I'm gonna start answering questions at the beginning of chapters rather than at the end, just for future reference. I'm also gonna start putting my Twitter at the end of every chapter because I'm using it way more often than I used to.

"So Akechi's Arcana is gonna change to Justice when his true personality is revealed?"

I don't know if it'll be Justice, buuut...

We'll get there when we get there.

June 20th, 20XX (Monday)

Evening - Shibuya

They ran. And ran. And kept on running. The moon was the only thing lighting their path, and the club was far out of sight. The three of them were completely out of breath, with Makoto and Mishima barely able to even move anymore, let alone run.

"We're… We're far away enough… right…?" Mishima took ragged breaths, his hands on his knees as he desperately hoped they were safe.

"Yeah… Yeah, we're fine. I doubt they're still after us." Toya took a deep breath and closed his eyes, before reaching behind his head and untying his bandana. He slowly stuffed it in his pocket and turned around, opening his eyes and looking at the two of them, then specifically looking at Makoto. "...I didn't expect that out of you."

"...You mean something reckless?"

"Moreso something human. You acted by-the-book for so long, it was almost as if you were a robot stuck inside of a human's body. Then, all of a sudden, you went and did something like that. Something that made absolutely no logical sense. Something… emotional. Why make such a drastic change?"

"I'm so sorry… I was… I was stupid. I was so caught up in trying to be useful… Instead I just caused trouble. Both for the two of you, and Sis…"

"Your sister?"

"My older sister has a commendable job, and she's a much more remarkable person than me… A lot happened after we lost our father three years ago, so it's just us living together… But I'm still a child, so all I am is a burden to her…"

"..." Toya shifted his eyes away. The two of them couldn't find another word to say. The atmosphere had become much heavier than it was before, now that Toya had a better understanding of what kind of person Makoto was. He realized now that she wasn't just an emotionless robot… She was human, flesh and blood. Just like he was.

"H-Hey, guys…? W-We got trouble!" Mishima called out, taking a step back and looking behind them. Toya and Makoto took a closer look and saw Kaneshiro's men, still following them after all this time.

"Oh, give me a break! They're still on our tail!?" Toya looked around. He knew that Mishima and Makoto were way too winded to outrun them anymore, and that they'd either slow him down or just get caught. But there was something else Toya could do... something that would get them out of this.. To his left, there was an alleyway. It was empty, and looked like nothing more than a complete dead end… To other people, it was just a dead end.

Time started slowing down. Toya could see the angry looks on the faces of the people chasing after him. He could also see the terrified look on Mishima's face, as well as the concerned and dejected expression on Makoto's. But he had faith in himself. He knew he could get them out of harm's way.

"Grab onto each other's hands, and RUN! This way!" He yelled at the two of them, making a dash into the alleyway. Mishima and Makoto were too startled to object, so they quickly clasped their hands and followed him.

"H-Hey, this is a dead end! What're we-"

"Trust me!" He yelled back to Mishima, quickly pulling his phone out of his pocket and opening the Nav app. He made a quick stop and turned around, still gripping his phone tightly with one hand and grabbing onto Mishima's arm with the other. "Close your eyes and don't let go, got it!?" He tapped his phone screen with his thumb and closed his eyes. Suddenly, for a brief moment, Makoto and Mishima both felt a horrible headache… as the world around them began distorting, and turning into something entirely different.

June 20th, 20XX (Monday)

Evening - Kaneshiro's Bank (Central Street)

Once the headache finally passed, Mishima and Makoto both opened their eyes… and they were met with something that shocked them in ways that they could never even dream to express. The ground at their feet, the sky above their heads, and the buildings surrounding them on all sides… All of a sudden, they were different. They were similar, but there was something different about it. Even the air they were breathing felt off.

"What… What is…?"

"WHERE THE HECK ARE WE!?" Makoto's reserved voice was completely overshadowed by Mishima's screams.

"You're gonna attract the monsters if you're that loud, Mishima. I know it's a lot to take in at all…" Makoto and Mishima turned towards Toya, who had his back to them. Not only that—but his clothing was completely different now, too. His school uniform was gone, and in its place was outlandish attire-something no teenager would randomly be wearing. Hr was dressed up like a superhero, or rather, a vigilante. It was fitting for what both Mishima and Makoto knew, to be fair. "...But at least try, alright?"

"T-Toya!? What the heck are you wearing!?" Mishima tried making sense of the situation, which was… about as hard as one would expect, given what he and Makoto were seeing. "A-And what do you mean, monsters!? Where even are we!?"

"One thing at a time… One thing at a time. Everything'll be fine if you just stay close to me. As for where we are…" Toya paused and looked up to the sky. He took a deep breath. "You remember what I told you about 'getting in Kaneshiro's head', right? I'm sure you overheard it too, Niijima."

"I did. But this… Wait, are you saying that we're currently-?"

"In Kaneshiro's head… in a much more literal way than you thought. This world shows what Kaneshiro thinks of the city… and regular people like us are nothing more than..." Toya slowly looked back down to ground level, almost immediately finding a broken ATM on the ground. "Just money to him. That's why I'm trying to take him down."

"I thought your brother said something about a mental block that wasn't allowing you to get in, though?"

"Getting into the world itself has no mental block. The only thing stopping me from getting to Kaneshiro is… Well, that." Toya pointed up to the sky. Makoto and Mishima walked towards him and followed his finger with their eyes, only to see a massive bank floating in mid air, even higher up than the buildings that were surrounding them. "I can do a lot of things. But flying… That's not one of them. Hell, my brother even bought me a damn grappling hook to try and get up there. Watch." Toya walked into the middle of the street and made a fist with his right arm, the one he was using to point at the bank. Then, something shot straight out of the purple attachment that was on his wrist. It started ripping through the air, making way for the bank that was up in the sky… but fell short. It shot out pretty far, but it didn't even come close to reaching the bank. "I even tried getting on top of buildings to get in closer, but… It's still not enough."

"So why did you think messing with Kaneshiro in the real world would change this? It has to do with this being the world... inside of his head, I presume?"

"You catch on quick. Yeah, it's something like that. We thought that, maybe if Kaneshiro thought we could get in, then we'd be able to get in. But as you can see, that's not…" Makoto and Mishima both started walking towards him, and the bank started to… descend. "...That's... new…" All of their eyes were glued onto the bank, before a bridge seemingly materialized out of nowhere, coming down from the bank to ground level, right at their feet. "...So it worked when you two walked up…?"

"Kaneshiro never saw your face. He saw theirs. By that logic, it makes sense that the bridge would only appear for them, and not for you. Wouldn't it?"

"Yeah… Good point…" Toya looked up at the bank. He finally had a way to enter after all this time, but by the sounds of things… He would still need their help to get in. But it was progress… They could finally do something.

"Well, there's your way up. Are we going?" Makoto asked, turning her head towards Toya.

"You're insane if you think going in there right now is a good idea. The two of you could barely even run anymore in the real world, so you probably wouldn't last a minute up there. Besides…" Toya shifted his attention towards Mishima, who had the same dumbfounded look on his face for a few minutes now. "...I don't think he's ready to see anything else of this world tonight."

"Well, then what are you going to do? You can't get in there alone, can you?"

"I'll be waiting at the school gate tomorrow once classes are over. If you're sure you wanna do this… Then you'll find me there. For today… Let's just get out of here." Makoto nodded. Mishima did too, but… Well, there were a lot of things going through his head. He just wanted things to be done, so he was more than happy to go home.

June 20th, 20XX (Monday)

Evening - Shibuya

The three of them left the Metaverse and came back to the real world. At this point, Kaneshiro's guards were completely gone, leaving the streets completely empty. Makoto and Mishima were both still unsure of what they had seen, but they were just glad that the weird part of the day was over. The three of them began walking home together, as Toya did his best to continue explaining the Metaverse to him. Osiris had to do his best to help him explain, of course.

"An entire world based on cognition… and a study about it called cognitive psience…? I've seen it for my own eyes, so I can't doubt it… but..." Makoto closed her eyes, as she made another attempt to wrap her head around it.

"You're gonna hurt your head trying to make sense out of a real-life fairy tale, you know. All you can really do is accept that it exists… And make use of it however you can." Toya put his hands behind his head while walking alongside them. "How about you, Mishima? You've been pretty quiet since we even went there."

"I'm… kinda at a loss here. I think this is a bit too much for me." Mishima spoke in a tired voice, yawning and looking down. "I think I'll just leave this to you. You already took down Kamoshida and Madarame by yourself, didn't you? There's no way some schmuck like Kaneshiro can stop you!" Toya froze up.

Kai: "You can't just lie to him forever. He's gonna find out eventually, especially if you make enemies with the Thieves."

"..." Toya stood still for a few seconds before Mishima and Makoto looked back at him.

"Hey… You okay, man?" Mishima asked in a concerned tone.

Kai: "If he's gonna find out… It'd be better if he heard it from you."

"...Hey. Mishima." Toya's upbeat voice suddenly shifted in tone. "There's… There's something I've gotta tell you. Something… I've needed to tell you for a while."

"Huh? Uhh, sure… What's up?"

"Taking down Kamoshida, and Madarame… I'm not fully responsible for those. There's… another group of people."

"Another group…? Wait, you mean there are more Phantom Thieves out there!? You've got a team!?"

"A team? No, I-"

"That's incredible! If you have a full team of people, then there's no way Kaneshiro stands a chance! You guys will mop the floor with that guy?"

"It's not like that!" Toya shouted, overpowering Mishima's voice and shattering the happiness he had felt at the thought of more Phantom Thieves. "The other group… They're the Phantom Thieves. And I'm… I'm just some guy who can do something similar. I was there when they changed Kamoshida's heart, and Madarame's… But I'm not the one responsible for it." Mishima took a very slow step back.

"...Then… Why'd you tell me it was you…?"

"I was covering for them. I didn't… I didn't want anyone else to know who they are. So I figured, if you thought it was me… Then it'd be a lot harder to pin the crimes on the real people. Hell, they don't even like me… They don't like the mask, and they don't even know who's underneath it. They just… They don't even want me around."

"...You lied to me… for months…?" Those words felt like a stab through the heart. Toya recoiled a bit from the sheer emotional pain in Mishima's voice. It felt like it traveled through the air and hit him head on.

"...I'm sorry. I just…" Toya tried to look at Mishima, but Mishima turned around, and started to run. "M-Mishima, wait! Don't..." Mishima didn't even acknowledge what he was saying. He just kept going. Not looking back, or even considering the option. He just went on. "...God… Damn it..." He clenched his hand into a fist and banged it against his leg. "...I'm sorry for lying to you, too. For whatever my apology is worth…" He began walking forward.

"Are you gonna run after him?"

"I think… I think I'm the last person he wants to see right now. I'm just gonna go home and lay down. It's… been a long day for all three of us. I'll still be waiting by the school gate if you wanna go back tomorrow. If not… Well, maybe I'll figure something out."

"O-Okay." Makoto nodded her head as Toya walked away. She took a deep, deep breath. Her head couldn't handle emotions that well on a regular day, so to see all of that after a day that was as hectic as that… It was a bit much for her. She started to walk forward some time after Toya was out of sight.

"So the actual Phantom Thieves are still at large… Then, who could they be? They must attend Shujin, if Toya was willing to cover for them. But…" She continued pondering this on her way home. There was a lot for her to think about at this point… A lot of things to consider. A part of her wanted to focus on finding who the real Phantom Thieves are, but at the same time… Her biggest priority was still stopping Kaneshiro. There was definitely a part of her that thought that just having Toya would be more than enough to stop him, just from the small bit that she had seen already. But it was too early to tell. For now, she just had to get home, and figure out her plan tomorrow.

June 21st, 20XX (Tuesday)

After School - Shujin Academy

The next school day came and went. Mishima hadn't even so much as looked at Toya all day, let alone responded to him. It hurt Toya… But he couldn't imagine how hurt Mishima felt by everything that had happened. He just had to accept it.

"He'll come around, Jester. Maybe not now… But at some point."

"Things are gonna be really lonely until then…" He walked outside to get a breath of fresh air, but as soon as he did, he saw Makoto there, waiting for him.

"You're late. I was starting to think you weren't going to show up."

"I'm surprised to see you at all. I didn't think you'd actually show up after everything that happened last night."

"Regardless of who you are or aren't… You can still deal with Kaneshiro, can't you?"

"Well yeah, but—"

"Then that's all that matters. So long as Kaneshiro is brought to justice… I don't care who the real Phantom Thieves are."

"Is that so…" Toya couldn't help but smirk. Something about that made him happy. Maybe it was just the fact that he was happy not to be alone, or that someone could still depend on him. Whatever it was… the truth stood that it made him a bit happier, which he was more than thankful for. "Let's go, then."

Back to action next chapter!

Toya's Confidants:

Osiris [The JESTER] - Rank 3
Ren Amamiya [The FOOL] - Rank 1
Takuto Maruki [The EMPEROR] - Rank 2
Makoto Niijima [The CHARIOT] - Rank 1
Yuuki Mishima [WHEEL OF FORTUNE] - Rank 0 (DOUBT)
Ryuji Sakamoto [STRENGTH] - Rank 1
Eishi Kazero [DEATH] - Rank 5
Goro Akechi [The SUN] - Rank 1
Kai Kazero [JUDGEMENT] - Rank 5

Twitter: Kazero5340