You know how some people don't get hangovers? Goro wasn't one of these people.

It was daylight outside when he woke up with a headache, a dry throat, and a vague sense of dread. He crawled out of his bed and room, towards the kitchenette sink. After downing a glass of tap water and allowing his mind to refocus, he marched back to the corridor and barged into Joker's bedroom. The brunette had his hands under the duvet for some reason.

"Ever heard of knocking?"

The detective ignored the question. "Sojiro went back to Yongen, didn't he?"

"Yeah, late evening, after everyone left. Quote, 'to lie if someone comes to Leblanc and asks about the Thieves'. He stressed you can still talk to him if you wanna and if there'll be an opportunity."

"How considerate of him." Pause. "Since I'm up, pancakes for everyone?"

"Yeah, sure, now get out."

"Yeah, you can go back to sleep." Goro closed the door behind himself, and Akira wondered if he was blissfully unaware or just too hungover to pay attention. His phone buzzed. With the mood completely dead, he gave up and checked the notifications. One message on the PT chat, from "Panther". Did I wake you up?

No, Joker wrote back. Did something happen?

Kinda. Something bugs me.

Really? What is it?

I've read that article. I even bought a dead-tree newspaper for it.

And?

The Panther is typing… notification has lingered on the screen for a moment. It's great. It's punchy. It's damning. It's well-documented. There are even links to the sources so people can see them for themselves and make their own judgment.

Joker smiled, content. Yeah, Crow, Oracle and my press contact all did a wonderful job.

But nobody seems to have noticed. You're holed up and you don't see it, but people aren't talking about it. This should've been BIG. Make a splash. Be the only thing people talk about on the streets. But few people do, and none of them think it's that bad.

The door to the room was opened again, then Goro caught himself, closed it, and banged on it three times. Joker typed BRB and shouted "Come in!"

The detective marched in, grabbed the brunette by the wrist, and forcefully dragged him out of the room. He barely had the time to pull his pants back up with his free hand. Goro threw Joker on the couch, waking up Morgana sleeping on it in the process, and started fiddling with the remote control to rewind whatever was on the news channel at the time.

"Um…"

"Shut up and listen to this."

He pressed 'play' and the two plus the cat watched a pundit talk to an interviewer: "-lies published in that foreign-owned rag are an attempt to undermine the Japanese state, the Japanese nation." The guy let out a weary sigh. "We need to ask an important question: are we willing to risk chaos by allowing provocateurs and wannabe revolutionaries to stop the United Future Party from winning the elections?"

"Well phrased, sir," the host nodded. "I'm sure our viewers at home know the answer."

Goro found himself unable to comment and just quietly gestured at the TV with a befuddled expression.

"What the heck…" the cat muttered, confused.

"One talking head on a morning show," Joker shrugged. "I mean, it's drivel, it might convince whoever's watching it, but it doesn't worry me that much. There are other media."

Cue Futaba walking out of her bedroom with her laptop in her hands. "Guys?" she asked, loudly.

"We're in the main room!" Joker shouted back.

The geek trotted up to them and placed her laptop on the table, screen towards the boys. "I've been watching how the internet reacts to our article so far. Most comments aren't reassuring."

"That's not really shocking," Goro pointed out. "The internet is a cesspool."

"It is, but not like that." She alt-tabbed to a text document. "I've collected reactions from various sites, removed obvious duplicates, and put them through a text analyzer. Long story short, a lot of people aren't convinced, and a lot of others think he's still better than the current government."

"Cretins," the detective spat.

"Hm." Joker found himself being slightly concerned about this. "Morgana, mind taking a trip to Yongen and back? Keep Sojiro up to speed and listen to the public on your way the-"

And then all three phones in the rooms buzzed in sync, as "M" sent a message to the group chat.

guys this is bad

i just got this message on the phansite

After a moment needed to copy and paste it on the phone, it arrived to everyone:

Ren, or whatever your name is,

I don't know if that article was your job, but the higher-ups think it was, and you and your little high school club moved to the top of the 'things to deal with' list. On top of running damage control in the media, they're starting to look harder for you. In a day or two, your mug will be on every screen, billboard, and milk carton in the country. This will sound like a threat, but it's only a polite suggestion: run. Get a fake passport, apply for asylum, buy a dinghy, anything. Don't let them catch you, because this time they'll make sure you leave behind a corpse.

Good luck,

the guy with an empty gun.

Below that, an eloquent comment from the Phanboy: tldr were boned

"Do you have any idea who could've written that message?" the cat piped up.

"The signature would suggest one of the guys that had kidnapped Sojiro," Goro replied. "He had tried to shoot me in a last act of defiance, but I had unloaded his pistol earlier."

Cue an awkward pause, finally broken by Joker: "…we never thanked you for saving him, did we?"

"There is no need to." Pause. "Seriously, don't thank me, this is all my fault one way or another."

The three phones in the room buzzed - another message on the group chat. What now? Makoto asked.

Goro typed: What the guy suggested. We need to get the hell out of dodge.

Nobody responded to that at first, before Ryuji went: So what, we're just giving up?!

Allow me to spell this out for you, Skull:, the detective replied, even if the article gets enough traction to drag down Shido's (and his party's) public image in the next few days, Joker's about to become Japan's Most Wanted, possibly followed by the rest of the group and/or me. Sigh. As much as it pains me to say it, the Phantom Thieves lost.

"And you want to run too?" Morgana asked.

"Will you let me stay and take the fall for everything?"

"Nope," Joker replied.

Unfortunately, Crow is right, Makoto typed. We need to cut our losses.

Can we talk about this later? Ann typed. The teacher's giving me odd looks and I hope it's because of the phone.

Joker pulled out his phone. Let's meet up after school. I'll try and come up with another plan in the meantime, he wrote. "This can't be it," he said out loud. "This can't be how this ends, with me running away with my tail between my legs. I can't leave this country at the mercy of whatever prick's currently at the helm."

"Joke…" Goro paused. "…can I call you Akira?"

"All of you can if you wanna."

"Very well then." Inhale. "Akira, I understand that you want to save everyone," he pointed at himself, "no matter how much they do not deserve a second-ow!" The detective glanced at Morgana biting his hand, again. "The cat bites are getting tiring, you know?"

"So's your constant self-deprecation, Rootkit, so," Futaba stuck her tongue out.

Goro stuck his own tongue at her in response, before going on, "But yeah, you want to be a hero, I get it, but this situation is beyond whatever the group can do to fix it." He shook the cat off.

"We could figure out who's leading the conspiracy now and change their heart." Joker crossed his arms in defiance. "I have an extensive network of confidants and the best hacker on this hemisphere on my side."

"And a metric ton of data from your infiltration and my follow-up," the geek added.

"What we don't have is time." The detective got up from the couch and started pacing around the room. "And even if we figure out the current leader's identity and steal their hearts in the next twenty-four hours, they will in turn be replaced by someone else, just like Shido was. And besides, at this point the problem isn't just the conspiracy, there's also a matter of the goddamn morons that will probably elect them at the end of the week, and we can't do much about that."

"Or can we?"

Goro froze mid-step, took a moment to process the implication, and then turned to Morgana. "Elaborate."

"From what we've seen, the people desire to put Shido and his party in power despite knowing about some of his crimes." The cat looked at Goro with his big, blue eyes. "Would you call that desire… distorted?"

"What are you getting at? Like, is there supposed to be a Palace of the whole huma…" The realization hit him. "…Mementos."

"Exactly. We could try to get to the bottom of it and steal its Treasure."

"But if it works like a normal Palace, won't it delete itself after we do that?" Futaba pointed out.

"That's just an added bonus at this point," Goro said. "Ensuring no mentally unstable bastard with daddy issues can do as much damage as I did."

"And that the Phantom Thieves can't help people anymore."

The detective shot the brunette a glare. "And how much good will you do when you commit suicide in police custody again, you dense mother-" He caught himself and sighed. "Look, Akira… let me get something straight: I am scared. Not that they will win, because the imbeciles that will vote them in deserve whatever's coming, but that you desperately fixing my fuck-ups will end with you dead or imprisoned. I won't allow it, understand? I will not!"

"Calm down. We still have a few hours before the meeting to think about our options," Joker got up from the couch. "For now, Morgana, go to Yongen to fill in Sojiro and listen to people on the streets."

"Got it."

"Futaba, go through all the data and try to get some complete names of people that could be currently leading the conspiracy."

"Make sure they…" Goro looked aside, "you know, didn't die recently."

"Acknowledged."

Joker tapped his phone's screen. "I'm gonna get in touch with a friend and ask him if he knows someone that can forge a passport or eight on short notice. Just in case."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

The brunette looked at the detective. "How about those pancakes you promised?"

Makoto was the last one to arrive.

"Come in, we're waiting for you," Joker invited her. "I'm surprised you didn't come with the rest of the Shujin folks."

"I had some student council stuff to deal with." She sat by the table alongside the others. Judging by the used plates and cutlery in front of them, they all had their fill and she could help herself to all the remaining pancakes. "How are you holding up?"

"I've felt worse this week. At least I didn't shoot anyone this time."

"Again," Goro growled, "it was an accident." Pause. "And besides, I had it coming. Still have, honestly."

"Back on topic:" Ann spoke up, "do we have a plan or do we start packing?"

"Something… vaguely plan-shaped." Joker leaned against a wall. "Based on Futaba and Morgana's observations, the heart of humanity as a whole got distorted, so we could go to the bottom of Mementos and try to steal its Treasure - with the side effect of taking it down for good."

"Do we have any alternatives?"

"I've gone through the data for names of any other high-level conspiracy members, to find a more precise target," Futaba said, "but there's at least ten of them, and we have no guarantee that changing their hearts will freeze the clock on Joker's arrest."

"Okay, let's put it to a vote," the brunette commanded. "Who wants us to go to the Mementos depths and end it all?"

He raised his hand, and so did everyone in the room - with the exception of Morgana, who raised a front paw.

"So, it is decided." The brunette sighed. "This whole heart-stealing business went off the rails a long time ago."

After a pregnant pause, Ryuji asked, morbidly curious: "Do you regret this?"

He took a moment to think of an answer. "No. At least not as a whole. I only regret two things about it."

"What's the second?" the detective asked.

"What's the first?" Morgana corrected.

Joker and Goro's eyes met. "You tipped your hand months ago," the brunette said, pointing at him. "Morgana said 'this building looks like a stack of pancakes' and you were like 'pancakes!'."

The detective took a moment to process that, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fucking hell, how did I last so long if I was so careless?"

"Back then I didn't want to speak up," Joker went on. "I assumed you're just a hypocrite, using Metaverse to get confessions out of Shadows that you later justify retroactively in the real world." Sigh. "If I had opened my mouth, looked into your activities, done anything, I could've saved a few lives and stopped this before it escalated as far as it did." Pause, glance in a different direction. "I'm sorry, everyone. You in particular, Haru."

Goro scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. Do you really believe you could've gotten through to me?"

Makoto swallowed a large pancake chunk. "If, as you claimed, people don't change - and neither did you, by implication - then yes, we could. Like we got through a week ago."

"Um… er, i-it's not the same thing…"

Yusuke cracked a faint smile. "Don't strain yourself moving those goalposts again." The detective gave him the finger, to his amusement.

"And what's the second regret?" Ryuji asked.

Exhale. "Dragging you all into this mess."

Makoto audibly put away the knife and fork and stood up. "I believe I'm speaking for everyone present: everyone in this room is here because they want to do the right thing, and would've stayed here even without the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads."

"Preach, Queen," the athlete remarked.

"You didn't," air quotes, "'drag us into this mess'," she went on, "we made a conscious decision to keep fighting for justice." She gestured at the others. "Does anyone present in this room regret their actions up to this point?" One person raised his hand. "Anyone besides Goro?"

"I just want to be clear: I regret not joining you sooner."

The president turned to Joker. "The defense rests." She sat back down.

That was a confidence boost the leader needed. "Very well then." He put on a cocky grin. "The Phantom Thieves of Hearts, going out with a bang. And if that doesn't work, I'm paying for everyone's fake passports."

"And speaking of a bang…" Goro said.

Shadow Sae looked concerned. "Do you really need it?"

"We aren't sure," Makoto said.

"But we would rather not risk lacking it if it turns out necessary," Goro added. The two split away from the group and stopped by the Palace for a brief moment.

With a worried sigh, the Shadow snapped her fingers and a lackey materialized next to her, carrying Goro's handgun and accessories on a blood-red pillow. The president put on gloves borrowed from Joker, grabbed the unloaded gun, and put it into her coat. The detective did the same with the magazines.

"We'll be careful with it, I promise," Makoto reassured.

"If I understand correctly, if your operation succeeds, you won't be able to see this side of me ever again." Sae said.

"Correct."

"I guess I'll better verbalize some thoughts the real-world me won't be brave enough for." She looked Makoto in the eyes and smiled softly. "Your idealism is inspiring, and I hope that society won't beat it out of you. Good luck."

The president smiled. "Thank you."

The Shadow turned to Goro and her expression turned sour on a dime. "And you…"

"I am aware th-ow!"

The detective was interrupted by a painful kick to the ankle. "Fuck you, you hypocritical homicidal cunt." She kicked him again for good measure. "I'll say it again: if something happens to Makoto or her friends, in this world or another, I will end you. Now, get out of my Palace."

Goro pulled out his phone and returned to the real world. Makoto made her goodbyes and promptly followed.

"I'm sorry for her behaviour," she turned to the detective. "How hard did she kick you?"

"I'll be fine," he hissed. "I'll just… limp a bit in Mementos today."