The Team Coming Together

Ryuji fell down to his knees in a dramatic fashion with his eyes shut tightly and pulled down the collar of his shirt to expose his neck to the hungry vampire.

"Hurry up and just do it! Before I change my mind!" He said in a whiney tone.

Ren just stared at him for a moment before he scoffed and turned his back to him to try and stifle his laughter. "Geez. Enough with the drama works you drama queen. Let's not rush anything just yet, there's still some place I want to take you guys since we're going to be a team and all."

Ryuji blinked before he stood up and cleared his throat as he fixed his collar; a light brush of embarrassment spread across his cheeks.

Ann tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "Oh yeah? And just where do you plan on taking us?" She said with a slightly higher pitch in her voice.

"To my HQ of course, where else? If you guys are going to be joining my crew then you need to know where the magic happens." Ren said with a playful smile.

After school ended, Ren took his new companions on the monorail train from Aoyama to Yongen Jaya where his home was. 

Ryuji couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of place a vampire with mysterious dimension jumping powers would live in. His first guess would be something like a mansion, but if they were going to a small neighborhood in Yongen, then it would make more sense if they were heading to a dark vacant building instead.

But he took them to a place where Ryuji was least expecting a vampire would take residence in.

In a neatly tucked away back alley, they stood in front of a Café with English letters showcasing the name of the joint which read as 'Le Blanc'. For a base of operations, it wasn't all that impressive to say the least.

"Uh, are we stopping for a coffee break or something? Not that I'm complaining since I could sit down for a snack right about now." Ryuji said as he nervously scratched his cheek.

Ren ignored him however and opened the door to the small establishment, the bell at the top of the door signaling their entry. "I'm home Sakura-san!" Ren said in a respectful but relaxed tone.

From behind the counter stood a gentleman looking older man wearing an apron over top his pink button up shirt. No doubt he was the owner of the Café. 

"There you are you troublemaker! Didn't I tell you to give me a heads up if you were going to go out? And what's with the high school uniform? Someone as old as you shouldn't be masquerading as some regular teenager-" Sojiro started to say before abruptly cutting himself off after noticing that there were other guests present.

Ryuji and Ann shyly entered inside after their leader and bowed out of respect before awkwardly seating themselves at a booth. Ren opted to sit at the bar so that he could have a little chat with his caregiver.

"What do you mean someone as old as me? That's rude considering I'm only seventeen. Right?" He said with an innocent smile that masked his lies. He always hated it when someone talked about his true age.

"Y-yeah. Seventeen… Why would it be weird for someone your age to be a high school student? Silly me, my old mind must be slipping away. Haha… ha." Sojiro said to try and steer the conversation away.

Ren started to laugh and leaned over the counter to roughly pat him on the back. "I'm just messing with you old man! They already know what I am, so you don't have to be so secretive around them. But still, it's not nice to talk about your elders like that." He said as he wagged his finger disapprovingly.

Sojiro had to muster all the strength he could to bite back his tongue before he popped off on the Phantom Thief. Ren always insisted on being treated like a teen since he looked like one, but dares to play the age card on him? Like come on, make up your mind! Who's actually the adult here?

But after realizing what the black haired vampire had just said, Sojiro felt himself starting to fume. 

"What do you mean they know what you are?! You idiot! All I ask of you is one thing! Don't tell anyone a damn thing about yourself! You think I want the government sticking their nose in business that isn't theirs?" He said almost like a father nagging his son.

From upstairs, a black and white cat with blue eyes wearing a yellow collar came running from the attic and sat in a stool next to Ren.

"Calm down chief. It isn't Joker's fault that they found out! We rescued them from the metaverse! And they have the intention of joining our team! They have a connection to our latest target you see, and I feel like we can trust them. Call it an animals intuition." He said as he licked his paw.

Ryuji gasped and turned around as he stared with wide eyes. "Is that a talking cat?! Wait, I know that voice… Morgana right? Why do you look like that? When before you were, well, that thing." 

Morgana looked at him and then walked over to jump on top of their table. "This is the form I take when I'm in your world. The other version of me you saw is my true form in the metaverse. Joker also changes forms when we're over there too. That outfit you saw him wearing? That's his idea of what a rebel looks like."

"When you get your persona powers, you'll also adorn a new set of cool costumes too! Nya!" Morgana said with an adorable meow.

Ren stood up and started heading for the stairs. "I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize you and your daughters safety. How long have we known each other Sakura-san? Twenty years? You know I would never make a bad call." He said as he smiled over his shoulder.

Sojiro sighed before resting his arm on the counter. "Yeah yeah. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to be worried. I wish you would have told me what your plans were before making these kinds of calls on your own."

 "You two! Go on and head up with that knuckle head over there. I'll bring you some of my famous coffee while you guys chat." He said before he went back to work.

Ren started heading up the stairs with Morgana sitting on his shoulder while Ryuji and Ann scrambled to gather their things and follow after him.

Ann stopped before heading up to face Sojiro one more time. "Thank you so much for your understanding and hospitality!" She said before chasing after her friends.

Sojiro watched them escape to the attic and smiled to himself as he threw a dish rag over his shoulder. "Sweet girl. Even I can tell that those kids have a heart of gold. Sucks that they got involved in all this, but I'll just hope that this is for the greater good." He said before returning his attention back to his chores.

Once they entered the attic, Ann and Ryuji both thought it looked a little sad. 

It definitely didn't look like a place where someone would be living in. There were shelves everywhere with the store's food and coffee supplies. And the only form of entertainment was an outdated tv with an even older video game console and VHS set. 

A single bed with crumpled sheets was placed in the corner of the room too. It was obvious that Joker didn't have much of a life outside of this place, and he didn't have his own personal hobbies either. It seems like being a Phantom Thief was the only thing he lived for.

Ren sat down at his bed and pulled up two chairs for his guests to sit on. "Welcome to my office! Don't be shy, make yourselves at home." He said as he laid back on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head.

The two students sat down and just stared at him as the vampire rested his eyes. 

"Dude, this is kind of a shitty set up. Just how long have you been alone up here? It's obvious you don't bring a lot of people over. No offense." Ryuji said as he started sweating.

"Well if you haven't noticed, my whole existence is kind of a secret. The whole point of being a Phantom Thief is to be anonymous you know." He said nonchalantly. But there was a difference from being anonymous and straight up being a recluse. 

"It's not like I don't ever go out. Besides my missions I do have fun on my own once and a while. But I didn't bring you guys here to talk about my personal life." He said as he sat back up and his aloof expression became serious once more.

He stood up without hesitation, shocking both Ryuji and Ann as they stumbled in their chairs and had to stop themselves from falling over. 

Ren removed his glasses again and took on his vampiric form, and even unfurled his wings behind him which he stretched out; each wing being about 4 feet in length and 2 feet wide.

"If I'm going to do this, I wanted it to be on my terms and on my turf. After I suck out your insecurities, this place will become our regular hideout. I'm going to make it very clear… I am the boss here. You will do what I say when I tell you to do it. If you don't agree then I refuse to help either of you." He said with his eyes flashing threateningly.

"Do I make myself clear?" He said in a low tone.

Ryuji gulped as he looked at the authoritative man before him. His personality was so flip floppy. One moment he's cracking jokes and acting like a child, and the next he's a scary monster that he just can't seem to defy.

Whichever version of Joker was the real him, Ryuji didn't know. But he could confidently say that he had no qualms to let this man be his leader.

"Yeah, we hear you loud and clear. So let's get this over with. What's the plan now?" He said as he eagerly leaned forward in his seat.

Joker smirked before grabbing ahold of Ryuji's wrist and yanked him forward. He unbuttoned his cuff links and started rolling up his sleeve. 

Joker brought the teen's pale wrist up to his mouth before looking at him one more time, almost as if he was asking for permission. "This is going to hurt, but you will also feel a weight being lifted off of your shoulders. Are you ready?" He asked reassuringly.

"Yeah. I'm ready… Just make it quick. Before I change my mind!" He said with his eyes tilted towards the floor.

Joker smiled wickedly before sinking his fangs deep into Ryuji's wrist whose reaction was instant. He gasped and fell weakly to his knees while he clenched his fists to try and combat the pain.

The moment Joker's fangs punctured his skin and he could feel his blood being sucked away, that wasn't the only thing that was being taken away from him. Just like Joker said would happen, all the things that were holding him back suddenly started to disappear.

His stress was gone and he was starting to feel more confident. The sadness that he felt about letting his team down began to vanish just as well as his resentment was for his teammates abandoning him when he was at his lowest. 

To put it simply, his mind was calm. All that negativity that had been nagging at him in the back of his mind suddenly became so quiet, and he could think clearly again. The silence felt like such bliss.

The process didn't take long before Joker had his fill; afraid to take too much from the boy and put his life in jeopardy. But the blood that he did take should have been enough to help him unleash his powers.

Joker stopped biting him and Ryuji sat weakly on the floor with Ann worriedly hovering over his shoulder to make sure he was okay. "Ryuji! Are you okay?! Say something you jerk!" Ann pleated while she rubbed his shoulders.

Ryuji continued staring at the floor with the room being filled with nothing but silence, but eventually, his laughter cut through the thick atmosphere.

The pain in his wrist was still pulsating, but he hadn't felt so refreshed and new in such a long time. He stood up and pumped his arms high above his head as he continued to laugh.

"You were totally right about a weight being lifted off of my shoulders! I feel like I could do anything right now! If Kamoshida was in front of me, I wouldn't even hesitate to stick my middle finger right in his face and tell him to piss off! Haha!" He said with a giant smile plastered on his face.

Ann sighed with relief before leaning back and sat on her knees. "Don't scare me like that! When you didn't say anything, I thought something had gone wrong!" But her relief was short lived when Ren loomed over her and she knew that her turn was next.

"I hope you can handle pain as well as he can. Good luck, Takamaki-san." He said with a wicked smirk before he did the same thing to her that he did to her old friend. 

"AAAAAHH!" She shrieked when he suddenly pounced on her before the room became quiet once more. 

Downstairs, Sojiro could hear the faint muffling of their conversation upstairs, before he heard Ann's sharp pitched shout which made him drop a plate that splintered into multiple pieces on the ground.

"Damn it! Just what the hell are they doing up there?! That knuckle head is lucky I don't have any other customers in here right now, because no doubt the police would have been called thinking that a murder was taking place." He said as he started sweeping up the glass.

Morgana came waltzing back from upstairs and sat on the bar.

"Not a murder, but he's definitely doing something I'm sure you wouldn't approve of. Let's just pretend we don't hear a thing, okay?" He said as he laid down and kitty loafed.

Sojiro pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt a migraine coming on. "Leader my ass! When I'm the one always covering for him and making excuses whenever he acts reckless. It's not like I don't do enough already by clothing and feeding him and putting a roof over his head. That ungrateful brat…" Sojiro continued to mutter while he cleaned up his mess.

Unlike Ryuji, Ann had passed out during the feeding process because the pain was just too intense for her to handle. When she woke up, she had been gently placed on Ren's bed while the other two boys in the room played videogames with each other as if they had known each other their whole lives. 

The sun had set already, which told her that she had been asleep for quite some time and she should have made it home by now. She normally would have been stressing about it, but for some reason, she didn't have a care in the world what her parents thought.

Was this an after effect from getting her blood sucked out?

Ren could hear the shuffling of his bed sheets and he craned his head to look back at her while he continued playing video games. "Looks like you're finally awake. I already gave Sakamato-kun the run down, but I'm sure you didn't hear anything I said."

"By now, you're feeling the effects of my bite. You feel like you can conquer the world and that nothing can stop you, but that's not an excuse to go ahead and make stupid decisions. All I did was take away your current negativity, but that will build up later on its own. I'm sure you have a family to go home to, so don't keep them waiting." He said sounding almost like an adult.

"Ryuji already gave me your contact information so I'll go ahead and message you guys when I need you. I'm positive that my 'treatment' worked, but I won't know for sure until we head back to the metaverse." He told her before the death sound on their game played and a giant GAME OVER showed up on the screen. 

"Aw man! And things were starting to get good!" Ryuji said as he tossed his controller down.

Ann nodded her head before standing up but felt vertigo and instantly became dizzy. Ren noticed and rushed over to her side, propping her up on his arm before she could fall over.

"Careful. You had so many negative emotions that I had no choice but to take a little more from you than I did Ryuji." He told her, but when she looked at him in the face, he had his head slightly turned away but she could still see the tips of his ears had become a red color.

"That, and I might have gotten carried away. After drinking his blood, it made me crave for more and I forgot to hold myself back. So for that, I do apologize." He said shamefully.

She knew she should have been mad at him for that, but she just couldn't bring herself to be angry with him. Most likely another effect from him drinking her blood. 

"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine once I start walking." She said equally as shy. When she was able to stand on her own, she stepped away from him and played with her hair. Why was she all of a sudden feeling butterflies in her stomach?

After talking for a little while longer, they all decided to part ways with Ann leaving first, but Ryuji decided to hang back for a little.

They waved her goodbye as she grew smaller the farther that she walked away. Ryuji placed his hands in his pockets before turning around to address his new leader.

"I don't see why you had to keep the other stuff you told me from her. Think you could explain?" Ryuji said with his hands in his pockets while he slouched. 

"Keep what from her? That I planned for us to go to the metaverse without her? I didn't see the point in bringing it up since it wasn't prevalent at the time." Ren said as he pushed his glasses up on his nose that were starting to slide down.

"It's for her own good anyways. I know what she told us about her being blackmailed, but she had a lot more trauma than that. I kept sucking her blood, but the taste of her regret didn't fade away. If I took any more, she could have gotten really sick. Her persona probably won't appear like yours will, so that's why I'm going to be taking you on this next mission alone."

"It's not going to be a crazy mission. We'll just be securing our infiltration route to the treasure. And if I sense her persona awakening by the time we start the heist, then I'll bring her along. I just don't want her to be a liability." He said as he folded his arms over his chest. 

"So Ryuji… Tomorrow, we'll be going back into the lion's den. Think you're ready for your first mission as an official member of the Phantom Thieves?" He said with a smirk.

Ryuji chuckled before fist bumping his new partner in crime. "Hell yeah man! I'm ready to start putting that mother fucker back in his place!"