Strong Fox

7

"basically, your persona is the true feelings of your heart, which arise from conquering your inner shadow. then since you have full control over your emotions, there's no way your desires can get distorted."

"s-so that's how it works..." ann stutters.

"o-obivously i know how!" ryuji yells, after ann's statement. "oh yeah, an we use the metaverse nav app on our phones to get into that world!"

"it's actually pretty simple. just say a person's name, location, and distortion, then you're in." ann speaks.

yusuke and (y/n) tilt their heads to the side. "location...?"

ann taps her chin. "uhhh, so like madarame's would be 'shack,' then his distortion is that he thinks it's a 'museum'."

yusuke tapped his foot. "how do you know what their palace is going to look like if you have never set foot in it before...?"

"that part's kinda like a quiz or something. it'll prolly get pretty tricky from here on out too." ryuji sighs.

yusuke shared a gentle smile with (y/n). "hm, i feel as though we have a good grasp on the basic concepts. if anything arises which we fail to understand, we'll rely on those more experienced than ourselves."

ryuji beamed. "yeah! i gotcha covered, newbies!"

ann smiled nervously. "uh... you should probably ask morgana if you need anything."

"thinking back to madarame though... i can't believe he's consider pressing charges." morgana hissed.

"yes, i've never seen him show such anger before. he is most likely quite serious about that." yusuke informed, with a frown.

ann looked nervous once again. "what should we do...? there's no way we'll be able to win if that happens."

"he likely won't act on that threat until the final day of the exhibit: june 5th. simply put, i doubt he would be so foolish as to taint his name with a trail during his exhibit." yusuke says, looking down at the ground.

ryuji nods. "all right, so we just gotta steal madarame's heart by then. there's no way we're gonna let him press charges... we'll show people who he really is!"

at the sound of those words coming out of ryuji's mouth, an atmosphere of readiness flooded around the group and akira pressed the button to distort the world around them.

🌼

as you entered the distorted side of the real world, a strange feeling flew over your body as you stood next to the others in silence.

"oh yeah. we haven't decided on their code names yet." morgana pipes up, pointing in the newbies direction.

ann made a noise of triumph. "it has to be 'kitsune' and 'headphones.' you know, with that kitsune mask, and headphones and everything."

"hell yeah. that really leaves an impression." ryuji agrees quickly.

yusuke looked confused. "are you talking about me?"

"and me...?" you pipe up afterwards, blinking slowly and touching your face - only to realize there is no mask.

"what do want your name to be over here?" ann questioned.

yusuke thought for a moment, crossing his arms. "i'd say 'da vinci'."

ryuji immediately shook his head. "nope!"

the blue haired teen looked deflated. "well you've got that mask like ann said... and there's that weird tail..." ryuji trailed off. "all right, you've 'abura-age'!"

"snrk...!" morgana laughed.

yusuke closed his eyes, just as (y/n) shook their head. "very well."

"he's agreed to it!?"

"it's decided then: abura-age." ryuji states, smiling happily.

"nuh-uh! not happening!" ann and (y/n) shout at the same time.

(e/c) eyes turned towards akira, who was silently trying not to laugh himself. "do you have any ideas?" they asked.

joker thought for a moment before answering. "fox."

"ohhh, just keep it literal, huh? sounds good to me." ryuji shruggs.

morgana stretches. "what do you think, fox?"

this time yusuke shruggs. "it's acceptable."

through the silence yusuke then turns to (y/n) who had a frown glued to their face. the blue haired teen smiled sweetly as he placed a hand on their shoulder.

"what about you, what will your codename be?" he asked, causing you to sigh.

your hand traveled to the pair of headphones wrapped around your neck snuggly, and a thoughtful look spread across your face. "the only thing i can think of is headphones."

yusuke shook his head immediately. "i don't think that's acceptable for you my dear." he spoke, humming in thought. "how about dai uchū?"

a smile made its way to your lips. "and do you know what that means?"

yusuke sent you a smile back. "of course, the universe. your codename shall now be universe."