Chapter Text
Soren yawns as he got up from the futon. The news he got from Akira was very troubling indeed, as he begins piecing the information together. If the enemy really is hellbent on breaking them up, then they're clearly an even bigger threat than both Galeem and Dharkon ever were, and that's not even scraping the bottom of the surface just yet.
He trusts Akira's words, no doubt about it. But why does he get the feeling that it's going to come back and bite him in the ass? But he knows one thing for sure, and that whatever happens, he swears to keep his friends from harm, no matter how risky and dangerous this new journey can be.
Jackie was already up, slowly getting back to his canine instincts again. He noticed that Lynn is still asleep so he'll minimize the noises he makes during his routine.
He opens the bottom drawer to pull out the vest of a service dog. He remembers it fondly when he and Soren went to the place to be registered as one, and the excitement rushes back to him. It also got the group out of very sticky situations, such as the time they were arrested by Makoto. He knows for a fact that this will come in handy again.
He hears Lynn yawning, waking up from her slumber.
"Good morning, Jackie." She said.
"Top of the morning to ya." He greeted back. "Uh, why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't even notice it before, but… you're a dog?"
"Yeah. This is me when I'm in the real world. Crazy, I know."
"Ohh. For once, I thought you were an opossum, or a ferret, or something."
"What gave you that impression?"
"I don't know. You just look like one."
"Well, at least it's better than being called a mutt or something."
"Hey, go use the bathroom before I go in!" Soren called.
"On my way!" Lynn responded as she rushed to the bathroom first.
"Hey Soren, could you do this one thing for me?"
"What one thing? Ohh yeayeayeah. Yeah, I'll go do that one thing. Just hold on." Soren ran up and strapped the vest onto the dog's body. "There you go."
"Ah yes, to be a service provider once again. Brings back the good ol' times indeed."
Lynn steps out of the bathroom, with her outfit ready.
"Are we ready?" She asked.
"Sure are. We'll go message the guys and get straight to it."
The entire group met at the rendezvous, which happens to be near the entrances of the subway station.
"So is this where you guys first entered the Metaverse?" Shulk asked.
"Definitely the one." Soren said. "We didn't know exactly where we were at that time, but I bet that this will be a safe spot for us to go into."
"It's been a while since we went to the Metaverse, but we still gotta be careful regardless." Ken said. "You said before that we should just scout out the general area of the trip, right?"
"Exactly, and we'll give you an idea how different Palaces and Jails can really be." Jackie says. "Alright, let's hit it."
Soren hits EMMA and back to the Metaverse they go again.
They were now back to where the portal was, with everyone, except Kirby, back in their Metaverse outfits again.
"Well, here we are." Ike said.
Robin gasped. "Oh my god… your Metaverse outfits…"
"Yeah, right back at ya, buddy pal." Jackie said.
"Wow… I really do miss those outfits, even though this was before we came back here again." Richter reminisced.
"And look, we even have our weapons as well." Shulk saw the Monado hanging from his back.
"I must admit, I am rather comfortable with this outfit, even more so than my normal clothes." Ryu said.
"Me too, but let's get back to the topic at hand." Soren said. "Observe."
The others got a good look at what they're looking at; an abandoned castle that is left to rot.
"So this is what a Jail is like…" Kirby looked on.
"And from the looks of it, it seems to be completely abandoned as well." Mac noted.
"That was also what we thought as well, but it was much more apparent when we went inside that castle." Ike said.
"When we first entered here, we saw a giant ass dragon that ate the people alive." Soren recalled. "But what's weird about that is that it left those jewels there for the Shadows to take it."
"Oh yeah, that one." Jackie remembers now. "I was wondering about that, but what was even that about?"
"I know what it is." Lynn approaches to the group, also in her Metaverse clothes.
"Whoa… look at you." Richter observed respectfully.
"You remind me a whole lot of Azura with that outfit." Robin commented.
"That's because she IS my Spirit."
"No way, really?!" Ken was shocked by that one. "We just met her not too long ago!"
"Really now? I see… You will have to tell me all of that later."
"We will. We promise." Ryu nods.
"Now then, as for the jewels that you mentioned earlier. Those jewels are what we will call Desires."
"Desires?" Kirby repeated.
"Desires are a manifestation of a person's wants and free thinking. When that Desire is taken from them, they become an irrationally different person, doing things that are often uncharacteristic of them."
"How so?" Shulk wanted to know.
"I don't know. I've only learned about it from the Shadows when I was trapped here. They often say things like 'We must seize those desires!' or 'The Monarch will be pleased with how many Desires we've collected!' Something like that."
"I think I get the picture." Ike said. "If this 'Monarch' happens to be the one stealing those Desires, then we can only assume that they're the ruler of this Jail."
"And the 'Monarch' happens to be…"
"Sojiro Sakura." Soren said.
"What?" Mac looked at the leader in disbelief.
"You may not believe us now, but when we got captured by the guards, they took us to where the throne room is, and there he was, right there." Jackie elaborated.
"So does that mean… he's actually in the Jail?" Shulk said.
"That's the thing right here. It wasn't the real deal, it was his Shadow self." That word was what gave them the high alert.
"Shadow self? You never explained to us about that term, did you not?" Kirby inquired about it.
"I thought I did, but I'll give y'all a crash course later when we get back."
"So about the people that you saw earlier. When the dragon ate those people alive, were they actually humans that were trapped inside the Jail?" Richter asked.
"That's a good question." Ike acknowledges. "But we couldn't say for sure since we kept our distance. But considering that we saw them getting eaten alive and leaving behind those Desires, I would say for sure it's the one Jackson mentioned."
"What's a Shadow?" Lynn asked.
"Basically your other self, suppressed within your subconscious." The dog answers. "Everyone has one, well except for us since we somehow don't follow this world's logic, kinda."
"I see. So they're one and the same then."
"I guess. They're kinda like two sides of the same coin. If something happens to the Shadow self, it'll affect that person in the real world. But we've never seen that before so we can't say for sure."
"Judging with the information that we have collected, I surmise that we should return to the world of the living for the time being." Kirby suggested. "If what Jackson has said is true, then we can confirm our theories and speculations of these Shadows."
"Good idea." Soren agrees.
"Then let us depart."
The group returns to the real world, with their current objectives now clearly laid out.
"Alright, now that we have established the Jail, we're gonna have to start our base of operations once again." Jackie announced. "Y'all remember your roles from last time, right?"
"Yeah, I think we do." Richter rubbed the back of his head.
"Awesome. While you're doing that, we're gonna go check on Sojiro to see how he's doing."
"Alright, let's split." Ken said as everyone split up to tend to their old duties again.
"Soren, Jackie, let me go with you." Mac told them. "There's something I want to see for myself."
"Yes, allow me to join you as well." Kirby requested. "It is rather disquieting that Sojiro has not been in good spirits as of late."
"Sure thing. You did talk to him after all." Soren acknowledged.
"What about me?" Lynn asked.
"We'll have you come with us of course." Jackie said. "Since you're the newest member of our group, we'll give you a rundown of how we do things here. There will be a lot, but we promise you that you'll be a pro at it in no time flat."
"I'll take your word for it."
"Okay, time to go." Soren commands as he leads the subgroup to Aoyama-Itchome.
They arrive at the local neighborhood in hopes of tracking down Sojiro. Richter is already in the area as he's getting medical supplies from Takemi, so he'll be around for the information. They walked by Leblanc to see something that is way out there.
"What the hell?" Mac noticed. They see a small crowd gathering around Leblanc, making weird sounds that none of them could register.
"Oh, hell no." Soren shook his head in disapproval.
"This is definitely something you don't see every day." Jackie commented.
"Let's just get past them and reach out to Sojiro."
They try to move past the crowd, but the people being this near to each other wasn't making their situation any better.
One of then grabbed onto Lynn's leg, as if struggling to hold on to something.
"Curry... Coffee..." He moaned.
"Let go of me!" Lynn struggled to get the guy off of her, but his grip is too strong to be shaken off.
"Hey, back off!" Jackie drop kicked the guy on the face, but the guy still has his grip. "Uh guys, a little help?"
Mac went in to punch him square in the face. Soren kicked him in the legs. Kirby decides to take this step further and kicked his fingers very hard that it broke the bones, with him finally letting go, screaming in pain.
"Are you alright?" Soren asked.
"Yes, thank you."
"Let's go before they get rowdy again."
The group moved past the crowd with Mac quickly opening the door, and what they saw was much worse than they thought.
"Oh hell no!" Soren said again, but with much disgust.
Leblanc was a total mess. The place was crowded by a bunch of people that had either no right to be here or are just crazy for coffee, and the café itself has become dirty and unkempt, with dust everywhere and stains that weren't bothered to be cleaned up.
"Oh god… this place looks terrible." Mac said.
"What happened here?" Lynn wondered.
"Ah, you're back." There's this line again, as Sojiro walked downstairs, looking unpleasantly happy for himself.
"What's wrong with this guy?" Jackie whispers to himself.
"Soren, Little Mac, go talk to him. The rest of us will survey the people." Kirby instructed.
"Yeah." Soren agrees as he and Mac will whatever they can to grill the information from him. "Heeeyyy… bro. Uh, business sure is booming, huh?"
"Yeah, you could say that. It's never been that much better."
"I guess so." Mac laughs nervously. "So uh, how did you get that many people to come in?"
"Oh, well, it's this fancy little gadget that somehow popped up on my phone. I think this is what they call… uh, what's the word again? Oh, right! EMMA!"
The guys were shocked to hear what the old man was saying, but they had to keep the friendly front.
"Ohh… EMMA, huh? That's uh… very interesting." Mac said. "I didn't know you were accustomed to technology."
"Neither did I, but this thing sure is interesting."
"Hmm… hmm!" Soren thought of something. "Well, what do you know? We too got EMMA not too long ago. I was wondering if you somehow… oh I don't know, add me in as a friend?"
"Sure, I'd love to."
Kirby, Jackie, and Lynn were checking on the people that have been unresponsive and dejected from reality. Their faces have clearly seen better days as they're stuffed with curry and coffee.
"Yeah. Clearly seen better days." Jackie comments as he drops the guy down.
"It looks like they've been gorging themselves with the food that they've gone comatose." Lynn observed.
"Very astute of you." Kirby commended. "But to me, it seems that the Metaverse has changed them in a way…"
"Yeah, I think so too." Jackie said.
"And there we go. You and I are buddy-pals, pal-buddy, pal-buddy-pal, or whatever." Soren said.
"Thanks. I'll be sure to contact you." Sojiro gave a weak smile.
"Sure thing. Alright guys, we're going." The leader called everyone to quickly leave the café.
They quickly avoided the swarming crowd, catching up with Richter with medical supplies from Takemi.
"What's up with them?" The vampire hunter asked.
"We'll fill you guys in later. Right now, we need to get everyone together to throw in what we found." The boxer said.
"Alright then."
Everyone got back together to give their piece of information on their end.
"Alright, we'll go around the horn, starting with Richter." Soren started.
"Okay, when I went to get the medical supplies from Takemi, there was a large crowd that seems to be crowding around Leblanc, and they looked like they were going crazy for it as well." he explained.
"That's what we saw when we were getting the weapons from Iwai." Ken elaborates. "When we got in and out of the store, there were some people that started some kinda rallying scene in the Shibuya Square."
"They were talking about why everyone should go to Leblanc and how they're the best in the world." Ryu added. "It seems to me that they have no idea what they're talking about."
"That's literally the same thing I saw I got food." Ike followed up. "Most of the restaurant joints don't have that many customers coming in because the latest food trend was going on, and some of the loyal customers are even turning away from them."
"Shulk and I went around the entire block to gather more intel." Robin spoke. "From what we've gathered, it looks like they were trying to learn how to make the curry and coffee that Sojiro makes to make it their own."
"And let us remind you that these are people that has never even stepped foot on Leblanc, and somehow they had the urge to try to make one without even going in the café." Shulk explained. "I can't even begin to imagine what must have happened to make them start feeling this way."
"You're not alone in this, either." Lynn assured him. "When we got inside, the customers seems to have gorged themselves with the food and coffee as if they couldn't get enough of them."
"Yeah, and some of them have clearly been stuffed by it, despite the fact that they still can't get enough of it." Jackie added.
"And it is rather evident that the place has been untidy and unkempt due to lack of empathy." Kirby said. "I would assume that he no longer has the passion and will to maintain it as it once was."
"And when we talked to Sojiro, well… I'm just gonna let this speak for itself." Soren shows his phone to show everyone the bombshell of a revelation.
"No way… Sojiro has EMMA?" Ken gazed at the screen.
"Yeah. We figured that it was the best way to figure out what really goes on in his mind, and we're hoping that with this, we'll be able to explore more of the Jail and find whatever it is that's making him like this." Mac said.
"Not a bad idea." Shulk nods while thinking. "If we can use EMMA to our advantage, then we can surely turn Sojiro back to normal."
"Then all that's left is to make our plans to infiltrate the Jail, take Treasure, and get on with the road trip!" Richter said.
"Exactly." the Shiba nods.
"Alright, it looks like we have a plan." Soren clapped his hands. "And with that, Monsta X is back in action."
"Monsta X?" Lynn tilts her head in confusion.
"Oh, right. That was the name of our group when we started the Metaverse journey, which is, you know, named after the best group in the world. Now that it's back, it's time to bring it back again."
"Ohh, I see. If that's the case, then may I join you guys? I want to understand how you guys work with this group, and I want to find that person. So if you can help me with that, then I will do all I can to assist you in your endeavors."
"We said before that we would help you find that person, right?" Jackie recalled. "Of course we would like you to join our group. I've seen how you fight, you're already one of us now."
"Yeah, welcome to the team, Lynn." Richter gave a thumbs up.
"We're glad to have you with us." Shulk smiles.
"And while we're at it, let's give her a codename." Mac suggested.
"Codename?" Lynn looked on in confusion.
"That's what we used to hide our identity from the enemy when we go to the Metaverse, so you'll need one if we're gonna go in." Mac said.
"But if we're thinking about one now, what would her codename be?" Ryu begins to ponder.
"How about Aqua?" Ike said.
"Aqua?" Robin looked at the swordsman.
"Her hair may not be blue, but her Spirit is Azura after all. She has her outfit and weapons all down to a T. I say her codename should be Aqua."
"Well, what do you think?" Kirby asked Lynn.
"I think it sounds wonderful, I love it." she gave a warm smile.
"From this point forward, your codename will be Aqua." Soren declared.
"Alright, it looks like we got the ball rolling here!" Jackie can feel his tail wagging.
"Well, since we got everything we needed, let's all return home for now and we'll tackle the Metaverse tomorrow."
"Right."
While walking home, Lynn had to go to the restroom real quick, with Jackie offering to look after her. Soren accepts as they went out, but at the corner of his eye, he noticed a blue gate that is visible only to him, but invisible to the world. With the sudden urge, he goes in.
He was back in the Velvet Room again.
"We've been waiting for you." Igor greeted.
"Good to see you taking another first step into your new journey, Trickster." Ren smiles.
"Yes, but the gears of fate have turned yet again, bringing you close to calamity once more. While your hope may be the smallest of seeds now, and its true power still unknown… By nurturing the possibilities within you, this seed shall sprout and become your strength against calamity." Lavenza said.
"What she meant is that you have infinite potential to grow and become more powerful than you realize."
"Oh, I get it now."
"That's right. You should also know by now that being a Wild Card means you can summon multiple Spirits at your disposal. However, by fusing them with their cores, you can create an even powerful one. You're gonna need a lot more than that if you're going to go into the Metaverse again."
"Yes, and do not forget that our services will be open to you. Use them as you see fit." Igor adds.
"Thank you, all of you. I'm gonna need everything I can to turn this around." Soren said.
"You're welcome, and before you go, take this with you." Ren gives him a bag.
"Ah yes, the bottomless bag. My favorite."
"There's plenty more where that came from. But remember, you can come to us for anything, and we'll be there for you. Always."
"Thanks, man. I really appreciate that."
"Hey, you alright, bro?" Jackie asked.
"Huh?"
"You're doing that thing again."
"What thi- Ohh, that thing."
"You looked like you were way out of it." Lynn expressed concern.
"I'll tell you right now that I'm A-okay. This kind of thing is not too serious."
"Oh, okay then."
"Yeah. You'll get to used it. Anyway, let's go home for now."