October 31st.
Progress in Sae's Palace came to a temporary halt. Access to the High Limit Floor was barred by access to a courtroom in reality. In order to progress they'd need to attend one of Sae's trials, but finding the time for that was going to be tricky, especially since they didn't have too much time to wait when they only had until the 20th. It was lunch time in Shujin, and Ren (with Morgana), Ann, Ryuji, Makoto, Haru, and Kasumi gathered on the roof so they could talk without any prying eyes. Plus Haru could use this time to take care of her plants.
"Did Akechi-san contact you all yet?" Kasumi asked, taking a chair and sitting on it, placing her gigantic lunch on her lap.
Everyone was a little distracted at how large Kasumi's lunch was. This was the first time they actually saw her eat, and they were a little surprised. "Dude…" Ryuji said with wide eyes. "You seriously gonna eat alla that?"
"Hm? Of course! I always pack a big lunch, and I make sure to eat it too!" Kasumi offered a smile. It wasn't the first time she got this question and it certainly wasn't going to be the last time either.
"I think she could eat more Ramen than you do, Ryuji." Ann said with her normal sized lunch.
"But to answer the question," Makoto was quick to get things back on track. "He said that my sister has a trial tomorrow…so we have to wait. Truthfully, I don't like sitting around when things are so tense."
"I know how you feel, Mako-chan. I know he said we have time until the investigation begins, but I don't want to sit around." Haru said while watering her plants.
"We could use this time to show Kasumi into Mementos." Morgana suggested.
"Mementos?" Kasumi blinked once. She remembered hearing the word once before, but she hadn't actually been.
"Oh, that's a neat idea!" Ann agreed. "But before we do that…can we actually enjoy the day a little today? It is Halloween and I have to get some candy."
"It is Halloween…" Ren remarked quietly.
"Well…I don't see the issue with that." Makoto brushed her hair behind her ear. "It's not like we have anything else to do today. Although, it has been a while since I've done anything concerning Halloween…"
"I haven't done anything either. I've always wanted to, but…" Haru rubbed her arm. Her family situation in the past made it difficult to enjoy the holiday. "I think I would like to today."
"Count me in! I think it would be a nice way to take our mind off things for the day." Kasumi said with an excitable nod. "I was actually hoping we would get to do something together. Halloween was going to feel a little lonely otherwise…"
"Well, we ain't got much to do otherwise, so count me in." Ryuji shrugged. "Not like I can focus on school with all this shit goin' on."
"You barely focus on school as is." Morgana commented.
"Shaddup!" Ryuji immediately remarked.
"I see a study session might be in order for everyone, just in case." Makoto said. Haru, Ann, and Ryuji all shuddered.
"A-Anyway...! We can all meet up in Shibuya after school!" Ann pulled out her phone, texting Hifumi about their plan. She was certain she'd tell Yusuke…she hoped she'd tell Yusuke. She also had to send a text to Futaba as well, to mentally prepare the girl for what they had in store. Just as Ann was about to put her phone away, she realized she had another message. "Oh…that's a surprise."
"What is it, Ann-senpai?" Kasumi blinked. She was halfway through her lunch at this point and still eating.
"I got called in for a quick shoot after school. They wanted to do something for Halloween…so I might be a little late for our plans later." Ann said.
"You should go ahead and go for the shoot. We can wait." Makoto said with a smile.
"You guys are the best." Ann smiled and responded to the message, confirming her appearance at the shoot.
"I can't wait to see what sort of costumes we'll see in the city!" Haru was getting pretty excited about it now. That would have to wait for later, because the bell rang, signifying that lunch was over. "Oh…I guess it's time to go back."
"Don't worry, we'll see each other later." Makoto told Haru with a smile. For now, they'd head back to class and get through the rest of their day.
.
.
Ann's photoshoot was taking place in the Sky Tower. When she got there, there was someone she wasn't expecting to see, already in costume. "Mika…?"
For the special Halloween shoot, Mika was dressed a devil costume that was a little revealing. She also had matching horns and wings. Mika turned when she heard Ann's voice, rolling her eyes at the sight of the blonde. "Oh, so you're the one they called over." Mika said with a heavy sigh.
"They didn't tell me that anyone else would be here…or that you would be here." Ann crossed her arms. "You didn't pull that lame trick of yours again, did you?"
Mika scoffed. "I already got caught for doing that once. I wouldn't do the same thing twice. I actually use my brain unlike you." That comment made Ann visibly fume, while Mika just wore a smirk on her lips. Fitting with the costume she was wearing. "Besides, I already said I don't need to resort to those tricks to beat you."
"Pft, you'll wish you had!" Ann said with a huff. No way was she going to lose to Mika now.
"Ah, Ann-chan, there you are." One of the staff spotted Ann. "Your changing room is over there, you'll find your costume in there."
"Thanks!" Ann gave the staff member a smile, before giving Mika a slight glare. In contrast with Mika's devil costume, Ann had an angel one! After a few moments she stepped out, making sure the wings didn't bump into anything. "Wow, this is somehow fitting." She told Mika.
"That I look better? I know." Mika responded with a coy smile, one that only irritated Ann even more.
However, Ann wasn't going to let Mika get the better of her anymore. It was just the two of them here, getting ready to pose for the camera. So Ann was going to give it her all and outshine Mika. It was odd that Hifumi wasn't here, but this shoot was supposed to be a quick one all the same. Ann and Mika both had some really good shots and the on looking staff couldn't decide which one they liked more. Some said Ann, some said Mika. Ultimately it was hard to discern who did better this shoot, but everyone could agree that they both did amazingly.
"I can't wait to be featured on that cover page." Mika said with a confident grin.
"I'll be sure to take more attention than you!" Ann said, placing her hands on her hips.
"Doubtful, but I guess everyone has to have hopes." Mika wasn't even looking at Ann when said that, she was looking at her nails. Mika's expression did shift for a moment…like she wanted to ask something, but ultimately shook her head and decided not to.
"Uh…was there something else you wanted to say? Another insult, maybe?" Ann did notice, but far be it from her to know the first thing in Mika's mind.
"Nothing you need to worry about." Mika waved her hand dismissively before walking off. She left Ann to herself…and not even a minute later, when Mika returned to her dressing room, she let out a scream. "AAAH!?"
"…!?" Hearing that scream, Ann pushed the rival thoughts to the side and hurried to the source of it. She stood at the door of Mika's dressing room. "Hey, what's wrong…!?" She wasn't alone, a few staff members followed as well.
There was a knife on the floor of Mika's dressing room. It definitely wasn't there before and seeing it there now rightfully startled her. "A-Again…?" Mika didn't even realize she wasn't alone. She was just a little shaken up.
"Again…?" Ann blinked.
Snapping out of it, Mika now noticed the commotion she caused and quickly plastered on a fake smile. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to concern you! I guess I was just a little surprised to see this here…"
"I don't blame you, Mika-chan…" A staff member scratched the back of his head. "We'll get this out of here for you, don't you worry…!"
"Thank you so much!" Mika's smile grew wider. "And thank you Ann for coming to check up on me!" This was Mika being fake for appearance sake. Although it really didn't do much, she would take any chance she could get to look better in the long run."
"…Where'd that knife come from…?" Ann tilted her head. Was there something Mika wasn't telling anyone…? Well, it wasn't like Ann would have the chance to ask, because she was already being ushered away so Mika could have privacy.
Once Mika was alone, she let out a heavy sigh and closed the door behind her. Things were not easy for her after she felt like she had to turn her back on Hifumi, there was a weird weight on her shoulders that she wasn't sure how to get rid of. The stalker problem she was having didn't help at all either. "I'm a little tired…."
.
.
After Ann's shoot, everyone (minus Akechi) gathered in Shibuya to enjoy Halloween. There were a lot of people in costume, walking down Central Street. Hifumi looked around in awe. Even with things as tense as they were, she was glad to see so many people enjoying themselves. "Look at all these creative costumes!"
Yusuke was looking around as well, his creative juices flowing with so many ideas. "I am drawing so much inspiration from these well designed costumes!"
"Don't go overboard and ask someone to be your muse." Hifumi said, a little worried that might be the case. But they were all worried about the wrong person here. "…Where did Ren go?"
"Senpai's over there." Kasumi pointed…and then her eyes widened at what she saw. "What is he doing!?"
Ren grabbed some poor person's mask, glasses glimmering with a malicious glint in them. "Show me your true form!"
Luckily Ryuji was the one who acted fast, grabbing Ren by the collar and tugging him away from that poor soul. "Dude, what the hell are you doin'!? This ain't work…!"
"…My bad." Ren began to sweat when he realized his mistake. He saw a mask on an oddly shaped figure, and immediately thought it was a Shadow. Now he just felt a little awkward and embarrassed about his actions.
"Maybe we needed this break more than I thought." Makoto pressed her index finger to her temple.
"I brought a little something for us to store our candy in, should we get any." Haru said, revealing a gigantic pumpkin basket that would eventually need more than two people to carry the more it got filled.
"We can get so much with this!" Kasumi said with wide, bright eyes.
"Um. What part of that is little?" Futaba said with wide eyes. "I think Haru's idea of small is a lot different than ours…"
"What else is new?" Ryuji said while scratching the back of his head. But Haru and Kasumi looked so happy,
And so, the group walked around the city, gathering what candy they could in the large pumpkin Haru prepared. Eventually, when it started getting heavier, Ren and Ryuji were the ones who had to carry it and they were struggling. "W-Why is this so heavy…"
"I'm glad we've been getting treats instead of tricks." Kasumi tapped her chin. "Maybe it's because people want to keep spirits high."
Hifumi reached into the pumpkin, staring at a piece of candy that was wrapped in paper with the Phantom Thief symbol. "I think some people are trying to use us to scare people." She said with a deadpanned expression.
"I guess people are trying to get rid of the merch, huh?" Futaba had her arms behind her back. Shibuya was…really crowded today. Even more so than usual, but she felt okay being with her friends. "Maybe that is the trick."
"That's…really unfortunate." Kasumi deflated a little. But that wasn't taking away from the fun she was having with everyone else, walking around, having fun in the city while they just walked, talked, and enjoyed candy. Every so often, someone would startle them with a scary costume, and Makoto ended up accidentally striking them out of panic. She apologized of course, but considering how surprisingly jumpy she could be…they had it coming But eventually they would have to call it quits when they could barely get their gigantic pumpkin basket to move. They had too much candy.
"I think this was a successful haul!" Haru said while clasping her hands together.
"Yes, but…how are we going to take this back?" Yusuke asked. "We can't move it anymore…"
"Don't worry, I've already called some people to move it. It'll be at my house, if that's alright?" Haru asked, in case anyone had any objections to it.
"I think your house is the only place it may fit…" Hifumi said with a slight smile. No way was that fitting her home, or anyone else's for that matter.
"Make sure to leave some for me!" Morgana said.
"Dude, can you even have candy? You're a cat." Ryuji asked.
"I'm not a cat!" Morgana groaned. He wanted candy, clearly.
"…We'll put a rain check on that one." Ren adjusted his glasses. It was better to not risk putting Morgana's health in danger right now, even if the cat objected otherwise. "Anyway, if the candy is all well and good, should we go into Mementos to clear out the day?"
"We do have a bunch of stuff to do, don't we?" Hifumi asked. "I think that would be a good thing to do."
Kasumi was stuffing some candy in her pockets for later. She wanted to get as much as she could. "I'm ready!"
Ann was doing the same thing. "Me too!"
"They're alike in some of the weirdest ways…" Hifumi remarked, but she did so with a fond smile.
.
.
Since the death of Okumura, the Phantom Thieves popularity turned more notoriety. From famous to infamous, more people became increasingly aware of their existence one way or another. Because of this, it did allow them to go even deeper into the Palace of the masses. The Mona car was a little crowded with eight people in it, and Violet had to squeeze into the back with Noir and Oracle. "So…this is Mementos? I don't know what I was expecting but it's very…"
"Dark and depressing? Yeah." Oracle nodded. "On the upside, this is where we take care of requests!"
"Even if people dislike us at the moment, that shouldn't change the fact we can still do good." Dragon said with a firm nod.
"So this is where all those requests are done, I see…" Violet nodded in understanding. "I'll do my best for these missions as well!" And just as she said that, Jose passed them by and waved in the process. Now she just stopped what she was saying and watched the unknown child drive off into the distance. "…Who was that?"
"…I don't know." Noir blinked.
"Oh, that's Jose!" Panther said with a smile. "He's a cute kid! We help him out by giving him flowers to drink."
Noir and Violet looked at each other. "…Huh?" They both said at the same time. They did not understand anything Panther just said.
"I know it sounds like it doesn't make any sense, but trust us, it does," Joker replied.
"…I'm cute too, right?" Mona asked in response to Panther's statement.
"You're a bus." Fox interjected. That wasn't what Mona wanted to hear, unfortunately.
"Ugh….." Mona would roll his eyes right now if he could.
"He's so jealous and for what?" Skull snickered.
"Come now, let's just focus on what we came here to do." Queen told everyone. "We've got a lot of requests to get through."
"Yeah, but let's not take too long." Oracle said while adjusting her goggles. "Remember, the Reaper is watching!"
"The…Reaper?" Violet tilted her head. "That sounds very ominous, especially on this Halloween day.
"Mona-chan told me about it." Noir smiled at Violet. "It's a really strong Shadow that we should probably avoid. That's how Mona-chan put it, anyway…"
"I would like to challenge it one day…" Dragon said while closing her eyes. "We don't even know what it looks like."
"I don't want to fight something that is associated with death…not if we can avoid it, anyway." Queen said. "It doesn't seem aggressive either, I'm sure we would've seen it by now."
"That's only if we linger in one place for too long." Mona said. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's been watching us fight. So we should still be careful for anything." Cautious as always, the Phantom Thieves went into the current depths of Mementos, taking on whatever requests they had on their plate as well.
.
.
November 1st.
Are the Phantom Thieves Innocent? 17% to 16%.
Today was the day of the trial Sae was working on. After school was over, Akechi led the group (minus Kasumi) in the courtroom and found a place where they could all sit together. Sae was sitting at the Prosecutor's Bench, looking over some notes. "So this is what the courtroom looks like…" Haru said while looking around. It was such a heavy atmosphere that she wasn't really a fan of.
"Just being here causes my body to tense up…" Yusuke commented.
"I feel the same way." Hifumi rubbed her arm. "The air is very heavy. But I can understand why…"
"I'm shocked that Niijima-san can think of somewhere as solemn as this as a casino…" Haru remarked. The contrast between the courtroom they were sitting in, and the casino they fought their way through, was far too vast to seem believable.
"So Makoto's sis is that lady who's overflowing with the aura of a capable woman…" Futaba whispered.
"Mhm." Makoto gave a nod of confirmation.
"She's amazing…" Ann said with a dreamy sigh.
Hifumi furrowed her brows, but said nothing. "…"
"By the way, what's this trial about?" Ryuji asked. He may as well learn what's going on while they're here. He was taking this part of the operation seriously.
"A politician who decided to make personal use of government funds." Akechi explained in a whisper.
"I feel like I've heard this before…" Ren said to himself.
Futaba perked up. "Oh, I've read about that in a magazine! He went on a vacation with his mistress to some fancy hot springs!"
"Aren't politicians supposed to be loaded? Why'd he mess with our tax money?" Ryuji wore a frown.
"Unfortunately, that's just how some of them are." Ren replied. He couldn't group them all together. He knew Yoshida after all, and even though he was branded as No Good Tora, that man was making an honest effort to spread an important message and turn his reputation around. Saying they were all corrupt would be a disservice to his friend.
"Only most, huh?" Akechi was intrigued by Ren's wording.
"Playing with other people's cash is a no go." Futaba shook her head.
"I wonder…" Hifumi glanced at Sae. "I didn't think Niijima-san would have time for a trial. Is she not preoccupied with the investigation?"
"Supposedly, she was on this case before she was assigned to the Phantom Thieves." Akechi explained. "Normally, another prosecutor would take her place, but…Sae-san is a bit of a perfectionist."
"…Yeah." Makoto knew how true that was.
"Er…how are we gonna get her to notice me – er, us?" Ann quickly corrected herself. She glanced back at Makoto, who was looking at her skeptically. "Didn't you tell her we'd be coming?"
"I sent her a message, but I don't know if she read it." Makoto replied.
"Do we have a backup plan?" Futaba asked.
"Not exactly, but I'm sure she'll notice us eventually." Akechi was very nonchalant about it.
Of course, when they all glanced in Sae's direction, it was only a matter of time until she felt so many eyes on her. More than usual. Sae looked up from her notes, blinking in surprise when she noticed Makoto, Akechi, and the others. "Hm…? I noticed a lot of students here, but…is that Akechi-kun…and Makoto?" They were together? "Now that I think about it, she did send me a message that she'd be coming…" Oh well. Sae simply sighed. "That doesn't matter for now…"
"See?" Akechi smiled. "It's almost time to begin."
"I think she noticed an abnormal amount of eyes peering into her expectantly." Hifumi replied.
"Alright! Now Niijima can see that we're allowed in the courtroom." Morgana said. "This should let us enter that high limit thingamajing! Let's go into the Palace right after this!"
Ryuji turned over his shoulder, speaking to Morgana in an annoyed whisper. "Stay in the bag, dammit!" The Palace would be the least of their concerns if anyone found out they brought a cat with them! Luckily that wouldn't be the case, and the trial ended with a successful guilty verdict. Sae's victory.
But now, it was time to head back into Sae's Palace and tackle the High Limit Floor. The Treasure was waiting for them, and they didn't have the time to waste.