Chapter Two: I Started a Joke

When Makoto awakens, she hears an aria. She feels cold, and there's steel clamped around one of her legs. She's dressed in a striped outfit, black-and-white, and as she stares at the ceiling of her padded cell, she remembers that she's been here before.

She sees the old man sitting across from her cell, facing her with an excessively large grin. At his side are two prepubescent girls, wardens in blue. It's almost exactly as she remembers it. She gets up from her bed and turns to the bars, marching over as the hunchback calling himself Igor speaks up.

"First off...I'd like to begin by congratulating you. You've performed admirably," he says, moving his lips without parting his teeth from each other.

"To think our master would give words of praise..."

"You'd better treasure this moment, Inmate!"

"You've encountered allies who share your aesthetics, and you've found your place in reality. The time has come. You've taken your very first steps towards rehabilitation, and while you've still much to learn, you've handled your power impressively for a newly-awakened Wild Card."

"While I'm grateful for the words of praise, you'll forgive me for still being a little on-edge, after everything. It all just happened so fast...," is all Makoto can say. "And...I don't understand what you mean by 'rehabilitation,' nor do I understand what being a...Wild Card entails."

"Then I shall explain it to you now," says Igor. "You have potential to become something far more than your contemporary Persona-users. But your potential must be refined into a useful power. It is weak now, but in refining it, you will gain the strength to stand against the coming ruin. That is the rehabilitation cast upon you."

"Ruin...?" That choice of words strikes Makoto somewhat, and she remembers Sakamoto, Takamaki, and...Kanzaki. She thinks to grab her phone, an all-too human tendency, but then realizes she doesn't have it on her. Nevertheless, she decides to ask, "Did you...plant that app into my phone?"

He replies, all business-like, "Yes. I granted you and your allies the ability to access the Metaverse as a way for you to transport yourselves between Palaces and reality. There are various means by which you can combat the ruin. Battling Shadows and gaining experience is one such way."

And though she's partly relieved to finally be able to know something after all this, she thinks back to his previous few words, and suddenly vile things start ripping through her mind. "This ruin...what will happen? How will battling Shadows help us stand against it?"

Because her thoughts go back to Kamoshida's Shadow, roaring and screeching in anger. His monstrous knights, getting crushed under Johanna's wheels. Claiming Kamoshida's Treasure and managing to get out just in the nick of time. Imagining that on a grander scale, legions of monstrous vermin polluting the world, attacking and killing and destroying whatever they please; that is the ruin she envisions. She feels her hands sweat at the thought of it all, and her chest grows cold as Igor answers her without answering her.

"When the time comes, you will know," he says simply. "You will require my guidance, as well as the assistance of your allies in reality. Their presence will help you refine your abilities."

"...how?" she asks a little cautiously.

"Though it may be presumptuous of us," the more waifish of the wardens, Justine, says, "we have words of wisdom as well."

"When you're out there in the real world," Caroline says, her voice shrill and eyes sharp, "you'd better hone your relationships with those you have contracts with! If you've got time to waste, visit your contractors."

"Cultivate your relationships with others, simply put," smiles Justine then. "That is another source of power to evade the ruin."

And with that explained to her, Makoto first thinks it sounds a little too good to be true. But she quickly realizes that it makes sense. From what Morgana had told her, a Persona appears to be a manifestation of her psyche; a sort of positive counterpart to a Shadow. And so, it would make sense that relationships with others would affect her mental state, in turn affecting Johanna's abilities. In turn affecting her ability to stand against whatever ruin is coming for her and for the world.

If it gets that bad, at least.

"You're on the cusp of forming your very first few contracts," says Igor, his voice still that monotonous baritone it's always been; yet Makoto thinks it's the closest he'll ever come to excited. "Your heart will steadily gain the power of opposition. At this rate, the rehabilitation will come along smoothly. This is indeed a joyous occassion. May the devotion to your rehabilitation grow even deeper."

But at that, all the memories of the Palace come flooding back, and she wonders what to do next. Wonders if all that happened...meant something.

"What will happen, now?" she asks him, scowling at the memory of Kamoshida.

"It is difficult to tell what may come of your actions, but be warned. The Metaverse Navigator is not a toy, and the power to steal the hearts of the corrupt is not meant to be used without preparation for the consequences they may bear. In the end, you've done all you can, and you must now wait for your labors to bear fruit."

"Yes...," she says, nodding to herself as her voice begins to crack, and as she thinks of everything that could happen she can't help but feel afraid. For her future, for what she's done, for what she may have done. "All I can do right now is...wait. There's no use mulling over it..."

"I must tell you that there is a monster in your midst," Igor suddenly says. "Something unimaginable and indescribable rests inside of him, and it would be expedient for you to contend with it as quickly as you can. For, if left to his own devices, he will bring misfortune upon you and those you cherish."

And she wonders just who he might be talking about for a second. Only a second.

"Oh no...," she whispers quietly, remembering a man with dark hair and glasses and the most sallow eyes she's ever seen.

"The time has come," says Justine suddenly. "Return to your fleeting moments of rest..."

And Makoto pushes forward, trying to get through the bars, trying to ask more questions, "W-wait! I'm not done here...!"

But then the world turns blue. And black. And all manner of colors.

- SECTION I -
"I know what the world's like!"

Sis is going to kill me.

That is the first thought that reaches Makoto Niijima's head when she stirs from the futon mattress. She rubs her eyes and she looks out the window of the attic; it's early morning. When she opens her phone, she discovers it's 7:30 AM. A part of her is thankful that it's Sunday. With everything that's happened in the last few days, she knows she could use the rest.

She sees Sakamoto and Takamaki sleeping side-by-side, against the shelf next to my bed. And when she turns to my bed, she sees I'm not there. She grips her shoulders as she breathes, and tells herself to calm down.

It's at this point that the headache hits her, as does the gravity of everything she did just the previous day. She thinks back to Kamoshida, what she helped do to him and his Shadow, and all the chaos of the fight that took place. She remembers feeling...exhilarated, really. It was the same feeling she had when she'd awakened to Johanna; the fight caused something like an unending jolt throughout her nerves, and she'd be lying if she said that she didn't feel any satisfaction whatsoever throughout the whole sordid ordeal. It was almost storybook, in a way; the outlandish rebels defeat the mad king, stealing his most prized possession and escaping with their lives. But she quickly realizes that things may not go the way she wishes for them to.

She remembers what Kanzaki's Persona did, in the end. And she now has to wonder if perhaps Murphy's Law is in full effect. Maybe Kamoshida's Shadow was critically injured. Maybe that will cause ramifications in the real world; maybe Kamoshida himself will end up brain dead after all. Did they take things too far? Did they end up crossing a line, just as Kanzaki warned? But in the end, there's no point in worrying over it now. What's done is done.

All she can do now is hope for the best.

She can't help but turn to thoughts of her father. He'd be able to comfort her, surely. Give her advice on what to do next. There was no other way to stop Kamoshida, was there? All other options had been exhausted, weren't they? If Kamoshida was allowed to continue on this path he'd set for himself, more people would've gotten hurt. Lives would've been in danger. No one dared speak out against him, and those who did ended up ostracized. She did what she had to. She couldn't have been wrong to do this.

And she couldn't have been wrong to think about someone else—

"There's curry downstairs, if you'd like it."

She sees me at the door and stops her train of thought. I don't think to ask why she's breathing the way she is, or why she's clutching the blanket so tightly. I turn and I see that Sakamoto and Takamaki are still sleeping, before facing Niijima once more.

"Good thing it's Sunday, huh?" I chuckle, smirking somewhat and turning back to the stairs. As I tread down, I hear the floorboards creak, and when I turn I see that she's right behind me.

"I want to talk to you," she says suddenly.

I scratch the back of my head, "Yeah. Me, too."

"Sakura-san's out getting some groceries. It'll be a while 'til he gets back," I say, sipping some curry from my bowl.

She and I are at a booth in the corner of Leblanc. Our bodies are facing each other, but we're not looking at each other; the curry looks infinitely more interesting, less judgmental. But like always, the quiet gets too much.

"Why was the real Kamoshida in the Palace with you and Morgana?" she asks.

"Cat didn't explain?" I ask her, deciding to eye her.

She faces me then, frowns, and responds, "No. He didn't want to say."

I put the spoon back in my bowl and decide to tell her outright, "Had a feeling he might've felt a little queasy."

"What did you do to Kamoshida?" she asks, wide-eyed and tone accusatory.

"I pushed my thumbs into his eyes, and knocked him out in the faculty office," I tell her with a straight face. Of course, she recoils. That alone is worth it. "Thankfully, he was alone. So nobody saw me and the cat teleport ourselves to his Palace, where he woke up. I had him knocked out again by strangling him with a chain."

"What!?"

"Then, I had the cat turn into a bus, and I chained him to the hood. From there, I threatened to cut out his eyes, and his ears, until he was just completely helpless. The plan was to make Kamoshida's Shadow fear for his host's safety, and then willingly hand over the Treasure for the sake of at least keeping the real Kamoshida alive. But there was always the possibility that Kamoshida's Shadow would just get all antsy about it, whereupon the cat would escape the Palace and I'd hold the Shadow off until you and the others would come in. And the rest is history."

She just blinks as she looks at me in half-anger, half-amazement. But then it turns into plain anger, born of worry. "You shouldn't have tried to do it all by yourself."

"I had the cat with me—"

"You know what I mean," she grunts. "You could've gotten yourself killed. You could've gotten Kamoshida killed. Why didn't you tell me or Sakamoto or Takamaki any of this? Either of you?"

"The cat actually thought to involve you guys. I disagreed."

"Why?"

"Because none of you would've agreed to any of the stuff I did to Kamoshida. Venturing into his Palace, stealing his heart, you'd have been down for that. But torturing and terrorizing the man, the way I did? Chaining him to the hood of a car, manhandling him and making him wet himself in his fear? I didn't think you'd have liked that."

"You didn't have to do any of that," she says, sounding almost disappointed in me.

"Oh, was that a bad thing for me to do?" I ask her, right out. "I did it in the way a villain would? By torturing him? Hurting him? Making him wet himself? In the end, his heart changes, which is exactly what you and I both wanted. The only difference is there's violence to actual humans this time around, instead of monsters that look like them."

"That's...," she scowls and turns to the table, "that's not how it was supposed to..."

"It's too easy, Niijima," I tell her. "We have all this power. We're brainwashing people, plain and simple. I figured that if my heart was gonna change, I'd at least like to see how it happens. Wouldn't you?"

She sighs, facing away from me, "What if Kamoshida remembers the Palace?" then she swifty turns and levels her eyes with me. "What if he remembers you attacking him, throwing him into this death world, what'll you do if he tries to get even?"

"If his heart's changed, then he won't even try," I say, calming her down. "He'll confess everything to the police. If he says a word about my involvement in his Palace, they won't believe him. And even then, I doubt he'll even try saying a word about Palaces anyway, because the fear of me coming after him will always be breathing down his neck. He's finished and he knows it. He'll leave Shujin, no doubt about it. Or kill himself out of terror over what his life's become."

She furrows her brows then, "You shouldn't say that—"

"That was a risk," I tell her firmly. "That was a risk, from day one. Him, having a mental breakdown. Him, possibly killing himself over the strain we might put on his mind. Him, suffering madly as we steal something that makes him himself. Those are all risks that you were willing to take, and I was willing to take. You don't get to be the good girl now and tell me that I'm the one doing a bad thing. You're just as much into this as I am."

She glares at me then. "I don't understand you."

"Which part?"

"You tell us we're terrible people for invading Kamoshida's Palace, but when you do it you go out of your way to traumatize—"

"We're not heroes," I say outright to Niijima, slamming my hand down on the table. "You're not, I'm not, the cat and Sakamoto and Takamaki are not—and it was never about protecting people, it was about making sure bad people get what's coming to them," I declare. "That's all it was, that's all Kamoshida was, and don't you deny it."

"That's what it was to you," she growls, and I don't rebut her. After that, she pauses a little, scowls, and decides to change the subject. "Why did you change your mind so suddenly?"

I closed my eyes, stirring the curry and explaining, "I figured you were right. In the end, all my actions amounted to nothing. And Kamoshida was just gonna keep doing what he was doing without compunction, unless his heart changed. I had another idea, though. I thought, perhaps I could go into the faculty office, egg him into confessing his crimes, and then record his confession as he'd beat me down."

"You're serious," she sighs.

"Yes. But the cat had the more appealing idea," I say.

Then I see her expression change, and her once stony visage gives way to something like horror.

"What if he...does end up dying...?" she asks then, suddenly, her hand gripping her shoulder.

"Now, you're asking that question?" I ask her flatly, before sighing and coming out with, "Then the blood's on my hands. I'm the one who had Mephistopheles barrel into his Shadow, and that had nothing to do with any of you. You can all pass the buck to me. If he does die, you have nothing to worry about."

"How can you say that so easily?" she exclaims then, sounding actually shocked at me, like I've told her something she doesn't already know.

"This is why I told you not to be a part of this," I say. "These are the kind of questions you begin asking yourself. Did I attack him too hard? Did I go too far? Will this end up killing him? A person's mental state isn't the only thing on the line, here. Before you know it, turning back's no longer an option. All we can hope for is that he does end up just surrendering himself to the police, and nothing else."

"What else could we have done?" she exclaims. "Nobody would've believed us. Everyone we tried to get on our side denied it despite the evidence literally being on their faces. Kamoshida had enough of a reputation to get people to flock over to him. He could just deny everything and all our accusations would fall flat on their backs. We had no choice but to..."

"Yeah. And now we have to accept the consequences, whatever they may be," I tell her, glaring at her. And she furrows her brows, and gazes back at me in something like pity. "Don't do that. That look in your eyes, I hate it. What's done is done, and the weight's all on me. I did it, and I accept whatever comes. You don't have to—"

"The weight's on me, too."

"Oh come on—"

"I dragged you into it, when all you wanted to do was get us out of it. Palaces, Personas, Shadows...I wasn't prepared for what could happen. You're right. You're absolutely right." Then she holds her head in her hands. "I helped make this happen. No matter how much of a hand you had in it, I was involved. I've been ignorant of it. I didn't want to think about it because I was so stuck on trying to make Kamoshida hurt."

And then and there, I remember last night. Seeing her sleeping on the floor. I thought of Kana, my selfishness, and how easy it was for me to justify my actions all because of thoughts of her. I grunt at her, remembering why I did what I did, and why it was so easy for me to do it. And then and there I feel more ashamed than I've ever been.

"You've got nothing to be ashamed about," I tell her. "I've been selfish, more than you. That's all I've been, all this time. I've been running around in circles."

She pauses then, and stops talking for a few moments before coming out, "What do you mean?"

I shake my head, "I just planned to chain him to the front of the car." And she faces me again. "I didn't plan to push my thumbs into his eyes, or strangle him, or put a knife up to his face." Her fists ball up at that last statement, as I face her. "He talked about her."

"Who?"

"Kana. Kana Kohaku," I say, closing my eyes shut. "He talked about her." She doesn't respond, letting me continue. "He said that...if he were in Shido's place, all I'd have been able to do was just...watch." Then, my eyes meet hers. "I did it all for me. Because I hated him, and I wanted him to live with his sins for the rest of his days. Even now, I'm considering invading other people's Palaces for my own gain."

She just looks at me, dumbfounded. "You're...what?"

And I face her fully. Seeing her completely, in and of herself. "You said you couldn't run away from the world. Neither can I. But...I doubt it's something you can call justice. There're others out there, like Kamoshida. Some of them, a lot worse than he could ever be. Stopping them won't help their victims, nor will it stop people like them from continuing to spread. But to tell you the truth, I think I'd just feel satisfied hitting back, you know?"

Her shoulders don't tense up. She doesn't look at me in disappointment, nor does she look at me in anger. It's something else, something I can't quite describe.

"It's petty," I tell her. "I admit it. I might end up hurting people, maybe even killing them. I don't want to kill anyone, not anymore. But...I just don't want to see more of them out there." And I remember last night. Seeing her sleeping on the floor. I thought of Kana, my selfishness, and how easy it was for me to justify my actions all because of thoughts of her. "I know it's wrong. I know that if there's a Heaven, I don't deserve to be there. And I don't care."

"Kanzaki—"

"I derive satisfaction from hurting other people." I say to her, my voice cold and my eyes burning into hers. "It's just me, and them. If I'm a monster, then they're devils, and putting them in their place makes me feel good. I attacked Kamoshida and I tortured him because I hated him and hurting him felt good. It wasn't out of the goodness of my heart, or my desire for some brand of justice. I did it because I liked it. It's never about other people, Niijima. It's always just us."

She furrows her brows again, and says in a pleading way, "It's not about us—"

"It's always about us," I say. "People're looking for every excuse to make themselves look like heroes, and make their opposition look like the villains. I told you about Shido already, and you know about Kamoshida. Good people are good not because they do good things, but because someone else told you they're good," I say. "When you help others, you're really helping yourself. That's all I've been doing, that's all you've been doing, and I can't stand it when people try to dress it up as otherwise."

She just stares at me in disbelief. "How cynical are you?"

I just shake my head at her, "I told you already, they're all liars. What kind of justice can you get from them?"

"They're not all the monsters you make them out to be," she says.

"What, are you going to give me examples, now?" I scoff.

"My father was a police officer who died in the line of duty three years ago," she says. "In the middle of a shootout between three gangs, he tried saving people who got caught in the crossfire. You know what he looked like? I don't know. They kept me from seeing him because whatever the bullets did to his face, it made him unrecognizable. But the baby he tried to save? Completely unharmed."

She and I don't talk for a while after that. But we remain in our seats, staring into the curry. Again, the silence has to end.

"I'm sorry," I say simply.

She just ignores my apology. "I don't care if you believe in people or not. I don't care if you think you're a terrible person, or if what you did was justified, or if you think invading Palaces is a horrible thing to do. I believe that sometimes, we do what we have to in order to protect others. And I don't believe we're all entirely selfish. Not even you."

Because at my words, she remembers hearing the news stories and seeing all the monsters. And how much they looked so normal, so utterly plain. Their victims' faces would be blurred and pixellated except in the darkest corners of the internet, and even then the accounts of the eyewitnesses themselves would paint enough of a picture that images would no longer be needed. Families shredded, lives destroyed, and worlds burnt all because someone thought that hurting someone else was an acceptable way to alleviate his own apathy.

There's too much of it in her mind, too much to remove. She thinks of her father. Gasping for life, suffering alone, unable to even reach out to her in a hospital bed. She remembers staring up at her sister, and her sister's cold eyes turning into those of a stranger. Thinking of people she thought she once knew. And while she is loathe to admit it, she actually understands Kanzaki. Understands him all too well.

"I want to help you," she says suddenly.

"What?"

"I want to help you," she says. "I want to keep fighting."

"Wait, hold on—"

"I can't stand the sight of them, either," she says. "I don't want to see them. Acting like they own this world, sauntering around and hurting people for the sake of it."

"Niijima, I think you're being a little—"

"Everyday, I see it," she says. "It never ever stops."

And I stop talking for a moment, taking in the red of her eyes and how she's able to concentrate so much anger into them. But then I ask, "What are you talking about?"

"It's not like I don't know it, either," she grunts out, her hands tense now as she puts her back to her chair. She closes her eyes as she breathes, gripping her shoulders tight as her lungs grow cold and her mind goes blank white. "It's all over the place. There was a human trafficking ring that was discovered in Sweden and it was linked back to dozens of politicians. There was a woman who microwaved her baby just because it was too loud when it cried. A nine-year-old gets raped by her stepfather, a guy pulls a gun on a crowd full of people and just fires for no reason, and there's people all over the internet who sympathize, say they're victims too, say that the monsters responsible for committing these crimes are heroes or just misunderstood. And nobody talks about it. Nobody wants to talk about it, because nobody wants to think about other people being agonized, even when they're right under their noses."

And I see her tremble. Actually physically tremble, like she's trying to keep herself from vomiting. She practically tears her eyes open as she lifts her head up to meet me and leans forward, "I can't change the world. I know that in the end, I'm nobody. But if going into Palaces, and changing the hearts of people like that can make the world a better place, if even for a short while, then I'll do it. If not to stop them from hurting anyone else, then to give something back to the people they've hurt. I know what the world's like!"

And then she puts herself back to the chair, glaring at me still.

I tell her, "You really want to do this again?"

"I want to help people," she says simply. "I can't just stand back anymore. Not when I have this kind of power."

"And you're willing to do it with me?" I ask.

"I'm willing to do it by myself," she throats out. "But I know I can't. And I know you can't do it by yourself, either. Kamoshida's Palace overwhelmed us, even with Sakamoto, Takamaki, and Morgana. I don't like you, and you don't like any of us. But if you're going down this road, you can't expect to survive going through it alone."

I scowl at her, narrowing my eyes. "You go down this path, you'll never get back out. Are you sure you want this?"

And then a second male voice interjects with, "I do."

We turn to the stairs. Sakamoto and Takamaki. Standing there.

"So do I," Takamaki says, treading down the stairs and grabbing a chair from the counter. Sakamoto follows her lead.

"You guys...," Niijima mutters. "How much did you hear...?"

"Heard someone slam their hand down on the table, hard enough to wake us up," sighs Sakamoto, getting settled in his seat. "And...we thought it'd be rude to interrupt."

"We took care of Kamoshida," says Takamaki. "But in the end, there's more people like him. Out there in the world. It's not like stopping just one of them will change anything. People like him'll keep on keeping on."

"Morgana said that anybody with a desire distorted enough can spawn a Palace," says Niijima then. "If that's the case, then we can—"

"We don't even know if Kamoshida actually got a change of heart," I tell them all. "It's too soon to tell. What if he ends up breaking down? Going limp? Becoming a vegetable, or worse, insane? Would you all be so keen to go back to Palaces, then?"

"Then I'll make a deal with you," says Niijima.

"What?" I throat out, Sakamoto and Takamaki eyeing Niijima carefully.

"If the worst happens and he goes mad, or becomes a vegetable, or just shuts down—if anything happens to Kamoshida that has nothing to do with his heart changing, then we stop. I and Sakamoto and Takamaki never venture into another Palace, and you can rub in our faces all you want how right you are. But if his heart changes, if he does turn around and surrender himself to the police—" she leans forward, to the point where I can feel her breath on me as she puts her face directly in front of mine, "—then you help us. You join us. We take down Palaces together. Deal?"

Sakamoto and Takamaki eye me carefully, Niijima opening her hand out. Waiting for me to shake it. And all at once I remember Mephistopheles' words.

He said that I'd become a beacon. That my presence would lure others to their demise. And at this very moment, with Makoto Niijima offering me her hand, practically putting everything on the line right here and now, I begin to fear for her. Fear for the other two at her side. Fear for the future that awaits us all; and as I wonder what to say next I realize that she's completely and totally right.

Just as she said, I can't run from the world any longer. And just as I said, there'll always be another Kamoshida. There'll always be another Shido. But will there always be people like us? With the things that we know, and the things we can do?

And suddenly, Niijima hears a—

*SMASH!*

What!? she silently cries out.

Suddenly a card appears before her, in her mind. It is a simple black card, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. Within the black card is a laughing man, his teeth sharp and tears flowing endlessly from the corners of his eyes. His face is distorted; half of it is smiling while the other is profoundly downcast. The card speaks to her, tells her what it is: a bond, forged. And she sees the card's name: LA FARCEUR.

And then she hears a wispy female voice, breathing directly into her ears.

"I am thou...thou art I.
Thou hast acquired a new vow.
It may tear out thine wings of rebellion
And further enchain thee to captivity.
With the birth of the Jester Persona,
Thou'st attained a great evil
Surely to bedevil thee all thine days
From now until kingdom come."

At that moment, she loses everything she'd ever built up. She looks at me, and she looks at me for half-a-second as though I'm some sort of abomination that shouldn't exist in this world. But she sheathes herself, restrains herself from going completely off the rails, even though every cell in her's screaming at her to attack me, to make sure I stay down, to make sure I never get up again and she doesn't know why. She doesn't know why, at all.

And she realizes that in making the deal with me, she'll find out—why Igor warned her of me, why she feels compelled to destroy me right at this very moment, and what kind of person I really am—she'll find out, very, very soon.

By the time she realizes this, she discovers I'm already shaking her hand.

"Deal," I tell her, wondering how to describe the look she has in her red eyes.

"Did you mean it...?" asks Ryuji.

Makoto just nods.

Ann cups her chin then, "Doesn't sound like a particularly bad deal...though I wonder what made him change his mind."

"Guy's a jerk, but he's experienced...," grunts Ryuji. "Maybe having him on our side won't be such a bad thing."

Ann blinks at him, "Well, I get that he can be pretty standoffish, but I wouldn't call him a jerk. Something happen between you two?"

Ryuji shakes his head, "Day we met, he tried to warn us about Palaces. Told us changing hearts was too dangerous an option, and when I told him what Kamoshida did, he just shrugged me off. Said I needed to be made of sterner stuff, or something."

Ann turns to Makoto, "Did he really say that?" to which Makoto just nods, again. "Now I'm really interested in what got him to change his mind..."

"He figured he was wrong," says Ryuji. "Too late, in my opinion."

"How does he even know about Palaces, to begin with...?" asks Ann.

"You can ask him," replies Makoto.

"What, do you know?" Ryuji cocks his brow.

Makoto sighs, "You remember what happened during our second venture in the Palace?" They both recoil at the thought. "After you two left, I had to take him home."

Ryuji scoffs, "What, guy doesn't know how to commute home by himself?"

She shakes her head, frowning a little, "He was sick. Every few moments or so, he'd fall flat on his face. Even today, he didn't seem completely over it. I took him home to make sure he wouldn't hit a car or something on the way."

Ryuji blinks, "Okay. That's less funny."

"He told me a little on how he got into everything involving Palaces. But it's not my place to tell you. It's...a sore spot for him."

"That bad...?" frowns Ann.

"I understand him," replies Makoto. "I don't like him. I don't like his attitude. But I understand him."

Ryuji and Ann say nothing as Makoto's brows furrow. They're still a ways away from the train.

"So, what now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Ryuji scratches the back of his head, "well...now that everything's said and done, we really just wait?"

"That's what Morgana said," Makoto sighs. "That's all that's available to us at the moment."

"Do you think it'll turn out okay?" asks Ann. "After everything that happened..."

Makoto shakes her head, "I'm not sure. We've stolen the Treasure, but what Kanzaki did to Kamoshida's Shadow...there's really no telling what could happen now. We've made our bed."

"What're you going to do now?" Ryuji asks.

"I'm going home. I feel like I can sleep for days," Makoto sighs. "You?"

"Gonna head over to a ramen shop on the far end of the city," says Ryuji, clearing his throat. "With everything, I'll be surprised if I don't just eat everything on the menu...," then he turns to both Makoto and Ann, "wanna come with? Or is it too soon?"

"I'll pass," says Makoto, sounding out of breath. "I'd be happy to hang out some other time, however."

"Same," replies Ann. "Sorry. I'm planning to check on Shiho today. See if anything's changed."

"Right," nods Ryuji soberly. "Take care, both of you. Busy few weeks ahead of us all..."

"Guys," says Ann, looking to her left, "train."

And so the three of them get on the train, but none of them talk the whole way through. When Ann and Ryuji have to get off, they say their goodbyes to Makoto and that's that. Leaving the student council president to ponder.

Whatever happens to Kamoshida, Makoto's partially responsible and she knows it. Everyone knows it. If he dies, or goes insane, or changes his heart. Whatever the case, they're in it now and they don't think they'll ever be able to get out of it. And maybe he deserves it. Maybe it was the only way to stop him.

Makoto can't say she regrets it, or anything. It's not like she'll shed a tear at the idea of someone like Kamoshida finally getting karma over everything he's dealt out onto others.

A lot of maybes, that's all there is.

But Kanzaki had a point. She can't change the past, only accept what she's done and take responsibility for whatever comes.

Something doesn't sit right with her. It's blurred, hazy, but it's there nonetheless. It's heavy in her chest, and it's weighing her down a little. She can't say it's guilt, it'd be generous to say that. Rather, it's this sort of foreboding feeling that something is coming, and she's not sure what it is or how she can stop it.

She recalls Igor's words in the Velvet Room, and that voice in her brain announcing just how badly she's messed up in the mere act of bonding with Akira Kanzaki. They call him a monster, something that will bring misfortune upon her and those she cherishes.

While she admits he's not exactly very chipper, she wouldn't go that far. He's unpleasant, but she couldn't call him monstrous. But she remembers what he did to the real Kamoshida, the real Shido, and his plain confession: I derive satisfaction from hurting other people.

She wonders now if she's troubled more by Kanzaki's confession, or the fact that to some degree she can understand him. After all, the world's just full of people willing to do terrible things for no reason at all. She can't even count the amount of times she's wished for God to just come down from Heaven and send them all to Hell. Like how she's dreamed.

Before she's even aware of it, she's standing at the front door of her apartment.

She asks herself how she'll deal with Sis' inevitable outburst of where were you the other day. When she opens the door, however, she isn't met with any sort of outburst. She isn't met by anyone, or anything, besides a familiar silence.

The only sound in the apartment is the sound of her feet tapping against the floorboards. She's about to call for her sister, as she closes the door and puts her shoes at the entrance, but remembers feeling her phone buzz in her pocket just the other day; as she was tending to Kanzaki in his bed.

It never really crossed her mind to actually read the text, until now.

I'll be out for the next few days. I'll be staying in a motel, close to the station. I'll be back this Wednesday. This case has been very demanding. I'm sorry.

Makoto doesn't think she's relieved. In fact, she thinks she'd like it if she had someone to talk to, about anything right now. Even Sis.

She didn't think that the familiar silence of her apartment could have ever been so loud.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

And so it begins! Betcha Makoto really regrets making that deal with Akira now, huh? Next chapter, we see if Kamoshida's change of heart took off or if I decided to just rain on everyone's parade by letting him die! And though I'm sure everyone wants the latter option, things might not go exactly the way you expect.

There's still a story to be told here, after all; and a story can't stay completely face down in the grit, it's got to have some moments of levity as well. Plus, I've finally got a plotline for the rest of the story finally down pat; hence the change in description again. Considering what I've got planned later, it seems fitting to get all the happy sappy stuff out of the way asap.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Hope to see you guys in the next chapter, to see if the deal pays off and if we actually do get to see some Phantom Thief business somewhere down the line!

EDIT: 2/12/18
Added the ending sequences, felt they'd help the pace a lot.
2/16/18
There was a scene where Makoto recounted a particularly traumatic ordeal involving two parents doing terrible things to their children; while I thought initially it was thematically appropriate, I grew to think that it ultimately ended up too dramatic for the chapter. So I had it excised. Maybe I'll revisit it somewhere along the line.
4/1/18
Changed the chapter title. Thought it fit more.
6/14/18
AND have made the Confidant rank worse for Makoto. :P
7/7/18
Fixed some of the dialogue. Thought it was a lil too heavy-handed.