"So where to first, leader?" asked Goro slightly mockingly to Akira after he, Minato, Akira (and Morgana inside Akira's bag) stepped out of Leblanc and Akira's friends left to investigate and search for clues and rumours on Alice Hiiragi.
"First we'll start with Doctor Takemi Medical Clinic close by for our usual medical supplies, Akechi." replied Akira without looking at Goro.
"Right, the pretty goth doctor with the Death Arcana social link." said Minato with a nod of his head.
"Excuse me? Did I just hear you saying and calling Doctor Takemi pretty, Minato-san?" said Goro as he glance and smiled in cold jealousy at Minato.
"Yes, I did. Why, you jealous that I call her pretty, Gocchan?" said Minato teasingly back to Goro.
"Minato, you shouldn't have goaded him like that knowing full well how jealous he'll be when it comes to you." said Pharos in disapproval at Minato.
"You know very well that I-Mgh!" said Goro more coldly at Minato before he got cut off by Minato suddenly leaning forward and press his lips against Goro to silenced him before Minato pull away from Goro with a smug smirk on his face (while both Akira and Morgana watched with surprise and slightly embarrassed looks on their faces).
"Yes, I do know but sometimes it just makes me want to teased and goaded you a little like right now, Gocchan." said Minato smugly to Goro (which embarrassed him too).
"I loathed you, Minato." grumbled Goro as he look away from Minato.
"Aw, thanks and love you too, Gocchan." said Minato more jokingly and lovingly to Goro.
"Ugh, sure, try to kill me with your sappy attitude and words for your beloved detective, why don't you, Minato?" groaned Pharos in annoyance at Minato.
"Like you can actually be killed, Pharos." said Minato calmly to Pharos.
"Touche." said Pharos.
"…W-Well, her medicines do work wonders for us last year-I'd feel more reassured if we buy and took some with us this time too, Akira." said Morgana as he glance at Akira.
"Yeah, we know, Morgana." said Akira as he patted Morgana's head a little (which make him purr in content from it) before he, Morgana, Minato and Goro make their way toward Doctor Takemi Medical Clinic only to stop when they see a paper with some large words written on it being pasted with sticky tape on the wall for anyone to see.
"Is this the internal clinic that you were talking about?" asked Sophia as she glance at Akira.
"Yeah… But there's a notice here… "Notice: Closed for the summer. I will be attending an academic medical conference and will be out for the summer." Written and signed by physician Tae Takemi." said Morgana.
"Well, isn't that just too bad?" sighed Goro in feign sadness to Akira, Morgana and Sophia.
"Gocchan, enough." said Minato in disapproval at Goro.
"… Yeah, talk about bad timing indeed." sighed Morgana in reluctant agreement with Goro. "But at least we can still get some weapons at Iwai's Airsoft Shop, right, Akira?" added Morgana as he glance hopefully at Akira.
"Are you talking about the shady-looking shop at the alleyway in the Central Street in Shibuya? I just check it out online in Akira's phone." said Sophia.
"Yes, that's exactly right. Either way, next destination: Iwai's shop in Shibuya!" said Morgana as he nodded at Sophia before Akira, Morgana, Minato, Goro and Sophia inside Akira's phone turned and went to the subway station, take the train to Shibuya, arrived and stepped off the train and walked out of the station, went into the back alley where the Airsoft shop is in Central Street only for Akira, Minato and Goro to stopped in their tracks when they see the glowing blue door of the Velvet Room has showed itself in the exact same spot.
"Oh, it's back. Can you two see the door like I did too?" asked Akira as he glance at both Minato and Goro.
"Yeah, we can and since the Velvet Room's back, do you think we should head in and talk to Lavenza? We might need her assistance again." suggested Minato as he glance at Akira.
"Yeah, I suppose we should see her, Minato-san." said Akira as he nodded at Minato before he, Morgana, Minato and Goro stepped into the Velvet Room and they found themselves standing inside 3 empty cell rooms and wearing black and white stripes prison outfits again.
XXXX
In the Velvet Room…
"… Welcome back to the Velvet Room, all you Tricksters. The gears of Fate turn yet again, bringing all you Tricksters into calamity once again." said Lavenza calmly and sadly to Akira, Minato and Goro.
"Duh, obviously." thought Goro as he rolled his eyes at Lavenza.
"While the hopes within each of you may be the smallest of seeds now, and it's true power unknown… By nurturing the possibilities within each of you, these seeds shall sprout and become your strengths against the calamity." explained Lavenza calmly to Akira, Minato and Goro. "Now, I shall act in my master's stead and watch over all you Tricksters through your journey." added Lavenza before she glance at Akira.
"Your master is absent again, huh? Alright then, let's get to business, Lavenza." said Akira.
"Yes, I share the sentiment. As all you Tricksters already know, your powers of the Wild Card allows all of you to wield multiple Personas. By offering up your Personas except your main ones, you all are able to fuse them into newer, powerful ones. This is once more the key to overcoming the evil will spreading distortion. Due to my Master's absence like you said earlier, I will perform the executions with my own personal fusion equipment. Unfortunately, this means that each of you will be unable to harness the power of Personas that you all once harbored within you all." explained Lavenza calmly and sadly to them.
"I see… Even so, we'll do our best, Lavenza." said Akira reassuringly to Lavenza (who smiled at him).
"However, this journey is sure to draw out the true potentials from each of you should you all make the most of your meetings." said Lavenza.
"Meetings, huh? May I ask what kind of meetings and where's Elizabeth and Theodore, Lavenza-san?" asked Minato curiously to Lavenza.
"Soon it will all be clear for you and like my Master, my older brother and sister are absent too, Minato." Said Lavenza as she briefly glance at Minato. "Tricksters, all of you have once again become prisoners of Fate. Unleash the chains that binds each of you and take back the people's hearts-their Desires. Doing so will surely lead you all to the hope that will drive off the impending ruin." said Lavenza very firmly to them.
"Don't worry, we will. We did it once last year, we'll do it again. Right, you guys?" said Akira.
"Yeah, Akira-kun." said Minato as he nodded at Akira.
"Right." said Goro.
"As long as the wills of each of you is undeterred, I too will hold nothing back in supporting you all. With that over and done with, let us turn at once to Persona fusions." said Lavenza as she smiled at them before Lavenza (and them) began helping and performing the Persona fusions together.
After a while of Lavenza performing the Persona fusions for Akira, Minato and Goro, they turned and left the Velvet Room, return back to the back alley before Akira (with Morgana and Sophia) turned and walk toward the Airsoft shop, saw that Iwai had closed the shop, written and pasted the same paper sign that they see back in Doctor Takemi medical clinic saying that the shop is temporarily closed for renovation (which make Minato sigh and shake his head while Goro had an amused smirk on his face) before Akira heard Sophia informing him that he received messages from their friends, take out his phone to see and read the messages, each of the messages saying that they've done their investigating of Alice Hiiragi and going back to Leblanc for their meeting, which Akira, Morgana, Minato, Goro (and Sophia inside Akira's phone) also did the same.
XXXX
A few minutes later, in Leblanc…
"I don't believe it. The Airsoft shop's closed for renovation… Takemi Clinic's also closed for summer vacation… Where are we gonna get our weapons and medicine supplies now? Talk about shitty timing." complained Ryuji with a dejected look on his face.
"Yeah, too bad and language, Ryuji." said Kanakubo-sensei in disapproval at Ryuji (who scowled and grumbled under his breath at Kanakubo-sensei).
"This is not good. We can't just return to the Metaverse defenseless." said Makoto, dejected too.
"I guess we gotta find some other stores." said Futaba sadly to them.
"But what if the other stores doesn't sell or have what we need from the shops of the doctor and weapon owner, Futaba-san?" said Isamu.
"You have a point, Isamu-chan. That seems like it'll take some time…" sighed Haru before she and the others heard a beeping sound coming from Akira's phone before he take it out.
"What's up? Having problem?" asked Sophia.
"Yeah. We're thinking of looking for new stores for our weapons and medicine supplies since our usual ones is closed, Sophia-san." replied Doctor Maruki.
"Perhaps I can help. If it's fine with you all, I can lend a hand." said Sophia.
"Oh! Yeah, check this out, Sophia!" said Futaba happily to Sophia.
"We need supplies to take with us into the Jail…" said Haru.
"Unfortunately, our usual suppliers are closed like Doctor Maruki said earlier. This will assuredly impact our successes in the Metaverse." said Yusuke.
"Do you know if there are any suitable stores nearby?" asked Makoto.
"Why not just order supplies online?" suggested Sophia.
"We could do that, but the delay between orderin' and actually getting the stuffs we ordered takes way too long." said Futaba.
"Plus there's are stores who's not good at all. What if after we ordered supplies online only for them to take our money and didn't get any stuffs from them?" said Kanakubo-sensei.
"Sensei's right. We were able to get much more effective medicines from our clinic than we could find and buy online." said Makoto.
"Makoto-san's right. So it's fine…" said Morgana.
"No prob. The Net has it all and I've found one that's completely authentic and honest to the bone, everyone." said Sophia.
"Y-You do?" said Isamu with a surprise look on her face at Sophia.
"Yeah, Isamu. Ryuji, is there something you want?" asked Sophia as she glance at Ryuji.
"Huh? What do I want?" said Ryuji in confusion to Sophia.
"Right. Request anything you want." said Sophia.
"Uh, not really… since I've got nothing that I wanted to request from you." said Ryuji as he shake his head at Sophia.
"Really…?" said Ann in disbelief at Ryuji.
"Is that so? Then what about you, Minato-san? What do you want?" asked Sophia as she glance at Minato.
"Me? Well… is it possible for you to get me a completely authentic Sword of Seiros from Fire Emblem Three Houses, the new game that just came out into game shops, Sophia-san?" said Minato.
"Huh? You asked her for a sword from the new game that just…" said Futaba as she glance in disbelief at Minato's request.
"Okay, I've got it. Please wait." said Sophia, cutting off the rest of Futaba's words.
"Hmm? Got what?" said Ryuji in surprise and confusion at Sophia before he, Akira and the others heard the sound of the door opening and the voice of an unknown man calling and introducing himself as a delivery staff inside the café, which caused surprise looks to appear on all of their faces except both Minato and Goro.
"Wha-! Did you really order a sword from a game, senpai!?" gasped Ann.
"Yes, I believe I just did." said Minato as he nodded at Ann.
"That's enough from you, Takamaki-san. You youngsters stay here with Takuto while I go and get the delivery package from the delivery man and bring it up here." said Kanakubo-sensei before he stood up, left the attic room to go and get the delivery package, came back a few seconds later with the thin package in his arms before they put the thin package down on the table.
"Thanks for bringing it up here, sensei." said Minato thankfully to Kanakubo-sensei before he took the package, unwrapped it to reveal the Sword of Seiros.
"How nice for you, huh, Minato-san?" thought Goro with a smirk on his face.
"So, is it a fake, or some toy…" asked Ryuji hesitantly to Minato about the Sword of Seiros that he holds in his hands that he requested from Sophia.
"No way… No way is that a real sword…" said Ann as she widened her eyes in surprise at the sword in Minato's hands.
"So you two don't believe that this sword is real or not, huh? Let's find out then." said Minato without looking at both Ann and Ryuji before he stood up from his seat, walk away from them, stop in a corner of the room and proceed to do his usual series of swordsmanship with the Sword of Seiros until he managed to convinced them about the sword before he stop doing it and sat back down with them.
"Do you have to do that to convinced Takamaki and Sakamoto, Minato-san? Not that I say you can't or anything…" said Goro.
"Yes, I do and already did, Gocchan." said Minato.
"All right, did that solve your problem?" asked Sophia happily to them.
"Uh, not exactly although the store that you found for us is swift with their deliveries, Sophia." replied Akira hesitantly and concernly to Sophia.
"Y-Yeah, Akira's right!" said Ryuji in agreement with Akira.
"Thank you. I found an online vendor with expedited delivery. Time is no longer a concern." said Sophia thankfully to Akira.
"But, a sword from a game, a new game that just came out? Where'd you find that, the dark web?" asked Futaba concernly to Sophia.
"Correct, Futaba. It's fine, I broke no laws. The transaction was made with cryptocurrency. I will send you an invoice for reimbursement." replied Sophia reassuringly to Futaba.
"R-Reimbursement!?" gasped Isamu.
"We have to reimburse you!?" said Morgana with a shock look on his face.
"Sooo… How much does this sword cost again?" said Ann worriedly to the others.
"At least a few thousands…" said Futaba.
"A few thousands, huh? That won't be a problem for me." said Minato.
"Uh huh, of course." said Pharos dryly at Minato.
"Are you sure, Minato-san? I think you should sent it back…" said Makoto.
"Yes, I'm sure so I won't be sending it back, Makoto." said Minato.
"If you say so and that's what you want." said Makoto.
"At least what he ordered doesn't give us any gray hairs and wrinkles." thought Kanakubo-sensei in relief in his mind.
"I've heard of one's mouth writing checks that cannot be cashed, but… this is an entirely new level." said Yusuke.
"Doesn't the service itself seem pretty awesome though? At that speed, it'll be perfect for anything we need. Let's ask Sophia to find some pretty useful stuffs for us." said Morgana as he and the others glance at Akira.
"Shall I do that, Akira?" asked Sophia.
"Yeah, you may, Sophia." replied Akira as he nodded at Sophia.
"Okay. I'll make sure to use expedited delivery. Sophia's Shop is officially open." said Sophia.
"Sophia's Shop, huh? How simple." thought Goro.
"Well, that was a ride, but I guess it turned out okay for us?" said Haru.
"Yeah, our supply situation's definitely fine now. We don't know what we'll be up against in the Jail though. Let's prepare as well as we can before we all head in." said Morgana.
Akira and his friends nodded in unison at Morgana before Akira check out Sophia's shop, bought weapons and items that they all need from Sophia before Akira activate and transport himself and his teammates into Alice Jail Palace.