Chapter 6

Lastation/Western District/Evening/The Next Day

It was in the dark of night, Joker found that there was a vent that led into the museum hence why he entered through it. Joker did find another way through, but he stumbled upon this useful entrance as he scouted the place during the morning.

Guards walked below him.

"Hey, you think the Phantom is really gonna show up?" Guard A asked Guard B.

"You saw her calling card, right? Plus, she is a thief, that Avenir thing was probably a one off." Guard B replied "I mean who knows, maybe she and Avenir were working together but Avenir tried to double cross her."

"She? Her?" Guard A questioned "He's obviously a dude."

"But you saw that video. She had so much SP to the point that it would be unfair for all dudes if 'he' had as much SP as the average woman, if not more." Guard B reasoned.

"Now that you mention it..." He nodded "Plus, he did prefer to dodge during the Killachine chase. But contrary to that he did have enough HP to take a lot of the 'goddess-killing' machine's hits so it's also possible he's a dude."

"I guess, we'll just have to agree to disagree." Guard B decided.

It was at this moment that Joker got a calling card out and wrote a message on it.

'I'm male, by the way. – The Phantom.' He mentally recounted as he wrote down, but he obviously used a fancy handwriting style – because it looks fancier – which differs from "Sean Lupin's" handwriting style.

He then proceeded to yeet the card perfectly in his pocket. Arsène was both a bit proud at the throwing skills and annoyed that he bothered to do something like this.

'It was worth it.' Joker stated with no room for argument.

But alas, he is not well-versed in talking with himself.

'No it wasn't.' All his personas disagreed.

'Party poopers.' Joker muttered as he just realised he called parts of his own personality party poopers.

'Fuck.' He mentally deadpanned.

Joker proceeded to navigate through the vents, however he had to momentarily pause as he saw something. His Third Eye was activated as his eyes glowed red and he proceeded to look at the detector lasers hidden within the vents.

'There's no possible way to get through that currently.' Joker knew as only an idiot would attempt to crawl through something with so little space.

Joker retraced his steps and took a different turn than he did before and therefore found himself face to face with a ventilation shaft – or to be more precise, an exit. He peaked through it and further emphasised the use of of his Third Eye as it told him all the residents in the area; turns out that outside is a corridor with two guards going back and forth however the didn't do it perfectly, there was a small gap in their movement schedule which he could exploit. That was perfect considering that in the middle of them was a room which seemed to hold something important, or his instincts as a thief told him so, so he could sneak in with that little disparity within their movement schedules.

Joker pressed on the ventilation shaft to see if it was stable and he saw it was, which in turn forced him to pick out one of the many items he made that morning. A lock pick. He then proceeded to loosen the screws to the point that it wouldn't make a bad door if someone wanted it to, it became a veritable exit too.

Joker smiled.

Before he decided to exit the shaft he waited for the two guards to turn their back, and within that fraction of a moment he proceeded to attempt to open the door.

CLICK CLICK

It was locked but Joker didn't stop thinking as he immediately used lockpicks to pick it open because if he didn't he would be caught by the two guards.

CLICK

He opened the door and rolled in and waited for a moment to pass.

"Hmm... probably nothing..." He heard a mutter from the door as he let out a faint sigh.

That was too close for his liking.

Joker stood up and examined the room he was in. It was some sort of storage room.

"Focus..." He muttered as his red eyes glinted brighter and proceeded to scan anything important, there were only three items which suited the description of 'important'.

Joker approached the first items.

"Now let see..." He picked up a torn paper from the floor, it held the characters 'M0S323' which oddly looked liked the characters 'Museum', except very vaguely. It's probably going to be of some use in the future.

"I found it..." He muttered as he picked up a spare map that was slipping out of a book on a book shelf. Joker scanned all over it and proceeded to memorize the layout of the area with his Third Eye. "This'll be useful."

"Anything else?" He muttered as he approached the third thing that seemed strange for his Third Eye. He approached the teddy bear – thank god it wasn't sentient like a certain doll that has a fetish for murder – and turned it around. There was a zip on the back.

"What's in here?" He muttered as he undid the zip and looked inside to find some sort of card.

'LEVEL TWO CLEARANCE' was read on it. Seems like a spare.

"Don't mind if I do..." He pocketed it as it may be useful later and proceeded to put the teddy bear back in place. Why there was a teddy bear here, he did not know.

"Anything else..." He muttered as he shook his head "Don't think so..."

BZZT

◇◇◇

Lisa: Yo Joker where you at?

Joker: In a storage room, wby?

Lisa: wby?

Joker: What Bout You?

Lisa: Ohhhh....

Lisa: I'm at the command centre, tell me if you need any assistance from there.

Joker: K.

◇◇◇

Joker slid his phone back in his pocket. The museum is around 2 floors high with multiple rooms for different purposes, and it is fairly large for a museum. Around two or 2.5 times larger.

Joker used his Third Eye and proceeded to sense where all the rooms he identified would be, it was because of the map that he could do this.

'Hmm... in the western area there seems to be a door which leaves further in, and two places of interest reside in the northern and eastern areas.' Joker examined as he decided to enter one of the places of interest.

"Heads is northern, tails is eastern." He brought out a coin and proceeded to flip it. Brb, narrator gonna flip a coin real quick (I'm not lying lol). K back.

Joker flipped a coin and it landed on heads.

"Northern area it is..." He muttered as he planned his route to the northern area. Go through a few corridors, go past a painting exhibition and there should be some stairs which lead upwards behind a door near some other doors.

"Its time..." Joker muttered as his red eyes glinted with excitement, Truly, the joys of stealing is wonderful.

'It's exciting...' Joker smirked 'But I shouldn't grow too lax.'

'Well said, there will always be curveballs during heists. Especially, if you're a phantom thief who hands out calling cards.' Arsène commented.

'Got that Teach.' Joker replied as he technically called a manifestation of his own personality "teacher". Eh, whatever.

Joker leaned against the door and stopped to hear any footsteps.

TAP TAP TAP TAP... TAP TAP TAP... TAP... TAP.... TAP

'Its time.' He inwardly repeated as he opened the door and exited. If Joker takes a right from there, he should go further in so that's probably West.

He turned around to see a T corridor. The right part of the 'T' held a camera along with a dead end, the corridor to the left led north and the corridor where the guard currently was – the straight corridor – led to the east.

'To left.' Joker immediately decided as he used the wall to propel himself in the air and proceeded to mildly dodge the view of a security camera and he proceeded to hide behind a cupboard which held a vase when he rolled on the floor, so the guards behind him don't find him out.

'Hmm...' He muttered 'There are quite a few cameras in this corridor for some reason.' He muttered as he counted around 12 cameras in this corridor.

"Focus..." He muttered as his eyes glinted brightly.

"I see it..." He muttered as he saw a thin margin in which he could go past the cameras without being spotted. Though, he'll probably be caught if he tries to rush it which is annoying considering that there's guards behind him.

"I'll need them to divert their attention." He muttered as he snuck back into the storage room "Maybe I'll find something..."

He looked around and soon found something resting on a drawer.

A phone.

†

BZZT BZZT BZZT... BZZT BZZT BZZT... BZZT BZZT BZZT...

"Huh? What's that?" One of the guards approached the storage room whilst the other merely watched with his hands on a gun. Yes, gun, not a taser; seems like people hate thieves a lot in Gamindustri or to be more precise the act of 'pirating' so no one really likes thieves.

CLICK

"Huh? What idiot left his phone here?" The guard didn't even care that it was an anonymous caller, only that it was making unnecessary noise.

BEEP

"That's that." The guard muttered.

As this was going on, they didn't realise that a certain masked thief snuck through the northern corridor.

†

"That trick would work maybe one more time..." Joker muttered as he realised the guard turned it off and didn't actually put it on silent. "That'll be useful."

Joker was already hiding behind another corridor. Soon he decided to take a few twists and turns to the exhibition corridor, and he had to take an immediate pause.

His eyes glowed a bright crimson-red as his Third Eye proceeded to analyse the painting exhibition area. It seemed to be full to the brim with cameras that looked new, however that was probably because of the fact that they had the windows on the ceiling open. Seems like they attempted to bait him, and honestly he was planning to use that as an entering point had he not found the vent he entered with.

'Close call.' He sweat dropped 'Now then, how do I go past here and reach the door to the next area with all these cameras?' He questioned as he scanned the area in front of him for any points he could snake his way in but found none.

But he felt something. Air draft.

He twisted his attention nearby and saw that there was a ventilation shaft nearby. He entered it and – just for curiosity sake – headed back to the storage room with It, but found himself faced with the detector lasers from before. He mentally took a note of that as he returned back to where the current ventilation shaft's exit was and proceeded to follow the route he purposely ignored. He soon found himself on the roof of the museum, where the cameras wanted him to enter from.

Needless to say, he did not enter from there but instead went past that to find a vent he could sneak into the building with, and truthfully he did find it. But it was kinda small.

'Well... Fuck...' He muttered as he grabbed his shoulder and proceeded to dislocate it so he had enough room to drop into the shaft. He soon found himself freefalling into a bunch of bags, which smelled.

It was the garbage room.

He relocated his shoulder and muttered a Dia spell to heal the damage.

'Well let's hope to never do that again.' He muttered as he shivered at the phantom pain. People dealing him damage is painful hence why he prefers to dodge – and at times if he's feeling confident, taking it head on – however if he's voluntarily doing harm like 'dislocation' he's literally not allowed to mentally prepare simply because of the fact that his body will try to resist the act of 'dislocation', so in other words he has to withstand the pain in full.

BEEP

He scanned the keycard to the door to the garbage room so he could exit.

He exited the garbage room and immediately hid beneath a window to a room. Behind him was the door he needed to enter, to his right was the garbage room and to his left was some sort of security room that's specifically locked onto the area they expected him to come from and in front of him was the exhibition area.

Joker leaned his ear near the wall.

"...The...Armed Detective Agency... Dogs... Emiya... That hitman..." He couldn't make out the full words but the keywords were 'The', 'Armed Detective Agency', 'Dogs', 'Emiya' and 'That hitman'.

In other words...

'The Armed Detective Agency exists here, Kiritsugu Emiya either joined them, went after them, or is working together with them.' Joker concluded as he pushed up his mask to hide his nervousness 'Considering that they are talking about him or them now... Chances are they were hired to try catch me. Out of all of them I should be wary of Ranpo Edogawa then, because from my knowledge he should be smart to the point of not being fair.' Joker massaged his throat so he could manipulate his tone of voice to be slightly – but noticeably – lower than normal.

'Time to step on it.' He inwardly muttered as he entered the door behind him after scanning the keycard and came face to face with something he didn't expect – Well he did expect, just not to this degree – and it was counterfeits. A whole lot of them of the Tailed Gem.

This'll need Lisa's intervention.

◇◇◇

Joker: Got a few things to ask.

Lisa: Yeah?

Joker: Near the command centre describe all the people nearby.

Lisa: Why?

Joker: We may have more trouble than expected.

Lisa: That's annoying.

Joker: Anyway tell me everyone in the room.

Lisa: Okay, so there's the director who kinda looks like humpty dumpty not gonna lie.

Lisa: There's a normal looking guy dressed in shady clothes.

Lisa: There's also this wannabe detective who wears everything that a detective should to the point that it's stupid.

Lisa: There's also this small blond farmer-looking kid with a straw hat tied to his neck.

Lisa: And lastly, there's this dirty-blonde with glasses who has a stern face. Kinda looks classy.

Lisa: Anything about them?

Joker: Well, things may have just become more complicated.

Lisa: ?

Joker: The shady-looking guy – we've never personally seen him ever – but he's Kiritsugu Emiya. From what I know, he's a gay edgelord who lives with a stupid ideology of killing the few to save the rest. I'm pretty sure the retard killed his surrogate mother because of it.

Joker: The wannabe detective you've met is probably some little twat named Edogawa Ranpo who's basically a second-rate Detective Conan. Hey, they even share the same second name.

Joker: The farmer – from what I know – is some kid part of that one agency. I personally think the kid took too much hits to the noggin to properly comprehend how society works. Rumors all around that he's a naive dumbass.

Joker: The dirty-blonde is probably that one retarded dude who stopped a highway bombing a while back and apparently has a fetish for being precise.

◇◇◇

Meanwhile, in the command centre.

"PWUHAHAHAHA! Fetish for being precise!" A fox-eyed kid wearing the stereotypical detective outfit burst out laughing whilst the dirty-blonde in questioned pushed up his glasses with intent to kill.

"I don't care who this thief is, I'm going to maim him." Damn bro, Joker your pissing off skills reign supreme even when you're not the main instigator.

The average-looking 20-year old in shady clothes simply grabbed a cigarette and smoked it.

"Huh? But he called you a 'little twat' and 'second-rate Detective Conan'." The kid with a straw hat stated to which Ranpo giggled.

"Hey, take it seriously!" Doppo Kunikida, the stern looking face with glasses berated "We were hired from the Basilicom themselves for this by the new Assistant Directive – the Oracle – which is only second to the Goddess herself!" He then attempted to lure Ranpo in "You yourself are always talking about finding an interesting job worthy of your deductions."

"Oh~ man! What a mean guy, I didn't hit my head nearly enough to have rumours about me being a naive dumbass." Kenji Miyazawa stated.

The room froze and even Kiritsugu Emiya – the man smoking the cigarette – paused.

"Come on!" He protested, everyone simply turned around and began to ignore him.

"This doesn't feel right." Kiritsugu gained their attention to which everyone turned their attention towards him "I don't know how or why, but something feels amiss."

"And you would be right in assuming so!" Ranpo giggled with glee "Isn't that right kitty? Or maybe plushe kitty? Or maybe monster kitty?" Ranpo stared towards the Monster Cat wielding a mask which only turned her head away.

Honestly, Kiritsugu wanted to simply torture the damn thing for information. And he did, but it simply didn't. Loyalty can be annoying sometimes.

"Explain." Doppo ordered.

"Well in simple terms: he already knows that Lisa – I can call you that, right kitty? – has been compromised. I personally think it's because he's personally met Mr Emiya before." He deducted as Kiritsugu raised an eyebrow.

" 'We've never personally seen him ever' sounds like he's trying to imply he's never met you but in actuality he was trying to confirm if he was getting information from the right person." Ranpo explained "And considering the fact that he knows your past, it wouldn't be strange to assume that he was a colleague for either you or Mrs Natalia at some point."

He explained.

"I'm pretty sure he even knows that we have the Tailed Gem. Isn't that right Kitty?" Ranpo spoke towards the tied up monster cat which remained silent.

"Hence why we should throw a curveball. Why don't we bring up Lisa as a hostage and order him to turn himself in." Ranpo asked.

"What good would that do?" Kenji asked as everyone else in the room was curious, even the director who simply decided to leave it up to them.

"Simply because it won't do any good. If he relents then we win, anyway. If he retaliates, then you guys can beat him up, and we still win because he'll try to either find the gem or his cat or maybe even both so we'll focus on that." Ranpo concluded.

"And you think the plan will work?" Kiritsugu asked the flippant detective.

"Well, we have two Stray Dog combatants and a newly joined member who used to reign supreme as the underworld's bogey man as the Assassin of Justice." Ranpo asked "You tell me."

"He has a versatility of abilities though." Kiritsugu stated.

"But he also has a "Limit" just like everyone else, although people with stronger skills generally have less skills, an example is Kunikida who can materialise matter through simply writing in a book or the 'overpowered standards' like Kenji who gains superstrength in an unreasonable amount. Your Time Accel could be considered one of these skills, I think." Ranpo explained as Kiritsugu relented.

"Is it really alright to talk about it in front of that... Thing." The chubby director made Lisa – the masked cat – flinch.

"Well, unless you plan to lose, then yes." Ranpo said with a hint of arrogance "Plus, with Kunikida's composite adamantine cage then it should be safe and also Kenji is going to be the one holding it so it should be safer than necessary. Plus, there isn't any lock to pick."

The director looked unsure at the last part.

"You sure you will be able to take it out after?" The director asked unsure.

"Don't worry old man, Kunikida can unsummon it whenever he desires." Ranpo stated.

"Now... Who's up for some Phantom Thief hunting?" Ranpo rhetorically asked as he looked at Lisa.

"Oh~ me! Me! Pick me!" Kenji raised his hand.

"That was rhetorical."

†

'Lisa has definitely been compromised.' Joker knew 'Considering the guy with a precise fetish is here, it wouldn't be strange if he locked the Tailed Gem in an unbreakable – or really strong – container which doesn't have a key, considering that he can simply unspell it whenever he wants.' He concluded 'But I have something to one up him. More like a feature, actually.'

Joker planned his next move but in the end decided to prepare for oncoming events. He knew that Lisa was compromised, but he didn't know that they knew he knew that Lisa was compromised.

'I just gotta use this to my advantage...' Joker decided as he entered the counterfeit room and inspected all the gems just in case, but alas he found none. He smirked, he picked up a few of the fake gems as he imagined a suitable scenario. It was a stray thought, but it was entirely possible.

"Time to find a way back without being caught..." He muttered as he searched for the windows, and soon he smirked.

"Perfect." He undid the screws to the window and proceeded to exit through that and rescrew it from the outside, except it was made loose so he could enter at a later date. He then continued to head back to the starting point by sneaking his way to his first ventilation shaft which had lasers, then he snuck into the storage room again.

"So that's the northern area secured." He muttered as he sat down on a nearby chair "Now it's either going further in with the western area, or checking the eastern area out."

It took a moment for him to decide.

"Eastern area it is." This time when Joker headed towards there, he jumped towards the northern area and waited for the guard to go to the storage room and then proceeded to turn on his Third Eye to avoid the cameras as he sprinted – as silently as his feet could take him – around another corridor.

"Lets see here..." His eyes crimson eyes stared at the corridor and he saw it was full of cameras which moved their perspective.

"Hmm... They stay still for around 10 seconds." Joker observed as he picked out some lockpicks from his persona inventory and lodged it in the neck of all the cameras, he then proceeded to evade their centre of sights with the use of his Third Eye and he unlodged them by throwing more lockpicks. It took around 12 seconds.

"Lets hope no one notices..." He muttered as he proceeded to head deeper into the area. "Whoa..." he whispered as he came close to touching some lasers.

"Focus..." He muttered as his Third Eye revealed all the lasers positions "This is manageable." He jumped, ducked and slid through them with style like a gymnast.

Looks likes his father's teachings haven't dulled yet, he shook his head to forget that particular stray thought. It probably came up because of how he expressed a little bit of how he personally feels to Chian yesterday, he usually just bottles everything up to fuel his desire to rebel.

"Hmm..." He murmured as he realised he reached a crossroad "Left or right?"

'Trickster, Third Eye.' Arsène reminded him.

'Hmm? You've been quiet.' Joker noted.

'Aye, watching you like this just left me somewhat nostalgic.' Arsène explained.

'Anyway, I don't want to over rely on Third Eye when I don't need to.' Joker responded to which Arsène chuckled.

'A good thought, but not necessary.' Arsène responded as Joker tilted his head 'The more you use your Third Eye, the more you'll be used to drawing it's power naturally. Although, a side effect would be that the power of the Third Eye strengthens.' Arsène explained.

'I see... So kinda like when people damage their eyes they need glasses because it's mostly permanent damage which can only go downhill from there, but it's the opposite in actuality in regards to Third Eye.' Joker deduced.

'That would be an apt description.' Arsène nodded.

'I see, thanks.' Joker muttered as he activated his Third Eye and followed the footsteps which led to the left.

A few more twists and turns and he found himself in a sort of... historical library. He entered inside and inspected the area with his glowing crimson eyes, he sighed as he only spotted two things of interest.

A key, and a note sticking out of a journal of sorts.

"Hey," Joker perked his ears as he assumed the guards were nearby, he currently had been avoiding them through stealth and patience to the point that the narrator didn't mention them – definitely not because he forgot – hence Joker immediately did he best thing he could think of.

He jumped on top of a desk nearby and jumped on top of a library bookshelf, there was a camera nearby but he wasn't in view of it.

"Is it really alright to do it here?" A male said as a woman was pinning him down.

"Oh..."

'Oh...' Arsène commented.

'Oh my...' Succubus seemed interested.

'He ho?' Jack Frost commented.

'Ho he?' Jack O' Lantern commented.

'THE SIN!!!! MY EYES!!! THE SIN IS CORRUPTING MY EYES!!!!' And of course the Messiah that's supposed to appear before judgement day even if he did turn 'Picaro' – whatever that means – was still an avid supporter of the heavenly virtues, so the sin of lust definitely wasn't on his 'like' list.

'Dude, it ain't even your eyes; it's my eyes.' Joker retorted.

'Trickster...' Messiah Picaro suddenly turned scary.

'Yo what the fu--' Joker was interrupted.

'LANGUAGE!' Messiah Picaro berated loudly in his head to the point that all the other personas simply shut up because they didn't want to deal with an enraged Messiah Picaro.

'YES SIR!' Joker saluted.

'I demand you show them divine retribution....' Messiah Picaro ordered.

'Eh, okay.' Joker agreed.

'That easily?!' All his other personas exclaimed.

'Hey, we're not gonna kill them. Plus they already entered my plans the moment I saw them.' Joker admitted he had a plan to exploit them.

'Though the dude might be "stick-blocked" if you catch my drift.' Joker is pure evil.

'HUH?! EVIL! DEMON! INCUBUS!' Succubus was of course not for this plan.

'Hey, I'm too good-looking to be Incubus.' Joker bragged.

'The sin of vanity is still a sin, you know?' Messiah Picaro commented to which his other personas shook their heads at him.

'Whatever.' Joker muttered to which Messiah retorted.

'Hey! that's the Universe's catch phrase, not yours!' Messiah Picaro seemed somewhat sad. Of course Joker knew what he meant, after all he played persona 3 and 5 but persona 4 wasn't really that interesting in his opinion. I mean really, persona 3 was edgy with the whole "shooting-yourself for persona summoning" and "acceptance of death" and persona 5 was more revealing the nature you hid or taking new masks to shoulder burdens whilst persona 4 was more acknowledging the thoughts you never wanted to acknowledge. They had good concepts but a big turn off was jumping into a TV.

Joker shook his head.

"Plan start." He muttered as he ignored the moaning in the background and used his grappling hook to stealthily steal the dude's phone.

Joker put his volume and ring tone to maximum and proceeded to find the phone's number.

He then slid his phone back to his pocket. And then he brought out his own phone as Joker.

NEEEEENOOOOOONEEEEEEENOOOO

A large ring tone burst out of nowhere which made the dude burst his own 'ring tone' early, if you catch my drift.

"I can hear a noise!" A guard muttered as numerous guards proceeded to burst into the library.

Soon there was a crowd of guards around the duo.

'I regret nothing.' Joker stated.

'Monster...' Succubus looked at him in disbelief.

'Now then, phase two...' Joker used his grappling hook to twist the camera to the scene so it was not noticeable on how much it moved but it still gave Joker leeway to go behind it? Why go behind it? Because there was a vent.

Before entering be used his grappling hook to grab the key and note.

The note read: BH4L

'BH4L? Black Heart 4 life? Yeah... as if...' Joker refuted the possibility as he navigated through the vents and soon found himself outside the library. He then proceeded to go back the way he came from to go to the storage room.

Since the guards were lured to the library Joker had leeway to run towards the storage room as he occasionally ran on walls and launched himself through vents. His Third Eye really is useful.

"It's empty." He muttered as he dashed past the storage room and towards the western area. When he dash past he immediately knew what was going to happen, but still carried on.

Lisa's probably gonna be held as hostage and they probably have the Tailed Gem. Well okay, he only needs the command centre anyway.

A determined face appeared on his face which seemed different from his usual cocky smirk.

Thanks to the map he found in the storage room when he first entered, he knows where the power boxes are along with the spare boxes. When he went deeper inside he evaded guards, cameras and lasers and proceeded to deactivate every spare power box first. Permanently, and he's still not paying for the damages.

BZZT

His phone rung as he deactivated the last of the spare boxes.

◇◇◇

Lisa: Hey, so I'm assuming you know who this Is?

Joker: Second-rate Detective Conan?

◇◇◇

Joker clicked his tongue, he's running out of time. He dashed towards the main power storages, there were three. Joker already deactivated one.

◇◇◇

Lisa: Ha. Ha.

Lisa: I'd actually like to go by the name Edogawa Ranpo.

Lisa: Although, over here it's probably Ranpo Edogawa.

Joker: Over here?

◇◇◇

Joker had finally deactivated the second main power storage. The lights decreased ever so slightly, but not noticeable enough.

◇◇◇

Lisa: Ah. You see I'm actually from the PC continent.

Lisa: In the PC continent we have different ways to refer to each other as.

Joker: Your point?

◇◇◇

Joker arrived at the last power box, but instead of destroying it he summoned Jack O' Lantern and used Agi to heaten it up to a small fraction before it overheats and explodes. He has 15 minutes approx.

◇◇◇

Lisa: Well, I'm actually just stalling right now because I was sure you would be turning off the power boxes, but I guess not.

Lisa: Seems you weren't a match for me after all.

◇◇◇

"Huh, interesting..." Joker noticed how Ranpo seems to be desiring a challenge. Joker sighed as he wrapped a rubber band around the notes he found earlier along with the key.

What? You thought just because he has a high chance of losing, that he'll give up?

◇◇◇

Lisa: Anyway, it's simple. Come to the exhibition area to claim the hostage.

Joker: Let me guess, the catch is I turn myself in?

Lisa: Took you long enough.

◇◇◇

"Exhibition area... I'm probably going to be ambushed..." Joker muttered "But all the cards are set."

He pressed a hand to himself.

"Sukukaja, Sukukaja, Sukukaja." He set multiple speed boosts on himself – for a certain time manipulator he would be forced to fight – as he noticeably moved at the same pace.

◇◇◇

Joker: Sure.

Lisa: What? No pleading? No stalling? No questioning? No resisting? Seems like your planning something.

Joker: Well...

◇◇◇

"It is Show Time after all!" Joker smirked behind his mask.

The show has been set.

Joker smirked as a frowning fox-eyed detective stared at him. Behind him was a normal person that wore shady clothes, on the right there was a guy who resembled some sort of farmer – who held some sort of steel contraption which held a purple gem that had a crystallized tail – and on the left there was a stern-glasses looking guy. They were all circling a tied up Lisa. Oh, and there was a chubby guy in the corner wearing a suit but we're not gonna talk about him.

"I'm assuming your not--" Ranpo began to speak however he was interrupted with bullet fire.

BANG

Kiritsugu fired a bullet from a gun with a long shaft – his Thompson Contender – and in his other hand was a submachine gun, his CalicoM950.

Joker who saw this immediately knew what to do. He fired his own gun, but he did so twice. One to misdirect it and one to destroy it.

"Wha! Emiya! We were supposed to let him have a chance to surrender!" The stern guy in a funky suit exclaimed with his hand on a book "It's not ideal to merely shoot the thief!"

"No need." Kiritsugu smoked a cigarette.

'As expected of Kiritsugu. He'd much rather fight now and talk later. Or it might be becausr how I called him out for Natalia's case.' Joker gave off a facade of a calm grin.

"Hey, Hey, Hey! What's the big idea buddy?" Joker complained "We're supposed to talk about our motivations, hopes, dreams, hobbies and Detective Conan over there would explain how I did things!" Joker shook his head in disappointment "How disappointing, for you to not grace tradition with some form of respect."

"Kiritsugu..." Kenji shook his head in disappointment which caused Kiritsugu to raise an eyebrow.

"We were literally hired to capture him." He couldn't help but state.

Ranpo shook his head.

"Oh well, this works fine too." Ranpo shifted his glasses in his pocket as he spoke "You didn't plan on quitting anyway, right?"

"Eh, you can already guess." He commented carefreely as he jumped down and fired a bullet at Ranpo.

BANG

Doppo moved in the way as he conjured a shield from a sheet of paper and blocked it, whilst Kiritsugu fired another bullet which Joker leaped out of the way for.

PING

BANG

Lisa was currently tied up near the cage, along with Kenji keeping a guard on them.

'I'll need to find a way to get close.' Joker muttered as he dodged a bomb that was yeeted by Doppo, however Joker kicked it towards the director in response.

"Now that is NOT ideal!" He immediately dispelled the grenade whilst Kiritsugu got in close.

"Time Alter – Double Accel." His movement increase by a wide margin but Joker grinned. He released the power from one of the Sukukajas from earlier to keep up with him.

BANG

Ranpo fired his own gun towards Joker but he deflected it by bringing out a short gold bladed cane, and sliced the bullet apart.

"Accel."

Kiritsugu took chance of this has he increased his speed even further and decked Joker right in the face.

'Ow.' Joker muttered as he used the punch to the face as a reason to grab hold of Kiritsugu's gun and placed one of the fake gems inside his Thompson Contender using the spatial distortion of his persona system's inventory.

Doppo created a revolver and shot bullets as Joker was momentarily pushed back by the force Kiritsugu's fist.

Joker smirked.

He released the power of his second Sukukaja and created a burst of movement to promptly navigate his way out of its vicinity and uppercutted Kiritsugu in the jaw.

"Tch." Kiritsugu clicked his tongue as Joker moved back to make distance between them and Ranpo aimed his gun and pulled the trigger. Joker – instead of slicing it – decided to deflect it towards Doppo who was preparing to throw a grenade.

'I'm barely managing to keep up with three on one.' Joker frowned under his mask of a calm facade.

'Any advice anyone?' Joker asked his personas as he let Doppo drop his grenade towards Joker's direction.

"Accel." Kiritsugu muttered as he moved faster.

'Smoke.' Arsène simply muttered to which Joker smirked.

Joker's smirk caused Kiritsugu to hesitate for a split second which was all that was needed as he dropped a smoke bomb on the floor.

"Shit." Kiritsugu huffed as he decided to kick Joker away.

"Now it's time to level the field..." Joker muttered as he decided to take out Ranpo first because he can figure out Joker's next plan. Hell, he probably already knows that Joker is after him.

"On me!" He heard the detective exclaim as his eyes glinted a brighter red and all was visible again.

'They can't see...' He didn't finish his train of thought as Doppo conjured a pair of goggles for himself.

"This is not an ideal situation!" Doppo exclaimed as he saw Joker change plans and dash towards Lisa.

"Kenji, he's coming for you!" Ranpo deduced because of how long it took for Joker to approach him but didn't.

"Woohoo~ it's finally my turn to fight!" Kenji then proceeded to flip the contraption over his head which limited Joker's options to only Lisa.

Kenji gripped his fist and launched it towards Joker at a fast pace.

'This is gonna be a stretch...' Joker muttered as he released the power of the last Sukukaja he stored and with the burst of speed dashed towards Lisa and undid her ropes.

"Your not allowed to dodge~!" The farmer stated.

"Should we fight together Joker?" Lisa asked as she was raring to go.

Joker shook his head as he handed the package which consisted of the notes and keys.

"Go to the command centre and use these! It should serve as some sort of use, also be sure to raise the lights to the maximum!" Joker ordered which almost caused Lisa to question why but she decided against it. The Trickster had a plan, that was all she needed.

Joker let Lisa run off as he dodged an uppercut from Kenji.

"This kid is seriously fast..." Joker murmured.

Joker momentarily observed that the others used this as a moment to catch their breath as Kenji dished out attacks which Joker could only dodge by a hair's breadth.

Joker glanced towards the contraption which had no lock. It was merely a few metres away.

Kenji decided to kick Joker which eventually did get him in the rib.

CRACK CRACK

"Ugh." Joker grunted as he felt two of his ribs break.

"Dia..." He muttered incoherently quietly as he rolled to dodge a kick aimed for his head.

"I thought you were supposed to capture me!" Joker pointed out which caused Kenji to pause.

"Oh." This response from Kenji made Joker twitch an eyebrow as he dodged a bullet that was aimed at his head. Kiritsugu is really a pain he noted, as Ranpo began to fire his own gun as well as... Oh it was Doppo who fired the bullet.

"Wait where's Kiritsugu?" He muttered as he saw Ranpo grin a smug smile.

"Eh, Lisa can handle it." He muttered 'After all, I did sabotage his Thompson Contender so there's no risk of being harmed by his origin bullets which are specifically deadly with anyone with mana – or in this world's case – SP hence why there's no real risk as his only known weapon is a normal submachine gun. My eyes even confirmed this.'

"Focus..." He muttered as his red eyes glinted crimson.

"HAA!" Kenji yelled as he launched a right hook to Joker.

"I can see it..." Joker reacted a moment quicker than normal as he extended the use of his eyes. He inwardly noted that the contraption was nearby.

DADADADADADADADADADA~

BANG

Doppo fired a submachine gun and Ranpo fired his pistol. Joker rolled towards the contraption, however he noticed something. He was on a literal landmine.

BOOOOOOOOOM

Luckily, he actually drained the damage because of Jack O' Lantern's drain stat towards anything thermally hot which also includes combustion.

"Thanks for the meal." He muttered sarcastically as he ran towards the contraption.

"Failure is not ideal..." Doppo was shocked that an explosion did nothing to Joker hence why he shot a bullet to the cage to push it away but Joker merely leaped towards it and gripped it with his entire body

"Wha?" Even Ranpo seemed disturbed that fire literally did nothing. Usually even if you have resistance towards it, you would still take some form of damage; Joker however treated it like a meal which healed him. He had never heard of any adventurer or warrior that's capable of something like that.

Kenji tried to launch a kick at him. 'Tried' being keyword as Joker finally had enough leeway to summon Succubus in a split second to cast Dormina on Kenji, and then Joker continued to switch back to Arsène.

"Kenji's fallen asleep!" Ranpo informed Doppo.

"Even I can't wake him!" Doppo informed about the country-side boy.

But whilst that was going on, he quietly casted Sukukaja to further his pace towards the contraption

He finally had it within his grasp.

The fighting came to a stop as Ranpo clapped his hands for Joker.

"Congratulations, you obtained it." Ranpo congratulated "I didn't think you could."

"Nice way to say that I surpassed your expectations." Joker retorted.

"No, this was also a plausible situation I foresaw." Ranpo responded "Hence why there's no lock. So, what do you hope to achieve from merely obtaining a locked cage? The only person who can obtain the gem in this room is Kunikida, you know?"

'And I also foresaw this.' Joker commented.

[TAILED GEM] HAS BEEN STORED INTO PERSONA INVENTORY.

[FAKE GEM] HAS BEEN RELEASED FROM PERSONA INVENTORY.

"Guess I don't need it." He dashed it towards Doppo who caught the cage with his hands.

"What an... ideal situation..." Doppo awkwardly muttered.

Ranpo raised an eyebrow. That was odd even by his standards, it was as if... His eyes widened.

"Doppo!" He didn't finish as suddenly the lights to the exhibition room brightened to maximum and actually cut out, along being followed by a small explosion.

'The power box!' Ranpo realised that Joker did something to it.

Ethereal black wings gripped Joker.

"The show's over." Arsène gripped his back and flapped his wings out of the opening in the window.

"Time to get Lisa." Joker muttered as he entered from the ventilation shaft from before and headed towards the command centre, only to find Kiritsugu passed out.

"What happened to him?" Joker asked Lisa who was huffing on the controls.

"His... Own gun... exploded on himself..." Lisa replied in between huffs.

'Probably because of that fake gem.' Joker remembered how he lodged a gem into the gun.

"Anyway, time to go." He picked Lisa up and dashed out the front door.

He came face to face with a horde of security guards.

"Arsène!" Wings flapped behind Joker as he escaped through the sky.

"What a long heist." Joker commented.

"Agreed."