Chapter 3
Lastation/Hotel Room/Morning/2 Days Until Avenir Raid
So Sean woke up and the first thing he did was put on his glasses and get ready to leave the city.
Blazer on top of his jumper and brown shoes on, he left his hotel. He didn't wait for Morgana as he knew that she'll take a while to scout the place. Sean left his hotel and walked into an alleyway after putting his hood on and actively activated all his stealth skills which were quite vast considering that Arsène stuffed Sean with every form of stealth.
He vanished as if evaporating in thin air.
Lastation/Eastern Outskirts/Morning/2 Days until Avenir Raid
And soon after he found the spot he wanted, he consciously stepped into the open from the shadows. Sean observed the surroundings and saw that he found himself near a river that fell off the land and into the sea whilst nearby was a large cave which Sean had trained in before, to the point that it's already an impromptu hideout.
Sean entered the cave and pulled down a sheet which disguised the existence of the cave. The cave lit up and Sean approached the boxing ring and entered it.
"Okay, teach me the stronger form of Dia." Sean spoke aloud as he knew that there was no point in speaking towards them through thought.
'First activate your Third Eye, it'll make this easier.' Messiah Picaro advised him to do so which he did.
His eyes shone red as he observed the area in front of him. In Persona 5 the story has more to do with cognition – in simple terms perspective – hence why currently Sean is embedding his cognition of Messiah Picaro in the real world which created an astral form of him.
In front of Sean was a humanoid dark figure with silver hair and blue eyes. It had coffins with images of red angels attached to its golden coat tails whilst the golden coat tails ended at a belt which resembled red hands holding each other. The humanoid figure's own hands consisted of elbow length red gloves which were contained in golden spikes and chains whilst the rest of it was covered in black clothing with silver highlights, and behind it was a golden spiky circle which seemed to be a half-assed attempt to emulate the sun, it's lower half also wore clothing which resembled the upper half's clothing minus the red. This was Messiah Picaro, the representation of the Abrahamic Mythological saviour – the being who appears before the day of judgement to save the virtuous. A universal figure who represents Messiahs in many religions.
A Messiah which turned Picaro at the Trickster's behest.
"Now then, before I teach you a stronger form of Dia, first answer me this: what do you seek from the Dia spell?" Messiah Picaro asked Sean.
"What I seek?" Sean repeated to which the manifested persona nodded.
There was a moment of contemplative silence.
"I wish for an empowered version of Dia." Sean decided.
"Very well..." Messiah Picaro commented "Let us begin the training, shall we?"
"First, tell me what is a Dia spell?" Messiah Picaro asked to which Sean responded.
"A spell which heals one unit's life force for a low amount." Sean replied.
"Yes. Now tell me, where does the fuel of the spell come from?" Messiah Picaro asked.
'...It comes from my SP. But what is 'SP'? If 'HP' is 'life force' then there's no way 'SP' is 'stamina' simply because stamina is part of 'HP'.' Sean contemplated as he soon sparked an answer.
"That's it! SP is my Soul Force, or a safe portion of it." Sean replied to which Messiah Picaro nodded.
"Correct. Your fuel is the very essence of yourself; your masked persona form allows you to limit yourself to your minimum amount of shaved soul force." Messiah Picaro explained "But beware of the consequence of overuse."
'The consequence of overuse is probably death... It is my soul after all, or irreparable soul damage.' Sean thought.
"Correct." Messiah Picaro nodded.
"Oh right, you can hear my thoughts." Sean remembered.
"Now then last question, how does one change the use of soul force since soul force is a neutral force?" Messiah Picaro questioned.
'Hmm... That's it!' Sean's eyes sparked a brighter red.
"Cognition. Intention. Willpower." Sean stated towards Messiah Picaro "These three."
"Correct. Your cognition gives it a form, your intention gives it a purpose and your willpower manifests it." Messiah Picaro explained "Now try it. An empowered version of Dia."
Sean focused onto his palm. He focused, and focused, and focused, and focused, and focused, and focused, and focused, and focused, and focused, and focused and finally he focused.
"DIARAMA!" He shot a bullet of light towards Messiah Picaro who absorbed it.
TRICKSTER HAS LEARNED DIARAMA
"Perfect. You have successfully learned Diarama, the form of Dia which heals a moderate amount of someone's life force." Messiah Picaro explained.
"How much is 'moderate'?" Sean asked.
"A combination of their own cognition of 'moderate' and your own cognition of 'moderate'." Messiah Picaro answered.
"So what's next?" Sean asked to which he had to pause.
"Next, you go home. It's already the evening; it's dangerous outside late." Messiah Picaro advised to which Sean nodded when he saw the wind blowing under the fake wall to show the silhouette of the full moon.
"I guess so."
Lastation/Hotel Room/Evening/2 Days Until Avenir Raid
"Hmm... what should I do now?" Sean murmured as he thought of what to do. "Guess, I'll increase my Charm."
He then proceeded to take his clothes off, enter the bath and after a few hours exit it and change back into his former clothes and then proceed to approach his bed and laid down on it.
"I felt my charm increase. This feels stupidly like a game." He commented as he closed his eyes.
Lastation/Hotel Room/Morning/1 Days Until Avenir Raid
Sean woke up and instantly knew what he had in store for today. He had to train with Arsène and learn how to be more stealthy whilst probably learning a new skill with the training.
He proceeded to do what he did yesterday; he put on his glasses and changed into suitable clothes. He then proceeded to exit the Hotel Room and went into a alleyway to vanish and soon appear into the outskirts of Lastation.
Lastation/Eastern Outskirts/Morning/1 Days Until Avenir Raid
"My life is so much like a game..." Sean muttered as he saw the status of the time as he entered his hideout.
And as usual he entered the ring, but unlike yesterday he decided to project a different persona. He projected Arsène. Arsène took the form of a winged entity which had black wings, a red suit which only covered the arms and a small portion of the torso and the rest of the suit covered each leg with a distinct resemblance to a bird. His feet had three edges that extended out and seemed useful for an assassin not a thief, his torso consisted of a tuxedo with red outlines and a bit of the black tuxedo ventured into his red leg armours whilst he also had a white table cloth attached to a white shirt under his black tuxedo. His face resembled that of a demon, eerie red markings that took a form that resembled a demonish form on his face which took the form of a dark mask, and a black top hat on top of the mask which had pointy horns with red outlines – the red outlines seemingly connected to the half-assed smudge of eyes – and his arms themselves seemingly devolved into black claws. Also, as a side note he had two thin golden chains connecting his red suit's right side with the left side, under the table cloth and the red arm tuxedos extended to cover the sides of his neck.
This was Arsène the gentleman thief who's famously renown as one of the best thieves in literature. A thief who steals from the wealthy to donate to the poor, the Pillager Of Twilight himself.
"Now then..." Sean muttered "Teach me how to be more unsuspecting." He asked the winged entity which bears the same name as his own.
"I see... For you to be unsuspecting you must first suspect everyone." Arsène Lupin told Sean Lupin.
"You what?" Sean took a metaphorical step back.
"To be unsuspecting you must first suspect everyone." Arsène repeated "And to do this... We shall do this the old fashioned way..." Arsène gave off an omen which was especially creepy coming of something like him.
Sean didn't know why... But he knows that he's going to regret this in the short term.
FWAP FWAP FWAP FWAP FWAP
A dozen Arsènes appeared before Sean and some were probably behind him too.
"Oh..." Sean trailed off as he finally knew what Arsène meant. Sean raised his guard around people, the simple solution was to get good enough to the point that he won't have to entirely raise his guard around people because he'll have enough confidence in himself to react.
And what better way to instil confidence than to beat him up.
"Oh shi--"
Those were his last words. RIP. New game. New save slot. Rest in peace old save slot.
TRICKSTER HAS LEARNED ADVERSE RESOLVE
Lastation/Hotel Room/Evening/1 Days Until Avenir Raid
Sean was faced down on his bed.
"End my suffering..." He muttered "Why are we here... Just to suffer?"
"What's up with you?" Morgana, his persona-using cat hopped on the bed from the window.
"I got beat up." He responded.
"What?! By Avenir?" Morgana over reacted.
"No, by myself." Sean responded.
"Wait... What? You beat yourself up?" Morgana was confused.
"Technically." Sean responded.
"Right.... So ima just hop into the bath..." Morgana, the cat, is going to take a bath. My cat ain't like this irl.
"Clean the fur when your done." Sean told the cat.
"I don't shed fur!" The cat responded.
"Sure you don't..." Sean muttered as he began to doze off.
SLAP
He slapped himself to keep himself awake.
'Now then, tomorrow is the special day which means that whatever I'm going to do must be done now.' Sean inwardly muttered.
"How my supplies doing?" He muttered as entered his standard Neptunia system. Fun fact, the Neptunia System and the Persona System are completely different which means Sean has two systems. One system is the system that every resident gets for existing on Gamindustri – the world – and the other system is his specialised system. Sean's systems work on different bases, the Persona System focuses on granting higher HP and SP while stacking all the stats and attributes on him whilst the Neptunia System has more to do with improving himself rather than his summons. Needless to say he power-leveled his personas whilst left his Neptunia System alone. Why would he let his Neptunian be inactive? Simply because Histoire can access it considering that she's a fairy designed to record history and regulate mankind.
'I will leave no traces.' Was his initial mindset but the dumb fuck stored all his shit in his Neptunian system.
"Your hurting my feelings." Sean told the narrator.
Oh, I'm sorry; did I ask for your fucking opinion?
"Dickhead."
Anyway, back onto the topic. Here's his NEPTUNIAN SYSTEM INVENTORY, yes in bold.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[HD. System]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Items]
Strength Pill X20
Speed Pill X20
Defense Pill X20
Accuracy Pill X20
Revive Pill X20
Medium Health Pill X500
High Health Pill X250
Medium Stamina Pill X500
High Stamina Pill X150
Sticky Bomb X1000
Grenade X1000
Flashbang X1000
Smoke Grenade X1000
EMP Grenade X5 (Illegal)
Incendiary Grenade X100
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Equipment]
[Great Thief Stick] (Weapon)
[Grappling Hook] (Ring)
[Fake Glasses] (Ornament)
[None] (Disk)
[Unsuspecting Clothes] (Armor)
[Blue Bag] (Accessory)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sean also checked his Equipment section just to be safe.
'First, why did you open your inventory?' Succubus asked.
"Just in case; the only relevant things is my Weapon and Ring anyway." Sean replied.
'Second, yo what the fuck?' Succubus blatantly stated.
'Language!' Berated Messiah Picaro.
'Tch, fine~' Succubus half-assedly relented.
'What's up with you? I don't see anything wrong?' Arsène asked confused 'Trickster literally has the bare minimum for any thief worth his salt.'
'1000 Flashbangs.' Succubus deadpanned.
'They're good for stunning the enemies so we can run away.' Arsène explained.
'Aren't you supposed to know that the same trick won't work twice?' Succubus asked.
'Its not the same trick if it's executed differently.' Messiah Picaro reasoned.
'20 Revive Pills?' Succubus asked.
'Sometimes thieves need to break a few of their bones, those pills simply grants healing to the point of being unnecessary. We can just store the excess energy so it's fine.' Arsène explained.
'1000 Grenades?' Succubus 'Are you going to war or something?'
'Thieves need to break stuff at times.' Arsène explained.
'That I can accept considering you might be in a rush, but 1000 Grenades?' Succubus repeated.
'It's a spare of a spare of a spare of a spare...' Arsène was going to begin to explain their designations.
'Yeah, I get it.' Succubus 'Then what about 100 Incendiary Grenades?'
'To burn down stuff that are in the way..?' Arsène sounded slightly unsure but it wasn't noticeable.
'Are you an arsonist?! Are all thieves secretly arsonists or something?!' Succubus couldn't help but guess.
'Its necessary.' Arsène explained.
'Right, sure; then what about the nukes.' Succubus asked.
'To erase all evidence.' Arsène replied.
'By disfiguring the map?! By erasing not only the evidence of the heist but evidence of the people involved?! By erasing the innocent bystanders nearby?! Yo what the fuck!' Succubus began to freak out.
'Also, your definitely bullshitting; Trickster doesn't even have any nukes!' Succubus accused.
'You have no proof.'Arsène finished her off.
'I mean... He's right...' Messiah Picaro chipped in.
'Yup He Ho.' The Jacks agreed.
'I give up...' The literal voice of reason gave up...
"My supplies are doing good, but I don't have any lockpicks." He muttered "Eh. I can just use my stick as one."
'That sounds wrong.' Succubus spoke up.
'Aren't you supposed to be a sex demon or something? Shut up.' Sean commented.
'Ugh, fuck it; I'm going to sleep.' Succubus shut off her connection in his mind's plane and entered her room.
"I'll review Mona's footage." He decided as he turned to the bathroom "Yo Mona, where's the camera?"
"It's near your pillow, dumbass." Morgana meowed out loud and to Sean's morbid surprise it was there.
Sean then proceeded to turn on his Third Eye.
"Focus..." He muttered as his eyes turned red.
He then switched on the camera and proceeded to memorize the layout of Avenir's main base, it was in Northern Lastation. The wealthy and important people usually reside there.
"Figures." He muttered as he continued to watch his cat observe the outside and go inside vents, inside bins and pretty much anywhere possible for him to memorise, even their schedules and command centres. Also.... Their Jewellery centres which are joint with their armory centres...
Just because he can't get personas from the gems and jewellery, doesn't mean he can't profit from them.
'Plus, I do anonymously donate to orphanages and charities that actually do their fucking job which I monitor daily.' Sean thought with a smile.
"That's everything I generally need...." He muttered.
"Guess the shows on tomorrow."