(ib @RemiEmiiii and some fic on ao3 that i saw but didn't read a little similar to this 😭)

Status ailments were useful to have as skills against tougher enemies, yet just as annoying when inflicted on your teammates. You'd all come a rather far way in phantom thievery, gathering new skills and items that could easily cure any of the usual ailments. Especially after Sae's palace, the only unfamiliar ailment you couldn't cure was the one that turned your teammates into rats, yet that disappeared right as the shadow was killed.

This one didn't disappear on it's own, nor did any of the skills your teammates had or any of the items you brought have any effect on Akechi. They'd been fighting a strange Shadow that Futaba couldn't identify nor even detect when it ambushed you- immediately attacking Akechi without even giving him a chance to move. He let out a strangled yell and his limbs contorted oddly, the shadow withdrawing from battle and leaving you and the other thieves to watch as his body suddenly transformed into... a child?

It looked awfully like Goro, standing up from the floor with a slightly shaky body, muttering an 'ouch..'. He looked around, his reddish-brown curious eyes scanned the area and his fellow thieves curiously, eyebrows furrowing. He clutched his gun he normally had in battle, not seeming to recognize anything. A few of your teammates immediately tried to cast different healing and ailment relieving types of spells on him, yet he just looked confused, and unaffected. He seemed to be around the age of six, not speaking quite yet.