Chapter 13

Planeptune/Eresthian City/Hotel Room/Morning/33 Days Until Festival

Sean was currently drinking coffee as he laid down on the couch in his white jumper with a black blazer and blue jeans with brown shoes attire.

"What are you doing today?" Sean asked IF who was calmly drinking tea opposite of him.

"I'm going to go on a quest. What about you?" She asked Sean who responded.

"I'm thinking about going to the arcade today, I got plans with some people." He responded as she nodded in kind.

"I see, remember not to overexert yourself." She warned him.

"Got that." He nodded as she then raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah, where's your cat; it's usually always near you somewhere." She asked as Sean responded.

"Oh her, she wanted to explore the city for a while." He responded as he took a sip from his coffee.

"You can speak to cats?" Her eyebrow was raised.

"I'm a famous cat-mancer." He responded sarcastically.

There was a moment of silence as Sean lifted himself off the couch to leave.

"Are you really?" Sean could hear her ask.

He smirked.

"Who knows~"

Planeptune/Eresthian City/Northern (Electronic) District/Arcade/Morning/33 Days Until Festival

"Yo. You guys wait long?" Sean waved at the duo of unnatural siblings.

"Nah, we came just a few minutes ago." Sora waved back at Sean.

"We arrived approximately 5 minutes and 34 seconds ago." Shiro stoically spoke aloud.

"Eh, seems good enough." Sean shrugged.

"So what game we going to be playing today?" He asked as they both wandered the venue of games.

"How about this?" Sora pointed at a gun game in which you shoot zombies; it was four players but 3 players was allowed.

"I'm fine with it." Sean nodded as he looked at Shiro whom nodded.

They all grabbed a gun and Sora inserted a coin. Soon after the game started, they began firing at the horde of zombies. Sean, was doing really good seeing as his own marksmanship is better than most hitmen, to the point that he could literally shoot bullets to either block, redirect, trickshot, rebound and even directing overtake a bullet with his own bullets with another bullet as easily as breathing.

Although, in terms of weaponry, Sean has trouble with anything other than daggers, canes, bladed-canes, knives, pistols and one handed firearms however as a wildcard he could cover these weaknesses if he trained for it.

Sora, wasn't doing bad either as it seemed as if he knew when the monsters would spawn ahead of time and which part of the target was the most effective to eliminate them from. Sean, contrary to this had to use multiple bullets to take out an enemy even though his accuracy was really good.

Shiro, while not as good as the two dudes, wasn't doing bad herself as both she and Sora figured out some hidden mechanic to reload quicker – Sean tried but failed – which allowed her to gather more individual points than Sean whilst it seemed as if she was analysing the rate at which the easier monsters spawned and shooting them first. Sean was simply relying on his innate skills and instinct, Sora was relying on his insane intuition and charisma to carry him through and Shiro was utilising her insane calculation and analysis ability.

A crowd gathered around them, for some odd reason.

"Oh my Purple Heart! They've reached the boss level!" Someone exclaimed as a condition arose.

"That's possible?!" Someone exclaimed.

"Bullshit! That's literally imposs—oh my fucking goddess, they're doing it!" Another person exclaimed.

Sean was mildly distracted by the crowd as he made a minor mistake of hesitation as Shiro then stole his kill and beat him in individual points.

"Boss battle, huh?" Sora muttered as they came face-to-screen with a literal goliath of a zombie which had it's max HP be over 9000 which was a stark difference from the zombie generals which had 250 HP on maximum and was still hard to take out.

"Hm." Sean hummed in agreement as he fired bullets to target it's joints to give it the "slow-down" effect.

"Hn." Shiro also hummed in agreement as she calculated the rate in which the bombs were spawning and the rate in which the ability of when the grenades were usable and proceeded to trap the boss in an onslaught of non-stop explosions and bombing.

"Hehe..." Sora chuckled quietly as he proceeded to deal "fatal damage" by shooting any of it's weaknesses, mainly the eyes to blind it and soon the game came to an end by Sora exploding it.

"Game Over!" The box exclaimed as people started cheering.

Sean looked over to the leaderboards and understood their reactions.

○○○

Group Score:

•[ ] + 0 = 950,000,000 (NEW HIGHSCORE – Just Now)

•Nep Nep Celestials = 750,000,000 (Old Highscore – Unknown Amount Of Time)

•Dimensional Makers = 500,000,000 (Honorable Mention –  Three Months Ago)

•ABunchOfStrayDogs = 250,000,000 (Honorable Mention – A Few Days Ago)

•For My Wife = 100,000,000 (Honorable Mention – A Year Ago)

•Kirito And His Hare--= 99,999,995 (Honorable Mention – A Week Ago)

○○○

"Oh." He muttered "So that's why."

"Huh, we did pretty good." Sora grinned as Shiro simply stoically nodded.

"Hn." Shiro then saw the individual scores and Sean could just feel some sort of smug aura from her through her listless expression.

○○○

Individual Scores:

•[ ]O = 358,500,000 (NEW HIGHSCORE – Just Now)

•[ ]A = 354,500,000 (Honorable Mention – Just Now)

•The Fool = 237,500,000 (Honorable Mention – Just Now)

○○○

"What?!" Sora muttered as Shiro faintly smirked.

"I won, Big Brother." The smugness coming off her should count as borderline harassment.

"Congratulations." Sean merely nodded with a faint smile at the duo.

"Don't 'congratulations' me!" Sora pouted whilst Shiro faintly smiled as she nodded towards Sean.

"You didn't do bad either." She spoke aloud with her blank more high-pitched tone of voice.

"Yeah, what was that? You kept giving us the chance to do more damage by giving it status effects and giving us boosts? You were like a support character instead of a fellow player trying to swipe the lead." Sora had a faint smile as well.

"Ah! Sorry, about that." Sean rubbed his neck out of embarrassment "Old habits die hard, I guess. I prefer to help with support rather than jump into the fray." Sean responded as he inwardly thought 'Well, as Sean Lupin, that is.'

"Huh, that so?" Sora muttered but then shrugged.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Shiro's phone went off as both of them groaned.

"Sorry, seems like we have to head back. Maybe be we could catch a game later?" Sora offered.

"Hn." Shiro nodded in agreement.

He had no reason to refuse, so why not?

"Sure."

SHATTER

I AM THOU... THOU ART I...

THOU HAST DEEPEN YOUR BOND WITH THE MAGICIAN ARCANA...

MAGICIAN 1-I (Sora & Shiro) RANK 2

"See ya later!" The duo waved Sean a goodbye as they left the Arcade.

"What should I do next?" Sean muttered.

He thought for a moment.

"Guess I'll wander."

Planeptune/Eresthian City/Somewhere/Morning/33 Days Until Festival

Sean wandered Planeptune in hopes to find something interesting. But his wandering came to an astop soon after.

"Oof." He grunted as he bumped into someone "I meet way too many people like this..." He slightly reminisced his life in his other world as he opened his eyes and saw someone directly looking at him.

She had golden eyes, light-blue shoulder-length hair which had a longer portion of it tied into a single braid on the left side of her face as well as an ahoge on her head as well as a white hairband which had curves stylishly extending out of it. Her body could be considered 'Well Done' although her... bottom had a larger emphasis than her torso. Her outfit consisted of a tightly-wrapped navy-blue leotard around her slim figure as well as a black collar – with yellow outer trims – and white skirt along with arm-length gauntlets and armored thigh-length shin armaments which was shaved off a bit to not deter her movement capabilities – around behind her knees – and it also seemed like she had heels attached to her metallic armaments, however thankfully for her she was wearing black thigh-socks – which also had golden trimmings – to not affect her directly from the armament's environmental temperature. Sean also noticed that her left hand didn't have a gloved gauntlets but rather they had a normal white glove which showed off her fingers.

All in all, Sean couldn't help but wonder why she would dress like that in public.

"You...!" She muttered.

CRACKLE CRACK

I AM THOU... THOU ART I...

THOU HAST ACQUIRED A NEW VOW...

IT SHALL BE THE WINGS OF REBELLION THAT BREAKETH THY CHAINS OF SUBMISSION.

WITH THE BIRTH OF THE MIRROR JUSTICE ARCANA THOU HAST OBTAINED THE WINDS OF BLESSING THAT SHALL LEAD TO FREEDOM AND NEW POWER...

'That has to be the quickest Arcana I've ever gotten...' Sean muttered inwardly 'I should increase my habit of bumping into people more often.'

"Are you Sean Lupin?" She asked as Sean proceeded to lie as naturally as he breathed. So what if he got an Arcana? She's suspicious as fuck.

"Sean Lupin? Dark-haired guy known as the 'Supporting Adventurer'?" He tried to gather a confirmation as he immediately spoke "Don't think I am. My name's Kaitono. Tsukiakari Kaitono."

'Shit.' Sean inwardly clicked his tongue at the mistake, he lied too quickly and didn't pretend to process it at the same speed as any other person.

I mean, he didn't lie, he IS some times called the "Moon-lit Phantom Thief". Sean just translated that to Japanese.

"Lies." She knew immediately for some reason, it didn't seem like she knew he made a mistake.

"And how would you know?" Sean delved for information.

"We've met before; or rather I've met you." She rephrased herself.

"So what do you want with me?" He asked as she pointed her silver katana at him.

"You will come with me. My mistress requires your presence." She threatened Sean with her katana closer to his neck, the surrounding crowd were mumbling.

"Who is your mistress?" Sean asked for more information.

"Takagi Saya, of the Takagi Arms Company." She informed Sean who knew what company that was. It was an infamous weapon company renown for its many rumors, even though the quality of weapons produced from them is good, they're also really expensive and the origins are notably shady.

"So what would an infamous weapon company like that need from a pacifist like me?" Sean inquired but she didn't respond.

"You do not need to currently know, you just need to come." She stoically replied although Sean could see another emotion which he couldn't identify.

Ordinarily, Sean would say "No, fuck off." and walk away however it seems he currently doesn't have that luxury. Also, he doesn't exactly treat threats with kindness. And lastly, he hates someone who abuses their authority. With a small glance around, Sean could immediately recognised with his passive Third Eye that any Guild Officers who would interfere are being held back by people in a similar attire to her. So he has no choice but to relent, afterall his body is too sore to fight somebody currently...

'Heh, yeah right.' Sean glared at the very notion of being subdued by someone 'higher' than him, someone who is willing to abuse their authority, someone who abuses the freedom of their 'own' 'choice' to subdue another's freedom of 'choice'.

Sean may be kind, polite and he may not mind being used or even being slapped – as shown previously by IF – and he may not mind being hated because that's fine, HE 'chose' it. But he absolutely REFUSES to be 'chained' into 'submission' by ANYONE. Not even himself.

Even if 'freedom' is 'impossible', even if being 'free' is a 'distant dream' forever out of his 'reach', even if he will 'break' into 'pieces'. He will forever pursue 'freedom', he will struggle against these damnable 'chains', he will 'rebel' with every fibre of his 'exhausted' 'body'.

Because that's who he is. A Fool who pursues something truly ungraspable. A Fool true to himself.

'Show Time.'

"I'll have to politely refuse." Sean stoically replied as her golden eyes sharpened.

"I see. Then, I have no choice." She raised her katana – Sean noted from the way she's handling it she aims to knock him out – and swung down whilst her fellow compatriots dived in towards him.

Sean waited. He waited for the small fraction of a moment when they were all in range, and when the tip of the blade was just faintly above his nose Sean rolled to the left whilst grabbing two Smoke Grenades from his Inventory and smashed them together during the roll.

An enormous smoke – larger than what a single Smoke Grenade would produce – enveloped the plaza in which they currently were at.

They were quick to work as Sean's Third Eye detected the activation of wind magic. However that was all the diversion he needed, he 'shed' his 'mask' to 'form' a new 'mask' as he sent both his glasses and white jumper into his Inventory whilst buttoning up his black blazer and then proceeded to go behind the bluenette and pretended he too was coughing like the crowd whilst being marginally enveloped in the crowd.

"G-Get him!" The bluenette ordered her allies as they all scattered to look for him whilst the bluenette herself just passed him.

"...Where did I go wrong?" Sean heard her mutter.

'You went wrong the moment you decided to threaten me.' Sean snarked.

'Coast's clear.' Sean noticed as he weaved into the crowd and proceeded to escape the plaza of the Electronic District.

'I'm not gonna head home; don't want them to know where I live. What should I do in the mean time?' He questioned himself. 'Guess I'll pick up some quests.'

A dark robe flickered in the distance. "It really is him."

Planeptune/Eresthian City/City Central/Guild/Morning/33 Days Until Festival

Sean entered the Guild ignoring the flirtatious gazes and the people 'checking' him out. Whilst, he did find them obnoxiously annoying he couldn't help it since he's under a disguise.

Sean found a random quest which depicted the slaughter of 30 Dogoo slimes. The cross-breed between a dog and a sentient slime weren't that strong but they have a lot of HP, they seem to target women more for unknown reasons though. It was a perfect quest to vent his anger.

He took it.

Planeptune/Eresthian City/Virtua Forest/Southern Area (High Zone)/Evening/33 Days Until Festival

"RAAAAA!" Sean loudly grunted as he used his bladed-cane to thrust a blue sentient slime with doggy mouths, ears and tails all away with the side of his blade. They may look 'cute' but they're noted to also kill.

Sean currently was acting reckless. He knew that. He didn't know why. He didn't care why. And his personas most... certainly...

'Guys?' Sean asked his personas.

'Finally regained your calm Trickster?' Arsène asked.

'What happened?' Sean asked his inner selves.

'During your escape someone enchanted you with a 'berserk' status effect, the only thing stopping you from going as you call it "murder-insanity mode" was us.' Arsène informed as Sean sighed in relief as he didn't kill any innocents in the crowd or even ostensibly injure anyone.

'Shouldn't my mental power be able to negate that?' Sean asked his inner selves.

'You normally would, however the 'debuff' Skill was classified as a 'support' Skill.' Messiah Picaro explained 'Someone was plotting something, and worse, we don't know why.'

'How're the others.' Sean asked as he noticed only Arsène and Messiah Picaro.

'They're all resting as they exhausted a lot of energy to bring you back.' Arsène spoke up.

'Give them my thanks.' Sean then proceeded to regain his calm and did the most sensible thing in his current situation. He retreated.

After retreating, he laid down near a tree.

'What was I thinking coming to the most dangerous place in Virtua Forest whilst injured?' Sean asked himself 'Oh, right; I wasn't.' He berated himself as eventually chose to sigh.

"No point hating myself." He muttered as he lifted himself up and he checked his 'Quest' feature and saw he barely took down 5 Dogoos out of 30.

He'll have to relocate to the Low Zone.

Planeptune/Eresthian City/Virtua Forest/Western Area (Low Zone)/Evening/33 Days Until Festival

He laid down near a tree and out his body to rest.

GRUMBLE GRUMBLE

"I'm hungry." Sean muttered.

"Then why don't you eat?" A certain bluenette asked.

"Because I don't..." He paused as he was replying. It wasn't a persona who said that, neither was it himself.

"Huh?!" He immediately jumped and proceeded to fall onto his side as he stared at the new appearance of someone familiar.

"What do you want with me?" Sean glared at her however something unexpected happened, she bowed.

"I am sorry." This gesture stunned Sean for a moment but he quickly gathered his thoughts as he sighed

"Fine." He crossed his legs as he stared at the bluenette "Sit down and talk this time; no threatening."

She could feel his ire but she didn't say anything about it. He was fine with this, he won't forgive her right away afterall.

"Maybe you could explain now?" He calmly requested.

"I'm sorry, I intended to ask you to speak in private but I didn't properly convey my intentions." She bowed again as she propped out a bento – boxed lunch – from her inventory "As an apology please accept my bento."

Sean scanned it with his passive Third Eye and found no abnormalities.

'Arsène?' He asked his persona most proficient with this kind of thing.

'Nothing.' Arsène confirmed.

"I accept." He inwardly sighed as he took the bento and opened it.

'Hmm?' Sean hummed in confusion 'This has... everything I like?' It had a quiche burger that was sandwiched between apples and oranges and in the corner there was a chocolate muffin which had dusted sugar and chipped oranges.

"Thanks." He amicably muttered as he – didn't see the ghost of a smile on bluenette's face which disappeared soon after – began to suspect that she too was afflicted with an 'enchantment' as he continued to eat it.

"That tasted similar to..." My mother's cooking, is what he would say if he wasn't busy enjoying the flavour.

He turned towards the bluenette and patted her head.

"Guess your fully forgiven." He stated with less blatant animosity.

"I guess it's true." She muttered.

"Hmm, what's true?" Sean asked.

"Nothing." She didn't allow him to pursue that topic.

Soon there was a moment of silence as they both stared at each other. The silence caused Sean to sigh.

"Can you explain your situation to me?" They may not have had an amicable meeting, but change is inevitable. Fuck, persona 3 reference.

'Oi, don't break any of the tension you shitty narrator.' Sean snarked.

Tch. Fine. Just so you know, I'm a figment of your imagination.

'Sure you are.' Sean was doubtful.

"Yes. Seeing as we are secluded, I definitely can." The golden-eyed woman nodded as she began to explain her situation.

"I've recently been hired by the Takagi Arms Company after being resigned for an indefinite amount of time." She began to explain as Sean raised an eyebrow which she proceeded to ignore.

'Doesn't sound so indefinite.' He inwardly muttered. "And... How does this link with me?"

She stared eerily at Sean for a silent moment but then opened her mouth to speak. "Recently the Takagi Heiress has taken an interest in you for unknown reasons, she personally requested for you but it eventually escalated into some sort of order that must be completed under any conditions."

"Uh, why?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You see, the mistress is very delicate and rarely asks for anything however this is the only request she's ever asked for – for personal reasons instead of necessary related things – so many have decided to raise the importance of the request." She stoically replied.

"And no-one spoke about it because...?" Sean was baffled how a mere request turned into a half-assed capturing mission.

"The Mistress' mother briefly observed her request and allowed it." Her golden eyes briefly flickered as she responded.

"Why are you calling her 'mistress' instead of something like 'lady' or 'milady' when her mother is still alive?" He asked morbidly curious.

"That is because I personally serve my Mistress whilst the Mistress' mother briefly gives the so-called 'green-light' on more sensitive matters." She replied.

"Okay, so, uh, what now?" Sean asked as he was still apprehensive about meeting the 'so-called' mistress.

"You will meet my Mistress." She decided.

"Uh, not now." The rebel in Sean's body still refused to be taken in under authority.

"I implore you, you will meet my Mistress." She decided again.

"No." Sean responded.

"You will." She stated.

"No." He responded.

"And I'm saying no to your no." She clarified.

"And I'm saying no to your no of my no." He also clarified. Call him childish but after the bullshit he had done today, he doesn't particularly feel like complying.

"You will come." She repeated again, which ticked him off.

"Listen here, uh, lady(?), I'm not going today." Sean clarified.

She sighed.

"Then may I ask when you are available?" She asked.

"Tomorrow." He decided on giving up the next day.

"Any sooner?" She asked.

"Sure; in 1,440 minutes." He nodded.

"I see." She nodded not noticing his trick.

She dusted her knees and stood up.

"Yuki. Nonaka Yuki." She suddenly stated.

"I see, names Sean Lupin." Sean nodded at her in confirmation as he then thought of something. "By the way, Nonaka, why'd you attack me when I first refused?"

She stoically glanced at Sean's silver-onyx eyes. "I intended to subdue you so we could speak privately but then I felt... odd for a moment." She briefly frowned as she spoke once more "Sean, please be careful because it seems like someone is either targeting you or targeting me through you or even the Takagi."

Sean took note of it and his brief hypothesis of her also being afflicted with an 'enchantment' seemed to be more truthful than expected.

"I see." Sean muttered.

She then bowed.

"I bid you farewell." And then she left as Sean began to wonder about why the Takagi Heiress was so interested in him.

Eventually, he shrugged.

"I'll think about it later. For now, it seems like I got a request to fulfil." He realised that he had 25 more to go still.

"This'll take a while."

He got home late.

Planeptune/Eresthian City/Hotel Room/Evening/33 Days Until Festival/6(Now 5) Days Until Departure.

As Sean was heading home, he noticed that IF sent him a message about him being looked for by the Takagi Arms Company. He briefly replied that it was a misunderstanding.

"I wanna increase something..." Sean muttered as he evaluated his Social Stats. "My Kindness could need a rank up from RANK 2."

Hence he decided to play a farming game before heading to bed.