Joker parked the car at the bottom of the chasm. "This would've gone faster if you allowed me to drive faster than 3 miles per hour," he said, getting off with the group.

Morgana shifted back to his cat form. "Did you see any safety railings there? I didn't."

"This looks kinda like the entrance, doesn't it?" Ryuji remarked. "Please tell me we're not running in circles."

"The bridge there was shorter," Futaba pointed out.

"But look, there's a large cell room ahead, isn't there?"

"Tokyo has a lot of people, Skull, they might need multiple cell rooms."

The group marched forward. Despite the differences, it looked remarkably similar to what they've already seen. The bridge was made out of pillars with a base shaped like squares with cut corners. It led to an octagonal-shaped room, with two exits and cells on both sides. Shadows looking like humans were standing in them…

"Damn, you look hot in those catsuits."

The Shujin students amongst the Thieves went stiff. In unison, they turned to the side and found themselves staring at Suguru motherfucking Kamoshida. Or, more accurately, his Shadow, standing in the crowd.

"What the…" the athlete reacted.

The Shadow coach barely forced a smile. "Wanna come over here, ladies?"

In response, Ann, Ryuji and Makoto pulled out their guns and took aim. Futaba glanced at Goro. "Crow, can I borrow your ranged option?"

The detective handed over his ray gun. "If you want to take the shot, I can take the blame."

"Crow, no!" Joker protested.

"It's not a problem, I still have that suppressed Glo-"

"Nobody shoots anybody," the leader stepped between the shooters and the potential target, "nobody takes the blame for more murders," he turned to the Shadow, "and nobody makes passes at people half their age."

"Jeez, I was just joking," Kamoshida rolled his eyes.

"Har de har. Here's a better joke: what's the difference between a chick that's into you and one that isn't?"

"I don't know."

"And that was the problem. Everyone, stand down."

The Thieves lowered the guns - they didn't really want to shoot him, just get him to shut up. The group started scanning through the crowd, trying to find the other former Palace owners. Madarame had his back turned to the corridor, too ashamed to look at the visitors. Kaneshiro stood close to the cell bars, his head lowered. Shido was sitting on what was presumably a bunk, looking at the Thieves in silence.

"Okumura isn't here, is he?" Joker asked him.

"Unfortunately." Shido sighed. "A truly pointless death."

Yusuke shot him a glare. "As opposed to all the others at your orders?"

"You don't understand," the politician explained, "My goal was to stop him entering politics, and I could have achieved that just by revealing the truth about him to the masses. You of all people had to be aware of what a man he was."

"Pot, kettle, black," Ann rolled her eyes.

"That doesn't make me wrong, and doesn't change the fact that Kunikazu Okumura caused as much grief and sorrow as I did, if not more." If Shido didn't glance at the model at that moment, he might have noticed that one of the other Thieves is staring daggers at him. "Horrendous work conditions, disappearing whistleblowers… Not even his family was safe from his ambitions."

"Dude, read the room," Joker growled, worried.

"Didn't you know?" Shido missed the context. "He had a daughter he wanted to marry with some creep for political clout. She's probably glad she doesn't-"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Haru pulled out her grenade launcher and shoved its barrel between the cell bars, pointed at Shido. "You know nothing about what I wanted!"

The crowds inched away, but the target remained completely unfazed. "Oh, so she's here, huh?" he commented. "Didn't your leader tell you to step down?"

"Oh, he's gonna forgive me," she spat, "like he forgave your bastard son."

Goro wouldn't mind Shido dying blown to bits. There were some things he would have minded, like the conspiracy making him a martyr, Haru being overwhelmed by guilt once the dust settled, and lest we forget all the other fun things that could happen when firing a grenade launcher point-blank. Telling her to put the weapon down could have worked, or could have pushed her to pull the trigger in defiance. Encouraging her could've gotten her to stop and think about what encouragement from him of all people means, or could've been taken at face value. So, he went with what seemed like a natural response:

"Shoot me instead."

Then he realized it doesn't solve all the outlined problems. At least it did get her to glance daggers at him.

"Um, I-I mean, the ideal scenario is no more dead people, but if you have to kill someone responsible for this, my corpse will stay behind in this place-"

"Akechi?!" Shido finally recognized who was behind the red beak mask and immediately lost his composure. "You're with the Thieves too?!"

"I'm as shocked as you are."

The Shadow scanned the crowd. "Should I remember more of you or something?"

"You bumped into me in that hotel months ago," Ryuji pointed out.

"Also, Crow and Oracle share a rare blood type, but anyway…" Joker put his hand on Haru's shoulder. "Noir, we've already gone through this character development rollercoaster. I know you are better than this."

"What could you possibly know about this?!" she shouted back at him.

The leader clicked his tongue. "Remember when So- when Boss asked about shooting Crow, and I told him what happened in the interrogation room on Saturday?" Pause, allowing her to process the meaning of his words. "As I said, we've been through this scenario."

And then, silence. Haru felt everyone's stares on herself, and while she regained enough clarity to not blow up that piece of shit in front of her, she wasn't ready to lower her weapon yet.

"Hey, you shouldn't be out-"

"Bugger off!" The princess let go of the grenade launcher - the brunette caught it before it hit the ground - and delivered a quick swing with her axe, bisecting the Shadow guard lengthwise.

A pause followed, as she attempted to regain her composure in a dignified manner, while the rest of the group and the Shadows were too scared to draw her ire. After a while, Joker stepped forward. "Here's a suggestion: the two of us will go ahead and clear the path a bit, and maybe talk in private, and the rest will wait here for us. Is that okay?"

Nobody protested. "We don't mind," Makoto said. "You can keep the item bag, I have a few pill bottles on me for emergencies."

"Good. We'll shout if we need help or something." Joker gently took Haru by her off-hand and led her deeper into the Palace.

The remaining Thieves stood around awkwardly in silence, before Ryuji finally blurted out: "So, um," he turned to the Shadows, "how did you end up here?"

"You sent us here," Shido replied.

"Wait, what?"

A barely noticeable smile appeared on the politician's face. "What did you think stealing Treasures and taking down Palaces actually does?"

"Um, remove the source of the distorted desire?" Makoto replied.

"You're correct, in a way." Shido gestured at the crowds around him. "This is a place where people come to willingly surrender all their desires. Or, in the case of former Palace rulers, were forced to do so."

To call that a gut punch would've been an understatement. Yusuke stared at Morgana. "What have you led us to?" he hissed.

"Again, you don't understand," the politician went on. "We're grateful that you did this."

The concern about their action was partially replaced by sheer befuddlement. "But… why?"

"Do you not see the beauty of it?" Shido stood up. "This is true freedom, freedom from making decisions, the release from thinking from yourself."

"And the ball and chain is just a fashion accessory," Goro snarked.

Shido looked at the detective. "You will understand this when you're older, I guess."

"I will not, trust me."

"You won't understand or you won't get older?" Futaba asked.

"With luck, both."

Five incredibly brief skirmishes later, during which Joker limited himself to healing and support, he finally asked the girl: "Feelin' good enough to talk?"

Haru was panting heavily. "I… think so…"

"Good." He sat down on the ground and invited her to do the same. "Energy drink?"

She placed herself next to him and took a can from him. "Am I… am I a bad person?"

"No. Next question."

Somehow, the girl wasn't reassured. "I… I thought I'm fine. Fine-ish. Fine-esque. Good enough to forgive." She drank the whole can in one go. "But then Shido opened his mouth, and it's all back. The grief, the same grief I've felt in that amusement park, and the anger…" The can crumpled a bit in her hand. "You just want people to suffer, feel the satisfaction that hey, maybe you're hurt, but so are they." She turned to him. "Do you know how that feels?"

In a visual medium, there would've been a black-and-white flashback here. "Unfortunately." Joker sighed. "I was like that in the interrogation room on Saturday."

Haru put the can down. "You know, you never talked about what happened there the first time."

"Not much to talk about, to be fair," he replied. "It was a stupid plan that hinged on an all-powerful conspiracy not just shooting me in the casino and writing 'tried to escape' in the report. The shitheads beat me up and drugged me and I remembered there was a plan to begin with at the last possible minute."

"Why did you go along with it then?"

"'Cause the…" he took a moment to find a euphemism, "'cause the worst case scenario still meant buying you some time to finish this all," he said. Haru awkwardly put her arm around him. "Crow, and the conspiracy by proxy, underestimated everyone else but me, they would have just assumed you won't be a problem with… without me in charge. I… " He gripped the knife at his side. "I willingly went to my death, and the guy that was there and for all intents and purposes took the damn shot had the brass balls to tell me that I'm fine with sacrificing other fucking people!"

"Are you los-"

The guard Shadow didn't finish the sentence on account of a thrown knife embedded in the face region. It dissolved and the weapon fell down on the ground with a satisfying clang. The brunette stood up and walked over to retrieve it.

"We shouldn't have lashed out like that, yes." He put away the knife. "But… it's lashing out, not something we're doing because we can, because we made a calculated decision. When the dust settles and the clarity returns… we fix that. We help people. We do good." He returned to Haru and helped her get up. "And in the meantime, we try and keep our rage focused on the bad guys. Does that make sense?"

"I guess," she said, unsure.

A beat, and then a hug, 'cause what did you expect, really?

"Do you wanna go to therapy together when this is all over?" he asked.

Haru nodded.

"Can we go back to the rest now?"

The girl thought for a moment before replying: "Can we clear the path some more? I need to make sure I'm out of rage."

"Yeah, sure." Joker gestured at her to go first. "I got your back."

A period of terse silence was broken by Shadow Shido: "I am curious: how did you end up with the Thieves, after all you've done for me?"

"Cliff notes:" Goro replied, "I tried to kill them in your Palace, failed, was told you would've betrayed me before I could betray you, and they went 'no, sorry, you'll live and suffer some more'. So I help them, out of guilt, gratitude and boredom."

"You…" the politician was more confused than offended, "…you wanted to betray me?"

"From the word go."

"Then-then why were you working for me for so long?"

"Because I wanted to reveal it after you become the Prime Minister, because I am a fucking moron."

"That's…" Makoto spoke up, "that's a bit of a conversation stopper."

Goro looked at her. "Am I not?"

"See, you're doing it again." She turned to him. "Yes, you're not of sound mind, and yes, you don't think things through, but you've got enough stability to not just do things of that caliber on a whim. You owe both us and yourself some proper introspection, as opposed to calling yourself names and calling it a day."

He gave her an unsure glance before turning to the group. "Permission to be an edgelord?"

"Ooh, you're asking for permission," Futaba cracked a smile. "You've gone a long way over the past few days."

"W-well, I don't want to upset people m-more than I already have…"

"Let's go back to the previous topic," the president attempted to steer the conversation back on track.

"Okay," Goro said. "I've had… excuses, back when I bothered with excusing myself," he said. "Almost none of them are worth quoting. The biggest one was that when I reveal Shido's crimes to the public, I'm gonna surrender and get tried and punished for all this, so it will all be fair." Pause. "Of course, on top of all the holes in that plan, the idea that the public just won't fucking do anything about the reveal didn't cross my mind."

"And after you stopped making excuses, why did you go on?" Ann asked.

"Because…" Cue a long sigh. "Because it was satisfying at the time. Surviving and thriving in an environment as hostile as Mementos takes some skill, you must admit. And as for the grief I caused… I didn't care. Did the world care about me?"

"Ow!" The model mockingly sucked on her finger a bit. "Sorry, I cut myself on that edge."

"Hey, I warned you." Pause. "I guess I've been doing this out of resentment for… for the society as a whole." He started pacing around the cells. "I can deal with earned mockery and scorn…"

"Can you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Fair, I can do so now, after almost choking to death on humble pie. But I've been ostracized from… from my conception, for the heinous crime of being a son of a raped prostitute that later took her own life. From-"

"Hold on a sec," Makoto asked, and then the Thieves all pulled out their ranged weapons and shot to bits a Shadow guard about to wander in, before he managed to even say a word. "Sorry, go on."

"From before the moment I started comprehending the world around me, I was treated like a second-class citizen." The detective glanced at the crowd. "You told me I'm a bastard so many times, and then I went and earned that name. And while I admit my actions were immoral, impractical and disproportionate, and I will do whatever it takes to stop this trainwreck… fuck all of you with a barge pole."

He scanned the Shadows and his eyes briefly stopped at Shido. And then, he chuckled. It wasn't a malicious chuckle, it sounded like he had just remembered a good joke about bald people or something, and it made the politician nervous. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"You're a twatbasket," he said. "I have zero qualms about you getting your just desserts."

"O… okay?" Shido was feeling more and more unsure by the second.

"You brought me to this world and shirked responsibility for it, but at the same time… as long as I was doing what you told me to, you couldn't care less about my background." He chuckled again. "You treated me better than everyone el-" he glanced at the Thieves present, "sorry, than almost everyone else. And that's considering the whole outlived-your-usefulness-"

"We're back!" Joker reentered the scene, followed by Haru finishing another energy drink. "We cleaned up the whole floor, there's another spiral ramp downstairs at the end of it."

"Oh dear," Morgana whimpered, confident this place will leave him with a crippling fear of heights.

"Before we move on," she crushed the can in her hands and tossed it away, then turned to Shido. "I am sorry for threatening to blow you up," she faced the detective, "and I'm sorry for bringing your family situation into this."

"Eh, don't worry about it," the two said in unison, then shot each other a glare.

"Did we miss anything?" the leader asked.

"Shido saying that the Palace Rulers were sent here by us, us shooting up a Shadow guard, and Crow telling off the society," the cat recapped.

"Can't blame him fo-" Cue a double take. "…repeat that first thing for me."

"Can I skip the recap?" the princess asked. "I want to… talk to Crow in private."

"Quick question:" Shadow Kamoshida raised his hand, "if everyone's already aware he's that detective from the TV, why do you keep calling him by the nickname?"

Haru didn't stick around for the answer, and grabbed Goro by his sleeve and dragged him away from the group, into the now-empty halls. Then, they stood there in silence for a moment.

"It's… hard to take the high road," she finally said.

"You don't have to, as far as I am concerned," he replied.

"But you're trying to do the right thing-"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you must forgive me," he firmly but politely interrupted her. "Your grief and mourning will not go away just because I'm desperately grasping for any shot at atonement."

Another awkward pause. "This would've been easier if you weren't so… understanding of what I'm going through." She fiddled with her thumbs. "Were you… like this at any point?"

"No," he said without thinking, "and you will never be as I am now. If only because I've never had friends to lean on in moments like this."

"Really?" If someone told Haru she would've felt sorry for the man that killed her father, she would've either laughed at them or slapped them. "None at all?"

"Well, there was one guy. Really great, fun to talk to, and he didn't judge me for my lineage." He looked elsewhere, ashamed. "I got jealous of him and shot him in the face."

"…I really hope you're talking about Joker, because there's no helping you if that happened multiple times."

Once again, silence followed, finally broken by Goro: "Do you want to hit me?"

"Huh?"

He opened his arms and closed his eyes. "One blow, no strings attached, no retribution. Just for a bit of well-earned catharsis."

Haru pondered it for a moment, and then, deciding it might bring him some relief too, kicked him.

"ARGH!" No, not where you are thinking, lower. "Samefuckingankle-" he hissed.

"W-was that too hard?"

"No, no, it doesn't hurt that much." Pause. "Um, I mean, I'm not saying that you're weak, but-"

"What is going on?" Joker poked his head out.

"I didn't mean to hurt him!" the princess panicked a bit.

"I literally explicitly asked for this," the detective reassured.

"Let's just move on," he ordered. "Looks like you guys are getting too bored."

The Thieves trickled out of the cell room. As the last one was leaving, Shido said, loudly enough to be heard, "Thank you for taking care of him."

"Shut it, Shadow," Ryuji growled at him without bothering to turn around. "Father of the fucking year…"