(Marinette's pov)
June 14th, Tuesday, on the roof of Shuji Academy, after school. Akira, Ryuji, Ann, and I stood together, facing Makoto, Morgana in Akira's bag.
"I was thinking you might not show..." Makoto mused.
"So, whose heart do you want us to change?" Ann asked, cutting to the chase.
"A Mafia boss..." Makoto answered. My friends and I did a double-take.
"I'm sorry, what?" I asked.
"I want you-" Makoto started, but Ryuji cut her off.
"We heard you, but why?" Ryuji asked.
"A group calls themselves a Mafia. They seem to be the cause of the recent rise in phishing scams. What's worse, once you're in their sights, they won't stop threatening you until they get what they want. They'll force you to take part in their scams, threaten your family, and ultimately destroy your life." Makoto explained.
"Holy s***..." Ryuji breathed.
"How cruel..." I said, putting my hand up to my mouth.
"It appears that their victims include some of our students," Makoto added.
"No!" Ann gasped. I was starting to get angry.
"They primarily target juveniles." Makoto finished.
"Alright, Makoto-senpai. Can you give us the name of the boss?" I asked, praying that my rage did not show.
"Nobody knows. The victims are being threatened not to testify, so even the police can't get a grasp of the situation." Makoto answered.
"That's where you want us to start?!" Ann asked angrily.
"You should be able to pull it off... if you're really the righteous Phantom Thieves. Or is Akechi-kun correct when he says you act without justice?" Makoto asked. This is getting on my nerves.
"Can't you say something witty back to her?" Morgana asked Akira quietly from his bag.
"Something witty," Akira said without missing a beat. Why do I like this guy?
"I knew you were going to say that..." Morgana sighed. I decided to intervene.
"Makoto-senpai, we can't get much from "Mafia boss that targets kids," We need a name and other information. We don't want to target the wrong person." I explained.
"Their main hub of activity is in Shibuya. That's all the information I have." Makoto said.
"You have two weeks. Once that has passed, I'll submit all the evidence I have to the police and the school. I hope you don't let me down..." Makoto told us before leaving. I let out a sigh. What are we going to do?
(Timeskip! Brought to you by Morgana's Tuna!)
The next few days were full of information gathering. We questioned students, people on the street and surfed the internet. Then... on June 19th... we found something... We got a name! Junya Kaneshiro! I don't know how, but Akira managed to get his name! I don't know where he got it, but something tells me I don't want to know...
So, there we were. Standing around in Shibuya, waiting for Ryuji. When he arrived, he looked mad.
"I can't believe you guys ditched me yesterday! I almost entered a world I want nothing to do with!" Ryuji yelled at Akira and Morgana.
"Huh? What happened? Are you okay, Ryuji-kun?" I asked, walking up to Ryuji.
"These guys- never mind! Yusuke, open the app!" Ryuji said. Yusuke pulled out his phone.
"Okay, I entered Kaneshiro's name into the nav.- and just as expected, it's a hit," Yusuke said, looking at his phone.
"Now for the other keywords... any ideas?" I asked.
"The only information we have is that he has control of Shibuya..." Morgana said.
"A place he has total control over... a garden?" Ryuji suggested. The Nav didn't react.
"He likes money... maybe a money bath? I've seen people on the internet with things like that!" Ann said. No reaction...
"No... not even close..." Yusuke said, looking at his phone.
"Any ideas, you two?" Morgana asked Akira and me.
Let's see... He likes money... he has total control over the city... the man doesn't care who gets hurt as long as he gets his money... maybe...
"A bank?" Akira and I said at the same time.
"Well, aren't you two in sync?" Yusuke asked. The Nav then reacted.
"Oh! We got a hit!" I said, trying to ignore what just happened.
We then tried to think of a location. After a few minutes of discussion, Ryuji got frustrated.
"Where in all of Shibuya is this guy's Palace?!" Ryuji raged. The Nav reacted to his words.
"Huh? Did the Nav-?" I started.
"Yes... it did!" Yusuke said.
"Did I do something?" Ryuji asked, looking confused.
"That you did!" I told him.
"Indeed, The place Kaneshiro thinks of as his bank is... All of Shibuya..." Yusuke said.
"... lovely..." I muttered.
"Will it be okay if we just disappear in a big crowd like this?" Ann asked, looking around nervously.
"Nobody will notice if a piece of trash goes missing in a trash can. It'll be fine." Ryuji reassured her.
"In that case... let's go," Yusuke said, pushing a button on his phone. I felt the familiar sensation of being transported to the Metaverse all around me. As soon as the feeling left, I looked around and... what?
"What am I looking at?" I asked, pointing in the direction of my line of sight. My friends turned to look where I was looking and also looked shocked.
"Walking A.T.Ms... that must be his cognition of people... so this is what Kaneshiro considers his bank..." Fox said, looking at the stream of A.T.Ms with arms and legs walking by.
"I'm gonna be sick..." I said, holding my stomach. I felt someone pat my back soothingly. I looked up to find Joker patting my back.
"Better?" He asked.
"Yeah... thanks..." I said, looking away and trying not to blush.
"I never thought it would be the entire district," Mona said, stepping closer to the walking machines. He then turned to us.
"Look around us... this distortion is affecting all of Shibuya." Mona said with a serious face.
After some talking, we decided to explore. I was very unnerved by the surroundings. The city was covered in a green tint, and A.T.M machines with human limbs are creepy. It sickened me to the core, knowing that this man saw other human beings as objects to get money from. We talked to ones who looked broken, and they weren't much help. They just cowered and mumbled... looking so sad... one just downright keeled over when we talked to it. It did tell us that it had "fallen" somehow.
After that, we stopped and talked for a little trying to decide what to do next. We were discussing what the A.T.M human meant when Panther and Skull saw something in the sky. We all looked up, and... why am I not surprised? A giant floating U.F.O-looking thing was flying above the city, sucking up the money floating in the air.
"Is that it?" Skull asked.
"Up in the air... no wonder we couldn't find it..." Fox said.
"It... kind of looks like a Roomba..." I said. Panther snickered at my comment.
"Yeah~ it kind of does!" She said.
"Take this seriously, you two!" Mona scolded.
"Ahem... sorry. How will we get up there? Mona, can you turn into a helicopter or something?" I asked.
"Nope... I can only transform into a car..." Mona said sadly.
"Agh!! Come on! You're useless! Can't you just pull out a gadget or something?" Skull said.
"Calm down, Skull... Maybe we can use the Miraculous to help..." I suggested.
"Maybe... but we need to pull back..." Joker said.
"Yeah... let's go back..." Mona agreed. We all nodded. Another palace to raid... oh, what fun~
(Marinette's pov)
"What can we do?" I muttered. My fellow Phantom Thieves and I were at the hideout discussing it through.
"Can you whip up something that can get us up to the Palace, Mari-san?" Ann asked.
"I know there is a power-up type thing that can give a Miraculous holder the ability to fly..." I started, my friends looked hopeful.
"But, the ingredients will be a pain to get a hold of, and by the time I make it, we'll be out of time..." I sighed. Everyone deflated at that.
"If only we could contact the real Kaneshiro..." Yusuke sighed. Makoto then walked up to us out of nowhere.
"What do you want?" Ann asked bluntly.
"Nothing in particular. I just saw you all together here." Makoto said.
"Is that so?" Ryuji said. I was not a fan of my friends' attitude, but they had a right to act like that...
"You seem to be having a bit of trouble," Makoto said.
"So you're here to check up on us?" Ann began. Oh, no... she was about to go off...
"M-Makoto-senpai, we just ran into an unexpected road bump, don't worry!" I said, trying to calm the situation.
"True enough, Mari-san..." Ann said to me. But, she then turned back to Makoto. Oh, no...
"Look, you may be the student council president, but when it comes to what we do, you're useless!" Ann said.
"Useless?" Makoto said, looking hurt. Oh my, god!
"Ann!" I scolded.
"What?! It's true!" Ann shot back.
"I agree with Ann. She is rather useless..." Yusuke said.
"You-! Arg!! It may be true, but you can't just say that to someone!" I scolded them. I then turned to Makoto, hoping to recover from what my friends just said.
"Makoto-senpai, you may be useless when it comes to our job, but you aren't a useless person!" I told her.
"Don't bother, Mari-san. Let Makoto stay on her high horse. Maybe she can eavesdrop on us since she is so good at that!" Ann said. I swear to everything good on this earth! I love Ann as a friend, but I want to strangle her right now! Makoto let out a shaky sigh.
"So you wish to get contact with Kaneshiro," Ske said, looking serious. I don't like the look on her face.
"That is what you were discussing, weren't you? It seemed you needed to find out where he is." She continued.
"Something like that..." Akira said.
"Hey, you don't gotta answer her honestly!" Ryuji said.
"Fine. I'll help you meet Kaneshiro." Makoto said, walking off.
"Oh, no! Makoto-senpai!" I said, trying to go after her. Akira put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me.
"What is she planning on doing?" Yusuke said.
"Ack! You guys shouldn't have told her all those things!" I scolded my fellow Phantom Thieves.
"It was true!" Ann said.
"It may be correct, but you have no right to say that to someone! You never know what could be going on in their lives! I hope that she doesn't do anything stupid because of what you guys said!" I told them.
"What's done is done, Mari-san," Akira said, squeezing my shoulder gently.
"Makoto is smart. She won't do anything risky... I hope..." He said.
"You're right, Akira-kun... She won't do anything bad... Probably..." I said.
"Also, you can let go of my shoulder now..." I muttered. Akira let go and mumbled an apology with pink cheeks.
"You two are so obvious..." Morgana sighed from Akira's bag.
"About what, cat?" I asked him.
"I'm not a- Oh! Nevermind!" Morgana sighed, retreating back into Akira's bag.
"In any case, we need to follow her!" I said. My friends nodded, and we began to chase.
(Time skip! Brought to you by Genshin Impact! Help, I'm addicted!)
I wanted to start a brawl... my friends and I were in an underground lounge-like place. A man was holding Makoto down. Another man, who I assumed was Kaneshiro, was sitting on a stuffed couch with a pretty-looking woman.
"Let her go!" I yell.
"Oh~ I get it..." Kaneshiro mused. He then opened the case on the table in front of him. He asked the lady next to him about the cost of a bag. The woman answered three million yen. Kaneshiro then pulled out three hundred ten thousand yen banknotes. He gave the banknotes to the excited woman who happily took the money. I wondered what was up with that, but then he basically said:
"You kids are gonna give me three million yen!"
I glanced at Akira. I gave him a look that said:
"Can I please go ape-sh*t on this man?"
Akira shook his head, and I let out a frustrated sigh. He was right... getting into a fight will only make things worse. Kaneshiro then snapped a picture of my friends and me with the alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs on the table in the shot. I shot Akira another glance, letting him know that my offer still stood. Akira shook his head again.
Kaneshiro then told my friends and me that we had three weeks to give him three million yen, or he would show everyone the photos. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Akira was fingering the black cat Miraculous. It was clear he wanted to release Plagg's furry on Kaneshiro.
When we finally got out of there with Makoto, she apologized.
"I am so sorry..." Makoto said with a broken voice.
"Makoto, what on earth possessed you to do that?!" I scolded.
"I know... it was stupid... I just wanted to help..." She said.
"My sister has a commendable job, and she's a much more remarkable person than me... A lot happened after we lost our father three years ago, so it's just us living together. But I'm still a child, so all I am is a burden to her..." Makoto said. I just looked at her, feeling sorry...
"Makoto..." I said. I walked up to her, opening my arms.
"Cheng-san, what are you-" Makoto started, but I cut her off with a hug. She froze for a moment before melting into the hug, sobbing a little.
"Makoto, you are not useless. What happened in your past was not your fault. You just want to help, and I can understand that!" I told her, rubbing her back soothingly.
"T-thank you, Cheng-san..." Makoto muttered.
"Call me Mari-san, okay?" I said, releasing Makoto from my hug.
"Okay, Mari-san..." Makoto said.
"Good, let's get back to business!" I said, turning to my friends. We have three weeks to do this... let's begin!