"Okay, so, for context," Futaba said as she began loading up the next file, "Ryuji already had his Persona by this point, right?"

"Yeah," the boy in question confirmed. "Me 'n' Ren went inta Kamoshida's Palace again to find out more about it an' we got ambushed. After that, we went home an' didn't go back until... what happened with Suzui." He spared an uncomfortable glance towards Ann, who nodded.

"How did Ann end up in the Metaverse anyway?" Makoto asked.

"I kept seeing those two hanging out together. I saw Ren on his first day on the way to school, so I knew he was lying about not feeling well being why he was late. And with rumours about how he and Ryuji had confronted Kamoshida after Shiho... I knew there was more going on with them, so I followed them around and overheard them talking about taking Kamoshida down. And when they went into the Metaverse, I was close enough to be dragged in along with them."

"We tried to warn Lady Ann about the danger, but she went in anyway. I guess her desire for justice was too strong for her to worry about herself."

"Yeah. It was pretty dumb, wasn't it?" Ann said, a little deflated.

"Not at all," Haru said reassuringly. "I went into my father's Palace after Mona-chan without a Persona, or any idea what would be waiting for me in there. And thanks to that, I was able to help Mona-chan escape after the Shadows overwhelmed him."

"It's true," Morgana said with surprising confidence after being reminded of one of his biggest failures. "And like how we wouldn't've added Haru to our ranks without that, we wouldn't've had you on our team without you being 'pretty dumb' for a minute."

"And as Ren said earlier," Yusuke chimed in, "You gave our group a moral compass. So, whatever the case may be, your decision to ignore their warnings ultimately bore fruit, the likes of which you could never have predicted."

Ann smiled appreciatively. "When you put it like that, I guess being dumb every now and then can be a good thing!"

"As long as it doesn't show on your exams," Makoto said, seemingly only half-joking.

"Yeah, just ask-"

"Futaba. Just don't."

"You ready, Ann?" Ren asked kindly.

Ann nodded. "I am."

"Ya sure?" Ryuji asked. "What about Kamoshida's cognitive version of you?"

"O-Oh. Yeah. Well... I guess you all know that it's not the real me. And you've all seen me in a swimsuit at the beach, right? Well, except for Haru."

"I did see you in a swimsuit in Hawaii, though, Ann-chan. It was very cute."

Ann chuckled happily at the compliment. "Thanks. And thanks for the concern, Ryuji, but it's okay. As long as everyone keeps in mind that it's based on that sick bastard's view of me and not the real me, I'll be fine."

"Well, if you say so."

"Alright, no more stalling! Movie time!" With that Futaba began the clip and then scuttled over to sit beside Ren on his bed.

In the video, Ann was shackled by her wrists and ankles to an X-shaped torture device of some kind and watched over by two of the same knight Shadows the group had just watched terrorise Ren and Ryuji. As she struggled and protested against her bonds, Kamoshida's Shadow once again entered the scene, reinforcing that he would be present for just shy of half of the videos the team planned to watch. Unlike the other times, however, he was accompanied by his cognitive copy of Ann, who was decked out in a tellingly skimpy purple bikini with matching high heels and cat ears. This time, the loudest gasp came from Makoto, who still, on some level, felt that Kamoshida's reign of terror was partially her fault for not noticing it.

"The guards thought I was that 'princess'," Ann explained, rubbing her wrists as the sensation of the cuffs digging into her skin faintly returned.

"Ann's Shadow..." Yusuke muttered. "Such exquisite-"

"You draw that, you die," Ann growled in response.

"No, of course. Such a gauche betrayal is unbecoming of a true artist."

"That's... good, I guess?"

"Besides, her promiscuous demeanour detracts greatly from her beauty. No true work of art could be derived from such a shallow creature." Although he didn't mention the comparison himself, Ann thought back to how intent Yusuke had been on painting her upon their first meeting. With both distance from those events and Yusuke's words now, Ann couldn't help but grin at the thought that Yusuke thought the real Ann was beautiful enough for him to wish to immortalise her in art form, while the shallow image Kamoshida and so many others had of her was not. It was like it was his roundabout way of saying that her inner beauty shone through to those who knew her.

As past Ann continued her barrage of questions about the castle and her tarty twin, Kamoshida turned his attention back to said twin, whose airhead tone and manner of speech spoke volumes of Kamoshida's view of Ann at the time - an eager and easy girl who was wrapped completely around her teacher's finger and would do anything to please him. It was difficult for any of her teammates to watch, moreso for Yusuke and Morgana, who found themselves reminded of her awkward attempts at convincing the former to open Madarame's private room for her. Of course, the other girls had to shudder at the thought of where Kamoshida's gaze might have turned if the four founders had failed to stop him.

As Cognitive Ann declared that talking back was "like, totally unforgivable", likely exactly what her master had wanted her to say, he declared that the real Ann was to be executed. A third knight in bonze armour stepped forward to do the deed for his monarch. Ryuji and Ren could certainly relate to the almost numbing terror she was feeling in that moment.

This was the moment where Ann's fellow founders entered the scene. Revealed to the feed for the first time were numerous female volleyball players lying around the room in various suggestive poses. Due to the dehumanising heavy pink hue they sported, it was difficult to tell if any of them were supposed to represent any real girl in particular, though one or two of the haircuts were somewhat familiar to some of the group. Their lack of faces dehumanised them further, as was standard for the typically rather explicit symbolism found in Palaces.

There was a collective holding of breath once Shadow Kamoshida placed blame for Suzui's suicide attempt on Ann. This only made his follow-up claim, about how he had taken Suzui as a replacement for Ann when the latter refused to give herself over to him, ring all the louder through the room. Every single one of Ann's teammates had to resist the compulsion to immediately turn and look to see if she was okay, lest their stares make her more uncomfortable than she no doubt already was.

The boys were blocked from acting by two of Kamoshida's guards crossing their swords over Ann's immobilised form, just as they had with Ren down in the dungeon. This parallel was not lost on Ann this time. Even with Kamoshida's threat of forcibly removing Ann's clothes, the danger the two knights posed to Ann was too great for the still inexperienced boys to concoct a strategy to help the captive young woman. Ren wondered if Makoto would have been able to come up with anything, had she been there at the time, but her wide-eyed gape now suggested she would have been just as ineffectually paralysed as the boys had been.

Even as his past self encouraged Ann not to just give up and accept her fate, Ren still felt a tightening grip around his heart as he felt entirely useless to help her, especially now that he knew her as his good friend Ann and not just the girl who was being victimised by Kamoshida. Even as Ann found new resolve in his words, that feeling refused to abate. And from their expressions, Ryuji and Morgana seemed to be feeling the same. It helped a little when Ann called Kamoshida a son of a bitch and a piece of shit and told him to shut up, but not by much.

Then, she began writhing as her eyes turned yellow, heralding the awakening of Carmen and the birth of Panther. With her mask now manifest, Ann's hands found a strength she had never before known as she shattered the shackles holding her wrists in place as if they were mere cardboard. Panther's first act was to kick the sword from one guard's hand and use it to cut down her cognitive copy, metaphorically destroying the world's false perception of her and forcing those around her to see her for who she truly was. Despite Ann's earlier threat, Yusuke couldn't help but find an inspiration so great that he was compelled to take in every frame of video to better conceive a way to present these ideas on his canvas.

While the cowering Kamoshida fled at Ann's bold declarations, his three guards melted into shadow and coalesced into a Belphegor, bringing the significant events of the scene to an end.

"A devil on a toilet? Man, that really deflates the intensity of the scene." While perhaps a tad inappropriate, Futaba's comment was difficult to disagree with.

"Kamoshida's cognition of Ann was absolutely despicable," Makoto spat. "Thank God he didn't have a cognitive Suzui."

"Um... actually..."

"O-Oh, my god! I'm so sorry, Ann! I didn't-"

"I know. How could you have known? He brought her out as a weapon when he fought his true form. Even after what he drove her to, that bastard still saw Shiho as his just another one of his eager pets. It makes me sick that he managed to get away with so much for so damn long!"

"Ann." Ryuji leaned over and placed a hand on her shoulder in a manner not do dissimilar to the way Ren often did the same. "It's alright. We beat that asshole months ago. He won't hurt you or Suzui anymore. We, you included, made sure a' that."

"Well, you say 'we'," Ren said with a lighter, if slightly cautious and self-deprecating tone.

Ryuji sighed and leaned back in his seat. "Yeah, we did kinda just sit back and let Ann wrap things up, huh?"

"After everything she'd been through, it was Lady Ann's victory to claim."

"It's certainly the most cathartic outcome, wouldn't you say?" Haru said, attempting to raise Ann's spirits some. "Good for you, Ann-chan."

"So, uh... what did his boss form look like?"

Ren met Futaba's gaze and made a quick back-and-forth motion across his throat to indicate that now was not the time. Her expression changed to a frown immediately.

"Sorry."

"No, it's okay," Ann assured her.

"It was about what you'd expect from an entitled man-child like him," Ren explained. "Quite literal, really."

"Huh!? He was a giant baby?"

Ann giggled at both the mental image and Futaba's shocked response. "Pretty much, yeah."

"But damn, we really were pretty lame, huh?" Ryuji lamented. "Not just when we actually fought his Shadow. When Ann was bein' held in that creepy-ass BDSM room, we just stood there like jackasses an' Ann had to free herself."

"Yeah," Morgana agreed with the blond, for once. "If not for Lady Ann's own strong will, we likely wouldn't have been able to save her at all."

"You guys' concern for me did help me find that courage though," Ann said with the biggest smile she could muster against the crushing weight of what had just been displayed. "Shiho was the only person who was there for me before, and when she was taken to the hospital, I kept myself angry to stop myself from being crushed by the overwhelming loneliness I was feeling. Once it was clear I couldn't fight back, though, that anger just left me and I let the loneliness take over me."

"Ann-chan..." Haru placed a supportive hand on Ann's shoulder, over which Ann placed her own hand appreciatively.

"But then, you guys showed up. Even if you didn't say or do much, just having you show up and show your concern helped me push back all that negativity and find my inner strength. Especially you, Ryuji."

"Huh!? M-Me?"

"Yeah. Ren and Morgana didn't really know me back then. I'd opened up to Ren about the situation with Shiho and Kamoshida, sure, but it's a totally different thing for someone who's been around long enough know all the rumours going around about me to still be concerned about me. And with how I was always so short with you guys before you showed up, it really meant a lot to me that you still came to rescue me. So... thanks! You guys are the best."

"S-Sure. Uh, you too?"

Unlike Ryuji, Morgana made no attempt to respond to the praise. Instead, he simply sat on the table, grinning like he was high on catnip. Ren merely nodded his acceptance of her thanks.

Ann stretched her arms over her head as if she was done with some strenuous physical activity. "Wow, despite how uncomfortable revisiting that was, I do feel kinda better about myself. I guess all those thoughts have been weighing me down for a long time. Alright, it's snack time!" Without missing a beat, Ann plucked some brand of chocolate-coated biscuit sticks nobody else had heard of from the bag and began happily munching away at them.

"It must be nice to be able to bounce back so quickly," Makoto lamented.

"Then, why don't you go next, Makoto?"

"Huh!?" Makoto's bug-eyed expression made clear her intense desire to not do that, but her defeated sigh after looking at everyone else expressed a sense of responsibility, as if she felt obligated to allow the others more time to prepare after what Ann had just been through. "O-Okay..."

"You don't have to go next if you don't want to," Haru told her comfortingly. "There's no need to force yourself."

"You're up next, Ryuji," Futaba said, volunteering the boy against his will.

"Uh, w-we sure we wanna do another Kamoshida one right now? C'mon, spice it up a little." While an obvious ploy to put off his own exposure, the others couldn't help but agree with Ryuji's sentiment, preferring to have some variety and take a break from Kamoshida's palace.

"I have no problem going next," Yusuke said, standing.

"No way!" Futaba objected. "We can't just have someone who doesn't mind go next after Ann's big moment of determination!"

"I didn't mind going-" Ren tried to respond.

"Quiet, you!"

"Is my awakening in there?" Morgana offered.

Futaba crossed over to her computer to check. "No, sorry, Mona. It's just us seven."

"I-I see..."

Ann stroked Morgana on the head and smiled. "Don't worry, Mona. We'll just have to make sure we're all there when you remember so you can tell us about it."

"Lady Ann..."

"I will go next," Yusuke reaffirmed.

"I already said-"

Yusuke held up a hand to silence the navigator. "Given the circumstances surrounding your and Haru's awakenings, I imagine you both desire more time to mentally prepare before committing to revisiting yours, assuming either of you even want to. Makoto is clearly not quite ready herself, leaving the reluctant Ryuji and myself. If nothing else, seeing the responses to mine may help the rest of you to decide fully what you want to do."

"Woah! Big Bro Inari." While this comment made Yusuke frown, Makoto, Ryuji and Haru couldn't help but agree with Futaba's assessment that Yusuke was acting like a mature older brother trying to help them out.

"Then, if you have no problem revisiting your awakening, Yusuke-kun," Haru said, "we'll gladly watch through with you and support you as best we can."

"I appreciate the thought, but I really have no problem with revisiting that moment. In fact, seeing it from an outside perspective should be rather illuminating."

"I didn't think of it that way," Makoto admitted.

"Very well, Futaba. You may begin."