"Congrats on the new Persona, Alix!" Ryuji exclaimed with a smile. Alix had just finished updating the Tokies, and other Parisians on the transformation Atalanta had undergone.

"Thanks! It felt pretty crazy… but in a good way! How exactly do they happen?" she asked.

"I've actually been wondering that myself," Luka piped in.

"Well, this is our theory. You know how Personas are manifestations of your heart's true feelings?" Makoto explained.

"Yeah. It's a sign of our rebellion against the badness of society, right?" Nino asked.

"Ultimately, we think a Persona represents the vow its wielder has taken to be just and good," Morgana elucidated. "Therefore, when you take on a new vow that improves and changes yourself for the better…"

"...it changes your Persona as well!" Kagami realized.

"Whoa! That's cool!" Kim said, impressed.

"I'm guessing this is something that we don't have much control over…" Marinette asked, "I mean, Alix and Luka didn't realize they were taking on a new vow that would change their Persona, right?"

"True, most of the time when it happens, we're unaware. The new vow isn't like any normal promise to the self, but one changes you and creates something new in your person," Morgana explained further.

Everyone else nodded along before leaning in to discuss the next and far more major order of business: Caline Bustier's Calling Card.

"How are we gonna get that to her without raising any suspicion?" Ann pondered.

"I don't think we should hang them everywhere in the school like we did with Lila," Marinette said, "I think that was a bit of overkill, to be honest."

"But still necessary, if you ask me," Futaba quipped. Akira semi-playfully jabbed her in the side.

"Oi! What was that for?" Futaba snapped, quickly turning to puerile grumbling before refocusing herself on the topic at hand.

"Perhaps we can simply post them in the classroom? Or send it via email?" Yusuke suggested.

"Yeah, but that might point their identities out," Akira pointed out, gesturing at the Parisians' side of the screen, "How would the Phantom Thieves know to send the Calling Card there unless they spent some time on the school grounds?"

"...Maybe in the Calling Card, we could make it clear that we found out about Bustier from a different source? Like with M. Garcon?" Luka said, "Not sure how we'd do that, but…"

"That might work, as long as we didn't use any names or leave any other implications to specific people," said Makoto.

"We could say that after we outed Lila, we took a closer look at the rest of the school's faculty and felt the need to take action against her?" Ann suggested, "I mean, besides our members, no one knows how we actually found out about Lila, right?"

"Unless they're somehow able to connect the Hawaii trip back to all of us, yeah," Ryuji said, "I mean, lotsa people from all over the world visit Hawaii, don't they?"

"True, but let's not jinx it, shall we?" Akira smirked.

"We still need to be careful either way," Nathaniel noted, "The Board is still lurking around the school. It's not as prominent as a month ago, but I still see some professional-looking people enter and leave the grounds every now and then."

"I'm shocked with Bustier's track record with students that they haven't let her go yet," Futaba frowned.

"I'm wondering that myself…" Nino muttered, "I mean, if they looked into Damocles's background, it would make sense that they would look into the teachers too, right? Especially Mme. Bustier's - she was Lila's teacher!"

"Well, we did discuss how she's avoiding punishment before, right?" Ann asked, "Like when people with authority are around, she teaches and acts differently than when no one of importance is around?"

"Even if that's the case, that would only work for so long," Kagami pointed out, "After all, people wouldn't be making complaints about her without a good reason."

"I have an idea," Alix suddenly piped up. "Nino, what if you Voyaged into the teachers' mail-room and dropped off the Calling Card in her mailbox? Sure, it may not be as flashy, but that way, we can guarantee she sees it. And only so many people would have access to that area of the school, so that can take care of identities too and hopefully not cause any akumas."

"How will we know if she's read it, though?" Nino asked, "We won't be able to see her Shadow reacting, will we?"

"I could hack the security cameras and watch her read it!" Futaba suggested.

"That would work, provided there are cameras, and we can see her read it through them," Kagami agreed.

"And even if we don't see it, we'll be able to tell she has when the Palace's security rises," Makoto added, a small sneer on her face. "We didn't see Kaneshiro read his Calling Card, but we did make sure that he would at least see it."

"Yeah! After posting it all over Shibuya!" Ryuji laughed.

"You… covered an entire city with Calling Cards?" Nathaniel gasped.

"Shibuya's a big part of Tokyo," Akira corrected, "but it's not the whole thing."

"Got it," Marinette nodded along, "now who's gonna write it?"

"Well, it has to be one of us, right?" Ann pointed out. "They might recognize your writing style if you guys write it…"

"If Marc was part of the group, he could write it," Nathaniel said, "He's really good at this stuff."

"Totally!" Marinette agreed immediately.

"Alas, he is not, so we won't," Yusuke said.

"Actually… perhaps Luka could write it?" Kagami suggested.

"Oh yeah!" Nino snapped his fingers. "Luka attends a lycée - meaning he's around you guys' level - somewhere else in Paris. They wouldn't be able to pick his writing out of the student body!"

"Plus, we could type it out for the final card anyway, so handwriting wouldn't be an issue," Akira suggested.

"Why haven't we done that before?" Ann exclaimed.

"Because if you save it and someone hacks us, they'd find the Calling Card…" Futaba pointed out. "Plus, how would we print it?"

"Maybe buy the paper first?" Marinette suggested. "I don't think the government could check our purchase history… well, not legally, anyway."

"Let's do that!" Ryuji nodded along, his infamous cocky grin appearing on his face.

"I'll do my best," Luka nodded.

"Then let's get to work!"


The morning after about 14 Euros' worth of cardstock and a lot of hard art-work…

"B, B, B… there it is!"

"Do it quick! The bell will ring any second!"

"On it!" With a swift pull, Mme. Bustier's file holder was wrenched open, and the Calling Card dropped on the top of the papers.

"Come on! I hear someone coming!"

"Coming!" Appaloosa (Ann was using the Horse temporarily, as Nino needed to be at school) dashed back through the Voyage with a flying leap. The portal zipped shut just as the Teacher's Lounge lock clicked open.

It wasn't Mme. Bustier who walked through that door; instead, it was Mme. Mendeleiev. She was quick to notice that Bustier's file holder was left open.

"Strange…" she mumbled, "Caline is usually good with keeping that closed…"

It was when she accidentally looked through that she froze and snatched the Calling Card from the folders. The Tokies presumed her eyes had never been so big.

The science teacher glanced around as if checking to make sure no one else was in the room. Then she turned and speed-walked out with the card in hand.

"Shit!" Makoto cried from their position in Leblanc, "Futaba, follow her with the cameras!"

"On it!" the hacker frantically nodded, typing rapidly on her computer. Soon all the cameras in the school were pulled up, and they saw Mme. Mendeleiev approaching a professional-looking woman. To their luck, though, Mme. Bustier was heading in the same direction from the other side.

They couldn't make out what was being said between the three women, but Caline gestured to the note, probably asking to see it. Mme. Mendeleiev hesitated at first but ultimately relented. As the unknown woman took out her phone to make a call, several students also stopped in the halls to stare.

Though they couldn't hear the teacher reading it, they knew what the card said:

Madame Caline Bustier, Callous Faux-Educator of Apathy,

It came to our attention after we dealt with the Empress of Mendacity that you've been doing severe wrong by others. You've put the well-being of your less pleasant students before others due to your own cowardice, forcing those who are good to let it slide under the guise of "being a role model." You may not be a criminal, but you may as well be in the eyes of students, guardians, and graduates alike. We've taken the heart of a student under your care already… one who you refused to correct yourself; now, we shall do the same to you. We will take your distorted desires, and Françoise-Dupont will at least become a safer place of learning.

Signed, the Phantom Thieves

For a split second, the Tokies saw Mme. Bustier pale. That time passed quickly, and she went to what was most likely stammering out excuses. In another camera, they saw the other Phantom Thieves discreetly watching Bustier's reaction.

"I-I swear I-"

"Mme. Bustier, calm down," the unknown woman said, "I just placed a call to the police. They're going to set up a perimeter around the school for your own protection."

"Oh, Thank you!" Caline gasped in relief.

"You should be thanking your co-worker for finding it so soon," the woman then said, gesturing to Mme. Mendeleiev, "At least we'll be ready if something happens now."

"Yes, yes! Thank you, Dimitria!" Caline said gratefully. The Thieves thought she was acting a bit ostentatiously.

"At least one thing can go right in this institution as of late," the science teacher scowled to no one in particular.

Only the Thieves noticed how Buster flinched slightly at the jab before the science teacher briskly marched down the hall to her own classroom, shooing students towards their homerooms in the process.

The world shot to black, leaving just the Tokies, Parisians, and Shadow Bustier.

"So, you're going to disobey until the end?" Shadow Bustier sneered, turning to the Parisians. "Oh, very well, then! Prepare for a lesson you'll never forget!"

The world returned to its normal state, as Mme. Bustier headed off. Nathaniel murmured, "...So should we strike at lunch? It would look weird if all of us were suddenly absent."

"Not so," Kagami whispered back, "If we have to fight Shadow Bustier, it will look suspicious if we're late for class."

"Maybe we can say that we saw the Calling Card when we were in the hall, called our parents, and they wanted us home in the afternoon?" Alix asked.

"Still risky. What if they actually ask our folks? If we succeed, procedures at school will be better-followed," Nino pointed out. "As much as I hate to say it, let's just wait until after classes."

"Aww…" Kim sighed. "Well, it's for the best."

"What if they ask us to go straight home after or something?" Nathaniel asked, "For all we know, we're gonna be escorted by the police."

"If that happens, we'll just enter the Palace one by one, separately," Marinette decided. "We should wait for the rest of us to arrive, so no running off!"

"Sounds like a plan, now come on! Mme. Bustier's coming!" Alix hissed as the group filed into the classroom. Kagami took her leave for her own homeroom.

None of them - not even the Tokies - noticed a familiar blond had also listened in.

"Good morning, everyone!" Bustier greeted. Her smile was a little too wide to be normal, and even the non-Phantom Thieves noticed.

"Is everything okay, Mme. Bustier?" Mylene asked, concerned, "We saw you holding a-"

"Don't worry, everything's under control!" the teacher assured quickly. "Everything's going to be fine!"

"But wasn't that a-"

"Now, let's do attendance, then we can go on with our lesson!" Bustier hastily interrupted Ivan. The rest of the class - Phantom Thieves and civilians alike - cringed slightly; Nathaniel's mom had inadvertently confirmed the Phantom Thieves were after her.


Most of the rest of the school day went fairly normally… Although, around the end of homeroom, the sound of police sirens filled the air and several police cars started lining the streets. A couple of police officers, Roger Raincomprix among them, came into the school, shared a quick and professional conversation between the Board members and the officers in charge, and then disappeared back outside. Futaba noticed that the police had taken the Calling Card with them, likely to wipe it for fingerprints or some other DNA. It was a good thing the Miraculous concealed their identities in this way too; plus, they had been careful to use gloves when the card was printed out.

Just as Nathaniel predicted, around the beginning of lunch, an announcement over the intercom confirmed that all students were not only ordered to remain at school for lunch but that they would be escorted via police vehicle off-campus at the end of the day. Free lunches were provided to the students that didn't have money or planned to go home to eat.

They were fortunate that no akumas had spawned from the mess. No one seemed to be overly freaking out, but Hawkmoth had surprised the world many a time with his lack of pickiness when it came to his choice of targets.

Xavier Ramier and August Leclair were prominent examples, although Marinette was sure that the latter had been an accident. After all, what competent supervillain would think akumatizing a baby was a good idea?

At the end of the day, there was an emergency assembly, finally explaining the situation to the students who were still unaware of what was happening. The faculty and authorities alike all encouraged anyone who had any information, any information at all, to step forward. Even the smallest thing could help, they said.

Now, if Marinette had been watching this from a civilian's perspective, she would have likely been glancing around, gesturing with her eyes to anyone to step forward if she thought they knew something.

She wished she knew what information they already did have, but the Tokies had been careful not to leave fingerprints on the card. If there was any camera footage, Futaba would likely either delete or edit it, so they were safe in that department.

After classes had gone by and Officer Porcher had dropped her off, Marinette met up with the others, called the Tokies to confirm they were ready to go and entered the Palace.

If they thought it had been storming the first few times, they were practically inside a hurricane now. Jack and Chance had to press up against King and Viper respectively to avoid being blown away.

"Let's get inside, fast!" Queen gasped urgently. The team quickly made their way through the island parts, still making sure to be avoided by all the guards and crossing the tree-bridge to make their way inside.

Once inside, Skull and King slammed the prison doors shut, not really caring if it sounded too loud.

"All right, let's get this job done!" Mona exclaimed, pointing down the hall. Not wasting any time, the team made their way through the hall, Failure Room, and all the way to Shadow Bustier's office.

It seemed the Treasure had appeared on her desk. The Thieves saw two keys on the desk sitting atop the face-down painting, which seemed to have blown onto the desk due to the outside storm.

"Which key do we take?" Red wondered.

"Why don't we take both?" Skull pointed out, "I don't see any riddle or schoolwork we need to solve!"

"Shadow Bustier might have some sort of trick planned," Panther pointed out, "Palace owners usually do…"

"Then let's take them both at the same time," Ryuko suggested.

"Right. Red, Fox, you two want to grab them?" Joker requested.

"With pleasure, Joker," the two nodded. In a swift, smooth movement, the artists snatched both keys off of the painting.

"Nicely done, team!" Oracle cheered, "Now let's-"

With a loud sound of shattering glass, a team of high-level Shadows burst through the windows of the room. The door that was going to be their exit also slammed wide open, another group of high-level Shadows and the Shadow of Caline Bustier herself making their way through.

"Shit, we're cornered!" Beat gulped.

"That you are…" Shadow Bustier smiled in that saccharine-sweet grin she had when the Thieves were at their best.

Suddenly, one of the Shadows burst forward, barreling past the Thieves and snatching the painting from the desk before returning to the side of Shadow Bustier.

"Your Treasure, Lady Warden," the Shadow growled in a gruff voice.

"W-what the hell?" Panther gawked.

"We got totally duped!" Skull exclaimed.

"That you foolish brats were!" Shadow Bustier sneered. "And now I have you right where I want you. You can't escape this time!"

"Funny you talk about escaping," Red roared, "you're the one running from your problems!"

"Why, you-" Shadow Bustier snarled before taking a moment to collect herself. Sighing, she said, "Well, since you're so insistent on taking my prison's lifeblood, I may as well show you what it looks like."

Taking the cover off of the painting, the Phantom Thieves gasped. Only now did they realize that the painting was different than the one they'd seen on the wall earlier.

The last one had been a portrait of Shadow Bustier alone; this one featured her silhouette and another person embraced in a romantic kiss. It somewhat reminded Joker of the Lovers Arcana card, though he kept that to himself.

"Wait a min- is that who I think it is?!" Jack gasped.

"Who is it?" Fox asked.

"My love… Aaron has been the reason I'm working this hard! If I become respected enough, I can come back to him!"

"After you pushed him away?" Viper pointed out, raising an unimpressed eyebrow, "What makes you so sure that he'll want you back if that's the case? I know I wouldn't!"

"Silence!" Shadow Bustier screamed. "You children don't know shit about how the world works!"

"Maybe we would if you'd do your job and teach us…" Beat snarked.

Shadow Bustier sighed. "That's how it's gonna be, is it?"

The area around Shadow Bustier darkened with a loud, booming crack of thunder accompanying it. Fearfully, the Shadow guards hastily ran out of the room, whether by jumping out of the broken windows or scrambling through the door.

"Oh, shit!" Skull cursed; he, some of the Parisians, and the rest of the Tokies knew exactly what was coming.

Shadow Bustier began to emanate some sort of dark energy from her. "You want me to take care of the bad students, don't you? Fine, then… and I'll do it with pleasure!"

A strike of crimson lightning burst through the ceiling, landing straight on her and electrifying her. She didn't seem to be in pain - not that the Phantom Thieves could tell, as they had to shield their eyes from the flash the lightning brought. As they closed their eyes, they could almost hear her cackling.

"What's happening?!" King shouted amidst the chaos.

"Brace yourselves!" Joker warned them, scowling, "Boss battle!"

When the light died down, Shadow Bustier was in an entirely new form.

The Shadow teacher grew to nearly five times her original size, her skin turning flint-grey, and stretching to almost skeletal thinness. Her hair fell out of its bun and now dangled in large green locks, windswept and tangled. Her lower half had merged into a single, almost snake-like appendage, but with the scales replaced with bone. On her back, a pair of webbed wings spouted and extended, displaying her mighty wingspan.

CALINE "ABYZOU" BUSTIER

"NOW… PERISH!" Abyzou screamed.

"Here we go, everyone!" Queen called out.

With that, the Thieves charged into battle.


AN: So, the raid of Bustier's Treasure is underway! Hope it's okay, we're trying to make our chapters longer as much as we can. R&R and update the TVTropes page when you can!

See you next time!