I think this is the first time I've gone over a week without posting a chapter. I think it's also the first time in over a year that I haven't defaulted to posting at 12PM EST.

On one hand, I just broke two records. On the other hand... I kinda screwed up by taking so long. Real life kinda kicked me in the dick recently. Sorry!

June 9th, 20XX (Thursday)

Early Morning - Kazero Household

"A school trip… to a TV Station? What the hell kind of trip is that?" Toya and Osiris we're conversing while Toya was getting into his school uniform, despite there not being any regular classes today.

"I'm not exactly excited for it either. Then again, I don't know if anyone is looking forward to anything about this trip, apart from not having to go to class."

"Are you looking forward to that?"

"...T-That's not important to the conversation."

"Yes it is."

"Shut it!"

"Hey, you awake yet?" Toya could hear knocking at his door, accompanied by Kai's voice.

"Yeah, I'm up. You can come in." Kai helped himself in, closing the door behind him and taking out his phone. "What's up?"

"I think I figured out the identity of the mob boss I was telling you about. He came up in the app as a hit. Take a look." He held his phone out towards Toya and showed his screen.

"Junya Kaneshiro…? I guess it makes sense that I've never heard of him. Well, we still need to figure out his keywords."

"Keywords… What would they be?"

"It's a place, and whatever he thinks of it as. For Kamoshida, it was 'Shujin Academy' and 'Castle'. For this guy, though…? I'm not really sure. I mean, it could be anything in Shibuya—"

"Match found." The two stopped in the middle of their thought process as the robotic voice echoed throughout the room.

"...That—That didn't actually just happen, did it?"

"No, it definitely did." Kai said, pulling his phone back. "So does this mean… He thinks of the entire city of Shibuya as something?"

"I-It should, but that's crazy! I mean… an entire city!? That's ridiculous!"

"Ridiculous as it may be… I can't say I'm too surprised. He's running Shibuya. He probably has been for even longer than I realized."

"That's… That's crazy… Someone thinking he has an entire city under their thumb…"

"...I know. That's why he has to be stopped." Kai paused, a look of concern appearing on his face. "...Are you sure you can do it alone?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not gonna pretend to know what happens in that world. But… Taking down a mob boss on your own? There's no way that's gonna be safe."

"It's fine. Besides, you wouldn't be able to help me. And there's nobody I can really ask."

"Still… Are you sure this isn't too much for you? You don't have to do this if you don't think you can handle it. I don't want to push you into something that'll just get you hurt-or worse."

"Don't worry. Whatever's in there, I'll be able to handle it. Promise!"

"...Alright. I'll trust you on this, then. Just be careful, alright?"

"Yeah, I know. I'll be fine." Kai still had his doubts. Perhaps it was because he didn't really know what was going to happen in that world, but he was concerned. Toya seemed confident, though. So despite his doubts, he let it go.

"Not to ruin the moment, but weren't you supposed to leave by now?" The trip had completely slipped Toya's mind. He took out his own phone and checked the time.

"You gotta be kidding me… I even woke up on time today and I'm gonna be late!?"

"You're confident you can take down a mob boss, and you can't even get to school on time…? Jeez…" Kai sighed and opened the door. "Come on. You're going to that TV station today, right? It's on the way to work, so I'll drop you off."

"Thanks…"

June 9th, 20XX (Thursday)

Afternoon - TV Station

Even though Toya got there on time, he felt like he wouldn't have missed anything had he not gone at all. He ended up zoning out the entire time, despite his best efforts to pay attention.

"So… Bored…"

"What were they thinking with this trip? Did they really think that anyone would pay attention?"

"Beats me… Though, maybe I would have focused more if I wasn't thinking about everything that happened this morning." Toya took out his phone and opened the Nav app while walking forward. "Junya Kaneshiro… A mob boss with a Palace. It makes sense, I guess."

"Any idea what his Palace could be?"

"I don't know. A mob boss is probably obsessed with money, right? I wonder…" With low expectations, he typed 'bank' into the app. Surprisingly enough, it worked. "...Really? It was that easy?"

"A bank… He thinks of an entire city as his own personal bank. How very… human of him."

"Well, we have everything. Now we just have to get there. Wanna get out of here and check it out?"

"Sure, but you should really watch where you're going-"

Bonk

He bumped right into someone. He hadn't even realized there was someone in his path until they bonked their heads against each other. The two of them stumbled back, slightly wincing in pain from the sudden collision.

"Ow… My bad…" Toya said, regaining his composure.

"No, I admittedly wasn't paying enough attention either." The two of them looked at each other, and for a moment their eyes met. Toya didn't recognize this person though. He was a boy, wearing a tan coat and black pants. He had brown hair that was a few shades lighter than Toya's and reached down to his neck, while his bangs covered the center part of his face and extended slightly past his reddish-brown eyes. "...I believe I've seen your face before. Have we met?"

"Huh? No, I don't think so. You've probably just got me confused with someone else." He said, confused that someone would recognize him.

"You were in Kai's car earlier this morning, were you not?" He took a step back and let out a faint gasp underneath his breath.

"You know my brother?"

"Brother…? Ah, of course. He did mention having a younger brother that attended Shujin Academy once. He said your name was… Toya, I believe?"

"Uh, y-yeah… How exactly do you know my brother?"

"Me and your brother have worked on a couple of cases together before. Though I'm sure he hasn't been able to tell you anything about them since it's all confidential information."

"Yeah, he's… Pretty quiet about work. Anything he's ever brought up to me involves stuff that's already shown up on the news. He never mentioned having a partner, or anything like that." Toya had to lie about Kai. He didn't want to let anyone know about the information he gets from his brother, regardless of if the two of them directly work together or not.

"Well, I wouldn't go as far to say that the two of us are partners. We simply share a mutual interest in a case is all." He took out his phone for a moment to check the time, then put it back in his pocket. "My apologies, I must be going. There's a briefing for tomorrow's recording that I have to attend. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other at the recording tomorrow. I'll admit, I am interested in knowing what someone who's related to Kai is like." He had a cheerful look on his face as he started walking away.

"Mutual interest in a case…? Could that be…?" Toya started murmuring himself as the boy started to walk away. "H-Hey, wait up a sec! I never got your name or anything!" He turned around, but he was already pretty far gone. He wouldn't be able to get his attention from here without raising his voice, and he didn't want to create a scene. He started walking towards him, but stopped at some point when he realized that he was just wasting his time. He sighed and leaned against the wall.

"That was… Interesting."

"A mutual interest in a case… There's only one case Kai is actually interested in as far as I know. And that's…"

"The mental shutdowns, and everything else revolving around Wakaba Isshiki. But why's someone around your age interested in something like that?"

"He said he's gonna be around tomorrow for the recording, right? Maybe I can talk to him about it then."

"H-Hey, can we skip the vomit machines and get cake instead?" Toya heard a familiar voice from not too far off. It was Morgana- accompanied by the rest of the Phantom Thieves.

"...Cake? Now that they mention it…" Toya could hear the sound of his stomach audibly grumbling. "...Maybe we can check out Kaneshiro's Palace tomorrow…"

"You're hopeless..."

June 10th, 20XX (Friday)

Afternoon - TV Station

A day later, it was time for the recording-the main reason that the school was even going there, as far as Toya could tell. He had grabbed a seat that was conveniently right behind the Phantom Thieves… and conveniently, Mishima found a seat right next to him.

"Mr. Akechi's coming on!"

"Akechi…?" Toya mumbled to himself. He heard the sound of girls screaming in excitement all around him as soon as they said Akechi's name. "Guess this guy's popular."

"Huh? You don't know him? He's getting publicity really quickly!" Mishima said, excitement in his voice. A few seconds later, someone walked out- and it was exactly who Toya was looking for, in a place he wasn't expecting to find him. The boy from yesterday who said he worked with Kai.

"After his last appearance was so well-received, we decided to bring back this fine gentleman today. It's the high school detective, Goro Akechi!" The announcer said, welcoming Akechi to the broadcast.

"Wait, that's Akechi? Wait-that guy is famous!?"

"He's just full of surprises, isn't he?"

"Thank you for taking the time to join us today, Akechi. Your popularity is stunning." The host said, gassing Akechi up for the audience. Toya couldn't wrap his head around Kai working with someone that was getting so popular. Maybe it was due to Kai not really being popular at all, but he couldn't know for sure.

"Moving along, we've been told there's a case on your mind right now. Care to share, detective?"

"Ah, yes. That would be the scandal involving the master artist Madarame." This instantly caught the attention of the Phantom Thieves, as well as Toya, Osiris, and Mishima. "Hypothetically speaking, if these Phantom Thieves are real… I believe they should be tried in a court of law."

The entire atmosphere changed around them once those words left Akechi's mouth. It wasn't surprising in the slightest, but… hearing it said outright like that made everyone in question nervous.

"What the artist Madarame did truly was an unforgivable crime. However, they're taking the law into their own hands by judging him. It is far from justice. More importantly, you should never forcefully change a person's heart."

"...To be fair, he does have a point."

"If only he knew that the police were too incompetent to do these things on their own… Then the Phantom Thieves wouldn't even exist."

"Now then, let's try asking some students the same age as Akechi about the Phantom Thieves! First, please press your button now if you think the Phantom Thieves exist!" The female announcer said.

"Of course they do!" He heard Ryuji whisper. Toya pressed the button without thinking. Moments later, the number '18' appeared on the panel behind Akechi and the host.

"I'm a bit surprised. That's higher than I was expecting. I'd love to hear some more detailed opinions on the Phantom Thieves' actions." As Akechi spoke, the announcer started walking down the aisle towards them.

"Please not me, please not me, please not me, please not me, please not me…" The announcer kept walking forward, and stopped when she reached Ren's seat. "Not me!"

"Give me a break…"

"Hypothetically speaking, what are your thoughts on these Phantom Thieves, if they were real?" She asked Ren, pointing the microphone in her hand towards him.

"They're necessary." He spoke without hesitation.

"Haha, I wasn't expecting that. It's rather intriguing to hear such a strong acknowledgement. In that case, there's one more question I'd like to ask. If someone close to you, for example, your friend next to you… If his heart suddenly changed, wouldn't you think it was the work of the Phantom Thieves?"

"What would you think?"

"Ah, throwing the question back at me? Well, this is my opinion on the topic. Whether the Theives' actions are good or not, I feel there is a more important issue at hand. The matter of how they change people's hearts. If they honestly possess that ability… it could be used for more than extracting confessions. It could be that what seem to be ordinary crimes are actually being perpetrated by these methods… This is all purely hypothetical. It is only if people who can use such a power truly exist. Either way though, this cannot be ignored. The existence of the Phantom Thieves would be nothing more than a threat to our everyday lives."

"...I can see why he thinks that, but… Throwing the idea that they're criminals into the air is gonna do nothing but make people even more scared than they already are. Something's up about this."

"Oh, what's this? Are you actually using your head for once?"

"Oh, can it! I'm not stupid!"

The broadcast ended not long after. Toya started walking away for a while, getting away from the crowd. A few moments later, Mishima came up to him.

"I can't believe that Akechi guy would just say all of that about the Phantom Thieves! They're totally justified! They do more than the cops do!"

"Shhh! You're gonna make a scene if you keep yelling like that, man."

"I know, but… There's no way! How could anyone think that after everything that happened with Kamoshida!"

"It's not too big of a jump in logic to assume that people who call themselves 'Thieves' aren't oriented around justice." They heard a voice approaching them from not too far away, and they recognized it as Akechi right away. He instantly made eye contact with Toya. "I've been looking for you. I was interested in your opinion on something."Toya got in front of Mishima, not wanting him to say anything that would annoy Akechi.

"Let me guess-related to the Phantom Thieves, right?"

"Of course. Your brother is part of the police, after all. I'm sure you have an interesting take on them, considering both that and the fact that their first appearance was at your school. Do you think they exist?"

"Of course I do. Something like that happening to two different people… It's not something that just happens to people naturally. That doesn't sound possible at all."

"I suppose you have a point there. What do you think of them, though? Do you think they're justice-oriented?"

"...They're vigilantes, so they're dangerous. I'll agree with you on that part. But to jump the gun and call them criminals is a bit much. After all, the crimes that they exposed were real. And, if you want proof of that…" He took a step to the side and pointed his thumb at Mishima. "Look no further than the guy who experienced Kamoshida's abuse first-hand."

"I see you've done your research on the matter. Perhaps it runs in the family?"

"...Yeah, something like that." Toya paused. He looked back towards Mishima. He was a lot happier now than he was when they first met, but he still felt uncomfortable whenever Kamoshida was brought up. "...You know, the police knew what Kamoshida was doing. It's not even a secret that they knew everything that was happening, and they did nothing about it. If the police aren't going to stop the world from going to hell, then doesn't the responsibility fall on everyone else?"

"That part has some truth to it, but that doesn't make the uncertainty of their actions any less unsettling. Anyways, I should really be going."

"Yeah, me too. Tell Kai I said hi if you run into him, alright?" The two nodded at each other, before Akechi turned around and began walking away.

"Dude… You totally held your ground against him!" Mishima said, a shocked expression on his face.

"Huh? Not really. I just said what I thought was right. Not like it was anything special."

"B-But still! I wouldn't be able to do that while keeping my cool!"

"I'll... help you out with that when I get the chance. I gotta get out of here and check something out."

"Ooh! Did you figure out your next target!?"

"Be quiet when you're talking about that! O-Or just don't talk about it publicly at all!"

June 10th, 20XX (Friday)

Afternoon - Kaneshiro's Bank (Central Street)

Toya went straight from the TV station to Central Street. He meant to go here yesterday, but it didn't really matter. There was no distinct time limit as far as he was aware. He looked around and saw… Well, he wasn't exactly sure what he saw. It looked like Central Street, but it had a different atmosphere. Not only that, but there were a lot of ATMs… with legs.

"...You're seeing this too, right?"

"The ATMs? Yeah."

"What the hell is going on here…?" Toya started looking around, until he came across an ATM that had smoke and sparks flying out of it. He slowly walked up to it.

"It's no use… It's all over… I'll end up just like them…"

"Just like… Who? Wait, what even happened here?"

"Can't you tell…? I've fallen… fallen so far… From a place where Kaneshiro leaves no tracks…"

"Fallen…? No tracks…? What do you mea-"

"I'm… too tired… Please… let me rest…" With those final words, the ATM broke down and fell over, sparks still flying out of it.

"What the hell is going on here? 'Fallen'? 'No tracks'?"

"That's concerning. What's also concerning is the money that's seemingly flying up to the clouds."

"Huh…?" Toya paid more attention and noticed what Osiris was talking about. There was money flying, and it was going… somewhere. Toya followed the trail of it until his eyes saw something floating above all of the buildings. "Is that… the bank…!?"

"So the part about falling was literal. That explains the damage."

"How the hell are we supposed to get up there!?"

"There's nothing we can do about that right now. Perhaps we can get some tools, or something. Perhaps you can get something akin to the grappling hook that Ren has?"

"Will it even reach that far…? Ugh… Let's just get out of here for now."

"Did Toya accidently stole one of Ren's Social Links? Mishima?"

Kinda. Mishima's under the illusion that Toya's the person who changed Kamoshida's heart at the moment, so he doesn't psuedo-worship Ren like he does in the game.

"Why did you change Toya's Persona from Diabolos to Yama?"

Honestly, I just thought it fit his overall theme better. It doesn't fit with the rest of the Thieves, but I think that's okay, considering he doesn't work alongside them and is a completely different character.