Stealing a Thief

Makoto sighed as she trudged through the dreary depths of Mementos, the splashes from her footsteps echoing idly off the tunnel's walls. Recently, there had been a massive influx of requests from the Phan-site, serious ones that the Phantom Thieves simply couldn't afford to ignore or let slide. But at the same time, the sheer number of them made it difficult to so much as dent the pile, as evidenced when they'd left the Metaverse the other day and still had hundreds to go through. Eventually, though, their leader had come up with a plan: they would simply split up the next time they entered Mementos, each Phantom Thief being assigned five targets that they would have to take out on their own. It wasn't an elegant solution, and even with all the supplies they had bought for this task, it was incredibly dangerous, but they couldn't exactly just take their sweet time dealing with these crooks while they ruined peoples' lives, could they? So it was decided that they would split up.

Makoto had just finished taking down her fourth target, a corrupt street vendor that had been conning gullible tourists out of their money, and was moving onto her fifth and final one. But whereas before she had practically run to face each of her opponents, eager to change their hearts, now she dragged her feet, somewhat dreading what was to come. 'Takeda Takahashi,' she thought to herself. 'Submitted to the site for harassing women, following them around at night and making vulgar comments about them and their bodies, even attempting to assault a girl at one point.' She shuddered. Perverts were everywhere in Tokyo, that was a sad fact of life, but this Takahashi fellow seemed to be taking things multiple steps too far. If she didn't change his heart here, who knows what kind of trouble he would cause?

Red scratches began to appear on the walls, signalling she was getting close to her target. Sure, enough, less than a minute later and the tunnel opened up into a large, cavernous dead end, at the center of which stood the Shadow of Takeda. Makoto was surprised to see not some old pervert, the kind you'd expect to prey on young girls, but rather a teenager, likely no older than she was. And he was muttering something... Against her better judgement, Makoto hugged the wall, opting to listen in on the Shadow before jumping into the fight.

"Fucking girls..." He paced around the room, wringing his hands together with a deep scowl on his face. "Always flaunting their bodies, cruising through life just because of their looks... And then they have the nerve to act like they aren't attractive!" He shook his head and licked his lips. "No, no, not me... If I had a girl's body, I'd abuse it for all it's worth! I'd be living on easy street every day! I could use it better than any dumb bitch!" He growled, his hands flying to the sides of his head and gripping it tightly. "If only I had a girl's body!"

Makoto grimaced and shook her head. This guy wasn't just a pervert, he was nuts! What kind of guy talked about that sort of thing with a straight face? Well, no matter, this was why she was here, after all. So she could clear up his distorted desires and set him right again. Pulling away from the wall, she marched into the open space. "That's quite enough." The Shadow turned around, eyes widening as he saw her. "You can wish all you like, but you can never obtain a girl's body. Even if you could, that doesn't give you the right to disturb everyone as you have been!"

Takeda growled, his eyes widening to the point they were practically bulging out of their sockets as he doubled over, as if in pain. "Can't... Can't get one? No.... No, no, no, no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO!" Once more, his hands gripped the sides of his head as he howled wildly. "YOU! WHO ARE YOU TO SAY WHAT I CAN'T DO?!" His eyes passed over Makoto, and all at once his demeanor shifted, his pained expression vanishing, only to be replaced with a downright lecherous grin as his hands fell to his sides. "Actually... I bet you're pretty cute under that mask... Come on, girly, whaddya say?" He began stepping towards her, causing Makoto to raise her fists up in a fighting stance. "Help a guy live his dream?"

As he approached her, Makoto noticed his skin was starting to change, darkening to a pitch black and beginning to bubble. It spread rapidly, even overtaking his clothes, and soon the entirety of Takeda's Shadow had melted down into a puddle of Black Ooze... a puddle that was still inching its way towards her! Reaching up, Makoto grabbed her mask and ripped it off, feeling a burst of wind surround her briefly. "Johanna!" An engine roared behind her, and from the darkness appeared her Persona, Makoto jumping onto it and gripping the handlebars before charging directly at the ooze that had once been Takeda.

The ooze didn't seem to know what was happening, frozen in place, and Makoto ran straight through it, sending it splattering everywhere. Her eyes widened in fear, worried she'd overdone it and had accidentally killed it, only to sigh in relief as she saw the scattered droplets begin to coagulate together again. At least he seemed pretty durable... Unfortunately, her relief left her wide open, and she didn't even have time to gasp before the ooze shot a tendril into her chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying, Johanna dissipating into aether now that its rider was no longer on it.

Makoto flew for a few seconds before landing, struggling to sit up as she coughed wildly. But before she could fully get up, she felt something ice cold wrap around her limbs and neck that pulled her back down to the ground. She struggled, pulling fruitlessly on each of her limbs, but whatever was holding had a grip like a vice. She shivered as the ice cold feeling begin spreading across the rest of her body, up her legs, onto her stomach, and over her chest. It was then she realized what it was: the ooze. A blob of it extended towards her face, poking at her mouth, and Makoto struggled to keep her lips shut. Eventually, a crude face with bright, yellow eyes and a wide, gaping mouth appeared on the extended part. "Come on, girly, open up already! I promise it'll feel real good... for me, at least..." And with that, it continued poking at her face.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to call out for help, yell at this thing to get off her, anything. She should've known something like this would happen. Everything had been going so well up to this point, it was only natural for such a risky plan to come tumbling down at the end. Now here she was, pinned by a mass of black sludge, unable to even summon her Persona to defend herself, trying desperately to keep it from getting into her body. What would even happen to her if it got inside? Based on what Takeda had been saying, it almost sounded like he... wanted to take control of her? But that was ridiculous! That sort of thing only happened in, like, movies and stuff, right? There was no way this ooze could actually take control of her body, right? It would... probably hurt a lot, having all of it stuffed into her stomach... Maybe make her bloat up like a balloon... But it couldn't take control of her...

Right?

Her thoughts were cut off by a sudden shock of pleasure. While Makoto had been fretting about what the slime would do to her, the slime had needled its way into her suit bit by bit, and had managed to wrap some of itself around her breasts. That shock of pleasure had come from it suddenly pinching her nipples. Another pinch send another jolt through her, and instinctively, Makoto opened her mouth in a gasp. That was her last mistake, as the ooze immediately charged forward, stuffing itself into her mouth and beginning to flow down her throat. Makoto's body tried to fight the foreign invader, her gag reflex kicking in to try and throw it up, but it was no use. Her throat bulged as the ooze forced itself into her stomach, causing it to bloat up a bit. Tears streamed down Makoto's face as she fought desperately to get this thing out of her. Her hands had been freed, now that the ooze was focusing on pouring into her rather than holding her down, and she scratched and clawed and punched at it with all her might. All she accomplished was tiring herself out even further as her hands passed harmlessly through the liquid mass.

Her vision was starting to fade. The ooze had taken up all the space in her throat in its greedy invasion, preventing her from so much as breathing, and now she was starting to suffocate. Her tongue had gone numb, the ice cold, graciously flavorless ooze having coated it so thoroughly she couldn't even tell where it was in her mouth anymore, and for all she knew she'd accidentally swallowed it. And her stomach was churning violently as the ooze moved around inside her. Then, just as she was closing her eyes for what she was certain would be the final time, the last of the ooze poured into her, and she gasped, breathing heavily now that her windpipe was no longer blocked. But she didn't have time to celebrate. She could feel the ooze in her, spreading. Her bloated stomach shrunk down as small beads rolled off of it under her skin, heading throughout her body. The same numbness that had overtaken her tongue began to spread to her limbs as well as her body locked up. Even though her throat was free, she still couldn't even call for help. All Makoto could do was whimper helplessly as she felt a particularly large mass make its way up her body, between her breasts, through her throat, and into her head.

And everything went dark.

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The Phantom Thieves sat together at the entrance to Mementos. Everyone had finished the requests they had been assigned, and they were now preparing to head back to the real world. Everyone, that is, except for Makoto. Their resident biker girl seemed to have gone missing, and everyone was getting antsy waiting for her to return.

"Jeez, what's taking her so long?" Ryuji spoke up running a hand through his hair. "It ain't like Ms. Student Council President to keep us waiting like this."

Ann nodded solemnly, a hand to her chin as she thought the situation over. "Do you think something might've happened to her? We were all on our own, if she needs help, it's not like she could tell us..."

"I should pray that isn't the case," Yusuke interjected. "But at the same time, I cannot deny the possibility." He turned to their leader, who was standing alone off to the side. "What do you think, Joker? Should we go in and look for Queen?"

Joker closed his eyes, apparently thinking things over, before opening his mouth. But before he could say anything, the sound of footsteps approaching them rang out through the tunnels. The entire group turned to see what was happening, only to collectively break out into a series of grins as they saw Makoto approaching them. "Mako-chan!" Haru ran towards her, jumping t the girl and pulling her into a hug, one that Makoto seemed more than happy to return based on how tightly she held Haru towards her. "You had us all worried! What happened?"

Makoto chuckled lightly, idly running a hand through Haru's hair. "My apologies. I ran into a spot of trouble with my final target. But rest assured he has... been taken care of." The group sighed in relief, thankful their friend seemed okay. But as they reconvened, Joker was the only one who noticed how Makoto seemed to be... eyeing up Ann and Haru. "Now then, if we're all finished here, shall we return?"

The group nodded and together took out their cell phones, all at once deactivating the Metaverse Navigation app, Mementos bleeding away as they were returned to the real world. As they did so, Joker kept his eyes locked on Makoto, noting that she seemed to shudder as they left the Metaverse. Everyone broke off from each other, each intending to go pass the rest of the day in their own way, but Joker jogged behind Makoto. "Hey, Makoto, are you sure you're okay? Nothing weird happened back there, did it?"

Makoto paused before turning around, a small smile present on her features. "I can assure you, I am perfectly fine. In fact..." She reached up and began idly twirling a lock of her hair, and it was only then Joker noticed there were what seemed to be tear streaks running down from her eyes. "You could even say I've never felt better in my life." With that, she turned back around and once more began walking away, a subtle sway in her step that hadn't been there before their trip.