A few minutes later, in the attic room in Leblanc…
After Akira, Morgana, Minato (and Pharos) and Ann arrived and enter Leblanc, they greeted Sojiro-san before they make their way up the stairs into the attic room where the rest of their friends are, sat down with them before Akira, Minato and Ann told them about what they see Alice did in the TV station.
"… And then I stormed out and we came back here. Sorry about that, by the way. I was just so upset at Alice…" said Ann with an apologetic look on her face.
"No apology needed. You did a fantastic job in finding out about Alice." said Haru reassuringly to Ann.
"Yeah, you did good, Ann." said Hanzo as he nodded at Ann.
"Yeah, it's all thanks to you, Lady Ann." said Morgana before he glance at the others. "Once Lady Ann had her on the ropes, she whipped out her phone and tried adding them all on EMMA right away. From what we saw, she might know that she can use EMMA to lure people into her Jail." added Morgana concernly to them.
"She did and knew about it, huh?" said Kanakubo-sensei with a cold look on his face.
"She gets them into her Jail, then takes their Desires so they'll do what she says… I suspect she's been doing this for a while now." said Ann.
"That she does plus didn't her manager also know and try to tell her to stop only to end up failing and got punish by her, Minato?" said Pharos mentally to Minato.
"Yeah, Pharos." said Minato mentally back to Pharos.
"I see… That does explain things. But what is her end goal? I can't imagine such awful behaviour actually doing her any good." said Makoto.
"Isn't it obvious? She's clearly doing the same thing that all of your previous targets are doing last year, Niijima-san." said Goro sarcastically to Makoto (who scowled at him).
"…Akechi's right. Ain't it the same as Kamoshida?" said Ryuji with an angry look on his face.
"And then Madarame…" thought Yusuke.
"And Kaneshiro…" thought Makoto.
"And our father, Kunikazu Okumura…" thought Hanzo.
"Sae-san…" thought Minato.
"My bastard father and then Yaldabaoth, the false God of Control and finally Doctor Maruki." thought Goro coldly in his mind about Shido, Yaldabaoth and Doctor Maruki.
"I know who the ones that some of you are thinking now but leave Takuto out of it because he thought that he's doing it for all of your happiness and he already learn his lesson." said Kanakubo-sensei sternly to them.
"Thank you, Kyosuke." said Doctor Maruki happily to Kanakubo-sensei (which make him blush a little).
"We know, sensei. And that's a good point from you, Ryuji… She seemed to be having a blast being such an awful person…" said Ann.
"Again isn't it obvious after you saw what she did back in the TV station, Takamaki-san?" thought Goro sarcastically in his mind at Ann.
"Whatever it is, she has the gall to set up that kind of tragedy on live TV… She isn't in her right mind anymore. The longer we leave this be, the more victims will pile up." said Morgana more concernly to them.
"And it's already gotten to be quite a pile." said Futaba.
"Now's the time to act." said Morgana.
"But, just how should we act? Is there a Treasure in her Jail?" asked Yusuke.
"That's the tricky part… I am picking up a faint scent of something Treasure-like, but…" replied Morgana with an unsure look on his face.
"But you don't think it's a Treasure, is it, Morgana-san?" said Ken.
"…Yeah." said Morgana with a small nod of his head.
"What is a Treasure?" asked Sophia curiously to Morgana.
"Yeah, I want to know too." said Isamu.
"It's the condensed core of a Ruler's desire. That's what gives birth to a Palace and powers it. Usually we just take the Treasure to trigger a change of heart in our target." replied Morgana.
"I see. That does explain why they suddenly confess their crimes last year." said Isamu with a nod of her head.
"Hmm, that's interesting. What if there is no Treasure there?" said Sophia.
"If her Jail doesn't have one, then we can't take it and trigger her change of heart." said Hanzo with a concern look on his face.
"We can't change Alice heart…" said Ann, concern as well.
"For now, let's focus on tracking the Treasure-like scent Morgana mentioned. That should at least put us on the trail for clues." said Makoto.
"Yeah, you're right, Niijima-san." said Doctor Maruki in agreement with Makoto.
"Question: Why must we change Alice's heart?" asked Sophia in confusion to them.
"Why…? Because she's hurting people." replied Makoto in surprise at Sophia's question.
"So Alice only needs to be stopped. Changing her heart is unnecessary." said Sophia.
"No, beating her Shadow won't work. Worse-case scenario, it could wind up causing her to die in the real world." said Morgana.
"Death… That is an acceptable outcome." said Sophia with a nod of her head.
"Say what?" gasped Isamu with a worry look on her face.
"Dude, that's…" said Ryuji in shock at what Sophia just said.
"I'm humanity's companion. I am supposed to determine the best choices for humanity. Alice Hiiragi make people suffer every day. We should ensure she stops this as soon as possible. Why not do so?" said Sophia.
"We can't because if we do so, she won't be able to own up to her crimes and it goes against our Phantom Thieves code, Sophia." said Akira as he shake his head a little.
"I do not understand. I want to understand, but I cannot. Where is the flaw in my logic?" said Sophia with a more confused look on her face.
"I do know where you're coming from, Sophia. Alice is doing horrible things. We could just help all those people without caring what happens to her. The Metaverse is dangerous-you can end a life without ever being endangered. Even still, we always choose to change someone's heart instead of harming them. It's part of the Phantom Thieves code." said Morgana.
"That's right. Kinda pointless of we gotta stoop to the bad guy's level to take 'em down." said Ryuji in agreement with Morgana.
"We never kill. We steal the desires of the wicked and make them change their ways." said Makoto before she, Haru, Hanzo and Futaba briefly glance at Goro.
"Mmhm! That's why we're the Phantom Thieves of Hearts." said Haru with a nod of her head.
"Yeah, what they say, Sophia." said Hanzo.
"Phantom Thieves of… Hearts. I've got it, Hearts. I lack a heart. That's why I don't understand the logic of the Phantom Thieves. If only I could understand how hearts work… If I did that, I could become an even better companion." said Sophia with a dejected look on her face.
"Sophia?" said Futaba with a surprise look on her face.
"I've got it. I will join the Phantom Thieves. I need to learn more about hearts so I can become an even better companion. Akira, may I join the Phantom Thieves? If I do so, I am certain I will witness many things about the human heart. I need to learn more about the heart. And about the Phantom Thieves." said Sophia as she glance at Akira.
"It's fine by me. And what about you, Toudou-san?" said Akira as he nodded at Sophia before he and the others glance at Isamu.
"After hearing this much about and from you all, I guess my answer is… count me in too." said Isamu, agreeing to join the Phantom Thieves like Sophia did.
"Excellent. Welcome to the group, Toudou-san." said Akira.
"Thanks for joining, Sophia, Toudou-san." said Yusuke with a smile on his face.
"Welcome to the Phantom Thieves!" said Ann.
"Glad to have you two with us." said Haru.
"Two more new additions to the group, how nice for you all." thought Goro in his mind.
"Let's pick their code names next." suggested Makoto.
"Good idea from you, Niijima-san." said Doctor Maruki as he nodded at Makoto.
"Ooh, NOW the nostalgia's flowin'!" said Futaba.
"Well then, how about "Sophie" as Sophia's codename and "Jester" as Toudou-san's codename?" suggested Akira.
"I guess Jester sounds good for Toudou but isn't Sophie basically Sophia's name?" said Ryuji.
"Ryuji-kun's right. Why did you…" said Ken before he got cut off by both Isamu and Sophia.
"Jester, huh? I accept, Kurusu-san." said Isamu.
"I like my codename too." said Sophia with a small smile on her face.
"You two do!?" said Ann in surprise at both Isamu and Sophia.
"Uh, yeah?" said Isamu in confusion at Ann.
"I want to be "Sophie"." said Sophia.
"Guess that's it then, huh, Minato?" said Pharos.
"Yeah, Pharos." said Minato.
"Then you'll be "Sophia" in this world and "Sophie" in the Metaverse. Same goes for you too, Toudou." said Morgana.
"I understand, Morgana-san." said Isamu as she nodded at Morgana.
"Radical, dude." said Sophia.
"Heh, geez… You're already more human-like than when we first met you." said Ryuji as he smiled at Sophia.
"I am constantly learning things, thanks to the internet. I'm learning more words as I speak." said Sophia.
"Is that so? Good for you, Sophia-san." said Minato as he nodded at Sophia.
"Don't pick up any off-putting lingo, okay?" said Morgana with a concern look on his face.
"Okay, so we got 2 new members. Now we need to come up with their first mission!" said Ryuji.
"Right. Their first mission shall be helping us to stop Alice." said Akira.
"Good. This feels like our duty, considering we became phantom thieves to help anyone suffering." said Makoto.
"Not to mention gave me and the ones I used to work with a lot of trouble until Minato-san somehow convinced me to turn over a new leaf and join the group for real." thought Goro.
"I was one of those people once." said Futaba.
"We may not know the victims personally, but it would reflect on us poorly as phantom thieves to not lend a helping hand." said Yusuke.
"As long as there are people in trouble out there, we won't turn our backs on them." said Haru with a determined look on her face.
"You're right. We're going to be the ray of light for everyone-that even includes Alice." said Ann.
"I have registered myself as a phantom thief." said Sophia.
"All riiight! The Phantom Thieves are back in action and business!" said Futaba excitedly to them (while Akira felt his bonds with each of them strengthen a little and formed 2 new bonds with both Sophia and Isamu).
"Our next step is to make the proper preparations." said Morgana.
"It's a fact that provision is prevention. We'll need weapons and other supplies." said Yusuke.
"Since you're the guy with all the connections, we'll leave the shoppin' to you like always." said Ryuji.
"We'll get ourselves ready. Once you're too, just call or hit us up." said Ann.
"I know. Well then, let's get to work, everyone." said Akira as he glance and nodded at each of them (who nodded back to him) before they left Leblanc, split up and began doing their works.