When Futaba awoke, she realized that, unfortunately, yesterday was not some crazy dream she'd experienced. Here she was, in the same Barren little hut Yusuke had brought her to yesterday, still in the body of a Stunky. Hanging out with one of her old friends made it a lot easier to bear, but it was a whole lot to take in at once. More so than she'd like, at least. She'd basically collapsed from exhaustion on Yusuke's bed yesterday after getting a bite to eat, and that was that. She saw Yusuke sleeping on the floor next to her with a blanket that was inexplicably too small for him. Inari doesn't really mind sleeping on the floor, huh? That's the starving artist lifestyle for you… She continued lying there in bed for what felt like an hour, not thinking about anything in particular, before Yusuke got up himself, looked at her, and started heading out the door.

"Inari, you were supposed to wake me up."

Yusuke turned around, looking a little shocked. "You looked peaceful, so I assumed you were still asleep, and didn't want to wake you up."

"Were you going to bring back food?" Futaba rolled out of bed. "Or do we not have money for a real breakfast place?"

"We're going to the same place as yesterday."

"Yusuke, I don't know if I could eat at a Ramen shop breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

"It's where I've scrounged up my meager living here, so it's where we eat."

"We're gonna get fat."

"Not with good exercise. We'll get plenty in the metaverse."

"If you say so…"

The two of them headed out for the day, through the busy port town. It reminded Futaba of that one Italian city she'd read about. What was it called? She thought. Verano? Korona? Eh, it doesn't matter… The many rivers flowing though the town with people riding on little boats looked really cute to her, but that wasn't their destination. They turned into an alleyway, filled with little hole-in-the wall restaurants, and the cuisine, like the architecture, was all Italian. Futaba suspected that wasn't a coincidence, but she had no further evidence. Some of the choices made her salivate, but according to Yusuke, money was a little scarce, so they were really only left with one option: a little place called Guido's Pastas. It wouldn't open until a little bit into the afternoon, but Yusuke had been working there, so they had a pass. I suppose it's not really right to call it Ramen, is it? She thought.

Entering the restaurant, slightly hiding behind Yusuke, Futaba saw two other people inside aside from the owner, getting the tables ready for the day. Futaba was in no hurry to make friends with any of them, so she made no attempt to introduce herself, just like yesterday. The one she had properly greeted yesterday, Guido Pansage, the owner of the shop, was friendly enough to her, however. In fact…

"How are you doing, Yusuke? I see you brought back that same street Urchin from yesterday! Futaba, was it? Good Morning!"

"G-good morning…" Futaba's social anxiety was getting the better of her.

"Ah, come on, you. We got Brioche in the back, if breakfast is what you came here for."

"See?" Yusuke turned to Futaba. "We're not just having pasta for every meal."

"…What the heck is Brioche?"

"You'll like it, I promise."

The three of them headed into the kitchen, where the unprepared ingredients were kept and made into something good. It smelled like spices in here, which just made Futaba hungry. She watched as, instead of taking out some dough or flour to make the pasta, Guido took out a sealed drawer with some bread inside.

"Brioche is bread?" She asked.

"The best kind for breakfast, I assure you," Guido responded, taking out a container with what appeared to be some kind of jam in it, as well as some coffee beans. "It goes great with some of this, friend."

"I've never really liked coffee…"

"Futaba, we're getting quality food for free. You can just not have the coffee if you want, so you really shouldn't complain to much." Yusuke seemed to like the guy.

"I know, I know, this is all very nice of him…"

"For one of the best people I've ever worked with here?" Guido interjected. "Hardly a bother. Although, I could always use another hand for the tables…"

"…Thank you."

"Don't mention it, friend." After setting the coffee to boil for a bit, Guido set a tiny table in the corner. With the bread, and a knife to cut it. "Now, Yusuke. How's the little hut outside town I got you holding up? Furnish it with anything?"

"Ah, not yet. That can wait for the time being."

Guido laughed. "Is that what humans do? Sleep in empty caves?"

Right. Futaba thought. Guido and the other guys working here know that we're humans, but not a word of the whole Phantom Thief thing. Better not mention anything too shady… "Well, he did sleep on the floor last night…" Futaba mentioned.

Guido laughed again. "You two must really know each other then, huh? Yusuke giving up his bed for you…"

"I thought it was good manners…" Yusuke said, defending himself. "It didn't occur to me that what I was doing was strange."

"Inari, there's a lot weird about you," Futaba assured him.

"I'm… weird?" Yusuke seemed defeated.

"W-wait, I didn't mean it like that…"

Guido positively lost it at this point. "Hey now, no lovers' quarrels in my kitchen, now!"

"L-Lovers? We're not-"

"I'm joking, I'm joking…" Guido said, coming down from his laughing fit. "Anyway, Yusuke, I have to ask what deal is with the tablet I saw you walking out of the antique store around the block with? Surely that's decorative, no?"

"Ah, that's something that just happened to pique my curiosity, you see. I've been looking into what it could be."

"You telling me you spent all the money I gave you on a curiosity, kid?"

"That's Inari for you…" Futaba lamented. "He spends all of his money on random crap that 'interests' him."

"I don't recall you spending money on anything productive back in the human world, Futaba."

"For the record, my hobbies were less weird than your hoarding."

"You make it sound like I had the money to hoard things."

"That would be because you're bad with money."

"It's inspiration for my art."

"I didn't see an easel back in your hut."

"You know why that is!"

C'mon, Inari. We can't talk about it if this guy doesn't know anything… Let me tease you a little! "I know, I know, your current fascination is taking up that time. It's not a big deal, is it?"

"It will serve as inspiration for my art. That's all."

"You two seem to be in a bit of a state here," Guido interrupted. "That's your empty stomachs talking. Eat before the bread gets cold. You'll feel better about it."

Futaba eyed up the bread sitting before her. It seemed alright enough, and having jam with it was nice enough, but how was she going to cut this loaf up without hands. Nervous, she attempted to grab the knife with her paws, but it just wasn't happening. After getting frustrated at her lack of apposable thumbs, she finally just ripped the bread in half in defeat, handed the other half to Yusuke, and sighed. "I don't know how well I'll manage without any hands…" She took a bite into the bread. It was nice and sweet. "Oh, wow, this is good."

"See?" Yusuke asked, holding a knife just fine and spreading jam on it. "I told you you'd like this stuff."

"You can say that again…" Futaba agreed. "Alright, if you need help in the restaurant, I'm on board. It might be a little hard for me, though…"

Later that evening, after working a day at the restaurant, Yusuke and Futaba went back to the hut together. Futaba actually had a job back in Japan these days, but working the restaurant wasn't doing any favors for her social anxiety. Being around all of these people for so long had taken a bit of a toll on her. That said, she probably wasn't ready to just collapse in bed just yet, so she got back on her feet. "That was a lot…"

"That was probably your first time doing anything like that, right?" Yusuke asked.

"I mean… I got some part time work doing freelance web development, but yeah, that was my first time doing a job like that."

"I imagine you're not so used to a crowd like that."

"It's like a horde encounter…"

"I don't play videogames often, so I don't get the reference."

"Ah, sorry. I'm just a little worn out from playing waitress all day, at least in terms of speaking, so…"

"Such is the life of the working class, my friend."

"…Uh-huh. I guess that's what we are now, then."

"Correct. At least, for now."

Futaba paused for a moment. Still, it sure is convenient that I ran into Inari on my first day exploring the metaverse. Is that Babel place like Mementos? That seems to be a safe assumption, given that it's entered the same way. If it is, then shouldn't it be huge? "How long were you walking for, Inari?"

"A few hours, why?"

"If Babel is as big as Mementos, then isn't it incredibly lucky we ran into each other?"

"I suppose so, yes."

"Did you see anything else strange?"

"Well, I did break down a wall on my way to you for curiosity's sake."

"Did you go though it?"

"That was the route I took to get to you, actually."

"Wait, seriously?! We might've been in different sections of Babel, then!"

Yusuke visibly reacted. "That's… a definite possibility."

"Yeah! If you could just break down the walls, we can probably just head straight for the end of the palace!"

"There's no telling which direction the end of the palace is, however."

"Oh… that's also true…" Futaba was a little disappointed, but she still found herself motivated. "I kind of want to explore it right now, though. See what we find there, you know?"

"Are you sure you won't be worn out?"

"Relax, Inari! I'll be fine. Besides, won't it be nice to have your friendly neighborhood navigator on your side?"

"Ah, that's true. I must say, I missed not having your talents on my side."

"That's it, keep on praising me… so! Wanna head out now, then?"

"If we're exploring the metaverse, then that's probably best. We needn't skip sleeping for now."

Yusuke reached for one of the meta-navs, which had been haphazardly placed nearby the stack of books he'd used for research. "Shall we use yours, or mine? If we know we were in different areas, they likely lead to different destinations."

"Mine, pretty please. If nothing else, so I could explore the area I was in more."

"All right." Yusuke picked up one. Suddenly, Futaba had a question.

"Wait, how do you know which one's mine? They look the same."

"Yours smells slightly musky."

"…Let's not discuss that."

"Understandable." Without further delay, Yusuke activated the meta-nav, and Futaba felt that familiar feeling of the world melting away around her. When reality faded back in, she was back in her human body. She looked around, and saw that she was in the exact same place she was last time. "Yep, this is definitely where I was last time. We were right on the money! So, let's explore!"

The next hour or so was spent wandering around aimlessly. The two of them broke a few walls, fought off a few shadows, the works. It was going pretty well, all things considered. Futaba figured that they'd find another member of the phantom thieves sooner or later. Eventually, the duo hit a dead end.

"You wanna try busting down this wall, Fox?"

Yusuke walked up to the wall and put his ear up to it. "…It doesn't sound like there's anything on the other side."

"…So we gotta turn around?"

"Seems so, yes."

"Actually, you two aren't going anywhere."

Futaba turned to see the source of the mysterious voice behind her, and saw that she and Yusuke had been suddenly been boxed in by what appeared to be a wall of red diamond-shaped things. On the other side were two human girls: One with a massive red ponytail that looked more like she had her hair down and a matching skirt, wielding a spear, and the other with her hair cut short and dyed blue, who had a white cape and held katanas in her hands. Are these guys persona users? Futaba thought. Why are they trapping us in like this? Is the one in red probably built the wall, but she's got that huge spear, too… This is some real rival encounter material! Ah, probably should take them more seriously though…

"And who the heck are you guys?"

"Just a pair of Magical Girls who found a pair of suspicious-looking people," The caped one responded.

Futaba paused for a moment to process what she just heard. "Wait, Magical Girls? When did this become Sailor Moon?"

"Don't play dumb!" The one in red yelled. "You're gonna answer our questions, now!"

"Is a magical girl something like a persona user?" Futaba asked, not quite sure she understood the gravity of the situation. Could Yusuke take them on with me backing him up? That's all I can do in a fight, as the navigator…

"Shut up!" The blue one yelled, with a sense "Who the hell are you guys, and what are you doing here?"

"Perhaps I should smooth things over." It was another new voice this time. Futaba saw a little white rabbit-fox-cat thing with beady red eyes waltz out of the darkness. Wow, it looks like your stereotypical magical girl spiritual guide. If that's the reason they call themselves magical magical girls, then I really wouldn't be surprised…. What Futaba didn't expect was for red hair to immediately impale the thing with her spear.

"Kyubey, you bastard! I should've known you were behind this!"

"Y-you just killed him! W-what are you-" Futaba stammered.

"Come now, Kyoko Sakura. You know that doesn't kill me."

Kyubey emerged from the shadows on Futaba's side of the wall this time, seemingly unharmed. Futaba was dumbfounded. "H-how did you-"

"Please calm down. There is no need for an irrational quarrel. I will explain everything."

"O-Okay…" Futaba said, still processing what she just saw. Kyoko, still staring daggers at Kyubey, dismissed the wall in a semi-threatening manner.

"First off, these two are two humans with which I formed contracts."

"Contracts in which you hid the important details from us and ruined our lives as a result."

"The part where your lives were ruined was entirely on you, Sayaka Miki."

"That's… Not really true..."

"You decided what your wishes would be, and I fulfilled them to the best of my ability. Falling into despair was your fault." Kyubey sounded annoyed. "Anyways, these two had a single wish granted for them in exchange for fighting their world's equivalent of shadows. Are you following this so far?"

"You sound super shady right now, but yeah, I follow," Futaba said cautiously.

"All right." Kyubey turned to Kyoko and Sayaka. "These two are known as persona users. They willingly accepted a contract with a different being named Igor in exchange for powers similar to that of a witch. This place is called the metaverse, and using it, you can control the minds of almost any intelligent being! Make sense?"

"I don't trust a word of what you're saying, but yeah," Kyoko admitted.

"Okay, so, I recently met Igor, and he agreed that we would send 5 persona users and 5 magical girls to do battle to determine which is stronger. So, will you four be fighting now?"

"If it plays into your plans, then hell no. I'm not doing that." Kyoko seemed entirely against the whole idea of cooperating. "I'm outta here. C'mon, Sayaka." The two ran off without saying anything.

"Oookay…" Futaba said, bewildered. "You wanna head back too, Yusuke?"

A week passed with little of significance happening after that. For some reason, Futaba and Yusuke couldn't convince Sayaka and Kyoko to trust them, no matter how hard they tried. Futaba felt like she was talking to a brick wall. Nothing she could say could convince either of them to at least elaborate on how Kyubey had wronged them. Needless to say, it was extremely frustrating to deal with. She even considered just declaring the two of them a lost cause until they found one willing to talk. Maybe Ren found one willing to work with us… The thought of finding Ren with one of them was optimistic at best. Still, she had some hope.

The day initially progressed as it usually did for the most part. Futaba headed out to Guido's place with Yusuke for breakfast. Something, however, seemed amiss. The townspeople seemed unusually tense today. Futaba whispered into Yusuke's ear.

"Hey, isn't everyone a little too on edge today?"

"…I agree. Something's not right here."

"Maybe some bigshot with authority showed up?"

"Probably. That's difficult to say, however."

"Guess we just gotta find out the hard way, huh?"

As they turned into the alleyway like they normally did, it became even more clear that something wasn't right from the get-go. Several intense-looking people were gathered outside the entrance to Guido's Pastas. They all had similar-looking bandanas wrapped around their heads. Futaba nervously approached the entrance as they all stared daggers at her. She could feel the tension in the air as she gently opened the door. Inside was Guido Pansage, staring down an absolutely terrifying-looking Beartic. Immediately, the menacing thing spotted her and scowled.

"For fuck's sake, Guido! I thought we could talk in private. Who the fuck is this?"

Guido turned to see Futaba quivering in place, and immediately looked shocked. "Oh, ah, I guess I forgot to warn these two about you guys."

The massive Beartic stomped his way over to Futaba and Yusuke, and bent down to stare the two of them in the eyes. "Listen here, you dumb fucks. The Phantom thieves run the fuckin' show around here, so that means when we show up, you fuckin' leave us alone. Got it?"

Futaba's brain was running a million miles an hour. "The… Phantom Thieves?"

The Beartic seemed furious. "Yes, the Fuckin' Phantom Thieves. Terror of the fuckin' seas! Bringers of karma to scallywags the world over! We sail the black pearl, and as captain Mocker-" Mocker paused. "Why the fuck's your face saying you don't have a clue what any of those words mean?"

"I… uh…"

Suddenly, mocker looked like he just had a light bulb go off in his head. "Oh… I see what's goin' on here, Matey…" He turned back to Guido with a grin. "You found yerself a pair of humans, Guido. Ain't that something."

"H-how-" Futaba uttered, before being cut off.

"Shut the fuck up. Anyways, Guido, we were about to discuss payment, but… I think the situation has changed a little. Since you and I go way back, I think we might be able to let the protection money slide this time in exchange for a little… favor."

Guido looked shocked and horrified. "N-no. No! you can't! Arrigo!"

Mocker laughed. "Oh, matey, you know that decision's up to them, now isn't it?"

"Don't! You'll regret it!"

"Shut up, you're out of this conversation now." Several of the crew members gathered outside had seemingly heard what was going on and were now watching with a deep interest. Mocker looked down at Futaba and Yusuke. "Now that I've looked you in the eye for a bit, I can tell. You guys used to be fuckin' thieves back in human land, wherever the fuck that is."

"How in the world did you-"

"Please don't fuckin' interrupt me again, thank ye. You've got that glint in yer eye. I can tell, just by seeing it. Ye were talented thieves… So join my little crew."

"What exactly do you want us to do?" Yusuke asked nervously.

"Oh, ain't that obvious? Join our band of thieves, and you'll get to steal n' loot like the good ole' days. Or… you could refuse, and live a lifetime of regrets. Yer fuckin' choice." Mocker made his way to the door. "If your answer is yes, gather yer things and be by the beaches near the western edge of town by this afternoon. If yer answer is no, don't fuckin' show up at all. I'm not exactly known for mercy. If yer answer is no and you show up anyway to taunt us or whatever it is that goody-two-shoes types do these days, expect to be on yer knees pleadin' for dear life." With that, Mocker and his band of pirates headed off to their ship.

Later, Futaba and Yusuke were at their hut by themselves, packing what little they had at that point into a tiny bag. This, of course, included the meta-nav. "Futaba, are you certain about this? It seems to me like you're making a massive mistake."

"Yusuke, what if we can reach the others this way? Besides, it's a chance to explore the world. We might not get an opportunity like this ever again!"

"And what if they turn out to be treacherous fiends?"

"Then we steal their hearts and move on their our lives. You heard his name, right? Arrigo?"

"Futaba, there are still enumerable risks here."

"I'm willing to take them, Yusuke. Besides, I've got a good feeling about this. I'm pretty sure we'll meet Ren and the others if we tread this path."

Weeks later, Futaba was, in fact, starting to regret the decision to join the band of pirates. No sign of any of the other members of the real Phantom Thieves, and Futaba had found life with the crew to be boring and uncomfortable, to say the least. Mocker had tried to get them to kill some poor soul, but after they refused, he ended up killing the poor soul in front of them. Futaba hadn't really slept well that night. For some reason, they were sailing out in some super foggy waters. Off in the distance, she spotted an island. A large one, by the looks of it. She realized that they were headed towards this place, and eventually, they made landfall. Mocker approached the two of them. "Get yer fuckin' things."

"…What?"

"Yer staying here. Maybe for good."

"What?! Why?"

"Because yer fuckin' cowards. Now pack yer fuckin' things and build a fuckin hut here or something. I don't give two shits what you do."

"Because I didn't up and execute someone?"

"Because yer too fuckin' naïve. You think this you can have yer fuckin' cake and eat it too, huh? Well too fuckin' bad. We're leaving you here, and that's final. Got it?"

Despite their protesting, eventually, the ship left without them. Futaba looked down into the bag she'd managed to keep from everyone else for that whole time. Inside were the two meta-navs they had.

"At least they never found these, huh?"

"Well, it seems like gaining the trust of those two in babel will be more important now than ever."

"If we couldn't do it then, we can't now…" Futaba was certainly down in the dumps.

"Well, we'll have to get off this island somehow."

AN: ah, that's a first on this fic isn't it? In any case, I was thinking of doing a QnA since we just hit 100K words! If you feel so inclined, ask the characters (or me!) a few questions in the comments and I'll answer what I can in a mini-chapter uploaded the Saturday after chapter 28 is finished!