She glared at Kaneto Masaji with a tired, impatient look in her eyes.
"Fiiiiiiine! But at least let me turn off the lights first. Pleeeease?" She gripped Kaneto's arm, and forcibly removed it from her shoulder. "Walk with me, why don't you?"
Her voice sounded quite familiar. It unsettled Kaneto quite a bit. He was certain he had seen her somewhere before.
"Are you… ?"
The teacher looked quite uneasy. "Yes?" she asked cautiously. "Am I what?" She turned to take a good look at her unwanted guest, when a mix of dread and recognition flickered in her eyes. "Wait… you look like…"
It appeared that she remembered as well. Kaneto now recalled where he'd met this woman. It had been that one late night when he'd gotten bored and called for…
"Becky?"
Becky looked terrified by the recognition. "You're one of my clients… we… we did… why are you here?! I don't do that anymore! It was a mistake. Get out of here at once!"
"I-I-I…" Kaneto stammered.
"Wait… not only that," Becky gasped, "but I've seen you on TV! You were dragging away Shido! That illegitimate Prime Minister whose heart changed!"
"What? I… that wasn't me?!" Kaneto was desperate. He had indeed been the one who seized Shido during the broadcast earlier that day, trying to get him away from the camera before he spilled every little thing. He had been quite irritated when no one else had been helping at first. It was aggravating that he so often had to do everything himself.
But Becky was not to know this, of course.
"I don't know what you're talking about! You must have mistaken me for someone else. I've never been on TV in my life!"
"You're either here to monitor me," Becky said slowly, "or kill me, or because you have some sort of sick obsession with me… Whatever the case, you're not welcome! I know who you are! You'd best leave this instant!" She turned and ran away from him. "I do hope we never see each other again!"
"Wha-" Kaneto rushed after her. "Wait! "I… this is all a misunderstanding! I'm not here for that! I just want to ask you some questions! BECKY!"
"My name is not Becky!" Becky yelled as she burst out of the school entrance. She turned back to him, her face having shifted from fear to disgust. "You must not be a very bright or worthwhile man if you thought that was my real name!"
"Well then," Kaneto said nervously, "can I have your real na—"
"NO!" the teacher shouted, "I'm not giving away my real name to you! Don't EVER come here again!"
Kaneto kept running, but the teacher/maid was faster and soon reached her car. He lost sight of her shortly after that. Giving up the chase, he slumped his shoulders in defeat and started to head back to the office.
He could certainly agree with her on one thing. It had been a mistake. Kaneto wasn't certain that calling Becky in and of itself was in error, but mentioning it to her today certainly had been. Kaneto strongly hoped that no one else would ever find out about his meeting with Becky. It seemed that she didn't want anyone else to find out either, so there probably wouldn't be a problem.
Suddenly, Kaneto's phone chimed. Seeing that it was one of Shido's collaborators in the Diet, he elected to ignore the call. Kaneto was not interested in taking any calls whatsoever.
He took a few steps, and his phone rang once again. Another of Shido's collaborators. Again, he slid the red circle and rejected the call.
But more people called, and eventually, he begun to receive dozens of text and voicemail messages. As he dismissed all his notifications, he saw something about "pictures" and a "woman."
Kaneto froze in place when he observed those words…
He answered the next call.
"Kaneto Masaji speaking."
"NOW you're answering our calls?!"
"I'm busy. What is it?"
"We've been digging through all your leaked data!" shouted the man on the other end. "Who is this woman in these pictures you took? The one with the short black hair?"
Kaneto groaned. Now he would have to answer a million more questions…
Mother was busy packing her own suitcase in the other room. It was a ridiculously small suitcase, and also had several bits and pieces tearing away. I wouldn't have been surprised if it fell apart on our trip. Which would hopefully never come to pass…
I heard Mother still muttering to herself, quite audibly, as she packed.
"My clothes… what clothes should I bring… they could be contaminated… or the Phantom Thieves could have… the food! They could have poisoned the food. Hmm, it could be that it's some sort of injection… I should wear long sleeves… bug spray… how on Earth do I stop them?"
I was supposed to be packing my clothes up into a small, equally disheveled backpack, but I was instead pretending to search for them. When my mother came to demand that we leave, it wouldn't fool her, but for now I was doing my best to stall for time. I wasn't certain that doing so was necessary, but I really didn't know how the heart stealing worked. I also didn't want to leave in general anyways.
"Pumpkin!" my mother called out. "What are you doing?!"
"Looking for my clothes, Mother," I replied. She sighed exasperatedly and entered the room. It took her all of two minutes to locate them. They were buried beneath my dresser.
"Don't you think that's going to work on me, young lady!" she said sharply, before turning to return to her own luggage. "If you 'lose' those again, we're leaving anyway! I'm not buying new ones!"
I groaned quietly and began to pack them, anxiously rubbing my feet with my other hand as I did so.
Please hurry, Akira.
"You are aware that you were killed, correct?" Igor's deep voice pierced the cold air like a poison dart.
Akira nodded. "And I came back to life."
"Yes. And in doing so, you disturbed the balance of the game. The world has been overrun with confusion in response to the return of a supposed dead man. Your enemies have gone berserk trying to catch you. And this has consequently incited great chaos." Igor seemed quite irritated.
"Great chaos?" Akira asked. "Could you please be a little more specific?"
"Great chaos in the minds of the public," Igor clarified. "They are now questioning the nature of their very lives. If Phantom Thieves can return, then why not truly despicable villains? Murderers, rapists, terrorists? The dozens of men worldwide who were charged with the death penalty, perhaps, whose crimes would be able to continue if they simply returned. Do you see how this might cause a great upset?"
"Maybe," Akira admitted, "But what does that have to do with me? My team and I did what we could! And plus, how does anyone know that such people are coming back to life? For all we know, this was just a one time thing that some god or magic pixie or some shit set up specifically for us!"
"Indeed, that may be the case, and you do deserve congratulations for those efforts."
"Then why is it a problem?!" Akira yelled, raising his voice to a shout. "We didn't deserve to die in the first place! In fact, no one deserves to die like that! By murder!" He was getting a little riled up. "And even if criminals like that did come back to life, the Phantom Thieves would be here to change their hearts!"
"The Phantom Thieves are not all-powerful, INMATE!" Caroline shrieked. "Do watch your tongue!"
"Right," Justine noted. "You are not an omnipotent being capable of cleansing the world of all criminals. You would do best to remember this."
"I-I-" Akira stammered, "That's not what I meant…"
Igor laughed. "Ahahahahaha… you are truly an entertaining prisoner." He was not fazed by Akira's outburst. "You could certainly try targeting any such criminals… but it would be useless in the end."
"Useless?!" Akira yelled in disbelief. He was absolutely stunned that Igor would say such a thing. "What do you mean, useless?"
"Ha, perhaps I have said too much," Igor chuckled. "For the time being, it is irrelevant. You may forget it. There is one other matter of importance that Caroline and Justine would like to discuss with you. Girls?"
"Yes," Justine said, "we have noticed a small oddity in the Persona Compendium…"
"Oddity is a bit generous!" Caroline shouted. "What did you do, inmate?! There's an entire new page here!" She held up the mysterious record of Personas to his face, and pointed to an unfamiliar section of the list. They were all blank entries labeled "Art…"
Personas of the Art Arcana, waiting to be fused.
"I didn't do anything," Akira told them. "I just forged a new bond like you all told me to."
"This is not a normal bond!" screamed Caroline. "These Personas weren't here before!"
"They were indeed not," Justine agreed. "There are new fusion recipes in our books as well. And the Art is not normally known as an Arcana. It does not belong in this deck. What trickery have you employed here?"
"It seems connected to his challenge of death," Igor chimed in. "By pulling off such a stunt and stirring the world's spirits, he must have awakened someone new to join him as one of his contractors."
"But master." Justine was baffled and confused. "This has not happened before. The Art Arcana was not known to us, and the one who has lended him this power was not part of the game. What are we to do?"
"It is indeed unusual, but of no major consequence," Igor answered, "you may allow him to fuse these 'Art' Personas. I see no harm coming from it."
"But…" Caroline seemed a little reluctant, but she ultimately sighed irritably and said, "Very well! Inmate, our master has kindly granted permission to take advantage of this strange new power. Show him your appreciation!"
Akira bowed to Igor slightly. "Thanks. Caroline, Justine, I'd like to fuse…"
Joker emerged a few moments later, armed with several new masks. "Sorry about that," he told his team. He had been inside for what felt like perhaps an hour or so, fusing his Personas. But it appeared that in Mementos, a few minutes had passed at most.
"Joker…" Sae wondered, "what was that? What were you doing?"
"I was…" he thought it over a moment. Would it really be that difficult to explain what happened? Would they really not understand it as he had thought?
"I was in the Velvet Room."
"The Velvet Room?" Fox wondered, "it sounds rather aesthetically intriguing. What is it exactly?"
"A long-nosed man helps me make my Personas better," Joker explained, "assisted by two little girls."
"Little girls?" Queen shook her head in confusion. "This sounds very odd. Joker, we have to hurry and change Ohya Shiori's heart. You'll have to explain this to us more later."
Morgana hesitated for a moment, before scowling at Akira, and waving him towards the platform. "Yeah," Mona reminded him. "Come on, let's get down there!" He transformed into the Mona-mobile. Queen rushed to the driver's seat and everyone else followed.
"So your cat can in fact turn into a bus," Ace noted, laughing. "To think I would have been crazy enough to think of believing it. From a ranting teenage boy on drugs, of all people, and to think it would be true…"
Joker was a little amused, remembering that moment when he had pointed out the absurdity of the situation to the prosecutor, back then before she had joined in with them. He smiled slyly—but quickly stopped, remembering the circumstances under which that taken place.
In a brief moment of vulnerability, Akira's confidence slipped. He rubbed his forehead. There was sweat.
He had almost been expecting blood.
What if he was still dying, and this was all some sort of desperate hallucination? He hoped that that was not the case… but he couldn't be sure. After all those dreams, could he be certain that reality was really… real?
"Joker!" Queen let go of Mona's wheel and put a careful, concerned arm on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"Dude," Skull complained, "you're really out of it! Come on, we gotta roll!"
"Don't worry…" Joker groaned.
Was he dead? Alive? Going to die? He decided it didn't matter. All that mattered now was that the Phantom Thieves change Ohya Shiori's heart. For the Art.
"I'm alright. Just got a bit of a headache. Queen, start driving!"
Queen pushed her metal boot into Mona's pedal, and they sped off into Mementos.
Ohya Ichiko was in Crossroads again, drinking. Lala Escargot was busy tending the bar. The TV was blaring some bogus cover-up for Shido's confession. All was as it was, to be expected…
Ichiko hoped she had made the right decision, giving Pumpkin her blessing to have the Phantom Thieves change Shiori's heart. Not because she doubted the Phantom Thieves, but because she was, just a little, worried for her niece's safety.
She knew that her sister was almost certainly in need of a change. But sometimes, Ichiko wondered if perhaps Shiori was right. Maybe only a little bit. After all, there was some credence, however small, to the possibility that what had happened to them might indeed be her fault.
… Nonsense. Ichiko knew Akira would almost certainly discredit the notion, if he heard the story. She hadn't told him, because it wasn't her story to tell. But still, he would be right. She had been trying to help. It hadn't been her fault. Even Pumpkin agreed. There was no way Ichiko could have anticipated such a terrible thing.
Her phone buzzed…
I gave Mother her calling card.
Ichiko smiled hopefully.
growwwwwwlll
"Why did I just hear a growl?" Mona wondered.
"Oh, pardon me," Noir said apologetically, "my stomach growled…"
"Did everyone eat enough before going on this mission?" Queen asked, concerned.
Ace nodded in agreement. "I hope you're all properly fed."
"We all know that's never the case with Inari," Oracle snorted derisively.
"Bean sprouts are perfectly —" Fox began, preparing to retort—but as if on cue, his tummy rumbled. "Hm… ! My stomach is growling as well. I must have forgotten to eat last night, given all the commotion. I don't often forget food unless I am particularly invested in painting…"
"You focus so much you forget to eat?" Panther marveled. "That's amazing! I couldn't do a single stroke without food."
"You paint too, Panther?" Joker asked. "I never knew that."
"Well, sometimes, but… I'm no good at it." Panther sighed. "But I do try at least."
Fox's stomach growled once more.
"There it is again," Fox observed, sounding somewhat worried. "It doesn't exactly feel like hunger, however. Is this carsickness? Fascinating…"
"Are you alright?" Queen asked. "Does anyone have something he can drink?"
"I have chocolate soda!" Skull offered. "It's a new flavor! I haven't tried it yet, but it's supposed to be really good!"
"Chocolate soda? I've never had it," Fox said with an odd air of curiosity. "It sounds like a serviceable method of quenching my thirst."
"Agh!" Panther sounded as if she might puke. "It sounds disgusting!"
"Indeed? Now I'm even more intrigued. I've never indulged in something so truly revolting." Fox gratefully took the chocolate soda and began drinking it ravenously. "My, what a peculiar sensation…"
"That reminds me," Oracle remembered, "if you eat chocolate and gum at the same time, they both disappear!"
"Really?" Noir asked, excitedly. "I'll be sure to try that!"
"I have some gum in my pocket," Skull said informatively.
"What if we have Fox try the gum with the chocolate soda and see if it works?" Joker proposed.
"That wouldn't work!" Oracle declared. "It only works with actual chocolate, not chocolate-flavored things!"
"So what," Skull pointed out. "We could try it anyway!"
"That sounds terribly unhealthy," Queen mused, "but I do suppose it will help Fox attain more sustenance…"
"I am not opposed to that line of thinking," Fox said, still drinking the chocolate soda. "This curious beverage could certainly use some more energy."
"Okay," Skull agreed, and he passed the gum to Fox.
"I've never chewed gum, myself," Ace commented. "It was against the rules in the SIU offices."
"Try some!" Skull suggested, passing a stick up to her.
Ace took it and popped it into her mouth. "Interesting," she noted, chewing it rather slowly. "So this is gum… hmm… the flavor and the gum itself seem to be two separate things. I'm not sure I've tasted anything quite like it before."
After chewing a moment longer, Ace swallowed the gum. At seeing this, everyone in the Mona bus laughed, with the exception of Makoto, Akira, and Yusuke. Makoto looked mortified. Akira was trying really hard to not laugh. Yusuke simply wasn't paying any attention, being rather occupied with his drinking… for some reason.
"What happened in there?" Mona asked, sounding confused. "Why are you all laughing?"
"Ace-Ace swallowed her gum!" Oracle was trapped in an intense giggling fit. "Ace! You don't swallow gum!"
"What?" Ace was a little embarrassed. "What do you do with gum, then?"
"You chew it awhile," Joker told her, "and then you spit it out!"
"And… then what do you do?"
"You throw it away!"
"But… what happens if you swallow it?"
"Nothing really," Noir informed her. "It just gets stuck in your insides for a few days and doesn't provide any nutritional value."
"Oh…" Ace looked slightly embarrassed. "My mistake."
Fox, meanwhile, gurgled down the chocolate soda energetically.
"Fox," Panther wondered, "did the gum and chocolate soda disappear?"
Fox seemed as though he was hyperventilating. He leaned forward, bouncing over-excitedly.
"Uh oh," Oracle warned, "Inari's experiencing a sugar high!"
"No, none of it disappeared…" Fox started, "but it was quite a flavor… I am in the ZONE now! Give me more stimulation!"
"I-it's nice to hear that you're excited…" Panther said nervously, "but you're leaning too far forward…"
"Is this bad?" Queen seemed quite concerned.
"I wouldn't say so," Joker said reassuringly. "It's a new experience for Fox. It should wear off in a few minutes, and by then, I'm sure he'll just have some weird stuff to say about it."
"I can't quite see what's going on there," Mona informed them, "but you should get ready! Our target is somewhere in this area!"
"All right!" Oracle shouted enthusiastically. "Lemme speed this up a little. Starting the search!" Prometheus flew high above their heads and began scanning the floor. Within moments, a complete map of the current area had materialized in Oracle's hands. She handed it to Joker.
"Great job, Oracle!" Joker took the map and began directing Queen on the path to Ohya Shiori's Shadow. In the back meanwhile, Fox collapsed, slowly recovering from his sugar high.
Ohya Shiori was panicking. Her daughter had to have something to do with this, she had to, she just had to… but why would she? Why would Pumpkin wish something so terrible as a change of heart upon her? A warping of mind… a theft of her will…
Shiori ran to Pumpkin's room. Her daughter was trying to overfill her bags with linens… bedsheets and towels and dozens of other things they were both well-aware they didn't need.
"Pumpkin!"
Her little Pumpkin looked up, seeming unduly shocked. There was nothing wrong with what was going on. There was no reason to be scared. She'd be safe. Mother would keep her from getting hurt, no matter what the cost.
"Mother," Pumpkin told Shiori, "I… I can't find… I don't know where…"
"You know perfectly well where everything is," Shiori insisted firmly. "Get it together! NOW!"
Her baby began slowly collecting clothes from beneath the bed, moving at a snail's pace. Shiori was not amused.
"What are you trying to do?!" she demanded. "Get on with it!"
Pumpkin began moving a little faster, but only so much.
Soon enough, they would leave and everything would be fine. Pumpkin would be okay. Shiori didn't understand why her daughter was resisting, or why she had sent the Phantom Thieves after her, but everything would be alright in the end.
They would be far away from Tokyo, from Ichiko, from any danger of her husband…
"I can do with my daughter what I like!" shouted Ohya Shiori's Shadow. "I won't let my imbecile sister exercise her influence on Pumpkin!"
"I know your sister quite well," Joker called out at Shiori. "She's a terrific journalist! Even in the face of adversity, she's trying to make something of her life. Your daughter idolizes her for that, not because of how much she drinks! Stop getting hung up on that!"
"You can't just run away from your life!" Panther chimed in. "Just because you don't feel safe in Tokyo doesn't mean you'll feel safer running away somewhere else!"
"Yeah," Skull agreed. "That doesn't make any fuckin' sense at all!"
"It's simply not reasonable," Fox added. "You don't know what misfortune might befall you and your daughter if you go through with this. Think of how your sister would feel if something happened!"
"You can't just throw away your life like this!" Noir called out. "Please reconsider!"
"Listen to your daughter!" Ace shouted. "She loves you. She wouldn't have sent us here if she didn't. I know because… because…" Ace cried a little, smiling and sneaking a small glance at Queen. "Someone did the same for me!"
"Yes!" Queen agreed. "I know she cares about you. We're here to help you realize—"
"I DON'T CARE!" Shadow Shiori shrieked. "You think I care what my daughter thinks? Or about my sister's obsession with alcohol? I don't give a shit what Ichiko does! I only have to keep my daughter safe because of what my idiot sister did to provoke my rotten husband!"
"Her husband… Newspaper Girl's father…" Panther looked shocked. "Joker, didn't you tell us he'd been hurting them?!"
"I don't know for sure what this is all about," Joker replied, "but I think it was more than hurting." He stepped forward and withdrew his pistol.
"Ohya Shiori! We can't allow you to do this. I only have so many friends in this place. I'm not about to let you take one of them away! We're going to steal away your heart, and you will let Newspaper Girl stay here!"
"DON'T THREATEN ME!" Shiori yelled, as she began transforming. "I'LL OBLITERATE YOU ALL!"
"Let's go, everyone!" shouted Oracle.
I was panicking more and more as I went, slowly and nervously packing things as my mother watched me, ensuring that I was pulling no tricks. I didn't want to go. I really, really didn't want to go. My mother had barely passed her driver's test, and she hadn't made use of it in years. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if her license were expired. Odds were good that she might lose her temper and get us into an accident.
One more reason for Akira to change her heart.
"Hurry up!" she shouted. I moved a little bit faster, but she still wasn't satisfied. "Forget it!" Mother groaned in exasperation. "I'll pack for you myself!" She shoved me aside and began hastily shoving my belongings into my bag.
"I forgot something!" I shouted in desperation. "Please—"
She ignored me and slammed the door to my room in my face.
"PSIODYNE!" screamed Noir, sending Asarte forth to attack Shiori's Shadow. But Shiori dodged effortlessly, and launched a Nuclear counter-attack—which Noir herself avoided.
"Noir!" Joker called out urgently, "you're looking tired! Switch with Panther!"
Noir jumped back, panting from the exertion, as Panther took her place. The fight hadn't been even 10 minutes, but their attacks just weren't connecting.
"Let's do this, Hecate!" Panther called out, Hecate's fire attacks scoring some scant damage. Meanwhile, Futaba sent Prometheus high above Noir, beaming energy down to her while she waited in backup behind the attacking party.
"RAVAGE THEM, ARSENE!" Joker shouted, pulling forth his original Persona. Laughing, Arsene unleashed a curse blast, which Shiori blocked. And then she suddenly reverted to her initial form…
"What?!" Skull couldn't believe what they were seeing. "The fight only just started! Why the hell's she back to normal? Did we win?"
"I don't think so," Queen warned them, standing still and cautious. "We barely did any damage. Don't let your guard down."
Shiori pulled out a gun and nervously stared at it…
"She can use a gun too?!" Oracle shouted in disbelief.
"Is… is that not normal?" Ace asked, quite worried.
"It… it seems old." Panther observed. "I don't think she's going to attack us with it…"
"An old gun is still a dangerous gun," Ace warned the others. "Not only to us, but to her as well, if Shiori possesses this in reality. Be cautious, and pay attention."
The Phantom Thieves kept their distance as they observed the Shadow's odd behavior.
"Mother?" I asked nervously, taking a few careful steps back. "Why… why do you have Father's gun?"
She eyed it with the deepest sadness and contempt in her eyes.
"I…" she coughed. "It… it's…"
I couldn't believe that she had it. I thought it had been thrown out. Perhaps given away. Tossed into a river. But it was right there. The weapon that had almost…
Mother clicked open the magazine. The gun was empty, unloaded of all ammunition whatsoever. As it almost certainly had been, since… since Father had left.
"It's the same," Mother coughed, quite relieved. "The same… Those Phantom Thieves didn't rig it. Good."
Then she concealed it in her dress pocket.
"You can't take that with us!" I yelled at her. "If we're accosted by the police at any point, and they find that—"
She raised a dismissive, quiet hand. "Get to the car, Pumpkin."
"But…"
"Get to the car!" she repeated, raising her voice at me. "I-I need a moment…"
I reluctantly obeyed, leaving the apartment and getting into the elevator which would lead to the garage.
Why did Mother have the gun? It embodied dozens of negative memories of my father… memories I understood we both wanted to forget. He shouldn't have had that gun. His brother shouldn't have had it either. It should have been gone… disappeared…
Besides, we'd be in trouble if it was found. We were both well aware that civilian possession of firearms wasn't allowed in Japan. I didn't know the whole law, so I wasn't certain if whether or not the gun was loaded made any difference. But either way, it was dangerous.
I didn't understand her motives. She said she wanted to keep me safe, but nearly everything she did seemed to pose greater dangers than the ones which she claimed to be protecting me from. What was wrong with her?
"What the hell's she doing?!" shouted Skull. "Ain't she gonna attack us or something?"
"I don't think so," Mona said, carefully watching. "Something seems to have happened to her cognition."
"Can we leave then? Did we change her heart?!" Skull sounded quite impatient.
"No." Joker was quietly analyzing the scene. "I don't think it worked. She hasn't dropped a Treasure."
"I was thinking maybe she might not got a Treasure! Like how Oracle didn't have one!"
"Well," Queen pointed out, "Oracle's case was unique. She had a Treasure, it's just that the Treasure was herself, or well, her Shadow, and when it became her Persona she effectively took her own Treasure from her Palace."
"Wait a minute!" Ace yelled. "Shiori's Shadow is trying to do something!"
"She's walking away," Noir realized, "is she… is it like…"
"I'm leaving!" the Shadow shouted at the Phantom Thieves. "I'm taking my Pumpkin with me and you thieves aren't going to stop me!"
"… what Father did?" Noir finished, sounding rather confused.
Ohya Shiori's Shadow turned her back to them, and all of a sudden, a red and blue light opened up behind her. It was quite the display, and briefly blinded the Phantom Thieves. Ohya Shiori's Shadow entered the light and disappeared…
"That is an extremely bright light!" Fox noted, shielding his eyes.
"What the hell happened?!" Skull cried indignantly. "Shouldn't we have kept fighting her?"
"I-I-I…" Oracle gasped, stunned. "What's going on? I don't sense her anymore!"
Mother entered the car and started the engine.
I sat, looking distraught and defeated. After all I had done, we were still leaving. Had the change of heart failed? Akira had seemed so confident. What if something had happened to him? He wasn't responding to my texts.
I wasn't sure why my mother hadn't taken my phone away after all this… I supposed it wouldn't matter anyway. Wherever we were going, there probably wasn't any phone service.
Where we were going…
"Mother," I asked, "where exactly are we going?"
Mother ignored me, looking straight forward as she began driving…
"Mother!" I raised my voice. "Do… do you miss Father?"
She stopped the car with a thin, audible screech. Her body tensed up, and she stared forward out the windshield.
"What are you… talking about?" she said slowly, her voice like acid. "I hate your father. I will always hate him forever. He was a menace."
"He… what Father did was wrong," I told her, "but that doesn't excuse—"
"He almost got us killed!" Mother cried.
"And you're being JUST LIKE HIM, Mother!" I shouted. "You're placing us both in danger all because of some ridiculous ideal you've gotten yourself obsessed with!"
She snarled. "How dare you," she spat furiously, "compare me to someone like him…"
"You need to stop resenting Auntie Ichiko for what she did!" I screamed. "She was trying to help us! She cared! Which is a HELL OF A LOT more than I can say about you!"
As I finally spat the truth, Mother's breath caught as she went silent. I felt as if I could hear her heart beating, and it didn't sound like it was changing. The tension between us was extremely palpable.
I had spoken of that which was never to be spoken of between us. The true reason why Mother kept me away from Auntie Ichiko. Not because of her drinking, as I had told Akira. That was what my mother claimed, so it was technically true, in a way. But the truth was…
Auntie Ichiko had tried to help us.
And my mother had forever hated her for it.
"You're right… I don't care…" she took a few deep breaths and raised her voice again. "I don't care what you say!" Mother placed her foot on the gas and continued driving. "I am sick and tired of being pushed around!"
It seemed there was no convincing her. She had her mind set on this. And it also seemed the Phantom Thieves hadn't gotten to her yet… I was beginning to lose confidence. I wanted to be hopeful, but everything seemed quite bleak at the moment.
"Hello! Kaneto-san, about that woman in the maid cost—"
BEEP.
Message deleted.
Kaneto Masaji was in his bathrobe. He had just gotten out of the shower, and was deleting every single voice message from his collaborators one by one. He was sick of being told what to do by everyone else, being pushed around, yelled at, whatever.
He was sick of all of it. Alibaba's hacking, the wretched conspiracy he was now charged with leading, and those accursed Phantom Thieves… Why couldn't he handle it?! He was Kaneto Masaji! The great Shido Masayoshi's right-hand man, goddamn it! The Prime Minister's secretary! He was absolutely incensed by his continued rotten luck.
Kaneto continued to delete messages…
"Kaneto-san! Why are you ignoring our calls! Did you—"
Message deleted.
"KANETO MASAJI! You will ANSWER YOUR PHONE WHEN I—"
Message deleted.
"Kaneto! This is the SIU director. What the hell were you—"
Message deleted.
"Good evening, Kaneto."
At that voice, Kaneto dropped his phone in shock.
This was not a message he would want to delete…
"I hear you have had another embarrassing scandal come to the attention of your colleagues. Not that I care…"
The man's deep voice irritated him as always. Who did this guy think he was? Some sort of god among men? What an arrogant little shit. Kaneto was better than him. He knew he was.
Sure, this man might have great power and influence in the government (although Kaneto wasn't sure what part of the government he worked for) and thrown his weight behind Shido. But he, the great Kaneto Masaji, the humble assistant to the glorious Shido Masayoshi, was almost certainly the better man. He was actually doing all the work. Didn't that make him better?!
The arrogant benefactor's voice message continued its playback…
"I wonder, have you made any progress? I do hope you have come to your senses and resolved all these trivial roadblocks. Please do call me back if you get the opportunity…"
Kaneto was fed up with Shido's conceited benefactor, just sitting on his ass and making dumb phone calls. What if he actually tried to do something? Wasn't he going to be in trouble too, if all this got out? Kaneto decided he wasn't going to stand for this guy's laziness anymore. He was going to give this prick a piece of his mind.
So, he fumbled for his phone, and hit the callback button. The dial-tone rang for a moment, and then an automated error message rang from his phone's speaker.
"The number you have dialed is not in use. If you would like to speak to an operator…"
Of course. Shido's benefactor couldn't be called back. It had been a joke, or some sort of obnoxious tease. He would be using some sort of mask to hide his real phone number, or many disposable phones. He was playing Kaneto for a fool, and it was not pleasing. Why did this man do such things? It really pissed Kaneto off.
He cleared his voicemail box and went to take a nap.
"How do we find her?" Noir wondered. "Did she just suddenly disappear from Mementos and go back to her real self? Maybe her distorted desires left on their own!"
"I doubt that," Joker said. "Considering all that Newspaper Girl said about her, it seems highly unlikely that she would change her own mind like Ace did. She sounded like a stubborn and paranoid woman."
"So do we go back," Panther asked, rubbing her head in confusion, "or do we stay here? Did we succeed or not? We can't just let her get away if her heart wasn't changed!"
"This… I've never seen this happen before…" Mona was baffled. But suddenly, his eyes widened in their usual comically huge way. "Wait a minute! I just had an idea! Check the Nav!"
Joker pulled out his phone and said, loud and clear, "Ohya Shiori!"
Candidate found.
"So we didn't change her heart," Ace said, sighing. "What happened, then?"
"Perhaps she moved to another area of Mementos," Fox suggested hopefully. "We may need to find her there."
"I… I don't get this…" Joker scratched his head in bewilderment. "What are we… what is this?"
No distortion yet acquired.
"No distortion… what could it…" Oracle came to look at Joker's phone. "Hang on! It says right here—"
"What?!" Skull shouted. "Did you figure out what's up?!"
"No, it… it says…"
Everyone crowded around to see what Oracle and Joker were gawking at.
There was a sort of map on the Metaverse Navigator. A complicated, ever-expanding map, growing and growing on the screen…
Estimating distortion potential…
"Potential?!" Queen gasped. "Could it be that…"
"I know what's happening," Mona realized. "It's as I suspected…" Everyone gave him their attention.
"Joker. Skull. Panther. Do you all remember what I said to you after we defeated Nakanohara's Shadow? About his Treasure." They nodded.
"You said something like, it coulda grown?" Skull recalled, scratching his head.
"Yeah," Panther remembered, "that if we had left it alone…"
"That it could have become…" Joker suddenly saw the connection. "Are you telling me… that Ohya Shiori now has a Palace?!"
Mona's face was set in a grimace. "That's definitely what it seems like. But, judging by what the Metaverse Navigator is saying, it seems like it hasn't completely formed yet." Mona started running towards the bright glow before them.
"Then let's go stop it!" Skull shouted impatiently. "We can't take on another Palace now! Not when we've got Shido's dudes tryin' to track us down!"
"Indeed," Noir assented, "this growing Palace must be destroyed at once!"
"Wait," Mona warned them. "Before we go, you should be warned…"
He had an urgent look in his eyes. The team stared at him in anticipation.
"What's the problem?" Joker wondered.
"Because this cognitive world hasn't yet fully formed," Mona noted, "it doesn't have the backbone of a fully-fledged Palace. Which means that we may not be subject to the same rules as we are in here…"
"What d'you mean?" Skull inquired impatiently. "Like, will there be no gravity or something like that?!"
"No, there'll be gravity! … probably." Mona said nervously. "But we may not be able to fully use our powers. Our Personas might not work, or if they do, might be weakened. Cognition may not work in the same way. Our weapons could just be ordinary toys like in reality, or something even more useless."
"Are you serious?!" Skull yelled in disbelief.
"So," Queen summarized, "we may not be able to fight normally?"
"It's a possibility," Mona warned. "And furthermore, because it hasn't grown yet, that means Shiori's Shadow has less room to work with, but so do we. She may be able to box us in more easily. It's uncharted territory. There's no telling what could happen."
"Are you saying it's too dangerous?" Fox asked, concerned.
"No! Well, maybe, but, come on! I just wanted to let you know, but we have to go in anyway!" He concentrated a moment, and, with a quick jump, he was once more the Mona-mobile.
"So…" Panther seemed nervous. "We might not be able to use our Personas?"
"I don't know about this…" Skull was reluctant. "What if we die in there?"
"I… I don't want to…" Haru seemed rather fearful, which was unusual in the Metaverse. "die… again."
"Are you all gonna play chicken?!" Mona shouted indignantly at them. "Come on, we have to hurry! If we can track her down, we may be able to stop her Palace from forming! After her!"
But the team seemed rather hesitant.
"Damn!" shouted Skull, "this is really complicated!"
"I'm scared…" Queen admitted. "I don't know how we would go about our strategy."
"I don't like the look of this," Joker said nervously. "What if something happens to us in there?"
"What if we can't go in?!" Panther cried. "We've never had something like this happen before!"
"I don't sense anything beyond there… but… nothingness!" Oracle seemed pretty scared. "It seems like…"
"That gateway is rather ominous," Fox noted. "I don't feel good about this at all…"
"What are you all doing?!" Ace shouted at them. "Didn't your cat tell you to hurry up? I've not been a Phantom Thief long, but I never imagined the Phantom Thieves would stand around fretting pointlessly over unknown danger! Are we going or not?"
Everyone looked at Ace in surprise. And after a moment, the Phantom Thieves composed themselves, and Joker put on his trademark devilish smirk.
"You're right," Joker agreed, his voice taking on a steely determination. "We can't just let this happen! We have to save Newspaper Girl!" He ran to the Mona bus and opened the door. "Queen, get behind the wheel! We're going to change Ohya Shiori's heart, no matter what!"
As Queen followed Joker's command, she gave him a smirk of her own. "Better hop in or we'll do it without you, Leader."
Joker nodded and rushed to the other side, taking his usual seat next to Queen. All the other thieves got in, and the Mona-mobile sped forth into the mysterious portal.
Ahahahaha, aren't we clever, Mac and I?
Originally my plan was that Ohya Shiori would drive away, her cognition would change, and then she'd just move somewhere else in Mementos, to some sort of secret area. But Mac was barely buying that. So later on I suddenly had the idea to change it so that instead she starts growing a Palace, which Mac latched onto much more quickly. He had a bunch of great ideas for it, which I've been helping flesh out, so. Next chapter, we've got some crazy stuff happening! And then in the next chapter after that! And after! This will end soon ish though. I think. I've got a lot of ideas, but I know clearly where this is going.
Also, first time posting at midnight! Well, at least in my timezone. I've wanted to do this for awhile but haven't been able to before because of my enforced bedtime, but now I'm on my own! (for the time being) So I can do what I like! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and have a fantastic night/day!
This might have taken a little less time to come out than it did, but I went and wrote a one-shot about Haru called Tea with an Empress. If that interests you, please check it out. It's good. I thought it was good, anyway. I had fun writing it! And those who have read it seem to have had fun reading it as well.
Mac's got no notes today. So, happy Monday/Tuesday. Until next time!
