Chapter Text
Goro winces when the pungent smell hits his nose and he opens his eyes to find out what that smell was supposed to be. It’s no surprise that he finds himself deep in the underground tunnels of Mementos, or rather, it explained the terrible smell.
But then... why was he in Mementos? Did he forget somehow? He hadn’t been here in months, so what got his attention this time?
A case, he must have been stuck on a case and desperate enough to return to the twisting subway tunnels. There was never any other reason for him to return to such a dreadful place.
He hears the wails of a shadow coming from one end of the tunnel and decides to go in the other direction- fighting shadows with no plan was never a good idea.
You needn’t worry, Goro, if you’ll allow it, I can be your guide, he hears his persona whispering to him in the back of his head, and he’s compelled to answer back.
“Then tell me, what brought me here in the first place?” Goro asks aloud but keeps his voice down to a whisper, keeping to the walls, to the darkness.
The same thing as always, Detective. It’s never a different case that would have you searching for answers here.
It would never be a different case, it couldn’t be, but that only ever raised more questions than it answered.
His thoughts are disrupted by the sound of chains being dragged across the rail tracks, and he knows he’s been on this floor far longer than he should’ve been.
He hastens his pace in search of the nearest exit- even a safe room would do if it meant getting away from the Reaper, but there’s no way out from the tunnel, and the dragging only gets louder and louder.
Goro’s still desperately searching for the exit, when suddenly the chains stop, and his face is met with a gun. Not one belonging to a Reaper, but rather someone he dreaded to find down here.
“Detective Akechi Goro,” The Black Mask, as Goro had come to name him, begins in a heavily distorted, deep voice, “You truly are an idiot if you followed me down here. Of course, you always knew this is how your justice would come to an end.”
Goro smirks, hiding just how terrified he truly was of the figure in front of him. He of all people knew exactly what the Black Mask was capable of, “You’re a fool if you think everything will end here, you know.”
The Black Mask hums, and instead of shooting Goro with the gun, he pistol-whips him and uses the opportunity of a momentary distraction to swipe at the detective's legs, causing him to get knocked down on his ass. The Black Mask points the gun at Goro’s forehead once more, “It’s a shame you never learned your place. How I wish we could continue this game of cat and mouse, but all good things must come to an end.”
Goro’s eyes widen when suddenly his white Detective Prince costume disappears into black mist, leaving him defenceless in only his school uniform. He can just about make out the Black Masks wicked smile underneath his visor.
Black Mask pulls the trigger back.
“Case closed.”
The sound of the bullet leaving the chamber is enough to get Goro to open his eyes in the real world.
For what it was worth, the coffee from the vending machine was at least terrible enough that the watery and yet somehow mildly acidic taste it left in Goro's mouth was enough to keep him from falling asleep while looking at the board he set up on the desk at the department. He had more pressing cases than the one he'd been building over the past year, and yet his nightmare from the previous night forced him to go back to it yet again.
The nightmare was one that had been popping into Akechi Goro’s head ever since he'd first stepped into Mementos and discovered the horrors of that other world. He was reluctant to go back to say the least, even if he'd been told by some sketchy old man with a crooked nose and two loli girls in prison outfits that his power was nothing to be afraid of. That it’s a reflection of his soul. That he should embrace it.
It didn't once cross Goro's mind that it wasn't complete horseshit. That only cemented the thought further when he'd barely made it out of the distorted subway alive after running into what he only assumed was another persona user.
There was that, and his unexplained ability to cause people to go psychotic. Somehow none of that was encouraging enough to send him exploring further. He wasn’t going to risk his life, or someone else’s, just to have a chance at learning the truth.
What did interest the young detective, however, were the possibilities of using that world to change the worldview of specific individuals, even if so far it only seemed to result in the individuals going temporarily insane, sliding into a coma or in some of the worst cases, death.
Knowing that someone else had access to that world only meant that now the detective had to figure out who it was. Over the past two years this person had been killing and ruining the lives of people however they pleased, and he couldn't stand for it. He already knew what it was liked having your life destroyed in a single moment caused by a greedy, self-serving individual. It was hard not to see them as his rival.
Ever since he ran into the Black Mask last year, he'd been in a bit of a bind as to how to go about the case. He definitely couldn't tell anyone without any proof, or they'd just lock him up in a psychiatric ward and throw away the key. As a brilliant detective with a bright future he was valuable. As a crazy orphan he was fully aware of just how disposable he was. It was all on him then to bring the true culprit to justice.
He could try and defeat them in that world but, despite this being the more enticing option, the chances of it happening were slim and would more than likely result in his meaningless death.
Instead, he chose to stay outside of the Metaverse and investigated everything like a normal detective. Unfortunately, that method was far too slow for his liking, and with each day he felt like he was getting further and further away from the case.
What snaps him out of his contemplation is the metal clinking noise of a thermos hitting his desk. He looks up to find who had delivered the goods to him, and unsurprisingly it's the only person around who actually treated him with a modicum of respect,
"You look terrible."
Well almost. It was the closest thing he'd get around here. At least Sae pretended to care. Nevertheless, he lifts up his half-empty cup of shitty coffee, "I appreciate it but I already-."
She quickly interrupts him, "it's from that cafe you like, I asked the owner if he could pour your usual order into this since I knew you'd be too busy to get any drinkable coffee yourself."
Goro glances down at his coffee-water, and well... She wasn't wrong about that. He gets out of his chair and makes his way to the nearest sink- the men's bathroom--to pour out the rest of what he had in the cup, then retreats back to his desk to pour the blend into it, "I appreciate it, Sae-San, thank you. Although it does make me wonder why you came here offering gifts like these in the first place. Did you perhaps take a wrong turn on the way to the courthouse?" he chides, and it only has her rolling her eyes.
"If I knew you were going to be as insufferable as always then I guess I never should have come here," she turns around and just as she expected, Goro promptly gets out of his seat and runs around her to block her path.
"No, I'm sorry, if this is what I think it's about then I won't be a bother. What can I help you with?"
Sae hides a victorious grin, but there's enough hesitation that Goro notices her lips twitching, deducing as much. She begins to pull out several papers from a manila file, setting them down on Goro's desk. The last one is a small, red paper card which catches his attention first. He picks it up and reads the back of it, "this reads like a child playing cops and robbers... Please enlighten me as to what you want me to do with this."
"While I agree that this calling card is somewhat lacking, it does seem to be legitimate and its effects have already surfaced," Sae informs him, "the PE teacher who this was directed at has just today admitted to multiple counts of sexual assault and physical assault to many of his students. Some claim it was like he was an entirely different person, like he-."
"Had a change of heart," Goro finishes for her, looking over the card, "I see, and you believe its connected to the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns because both of those cases also involve individuals mysteriously changing personalities," he deduces and sets the card down.
While the method used in this may have been similar, Goro was certain the Metaverse was involved in some way or another. Then the question was; did the Black Mask change their MO or is there someone else using the Metaverse as well?
No, neither of those hypotheses were possible. The Black Mask had been relentlessly causing mayhem in the same manner for the past two years and no one was getting closer than he was to the case. There were even new cases as recently as a couple of weeks ago. Why change now? Why target a school PE teacher?
The idea that a third party was involved seemed even more absurd, but then there was nothing to disprove it entirely...
He’d gotten into the Metaverse somehow, who’s to say someone else couldn’t?
Or perhaps he was wrong altogether and this is just a coincidence after all? There was only one way to find out, he thought, and it was what he dreaded that he'd have to do sooner rather than later.
Realising that Sae was expecting him to share some of his thoughts on the case without prompting him, he clears his throat awkwardly and begins lying through his teeth, "while perhaps there may be some connection, it's a little early to think any of the cases are related. For one, I don't think anyone has anything to gain from this case unlike the others where usually one, albeit random, party benefitted from each tragedy. Uh, that isn't to say this Kamoshida person shouldn't have confessed to his crimes, merely that I don't quite see any sort of malice behind the actions of whoever got him to confess. That being said, extracting a confession out of a gym teacher is far different than causing a high-level employee of a food company to fall into a vegetative state."
He puts all of the files together into a neat pile, "I assume these are copies, yes?" Sae nods, "In that case I will keep them. If I find any connection, I'll let you know."
That last part may not have been entirely a lie, Sae could definitely be useful to him in this situation. The two were separately investigating this after all, and if he was withholding information from her then no doubt, she was keeping some secrets from him.
But he couldn't tell her about the Black Mask. Not yet.
He needed to find out who the Phantom Thieves were first.