Disclaimer: Persona 5 Characters except Ryuunosuke Katsuo belongs to Atlus, this fanfic has no commercial purpose.


"Where do you think are you going? You have no way to run now." I was moving towards Kaneshiro when he fell to the floor after coming out of his robot; large gold bars came out too. "What is the matter? Are you afraid of me now?"

"Please! I beg mercy!" Kaneshiro sound agitated from an expected reaction as he knew what kind of person I was.

"Now begging for forgiveness? What happened to the other people you blackmailed while they begged the same thing to you? Karma is a bitch, isn't it?" I summoned Hannibal while he was doing a horrified expression; I enjoyed every second of that. Hannibal started to grab Kaneshiro from the neck with his sharp claws while lifting him into the air, choking him to death.

"Hey! What do you think are you doing with him?" Queen sounded surprised like everyone on the room.

"Can't you see? I'm finishing the job." I replied to her while looking at that insignificant being.

"He already learned his lesson! We don't need to do more damage to him!" Panther was protesting about my actions.

"He didn't get enough from me."

"Stop already! You promised us not going after him!" Queen was feeling angry because of my actions.

"I promised you that I would not chase him unless he does something that would put everyone's lives in danger. Don't you see he almost killed us with that thing!?" I was getting annoyed about how they want to let him live regardless of what he did.

"Stop already! We are not killers! Do you understand this? If we don't make him to confess his crimes, then we are never going to be able to make justice to the victims." Joker was angry with me, even more than any other time.

"Justice? Don't bring that shit in my face! We almost got killed by his fault, and you want to let him go? Do you know how much trouble he will cause if we let this leech roaming free? I'm doing a favor to all of you!"

"If you kill him, you are not going to better than him, maybe even worse. You may think we are doing justice because we are naive, but we are also bringing hope to any innocent people. If we don't make him confess for his crimes, everything will be the same for them." Queen was looking into my eyes. She had the same stare that her father gave to any other criminal he arrested.

I was struggling with her look and words. She made me angry. I couldn't help myself of being classified as someone like him, after all the things that I tried to help them. Nothing but anger and resent were in my mind, I made Hannibal release him while he crawled away from me. "Fine, you guys do whatever you want with him. Let's make one thing clear to you: If he does anything, and I mean ANYTHING to you one more time, don't try to stop me on going after him." With not much fight, I moved behind everyone else while they were trying to talk to him. Joker and Queen looked at me with disapproval but at least relieved that I chose right. Everyone focused their sight at Kaneshiro while looking mad at him, especially Queen.

"Now… as for you, Kaneshiro…"

"I'm not gonna let anyone have it… This is my money…" Kaneshiro was looking afraid while hugging all the gold around him.

"You stole it all from innocent people!" Queen counter-argued to him.

"Fine, I'll call off the debt…" He didn't sound so sincere.

"Fine? You're still soundin' pretty condescendin'" Skull sounded unsatisfied of what Kaneshiro said.

"You're right…I'm a poor, ugly… idiot… How am I supposed to live a normal life like this…? It's all because of our society! Weak people can't lead a happy life, no matter what they do! I'm a victim too, you know!? Yeah, none of this is my fault!" I have to admit; despite everything what he said is wrong, I couldn't deny he is right that society like to live in conformism. However, unlike him, I don't blame others of my actions, and I don't make others suffer if I did hurt too. He playing the victim brought me nothing but shame at him.

"The more you talk, the more pathetic you sound." Fox commented with disgust towards him.

"I just wanted a place where I could belong! You get that, don't you!? Fujin-sama!" He centered his eyes on me. "You see we are not so different about that! Your family threw me in the streets although I did everything they asked me to do! I put all my heart on them, and they repay me with nothing but pain and regrets! You left them too because they didn't respect you enough right?" He was on edge.

"Sorry, pal. You are completely wrong; I didn't leave my family because they were the bad people you might be thinking of. I left them because I was worried that everybody around me would get hurt or worse if I stay close to them. It didn't matter for me now because that curse still follows me wherever I go. Do you see the difference? I did it because I cared for others than myself, if they threw you out of the family is because you are a self-centered and greedy person. They don't want anybody who doesn't respect others. Seeing you like this brings me nothing but a sour taste in my mouth of how ungrateful you are with them. I never wanted anything with the family business, but it doesn't mean I hated them either. I'm more than grateful for how they allowed me to see with my own eyes how the real world can have both an enjoyment and a horrible experience. You only see the horrible things, and you are not happy with what you have. It took me some time until I met those guys, to see the real value of what life has to offer. I'm respecting those kids of how brave they are to defy society despite I don't share the same goals and ideologies like them. I won't ever betray them as you did with my family. It is all about change on oneself." Everyone fell silent, looking at me with smiles. I finally felt a place where I could belong to.

"Then what I can do to change myself as a better person? Where do I belong in this life?"

"Kaneshiro, you don't worry about that. You'll finally have a place you belong. Somewhere you can make amends, for the rest of your life." Queen broke the silence to tell Kaneshiro about all this.

"We're gonna do something about that distorted heart of yours…Free of charge." Skull felt determined to finish with all this.

Kaneshiro turned around to face at us while looking at the floor with regrets. He didn't put much resistance.

"I'm glad you understand. Now hurry up and return to the real Kaneshiro" Fox commented of his reaction.

"Seriously? You don't have any tact. Especially with that incredible power…These Palaces could net you loads of cash! You could do whatever you wanted to people's hearts!

"We're not like you!" Skull replied.

"Where do you find meaning in that naïve of justice…? You know, there's already someone out there taking full advantage of what Palaces have to offer…"Kaneshiro shared a little of the information that never crossed my mind. We were shocked by what he said.

"What…?" Queen asked.

"I'll let you in on a little something…There's a criminal using other people's Palaces to accomplish whatever they damn well please." Kaneshiro smirked about all that. "They don't care consequences. Psychotic breakdowns, mental shutdowns… Anything goes."

"Is that… the same person Madarame's Shadow spoke of…?" Fox was mumbling something I didn't know.

"What are you talking about? Is it true what is he saying?" I was confused about all this. Nobody answered me about it.

"Spill it! Who're you talkin' about!?" Skull tried to get more answers without results.

"*snicker* Don't even bother. You are nothing compared to them…Better be careful…A chance encounter with them could prove fatal…" After giving us the warning, he disappeared like air.

"Comeback… Dammit! He returned to his real self, right?" We weren't done with him, but I couldn't stop being upset about what he told us. Of course, while waiting for anyone to answer me the entire place started to get agitated.

"We can think about that later! Grab the Treasure; there's no time!" Fox told everyone to hurry before things could be worse.

"In that case, we should take that large one…Wait, what!?" Just about doing a suggestion, Queen saw something off. I saw that too.

"Mrrrrrooooooow!" Mona acted a little weird around the giant gold bars. "Treasure…"

"What's gotten into him…!?" Queen asked the same thing to the others.

"This is soooooo cooool! Wowwwweee, being a human is greatttt!" Mona was getting excited for each second.

"Huh, anybody mind to explain me what's going on with him?" I was really curious of his strange behavior.

"It's…It's…It's…shiny shiny golddd!" He was really in to it, much for my annoyance. All that excitement made him jump into Panther's face, she was upset about it.

"Hrgh!? L-Leff ho off mee!" With Mona on her face, Panther took off him angrily and launched that cat into the air, what next really threw me off guard.

"You shouldn't throw animals, dammit!" He became into a van in a not so happy mood.

"What the hell he transformed into? Is that a 'Catmobile'?" I just experienced even more weird things the more I stood around.

"Enough, already! Let's get it in, everyone! Hurry!" Panther ordered us to carry the gold bars.

I helped Fox to carry two gold bars while Skull and Joker carried another two. "Ok, all set!" Skull spoke after we sat in the van.

"We got the Treasure, we punched Kaneshiro in the face, and the Palace is falling apart. Let's get the hell out of here, pronto!" I was right on the edge of my seat, that care was smaller than expected.

"Grrr…Fine!" Mona wasn't so happy. He started to accelerate with Queen on the driver's seat. We went to full speed despite the gold's weight, but there was one little problem. "Wait, there's no road!" We were falling from a vast height, and everyone started screaming.

"YOU IDIOTS!" I was mad about how nobody noticed that, but I forgot about it anyways.

We returned to the real world.

"Oww"

"I think I cracked my ass…" Sakamoto was the second person to say something after Takamaki.

"Ann, are you all right!? Is yours cracked as well…?" Kitagawa wasn't the most subtle person I could ever know. He sounded really worried.

"Of course not!" Ann replied with embarrassment.

"Isn't it supposed to be though?" Makoto was really missing the point too.

"Urgh, that's not what I mean! More importantly, it's dangerous for us to just charge like that!" Finally, somebody spoke with more logic after a wacky experience. Takamaki noticed the people around them. "Ack! Everyone's staring at us!" The others noticed around them too.

"Thank goodness nobody was hurt." Makoto spoke with relief, Sakamoto not so much.

"Uhh, I wouldn't say nobody…" Sakamoto was looking to the street; everyone turned their sight as well.

You may ask what they were looking at, well that's quite simple.

Morgana in his cat form was on top of my face while I was lying in the middle of the street. Both of us were hit with a golden briefcase on the head. That really hurts.

"That briefcase…" Sakamoto looked surprised at what the Treasure became into.

"It appears to have been the cause of Morgana and Katsuo's demise…" He totally was missing the point about our pain.

"That's not what I meant! Isn't that Kaneshiro's…" Sakamoto called out.

"You mean his Treasure…!?" Now Kitigawa noticed it.

"Hey, the light's red!" Makoto was the first one to call the others that we were in the middle of the fricking road. Everyone came to us while helping us get off the road. "Katsuo, are you alright?"

"The real enemy… was within us… but… we did it. Gah" I just passed out. Kurusu and Kitagawa were holding me from each shoulder.

"I think he should be fine. Now, where should we open it?" Makoto wasn't even worried about Morgana or me, figures. She asked everyone a place where we could look what inside the briefcase.

"How about at karaoke?" Takamaki was the first one to come up with a suggestion. Everyone wasn't sure about it.

"We'd have security cameras to worry about there." Makoto replied about the first option.

"Oh, I got the perfect place." Sakamoto suggested another place while looking at Kurusu. He seemed confused.

"That's right!" That blond girl understood where he was referring to.

"I was just in the mood for some coffee too." Kitagawa deduced pretty quickly where too.

"And we need to fix Morgana up!" Takamaki kneeled to carry that black cat with her.

"Maybe I should find an ice bag for Katsuo as well." Kurusu commented a way to help with the strike on my head.

"So… warm." Morgana regained his senses.

Everyone moved while carrying Morgana and me to a train station. We traveled for 20 minutes until we stopped on another station at Yongen-Jaya. After leaving the station, we walked around some alleyways until we went to a coffee shop named Leblanc. They told me that Kurusu lived on the attic of that place. I won't ask questions of why and how, but the attic looked kind of cozy though. Once inside, they slowly put me on top of Kurusu's bed while everyone moved some chairs and a table on the center of the room.

"I will bring some medicine for Katsuo and Morgana." Kurusu told everyone else while going downstairs.

"Right, and I will bring some ice for him too." Makoto accompanied Kurusu on the first floor to find a bag for some ice.

I was lying on the leader's bed, looking at the roof and around the room. I couldn't move by myself, there were only the voices from everyone else I just could hear them. Kurusu and Makoto returned with the medicine and the ice bag. They didn't take so long. She gave me the ice which I would put it on my head, holding it with my right hand while sitting on the bed.

"This place is oddly calming." The president commented about that place.

"Yeah, I have to admit. It is really peaceful… Owwww." I was feeling in pain.

"How are you feeling, Katsuo?" She asked me about the current state.

"I feel like I fell from a six-story building and a cat landed on my face with a briefcase, oh wait… that happened, and it hurts!" I was nothing but annoyed about how I ended up, maybe worse than Morgana.

"Now, now…no need to be sarcastic with me. I know it wasn't a pleasant experience, but we finally got the Treasure." She was rather mad of my response, not hostile though.

"Yeah, I guess that is something. Also, we finally defeated Kaneshiro, that fatso shouldn't mess with us in the first place." I felt proud of how things ended mostly well for some of us. "Still, I can't believe those four giant gold bars transformed into a single golden briefcase. Talking about some messed up alchemy." I was curious about how the Treasure changed between realities.

"Speaking of the briefcase, have you learned anything new?" Makoto asked Kitagawa, which he was trying to open that briefcase. No luck for him.

"It's sealed by a rotary lock. We'll need the combination to open it." He looked disappointed.

"Maybe we can use a hammer and screwdriver… nah, I'm sure that would ruin the mechanism if we do that." I was suggesting another way to force it, but that wouldn't work.

"Meoooowgh…!" Morgana yelled in pain after Takamaki put some medicine on his head.

"A rotary lock, hm…?" Makoto sounded curious. She moved towards the briefcase like she found a way to open it.

"Do you have an idea? Unless you knew the right combination, there is no way you can open that damn…."

Makoto opened the briefcase without issue, much to everyone's surprise. "…I knew it."

"Well…I'll be damned." I was out of words while I kept the ice bag over my head.

"How did you get that?" That blue hair boy was amazed at how she solved it.

"I simply memorized the combination. I saw him open and close it so many times, after all." She was proud of it.

"W-Well that's…scary. But amazin' too!" Sakamoto was also amazed by that.

"Urghh, that burn…Hey, hurry up and open it." While still in pain, Morgana was anxious about what was inside of that.

Everyone, including myself, was getting closer while Makoto was slowly opening it. My eyes couldn't believe what I saw. That briefcase was full of money, lots and lots of money.

"H-How much is this!?" That punk was almost out of words because of the fortune we got.

"I believe one stack is one million yen…mh?" Kitagawa fell in silent after counting the money.

"One, two, three…Uhhh, there's thirty of them in here!?" Takamaki couldn't express how much money was.

"Thirty million yen… Even after splitting it, we still each get four million…!" Makoto's eyes were wide open of the exuberant quantity.

"WE GOT JACKPOT!" I yelled with the excitement of how much money I got from a single heist, my first one nonetheless.

"Holy shit… It's gonna be deluxe pork soul combo for from here on out!" For punk with a lot of money like Sakamoto, he didn't have many ambitions in life.

"You have to think bigger than that…" Morgana was unamused of his response.

"Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Venice…It would be a waste not using this money for my studies in Europe. I should start packing now!" I couldn't hold myself with all this money, dreams come true.

"Not to bring down the excited mood…but does this money look real to you?" Kitagawa made an odd observation.

"What!?" Takamaki replied, I didn't like that tone coming from her. "Children's Bank!?"

After looking closer, all bills had Kaneshiro's face. How disgusting.

"F-For real…!?" Sakamoto's smile turned into a grimace.

"I guess this represents… how everything he did was an act to make himself seem tough…?" Makoto got a sad expression of how ugly the truth behind the briefcase was.

"Noooooooooo..!" Sakamoto was really sad.

"No… Venice…" so do I. "You know what I always say: There is no such thing as easy money in life. Now I understand better the meaning of it, what a letdown." I got nothing but sadness all over my face. What a horrible, horrible day.

"Well hey, at least it feels like we totes busted this case, right?" The blond teenager got a change of mood into a more cheerful one for some reason.

"What do you mean? Is busting a case good or bad…?" Makoto got confused about what Takamaki said.

"Both"

Makoto was in silent for a moment until she started to chuckle and then into a laugh. "Ahahahaha!"

"Hey, I don't find this funny! We got nothing but shattered dreams…" I was still feeling down of what we got.

"Sorry, is just…To think for the reward for the Phantom Thieves is feeling they 'totes busted' the case…" She kept laughing a little more. "Ahhh… How funny!"

Everyone smiled, not much for me but then again, most fictional stories about thieves got the same kind of results anyways.

"Hold on second. Even though the contents were nothing more than trash, the case itself is quite nice." Well, Kitagawa at least thought a better alternative than leaving with the empty hands.

"All right then, let's sell it! Glad we got that sorted!" Sakamoto was on high spirits again, that was quick.

"You know, with those bills we can use them to lite a bonfire for a barbecue or make one thousand of origami cranes for a wish. That should be something right?" I was trying to light up my mood a little, and it worked somehow.

"By the way Morgana, have any of your memories returned?" Kitagawa asked the little cat.

"No, not at all..." He looked disappointed.

"C' mon, did that hit to your head make you forget even more?" He was insensitive.

"It's easy for you to talk. You're not the one who lost your memories." Morgana felt disdain towards Sakamoto, as always.

"You have amnesia…?" Makoto did sound concerned about Morgana's situation.

"Pretty messed up, huh? I feel sorry for him." It really made me sad about how bad of not knowing anything about yourself.

"Something like that. He does remember searching for Treasures thought." Takamaki added about Morgana's amnesia problem.

"Hm. I hope your memories return soon then." Makoto sounded apologetic. "So… what happens next?"

"First, we wait for Kaneshiro to have his change of heart." Morgana's summary of our next step, which sounds simple.

"Wait…That's it? Huh, then I guess I can go back to work and relax in the meantime." Now that everything was done, I was feeling happy about being able to continue with my life.

"It's gonna be big this time. People're gonna make huge deal oh it, for sure." That punk's hopes were pretty high.

"Hey, you know what Kaneshiro said at the end there…? About that 'criminal using the Metaverse…" Takamaki was feeling worried about that his words.

"Yes, I was bothered by that as well." Kitagawa added a comment too.

"Why everything has to be so complicated?" I was doing nothing but asking in circles because they don't know much about it. Everyone fell silent for a moment.

"No point mullin' over it now. Let's and see how Kaneshiro's change of heart goes first. We should prolyl just lay low for a while." That was the smartest thing the punk would ever say in life.

"I never thought I'd hear those words coming from you." Makoto was surprised as well of the words coming out of Sakamoto's mouth.

After a long day of disappointment, laughs, and some questions; everyone started to leave the place with only me staying behind.

"Are you not leaving yet?" Makoto asked me why I didn't move yet.

"I'm going to stay here a little bit more to rest my head before heading back home. Don't worry about me, just go ahead without me." I insisted on her move along.

"Okay, be careful on your way home. Good night."

"Take care." I said that to Makoto while she walked downstairs. I was still in Leblanc's attic with only me, Kurusu and Morgana around. His room now felt empty without more people around. I was thinking about if I should keep doing thief activities like before, but my only major problem was working with everyone. Those kids acting as thieves would be the vein of my existence because of how bad they are, and I don't know a better way to have a constructive opinion without making me look like a bad guy. Even though I did care about them, it wasn't enough for me to thank them. I was jealous of Kurusu because he looked like an understanding person. Asking him while being honest with would be the best to help me with this fear.

"Hey, Kurusu. Can I have a word with you?" It was hard for me to strike a conversation to someone younger than me.

"Sure what is it?"

"I…Do you see me as a bad person?"

"I don't think so; you looked like a good one. Why?"

"To be honest, I don't feel like a good person at all. You see, I lack some tact towards others; you can say I'm afraid of being friends with you guys because how much my bad luck will cause you any trouble."

"No you are not; you helped us defeating Kaneshiro and get the Treasure."

"That's not enough for me to thank you for accepting me in the group. Everyone trusted in each other while I focused on my own goals. I broke my promise with you about going after him, and you forgave regardless." I was feeling ashamed of myself, nothing good ever came out of being my friend. "I want to repay all of you for what you did for me, but I don't know exactly how."

"You don't need to repay us. Only being our friend is more than enough." Is Kurusu a saint or something? Why he had to say those things? He is truly a selfless person.

"Sorry, but I must. I can't stand here doing anything. If only I can …make you… better…" I fell in silent for a moment until I realized something. "I know a way to compensate for your help!"

"What do you have in mind?" He had a confused expression about my change of mood.

"As you can see; I'm not the best person to call myself a thief, but I learned a couple of things about being a professional criminal. I read books, watched movies, played videogames and learned the family business. While you have a lot of members in the group, it is always important to know their strengths and weakness from each one of them, and I'm not talking about their Persona attributes. Unlike Niijima to guide you in battle and act as proper students, I can help you to balance your double lives as students and thieves without raising any suspicions towards us. If you screwed up something, I would fix it. If you have trouble, I will solve it. If you need to get the best scores at school, well I can't do miracles, but at least I can help you to study some classes that don't include science or math. In other words, I will make you true professionals."

"So you want to be our team manager or our coach?"

"More or less, anything you guys need, I'm always willing to help you. Don't doubt to call me whatever is necessary. How about that, sounds good for you?" I was doing a proposal of helping his friends to improve as a real organization.

"Sure, I can always count on someone like you to help everybody, especially a group like ours." After closing statement, Kurusu and I shake our hands as a sign of partnership. I finally made a new friend of my age (Two years younger than me, but still) after a long time of solitude and paranoia.

I am thou, thou art I

Thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall become the wings of rebellion

That breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Hunger Persona,

I have obtained the winds of blessing that

shall lead to freedom and new power…

I don't know what the hell was all that about, but no complains since I became friends with the leader from this group of misfits. It felt like my next step to take a new turn, despite the irony of hanging out with teenagers. I hope they don't start calling me Big Bro; I would hate myself if they do that.

"By the way, I noticed one thing while we were fighting Shadows."

"What is it?"

"You were picking up some sort of weird stuff from those monsters after a battle, why you need for?"

"Oh, you mean those? Those are crafting components for my thief tools." Akira showed me his workbench and the process of them, which was an interesting demonstration.

"I'm really amazed of that. How did you learn to do all those tools? You just need some sort of special training to come up with stuff like that." I was wondering about all the origins of his crafting skills.

"Morgana was the one teaching me to create all of them: Lock picks, smoke bombs, the usual tools of a thief."

"If that's so, then let me share little advice that can help you to gather more materials after a battle. What you do it's like hunting; you don't want to ruin the vital parts of the prey. Killing Shadows effeciently would let you get even more components than before. Not a bad advice, right?"

"Yeah, that must be helpful. I will try it when we fight Shadows next time."

"Hey, I think is already late for me. Thanks for the ice by the way. I will be in contact with you if I run into something."

"No problem. Ask me anything you want."

After some little talk, I decided to leave to return home.

I felt like I'm always welcome to him. No matter where I go, at least I have another person watching my back. Those kids are weird, but in a good way. I picked up my corresponding train to get my way back home. With all the pain in the world, I got in my head, and I didn't care about it at the end. That entire burden I got on my body finally left, making me feel like a complete person. I promised to myself on never fear about my luck ever again as long I'm with them.

My heart felt lighter than usual, making Hannibal satisfactory about my determination of change. The only thing that worried me the most was my friendship with their rival, Akechi Goro. I hope it won't cause any trouble for both of them. I know he can be a prick at times but is not a bad person. He suffered the most like any of us. He is another victim of this fragile society.

Don't worry Goro. We will fight this cruel reality that treated like trash for years. The others don't know anything about you; sometimes I wished you were on our side to understand our reasons.


Katsuo Rank 1

Skill- Scavenger: Raises the chances to get double of crating materials after a battle.