuke quickly pulled himself back together and went back into battle. 

Once the fight had concluded, Yusuke started walking up to Futaba to ask for a favour. Any normal person would have been more formal or hesitant, at least definitely as not as blunt as the way that he had asked it. “Excuse me, Oracle. Could I borrow your clothes?”

“Sure, you- wait, WHAT?! Why would you ask something like that out of nowhere?!” She replied back. “The colors of your thief outfit clash quite well with your persona, so I'd like to use it in order to see how it feels. Futaba thought on what to say, until finally responding “Alright fine, but only if I can use your fox outfit.”

 He tilted his head in interest. “What reason could you have to want my thief costume?” She stood up as she responded “Uh, it totally looks like somebody straight out of Vagabond, duh!” Her head tilted to the side in confusion. “I have no clue how we’re supposed to do that though, since our thief clothes are mostly stuck to us…”

“I can help with that.”

The two turned their heads up to see Ren standing on top of a pile of rubble, his back to them so that the wind coming in through the tunnels so that the tails of his coat would sway in the wind. “The cognition changes that I use to change your outfits sometimes should be able to switch the costumes between you too.” He did another flashy spin into snapping his finger in the air. “It’s showtime!”

Yusuke found himself inside the tech-looking jumpsuit of Oracle, with Futaba in his Fox-themed cowboy outfit, both still having their respective masks. “You know, I never noticed how much you resemble a frog in your outfit." Commented Yusuke. “Not in a negative way, but your goggles and green skin-tight suit simply look like a frog would.”

Futaba was about to say something, before sighing and replying “That is pretty true, actually. Only something you could think of, Inari.” She moved around, inspecting Yusuke’s Fox outfit. “I like how baggy your’s is, though. Feels all nice and wavy, it’ll be fun to relax while I'm in Prometheus!”

“Are you three coming along now? Haru isn’t driving anymore, luckily, so we should be able to make good progress.” Spoke Akechi, growing impatient. “Yeah yeah, give us a second, Crow!” Shouted Futaba, as the three of them ran back to the Monabus. 

As they entered, some of the other thieves noticed their change. “Hey Fox, did you and Oracle swap outfits or somethin?” said Ryuji. “Yes, I noticed that the colors and fitting of it looked quite nice, so I figured that I could wear it so I could focus on the details of it more.” 

“Yeah, and I wanted to try Yusuke’s just because of how cool it looked.” commented Futaba, sitting to the side of him. Ann poked in her head from the back seat. “Awwwww, how romantic between you two!” She said as to purposely tease the two, sending them into a slight blush. “I-I simply wished to have the colors of her outfit contrast with me, that’s all.” 

“Yeah, I would never try to match with Inari of all people, especially outside the metaverse!” Yusuke turned his head to look at her. “Are you attempting to imply that my choice of clothing isn’t good?” She smirked at him before replying. “No offense Fox, but the things that I see you wear really show the state of how much money you have.” The two continued to bicker for a little while as the Monabus kept traversing Mementos.