haha bad schedule joke hahahahaha

I don't know why I even talk about it anymore, to be honest.

June 22nd, 20XX (Wednesday)

After School - Shujin Academy

Another day came, and things looked like they were going to go the exact same way as they did the day before. Toya came to the school gate, and Makoto was there not even a minute later. She approached him as soon as she laid eyes on him.

"You're eager to get back there, aren't you?"

"I can say the same about you, can't I? You were the one waiting out here."

"True… But I've been on this case for a long time. You're still pretty new to things, aren't you?"

"Even if I'm new to this… I've been doing nothing for so long. I can't just sit around and do as I'm told anymore. From now on… I want to make my own choices. I want to live by my own free will, and not by the will pushed onto me by adults."

"Is that so? Well, that's fine and all, but you're probably taking this whole 'living by your own free will' thing too far. You were being waaaaay too reckless yesterday… and kinda the day before, really."

"W-Well…" She turned her head away. She knew that he had a point with that… She hadn't realized how reckless it was in the moment, but when she thought about it the night after… It definitely looked that way to her, too.

"Anyways, let's get a move-on. Better now than later." Toya said, turning around and making his way to the station with Makoto following behind. The two of them weren't paying much attention to their surroundings, but they were pretty sure that there was nobody watching them, or listening in on their conversation.

They were wrong about that.

From inside the school, hiding behind the door, there was someone watching them, listening in on the conversation, none other than Yuuki Mishima. He pressed his back against the wall, sighing and slowly sliding down to the ground.

"He sure moved on quick…" He thought to himself. "He hated her for so long… now they're acting all buddy-buddy. He's acting like that never happened… like our friendship meant nothing to him…" He took out his phone, staring at his reflection on the powered-off screen. He saw the sadness in his eyes. A look of betrayal was plastered all over his face, plain as day for anyone to see. But it's not like anyone could ever figure out why he felt that way. And, if he did tell anyone… They probably wouldn't even believe him. And as such, he was stuck in a limbo of sorts. He hadn't felt so sad since the incident with Kamoshida was in its prime, and even though the severity of that situation made this one look like it was nothing… he still couldn't help but be reminded of the pain he had felt back then.

He turned his phone on and opened his browser, going straight to his favorite website… or well, what was once his favorite website. He felt weird about it now, ever since a couple of days ago. It was the Phan-Site… the website that he created, for the Phantom Thieves that he was so fond of. The Phantom Thieves that he had worshiped for so long-months, even. And he thought that the one behind it all… was his best friend. His only real friend.

But he wasn't. It was a lie. It was all one giant lie… and that hurt him to no end. He just felt… helpless. Like his entire world flipped upside down, and there was nothing that he could do about it. All he could do was stare at the Phan-Site and overthink the situation. There was a part of him that wanted to take the website down, but something told him not to do that. Something about deleting it just... didn't feel right to him. Maybe it was because he had spent so long on making it, or maybe it was because it was once such a big part of his life; something that brought him so much joy. He couldn't tell which it was. All that he really could tell was that it made him sad.

But it wasn't just sadness. There was something else there, something that was a little darker than that, and much darker than he gave it credit for.

"If it weren't for me, he wouldn't even be able to deal with Kaneshiro… He would be stuck here like I am! Instead he completely ditched me… He should know better than that!" He told himself this, trying to calm himself down and regain control over the situation going on in his mind any way he could. "That's right… He needs someone there with him! Someone to be his manager; and he just forgot about that! But it's okay… I'll just have to remind him where he stands in this matter… And then everything will go back to normal!" His thoughts calmed himself down. Because of that, he didn't realize how they could have sounded to someone else. But he didn't care about that right now. Right now, he just wanted to have something to ease his mind… and that's exactly what he had. That was enough for him.

June 22nd, 20XX (Wednesday)

After School - Kaneshiro's Bank (Bank Entrance)

Meanwhile, within the world of cognition, Toya and Makoto were finally getting to work on what they had set out to do. Their goal was to change Kaneshiro's heart, and stop the crimes that he was committing in the real world as a result of it. Toya was less experienced than he'd like to admit, and Makoto even less so, but that didn't matter. At the end of the day, they had a job to do, and they were going to see it through to the end. With that thought in mind, the two of them walked up the bridge outside of the bank, only to see that the front entrance was now barricaded shut.

"...Figures we wouldn't be able to just waltz in again. Well, there goes the easy way of getting in." Toya closed his eyes, losing himself in thought of how they were going to get into the bank.

"Maybe there's another entrance that we can find? I'm sure Kaneshiro still wants his 'loyal patrons' to have access to the bank, wouldn't he?"

"Oh yeah. There's an entrance alright." Toya said, staring at the door as a smirk came to his face.

"I don't like that look in your eyes. That's the 'I'm gonna do something that'll make Osiris mad at me' look."

"You know me so well." Toya slowly brought his hand to his mask, staring at the barricade. This was very risky, and very stupid… But it was a better idea than looking around for some kind of secret entrance to a fortified bank. At least, that's what he thought.

"...Toya? What're you-"

"Persona!" He cried out while ripping off his mask. In a flash of blue flame, Yama appeared behind him. Makoto was caught off guard by the sudden commotion and took a step back, while Toya held his hand out towards the door. "Break it apart!" He yelled out as his Persona moved through the air, coming close to the barricade and smashing it apart, clearing their path.

"W-What were you saying earlier about me being too reckless!?"

"Would you rather spend an hour looking for a hidden passage, or a few minutes waiting for… whatever's gonna show up in retaliation to what I just did." Within moments of the words he spoke, the sound of various different footsteps began closing in on the two of them. There were guards coming-and a decent amount of them, at that. But then they heard something… different. It sounded like… growling, almost. Then, before any of the actual guards showed up, something resembling a dog ran towards the massive hole in the wall where the barricade once was. "Wait, Kaneshiro has cognitive DOGS? Since when is that a thing!?" The dog howled in response, before sinking into the ground and taking a new form, which was… still a dog, but it was considerably larger and had two heads.

"Sorry to interrupt-we have more important things to worry about than what it is! I can hear more coming, and I don't think they're all dogs!"

"Probably the same guards from yesterday… Hey, you can deal with those demon guards better than I can! Leave the dogs to me and worry about the other half!" He yelled, staring at the dog that was already there, and listening to the rest of the footsteps that were coming. They didn't have any time to waste, so Toya rushed straight towards the twin-headed beast. The beast did the same, rushing forward with it's mouth open, ready to bite down onto Toya as soon as he got close enough. Realizing how obvious of a trap it was, Toya made sure not to get that close to the dog, instead opting to jump into the air at the last second to avoid any kind of damage. He drew his bow once he was in the air and aimed down at the dog, expecting to get an easy kill out of just shooting an arrow into his head. But before he could even shoot, the dog turned around and opened its mouth once more, revealing a charge of fire building up inside of it. On instinct, Toya shifted his focus away from attacking and towards getting out of the way. He aimed his fist toward the ground and shot out his grappling hook, zipping straight down to the ground to avoid the breath of fire that had shot out from the dog's mouth moments later.

"Are you regretting this yet?"

"I don't know, have you come up with a strategy yet!?"

"Counter its magic with your own already!" Toya quickly raised his hand to his mask, ready to take the fight to the next level. Meanwhile, behind him, Makoto was getting into her own slice of the action, as two guards started running towards her. There was another one that she could hear coming in the distance, but for now this was all she needed to worry about. The guards took their true forms, but they were slightly different yesterday. Instead of being giant red demons, they were slim purple-skinned women, holding a sword in each hand. Due to the swords they were holding, Makoto knew that it would be a stupid idea to get in close, so she needed to rely on a bit more of a ranged advantage to win. She quickly jumped back and ripped her mask off of her face, summoning Johanna to the field and landing onto her, ready to strike. She quickly spun around, unleashing a blast of nuclear energy that knocked the two of them back, not finishing them off completely but doing more than enough damage to give her an easy advantage. With the cognitive enemies on the ropes, Makoto took the chance to close in on them, revving up her motorcycle and driving forward, making a sharp turn as soon as she got in close to send the two of them flying back. They landed on the floor and faded into mist on impact, completely destroyed. A few moments later, the dog that Toya was dealing with met a similar fate, crashing onto the floor and disappearing.

"That's one wave down… Don't call me crazy, but after a few months of this… I'm starting to find this more and more fun."

"How am I not supposed to call you crazy after that…?" Makoto took a deep breath as the two of them stepped into the bank, through the hole in the wall where the barricade originally was. The guards were cleared out now, but there would be more. In fact, the two of them could already hear the sound of footsteps.

"This place has way too many guards. If we stand around fighting all day, we're just gonna tire ourselves out. Over here!" Toya jumped behind the overly fancy sofas that were in the room, with Makoto following behind him. As they got behind cover, they heard more guards run into the room.

"Where are the intruders!?"

"They couldn't have gone far. Search the entire area for them!" The sound of footsteps rang out again, as the guards ran towards the next room in search of Toya and Makoto.

"Let's keep quiet… The less attention we draw to ourselves, the faster we'll be done with this. I don't wanna let Kaneshiro do whatever he wants in the real world for much longer." Toya whispered, peeking his head above the sofa to see if anyone was coming their way.

"I'll follow your lead then. Let's get to work."

"Right." The two of them slowly moved ahead, going in the opposite direction of the guards that passed by them. Walking into the next room, they saw an elevator open up, and a guard walk right into it. As soon as the guard was inside, the door closed, not giving anyone else a chance to get inside. "A guarded elevator… That's gotta lead to something, right?"

"Something like that wouldn't be opened by motion sensors, or anything of the sort. Maybe it's controlled from a security room?"

"If there's a security room blocking access to the elevator… Then there's no doubt that it's where we need to go. Let's go find that security room."

"Right behind you." The two of them snuck past the guards that were scattered throughout the room, finding a staircase and quickly moving up without ever getting spotted.

"Things are going well so far, at least…"

"You're going to jinx it if you say it like that."

"What? No way!" Toya dismissed what Osiris was saying and continued moving up the stairs, but as soon as he got a look at the upper floor they were about to step foot on, he laid eyes on another one of the dogs from earlier, walking away from him. "See? Not even the dogs notice us yet!"

"Careful… Something tells me that the dog is going to be much more observant than the actual guards." Makoto said, taking note of the danger.

"True… But they'll be easier to take down if we do catch them by surprise. Follow me." Toya moved as slowly as he could. He reached into his quiver, pulling an arrow out and gripping it tightly. "I'll get the first hit, but you gotta be the one to finish it. Preferably without your Persona—that'll bring too much attention."

"I'll try to be quick about finishing it off then. I'm ready whenever you are." The two of them nodded. They walked together, sneaking up on the dog without it turning around yet. Toya paused for a moment to mentally prepare himself, and then suddenly jumped onto the dog. Without wasting so much as a second, he grabbed onto the dog's jaw to try and prevent it from making noise, and then plunged the arrow he held into its back. It shook in pain, trying desperately to scream out and alert any nearby guards, but Toya made sure that it couldn't make a sound. While he restrained it, Makoto got in close, standing next to the dog and reeling her arm back before punching it as hard as she could. Toya jumped off of the dog as soon as Makoto was about to make impact, which caused the dog to go flying. It went straight into the wall and faded away on impact, barely even making a sound at all.

"Good work! If we keep that up, we'll have no problems here at all."

"Assuming Kaneshiro has no tricks up his sleeve… You may be right about that. Let's go." Out of the corner of their eyes, the two of them noticed a sealed door to their right. They went over to it and saw something that resembled a keycard scanner. "So we need to find a keycard… Do you think one of the guards has it?"

"Definitely. And something tells me that it won't be one that's just roaming the halls. Let's check to see if there are any other rooms we can enter." Toya and Makoto snuck around the rest of the floor, but they couldn't find anything for a while. All they found was another way back downstairs, and another blocked-off door. For a few minutes, they were completely stumped. But then, Toya noticed something that they hadn't explored yet. Near the other sealed off door that they saw, there was a small duct. It was only barely enough to fit into, though.

"...Do you really think we can fit in there…?"

"Well, we've kinda run out of options. I'll go in first, so just try to fit in after." Toya got down to his hands and knees and crawled into the vent. Makoto hesitated a bit due to how uncomfortable she imagined it would be, but she ended up going in regardless. She didn't exactly have another choice in the matter if she wanted to take down Kaneshiro, after all.

"This takes me back to when our main concern was Kamoshida… It feels like it's been so long since then."

"Well, a lot has changed since then."

"Yeah. Now I have a human partner, a target on my back, and I have to take down an oversized criminal… And I summon a demon from my heart to kill other demons. When did my life become an anime?"

"...You just had to make that analogy, didn't you?"

"Well, duh! I mean, it's true, right!?"

"Just… Just focus on the damn bank, Jester."

"Fiiiiine…" Toya kept crawling through the vent until he finally reached an opening. There were a few guards already in the room, but they had no idea that he was there, or that Makoto was close behind.

"No way to be sneaky about this… We'll have to get our hands dirty. You ready back there?"

"Yeah. I'm right behind you. I'll come down as soon as you do."

"Get ready then!" Toya poked his upper body out of the vent and put his right arm forward, shooting his grappling hook out and latching it into the arm of one of the guards. The rest of the guards didn't notice until he came out of the vent, being dragged directly towards one of the guards and knocking it down.

"What the hell!?" The guard that was knocked down slowly picked himself up, standing with the rest of the guards and staring down Toya. Makoto came out of the vent a moment later, landing down on the ground next to him. "Intruders!? We'll show you the power of Kaneshiro's elite men!" The guards took their true forms. They were red horses that stood up on 2 feet, and there were 4 of them.

"Ones on the right are mine, you take the ones that are-"

"Johanna!" Makoto quickly unmasked and summoned her Persona, unleashing multiple blasts of magic onto all of them. As it turns out, the guards were… actually a lot weaker than Toya expected. With just that simple blast, they were all finished.

"...Or… that. I-I guess that works too."

"She's making you look bad again."

"Oh, I look FINE!"

"...Are you still in there, Toya?" Toya had completely spaced out due to Osiris and didn't even realize, leaving Makoto there wondering just what he was thinking about.

"O-Oh, sorry! Just uh… Thinking about something. It's nothing." More importantly, is that a map?" Toya walked towards something attached to the wall. Sure enough, it was a map of the entire bank. "Well, we can't see everything… But it looks like there's a lot more underneath us than we expected."

"And look, over here. Isn't this a keycard?"

"Oh, really? Great! Let's get back to that sealed room from earlier. I'll hold on to the map." The two of them walked out of the room and quickly got to the nearby door that was sealed off. Sure enough, the keycard was enough to open the door, but there wasn't actually much inside of the room when they walked inside. It was mostly empty, actually.

"...It's empty? Why did they lock an empty room behind a keycard?"

"I don't think it's actually empty… Here, look." There was a square-shaped hole in the grate used as a floor, and something underneath it. "Isn't this room right above where we saw that elevator?"

"Oh…! So that's the elevator, then?"

"Yeah. And if it's back up here… Then we probably won't need to wait long until it moves again. Come on!" They both jumped down through the grate and landed on the elevator. And, sure enough… It began moving moments later. All they had to do now was wait until it stopped.

Gonna be splitting the bank into a few chapters. In the original story, it was only two chapters, buuuuut... Well, I have more to put in these chapters now than I did before, which I'm sure readers of the original story can attest to.

On an unrelated note, I've been wanting to get into streaming recently. If my computer wasn't a flaming hunk of crap, I would totally do it consistently, but unfortunately for me... it is.

If I do ever decide to stream something though, I'll talk about it on my Twitter. Speaking of which:

Twitter: Kazero5340