Mikumo and Naoto were at Crossroads, with the rookie minding how much her senior drank. The older detective was beating herself from guilt, sure that Morgana and Sissel fled due to their machinations. "You think we caused this?" Naoto tried to reassure her, she was drinking too much too fast. "I'm sure they will appear, be patient." Then the raven recalled a piece of news. "Okumura Foods got a break-in, maybe they're in there." The younger woman had Lala start to bring water.

"Akira said something similar, so let's wish them luck." Mikumo wilted, she had grown used to having Sissel comment whenever she took a foolhardy decision or got herself in trouble. "Yeah, may Mona and Sissy come home safely." Naoto sighed, her colleague was starting to sway on her seat. "The Detective Prince and Tokyo's Ninja?" They were approached by a certain reporter. "Do you have time to give a brief interview?" Both nodded, not minding talking about past cases.

"Oh, you used to work overseas? That should make a nice article, 'A daring international agent's memoirs', how does that sound?" The drunks chatted away, with Ōhya paying rapt attention as Mikumo relayed some of her missions in Interpol. "You'd be surprised at how much evidence pieces gathered by police all over the world end up in the black market." Naoto also listened in, having heard of many operations of the sort. "I even got to see a real mummy stashed in a cargo crate."

"By the way, do you got juicy bits on those Phantom Thieves?" The reporter got snippets from Akira when he came to work, but maybe those two would have more yarn to spin a good article. "I heard the Phantoms managed to find Kaneshiro's hideout and left calling cards all over the place." Ōhya perked up at that, those thieves were more resourceful than she thought. "I could get a copy, I saw some younger officers swipe some as keepsakes."

After a while, the younger detective saw her senior get a drunken flush and decided it was time to put a stop to the outing, otherwise, Mikumo would be incapacitated by a hangover. Naoto grabbed her hand and took away the cup of hard liquor she swiped from Ōhya, setting it on the counter. "Time to go home, you're almost plastered." The cutting tone had Mikumo grumbling as her junior pulled her up and held her arm. "Fine, stop naggin' me, 'kay?"

As the pair walked, they missed the man following them. "Time to find what's up, I won't let you weasel out this time." The man saw his chance when they approached an alley he knew was a dead-end. "Hm? Is someone following us?" Naoto grunted in pain when she got a shoulder check from someone taller, stepping into an alley to not lose balance. "Oh shit, it's the werewolf..." Mikumo lowered her head in defeat as Rou had cornered them.

~m~

The thieves entered the Palace, intent on finding Morgana and undoing the bad blood. Okumura's inner world looked like a space station manned by robots, although the conditions seemed grueling even for machines. "It's a sweatshop..." As they approached a locked gate, they were intercepted by a rhino-sized feline, which made them assume it was an ambush. "Halt, vigilante!" The thieves were startled at the huge phantom cat and its riders, watching as the construct faded away when the stranger and pair of critters dismounted.

The teens stared at the red-black mascot. "Another Mona?!" Joker squinted, red stuff and golden eyes... "... Sissel?" The black-red critter bowed respectfully. "Yes, nice to be able to talk to you. Call me Geist in this realm." They jumped again at the weird gentlemanly voice in their heads. "That was fuckin' bizarre!" Mona sneered at his former team, telling them to leave the Palace. "The Treasure will be taken by me, Geist, and this..."

"This Beauty Thief!" Geist facepalmed from his corner and the girl got off her silent spell. "My name's Beauty Thief!" The silence crashed down like a hammer. "Any tension that was in the air has just gone out the window..." As Beauty repeated everything Mona just said, Geist seemed to be struggling to not facepalm again. "I did tell them to do away with the theatrics." Beauty Thief began scolding the thieves, but once she got to Panther, she looked at Mona. "What was it again...?"

Now Geist sighed, rubbing his forehead. "She got stage fright." Mona and Beauty got cold feet and turned to leave. "We don't have time to chat!" Before the pair could bolt, Geist had his Persona grab them like a momma cat. "Mona, remember our conversation." At their attempt to escape the maw, Schrödinger shook them like a terrier with a rat. "MEEWWW!" "I'LL HURL!" "Wow, that cat's a sadist!" Skull had a bad feeling from Geist, now that he had a Persona capable of delivering the hurt to his enemies.

When the hat fell off, the leader narrowed his eyes in scrutiny. Joker recognized her from somewhere. "That hairstyle... Aren't you Okumura Haru?" The girl flinched and began shaking her head in denial. "N-No! You're er... mistaken! Yep, mistaken!" Joker smirked cockily at her blustering, the girl was shaken out of her bravado. "How are the gardenias?" She stopped the flailing and thought about the answer. "They're about to bud- oh, shoot..." Open mouth, insert foot.

"Going by the name and age, you're his daughter, correct?" The girl deflated, promising to explain why she got involved. "Alright, come with us, there are many things we need to discuss properly. And apologies to make." Geist placed them down at Joker's request. "Talk properly, or I shall hunt you along with them." Mona nodded vigorously, he had no death wish of getting the adults on his case, and they might make one of those speed demons the permanent drivers.

"Got it, we're all going to have a serious conversation, no matter what Skull says!" They exited the Palace and went to Akira's place, with Sissel breaking off to meet his owner. "She must be missing me terribly, so I must return posthaste." The eerie kitten approached an alley and made a fire ladder descend, climbing it and fading into the night.

~m~

He had been too far to overhear anything, wary of alerting those thieves, but now he had their faces. "Heh, they don't even know what awaits them." Okumura's Palace would soon be the starting domino of their downfall. "Hm? Those Shadows are getting alert, I should leave before those idiots notice me."

~m~

Rou had seen the stream of posts calling for the Phantom's justice, demanding them to steal Okumura's heart. "Aya, it's a dumpster fire..." Green and blue eyes were drilling holes in him. "Oy, Wolfie, what the hell you think you're doing, eh?" The detectives were attempting to figure a way to turn the tables, but he was wary of any unnatural moves and Naoto was weighed down by a tipsy raven. "... are you seriously an agent?" The man stared them down, grinning like they were lambs ready to be gobbled.

"Why do this? I wanna know what you lot are hiding, cough the goodies. Frills even gave me the go-ahead to press you two." He had already heard from Shirogane that she was keeping an eye on suspicious characters, and Ichijou gave him the same spiel. But no more hogwash, he wanted the gritty details, what those two were doing under the police's nose. "Can we trust him with everything?" He watched as the pair of spitfires traded annoyed glances in a silent conversation. "Keh-! If Rei told him to badger us... Haah, let's just tell him."

Mikumo deflated, the guy was persistent and would pester them if they didn't speak. "If you say so... As long he knows not to blab." The agent listened as the women talked about the Metaverse and the Shadow Operatives, it pushed the limits of his skepticism. "Hn... Kirijo, uh?" If those two weren't ripe for a mental screening and were telling the truth, then he'd face the paranormal. "I'll pay her a visit soon, then." He'd get himself in the loop and ensure that society would stay safe.

"I'd never guess that a sabbatical could lead me down this road..." Rou frowned at the news, unsure of what could happen in the future. "And I thought that the cat and Khura'in were bad..." Talk of the furry devil and he doth appear. "Mikumo, do you need rescuing?" Sissel stared at the group from a fire ladder, acting nonchalant as if he hadn't gone missing. "Sissy! Where were you?!" Mikumo almost cried with relief when the kitten landed on her shoulder. "There, there. I just went for a stroll."

~m~

After settling down in Akira's room, the thieves listened as Haru explained her reasons to desire a change of heart in her father. "My father's highly regarded as a manager, but I had various... doubts about him." Her conscience would only settle if she did something to fix it, and if she couldn't do something about the company, perhaps she could change her father as a phantom thief. "I won't stay silent anymore, my father has done some awful things and must pay for them."

The blond thug got a hard nudge in his ribs from Akira. "Time to apologize for calling him useless." When he tried to argue, the leader reminded him of two people. "Geh, alright." The threat of having Shade and Strix busting his ass had Ryuji making peace with Morgana, although Akira had to pull the blond's teeth to get a proper apology, slamming a hand over his mouth when the monkey was about to offend Morgana again.

Morgana was still reluctant if he should stay with the Phantoms. "I thought over my chances, and I've made peace with my feline appearance." Sissel's words about how he once thought he was human had made Morgana realize the same could apply to him. "I won't ask you to risk yourselves further for my selfishness." But the thieves wouldn't let him slip away without a fight. "You should stop lying." Haru picked up the cat, knowing Morgana wasn't being fully honest.

"You said you'd get stronger and make them acknowledge you." The cat averted his face. "You actually love being here, don't you?" He tried to deny it, but it was useless. "I was lying to myself too..." Haru had her own reasons to desire to reform her father, far more self-serving than simply because he was a horrid employer. She wouldn't open up fully just yet, but it was clear that the girl was feeling strangled by her father's expectations. Everybody stared at the cat, waiting for him to bare how he felt as well.

Morgana hesitated, feeling too exposed to his liking. "At first, I only thought of this team as a temporary setup..." Yet, after months without recovering his memories, he began feeling that his reasons to be in the team were flimsy, compared to the teens' goals. "Someone like me has no reason to stay here..." Morgana choked on his words and the thieves cheered on him, he only needed to say a little more. "I wanna stay here forever!"