June 20th, 20XX (Monday)

After School - Shujin Academy

MAKOTO: Three million yen by the end of the month…

MAKOTO: Is that even possible for high schoolers?

TOYA: Probably not, unless we borrowed a ridiculous amount of money from my brother.

TOYA: Even then, I doubt Kaneshiro would keep his word about deleting those pictures.

TOYA: I don't think we have a choice besides a change of heart…

MAKOTO: I'm still worried about that. How does it exactly work…?

TOYA: I wish I knew for sure. Everything I know about this is from eavesdropping on the Phantom Thieves.

TOYA: Supposedly, it's something like this: We go into their Palace, find their Treasure, send a calling card to make it materialize, and then steal it.

TOYA: We only get one chance at the calling card though.

MAKOTO: I see…

MAKOTO: We don't have a lot of time. We should go into the Palace today.

TOYA: I agree. I'd like to spend Sunday making the calling card, so let's try to find Kaneshiro's Treasure by Saturday.

MAKOTO: Sounds good. Do we meet at Shibuya Station again?

TOYA: Yeah. I'll meet you there.

June 20th, 20XX (Monday)

After School - Kaneshiro's Palace (Bank Entrance)

"Oh, right. Now that you have a Persona, there was something I was wondering about."

"Hm? What's that?"

"To my knowledge, the Phantom Thieves use code names. When I had to communicate with one of them, I also used a code name: Hazard. Maybe it's time for you to get one too."

"A code name… I suppose I'm fine with that. What should it be?"

"Well, I got mine from something that Shadows said to me. They called me a 'hazard to society', and it kinda just stuck. As for you… I'm not really sure. Does anything come to mind?"

"Hmm… how about Queen?"

"Queen… I think it fits you pretty well." Toya and Makoto nodded, before climbing up to the bank. Once they got there, they immediately noticed an issue: the front entrance was completely boarded up. Toya and Makoto stared at it in silence for a brief moment, both feeling like they probably got too aggressive.

"Do you think there's another way in…?"

"I wouldn't be too surprised. Any idea where it could be?" Makoto began looking around, before a golden statue of a pig caught her attention. She walked over to it with Toya following behind her.

"Do you feel a draft…?"

"Yeah, actually… coming from just underneath this. I wonder…" Toya took a step forward, pressing a button that was hidden in plain sight on the statue. Suddenly, the statue moved, revealing a hole in the ground. "Good catch… let's get going." Toya and Makoto both dropped down, entering Kaneshiro's bank through it's obscure hidden entrance.

June 20th, 20XX (Monday)

After School - Kaneshiro's Palace (Front Hall)

Finally inside of the Palace, the two of them scanned the room they were in. Peeking around a corner, they saw the entrance to the Bank- where they had fought off Shadows yesterday.

"So, as for a plan… I have a few general things we need to consider."

"Hm? Like what?"

"First of all, with how massive this place seems to be, I think we should try finding a map as soon as we possibly can. After all, that might give us a hint as to where the Treasure might be."

"I suppose that makes sense. Is there anything else for now?"

"Let's try to be quiet, too. I'm sure we're gonna have to fight Shadows at some point, but there are too many for just us to deal with. Let's try to get by without fighting too many, otherwise we're just gonna tire ourselves out."

"I see… you're right. I suppose we can't let the pressure of a deadline get to us." The two nodded, before Toya stepped forward, Makoto followed close behind him as they snuck through the main area, keeping as quiet as they can so as not to alert any Shadows. Once they successfully got through, they saw a Shadow walk into an elevator that descended downward, and locked behind him.

"It locked behind him… that might mean that the Treasure is on a lower floor."

"That would make sense. There doesn't seem to be many areas above us, just one floor." The two of them turned their heads away, continuing onwards to a staircase. Once they got up, they saw more ATMs- talking ones.

"Why… Why did I ever loan money from someone like him…?" Makoto took a step back, turning her head away for a moment before clenching her fists.

"That bastard… he probably sees the students that way. I'm not gonna let him walk all over them anymore!"

"We'll stop him, Queen. I know we will. Come on, we have work to do." Makoto looked to Toya, nodding and following him. Toya's confidence… it was actually really nice to hear, almost contagiously-so. They continued up the stairs, until something caught their attention, something they hadn't seen yet- and weren't expecting at all.

"Are those… dogs...? Have you ever seen one in the Metaverse, Toya?"

"No, never. This is a first for me as well." The dogs turned around to them for a moment, before they both began to bark as loudly as they could, charging towards the two of them and suddenly transforming into twin-headed Shadows. "Damn it, they're Shadows!? Come on, let's take them down!"

"Right!" Makoto clenched her fists, her Tekko materializing around them, as Toya did the same with his gunblade. The dogs jumped into the air and tried crashing down on both of them, but Makoto successfully dodged out of the way, while Toya simply blocked the hit with his blade, pushing the dog off of him. He charged towards the dog that was trying to regain its balance, cutting through the dog like it was only paper, finishing it instantly. Meanwhile, Makoto struggled a little bit more. She wasn't fast enough yet to charge in and finish the dog while it was recovering like Toya was, but she wasn't stupid. Instead of trying to do something she wasn't able to do, she studied the dog for a moment, and took note of its patterns. It would instinctively charge into her and try to bite down on her with its massive fangs, so attacking it head-on wasn't a good approach. However, just because she couldn't hit it in the face didn't mean it was impossible for her to counter. Within a few moments, the dog charged into her once more, jumping up into the air and attempting to bite down. However, as soon as the dog was off the ground, Makoto lifted one leg into the air, and slammed it down onto the dog as it was in the air, knocking it down to the ground instantly. Within the time it took for the dog to recover from this, she was able to punch right through it, causing the dog to vanish into black smoke. She took a deep breath then cracked her knuckles.

"You sure learn quick, don't you?"

"You'd be surprised. I suppose studying has sharpened my brain enough to think of strategies like that. Although, seeing you do something similar definitely jump started the idea in my head."

"Keep fighting with an open mind like that and you'll be a master by the time we're done with this place." Toya nodded in approval, before he heard the sound of footsteps. The loud noises that the dogs made caught the attention of some nearby Shadows, as they raced to the scene. "More of them! Stay on guard!" The guards quickly made it to them, transforming into their real forms: one red demon, and three angels. "Think you can handle the big one?"

"Leave it to me!" Makoto ripped off her mask, holding it close to her face as jumping onto Johanna. She spun around once, before a blue explosion engulfed the demon, knocking it away from the angels. The angels tried rushing to the demon, but Toya was much quicker. He took off his summoning Diabolos and firing off dark magic in the direction of all three angels. The angels were defeated in an instant, leaving Makoto alone with the demon. As the demon got up and emerged from the wall, it tried smashing it's sword down onto Makoto, but she quickly dodged out of the way. With how slow the demon was, she was able to properly fire back this time, once again using Johanna to send the demon flying. The force from this explosion was enough to finish it off, as it faded into mist once it collided with the wall. She turned to Toya, who was putting his mask back on.

"I think that's the last of the reinforcements, for now. Let's get going." The two of them stretched for a moment, before turning a corner and continuing onward. However, once they turned that corner, they saw a door that was sealed by iron bars. "A sealed off room… this must be important if it's guarded this heavily."

"Probably. It looks like we need something to open it, though… maybe a key-card?"

"A key-card… I suppose that's probably true. I guess we'd better just continue onward in hopes that we find one." Unable to continue onward through the blocked door, Toya and Makoto went on throughout the rest of the floor. However, the only other door they could find brought them right back to where they had started. For a bit, they were stumped. After a while though, Toya noticed something. Makoto followed him as he made his way towards an open ventilation shaft.

"We're gonna crawl through that…?"

"Worth a shot, right? I don't see any other options, anyways." Slowly climbing up to the vent, they both crawled into it, until they suddenly found a new room- one with Shadows inside of it. Toya looked back to Makoto, before they both nodded and emerged from the other side.

"Intruders!? We'll show you the strength of Kaneshiro's elite men!" The Shadows transformed within moments of them entering the room. Toya and Makoto's weapons materialized, as they found themselves staring down… creatures that resembled horses, only they were red and standing on two feet.

"Any idea on how we deal with these ones, Hazard?" Toya smirked, before taking off his mask and throwing it into the air. As his Persona came out, he simply snapped his fingers, causing Diabolos's arms to morph as he fired away at the Shadows, dropping every one of them almost instantly, before he caught his mask in his hands, putting it back on as Makoto just watched in awe.

"How about that way?"

"I-I guess that works…" Makoto looked away for a moment, before something on the wall suddenly caught her eye. "Wait, is this a map?" Toya turned his head over to the other side of the room, seeing something on the table that caught his attention.

"A key-card, too… we're in luck! Let's look at the map first." Toya walked behind Makoto, peeking over her shoulder and reading the map. "That's weird… it's like it's incomplete or something…"

"I think it is. But at least we can get an idea of how big this place is."

"Yeah. I think we're about a third of the way through already. Do you think we should stop here?"

"No, not yet. I'd rather maximize our time here, so we have enough time to prepare for what may come at the end of the Palace."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Something tells me that we won't be able to just take Kaneshiro's Treasure that easily. I doubt he's gonna go down without a fight, so when that happens, we need to be ready."

"I see… yes, you're right. We'll need as much time as possible to prepare for when that happens. Well, let's get back to that sealed door then." Toya and Makoto nodded at each other before leaving the room, carrying the map and the key-card with them as they made their way back to the sealed off room they found earlier. They were able to open the sealed door, entering inside, and riding on top of an elevator down to a lower floor.

"How do you feel? Still feeling okay enough to explore some more?" Makoto didn't respond. Instead, she just sat there, deep in thought and looking away. Toya inched closer to her, snapping his fingers until Makoto finally snapped out of it.

"Oh! I'm sorry- I was just thinking of something…"

"Are you alright? It took some effort to get your attention…" Makoto looked at him, then looked away again, closing her eyes and thinking.

"I'm not… getting in your way, am I?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"A few days ago, my sister talked to me, and… she said that I'm just eating away at her life. At first, I thought she was just mad at me, but… when I started thinking about it some more, it made sense. I really am useless to her…"

"For someone so smart… you think about some really dumb things, you know that?" Makoto opened her eyes, visibly confused as she turned to Toya, who was looking down at the elevator they were on. "At the end of the day, we're kids. We leech off of people until we become self sufficient. So maybe at this moment, you think you're useless. My brother might even think of me the same way, but…" Toya stood up straight and opened his eyes. "Look at what we're doing now. We're doing something in to the world, we're getting rid of something that's a threat to everyone- including my brother and your sister. Not to mention… look at yourself, at your future. You're on the path towards a life where you're going to be amazing- and you'll have plenty to show for it. You just need to believe in the path you're on." Makoto didn't respond right away. For a moment, they just stared at each other. Neither of them said a word, they just stared. Makoto was still confused and concerned, but she realized that there might still be hope- and that was enough for her.

June 20th, 20XX (Monday)

After School - Kaneshiro's Palace (Banker Passageway)

Their gaze was broken once the elevator suddenly stopped. Makoto picked herself up, and the two nodded at each other. They crawled through a nearby vent and jumped down to the floor, examining their surroundings. Taking a look at the map, it seemed like they were in a basement, but it wasn't the absolute lowest level of the bank.

"All security, listen up!" Toya and Makoto looked around. Both of them recognized Kaneshiro's voice, no matter how much different it sounded in the Metaverse. "It looks like those two rats have infested this place! Under no circumstances let them further down! Strengthen security as much as you can! Understood?"

"I'm getting really sick of that voice…" Toya began walking forward, cracking his knuckles and making his way to the next room.

"At least he confirmed that we were right in going further down. The Treasure must be at the bottom floor."

"We'll take him down. I know it." Toya and Makoto both went on, continuing their search of the Palace. However, they stopped for a brief moment, looking at the top of the room and seeing security cameras. "Security cameras… we'll have to be even more careful now."

"No, I think I have a much better solution to it than that." Makoto slowly took a step back, before charging forward. She jumped up into the air, reeling back her fist and hitting the camera, smashing it down to the ground. Toya smirked at the sight, before the two ran forward and broke the next two cameras as well."

"That's… a lot easier. Come on, let's keep moving." the two of them moved forward, entering a door and seeing Shadows with their backs turned away from them. They looked at eachother, nodding before slowly inching forward. Toya took out his blade and suddenly stabbed straight through the Shadow in the middle, destroying it instantly. Before the other two Shadows could react to this. Makoto grabbed them by their heads and slammed them into each other, leaving them both in a daze as she finished them off. Without giving them a chance to even transform, Toya and Makoto dealt with the Shadows without so much as breaking a sweat. Proud of their work, they continued onward, destroying two more security cameras and going up a flight of stairs. They began focusing more and more on stealth, avoiding all of the Shadows they could and moving onward. After a couple minutes of sneaking around, they found themselves in a large room. Makoto took out the map the two of them had, examining it and finding the room they were in.

"So, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that we're getting closer to the next area of this place. The bad news is that this room is the last room on the map…"

"That must mean there's another map not too far away, right? Come on, let's keep moving." Makoto nodded, following Toya as he destroyed more security cameras in their path, continuing downwards and coming across what appeared to be a giant vault.

"A vault…? No, it's… a door…?"

"A giant door that looks like a vault… I don't know what I was expecting."

"It seems there's a lot more beyond this. There are two keyholes, so we're gonna need to find more keys before we get past this."

"Two keys… well, that can't be too hard. Let's get going." The two of them began going back upstairs, looking around the rooms they hadn't explored yet, before noticing one room they hadn't yet entered. The room was locked off by iron bars, and there were two voices coming from inside. Toya and Makoto waited next to the wall, and began listening in on the conversation.

"Hey, did you hear? It sounds like those intruders are wreaking havoc in here."

"What's wrong? Are you nervous? Don't be. We have the keys they need, so things should be OK as long as we protect them." Toya and Makoto looked at each other. These were clearly the two keys for the vault downstairs, so they needed to get them.

"You up for a fight? These two are definitely stronger than the rest. If you don't think you're ready, then we can think of something else…"

"No, let's do this. We're strong enough to take them." Makoto took off her mask, summoning her Persona and getting on top of it. Toya smirked, getting on just behind her. They looked at each other, before Makoto revved up Johanna, driving into the bars and breaking through them, bringing them into the room with the guards.

"They're here already!? Come on, let's take them down!" The two guards quickly transformed, turning into two demons. One was blue and faceless, while the other was red with white stripes. Both of them were large, and even had giant swords with them. Toya recognized the red and white one, but the blue one was new, and probably a lot stronger as a result.

"That blue one is mine. Go after the red one!"

"You sure you can handle that thing…?"

"I'm sure. Go!" Toya looked at Makoto with slight concern, before jumping off of Johanna, his sights set on the red demon. If he took it down fast enough, he would be able to help Makoto with the blue one. He ripped off his mask, summoning Diabolos and landing down. The red demon charged towards him, but it was slow. Toya dodged its massive blade and used it as an opening, snapping his fingers as Diabolos shot dark magic towards it. Even though it made direct impact, the demon was strong enough to take it. Toya jumped forward as the demon brought his blade back up, the two swords colliding with each other as they both began to push towards each other.

Meanwhile, Makoto was driving around the blue demon in circles. The blue demon was definitely faster than the red one, but it wasn't that smart. She continued driving in circles around it until the demon got confused and dizzy, then used the chance to jump up and land a punch on it. She got a direct hit, but it was only enough to stagger the demon, not enough to finish it. She landed on Johanna and spun around once more, causing a blue explosion to send the demon flying away into the wall. Revving up Johanna one more time, she charged straight forward, crashing into the demon and finishing it off. As she finished the blue demon off, Toya backed away from the red one's blade, instead opting to shoot at its eyes, bringing it down to its knees and finishing it off with a quick slice to its neck. Toya stretched, as Makoto fell to her knees, panting. He picked up the key dropped by the red demon, and a map that was on the other side of the room, before he made his way over to her.

"You took that thing down all by yourself… I'm impressed."

"That was nothing…" Makoto looked up at Toya, trying to play it off as if she had it under control, even though she was clearly out of breath. Toya walked behind her and picked up the key that the blue demon dropped.

"We have both keys now, as well as the second map. It looks like we're around two thirds of the way done by now. You think this is a good place to stop for the day?"

"Yeah… let's go back."