Benten: So, like, what are we doing until it's showtime? I dunno what we're supposed to do to prepare for a heist!
MC: How DO we steal something? / How do we sneak in? / First off, scouting.
---
(C) Hermes: What? You done something like this before?
Jiraiya: MC's right.
---
Jiraiya: High ground! Layouts! Patrol patterns! Lots of things we need to research.
Hermes: Then an infiltration plan and exit plan, a route to the treasure, and sorting out our heist day jobs too, right?
Jiraiya: Mostly. We win if we get to a certain room where the treasure!
Benten: Oh, so we can skip planning an escape. Shouldn't this be easy then?
Jiraiya: Don't let your guard down. They're shoring up their defenses you know.
MC: Oof / We gotta stay hidden / We need a distraction
(C) Jiraiya: We could do that, yeah. We'd just have to figure out who'd be doing it.
Jiraiya (after some quick thinking): Okay, our recon is gonna double as a crash course for you guys!
Party: WHAT
Jiraiya: Yeah when my hermit master was training me he'd also dump me into sudden fights out of nowhere.
MC: Oh no the Spartan way! / Well it'd be better than going in blind... / I did not see this coming
Taromaiti: By crash course, you mean practicing for our phantom thief parts right?
Jiraiya: Yup! But I'll be giving theoretical lessons first. If you don't know the ABCs of ninjutsu, the practical training won't mean anything. Okay wait there a sec!
Jiraiya (dressed as a phantom thief after briefly leaving): I'm back guys!
MC: Cool! / You look good in Western clothes too! / Your costume's done already?
(AB) Jiraiya: Thanks! I'm not used to clothes like this, but they feel nice now that I'm wearing them!
Jiraiya: Ded gave me these since I said a while ago I'd help! Did he tell you to call him once we have a thief party together?
MC: Oh right / I already texted him
Hermes: He's giving us costumes? How into this is he...?
Benten: Where's MY cool costume!? Pretty Thief Benten, setting fire to social media trends~. This is going to be SO AWESOME!
Taromaiti: Well we will need new clothes even if we don't hide our identities. Who knows? Maybe the people playing defense will be people we might know.
MC: I know like ALL of them / It's gonna be chaos if I go as is / They're totally gonna find out it's a drill
Jiraiya: Okay, here's what the prize for finishing the crash course will be! And once we finish the theoretical bits...
Party: ...?
Jiraiya: We're gonna slip into the Santa School and get our costumes from Ded!
Party: WHAT
MC: What the hell kind of plan is that!? / More crazy... / Come at me bro!
Benten: W-wait Senpai, isn't it going to be a bit much for the rest of us to sneak in ourselves!?
Jiraiya: Oh come on. If you think about your situations and theirs, you can get plenty done!
MC: So, sneaking in and hiding isn't all there is to infiltration?
Jiraiya: I'll tell you guys more later. Gotta leave now because I got a job tomorrow to get to!
Benten: I guess it is late. I'll go home too. Thanks for the food Taromaiti!
Taromaiti: Thanks for coming. Looking forward to working with you guys as fellow thieves!
Benten and Jiraiya leave.
Taromaiti: So Hermes, what are you gonna do for today? Shop's closed tomorrow so you could stay here...
Hermes: (cleaning) Ooh, thanks! I'll clean the place like usual when I get up.
MC: What, you live here? A live-in work thing?
Hermes: Oh, right. I'm homeless. There's plenty of roofs around though, but finding one to stay under can be a pain, so sometimes I crash here.
Taromaiti: The shop isn't really set up for a live-in even if we wanted to do that for him. Shinya says it's okay for him to stay the night before the shop's off days though.
MC: That's tougher than I thought. You clean for rent, huh. / I wanna stay with you too!
---
(C) Taromaiti: Haha! You really like Hermes, don't you? But don't you need to get permission to stay out?
Hermes: They'll make you work if you stay. Just go home, I'll be seeing you again soon anyway.
---
Taromaiti: Okay time for us to go. I'll walk you to the station, MC.
The next day, the party starts meeting at Jiraiya's temple hideout to learn ninja and thief basics. His old teacher would be impressed.
After the party has the bare minimum learned, everyone except Jiraiya heads towards the Santa School.
MC: Okay let's go over why we're here again
Hermes: Taromaiti and I are here for an appointment and a preview of Cafe Asterism's branch store on Christmas.
Benten: You and I are gonna be here for a meeting to see the stage we're playing a special concert on for Christmas. I mean I really AM gonna be playing something then, so I might as well recheck things on it. Feels weird to think about keeping the phantom thief bit a secret here.
MC: (flashes back to Jiraiya talking about how thinking about each side's position can help you get things done)
The cafe branch store and concert were originally suggestions by the party as tokens of thanks and apologies for their thief shenanigans this event. You guys have set up actual appointments with Ded already, so you guys can check things out along the way. Just need to be cool and not act sus.
MC: I'm getting excited / Nervous / Everyone already knows me
(C) Taromaiti: ...doesn't that make things harder? The security is going to stop you even so.
Benten: Time to split up ga--
???: Excuse me.
Party: !?
MC: Y-yes? / How can I help? / OH NO
Cops: We're under tightened security, so we want to ask some questions and--hey wait I saw you in front of Shinjuku Station the other day!
MC: Who do you mean!? / Are you guys those cops with Tajikarao back then / Uhhhh
Red Cop: You! With the flute! You ran out on us back then!
Dark Cop: Are you hiding something? We're going to do an inspection now.
Taromaiti: Hermes what did you do
Hermes: Dammit they remember me. Stupid inconvenient timing.
Dark Cop: Senpai! That's the guy with a criminal record Tajikarao told us about!
Fire Cop: Oh, you're Hermes! Snooping as usual?
Taromaiti: Wait please! Let him have a chance to explain him--
Hermes: Oh don't bother, they're right.
Taromaiti: Hermes...
Hermes: You guys at Cafe Asterism may accept people for who they are individually, but you know what? I am a damn super villain and proud of it.
Flashback
When Hermes came to Tokyo he saw how different its culture and customs were from Olympyus but thought it was much the same, so he tried to life a new life.
Native Cop: You're a famous thief and liar in your homeworld? Those are bad things here. Try to follow the law.
Nobody could tell Hermes was lying since Hermes was capable of lying and tricking Zeus, king of the world.
Native Cop: You again? You're what's wrong with society!
It should have been easy for Hermes to keep problems hidden since he could go around anywhere like a straw millionaire.
Native Cop: Why are we doing this again!? What, you're framed? Are you lying again? Fiiiine, I'll hear you out at least...
Hermes was a liar and a thief, so that was the unvarnished truth. Today he walks around carrying his past on his shoulders too...
Hermes: So pigs. What would you do if I was lying about being an infamous scoundrel? Look at me plotting your horrible, horrible humiliation! Don't taze me bro!
Benten: OMG Hermes stop! And police guys, calm down! (What do we do? I can't try to pass this off as an understanding anymore!)
Taromaiti: ...
MC: Damn / Please listen! / ...
Hermes: Stand back MC. It's swindlin' time!
BATTLE START
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