[Brainwashing, Goth/Punk TF]

“Why can’t this place be easier to navigate!?”

The voice of one Sakura Futaba echoed out through the spiralling and maze-like halls of the Metaverse, thoroughly frustrated by her inability to tell one path from another. She had just turned left three times and she was back where she started, leaving her in a terrible mood. And she was already in a bad mood!

Ever since joining the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, the ones that had helped her move past her issues, she hoped that she could do something useful. But no, everyone had school and that meant she had to stay home all the time. Even when she had the urge to explore and plan ahead.

Nobody came home to play games with her either, it was a miserable experience. So instead of sitting at home and doing literally nothing like she had done for so many years already, it was time for her to venture out on her own and figure out what she could do. Even if that was just exploring the Metaverse and figuring out if there were any Palaces that needed to be cased. Better to find out now rather than later, was what she had thought at that moment…

Thanks to that lonesome desire to explore and be useful, she was now in the worst mood she had been in on a normal day. That kind of mood served to make her space inside her Persona feel even more cramped than usual, leading into another infinite loop of grievances that made her feel like trash.

“Can’t there just be anything down here!? An entrance, an exit, something!?” The frustrated ginger girl cried out as she slammed her hands into the controls of her floating vehicle of a persona, causing it to jolt all over the place as it tried to keep itself steady…

As she kept on vibrating and jolting all over the place, she didn’t notice that a part of the many pathways was getting darker than the rest. Not only that, but it was getting loud. By the time that she picked up on the sound, she was on her back kicking away at the ceiling of her little saucer, veins popping out of her forehead.

“Great, not only am I stuck looking around a web of literal empty hallways, but now something loud’s playing and I can’t turn it off! Where’s that damn radio button, I know it has to be in h…” Futaba started complaining, only for her train of thought to crash off the tracks as she realized what the sound actually was. “Wait. No, did I finally catch a break?”

Her fingers stroked along the keys of her keyboard as her Persona headed straight for the sound, her body shaking as she heard the sounds vibrate through the entire vehicle. “God, this is way too loud. But if it’s so loud, there has to be something on the other side! Score one for me!” She giggled, trying to ignore the sounds around her as she kept on flying straight ahead.

Only, she didn’t move much more. She blinked a couple of times, wondering why the sounds were louder despite her not getting any closer. Only as she felt a slight breeze brush past her did she realize that her Persona had dematerialized, and that could only mean one thing.

Futaba screamed in surprise as she fell out of the air and straight into a jagged-looking black hole, the sounds getting louder in response to her movement. The further she fell down that hole, the more the sound intensified and refused to leave her alone. Even as her velocity increased and they became distorted, the sound itself refused to stop.

“Make it STOOOOOOOOP!” The ginger cried out as she covered up her ears, closing her eyes and hoping that everything would just stop. So she could think and hear herself, and maybe formulate a plan of escape.

Eventually, the sound got louder. But her body stopped moving. And there wasn’t any pain in her body either, making her mind rather confused. Wasn’t she supposed to hurt herself when she fell from great heights? Even the Metaverse should operate on that rule.

Her eyes opened, and she immediately started grimacing at what she saw around her. Skulls attached to pillars, wet marks leaking down from the eyeholes. Not just that, but everything in her current vicinity was black and spiked, making it seem like she had stumbled into some kid’s very vivid imagination…

“Well, that’s just fantastic. I fall down a hole, and I end up in some punk’s palace. Maybe it belongs to one of those rich kids that keep everything to themselves. Maybe.” Futaba mused aloud as she looked around, still glaring at the skulls and the spikes for how tacky they seemed in comparison to herself.

Now she had a problem. Sure, she found her way into a palace, the tackiest she ever could’ve imagined she’d find, but did she know how to get out? Nope. And attempting to call upon her Persona just caused the noise in the background to intensify, which rendered that completely moot. So she was stuck here? Probably?

Maybe if she had been patient and waited for everyone else to be ready, they’d have some sort of solution for her issue. Maybe they’d drag her out with rope or something. Or they’d just leave her behind as punishment for getting ahead of herself. There was that option too.

“Come on, Futaba. Think. Is there anything here that stands out?” The girl muttered to herself as she looked around, trying to pay attention to anything and everything around her that might lead her to understanding the kind of environment she was working with…

Her eyes glazed over a couple of skulls, then a dozen, only for her expression to grow more and more tired. Whoever designed this place had absolutely no taste! It was just skulls, skulls and more skulls! And if it wasn’t skulls, then it was spikes! And there weren’t even any exits, despite part of the room looking to have doors facing outward.

Still, she was able to pick up on context clues. The room was decorated in such a way that it was the entrance to a concert hall. Just before you’d get your tickets and walk into a stage where you’d hear music loud enough to blast out your eardrums. if she had to bet on anything, it’d be that going that way would lead her to the Shadow in charge of everything. And potentially the exit too.

“Right. Okay. I have to go through a bunch of trashy music, better just suck it up and get it over with!” Futaba psyched herself up as she walked over towards the doors leading towards what she thought would be a stage, taking a deep breath as she opened them up and ran inside…

Only to be blasted on all fronts by a loud cacophony of noise that only the most insane of people could call music, her ears on the verge of shattering from it all. She couldn’t even hear herself scream, the music drowning everything out but itself.

Her eyes slowly focused on what was in front of her. And to her surprise, she couldn’t see a crowd or anything. Just a stage. A stage where four shadows without anything really standing out about them, shredding their guitars and letting their music ring out.

They shouldn’t be singing, as shadows like them shouldn’t be able to talk. And yet here she was, hearing actual words ringing through her head, even if she couldn’t make out anything in particular.

Futaba’s eyes slowly lost their color the longer she listened to this absolute monstrosity of a track, her heart pounding hard against her chest as she kept letting it soak in. The words were starting to sound like they made sense. They were tragic lyrics, ones filled with so much passion for the world around them.

She wasn’t aware that she had fallen into the shadows’ trap. The more that music filled her, the less it sounded like just a bunch of stray metallic sounds being strung together into a rhythm. It was a proper musical track, and the more they played it, the more they influenced her.

It all started with her hair. The music notes swam into her ginger strands, turning them either black or white depending on what was more appropriate. The monochromatic shades mixed together wonderfully as she raised her hand into the air, pumping away at the air in tune with the music.

Her outfit followed after her hair. Gone was her spysuit, since she didn’t need to steal away anything. No, she needed something that properly fit the role of somebody who loved to listen to such wonderful music. The music filled with the saddened emotions of the general public, aching to be heard by the masses so they could share their pain.

Once her suit had disappeared completely, a much simpler and more open kind of outfit appeared on her. A simple tshirt with the ‘bands’ logo on it, which seemed to be a minimalistic drawing of her own face and hair more than anything. Parts of the shirt were torn in places, but it didn’t matter. None of it mattered.

Feelings of existentialism filled her thanks to the music that blasted through her. Feelings of everything being nothing more than a distraction. The only thing that mattered to her was the music vibrating through her, the thing that dominated her and made her what she was.

Her hands went down to her thighs as she felt a set of torn shorts materialized on her hips, clinging tightly despite the holes. They went along perfectly with the fishnets that had appeared as well, making her look like she had just thrown her clothes on without regards for their condition. But they were the only clothes that fit a girl like her.

Futaba let out a loud shout as she pumped her hands into the air. Her uncovered arms were getting covered in tattoos. Spiked skulls like everything she had seen around the ‘lobby’, with one key difference. Her tattoos had actual tears painted in, making her look as emotional as the music she loved.

She sang along to the lyrics, her cheeks being filled out with skulls as well. Even her makeup beyond that made her look like her face was nothing more than a skull. Just like the members of the band that she adored. Because that was the only thing that mattered to. That band, and the metal that they shredded their hearts out to.

The navigator of the Phantom Thieves fell victim to the song that a mysterious band of shadows played. Even if she didn’t consider herself a victim of them. She considered herself a victim of the world around her. That was why a goth gal like her, with blackened eyes that couldn’t see anything but the worst in people, was drawn to the emotions in their tunes. It made her feel emotion for the first time in years.

And with this emotion, she could return home. Even if she didn’t realize how or why she’d get home, she knew what to do from that day onward. She had to blast out everything but the music. So she did what any proper metalhead would do, and cranked up the volume of her music to the highest it could possibly go, shredding along with no regard for anybody else’s wellbeing.

If any of her ‘friends’ decided to pay a visit, they’d find her on her bed, completely consumed by the music blasting in through her headphones. And if they thought to criticize it, they’d get a taste of it too. Whether from the speakers she had sold everything to get, or from the headphones that she’d slip on their heads.

They’d all understand. And they’d regret letting her go out alone and discover that metal was the only thing she ever needed.