Chapter Text
“Well, how did you pull your phone out of your pocket?” Morgana asked Ren. “Your outfit changed, you didn’t have that pocket before you came in here, right?”
“I just assumed it would be somewhere and tried to find it.” Ren cringed as he thought about the day he awakened. Having to go to school after missing half the day while exhausted, in pain, and trying to hide illegal weapons he never asked for in his bag. Some start to an honest student life he was having... Maybe his parents were right about him. “My bag had my weapons in it when I returned to reality, so everything must be here, right?” He gestured towards his body to accentuate his point.
“Bullshit!” Ryuji said. “If we’ve got everything on us, then where the hell is it?” He patted himself down to prove the point. “I certainly don’t feel anything!”
“Slow on the uptake as ever…” Morgana gave a wide smirk as Ryuji balked at him. “It is there, but it’s also not.”
Ryuji crossed his arms, staring him down. “That makes no sense, Mona.”
“Think of your pockets as a void. You can store a lot in the void, and it won’t take up any space. To get them out, you just have to reach for them.” To prove his point, Morgana began pulling out items from the packs on his belt. A flashlight, bottles of medicine, firecrackers, a crucifix, a grappling hook-
“Okay we get it, we get it!” Ryuji yelled at him.
Morgana’s smirk wilted. “But I was just getting to the good stuff…”
“More importantly…” Ryuji sighed, looking down at himself. “I don’t got any pockets.”
Morgana looked at him smugly. “You really are slow. Reach in your vest, it’s the same difference.”
“Really…?” He reached in his vest, focused, and pulled out a candy bar. “Huh.”
“That’s the easy part. Putting things back in…” Morgana shook his head. “Much harder.”
“Glad I grabbed this then.” He took a bite of the candy bar before continuing. “Scho like, how do you put schtuff in if it’s harder?”
“You gotta like, almost forget it’s there.” Morgana scratched his head in thought. “Because it’s a cognitive space, if you focus on it, it won’t enter the void, it’ll just stay there. Think of it like a gap in everyone’s cognition, because nobody can see what’s there. Everyone includes you, though. You can’t think about it or it won’t work.”
Ryuji stared at him blankly. “What kinda bullshit is that? Do you get it, Ren? Makes no goddamn sense!”
Ren rubbed his chin in thought. “I… think I get it?”
Morgana sighed. “I’ll give you this one, Skull. But once you do it enough, it becomes second nature.” He smiled mirthfully at Ryuji. “You’ll get the hang of it. You’re really good at not thinking about things.”
Ryuji stomped the ground as his eyes sharpened. “YOU LITTLE-”
“...So that’s how you guys pull out items in battle?” Ann asked.
“Yep, it’s easy.” Morgana said with a smile. “It’s really important, so you should probably get it down before we go any further.”
Ann looked down at herself awkwardly, twisting herself to look at her outfit in full. “I, uh… don’t have any pockets…”
The three guys exchanged nervous looks, glancing between her and each other. They were all on the same page, they knew what everyone but her was thinking. None of them wanted to be the one to tell her, especially in light of… everything, really. Ryuji cleared his throat as Ren finally stepped forward and spoke.
“Zippers.”
She stared at him, dumbfounded. “...What?”
He stared back, resolve unwavering. “I know what I said.”
“You can’t seriously… I…” She looked back with a fire in her eyes. “Do you think I wanted this!? That I chose this!?”
“Look, when we’re in here we’re professionals, got it!?” Morgana snapped at them. “We don’t have time for things like shame or decency!”
Her face twisted in anger. “You’re making it worse!”
“I’m just saying, if we’re gonna do this, you need to buck up!” He huffed as she stared daggers at him. “It’s not our fault your image of a rebel is… that.”
“Tell me what you really think of me, huh!?” Ann yelled furiously, making Morgana flinch. “That I should be ashamed!? That I should cover up and stop looking like some cheap whore!?”
Ren put up his hands, slowly stepping towards her. “Okay, take a deep breath. We’re all in this together, Panther.” She turned toward him, ready to unload on him as he continued. “We all want to make him pay. But to do that, there will be sacrifices… It’s easy for me to stomach, my life is over if we don’t. But it isn’t about survival for you.”
She reluctantly followed his advice, inhaling deeply before speaking. “...So what? You think I owe it to that asshole to lose my dignity because of him too?”
He smiled amicably as he continued. “You don’t… but life isn’t fair. If you want to make him pay, it won’t be painless. I’m sorry, that’s just how it is.”
“That’s easy for you to say! You didn’t have to… you don’t…” She exhaled, her head hung low with eyes that looked like they wanted to cry. They looked that way often these past few days, like the only reason she didn’t was she ran out of tears.
“You aren’t alone.” Ren took another step forward, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Regardless of what happens, we won’t abandon you.” He looked over his shoulder at the two other thieves. “Right?”
“Right.” They both said smiling at her.
She gave a slight chuckle and smiled sadly. “Thanks.”
Morgana walked next to them, smiling wide. “I knew you’d make a great leader. My intuition is always right, after all!”
Ann kicked him out of the way as she looked down at herself again. “So… zippers, huh? I… I’d be lying if I said I was comfortable with this, but…” She grabbed one of the zippers holding her suit together and slowly started to pull it down, pausing as she took a deep breath to steel herself.
“You could just like, reach into your cleavage.” Ryuji said. “I’m pretty sure that would work.”
Ann stared at him with an almost horrified expression. “...What?”
“It’s not great but it’s probably better than… whatever you’re doing.” He elaborated.
She looked away in embarrassment. “I could… I almost…” She snapped her head back towards Ren, eyes lethal like a dagger’s edge. “Did you just wanna see my tits!? Is that how you see me!?”
“No.” Ren looked at her with a steady, serious expression. “I wasn’t trying to make you strip. I-.”
“Then why did you say zippers!?” She yelled at him.
He looked away from her scathing eyes. “I’m... not sure why I say a lot of things. I’m sorry.”
Unbelievable… Still, he clearly felt bad about it. Plus, he wasn’t treating her with pity either, despite everything. None of them were. Maybe things would be okay, maybe she could trust them after all. She huffed before looking down at herself again. “Whatever. I’m... not really okay with this either, but…” With a look of disgust on her face, she put her hand to a chest and hesitated.
“Actually I think your boots would work.” Morgana said. “There’s some space there.”
“...What?”
“Your cleavage is still good to have, faster access in a pinch. Plus the zippers could help with larger objects. But yeah your boots should do the trick-”
Ann screamed and punted him across the room, vowing to never debase herself like this again. Three fights later, she couldn’t reach her legs and had to pull a life stone out of her tits. Was this really what her life had come to? Humiliating herself in her own personal hell? It didn’t matter… she’d rather die than not see that bastard in ruins. No price was too great. Revenge couldn’t come soon enough.