Ren was a little shell-shocked by the events that had just transpired, to say the least. Coming face-to-face with and immediately getting singled out by Captain Mocker was one thing, but now they were shipwrecked on the very island they'd tried to pass? Ren had a ton of reasons to stress, and changing Mocker's heart almost seemed to be the least of his worries. Stepping back onto solid ground for the time being, it almost felt surreal. He looked back and saw several crew members still on board, and among them was Captain Aldo. Aren't they going to get off?

"What are you doing, captain?"

The captain turned to Ren and called out back. "Getting the rest of the food off the ship so we can survive. Besides, the captain leaves the ship last. Got it?"

"Yeah, okay…" Ren didn't really understand the politics of naval travel, but he wasn't about to argue with that little proposition. Now was the time to look for a good hideout for the potential months they would be shipwrecked. "Hey, Benham!" He called out. "We'll go scouting! We might find something!"

"If you're doing that, then stick to the forest, and be back before nightfall! We don't need you needing rescue now!"

How doting of you, Benham, Ren thought. Morgana and Anya by his side, he quickly dashed off into the forest. He expected just a really dense jungle with a bunch of untamed wildlife at most, so it'd be perfect for this. Hopefully, the island was big enough for them to maintain it's secrecy until they left. In the worst case scenario, they'd get found quickly had have to make a cover story that would probably lead to everyone else building nearby.

"So, where are we going, exactly?" Anya asked.

"Nowhere in particular. Just looking for a good place for us to hide, that's all."

"There's gotta be more to this island than just the forest, right?" Morgana pointed out. "There's that huge mountain, after all. It wouldn't be odd to expect a cave system, maybe even a proper mystery dungeon."

"Yes, but that can wait a day or two. Benham has a point, even if he probably just wants to keep an eye on us. We don't know what's on this island, and that makes it dangerous."

The forest continued on for a while, and Ren was starting to think they'd find nothing useful. However, hope seemed to win out, as they happened upon a small handful of Oran berry trees.

"At least there's some food here," Ren said with a small bit of relief. "Well, we'd better pick a few and report this."

Ren climbed up one of the trees and plucked a few berries, stuffing them into his bag. There weren't many, and picking them was a little tricky with his paws, but he was happy to see them regardless. Suddenly, Anya spoke up from atop her own tree after he'd picked as many as he could fit into his bag.

"Hey, Ren? Don't you notice anything funny about these trees?"

"No, why?"

"Well…" She gestured around the small patch of trees. "Aren't there fewer berries than you'd expect? I picked wild berries all the time for my Dad, so I thought it was odd…"

"Maybe a few fell down."

"That's what I thought at first, but it seems like that's not what happened. The ground around the trunks doesn't have any berries on it, does it?"

Ren looked down, and didn't see any berries on the ground. "You're right, but where does that lead?"

"Come closer and look at this." She held up a baren branch, save for two berries, and Ren and Morgana jumped over to where she was to get a better look. Some of the ends looked a little funny. "If you pluck a berry the right way, like this…" Anya twisted off one of the oran berries, and the stem cleanly snapped off. "The stem comes with the berry, leaving the twig behind. But if you try pulling it off…" Anya demonstrated by ripping the remaining berry off the branch, leaving behind the stem. The stem had some berry juice left over on it. "You get this result, and the berry rots quicker because you opened it up. And if you look at this branch…" She held up what looked like another ripped off stem, with dried berry juice on it. "See that? Someone's picking these berries, and they're not very good at it from the looks of it."

Ren observed that the logic seemed airtight. "Check the other trees!" The trio quickly combed though the other trees, and found that they all bore similar ripped stems.

"What do we do?" Anya asked. "We probably angered a whole gang of 'mons living here, and…"

"Calm down," Morgana urged Anya. "Whoever they are, there aren't very many of them. They wouldn't leave any berries behind if they needed them."

Anya took a deep breath. "Right… still, they're probably dangerous, right?"

Ren took out one of the berries he'd picked. "Say, is that stuff about berries common knowledge?"

"…I thought it was. That's why I asked…." Anya paused. "Come to think of it, I never stopped to think about where you guys come from… I was so wrapped up in how unbelievable the metaverse is, I totally forgot that humans aren't really normal either."

"Never mind that detail. All that's important is that we never learned of to pick berries as kids. We were pretty far from any kind of farm…" Ren held the berry, with it's stem leaking berry juice. "All of the humans this time probably came from around the same place, so they're all more likely to be bad at it."

"…You think that we might be dealing with a human?" Anya asked.

"It's certainly possible. And if that's the case, we have to meet with them first before Benham ever gets a chance to meet with them. This is information warfare we're fighting, and this is a golden opportunity to get ahead."

"And if you're wrong?"

"We retreat if they're hostile or ask a few questions if they aren't and tell Benham what we found. There's no advantage then."

They continued deeper into the forest, tension high in the air. Ren was gambling quite a bit on this theory, but he considered it worth the risks. With all eyes on Ryuji and Homura, seeing them repeatedly, and especially whisking them away to the metaverse, will be difficult. We could use the extra hands…

"Hey, Ren?" Anya asked.

"What's the matter, Anya?"

"This isn't really important, but… What was it like getting sent to the Pokémon world?"

"It was like… waking up from sleeping in a weird position. It ached a little at first, and it felt super weird… took me a few hours to get used to walking on all fours."

"Only a few hours?"

"I'm built different. That's how it works, right?"

Anya burst out laughing. "What kind of response is that?"

"Ah, it's true you know."

"Really?" Anya had calmed down from her laughing fit. "I'm guessing you just woke up in that forest back then, huh?"

"Sure did. Right after Igor appeared to me in a dream about it. I didn't get a whole lot of warning."

"Do you think Igor sends all of the humans here?"

"Probably not? I don't know. He just called it an alternate reality where we didn't exist. He said nothing about Pokémon or anything else, like he didn't even know where we were going. That makes me think incubator picked out the setting."

"I see…"

Ren paused. "Speaking of back then… Your dad was really quick to trust us."

"Now that you mention it, it was pretty fast…"

"The only reason I could think of," Morgana chimed in, "Was that he was planning this for a while. Why else would he give up you at the first opportunity?"

"Oh…" Anya looked down.

"I'm sure he had your best interests at heart, though," Ren reassured her. "He probably wanted you to follow your dreams of working at the guild."

"The Guild, huh…" Anya fell silent. "I've strayed pretty far from that now…"

"…Do you regret coming with us?" Ren asked.

"Not really? I don't think I would've lasted if I hadn't met you. I still haven't gotten to be an explorer very much, though…"

"Welp, it's still been going well, right?"

Anya smiled. "Right."

The trio kept walking for a while, not finding anything of note, and making small talk here and there, until finally, they happened upon something. A tiny hut, made of wood and vines, stood before them. It was small, but enough for a person for two. Ren, against his better judgement, walked right up to the wooden door and knocked. "Anybody home?"

There was silence at first. Then, excited whispers. Finally, Ren heard a familiar voice.

"And so, the curtain rises on a re-"

"REN!"

Ren got tackled by a very excited Stunky bursting though the door, who seemed happy to see him, at least. Just over her shoulder, he saw a semi-disappointed Purrloin, probably because his little speech got cut short. Ren smiled.

"Hello Futaba. Hello Yusuke."

"Ah, it's so great to see you again Ren! You won't believe what's happened to us since we got here!"

Yusuke nodded. "Agreed. This has been a long time coming, so make yourselves comfortable." He looked at Morgana and Anya. He then did a picture-frame motion with his paws, or at least as close to one as a Purrloin could get. "Morgana and… Makoto?"

Anya spoke up. "Actually, I'm new here. Name's Anya. Hi." She reached out her hand, and Yusuke took it.

"Pleasure to meet you… Anya?" He turned to Ren. "You just happened to recruit someone with a name similar to one of the original members?"

"Actually…" Ren paused for a moment to shove Futaba off of him, who seemed a little miffed. "…Yeah, I totally didn't realize. Their names are similar."

"Who?" Anya asked.

"We just happened to have someone named Ann on the team back home," Ren responded. "I guess it just never occurred to me?"

"…I see." Anya turned back to Yusuke. "In any case, it's a pleasure to meet you, Yusuke. You too, ah…"

"Futaba." Futaba walked right up to Anya with a smile. "So you're the noob around here, huh?"

"…What?"

"Futaba, don't scare her with gamer lingo." Ren seemed almost amused by her comment.

"But it's fun!" Futaba protested. "I get to disorient and confuse people!"

Morgana interrupted. "Hey Futaba, since you're a Stunky now, couldn't you…"

"Absolutely not, that's gross."

"Point taken." Morgana nodded in agreement. "In any case, we have to be back with the crew by nightfall, so you need to hurry up and tell us what your situation is and how you got here. It might be relevant."

Futaba jumped in place, as if she was trying to make a gesture she couldn't on all fours. "Okay, here's the cliff notes version. When we first got here, we were in different parts of the world entirely. Eventually, we both got a hold of a meta-nav, and met each other in the metaverse, and we decided to just hang out together. There was this other group, but they never let us come with, something about trust, which is why we're trapped here, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We tried joining this group of pirates, but they didn't like the fact that we refused to kill, so they dumped us here. Questions?"

"…Did this band of pirates just happen to be named the Phantom Thieves?" Ren asked.

"You met them?" Futaba asked.

"…Yeah, we kind of took their captain hostage when we got shipwrecked here earlier today."

"Shipwrecked?!" Yusuke seemed shocked. "Ah, your ray of hope had already been swallowed by the jaws of despair… How cruel fate is!"

"Okay, Inari, no need to be so dramatic! Jeez…" Futaba seemed annoyed.

"…Inari?" Anya asked.

"It's a pet name, don't worry about it," Futaba responded. "Anyway, should we just hide from him so he doesn't recognize us?"

"Not gonna work," Ren sighed. "We're not the only ones here. There's a fourty-person guild here, and we've been acting as a part of it. There's also the crew of the ship we took, so you'd have to hide from fifty people for weeks on end on this not-big-enough island. Besides, them finding out that you're ex-pirates isn't the real danger."

"Then what's the real danger?" Yusuke seemed to have a moment of realization. "Don't tell me…"

"Figure it out?" Morgana asked. "The real danger is the Guildmaster, who is already suspicious of us, finding out that a pair of humans we knew before coming here is willing to join a band of pirates. From there, he'd be even more suspicious of us than he already is."

"Well, we haven't told anyone yet," Futaba assured. "But I guess that means…"

"Yeah," Ren confirmed. "They can't know that we knew each other. As far as everyone else knows, we had no prior connection, and you aren't humans. That's your story, for now."

Futaba looked annoyed. "How onto you is the Guildmaster, anyway?"

"That's… super hard to say." Ren looked up. From what he could tell though the foggy sky, the sun was already going down. "We gotta go. We promised to be back by nightfall. We'll meet another time and explain the rest of the situation, maybe dip into the metaverse. See ya around."

"May the curtain rise on a tomorrow more suited to us," Yusuke said with a dramatic flair.

"Inari, you dork…" Futaba sighed. "See ya!"

Ren was quick to head on out, lest this be dragged on any longer than it needed to. Time was of the essence at the moment, so they needed to hurry back to avoid suspicion. As the foggy sky got dimmer and dimmer, Ren got more worried, but he was fairly confident he could make it. Is this place always foggy? He wondered. As he mused on this, Anya decided to speak up.

"Don't you think you should have at least tried to explain the whole magical girl business to them? They're our teammates, right?"

"There was no time," Ren admitted. "Besides, they might not have needed the explanation."

"What makes you say that?" Morgana asked. "Seems like a lot to explain to me."

"Remember how Futaba said that there was another group they ran into in the metaverse?"

"…Do you think they might've been magical girls?" Morgana seemed skeptical.

"When we first got sent here, Lavenza said that there were only five humans in each group. If you count up the ones that were Phantom thieves, not including Morgana, there are five of us: Me, Ryuji, Akechi, and now, Futaba and Yusuke. So it's not just likely, it's the only possibility."

"And they were hostile?" Anya asked.

"Not necessarily. If they attacked, I'm pretty sure Futaba would have mentioned that. She only said that they were distrustful of her and Yusuke."

Eventually, the Trio made it back to where the Ogra crashed onto the island. By then, it was very dark, and they were using wooden planks taken from the ship as torches. A ton of crates salvaged from the ship itself were stacked away from the cliffside, presumably containing primarily food. The ship itself had seemingly come to a rest, and wasn't sinking any further. Ren saw Benham talking to the captain, and Ran over. "Guildmaster!"

Benham turned in his direction. "Team shadows. Status report?"

"We're not the only ones on the island."

Benham froze. "…Elaborate. Now."

"Apparently they're ex-pirates who used to be with the Phantom Thieves for a short time. Apparently they left because they didn't want to kill… I think? Hard to take them at their word, you know?"

"…Let's discuss this tomorrow. Maybe if they meet Mocker, we'll learn something. For now, we've set up a few makeshift huts, so we'll be sleeping with at least a bit of a roof over our heads. Don't go running off into the night, now. The last thing we need right now is to lose someone."

"Got it." Ren headed off to a few shoddily-built huts that gave protection from the wind and little else. Among the huts was a larger one, with two whole teams guarding it. It's only occupants were Mocker and the Floatzel who'd been captured alongside him. What in the world is his deal?

Futaba wasn't exactly having an incredible day, given the circumstances. She'd woken up a Stunky in an arid grassland she didn't recognize, and was currently struggling to re-learn how to walk in a gross skunk body.

"This is the crappiest day of my life…" She lamented to herself. She didn't imagine it could get much worse than it already was, but she wasn't counting on it. The hot sun beat down on her purple fur, which was far too effective at trapping heat. It'd been hours since she'd last seen a river, and it was really starting to get to her. The grassland seemed to stretch forever, regardless of how much she kept on walking. Living as a shut-in for so long, it seemed, had taken a toll on her ability to survive this situation. Not knowing what else to do, however, she kept pressing on.

Eventually, she found something. Off in the distance, she spotted what appeared to be a pyramid-ish structure. Maybe it was more like those maya temples. Either way, something about it seemed relatively important. She started to pick up the pace a little, it's allure seemingly giving her strength. Eventually, she found herself sprinting towards it, until finally she was at it's base. After taking an extremely refreshing drink from the nearby river and counting her lucky stars, she starting heading right to the top. She was so focused, in fact, that she failed to look where she was going. Crash!

"Ow!" It was a voice she didn't recognize, but colliding into him rattled her brain a moment. After recovering from getting dazed, she looked up to her accidental combatant. A Lucario, with a red scarf. He seemed to take notice of her, as well. "And who might you be?"

"I'm Futaba Sakura, and I have no idea where I am. I'm probably dreaming, so…" Futaba merely said this to convince herself, because she desperately wanted to believe it.

"Ah, no, you're awake. Name's Leo! Explorer extraordinaire! And I'm exploring this temple right here!"

"Explorer?" What is this generic guy talking about? She thought.

"From a Guild very far from here. I had to beg the Guildmaster to let me come out here by myself. Probably won't be back for another moon, but… Ah, I can send you back to the nearby town if you like? In need of rescuing I assume? Don't worry, I can-"

"I don't need to be rescued!" Futaba snapped. "I just… wanna check out this place too…"

"In that case, I'll protect you until we're done here."

The two of them proceeded into the temple in silence. Futaba was in no mood to make friends with this weirdo, and would rather be anywhere else. But, she couldn't shake the feeling that the place was of some importance. Eventually, they found themselves in a funny looking altar. "ばべる" was inscribed on an altar. Is that supposed to be 'Babel'? Futaba thought. Utop the altar was something that Futaba took a far greater interest in, however: A tablet bearing the logo of the meta-nav app. On the tablet was a space where something could be written. It's a meta-nav! I bet 'Babel' is a palace like momentos! Just gotta get away from this noob with this, and-

"Funny-looking altar, no?" Leo gestured to the inscription. "I bet this is the remnants of a long-forgotten sect. I wonder what this inscription says…" Leo was hunched over, studying the inscription, recording it in a notebook.

Without thinking, she grabbed the tablet and tried running off with it.

"H-hey! What do you think you're doing with that artifact?!"

Futaba, against her better judgement, attempted to spray using her newfound skunk powers, which she immediately regretted, as the smell made her gag. Not as much as Leo did, however, as he fell to his knees at the smell, clutching his stomach, which Futaba used to get as far away as possible. "Noob!"

Once she was sure there was sufficient distance between the two of them, she attempted to scribble in 'Babel' as best she could onto the tablet. Sure enough, the tablet sprung to life, and the world around her melted away, replaced by what seemed to be an eerie cave. She looked down at herself, and saw that she was once again in her Phantom Thief outfit, proof she was in the metaverse.

"Uhg, that was so gross… Never doing that again!" The sense of relief she felt from not having to be a skunk was enormous. "He-he-he… Oracle, you did it! You got away! That smelly noob won't be bothering you!"

Futaba proceeded to wander around the metaverse for a while, unsure of what to do. Her Necronomicon wasn't exactly a great persona for fighting, so she snuck around for a while, instead taking advantage of it's navigational abilities. Eventually, however, she found herself a sight for sore eyes.

"Inari!" she tackled Yusuke, who nearly drew his blade before realizing who it was, and then resigned to just shoving her off of him. "Oof!"

"Don't scare me like that, Oracle. I nearly summoned Goemon on you…"

"But you didn't, right?"

Yusuke sighed. "I suppose that's true, yes. Anyway, how'd you get here?"

"I found this temple, and it said 'Babel' on the altar, so I distracted the creep following me and made off with the meta-nav. You?"

"I found one in an antique shop after waking up in a town, and after a little digging, I tried 'Babel'."

"You ended up in a town? Lucky! How long did it take you?"

"A couple of days, why?"

"I just arrived…"

"I secured some lodgings. Would you like to come with? The people in town are nice."

"Beats hanging out with the creep, plus I'm totally starving. Count me in!"

"Let's go then, shall we?" Yusuke pulled out his own meta-nav tablet, and activated it. This time, as reality faded out and back in around her, Futaba found herself in a small hut. It was mostly empty, save for a bed, a desk with a pile of books atop it, and a little cupboard.

"Kinda baren in here, no?"

"I can't afford much more, I'm afraid. What little coin I had went into these books. It took a while to come up with 'Babel'." Yusuke himself had turned into a Purrloin.

"I see…" Futaba looked out the lone window. It had a good view of the harbor. "Any idea where we are?"

"Apparently, it's called wave town, and it rests on a place called the 'Air continent'. I can only assume that the world we're in is much bigger than that if that's what it's called, then."

"I guess we're kinda stuck here for the time being, then?"

"Well, unless we find the others. I imagine you just traveled an enormous distance, just now. If we run into Ren, or someone else…"

"…We can reunite the Phantom Thieves!"

"Exactly. Since Mementos didn't open up more until we got more famous, what say you we get some clout to explore Babel a little more?"

"Agreed!" Futaba was sure that the rise of the Phantom Thieves was inevitable. They were the true hand of justice, after all!