(Wrote this chap three times before I was happy with how it turned out. Did a little something different than usual, let me know what you think.)
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Even though Ren was going to try to take Madarame's treasure without a direct fight, he still wanted to be prepared for the worst, which led him to the Velvet Room. As his eyes fluttered open, he saw his two assistants waiting for him.
Justine held the small blue book where he had been taking notes close to her chest. Once she saw him open his eyes, she gave him a warm smile and began to walk towards him.
"Welcome back, Trickster." She spoke with her usual calm and inviting voice.
"I hope you are not here to slack off when you are about to challenge another Palace Ruler." Caroline remarked sharply, though there was a hint of concern in her voice.
Ren could only chuckle slightly as he ruffled both of their heads, though it was mainly to annoy Caroline. Just as he had expected, the moment he did it, Caroline took a step backward in surprise and quickly tried to fix her hair, while Justine just enjoyed the gesture.
As he grabbed the notebook from Justine, Ren flipped it open in order to refresh himself with the fusions he had planned, but he was surprised to see a large amount of nicely written notes all across the pages, detailing different things he had overlooked.
"Our Master insisted you learn fusion on your own and directed us to assist you only if you were truly struggling. However, both of us wanted to give you something in return for taking us to the arcade." Justine explained, her smile becoming warmer as she saw Ren looking at the notes.
"Most of that is just Justine's notes." Caroline said, still trying to 'fix' her hair.
As he heard her, Ren couldn't resist the urge to mess with her as he looked at Justine.
"Thank you. I really appreciate it." He said with a smile.
Just then, Caroline spoke up, her voice filled with a bit of jealousy.
"Well… maybe I lied a little. Justine and I both worked on it pretty hard."
Laughing slightly, Ren turned to her before thanking her personally.
As he saw her smile with satisfaction, Ren began to look more deeply at the countless notes. They really had gone all out with the information they had written, and as he flipped the pages, he suddenly froze and looked at a page with three masks.
"Three masks?" Ren asked, "I thought you could only do fusions with two masks?"
As he asked the question, the twins looked at each other with a complicated expression, and after a moment, Caroline spoke up.
"The Velvet Room changes depending on what Fool is currently contracted with it. Before, personas would be stored as cards, not masks, which made the fusion process easier." She explained with some hesitation, as if she shouldn't be revealing this information.
"Due to your Velvet Room being a theater, your personas have taken the form of shadows, which changes the fusion process slightly. For this process one Velvet Room attendant it needed per persona being fused." Justine explained, her eyes looking at Ren as if trying to tell him something.
"Yeah… since there is only two of us, we can only do simple fusions…" Caroline continued, looking at Ren as if she wanted to say more.
After thinking for a moment, Ren smiled. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, causing the curtains to open and reveal the wall full of masks.
"If only there was someone else who was considered a Velvet Room attendant…" Ren said with a chuckle as he closed his eyes and extended his hand to the wall like he had seen the twins do countless times.
As he took in a deep breath, he relaxed his body, feeling the connection he had with the Room. It felt almost like a string, like the ones that connected him to his confidants. Focusing on that connection he took another deep breath before he felt a mask gently land on his hand.
"It worked…." Caroline whispered with some surprise.
Ren looked at the mask in his hand, recognizing it immediately as the mask of the very first persona that had joined him, Pixie. After a moment, the mask floated onto his face, gently settling on it. The moment the mask made contact, he felt an almost instinctual knowledge of what he needed to do. Along with that knowledge, there was also something else about fusions.
"Are there fusions that need more than three personas?" He asked, turning to the twins who instantly went silent. The two exchanged a look as if trying to decide how much they could reveal, but that was enough for Ren to figure out the answer.
"Nevermind, we can deal with that later. We should focus on this for now."
With those words, the two twins nodded their heads with both excitement and determination.
Reaching out their hands, a pair of masks moved from the wall to their faces. As the masks settled on them, the melodic piano music of the Velvet Room stopped, becoming replaced by a piano waltz.
With a theatrical bow, Ren extended his hand, following the movements the mask had taught him.
Caroline was the first one to step forward eagerly, grabbing his hand and starting their waltz.
At the same time, Justine raised her arms and gave a bow of her own towards the pair before beginning to twirl and dance in a circle around the pair. Her steps were soft and graceful as she spun and danced, moving until she reached the spot she had bowed.
Ren spun Caroline around, following his instinctual moves, but he was a little too late to release her. When Justine moves to take Caroline's spot, the two of them crashed against each other and then onto Ren.
The three of them fell to the ground, and as they did the masks on their faces began to shake violently before they floated off from their faces and crashed, creating a new mask and a persona that manifested as an armored woman riding a horse, Valkyrie.
"Huh, a fusion accident," Justine spoke with both surprise and amusement as she watched the unstable mask make its way to the wall.
"I guess now you can see just how hard our work is." Caroline added smugly as she turned to Ren.
As he chuckled, Ren stood up and helped the twins stand, then after clearing his throat playfully he spoke.
"That, my dear assistant, was entirely on purpose. I didn't have that persona." he joked, causing the twins to roll their eyes even as a smile appeared on their faces.
The trio called for the masks again, as Ren bowed once again to give it another try.
This time Justine was the first one to grab his hand, with Caroline doing a curtsy before she began to dance in a circle around the pair. Learning from his past mistake, he was able to release Justine in time, who sound as a ballerina before swapping places with her sister, taking Caroline's starting position.
The dance continued with Justine completing another full circle around the pair before Ren spun and released Caroline, who continued to spin before gracefully slowing down and stopping next to Justine.
The three of them gave one final bow to each other before the masks floated off from their faces, dancing in the air before fusing into a mask resembling a teddy bear, the representation of the persona Bugs.
After a moment, the mask floated before settling on the wall.
"That was quite enjoyable." Justine said, a soft smile on her face as she turned to her sister.
"Yeah, because our Trickster didn't mess it up this time." Caroline teased, giving Ren a smug smile.
Ren rolled his eyes at her, before reaching his hand out for another mask which floated elegantly until it landed in his face.
"Do you want to do another one?" Ren asked with a smile on his face, the feeling of fusing a persona was something unique. He really did feel as if he was synchronized with his assistants and the room itself.
With a nod from the twins, they began to practice fusion after fusion. After some more accidental fusions because of Ren's mistakes, he began to get the hang of it. Each dance was different, depending on the persona being created, but they all were elegant.
After time, Ren even performed a few fusions with just Caroline and just Justine, noticing the small differences on the resulting persona depending who he danced with. It was something truly amazing.
As much as he was enjoying the process, the twins were enjoying it even more. They both had a smile that wouldn't leave their faces no matter what, though it was clear that Caroline was trying to hide it.
The entire process was almost like a dream, and after adding a lot of new masks to his wall, they decided to move on to trying different things. Working side by side with the twins, Ren began to experiment with the cards that he had found in Mementos.
They each had skills that could be engraved with a persona by performing a small dance while wearing the mask and holding the card, though interestingly, the type of dance depended on the element of the card.
He then moved on to experiment with the rest of the features of the Velvet Room, it was strange just how much everything made sense now, but after some playing around some more, he realized just how much time had passed.
If his calculations were right, then it was probably already dark outside, which meant he had to start making his way back.
"I thank you, Trickster. This is a day I will forever remember." Justine said as she grabbed onto the blue book once again, placing it close to her chest.
"Yeah, well…. You were still messing up a lot. So you should come back here again to continue practicing on your skills, you wouldn't want to embarrass yourself in front of our master if he came to watch one of our performances, would you?" Caroline asked, though it was clear she was just asking him to come back again soon.
Ren couldn't help but smile as he ruffled the twin's hair again. Though Caroline didn't jump back this time.
"How about next time I take both of you to Leblanc? I'm getting pretty good at making coffee and curry, so I can cook both of you a good meal. We haven't gone out to explore in a bit, so after eating, we can go wherever you want."
The twins smiled at the offer before Justine spoke up.
"It would be our honor, Trickster."
"As long as you promise not to slack off with your training, it should be fine. It is our duty as your assistant to entertain you from time to time, after all."
Waving goodbye, he left the Velvet Room, not noticing the long nosed man who had sat far back in the audience seats during their performance.
As he stepped back into the real world, Ren felt a small headache pass over his head as well as some exhaustion.
"Damn, I didn't realize how hungry I was." Ren muttered, shaking off the small headache before making his way to the closest food store, Big Bang Burger.
~Confidants~
Caroline & Justine (The Strength) Rank 5
(Another Fun fact: every time Ren awakens in the velvet room, I usually say his eyes "flutter" open… cuz butterflies. If you know, you know. Also, shoutout to Weeby_ for suggesting how the fusion accidents should be all the way back in chapter 16.)