((So, having realized I never really have discussed much about Willâs whole secret thing as a phantom thief, I figured Iâd make a headcanon post about it here. This hc post will probs be pretty long, as most of my hc posts tend to be, and I will use it to cover his phantom thief MO, how his methods/career evolved, etc. So, without further ado...))
((So, as I discuss in his bio, Will first intended the whole phantom thief thing as a one time event. Initially, he only meant to expose the corruption in his circus group to ensure his coworkers got what was rightfully theirs and to stop the slander on his own name that the higher-ups were trying to push on him.
For a while afterwards, as he began traveling, Will did not use his alter ego. He never even thought to revive it--until he arrived in Kalos. Lumiose Cityâs corruption was particularly bad when Will visited, and the more he traveled and acquainted himself with people in the region, the more disgusted he felt with the level of corruption going on. It was, naturally, on a much higher level than what his little circus group was involved in, which gave him pause. Could he could do something? Should he do something?
A part of him still insisted that, unlike the circus, this was not his business, so he should stay away, and he agreed with it for a bit. Despite this, though, it didnât stop Willâs curiosity from getting the better of him, and he did a large amount of research to understand the level of corruption he was seeing hints of sprouting up around him from below. Xatu, with her selective omniscience and illusionary skills, was extremely helpful. One could say, though, he dug too much, that his curiosity dragged him too far down, for he eventually stumbled upon an active plot that some of the corrupt elements of the people heâd been looking into were planning. It was a white collar level scheme, and some parts of the plan seemed like the same kind of stuff he encountered with his corrupt managers in the circus, but a fair deal larger in scale. Still, as disturbing as this information he stumbled upon was, he still didnât want to get involved himself, so he turned over what info he had to the Lumiose police as an anonymous tipster...
...and then they promptly disposed of it.
In hindsight, it was obvious that there was a good chance part of the police force was compromised, but it had honestly slipped his mind, one that was already so wrapped up in just gathering the information of the scheme itself. But now all of that information was gone. He could regather it with Xatuâs help, but to what end? The police had rats in it, and he didnât have the time to sort them out to find a safe person to give the info to so that they could properly investigate and stop the crime before it went full steam ahead. And what about himself? With all this investigating he had been doing, he was bound to start looking familiar to people. He also certainly couldnât count on his identity staying âanonymousâ for long now, either.
So, again he took up his alter ego and planned a theft of the evidence himself. He sent a note to the corrupt police, his first calling card, really, urging them to reconsider and properly investigate the corrupt heads of this scheme. Then, when there was no response, Will went and exposed it himself by stealing the appropriate evidence.
The evidence reveal itself was not quite enough to completely stir action, given the depth of the corruption, but it did give several surviving witnesses the strength to come forward, setting a snowball of events that halted the scheme and led to the corrupt group scattering.
Given the larger scale of this whole thing, Willâs ânameâ as Itsuki became cemented, partially because of the corrupt police who were still hanging onto power in the city at the time. They wanted this guyâs head, so they blasted him on the news and so on, trying to paint him as a dangerous anarchist so that normal people would be on the lookout too. Eventually, the manhunt did fade somewhat, but his reputation lingered. Thanks to the bad press by the police, he had his fair share of detractors, but it also gave him a small group of fans. People were grateful for his exposure of this corruption, though his methods as a phantom thief were questionable.
Will, however, chose to focus on the positives his alter ego brought out of this, and they were enough that it convinced him to continue to be a phantom thief.
Out of these two incidents, moreso the second than the first, Will began to create his MO and assemble a team.
For his behavior, he tends to not actively seek out criminals to expose, believe it or not. Usually, with his curiosity and constant traveling, they come to him. He tends to pick up all sorts of interesting stories and leads to pursue. Xatu and Delphox always help fill in the details and point him in the right direction when he shows interest in a lead. When he has a lead, he feverishly investigates it, again abusing Xatu and Delphoxâs powers to help him search efficiently. He will sneak into places, listen in on people, disguise himself with illusions, and so on to get the information he seeks. Oftentimes this is done at night just for ease, but he will adjust if need be. Then, when heâs gathered enough and settled on his target, he will send a calling card. Originally, in another hc, I said his cards just say âLook forward to my arrival on xxxâ, but now I think his card would say just a bit more than that. In addition to that bit, he would also probably first preface with asking the target to voluntarily give themselves up to law enforcement and publicly admit their crimes.
And just to be clear, yes I mean CRIMES. He does not go after people for petty shit--nothing short of egregious violations of law. For Will, his only targets are those âwhose corrupt power has transcended that of the lawâ. Admittedly, these targets are rare and hard to find, and when he does find one, they take quite a bit of research and planning for Will to infiltrate. Now that he is an Elite, itâs even harder to find the time to do this stuff, but he still makes do. The rarity of his targets helps for sure.
Back to his behavior, Will tries not to wound people severely or use brute force when doing his heists. He practiced with his powers to specifically learn how to use them in nonlethal ways to assist his thievery. Eg using his Psyshock attack, which is meant to be a wild flurry of defense-piercing psychic shrapnel, as simple, single dagger-like attacks. Now, while he may not rely on brute force or anything, that doesnât exclude other forms of attack, such as illusion, trickery, hypnosis, etc. Heâs also quite fine with using other peopleâs attacks against them, too, like using his illusions to trick some bad guys into attacking each other and cause mass confusion for a time. Pokemon, also, are completely fair game.
And that is why he assembled a specific, small team of Pokemon to assist with his heists. Heâd already encountered his Delphox and Reuniclus before he made his second heist in Lumiose, but now he mad them proper parts of his team. Eventually, he would add Malamar before his travels in Kalos were done. Iâve covered in a previous hc how all their powers help Will, what they can do, etc., so I wonât get into that here. In total, though, the most he ever uses in a heist is 5 Pokemon: Delphox, Malamar, Reuniclus, Xatu, and Gardevoir. Will dislikes using more than the first 3 for the sake of easy management and fear of associating his League team with his thief team, but if things get down to the wire he will.
Lastly, Iâll talk briefly about his outfit as a phantom thief. Unfortunately, I suck at costume and clothing design, so Willâs thief outfit has never been concrete. The most I can say with certainty is that his outfit would use dark colors, a different kind of mask, and gloves. Adding to that, his outfit would be symbolic in its design. That is, this all started because of that one incident at the circus. Now, I donât think I mentioned it before, but another part of the circus incident was that Will was very possibly going to be made the new ringleader soon. His performances were one of the few that consistently attracted a large crowd, and plenty of his coworkers supported the choice. So, when all that mess with the circus cheating him and his coworkers out of money and slandering him, he felt a little more than miffed. So, he reflected his spite in his costume he chose: one that looked similar to a ringleader, though perhaps a little more exaggerated or âelegantâ. So if I had to sum up his thief outfit, it would be âdark, masked ringleaderâ.
And for now, thatâs about all I got. I think I covered a fair bit of my hcâs relating to his phantom thief behavior and origins/career evolution, anyways. I hope I made it clear enough. Iâm always open for questions on anything relating to this ofc. And, honestly? Given the nature of his phantom thief MO, how secretive he is about it, etc., none of this phantom thief stuff ever has to come up in a thread if you donât want to.))